Chris-^iaoity and Our tvroas. I CHRISTIANITY AND OUR TIMES. — BY— R. P. BRQRaP. lIBRARy OF THE UNIVEfiSITY Of ILLINOIS CHICAGO INTERNATIONAL BOOK CO. 1895. CONTENTS. PAGE. EVOLUTION IN RELIGION, .... 5. II. MORAL DIFFICULTIES IN THE OLD TESTAMENT, 17. III. RELATION OF THE OLD TESTAMENT TO THE NEW, 31. IV. CHRIST AND THE BIBLE, 41. V. INTERPRETATION AND THE NEW DEPARTURE, 60. VI. INTERPRETATION AND RITUALISM, 75. VII. CREED AND DISCIPLINE, - . - 89. VIII. FUTURE PUNISHMENT, .... 113. IX THE CHURCH AND THE LODGE, - . - 134. X. DOCTRINE OF SANCTIFICATION, 146. XI. SUNDAY AND THE ADVENTISTS, 156. XII. SOCIOLOGY AND CRIME, 161. XIII. MODESTY, - - - 175. XIV. WOMAN'S SUFFRAGE, 193. XV. IMPENDING STRUGGLE OF RACES. - . - 204. LIBRAHY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 932239 CHAPTER I. EVOLUTION IN RELIGION. •*My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.'* (Isaiah.) It may be stated as a preliminary, that this and suc- ceeding chapters are not concerned about definitions and interpretations of a denominational character. The religious discussion of to-day has passed beyond these. The question is now about the facts, or what have been regarded as such, rather than their interpretation. It is the foundation which God has laid that is assailed rather than the superstructure which men have built upon it. Nice definitions and interpretations of the Bible arouse but little attention. The question is about the Bible itself, and the facts of which it is believed to be a record. It is not so much a battle of different creeds, as a battle about that which is the foundation in all creeds. It is so understood by churches in general. Outposts of a denominational character are little defended, and assaults upon them are carelessly regarded. There are no her- etics of a denominational character, only as they attack that which is fundamental in all creeds do they gain attention. The modern theory of evolution as applied to reli- gion has reference to this fundamental view of it. It is not merely our understanding of religion that is sup- / 6 Christianity and Our Times. posed to be subject to development and improvement, but it is religion itself that is evolving and progressing. This is supposable on two conditions; first, that the facts in religion have not been all discovered, or else that religion itself is but a product of the age. The latter is the ground of the Materialist. He may confess that religion is useful as a matter of moral restraint, or as a sentiment beautifying life and giving color to it; but that beyond this there is nothing in it, that it is not founded on facts, but is a product of human nature combined with the conditions of life. Holding this view it is consistent to argue that religion may change in harmony with the age. It becomes then but an appendage to the existing civilization, the net result jt sentiments and customs. A plant not planted by the heavenly Father and which can not be rooted up," bvi^ an ephemeral sprout, sprung from the sentiments, a.h-ctions and passions of humanity, tempered by time and circumstances; the superficial garment which we change with the weather, an accidental upturning of -^volution, development and progress. "'^^hile some of our evolutionists hold this view of • religion, others are Deists, and some profess to be Chris- tians. To these it belongs to show facts on which to base their conclusions. We boast of the progress of science, and with reason, for new facts have been and are discovered continually in all the branches of science, and their practical application makes progress possible, theoretically as well as practically. But what new relig- ious fact has been discovered on which to base religious progress. In regard to morals, the fundamentals were known as long ago as we have any knowledge. The ten commandments answer as well to-day as in the time of Evolution in Religion. 7 Moses, the summary of the moral law announced by- Moses and emphasized by Christ " to love God with all our heart, mind and strength, and our neighbor as our- self " is broad enough even for our age. Broadly distinguished, there are two sources from which religious facts or knowledge may be obtained, — first, what God has revealed to us directly, and what he has revealed to us indirectly through nature around us and within. Reason, itself, is not a source; we must first know of things before we can reason about them. In regard to nature around us, it suggests an almighty, creative power, its beauty, harmony, grandeur and awfulness suggest like characteristics in the creative being. This the ancients fully appreciated, the heavens have always " declared the glory of God and the firma- ment showed his handiwork." **WhenI consider the heavens the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hast ordained; what is man" — how humble in comparison with the power manifested, and naturally how disposed to bow in reverence and worship the Cre- ator. So man observed and reasoned and caught the inspiration from the beginning of his creation. Human nature within has been the same in all ages. Adam and Eve exhibited it in the same manner as we. Ideas of right and wrong, the impelling or restraining force of conscience, the faculties and emotions of love, hate, fear, etc., have been the same as far back as we have any record. The dual nature in man with opposing tendencies were understood even before St. Paul so vividly described it. Men, blinded by sin and passion^ have denied to the better part of their nature, growth and development, and so they are doing to-day prob- ably in no less degree. 8 Christianity and Our Times. In regard to a direct revelation from God, the Bible is the only record of such which is admitted. This record was completed iSoo years ago. It has been what it was meant to be — a revelation. The ancients who had a mind for the things of God understood it as well as we do. Attempts materially to alter their interpreta- tion have proved failures, admitted to be so by those who have made such attempts. It has been tried by Unitarians and like bodies, but proved too hard on their sense of honesty and was abandoned. The authority of the Bible was finally set aside, and reason, — or what goes by that name, — was given the supreme place. Whatever the source of information or knowledge we must insist on facts or actual discoveries as a basis for the supposed evolution in religion, just as much as we would if the question was about evolution in science. The ideas that chase each other in men's minds, the opinions and factions, the theories and speculations that imagination is starting up at every tUrn, all this is only the vagaries common to every age, and will not do as the basis for actual progress, nor as proof that it has been accomplished. The two most important religious doctrines are those of the Supreme Being and the immortality of the soul. It is thinkable that facts might be discovered that would actually increase our knowledge with regard to these two doctrines. Buthas such been the case, has science or progress helped us to solve any of the mysteries of God and the soul's immortality; have our immense telescopes discovered the spirit world, the throne of the Eternal, and bid faith become sight? It will be answered that we understand more of God's creation, doubtless, but do we understand more of the nature of God and our relation Evolution in Religion. 9 to him; have the men of science of to-day arrived to a better comprehension of God, a clearer understanding of their relation to him, and a more intimate realization of this relation? Men of science as a general thing do not claim much in this direction; some of them have come to the conclusion that there is no God; in more cases they declare that if there be a God we do not know anything about him, nor can we know; others profess in very fact to believe there is a God, but do not believe we sustain any relation to him, or can realize such a thing. Something besides science and progress will evidently be needed if we are to get ahead of Moses, Elijah or St. Paul in our knowledge of God and the real- ization of his presence and power. Taking the testimony of science, God is more unknowable now than ever be- fore. If scientists worship at all, it is " mostly before the altar of the unknowable." Those of them that do in fact profess to know of God are content to learn of Moses, Isaiah, St. Paul or Christ. If we consider the other great religious doctrine, that of the soul's immortality, what do our theologians of to-day know on this subject from the light of nature that Plato did not know and argue 2,000 years ago; or what do they know of it from the light of revelation that St. Paul did not know and argue 1,800 years ago. We have science and progress and liberal ideas — what infor- mation have they furnished us on this subject. The doctrine of the soul's immortality, together with that of a Supreme Being, that concerns himself about us, are fundamental in all religions. Knowledge and discoveries on these subjects would be gratefully received; and judg- ing from the pretensions of the new departure we would suppose their theologians had at last cleared up these old 10 Christianity and Our Times. mysteries so essential to faith and morals. Have any of our new theologians had a peep behind the veil that was not vouchsafed to former generations. The interest in the future world is immense, even charlatans are heard when they pretend to speak knowingly on this subject; millions stand waiting with bated breath for someone to declare to us the certainty. St. Paul was caught up to the third heaven and heard words that it is not lawful for man to utter, have any of our -'new lights " been caught up to heaven and seen that " they were all there," or down to the other place and seen the fires extin- guished, so that they might bid the wicked take courage, and dispute established doctrines on the ground of per- sonal or superior knowledge. But alas, for their efforts not a scrap of additional knowledge has been forthcom- ing. Differences in opinion, now as ever, are the result of differences in sentiment and different degrees of faith. Evolution has evolved nothing, development^developed nothing, progress has left us in regard to the subject where we were thousands of years ago. We may be- lieve the Bible, and take the hints of nature and so might our ancestors as far back as we have any knowledge. People of to-day in the pride of their achievements in the field of science and material progress, scorn the idea that an age that is past should be permitted to do the thinking for them on any subject. But the Al- mighty has claimed the right to do some thinking for us, and made it known even to former generations for our benefit. His thoughts are not evanescent, they are not apt to become obsolete. "God's thoughts are not like men's thoughts, nor his ways like our ways." Some of his thoughts about men are not complimentary, some of his precepts not to their taste, and some of his warn- Evolution in Religion. ings are alarming. We have the liberty to disregard his thoughts and perhaps to do so will seem to widen the gate and broaden the way before us, but Christ says the end of that way is perdition. It was necessary that the Creator should thus from the very beginning declare to man his thoughts and re- veal to him both his own nature and man's nature, their mutual relation, and the possibilities before man. He had a soul to save as well as we, and the Creator was interested in him as much as in us. He could not afford to let him go groping till he had accidentally stumbled upon the knowledge, or till evolution and progress had turned it up somewhere along in the ages. The steam engine and electric light might thus be left as contingen- cies, but " the light which lighted every man that cometh into the world" and the road to heaven could not be left to man's ingenuity and invention to discover. We must believe that God has done for man what he could in this respect from the very beginning, and that ignor- ance is due to sin, and the fact that men " do not desire the knowledge of God." The evolution theory is not only applied to religion itself ; but also to the human race, its social, moral and religious development. It is really but two ways of presenting the same question. In the express words of a leading evolutionist: "The theory of evolution in- volves the belief that from the beginning to end it goes on irresistibly and unconsciously." The force behind this supposed movement may be conceived to be God, or something inherent in nature, according to the faith of the theorist. It is the Calvinistic doctrine of predesti- nation worked over, mainly by those who have become impressed with it by early associations. Being dissatis- 12 Christianity and Our Times* fied with the old form of belief, and yet having the idea ingrafted in them, they set to work to give it a shape that better suited their temperament. The principle is the same but the result looked for is different. Presby- terians believe they find their doctrine in the Bible. Evolutionists take it for granted that religious and moral evolution is bound up with material progress and increase of knowledge, though history more often presents the two as moving in opposite directions. As in the words quoted above, this evolution is believed to be from be- ginning to end an unconscious movement in a straight line, including the whole race, we are in it whether we would or not and whether we are conscious of it or not. It would occur to one at once, that this irresistible, all- controlling something would relieve the individual of a great responsibility, both in regard to himself and the world's progress. We are told, however, that our volitions, motives, desires and actions are part of it — as wheels in a clock-work, but it remains as much a clock- work as before the explanation. Absolute irresistible sovereignty and free moral agency, it is the old enigma which philosophers have tried in vain to solve so as to make it look consistent with reason and the facts of which we are conscious. The Presbyterian doctrine of pre- destination has been accused of cruelty and the like; the evolutionists do not err on that side. They have not been hampered by any revelation of Scripture and are but little inconvenienced by the revelation of facts. They ask themselves what results are desired, and behold - it is granted. It is that " larger hope," which would have us hope that sin and evil is not what it is seen, felt and declared to be. Unfortunately for their theory, the world of facts does not work in harmony with it. The Evolution in Religion. 13 world in history and at present look very much as though free moral agents of indifferent character have had the control of it and shaped it, rather than some irresistible power supposed toH^e beneficent and overruling every- thing, including the action of free moral agents. The world and its history look as though men have in very fact been free and done about "as they listed." The ugliness of sin is more conspicuous than the beauty of holiness, the ruins and wastes of a demoralized race are strewn all along the ages. It is not a concerted move- ment, but opposing movements. There has been no irresistible, all-controlling power, preventing man from crossing God's plan of goodness and marring his creation. No uniform result is -produced, but on the contrary, re- sults as far apart as the east is from the west; spots of heaven here, and bottomless pits of hell there. Such things as hells could never have been possible within the boundaries of God's creation, unless corrupt beings were free to act out their own characters and destiny, in spite of supreme goodness. Perhaps we are told that all these ugly facts are but dreams that will vanish. We have to do only with what we know, the facts of the present and past. We can judge of the future only in the light of what we know or have known. Of these there has been nothing more impressive than sin and pain. This is the realization that keeps us interested and awake in spite of ourselves. Pain will convince us that there is no mis- take about it. We might dream away heaven and hap- piness, the true and the beautiful, and make believe they are inrealities, but not sin, pain and misery. Excited imaginings of the future of this earth are common nowadays, but whatever of progress there may be, it will remain true that our Hfe in this world, as well 14 Christianity and Our Times. as the world itself, is but a temporary affair, liable to be snuffed out like a candle any time. We are told to look for revelations of wonder both in the religious and scien- tific world, the future even one or ten thousand years hence is held up to view. We will not have to wait so long for new revelations of all kind. The future world so near on hand, will have new revelations far surpassing anything this world can ever offer, and being so much nearer on hand than the distant future of this world, it ought to concern us the more, and we ought to look for it in the light of the revelations which Christ said should endure till heaven and earth pass away. We find min- isters of the gospel excited over evolution and progress, and spoiling what little they might "do to better the world for vain imaginings of what evolution is going to bring about a hundred years hence. What if God again should come down and confound our Babel .which we are boasting to build up into heaven, as more than once in ages past, obliterating rising and prosperous civiliza- tions so that even their knowledge and inventions, largely, have perished and some of it not yet re-discovered. Revelation speaks in genenil terms about the future of the human race, not as setting boundaries that would imply limitations to man's freedom of action, but rather as predictions in the form of calculations based on ten- dencies and forces within and outside of man, the gen- eral result weighed and balanced by the highest wisdom. Isaiah paints the future of the church in glowing im- agery. Christ speaks in plain terms of increasing wick- edness to the end of time. There is no contradiction between the two. The church of God's saints is one things, "the world" is another, the Bible never con- founds the two. Humanity is not moving in one Evolution in Religion. iS direction, individuals are all the time choosing and going in opposite directions. The general tendency of human nature is downward, it takes supernatural force to arrest this tendency and turn it in the opposite direction. This force is a moral influence which men may resist and by resisting lose it. Whenever this force has been lacking, nations and civilizations have gone down rapidly and sometimes perished in their corruption. *We believe truth and righteousness will have victories in the future as in the past, and such will be needed to arrest moral degeneration. Mere knowledge, scientific and otherwise, is a pov/er that is enlisted in the service, both of good and evil, and used effectually by both. Discoveries and knowledge rather tend to intensify the struggle than to make certain the result. Wealth, like knowledge, is a power both for good and evil. Enormous increase of wealth is more generally a two-edged sword on the side of evil, on the one hand a means of oppression, on the other of luxury and self-indulgence. Material develop- ment inevitably results in increased density of population, which creates new problems and increases dangers; with all our knowledge and skill, we have scarcely been able this last quarter of a century, to meet the dangers and solve the problems as fast as they have arisen. History and present experience are decidedly against the pre- sumption that any or all the factors of material progress, * will insure a moral redemption of the race. To knovvr how the future of the world will be, we must wait and see how men will act. It is the free moral force in man that will make the world what it is going to be in the future as it has in the past, there is.no other factor or inherent necessity that will decide the result. We do not forget that God is a factor in the life and destiny of 1 6 Christianity and Our Times. the human race, but reason demands it to be taken for granted he has done the very best he could in the past, if the world has been. wicked in the past in spite of all God could do, it may continue to be so in the future if it choose. CHAPTER II. MORAL DIFFICULTIES IN THE OLD TESTAMENT. "The grass withereth, the flower fadeth; but the wbrd of our God shall stand forever." Isaiah. It does not come within the scope of this chapter to examine criticism of historical portions of the Old Tes- tament, except in a general way, only as what is recorded as facts can be proved false, has it a bearing upon the moral quality. Modern criticism is concerned about the truth and reliability of the history of the Bible, the books them- ' selves and the account they give. It is a question of infinite detail and boundless room for difference of opinion and controversy. The critcism, although the critics are many, may very well be viewed as a whole, for although opinions differ widely on many points, there are certain broad characteristics and agreements as to main results. A Christian inquiring as to the value of this criticism, could not afford at once to occupy himself with the details of it, this would take time and in some respects special training. But he would, from his know- ledge and comprehension of the spirit and text of the Bible, be eminently fit to judge of the general character both of the critics and their criticism. He would be able to tell whether the general tone and expression of the criticism is such as inspires confidence in the single- . 1 8 Christianity and Our Times. ness of aim, the impartiality and disinterested love of truth on the part of the critic, for this is above all things demanded, and a critic cannot be one without pretend- ing to it. It should also be asked whether the critic has a fair comprehension of the spirit of the book he is criticising, and whether or not he is constitutionally op- posed to the general claim of the Bible as a special rev- elation from God, and perhaps unable to comprehend it as a record of supernatural manifestations; if this were the case, 'he would be both unwilling and unfit to inves- tigate the claim. As to disinterestedness and impar- tiaHty where religion is concerned, it may as well be taken for granted, from general experience, that there is none. Men may be disinterested and impartial in treating of politics or science, but we never saw a disinterested statement about religion or the Bible. It touches the most vital part of man's nature and he will be interested as Christ said " he that is not for me is against me." In general it is true that the critics who are most profuse in their profession of friendliness and disinterestedness are the most virulent in their prejudices and opposition to the Bible. This prejudice and opposition to the spirit and text of the Bible is cropping out continually in their treatment of the subject, and the professionalism of the critic, which naturally engenders pride, conceit and vanity, tends to strengthen it. To find an occasion and make a point is the aim, and no profession was ever more skillful in making out an occasion and profit by it. That truth may be found in spite of prejudice and constitu- tional disadvantages is admitted, but the presumption against their efforts as a whole is naturally strong. Itmay seem unjust to treat the critics as a class, it is true that they are not equally opposed to Christianity, Moral Difficulties in the Old Testament. 19 but neither can they be said to have accepted it, they may therefore be viewed as a class outside the Christian faith. A critical investigation of the Bible involves an attitude of doubt and suspense, which is inconsistent with the claim of acceptance. We must first be through with our investigation and arrive at definite conclusions before we can be said to have accepted it. It is per- haps the most serious charge against the whole class that they do not as a general thing take their place where they belong. Nearly all profess themselves Christians, while they are yet investigating the claims of Christianity upon their acceptance. They excuse their inconsistency by telling us, that no matter what may or may not be true, there will always be some truth and some kind of a Christ left us. But this is not the question. What is generally left them in the process of their investigation, is a residuum of historical truth and moral precepts. This is not the Christian religion, it is not religion or Christianity at all, even when it is coupled with the name and person of some kind of a Christ. Christianity pur- ports to include a scheme of redemption, the plan and purpose of which is revealed through the prophets, and finally by God himself appearing in this world as " the word made flesh and dwelling among us." The con- necting links of this plan begins at the very creation with the fall and corruption of man, and ends only with the dissolution of all things earthly. The value of Chris- tianity in connection with the moral law is rather that of sanction than revelation, We may know the moral law without Christianity, but we could not know that God would in the other world sit in judgment upon our acts, and that the consequences of them would be eternal bliss pr woe. Of no less importance is the revelation of God 20 Christianity and Our Times. as a Spirit in the world, it reveals to us the fact that we can have communion with God, be conscious of his presence and power in our own soul and in those around us. Both the Old and new Testaments are saturated with this teaching. It is, holiness and communion with God, far above any morality. When those, therefore, who have nothing left of the Bible but a residuum of historical truths and moral precepts, profess themselves believers in Christianity and its religion, they are dis- honest, for they could not be honestly ignorant of the fact, that this is neither Christianity nor Veligion. A Christian may have sufficient confidence in his faith to investigate the claims of the critics without los- ing his character as a Christian. But in so far as he assumes the attitude of the critic, that of an investigator, his faith is suspended, and his character as a Christian impaired, he must wait for results of his investigation before his faith can become settled. There is no virtue in pretending to a faith that is a mere state of idle passivity; but the Scriptures take it for granted that the evidence is sufficient to warrant the strongest faith of an intelligent moral character; a state of doubt and suspense is ascribed to sin and moral weakness. That this is the state of very many Christians nowadays is apparent, and the effort to change their position everytime the critics cry " lo here, or lo there " is painful. Those who depend upon the critics to settle their faith and determine for them what to believe, may have to wait long, and it is not likely that their faith will at any time be sufficiently strong or settled to remove mountains, nor a molehill. The critics are not concerned about having the faith set- tled, if it should become settled their vocation would be gone, and this is a principal consideration. Moral Difficulties in the Old Testament. 21 If it is merely a question of finding occasions for doubt or disputes, such can scarcely ever be lacking. In regard to many questions, evidence cannot be adduced after this lapse of time that will compel belief. In such cases the natural bias of the disputant is apt to determine his convictions. The believer'will fall back on his faith in inspiration. Those on the other hand who are not in sympathy with the spirit of the Bible, will easily make out a case against it. A more or less airy hypothesis, will, in their eyes, assume the shape of a solid demon- stration; the objection that can be made to appear plaus- ible, will at once be accepted as proved; whatever is not quite plain, will be seen as an insurmountable obstacle, and difficulties will be aggravated with care and skill. One cannot fail to perceive these characteristics in the writings of the critics, and their defenders, for they are conspicuously apparent. But besides the question of the truthfulness of Old Testament history, and its moral import, there is an ac- count to be given of the morality of the Old Testament times as practiced by those whom God endorsed as worthy of favor. Of course, the question does not con- cern itself about the morality of the ancients apart from God's approval or. toleration, it might be what it would aside from this, but when those who are said to have been, recipients of divine favor practiced certain things of which we disapprove, it is natural to ask for an explanation. Of course many have been given, but there may be room for one more. First in regard to social purity, we find from the Bible and other accounts, that the ancients were not in- ferior to those of modern times in their appreciation of 22 Christianity and Our Times. virtue, and detestation of vice. Their laws against im- purity and their praise of virtue prove this. But what then about the practice of -polygamy; it was not con- trary to their ideas of virtue and purity. Then their ideas were faulty, doubtless, but it is one thing to have faulty ideas, and conform to a low standard, it is an- other thing to practice what we know and believe to be wrong. Let the objector imagine himself back among the ancients when polygamy was the common custom and try to convince the patriarch that his family life is immoral. The patriarch demands the proof, how will our modern objector furnish it? He c.innot prove that polygamy is wrong in the same sense that theft or mur- der is wrong, for the polygamist takes nothing either by force or fraud that belongs to anyone else. He might urge that it offends his sense of what is proper. But what right has he to make his sense of propriety a stand- ard for others, especially for those of another land and age. Suppose the polygamist offend nobody's sense of propriety and that nobody sees anything objectionable in it. The objector might urge again that it is not ac- cording to the highest ideas of home life, that it does not develop the home relations to that perfection of which they are capable. But here again he makes his own feelings and sympathies the standard, the polyga- mist might simply answer, that their ideas differ, that he has^ a right to judge from his own feelings and experience rather than from that of the objector, and that he be- lieves happiness and purity is obtainable in his case as well as in that of the other. He steals nobody's prop- erty, offends nobody's sense of propriety, his wives are in sympathy with him, are not conscious of any wrong done them. How is our modern objector going to pro- Moral Difficulties in the Old Testament. 23 secute his case and convince the patriarch except of this, that their feelings and ideas differ. What may really be said of the patriarchal custom is, that it is the characteristic of a low level. God in his Word had set before men the higher standard; he had pictured Eden as the abode of one man with one wife; he had made no provision for polygamy, but in his arrangement as well as in his words put it out of sight. Man degenerated to a lower level and this with other customs characteristic of a low level became the consequence. How God may tolerate what he does not approve of, may be seen and illustrated by the case of civil gov- ernment among the Jews. God had set before the peo- ple as his standard, a republic, founded on preference for wisdom and virtue. But the people were unable to maintain this high standard of government, and God — not without protest — allowed them the government characteristic of a lower level, namely, the despotism of a king. Why has not our modern objector discovered the incompatibility of allowing this as well as polygamy and bondage? Only because the low level in regard to government is so near our Own time that we have not yet become greatly impressed with the offense against a high standard of life involved in this kind of govern- ment. Yet the absolute rule of one man over a multi-- tude of his fellows, the average of which are his equals and some of them his superiors in wisdom and virtue, is an offence against social and civil life as great as that of polygamy or bondage. But the government of a despotism is better than no government, better than anar- chy, and the family relation of polygamy is better than no family, and not much worse than the free love tend- 24 Christianity and Our Times. encies of our age. For this reason we can believe that David was good although both a despot and a polyga- mist, and that God was good who gave him credit for goodness. \Ve bear with man's infirmities due to ignor- ance aud the influence of surroundings; but if he sin against light and knowledge, then there is an end of ex- cuse. There is a distinction between what is lower, compared with what is higher and that which cannot fail to be absolutely wrong under all circumstances. The ancients never had any doubt of difference as to what is absolutely wrong, such as murder, theft, adultery, per- jury and the like. If we had found in the Bible that any of these had been condoned by God, or practiced with impunity by men whom the Bible calls good, the case would have been clear and no defense attempted. The lower becomes unpardonable when brought into contact with the higher and still persisted in. When a community like that of the Mormons persist in prac- ticing polygamy in spite of warnings and a better exam- ple, it is right that the state should interfere, for it is a crime deliberately to lower ourselves in the scale of being. In regard to slavery, we may in the first place dis- pose of what in our age is understood by slavery, as it has been known in our Southern States. The negroes were stolen from their homes in Africa, and known to be stolen or forced; they were bought by the slave-holders. The law of Moses provides that " He that stealeth a man, and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand he shall surely be put to death." This passage pronounces sen- tence of death on all the former slave-holders in the South, for the stolen negroes or their descendants were found in their hands. Moral Difficulties in the Old Testament. 