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THE RELIGION 
 OF CHRIST 
 
 An Interpretation 
 
 By 
 
 FREDERICK D. KERSHNER, M.A., LL.D. 
 
 Author of "How to Promote Christian Union," 
 "Christian Baptism/' etc. 
 
 CINCINNATI 
 
 T«^ STANDARD PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 
 
Copyright, 1917 
 The Standard Publishing Company 
 
To 
 
 GEORGE W. HARDIN 
 
 in Word and Deed 
 
 a Christian 
 
Introduction 
 
 THIS book is intended to present a rounded 
 and balanced interpretation of the Christian 
 rehgion. In the dual division of vital and 
 formal Christianity many perplexing problems are, 
 we believe, adequately solved. The division of vital 
 Christianity into its ethical and its mystical fea- 
 tures, grouped under the captions, "The Here and 
 Now" and "The Hereafter," is readily recognized 
 as both logical and comprehensive. There may be 
 some difference of opinion in regard to the specifi- 
 cation of Righteousness, Service and Freedom as 
 the three supreme ideals of Jesus. Perhaps the 
 majority of present-day authorities would compre- 
 hend the subject under the dual division of Right- 
 eousness and Service, the one as representing the 
 individual and the other the social goal. And yet 
 Freedom, as a necessary condition of both Righteous- 
 ness and Service, and as representing the principle 
 most often violated by theologians and churchmen, 
 deserves, we feel sure, a place of its own. 
 
 There may be some readers who will take ex- 
 ception to the unique position accorded Christ in 
 moral and religious history. Certain it is that the 
 Hebrew prophets, especially Isaiah and Micah, 
 possessed the ethical view of religion quite as fully 
 as did Jesus himself. Socrates also, and divers other 
 teachers of the ancient world, taught the same ex- 
 alted ideal. And yet, speaking in a large and com- 
 
 s 
 
6 INTRODUCTION 
 
 prehensive way, we think there can be no reasonable 
 exception taken to the statement that Jesus Christ 
 made the ethical ideal in religion for the first time 
 a world-wide doctrine. He summed up the teach- 
 ing of the prophets in himself and he made articu- 
 late the dim foreshado wings of better things in 
 heathen lands. Just as Jesus stands at the center of 
 our chronology, so he stands at the center of a uni- 
 versal ethic expressed in terms of a universal 
 religion. 
 
 The position taken in the book is, of course, 
 frankly ethical, and as such in a large sense non- 
 sacramentarian. The character ideal in Christianity 
 is regarded as the essential thing first, last, and all 
 of the time. Room is left for the mystical and 
 spiritual element, but it is frankly recognized that 
 the ethical ideal of Jesus, as embodied in practical 
 living, is the one ultimate test of Christianity. The 
 necessity for formal religion is fully conceded, as 
 is the value of formal correctness in our interpreta- 
 tion of the teaching of Christ, but this formal ele- 
 ment is never exalted to a place where it supersedes 
 the vital. Christian character is bigger than the 
 Christian Church, big as the latter is. The church 
 exists only to produce character, and, failing in this, 
 is valueless either to the individual or to society. 
 Herein lies a great warning for the church. When- 
 ever she ceases to inspire high and noble ideals in 
 her members, she is already on the high road to 
 decay. As the author of the Apocalypse puts it, 
 she must repent and do her first works or else her 
 candlestick will be taken out of its place. 
 
INTRODUCTION ^ 
 
 It is worth considering how far the church of 
 Christ to-day is really doing ''the first works" ; 
 that is, emphasizing and developing the ideals of 
 Jesus in her followers. Unless she is doing this, 
 she is on the certain path to dissolution. Such 
 decay is no impeachment of the truthfulness or 
 power of the gospel of Jesus, rather is it a vindi- 
 cation of that gospel. The church may array her- 
 self in all sorts of magical robes and wrap herself 
 about with material pomp and ceremony, but, unless 
 she is really serving the purpose which her Founder 
 intended her to serve, she is drifting to destruction. 
 
 The attacks constantly being made upon organ- 
 ized Christianity by the foes of the church always 
 gain point by this sort of dereliction. Were the 
 church really true to the principles and ideals of her 
 Master, most opposition would cease. Of course, 
 not all would disappear, for until Armageddon is 
 fought, Jesus will have to contend with the great 
 antichrist of human selfishness in one form or 
 another. Jesus and Nietzsche can never be made to 
 harmonize. But with the church as it should be, 
 the issue becomes no longer obscure. Each side is 
 judged on its own merits, and there is no confusion. 
 As it stands, a good deal of real Christianity is to 
 be found in the opposition camps, while not a little 
 of pure Nietzschian selfishness masquerades under 
 the banner of the church of Christ. 
 
 The developing consciousness of humanity is 
 hungry for that moral idealism which alone can feed 
 the soul. Jesus furnishes this veritable "Bread of 
 Life" when his real teaching is brought to the 
 
8 INTRODUCTION 
 
 famishing human spirit. But to stifle or disguise 
 this teaching under any species of religious mum- 
 mery is simply to destroy it. Of superstition, 
 credulity, and the mere trappings of religion the 
 world has had enough. For the church to adhere 
 to these things means nothing short of destruction. 
 Nor are these things a part of the real religion of 
 Christ. Sad indeed is it that the greatest figure in 
 the history of the race should so often be wounded 
 in the house of his nominal friends. 
 
 It is high time that the real followers of Christ 
 should' cease their emphasis upon petty points of 
 division and center their attention upon the larger 
 aspects of Christianity. The Spirit of Formalism, 
 which is almost inevitably the Spirit of Intolerance, 
 on the inside, and the Spirit of Selfishness, which is 
 the Spirit of the World, on the outside, are to-day 
 doing their best to throttle the heart of the gospel. 
 The unfortunate division of forces on the part of 
 the adherents of ethical Christianity gives comfort 
 to the foe. May we not hope that this division is 
 destined soon to give place to the larger unity which 
 was undoubtedly the ideal of our Master? 
 
 Frederick D. Kershner. 
 
Contents 
 
 PART I 
 Christ the Centre of World History 
 
 I. The World Grows to Manhood Through 
 
 Christ . . . . . . • '5 
 
 The threefold division of the religion of Christ as 
 (I) its idealistic basis, (2) vital Christianity, and 
 (3) formal Christianity. The distinction between 
 the religion of childhood and the religion of man- 
 hood. Adolescence of the world in Christ. 
 
 II. The Reign of Ideals versus the Reign of Law 23 
 
 The imitation of Christ the key-note of Christianity. 
 Religion to a Christian not a code of laws to be 
 obeyed, but certain great ideals to be realized. 
 The ultimate definition of a Christian as one who 
 realizes Christ in his own life. 
 
 III. The Relation of Vital to Formal Christian- 
 
 ity . . . . . . '31 
 
 The philosophical distinction between form and con- 
 tent. Vital Christianity or the realization of the 
 Christ life the end and goal of religion. Formal 
 Christianity, the Church, with its ritual, ordinances 
 etc., the means to the end proposed. Both essen- 
 tial to a true concept of religion. Form valueless 
 without content, and content useless without form. 
 
 PART II 
 
 Vital Christianity 
 
 (a) The Here and Now 
 I. The First Great Ideal of Christ — Right- 
 
 eousness ...... 41 
 
 The goal of personal purity and individual con- 
 formity to right standards of living. Essential 
 
10 CONTENTS 
 
 features of Christ's interpretation of the concept. 
 (I) Humility. (2) Duty. (3) Kindness: [a) 
 the kindly heart; {d) the noa-resistmg life. 
 (4) Industry. (5) Truthfulness. (6) Social 
 problems affecting primarily the home : (a) 
 marriage; (<^) adultery; [c) divorce; (d) 
 fornication. (7) Property relations: (a) hon- 
 esty ; (S) the problem of wealth ; (c) the 
 proper use of material resources. (8) Good 
 citizenship. (9) Temperance — threefold viola- 
 tion : (a) abuse of good impulses ; (d) use of 
 injurious agencies; (c) misuse of occasionally 
 good agencies. 
 
 II. The Second Great Ideal of Christ — Service 64 
 
 Fundamental importance of this ideal in Christ's 
 teaching. Threefold division of the subject : 
 (l) the ground of service ; (2) the dignity and 
 value of service ; and (3) proper expression of 
 the ideal of service. 
 
 III. The Third Great Ideal of Christ — Freedom 73 
 
 The last of the great ideals of Christianity. Dif 
 ferent phases of the subject : (i) the general 
 concept of freedom; (2) moral freedom; (3) 
 intellectual freedom or freedom of thought. 
 Proper interpretations of the Great Commission. 
 Martyrs to freedom. 
 
 (b) The Future 
 
 IV. The Function of the Supernatural in 
 
 Christ's Teaching . . . .81 
 
 Christianity deals not only vi'ith the present but 
 also with the future. Christ's attitude towards 
 the subject. Distinction between ethics and re- 
 ligion at this point. No religion in the true 
 sense without the supernatural. The failure of 
 positivism. Relation of the natural to the 
 supernatural. 
 
 V. The Nature and Criteria of Miracles . 89 
 
 The nature of miracle — Bishop Warren's defini- 
 tion. Miracles as signs. Belief in miracles 
 dependent upon belief in God and an idealistic 
 
CONTENTS 11 
 
 rather than a materialistic interpretation of the 
 universe. Present-day miracles. The criteria 
 of miracles must be thoroughgoing and com- 
 plete. Presumptive and positive evidence both 
 demanded. Credulity versus skepticism in the 
 matter. 
 
 VI. The Moral Value of Christ's Contribution 
 
 TO THE Belief in a Future Life . . 97 
 
 The deterrent value of the belief in the future life. 
 Stimulative value of such a belief. The creation 
 of immortality. The significance of the resur- 
 rection. Value of the resurrection as an evi- 
 dence of a future life. Christian ethics but no 
 Christian religion v^^ithout the resurrection. 
 Changed scientific attitude. 
 
 (c) Epilogue 
 
 VII. Modern Progress and Vital Christianity . 106 
 
 Is Christianity declining? Answer: (a) from 
 statistical point of view ; {b) from point of view 
 of the moral pulse of the age. Evidences of the 
 presence of vital Christianity : ( i ) the move- 
 ment for world-wide peace ; (2) benevolent 
 spirit of modern business men ; (3) higher 
 moral tone of politics and political life ; (4) 
 the banishment of cruelty; (5) movements 
 towards a united Christendom ; (6) increased re- 
 ligious toleration and sympathy with the masses. 
 
 PART III 
 
 Formal Christianity 
 I. Creed 117 
 
 The Church's framework analyzed into the threefold 
 outline of (i) creed, (2) ordinance, and (3) polity. 
 Definitions. The apostolic creed. Evidence sup- 
 porting this creed in the New Testament, No 
 statement of theological dogma, but primarily an 
 affirmation of will regarding the Christ ideal of 
 life. The first great confession of Christendom 
 must be its last confession. Unifying power of 
 this confession. 
 
12 CONTENTS 
 
 II. Ordinance 125 
 
 Distinction from creed. The two ordinances of 
 Christendom. Baptism — its (i) design, (2) sub- 
 jects, and (3) action. The Lord's Supper — in- 
 stitution and purpose. The initiatory and per- 
 petual ordinances of Christ's religion as constitu- 
 ting its formal constitution. Unchanging char- 
 acter of this constitution. Theological interpreta- 
 tions of the ordinances. 
 
 III. Polity . . . . - . . .136 
 
 The problem of church government. The three 
 forms now prevalent in Christendom. The New 
 Testament precedent. The ultimate polity will 
 guarantee perfect freedom to the individual Chris- 
 tian and congregation, together with unified action 
 for all. The unity of freedom versus the unity of 
 compulsion. Liberty and Union the watchwords 
 of Christianity. 
 
 IV. The Spiritual and Mystical Element in Re- 
 
 ligion . . . . . . .141 
 
 The subject of worship. Various interpretations of 
 the Holy Spirit. The nature and importance of 
 prayer. The problem of ritual. The value of the 
 aesthetic element in the religious life. 
 
 V. Conversion . . . . . . -HP 
 
 The problem a simple one. How people professed 
 the religion of Christ in the apostolic days. The 
 sermon of Peter. First converts to Christianity. 
 Later conversions. Essentially volitional char- 
 acter of the process. 
 
 VI. The Church Universal . . . '154 
 
 Early freedom of the Church. Freedom afterwards 
 sacrificed to unity, but regained as a result of the 
 Reformation. The perfect unity, which will con- 
 tain freedom as an element, still to come. The 
 Church of Christ, Universal, must embody both 
 perfect unity and perfect freedom. The Christ 
 Spirit grieved until this is accomplished. The 
 final message of Christ to His followers. 
 Appendix .161 
 
PART I 
 Christ the Centre of World History 
 
THE WOELD GEOWS TO MANHOOD 
 THEOUGH CHEIST 
 
 THE teaching of Jesus Christ involved three 
 things : first, a change of basis from that 
 of all preceding religions ; second, the 
 furnishing of a new moral ideal for the world ; and 
 third, the adoption of a new method for the exten- 
 sion of religious truth. A new religious basis, a 
 new ideal of life, a new method for extending the 
 truth — these three things make up the religion of 
 Christ. We shall treat of the first under the cap- 
 tion of Christ the Centre of World History ; the 
 second is The Story of Vital Christicmity ; and the 
 third that of Formal Christianity or The Church 
 as an Organization in the World. 
 
 With regard to the first of these divisions, it 
 may be said that all preceding religions, not except- 
 ing the Hebrew, were religions of external cere- 
 mony, of sacrifices and burnt offerings, of temples 
 and tabernacles, of platters and lavers, and of tith- 
 ings of mint, of anise and of cummin. Men be- 
 lieved, in many lands, that the way to get rid of sin 
 and to propitiate the gods was to burn their children 
 
 15 
 
16 CHRIST THE CENTRE OF HISTORY 
 
 in the arms of Moloch, or to have them pass 
 through the fires of Ashtaroth. Upon the blazing 
 altars of Carthage, on more than one occasion, a 
 hundred smiling infants, born of the noblest fathers 
 and mothers in the land, were cast into the flames, 
 stretching out their dimpled hands and uttering 
 their innocent cries while the pitiless priests 
 drowned their voices with the beating of cymbals 
 and of drums. 
 
 Now the people who did these things believed 
 that they were serving God. The mother gave up 
 her boy to his awful doom, believing that God was 
 pleased with her action. The father crushed down 
 the agony of his heart as he thought of the terrible 
 fate of his baby girl, because he believed that God 
 demanded the sacrifice. We are shocked, as we 
 well may be, when we think of these things to-day ; 
 and yet, looked at from the point of view of sacri- 
 fice alone, there was something about the self-denial 
 of these heathen fathers and mothers which had in 
 it at least a touch of the heroic, a touch of the 
 sublime. 
 
 But the human sacrifices of the Carthaginians, 
 no less than the milder offerings of the Greeks, and 
 the ceremonial rites of the Hebrews, were, after 
 all, only external devices for solving the problem of 
 sin, and the counter-problem of growth in the 
 
MANHOOD THROUGH CHRIST 17 
 
 moral life. The world was still in its childhood, 
 and it had to understand things through symbols, 
 or else not understand them at all. It had to have 
 its building blocks and its picture books, its alpha- 
 bet and its horn book, before it could be prepared 
 for the better day to come. So also, in the incipi- 
 ent moral training of the race, the method was one 
 of physical compulsion rather than of genuine 
 moral freedom. The stern commandments of Sinai 
 thundered the moral law into the ears of the people 
 with the imperious " Thou shalt not " preceding 
 every phrase, and the dread penalty of physical 
 death awaiting the lawbreaker. There was a 
 superfluity of regulations covering, as it seemed, 
 every possible moral transgression, with penalties 
 aifixed to each. Nothing was left to the individual 
 judgment. Everybody was looked after ; every- 
 thing, in modern parlance, was " cut and dried " ; 
 and the whole nation checked off and compelled to 
 be good, whether it desired to be so or not. It was 
 all the pedagogical method of childhood. 
 
 But the dawn of a new day came with the proc- 
 lamation of the Sermon on the Mount. Humanity, 
 at one stride, through the moral teaching of Christ, 
 passes from the period of childhood to the full- 
 grown glory of moral manhood and womanhood. 
 The building-blocks and the A, B, C's are put 
 
18 CHRIST THE CENTRE OF HISTORY 
 
 away ; the old ceremonial rites are discarded ; the 
 formal laws of the temple and the altar are no 
 longer regarded as the ultimate factors in religion. 
 Most of all, the moral training of the race passes 
 from the external restrictions of the child to the 
 freedom of choice and the building up of a moral 
 ideal, which alone constitute character or morality, 
 in the true sense of the term. Instead of the im- 
 perious " Thou Shalt " or " Thou shalt not," uttered 
 amid the thunders and lightnings of Sinai, there is 
 the gentle, " Be ye also perfect as your Father in 
 heaven is perfect," of the Mount of Beatitudes. 
 The reign of personality succeeds the reign of law ; 
 the rule of moral freedom, that of physical com- 
 pulsion ; Moses gives place to Christ ; and the 
 world grows to manhood through the moral revolu- 
 tion of the Man of Galilee. 
 
 The importance of this change cannot be meas- 
 ured in words. Jesus Christ came, we are told, in 
 the fullness of time. He came to work the might- 
 iest revolution the earth has ever known. The 
 world has been slow to appreciate the full signifi- 
 cance of the change. Time and time again, even 
 after the light in all its splendor had burst upon the 
 startled gaze of humanity, man has deliberately 
 gone back to his old idols of the past. Ecclesiasti- 
 cism, the worship of images, the horrors of medise- 
 
MANHOOD THROUGH CHRIST 19 
 
 val priestcraft, much even of present-day ceremo- 
 nialism — thsse all are, and have been, only attempts 
 to fasten the restrictions of childhood upon the full- 
 grown manhood of the human race. But just as 
 the child throws aside its building-blocks and its 
 alphabet, and has no further use for them, so hu- 
 manity has dispensed with ecclesiasticism and the 
 worship of external ceremonies. Unfortunately, 
 too often the true religion of Jesus Christ, which 
 was responsible, in the first place, for the transition, 
 has suffered in the reaction. Priestcraft, while not 
 entirely responsible for the excesses of a Yoltaire, a 
 Diderot, or a Rousseau, had at least much to do 
 with them. A formal Christianity, stifled by ec- 
 clesiasticism, is indeed as far from the true spirit 
 and mind of the Master as a so-called " moral skep- 
 ticism " which contains much of the kernel of His 
 teaching, though failing to give credit for it where 
 it belongs. This I take to be the meaning of those 
 famous lines of one of the greatest Christian poets 
 of the nineteenth century : 
 
 '' Perplext in faith but pure in deeds, 
 At last he beat his music out. 
 There lives more faith in honest doubt, 
 Believe me, than in half the creeds." 
 
 These words are not intended to be a glorification 
 of doubt. They are not an impeachment of the 
 
20 CHRIST THE CENTRE OF HISTORY 
 
 right sort of creed, but they are a warning served 
 upon the earthly guardians of the Church, to one 
 end. That end is never to sacrifice the Christ ideal 
 of purity of life, in exchange for a barren worship 
 of rites and ceremonies. 
 
 The true Christian, by virtue of his birthright as 
 a Christian, must be first of all a moral individual, 
 one possessing the power of choice, one who moulds 
 and fashions his own spiritual nature after an ideal 
 goal which he places before him, rather than one 
 who is scourged into good behavior, — a process 
 which, by virtue of the scourge, has no moral 
 quality about it. It is sometimes said nowadays 
 that there is a species of unconscious prejudice on 
 the part of the average man against what may be 
 styled '' churchly things," and the ecclesiastical 
 habit. Like a good many other unconscious preju- 
 dices, it is well founded. Its basis consists in the 
 fact that the world has grown beyond the rule of 
 external forms, and too often these are substituted 
 for the moral content and heart of the religious life. 
 Now the Church has only herself to blame if she 
 has allowed others to interpret her message better 
 than she has chosen to interpret that message her- 
 self. That there is and must be a formal element 
 in all religion, may well be conceded ; but it should 
 always be remembered that this formal element can 
 
MANHOOD THROUGH CHRIST 21 
 
 never take the place of the true heart and core of 
 Christianity, which is a voluntary transformation of 
 life, due to the influence of the Christ ideal upon the 
 soul. St. Paul has put the whole question ade- 
 quately and magnificently in those superb words of 
 the Second Epistle to the Corinthians. " But we 
 all," he says, " with open face beholding as in a 
 glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the 
 same image from glory to glory, even as by the 
 Spirit of the Lord." 
 
 Moreover, the Christian life, as embodied in the 
 religion of Jesus, means not only freedom from the 
 bondage of external ceremonies, but it also means 
 something more than a mere tissue of beautiful 
 dreams or aspirations towards the goal. JSText to 
 the blight of ceremonialism, which does things, 
 though in an altogether useless and harmful sort of 
 way, comes the blight of inanity, of the dreamer, of 
 the man who is always " going to be " but never 
 " is " — the pink-and- white moonshine of modern so- 
 cial faddists who would reform the world at after- 
 noon teas, and get rid of Whitechapel by simply 
 waving it lordly out of existence. Over against 
 this sentimental boobyism come the clear-cut words 
 of the Master, " My Father worketh hitherto and I 
 work " ; " The harvest truly is plenteous, but the 
 laborers are few : pray ye therefore the Lord of the 
 
22 CHRIST THE CENTRE OF HISTORY 
 
 harvest that He will send forth laborers into His 
 harvest." Jesus Christ did not attempt to get rid 
 of sin by passing resolutions at an afternoon tea or 
 in a richly decorated lyceum parlor. No ! a thou- 
 sand times, No ! He went out into the highways 
 and the byways and preached and taught and lived 
 the God life, and the true Christian to-day must do 
 the same thing. 
 
 " Be what thou seemest, live thy creed, 
 Hold up to earth the torch divine, 
 Be what thou pray est to be made, 
 
 Let the Great Master's steps be thine. 
 
 ** Fill up each hour with what will last, 
 Buy up the moments as they go. 
 The life above, when this is past 
 Is the ripe fruit of life below.'' 
 
II 
 
 THE EEIQN OF IDEALS VERSUS THE EEIGN 
 OF LAW 
 
 IF we may be permitted to speak of a ^vorld- 
 consciousness parallelling in a measure the 
 consciousness of the individual, then the 
 advent of Christianity marks the transition point 
 from the non-moral period of childhood to the adult 
 morality of manhood or womanhood. The world 
 was a child, to continue the figure, until Christ 
 came. After His advent, it progressed rapidly 
 towards manhood. What marks the transition 
 from the non-moral to the moral period in the in- 
 dividual is the recognition of personal responsibility. 
 The supreme lesson which Christ brought into the 
 world was the value of the individual soul and the 
 responsibility attaching to it. It is of the very 
 essence of the Nazarene's teaching that He laid 
 down no enactments to be obeyed. His whole 
 doctrine was one of ideals rather than of positive 
 statutes. Moses was a great lawgiver, but Christ 
 gave no laws at all. As a formulator of ideals, 
 however. His name stands unique among the 
 teachers of the world. As the painter sees the 
 
 23 
 
24 CHRIST THE CENTRE OF HISTORY 
 
 beautiful picture before his mind's eye and strives 
 to spread it upon canvas, and as the sculptor sees 
 the glowing image before his gaze and fashions the 
 snowy marble after his vision, so Christ holds up 
 before humanity the perfect likeness of the good 
 life, and asks that we realize it, and transmute our 
 lives into the likeness of His own. That was a true 
 insight which caused good old Thomas a Kempis 
 to style the greatest devotional book of the ages 
 " The Imitation of Christ. " Christ never formulated 
 a code, never used the words " Thou shalt," never 
 treated citizens of the goodly moral universe as 
 children, but always as men. He knew that even 
 He could not compel men to be good, that such 
 compulsion was indeed the very opposite of that 
 spirit of holiness which He came to proclaim. 
 Laws for children, but ideals for men ; laws for the 
 political world, but ideals for the moral and relig- 
 ious world ; laws for the old and outgrown world 
 of the past, but ideals for the new and resplendent 
 universe of God. So it is that Christ, with His 
 perfect personality, His rich and abundant life. His 
 mighty, inspiring example, constitutes and ahvays 
 has constituted the essence of Christianity. Amid 
 diverse opinions and multitudinous theories, based 
 upon that uniqueness of thought and feeling which 
 is the secret of the individual, there has yet been a 
 
REIGN OF IDEALS VS. REIGN OF LAW 25 
 
 striking unanimity of belief among the good of all 
 Christian communions in regard to the centre of 
 their religious convictions and belief. " Thou, O 
 Christ, art all I want," has been ever the cry of the 
 devout and the holy of a world-wide Christendom. 
 Ever the prayer of the Christian has been : 
 
 '* We would see Jesus — for the shadows lengthen 
 Across this little landscape of our life ; 
 We would see Jesus, our weak faith to strengthen 
 For the last weariness— the final strife. 
 
 '* We would see Jesus— the great Rock Foundation, 
 Whereon our feet were set with sovereign grace ; 
 Not life, nor death, with all their agitation. 
 Can thence remove us, if we see His face.'^ 
 
 To see Jesus is to gaze upon Him as an ideal, to see 
 in Him the perfect figure which we are to fashion 
 out of the rebellious marble of our own little lives. 
 This is the religion of Christ, to realize Him in us, 
 to transmute our own stubborn wills into His 
 divine will, and to be in the end like Him. Who 
 then is a Christian ? He who has most of Christ 
 in him ; not he who wears a particular theological 
 label, or he who subscribes to a particular creed, or 
 he who wraps himself in a special vestment or robe, 
 but he who wears Christ in his heart, who has trod 
 with Him perchance the Via Dolorosa of sufl'ering, 
 and who likewise wears with Him the Crown of 
 Light. He who has learned to love like Him, to 
 
26 CHRIST THE CENTRE OF HISTORY 
 
 forgive like Him, to be humble with Him, to give 
 all, as He told the rich young ruler, and to count 
 it as naught. Robert Burns, in the earliest of his 
 letters which has reached us, says in his own charac- 
 teristic way, " I am more pleased with the fifteenth, 
 sixteenth and seventeenth verses of the seventh 
 chapter of Revelation than with ten times as many 
 verses in the whole Bible, and w^ould not exchange 
 the noble enthusiasm with w^hich they inspire me 
 for all that this world has to offer." 
 
 But the galaxy of saints and martyrs pictured in 
 the noble passage to w^hich the poet refers is not 
 made up of the adherents of a particular creed or 
 party, but of the redeemed of all ages and climes 
 and conditions — those who lived w^th Christ on 
 earth and on that account live with Him in the 
 great Beyond. Therefore to be a Christian, once 
 more, is to realize the ideals of Christ, to voluntarily 
 fashion your own life after His, and to choose of 
 your own -^ill, day by day, to be like Him. 
 
 Many people, like children before they reach the 
 age of responsibility, are not ready for a gospel of 
 ideals. The only religion they can comprehend is 
 the religion of statute and legal enactment, of com- 
 mandments and laws. Mohammedanism controls 
 a tenth of the world to-day for this reason. The 
 gospel of Mohammed w^as not one of ideals, but one 
 
REIGN OF IDEALS VS. REIGN OF LAW 27 
 
 of law. Compulsion, not volition, was his watch- 
 word. It is a fact recognized even now by many 
 missionaries that there are some peoples to whom 
 this crude interpretation of religion appeals more 
 powerfully than the more enlightened teachings of 
 Christ. Nations which are yet children demand a 
 gospel of this sort, but they can grow to manhood 
 only through a religion of ideals, through the 
 religion of Jesus. 
 