25 What may, properly speaking, be called slaves, either among the Jews or surrounding nations were cap- tives taken in war. It was a law of war among the na- tions, that when an enemy surrendered himself, his life was surrendered and at the disposal of the captor He might be put to death, or he might be kept as a slave, and sold or bought as such. In either case no fault was found, . they did as they expected to be done by. In going to war they were prepared to take the natural con- sequences, which were very serious, as the results of war must be under all circumstances. There is no more to be said about the natural results of war than about war itself. The necessity of it, or the possibility, is inherent in the depravity of the human race. What was allowed the Jews in this connection was not slavery in its essential character, but the right of war according to international rules and customs. It was necessary that they should be on equal footing with surrounding nations in this respect, for sentiment on the part of one nation can't oppose force on the part of another. What were called bondmen among the Jews were such as were sold for debt, or such as sold their time and labor voluntarily. When debt is incurred, justice de- mands it should be paid, and all that was at the disposal of the debtor, all that had money value was put under requisition toward paying the debt. Property was first taken possession of, if this did not suffice to square up the account, then the money value of the person of the debtor was considered, together with those of his wife and children, looked upon as one with himself. So far, the principle aimed at was nothing but justice, pure and simple. However it was not untempered with mercy, for the law provided that persons thus taken possession 26 Christianity and Our Times. of could only be held to the Sabbath year, which might be the next, or it might at most be six years hence; and then it was distinctly provided that they should not be sent away empty. At the present time persons are not indeed taken possession of in payment of debt, but their time and labor may as truly be laid under contribution. How many slave all their life to pay a debt and hardly get the food and clothing the bondman was allowed; they do it nowadays without any hope of a Sabbath year to cancel the claim upon them. Not only had the person of the debtor to be set at liberty within a reasonable time, but his homestead, if it had been sold for debt, must be re- stored to him or his family at the year of Jubilee. It was moreover provided that usury or interest must not be taken for money lent to help a man in his necessity. Besides this, the Mosaic law contains numerous exhorta- tions and provisions in favor of the poor, the stranger, the fatherless and the widow. Under the law of Moses, monopoly in land or money, or the centralization of wealth in the hands of a few was impossible. There will be a need of studying the law of Moses, to solve certain social problems among us, which threaten society with disruption. The war of extermination against the Canaanite has been objected to as cruel and selfish. Apart from its cause and the object in view, it may surely be so re- garded, but so may any act of justice seen in the same narrow light. It is a proverb that nature is cruel, and there are necessities involved in the existence of an evil and law-breaking race, that will always appear cruel. That children should share the fate of their parents only partake of what is thus involved. The object was not Moral DifficDlties in the Old Testament. 27 simply punishment but improvement. There is no reason to suppose they were better than the common stock, or would have become better. We see them even among us with all the characteristics of anger, envy, hate and cruelty, strongly developed and actively exhibited. One might as easy make out that it is cruel to allow a wicked and depraved race to continue to exist, as it would be to blot them out of existence altogether. Leaving alone for the present God's share in that transaction we may remark that the war was in keeping witlf the times and in harmony with the law of nations. The Israelites did as they expected to be done by in ♦ turn if they should become the weaker party, and as they actually were done by, for they were in their turn dis possessed or exterminated more effectually than the Canaanites. And it is tolera' ly certain that the Canaan- ites had got possession in the same way, that is by kill- ing or driving away those that were there before them, As far as justice is concerned there is little to be said in general, and probably nobody thought of finding fault on that score, though of course each in turn was sorry to be the weaker party. But it is understood that this was not a mere human transaction. Moses and the Israelites had a divine com- mission to go and destroy the Canaanites because they had become too wicked to be tolerated. Probably the Almighty has a right to pronounce sentence of death as much as a human court of justice, and surely he must be as able to judge of the desert. The crimes of the Ca- naanites are explained as faras language will tolerate their description, and the Israelites were warned that unless they did better, they would fare no better. The ex- hortations, warnings and instructions to the Israelites 2S Christianity and Our Times. and this occasion as we have it in the books of Moses can only be accounted for on the presumption that God was the moving and controUing cause, how different from the vain-glorious, proud, presumptuous exhibition of national vanity common in such cases, even down to our day; God explained to them that he meant no favoritism and their subsequent history proved it. Some may find fault with the Almighty for this work and for giving the Israelites the commission of performing it, but he has taken upon himself the responsibility, as it is repeatedly avowed in the Scriptures, and will no doubt answer for % it. And according to the Bible this is by no means the only war God will answer for in the same sense, not as the primary cause, for that is the wickedness of men, but as the overruling cause. To his judgment is as- cribed not only war, but pestilence, famine and other evils; and indeed, so it is very generally looked upon, even nowadays. Take the words of the immortal Lin- coln, ** If God will that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsmen's two hundreil and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said, that the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether." A word should be said about the imprecatory Psalms in dealing with the subject of this chapter, but it will be needful to say but little after what has been said in the foregoing. These Psalms are not in 'harmony with some of the sentiment of this age, but they are in harmony with the sentiment of the Bible throughout, for God is everywhere set before us " a God of judgment." The inspired utterance of these Psalms are not to be taken as Moral Difficulties in the Old Testament. 29 the expression of personal and selfish hate and vindic- tiveness. It is the indignation of God's spirit, and the curses of God against the enemies of righteousness. They are to be compared with the woes.of Christ against the unrighteous, and his curses upon the wicked at the day of judgment. That curses and maledictions against the wicked and their wickedness should be inconsistent with truth and righteousness, can only be maintained on the ground that there are really no such things as wickedness or wicked persons. The supposition in this case would be, that what is called by these hard names is really nothing but abberations of mind and heart that a little patience and forbearance will cure. But the Bible does not take so favorable a view of the case; it considers the wickedness of men very willful and deeply rooted, and the wicked powerful enough in their wickedness to resist even di- vine love and goodness and in spite of all that can be done, go on making devils of themselves, and worthy of nothing but curses. But it is suggested that the curses should be directed against wickedness rather than against the wicked be- cause Christ, it is said, loves sinners, although he hates their sins. But the distinction here is carried too far, there is no sin apart from the sinner. Sin is only sin because it is the voluntary acts of responsible beings. What we hate is the wicked will that is behind the acts. The same acts by irresponsible persons, or by animals, would arouse in us no moral indignation. Therefore as far as we hate sin we blame the sinner. The God both of the Old and New Testament loves sinners, and calls upon them "Turn ye, turn ye, why will ye die." But when the possibilities of good^ the hope of repentance is 30 Christianity and Our Times. gone, there is no longer any love for the sinner. Christ does not pretend to love sinners in the last day, when he shall say to them, " Depart from me ye cursed." As a summary of the morality of the Israelites as set before us in the Old Testament, it is clearly seen that they held as firmly as we, all the principles of right- eousness and morality, and that the application of these principles in many instances was imperfect. The perfect application of these principles would result in a perfect life and character. It need not be said that the applica- tion is still imperfect. Do we find fault with the Al- mighty for bearing with the weaknesses and imperfec- tions of the past, we might as well find the same fault now. There is no other alternative; either God must bear with a fallen race, or else exterminate them. As free moral agents, their volitions cannot be forced, nor improvement imposed on them with a high hand. If it were otherwise, we should not hear so much in the Bible about the patience and long-suffering of an omnipotent ruler. CHAPTER III. RELATION OF THE OLD TESTAMENT TO THE NEW. *' Had ye believed Moses ye would have believed me, but if ye believe not his writings how shall ye believe my words?"— Christ. The purpose of the New Testament is not to teach a new religion that was not taught in the Old, neither is it an amendment to the religion of the Old Testament but rather the complement of it. The object is above all to establish the fact, that the incarnate Son of God, the promised Messias, the Revealer of the Father had actually appeared in the world and that the redemption promised by God from the beginning had been accom- plished. The main purpose in the life of Christ was to establish his claim as the Messias; to this end he wrought miracles " if he had not done the works which no one else had done — they — the Jews — would not have sinned in rejecting him." He warns the people from the very beginning of his ministry that " He had not come to de- stroy the law or the prophets — no — not a jot or tittle. " If ^uch thoughts had entered their minds because he taught as one having authority, he tells them that they are mis- taken. He used his authority to expound the law, not to controvert it. To accomplish the will of the Father as " the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world, this was his supreme office, that the Son of God should indeed, while on earth, occupy his time in 32 Christianity and Our Times. expounding the law and the prophets is what we might expect, and there was need of it. The state of the Jew- ish church was very much Hke that of the Christian be- fore the Reformation. The scribes had made vain the commandments of God because of their tradition, as the popes and priests had at the time of Luther. There was as much need of a reformer. But as Luther did not invent the doctrine of justification by faith, or as Wesley in his time did not plan the doctrines of regeneration and sanctification, but established them according to the teaching of the Bible, and renewed their claims upon the consciences of men; so Christ in his cftys did not origi- nate the commandments of love to God and man, for they are both contained in the Old Testament Scriptures; Christ showed their importance as a summary of all our duties towards God and men. The relation of the Old Testament to the New is not the contrast of law founded on justice, set over against a gospel founded on mercy. The Old Testament is not the revelation of a God of righteousness particularly, and the New that of a God of love especially. Love and righteousness, justice and mercy are equally prominent in their due proportion both in the Old and New Testa- ments. The New Testament is a continuation of the un- folding of God's law and character as begun in the Old, a systematic unfolding along all the lines of law and charac- ter. Yet it is a favorite idea that the Old Testament reveals God in a different light from the New. Do we ask if God changed between the time of Moses and • Christ, the answer would not be an open denial of the passage that God is " without variableness or shadow of turning," "to-day, yesterday and forever the same." Yet popular notions in conformity with popular teaching Relation of the Old Testament to the New. 33 represent the idea, that if God has not actually changed since the time of the Old Testament, he has yet wonder- fully improved in the way of leniency and forbearance. But denying the possibility of any improvement in the Eternally Perfect it is yet left to account for the popular notion. It is accounted for by the fact that the sterner side of the New Testament is generally ignored, and the other side exclusively insisted upon. There is in the New Testament increased light on God's character in all its attributes, not only those of love and mercy but those of justice and holiness as well. The life and death of Christ does not illustrate the love of God more fully than it does his justice. God gave his only begotten Son be- cause he loved the world well enough to do it, but he required so great a sacrifice to atone for the sin that had outraged justice, that he might establish a true basis for pardon and justification. The death of Christ is every- where represented as the strict fulfillment of the Old Testament type in " sacrifices to atone for sin;" it does not therefore bring in any new principle of love and for- giveness, but is the enforcement of the Old which had ruled from the beginning. God represents himself as a father in the Old Testa- ment as well as in the New. " Art not thou our father?" "As a father pitied his children." The popular idea about the " fatherhood of God and brotherhood of men" is not strictly Scriptural. God represents himself as having a father's heart and feeling toward all, but only those are said to be his children who are " born again" by his spirit. And only those that are thus born con- stitute in the true sense a brotherhood, although they may have a brother's feeling toward others, and try to win them. Christ repudiates the right of those that are 34 Christianity and Our Times. not his followers to call God their father. He says " the father ye are of is the devil." Otherwise they are called the children of this world. They must first be born into God's family before they are his children. As for the revelation of God's loving kindness and tenderness, there are as noble passages in the Old as in the New Testament. The twenty-third Psalm may be placed beside the tenth chapter of John, and compari- sons equally favorable may be found throughout both parts. As for judgment and cursing, the scene of the last judgment as pictured by Christ, tc^pether with many passages by Christ or John, surpasses in terrible im- pressiveness anything in the Old Testament. If God's language to man is harsh in any age or toward any peo- ple, it is because there is peculiar occasion. We cannot use tenderness, and pronounce blessings, unless circum- stances justify it, unless there is occasion for it. " Be- hold, therefore, the goodness and severity of God" equally in the Old Testament and the New. The conditions of salvation we're the same in the Old Testament time as now. As God is the same and our relation to him the same, so it is impossible that there should be any distinction. God has no preferences and can be no respecter of persons. If God shows a preference like that of the selection of Israel to be his peculiar people, it is because the whole world is best served by such arrangement, even as the promise to Abraham was that " in his seed should all the nations of the earth be blessed." St. Paul tells us that the old world was saved by faith as much as the new, it was a faith that showed itself by " works" and no other faith saves now. The need of an atonement for sin was taught in the Old Testament; sacrifices were part of the Relation of the Old Testament to the New. 35 system, and were only abolished as their types and prophesies were fulfilled in Christ. As God and our relation to him is the same in all ages, so the operation of his spirit is the same. It is no more the dispensation of the Spirit now than before Christ. The mercy and grace of God have always been dispensed whenever there have been hearts open to re- ceive. It may appear in the words of Christ, that while he walked on earth the spirit was concentered upon him, and that this implied a limitation for the time jDeing; but the reference is plainly to conditions, and the limita- tion, as always, ftat imposed by sin and unbelief. The spirit of God was " striving" with the early antedeluvians. Throughout the Old Testament we find the operation of God's spirit suggested in various ways, both in the con- version of men, and in the bestowal of gifts, even the very highest, as the gift of prophecy and that of infallible inspiration in recording the revelation of God's will. And the results produced were as grand and significant in respect to character and spiritual^ life as nowadays. We can find no better words in which to express our spiritual experience than those of David and other Old Testament saints. And they realized their utter de- pendence upon the spirit of God in the work of con- verting and sanctifying: "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salva- tion and uphold me with thy free spirit." Christ prom- ised a special outpouring of God's spirit on the day of Pentecost; there have been special outpourings both be- fore that time and since, and even now we pray for a fresh outpouring of God's spirit. Nor was the Old Tes- 36 Christianity and Our Times. tament church lacking in that aggressive zeal which characterized the Christian church. Provision was made in their system for proselytes of other nations. The Jewish missionary work among the Gentiles in the centuries preceding Christ, was as successful as any sim- ilar work has been. The Jews had their synagogues in the towns anti cities of every nation, and had made multitudes of converts. Here was the ground for the rapid spread of Christianity. Christian missionary work generally started from the synagogue, and was very suc- cessful among the Gentile proselytes So it may be said in more than one sense, that th^ Jews paved the way for the progress of Christianity. Some of the superficial teaching of this arid former times have produced the impression on the minds of many, that the Old Testament religion was " formalism." It was perverted to formalism, but not more so than Christianity in this and other ages. The Jews like the Christians were very apt to retain the form and ignore the spirit of their religion. When Christ came, he taught them that the law and commandments must be applied to the thoughts and intents of the heart, as well as to outward performance. In some respects he taught that the law of civil duties prescribed by Moses should not suffice for his disciples. As, for instance, civil au- thorities might use an oath for confirmation if additional guarantee of truthfulness was thereby secured, but among his followers it should be taken for granted, that the standard of truthfulness was so high that swearing to the truthfulness of one's words should be out of question. In the Sermon on the Mount the future separation of church and state is taken for granted, and we have to bear in mind that it was spoken expressly " to his disci- Relation of the Old Testament to the New. 37 pies." The church and state was not now to be identical as hitherto in the Jewish nation. Henceforth, the church need to have to do with none but such as volun- tarily take upon themselves the obligation. Therefore, the standard could be heightened and the requirements strengthened. " Ye have heard it hath been said, an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth, but I say unto you," — he does not say that this is not good as a principle of even justice, punishment in proportion to the guilt, he does not find fault with it properly applied, but he teaches his disciples, his church, that they must go far- ther than the m%e doing of justice,. They must "love mercy and walk humbly with their God." They must try to win the erring, reconcile an enemy and raise the fallen. The Old Testament is not indeed lacking in ex- hortations to this effect, even to the extent of doing good to an enemy, but this side of religion was appar- ently little cultivated at the time of Christ. A full and equable development of character is rare now as then. Christ emphasized every side of the religious life and strengthened the requirements. In applying law and judgment to the thoughts and intents of the heart, and in pronouncing punishment upon sins of omission, he strengthened the principle of justice as much as that of love. All that was implied in the law was applied by Christ, not as a new discovery,for the prophets had done so before, but with a new emphasis. He brought a stronger light to bear upon every subject, but the* sub- ject, itself, was not new. " The new commandment" was yet "the old which they had from the beginning." How justice may be blended with mercy, and love, pa- tience and forbearance be made to promote righteous- ness rather than the contrary, is not a matter of cast-iron 38 Christianity and Our Times. rules, but of careful consideration and application of thought to each particular case. God demands a sanc- tified and alert intelligence as well as correct conduct. The difference between the law of duty or com- mandments and the law of love as pointed out by Christ, is further explained by St. Paul in his Epistles. Here again it is often supposed that a contradiction is meant when only an explanation is intended. St. Paul uses such expressions as " being free from the law," " not un- der the law," etc.; this, it is believed, implies antago- nism between the law and the gospel. Paul foresees that this misunderstanding may arise, for 111 corrects it by saying; " Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid; yea, we establish the law." This he does by teaching how the principle of law must become part of our own heart and soul, so that we shall no longer need to be reminded by the written commandment. When the spirit of the law is our spirit then we shall not need the letter. If the kingdom of God is within us, as taught by Christ, then we shall not need the rule of out- ward restraint. We know that this must come to pass before heaven can be realized. A heaven that would stand in need of the ten commandments and the Sermon on the Mount could not be much of a heaven. Law is a reflection on those for whom it is written, for it pre- supposes a disposition to transgress. This disposition must be subdued, so that we are not only free from the condemnation of the law, this indeed is implied, but free from the restraint of the law because in perfect accord with it. This is what St. Paul urges us on to, for the accord is not at once perfect, even in true Christians, except as to the will. Imperfections in our moral na- ture and our judgment will involve us in temptations, Relation of the Old Testament To the New. 39 and make necessary the law with its instructions, ex- hortations and warnings. But the principle of sympathy and natural accord must be in the heart of every Chris- tian, and it must be a growing principle. The child who has need of having the rod always suspended over him, cannot be much in sympathy with the father; and the Christian who constantly needs tl;e "shall" or "shall not" of the law, is not much of a Christian, there should be the spirit of sympathy that cried " Abba Father " and delights in his law. We should come into that perfect sympathy with the law-giver that we have one will with him, when this is*the case then there is no more need of him making his will law for us. We could not imagine a case where one should feel called upon to proclaim a law to another if they are both in perfect accord. When we are in perfect harmony with God, then God has no law for us, we are a law unto ourselves. This is that perfect liberty of Christ, which knows no restraint, be- cause it knows no disposition to transgress. To be free from the law is not therefore to have a license through the Gospel to disobey it, but to have enough of the Spirit of God to obey it without compulsion. Such were the Old Testament saints who could say: " How love I thy law, it is my meditation all the day. How sweet are thy words to my«taste, yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth. I will delight myself in thy statutes. I have rejoiced in the way of thy testimonies." This is the true spirit of the child, than which there is nothing higher. In the truest and best sense, these Old Testa- ment saints were free from the law as much as those of to-day. They were under the law of ordinances and sacrihces pointing to Christ, references to this as a law should not be confounded with the moral or general law, 40 Christianity and Our Times. the expression of God's perfect will, which none should wish to be free from in any other sense than that of being in perfect accord with it. CHAPTER IV. CHRIST AND THE BIBLE. " In vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men. * * * And he said unto them, full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition. * * * Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition." — Christ. Christ was the orthodox teacher of his days. The Pharisees had departed from the plain text of the Scriptures, while professing to believe them, they made them void through their theories of lawless interpreta- tion. They did not really love the Scriptures, for these did not favor their personal or national pride and vanity; they rather loved the Talmud and apocryphal writings. What a Jewish Bible would have been without inspira- tion may be gathered from this Talmud, held in so high veneration among the Jews. On the side of Scripture we find simplicity, grandeur and humility, on the other hand we find extravagance, foolishness and pride, all to a degree of absurdity. • Christ rebuked them with bitter irony, saying, full well ye reject the commandments of God that ye may keep your tradition. Throughout his ministry Christ treated the Scriptures precisely as an orthodox teacher of Christianity would nowadays. From the beginning he warns them that he has not come to destroy the law 42 Christianity and Our Times. and the prophets, that he who teaches contrary even to the least of the commandments shall suffer loss. To the Scriptures he refers every question and settles every difficulty. Does someone ask him what to do to be saved, the answer' is "What is written —how readest thou?" He does not profess to have any new or easier way of salvation. Repentance and reformation, with faith in sacrifices and an atonement for sin was the old way, and he came to emphasize and perfect this plan. Some, nowadays, profess great love and reverence for Christ, while treating the Old Testament Scriptures with great irreverence, he utterly rejects their hypocriti- cal advances, and tells them " If ye believe not the writ- ings of Moses, how shall ye believe my words?" Is a difficult theological question propounded, as, for instance, " Whose son is Christ," to the Scriptures alone and their authority he refers it, never to the church or reason or any human authority. If a Scripture statement seem difficult of acceptance, as, for instance, the quotation, *' I have said ye are gods." He does not allow it to be slurred over or ruled out, he reminds them that it is Scripture and as such it cannot be broken. When he is questioned by the Sadducees in regard to the soul's im- mortality, he tells them that the cause of their error is that " they know not the Scriptures, nor the power of God." He then proceeds to establish the doctrine of the soul's immortality by the Old Testament Scriptures; it is not generally supposed that much is said there on this subject, and he might in this case, if ever have had occasion to fall back on church authority, philosophy or his own personal knowledge, but he evidently considered a passage from Scripture of more weight than all else, for by Scripture he confounds the Sadducees and rebukes Christ and the Bible. 43 their unbelief. When the rich man in hell desired that a special communication or revelation in regard to the future state should be sent to his five brethren, he is told that they have Moses and the prophets " let them hear them." The soul in torment ventures the assertion that some supernatural manifestation from the spirit world would be more convincing, but the answer is definite, that " if they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead." Moses and the prophets, he asserts, are of more au- thority than spiritualistic mediums and supernatural manifestations. Liberals would have found in Christ an excellent sub- ject for the charge of " Bibleolotry" had he lived in our days. Scripture was his only weapon both of defense and attack. Did the devil tempt him with evil suggestions, with this he repels the tempter. The devil was aware of Christ's regard for the Scriptures as the Word of God and the final authority in all matters of dispute. He takes advantage of this knowledge and quotes Scripture to prove the innocent nature of his insinuations. Christ lets him know he is right regarding the authority of the Scriptures, he himself knows nothing higher, and by another "it is written" he confounds the sophistry of the wicked one. If Christ had been willing to allow that the law of Moses contains errors, he had occasion to say so, for Jews and disciples alike suggested the idea, and pressed the question upon him; as, for instance, when they reminded him that Moses permitted divorces for other causes than adultery. Christ does not allow that it was an error of Moses, he tells them there was a rea- son for it, although from the beginning it was not so, neither should it be so any longer among his disciples. 44 Christianity and Our Times. Christ allowed that the Scriptures could be misconstrued and misunderstood, but never that they could be broken. After his resurrection, the Scriptures are still the reve- lation from God by which he enlightens his disciples. Beginning with Moses he goes through the books show- ing how it behooved Christ to suffer and rise from the dead. The ingenious ways in which our liberalists get round the authority of the Bible by fanciful distinctions between the spirit and the letter, the human element and the divine, etc., is entirely foreign to Christ. He insists emphatically upon the letter, even down to the jot and tittle, and he insists equally upon an unselfish and un- prejudiced interpretation of the letter, that will not ex- plain away the spirit and intent of the book. This is precisely what the liberalists are doing, but it can only be done to the extent they wish to do it, by repudiating the language or plain text of the Bible. For after all, the spirit, the intent or meaning of a book can only be known by the letter or language used, aside from it there is no spirit, intent or meaning. Their only purpose in destroying faith in the letter or text of the Bible, is to get rid of its meaning or the spirit of it. That Christ's regard for the Scriptures was not a matter of accommodation to his age is fully evinced by the nature of his quotations and their frequency as well as by his character, which was incapable of any duplicity and never failed to rebuke sin or error where he found it. But it is more fully demonstrated by the fact, that his regard for the Scriptures was above that of his age, above that of the most conserva- tive believers of his times. It was an intense conviction of his own, that found expression in fierce Christ and the Bible. 