 No man understood the teaching of Christ 
 better than His greatest apostle, Paul of Tarsus ; 
 but Paul constantly brings out the antithesis 
 between the religion of bondage, typified for 
 him by the Jewish law, and the religion of 
 freedom, exemplified for him in Christ. The 
 Epistle to the Galatians in its entirety is a splendid 
 expression of this antithesis. The law was our 
 schoolmaster, is its burden, to bring us to Christ. 
 Always, in Paul's mind, there is a superb feeling 
 of gratitude because of his deliverance from the 
 bondage of statute and his entrance upon the 
 glorious freedom of the sons of God. He is very 
 jealous of this freedom, and contends sharply for it. 
 At the great and imminent risk of causing a schism 
 among the newly planted churches, he strives 
 vigorously for that change from the rule of laws to 
 the rule of ideals which he well and fully recognizes 
 
28 CHRIST THE CENTRE OF HISTORY 
 
 a3 the very kernel of his Master's teaching. His 
 constant effort is that Christ may be formed in 
 him, and he esteems all things dross in order that 
 he may realize Christ. 
 
 The Apostle John recognized no less than Paul 
 the value and character of Christ's mission. No 
 finer contrast between the Old and the New could 
 have been drawn than that which is afforded in the 
 first chapter of his Gospel: "For the law was 
 given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus 
 Christ." In those superb figures characterizing 
 Jesus, with which the Gospel of John abounds, we 
 recognize the devotion of the artist for the perfect 
 ideal of beauty which draws the best that is in the 
 soul irresistibly to itself. Paul was the philosopher 
 of the new religion, but John was its artist and 
 poet. In the magnificent pictures of the Apoca- 
 lypse, in the splendid poetry of the Gospel, in the 
 limpid, mystical prose of the First Epistle, we read 
 the devotion of the artist for the perfect vision of 
 beauty which it Avas vouchsafed him to behold. 
 John, because he was a poet, and thought in poetical 
 imagery and revelled in artistic language, under- 
 stood, with an understanding granted to the poet 
 alone, the beauty of the new freedom which his 
 Master came to proclaim. It is doubtful whether 
 there are three quotations in the Scriptures which 
 
REIGN OF IDEALS VS. REIGN OF LAW 29 
 
 interpret the new doctrine quite so fully as those 
 three monumental passages from the Fourth Gospel : 
 " For God so loved the world that He gave His 
 only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in 
 Him should not perish, but have everlasting life " ; 
 and again, " God is a spirit : and they that worship 
 Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth " ; and 
 still again, "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth 
 shall make you free." 
 
 The religion of Christ means fundamentally, 
 therefore, a deliverance from the reign of law, and 
 an entrance into the glorious kingdom of ideals in 
 which the central and foremost figure is ever that 
 of the Christ Himself. This is the kingdom of the 
 free man, of the citizen of God, of all who share in 
 our divine humanity. In this kingdom, too, there 
 is a common brotherhood. As we realize Christ, 
 we are drawn together, so that there is a funda- 
 mental unity in the common ground upon which 
 we stand and the common goal which we seek. 
 There have been those in all religious communions 
 who believed, or affected to believe, that their own 
 immediate circle contained all of the elect, all of 
 the band mentioned in the seventh chapter of the 
 Apocaly]3se, all, forsooth, who belonged to Christ. 
 These men, however, never dared to face their 
 belief squarely ; for if they had so done, their own 
 
30 CHRIST THE CENTRE OF HISTORY 
 
 consciences must have given the lie to them. Who 
 are Christians, again ? My party, or your party, or 
 parties ? Nay, nay, my brother. They are Chris- 
 tians who best realize Christ, and no creed holds 
 assuredly a monopoly of such. Doubtless the right 
 creed has indeed much to do with the right life, 
 and yet it has sometimes been true, in past history, 
 that the good life has been lived as it were in 
 defiance of creed or party affiliations. Surely a 
 man possesses the religion of Christ, who can ap- 
 preciate and offer up as incense from the depth of 
 his heart, those words of George Matheson : 
 
 ^' O Love, that wilt not let me go, 
 I rest my weary soul in thee ; 
 I give thee back the life I owe, 
 That in thine ocean depths its flow 
 May richer, fuller be. 
 
 *' O Light, that followest all my way, 
 I yield my flickering torch to thee ; 
 My heart restores its borrowed ray. 
 That in thy sunshine's blaze its day- 
 May brighter, fairer be. 
 
 **0 Joy, that seekest me through pain, 
 I cannot close my heart to thee ; 
 I trace the sunshine through the rain, 
 And feel the promise is not vain 
 That morn shall tearless be. 
 
 ^* O Cross, that liftest up my head, 
 I dare not ask to fly from thee ; 
 I lay in dust life's glory dead, 
 And from the ground there blossoms red 
 Life that shall endless be." 
 
Ill 
 
 THE EELATION OF VITAL TO FOEMAL 
 CHRISTIANITY 
 
 AMONG all philosophers since the days of 
 Aristotle there has been much use and 
 recognition of the distinctions implied in 
 the words form and content. Things are made up 
 essentially of both these elements. The form of a 
 thing is that which organizes and gives shape to the 
 material which enters into it. The content is the 
 material which fills up the empty but none the less 
 valuable form. Form without content is empty 
 and valueless. Content without form is helpless 
 and without individuality. Each is useless without 
 the other, and both are needed to make up a thing. 
 This philosophical distinction is of use in under- 
 standing clearly the religion of Christ. That which 
 constitutes its form, which gives it shape and or- 
 ganization and individuality is the Church, with its 
 ordinances and laws. That which the Church 
 fosters, and for which it indeed exists, is the moral 
 life. There can be no religion without the Church, 
 nor can there be any true religion without the 
 Christian life. The former is the means, the latter 
 
 31 
 
32 CHRIST THE CENTRE OF HISTORY 
 
 the end.' The Church exists to produce and foster 
 the Christ life among men. She is always a means, 
 never an end in herself. Her goal is Christ, and 
 through her we see Him. She it is who leads 
 us to Him, and without her, we should soon cease 
 to think or care for Him. The end of the re- 
 ligion of Christ is therefore the Christ life, or, as 
 we have chosen to style it, vital Christianity. 
 The means through which alone this end may 
 be realized is the Church, or as we have elected 
 to call it, the formal side of Christ's teaching. 
 Yital without formal religion soon dies ; formal 
 without vital is dead already. Both are essential, 
 and the one cannot live long without the other. 
 
 Much harm has resulted in the past from the sub- 
 stitution of formal for vital religion, or from an at- 
 tempt to make an end out of the means. Instead 
 of the Christ life, men thought the essential thing 
 was the church form ; instead of love or purity, 
 they put external worship ; and they went to 
 church with their hands bathed in blood and 
 
 ^ Nothing in this chapter, it is quite unnecessary to say, should 
 be held to mean the identification of " form " with " means," or 
 "content " with '* end, " as philosophical terras. From one point 
 of view, formal Christianity is a means and vital Christianity 
 an end. From another, the one represents the form, and the 
 other the content of the Christian religion. We believe both 
 points of view to be correct, but the terms themselves should not 
 be confused. 
 
VITAL AND FORMAL CHRISTIANITY 33 
 
 thought they were clean. No student of Italian 
 history during the Middle Ages can fail to ajDpre- 
 ciate the significance of this distinction. It was 
 said of the Medici family, many of them at least, 
 that they were very religious, but very immoral as 
 well. No one can enter that Tuscan castle where a 
 scion of noble birth strangled his wife to death, de- 
 spite her pleadings, performing most assiduously 
 his devotions, both before and after the deed, with- 
 out being struck by the contrast between the relig- 
 ious form and the religious life. Murder, adultery, 
 theft and all manner of uncleanness have existed 
 side by side with the altar, and even beneath the 
 priestly stole. Not all of the people who did these 
 things were hypocrites. One can never enter into 
 the spirit of Italian history or life if he thinks so. 
 There was a misapprehension in many minds re- 
 garding the true place and function of the Church, 
 and hence arose much of the evil that makes us 
 shudder as we read of it. People had mistaken the 
 means for the end. Instead of recognizing the 
 Church as the means for producing the Christ life, 
 they had magnified her importance until she be- 
 came an end in herself, and to serve her constituted 
 therefore the end of life. This error has also been 
 largely responsible for the persecutions which at 
 various times have stained the history of Christen- 
 
34 CHRIST THE CENTRE OF HISTORY 
 
 dom. Conscientious men put those who did not 
 believe as they did to death with cruel tortures, be- 
 cause the Church, with its forms and requirements, 
 had taken the place of the Christ Hfe in their eyes. 
 Nor were these things confined to mediaeval times, 
 or the history of Italy. Other nations and climes 
 were equally guilty, and no form of Christianity is 
 entirely free from blame. As long as people be- 
 lieved that a certain form was the vital thing in 
 making preparation for heaven, or that a particular 
 intellectual belief was essential in order to save an 
 individual from the flames of hell, in all kindness 
 such people were likely to torture others in order 
 to make them accept the form, and to coerce their 
 intellects into swallowing the belief. Whenever 
 men realized that the Christ life, the life of purity, 
 of love and of service, was the goal of Christianity, 
 all persecution ceased. The most pathetic thing in 
 all the history of the ages is the story of the misun- 
 derstood Christ. More crimes have been com- 
 mitted in His name even than in the name of liberty. 
 Well might Browning say in " Era Lippo Lippi " : 
 
 " Because of Christ 
 Whose sad face on the cross sees only this 
 After the passion of a thousand years." 
 
 In the Christian economy, vital Christianity pre- 
 ceded formal in point of chronology. Jesus Christ 
 
VITAL AND FORMAL CHRISTIANITY 36 
 
 preached and taught and lived the divine life be- 
 fore His Church was founded, and only after He 
 had formulated the Christ ideal was the framework 
 set up which was to preserve it throughout the 
 ages. The Christ life preceded the Christ Church ; 
 the end was considered before the means. Very 
 properly, too, the Gospels are given a place in our 
 New Testament before the Acts. The Christ ideal 
 must come first in every study of the religion of 
 Christ, just as we must fix our eyes on the goal be- 
 fore we try to discover the means by wliich we may 
 hope to reach it. To consider the means without 
 thinking first of the end is an absurdity ; for 
 while there may be an end without the means, there 
 can be no means without an end. 
 
 Because, however, the end comes first in time,- 
 and in a certain sense in importance, this is no rea- 
 son why due credit and value should not attach to 
 the means. The Beautiful City without a road to 
 reach it would remain an illusion, and only the 
 baseless fabric of a dream. The Christ ideal with- 
 out the Church to cherish it and keep it alive in the 
 hearts of men would soon lose all practical signifi- 
 cance. Were the Church to disappear, the Christ 
 life would likewise disappear in a short time. 
 Hence the imperative necessity for the Church, 
 with its ordinances and forms, all of them symbol- 
 
36 CHRIST THE CENTRE OF HISTORY 
 
 izing and interpreting Christ for the human heart. 
 The sacraments of the Church speak of the life and 
 death of Him whom tliey commemorate ; the pulpit 
 is an open forum where the Christ life and the 
 Chi'ist ideals are constantly held up before the gaze 
 of men. Abolish the sacraments, do awaj with the 
 churches, silence the voice of the minister, and soon 
 people would forget the Christ life, and sink be- 
 neath the waves of an unbelieving materialism. 
 
 Herein, therefore, we recognize the function of 
 the Church, as well as the obligation of every indi- 
 vidual to ally himself with it. There can be no 
 salvation save as Christ is realized in our lives, but 
 without the Church the world would soon forget 
 the realization, and we on this account owe it to 
 our own selves and to the world to support and 
 adhere to the Church. No salvation without the 
 Christ life, no Christ life without the Chm'ch, 
 therefore no salvation without the Church — thus the 
 argument runs, and its logic is indisputable. Not 
 only is there an obligation upon each one of us to 
 uphold the Church because of its value to the world 
 at large, but every individual, no matter how 
 pious or moral by nature, needs the constant stim- 
 ulus of worship and the religious life, in order 
 to keep his vision of the Good unclouded and 
 whole. The man who presumably might be good 
 
VITAL AND FORMAL CHRISTIANITY 37 
 
 enough to get along without the Church is always 
 the one who never wants to do without it ; whereas 
 the man who thinks he does not need it usually 
 needs it most. The cleanest men of to-day, 
 whether in or out of the Church, are unconscious 
 products of its influence. The best modern skeptics 
 owe their power to the unconscious inheritance and 
 assimilation of the ideals preserved by the Church. 
 Often the Church has forgotten her mission, often 
 she has poorly performed it, often she has misinter- 
 preted and even slandered it, yet she remains its 
 sole appointed guardian, and without her it would 
 wither and die. Therefore the religion of Christ 
 means not only the Christ ideal, the content, as it 
 were, of Christianity, but likewise the Church, 
 which constitutes its form. As well talk of a thing 
 without any form as a Christian without a Church. 
 A man who believes in vital Christianity can ad- 
 vance no good argument for remaining outside of 
 the Church, which will not apply with triple force 
 to his becoming a member of it. 
 
 " But the Church," some one says, " pray tell us 
 what is the Church ? Many claim the definite ar- 
 ticle, but which Church can make good her claim ? 
 Or are we to infer that any and every Church is 
 The Church, or that all churches are equally the 
 bearers of vital Christianity ? " Obviously, many 
 
38 CHRIST THE CENTRE OF HISTORY 
 
 roads may lead to the same point; some, however, 
 are more difficult, some more uncertain, some more 
 circuitous than others. Christ assuredly founded a 
 Church, specifying its requirements, and explaining 
 its organic structure. The unprejudiced judgment 
 and conscience of each individual must decide in 
 every case how this ideal Church is best realized 
 for him, in the actual world. I have no right to 
 judge in this matter for you, nor have you any 
 right to judge for me. In some cases, doubtless, 
 churches which may seem to us formally correct 
 are apparently the bearers of less vital Christianity 
 than others less correct in form. This, however, is 
 no argument against correctness of form. In the 
 long run, the church which is ideal in form will be 
 ideal in content, just as the shortest and safest road 
 to the goal will in the long run prove to be the best. 
 The religion of Christ presupposes an ideal content, 
 clothed likewise in an ideal form. Neither can be 
 substituted for the other, and both are essential to 
 a genuine Christianity. 
 
PART II 
 Vital Christianity 
 
(a) The Here and Now 
 
 THE FIEST GREAT IDEAL OF CHEIST — 
 EIGHTEOUSNESS 
 
 THE teaching of Christ being preeminently 
 a doctrine of ideals, a knowledge of these 
 ideals constitutes the very heart and core 
 of Christianity. Much has of course been written 
 in regard to this all-important subject. At the 
 very outset, it may be said that Jesus Christ af- 
 firmed the moral teaching of the Ten Command- 
 ments and the Mosaic doctrine, as regards truthful- 
 ness, purity, and cleanness of life. The Sermon on 
 the Mount states distinctly that He came " not to 
 destroy, but to fulfill." When the rich young 
 ruler came following after Him desiring to be His 
 disciple, the young man was told, first of all, to 
 obey the commandments. Christ's ideal of right- 
 eousness, as expressed in the Gospels, is therefore 
 very comprehensive, embracing as it does the full 
 substance and content of the Mosaic idea, of morals. 
 Not only, however, does it include the Mosaic ideal, 
 but it adds certain features to which Moses made 
 
 little if any reference. 
 
 41 
 
42 VITAL CHRISTIANITY 
 
 Perhaps the most striking of these features 
 is the teaching concerning meekness, or humility. 
 This virtue, so foreign to preceding systems of 
 ethics, was announced as the very corner-stone 
 of the Christ ideal of righteousness. The radical 
 divergence of Christ's teaching from previous 
 standards comes out very clearly here. Not 
 only is His doctrine at this point a reversal of 
 older theories of conduct, but biologically it seems 
 a contradiction of the very lav7 of human develop- 
 ment. The survival of the fittest means, if it 
 means anything, not humility but self-assertiveness. 
 The meek lion, or the humble tiger, would not long 
 survive as separate species. And yet, strange as 
 the contradiction seemed, and seems, its truthful- 
 ness becomes more apparent to every age. The 
 meek and lowly Nazarene Himself will outlast an 
 Alexander, a Caesar or a Napoleon, the supreme ex- 
 amples of egoism. The ideal of humility is recog- 
 nized more and more as the only true basis upon 
 which to rear the life of the scholar, the gentleman 
 or the worker. Humility is the key to knowledge, 
 the soul of any true courtesy, and the sine qua non 
 of all efficient labor. It lies at the basis of docil- 
 ity, and without docility there can be no such 
 thing as either education or scholarship. The atti- 
 tude of the little child is always the attitude of the 
 
FIRST IDEAL— RIGHTEOUSNESS 43 
 
 greatest scientist, of the most perfect gentleman, 
 and of the man who learns to wield and dii*ect the 
 world's work. 
 
 This lesson, the first in the alphabet of Christ, 
 has been the hardest for the world to learn. The 
 Hebrew despised his neighbor and had a tremen- 
 dous bump of religious conceit. What the Gentile 
 was to the Jew, the Barbarian was to the Greek. 
 Even the most cultured Hellenists, such as Aris- 
 totle and Zeno, maintained a pride of intellect 
 quite foreign to the teaching of the Nazarene. 
 Many of the tenets of Christ regarding practical 
 life are duplicated in Stoicism and other forms of 
 Greek and Roman ethics, but humility is not one of 
 them. The good man, before Christ, knew his 
 goodness and was proud of it. Humility he would 
 have regarded as a weakness, and weakness was to 
 him the worst sin of all. 
 
 But if Christ defined the right preparation for 
 living to be the attitude of humility, no less did He 
 assert that the proper guide for life itself w^as the 
 lode-star of duty. No man ever ordered his career 
 more absolutely in harmony with what h^ con- 
 ceived to be his mission than the One Great Man 
 of all. His constant conception of life was that He 
 had a duty to fulfill, a mission to accomplish, His 
 
U VITAL CHRISTIANITY 
 
 Father's business to be about ; and even though 
 that mission brought Gethsemane and Calvary in 
 its train, it had none the less to be accomplished. 
 Ail the really great men of the world since His 
 time have had the same idea. The Apostle Paul 
 said when he bade farewell to the elders of Ephesus, 
 " Neither count I my life dear unto myself so that 
 I might finish my course with joy " ; and when 
 later he wrote his farewell message to Tunothy, he 
 said, " I have finished my course." Luther thought 
 of life as a place for the working out of purpose, 
 and conceived of himself as one who had a mission 
 to fulfill. Calvin pushed the idea perhaps to an ex- 
 treme. Even irreligious men have sometimes held 
 to similar views. Napoleon believed in his star, 
 Socrates in his Daemon. Christ's concept of duty, 
 however, was more rounded and perfect than that 
 of the ordinary point of view. He identified the 
 voice of duty with the voice of God, and He kept 
 constantly merging the human soul in the divine. 
 It is in this sense that we perhaps most clearly 
 understand His divinity. The man who performs 
 his duty best approaches closest to God's will and 
 purpose for him, and therefore approaches closest 
 to God. No Christian can neglect his duty and 
 remain a Christian. The underlying motive for 
 the whole life of Christ was always this devotion 
 
FIRST IDEAL— RIGHTEOUSNESS 45 
 
 to an ideal standard of conduct. 'No man ever 
 lived out as He did those superb lines of "Words- 
 worth : 
 
 ''To humbler functions, Awful Power ! 
 I call thee : I myself commend 
 Unto thy guidance from this hour ; 
 Oh, let my weakness have an end ! 
 Give unto me, made lowly wise, 
 The spirit of self-sacrifice ; 
 The confidence of reason give ; 
 Aud in the light of truth thy Bond- 
 man let me live ! " 
 
 Following duty as an essential in the great ideal 
 of righteousness, Christ enunciated the principle of 
 kindness. This principle, as He taught it, involved 
 two sides, a negative and a positive, an indi- 
 vidual and a social. The negative feature alone 
 concerns us here, as the positive will be treated un- 
 der the ideal of service. On this side, two char- 
 acteristics may be distinguished : first, the kindly 
 heart ; and second, the non-resisting life. Back of 
 all these considerations is, of course, the greatest 
 motive power in the world — love. Love negatively 
 expressed gives us the kind heart ; positively ex- 
 pressed, it yields the life of service. No feature of 
 Christ's doctrine is more fundamental than this. 
 Above all other things, the Supreme Teacher was 
 kind. He who was subjected to the awful torture 
 
46 VITAL CHRISTIANITY 
 
 of the cross would not Himself harm the lowliest 
 of God's creatures. He dried many tears, but by 
 His own actions He caused none to flow. The 
 prophet had said of Him, " A bruised reed shall He 
 not break, and smoking flax shall He not quench " ; 
 and as the most striking symbol by which to pic- 
 ture Hmi, he selected the animal which is known 
 as the gentlest of all the creations of God. The 
 spmt of unkindness, of discourtesy, of harshness 
 and bitterness, to say nothing of cruelty or slaugh- 
 ter, is totally foreign to Him. The strangest of 
 aU the perversions of Christianity was that which 
 enabled men to torture and maim their fellow crea- 
 tures in the name of the Lamb of God ! Among 
 the sins eliminated by this principle are hatred, 
 murder, cruelty, slander, slavery, ill temper and 
 revenge. War, with its attendant demons, will 
 certainly disappear before the law of kindness 
 instituted by the gentle command of the Prince of 
 Peace. No principle of the Nazarene means quite 
 so much for humanity ; and for the world to catch 
 Christ's vision of this one ideal would in a single 
 day usher in the splendor of the Millennium Dawn. 
 The second division of the law of kindness deals 
 with the subject of the non-resisting life. Much 
 has been said in recent years regarding the doctrine 
 of non-resistance, chiefly through the writings of 
 
FIKST IDEAL— RIGHTEOUSNESS 47 
 
 Tolstoi, the great Russian reformer and writer. 
 The doctrine itself is not new. St. Francis of 
 Assisi believed in it, as did George Fox, and hosts 
 of others. Its basis is contained in the passages 
 from the Sermon on the Mount found especially in 
 Matthew v. 38-48. The seemingly impractical 
 character of these utterances has caused a large 
 majority of people to tacitly disregard them, with- 
 out at the same time denying their validity as 
 Scripture. Of late years a few writers and teach- 
 ers, such, for instance, as Professor Foster, have 
 denied the theoretical value of that which they 
 could not approve in practice. We have thus a 
 threefold attitude towards the doctrine of non-re- 
 sistance. First, that of Tolstoi, who accepts liter- 
 ally, in both theory and practice, the teaching; 
 second, that of the bulli of non-thinking Christians, 
 who accept it in theory but disregard it in practice ; 
 and thu-d, that of men like Foster, who disregard 
 it both in theory and practice. What is the solu- 
 tion which the follower of Christ should reach and 
 adopt ? Obviously the great difficulty lies in a mis- 
 understanding of the nature of the Sermon on the 
 Mount. It is not a code of laws, but a collection 
 of ideals. Ideals are not easily realized, and must 
 always lead the way a long distance before actual 
 realization. The key to the problem is found in 
 
48 VITAL CHRISTIANITY 
 
 verse forty-eight of Matthew five : " Ye therefore 
 shall be perfect as your Father in heaven is per- 
 fect." The doctrine of non-resistance is ideal, and 
 should always be kept before the mind as the goal 
 of Christianity. Whether it is entirely practical at 
 the present time, one may well doubt. Still, in so 
 far as these ideals are at all practicable, they 
 should be realized, and constant eifort should be 
 made to influence the world in such a way that 
 each generation will see them realized to a greater 
 and stiU greater degree. 
 
 Another fundamental feature of the Christ ideal 
 of righteousness was the virtue of industry. In all 
 the teaching of the Great Master, there is not a 
 good word said for a lazy man. His life was in it- 
 self the incarnation of industry. Up until thirty 
 years of age He worked with His own hands as a 
 carpenter. His crowded three years' ministry was 
 one of marked activity. 'Not only did Christ work 
 Himself, but His sympathies were always with the 
 workers. His sharpest criticisms were hurled upon 
 those who attempted to make money by extortion 
 or at the expense of the poor. Jesus was not an 
 aristocrat ; He was a proletariat. Of late years, 
 efforts have been made in certain quarters to line up 
 the working men against the Church. That the 
 
FIRST IDEAL— RIGHTEOUSNESS 49 
 
 Church has always been prone to forget the mission 
 of her Founder and crystallize into a more or less 
 aristocratic club, has been unfortunately too true. 
 How old the tendency is may be gathered from the 
 fact that it is alluded to in one of the oldest of 
 all the New Testament Scriptures — the Epistle of 
 James. The severe condemnation which it there 
 receives has not served to crush out the evil. Yery 
 often, indeed, the Church has put herself out of 
 harmony with labor, organized or unorganized, but 
 fortunately this is far less true to-day than it has 
 been in the past. One of the larger Protestant 
 denominations now employs a secretary of labor, 
 who recently converted an old church in down- 
 town New York into a labor temple. Settlement 
 colonies, and the work of women like Jane Addams 
 or men like Stelzle and Steiner, are calculated to 
 usher in a new order of things. It should be made 
 clear to all men who work that Christ is their 
 friend and brother — that above all things He was 
 industrious Himself, and that the parasite and the 
 drone found no place in His vocabulary. St. Paul 
 was about the most untiring worker the world has 
 ever seen. He had small patience with the lazy 
 man, and pronounced somewhat oracularly the 
 dictum, " If any man will not work, neither shall 
 he eat." The idle monk of the Middle Ages and 
 
60 VITAL CHRISTIANITY 
 
 the lazy parson of to-day are far from the ideals in- 
 culcated by their Master. 
 
 One of the characteristic sayings of Christ is the 
 well-known quotation : " Every one that is of the 
 truth heareth My voice." Truthfulness was indeed 
 the very centre, and the heart and core of His 
 ideal of life. ISTo word was oftener upon His lips 
 than truth, and yet few terms are harder to define. 
 The world has much to charge against Pilate that 
 he " did not stay for an answer," as Bacon says, 
 after he had propounded his momentous question. 
 As a matter of fact, however, Christianity, here as 
 elsewhere, does not concern itself with theoretical 
 problems, but with practical life. Whatever truth 
 may be, we all know what it means to lie. Of 
 the three ordinary forms of lying — exaggeration, 
 equivocation and hypocrisy — the last named re- 
 ceived the most severe condemnation of the Master. 
 " Woe unto you Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! " 
 preceded the most scathing denunciation which 
 ever fell from His lips. Throughout Holy Writ 
 there is shown this same feeling towards deception. 
 The adversary himself is styled the Father of Lies, 
 and the part of all liars is said to be in the lake of 
 fire. Perhaps this worst of all vices is likewise 
 most common. Sometimes the adversary hides 
 
FIRST IDEAL— RIGHTEOUSNESS 51 
 
 himself so speciously behind the garb of truth that 
 it is hard to note his presence. The oft debated 
 question, Is a lie ever justifiable? illustrates this 
 fact. The man who studies up excuses for the justi- 
 fication of falsehood had better be engaged in 
 other business. No wrong is ever justifiable in the 
 abstract sense ; though, in a concrete case, between 
 two evils the rational and moral rule is to choose 
 the lesser. Nothing is more needed to-day than a 
 revival of truthfulness — not only that love of 
 abstract truth which is indispensable in the scien- 
 tist, but also that practical devotion to truth in the 
 every-day affaks of life, which makes the good 
 citizen. Yery wisely indeed did one of earth's 
 greatest thinkers s^y, " No pleasure is comparable 
 to the standing on the vantage ground of truth." 
 