45 denunciations against those who, while they nominally admitted the authority of the Scriptures, yet found means to set it aside when it conflicted with their theories and speculations, their pride and love of vain-glory. It was perhaps the only instance in which Christ gave expression to the bitter irony of a soul that is woimded at its deep- est, when he rebuked the Pharisees for their duplicity and fraud in dealing with the Scriptures, saying, " full well ye reject the commandment of God that ye may keep your tradition, making the Word of God of none effect." The same holy zeal for the Word of God and everything that is enjoined in it found ex- pression in his cleansing of the temple. '*It is written my house shall be called a house of prayer but ye have made it a den of thieves." And the disciples remem- bered that it is written, " the zeal of thine house hath consumed me." Again after his resurrection we find this indignation breaking forth against his disciples, be- cause of their doubt and hesitancy in accepting and be- lieving all the Scriptures. " O fools and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken." It is suffi- cient to say of the apostles who succeeded Christ in his divine work, that their regard for the Scriptures and their authority was precisely the same as that of Christ. " But what saith the Scriptures " is the final appeal of St. Paul in questions of controversy. It was to them, the God- breathed Word of God and " the sword of the Spirit." The testimony of Christ to the authority of the Old Testament Scriptures has a bearing upon those of the New Testament which is not to be overlooked. We cannot accept some of the teaching of Christ and reject other, without repudiating his claims as the Messiah sent from God, the only begotten of the Father. We cannot 46 Christianity and Our Times. accept the teaching of Christ as the Truth of God with- out accepting all that is involved in it. In the general claim of Christ and his teaching, it is involved that the record of it must have been kept free from the contami- nation of error. The general claim of Christ and his teaching is that a divine overruling providence was con- nected with his appearance in this world, his mission, his words and work; but it could not have been thus con- nected without being extended to the preservation of his teaching and doctrine free from error. This teach- ing and work was meant for all generations and for all ages; it must therefore have been kept in its purity for those generations and ages, if onmipotent power and wisdom was indeed connected with it from the beginning. We cannot, therefore, accept Christ in the sense he claims acceptance, without accepting the aforesaid which is in- volved in it. Christ, explicitly and definitely, gave his testimony to the record of God's revelation in the Old Testament, and affirmed often and emphatically that it was inti- mately and indissolubly connected with his own revela- tion, so much so that both were but a connected whole. He found no fault with the books admitted to the Old Testament canon, nor with the contents of any of them, he accepted them fully and wholly without excepting, " one jot or tittle." What one would expect that an over- ruling Providence would be concerned with the preser- vation of an all-important revelation from God to man he fully meets and endorses. The testimony of Christ to the Scriptures of the Old Testament as a true record of God's revelation through the fathers and prophets, must be extended to the New Testament Scriptures, they are according to Christ, and the claims of all, a connected Christ and the Bible. 47 whole, and the providence of God must have been equally concerned with the preservation of both, free from errors that would impair their value. If we reject this, we must reject the claims and teaching of Christ in general, and take our stand on the ground occupied by Unitarians, on this ground there is room for accommodations of all sorts. But on the ground occupied by believers in Christ's divinity, we are shut up to faith in almighty power and wisdom connected with what Christ did and said, as well as the correct and infallible record of what he did and said. The first would have had no value without the latter, and the latter could not have failed, consistent with divine power and wisdom. The Christian, therefore, who accepts Christ as he is set before us in the New Testament must assume that the record of his works and teaching has been preserved to us free from error. What would overthrow this assump- tion, would overthrow faith in the Christ of the New Testament. — Idealized conceptions and counterfeits would survive, but with these we are not concerned. The question then is whethei%there is sufficient evidence to overthrow this assumption of the believer. Here is where the work of the critics come in, have they, or can they prove that the record is faulty and unreliable and the assumption of the Christian false. — Our aim is not to " prove Christianity " but to show in some respects what it is, and what is implied in an honest acceptance of it. As to the critics and their criticism, upon the whole it may be said that the general tone and expression is that of professionals, out of harmony witH the spirit of the Bible, playing their trade and making the most of it. The authority of the Bible is based on its infallibility 48 Christianity and Our Times. as a record of God's revelation to man. The question is not what amount of praise maybe bestowed upon Christ and the Bible; what are their excellencies, even their pjlories, all these are trivialities and mere evasions of the question. Christianity purports to be something more than a mere part of the general revelation through na- ture and the conscience. It claims to be a special reve- lation from God of the creation of man, and his fall from a state of purity; a plan of God for his redemption, in- cluding the incarnation, life and death of the Son of God sent into the world; a continuance of the same by the operation of the spirit of God through the church and the Word of God; also the final destiny of man and a perfect law for his guidance. It will not do to reduce this to a mere system of ethics or to anything else than what it is, and put it forward as the " religion of Christ." This is not a plea for Christianity but simply for honesty. The Bible is the only record of this perfect revela- tion from God, and it is involved, as indeed it is claimed, both by Christ and the Bible itself, that the record is as perfect as the revelation. Any process in dealing with the Scriptures that allow c4 selections and rejections of parts or portions, subjects them to the authority of man, and is a denial of their claims and the testimony of Christ in their behalf. It is not a question of how much selected or rejected, the rejection of a "jot or tittle," or teaching contrary even to " the least of the command- ments" violates the authority of the Scriptures just as much as though the rejection comprised large portions. Neither do the motives or professed faith alter the case; the chief champion of infidelity in this country was answered in his attack on the Bible by certain of the liberal school; he rejected their interference contemptu- Christ and the Bible. 49 ously by stating, that " there was no quarrel between them." He was perfectly right, he accepts and rejects as suits him, and they do the same; they have no more right to find fault with his selections and rejections than he has to find fault with theirs. The question is not whether some Christ may be left us, even, if the worst the critics claim for their criti- cism be admitted. Christ would always be somebody, a historical person truly. Those of Unitarian tendencies will rest content with this "historic Christ." They will argue like this; do we not indeed know tliat Christ as a person, sometimes walked this earth, and if we have no reliable information as to what he was or what he taught, may not this enlightened age make out what he ought to have been, and what he ought to have taught; and in making it out for ourselves, may we not the more surely get a Christ and a gospel that will suit us. This will do for human philosophy, but it is not the Christianity of Christ and the Bible. Others, who are in a state of unrest, do not take it so lightly. They hope they will n.ot have essentially to alter their position, but the^ do not know. They are watching the critics and are prepared for an emergency. They have assumed the attitude of retreat and are wait- ing for the signal to fall back. They hope there will at least be left them some truth to fallback upon. Of this there can be no doubt, even if they have to occupy the ground of the unbeliever wholly. But what would be left would not be Christianity. Even the attitude they have assumed, it need not be said, is entirely foreign to Christianity and the Bible. In it is assumed a faith with assurance, that brings peace and rest; that works wonders and wins victories. 50 Christianity and Our Times. The selective process in dealing with the Bible, by which in some way or other it is subjected to the thoughts and sentiments of men, finds many forms of expression, but it all amounts to the same thing. Some have set up the test of what is vital compared with what is circum- stantial. Of course, according to this test, whatever agrees with one is very vital, but what does not agree is quite circumstantial and wholly unimportant. Already in some quarters, the principal doctrines of Christianity, including the divinity of Christ have been disposed of as none vital. The Decalogue has been encroached upon and some of the commandments are evidently not regarded as very vital. Perhaps it will be agreed upon as vital that it is — sin to steal. But we would not believe that a supernatural revelation, recorded in the Bible, begin- ning with the creation and ending with the fmal catas- trophe, including the incarnation of the Son of God and the tragedy of Calvary, was necessary to teach us this, which after all has never been seriously doubted. Christ does not allow of the distinction; he tells us that even a jot or tittle is vital, and must stand till heaven and earth have passed away. * Nor will it answer any better to tell us that the selective process is not meant to exclude any part of the Bible, only we must be content with the " life, love and righteousness "^f the book and insist lightly upon the letter. This is the idealized Bible. It is but another way of the same process by which the commandments of God are made void because of the theories and traditions of men. In this light the Bible will be looked upon as a series of ghost stories; the stories they would tell us, amount to little, but the impression they make is every- thing. But when we come down to the facts we find Christ and the Bible. 51 that they themselves cannot keep hold of this disembodied ghost of a Bible. For after all the Bible is a record of plain facts and definite doctrine, and when we have sifted their theories, sentiments and opinions we find plain opposition to facts recorded and doctrines taught in the Bible. This comes out even more distinctly among lay-members of those that have become affected with this tendency, they are less sophistical and will tell us openly of their non-acceptance of books, portions, or doctrines of the Bible. The impression, the leaders, with their sophistical, indefinite, roundabout talk make upon the minds of laymen is, that the Bible may be subjected to personal like or dislike, and this is what it amounts to. The selective method of dealing with the Bible is destructive of a well balanced system of morality. Men are sure to reject what is disagreeable to them, which they stand most in need of, and ought to give the more heed to. Every age has its own hobby, it would be sure to reject what was contrary to its hobby, and suc- ceeding ages would know that it had rejected what it stood particularly in need of. The religious and socio- logical theories that are characteristic of this and of every age, hold the same relation to the Bible as a part or parts do to the whole, they are all one-sided, insisting on some particular phase of thought or sentiment. Our present is very marked as a hobby-riding age, it needs the whole. Bible, which, like a center of gravitation keeps the erratic movement of human thoughts and feel- ings within due bounds. The tendencies of our times have made a broad road from orthodoxy to agnosticism, and every section of the road is well represented. Unitarianism can hardly be palled a half-way station, it is too nebulous in its charac- 52 Christianity and Our Times. • ter to suggest anything stationary. Those who cut loose from implicit faith in the authority of the Bible, may, at first, think they will know where to stop, but they find the ground shifting and uncertain as problem after prob- lem arises, demanding to be met in the same critical spirit. The battle soon begins to rage about the super- natural, miraculous and spiritual elements of the Bible. This is practically the whole of it. It cannot be believed in intelligently and held firmly unless there is something in the human soul that responds to it, unless the soul, itself, has been stirred by the forces and influences of the supernatural. This something of faith, love and rev- erence, is apt to grow weak and feeble as the critical spirit asserts itself. No wonder, therefore, that the bat- tle is easily decided in favor of further concessions. But there is, practically speaking, nothing further to concede, the spirit of antagonism to the Bible and faith in it, be- comes one of bitterness and rancor, infidel flings and sneers are freely resorted to. They exemplify in their own experience the evolution which is their hobby, they call it the evolution of religion but the proper name for it is the evolution of skepticism. The effect of this progressive spirit is well exempli- fied in the history of Protestant Germany. Christianity here was placed side by side with the sciences by the authorities who control the theological institutions through the state church„ It has been looked upon equally with the sciences as a subject for original inves- tigations and discoveries, a premium was put on " ad- vanced thought," innovations, and novelties of any sort. This has stimulated to unceasing efforts to put forth or- iginal views, and invent theories that would gain the in- ventor credit for new discoveries. Christianity as a rev- Christ and the Bible. 53 elation from God has been practically lost sight of. To the critical professors of theology, Christianity is nothing, their speculation about it, is everything. The effect has been, that where faith is still retained, it is not that of the schools, but the orthodox faith of the Bible. The rationalistic leaders can scarcely be said to have a fol- lowing, for those that become effected by their skepti- cism act consistently, and drop church and religion altogether. To the professors and critics there is the excitement of controversy and the glamour of notoriety, but the poor fellows who gain nothing of this sort, who are asked to take the skeleton naked and bare, to them it has no attraction. How far the disintegration has ex- tended may be gathered from the fact, that although the German Lutheran immigrants to this country, and their descendants cannot be less than several millions, yet German Lutheran church members in this country num- ber only so many hundred thousand. The German Rationalists, have not thought it worth the while to build churches to perpetuate their faith in this country. They have simply joined the great, irreligious mass which con- stitute one-half of our population. What has Rationalism done for this country. Every week and month we have set before us in papers and peri- odicals, by writers of rationalistic tendencies, what great things could and would and should be done, but what is actually accomplished is of a purely negative character. What about, the old institution called the Unitarian church, has not the liberal faith had an opportunity to show what it can do in this country. Let us examine for a minute the faith of Unitarianism just to see how the evolution of skepticism is evolving. Anyone who knows what Unitarianism was at its start will mark the 54 Christianity and Our Times. difference. We have before us a pamphlet, issued by a Unitarian Publishing House, it tells us about their faith. It will of course not fit everyone in their church, for nothing definite is required of any one. But having the endorsement of the general body, it will undoubtedly answer for a general statement. We find according to this exposition, that Unitarians beheve in a God, he is called, "the soul of the universe." This is a convenient expression for what may be anything or nothing. But it is quite needless to speculate as to the nature of this God, for we are told immediately by the author, that he is nothing to us nor we to him, we sustain no relation to him whatever. Our actions have no reference to him; we do not sin against him, and he does not reward or punish us. We sin against ourselves and our neighbors, and take the consequences. There is no divine provi- dence, but only natural law. Prayer may be permitted as an accommodation to the weak, if they think, it does them any good. The author expresses a preference for the Old Testament rather than the New; we mention this for the benefit of those who think the Old Testament must first be left behind in the evolution of skepticism, otherwise, the less mention of Christ or the Bible in connection with their faith, the better. There is neither heaven nor hell, if there is a future world, — and the " if" is a big one — it is a mere continuance of the present kind of life. The idea of a future world is entertained as a hypothesis rather than a fact that ought seriously to ef- fect us. As a future world or life fade and grow exceed- ingly dim, the present takes on great dimensions. There will be evolution everywhere and in everything. The book closes with an apocalyptic vision of a terrestrial heaven, from which unfortunately we are debarred, for Christ and the Bible. 55 it is a matter of evolution and time. When it does come there will be happiness enough to " go round," and peo- ple will have two hundred years in which to enjoy it. If breadth and liberality is what we want for success, Unitarianism ought to have succeeded. Near^ half of our population is in a condition that would make them eligible for membership, they have sufficient faith and respectability to join, and the* door we presume is open for them, but they do not care even to take the trouble of stepping in, not to any great extent. There are two conditions demanded of a church or religion for success among the masses of rich or poor; one is an all-important salvation to be secured, and an easy way of securing it. Ritualistic churches throughout the world fulfill both of these conditions, and the mass of mankind belong to them, The Unitarians fulfill the last of the conditions, the way of salvation is easy enough, but unfortunately, they make it doubtful whether there is anything either to be saved or lost, and mankind at large will not get up an enthusi- asm where nothing particularly is involved. To Uni- tarians, religion is something to speculate about, rather than a thing of certainty and much concern. These speculations may lend a little color and interest to their social gatherings, whether they go by the name of wor- ship or otherwise, but the mass of mankind is not much concerned about speculations. The activity of Uni- tarians does a great deal to break down faith among the masses, but they are not the gainers by it. But few members are added to their church by persuasion, their principal gains are from orthodox churches, and is brought about by the evolution of skepticism. Now and then a Congregational minister will " come over " and bring his entire congregation along with him. It is 56 Christianitv and Our Times. the natural landing place for those that are drifting. It is said that our age has got beyond the old the- ology and requires something new, or something else. But it is a mistake to suppose that this is a characteristic of our ajjfe alone. Every age since sin entered the world has asked for something else. God s plan of salvation as revealed in the Bible has never suited the carnal mind. In the days of the apostles, the theology of the Bible was " foolishness to the Greeks, and to the Jews a stum- bling-block." The Greeks sought wisdom and imagined themselves " wise above what was written." If we were to wait till the world, the carnal mind in any age, comes into sympathy with the theology of the Bible, then this might indeed as well be laid aside, for that time has never been and will never come. But Christ does not ask us to inquire what suits the age or the world, and make our theology and preaching to harmonize with it; he has determined for us what is truth and theology, and asks the world to accept it or take the consequences. Those who do accept it, " to them it is the power of God unto salvation" as much as ever; to those who do not, it is foolishness and a stumbling-block as in the days of St. Paul. It is one thing to accommodate ourselves to human nature, or the sentiments of an age, and gain adherents by so doing, it is another thing to produce spiritual life and spiritual results. This was never done except by the Word of God and the Spirit of God. Along through the ages down to ours, we find the great religious revivals and moral reformations associated with unquestioned faith in the Scriptures, and reliance upon the power of God's spirit. Through the long night of the middle ages wherever we find gleams of light, it is associated with Christ and the Bible. S7 the Bible, hid away carefully from the priests, read and listened to in secret. Thus the Lollards in England, the Hussites in Bohemia, the Valdenses in Italy, and others here and there where the Bible in some way had found access. Like King Josiah of old, when he beard the words of the new found book, rent his clothes, and pro- nounced woe upon himself and the people, because they had not kept the words of the law, so Martin Luther when he found the Bible in Erfurt convent, never doubt- ing for a moment that it was the divine, infallible word, saw at once the apostacy of Christendom, and set about remodeling it after the pattern of the Bible. Tyndall smuggling copies of the new printed Bible into England. Knox rousing Scotland with the suppressed truth. Cal- vin in France and Zwingly in Switzerland, a host of heroes and martyrs, finding inspiration and strength through their implicit faith in the Scriptures, fighting battles against odds that we can now scarcely realize. And it has been the same since then, the great revivals and reformations with their Wesleys, Edwards and Fin- neys have only been produced by men who believed the Word of God without doubt or question. Whenever faith in the Scriptures as the infallible Word of God is shaken, there is an end to the mani- festation of spiritual power and life. The form may re- main for a while as it often does, but the consciousness of loss of power is present, and churches and ministers cease to depend on it. Human device takes its place, ritualistic or spectacular. Social advantages, entertain- ments and so forth, are held out as inducements, and some are added to the church by these means. Spiritual life and the need of conversion is passed over lightly, people are appealed to on lower ground, lower feelings 58 Christianity and Our Times. and motives are allowed to suffice, till at last like the Unitarians, they " do not even know that there is a Holy Ghost" and ridicule his power in revivals and con- versions. Generally, this spiritual declension is accom- panied.^^ith increased noise and demonstration about the "needs of humanity." As failure to produce a "new creature" by spiritual regeneration becomes an accepted condition, the mending of " the old man" is attended to with clamorous show of zeal. Great problems are before this nation and dangers threaten — shall we be able to meet them with the wooden sword of human speculations held by the trembling hand of doubt? Evangelical churches who have lost faith in that " two-edged sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God," and do not have the Spirit to wield it, are at a disadvantage every way. If they turn to ritualistic prac- tices and would fain be satisfied with the " devotional spirit" that consists in superstitious homage of priest and rites, and perhaps look with envious eyes at the priest and would like to be partaker in this homage, so easily secured and so gratifying to human vanity, in their feeble appraaches they are easily outdone by regular ritualistic churches. If they turn to worldly devices, and depend on accommodating the depraved tastes of the worldling, they are equally sure to be beaten by the world, the flesh, and the devil. If they turn Unitarian or infidel, and make their door as wide and the way as broad as the road to destruction, the masses will but despise them and their accommodations of which they have already enough. " Do ye not, therefore, err because ye know not the Scriptures nor the power of God." These two belong together " the sword of the Spirit" and "the power of God " wherewith to wield it. It is said that men will not Christ and the Bible. 59 nowadays yield to authority, but it is a mistake, they never yield to anything else. Even the painted author- ity of priest or pope is yielded to readily. The Evan- gelicals can only hope to win as they are able to con- vince men that they have authority behind them. It is always asked ** in whose name or by whose power do you this." Only as they can manifest the authority will men pay attention to them or their message. When the authority indeed is manifest there is no need of accommodations to the flesh. Men have before this taken up the cross, forsaken all, and followed, because they believed they had heard a message with authority behind it. With the emphasis of Christ " ye do therefore, greatly err" in discrediting " the Scriptures and the power of God " your only authority. CHAPTER V. INTERPRETATION AND THE NEW DEPARTURE. "What is written in the law; how readest thou?" ''0 fools and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.' ' — Christ. , The Bible is written in popular language, to be in- terpreted by common sense. The meaning must be found in the language used, it is not to be supplied by our own conceit. The language used is not that of a human law book, written on the supposition that the reader may be dishonest, and will to the best of his ability try to pervert the meaning to suit selfish ends. This being the case with a law book, the greatest care and skill is used in wording the text, so as to give the dishonest reader, the ingenious lawyer, and the -preju- diced judge or juror no occasion for his designs. The Bible is written on the presumption that the reader is honest and in reading simply desires to find out the act- ual meaning of the book, instead of casting about for loopholes to escape the. meaning. If a human Uw book that is worded with all the skill and precision modern scholarship can command, may yet be perverted and misinterpreted to serve selfish ends, we may not wonder that the Bible, which is not* thus guarded in its expres- sions can be perverted, misinterpreted and made to serve selfish ends, when in the hands of those that are preju- diced, dishonest, and filled with their own conceit. As Interpretation and the New Departure. 6i the incarnate Word when he dwelt among men, was not careful about giving offence to those who were only too glad to find offence, so with the written Word, no care is taken to prevent occasion for those who seek occasion. How impossible it is to disarm prejudice and enforce honesty is seen in the easy perversion of even the most carefully worded law book in the hand of the most intel- ligent interpreter. The constitution of the United States is supposed to be a product of the highest order of schol- arship; and those whose business it is to interpret it, are presumed to be in an eminent sense, men of learning and integrity, yet in scarcely a single case do they agree about the interpretation of this law. No one will sup- pose this is because the law is incapable of a fair under- standing,- or that it is on account of intellectual incapac- ity on the part of the judges. We all know that the reason is to be sought for in deep rooted prejudices, natural sympathies and some secret, lurking self-interest, operating, perhaps, without any consciousness of it. In interpreting the Bible the same causes of misinterpreta- tion operate. Sometimes this is so evident that there is scarcely even a pretence of concealing it. Who, for instance, does not at once perceive in the Catholic in- terpretation of the Scriptures that lust of power and greed of gain has made their interpretations to serve these interests. Or who does not perceive in the inter- pretation of the Bible by Universalists and Liberals, how natural sympathies are entirely consulted, how else come they to give more weight to their forced interpretation of a doubtful passage than to the plain statements of twenty passages. It is doubtless tfue as some assert, that we can prove anything or everything by the Bible, but we had 62 Christianity and Our Times. better not. Although we are free, yet we are responsi- ble for the use of our freedom. Nothing is easier than to impose on ourselves, and do it till we scarcely know when we cheat or deceive ourselves. How little the writers of the Bible cared to shield themselves from adverse criticism by those who were not friends, may be seen in many instances. "Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit" says one proverb, and in the next we read: " Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him. " A plain contradiction, unless one will consider that time and circumstances may have something to do with the way in which it is best to answer a fool. " Bear ye one another's burdens" says St. Paul, and al- most immediately after, " for everyone shall bear his own burdens." St. Paul could not have forgotten what he had already said for the two passages are so near to- gether that they may be compassed in a glance. Yet he does not stop to explain the seeming contradiction. Evidently, in writing, he is alone considering the honest unprejudiced reader to whom it will readily occur that in spite of the general principle of helpfulness, there are bur- dens which it is either just we should bear ourselves, or impossible to be relieved from by the help of others. This is but in harmony with the general principle of Bible writers, who never for the sake of guarding against prejudice and dishonesty, go out of their way to make explanations which we can make for ourselves if we wish things explained. Apparent contradictions may be only different views of the same question as illustrated in another instance: two different accoimts of King Asa in Kings and Chronicles agree in^ascribing to him the same good charqicter and beneficent reign, and moreover Interpretation and the New Departure. 63 that he carried out a reformation to a considerable ex- tent. One writer, however, remarks that the high places were not taken away, the other includes them among other matters of reform. This has been magnified into a very great difficulty, what is it but two general accounts, not pretending to tell all about it. One sees that some- thing was done in the way of removing these places, the other that something was left undone. Where two wit- nesses of good character agree in their general state- ments, justice demands that any possible discrepancy should be explained on rational ground, rather than magnified into an insurmountable difficulty. Some subjects and some doctrines are many-sided, and any one-sided view of such a doctrine may seem a contradiction to another view of the same doctrine equally partial. As for instance, salvation by faith or by works, set against each other, instead of complement- ing each other. The atonement, an exhibition of God's love wholly, or God's justice only, instead of both equally. Vicarious suffering indeed, the just for the un- just; but not a final reckoning on the score of justice. A term, or a statement on some subject made or used in a general sense, compared with the same term or a like statement used in a special or obsolete sense, can be made to look like a serious discrepancy. Different views of the same question pronounced with reference to dif- ferent circumstances may in the same way be made to appear like a contradiction. On discrepancies and con- tradictions of this sort have been constructed destructive theories with reference to dates and authorship of dif- ferent books, and various adverse criticism. While no care is taken in the Bible to guard against cjishonesty, carp is taj^en to guard against false impre§' 64 Christianity and Our Times. sions on the part of the honest reader. In a human law book, the perversion or misunderstanding of a single word in a text might alter the whole intent of the law, this could scarcely be in the case of the Bible. All the principal doctrines are taught not only in one but many texts and books, by plain statements illustrated by par- ables and history, and enforced by exhortations and warnings. There is in this a provision against the fatal consequences of accidental errors in the text. If such are found, they must be proved in every alleged case, and not taken for granted whenever there is something that puzzles the understanding, or fails to agree with preconceived notions. This is only another way of re- pudiating the authority of the Bible, and exalting our fancies above it. A textual error cannot, properly speaking, be said to be a part of a book, and does not inveigh against its character. Nor is any modification of our conception, or profession of faith in the infallibility of the Bible called for on account of any possible inac- curacy in the text. Whatever is involved in this is per- fectly understood, and no extra provision is needed for that purpose. There is no difficulty involved but what may be overcome by the use of the same common sense that is required in all the ordinary affairs of life. Critics and cavilers can find no case unless they persistingly ig- nore this, and refuse to have anything explained or un- derstood. Their aim is to magnify difficulties, to break down the doctrine of inspiration and authority, or to give it that shape of uncertainty and indefiniteness which leave room for their speculations and play for their fancies and which relieve them of any obligation as to faith and morals. That the difficulty with them is found in the doctrines of the Bible rather than in the text is Interpretation and the New Departure. 65 evident, for never so soon have they disproved the in- faUibiHty of the Bible to their own satisfaction, before they proceed against the principal doctrines of the faith and very soon involve the foundations of Christianity in their attack. It is needed that attention should be called to the difference between religion as a universal fact, and Chris- tianity as a special revelation. We have no knowledge of Christianity outside of the Bible, but we may have religious knowledge without the Bible, as there has never been a naftion or age without religious ideas and worship. Religious knowledge may be acquired by the intuitive .faculties, conscience, whatever we see of design in crea- tion; our observations and experience will instill in us religious ideas and notions. Reason may group together these various facts, perceive their relations, interpret their meaning, and deduce religious and moral systems, as pagans have never failed to do. Reason, in all this, is not the source of information or knowledge, can originate nothing, but can only judge of what is discovered to us. •What may be understood of religion without the Bible, is all comprehended in the Bible; it is the amplification, the certainty and the full explanation of what nature teaches. The intimations of nature are verified for us in the Bible, by direct revelation as a message from God. Moreover, the Bible contains a record of religious facts of momentous importance which nature could not dis- cover to us. The Bible, therefore, is the final authority to Christians; when God speaks from the Bible, reason hears and understands and cannot go beyond it. Imag- ination may go beyond it, or outside of it, there is no limit to that faculty. The one who imagines may con- sider his imaginations reasonable, but this does not alter 66 Christianity and Our Times. the fact that they are fancies. Such should not be grafted on the Bible or Christianity, as additional facts, progressive truths, etc. The Bible and imagination, even when dignified by the name of reason, cannot stand alongside each other as authorities. If the Bible is the word of God it is according to the highest reason, and such reason will judge it reason- able. Man's reason is not of the highest order, is not infallible; as a faculty in man it is hampered and imposed upon by passion, prejudice, pride, prevailing sentiments and customs, natural sympathies, self-interests in various forms; and other infirmities and imperfections that flesh is heir to. We may, therefore, not look upon reason as* a perfect guide in understanding religious truth, even when revealed to us, much less as a revealer of truth. In order to understand and appreciate truth as revealed to us, it is needed that we besides reason, should have a spirit in sympathy with truth, as Christ said, " the spirit of truth," which is the spirit of Christ. The more man is able to rise above his natural infirmities, as mentioned of all kinds, the nearer he is allied to God in wisdom and virtue, the more reliable is his reason and the better will he be able to judge of the reasonableness of any- thing. Those w4io have been nearest to God in all ages, have always found the least difficulty about the Bible. When one professes Christianity, the presumption is that he has found it reasonable; when he disputes its reasonableness, he goes back and his profession; if he proceeds to exalt his reason as an authority to which revelation must be subjected, he declares himself an un- believer; to persist in staying in the church after this would make him a dishonest intruder. The relation of the church to religious truth is the Interpretation and the New Departure. 67 same as that of the individual member. There is no moral, intellectualbr supernatural element inherent in the church that is not possessed by the individual Christian. If we multiply one by a thousand ciphers, the result is but one; if we multiply finite wisdom with ever so many units, the result is but finite wisdom, and this is all that the church can bring to bear upon any question. The church has only the same sources of information in re- gard! to religious truth as has the individual, and can not make or manufacture truth any more than the individual. Her decisions can make nothing true that is not already true. She is not, therefore, any more than reason to be - set up as original authority alongside with the Scriptures. She is authority as to her faith and convictions. When it is asked by individual Christians, to what extent the Spirit of God may be a source of religious knowledge aside from the Bible; we observe that the very object of the Scriptures is to give a clear and definite expression of the mind of the Spirit. But Christianity is not merely a communication by the Spirit addressed to our feelings and emotions and comprehended by an internal experience; it is the record and communication of facts connected with the whole schem.eof redemption, addressed to our understanding and moral sense, and comprehended by our reason. These facts are not re- vealed to Christians by way of impulses and intuitions but by the written record we have of them in the Bible, and nowhere else. A Christian may hope for com- munion with God through the Spirit, to the end that he may be enlightened so as to understand the facts, and realize the power of the truth in his own soul. Impulses and impressions from evil influences may come even to Christians, all such must be tested by the perfect ex- 68 Christianity and Our Times. pression of the mind of the Spirit in the Bible. Other- wise we should continually be imposed upon by the spec- ulations of Freethinkers and the hallucinations of dreamers. Nor does it make our infidelity and faithless- ness to the Word of God any better because we are able " to pray over it." Nothing is easier than to form our selfish wishes and desires into a prayer and supposed suggestion of the Spirit and answer them ourselves in the affirmative. This is only making our prayer an excuse for our self-will. " Believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God." The spirit ttiat sneers at the Bible and tries to undermine faith in its authority we may know is not the Spirit of Christ, for his indigna- tion was hot against those that did the same in his days. The revelation of God's will and plan of salvation in the Bible is complete, and when personal, special revelation is claimed, it is invariably because the one in the Bible does not suit the carnal nature and the inspiration is from this source. We are promised the aid of the holy Spirit in understanding the Scriptures. " Then opened he their understanding that they might understand the Scriptures." " We have also a more sure word of proph- ecy whereunto ye do well that ye take heed." It is strange to think of a being living in the en- lightened age of the first century, later than Plato or Cicero, Alexander or Caeser, a being that has revolu- tionized the world, and is worshiped by hundreds of millions, as the one perfect in wisdom, love and power, and yet of whom absolutely nothing is known except what we find within the covers of the New Testament. Why was this? It was an age of learning, everyone Interpretation and the New Departure. 69 either desiring to tell or to hear some new thing. Why should not mention of him have been found plentifully scattered throughout the literature of the times? Why should not pagan, Jew and disciple have vied with each other in setting forth his life and reporting his doctrine? Why was it reserved for four of his own disciples to do alone this work as though they were indeed " chosen witnesses." We have in our age many attempts to get away from the written record of Christ's life and character, while yet keeping hold of Christ and a kind of Christian- ity. We have vague and indefinite references to Christ as the one sufficient fact — -aside from the record or slightly connected with it. " Holding up Christ alone as our creed," an ideal Christ that delivers us from the very definite and clear testimony of the true Christ in regard to the Scriptures,. Christ, a " unique " being, not well accounted for. The term " unique " may do very well as a step in an argument, showing the character of Christ, but it has apparently come to be the stopping-place of many who profess to be Christians. But it was not till Thomas could say *' My Lord and my God," that Christ acknowledged him a believer and he pronounced his blessing upon those that should thus believe. Again, we have ** the historic Christ" a seemingly innocent and per- haps sometimes well-meant phrase, and yet generally in- volving an effort to meet skepticism half way. St. Paul spoke in his days of those who preached" another Christ." There is many " another Christ " preached in our days. In the ordinary sense of the word there is no *' historic Christ." There is only the Christ of the Bible. No doubt the Gospels may be called history, and very good history too, but they are distinct and apart from the 70 Christianity and Our Times. world's history, and can not be classed with it. Josephus wrote a comprehensive history of the Jewish people, covering the period of Christ's life, but Christ, his life, work and character is no part of it. Some have deplored this, and even tried to make up for the defect, but the circumstance has a significance of its own. Mere allu- sions to the fact of Christ and Christians by seculcir writers of the first one or two centuries after Christ, may be counted upon the fingers of one hand. This in spite of the fact that Christianity had already become a power in the Roman Empire, and Christians numerous. Why this exclusiveness? It can only be explained on the presumption that a divine Providence overruled every- thing connected with his advent, life and death, and that there was a purpose and importance involved in this, which made it necessary in the divine plan, that the record should be kept pure and authentic; this could not have been, if his life and teaching had become part of the history and literature of the age; there would have been much spurious, indefinite and doubtful mixed with the true, so much so that every particular person might have formed his own particular opinion about Christ and his teaching, and perhaps have had reasonable ground. The spirit of this age is anxious for a Christ and a gos- pel, different from what we have in the New Testament. With what avidity would they have seized upon informa- tion outside of the Bible. But, alas, for their effort, there is not a scrap of information outside of it. Anxious as they are, they would not dare to lay hold on anything outside the Bible as authentic and trustworthy. Take away the written record of the evangelists, and you have ah empty space, a formless void in* the world's history, it is only as the spirit of God moved upon the minds of Interpretation and the New Departure, the sacred writers, that a veritable Christ and Gospel was preserved for after ages. The church is no authority, it has not preserved a single fact about Christ. The only tradition of the church that is of any value is that of the authenticity of the New Testament Scriptures; it corroborates what other evidence we have to that effect. Outside the New Testament, the church cannot tell us of a single thing that Jesus did, nor a single word of what he taught, or what he organized. It is wholly dependent on the Bible for what it knows and what it believes. Early the church began to " give heed to seducing spirits " and "fables;" inventions of popes and priests; it quiclcly changed and lost its original form and purpose, so much so that at the time of the reformation, no one who knew what the church was in the apostolic age, could have discovered in the church as it then was, the successor of it. Let it be remembered that this transformation had taken place although the Scriptures had not been lost, but only put aside, ignored and misconstrued. The church was only restored to something like its original form and purpose, by referring to the Scriptures. Luther and the rest of the reformers consulted nothing else in their work of reformation. If there had been no written record of Christ and his teaching, is it likely that the church by this time would have been sure of a single thing about it, if indeed it had preserved its name and organization, which is doubtful? What then is to be said of attempts to introduce a Christ and Christianity that makes light of the written record — only this, that as a matter of consistency, they must apply the selective process to Christ as well as to the Scriptures which he so fully endorsed, the Christ of 72 Christianity and Our Times. the Bible, and the Bible itself cannot be separated. Having then established the selective process in dealing with the Scriptures, they proceed to deal with Christ in the same way, leaving out such attributes as offend them, and ascribing to him such as please them. In proportion as the authority of the Bible as a divine revelation grows weak, so the character of Christ, as God manifested in the flesh, grows uncertain. Affirmations first lose their positive quality, and then dwindle into ill-defined and vague terms, reducing Christ to a more or less mys- terious person. His "divinity" may well be allowed, the dishonesty that professes a form of faith and rules out the substance counts for nothing with modern liberals. It will be reserved as understood that in a sense every- thing is divine, that we may all be called sons of God, and that the whole nature is an incarnation. Christ be- comes to them really but an ideality projected by their own mind. That they can truthfully boast of following this their own creation of a Christ is not wonderful, hav- ing created him after their own image in their own like- ness, they will as a matter of inclination worship him, and follow his teaching; in doing so they follow only their own mind and their own theories, for they do not allow him to teach anything else. According to this selective method of making a Bible and creating a Christ, each may worship his own image, and follow the teach- ing of his own heart. To the worldly, vicious and wicked, Christ becomes simply a convenience forgetting to heaven without repentance and holiness, the one only anxious to pardon their iniquity and enable them to sin with impunity. To the sentimentalist, Christ becomes merely the sentimental lover of mankind. Respectable, society people will make of Christ an acceptable pattern, Interpretation and the New Departure. 73 a highly moral and respectable being, with a halo of religious mystery to heighten the interest; and upon the whole, when it is asked, who or what is Christ and his teaching, the only information we have on the question will be lightly consulted; the sentiment of the age, the morbid mind of the bookworm, the disordered nerves of " society'' will give the answer. We are in a land of liberty; no one is compelled to believe in Christianity, or to profess faith in its religion, who in heart is adverse to its doctrines. Anyone is per- mitted to believe he can improve on the Christianity of Christ, by alterations, additions or exceptions. But as a matter of common honesty he has no right to call this product of his own mind by the name of Christianity, or in any way to stamp it with the authority of its founder. If we believe in Christianity, we must believe that Christ understood it and was competent to teach it. Christ, when he was on earth, was never anxious to attach to him those who were constitutionally opposed to his doctrines. When the gaping*, curious multitude thronged about him as would-be followers, although they had no heart for his teaching, instead of conciliating them, he flung them back with even harsher demands. The learned and wise fared no better, Unless ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood ye have no life in you." "This is a hard saying, who can hear him?" " Dost thou know, Master, that the Pharisees were offended at thy words?" " Let them alone, they are blind leaders of the blind." The repelling force of the Gospel is as great as the attracting. Christianity is not to be imposed on anyone, and the complaint is not about " freedom of thought" but lack of consistency. It is the dishonest attempt to lead the believer gently, as it 74 Christianity and Our Times. were, step by step, away from faith in the authority of the Bible. It is the subtile, insinuating attempt to un- dermine faith in Christianity under the guise of friendship and a profession, which is apparent in all their action, and even goes so far as to break out into rancorious ac- cusations and profane sneers, if the church is not at once willing to abandon the Word of God and take up with their theories. CHAPTER VI. INTERPRETATION AND RITUALISM. ** Do ye not therefore err because ye know not the Scriptures neither the power of God?" — Christ. The difference between the ritualistic and evangeli- cal interpretation of Scripture does not consist in any- marked disagreement about the letter of the Bible, but in the different interpretation of the spirit of the book. They may hold practically the same doctrines, but they differ widely in the application of them. The reason for this the Scripture itself ascribes to the carnal mind that does not comprehend the things of the Spirit of God. It tells us that in order to understand and appreciate the truths in their spiritual depths, there is needed a spirit in sympathy with the truth. The assumption is, that none but those who are spiritually minded are likely to realize the meaning of truths pertaining to our spiritual relation to God. This relation signifies something more than what is implied in morality and the expression of piety in religious ordinances. It has reference to communion with God and the work of God's Spirit in the human heart. In order to be impressed with this, a certain at- titude towards God is required, either that of the prodi- gal returning to his father's house, or that of the accepted son at home with his father. At least a spiritual awak- ening, or the full development of a spiritual life. This is 76 Christianity and Our Times. taught in such passages as this; "The natural man re- ceived not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned," etc. Christ fully recog- nized the utter impossibility of impressing the grossly carnal-minded with spiritual facts and doctrines, such he found among the learned, the cultured, the priests, as well as among the ignorant multitude. He did not even care to attempt to explain to them the spiritual signifi- cance of his parables and metaphors, because in them was fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, " Hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive: for this people's heart is waxed gross," etc. Even his disciples were in the beginning so dull of apprehension that they often provoked his right- eous indignation. On one occasion he said to them " be- ware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees, and they reasoned among themselves, saying, it is because we have taken no bread. Which when Jesus perceived, he said unto them, O ye of little faith, how is it that ye do not understand that I spake it not to you concerning bread." In like manner Christ said, " Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, ye have no life in you." " Except a man be born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of God." The Ritu- alist, in the grossness of his carnal apprehension, conse- crates a wafer and believes he is in very fact eating the flesh of Christ; he consecrates a little water and believes it has changed him all over. " How is it that ye do not understand that I spake it not to you concerning bread when I said. Except, etc.; verily in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaiah as much as in those of old." It is involved in the giving of a revelation from God Interpretation and Ritualism. 77 that it should be comprehended, but it is not involved that the comprehension should be by miraculous endow- ment; the supposition is rather that it must be by the faculties of judgment and reason given us for that pur- pose, coupled with that spirit of sympathy, without which no book or communication is well understood. TK^se do not insure infallibility, whether exercised by a pope or anyone else; they insure a degree of correctness, cor- responding to the degree of intelligence and spiritual insight on the part of the reader. When the pope claims for himself the gift of God's spirit to enable him to un- •derstand the Scriptures, he, claims only what God has promised to all his children for the same purpose. If the pope makes his claim on the ground of character and spiritual sonship, his claim, if he is a child of God, is as good as any other child of God; if he claims it on the ground of office, it is a carnal apprehension of spiritual truth. The promise of the holy Spirit is '*to all those that obey him" and there is no respect of persons with God." Office, title and dress does not count with God, and will not enable one to work the miracle of infallibly comprehending the Bible. The difficulty is not in get- ting at its meaning as though it were a mystery; the difficulty on the part of priests and popes as well as lay- men, is to produce a heart and mind open to the truth. We believe that the holy Spirit given to all the chil- dren of God does make them less fallible and faulty ac- cording to the measure in which they receive it. But neither the promise of God nor any experience would justify us in claiming absolute infallibility; if this were the case, then all Christians would be infallible, for they all have the gift of God's Spirit, if they are indeed his children. But anyone who undertakes to interpret the 78 Christianity and Our Times. Scriptures, even if he be not a pope, does claim some- thing^ akin to infallibility, he claims that he is right; if he is honest he cannot claim anything less for his interpre- tation. But in claiming he is right he does not ask any- one to take his word for it, he allows that his assertion of being right may be brought to the test; and the test in this case is the Word of God, as read and understood by others, who as men of intelligence and children of God, have an equal right to judge. The difference there- fore in the claim of being infallible and the claim of being simply right, is, that the latter does not persevere in his claim, unless it can stand the test of the Word of God* and the judgment of honest men; but a claim to infalli- bility demands that the interpretation shall be taken for granted to be right, and deny to others the right to test it, or examine it critically. If an interpretation be left open to criticism and future review, a wrong impression may be corrected, but if it is established by infallibility, it remains established whether right or wrong. In the Catholic Church, the miraculous endowment claimed by the head of the church assumes that.shape of mechanical appliance characteristic of ritualistic cnurches, which serve as a substitute for spiritual operations. He claims the endowment as a miraculous gift to work a miracle of infallibility, not merely as a power to en- lighten his understanding and bring him into sympathy with truth; he claims it on the ground of office and in his capacity as official, rather than on the ground of spiritual sonship and holy aspirations. Catholics are bound to, and do believe, that a wicked pope would have this supernatural endowment equally with one who had some ground in character to claim a degree of the power. The work of interpretation is that of an office. Interpretation and Ritualism. 79 and the process a mechanical certainty. A perplexing question is brought to this ofifice, run through the pro- cess and comes out infallibly settled. Questions not only in theology, but in science and politics, used to be settled in the same infallible way. Questions in astro- nomy and other sciences were brought to the pope, run through the process, and declared infallibly settled. But science became active, and proved that the process was a blunder, and the result anything but infallible. In the presence of certain facts, by which the result could be tested, the infallible process was not a success, and was therefore abandoned, except in theology, where demon- stration is not obtainable. It would be well for Christiendom if no other or worse error existed than those due to want of infallibil- ity on the part of men in interpreting the Scriptures. It is sufficient that the laws of God are infallible, even as the laws of nature;, with a sure basis for our reasoning, the exercise of this with the rest of our faculities willin- sure satisfactory results. It were better that the results should be in a slight measure faulty than that man should be reduced to an automaton, simply to be worked by God as a mechanical certainty. The greatest cause of error is want of apprehension of, or sympathy with truth. Eccentric or undisciplined minds have at times started errors that have found considerable acceptance. But the worst of all errors are due to mercenary motives. To fill the coffers of church and ecclesiastics, to establish them in power and keep the masses in subjection, interpreta- tions have been put upon the Word of God that anyone may pronounce infallibly to be the work of "cunning craftiness." Master minds of intelligence are doubtless needed 8o Christianity and Our Times. for the heavy work of systematizing truths and harmon- izing doctrines, but otherwise, in the words of Christ, it is often revealed to babes what is hidden from the wise and prudent." Ecclesiastics in high authority are apt to have their particular party and interests to defend, and this is apt to blind their vision, and prejudice their minds. The humble child of God, who comes to the Bible with no other desire than that of knowing his Father's will, has in this singleness of aim a great ad- vantage in realizing and appreciating the truth. There is therefore no need of taking second-handed what one can find in its original purity in the Word of God. But the position of middlemen is profitable in religion as well as in trade and politics. Popes and priests have established themselves as such middlemen. They are like the smart politician, who is never weary of assuring his constituents that their interests are safe in his hands, and that all what they have to do is to put in their vote and pay their taxes; or they might be likened to the dishonest middleman in trade, who not only demands a large percentage of profit, but falsifies his wares and cheats his customers; thus popes and priests not only levy heavy tribute, but falsify the doctrines to suit their selfish purposes, and tell their dupes that it is reserved for them alone to understand the Word of God, that they may keep the knowledge of their knavery from the common people. The difference between the evangelical and ritual- istic interpretation of the Scriptures, is, as we have seen, not a mere disagreement about the meaning of passages, it is the difTerence between the carnal and the spiritual interpretation of Christianity as a whole. As apprehen- Interpretation and Ritualism. 8i sion of the spiritual element in religion grows weak and feeble, ceremonials are multiplied, and the stress laid upon them magnified; a^ was seen in the Jewish church up to the time of Christ; in the development of the Romish system, after the decadence of primitive Chris- tianity, and as seen at present among Ritualists of the Anglican communion. The fact of the Holy Spirit and his work in the redemption of men, as plainly taught in the Scriptures, could not be denied. They symbolize this work in their ceremonials, which are so many at- tempts to account for and manifest what they have failed to realize by personal experience or spiritual apprehen- sion. The fundamental doctrine of the church is that of regeneration, the Holy Spirit taking possession of a human soul, infusing into it his own life, and transform- ing it into the likeness of God. By virtue of this " con- version " or "new birth" a person is admitted into fel- lowship with the church. So teach both the Ritual- ists and the Evangelicals. But here at the very founda- tion of Christianity we mark the difference between the carnal and spiritual interpretation. The Ritualists, find- ing it necessary to account for, and give expression to the spiritual doctrine of regeneration in some way, do so by making the symbol of regeneration equivalent to the fact of regeneration. This symbol is baptism. In the primitive church, when a person professed his faith in Christ, and it was ascertained that his faith had pro- duced repentance and conversion, or regeneration, then he was taken into the church, having the rite of baptism administered to him as a token of the regeneration sup- posed to have taken place. In ritualistic churches, in- stead of baptism being administered as a token of a re- 82 Christianity and Our Times. generation already brought about by repentance and faith, it is administered to produce regeneration. Not that it is supposed that the sprrnkHng of water alone pro- duces this change, but it is believed that when baptism is administered by the priest in due order — great stress is laid on this — then the Holy Spirit will be present and regenerate the infant or adult, as the case may be. Ac- cording to their faith, a tremendous change has taken place in the baptized person; before baptism he was carnal and a child of the devil; now he is spiritual and a child of God. That no such change has ever been wit- nessed actually to take place by the mere administration of this rite, either in infants or adults, is not apparently their business. If it is not baptism, then they do not know what it is. According to their own way of putting it, to baptize a person is to make him a Christian, and he is made a Christian by being baptized. Their statement of the case reflects severely upon St. Paul, for he tells us in one of his Epistles, that he baptized but a few, con- sequently made but few Christians. It would even imply that the Apostle is a trifle blasphemous, for he actually thanks God that he has baptized but a few. • Christ fares nothing better, for it is said of him expressly, that he did not baptize, he left that to his disciples as subordinate work. Regeneration, as has been said, is the qualification for church membership, so admitted to be both by Ri- tualists and Evangelicals. When this regeneration is re- quired as a fact, manifest by its fruit, then the church becomes what it was originally meant to be. When bap- tism, either of infants or adults, is made to stand for re- generation, it becomes equivalent to the whole popula- tion of every kind and character, as we see it in ritual- Interpretation and Ritualism. 