 Following industry and truthfulness in the ideal 
 of righteousness, the Great Teacher touched upon 
 problems dealing wath those monumental sources of 
 legal and moral confusion, the relations of the 
 sexes, and the questions of property ownership and 
 relations. Human life as we see it, on the material 
 side, is concerned wdth only two things, nutrition 
 and reproduction ; or in other words, the preserva- 
 tion of the individual and the preservation of the 
 race. Progress upward in the scale of existence 
 
52 VITAL CHRISTIANITY 
 
 has always meant greater interest in and care for 
 the individual ; but it has also, by virtue of that 
 fact, advanced in no less degree the welfare of the 
 race. The functions of reproduction give rise to 
 all problems involving the home, — marriage, di- 
 vorce, fatherhood, motherhood, the relations of the 
 child to parent, and the like. In regard to mar- 
 riage, Christ's teaching seems perfectly clear. He 
 began His ministry by attending a marriage feast ; 
 He blessed little children and called them unto 
 Him ; He asserted constantly the binding character 
 of the marriage vow. His followers reasserted and 
 practiced the teachings of their Master. Paul, 
 while probably unmarried himself, asserts in the 
 main the beneficence of the institution, and nowhere 
 condemns it. John draws his most striking picture 
 of the heavenly kingdom from the marriage rela- 
 tion, — "the New Jerusalem coming down from 
 God out of heaven prepared as a bride adorned for 
 her husband " ; while the culmination of his pro- 
 phetic vision is the marriage supper of the Lamb. 
 Paul uses the same figure in speaking of the Corin- 
 thian Church and its relation to Christ. In his 
 first letter to the Church at Corinth he goes so far 
 as to assert his privilege to marry, as the other 
 apostles had done, designating Cephas in particular. 
 The incontestability of the marriage of the leader 
 
FIRST IDEAL— RIGHTEOUSNESS 53 
 
 of the twelve is of course clear. After the apostolic 
 days, attempts were made to base a celibate life 
 upon the teachings of Christ. Considerations of 
 prudence led one of the great churches of Christen- 
 dom to this position regarding the priesthood, 
 though it at the same time exalted marriage among 
 the laity, elevating the marriage rite to the dignity 
 of a sacrament. Skeptical authors, as, for example, 
 Schopenhauer, have made much of the celibacy of 
 Christ, as has also Tolstoi, among nineteenth cen- 
 tury writers. A fair-minded survey of the Naza- 
 rene's teaching, however, will show unhesitating 
 approval rather than any sort of discounting of the 
 institution of marriage. 
 
 The position taken by Christ in regard to the 
 binding force and solemnity of the marriage vow is 
 likewise very clear. In the Sermon on the Mount 
 He even went so far as to place adultery back of 
 the act in the unclean gloatings of the mind. The 
 Mosaic legislation regarding any violation of the 
 marriage vow was exceedingly severe. Adultery 
 received the same punishment as murder, and the 
 crime was never condoned, even in the case of a 
 national hero like David. Many of the proverbs 
 are directed against this sin, and the prophets al- 
 ways used it as a type of the worst national apos- 
 tasy. In modern times, the sin of adultery has 
 
64 VITAL CHRISTIANITY 
 
 been much condoned in civil legislation, though 
 never in the teaching of the Church. As a crune 
 against the family, it ranks, from the Clnistian 
 point of view, in the same category with murder 
 against the individual, and treason against the state. 
 JSTo excuse, however plausible, can justify it. 
 
 The problem of divorce has caused much more 
 debate than the problem of adultery. Easy di- 
 vorce, it is recognized, strikes at the very heart of 
 the home ; while on the other hand, difficult di- 
 vorce seems to encourage the even greater evil of 
 adultery, or at least an unhappy home life. Christ's 
 famous pronouncement upon the inviolabilit}" of 
 the marriage relation must be understood, like the 
 other passages in the sermon, as an ideal to be real- 
 ized as soon as possible, but perhaps as difficult of 
 immediate realization as the famous doctrine of 
 non-resistance. Ideally speaking, marriage admits 
 of no dissolution ; practically speaking, such a doc- 
 trine might work in the body politic more harm 
 than good. What God hath joined together man 
 cannot put asunder, but not every petty squire or 
 village parson T\aelds the sceptre of the Almighty. 
 The true solution of the problem lies in educating 
 people to the dignity and sanctity of the marriage 
 relation, throwing proper safeguards around it, and 
 never making it a jest or a matter of careless indif- 
 
FIRST IDEAL— RIGHTEOUSNESS 65 
 
 ference. Proper care in regard to marriage will 
 soon solve the whole problem of divorce. 
 
 Christ's teachings in regard to the home life 
 involved the following considerations: (1) He 
 approved the home as an institution; (2) He 
 inculcated the primary ethical principle of justice 
 as coming first in the ideal home; (3) After 
 justice, and as including it, He insisted upon the 
 higher law of love ; and (4) He did not believe in 
 that narrow conception of the family which negates 
 the altruistic spirit. Charity with Him began at 
 home, but it did not end there. Those who did His 
 will were in the larger and truer sense His nearest 
 relatives. The spiritual relationship, while above 
 the natural, did not, however, negate the latter. In 
 heaven they neither marry nor are given in mar- 
 riage ; but on earth, marriage is divine, and bears 
 the seal of the approval of God. The happiest 
 home is none the less the one which is least self- 
 centred, and which extends farthest beyond its own 
 narrow boundaries. 
 
 One of the chief sins condemned by Christ, as 
 well as by the later church authorities, was the 
 vice of fornication. While regarded more leniently 
 than adultery by the Jews, it was severely de- 
 nounced. It is one of those evils which only 
 thorough education and training can remove. Per- 
 
66 VITAL CHRISTIANITY 
 
 haps no sin is more detrimental to the high ideals 
 held up by Christ than fornication. No crime 
 serves so effectually to coarsen and degrade a man 
 as this double offense against both manhood and 
 womanhood. All sin is essentially animal, but 
 fornication is the most animal of all sins. Chris- 
 tianity teaches universally the single standard in 
 morals, and demands that purity of heart and life 
 from man which man has always demanded from 
 woman. The operation of ordinary evolution 
 makes men truthful rather than chaste, and women 
 chaste rather than truthful. Christianity, how- 
 ever, says to man, " Be thou chaste " ; and to 
 woman, '* Be thou truthful." Sexual purity, both 
 of man and woman, is essential to good health, good 
 morals, good civilization and good religion. 
 
 The Christ ideal in regard to property rights may 
 be summarized under three divisions : (1) honesty, 
 illustrated by His discourses against theft, His en- 
 dorsement of the Mosaic doctrine upon the subject 
 and His prompt payment of tribute ; (2) the proper 
 estimate of wealth ; and (3) the proper use of 
 material resources. 
 
 In attempting a digest of His teaching regarding 
 the second division, we are confronted by abundant 
 material. From the time the devil tempted Him 
 
FIRST IDEAL— RIGHTEOUSNESS 57 
 
 to no purpose with the enormous bribe of all the 
 kingdoms of the earth, down to the time when 
 Judas betrayed Him for thirty pieces of silver, His 
 supreme disregard for mere money, as money, 
 becomes apparent. We are not to suppose, how- 
 ever, that Christ despised business, or that He con- 
 demned trade. His greatest apostle advised the 
 early disciples to " be not slothful in business," and 
 worked with his own hands as a craftsman ; and the 
 Teacher of Nazareth Himself began life as a car- 
 penter. Business, to Chi^ist, was the same as any 
 other calling ; but the purposeless accumulation of 
 money, or of any sort of material possessions, He 
 regarded as the supremest folly. Christ's estimate 
 of material wealth was based entirely upon its in- 
 fluence for or against the development of the spir- 
 itual life. 
 
 In regard to the third division Christ speaks in 
 no uncertain tones. Whenever wealth is used to 
 negate the spiritual life, it is abused. Because it is 
 so difficult to avoid this abuse, He is inclined to 
 regard the rich man as more unfortunate than the 
 poor man. In the parable of the rich man and 
 Lazarus, Dives has decidedly the more undesirable 
 side of the bargain. And Dives's sin is not that 
 he has been a thief, a murderer or an adulterer, but 
 that his wealth has closed his heart to charity and 
 
68 VITAL CHRISTIANITY 
 
 built up within his soul the hell of the selfish life. 
 Between him and Lazarus there is a great gulf fixed 
 — the impassable gulf between the selfish and the 
 unselfish soul. The possession of wealth among 
 the early Christians seems to have been rather 
 unusual. In the first community at Jerusalem, 
 Barnabas and others sold their property and gave 
 the proceeds to the Church. They did this, it is 
 distinctly stated, not in obedience to any regulation 
 upon the subject, but solely because they believed 
 it was what Christ would have done under the same 
 circumstances. Christ's doctrine in regard to prop- 
 erty and material possessions is best understood by 
 keeping in mind His general concept of the supreme 
 reality and worth of the spiritual life. 
 
 In the natural order of things, the question of 
 property rights leads to the consideration of Chris- 
 tian citizenship. One of the most striking things 
 about Christianity is its doctrine of civil obedience. 
 To respect the law was among the very first of the 
 duties inculcated by the Man of Galilee. No one 
 could have been more punctual in his obedience to 
 civil authority. His ideas in this respect ran parallel 
 to those of Socrates. The early Christians were 
 scrupulous in their observance of law, with the sole 
 exception of religious conflict. The general atti- 
 
FIRST IDEAL— EIGHTEOUSNESS 59 
 
 tude of Christ towards civil innovations was one of 
 evolution, rather than of iconoclasm. He hurled 
 no polemics at slavery, despotism, cruel punish- 
 ments or female degradation ; but all these things 
 have melted av^ray beneath the influence of His 
 teaching. So far as any outward expression is con- 
 cerned, no one can authoritatively say whether 
 Christ was a monarchist, a republican or a socialist. 
 Had He lived under any of these forms of govern- 
 ment, He would doubtless have yielded quiet and 
 law-abiding submission. Of one thing only are we 
 assured in regard to His politics, and that is that 
 He believed in obeying the law. Christianity was 
 once accused of being radical upon political ques- 
 tions — now it is generally attacked because of 
 its conservatism. Modern socialism opposes the 
 Church ofttimes because of its alliance with estab- 
 lished custom. With the red flag t}^e of either 
 anarchism or socialism, Christianity has indeed 
 nothing to do. With the entrenched power of so- 
 cial or political corruption, it has even less. As 
 regards political questions of the present day, the 
 function of the Christian is flrst ethical, and second 
 intellectual. In other words, every Christian is 
 under obligation to stand first for clean morals, re- 
 gardless of other considerations, and second for in- 
 dividual political judgment. Business comes before 
 
60 VITAL CHRISTIANITY 
 
 party with the ward-heeler and the saloon-keeper, 
 and morality ought to come before party with the 
 Christian. 
 
 Perhaps the most comprehensive term included 
 under the ideal of righteousness is that of tem- 
 perance. The word temperance has been much 
 abused. Sometimes it has been used to include 
 practically all of the virtues of the human charac- 
 ter, sometimes it has been so narrowed as to apply 
 only to total abstinence from the use of alcoholic 
 beverages. As we shall use it here, its violation 
 will include the following things : (1) the abuse of 
 naturally good impulses ; (2) the use of artificial 
 and injurious agencies ; and (3) the misuse of arti- 
 ficial but, under certain circumstances, helpful 
 articles. Under the first head come all sorts of 
 perversion of naturally good impulses and passions, 
 such as (a) the appetite for food, {h) the desire to 
 care properly for the person, and (c) the sexual im- 
 pulse. These desires are good, and tend to happi- 
 ness of life, when properly controlled and regulated. 
 When abused, however, there are no more certain 
 avenues to misery, destruction and death. The 
 second class includes the use of all artificial drugs 
 which are not naturally intended for food or drink. 
 Most stimulants and narcotics come under this class. 
 
FIEST IDEAL— RIGHTEOUSNESS 61 
 
 especially alcohol and opium. No slavery is more 
 galling and complete than that which these agencies 
 establish ; while aside from the injury done the 
 body, they dethrone the will and make the man 
 a moral ^\Teck. The third class refers to those 
 agencies which are perhaps not especially harmful 
 in themselves, nor individually destructive to some 
 who partake of them. Their general use, however, 
 would lead to bad results, and in specific cases to 
 destruction and ruin. In regard to these articles, 
 which include among others the less harmful nar- 
 cotics, the Christian must determine whether or 
 not the law of liberty is overbalanced by the law of 
 service. " If meat make my brother to offend," I 
 should dispense with meat. My brother's spiritual 
 welfare is worth more than the gratification of my 
 carnal appetite. Here, as elsewhere, the higher 
 and more important considerations should have 
 precedence over the lower. 
 
 Two other virtues which enter into the concept 
 of righteousness as Christ used it, but which we can 
 do no more than name, as having been in substance 
 already included, are the fine old doctrine of rev- 
 erence, and the superb and in a certain sense in- 
 clusive virtue of loyalty. Eeverence is as closely 
 aUied to humility as loyalty is to duty, so that we 
 
62 VITAL CHRISTIANITY 
 
 need not discuss them further. The man who is 
 humble need not be taught the meaning of rever- 
 ence, and the disciple of duty will find it easy to 
 be loyal. All true virtues are related, but there is 
 an especially close affinity existing between these 
 kindred excellences. 
 
 It is not to be presumed that this analysis ex- 
 hausts the content of Christ's teaching regarding 
 the individual. It is safe to say, however, that the 
 man or woman who thoroughly understands His 
 doctrine with reference to these things will not go 
 far wrong regarding anything else. It is also safe 
 to say that any approximation, even, in the way of 
 realizing His ideals in this field would work a 
 transformation in the world. Herein consists the 
 supreme utility of the preacher. Upon him, more 
 than any one else, is imposed the burden of being 
 one who holds great moral ideals up before the peo- 
 ple. When he preaches the Gospel, this is what he 
 preaches, at least in very large measure. The 
 Gospel is only secondarily a matter of church forms 
 or theologies. Primarily, it is a teaching regard- 
 ing life ; it deals with men's every-day behavior ; it 
 is a great moral influence and power. The 
 preacher who proclaims the Gospel will preach 
 these things a large part of his time. Christ's final 
 
FIRST IDEAL— RIGHTEOUSNESS 63 
 
 word to His chief lieutenant was not evangelization, 
 as much as He emphasized the latter, but pastoral 
 care. " Feed My lambs." " Feed My sheep." 
 "Feed My sheep." These words must not be held 
 to negate the evangelizing features of the Great 
 Commission, but must always be considered in con- 
 nection with them. 
 
 As we meditate more and more upon the crystal 
 perfection of the Christ ideal of righteousness, we 
 are led to say with Sidney Lanier : 
 
 But Thee, but Thee, O sovereign Seer of time. 
 
 But Thee, O poets' Poet, wisdom's Tongue, 
 
 But Thee, O man's best Mau, O love's best Love, 
 
 O perfect life in perfect labor writ, 
 
 O all men's Comrade, Servant, King or Priest — 
 
 What if or yet^ what mole, what flaw, what lapse, 
 
 What least defect or shadow of defect. 
 
 What rumor, tattled by an enemy, 
 
 Of inference loose, what lack of grace 
 
 Even in torture's grasp, or sleep's, or death's — 
 
 Oh, what amiss may T forgive in Thee, 
 
 Jesus, good Paragon, Thou Crystal Christ % '^ 
 
II 
 
 THE SECOND GEEAT IDEAL OF CHEIST 
 — SEKVICE 
 
 THE first great ideal of Christ was the 
 supreme ideal of the individual life, the 
 goal of personal righteousness. Next 
 to, and of equal importance with this goal, He 
 enunciated the great social ideal, the gospel of 
 service. It found expression in many of the best 
 known phrases of the Sermon on the Mount, and 
 afterwards in such utterances as : " The Son of Man 
 came not to be ministered unto but to minister, and 
 to give His life a ransom for many ; " and " He that 
 would be greatest among you, let him become the 
 servant of all." The rich young ruler is not only 
 told to obey the Commandments, but he is also in- 
 structed, " Sell all thou hast and give it unto the 
 poor " — that is, become obedient to the law of 
 service. And it is just this ideal of service which 
 has proven, more than anything else about Chiis- 
 tianity, the leavening power of the world. It in- 
 spired Francis of Assisi to become the veritable 
 saint of mediaeval Christendom. It made possible 
 
 64 
 
SECOND IDEAL— SERVICE 65 
 
 the work of Florence Nightingale and John 
 Howard, and Frances Willard and Clara Barton, 
 and the other servants of the world since the time 
 of the Christ Himself. It has lightened the 
 burdens of the poor, built hospitals for the sick, 
 helped to soothe the misery of the blind and the 
 afflicted, and in a thousand ways softened the sor- 
 rows of the world. The ideal of service has made 
 physicians willing to run every sort of risk in order 
 to discover some means of fighting disease, that 
 humanity might be benefited thereby. It has 
 made missionaries willing to become martyrs, and 
 has transformed commonplace men and women 
 into veritable heroes and heroines. It inspired the 
 Beatrice of Dante, and the Cordelia and Desdemona 
 and Imogen of Shakespeare, and the Blessed Damo- 
 zel of Rosetti, and the Eugenie Grandet of Balzac, 
 and the Pompilia of Robert Browning. It was the 
 ideal of service which caused Alice Cary to write 
 that sweetest of American lyrics of duty, the lines 
 known to every schoolboy : 
 
 '' True worth is in being, not seeming, — 
 In doing, each day that goes by, 
 Some small good, not in dreaming 
 Of great things to do by and by ; 
 For whatever men say in their blindness, 
 And spite of the fancies of youth, 
 There is nothing so kingly as kindness, 
 And nothing so royal as truth. ' ' 
 
66 VITAL CHRISTIANITY 
 
 It was the ideal of service which inspired even so 
 rebellious a writer as Byron to say : 
 
 ** The drying up of a single tear has more 
 Of honest fame, than shedding seas of gore.^^ 
 
 It was back, too, of the wild altruism of Shelley 
 and the contemplative goodness of Wordsworth. 
 It made John Ruskin, the greatest art critic of 
 England, say that the ultimate test of a truly great 
 man is always his humility — his willingness to 
 serve. It inspired the Madonnas of Raphael and 
 the frescoes of Michael Angelo, and it wrote itself 
 in stone in the cathedrals of the Renaissance and 
 the hospitals and foundling asylums of the modern 
 age. It is back of our laws for the protection of 
 the needy, and it is the heart and core of the best 
 that is in our modern civilization. He who would 
 take Christian altruism, the ideal of service, out of 
 the world, would plunge it into chaos and darkness, 
 and make it a hotbed of debauchery and crime. 
 
 The ground of this doctrine of service was em- 
 phasized by the Great Teacher as the essential 
 fatherhood of God and the consequent brotherhood 
 of man. This teaching was especially foreign and 
 repugnant to Christ's own people. Jehovah, to the 
 Jew, was a national Deity, who had no regard for 
 the heathen, and showered His blessings upon His 
 
SECOND IDEAL— SERVICE 67 
 
 peculiar people alone. The Canaanite, the Amal- 
 ekite, the Gentile, the Samaritan, were not in any 
 sense brothers to the Jew. The hardest battle 
 which Christianity had to fight in Judea was due 
 to this inherent racial exclusiveness. The parable 
 of the Good Samaritan was the most diificult lesson 
 of all for a Jew to accept. So it came about that 
 the first schism in the early Church was due to this 
 prejudiced racial and national feeling. Service, al- 
 truism, was, however, the lesson upon which the 
 Great Teacher insisted most strenuously. *'The 
 Son of Man came not to be ministered unto but to 
 minister," was the watchword of His life. Again, 
 He said to the wrangling disciples, " I am among 
 you as he that serveth." In His picture of the Last 
 Judgment, the ultimate test is the life of service. 
 The final requirement, as we have seen, laid upon 
 the rich young ruler, is the requirement of serv- 
 ice. Dives, in the parable of the rich man and 
 Lazarus, is lost because he will not serve. From 
 His first sermon at Nazareth to His last consoling 
 words uttered to the thief upon the cross, the motto 
 of Christ was the motto which was so worthily se- 
 lected afterwards as the watchword of the greatest 
 kingdom of modern times— ''Ich Dien" (I serve). 
 
 The highest title which Christ ever claimed was 
 that of the Son of Man. In this one phrase was 
 
68 VITAL CHRISTIANITY 
 
 embodied His conception of the sublime dignity of 
 service. To serve His fellow man was to Him the 
 supreme honor of all. It has sometimes been 
 urged that no progress would take place in the 
 world if the spur of individual initiative were re- 
 moved — that men will labor well only when each 
 man labors for himself. But Christ put the motive 
 of the common good far above this. ''He that 
 would be greatest among you let him become the 
 servant of all," was the ideal He held up before His 
 disciples. When Satan on the Mount of Tempta- 
 tion held out the bribe of individual reward, he was 
 promptly dismissed. When the mother of Zebe- 
 dee's children desired places of honor for her sons 
 in the kingdom of the Nazarene, she was told that 
 His kingdom was not like the kingdoms of the 
 Gentiles, but that the highest motive and reward 
 which it held out was the consideration, not of self- 
 advancement, but of the common good — the service 
 of all. 
 
 Was not therefore the cooperative, rather than 
 the competitive principle, the basis of Christ's 
 teaching? Our answer must be here as in our 
 study of the Sermon on the Mount — as an ideal, 
 yes. Are we ready to substitute cooperation for 
 competition ? That depends. This much, however, 
 is certainly true. " The survival of the fittest " is 
 
SECOND IDEAL— SERVICE 69 
 
 not the law of Christ's kingdom. The most funda- 
 mental revolution which His teaching involved was 
 due to His substitution of the law of altruism for 
 the law of sellish competition. The world up to 
 Christ had developed along the lines of egoism and 
 the struggle for existence. The world from Christ 
 on to the Millennium will develop along the lines 
 of altruism and the common weal. Christianity is 
 essentially individualistic in philosophy, but altru- 
 istic in life. It puts man first in the universe ; it 
 makes his soul worth more than a material world ; 
 but it teaches likewise the solidarity of men. From 
 its point of view the individual soul that is worth 
 while is the soul that lives for all. God is the one 
 great soul because He lives thus in the fullest sense ; 
 and we become Godlike just in proportion as our 
 souls grow larger and embrace the service of all. 
 
 That the ground of service and the dignity of 
 service are fundamental principles of Christianity 
 admits of no dispute. When, however, we come to 
 the question of the proper expression of the altruis- 
 tic spirit, we have a different problem before us. 
 Good intentions alone never afforded permanent 
 help to any one ; and good intentions, backed even 
 by material but misdirected resources, sometimes 
 do more harm than good. It is no easy matter to 
 give away money properly, as many wealthy and 
 
70 VITAL CHEISTIANITY 
 
 well-intentioned men have found out. As a pre- 
 requisite of all true service, Christ demands the 
 spiiit of love first of all. Any other motive ren- 
 ders the service, if not valueless entirely, at least 
 profitless to the giver. In addition to the true 
 spirit of service, He demands a rational and intelli- 
 gent du^ection of effort. ]^o specific laws are laid 
 down to govern this direction, it being essential 
 that it should change in its expression from age to 
 age. In Christ's time, individual relief, such as 
 was afforded by the Good Samaritan, was, in a ma- 
 terial way, the only means by which service could 
 be rendered. It would seem that with a more en- 
 lightened civilization, individual charity might well, 
 in large measure, give place to cooperative relief. 
 In any case, it should not be forgotten that the 
 true service is always, not simply providing for 
 physical needs, but rather in helping to build up 
 nobility of character. The charity which makes a 
 man less a man is almost if not entirely as great 
 a sin as the altogether uncharitable spirit. ISTo 
 greater crime can be committed against the soul of 
 a man than to make a pauper of him. To do so, 
 with whatever good intentions, is not to serve him, 
 but to injure him. Society has much for which to 
 answer because of mistakes in this direction. Main- 
 taining too often a false system of feudal supremacy 
 
SECOND IDEAL— SERVICE Yl 
 
 which gave unjust privileges to the few, and de- 
 prived the many of their just rights, it has striven 
 to make up for the wrong by a mistaken system of 
 benevolence, v/hich builds almshouses for victims 
 of injustice, and feeds soup in winter to people un- 
 able, but anxious to earn their bread. The world 
 has at times played both knave and fool. Having 
 climbed out of knavery in the matter of service, it 
 is time also that it should cease to play the fool. 
 
 We find, therefore, that two principles must gov- 
 ern our efforts if we are to serve the world as Christ 
 would have us : first, the spirit of love ; and second, 
 the spirit of rational du'ection. In endeavoring 
 to help others we should always remember that 
 soul values have precedence over material con- 
 siderations ; but that bodily relief is the necessary 
 prerequisite of everything else. It is useless to 
 preach to people when they are hungry or lack 
 the physical necessities of life. "We should remem- 
 ber also that the best way to help others is to enable 
 them to help themselves ; and that there is no war- 
 rant in Christ's teaching for indiscriminate, that is 
 unintelligent, charity. Such charity is indeed the 
 poorest service of all. Finally, we need to remem- 
 ber that all schemes of social reconstruction are 
 valuable only in so far as they guarantee individual 
 betterment. The individual is the unit in the 
 
72 VITAL CHRISTIANITY 
 
 Christian economy, — the unselfish individual it is 
 true, but still the individual. Only the soul whom 
 the spirit of service and love has made one with the 
 universe, so that every sorrowing creature of God 
 has his interest and sympathy, is completely a 
 Christian. 
 
 ** He prayeth well who loveth well 
 Both man and bird and beast. 
 
 He prayeth best, who loveth best 
 All things, both great and small ; 
 
 For the dear God who loveth us, 
 He made and loveth all." 
 
Ill 
 
 THE THIED GEEAT IDEAL OF CHEIST— 
 FEEEDOM 
 
 HP 
 
 HE gospel of service, however important, 
 . does not of itself exhaust the content of 
 Christianity. To the Mosaic code, the 
 moral teaching of Moses and of Sinai, Christ added 
 not only the ideal of service, but also the ideal of 
 freedom. " Ye shall know the truth and the truth 
 shall make you free," He told the early disciples 
 who thronged about Him. There was no theme 
 dearer to His heart than that of the glorious 
 freedom of the Sons of God. It had been said of 
 Him by the prophet of old that He should come to 
 *^ proclaim liberty to the captive and the opening 
 of the prison to them that are bound." Our free 
 institutions, the great doctrine of the world-wide 
 brotherhood of man, the germs of truth which 
 sprang into life with the overthrow of the Bastile 
 and the Ee volution of '76 — these all are but scat- 
 tered rays from the great central sun, the ideal of 
 freedom proclaimed and inculcated by the Christ. 
 Back of the Peace Conferences, recently in session 
 at the Hague, lies the parable of the Good Samari- 
 
 73 
 
74 VITAL CHEISTIANITY 
 
 tan ; and back of the Constitution of the United 
 States lies the Constitution of the Man of Galilee. 
 It is true that despotism has sometimes ruled in the 
 name of Christ, just as more than one tyrant has 
 committed incest and murder in the name of 
 religion ; but it is likewise true that the world has 
 steadily advanced to freedom under the banner of 
 the Nazarene. The freest nations upon the face 
 of the globe to-day are the Christian nations. 
 Freedom, therefore, no less than service, constitutes 
 a 'watchword of Christianity. 
 . When Christianity came, the world was largely 
 a slave camp. Greek civilization at its best pre- 
 supposed the institution of slavery, and Eoman 
 culture was little if any better. With the disap- 
 pearance of slavery as an institution in Europe, 
 came the rise of the feudal system and the story of 
 the serf. The misinterpreted Christianity of the 
 Middle Ages and of the early Modern Era forged 
 new shackles for humanity, and built dungeons 
 instead of opening the doors of the prisons. The 
 Bastile was reared upon the fabric of a professedly 
 religious monarchy, and the torture chambers of the 
 Inquisition were ruled over by priests. No tyranny 
 in the history of the world has proven more un- 
 bearable than the tyranny of ecclesiasticism. The 
 French Kevolution, with the parallel movements in 
 
THIRD IDEAL— FREEDOM 75 
 
 other nations, finally burst the shackles of the 
 serf and brought genuine freedom to humanity. 
 Nowhere has the fundamental distinction between 
 vital and formal Christianity, when the two are 
 once separated, become more apparent than in 
 connection with the ideal of freedom. Forms by 
 nature tend to enslave, and hence the slight attention 
 paid by Christ Himself to ecclesiastical organiza- 
 tion. Enslavement brings with it a certain power ; 
 but it is a weaker power than the force of united 
 free men. Armies composed of slaves, when well 
 directed, have accomplished a good deal; but 
 armies composed of free men will always accom- 
 plish more. Christ fought an ecclesiasticism all His 
 life, attempted to found no ecclesiasticism for Him- 
 self, and was put to death by an ecclesiasticism at 
 last. Notwithstanding these facts, after His death 
 His name became the basis for one of the most 
 gigantic ecclesiastical tyrannies the world has ever 
 seen, a tyranny which at one time in its history 
 would have crucified Him summarily, or at least 
 burned Him at the stake, if He had appeared in His 
 own Church and preached His own doctrine. 
 