83 istic State Churches, both Catholic and Protestant, where everybody are, by virtue of infant baptism, members of the church, profane, wicked, worldly of every grade. No wonder the Catholics have found it expedient to insti- tute an order of Saints in the church, to represent its holiness, but according to Bible definition of the Church of Christ, all its members are Saints, or else they are in- truders. In keeping with tlieir system, and the same law of carnal interpretation is their doctrine of apostolic suc- cession. When the Jews, at the time of Christ, boasted of being in the succession by virtue of their descent from Abraham, John the Baptist told them that their boast was a small matter, God might from the very stones rise up children to Abraham. Christ likewise rebuked their carnal ideas and lack of spiritual apprehension, when they made the same boast before him. He tells them that they might be the children of the devil, for all that they were children of Abraham according to the flesh. He tells them that "the flesh" — the mere carnal, or outward, profits nothing, it is "the Spirit that giveth life." Still, the Jews persisted in pointing to their long genealogies, leading back to the fathers and patriarchs, claiming, by virtue of this succession, to be " the only true church," for which reason St. Paul in like manner re- bukes them. He tells them that their succession by book and numbers is vain; that it is those that have the faith of Abraham and the Spirit of the Patriarchs, that are their true successors. This was quite incomprehen- sible to the ritualistic Jews; they must establish their re- lation to the fathers by some outward proof or token. So it is with Ritualists of to-day; they count back their succession to the apostles by an uninterrupted laying on 84 Christianity and Our Times. of hands, duly numbered and booked down. We tell them that their succession is according to the flesh" — outward circumstance — and *^the flesh profited nothing." It is those that have the faith and spirit of Christ and the apostles that are their true successors. But speaking of being in the succession of Christ and the apostles in any sense of the word, it is well to bear in mind that Christ, and the apostles that were with him, in instituting and organizing the church, laying down rules and delivering doctrines, had an authority and an office, to which no one can succeed. The words they spoke, their teaching as preserved in the Scriptures, is their successor, and stands as their authority in the church for all ages. The whole body of believers, which is the church, acts under this authority, and is the active agent in making practical application of it in all depart- ments of rule and Christian work. Gradually the church acquired and discharged this responsibility, even while the apostles lived, and were plainly meant to assume the whole of it after their death, in harmony with the great principle of equality, laid down by Christ, who said: Call no man rabbi, father or master, for one is your teacher and master,even Christ, and all ye are brethren." It is needless to say that this principle does not rule in ritualistic churches. The clergy constitutes an oligarchy, apart from lay-members, as in the Catholic Church, where the pope elects the cardinals, and cardinals in their turn elect the pope, and together they elect all who have orders in the church. Lay-members have nothing to do but submit to them as teachers and masters, supreme and infallible. When Christ was about to leave his disciples, he Interpretation and Ritualism. 85 promised to send them a " comforter " in his place — " the Spirit of truth" which the world could not receive, but only those that were in sympathy with him. It should be the invisible presence in place of the visible Savior. The Roman Catholics have materialized this invisible presence in the Eucharist. The wafer in the hands of the priest is transmuted into the literal body of Christ and given to the people, that they may in eating it have Christ in them. The doctrine is worked for all that it is worth, and everything involved in it is fully admitted, as for instance in the following quotation from a Catholic authority, which is but the echo of Catholic writers in general. " Every day multitudes of priests, be they fer- vent, lukewarm or vicious, it is the same, summon him (Christ) where it pleases them, give him to whom they will, confine him under lock and key, and dispose of him at their pleasure." The carnal interpretation with its gross materialism could go no farther than this. One may laugh at the absurdity or cry at the blasphemy and folly of it with equal reason. Argument would be out of place. The irony of the prophet Esaiah in denouncing idolatry would be appropriate, his language need hardly be changed to be applicable. " He burned part thereof in the fire, with part thereof he eated flesh, he roasted roast and is satisfied; and the residue thereof he maketh a god, he falleth down unto it and worshippeth it, and prayeth unto it, and saith deliver me for thou art my god. He feedeth on ashes, a*deceived heart hath turned him aside, that he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, is there not a lie in my right hand." ,But it must be ob- served about this interpretation and doctrine, that in common with all the doctrines and interpretations of the Catholic Church it serves the purpose of the priestly ! 86 Christianity and Our Times. oligarchy wonderfully. What importance must be at- tached to the priest who thus has the Almighty at his disposal, can summon him at his will, deal him about to whom he will, and keep him under lock and key when not wanted. It has been in the hands of the priests a mighty engine for securing their own glorification, and the abject homage and submission of the masses. In keeping with the same carnal interpretation of Christianity is ritualistic worship. St. Paul in the 14th chapter of his first letter to the Corinthians describes a meeting of a congregation of Christians, such as he ap- proved of in the churches he organized. It is strictly speaking, a meeting of brethren upon the principle of equality laid down by Christ, where all might prophesy, and all take a part according to any gift or grace which they might possess, subject only to the general rule that all should be done decently and in order and serve the purpose of edification. It is needless to say that ritual- istic churches have no meetings or worship of this char- acter. In their churches the priest appears supreme, above and apart from the congregation; ceremonials and sacraments administered by the priest take the place of mutual edification. The word " sacrament" is not in the Bible, literally "holy act." Pronounced in a foreign tongue, it is invested with an air of supernatural import- ance, which serves well the purpose of the priest. This impression is enhanced as the priest appears up by the altar, arrayed in sacerdotargarments, handling the sacred vessels, performing the solemn rites, pronouncing the magic words, whicli are supposed to possess supernat- ural power. The congregation meanwhile as awe-struck spectators are passive recipients of the priestly ministra- tion. This as we suggested may serve the purpose of Interpretation and Ritualism. 87 the priest, but it is not what St. Paul describes as Chris- tian worship in a congregation of Christians. In treating of this subject we have treated of a system not of individuals; if individuals are better than the system to which they belong, that.is their honor and does notjn the least excuse the system. But upon the whole, the ritualistic system finds a ready response in the human heart, which in its natural state is carnal, and more than willing to take up with a carnal interpretation of religion. It is not to be wondered at, therefore, that the mechanical process of salvation finds many adherents, it is a broad way and many there be that walk therein. To be told by an infallible pope orpriest what to believe, suits them better than to search the Scriptures to find what the Lord requires. To be put through the process of regeneration by priestly baptism is easier than to seek to God for it by repentance and faith. Communion with God by the Holy Spirit as a personal experience is beyond his comprehension, but if it can be done by eating a wafer prepared by the priest, he is equal to it. The confirmation of the Christian life by a continual process of spiritual discipline, would seem a tedious af- fair, but if he can be confirmed once for all by a priestly rite, he is quite willing. To love God with all the heart, mind and strength, appears vague and perplexing, but he can understand this feast-day kept and that fast ob- served, so much of tithes for the priest; a cash consider- ation paid and have done with is far easier than a spirit- ual obligation. Faith in Christ that saves and transforms the character is difficult, but faith in an old blackened bone of a supposed St. Anne, a supposed mother of Mary, of whose life, death, burial and bones there is no record anywhere, faith in this with accompanying machine 88 Christianitv and Our Times. miracles is as natural as anything. To be told by Christ to strive earnestly to enter the strait gate by personal effort and personal holiness appears most wearisome, but if he can buy sanctification of the priest during life, and be by him put through the strait gate at the last moment by holy oil and general absolution, he is content to go to heaven. Why should he weary himself with life-long preparations for what can be done at the last moment by the priest. It must be confessed, however, that even the Catholic Church has had some misgivings about the completeness of this mechanical product, for they have invented a purgatory to finish it. CHAPTER VII. CREED AND DISCIPLINE. "Of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them . — Hold fast the form of sound words." — Paul. Why the creeds of Christendom are many while Christ and his Gospel are one, is a question often asked. While it is unfortunate that there should be any occasion for it, it is not in itself very perplexing in the light of general experience, for we know how difficult it is for men to arrive at precisely the same conclusion on any important question. Among Christians, worthy the name, there may be said to be practical unanimity in regard to the essential doctrines. Much schism has been caused by undue stress upon details; also by medling with speculative questions that are not necessarily part of the faith. Mercenary motives have had their share in creating er- rors and divisions; love of party, power and pleasures, have placed definitions upon the Word of God, that would make a heathen blush. The many creeds of Christendom are not therefore due to any inherent difficulty in understanding the Bible, but to cupidity and lack of spiritual insight, to man's general infirmi- ties in part, and to his willful depravity largely. The oneness of Christendom is no doubt a consum- mation devoutly to be wished for, but after all, it is but go Christianity and Our Times. a circumstance about Christianity, and not the thing it- self. Our Savior prayed for the oneness of the church. He must have taken its existence for granted, before he could pray that it might be one. In praying for his disciples that they might be one, he acknowledged that they might be disciples in fact, even though they were not one in a visible union. He prayed for the visible union of his followers, the spiritual union could not be prayed for as a contingency; for disciples cannot be such in fact, unless they have the same Spirit of Christ, and are therefore spiritually one. What Christ prayed for was a circumstance that would greatly increase the efficiency and power of the church in the world— as we see of his words " that the world may know" — not there- fore that the church and Christianity might have an exist- ence, for that was taken as granted, but that the world might have additional proof, be the more impressed, easier convinced, and also that the.church itself might be saved from trouble. Christ, in praying, prayed for his disciples, those that were such in fact, by virtue of his spirit and faith. Without such there can be no true church. Those that are not such w^ere not prayed for, and we conceive it is indifferent to Christ whether they are one or twenty. How many of the professed Christians of Christendom come within the scope of Christ's prayer, is not a ques tion to be argued, but it is only those that have his spirit and keep his word. When those of which this can 7zot be said boast of their unity by virtue of the same external circumstances and church machinery, they make that the essential, which is but a circum- stance, though a very important one. Regeneration by God's Spirit is the basis of a Christian character, and Creed and Discipline. 91 those that possess this character are the church. Vis- ible union may be regarded as the top-stone rather than the basis. Those who make unity the basis, invert the pyramid, they begin with the top-stone and end with nothing. The unification of the different sects of Christen- dom has of late been seen in the light of its importance, and been subject to much discussion. Plans for bring- ing about the desired result have been proposed. The need of a general conversion of nominal Christians be- fore any consistent union could be brought about, has some times been pointed out, but more generally lost sight of. It is not, however, certain that even this would secure visible union, for natural infirmities might still prevent it. It is certain that it would greatly facilitate such union. A basis for union is suggested by the Catholic Church: the absolute rule of one person, to which*the conscience and reason of all must bend. If unity is the one thing above all things to be desired, then this plan should receive serious consideration, for the success of it in the Catholic Church is n^anifest. VVc prefer disunion rather than union on this plan, for the same reason that we prefer a live body, although subject to disorders, to a spiritual corpse, however quiet and easily ruled. Another basis is urged with great vehemence now- adays, it is that of "breadth." It is not quite clear where the real basis is, or where we are to look for the solid rock, for even the most liberal would hardly want to build on quicksand. Something solid must be pre- supposed, in spite of their own utterances, which would not warrant so charitable a view of their propositions. 'The terms "broad basis," *' liberal views," coupled with 92 Christianity and Our Times. progress of some kind, is too indefinite to determine with nice accuracy what is meant. All that we are made sure of, is, that the basis must be very broad and Hberal so as to include all, or as many as possible. That it would be possible to include all, or even man}^ could not, however, be hoped for, unless we could convince them equally with ourselves that a very broad and lib- eral basis is the thing. We might fling our doors wide open for all, but what if they would not come. We might assure them that they were welcome to stand with us on the common broad basis, that there js nothing in them that we object to. They might make this very thing their objection, our general indifference and indefinitc- ness. This basis of "breadth" could not hang in the air, it would have to settle somewhere, probably it would find a natural resting-place in agnosticism. This, if it is also somewhat indefinite, is at least a fixed quantity in that it is a plain profession of doubt and suspense. The attitude of the agnostic is not without interest and a cer- tain fascination; to be able to stand aside from the re- ligious quarrels and disputes, and view them with the air of one who may be interested but not concerned, is an enviable position if it can be honestly maintained. If, moreover, he has the feeling that he is above this clamor and noise because he knows better^^^it must be to him a ' source of pride and gratification. He may with a good deal of satisfaction congratulate himself that he " is not in it." But then the question arises; what if he after all is in it in spite of himself. He acknowledges that there may be a God to whom he sustains responsible relation and that something or a great deal may be involved in this relation; only he does not know. Is his position Creed and Discipline. 93 after all consistent or can it be harmonized with reason? Is it at all possible that there could be a God towards whom we sustain a responsible relation, with much in- volved, unless this God has revealed it to us with suffi- cient clearness to make us without excuse if we fail to recognize it? Suppose a ruler should make laws or de- crees, and hold his subjects responsible for their observ- ance but fail to promulgate his laws so they might be known. Or suppose a father to hold his children re- sponsible for the doing of his will, but does not reveal his will to them with sufficient clearness for them to un- derstand. In the revelation of God to men, we perceive a nice balance between what is sufficient and what would overpower the will. But if God has made no revelation to us of his will, then we may say freely that there is no God; or that we do not sustain any relation to him, which amounts to the same. But if agnosticism is not meant by the demand for a broad basis, then it will probably be allowed that in spite of the utmost liberality there is yet something that must be insisted upon, that the basis if ever so broad must be sound. If this is the idea, then there must at least be a limit to the breadth of our basis, and our boasted liberal- ity will have to end somewhere. The question then is the same as ever — where is the limit, what must we in- sist upon? Even our new departure would not allow that anything false or wrong should be allowed on the ground we stand upon; so we arc back to precisely the old ground, for there are none but avow themselves lib- eral enough to include all the truth, and even our most liberal friends would not knowingly include anything more. But everything is not truth, as all will admit, here is the check upon our liberality. If our basis stretch 94 Christianity and Our Times. beyond the truth, it is too broad; if it is confined to less it is too narrow. We may, therefore, be in fault as well one way as the other. If we choose a basis because it is broad we use a hap-hazard method just as much as if we choose it because it is narrow. Reasonably we can choose as a basis of faith only what we believe to be truth, nothing more and nothing less, be it either broad or narrow, or be it impossible to apply either adjective to it. The only reason we can have to glory in our faith, or the basis of it, is the assurance that it is founded on truth. We would not sacrifice Christianity for the sake of the Church and its unity. We would not have the way broad as the road to perdition for the sake of having everybody walk with us. This indefinite talk about breadth and liberality, is but the meaningless rattle of muddled heads and godless hearts. But it is evident, that a great deal of unity might be effected among Pro- testants, without sacrificing any principle of faith and practice. The differences between the principal evan- gelical sects do not concern themselves about essentials, and this is in a fair way of being understood. The precise way in which to administer the rite of baptism, is not now considered sufficient cause for quarrel; most evan- gelical sects are willing to have it administered in any way that suits the applicant. In the same way with the doctrine of predestination, peculiar to the Presby- terian creed, it is scarcely ever now made an object* of dispute. It is kept in the background, for even those who hold it theoretically, know that it does not work well in practice, when appealing to free moral agents. It might be held as it is now, without interferring with fellowship and union. But even if the best could be Creed and Discipline. 95 done in the way of union among professed Christians, three distinct divisions would be demanded by funda- mental principles of faith. The Catholics would have to constitute one distinct body, and the Protestants would have to be divided between Ritualists and Evangelicals. There would be besides these, a distinct religious body, composed of Unitarians and those allied to them in faith, the Liberals of the new departure. These are practically one in belief, and would work together with- out any jar or disputes; reason demands that they should, and they might fill the want of a certain class of people. They could not consistently be included among Chris- tians; their Christ and Christianity is of their own making. Among the most sanguine of believers in the pro- gressiveness of our age, it is not uncommon to predict a time near at hand when even Protestants and Catho- lics shall be united in one body. If such indeed could happen, it would be the most stupendous and far-reach- ing event of the age. Those who know what the dis- tinction between the two bodies ha^ meant in the past, what it means now, and may mean in the future, will fully admit this. But could this result be imagined brought about by any process, some revolutionary change would have to take place in the Catholic Church before it could be at all possible. We might imagine the Catholic Church coming to herself like the prodigal, and asking seriously — " What after all is Christianity, what did Christ teach?" She might call a council for the purpose of deciding this question. It ought not in itself to be very difficult to decide, seeing all the information we have on the subject is found in the New Testament, and comprises only a g6 Christianity and Our Times. few hours reading. She would have to confine herself to this information. She would have to break with the past; this ought not to be hard, for it has been cruel and bloody beyond description. She would have to throw aside the rubbish of false interpretations, imposi- tions and folly accumulated through ages; neither ought this be very hard, for some of the popes and their tools were among the worst of men, as Catholics will admit, and their definitions and doctrines foisted upon the church are moral monstrosities and intellectual absurd- ities. But then, on the other hand, there is human na- ture, with all that it implies. A going back to the New Testament would touch self-interests, power and pride. And we have to admit that there is no prospect of the result anticipated. The spirit of the middle ages rules in the ruling portion of the Catholic Church with as much malignity as it ever did. By the ruling portion we under- stand the ecclesiastic machine and the fanatical masses behind it. Of course, there are good Catholics in the true sense, liberal Catholics and infidel Catholics; these classes, made up of 4;he more intelligent, support a lib- eral government in nearly all Catholic countries at pres- ent; how long they will be able to keep themselves in power is a question of great interest. It is not therefore that the Protestant Church could not be induced to shake hands with the Catholic across the bloody chasm of millions martyred and millions slain. We could, if those hands were cleansed by repentance and reformation, but they are yet red with the blood of tens of thousands of murders, that have never been re- pented of, nor abhorred, nor regretted. Intolerance survived among the Protestants, as did other Catholic errors, for some time after the reformation, but the spirit Creed and Discipline. 97 of the reformation is against it, it fell naturally, and is now repudiated and abhorred by all Protestant denomi- nations. It has never been repudiated by the Catholic Church; they may well boast of unchangeable principles, and of them all there is none more unchangeable than that of conformity or extermination. For a thousand years she upheld this principle with fire and sword, and at an estimated cost of fifty millions of human lives. She clung to it with the tenacity of a thirty years war in Ger- many, and nearly a century of wars in Holland, and force alone prevented her from carrying it out to the total sup- pression of Protestantism. But after all, this exhibition of the depravity of hu- man nature, is only an example on a large scale of what we see illustrated every day around us. We know with what energy and tenacity even the smallest trust or monopoly will fight for their special privileges, their ex- clusive rights. The Catholic Church is a monopoly on a gigantic scale. She claims the special privilege, the sole right of saving the souls of men. This to her has been profitable business, and in her way of doing it, not hard work. In it is involved her claim upon the civil power to enforce her laws and impose her penalties, not relinquished, although not complied with to the same ex- tent as in the middle -ages. There is involved in it that claim to supremacy over all things, civil and religious, which the Catholic Church has never withdrawn. What the church is fighting for, and has fought for with a des- peration that has trampled upon every claim of humanity, is not some particular religious creed, it is this monopoly with its immense interests of wordly power, wealth and homage. It is the fear of losing this, that fired her zeal and frenzied her heart at the mere sight of a Bible in the I 98 Christianity and Our Times. hands of a layman, that made her stir all Christendom to wipe out in flame and blood even the least indication of rebellion against her authority. Does anyone doubt that she is still fighting for her monopoly, her special privi- lege and exclusive right. She is fighting for it with all the weapons of spiritual and carnal warfare, openly or in the dark, under the guise of friendship or undisguised as an enemy, and if anybody thinks she will quit doing it, he knows but little of human nature. But what of the countless masses that uphold her power and submit to her control. It is not so much that they are ignorant, but they are interested in getting their souls saved as cheaply as possible. The Catholic Church offers them salvation on terms favorable to human nature; on easy terms, so to speak, for what after all is fixed tribute and rules, feasting, fasting, and ceremony, com- pared with intelligent, personal, heart and soul effort. The masses upon the whole consider that they have a good bargain of it. If anyone doubts, let him read history, or notice a Catholic mob, in some of our cities. If anyone should dare to tell these masses that their priests deceive them; that they are un- able to fulfill their promises, or make good their bar- gains, we have the rage of the mob, the frenzy of St. Bartholomew and a thousand horrors. An all important salvation to be secured and an easy way of securing it, is a principle in religion and not to be trifled with. Reforms in the Catholic Church can only be super- ficial improvements of local or temporary character, there can be no permanent or effectual reform. The roots of all evil are found in her organization and princi- ples, and they will be apt to spring up and bear their legitimate fruit under any favorable circumstances, and Creed and Discipline. 99 what that is, history fully informs us. Some would dis- tinguish between the religious and political capacity of the church, and oppose her in one capacity while not in the other. The church itself knows no such distinction. The doctrines and interpretations of the Catholic Church have this peculiarity, that they are made and maintained with special reference to her political or worldly power. They are but the foundation stones on which rests the tremendous superstructure of worldly interests of all kinds. Does anyone imagine that the Catholic Church would strenuously insist on her interpretation of a cer- tain passage connected with the apostle Peter, and coupled with the invention that he was the first pope at Rome, unless it precisely suited her purpose of worldly powerand control. Where the selfish design is so manifest, to argue is folly. The doctrine of mass and purgatory, what is it, but a most ingenious scheme for levying trib- ute. How well does the doctrine of the " real presence" serve to secure homage and superstitious regard. The opportunities of the confessional as means of power and control is notorious. How much in her system serve in- directly the same purpose by appealing to the intellectual and spiritual sloth of perverted human nature. As with her doctrine so with her discipline, no one is ever ex- pelled on any moral ground, but let them in any way question the authority on which rests her political or worldly power, they are at once pronounced worthless and got rid of. If the clergy of many Catholic countries are dissolute and greedy to a degree of audacity, and the people degraded, ignorant and foolish, it never causes a ripple of agitation or discontent on the banks of the Tiber, as long as they do not dispute the authority of the church. loo Christianity and Our Times. Among Protestants, the Episcopalians have of late been forward with plans for union, and among them more especially the extreme ritualists. Some of their efforts and propositions are amusing because so appar- ently innocent. They do not seem to perceive that the difference between them and the Evangelicals, is anything more than a matter of ceremony, succession and the lay- ing on of hands. But the difference between regenera- tion and church membership by priestly rite and cere- mony, and the same by a spiritual change in character, realized by personal experience, and manifest by its fruit is fundamental and cannot be bridged over by mutual concessions. The Evangelicals must first forget what is fundamental in their faith, and what caused their separa- tion from the state churches, before they can unite on a basis of ceremony and circumstance. Aside from this, we may readily admit that the difference practically is not so great as theoretically, for ritualists are not neces- sarily confined in their spiritual aspirations to what their system affords, while among Evangelicals competition coupled with an ambition for numbers and popularity, often betray them into laxity of discipline. But as to the respective systems, it is the difference between the carnal and spiritual interpretation of Christianity.* The one is a creation of the civil power, whether in the hands of popes or kings; the other, in its inception, was the return to the Christianity of the Bible, by men who had a true understanding of it. A creed or church discipline is not a substitute for, nor a supplement to the Word of God; it is a means of keeping the church pure and orderly. The church would have no need of creed or discipline if it were sure to have Creed and Discipline. ioi to do with none but honest, intelligent and spiritual Christians, It is the law or rule of the church, but as St. Paul says, the law is not meant for the righteous but for the unrighteous. The church is sure to have to do with such as need law and rule to restrain and guide. There will be such as would " pervert the Gospel of Christ," those that " creep in unawares" — having hot the faith," those that would make godliness an occasion of gain," and others who "having left their first love" be- gan to give heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils — vainly puffed up by their fleshly mind" — unto whom the Word of God soon becomes distasteful, who will be tempted by a love of notoriety and popularity to make innovations in conformity to worldly taste. Such as have theories of their own they wish to circulate, and for this purpose would make use of the church. Unless the church has the means of getting rid of all such easy and effectually, it would in time disintegrate and become shapeless as well as helpless. But it may be said; has not the church the Bible, which is the supreme rule of faith and practice, why not judge all offenders by this supreme standard. It has been pointed out elsewhere that the Bible is not written in the form of a law book, and was not meant to deal with those who are dishonest, conceited and unruly. Interpretations of the Bible may be made to serve selfish interests or spiritual blindness. For this reason the church must define her doctrine, forbid lawless interpre- tation, and have rules and discipline for bringing offend- ers to account. A loose definition is of no value in dealing with offenders. Suppose we make " faith in Christ" the con- dition for church fellowship; tjie Christ might be any- 102 Christianity and Our Times. thing from the "good man "of the Unitarians to " the only begotten of the Father,'' the faith might be either dead or alive, it might be everything or nothing. Or suppose we make " love to God " the condition; the love might be a mere sympathetic impulse, or it might be a ruling principle. God might be the God of providence and the Bible, or he might be " the soul of the universe" toward whom we sustain no relation. It has become increasingly necessary to have strict definitions, and firm rules to enforce them, for modern heretics may and do freely subscribe to any creed or to any view of the Bible, knowing that they may depend upon their ingenuity to put an interpretation upon it that will enable them to hold the opposite of what is literally expressed. In such cases the church must insist upon her own interpretation and upon honesty on the part of those that subscribe to her creed. Unless the church had power and disposi- tion to deal with this kind of cases, it would become a bundle of inconsistencies, a conglomeration of every kind of belief and unbelief. We are being told by the leaders of the new de- parture, reassuringly, in the words of Thomas Jefferson, that " that error is dangerless if truth is left free to com- bat it." This may or may not be true, but at any rate, the church should not be battle ground for the combat. She is not an institution for the pugilistic encounter of truth and error, furnishing both with a free asylum, and the spectators with a free show. The church was meant to be an asylum for truth alone; she was meant to be "the pillar and ground of the truth," to uphold it and equip it for conquest. She is under no obligation to give error the same privilege, and no appeal on the ground of breadth and lib^erality should induce the church Creed and Discipline. 103 to act as a disinterested mother and protector to both, anxious to give them an equal chance. Error belongs to what Christ calls " the world." The world will take care of its own, there is no fear but what it will be equipped and given a chance. A state of conflicting opinions, doubt, suspense and speculation, is the proper and inevitable state of the ir- religious world outside the church. It is so conceived of and described in the Word of God. But the church is supposed to consist of Christians, and Christians are supposed to have settled convictions as to faith and duty, even to a degree of assurance that can say as the apostle does, " we know." A faith and assurance, founded not merely on historical evidence, but on personal experience and realization of the power of the truth of which they pro- fess to have become convinced. A church that is non- committal as to faith and doctrine, that has no settled convictions, cannot, according to the New Testament, be called a church; they had better disband, take their place with the world, first settle their doubts and de- termine what they believe, and not make a profession of faith till they can answer in the affirmative that question an apostle once put to a candidate for baptism, " If thou believest with all thine heart thou mayest." There seems to have been a settled plan in operation the last forty years to bring about the present apostasy. The process has been gradual and the development sys- tematic. To sow the seed of error and make it grow, there must first be a breaking up of the doctrines and settled convictions of the church; this has been accom- plished by an incessant uproar about dogma, theology and anything except the cloudy phantasm of doubt and suspense. After the leaven of this invidious clamor had 104 Christianity and Our Times. worked a while, and a sentiment had been created in the church that took pride in saying "we do not know," in- stead of the apostolic " we know," there was a bold at- tack upon the infallibility of the Bible and its essential doctrines. We were told, in effect, that while the fruits of Christianity was all that could be desired, the* roots might very well be rooted up and the stem left to decay. What does it matter as we have the fruit. This view has been enthusiastically accepted by a portion of the churches. The trend of modern Liberalism is the opposite of the assurance of faith spoken of in the Bible. To the Liberals, Christianity is something yet to be constructed by "modern scholarship," or evolved by evolution, rather than " the faith once delivered to the Saints," and permanently settled by Christ and his apostles. The withering sco^ n, with which Christ and St. Paul spoke of the wisdom of the scholarship in their days, may be understood when we notice the arrogancy and self-con- ceit of what go by that name nowadays. Hid' from the wise and prudent," says Christ, "and revealed unto babes"; "counting themselves wise they became fools," says St. Paul, and "the wisdom of this world is foolish- ness with God." Infidelity under the guise of "modern scholarship" is very much like infidelity under any other name. Faith may exist in connection with some error, as goodness may exist in spite of some faults, but neither error nor faults can exist, even in the least degree, with- out harm or damage. Even as Christ taught, "Who therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach man so, — teach the least error, he may be saved in spite of it, but he shall be least." When Creed and Discipline. 105 error becomes presumptuous and fundamental, and when faults develop into willful evil-doing, there is an end of excuses, and the duty of the church is plain. She must purge out the leaven of false doctrines and unrighteous- ness. Modern heretics never weary of stirring up strife and confusion about the doctrines of the Bible and the Bible itself. When called to order, they tell us piously, that we are neglecting our work for the sake of doc- trine and controversy. They seemingly claim a monopoly 'of this, and it might be accorded them if they would take their proper place in exercising it. The time is long past, when the churches had a disposition to strain at a gnat, now they are more apt to swallow both gnat and camel. The prevailing zeal of the churches is not for strict doctrine, but for numbers and popularity. Heretics do not receive attention, unless they attack the fundamental doctrines of the faith, and not even then un- less* they are very pronounced and arrogant. Attacks on the authority and infallibility of the Bible involve all that we know or believe about Christianity; there is no source of information outside of it. If this can be proved to be unreliable, then it can be shown that we know nothing certain about what we profess, and we are back to the basis of paganism for faith and morals, namely, phi- losophy and human nature, or the compound of both which go by the name of reason. The Bible sinks to the level of ordinary books; we may go to it for help and inspiration, in our effort to find out what is faith and duty, as we would go to Plato or Seneca, Shake- speare or Tennyson, but it can offer us only sugges- tions. It is not the special revelation direct from God, to which human passions and prejudices, speculations and imaginations must submit as the final authority. We io6 Christianity and Our Times. have conceded all that infidelity ever contended for, for infidels are willing to accept the Bible as good, and some of its teaching as "beautiful," if they can be allowed the selective process in dealing with it, and subject it to their views and notions. They are willing to accept of Christ in the same sense, making of him what they will. There are in this case no infidels, nor any quarrel between the two parties. If Christians have been slow to perceive this, infidels have seen it clearly from the start, hence the incessant clamor and uproar in favor of the newtheol- ogy. A shout of jubilee has gone up all along the lines of infidelity ever since the movement took definite form, and all seculardom has rejoiced with the joy described in the book of Revelations, when the two Witnesses that were very troublesome, were at last killed; so much as to cause one to believe Luther was right, when he made out the two Witnesses to be the New and Old Testament. But seculardom did not allow the dead bodies to be laid in their graves; oh, no, after they have been stripped of life and authority, they may well be allowed, for is there not much that is "beautiful" in them. But, after all, is there anything in or about religion that the world, the flesh and the devil hates and fears, except this same open Bible, not dead, but alive with authority. The New Testament has a great deal to say about the duty of the church in the matter of preserving " sound doctrine." It is told to "contend earnestly for the faith" as though there was something fixed and certain to con- tend for, and a need of contending for it; and it is the " faith once delivered to the saints," not someone to be evolved along through the ages. The expression "damnable heresies" is entirely scriptural, heresy ac- cording to the Bible is as damnable as immorality. St. Creed and Discipline. 107 Paul is not liberal in the modern sense of the word, wjien he denounces those that " trouble you, and would per- vert the Gospel of Christ" and goes on to say " let them be accursed." Our liberal churches would object by saying that those who do so are both "nice" and "smart," but St. Paul foresaw this, for he says that though they be veritable St. Pauls or angels from heaven, let them be accursed, and if this seem harsh or if any think there is a mistake, he repeats the same more deliberately. " As we said before, so say I now again. If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed." Most of the epistles are taken up with the teaching of " sound doctrine." The sharpest re- bukes and fiercest denunciations are hurled against those that teach the contrary, or who are " vain babblers " or theorists " intruding into those things which they have not seen, vainly puffed up by their fleshly mind." Mod- ern advocates of "large liberty " and "liberal views" did not receive their inspiration from the Bible, for it takes for granted throughout, that the distinction between truth and error is sharp and well-defined, and that those who will " do the will of God " shall and can " know of the doctrine" that is from God. Christ in his last mes- sage to the churches finds little fault with their charity and good works, but he. finds fault with them because they had allowed false teachers to teach their false doc- trines within the church. They were evidently in the same state as that of liberal churches of to-day from whom the cry of "charity and good works"is incessantly going up. Christ says he knows all about it — " the last more than the first " increased zeal in it, but he tells them he will not take it as an excuse for their spiritual whore- doms and departure from the truth, their toleration of io8 Christianity and Our Times. false teachers and sympathy with their false doctrine. Christ evidently saw in this the greatest peril to his church. " A man that is a heretic after the first and second admonition, reject." This is the New Testament rule for dealing with heretics, those that are presumptuous and self-willed in their error can not be gotten rid of too quickly. The false liberality and slowness of church trial, that allows the heretic to sow his seed of error for months and years after he has been discovered, is a dis- grace to the church and disloyalty to Christ and his truth. Wrong tendencies and false notions among lay members, are-often due to ignorance and want of spiritual insight. Doctrines have been cried down, and system- atic teaching of children and youth neglected. Converts have but little instruction before joining the church, and the lessons of Sunday-school and pulpit are disjointed and inadequate. Reports and statistics have become a terror to the pastors, the temptation to make a show at any rate, is great, and the prevailing liberalism offers little resistance to it. A selfish zeal to save the church and save one's self in a worldly sense becomes dominant; under this influence souls are not born again, they join without the enlightening and sanctifying influence of the Holy Spirit, which otherwise would make up in a meas- ure for lack of instruction. The consequence is that many of the churches are just now in a condition where they are apt to mistake the howling of the wolves for the voice of the shepherd. Some of our professors of theol- ogies have a faint suspicion that there is something in religion, but it is trouble for them to make out what it is; they have been feeding upon the husks of infidelity that were meant for the swine, till now they do not quite Creed and Discipline. 109 know whether there is a God in heaven or whether they have a soul. Candidates for the ministry go from them, their heads crammed with infidel criticism and in their heart a morbid desire to startle the world with some new announcement. The froth of infidelity comes to the surface in their conduct, their conceit generally cor- responds to their lack of spirituality. " These be thy gods, O Israel," and' they are not golden calves either. A writer in a leading periodical has lately boasted that the heterodox seminaries have enough of these brazen calves provided to supply the pulpits throughout the land when the churches shall be ready to receive them, and he contemplates that by that time there will be no lack of " breadth." This is the modern tactics of infidelity. To attack the church and Christianity as avowed enemies has well-nigh ceased, but to work within the church dis- guised as friends and professing the faith has become the rule. The work of disintegration could be done no more effectually than through a skeptical ministry, and strenuous efforts have been made to secure control of theological seminaries. The difficulty involved in keeping these institutions true to Christianity and their appointed mission, should by this time be seen and recognized by the churches. What is being done by them in America, has been done in other countries. In Germany, Rationalism secured a foothold in the seminaries, and through them in the pulpit. The result is that Protestant Germany has be- come unbelieving. What infidelity and skepticism could not have done outside as an avowed enemy of religion, it has done most effectually under the guise of friend- ship and theT assumed name of Christian. Liberalism, likewise in England, allowed the leaven of Romanism to no Christianity and Our Times. be introduced in theological institutions; the result is that to-day one can hardly tell whether the Anglican Church is Protestant o"r Catholic, so thoroughly has it been Romanized In the Apostolic Church, the servants and ministers of various kinds were taken from the bosom of the Church, and chosen after they had demonstrated their fitness and ability. Endowed and self-supporting institutionshave their life too much apart from the church and are apt to become subject to foreign influences. The pride of learning, the conceit of novelties and love of notoriety will take the place of honest striving for spiritual fitness as ministers of the church. Wherever a heap of mammon is piled up in any one place, the world, the flesh, and the devil will strain every nerve to get control. If institutions of this kind must be part of the church machinery, they can not be too strictly and cer- tainly under her control. The church surrenders her life, independence and character, when she allows min- isters and teachers to be imposed upon her that have , been trained under influences apart from the church. The church is responsible for the preservation and promulgation of the truth revealed and committed to her by Christ. Faith in this truth is the basis of all moral qualities and spiritual life. Truth about the true char- acter of God, without a knowledge of which we cannot be God-like. Truth about Christ, involving the whole question whether God indeed has revealed himself in a special plan for the salvation of the world. Truth about the Holy Spirit, answering the question, "will God in- deed dwell on the earth?" "Can we have conscious communion with God?" Truth about a future life: it is of infinite consequence that we should know how much is involved in right-doing and wrong-doing, if infinite Creed and Discipline. hi bliss or woe is involved, and of that importance is right doctrine on the subject. Truth about the Bible, involv- ing the whole question, whether upon the whole, we know anything certain of what we profess. The respon- sibility on the part of the church of teaching and main- taining the truth in its purity, cannot be overestimated, or too much emphasized. She would be infinitely guilty, if she should allow error to be substituted for truth,* or upon the whole be indifferent and negligent as to what is taught. A church that is lacking either the power or the dispo- sition to deal with those that teach or act contrary to the standards of the church, is not in harmony with, the New Testament, neither does it fulfill the requirements of per- sonal honor and integrity, for the one as well as the other of these demands that those who fellowship with us in the church, toward whom we sustain relations and have responsibilties, who have a right to call us brethren, should also be subject to common requirements, and be liable to be called to account if they teach or act contrary to the compact. One would suppose by the demand for liberality in faith and church government, and the pride some take in being considered liberal, that this is the fundamental and crowning glory of religion; but one may be liberal in any sense of the word, without being either religious, virtuous or honest. Christianity is not a negation of this sort. The only reason Christianty has for its existence, is the fact that there is something definite both in regard to faith and practice to be insisted upon, and that it is revealed to us, so that we know it. The church does not compel thought or belief, she compels those that #b not think or believe in harmony with her, to remain separate. Her only weapon is rebuke and 112 Christianity and Our Times. expulsion. The church must take it for granted that the enemies of God and his truth are as ready now as in the days of Christ or St. Paul, to enter the fold as wolves arrayed in sheep's clothing," and she, cannot afford to neglect the repeated warnings of Christ and his apostles to guard against them, and expel them if they hg^ve "crept in unawares." If the church should conclude shelias nothing worth contending for, the world will con- clude she has nothing worth listening to. But this is evidently not the idea of ourliberals and heretics — that there is nothing worth contending for; while they sneer at contention about the doctrines of the Bible, they are contending for their errors with desperate earnest- ness. And while they denounce controversies about the faith of the church, they are filling books and periodicals with controversies in favor of their pet- theories, as though life and death depended on them. CHAPTER VIII. FUTURE PUNISHMENT. " For I have five brethren : that he may testify unto them lest they also come into this place of torment. — Gospel of Luke. The speaker in our text is represented as one of a large family, who, like himself, could not be persuaded that there is a hell, neither by Scripture, nor even by a message from the Spirit world should such be vouchsafed. There are reasons for this unbelief, fear on the one hand and sympathy on the other favor it. Hells, either in this or a future world, are not objects one would con- template from choice. If it were a mere question of inventing or imagining a better state of things than that which exists in this world, or portions of the next, as described in the Bible, it would be very easy to better things; but things are not bettered by speculations and theories. What we have to do is to find out and under- stand the facts as they are presented to us, and govern our faith and practice in accordance with them. The difficulty on the part of those that would refute the "theory of hell" so called, is that there is so little theory about it, and so much fact. The worst hell ever pictured by poet or priest lies within the range of hu- tnan experience in this world. We do not need to draw npon ima^^ation at all, everything, except eternal dur- a:i<)!i may be seen or felt any time; but eternal duration 114 Christianity and Our Times. is in itself only a continuation of the present, and there- fore not something new. Those that have no fear of the revelation of the Bible, may well fear the revelation of our natural life; they are equally fearful in this respect — the one is the complement and affirmation of the other. There are experiences in this life that could not be men- tioned on account of their very horribleness. Unrelieved by the poetical genius of a Dante, the hells of this world and the next would not tolerate description. But proud, vain and boastful generation might do well occa- sionally to ponder that what itwould be intolerable either to speak or hear, what we do not even dare to know lies all within the range of human experience, within the range of possibilities in every case. We boast of in- vincible courage, indomitable will power, and all that sort of thing, while the disorder of a single nerve in a poor, frail body, leaves us helpless and tormented, with- ering both happiness and ambition. " It is true this god did shake; his coward lips did from their color fly; and the same eyes whose bend doth owe the world, did lose their lustre." Man has felt the awfulness of this problem of painf in all ages. The ignorant have tried to put on a bold face and defy it; the philosopher has quailed before it. The prob- lem stares us out of countenance, although it is a very un- philosophical thing in this philosophical age to be stared out of countenance by any problem. Yet very few dare to look at it soberly, if they do not refuse to look at it at all. They excuse themselves by the modern aphorism that we must look at the bright side of things, even when the dark thrusts itself upon us as though it courted inquiry. Undoubtedly the philosophical thing is to%)ok at all sides of life' or any question connected with it. The Future Punishment. 115 pessimist and optimist are equally at fault, but the latter is apt to be the worse deceived. If anyone is so con- stituted that he can look only at one side of life, or any- thing, he had better look at the side from whence dan- ger threatens, so look that he may be aware. It is a fair question to ask what science and civiliza- tion have done towards the solution of this problem of pain. Of course, the mere alleviation of suffering that may be effected by charity does not touch the question as we are now considering it. The discovery of anes- thetics may be said to be a real achievement iruthe field of science. But the very fact that it has been considered a great triumph to be able to deaden the sense of pain, but for a few moments, and this at considerable risk, rather serves to emphasize the fact of our general help- lessness. As for civilization, it has only made us the more sensitive to pain. It is estimated that a civilized person with nervous temperament, suffers three times as much as a savage under the same surgical operation, and civilized man is subject to mental pain and distress that the savage knows nothing of. As we cultivate and in- ten^fy life, the realms of pain and pleasure alike open before us, and in equal proportion. The pain and dis- tress to which we become exposed is in every way equal to the pleasure and happiness we may hope to obtain, even as the degradation of character we may witness any day, is equal in proportion to the exaltation that has been attained. There is an infinitude between the two. Man has not only been able reacfily to conceive of the pains of hell from present experience, but as readily of the characters that fulfill the opposite conditions. The conceptionl^)f angels and devils as painted by the great masters illustrate the extremes to which human character ii6 Christianity and Our Times. tends; as we compare the two we see at once that the distinction between heaven and hell is not arbitrary, but that it exists in character to the full extent pictured in the Bible. Philosophy has attempted to explain the problem of pain on the ground of utility. Something, undoubtedly, may be accounted for on this ground, but, upon the whole, the use it serves is rather incidental, as a solution of the problem the explanation is quite inadequate. Pain may be of use as a means of discipline. The peculiar sensitiveness of the skin may serve the purpose of ward- ing off injury and be so intended. The heart laid bare, it is said, may be pinched without much feeling, If this however, is meant to prove that sensitiveness exists in the skin alone, we are easily undeceived. Internal diseases are not painless. 'Neither does pain cease when it is of no more use as a warning against injury, nor as a disciplinary agency. It continues after the injury has been accomplished and the warning vain. It continues also after an individual has become in- corrigible and discipline useless. Properly speak- ing, all that we know about it is, that whenever there is injury there is pain, there is never pain unless there is injary. This is true of our physical as well as of our tporal being. The pain continues till the injury is healed. If the injury is incurable, the pain is also in- curable. Pain of conscience, properly understood is disciplin- ary. It is irrelevant to'speak of conscience in connection with the damned. As conscience, the divine element in the soul, is eliminated and withdrawn, actual dread of punishment be^;omes more and more an element in re- morse, dreM T/f punishment without any sorrow for evil Future Punishment. 117 doing, till at last there is nothing of conscience left, but "a certain fearful looking for of judgment." "Behold, therefore, the goodness and severity of God" is the language alike of revelation and nature, the impartial observer will find no more nor any less evidence of the one than of the other. But what is most pleasant to contemplate, of that there can be no question. In an age largely sympathetic and sentimental, with no lofty apprehension of moral requirements, we may look for efforts to put the best possible construction upon an evil case. The "best" under these circumstances is not likely to be the most logical. Sound reason would re- quire us to believe that what is involved inhuman nature may be evolved, but the extremes of degradation and elevation, pain and joy, are alike involved. We choose the most felicitous moments of our life, enlarge upon the experience and imagine something beyond, a continuance of this we call heaven; we think of our direst experience, the severest pain we have known, and need imagine nothing more, a continuation of it would be hell, greater than we would want to think of. Vv e have no doubt that the promise of joy and glory will be fulfilled, the seed of the rose and lily will certainly grow, develop and flourish; but the evil seed sown in hearts and cultivated, it is hoped, will somehow prove a failure, its development cut short, and its legitimate fruit fail to appear. But nature, no more than Scripture, encourages this hope. Weeds and thistles have a vitality and immortality seemingly ^ inherent in their nature, which- nothing can eradicate, while the useful plants and grains can only be cultivated into existence, and if cultivation cease they will shortly degenerate into worthless scrubs and grasses from which they had been developed. As far, then, as nature is ii8 Christianity and Our Times. concerned evil may be said to have a natural immortality, but good is conditioned on careful cultivation and it looks as though the same law obtains in the moral world. In view of the doctrine of eternal consequences in- dicated in nature and taught in the Scriptures, it has been suggested, and even boldly declared, that it would have been better if the world had never come into ex- istence, than that so much woe should have been en- tailed. In some moods we might all second this idea, as Christ said of some persons that it would have been better for them if they had not been born; so it may be true of some worlds, that it would have been better if they had not been born. It is implied in the words of Christ that God is not responsible for the propagation and con- tinuation of a wicked race, though for reasons known to himself, and in part revealed, he has not so far seen fit to make an end of it by divine intervention. The prin- cipal reason is undoubtedly that some good is got out of the world in spite of the evil, heaven counts even a single sinner saved a great gain. But as to the world as it now is, God does not assume the responsibility for it, nothing is taught more clearly in the Word of God than this, that the world is estranged from God, it is placed in direct opposition to God's world and kingdom. In order to be saved we must, in a spiritual sense, forsake this world and be born anew into God's world and kingdom, it is then said of the children of God, thus born, that they" are not of the world " and may not be ** conformed to the world," neither "love the world," and that the world lieth in the wicked one." God created the world in the beginning and saw that it was good, but now, according to Scripture, it is another and different worW. God in creating, creates conditions; men make a good or bad use Future Punishment. 119 of them as they choose. It may well be said that man is as sovereign within his sphere as God within his. Is it not written ... I said, ye are gods . . . and the Scriptures cannot be* broken/* mean and humble, at times, even loathsome, as man appears in his fallen, de- graded condition, there is yet in him the possibilities of all that is noble and exalted on one hand and wicked and degraded on the other, and he has it in his power to make actual these possibilities. He creates his own world; his character, destiny and environment are all of his own making. God's sovereignty is exercised in re- straining and circumscribing his sphere of activity, and the Bible promises that the incorrigible wicked shall at the end of time be confined absolutely to their own world. When it is asked what good purpose eternal punish- ment will serve we object to the question as irrelevant. It goes on the presumption that Scripture, as well as our experience in this world, are entirely false in what they teach on this subject. According to the teaching of both, sin is an essential evil and does not tend to serve any good purpose, this is not to be expected or hoped for. If it is sometimes possible with God to " make the wrath of man to praise him,'' this is an incidental benefit, but otherwise, sin and its evil are such in their very char- acter, by voluntary action and free will, blameable and damnable in their exercise, and the results that flow from it cannot be anything but bitter and painful through time and eternity. There is never anything actually gained by violating God's laws; if that were the case, then they ought to be violated. The sooner the world finds out that sin and its consequences do not tend to any good purpose, the better it will be for the world. 120 Christianity and Our Times. It has been objected that heaven could not be happy- while hell existed. This idea is natural, and will sug- gest itself to all. But heaven is not a thing of the fut- ure, it is now and has always been, and so with hell, to some extent it is now and has been ever since men or angels fell from their allegiance to God, Heaven is sup- posed to be happy now, while not only sin and suffer- ing to a great extent exists, but when often those suffer who least deserve it, when wrong and suffering and pain is inflicted on the very children of God; while wicked men and devils are rampant, destroying God's creation, and bidding defiance to the Almighty, " deceiving, if it were possible, the very elect." Should heaven be less happy when wrong at last is righted, justice done, peace secured, and the wicked confined to their proper place? If happiness and heaven were inconsistent with worlds of sin, suffering and woe, and with an active in- terest in such worlds, then we do not know that heaven ever could have existed. The Bible describes the oc- cupants of heaven as well informed and intensely inter- ested. When a world-calamity befell this planet, it was felt in heaven, and it at once hastened to our relief. Not only are angels described as active in our behalf, studying, looking into the mystery of this ruin, and the work of redemption, and actively engaged in the work; but God did more than send the angels; he sent his only begotten Son, to save the world, or whatever might be saved. Thus the Bible describes heaven, and again as a multitude of witnesses, viewing with intense interest the struggle between right and wrong, joying in the very presence of God over one sinner that repents and is saved. We must therefore believe that the happiness of heaven is not saved by ignorance or indifference to Future Punishment. 121 worlds of sin and woe; but if the battle is so strong that a single soul saved is counted a trophy worthy of great rejoicing, we may know that even omnipotence cannot do more than it has and is doing, and that sin and evil has a sovereignty of its own, which may be restrained, but cannot be forced into anything different from what it is, and that consequently heaven itself could not prevent its existence, as we know it to exist. As for the happi- ness of heaven, it may be built upon the same plan as happiness here; we should never be happy if we had to wait till there was absolutely no cause to the contrary. We are happy when the causes for joy preponderate. Heaven could not be actively interested in a world of sin and woe like this, without being touched by the shadow of its sorrow, but heaven may, on the other hand, have mighty causes for joy, which we can but faintly imagine. Arguments against hell are almost wholly addressed to human sympathies. It is easy to harp upon the chords of sympathy till every nerve cries out against hell, both present and future, but that does not alter the facts as we know them and have them revealed to us. Pain and distress, the awful and terrible, the ugly and loath- some meets us at every step, even though our sympathies cry out against them. Neither does it answer any bet- ter to couple this appeal with reference to God's love and mercy. We must interpret the love of God and his whole character, consistent with all the facts observable, and all the passages of Scripture, and not in the light of a single class of facts or passages. If our natural sym- pathies suffer, then we must conclude it is because there are moral considerations surpassing them in importance. When the only begotten of God came into this world, 122 Christianity and. Our Times. as determined in the counsel of the Father, he did not undertake to disabuse us of any extravagant notion about sin and its consequences. He did not soothe us with the assurance that it was a phantasm that soon would disappear. He emphasized the fact both of sin and its woe, his love found its first expression in a call to re- pentance, only as sin was forsaken could hell be abated. At the beginning of his ministry in his sermon on the mount and often afterwards, he uses this expression, " Shall be cast into hell," and we do not need to look up the etymology of the word "heir'or its equivalent in the original, to find out what Christ understood by it, he ex- plains it fully if we wish for his opinion or teaching on the subject; he tells us that there "the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched." Evidently he meant to impress upon his hearers the fact, that the fire of Gehenne, into which the wicked are cast, is not like the fires of this world, temporary and quenchable; likewise that the soul cast into it, is not like a worm easy shriveled up in a fire, but deathless. It is a contrast of what is eternal with things that are temporal, and the emphasis is on this fact. In other passages, he describes the hopeless despair of the place as that of " outer darkness, where there shall be weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth." Here again we find the same emphasis, the darkness is the "outer" or uttermost, beyond which is nothing else, and the despair described characteristic of such a place. Those who wish to escape from the teach- ing of Christ on this subject, have gone so far as to call in doubt whether the words eternal, everlasting, forever and ever mean what they express, when used with refer- ence to the punishment of the wicked; but the teach- ing of Christ on this subject is everywhere a contrast Future Punishment. 