 No question has been more widely discussed than 
 the much vexed topic of the " freedom of the will." 
 John Milton, in " Paradise Lost," pictures the 
 
76 VITAL CHRISTIANITY 
 
 fallen spirits debating freedom in the realm of 
 Pandemonium ; and it holds a place, along with the 
 immortality of the soul, as one of the two great 
 problems in the philosophy of the world. It is 
 quite needless to say that with the metaphysical 
 question as such, we have nothing to do. Our only 
 concern is to find out what Chi'ist taught in regard 
 to practical life. This would seem to be easy 
 enough. It is the simplest truism in the world to 
 say that the Man of Galilee never in one recorded 
 utterance discounted the full measure of human 
 responsibility and accountability. When He said, 
 " Come unto Me," He implied that men could come. 
 When He said, " Whosoever belie vet h in Him shall 
 not perish but have everlasting life," He implied 
 again that " whosoever " included all who heard 
 the words and willed to accept them. When He 
 said '' Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel 
 to every creature. He meant that all and every were 
 fitting and proper words to be used as He used 
 them. The Christian, then, whether layman or 
 preacher, is fully justified at all times in assuming 
 three things : first, that men need to be saved ; 
 second, that they can be saved ; and third, that it is 
 his business to try to save them. Metaphysical dis- 
 cussions in regard to human accountability and the 
 like are entirely out of place. The assumption of 
 
THIRD IDEAL— FREEDOM 77 
 
 all religion is that men can be saved if they wiU, 
 and it is also its assumption that they can will to 
 be saved. Much f atile argument has been indulged 
 in regarding the relations of will and belief. A 
 man cannot believe or will to believe that which 
 his reason pronounces false ; but a man can and 
 must wall to believe in those things which are 
 essential to his moral life, and in regard to which 
 reason cannot pass. IngersoU's dictum that the 
 most cruel words in the world are " He that be- 
 lieveth not shall be damned" arose from a mis- 
 apprehension of the nature of belief. Salvation or 
 destruction in this world and in the next depends 
 and must depend upon an act of will. To will to 
 accept a high ideal of life means to will salvation. 
 To refuse to will thus means to accept destruction. 
 Supremely true it is that in the last analysis " We 
 are the masters of our fate," and " the captains of 
 oui' souls." 
 
 Intellectual freedom is the last phase of the last 
 great ideal of Christ. Even to-day there is much 
 confusion regarding its province. Every attempt to 
 bind the mind by dogma violates the principle, and 
 many attempts have been made in the history of 
 Christianity. The question of creed more properly 
 belongs to formal Christianity, and will be treated 
 
78 VITAL CHRISTIANITY 
 
 when the latter comes under discussion. Nothing 
 can be clearer, however, than the fact that Christ 
 laid down no philosophy as a test of Christianity, 
 and that He carefully avoided all questions of 
 speculative dogma. He asserted that men must be- 
 lieve in Him, but never in any theory of Him. He 
 knew that the essential principle of His religion 
 was decision of will, and not speculation concern- 
 ing life. Hence He was a religious teacher, and 
 not a theologian. Had He based His religion 
 upon a particular philosophy, it would either have 
 been unintelligible and therefore useless to all but" 
 the last cycle of men, or else it would have been 
 outgrown in the onward march of human develop- 
 ment. Therefore He proclaimed no creed save an 
 affirmation of will as regards His ideal of life — 
 something which will be intelligible to the last 
 man who will live upon the planet, and which has 
 been intelligible since He first preached it by the 
 shores of Galilee. It is sufficient, and it cannot be 
 outgrown. His followers, however, were not so 
 wise. From the very first, they began to interpret 
 His message philosophically, and demand unhesitat- 
 ing obedience to each successive interpretation. 
 Hence the long list of weather-beaten and storm- 
 shattered creeds v\^hich strew the shores of Time. 
 To-day, we are surely outgrowing the creedal 
 
THIRD IDEAL— FREEDOM Y9 
 
 stage ; and it will not be long before that absolute 
 freedom of thought which Christ came to proclaim 
 will be guaranteed b}^ all of His followers. A 
 caution at this point should not be neglected. 
 Thinking and decision are by no means one. A 
 man should think a great deal and decide com- 
 paratively little. Much thought w411 hurt no one, 
 so long as he carefully controls his will and selects 
 only with the greatest caution the roving ideas 
 which range before him. He must think freely 
 and honestly if he is to think in the true sense at 
 all ; but he will utterly ruin his career if he at- 
 tempts to precipitate his life and destiny in the 
 direction of every wandering thought. Multum 
 non multa must be his rule as regards decision 
 and action. 
 
 "We are inclined, I think, at times to forget that 
 the Christ ideal, the building up of the lives of 
 purity, of service and of freedom among men, is the 
 real essence of the Master's teaching. Nothing is 
 clearer, however, than that this is the object and 
 goal of the Christ, and that other things, matters of 
 organization and the like, are only means to the end 
 proposed. And to-day, no matter how many names 
 a church may count upon its roll, it has only as 
 many Christians as it has people who are trying to 
 develop the ideals of righteousness, of service and 
 
80 VITAL CHRISTIANITY 
 
 of freedom in their lives. These are the ultimate 
 essentials, and other things are necessarilj subsidiary 
 to them. 
 
 The religion of Christ has had many martyrs. 
 Some have died for the cause of righteousness, 
 some have won their crowns trying to realize the 
 ideal of service ; but the sacred name of freedom 
 has claimed the greatest host of all. Axe and 
 fagot and rack have been used to crush this latest 
 and fairest flower of the ages, but it blooms 
 securely, despite all efforts to kill it. 
 
 '' They never fail who die 
 In a great cause. The block may soak their gore ; 
 Their heads may sodden in the sun ; their limbs 
 Be strung to city gates or castle walls ; 
 But still their spirit walks abroad. Though years 
 Elapse, and others share as dark a doom, 
 They but augment the great and sweeping thoughts 
 That overspread all others, and conduct 
 The world at last to freedom." 
 
{b) The Future 
 
 lY 
 
 THE FUNCTION OF THE SUPEENATUE AL ^ 
 IN CHEIST'S TEACHING 
 
 C HEIST'S teaching, while supremely prac- 
 tical, and in no respect other-worldly, using 
 the term in the monastic sense, looked 
 constantly to the future. Future and present were 
 indeed one to Him. He saw everything in its 
 eternal relations, or as Spinoza long after said, 
 " suh specie eternitatisP To one with this point of 
 view, the present, while important in its bearings 
 upon the future, possessed little significance con- 
 sidered by itself. What were thirty-three years of 
 life worth, when compared with an infinite past, 
 and a no less infinite future ? Hence the trivial 
 things which usually cause men so much anxiety 
 never disturbed the equanimity of the Nazarene. 
 What did it amount to whether He had a bed or 
 not, for one night out of one year out of an un- 
 
 * The word "supernatural" is now much tabooed. We have 
 found no other popular expression, however, which quite takes 
 its place. The sense in which the term is used is fully explained 
 in the latter part of the present chapter. 
 
 81 
 
 \>o 
 
82 VITAL CHRISTIANITY 
 
 counted number of years? Still less important 
 than a bed was the idea of accumulating money, in 
 a world which existed to Him for only thirty-three 
 years. Material money does not circulate in Eter- 
 nity, and hence the significance of the passage, 
 " Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, 
 where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where 
 thieves break through and steal ; but lay up for 
 yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth 
 nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not 
 break through nor steal." Christ's teaching in re- 
 gard to the future world has, however, proven the 
 crux of His system with many. Over against the 
 credulous man, who delights in miracles for their 
 own sake, is the dyed-in-the-wool skeptic who, like 
 David Hume, argues that no amount of evidence 
 can prove a miracle. Yery few people outside of 
 the ultra-ignorant or the ultra-perverse will dispute 
 the logic of Christ's teaching in regard to practical 
 living ; but many people who accept this will not 
 believe that He walked on the water, or rose from 
 the dead. But even for these people, the question 
 of the future life will not down. Every time they 
 stand beside the grave it occurs ; and not a single 
 day passes without some suggestion of its presence. 
 Christ's answer may not suit them, but some answer 
 they must give to the question. The gloomy solu- 
 
FUNCTION OF THE SUPERNATURAL 83 
 
 tion of the agnostic recognizes the validity of the 
 problem no less than the teaching of the Gospels 
 recognizes it. At least one-half of the writings of 
 Matthew, Mark, Luke and John deal with it, and 
 the proportion is certainly not beyond w^hat it de- 
 serves. There can be no vital and permanent 
 Christianity which does not include its doctrine of 
 the future life. 
 
 Many theologies have been based upon the ref- 
 erences contained in the Gospels to the supernatural, 
 and to the life beyond the grave. With these, as 
 was stated in the section touching upon moral free- 
 dom, in a speculative way, we have nothing to do. 
 The religion of Christ does not theorize in regard 
 to the supernatural at all. Yery positive assertion 
 is made concerning it, but there is no attempt at 
 any specific explanation. Paul very wisely left 
 the third heaven wrapped in mystery. The folly 
 of attempting to explain the inexplicable was very 
 apparent, not only to Christ, but also to His closest 
 followers. But although unexplained, the idea of 
 a belief in the supernatural is vital to the Christian 
 religion. Take this away, and Christ sinks at once 
 to the level of Plato or Socrates, or Zeno or Con- 
 fucius. But were He no greater than these. He 
 could not have built the mighty fabric of modern 
 Christendom. The miracle of Christianity without 
 
84 VITAL CHRISTIANITY 
 
 the miraculous is greater by far than any miracle 
 it contains. The differentiating quality of aU re- 
 ligion is indeed its belief in the supernatural A 
 purely naturalistic religion is in all essential re- 
 spects a contradiction in terms. Naturalistic ethics 
 there may be, as well as naturalistic metaphysics, 
 and naturalistic science of every kind ; but a nat- 
 m^alistic religion is as contradictory a phrase as the 
 English language contains. Eeligion in its essence 
 deals with this life, but also with something beyond. 
 The existence of a Power mightier than we are, 
 and to which we stand in some way related, is a 
 fundamental postulate of all religions. Religion, 
 deprived of this postulate, becomes either a species 
 of ethics or metaphysics, in accordance with the 
 manner in which the practical or the theoretical 
 has previously predominated. It was one of the 
 greatest merits of Mr. Herbert Spencer that he 
 clearly saw this fundamental characteristic of the 
 religious concept. Mr. Huxley, too, was never 
 more completely at his best than when puncturing 
 the " Religion of Humanity " as fathered by Comte 
 and Frederic Harrison. No attempt at formulat- 
 ing a religious movement was in fact a more gro- 
 tesque failure than Comte's worship of the *' Grand 
 Etre." Positivism as a religion appealed to the 
 human race far less than Mormonism or Christian 
 
FUNCTION OF THE SUPERNATURAL 85 
 
 Science, or even the Zionistic movement of John 
 Alexander Dowie. This too, in spite of the fact 
 that many brilliant men and women lent their sup- 
 port to the new system of Comte. But Positivism 
 did away with the supernatural, and in so doing, 
 completely gave up the case for any sort of real 
 religion. Comte's system contains some ethics, and 
 may with a degree of caution be styled a meta- 
 physic ; but it is absurdly incorrect for it to regard 
 itself as a religion. There can be no real religion 
 without a supernatural content, and when that con- 
 tent is eliminated, such religion as there was dies 
 with it. The Polynesian who worships idols, and the 
 Chinaman who burns joss have yet in a crude way 
 some sort of religion ; but the most refined Positiv- 
 istic Society in the world, however superior in 
 ethics and culture, has none. 
 
 We would not for a moment detract from the 
 value of whatever contribution the followers of 
 Comte, or others, have made to the world's better- 
 ment. We would not, either, attack or fail to give 
 credit to the man who acknowledges the content 
 of Christ's message as regards the here and now, 
 but refuses to go any farther. Much of the sub- 
 stance of the Christian religion is purely ethical, 
 and the man who accepts the Christian ethic with- 
 out accepting anything else can hardly fail to re- 
 
86 VITAL CHRISTIANITY 
 
 ceive some benefit thereby. All that we care to 
 emphasize at this point is that Christ's ethics, while 
 included in His religion, does not by any means ex- 
 haust it. The Christian religion is essentially 
 based upon a belief in the supernatural, not only 
 because it is Christian, but also because it is a re- 
 ligion. Had Christ spoken no word concerning 
 the future, the consoling power of the Christian 
 symbols would have been swept away, and that 
 halo of light which Christianity has thrown around 
 the grave would have been entirely dissipated. 
 The consoling and comforting features of the relig- 
 ion of the Nazarene have been among the greatest 
 blessings it has conferred upon the human race. 
 If the physician who discovers a great anaesthetic, 
 which relieves bodily suffering, or the surgeon who 
 finds some new means for the perfecting of his art, 
 deserves the plaudits of humanity, assuredly a 
 religion which has soothed the mental anguish of 
 millions and which provides the only effective balm 
 in the most extreme cases of despair and suffering, 
 is worthy of consideration and respect. 
 
 The supernatural is obviously a difficult subject 
 to discuss. We are fully aware that the very title 
 opens the way to all sorts of mental vagaries, 
 and that it covers the most fantastic absurdities. 
 Where science no longer treads, there is great 
 
FUNCTION OF THE SUPERNATURAL 87 
 
 opportunity for the imagination to play. But our 
 human life, as we have seen, is hemmed in by the 
 supernatural ; and the existence and reality of the 
 latter are even more patent than those of the 
 natural itself. Mr. Spencer recognized this in his 
 assertion of the reality of the Unknowable, though 
 he fell short of any proper appreciation of the 
 nexus between what he styled the Unknowable and 
 the Knowable. The natural is indeed only a part 
 of the supernatural, and the two are concentric 
 circles rather than separate spheres. More and 
 more of the supernatural is being conquered as the 
 world marches on ; and were not the conquest an 
 infinite task, we should say that at some time it 
 will all be conquered, and the two circles coincide. 
 God, the supreme reality, is, however, infinite, and 
 so the realization of Him becomes the infinite 
 problem of the good life. Ever our horizon 
 broadens, ever w^e come to know more of Him, 
 ever the known pushes on into the unknown, ever 
 we voyage on into those " strange seas of thought " 
 which Wordsworth mentioned in his characteriza- 
 tion of Newton. 
 
 Thus it becomes us to realize that relation with 
 the infinite which is our divine inheritance, and 
 which alone constitutes us men. Because the 
 Teacher of Galilee recognized as no other authority 
 
88 VITAL CHRISTIANITY 
 
 the supreme reality of the spnitual life, because 
 He saw the glory of the ideal and gave it the fore- 
 most place in His thought and conduct, because He 
 taught as no other ever taught the true relationship 
 of the human and the di\ane, therefore, the religion 
 of Christ has won that high position which it oc- 
 cupies in the thought and the affections of the 
 world. Amid the shifting scenes of our material 
 existence, He stands aloft with His calm brow and 
 the surging tide of the infinite welling up through 
 His words, proclaiming to all the world, in the 
 message of one of His later disciples, 
 
 *' Earth changes, but thy soul and God stand sure.'^ 
 
THE ]^ATUEE AND CRITEEIA OF MIEACLES 
 
 THEEE are at least six different Greek 
 words used to conv^ey the idea of miracle 
 in the New Testament. These words 
 simply look at different aspects of the same thing. 
 At one time, a miracle is a " glorious," at another 
 a " strange," at still another a " wonderful " thing. 
 John uses almost exclusively the word correctly 
 rendered in our American Ke vised text as " sign." 
 In their essence, miracles were signs of God's 
 power, and credentials of Christ's mission. Jesus 
 Christ did not heal the sick simply to help them 
 physically, nor did He raise the dead in order to 
 give them a new lease on material existence. It 
 was necessary that, coming as He did. He should 
 have such credentials as would establish His posi- 
 tion, and display such power as would fully accredit 
 His claims. Hence the necessity for miracles, and 
 hence their presence in the text. No better defini- 
 tion of a miracle has been given than that of Bishop 
 
 Warren : ''A miracle is an effect in nature not at- 
 
 89 
 
90 VITAL CHRISTIANITY 
 
 tributable to any of the recognized operations of 
 nature, nor to the act of man, but indicative of 
 superhuman power, and serving as a sign thereof." 
 Miracles were very necessary as " signs " during 
 Christ's presence upon earth and during the early 
 history of the Church, but they are no longer 
 needed for that purpose. Christianity has so justi- 
 fied itself during two thousand years of history 
 that it requires no farther credentials. Miracles, 
 indeed, present a decidedly lower order of evidence 
 than examples such as are found, for instance, in a 
 book like Harold Begbie's " Twice Born Men." But 
 because we do not need the testimony of the miracu- 
 lous now is no reason for our attacking and sneering 
 at it. When a child reaches Latin or Greek, he does 
 not despise his alphabet or his first English reader. 
 He no longer needs them, but without them he 
 would not be where he is. So with the question 
 of miracles. The Church no longer needs them ; it 
 has outgrown any necessity for an appeal to them 
 as evidence ; but we should not forget that there 
 was a time when without them there would have 
 been no Church, and that the whole magnificent 
 fabric of Christianity could not have been built 
 originally without some such credentials. The 
 conceited man may decry and look down upon the 
 stages by which he reached his position of promi- 
 
MIRACLES 91 
 
 nence, but the profound and reverent man will have 
 only respect for the first steps in his progress up- 
 ward. To make fun of miracles is cheap and easy, 
 but it is no indication of either wisdom or pro- 
 fundity. 
 
 If we grant the possibility of miracles, as based 
 upon superhuman power, and the necessity for them 
 as credentials of such power, we do not by this ad- 
 mission open the gate for the entrance of every sort 
 of credulous imposture. That there are true bank- 
 notes in existence does not imply that there are no 
 false ones, and that such a thing as a miracle actu- 
 ally took place once does not imply that it took 
 place at a dozen other times. After granting the 
 possibility and even the necessity for miracles as 
 evidences of divine power, we do not in the slight- 
 est degree remove the need for the most careful 
 scrutiny in regard to specific cases of their mani- 
 festation. It is readily admitted that the evidence 
 here must be of the most thoroughgoing character. 
 Credulity probably does, on the whole, at least as 
 much harm as skepticism. The man who can ac- 
 cept all of the marvels recorded of the mediaeval 
 saints is as much damage to society as the man who 
 refuses to believe in miracles at all. As between 
 the positions of Newman and Huxley, there are 
 small odds for choice. 
 
92 VITAL CHRISTIANITY 
 
 The whole question of miracle, like the question 
 of Christianity itself, rests upon an appeal to 
 reason and truth. God forbid that the time 
 should ever come when reason shall abdicate her 
 throne as she has upon occasions in the past, at 
 the dictation of any so-called religion ! Miracles 
 are rational evidences of God's power ; they have 
 been needed, and they have taken place. To deny 
 their possibility is to say that the Creator of the 
 world is subjugated by His own creation ; to deny 
 their necessity is to assert that the whole fabric of 
 Christianity is absurd ; while to dispute their hav- 
 ing occurred is to give the lie to the most unim- 
 peachable historic testimony. Conceding the possi- 
 bility of miracle, let us hear the evidence impartially 
 and accept no given instance of miraculous mani- 
 festation without such testimony that only a jury 
 prejudged in the case could decide against its occur- 
 rence. Steering between the Charybdis of credulity 
 and the Scylla of skepticism, let us hold firm to the 
 anchor of a true faith, grounded both in reason and 
 love. 
 
 Modern scientists have at times attacked the 
 theory of miracle ; and it is not to be denied that, 
 from a purely materialistic point of view, a miracle 
 is an impossibility. But the purely materialistic 
 point of view does away quite as eifectually with 
 
MIRACLES 98 
 
 God as it does with miracle. We have no idea 
 whatever, as previously stated, of trenching upon 
 metaphysics in our study ; but it is undoubtedly 
 true that some metaphysics the Christian must 
 have, and that the purely naturalistic metaphysic 
 will not square for a moment with the teachings of 
 Christ. The religion of Christ, therefore, can never 
 be a materialistic religion, if we may be permitted 
 to use such an expression, but always a spiritualistic 
 or idealistic one. Materialism was, in fact, the 
 point of view which the Nazarene attacked most 
 vigorously. The world, meaning thereby the 
 materialistic concept of life, the life of eating and 
 drinking and sensual appetite, was His constant 
 antithesis to the kingdom of God. In His last 
 superb farewell to His followers, He elaborated 
 this antithesis in the words so frequently quoted : 
 *' They are not of the world even as I am not of the 
 world." His prayer for them was not that they 
 should be taken out of the world, but that they 
 should be kept from the evil which it contains. 
 The Apostle Paul draws the distinction very 
 beautifully in his well-known definition in the 
 Epistle to the Romans : " For the kingdom of God 
 is not meat and drink ; but righteousness, and 
 peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." The powers of 
 evil, to Christ, were embodied almost, if not en- 
 
94 VITAL CHRISTIANITY 
 
 tirely, in the fleshly appetites. His constant teach- 
 ing was that the goal of the higher life could be 
 won only by crucifying the lower in the interest of 
 the higher, and that the path to virtue lay along 
 the line of sacrifice and self-denial. Out of the 
 material to fashion the ideal, out of the human to 
 bring forth the divine, out of nature to realize 
 nature's God — these were the ideas which con- 
 stantly occupied His attention. For the purely 
 animal life, He had only the supremest contempt. 
 His idea of that life was embodied in His parable 
 of the rich fool, as well as His picture of Dives in 
 the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. 
 
 This point of view is coming to be recognized 
 more and more as the true one by the scientists 
 and investigators of our own time. The biologist, 
 no less than the theologian, sees in the brute side of 
 our human nature the incarnation of that evil 
 which constantly bars the progress of good. He 
 sees that there can be no upward movement in 
 society or morals which does not presuppose the 
 crushing out of the " ape and the tiger " in our dis- 
 positions and appetites. That world which Christ 
 opposed and stigmatized has likewise received his 
 censure and disapproval. He, no less than Paul, 
 realizes that to be carnally minded is death, and 
 that the material appetites and the material goal 
 
MIRACLES 96 
 
 are the chief hindrances to progress in the moral 
 universe. 
 
 The spiritualistic concept of the world, that 
 concept which finds a place for God and the 
 spiritual life, which opens to the soul a vista of its 
 own splendid possibilities, which raises man from a 
 helpless clod of earth to a seat at the table of the 
 immortals — this is the postulate of a true science 
 as fully as it is the postulate of a true religion. 
 Without it, life is barren, negative and full of 
 despair. Without it, conscience is a cheat and 
 existence itself a delusion and a mockery. With- 
 out it, man's outlook shrivels and dwarfs and nar- 
 rows into nothingness at last. With it, on the 
 contrary, there is a new and splendid horizon 
 opened for the humblest citizen of earth, an in- 
 heritance which is unfading and eternal, for the 
 sake of which all of the blots and blurs of our 
 human history become abundantly worth while. 
 We who accept this concept may well say with 
 Eabbi Ben Ezra : 
 
 *^ Eejoice we are allied 
 To Tliat which doth provide 
 And not partake, effect and not receive I 
 A spark disturbs onr clod ; 
 Nearer we hold of God 
 Who gives, than of His tribes that take, I 
 must believe.'' 
 
96 VITAL CHRISTIANITY 
 
 To believe in miracle, one must believe in God. 
 To believe in God, one must believe in a spiritual 
 universe. The man who deities matter and accepts 
 no ultimate beyond the range of our human life and 
 experience, cannot of course believe that Christ 
 healed the sick or raised Lazarus from the dead. 
 But the man who believes in God, that He is a 
 rewarder of them that diligently seek after Him, 
 will be willing to believe, upon sufficient evidence, 
 that death is no barrier to the King of kings ; and 
 that nature herself obeys the voice of nature's God. 
 This is all that a proper doctrine of miracle implies, 
 and surely this is neither irrational nor inconsistent 
 with such an interpretation of the universe as is 
 both scientific and sufficient. A true science is 
 forever one with a true philosophy and a true 
 religion. 
 
THE MOEAL VALUE OF CHEIST'S CON- 
 
 TEIBUTION TO THE BELIEF 
 
 IN A FUTUEE LIFE 
 
 AS man progresses in intelligence, his interest 
 in the future becomes more intense. Pre- 
 sumably the lower animals concern them- 
 selves with little beyond the immediate present. 
 It is true that certain of the less highly developed 
 forms of life possess instincts which cause them to 
 provide for the future — the ant, as an example, 
 lays by its store for the winter, as does the bee, 
 and many other and less highly developed organ- 
 isms. That there is any conscious knowledge of 
 the purpose of these instincts on the part of the 
 animals possessing them is exceedingly doubtful. 
 It is certainly true that at the very farthest any 
 idea of the future is limited to a future in time. 
 Only man forms the concept of an eternal here- 
 after. The progress of civilization may be very 
 accurately measured by observing the influence 
 which a belief in the future life has had upon the 
 world. The deterrent value of such a belief is 
 
 97 
 
98 VITAL CHMSTIANITY 
 
 great, but its stimulative value is still greater. It 
 cannot help ennobling a man for him to believe 
 that he is the bearer of an eternal destiny. A^ictor 
 Hugo has indeed advocated the somewhat fantastic 
 idea of the creation of immortality. According to 
 this view, man by his own will determines whether 
 he shall live hereafter or not. The man who has 
 no faith will be rewarded for his lack of faith by 
 having his name stricken out of the goodly circle 
 of the Immortals, while the man who desires 
 and believes in a future life will have it as his 
 reward. 
 
 There have been some great men who have not be- 
 lieved in a future life, but they are decidedly in the 
 minority. The profoundest philosophers — Plato, 
 Socrates, Kant, Hegel, Berkeley, Locke ; the fore- 
 most poets — Homer, Yergil, Dante, Milton, Shake- 
 speare, Wordsworth, Tennyson, Browning ; the 
 best-known scientists — Bacon, Newton, Galileo, 
 Kepler; the greatest statesmen — Burke, Pitt, 
 Washington, Lincoln, Cromwell, and others en- 
 tirely too numerous to mention, believed in a 
 future life. The moral influence of a belief in 
 personal immortality cannot help being prodigious. 
 Some highly imaginative souls, like George Eliot, 
 may wax enthusiastic over the immortality of 
 fame ; but there is a touch of gloom in even 
 
BELIEF IN A FUTURE LIFE 99 
 
 their enthusiasm. There can be no true optimism 
 without a genuine belief in a direct personal here- 
 after. 
 
 The deterrent value of belief in a future life has 
 been given due attention at the hands of economists 
 and philosophers. That such a belief lessens crime 
 and encourages virtue will hardly admit of dispute. 
 Humanity at large is not made up of metaphysi- 
 cians or scientists, and the positivistic experiment 
 ought to show the futility of trying to better con- 
 ditions by an appeal to a " social future " alone. 
 Deeply rooted in every individual is the desire for 
 personal existence ; and the consciousness that the 
 future of that existence is dependent upon the 
 present gives a serious coloring to life, a coloring 
 which nothing else can give. "We would not for a 
 moment underestimate the value of the altruistic 
 spirit as applied to the future, nor would we advo- 
 cate an egoism which is not in its very essence 
 altruistic, even for the individual ; but we do assert 
 that such an egoism is back of all true altruism, 
 and that to serve others and destroy one's self is 
 surely not the end of life. If this were true, just 
 at the moment when the soul becomes most valu- 
 able it would be lost, and nature would constantly 
 cheat herself as regards moral values. Christ 
 realized fully the sobering significance of a firm 
 
too VITAL CHRISTIANITY 
 
 belief in the future life. " What shall it profit a 
 man if he gain the whole world and lose his own 
 soul ? " is the question which has sounded in the 
 ears of many a would-be criminal and caused the 
 sober second thought which closed the gates of 
 crime. The world is a more decent place in which 
 to live because people generally have some sort of 
 faith in a future life. Let that faith be seriously 
 shaken, and our criminal population will largely 
 increase. The jail, the penitentiary and the gal- 
 lows are of far less deterrent value than the belief 
 in a future accounting before a Judge of infinite 
 knowledge and unimpeachable justice. The con- 
 versation between the two murderers of Clarence 
 in Shakespeare's '' Richard III " is a fine testimony 
 to the deterrent value of religious and moral con- 
 siderations, even in the case of the most hardened 
 criminal. 
 
 But the deterrent value of a belief in personal 
 immortality is, as already stated, of less signifi- 
 cance than its stimulative function. The great 
 utility of the former applies only to the bad, but 
 the value of the latter appertains to the good. 
 Browning has well expressed what this belief 
 meant in the dawning of the Christian art of the 
 Renaissance : 
 
BELIEF IN A FUTURE LIFE 101 
 
 ^^ Is it true that we are now, and shall be here- 
 after, 
 But what and where depend on life's minute? 
 Hails heavenly cheer or infernal laughter 
 
 Our first step out of the gulf or in it ? 
 Shall man, such step within his endeavor, 
 
 Man's face, have no more play and action 
 Than joy which is crystallized forever, 
 Or grief, an eternal petrifaction ? " 
 
 The significance of life when seen under the " form 
 of eternity " is indeed tremendous. Such a point 
 of view is vitally essential to any true optimism. 
 Our material existence is so brief and uncertain 
 that the Cyrenaic gospel of *' Eat, drink and be 
 merry," with its attendant explanation, "for to- 
 morrow we die," becomes the only word of 
 wisdom. But Cyrenaicism has never maintained 
 any serious hold upon the leaders of thought or 
 action in the world. The significant things which 
 have been accomplished have been achieved by 
 reason of a belief in the permanent existence of 
 the soul. No man cares much for the transient ; 
 what interest it really evokes is due to a sort of 
 illusionary permanence which, for the moment, is 
 attached to it. The point of view of the " Gram- 
 marian" is always the legitimate one for great 
 achievement : 
 
102 VITAL CHRISTIANITY 
 
 '^Others mistrust and say, ' But time escapes ! 
 Live now or never ! ' 
 He said, ' What's time ? leave Now for dogs 
 and apes ! 
 
 Man has Forever.' " 
 
 And when man believes he has Forever, and that it 
 depends largely upon the Here and 'Now as to 
 what that Forever shall be, he is the more apt to 
 give attention to how he comports himself in the 
 present stage of his existence. 
 
 The chief value of Christ's contribution to the 
 world's faith in personal immortality, however, was 
 not in His teaching, or in His philosophy, but in 
 the supreme fact of His resurrection. Argument 
 the world had had before in abundance. Plato 
 and Socrates had furnished large contributions to 
 the argumentative phase of the question, but what 
 humanity needed was not argument but demonstra- 
 tion, not theory but proof. Socrates had said the 
 soul ought to endure, but Jesus Christ proved that 
 man not only ought to have but actually has an 
 immortal heritage. And so the Resurrection has 
 influenced more people to believe in a future life 
 than any other single motive in all history. The 
 Apostolic argument, *' Because He rose from the 
 dead we also shall rise," is thoroughly pertinent. 
 People will believe in a future life if they are as- 
 
BELIEF IN A FUTUKE LIFE 103 
 
 sured that one man actually and positively entered 
 upon it, when they will not believe in it by reason 
 of any philosophical or logical process whatever. 
 Thought and fact are two different things, and the 
 " ought to be " does not always coincide with the 
 " is." It was this preaching of fact rather than 
 theory which first won Christianity its place in the 
 hearts of men. The world was surfeited upon 
 theory ; the Greeks had spun it out to an endless 
 length, and Paul's words were literally true : ^' For 
 after that in the wisdom of God the world by wis- 
 dom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolish- 
 ness of preaching to save them that believe." The 
 " foolishness of preaching " appealed to men every- 
 where because it dealt with facts and not philoso- 
 phies, with deeds and not simply with high-flown 
 speculations. 
 
 The Resurrection of Jesus (^hrist may well be 
 styled the crux of Christianity. Paul, who was 
 the most brilliant interpreter the new religion ever 
 had, recognized this very fully, and by reason of 
 this recognition, wrote the fifteenth chapter of 
 First Corinthians. It is no exaggeration to say 
 that there can be no Christian religion without 
 faith in the Resurrection. There may be Christian 
 morality, and Christian living, but no Christian re- 
 ligion. Eliminate the Resurrection, and Christ 
 
104 VITAL CHRISTIANITY 
 
 takes His place, as already noted, with Plato, 
 Socrates and Zeno, as a great teacher, but as 
 nothing more. The historical phenomena presented 
 by Christianity thus become inexplicable. The 
 evidence in support of the Resurrection is the 
 strongest adduced for any of Christ's miracles, and 
 it is impossible to explain it away without doing 
 such violence to the gospel historians as to make 
 their record practically worthless. Paul's question 
 to King Agrippa seems pertinent, when such at- 
 tempts are made : " Why is it judged incredible 
 with you if God doth raise the dead ? " To those 
 who believe in God, and believe in Jesus Christ as 
 Lord and King, for the Lord of life not to conquer 
 death would be the incredible thing. Interpreta- 
 tions of the Resurrection are, of course, more or 
 less varied. The vital thing is that Christ lived 
 again in conscious personal existence after physical 
 death, and that because He lived He still lives, and 
 because He lives His followers know that they shall 
 live. Questions in regard to the resurrected body 
 are speculative, and for the most part profitless. 
 The important point is not the " what " but the 
 "that." "Christ conquered death " is all we need 
 to know ; just Tiow He conquered it may remain for 
 future settlement. The trend of modern science, 
 properly interpreted, is not against such a future 
 
BELIEF IN A FUTURE LIFE 105 
 
 existence as the Resurrection asserts, but in favor 
 of it. While the Resurrection must always remain 
 to a certain extent in the realm of faith rather than 
 in the realm of exact science, its scientific basis 
 becomes the stronger as the years pass on. 
 
 ^* My own dim life should teach me this, 
 That life shall live forevermore, 
 Else earth is darkness at the core, 
 And dust and ashes all that is.'' 
 
(c) Epilogue 
 
 YII 
 
 MODERN PEOGEESS AND VITAL CHEIS- 
 TIANITY 
 
 " T S Christianity declining ? " is the old question 
 I of skeptics and scoffers, and will presuma- 
 bly be asked until the whole world becomes 
 Christianized at the time of the Millennial Dawn. 
 From the statistical point of view there can be but 
 one answer. Christianity is gaining on all the 
 other religious beliefs at an ever increasing rate. 
 The question of the status of vital Christianity is a 
 different problem, however, and one which statistics 
 will not settle. There was a time when the 
 civilized world was nominally Christian, and at 
 that very time vital Christianity reached its lowest 
 ebb. Measured not by statistics but by feeling the 
 pulse of the age, we reach none the less the same 
 conclusion. Surely and more surely Christ's great 
 ideals of righteousness, service and freedom are 
 being realized in the world. Men are becoming 
 better ; politics is cleaner ; the world is getting to 
 be a more comfortable place in which to live. 
 There are more good Samaritans in existence to- 
 
 106 
 
PROGRESS AND CHRISTIANITY 107 
 
 day than ever before. No such awful barbarities 
 as death by crucifixion, or the inhuman and revolt- 
 ing tortures which w^ere every-day affau-s when 
 Christ lived, would be even dreamed of now. We 
 have much yet to accomplish, but we are progress- 
 ing with giant strides. Nor does the age show any 
 perceptible tendency towards a disbelief in the 
 supernatural element of Christianity. In every 
 generation there are those who refuse to believe 
 in a future life, or in any realm outside of the 
 material ; but they are, so far as external evidence 
 goes, less numerous to-day than at any other time 
 in the history of civilization. The Resurrected 
 Christ, no less than the Teaching Christ, holds His 
 throne as He has held it in the past. As man 
 develops, he must develop towards, rather than 
 away from, the Infinite ; and he will therefore 
 never lose faith in the supernatural. This which is 
 the teaching of logic and philosophy has likewise 
 been borne out in the actual records of history and 
 the story of the lives of men. 
 
 One of the striking evidences of the progress of 
 vital Christianity is the world-wide extension of 
 the Peace Movement during the present century. 
 That the nations are slowly but surely moving 
 towards that day foreshadowed in Tennyson's 
 vision, w^hen 
 
108 VITAL CHRISTIANITY 
 
 ** The war drum throbb'd no longer, and the battle- 
 flags were furl'd 
 In the Parliament of Man, the Federation of the 
 world," 
 
 there can be no question. The establishment of 
 the Peace Tribunal at the Hague, the settlement of 
 so many recent international disputes by arbitra- 
 tion, the ever-increasing sentiment in favor of the 
 disarmament of nations — these things all show con- 
 clusively the coming reign of the Prince of Peace. 
 The ground of the Peace Movement is fundamentally 
 the ideal of service. Men who desire to serve their 
 fellow men will not cut each other's throats. Even 
 those Christians who do not hold to the doctrine of 
 non-resistance in its extreme form yet recognize its 
 prevailing tendency. The religion of Mohammed 
 has no more certainly relied upon war as a means 
 of extending its borders than has the religion of 
 Christ upon peace. The Avhole genius of Chris- 
 tianity is opposed to strife, and w^hile it is true that 
 certain churches and churchmen in the past have 
 encouraged war, they have not in so doing helped 
 to realize the ideals of their Master. When Christ 
 came into the world, war was the normal and 
 usual condition of a nation, and peace existed only 
 when the people were so exhausted that they 
 could no longer struggle for supremacy. To lose 
 
PROGRESS AND CHRISTIANITY 109 
 
 all of one's property in a single night, to be robbed 
 of children and home, to be enslaved or subjected 
 to awful physical and mental torture, were 
 things which any man, no matter how prominent 
 or virtuous, might constantly expect as a result of 
 war. The security of individual property and the 
 reign of international justice have come about in 
 consequence of the dethronement of Mars, and the 
 enthronement of the Christ of Galilee. 
 
 Another evidence of the growing power of vital 
 Christianity is the increased interest in benevolence 
 among wealthy men of the modern Avorld. Some 
 of our great financiers and business men are still 
 selfish at heart, but we are constrained to believe 
 that this is not true of most of them. The richest 
 men of the modern age are bending all of their 
 energies to solve the problem of how they may best 
 use their wealth to serve the world. A rich man 
 who does not give extensively of his wealth is rare 
 and becoming still rarer. Some of the scions of 
 wealthy houses in America are socialists, and 
 strong sympathizers with the proletariat element. 
 Among the monied men of modern times there is 
 coming to be more and more the recognition of the 
 fact that they, like the Great Teacher, are to be- 
 come the servants of all. The foremost retail mer- 
 chant of our day is as notable for his interest in 
 
110 VITAL CHRISTIANITY 
 
 the work of the Sunday-school as he is for his busi- 
 ness sagacity and success. It is sometimes said that 
 the modern industrial system is but a transposition 
 of the ancient feudal regime, but it is certainly true 
 that there is a temper about the modern baron 
 which is very different from that of his ancestor of 
 the olden tune. In the older age there were many 
 cases of individual charity ; and much emphasis, 
 most of it, however, after the beginning of the 
 modern period, derived from Christ, was laid upon 
 isolated benevolence ; but the modern spirit is one 
 of a desire for general amelioration, and has in it a 
 great deal more of the element of sympathy. The 
 present-day business man is or has been, as a rule, 
 himself a laborer ; he sympathizes thoroughly with 
 the men under him, and thinks of their convenience 
 and comfort perhaps more often than his own. 
 The spirit of love and service w^hich is the spirit of 
 Christ is in his soul and is manifest in his Life. 
 This type of man is of course not yet universal, but 
 it is becoming larger and larger in its influence and 
 power as the years pass on. Its presence in the 
 world is a striking proof of the extension of vital 
 Christianity. 
 
 Still another indication of the progress of Christ's 
 teaching is to be found in the higher moral tone 
 exhibited by political leaders of the present gener- 
 
PROGRESS AND CHRISTIANITY 111 
 
 ation. Politics is still far from what it should be, 
 but it is immensely better to-day than at any pre- 
 vious era in the history of society. Bribery is no 
 longer condoned, and while isolated examples of 
 corruption are to be found in certain communities 
 and municipalities, as a whole the nations are po- 
 litically cleaner than at any time in the past. In 
 the United States, great reform movements, led in 
 our largest state by the son of a Baptist clergyman 
 and in the nation at large by a Dutch Reformed 
 lay preacher and a Presbyterian elder, have been 
 the striking features of the day. These men are 
 all of them orthodox Chiistians of the highest type ; 
 they are also men of unimpeachable integrity and 
 moral courage. Never in the history of the Amer- 
 ican people have the destinies of its citizens been in 
 charge of men representing a higher type of re- 
 ligion than is true to-day. Yital Christianity has, 
 seemingly, at least, captured the rulers of the 
 world ; and as a consequence the moral tone of all 
 nations is growing constantly better. Occasional 
 lapses from the reform movement are of course to 
 be found, and it is not to be asserted for a moment 
 that the principles of the Nazarene constitute the 
 core of modern politics ; but it is none the less true 
 that these principles are more powerful to-day than 
 at any previous time in om* history. The " Era of 
 
112 VITAL CHRISTIANITY 
 
 Good Stealing " is a thing of the past in the United 
 States ; and it is dangerous to be dishonest, even in 
 so corrupt a political municipality as that of the 
 City by the Golden Gate. Tweed and his followers 
 constituted a type which is looked upon with ab- 
 horrence by the bulk of the American people, and 
 this abhorrence grows as the years pass on. Clean 
 politics is surely an indication of the presence of 
 vital Christianity. 
 
 Few things are more gratifying in the onward 
 march of decency and Christianity than the disap- 
 pearance of cruelty from the world. The darkest 
 blot upon past history has been its awful disregard 
 for human misery and suffering. The story of the 
 legalized means of execution among the nations is a 
 record so shocking that it haunts one like a hideous 
 nightmare. When one thinks that for hundreds of 
 years the most enlightened nations of the ancient 
 world habitually punished criminals by crucifixion, 
 and that it was the lot of thousands and thousands 
 of wretched beings to agonize for days in this way 
 before death brought relief, he can scarcely realize 
 that the people who did these things belonged to 
 the same race with himself. The records of the 
 French criminal system and of the frightful atroc- 
 ities, which were perpetrated in the prisons of 
 Paris up almost to the Eevolution, are so terrible 
 
PROGRESS AND CHRISTIANITY 113 
 
 as to cause the strongest and most hardened nerves 
 of modern times to quail when the history is read. 
 The names of Damiens and Ravaillac alone recall 
 enough. One can scarcely help feeling that of all 
 the demons which have ruled the earth, the most 
 inexcusable and awful has been the demon of 
 cruelty. No sin was more thoroughly denounced 
 by the Christ than this. His spirit was the spirit 
 of kindness, and the very idea of cruelty was for- 
 eign to Him. Modern nations are slowly learning 
 His lesson. The gallows has been abolished as an 
 instrument of punishment in the leading and more 
 influential American states, and the guillotine is but 
 little used in France. Wherever practiced now, 
 capital punishment is meted out as humanely as 
 possible, and there is no effort to punish the 
 wretched victim with additional tortures. The 
 spirit of Him Avho died by the awful death of the 
 cross to free men from the demon of cruelty is 
 abroad everywhere in the world to-day. 
 
 An interesting and important testimony to the 
 growth of the Christian spirit in the world is the 
 modern tendency towards toleration of religious 
 differences, and the desire for religious unification. 
 Among the Protestant churches the universal desire, 
 now that individual freedom of conscience has been 
 secured, is for a united Christendom. The ideal of 
 
114 VITAL CHRISTIANITY 
 
 service had been beautifully illustrated in the lives 
 of men like Francis of Assisi and thousands of 
 others of similar temper, long before the days of 
 Protestantism. It is the glory of the Reformation 
 that it plead for the last great ideal of Chiist, the 
 ideal of freedom. But since freedom has been se- 
 cured, the extreme individualism which followed in 
 its train has helped to thwart the triumphant march 
 of the religion of Christ. Everywhere to-day there 
 is a desire for Christians of every creed or party to 
 join hands and to present a solid front against the 
 powers of evil. Greater toleration in regard to 
 opinions, and greater breadth of sympathy for aB 
 mankind, are the prevailing characteristics of pres- 
 ent-day Christendom. Great movements in both 
 the social and the religious world are presaged by 
 this undercurrent of sympathy which is bearing all 
 of Christ's followers more and more towards Christ. 
 Baring-Gould's storing hymn expresses the vision 
 of a practically unanimous Christendom : 
 
 '' Like a mighty army, 
 Moves the Church of God ; 
 Brothers, we are treading 
 Where the saints have trod ; 
 We are not divided, 
 All one body we, 
 One in hope and doctrine, 
 One in charity.'^ 
 
PART III 
 Formal Christianity 
 
CEEED 
 
 THE question of formal Christianity, or the 
 organization and nature of the Church as 
 an institution, involves three things : first, 
 the subject of creed, or what one must believe; 
 second, the subject of ordinance, or what one must 
 do ; and third, the subject of polity, or how one 
 must be governed. These three items, creed, 
 ordinance and polity, cover practically the whole 
 field of church organization and relations. 
 
 The question of creed, by common consent, stands 
 first of the trinity, both in time and importance. 
 What must a man believe in order to belong to the 
 Church ? is a problem over which there has been 
 endless argument and which has caused the most 
 wide-spread dissension. It is not in any sense our 
 purpose to attempt an analysis of the historic creeds 
 of Christendom ; still less is it our purpose to attempt 
 the defense of any particular one of them. Cer- 
 tainly the Church as originally established must 
 have had some creed. We find, for example, in the 
 Acts of the Apostles, a number of instances of 
 conversion to Christianity. The people who were 
 
 117 
 
118 FOKMAL CHRISTIANITY 
 
 thus converted must have professed some belief 
 before their admission to the Church. If, therefore, 
 we discover the standard of faith which these people 
 professed, surely such a creed should be sufficient to 
 serve as the bearer of vital Christianity to-day. Our 
 one purpose, then, must be to discover just what in 
 New Testament days a convert was compelled to 
 believe in order to be a Christian. Any creed con- 
 taining less than this will assuredly lack Apostolic 
 authority ; any creed containing more than this will 
 bind to a greater degree than vital Christianity 
 demands. Assuredly the creed of the Apostolic 
 days may well be regarded as the ideal creed of the 
 religion of Christ. 
 
 The problem, looked at from this point of view, 
 is both easy and difficult. Easy, because the con- 
 fession of the early Church is frequently given in 
 the New Testament ; difficult, because it is always 
 given in such brief compass. The first confession 
 of Christianity was that of the Apostle Peter, as re- 
 corded in the sixteenth chapter of Matthew — " Thou 
 art the Christ, the Son of the Living God." The 
 apparently interpolated confession of the eunuch 
 in the eighth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles 
 says practically the same thing. In a number of 
 other cases, it is simply announced that converts 
 were asked to believe " in," or " on," " the Lord 
 
CREED 119 
 
 Jesus Christ." The Philippian jailer was thus told, 
 along with the Ethiopian eunuch and the Roman 
 centurion. Yery clearly, then, the creed of the 
 early Church was the simplest possible profession 
 of a belief in Jesus as the Christ, or the Anointed 
 One of God. 
 
 All this seems easy enough ; the difficult 
 problem arises when we attempt to interpret 
 the confession of Peter, or the pseudo-confes- 
 sion of the eunuch. What is meant by those 
 words " belief in Christ " ? What did the Apostles 
 mean when they used them ? What concept did 
 the early convert have in his mind when they were 
 put to him and he breathed an affirmative reply ? 
 Obviously, all the creeds of historic Christendom 
 have started at this point. It seems perfectly clear, 
 however, that a statement of faith which would be 
 intelligible to a Jerusalem Jew, a jailer at Philippi, 
 a Greek woman at Athens, and the lower order of 
 servants at Rome, would not be very recondite or 
 profound. To believe in Christ, or to acknowledge 
 Jesus as the Christ, must therefore have been some- 
 thing very clear in meaning, very simple, and yet 
 very comprehensive and complete. Any special 
 theory regarding the much mooted points of theo- 
 logical dogma could hardly have found a place in 
 such a concept. When one studies this early con- 
 
120 FORMAL CHRISTIANITY 
 
 fession more and more, he is irresistibly driven to 
 the conclusioa that the first creed of Christendom 
 was not a statement of dogma at all, but rather an 
 affirmation in regard to the Christ ideal of life. In 
 other words, the early convert, when asked to be- 
 lieve that ''Jesus is the Christ," was asked to 
 accept Jesus as his Ultimate Ideal, as his Supreme 
 Lord and King, as the One whom he pledged him- 
 self to obey in all things pertaining to life and 
 destiny. This of course was to accept His Divinity, 
 and it is the only practical meaning which the Divin- 
 ity of Christ can have for any one. The word Christ 
 itself, in its interpretation as the Anointed One, 
 conveys precisely this idea. To believe that Jesus 
 is the Anointed One is to believe that He is Lord 
 and King of one's life, and to say that we will 
 strive to realize His life in our own. 
 
 In the Gospels, such an interpretation of the words 
 " belief in Christ " finds ample warrant and support. 
 In His famous sermon on the Bread of Life, preached 
 at Capernaum, Jesus, in the boldest and most 
 daring imagery conceivable, asserted the necessity 
 for realizing His ideal of life. To the crude ma- 
 terialistic interpretation of His words. He retorted 
 in vain His interpretative statement, "It is the 
 spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing." 
 Clearly, therefore, in this greatest of His discourses 
 
CREED 121 
 
 after the Sermon on the Mount, He taught the 
 necessity for an appropriation of His ideal of life 
 by the soul, in order that it should develop and 
 grow. " I am the Bread of Life " means " I am 
 the Ideal which the soul must realize in order that 
 it may live and live forever." The famous "I 
 Am's " used by the Great Teacher upon many other 
 occasions indicate the same idea. He is the Living 
 Water, as He is the Bread of Life, because He 
 furnishes the supreme ideal after \vhich man must 
 fashion his character and soul. Yery obviously, 
 then, an affirmation of acquiescence in His ideal 
 of life ought to constitute the confession of faith 
 demanded from His disciples. 
 
 In the Epistles of Paul and the other Apostolic 
 writers, we find a similar confirmation. Paul, 
 although distinctively a theologian in temper, no- 
 where obtrudes even his theology as an essential 
 part of the Christian's creed. He is very pro- 
 nounced in saying, however, that unless a so-called 
 Christian possesses the Spirit of Christ, he is none 
 of His. By way of defining this language, he 
 gives his famous catalogue of the ^'fruits of the 
 Spirit," which is really nothing more than a 
 condensed outline of vital Christianity. A great 
 part of Paul's instructions as contained in the 
 Epistles bears directly upon practical living and 
 
122 FORMAL CHRISTIANITY 
 
 behavior. Still more practical than Paul is James, 
 perhaps the first, chronologically speaking, of all 
 New Testament writers. Pure religion is defined 
 by him, as it was by his Master when conversing 
 with the rich young ruler, as the incarnation of 
 service and righteousness ; and his entire Epistle 
 shows the tremendous emphasis placed upon vital 
 Christianity and the practical realization of Christ's 
 ideals in the early Apostolic days. 
 
 Much argument has centred around the Great 
 Commission, especially as it is found in Matthew 
 and Mark. A prominent agnostic as we have al- 
 ready noted has commented upon the cruelty of 
 the words, '' He that belie veth not shall be con- 
 demned." Still others have attacked the idea of 
 belief as a volitional process. To condemn a man 
 for failing to believe that which his reason will not 
 accept is assuredly the part of neither reason nor 
 justice. But belief, as the Great Commission used 
 the word, and as the early Christians understood 
 it, did not refer to any philosophical or theological 
 concept, upon which men might and necessarily 
 would differ. Rather did it refer to the acceptance 
 of a certain ideal as the guide of life, and this any 
 one could do without in the slightest degree violat- 
 ing his intellectual honesty. The Great Commis- 
 sion does not say, for example, " He that belie veth 
 
CREED 123 
 
 in this or that theory of the atonement shall be 
 saved," nor is there anything about it which would 
 warrant such a statement. The words are simply, 
 " He that belie veth and is baptized shall be saved." 
 
 We have already referred to the significance of 
 the creed herein advocated, as applied to the per- 
 manence of Christianity. Such a creed can never 
 be outgrown, never need any revision, never fail to 
 interpret properly the religion of which it is a part. 
 As long as men are willing to acknowledge their 
 adherence to the Christ ideal of life, so long will 
 there be Christians in the world ; and whenever 
 men fail to do this, Christianity will disappear. 
 
 The first confession of the Church, the great 
 confession of Peter, must be, therefore, her last 
 confession. Upon this rock she was first builded, 
 and upon this rock her eternal permanence must 
 rest. When men say with the Fisherman of Gali- 
 lee, " Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living 
 God," they have accepted the ultimate and uni- 
 versal creed ; and beyond this it is useless to go. 
 Upon this great historic creed, not as a statement 
 of dogma, not as a pronouncement of philosophy, 
 not as a tenet of theology, but as a practical ex- 
 pression of a desire to live the Christ life, the 
 mighty hosts of Christendom will some time be 
 one. Here and here alone, we find common 
 
124 FORMAL CHRISTIANITY 
 
 ground. That Christianity which does not recog- 
 nize the Christ Character as its goal is a mistaken 
 interpretation of the Master's teaching and life. 
 That Christianity, on the other hand, which does 
 so interpret His message, can unite upon His own 
 universal creed. Each man will retain, as hereto- 
 fore, his private interpretation in regard to matters 
 of theology, but all will unite upon the one vital 
 creed, a creed broad enough to include all Chris- 
 tians, and yet narrow enough and strong enough 
 to embrace every necessary element of the religion 
 of Christ. 
 
n 
 
 OEDINANCE 
 
 AS the question of creed deals with that 
 which one must believe in order to belong 
 to the Church, so the question of ordi- 
 nance has for its province that which one must do 
 or perform. There can be no efficient organization 
 without at least some simple form or forms to 
 serve as its skeleton. No secret order, for example, 
 exists without its initiatory rites ; and the plain- 
 est sort of psychology demands always that there 
 should be some means by which to express one's 
 belief in action. The religion of Christ, as em- 
 bodied in the Church, has found the simplest pos- 
 sible way in which to express its fundamental 
 tenets. Two ordinances, the one as initiatory, the 
 other as perpetual, constitute its entire framework. 
 We call these ordinances Baptism, and the Lord's 
 Supper or the Eucharist. Ample Scriptural war- 
 rant may easily be found for both of these sacra- 
 ments ; none of significance for any other. Some 
 Christian bodies, indeed, assert the existence of 
 other ordinances ; but in almost every case they 
 
 125 
 
126 FORMAL CHRISTIANITY 
 
 base the ground for this assertion, not upon the 
 New Testament procedure, but upon the grant of 
 superior powers presumably given the Church. 
 
 The establishment of the ordinance of baptism as 
 the initiatory rite demanded by Jesus Christ of 
 those who desire to become His disciples, is per- 
 fectly clear. The Great Commission, in both 
 Matthew and Mark, commands baptism as an es- 
 sential symbol of conversion for the followers of 
 the Man of Galilee. In the opening discourse of 
 Peter upon the day of Pentecost, the converts to 
 his preaching were commanded — " Repent and be 
 baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus 
 Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive 
 the gift of the Holy Ghost." Following this 
 pronouncement, it is stated, " They that gladly re- 
 ceived his word were baptized." The Ethiopian 
 eunuch, desiring to become a follower of Christ, 
 was forthwith baptized. The Philippian jailer, 
 professing a similar faith, was baptized the same 
 hour of the night. Even Saul of Tarsus, though 
 chosen in a special way, for a special mission, none 
 the less wa,s likewise commanded to be baptized, be- 
 fore his permanent enrollment among the followers 
 of Christ. It may suffice, in this connection, to 
 say that there is no record in the New Testament 
 of admission to the Church without baptism, and 
 
ORDINANCE 127 
 
 that in every specific case where details of conver- 
 sion are given, the ordinance is directly mentioned. 
 Even the Supreme Teacher Himself was baptized, 
 although over the protest of the baptizer. If there 
 is anything, therefore, quite explicitly taught in the 
 New Testament, it is the existence of baptism as 
 the initiatory ordinance of the Christian religion. 
 