123 of what IS temporal with what is eternal, and favor this meaning. Aside from this, the efifort to make out eternal to be temporal when used with reference to the wicked, while in the very same passage it is allowed to be eternal when used with reference to the saved, is an effort that reduces interpretation to a mere science of evasion and equivocation. We sometimes nowadays use the words eternal, everlasting, etc., in poetry or slang phrases, and take liberties with their meaning; but whenever the meaning is appropriate to the subject, no such liberties can consistently be taken. But the teaching of- Christ by contrasts makes discussion of these words superfluous, the eternal and hopeless state of the wicked is every- where emphasized. " Be not afraid of them that kill the body," says the Savior in one passage, "and after that have no more that they can do. But I will fore- warn you whom ye shalf fear" — here again we mark the contrast and the peculiar emphasis laid upon it — " fear him which after he had killed had power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, fear him." In the repre- sentative description of the rich man and Lazarus, we find the word Hades used in the larger-^ense, as the com- mon world of the dead, both good and bad, so far accom- modating himself to the ideas of the times, only he does not allow the idea of contiguity. He describes the good and bad, separated by a " great gulf," impassible and immutably fixed; Lazarus is seen " afar off. " The picture of Dives tormented in the flames, and the dialogue between him and father Abraham is familiar. The fact emphasized by Christ 'is that of unmitigated torment, without hope of escape. The day of judgment as set forth by Christ is a counterpart. Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his an- 124 Christianity and Our Times. gels." "And these shall go away into everlasting pun- ishment." The same hopelessness and endlessness is taught incidentally in the statement about sin against the Holy Ghost, which has no forgiveness, " either in this world nor in the world to come." Christ, so far from making his own suffering a substitute for the suffer- j ing of all mankind, irrespective of character, warns us, j that " if this is done in a green tree, what shall be done ^ in the dry." The teaching of Christ in regard to the fut- ure punishment of the wicked, as referred to briefly, is not found in isolated passages; it is not aside for itself in a corner where it might easily be eliminated, it finds expression naturally in his general teaching ; it is referred to oftener and taught more fully than any other single doc- trine. It is taught by plain statements and illustrated in most of his parables. Perhags there is nothing more sol- emnly impressive in any language than the way he sets forth the consternation and despair of wicked ones, who, de- ceived and unconscious of their damned state, come even as it were to the doors of heaven, only to be turned away with the " I know you not, depart." We find this in solemn statements, and illustrated by parables. Skeptical persons, that do not know the Bible, gen- erally imagine that the doctrine of future punishment has been derived from some of the minor characters of Bible- writers, perhaps the "stern old Prophets." There is unanimity on the part of Bible writers on the subject, but it is Jesus and John, the two supposed to be most tender- hearted, that have supplied the church with the ideas embodied in their theology and teaching about hell and future punishment; perhaps for the very reason that it should not be taught due to any peculiar harshness on the part of those who taught it. In our illustrated Future Punishment. 125 Bibles, we have a picture of John the Apostle in the form of a sentimental woman; this is the popular notion of divine love, but Christ knowing the character of John better, gave him the surname Boanerges — Son of Thun- der. In his book of Revelation, we have hell described as "a lake, burning with fire and brimstone," where " the smoke of their burning ascend forever and ever, and also as a " bottomless pit," a very suggestive figure of hopeless descend. No one can wish to dwell upon these utterances by Jesus and John, in order to add to their terror; neither should anyone dare to belittle the mean- ing embodied in them. It is not enough, however, that Christ declares and describes the state of the wicked after death, but such are actually brought before us in the history of his life and ministry in the shape of disembodied spirits, pos- sessed of the faculties of intelligence and character. They are called devils or demons. Where they came from, we do not know, but the fact that they found this earth a congenial place, and the minds and bodies of evil men fit mediums for their activity and influence, prove that they must have originated either in this world, or in some world like ours. The activity of dis- embodied wicked spirits is connected with the whole of Christ's ministry, from the time the devil came to him in the wilderness of his temptation, till he entered Judas before his betrayal. Many en- counters with them are related; Christ rebuked them, resisted them and cast them out. He asked them questions and they answered him. They showed intelli- gence and knowledge beyond that of men. They knew Christ and addressed him as " the holy one." "What have we to do with thee, art thou come to torment us?" 126 Christianity and Our Times. What had they to do with him: his message of mercy was evidently not for them; they never asked for it, neither did Christ offer it to them. It would have been a chance for restoration, if there ever was such a chance; but this is never hinted. The presence of Christ only filled them with rage and increased their malignity. Be- tween them and Christ there was nothing but incongruity and deadly antipathy. They expected a day of judg- ment, after which their liberty would cease and they would be confined to their proper place. Of this they reminded Christ, and sneeringly asked him if he had come to hasten the time. They evidently had a knowledge of the future, which men have not. Belief in disembodied spirits and their presence in this world has been common in all ages, and investiga- tions of modern times have tended to place the belief above that of a mere superstition, even in the opinion of those naturally skeptical. Only the most ignorant and bigoted treat the subject with a sneer. We may sup- pose that the very presence of Christ revealed the devils as they have not been revealed at any other time. Evil is always stirred the presence of goodness. Antipa- thies declare themselves as well as affinities. We see exam- ples of this in a small way in our every day life, evil men when brought into conflict with virtue and goodness, ex- hibit some of the rage, frenzy and gnashing of teeth of the demons in Christ's time. The revelation of this to a higher degree is accounted for by the higher degree of antipathy, when the perfect holy comes into contact with the perfect wicked. Moreover, there was in and about Christ something of the other world, which the devils recognized, and which in a sense brought them on com- mon ground. For this reason we never notice either Future Punishment. 127 surprise or fear on the part of Christ in his encounters with the devils. What we would regard as supernatural and be startled at, Christ meets as something with which he is perfectly familiar. It is the forces of the super- natural and invisible world that meet; Christ, belonging to another world revealing himself in this, compels the devils to reveal themselves when they come into contact. Thus for a season the veil is lifted. These revelations from the spirit world teach that wicked persons live on after death and remain wicked. There is no expression of hope, either of restoration or annihilation, they take it for granted they will continue as they are, only fearing they will fare worse. If it were possible with God to annihilate evil spirits, then we would suppose Satan and the devils would have been annihila- ted ages ago, seeing they have not only been of no use, but have wrought much harm. In comparing the teaching of Christ and the Bible on this subject with that of modern liberalism and the new theology we notice a sharp contrast. On the one hand there is an evident intention to set before men a solemn warning of the consequences of«a wicked life to inspire them with terror at the possibilities that lie before them in their downward career. On the other hand there is an equally avowed effort to allay this terror, to contradict this warning, to minimize the danger and counteract the impression made by the Word of God. It is not a mere contradiction of words and passages, it is a plain contradiction of the spirit and teaching of the Bible on this subject. Of course they easily gain their object, for men do not like to face the result of a godless life. They are willing to be persuaded there is no hell, or that it does not amount to much; the most superficial 128 Christianity and Our Times. reasoning to this efifect is apt to have more weight than the twofold revelation of the Bible and experience. The avidity with which they seize on such ways of escape as second probation, restoration or annihilation, rather than availing themselves of the one way of escape God has provided, is additional proof that they are deceiving themselves. When men flee from repentance and refor- mation to lay hold on such schemes, we may know that they are " refuges of lies." There is no end of efforts to provide the ungodly with such nowadays. Hell is not likely to be abated by these " refuges of lies " so indus- triously provided and seized upon with equal avidity, In the words of Scripture " ye have strengthened the hands of the wicked, that he should not return from his wicked way, by promising him life." No one should undertake to promise the impenitent a way of escape other than that God has provided, or a second chance besides the one God has set before us, un- less he can make good his promises. In taking upon himself the responsibility of promising the impenitent a second probation in the other world, does he know in fact that he can* provide the impenitent with a second probation. The impenitent is quite likely to depend on the promise, for there is scarcely one of them but what like to put off their repentance and reformation at least as long as they think it safe. Dives asked for someone to be sent from the spirit world to warn his relations that there is no second probation, and that they had better do their repentance here: no one was sent, however, the answer was that Moses and the prophets are sufficient for anyone who will at all accept warning. The church has so considered in all ages. Those that have theories of a second probation have to go outside the Bible for them^ Future Punishment. 129 or at best depend on the science of evasion and equivo- cation. It is not merely that a great many passages are against it, but the whole tenor of the Bible is decidedly opposed to it. Sinners are warned in view of approach- ing death and judgment, after judgment the eternal "come or depart;" warned in view of the possibility of dying in their sins," this would not need the em- phasis Christ puts upon it, if they might repent of their sins and be saved after death; warned against hardening their hearts, for ''to-day is the day of salvation," and the hardening process, we know from experience, is very rapid. " Watch," says Christ, "for ye know not what day or hour the Son of man cometh;" to be taken unpre- pared is, according to Christ, the loss of our chance; this it would not be if there was room for preparation in the world to come. But more than all, Christ brings be- fore us in parables and illustrations departed spirits, who seemingly did repent, or desired a chance to do so, but the door remained unopened, as in the parable of the foolish virgins, and those " many," who " in that day" should plead for entrance, but Christ represents himself as refusing their overtures and tells them to "depart." Neither does the Bible make any difference in favor of the heathen. St. Paul argues their case in the first chap- ter to the Romans, and comes to the conclusion that they are without excuse. " Fewer stripes," says Christ, " for those that can plead ignorance, but the guilt essentially the same; all the guilt and much of the ignorance is will- ful; if they had loved the light, they would not have been walking all this time in darkness. The heathen world is very much like the rest of the world; it is true of them as of vast numbers in Christian lands, that they love the darkness which involves them. The church in I30 Christianity and Our Times. general believe that the atonement of Christ availed for all, and that those who feared God and worked right- eousness are accepted through Christ, although they have not heard of his life and death. But the Bible also teaches that although they may be saved without this knowledge, yet they are Hkely not to be, but may if it is brought to them. It clearly teaches that by our efforts, or our neglect, we may "save a soul from death," or cause someone to **perish." "If thou dost not speak to save the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity." Scripture represents the servants of God as watchmen upon the walls of a city, to warn of impending danger; our second probationists are rather interested in proving to us that there is no immediate danger, but when they shall say. Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them, and they shall not escape." While what is taught by Christ and the Bible in re- gard to the future of the wicked, all lies within the range of possibilities, and is only the degradation and pain in- volved in our nature, and which may be evolved in fut- ure ages; yet it is scarcely possible for human mind and nerve in our present state to entertain a vivid realization of it, or make it part of our consciousness. As a gen- eral thing, those that are confessedly least able to do so, are most forward with their interpretations and expla- nations. But the Amighty has put them under no obli- gation to explain it, much less of explaining it away. We may leave to Christ the responsibility of his own teaching. If we presume to teach the doctrine of Christ on this subject, we may do so in his very words, and should be particularly careful not to go beyond them, if mind and heart is terrified and muddled on the question. Future Punishment. 131 We can not read the Bible without being impressed by the fact that the sense of fear in man is very largely appealed to. What is natural in this respect has come to be looked upon with much disfavor; it is supposed to be against the dignity of man to appeal to his sense of fear. Man, indeed, even at his worst, is capable of the con- ception of disinterested virtue; but the idea is rather an abstraction than a realization. Man has never seen virtue or vice, wrong or right, wholly apart from their legitimate consequences, and it would probably be im- possible in one's mind wholly to disassociate them. Man, even at his best, is not so impressed with the distinction between right and wrong, but what he may need to have it emphasized by the different results attending. And the measure of the distinction is seen in the infinite differ- ence between the extremes of the bottomless pit, to which he may descend, and the exaltation to which he may attain. This difference teaches the infinite distinc- tion between right and wrong, virtue and vice, and we perceive how much the one ought to be loved for its own sake, and the other abhorred. We are treating of fear as a motive in moral action; of course, there is a great deal of fear that is ignoble. We can imagine a state in which there would be no emotion of fear, but it is very certain that man is not in that state. He is not dignified above fear, unless he is raised above danger and pain, but these are the mostfamil- iar experiences of our world. Man is surrounded by ele- ments and forces, on which he depends for life and com- fort, but which may at any time overwhelm him with danger and pain, that he has neither power to resist nor strength to endure. His body is a marvel of sensitive- 132 Christianity and Our Times. ness, physical pain may be produced, that one would not willingly submit to, even for a few minutes, to gain the joys of a lifetime. His mind and soul is equally sensi- tive; what agony of bereavement, of disappointed hopes, lost opportunities, wasted life, remorse; what depth of misery in a human look of anguish, or shriek of despair. Man has in his nature capacity for pain and degradation, enough to overwhelm him with fear, if he realized it. The boasted courage of those that decry the motive of fear, is but the cowardice that dare not face the facts that are most common in life. Rational and scriptural fear is but the proper realization of these facts and the wisdom of it is in comprehending their meaning and profiting by the application. The purpose may be de- feated when the carnal mind refuses to yield to this wis- dom; in this case the subject may either drown his fear in dissipation, or the carnal mind may seek a refuge in fanaticism, and superstitious performings; he may assume a false zeal that would fain demontrate claims to piety and God's favor by the very crimes which God, above all things, abhors. Even in the true Scriptural sense, fear is not the noblest of emotions, neither is man, perverted, worldly and wicked at once capable of the noblest emotions. Fear must be the beginning of his wisdom, the rational fear of the Gospel, a sober apprehension of danger, a realization of the nature of sin and its consequences. This fear on the part of the sinner is the most natural and rational of all emotions, and is the foundation of all true work of spiritual awakening. Where it is lacking, repentance is lacking and the work is superficial. It is inspired, not necessarily by noise and fierceness, but by spiritual earnestness, combined with a faithful presenta- Future Punishment. 133 tion of the facts .of Revelation and Nature. In the series of great revivals between the latter part of the '20's and '57, in which Charles G. Finney was the leading spirit, we find it indicated in his sermons that special stress was laid upon three doctrines; first, the damnable nature of sin and its everlasting woe, the atonement of Christ a vicarious sacrifice for sin, the absolute need of regenera- tion and a holy character. The converts of these re- vivals constituted the marrow and sinews of the church for half a century, whole communities were morally re- generated, a moral stamina was evolved which made it possible to overthrow slavery, and came near doing the same with the liquor traffic. CHAPTER IX. THE CHURCH AND THE LODGE. "They have run greedily after error." — Jude. *' The carnal mind is enmity against God," says the Holy Scriptures;" " it is not subject to God's law, neither indeed can be." The law of God in its highest applica- tion, is spiritual, this the carnal mind fails to apprehend, it does not even perceive the relation and the obliga- tion, to which it ought to be subject; hence the suc- cess of false systems of religion, even in the presence of the true. The false systems may be either wholly out- side Christianity, or they may be perversions, even as Christianity has been perverted in all ages, eliminating the spiritual element, and retaining only what pertains to outward rules of conduct, coupled with rites and cere- monials to represent the spiritual. It is a striking fact that where Christianity has been sufficiently perverted to suit the carnal mind, there the American Secret So- ciety systems of religious symbolism and ceremonials are but little known; but here, where there is no State Church, and where the churches, at least to a large ex- tent, recognize the spiritual element in Christianity, and in some measure insist on their requirements, here this kind of societies flourish to a surprising extent. Men must have some kind of religion, and if the state does The Church and the Lodge. 135 not furnish the kind they want, they will see to it them- selves. Where secret societies do exist in foreign countries, they have generally some distinct object apart from the religious and social, sometimes opposition to civil or ecclesiastic tyranny. Thus, Freemasonry in Roman Cath- olic countries, has the avowed object of opposition to the encroachment of ecclesiastical authority, but here it ex- ists mainly for social and religious purposes, coupled, no doubt, with more or less distinct plans for mutual pro- tection and self-aggrandizement. What is true in this respect of Freemasonry is true of its various imitations too numerous to mention. The stress laid upon the religious feature of the lodge depends largely on the object in view, with which one has joined it. To some the social advantages are the main attractions; to others mutual help and insur- ance is a consideration; this should not be called bene- volence as it generally is, it is not benevolence to pay when an obligation has been incurred; the societies are in this respect no more benevolent than a common insur- ance society and often not so much so, for the lodges gen- erally spend more in keeping up the show than an insur- ance company does on running expenses. Professional men, including ministers of the Gospel, join the societies for professional advantages to advertise themselves and get custom. Politicians join them and run them as political machines. The timid join them for protection, and the aggressive to further their schemes; and here is one of the causes why "judgment standeth afar off, and justice doth not overtake " the transgressor. Justice must labor under disadvantages where the population is parceled up into secret societies, for whatever the 1 36 Christianity and Our Times. avowed object of these societies, they can hardly fail to foster a spirit of clannishness and partiality unfavorable to an even balance and fair dealing. A secret society is a war measure, in a population united on the common ground of justice and patriotism, it could have no place; when found it must be an object of suspicion and lead to counter-societies organized in defense. But it is not our object to deal with this aspect of the question, but simply to view it from a religious point of view. Whatever of mixed motives there may be in joining these societies, or whatever regard one may have for the religion of the lodge, that this religion is a main feature and prominent characteristic is patent without any inves- tigation of their oft-revealed mysteries. So much is this the case that the societies may fairly be called religious institutions, with religious systems, their claims in this respect are scarcely a whit behind that of any church, and their religious features are as pronounced and well- defined. One may not take any stock in this religion but it is there all the same, and it is there to fill a want and answer a purpose, and undoubtedly it does answer the purpose of a religious system to the bulk of the mem- bers. Nearly half the population of the United States is outside the churches. The lodge may fairly be said to be their church, and its religion their dependence. And it fairly claims to fill this want and answer this pur- pose in every respect, as for instance when a Masonic manual of the highest authority says of the master mason after taking the third degree. " We now find man com- plete in morality and intelligence, with a stay of religion added, to insure him protection of the Deity and guard him against ever going astray. These three degrees thus form a perfect and harmonious whole, nor can we The Church and the Lodge. 137 conceive that anything can be suggested more, which the soul of maa requires." In a manual of the same lodge we read at the taking of the first degree: " There he stands without our portals on the threshold of his new Masonic life, in darkness, helplessness and ignorance, having beien wandering amid the errors and covered over with the filth and pollutions of this outer and profane world, he comes inquiringly to our doors, seeking the new birth, and asking a withdrawal of the veil which conceals divine truth from his uninitiated right." To the professed Christian who joins the lodge this confession may not be wholly out of order, but in regard to the promises there is more doubt. Quotations like the above might be multiplied, but they. will suffice to show the claims of the lodge as a soul-saving religion. It is practically the same in all the various imitations of Free- masonry. These claims find likewise expression in the symbolism and ceremonials of the lodge room. They have their temples, their chaplain, priests or grand high priest, prayers and confessions, or what answer to it in their initiation; their solemn rites and symbols illustrating their religious and moral teaching, and to crown it all, they have their grand lodge above, where they promise to meet, and their solemn funeral rites, where the de- parted is speeded on his way to said upper lodge with much prayer and ceremony. In the words of the quota- tion, " what more can be suggested which the soul of man requires" if the claims and pretensions are well- founded then what is provided is sufficient, if they are not well founded then it is a serious mockery. It has been objected by some that Christ's name is generally omitted from their prayers and teaching, and in some instances purged from the Bible they use. As 13B Christianity and Our Times. an objection against the religion of the lodge it is not well taken. In that they refrain from mixing the name of Christ with their service and worship, they do well, it would only be added blasphemy to use it in connection with it, and the use of it would certainly not make it any the more Christian. The mere use of the name of Christ in prayers and ritual does not constitute Christianity or a church. It is said by naturalists that man is a religious ani- mal, he will and must have some religion; if the true does not suit, false ones will be invented. And yet it is not to be supposed that these false religions will have noth- ing whatever of truth and beauty about them. Man, in his fallen state, has a complex nature, he is not a devil even when he is not a saint. While his mind is carnal and does not comprehend spiritual truths in their highest application, yet he can appreciate moral qualities and the beautiful in character. If we should suppose the spirit of this world to plan a religion to suit this complex na- ture, how would he go to work; he would not produce a system of which nothing good could be said, that would offend the natural taste of man by its very ugliness. If Satan himself should come among us would he come with horns and hoof protruding, does he wish to alarm us, would he not rather come " arrayed like an angel of light?" And if this, who is called a " murderer from the begin- ning" should attempt to poison the minds and hearts of the children of men, would he present the poison unadul- terated, admitting it to be such, would he not rather dis- guise it in some semblance of truth? Satan is a fisher of man, but he does not expect him to bite on the naked point, some bait must envelop it. But suppose, again, that the spirit of this world The Church and the Lodge. 139 should wish to invent a religion for the children of this world, how would the secret society system as repre- sented by Freemasonry answer. It is not unadulterated moral poison — there is a semblance of truth about it. The ugliness is not so exposed but what the veriest worldling might mistake it for the beauty of an angel of light. Indeed, it is generally said to be beautiful, that is, the symbols, ritual, etc. There is something for the world- ling to bite on besides the naked hook. There is mo- rality enough to satisfy any respectable worldling, and re- ligion enough to suit his tastes and appetites. Besides this, there are titles, distinctions and honors; the lodge has raked together everything of this sort in the whole wide world, civil and ecclesiastic, it is all at the disposal of the lodge, as though its evil spirit perfectly understood the ridiculous vanity and pride of men and was willing to gratify them to the utmost. Is it one reason why the lodge mania is worse in America than elsewhere, because our democratic institutions do not furnish enough of this glitter and show to suit the natural craving of a depraved appetite. The Christian religion teaches that the world is cor- rupted and estranged from God, is drifting away from God with a tendency so strong that humanity unaided could not resist it, nor be saved from the inevitable re- sult of this drifting. They are possessed and ruled by a spirit adverse to God, and which can have no fellowship with God; hence, unless man is changed and the tendency of his life set in the opposite direction, he will be lost to God and heaven eternally. Man is sufficiently depraved to be helpless in himself to effect this change unaided, but God has done what he could to help us. He has 140 Christianity and Our Times. revealed himself in this world both by his Son and by his Spirit. The first, a visible revelation both of God's love and justice bringing about conditions that make it possi- ble for man to be saved in harmony with the require- ments both of love and justice. The revelation of God's Spirit in this world is a felt presence and conscious power, having access to the hearts and minds of men, and may change heart and mind when open to this in- fluence, this change the Bible calls regeneration or con- version, it has been brought about when man is ruled by God's Spirit, when he recognizes his relation to God as a child to his father, and is conscious of communion with God. The Bible makes a sharp distinction between those that are regenerated and those that are not, it is the children of God and the children of hght in contrast with the children of this world and of darkness. What- ever may be the possibilities of good in these latter in their natural unsaved state they are called " dead in trespasses and sins," "their understanding darkened be- cause of sin that dwelleth in them"; they are not conscious of, neither do they perceive the spiritual relation of God to his children. Christ and his apostles formed the re- generated children of God into a brotherhood called the church. It was meant to be a visible union based on the spiritual union which exists between God's children. Remembering this radical distinction referred to above, we may appreciate the force of the words of an Apostle when he says: " Be ye not unequally yoked to- gether with unbelievers, for what fellowship had right- eousness with unrighteousness, and what communion had light with darkness, what concord had Christ with Belial, or what part had he that believed with an infidel — where- The Church and the Lodge. 