 Three more or less vexing problems follow, how- 
 ever, upon this admission. These three problems re- 
 late to the design, the subjects and the action of 
 the ordinance. In other words, why are people 
 baptized ? what people are fit subjects for Christian 
 baptism ? and how are such subjects baptized ? 
 
 The answer to the first of these questions has been 
 in large measure already given. Without some 
 initiatory rite, no framework for the Church could 
 be found, and only upon obedience to this rite 
 could the convert be said to dedicate himself com- 
 pletely to the new ideal of life. Both the volitional 
 assent implied in the creed, and likewise the prac- 
 tical assent implied in the ordinance of baptism, 
 were needed in order to complete the conversion, as 
 the New Testament writers understood the term. 
 Anything short of this would mean an incomplete 
 dedication and therefore an unsatisfactory one. 
 For this reason, baptism is coupled with the "re- 
 mission of sins " in the language of Peter on the 
 
128 FOKMAL CHRISTIANITY 
 
 day of Pentecost, as well as in the speech of Paul 
 before the citizens of Jerusalem, as recorded in the 
 twenty-second chapter of Acts. Formally speak- 
 ing, complete obedience to the commands of Christ 
 was needed before the convert had fully put on the 
 Christian faith. Of course the absurd question 
 sometimes propounded, " Can a man be saved with- 
 out baptism ? " or the similar one, *' Is baptism es- 
 sential to the forgiveness of sins ? " and the like, 
 needs no comment here. The right-minded man 
 will always want to do what it is clearly his duty 
 to do, regardless of consequences. That the scheme 
 of the New Testament Church demands baptism for 
 admission should be clear to all. That baptism, or 
 any rite of formal Christianity, is the whole of the 
 religion of Christ, only those who have mistaken 
 the end for the means will assert. It is clearly, 
 therefore, the duty of the man who would become a 
 Christian to be baptized; whatever significance 
 may attach to the ordinance is not for him to ques- 
 tion. That is an altogether wrong frame of mind 
 which asks, " How far may I neglect my duty and 
 still be saved ? " The right-minded man does not 
 want to neglect his duty, whether it be important 
 or unimportant, if he be once clearly shown that, 
 however insignificant it may appear, it is still his 
 duty, and therefore on no account to be despised. 
 
ORDINANCE 129 
 
 The answer to the second question is likewise 
 largely involved in the first. If baptism is the 
 initiatory rite admitting the penitent believer into 
 the Church, if it is the final step in the process of 
 conversion, if it is the expression in action of the 
 volitional acceptance of the creed, if it is, in other 
 words, the seal of an honest determination to fol- 
 low Christ and His ideal of life, then very obviously 
 its subjects are already designated. Only those 
 who can make such a determination are eligible. 
 That idea which puts baptism first instead of last 
 in the process assuredly has no warrant in either 
 psychology or Scripture. This is written in all 
 kindness, and with the fullest possible appreciation 
 of the value of a dedicatory service for the children 
 of Christian parents. That a child, so far as pos- 
 sible, should be brought up in the Church and 
 dedicated to her service is very apparent ; but that 
 such a dedication should be styled Christian bap- 
 tism is by no means thus apparent. Christian bap- 
 tism, as indicated in the New Testament, is the final 
 initiatory act of obedience which admits one to full 
 fellowship with Christ. So far at least as the 
 testimony of the record shows, it should always 
 follow and never precede that complete surrender 
 to the Christ ideal of life which is the vital element 
 in all true conversion. 
 
130 FORMAL CHRISTIANITY 
 
 The answer to the third question is also largely 
 involved in what has been already written. How 
 people were baptized when the ordinance was first 
 established would seem to be reasonably plain from 
 the testimony of the New Testament. It is not 
 necessary to appeal to linguistic or technical argu- 
 ment to establish the character of the ordinance. 
 Any one who will take the trouble to underscore 
 the word as it occurs in the New Testament, in our 
 English versions, and read the context carefully in 
 each case, will discover that only one action will 
 fully satisfy all the requirements of the text. To 
 ^' go down into the water," to " come up from it," 
 to " be buried," " washing of regeneration," and 
 the like expressions, are clearly interpreted in one 
 way and one alone. Added to this testimony of 
 the text is the original significance of the word, 
 and the now overwhelming weight of scholarship 
 in regard to the matter. Very absurd here again 
 is the question sometimes propounded, " Can a man 
 be saved who has not been immersed ? " What 
 folly to talk of consequences, if immersion is really 
 the act of Christian baptism ! The external action 
 may or may not be of special significance, but be- 
 ing a part of the ordinance, the right-minded man 
 should always desire that every part measure up, 
 as nearly as possible, to the correct standard. That 
 
ORDINANCE 131 
 
 the action of baptism, which is a part of one of the 
 ordinances of formal Christianity, is the whole of 
 the religion of Christ, is quite as absurd as the idea 
 that because it occupies such a position it should 
 not be performed correctly. An ideal standard in 
 religion demands accuracy, not only as regards the 
 greatest, but also as regards every question upon 
 which it is possible for us to secure accurate infor- 
 mation at all. 
 
 The significant opposition to the views of the 
 first Christian ordinance herein expressed is 
 grounded in one theory, the theory so ably main- 
 tained by the oldest and largest of all the divisions 
 of Christendom. This theory may be expressed 
 in a word. That the original constitution of the 
 Church provided for immersion as Christian bap- 
 tism, we readily concede. To the Church, however, 
 was given the power to change her own constitution 
 in such a way or ways as should best suit her pur- 
 poses and convenience. This principle, the idea 
 that the Church herself has power to change her 
 fundamental constitution from age to age, is back 
 of all the significant opposition to the doctrines and 
 practice of the New Testament organization. That 
 power which is taken away from the constitution 
 is thus given to the ecclesiastical organization. 
 
 That the Church has power to adapt herself in all 
 
132 FORMAL CHRISTIANITY 
 
 non-essential particulars to the needs of the age, is 
 indeed plain ; but it is no plainer than the fact that 
 in essential particulars she does not possess any- 
 such power. Baptism is the initiatory rite of the 
 Church ; it is a feature of its fundamental constitu- 
 tion. Now unless specific provision is made within 
 the constitution itself for change, it is an unwar- 
 ranted assumption to presuppose such a power. 
 But one searches the Scriptures in vain to discover 
 evidence of such amendatory provision. There is 
 not the slightest hint contained in the New Testa- 
 ment that any number of Christians constituting 
 the visible body of the Church at any future time 
 should possess the right to change her fundamental 
 constitution. When Christ said in the terms of the 
 Great Commission, " Go ye into all the world and 
 preach the Gospel to every creature ; he that be- 
 lieveth and is baptized shall be saved and he that 
 belie veth not shall be condemned," there is no hint 
 or suggestion that the baptism spoken of should 
 mean one thing in one age and another thing in 
 another. Only those who believe in the establish- 
 ment of a great ecclesiastical hierarchy with such 
 absolute powers as to make it supreme over all 
 constitution and law, can justify a conclusion of the 
 character suggested. Such a hierarchy, however, 
 violates not only the provisions for formal Christi- 
 
ORDINANCE 133 
 
 anity as found in the New Testament, but also de- 
 stroys at least one of the essentials of vital Christi- 
 anity, the noble ideal of freedom. Those who 
 believe in an ecclesiasticism of this sort may, how- 
 ever, logically justify a departure from the New 
 Testament standards, but we cannot see how it is 
 possible for others to do so. 
 
 The second ordinance of the Church, the ordinance 
 for permanent and perpetual observance, is usually 
 styled the Lord's Supper or the Eucharist. Common 
 consent has likewise established this rite as an 
 essential feature of the Christian worship. Insti- 
 tuted by Christ, symbolic of His sufferings and 
 death, practiced by the Church in unbroken suc- 
 cession since the Apostolic days, its claim to a 
 fundamental position in any formal analysis of 
 Christianity is undisputed and indisputable. Its 
 significance doubtless arises from the fact that by 
 its simple symbolism that Ideal Life, the closing 
 scenes of which it commemorates, is brought the 
 more vividly before the minds of the professed 
 followers of Christ. It has therefore a very impor- 
 tant function in serving as a bearer of vital 
 Christianity. It preaches. in undying and eloquent 
 tones the supreme act of service of that Life which 
 was devoted throughout to the service of all. It 
 
134 FORMAL CHRISTIANITY 
 
 strengthens the resolution taken in the initiatory 
 ordinance of baptism, and helps to keep it alive. 
 The early Christians were fully aware of its 
 significance, and regarded it as an essential part of 
 their ordinary worship. That they observed it reg- 
 ularly on the first day of every week is the 
 obvious inference of the text,^ though no specific 
 command to that effect is recorded. 
 
 Theological interpretations of either of the two 
 fundamental ordinances of Christianity form no 
 essential part of the religion of Christ. Funda- 
 mentally externa] actions expressive of an inner 
 purpose or decision of will, they constitute the 
 simple framework which serves as the bearer of 
 the Christ ideal of life. Men may interpret them 
 in whatever mystical or philosophical way they 
 please, so long as they do not seek to bind their 
 own interpretations upon the consciences of others. 
 The most cruel and unfortunate chapter in the 
 history of the Church was written by the efforts of 
 some men to bind upon others their own theories of 
 the Eucharist. Such attempts of course came from 
 a misinterpretation of both vital and formal Chris- 
 tianity. The latter never demanded coercion of the 
 kind ; and the former, through the ideal of freedom, 
 
 ' See Acts xx. 7 — " And upon the first day of the week, when 
 the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto 
 them." 
 
ORDINANCE 135 
 
 utterly contradicted it. In all our temptations to 
 theological acerbity over the ordinances, it is well 
 to remember that the spirit they breathe is ever the 
 spirit of love and service, and that unless that spirit 
 is present in our discussions, we have observed these 
 rites in vain. Well did the old Psalmist say, not 
 indeed in this, but in a similar connection : 
 
 *' For thou desirest not sacrifice ; else would 
 I give it : 
 Thou delightest not in burnt offering. 
 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit : 
 A broken aud a contrite heart, O God, Thou 
 wilt not despise.'^ 
 
 Well, too, has Frederick W. Faber expressed the 
 spirit of all the ordinances in his beautiful words : 
 
 '' There's a wideness in God's mercy, 
 
 Like the wideuess of the sea : 
 
 There's a kindness in His justice, 
 
 Which is more than liberty. 
 
 ^ ^ ^ ^ i^: 
 
 For the love of God is broader 
 
 Than the measure of man's mind ; 
 And the heart of the Eternal 
 
 Is most wonderfully kind. 
 If our love were but more simple, 
 
 We should take Him at His word ; 
 And our lives would be all sunshine 
 
 In the sweetness of our Lord.'^ 
 
Ill 
 
 POLITY 
 
 PEKHAPS the most difficult problem of 
 formal Christianity is the question of pol- 
 ity, or church government. The creed of 
 the Apostolic Church does not seem hard to de- 
 termine, and although there has been more or less 
 discussion upon the question of ordinance, it is upon 
 the subject of polity that the most serious lines of 
 cleavage among the followers of Christ are to be 
 found. 
 
 Three forms of government, the Episcopalian, 
 the Presbyterian and the Congregational, are in 
 existence among Protestant bodies. It seems very 
 probable that these different forms originated 
 largely from the prevailing types in vogue among 
 the different nations when the Church began its 
 work. Imperial Eome furnished the germ of the 
 episcopacy; the Judean Synagogue, the starting- 
 point of the presbytery ; and the free Greek com- 
 munities of Asia Minor and elsewhere, the basis of 
 Congregationalism. Nothing is clearer than the 
 fact that no special polity is set forth in a manda- 
 tory way in the New Testament. It is certain that 
 
 136 
 
POLITY 137 
 
 specific officers known as elders and deacons formed 
 a part of the early church organization. Paul or- 
 dained elders in all of the churches, and the estab- 
 lishment of the diaconate is set forth in detail in 
 the Acts of the Apostles. The duties pertaining to 
 these offices are also clearly outlined in the Pastoral 
 Epistles of the Apostle of Tarsus. There is no 
 reference in the New Testament to any organized 
 Church with a central head, though there are a 
 number of references to the Churches of Christ col- 
 lectively. The Church at Jerusalem seems to have 
 had some special weight in the early counsels of 
 Christendom, a fact doubtless due to the presence 
 of so many of the Apostles ; but there is nothing 
 said of any central ecclesiasticism, either there or at 
 Kome. 
 
 The polity of the Apostolic Church in the J^ew 
 Testament days, so far as it can be determined, 
 was therefore unquestionably Congregational. That 
 there was any specific injunction laid upon the 
 Church of future ages to continue this polity, may 
 be questioned. That the creed and the ordinances, 
 as fixed and fundamental factors in the constitu- 
 tion of Christianity, cannot be changed, except by 
 the great Head of the Church Himself, seems clear ; 
 but the same is not equally true of any distinctive 
 polity. That form of government which will best 
 
138 FORMAL CHRISTIANITY 
 
 subserve the spiritual interests of the whole Church 
 would seem to be the form required by Scriptural 
 authority. This being conceded, it still remains 
 questionable whether any form more satisfactory 
 than that actually in existence in the Apostolic days 
 has been devised since. Any government which 
 does violence to the third great ideal of Christ is 
 sure, in the end, to cost more than it is worth. 
 
 The idea of Apostolic succession, held by a large 
 and eminently respectable portion of Christendom, 
 relies to no small degree upon tradition for its basis, 
 and as a dogma will probably never command any- 
 thing like universal acceptance. The Episcopacy as a 
 form of government may perhaps meet wath better 
 success, though it will in all likelihood have to un- 
 dergo essential modifications if it does so. The 
 Presbyterian polity has also many points in its 
 favor, but it seems hardly probable that it will 
 ever appeal to the hosts of universal Christendom. 
 
 There is a demand for freedom in the modern age 
 which cannot be suppressed. The Congregational 
 polity gratifies this demand, but is weak along the 
 line of effective organization and direction. A 
 polity which w^ould guarantee the freedom of the 
 last of the trinity and the effectiveness of the first, 
 would appear to be the ideal. This seems to be 
 reached largely through the cooperation of inde- 
 
POLITY 139 
 
 pendent churches bound together not by authority, 
 but by reason and love. The extreme independence 
 of a radical Congregationalism is almost if not alto- 
 gether as defective as the excessive centralism of a 
 despotic hierarchy. Not all the problems of church 
 polity are yet Avorked out, but it is safe to say that 
 the religion of Christ demands that measure of free- 
 dom which was guaranteed each individual church 
 in the Apostolic days, and beyond this, all the effi- 
 ciency in the way of organization that it is possible 
 to secure. 
 
 Whatever organization may be effected must 
 assuredly be founded upon the 'New Testament 
 basis. Whatever cooperation may be secured must 
 come from the .free Churches of Christ as indi- 
 vidual units, and dare not be imposed upon them. 
 Perfect autonomy and freedom must be guaran- 
 teed to the individual Christian and the individual 
 church. This was the victory won in the Eeforma- 
 tion, and its fruits must not be thrown away. 
 Starting from the New Testament idea of free but 
 cooperating units, there will result that final organ- 
 ization of the Church which will guarantee perfect 
 liberty to each and absolute efficiency to all. We 
 are perhaps not ready for this yet, taking the Chris- 
 tian world as a whole ; but we are rapidly getting 
 ready. In the meantime, individual churches of all 
 
140 FORMAL CHEISTIANITY 
 
 communions should cultivate the cooperative spirit, 
 and endeavor to help each other in the common 
 warfare against evil. Whenever the Church of 
 Christ becomes one, in answer to the Master's 
 prayer, it will be through the cooperation of indi- 
 vidual churches from the bottom, and never by- 
 legislative enactment fi^om the top. This coopera- 
 tion all Christians should encourage, and the good 
 feeling thus engendered will prove no small element 
 in solving other problems of divergence. With a 
 better understanding of each other, with the spirit 
 of prejudice disappearing before the spirit of prayer, 
 and with an honest effort on the part of each one 
 to do his duty in the contest against the common 
 foe, the goal of Christendom in the matter of or- 
 ganization will be reached ere w^e are aware. The 
 motto of all Christians in regard to polity, as in 
 other matters, must ever be, " In essentials unity, 
 in non-essentials freedom, in all things charity." 
 To borrow the expressive sentence of Daniel Web- 
 ster in his " Eeply to Hayne," the watchword of the 
 Church, no less than the watchword of the state, in 
 matters of government, must be : 
 
 ''Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and in- 
 separable.'' 
 
lY 
 
 THE SPIEITUAL AKD MYSTICAL ELE- 
 MENT IN EELIGION 
 
 CREED, ordinance and polity constitute the 
 skeleton or framework of the Church, but 
 they do not constitute all that is meant by 
 the religious life. Nor does the practice of vital 
 Christianity, in addition to them, include all that 
 there is in religion. To be a Christian, to be a 
 member of Christ's Church, means something more, 
 and that something more is embraced in the emo- 
 tional and spiritual content of formal Christianity 
 usually included under the idea of worship. Wor- 
 ship is largely an emotional term, and embodies all 
 of that mystical and sesthetic element which has 
 proven so appealing to many minds in all times and 
 all ages. Worship includes the idea of prayer, 
 with its wonderful voice for the aching heart of 
 humanity ; it includes likewise the assthetic appeal 
 of great architecture and painting and music ; it 
 has to do with what we style ritual, and all those 
 forms and ceremonies w^hich, however complex or 
 simple they may be, touch the heart and move the 
 
 141 
 
142 FORMAL CHRISTIANITY 
 
 soul. Even so stern a Puritan as Milton could not 
 help being affected by the "studious cloister's 
 pale," and 
 
 *^ the high embowed roof, 
 With antique pillars massy-proof, 
 And storied windows richly dight, 
 Casting a dim religious light," 
 
 while the voice of music spoke even more appeal- 
 ingly than that of architecture to his soul : 
 
 ** There let the pealing organ blow 
 To the full- voiced quire below, 
 In service high, aud authems clear. 
 As may with sweetness, through mine ear, 
 Dissolve me into ecstasies, 
 And bring all heaven before mine eyes." 
 
 Without attempting any exhaustive analysis of 
 this tremendously rich side of the religious concept, 
 we shall endeavor to embody the most important 
 features under a threefold division: first, the 
 mystical or spiritual side of the Christian religion, 
 embraced in an especial manner under the various 
 interpretations and doctrines of the Holy Spirit; 
 second, the function of prayer ; and third, the 
 element of ritual and the aesthetic in general as 
 applied to Christianity. 
 
 The first involves a great part of religion 
 
SPIRITUAL ELEMENTS 143 
 
 to many Christians ; and although there are num- 
 berless theories of the Holy Spirit, some place 
 is given to Him in all systems of Christianity. 
 No Christian church is without a belief of some 
 sort in the Holy Spirit. The more mystical 
 the individual Christian may be, the greater 
 part will this belief play in his life ; while the 
 more rationalistic and unemotional he is, the less 
 significance will he attach to it. To dogmatize in 
 a matter which is of such obviously individual 
 interpretation would be absurd. Theories of the 
 Holy Spirit, like theories dealing with other mat- 
 ters of dogma and theology, are not to be enforced 
 by one Christian upon another. The mystic and 
 the rationalist may both be Christians upon the 
 common foundation of the confession of Peter, 
 though the one " sees visions and dreams dreams," 
 while the other sees no visions at all. The religion 
 of Christ is broad enough to include them all, so 
 long as the mystic keeps reason enough to transact 
 the ordinary business of life, and so long as the 
 rationalist keeps mysticism enough to believe in a 
 spiritual reality beyond the things of material 
 sense. To say that only the mystic is a Christian 
 is absurd ; to say that he is not a Christian is 
 equally so. 
 
 The spiritual significance of Christianity is a 
 
144 FORMAL CHRISTIANITY 
 
 theme which should receive the earnest attention 
 of every Christian. That the " miracles of con- 
 version " which the modern age presents, the 
 reclamation of men like Gough and McAuley and 
 Hadley, the lifting up of whole nations such as the 
 Feejee and Sandwich Islanders, and other examples 
 of similar character — that these things are not 
 evidences of a power beyond the purely material, 
 surely, we think, admits of no discussion. How- 
 ever rationalistic in temper a man may be, in the 
 presence of the facts to which allusion has just 
 been made, to say nothing of the inexplicable 
 mysteries opened up by the whole subject of genius 
 and inspiration, he must, if he be thoughtful at all, 
 agree with the sentiment of Hamlet : 
 
 *' There are more thiugs in Heaven and Earth, 
 Horatio, 
 Than are dreamt of in your philosophy." 
 
 The function of prayer as an essential feature of 
 Christianity will hardly be disputed. Here again 
 there is wide room for divergence, and yet cer- 
 tainly all men, and especially all Christians, will 
 pray at some time or other. Prayer keys the soul 
 to the Unseen and the Infinite, and lifts one out of 
 his little individual sphere into the larger com- 
 munion with the universe and with God. No 
 
SPIRITUAL ELEMENTS 145 
 
 Christian can be a Christian without prayer, and 
 certainly no Christian would want to be one with- 
 out it. That sympathy with the spiritual and the 
 ideal which was at the heart of all the philosophy 
 of the Nazarene can be fostered and developed 
 only through prayer. Nothing is more indisput- 
 able or significant in the life of Jesus than His 
 habit of constant petition to His Father. Some- 
 times He remained alone all night in solitary sup- 
 plication. In communion with Nature, upon the 
 mountain, by the seashore, or among the hills, 
 He sought strength for the daily task which was 
 His. Prayer has been the source of inspiration 
 and power for the good and great of all times and 
 all ages. Good men practically without exception 
 are and have been men of prayer. It is unneces- 
 sary that the question of the objective or the sub- 
 jective value of our petitions should be discussed 
 here. Whether the universe comes to us or we 
 come to the universe is, after all, of little signifi- 
 cance, providing there is harmony between us. 
 Robertson's masterly appeal for the subjective 
 value of prayer has a place along with George 
 Muller's orphanage and the other objective wit» 
 nesses. The great significance of prayer as a part 
 of the Christian religion is its power to bring one 
 into vital touch with the spiritual and the ideal side 
 
U6 FORMAL CHRISTIANITY 
 
 of life, and to save us from the dominance of the 
 sordid and the material. However moral a man's 
 life may be objectively, it will always lack richness 
 and fervor unless he is also a man of prayer. 
 
 The value of the purely artistic or aesthetic 
 features of worship is also one which has provoked 
 wide-spread discussion. Many Christians see in 
 great architecture, painting and music, an effective 
 means for deepening the spiritual life. Others on 
 various grounds object to them entirely. That the 
 moral content of Christianity is more important 
 than its aesthetic features must, we think, be con- 
 ceded ; and yet the aesthetic element is a large and 
 significant factor, not only in the religious, but also 
 in the total life of man. Great music has un- 
 doubtedly a stimulative value, which, properly 
 used, means much in the religious life. So long as 
 the art element remains the hand-maiden of relig- 
 ion and morals, her services are valuable and indeed 
 almost indispensable. Whenever she usurps the 
 throne for herself, however, she proves destructive 
 to both. No architecture can be too superb for 
 the material dwelling place of the Church, so long 
 as the Church dwarfs the edifice and not the edifice 
 the Church. No music can be too inspiring so long 
 as it points to the Cross, and makes men and 
 women forget its own beauty by revealing the 
 
SPIRITUAL ELEMENTS 147 
 
 beauty of Christ. ISTo ritual can be too impressive 
 so long as it holds up Christ and the Christian life 
 before men, and does not degenerate into the 
 mockery of religious pretense and sham. Here 
 again, much latitude must be permitted to the 
 individual Christian and the individual Church. 
 To some temperaments, the purely sesthetic element 
 will always appeal ; to others, it will not. That 
 there is a place for it in the religion of Christ, no 
 thinking man can deny ; what place is given it 
 will depend upon the extent to which the artistic 
 side of life makes its appeal to individual Chris- 
 tians. 
 
 It is obvious that we have but touched upon this 
 rich and important side of formal Christianity. 
 Many other factors enter into worship, which we 
 have not attempted to discuss. The Word of God, 
 as the basis not only of this feature but indeed of 
 both vital and formal Christianity as a whole, is an 
 important example ; the personality and office of 
 the preacher is another. The outline given will 
 suffice, however, to indicate the nature of the 
 subject, as well as its breadth and value. What- 
 ever a man's temperament may be, he finds in 
 a true religious service that inspiration which 
 Wordsworth depicts in one of his choicest pas- 
 sages : 
 
148 FORMAL CHRISTIANITY 
 
 '' that blessed mood, 
 In which the burthen of the mystery, 
 In which the heavy and the weary weight 
 Of all this unintelligible world, 
 Is lightened :— that serene and blessed mood, 
 In which the affections gently lead us on 
 Until, the breath of this corporeal frame 
 And even the motion of our human blood 
 Almost suspended, we are laid asleep 
 In body, and become a living soul : 
 While with an eye made quiet by the power 
 Of harmony, and the deep power of joy, 
 We see into the life of things." 
 
CONVEESION 
 
 IT would seem that after a study of the content 
 of religion, or vital Christianity, and an at- 
 tempt at least towards an interpretation of the 
 nature and function of the Church, nothing would 
 need to be said regarding the acceptance of Christ 
 by the individual. Obviously the man who turns 
 to the Christ ideal of life, who believes in Jesus as 
 Lord and King, and who desires to enter upon His 
 service, should have no difficulty in discovering 
 how to carry out his desire. In the early history 
 of the Church, as recorded in the Acts of the 
 Apostles, it is certain that men found little difficulty 
 in becoming members of the Church of Christ. 
 Three thousand were added on the day of Pentecost 
 alone, and large numbers upon other occasions. 
 
 The process by which these early converts became 
 identified with the Church seems to have been ex- 
 ceedingly simple. That process may be expressed 
 in three words frequently found in the early record. 
 Those three words were belief, repentance and 
 baptism. The first word related to an intellectual 
 acceptance of Christ as Lord, and the life which 
 
 149 
 
150 FORMAL CHRISTIANITY 
 
 He advocated as the true life for man to live ; the 
 second stood for a resolute turning from the old life 
 to walk in the new ; and the third represented the 
 initiatory rite which marked the complete obedience 
 of the convert to his new Master and Lord. There 
 is no case of conversion recorded in the history of 
 the Church as given in the New Testament which 
 does not include these three things. Upon the day 
 of Pentecost, as Peter for the first time proclaimed 
 the charter of the new Church, when those who 
 heard his burning words and believed them to be true 
 turned to him and said, " What shall we do ? " the 
 answer came with unerring precision, " Repent and 
 be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus 
 Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive 
 the gift of the Holy Ghost ; " and the text states, 
 *^ They that gladly received his word were baptized ; 
 and the same day there were added unto them 
 about three thousand souls." 
 
 It would be difficult to place too much em- 
 phasis upon this account of the first additions 
 to the Church of Christ, as recorded in the 
 second chapter of Acts. Everything conspired to 
 make the case a typical one, for the benefit 
 of all who should come after. It was the day 
 of the formal founding of the Church as an 
 organization, that day being signalized by the 
 
CONVERSION 151 
 
 miraculous descent of the Holy Spirit. Peter, as 
 the chief spokesnian, was in a position to state 
 authoritatively all necessary facts connected with 
 admission to the new organization. It was as- 
 suredly the occasion of all occasions when the 
 method of conversion should have been made per- 
 fectly clear and plain. So far as the record at least 
 is concerned, it could not indeed have been made 
 plainer. The three thousand yielded their assent 
 to the new doctrine, an assent predicated in the 
 question, " Men and brethren, what shall we do ? " 
 They were told to " repent and be baptized," and 
 when they obeyed this injunction, it is recorded 
 that they were added to the nucleus of the early 
 Church. 
 
 This analysis of the first case of conversion 
 to Christianity is borne out by every other case 
 of which mention is made in the book of Acts. 
 The Ethiopian eunuch hears the gospel story from 
 Philip, believes it, confesses his faith, and is forth- 
 with baptized to " go on his way rejoicing." The 
 Philippian jailer believes the new Gospel, falls on 
 his knees before Paul and Silas, and is baptized 
 " the same hour of the night." Lydia, a seller of 
 purple of Thyatira, hearing the message of Paul, 
 opens her heart to it, and is baptized forthwith. 
 Saul of Tarsus himself, notwithstanding his super- 
 
162 FORMAL CHRISTIANITY 
 
 natural vision, is no exception to the general rule, 
 for after his confession of faith in Christ on the 
 Damascus highway, he too repents in blindness and 
 solitude, and is baptized just as the other converts. 
 Cornelius, the devout Roman centurion, is admitted 
 to the Church in precisely the same way ; and when 
 Philip preached to the inhabitants of Samaria, as 
 recorded in the eighth chapter of Acts, it is stated 
 that after they believed his preaching they were 
 baptized, " both men and women." 
 
 It is no part of our plan in what is stated here to 
 attack in any way the belief of those who see a 
 mystical element in conversion, nor have we any 
 impeachment for men and women who espouse 
 the essential facts of vital Christianity through any 
 roundabout process whatever. What we are trying 
 to make clear is the fact that admission to the 
 Church, following an honest acceptance of the 
 Christ ideal of life, was a very sunple and direct 
 thing in the Apostolic days. Why it should not be 
 just as simple now, does not seem apparent. Why, 
 when a man believes in Christ and His gospel of 
 life, and honestly desires to serve Him and human- 
 ity through Him, he should not be baptized and 
 allowed to enter the Church, does not, we say, 
 seem apparent. Obviously such a man would have 
 become a member of the early Christian community 
 
CONVERSION 163 
 
 in the shortest possible time, and in the simplest 
 possible way. The eunuch was a man like this, 
 and his conversion is typical in every respect. 
 
 To sum up, then, the entire subject in the fewest 
 possible words : the early Christians demanded of 
 every convert an acceptance of Jesus as the Christ 
 — that is, as the Anointed One of God, this belief 
 carrying with it an acceptance, of course, of the 
 Christ ideal of life. They demanded along with 
 this profession what was its necessary concomitant, 
 an honest " turning away " from the old life of sin 
 and evil deeds ; and last of all, as an evidence of 
 overt obedience to the laws of the new kingdom, 
 they required the convert to be baptized. When 
 these things had been done, the new Christian came 
 into the visible Church, and strove with his 
 brethren, from day to day, to " walk in newness of 
 life." 
 
 A man converted in the way just described may 
 not fulfill all of the special requirements of every 
 Christian communion to-day, but there are few 
 communions claiming to be the guardians of vital 
 Christianity which will not acknowledge such a 
 convert as being, in the fullest formal sense of the 
 term, a Christian. 
 
YI 
 THE CHUECH UNIVEESAL 
 
 THE religion of Christ has had a strange 
 and checkered history. At one time 
 uniting both formal and vital elements in 
 their native purity, it swept the world in a little 
 over two centuries of triumphant progress. Then 
 came the story of the decadence of the vital and 
 the crystallization of the formal element in the 
 darker days of the Middle Ages. Worst of all, in the 
 minds of many, the formal became a substitute for 
 the vital, and people came to believe that the touch 
 of holy water on the body could cleanse the soul still 
 reeking with sin. It is only proper, however, to 
 say that all the while, much vital Christianity re- 
 mained in the world. The annals of all time may 
 be challenged to produce a more beautiful life than 
 that of Prancis of Assisi, or a more devout career 
 than that of Thomas a Kempis ; while in the life of 
 Savonarola, one catches a glimpse of a reincarnated 
 Isaiah or Elijah. Those who imagine that the 
 Middle Ages were devoid of splendid examples of 
 genuine Christianity are by no means familiar with 
 
 164 
 
THE CHURCH UNIVERSAL 155 
 
 the facts. The unfortunate thing about mediaeval 
 Christendom was the dominance, at times, of the 
 visible Church, at least at its centre, by false ideals 
 and a mistaken concept of life. 
 
 Then came the days of the Reformation, with its 
 stirring appeal for the revival of the moral life as 
 constituting the heart of Christianity. This was the 
 burden of Luther's appeal ; it was also back of the 
 stentorian blasts of Knox, and the gentle words of 
 Zwingli and Melancthon. Too often the reformers 
 were motived by some of the baser passions in their 
 work, too often they persecuted their persecutors, 
 and in other ways showed that they were by no 
 means perfect followers of their Master ; and yet, 
 even at the worst, their efforts advanced in no 
 slight measure the concept of a world-wide Chris- 
 tendom, embodying more fully than ever before the 
 supreme ideals of Christ. In this world movement, 
 it should be remembered too that Francis Xavier 
 and Loyola had a part, as well as Calvin and Luther. 
 
 It was necessary that the Church should realize the 
 fundamental significance of the ideals of its Master, 
 and that vital Christianity should regain its old 
 place in the hearts of men. The ideal which 
 needed most attention was the ideal of freedom, 
 and the world is to-day only beginning to realize 
 the immense significance of this principle. The 
 
156 FORMAL CHRISTIANITY 
 
 proper place to be given vital Christianity is pretty 
 universally understood and acknowledged at the 
 present time, throughout the Christian world. The 
 Christ life is everywhere conceded to be the end of 
 religion, and it is to the credit of all sections of 
 Christendom that no one party or denomination 
 has a monopoly upon good men or good women. 
 
 Formal Christianity still di\4des the visible Church 
 into more or less antagonistic sections ; but these sec- 
 tions are coming closer together, and in the Master's 
 own good time, will all be fused into one. It was 
 essential that the Church should have its crude unity 
 broken up in order that men should realize to the 
 fullest the supreme blessings of the ideal of freedom. 
 Now that freedom has been gained, and all Chris- 
 tians everywhere think freely upon religion and are 
 allowed to do so, with comparatively trifling excep- 
 tions ; the world is ready for the larger unity which 
 will not be gained at the cost of freedom, but which 
 will include it as an essential element. The Church 
 Universal will be that embodiment of formal 
 religion which, ever including vital Christianity 
 as its content and goal, will guarantee per- 
 fect freedom to every individual Christian, and at 
 the same time unified action to all. It will be such 
 a unity as mil guarantee the fullest liberty to the 
 conscience of every believer, and yet eliminate all 
 
THE CHURCH UNIVERSAL 157 
 
 jealousy, bickering and strife between Christians of 
 divergent opinions. Christendom as a whole is 
 veering rapidly towards this point, but as yet is not 
 quite up to the goal. 
 
 One essential still to be realized is a single name 
 for all the hosts of Christ. Divergent names create 
 party spirit, and party spirit engenders strife. Dif- 
 ferent organizations, rival church boards, rival pub- 
 lishing houses and the like, work to the same end. 
 Some day there will be a single name, with, perhaps, 
 for a while, the smaller names in parenthesis, as is the 
 case on many mission fields, a single representative 
 board, perchance to look after all of the little boards, 
 and such a unification of machinery as will guarantee 
 harmonious action and effort. This unity will come 
 not from the top but from the bottom. It will not 
 be imposed upon Christians by ecclesiastical authori- 
 ties, but Christians anxious and eager to realize the 
 prayer of their Master will compel their ecclesias- 
 ticisms to accept it. This unity will be real, vital 
 and spontaneous. It is essential to the conquest of 
 the world by the armies of Christ, and it will come. 
 My opposition or your opposition may retard but 
 will not prevent it. As Christians have won 
 freedom, so they will wdn unity. And that unity 
 will be the unity not of a great ecclesiasticism, but 
 of a living Church ; not of unwillingness or force or 
 
158 FORMAL CHRISTIANITY 
 
 tyranny, but of freedom, of joy and of love. The 
 Church of Christ, Universal, must come ; and it will 
 come. We have it in our power to hasten its com- 
 ing or to throw stumbling-blocks in its progress. 
 Fichte, in his " Doctrine of Religion," a hundred 
 years ago, wrote these eloquent words : 
 
 " . . . Hadst thou done the like deed in holy 
 indignation that the Son of Eternity should be tor- 
 mented by such vanities as these, and should be 
 left there so forsaken by his f eUow men : — with the 
 desire that he might have at least one glad hour in 
 which he might raise his eyes joyfully and thank- 
 fully to heaven, with the purpose that in thy hand 
 he might see the saving hand of God and might 
 know of a surety that the arm of God is not yet 
 shortened, but that he has everywhere instruments 
 and servants to do His will . . . then had thy 
 deed been the outward expression of a moral 
 religious spirit." 
 
 Fichte's vision of the Son of Eternity ought to 
 be our vision of the Son of Man. He has left in 
 our hands the matter of accomplishing or failing to 
 accomplish His will. It is for us to bring sorrow 
 to His great heart of love, or joy to His soul, the 
 true soul of the world. Perhaps we, consciously or 
 unconsciously, are retarding the fulfillment of His 
 great desire, the union of His followers. Surely to 
 
THE CHURCH UNIVERSAL 159 
 
 do so is to crucify Him anew, and to put Him to an 
 open sliame before the world. May all who profess 
 the religion of Christ meditate again and again 
 upon His words : 
 
 " Neither pray I for these alone, but for them 
 also which shall believe on Me through theu' word ; 
 that they all may be one ; as Thou, Father, art in 
 Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in Us ; 
 that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me." 
 
Appendix 
 
 General Note. 
 
 The material contained in this appendix in- 
 cludes data which has been used in classroom 
 lectures, outlines, source material, and other in- 
 formation of interest to the student rather than 
 to the general reader. 
 
 The Scripture references have been selected 
 with especial care, and represent the author's 
 authority for his conclusions in regard to the 
 ethics of Jesus as well as for other positions 
 taken in the body of the volume. It is scarcely 
 necessary to add that the author does not pre- 
 sume to endorse, in their entirety, many of the 
 reference-books appended as suggestive reading 
 in connection with the outlines which follow. 
 
 Critical questions are not touched upon be- 
 cause it is the conviction of the writer that the 
 personality of Jesus, and the essential facts of 
 his religion, are not seriously affected one way 
 or the other by the results of modern criticism. 
 The religion of Christ is a living thing to-day — 
 a thing the existence of which can no more be 
 disputed than it is possible to dispute the actu- 
 ality of the sun, the moon or the stars. It is 
 redefinition and scrutiny of this undisputed fact 
 which constitutes the basis of our study. 
 
 161 
 
162 APPENDIX 
 
 PART I. 
 
 Study Outlines Covering Chapters I., II. 
 AND III. 
 
 I. The Development of the Religious Consciousness 
 IN THE World. 
 
 1. The law of development in the universe as regards 
 
 both Individual and Race. 
 
 (1) The individual. Examples from infancy, childhood, 
 adolescence. 
 
 (2) The race, (a) The family; (6) the tribe or clan; 
 (c) transition to the state; (d) external pow^r 
 as embodied in a monarchy; (e) internal freedom 
 as embodied in the free state; (/) after the free 
 state — what? 
 
 2. The law of development as applied to religion. 
 
 (1) The patriarchal period. 
 
 (2) State religions. 
 
 (3) Ethnic religions based upon external forms, 
 (a) Babylon; (&) Egypt; (c) Judea; (d) Greece. 
 
 (4) Cosmopolitanism in religion based upon freedom 
 of conscience for the individual. 
 
 3. Christ, the center of world history, marking the ado- 
 
 lescence of the race. 
 
 II. Hebrew History as Illustrating Religious Develop- 
 ment. 
 
 1. The patriarchal period. 
 
 (1) Priests of the family — Abram, Isaac, Jacob, Mel- 
 chizedek, 
 
 2. The transition to external law. 
 
 (1) Moses and Sinai. 
 
 (2) The Judges. 
 
 (3) Evolution into monarchy. 
 
 3. The period of external law. 
 (1) The kingdom. 
 
APPENDIX 163 
 
 (2) Temple worship of David and Solomon. 
 
 (3) Idolatry of later kings. 
 
 4. Transition to internal law. 
 
 (1) The prophets — Elijah, Elisha, Malachi. 
 
 (2) The Messianic predictions — Psalms 23, 2, etc.; 
 Isaiah 53, and elsewhere. 
 
 5. The Messianic period. 
 
 (1) The Sermon on the Mount — "Not to destroy, but 
 to fulfil." 
 
 (2) The Epistle to the Hebrews. 
 
 (3) John 1: 17— key-text. 
 
 6. Types and antitypes in Jewish history. 
 
 7. The significance of the Old Testament. 
 
 III. Adolescence of the World Consciousness in Christ. 
 
 1. The world consciousness — figurative use of the term. 
 
 2. Point of departure — the discovery of the individual. 
 
 (1) The individual in Greek and Roman thought. 
 
 (2) The individual in Christ's teaching. 
 
 3. Soul values internal rather than external. 
 
 4. The testimony of church history. 
 
 (1) Roman Catholicism, (a) Growth of external cere- 
 monies borrowed from Jewish and heathen rites; 
 (&) ceremonialism as related to atheism — Leo X., 
 Taine's comment; (c) ceremonialism as related to 
 immorality — Alexander VI. and Caesar Borgia. 
 
 (2) The Protestant Reformation, (a) Luther in Rome; 
 (&) Tetzel and indulgences. 
 
 (3) The counter Reformation, (a) Savonarola; (&) 
 Loyola. 
 
 5. Modern progress due to the unfolding of essential prin- 
 
 ciples of Christianity. 
 
 IV. Christianity a Religion of Ideals and Not a Code 
 
 OF Laws. 
 
 1. Childhood and positive statute. 
 
 2. Religions of statute. 
 (1) Judaism. 
 
164 APPENDIX 
 
 (2) Mohammedanism. 
 
 3, Religions of ideals. 
 
 (1) Buddhism. 
 
 (2) Confucianism. 
 
 (3) Stoicism. 
 
 4. Jesus as a formulator of ideals. 
 
 (1) Compare with Buddha; Confucius; Socrates. 
 5 Example versus precept. 
 
 6. Christianity a system of ethical ideals, embodied in a 
 
 great personality. 
 
 7. Hero-worship: Its value. 
 
 Reference Books for Part I. 
 
 "Ethical Principles," Seth; "History of Ancient Re- 
 ligions," Rawlinson; "The Evolution of Religion," Caird; 
 "Fetichism," Schultze; "Orpheus," Reinach; "Can We 
 Still Be Christians?" Eucken; "Creative Evolution," Berg- 
 son; "The Realm of Ends," Ward; "Outlines of Christian 
 Theology," Clarke; "The Ascent of Man," Drummond; "Old 
 Pictures in Florence: The Bishop Orders His Tomb at 
 St. Praxed's," Robert Browning; "The Gospel and the 
 Church," Loisy; "Religions of Authority and the Religion 
 of the Spirit," Sabatier; "History of English Literature" 
 (chapter on the Pagan Renaissance), Taine. 
 
 PART 11. 
 Outlines Covering Chapter I. 
 
 I. The Nature of Christian Ideals. 
 
 1. Sources of information. 
 
 (1) Bible. 
 
 (2) Sacred literature. 
 
 (3) Christian biography. 
 
 2. The ideals of Jesus. 
 
 (1) Righteousness — the personal goal. 
 
 (2) Service — the social goal. 
 
 (3) Freedom — the comprehensive goal. 
 
APPENDIX 165 
 
 3. Righteousness. 
 
 (1) Humility. 
 
 (2) Duty. 
 
 (3) Kindness. 
 
 (4) Industry. 
 
 (5) Truthfulness. 
 
 (6) Chastity. 
 
 (7) Good citizenship. 
 
 (8) Honesty. 
 
 (9) Temperance. 
 
 4. Only an approximate analysis. 
 
 5. Two errors. 
 
 (1) Substitution of religious forms for ideals. 
 
 (2) Substitution of mistaken ideals for true ones. 
 
 6. The negative value of the ideals. (Romanes.) 
 
 7. The unique embodiment of these ideals in Jesus himself, 
 8 The new elements — passive virtues. 
 
 Referexces. 
 
 Matthew 5-7; "Ecce Homo" (Chap. XHI.), Seeley; 
 "Ethics of Jesus" (Chaps. V.-VIL), King; "The Church's 
 One Foundation" (Chap. V.), Nicol. 
 
 n. Humility. 
 
 1. The basic virtue. 
 
 2. Contrast with Greek and Roman culture. 
 
 3. Views of modern biologists. 
 
 4. The teaching of Nietzsche. 
 
 5. The confirmation of science. 
 
 6. Contradictions in religious history. 
 
 7. Practical application. 
 
 Texts. 
 
 Matt. 5: 3, 5; 18: 1-6; 20: 20-28; 21: 4, 5; Mark 9: 33- 
 37; 10: 13-16, 35-45; Luke 9: 46-48; 10: 21; 18: 9-17. 
 
 Referexces. 
 
 "Nietzsche," Mencken; "The Evolution of Man," 
 Haeckel; "Discourse^" Epictetus; "Meditations," Marcus 
 
166 APPENDIX 
 
 Aurelius; Articles on Sir Isaac Newton in the encyclo- 
 pedias. 
 
 III. Duty: The Keynote of Life. 
 
 1. Duty defined. 
 
 2 The categorical imperative. 
 
 3 The idea of a "calling." 
 4. A purposeful universe. 
 
 Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Bergson. 
 5 The reality of the ideal. 
 
 6. The meaning of success. ' 
 
 7. Duty and love as motives. 
 
 8. The life of Jesus the perfect realization of an absolute 
 
 standard. 
 
 9. Duty in history. 
 
 (1) Luther. 
 
 (2) Knox. 
 
 (3) John the Baptist. 
 
 References. 
 
 The life of Christ: Childhood (Luke 2: 49) ; early min- 
 istry (Matt. 3: 15); first miracle (John 2: 4); Sermon on 
 the Mount (Matt. 5:6; 6:24, 33); raising of Lazarus 
 (John 11: 8-16) ; steadfastness in his course (Mark 10: 32, 
 34; Luke 9: 51); on the cross (John 19: 30). 
 
 Paul: Acts 20: 24; 1 Tim. 6: 12; 2 Tim. 2: 15; 4: 17; 
 salutation to Epistles, "called to be an apostle," etc. 
 
 Literature. 
 
 "The Discourses of Epictetus;" "Marcus Aurelius;" 
 "Critique of Practical Reason," Kant; "Ethics of the Scot- 
 tish School;" "Life of Cato the Younger," Plutarch; "Ode 
 to Duty," Wordsworth; "Julius Csesar" (character of 
 Brutus), Shakespeare; "Duty Surviving Self-love," Cole- 
 ridge; "Epistle to a Young Friend," Burns; "The Realm 
 of Ends," James Ward. 
 
APPENDIX 167 
 
 IV. KlNDJvESS. 
 
 1 The cruelty of nature. 
 
 Huxley, Darwin, Schopenhauer. 
 
 2. The cruelty of man. 
 
 Law. Religion. Inquisition. 
 
 3. The cruelty of religion. 
 
 (1) Future punishment. 
 
 (2) Mythology and Christianity. 
 
 (3) The real Inferno. 
 
 4. The ideal and experience of Christ. 
 
 5. Cruelty in the name of Christ. 
 
 6. Reforms of the present day. 
 
 (1) Prisons. 
 
 (2) Capital punishment. 
 
 7. Sins condemned. 
 
 (1) Personal, (a) 111 temper; (&) cruelty; (c) revenge. 
 
 (2) Social, (a) Envy; (&) hatred; (c) slander. 
 
 (3) National, (a) Slavery; (&) murder; (c) war. 
 
 Texts. 
 
 Matt. 5: 7, 9, 22; 6: 12; 7: 1, 12; 11: 28; 12: 18-20; 
 18: 10-35; 20: 34; Mark 1: 4; 9: 38, 39; 11: 25; Luke 4: 18, 
 19; 7: 47; 15: 1-32; 17: 4; 23: 34-43; John 3: 16; 13: 34; 
 Eph. 4: 32; 1 Corinthians 13; 1 John 3 and 4. 
 
 Refere>'ces. 
 
 "Law of Love and Love as Law," Hopkins; "Ad- 
 dresses," Drummond; "Sermons," Edwards; "Divine 
 Comedy," Dante; "Man Was Made to Mourn," Burns; 
 "Sermons," Beecher. 
 
 V. Kindness (continued). 
 (The Doctrine of Non-resistance.) 
 
 Three theories: 
 
 1. Theoretically and practically valid — St. Francis, Fox, 
 
 Tolstoi. 
 
 2. Theoretically valid and practically invalid — majority 
 
 of Christians. 
 
168 APPENDIX 
 
 3. Theoretically and practically invalid — Professor Foster. 
 4: Solution — Sermon on the Mount a collection of ideals, 
 and not a code of laws. 
 
 Texts. 
 
 Matt. 5: 38-48; 26: 50-52; 27: 40-44; Mark 15: 32; Luke 
 18: 34. 
 
 References. 
 
 "Life of St. Francis," Sabatier; "The Little Flowers 
 of St. Francis;" "My Confession," Tolstoi; "My Religion," 
 Tolstoi; "The Gospel in Brief," Tolstoi; "Journal of George 
 Fox;" "Milman's History of Latin" ("Christianity" — Book 
 IX.) ; "The Finality of the Christian Religion," Foster. 
 
 VI. Industry. 
 
 1. Industry the first law of God. 
 
 2. Teaching of modern philosophy — Schopenhauer, Berg- 
 
 son. 
 
 3. The old definition of a gentleman. 
 
 4. Christ's sympathy with the workers. 
 
 5. Labor organizations and the church. 
 
 6. The apostolic point of view. 
 
 7. Laziness in pulpit and pew. 
 
 8. The Middle Age monk. 
 
 Texts. 
 
 Matt. 7: 7, 21, 24-27; 25: 14-30; Mark 4: 25; Luke 
 6: 46; 8: 18; 19: 11-27; John 5: 17; 7: 17; 9: 4; 1 Thess. 
 4: 11; 2 Thess. 3: 7-12; Eph. 4: 28; 1 Cor. 4: 12. 
 
 References. 
 
 "The Quest of Happiness," Hillis; "Jesus Christ and 
 the Christian Character," Peabody; "The Sons of Martha," 
 Kipling; "Faust," Goethe; "Rabbi Ben Ezra," R. Browning. 
 
 VII. Truthfulness. 
 
 1. The question of abstract truth. 
 
 (1) Psychological — correspondence of an idea with its 
 object (Kant). 
 
APPENDIX 169 
 
 (2) Metaphysical — the ultimate goal of reason. 
 
 (3) Mystical — the unknown source of genius. 
 
 2 The practical problem. 
 
 (1) Exaggeration. 
 
 (2) Equivocation. 
 
 (3) Hypocrisy. 
 
 3 Is a lie ever justifiable? 
 
 4. Scientific devotion to truth. 
 
 5. The business and social value of truthfulness. 
 
 6. The Jesuit policy. 
 
 7. Truthfulness and discretion. 
 
 Texts. 
 
 Matt. 19: 18; 23: 13-29; 1 John 1: 6-10; 3 John 1, 3, 4, 
 8; John 1: 17; 8: 44-46; 17: 19; 18: 37, 38; Rev. 21: 8, 27; 
 22: 15. 
 
 References. 
 
 "Truth," Bacon's Essays; "The Marks of a Man," 
 Speer; "Is a Lie Ever Justifiable?" Trumbull; "Imago 
 Christi" (Chap. XV.) — "Christ as a Controversialist;" 
 "Life and Letters of Huxley" (Vol. III.). 
 
 VIII. Personal Purity. The Home Ideal — Preservation 
 AND Loss. 
 
 1. Purity of heart central in Christ's moral code. 
 
 2. The vital factor in personal purity, a high home ideal. 
 
 3. Falsity of the celibate ideal— Creed of Council of Trent. 
 
 4. The Christian home — fundamental essentials. 
 
 (1) Absolute confidence. 
 
 (2) Mutual sympathy. 
 
 (3) Mutual forbearance. 
 
 (4) Mutual respect. 
 
 (5) Justice. 
 
 5. Christ's attitude toward marriage. 
 
 (1) At Cana. 
 
 (2) The Sermon on the Mount. 
 
 (3) The question of the Pharisees — Mark 10. 
 
170 APPENDIX 
 
 (4) The question of the Sadducees — Matthew 22. 
 
 6. The attitude of the apostles. 
 
 (1) Peter— Mark 1: 30; 1 Cor. 9: 5. 
 
 (2) John— Rev. 22: 17. 
 
 (3) Paul— 1 Cor. 9: 5, 7. 
 
 (4) Heb. 13: 4. 
 
 7. The modern eugenic movement. 
 
 8 Clean thought, speech and action. 
 
 Texts. 
 
 Matt. 5: 8, 27-32; Mark 10: 2-12, 14: 1 Cor. 6: 9-20; 
 Gal. 5: 19; Eph. 5:3-5; John 2: 1-11. 
 
 References. 
 
 "The Marks of a Man" (Chap. II.), Speer; Modern 
 Texts on Eugenics; The Sylvanus Stall Series. 
 
 IX. Mabriage. 
 
 1. The origin of marriage. 
 2 Primitive marital customs. 
 
 3. Marriage ideals of Greeks. 
 
 4. Marriage ideals of Romans. 
 
 5. Marriage ideals of Jews. 
 6 The Christian ideal. 
 
 (1) Christ. 
 
 (2) Paul. 
 
 7. Non-Christian ideals of the present. 
 
 (1) The French ideal. 
 
 (2) Materialistic Socialism. 
 
 8. The sins of development. 
 
 (1) Monogamy for polygamy. 
 
 (2) The indissoluble ideal. 
 
 (3) The spiritualization of the relation. 
 
 (4) The higher dignity given to womanhood. 
 
 (5) Added emphasis upon the home. 
 
 9. Celibacy and Christianity. 
 
APPENDIX 171 
 
 Texts. 
 
 John 2: 1-11; Mark 10: 6-9. Paul: 1 Cor. 9: 9; 7; Heb. 
 10: 4; Rev. 20: 12. 
 
 References. 
 
 "Gesta Christi" (Chap. III.); "History of European 
 Morals," Lecky; "History of Human Marriage" (1891), 
 Westermarck; "History of Matrimonial Institutions" 
 (1904), Howard; "Golden Bough" (1890, 1900), Frazer. 
 
 X. DiVOBCE. 
 
 1. Origin of divorce. 
 
 2. The Eastern nations. 
 
 3 The Greeks. Athens — divorce to either party upon ap- 
 
 plication. Harder for women. 
 
 4 The Romans — free to both parties. Women counted 
 
 years by husbands. 
 
 5 Jews — man's privilege alone. 
 6. The teaching of Christ. 
 
 (1) Divorce. 
 
 (2) Remarriage. 
 
 7 The teaching of Paul. 
 
 Corinthian church. 
 8. The mediaeval point of view. 
 
 Charlemagne and the Papal bull. 
 
 Henry VIII. 
 9 Modern divorce. 
 
 (1) France. 
 
 (2) England. 
 
 (3) America. 
 Separate State laws. 
 
 10. The church attitude to-day. 
 
 11. Progress. 
 
 (1) Lessening of divorces. 
 " (2) Man and woman on equal terms. 
 
 (3) Higher ideals of marriage. 
 
 (4) Christianity guards marriage rather than divorce. 
 
172 APPENDIX 
 
 Texts. 
 
 Matt. 5: 31, 32; 19: 3-11; Mark 10: 2-12; Luke 16: 18; 
 Rom. 7: 1-4; 1 Cor. 7: 10, 11. 
 
 Reference. 
 
 "The History of Divorce and Remarriage," Wilkins. 
 
 XI. The Home Ideal (concluded). 
 
 1. Marital unfaithfulness. 
 
 (1) Ancient viewpoint — Greeks, Romans, Hebrews. 
 
 (2) The Biblical teaching. 
 
 (3) The modern world — France, Austria. 
 
 2. Destructive literature. 
 
 (1) The problem novel. 
 
 (2) Magazine slush. 
 
 (3) The might have been in literature. 
 
 3. The influence of art, the drama, dress, customs, etc. 
 
 (1) Art — the nude in art. 
 
 (2) Drama — cheap plays. 
 
 (3) Dress — Tolstoi's criticism. 
 
 (4) Customs — dancing. 
 
 4. The home life — parent and child. 
 
 (1) Duties of the parent, (a) Preservation; (b) educa- 
 tion; (c) inspiration. 
 
 (2) Duties of the child, (a) Docility; (&) respect; 
 (c) loyalty. 
 
 5. Duty and love in the home. 
 
 Texts. 
 
 Matt. 5: 27, 28; 15: 19; 29: 18; John 8: 1-11; Rev. 20: 
 8; 22: 15. Divorce: Matt. 5: 31; 19: 3-12; 10: 2-12; Luke 
 16: 18; Deut. 24: 1; Gen. 1: 27; 2 :24; Eph. 5: 31; 1 Cor. 
 7: 10, 11. 
 
 References. 
 
 "The History of Divorce and Remarriage," Wilkins; 
 "Love and Marriage; Love and Ethics," Ellen Key; "The 
 Lady and the Painter;" concluding paragraphs of "The 
 
APPENDIX 173 
 
 Ring and the Book," Robert Browning; "What Is Art?" 
 (Chaps. IX. and XVII.), Tolstoi. 
 
 XII. Good Citizenship. 
 
 1. The ideal of citizenship. 
 
 2. Christ's attitude toward law and order. 
 
 3. Attitude of the early church. 
 
 4. Christ's attitude toward governmental problems. 
 
 (1) Anarchism. 
 
 (2) Socialism. 
 
 5 The attitude of the Christian toward 
 
 (1) Mob law. 
 
 (2) Municipal corruption. 
 
 (3) Debauchery of the ballot. 
 
 6 Christianity and politics. 
 
 (1) Voting. 
 
 (2) Bearing arms. 
 
 (3) Office-holding. 
 
 Texts. 
 
 Matt. 17: 24-27; 22: 15-22; Rom. 13: 1-7; 1 Pet. 2: 13-17. 
 
 References. 
 
 Plato (especially "The Republic"); "The City of God," 
 St. Augustine; the writings of Fox and Tolstoi; lectures 
 and sermons of Beecher. 
 
 ' XIII. Honesty. 
 
 1. The idea of property. 
 
 Legal definition — personality. 
 2 Property rights among the Jews — Ten Commandments. 
 3. Christ's attitude toward property. 
 
 (1) Rich young ruler. 
 
 (2) Sermon on the Mount. 
 
 (3) The rich fool. 
 
 (4) Rich man and Lazarus. 
 4 Attitude of early church. 
 
 (1) Barnabas. 
 
 (2) Ananias and Sapphira. 
 
174 APPENDIX 
 
 5. Christianity and business. 
 
 (1) Business ethics and the preacher. 
 
 (2) The problem of debt. 
 
 (3) Ministerial mendicancy. 
 
 6. The modern worship of money. 
 Reaction to-day. 
 
 Long, Carnegie, Rockefeller. 
 
 7. Two guiding principles to guarantee honesty. 
 
 (1) Love thy neighbor as thyself. 
 
 (2) What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole 
 world and lose his own soul? 
 
 Texts. 
 
 Matt. 6: 25-34; 10: 9, 10; 13: 22; 15: 19; 19: 18, 23; 
 21:13; Luke 16:1-5, 19-31; Mark 7:22, 23; Acts 2:43- 
 47; Luke 12: 13-21; Acts 4: 32-37; Rom. 12: 17; 13: 8-10. 
 
 XIV. Temperance. 
 
 1. Meaning of word. 
 
 2. Virtue among Greeks. 
 
 3. Narrowed definition to-day. 
 
 4. Temperance and abstinence. 
 
 5. The liquor question. 
 
 6. Drug habits. 
 
 7. The law of liberty. 
 
 8. The law of liberty and the law of service. 
 
 Texts. 
 
 Matt. 10: 8; 29: 48-50; Mark 7: 1-23; Luke 15: 13, 14; 
 16: 19; Rom. 12: 1, 2, 14; 1 Corinthians 8 and 9; Gal. 5: 
 16-24; Phil. 4: 8. 
 
 References. 
 
 "The Marks of a Man," Speer; "Those "Who Have Come 
 Back," Macfarlane; "Twice-born Men," Begbie; "Drink," 
 Zola; "Lectures," Gough. 
 
 NOTES ON CHAPTER IL 
 
 The problem of the social ideal of Jesus looms so large 
 on the horizon of present-day Christianity that it would 
 
APPENDIX 175 
 
 require a volume to even approximate an adequate treat- 
 ment. Instead of essaying this task, we prefer to suggest 
 some of the best literature of the day, leaving the student 
 to work out his own material from the volumes recom- 
 mended. 
 
 Perhaps the sanest treatment from the modern point 
 of view is that of Prof. Walter Rauschenbusch, of 
 Rochester University, whose two volumes, "Christianity 
 and the Social Crisis" and "Christianizing the Social 
 Order," leave little to be desired, at least as we view the 
 question. 
 
 The radical standpoint is presented in such volumes 
 as Bouck White's "The Call of the Carpenter" and "Let- 
 ters of the Social Revolution." 
 
 The more conservative side is presented in W. M. 
 Clow's "Christ in the Social Order," and in the Roman 
 Catholic writings, such as those of Professor Ryan and of 
 Father Vaughan. 
 
 Good books to read on the subject in general are the 
 following: "Jesus Christ and the Social Question," Pea- 
 body; "Religion in Social Action," Graham Taylor; "The 
 Social Creed of the Churches," Ward; "Spiritual Culture 
 and Social Service," Macfarland; "Social Psychology," 
 MacDougall; "The Ethics of Jesus and Social Progress," 
 Gardner; also the works of Jane Addams, Shailer Math- 
 ews and of Professors Batten and Vedder. 
 
 NOTES ON CHAPTER III. 
 I. The Principle of Freedom. 
 
 1. Definition of freedom. 
 
 2. National freedom. 
 
 3. Personal freedom. 
 
 4. Christianity and slavery. 
 
 5. The caste spirit. 
 
 6. Catholicism and freedom. 
 
 7 Protestantism and freedom. 
 
 8. Martyrs to freedom. 
 
 9. Freedom and the early church. 
 
176 APPENDIX 
 
 10. Kinds of freedom. 
 
 (1) Moral. 
 
 (2) Intellectual. 
 
 (3) Physical. 
 
 (4) Metaphysical. 
 
 (5) Economic. 
 
 Texts. 
 
 Mark 7; John 8: 32-36; the Epistle to Philemon; the 
 Epistle to the Galatians; Luke 4: 16-30. 
 
 References. 
 
 John Stuart Mill on Liberty; "Essay on Liberty," 
 Hobbes; "Essays," Mazzini; "Ethics," Aristotle; "The 
 Growth of Freedom," Nevinson; "Philosophy of History," 
 Hegel; "Gesta Christi," Brace. 
 
 II. Moral Freedom. 
 
 1. Definition of the term. 
 
 2 No metaphysical principle directly asserted. 
 
 3. Christianity, being a moral religion, must have a moral 
 
 basis. 
 
 4. Christ always assumed the principle of human respon- 
 
 sibility. 
 
 5. The early Christians preached the doctrine of universal 
 
 accountability. 
 
 (1) Apparent contradiction in Paul. 
 
 (2) The "whosoevers" of the Gospel. 
 
 Texts. 
 
 Matt. 11: 28; 28: 19; John 3: 16; Rom. 10: 11; Rev. 
 22: 17. 
 
 References. 
 
 "An Inquiry into the Freedom of the Will," Jonathan 
 Edwards; "The Will to Believe," William James; "The 
 Realm of Ends," Ward; "The Conception of God," and 
 "The World and the Individual," Royce. 
 
APPENDIX 177 
 
 III. Freedom of Thought. 
 
 General Text. — "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth 
 shall make you free." — John 8: 32. 
 1 The last phase. 
 
 2. The part played by dogmatic Christianity. 
 
 3. "Freethinking," so called, and Christianity. 
 
 4. Modernism and higher criticism. 
 
 5. The scientific spirit and modern Christianity. 
 
 6 "Belief," as Christ used the term, not an intellectual 
 
 clamp, but simply a moral acquiescence. 
 7. The passing of creeds. 
 
 Texts. 
 
 All texts dealing with the binding power of the law 
 in the old dispensation and freedom from it in the new; 
 Mark 7: 3, etc.; Rom. 7: 4; Gal. 2: 4; John 1: 17; 7: 34. 
 
 IV. Limitations of Feeedom. 
 
 1 Thought and action: their relation. 
 
 2 Free thought and thoughtless action. 
 
 3 Relation of the right philosophy to the right life. 
 4. The failure of philosophic creeds. 
 
 (1) An ultimate philosophy unintelligible at present. 
 
 (2) A present-day philosophy will be outgrown in the 
 future. 
 
 5 The attitude of science toward Christianity. 
 
 (1) The evolutionary school, (a) Huxley; (&) Spencer; 
 (c) Clifford ;id) Tyndall. 
 
 (2) Latter-day students, (a) Kelvin; (&) Ramsay; (c) 
 Romanes. 
 
 6 Esthetic and volitional elements a part of life as well 
 
 as the intellectual. 
 
 7. Agnosticism and intellectual freedom. 
 
 8. Freedom of thought and the Infinite. 
 
 References. 
 
 "Defense of Philosophic Doubt" and "The Founda- 
 tions of Belief," Balfour; "The Dawn of a New Religious 
 Era," Carus. 
 
178 APPENDIX 
 
 NOTES ON CHAPTERS IV., V. AND VI. 
 I. Nature and Importance of the Problem. 
 
 1. The non-miraculous type of Christianity. 
 
 2. Can such a type be reconciled to the New Testament? 
 
 3. Relative value of the now and the hereafter. 
 
 4. Bearing of the former upon the latter. 
 
 5. Religion versus ethics in life. 
 
 6. Christ differentiated from other great teachers here. 
 
 (1) Socrates. 
 
 (2) Zeno. 
 
 (3) Confucius. 
 
 (4) Zoroaster. 
 
 Texts. 
 
 1 Corinthians 14; John 3: 15, 16; 4:1; Matt. 13: 36- 
 43; 10: 28; 1 Pet. 1: 4, 5; John 6. 
 
 References. 
 
 "The Christian Hope," Brown; "The Miraculous Ele- 
 ment in the Gospels," Bruce; "Psychical Research and the 
 Resurrection," Hyslop. 
 
 II. The Mystical Basis of Christianity. 
 
 1. Definition of terms. 
 
 (1) Mystical, (a) Immediate; (&) Personal; (c) 
 Ecstatic and emotional. 
 
 (2) Supernatural, (a) Miraculous; (&) Mechanical; 
 (c) Formal. 
 
 (3) Spiritual, (a) Scientific; (b) Immanent; (c) 
 Philosophic. 
 
 2. Distinction from the ethical basis. 
 Contrast Voltaire. 
 
 3. Necessity of the mystical or supernatural for religion. 
 
 (1) Eucken. 
 
 (2) James. 
 
 (3) The idea of God. 
 
 4 Relation to literature and art. 
 Burroughs, Plato, Hegel. 
 
APPENDIX 179 
 
 5 The subject in historical religion. 
 The old mysteries. 
 Christianity and positivism. 
 
 Referexces. 
 
 "Christian Mysticism," Dr. W. R. Inge (Bampton Lec- 
 tures) ; "The Mystical Element of Religion," Baron von 
 Hugel; "Mysticism," Evelyn Underhill; "Mysticism in 
 Christianity," W. K. Fleming; Works of Plotinus, St. 
 Barnard, St. Francis, Madame Guyon, J. Boehme, John 
 Bunyan and George Fox; "The Rod, the Root and the 
 Flower," Coventry Patmore. 
 
 III. Jesus and the Supernatural. 
 
 1. Place which it occupies in his life. 
 
 (1) Birth. 
 
 (2) Miracles. 
 
 (3) Prayer. 
 
 (4) Resurrection. 
 
 2. Place in his teachings. 
 
 (1) Fatherhood of God. 
 
 (2) Kingdom of heaven. 
 
 (3) The non-materiality of his sermons. 
 
 3 His philosophy of life. 
 
 (1) The practical element. 
 
 (2) The conscious basis. 
 
 (3) Unity with God. 
 
 4 The Holy Spirit. 
 
 5 Special instances. 
 
 (1) The temptation. 
 
 (2) The transfiguration. 
 
 Texts. 
 
 Matt. 4: 19, 20; 6: 25-32; 11: 25-27; 12: 39-42; 22: 23- 
 33; Luke 16: 19-31; 9: 28-36; John 5: 17-29; 4: 23-26; 8: 
 23-29; 14: 9-13; 15: 9, 10; 17: 3. 
 
180 APPENDIX 
 
 IV. The Reality of the Spiritual Life. 
 
 1, The philosophy of the New Testament. 
 
 2 Idealism defined. 
 Matter versus spirit. 
 
 3 Jesus a pronounced idealists 
 
 4 The ivorld and the kingdom. 
 
 5 The function of will in philosophy and religion. 
 
 6 Immanence and transcendence in Christianity. 
 7. Evolution and Christianity. 
 
 The ape and the tiger. 
 Animal and spiritual. 
 
 Texts. 
 
 2 Cor. 4: 17, 18; 5: 1-6; Matt. 6: 19, 20; John 8: 58; 
 4:24; Phil. 3:20, 21; Heb. 13:14; Rev. 22:1-5; Rom. 
 14: 6-11. 
 
 References. 
 
 "Christianity and the New Idealism;" "The Truth of 
 Religion;" "Religion and Life," Eucken; "Rabbi ben Ezra," 
 Browning; "The Will to Believe," James. 
 
 V. The Resurrection. 
 
 1. The resurrection the crux of Christianity. 
 Paul's testimony. 
 
 2. The fact of miracle staked upon it. 
 
 3. Testimony to the resurrection. 
 Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul. 
 The appearances: 
 
 Sunday — 
 
 (1) Mary Magdalene. 
 
 (2) Other women. 
 
 (3) Peter. 
 
 (4) Emmaus. 
 
 (5) Disciples, Thomas absent. 
 
 (6) Disciples, with Thomas. 
 
 (7) Seven disciples — Tiberias. 
 
 (8) Mountain in Galilee. 
 
 (9) James. 
 
APPENDIX 181 
 
 (10) The ascension. 
 
 (Possibly) (11) Great Commission. 
 
 4. Character of appearances. 
 
 (1) Appears and disappears suddenly (Luke 24: 31, 51) ; 
 in their midst (Luke 24: 36; John 20: 14; 21: 4); 
 closed doors (John 20: 19, 26). 
 
 (2) No immediate recognition (Luke 24: 16-31; John 
 20:14; 21:4-7); identity doubted (Matt. 28:17); 
 thought a spirit (Luke 24: 37) ; timid — no one dared 
 address (John 21: 12); fell down and gave divine 
 honors (John 20: 17-28; Matt. 28: 9-17). 
 
 Contra. Jesus eats (Luke 24: 39-43); Jesus walks 
 (Luke 24: 30); sits at table (John 21: 13); shows 
 hands and side (John 20:27); some desire to 
 touch (John 20:17; Matt. 28:9); others urge to 
 stay (Luke 24: 29). 
 
 5. The resurrected body. 
 
 (1) Lazarus and Jesus — difference. 
 
 (2) Where during forty days? 
 
 (3) Disciples' faith in future life. 
 
 (4) Resurrected body necessarily materialized for evi- 
 dence. 
 
 (5) Paul's testimony — 1 Corinthians 15. 
 
 6. Modern science and the resurrection. 
 
 7. The three positions. 
 
 (1) Physical resurrection. 
 
 (2) Spiritual resurrection — Keim, Lake — spiritual 
 visions materialized. 
 
 (3) Semi-spiritual — Orr. 
 
 Texts. 
 
 1 Corinthians 15; Acts 17: 16-34; 2 Tim. 4: 6-8; Heb. 
 13: 20, 21; Rom. 6: 4-6; Gospel accounts. 
 
 References. 
 
 "The Resurrection of Jesus Christ," Orr; Lives of 
 Christ by Gilbert, Rhees, Andrews, Strauss, Keim, Renan, 
 Weiss. 
 
182 APPENDIX 
 
 VI. Christianity and the Futuee. 
 
 1. The unending problem. Plato, Kant. 
 
 2 The situation to-day. 
 
 (1) The viev/point of pure science. Munsterberg, 
 Edison. 
 
 (2) Viewpoint of philosophy. Eucken, Ward, Bergson, 
 Balfour. 
 
 (3) Pseudo-science. Psychical research — Hodgson; 
 Myers; Spiritualism; Theosophy. 
 
 3. Practical bearings of the question. The teaching of 
 
 Karma. 
 
 4. Christianity the guardian of personal immortality. 
 
 5. Conditional immortality. 
 
 (1) "Immortality of soul" not in Bible. 
 
 (2) Athenagoras. 
 
 (3) Jewish doctrine. Resurrection of wicked (Matt. 
 25: 31; Rom. 2: 5-10; John 5: 28, 29; Acts 24: 15; 
 Rev. 20: 12, 15). 
 
 (4) Immortality— 1 Cor. 15: 53, 54; Rom. 2: 7; 2 Tim. 
 1: 10. 
 
 References. 
 
 "Human Personality and Its Survival of Bodily Death," 
 F. W. H. Myers; "The Winning of Immortality," Fred- 
 erick Palmer; "The Christian Doctrine of Immortality," 
 S. D. F. Salmond; "The Evolution of Immortality," Mc- 
 Connell; "The Assurance of Immortality," Harry Emer- 
 son Fosdick; "Our Immortality," Maeterlinck. 
 
 PART III. 
 
 Formal Christianity. 
 
 I. The Church. 
 
 1. What is the church? 
 
 2. The New Testament idea. 
 
 3 The historical development idea. 
 4. The church in the Gospels. 
 
APPENDIX 183 
 
 5 The church in the Acts. 
 
 6 Paul's idea of the church. 
 
 7 The necessity for the church. 
 
 8 Analysis of church (Acts 2: 42). 
 
 (1) Doctrine — creed. 
 
 (2) Fellowship — polity — social features. 
 
 (3) Breaking of bread — ordinance. 
 
 (4) Prayers — mystical element. 
 
 Texts. 
 
 Matt. 16: 17-20; Acts 2: 42-47; 8:3; 14: 23; 1 Cor. 16: 
 19; 2 Cor. 1: 1; Gal. 1: 2; Phil. 3: 6; Col. 1: 18; 1 Tim. 
 3: 15; Rev. 1: 4; 1 Cor. 12: 27; Eph. 1: 23. 
 
 References. 
 
 "Organization of the Early Christian Churches," 
 Hatch; "Christian Ecclesia," Hort; "Teaching of the 
 Twelve Apostles" (1884), Harnack; "The Early Church," 
 Horton. 
 
 II. The Evolution of Creed. 
 
 1 The confession of Peter. 
 
 2. The apostles' creed. 
 
 3. Early sects in church. 
 
 (1) Greek party. 
 
 (2) Jewish party. 
 
 (3) Heresy in Paul's day. 
 
 (4) Heresy in John's day. 
 
 (5) Gnosticism. 
 
 (6) Ebionites. 
 
 4. Creeds ^arise to suppress heresy, 
 
 5. Nicene Creed. Trinity. 
 
 6 Athanasian Creed. Holding church's belief a necessity 
 of salvation. 
 
 7. The failure of man-made creeds. 
 
 8. Apostles' creed. 
 
 (1) God. 
 
 (2) Jesus Christ. 
 
 (3) Virgin birth. 
 
184 APPENDIX 
 
 (4) Sufferings and death. 
 
 (5) Descent into Hades. 
 
 (6) Resurrection. 
 
 (7) Ascension. 
 
 (8) Intercession. 
 
 (9) Judgment. 
 
 (10) Holy Ghost. 
 
 (11) Holy Catholic Church. 
 
 (12) Communion of saints. 
 
 (13) Forgiveness of sins. 
 
 (14) Resurrection of body. 
 
 (15) Life everlasting. 
 
 9. Nicene Creed. 
 
 (1) Of all things visible and invisible. 
 
 (2) Born of Father before all ages. Consubstantial to 
 the Father, etc. 
 
 (3) Incarnate by the Holy Ghost. 
 
 (4) (Descent omitted.) 
 
 (5) Holy Ghost proceedeth from the Father and the 
 Son. 
 
 (6) One holy catholic and apostolic church. 
 
 (7) (Omitted.) 
 
 (8) One baptism for the remission of sins. 
 
 (9) I look for the resurrection of the dead. 
 
 (10) Life of the world to come. 
 
 10. Tridentine. 
 
 (1) Sacraments. 
 
 (2) Mass. 
 
 (3) TransubstantiatioB. 
 
 (4) One kind legitimate. 
 
 (5) Scriptures interpreted according to church tradi- 
 tions. 
 
 (6) Roman Church. 
 
 (7) St. Peter. 
 
 (8) Council proceedings. 
 
 (9) Justification. 
 
 (10) Original sin. 
 
APPENDIX 185 
 
 11. Post-tridentine. 
 
 (1) Immaculate conception. 
 
 (2) Infallible pope. 
 
 (3) This true Catholic faith out of which no one can 
 be saved I vow and swear, etc. 
 
 Referexces. 
 
 "History of Christian Church," Schaff; "Ministerial 
 Priesthood," Moberly. 
 
 III. Creeds of the Churches To-day. 
 
 1. Attitude of Roman Catholicism. 
 
 (1) Modernism. 
 
 (2) Pius X. 
 
 2. Current Protestantism. 
 
 (1) Episcopalianism. Liberal interpretation. 
 
 (2) Congregationalism. 
 
 (3) Presbyterianism. 
 
 (4) Methodism. North and South. 
 
 (5) Baptist Churches. Southern. 
 
 (6) The Federal Council. 
 
 Reference. 
 "Churches of the Federal Council," Macfarland. 
 
 IV. Ordinance. 
 
 1 Definition. 
 
 2 Distinction from creed. 
 
 3 Ordinance and sacrament. 
 
 4 The two ordinances of Christ. 
 
 5. The necessity for the ordinances. 
 
 6. The twofold side of the ordinances. 
 7 Mistaken views of the ordinances. 
 
 (1) Protestant extreme. Quakerism. 
 
 (2) Catholic extreme. Sacramentarianism. 
 
 Texts. 
 Matt. 28: 19; Mark 16: 16; Luke 22: 17-20; Acts 2: 38- 
 41; 8: 36-39; John 3: 5; Rom. 6: 3, 4; Col. 2: 12; Gal. 
 3: 27; 1 Pet. 3: 21; Tit. 3: 5. 
 
186 APPENDIX 
 
 V. The First Ordinance. 
 
 1. Baptism defined. 
 2 Question involved. 
 
 (1) Design. 
 
 (2) Subjects. 
 
 (3) Action. 
 
 3. Baptism in history. 
 
 4. Mistaken views of baptism. 
 5 Characteristics. 
 
 (1) Greek equivalents. 
 
 (2) The question of translation. 
 (3) The "Century" definition. 
 
 Texts. 
 
 Matt. 28: 19; Mark 16: 16; Acts 2: 38; 8: 36-39; Rom. 
 6: 3, 4; Col. 2: 12; 1 Pet. 3: 21; Tit. 3: 5. 
 
 References. 
 
 "Moral and Spiritual Aspects of Baptism," Aylsworth; 
 "Christian Baptism," Campbell; "The Form of Baptism," 
 Briney; "The Campbell-Rice Debate;" "Christian Bap- 
 tism," Kershner. 
 
 VI. Baptism: Its Mob.\i. and Spikitual Aspect. 
 
 1. The two extremes. Pedobaptist and legalist. 
 
 2. The pedobaptist idea of significance derived from pre- 
 
 Christian sources. 
 
 3. Legalist idea a similar survival. 
 
 4. Moral and spiritual elements involved. 
 
 (1) Faith. 
 
 (2) Obedience. 
 
 (3) Symbolism. 
 
 (4) Complete self-surrender. 
 
 5. Is there a mystical element? 
 
 6. The new birth in John. Baptismal regeneration. 
 
 7. Necessity for proper understanding of baptism. 
 
 8. Old Testament deductions. Hyssop-sprinkling, circum- 
 
 cision, etc. 
 
APPENDIX 187 
 
 Texts. 
 Rom. 6: 3, 4; Col. 2:11-13; Tit. 3: 5; 1 Pet. 3: 21. 
 
 Reference. 
 "Moral and Spiritual Aspects of Baptism," Aylsworth. 
 VII. Baptism. Proper Subjects. 
 
 1. Question depends upon presuppositions. 
 
 2. Scriptural authority lacking. 
 
 3. The argument from expediency. 
 
 4. History of infant baptism. 
 
 5. Infant baptism to-day. 
 
 6. Household baptisms. 
 7 Infant dedication. 
 
 Refeeexces. 
 
 "History of Infant Baptism," Wall; "Campbell-Rice 
 Debate." 
 
 VIII. The Lord's Supper. 
 
 1. The element of confession. 
 
 2. The memorial element. 
 
 3. As an ordinance. 
 
 4. The mystical element. 
 
 5. The social element. 
 
 6. Different theories of the eucharist. 
 
 (1) The Roman Catholic. Transubstantiation. 
 
 (2) The Lutheran. Consubstantiation. 
 
 (3) The Zwinglian. A memorial only. 
 
 (4) The Restoration position. 
 
 7. Manner of administration. 
 
 8. Frequency of administration. 
 
 References. 
 
 "The Christian System," Campbell; "The Early 
 Church," Horton; "Scheme of Redemption," Milligan; 
 "History of the Reformation," D'Aubigne; "The Lord's 
 Supper," Brandt 
 
188 APPENDIX 
 
 IX. The Element of Polity. 
 
 1. The Episcopal. 
 
 2. The Presbyterian. 
 
 3. The Congregational. 
 
 4. The Catholic. 
 
 5. Modifications of these four forms. 
 
 6. Polity and the Restoration movement. 
 
 (1) The convention problem. 
 
 (2) The Louisville plan. 
 
 (3) The second Louisville plan. 
 
 (4) The Mellinger plan. 
 
 (5) The regional idea. 
 
 References. 
 
 "Ministerial Priesthood" (Episcopalian), Moberly; 
 "History of the Disciples," Moore; "The Christian Eccle- 
 sia," Hort; "Organization of the Early Church," Hatch; 
 "Religions of Authority and the Religion of the Spirit," 
 Sabatier; "Church Polity," Hayden. 
 
 X. Spiritual Elements. 
 
 1. Worship. 
 
 2. Prayer. 
 
 3. The element of music. 
 
 4. Ritual. 
 
 5. Art in religion. 
 
 6. The non-progressive idea. 
 
 7. The place of the mystical in religion. 
 
 8. The Holy Spirit. 
 
 References. 
 
 "Great Souls at Prayer," Tileston; "The Meaning of 
 Prayer," Fosdick; "With Christ," Murray; "Alone with 
 God," Garrison; "The Holy Spirit," Garrison; "The Life 
 of Christ in Art," Farrar; "Mysticism in Christianity," 
 Fleming; "Prayer," Hastings; "The Necessity for Inter- 
 cessors," Mott. 
 
APPENDIX 189 
 
 XI. CONVEKSION. 
 
 1. Meaning of word. 
 
 2. Intellectual elements. 
 
 3. Emotional elements. 
 
 4. Volitional elements. 
 
 5. Faith. 
 
 6. Repentance. 
 
 7. Baptism. 
 
 8. The Holy Spirit. 
 
 9. New Testament conversions. 
 
 References. 
 
 "Sermons," Franklin; "Sermons," McGarvey; "Scheme 
 of Redemption," Milligan; "Varieties of Religious Experi- 
 ence," James; "Twice-Born Men," Begbie. 
 
 XII. Christian Union. 
 
 1. The cause of schism. 
 
 2. The history of schism. 
 
 3. Efforts toward unity. 
 
 4. The Lambeth Quadrilateral. 
 
 5. The Federal Council. 
 
 6. The World Conference. 
 
 7. Present status. 
 
 8. The Restoration plea. 
 
 References. 
 
 "Message of the Disciples for the Union of the 
 Church," Ainslie; "The Early Church," Horton; "That 
 They All May be One," Wells; "Christian Union," Garri- 
 son; "Historical Documents," Young; "How to Promote 
 Christian Union," Kershner. 
 
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