141 fore come out from among them and be ye separate.' Consider one of these supposed children of God, a broth- er in their brotherhood, finding their companionship in- sufficientor unsatisfactory, joining abrotherhood of those the Bible calls the children of this world and of darkness. Having had his mind enlightened by the Spirit of God, he nevertheless seeks knowledge and light in the lodge of those the Scriptures represent as having their under- standing darkened because of sin that dwelled in them. Having, in the words of Scripture, tasted the heavenly gift and been made partaker of the Holy Ghost, " having tasted the good word of God and the power of the world to come," he nevertheless develops an unaccountable taste for the fooleries of the lodge. Supposed to know and enjoy the true religion of Christ, he presents himself to the lodge for new light, and takes up with the religious show of those the Word calls " dead in trespasses and sins." But the lodge has foreseen that objections of this sort might arise, and it stands ready with this promise to the candidate to be initiated, that the obligations to which he has to submit will not interfere with the duties he owes to God, his family and the State. It is a good deal to take the word of the lodge for this, for in doing so we allow them to define for us what are the duties we owe to God and our fellowmen. The obligations direct, and what is involved, cannot be fully disclosed before- hand for that is part of the secret, but they are definite and unchangeable, the same.for all who join. The prom- ise of the lodge therefore amounts to this, that in their own opinion, there is nothing about the obligations con- trary to our duties as patriots and Christians. Even a worldly man with a high sense of honor might well 142 Christianity and Our Times. pause before he allows the lodge to determine for him what are his duties, and how they would be affected by the lodge obligations, for in doing so he practically sur- renders his own judgment and conscience. But to the Christiana radical difficulty arises, he professes that by his conversion and consequent illumination by the Holy Ghost, he has received new light concerning his duties toward God and his fellowmen, and must henceforth measure them by a different standard from that of the world. The lodge may consist of respectable moral peo- ple, but they are not the church of God's regenerated children, they are what Christ calls " the world," and in spite of respectability the Bible declares them " dead in trespasses and sin," who " do not discern the things of the spirit of God." When the professed Christian there- fore, allows them to determine for him what are his du- ties toward God and his fellowmen he renounces his own claim to spiritual illumination, and allows those to be his teachers who according to his faith are wholly unable to judge of his duties toward God and his fellowmen. In acknowledging the "Worshipful Master" of the lodge he practically renounces Christ, who said one is your Master and no one can serve two. In joining a brotherhood of the children of this world he slights the brotherhood of God's children, for, according to his faith, the two are as distinct as light and darkness. But perhaps he does not perceive this distinction, his church is in such a state that there is apparently little difference. This would not affect his obligation as a Christian; he must recognize the church, and the dis- tinction between it and the world as it is set before him in the Word of God. If the church is not what it ought to be he must labor to make it; if others are not what they The Church and the Lodge. • 143 ought to be it does not relieve him from the obligation of being what Christ requires. But it may be he joins them as a mere matter of stratagem; he hopes to do them good, to bring them into the church. To put himself in a false position for the sake of this would be a serious fraud, involving a great deal of lying. And the expectation would not be reas- onable, for in joining them he endorses them and their institution as good enough for him and them. He ac- knowledges not only that they are good enough, but bet- ter than himself, for he has to assume the place of a nov- ice or disciple and accept them as teachers and masters. But members of the lodges are largely members of the churches, the minister himself may be a member, and they are all pronounced good and efficient in church work. There are many standards of goodness, and one may be good whether a Pagan or Jew, a Christian or an infidel, but if what is popularly known as being " good " is all that is required, then the Christian religion would be a super- fluity, for it is well known that men can be good in this sense withoutit. It would also, in this case, be mistaken, for it does not admit that this "goodness" is good enough. A minister though a lodge member may be success- ful in church work, neither grace nor faith is needed for this kind of success, and some of our churches look as though they had been built up by unsanctified hands and "untempered mortar." Success in winning souls to Christ cannot be too highly commended, but the church is apt to fall into the error of the world, and worship suc- cess no matter of what kind or how achieved. It is not true, however, that as ageneral thing they are successful in building up churches, even though they are willing to 144 Christianity and Our Times. build them up in any way and by any means. Only a very small per centage of our young men are in the churches, the bulk of them are in the lodges and the sa- loons. The secret lodge system is practically one, they are all sprouts from the same root. The minor orders that have a more well-defined purpose, such as temperance, patriotism, insurance, etc., may indeed make it a real object to work for such purposes, but on moral and re~ ligious ground they are open to the same objections as Freemasonry, of which they are imitations. They con- stitute themselves distinct brotherhoods, which is not that of Christ, they have their grand masters more or less supreme, they all have religious rituals, chaplains, prayers, and a grand lodge above where they meet each other after death on the ground of lodge fellowship and faithfulness to the lodge while on earth. There is yet a verse of an old temperance hymn ringing in our ears that we used to sing in a temperance society, which, although open, had some of the belongings of the lodge; it runs thus: ** Forever then forever, pure water be our cry — till over Jordan's river, we pass triumphantly. Then where in scenes of glory, where Eden's waters flow we will tell our temperance story of heaven begun below." Pretty in words, but false in sentiment; we passed over Jordan's river triumphantly on the strength of the single virtue of ' temperance. We did not "sing the song of Moses and the Lamb" beyond the river, but simply our temperance story; our heaven begun on earth to be continued above, rested on the sole virtue of temperance. Secret societies, one and all, express the same kind of sentiment in hymns, ritual, and direct teaching. It has become a ** stock in trade " argument with the minor orders to defend their The Church and the Lodge. 145 religious parade by the custom in Congress and like bodies to open a session with prayer, but the analogy is lacking in the most essential parts. A body of men calls a Christian minister to offer a Christian prayer in his ca- pacity as a Christian minister, the lodge does not do this, they have one duly qualified in his capacity as lodge brother, he need not be a Christian either nominally or in fact, all the religion required of him is that of the lodge. He represents this religion in his prayers and otherwise in his capacity as chaplain, he offers his prayer, not in the capacity of a Christian brother or minister, but in that of a lodge brother and in harmony with the relig- ious system of the lodge, be it what it will. There is as marked distinction between this and Christianity as there is between it and any other distinct system of religion. CHAPTER X. DOCTRINE OF SANCTIFICATION. It is written, Be ye holy for I am holy." — Peter. When a soul has surrendered itself to the power of the Holy Spirit and is regenerated, it is believed by Christians that this power continues and that its effect is a sanctifying influence under which a soul is perfected in the likeness of God. About this process of sanctifi- cation, there are two theories among Protestants, and the Catholics have one of their own. One party among Protestants believe that the process is gradual, the end or perfection of which they do not profess to be able to lay their hands on and say — here is it. This party points to passages in the Bible that speak of " growth in grace and the knowledge of the Lord," " growing up into a perfect manhood," the kingdom of God within the soul or abroad in the world, like a leaven working gradually, or like a plant developing " first the blade, then the ear, and afterwards the full corn in the ear." A smaller but considerable party among the Protestants; while they believe the process may be gradual, at the same time hold, that it may be dispensed with altogether, and the soul at once by an act of faith and prayer become entirely sanctified or perfected. This absolute work in the soul they describe as something like a second regen- eration, for which reason they sometimes call ii a second Doctrine of Sanctification. i47 conversion, second blessing, etc. Their main depend- ence is passages in the Bible where entire sanctification or perfection is set before us as a standard after which we must strive, or an object for our aim and attainment. The fact that it seems to be required is to them sufficient reason for believing it can be attained, and they demand to know if God has set before us a goal that is unattain- able. The Catholic doctrine of sanctification is more com- plex. The peculiarity of this church, in its care to relieve lay members of responsibility except toward the church, finds expression in their doctrine of sanctification. Lay members are relieved of the ancient obligation of saint- ship which the Bible imposes on all, and in place thereof a certain class in the church is endued with the character and office of saints. It is believed that these may not only go far in the process of sanctification, but go farther than there is any need of. A capacity for this may at first seem incredible, but when we remember the Catholic standard of morality as it was in the middle ages, and as it still is in Catholic countries, we may not wonder that some have been considered more than good enough. This superfluity of goodness is thought to be deposited with the church, and those who have come short of the required standard may obtain what the^ want for a con- sideration. Adoration of, and prayer to these departed saints, become in order also for the purpose of becoming partaker in their merits and intercessions. It was around • this very point that the reformation started: the church happened to be unusually hard up for money, and ofiered to sell out morality and the fear of God entirely to get the needed cash; this provoked the righteous soul of Luther, and the spell was broken. Protestants differ 148 Christianity and Our Times. from the Catholic Church in this, that they believe God is abundantly rich in grace and mercy, and does not need to make merchandise for the poor virtues of doubtful saints in order to supplement his own infinite resources, and that he utterly refuses to divide his power, honor and worship with Catholic saints or anyone else. The Catholic Church has a place in their creed for grace, faith and repentance, but it is difficult to determine just where it comes in, with merits of saints, merits worked out by penances, merits purchased of the priest, final absolution and purgatory, there seems litt4e need of anything fur- ther to make sure of salvation. The Catholics not only believe in partial but in entire sanctification, so much so that they profess none can enter heaven without it. Here was an opportunity for an in- fallible church with a purpose in view. God had not re- vealed what he would do with the infirmities that might cling to the Christian as he departed this world, perhaps he did not think it was necessary for us to know, but the church was equal to the occasion; they supplemented the revelation of the Almighty with a plan of their own in the shape of a purgatory, where imperfect saints might be perfected in purifying fires. As a financial speculation, purgatory has been a great success, there is money in the s^ing of masses for afflicted souls, but otherwise it is not known that anyone has had use for the invention. The object in view in redemption is plainly to pro- duce a character in man that shall make him fit for heaven and its company, fit for God and his glory. This he can only be as he resembles God in thought, feeling, desire and final purpose. The sum of this character is called holiness. Character, we know, is a personal mat- Doctrine of Sanctification. 149 ter, it cannot be purchased or earned, it must be devel- oped or wrought out. God and man may help us to make character, but none can impose it upon us as a gift or compliment, the help and influence from God may be in the nature of free gifts, graces and favors unde- served, and as natural in their operation upon our mind and heart, as that of an earthly friend in his efforts to help and influence us. Those influences alone cannot produce character, it must depend on the use we make of them, but taken together, the various influences and the way we choose to resist or yield to them will result in character, be it what kind it will. God represents himself in the Bible as working in many ways and by various means to produce his own character or likeness in us. ■ He has, in the first place, revealed his character to us in his only begotten Son sent into the world. Christ revealed the character of God in a two-fold man- ner: first, by his life and example, and in an equal degree by the revelation of God's love and justice in the plan of redemption. The record of this whole revelation of Christ in this world we have in the Bible and nowhere else. Also, here we have recorded all that led up to the coming of Christ and what followed after as the comple- ment, the revelation of God through the prophets and apostles, with instructions, exhortations and warnings, both to believe in God's revelation of himself and act in harmony with our faith. But the Bible also teaches that the Spirit of God is abroad in the world, that he has access to the minds and hearts of men, even of those that have not yielded to his influence; but he is said to dwell with those that have surrendered themselves to his power and guidance. Moreover, the Bible teaches that God may affect and influence us by his providence in this 150 Christianity and Our Times. world, trials and afflictions as well as blessings and what- ever belong to the discipline of life is ascribed to God. Both saint and sinner is subject to this discipline, to the one a means of bringing to repentance, to the other a help in the process of sanctification. These trials are spoken of as purifying fires; " I have chosen them in the furnace of affliction," " He shall purge them as silver is purged." We may say that there is yet a fourth way in which God works both for the salvation of sinners and the sanctification of Christians, it is by the church. Those that are indeed God's children are a sanctifying power in the world. In making mention of perfection, a kind of perfection is implied in the fact of being a Christian. In being converted our will must have been made perfect to love and serve the Lord. Though our love and service may not be perfect, our purpose must be. We must be per- fectly sincere. Without this perfect consecration of the will there can be no conversion. But although the will is thus sanctified and consecrated, our thoughts, desires, imaginations and afi*ections may not be so perfectly sub- ject to it as to make them perfect. And this, in like manner, is true of our judgment. Although this is not in the strictest sense part of our moral nature, yet our moral nature and all our acts are affected by it, and un- less it is perfect our moral nature cannot be. Even as St. Paul speaks of the understanding being darkened by sin that dwelleth in us, this is written more especially with reference to the unconverted, but this darkened under- standing is not at once made perfect by conversion. The need of a sanctifying influence in all parts of our being is again emphasized by St. Paul when he prays to God that our whole being, soul, body and spirit, may be Doctrine of Sanctification. iji sanctified and blameless, A quickening of our intellect- ual powers is always noticed in any true conversion, sometimes as remarkable as the moral change. This sanctification of the whole being is a develop- ment or process. It is not accomplished by any single means or act, be it either faith or prayer. We read that gifts, or special pow^r for a special purpose, was imparted at once by the Holy Spirit, generally in connection with prayer and the laying on of hands, but never that a per- fect character or entire sanctification was thus imparted. The higher regions of the soul's development is not reached in a single leap or bound. There is no shortcut by which the struggles and strivings, the discipline and labors of soul, mind and heart can be dispensed with. The noblest traits of character, and the well balanced symmet- rical whole, is not produced at once by the excitement of a holiness meeting. Faith and prayer and meetings are indeed means in the process; so is truth, "sanctify us by thy truth " so is the various discipline of life, to which much efficacy is ascribed in the Bible, and so in short is everything that tends to make us better. Aboutperfection in the absolute sense, it is not wise for us to pretend to know. Man with his finite mind does not comprehend what is absolute. Perfection once walked the earth, but was mistaken for a criminal and hanged on a tree. In a relative sense, men are sometimes said to be perfect, as Job who is said to have been a per- fect man and one that feared God, perfect in the sense that no serious fault could be found about him. His own estimate of man's perfection in comparison with God's absolute perfection is such that in the presence of it, he exclaims "I am vile." And he confessed " how should 152 Christianity and Our Times. man be just with God, if he will contend with him, he cannot answer him one of a thousand." Men are proverbially prone to overlook their own faults, they have need of praying with David " cleanse thou me from secret faults, keep back also thy servant frompresumptuous sin." If we fail to see our secret faults, we may have the pre- sumption to believe ourselves perfect, but in view of the flaws and faults so apparent to others, the claim of per- fection or entire sanctification is generally pitiable. A Christian who might be honored and respected if he takes his place in humility, and leaves it to others to judge of his attainments by his fruit, will be ridiculous when he makes pretention to a perfection the imperfection of which is apparent to all. Many who claim that they have been converted twice over, may be glad if they can make out- siders believe they have been converted once for good. Yet there are higher degrees of Christian experience and greater excellencies of character than the lowest compatible with a state of grace. The heights and depths of the possibilities of character and of Christian attain- ments reach into the infinite, and are lost to view from earthly sight. No doubt Christians have sometimes had wonderful revelations of these possibilities, and their testimony to a sudden or great enlargement may well be believed, for the process of sanctification is not smooth and even through life; sometimes a crisis will occur when our powers are stirred to the utmost, a great trial to be endured, a severe conflict of temptation to be overcome, or a great work to be accomplished; when one comes out victorious from such a conflict, then there is a sudden and great enlargement which some may have mistaken for the whole of it, but after all it is only a quickening step in the process, the springtime, as it were, in our spiritual de- Doctrine of Sanctification. 153 velopment, but every wind and every season should help to bring forward the process. Undoubtedly, perfection even in the absolute sense is set before us in the Bible as the standard after which we must strive, God could do nothing less, and man may do nothing less. The alternative of a perfect standard is one that is imperfect, and neither God nor man could set before us an imperfect standard to aim after. We must have a perfect pattern to work after whether or not we can perfectly imitate it. It will not do in this case to say our aims or our striving is fruitless or unreasonable unless perfection can be attained to, for everything does not de- pend on this definite result. If a soul is converted he is according to the faith of all saved, his salvation is not staked at the perfection he is told to strive for. Moreover his striving and his efforts in the process of his Christian life is not in vain, is not lost, even though he may not attain to absolute or entire sanctification. Every step to- wards perfection, every struggle for a higher life, is a def- inite gain. This striving to better ourselves without gain- ing what is absolute or perfect is natural to our earthly life; who does not strive for perfect health of body, yet a body absolutely perfect in all respects can hardly be hoped for. And so in our struggle for development of mind, we would set before our aim nothing less than a perfect mind, perfectly developed, even though the full attainment would not be within our reach. For a Christian to speak of entire sanctification can mean nothing less than the perfection of his whole being; his will must already have been entirely sanctified and consecrated in his conversion, if this has not been done, then what is before him is conversion not the end of sanctification. One must surrender his will without re- 154 Christianitv and Our Times. serve to God before he is in any sense a child of God of a saved man. Yet, we often find that the perfection which perfectionists are striving for, and which they are content with, is something very imperfect; and what they call entire sanctification is far from being entire. But these terms perfect" or " entire " should not be used unless the whole was meant, it is idle to use these and then begin to plead for allowances and immunities. En- tire sanctification of our whole body, soul and spirit, blameless as the apostle expresses it, means not only that our will should be perfect to serve the Lord, it means that we must be perfect in every detail, our love, faith, hope, patience, and humility must be perfect; every thought, feeling, desire and imagination must be perfect; and, indeed, our judgmentmust be perfect or it will play havoc with our moral perfection. The greatest objection to the theory under consid- eration is that it tends to destroy what those who advance it profess to be particularly anxious to build up, thatis, holiness. According to the Bible there are only two classes of people, saints and sinners, converted or uncon- verted, saved or lost. The perfectionists make three dis- tinct classes, the entirely sanctified constitute a class of superlative saints, something after the manner of the Catholic church, which are especially the embodiment of holiness. Below these there is a class to which salvation is accorded on lower ground, and this ground, beinglow- er than that of the first class, has a tendency to be very low, and we often hear the complacency with which some church members profess to be saved, but lay no claim to sanctification, and evidently consider it a mere adjunct to the Christian life that may be dispensed witli without much harm. Doctrine of Sanctification. 155 Holiness is a necessity for all, not a luxury for a few. " Without holiness no man shall see the Lord." If one is not converted to a holy life and character, what is the effect of his conversion; he was carnal before, if nothing more can be said of him now, then his faith is vain, faith is dead and vain if it is not a means to holiness, and if this has not become the result of it. First a sanctified will without which there is neither true faith nor justifi- cation, and afterwards a sanctifying process to which our thoughts, desires and affections, every detail of life and character should be subjected. Holiness, or similarity of character to God, being the end and object of every- thing in and about religion, associations for the promo- tion of holiness as a special work outside the church, be- comes a misnomer. An association for the promotion of holiness is a church, if a church is not an association for the promotion of holiness it is nothing. CHAPTER XI. SUNDAY AND THE ADVENTISTS. '* The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath."— Christ, The Adventists are a small flock, but exceedingly active. They have imposed their peculiar Sabbath ques- tion upon the church, in spite of the utmost reluctance to consider it. If an answer has to be given it is of im- portance that it should be truthful. They have sprung their question upon the church on many occasions, when those that should give an answer have been unprepared or misinformed, and the answer has been such as has left the advantage of truth and correctness with the Adventists. If intimations of the change are found in the New Testament, they would amount to scriptural proof and evidence only as it could be proven that the apostles in- augurated it. Their example or direct teaching would be sufficient, for we believe they had authority in all matters pertaining to the organization of the church together with rules and doctrines for its guidance. But it seems at best doubtful that this can be established. It appears rather that the change began with the usual custom of keeping a holiday in memory of great persons or great events, which finally took the place of the old Sabbath day. Some who have very incoherent ideas Sunday and the Adventists. 157 about the relation of law and gospel, new dispensation and old, etc., find an argument in this relation for the change of days, but the supposed relation is fanciful, and the conclusion arbitrary. Others, again, when hard pressed, will plead tradition and church authority with a zeal that would out-catholic the Catholics. How hard it is even for the best of men to be perfectly honest. It is true that the commandment concerning the Sabbath is not a necessity of our moral nature like the other commandments. We would know it were wrong to steal, murder and commit adultery even if there were no commandments, but we would not know it were wrong to labor on the seventh day without a revelation from the Almighty. But we can understand the reason and im'portance of the command when given, and in placing it among the moral commandments of the law, God has signified that he holds it equally binding with these. It can not, therefore, have passed away with the types and ordinances connected, with the ancient temple service, which had their fulfillment at the coming of Christ, it must remain in force with the moral law of which it is made a part according to the revealed will of God. There were holidays connected with the ancient system of temple service, others than the seventh day Sabbath, these are sometimes referred to in the Old Testament as sabbaths, we must believe St. Paul refers to them in the same way, when he makes mention of holidays and sabbaths that are not binding upon the conscience, and of which he tells his converts that their observance is a matter of no moral significance. Christ and his apostles observed the Sabbath according to the spirit and letter of the commandment, the superfluities and impositions of the Pharisees he denounced as he did 158 Christianity and Our Times. their inventions and misinterpretations of the Scriptures in general. Perhaps the best defence in favor of the change, if defence is attempted, would be the general object of it — that of honoring Christ, " He that honors the Son, honors the Father also." The Adventists, however, might answer to this, that God has a right to prescribe how he will be honored, and that it is safest to keep within the letter of the law. This certainly would be true if by do- ing so we can best observe the spirit of the law. When we speak of the spirit of the law, we mean the gen- eral intention. Of course this can never be under- stood without the letter of the law, strictly speaking there is no spirit of the law without the letter. But it is possible to lay peculiar stress upon certain detaihs of the letter of the law and bydoing so contradict or violate the general intent of it. Occasions may even arise when it is necessary to infringe upon certain details of the letter in order the better to carry out the intent of the law. An occasion of this kind undoubtedly exists at present with regard to the Sabbath. In order to keep it and make it a general benefit as intended by the command- ment, it is above all things necessary that Christians should agree upon one day. It is true, now, more than ever, that " no man liveth to himself" — we are dependent upon each other in nearly every field of effort. The great manufacturing establishments cannot be run unless all, or nearly all, agree to work. If essential disagreement about the day to be kept as Sabbath should exist, then neither of the days disagreed about could be used for work, the consequence probably would be that both would be used, and the Sabbath ruled out altogether, this would be the case unless religious regard for the Sunday and the Adventists. 159 Sabbath should become much greater than is now the case among workingmen. The same interdependence exists in the commercial world, and even among farmers, especially in the busiest season, unless all agree to work together there can be no work, and unless all agree to keep "Sabbath together, in most cases none would be kept. The Adventists would undoubtedly attempt to brush aside these considerations simply by pointing to the fact that the strict letter requires Saturday. But we should insist upon the whole of the commandment and not that part of it only that pertains to the particular day, and if we have to choose, then we should insist upon the more important part of it. We should persist in inquir- ing what is the real object of the commandment; is it that of commemorating a certain day, event or person? the answer is, no, even as Christ said " the Sabbath was made for man," for his benefit, no doubt, physically, morally and in everyway. The main question therefore, is to secure to man this benefit, if it can better be secured by continuing the accustomed day which nearly all agree to keep then it should be continued. The lesser consid- eration of a particular day must not be brought into con- flict with the higher consideration of securing the benefit intended. As has already been pointed out, this benefit is largely dependent upon an agreement to keep one day, this agreement exists now among Christians excepting a small fraction of a per cent. To endanger the higher consideration that of the benefit to be secured on account of the lesser considera- tion, that of a particular day, is not only indefensible on the ground of reason, but it is against certain well-de- fined and positive rules laid down in the Scriptures. We are not to allow matters of circumstances to defeat a true i6o Christianity and Gur Times. or real benefit, the particular day is a circumstance, the benefit of the day is real and true. " For meat destroy not the work of God," says St. Paul; this principle ap- • plied to our question would be: for the sake of a cir- cumstance in keeping the Sabbath, destroy not the Sab- bath itself and the benefit derived from it. There is danger indeed that this principle be applied where it does not belong, as it often is, in these days of license and liberalism. It can be applied only to what is circumstantial, not to what has a moral side or character to it. Those who claim liberty or license to indulge in bad habits, in doubtful amusements or associations on the ground of this principle deceive themselves and do not discriminate. There is no excuse in the Word of God or anywhere for anything that may do damage to character and endanger morals, and no one may disclaim censure and judgment upon acts of any moral significance. When St. Paul says: " let us not therefore judge one another" it is not implied that we may dispense with moral consid erations in any way, and while doing so claim immunity from the judgment and censure both of God and our fel- lowmen. Or when he says, " follow after that which make for peace;" it is not implied that truth and right- eousness, even in the last degree, maybe sacrificed for the sake of peace; we may sacrifice our prejudices, our convenience and self-interests for the sake of peace, but the truth and righteousness of God it is not ours to dis- pose of on this or any other account. If in keeping Sun- day instead of Saturday, we sacrifice a letter of the law, it is not done to appease a clamor, but for the sake of the essential truth of the commandment, and its practical application. CHAPTER XII. SOCIOLOGY AND CRIME. Woe unto them that call evil good and good evil." — Isaiah. Modern Sociologists have invented two terms, here- dity and environment, around which they have woven a creed that has well nigh revolutionized the thought and and sentiment of the age. It is not, indeed, a new doc- trine that birth and surrounding circumstances power- fully influence the individual, but modern science goes farther, it analyzes the human body and fails to discover a soul, but it finds that body, brain and nerve consti- tute a machine, acted upon by extraneou-s influence, which produces thought, feeling and action, and the net result we call character, together with what destiny at- taches to it. Free moral agency and responsibility are modes of speech. Our volitions are free as the motion of wheels in a clockwork; when we get behind the wheels we find springs and weights, which give them a certain inevitable motion. Punishment is cruel, for man is either the victim or favorite of circumstances. Modern Sociologists, acting from these premises, cease to appeal to man's power to will or to be, or to at- tach much praise or blame to his action. Their hope lies in two directions; first, to repair and improve the machine so it will act more harmonious; and secondarily, to control and arrange influences that shall be brought i62 Christianity and Our Times. to bear upon it, so as to produce better thought, feehng and action. The influence and effect of this modern science of so- ciology has been felt in the church, even where there has been no deliberate surrender to it. The appeal to man's free moral agency is less unqualified, his respon- sibility, guilt and liability to punishment, here and here- after, are brought home with less assurance of certainty. The atonement for sin, connected with these doctrines, naturally share the same fate. The tone assumed towards the unconverted, worldly and wicked, is one of pity towards a helpless victim rather than blame upon willful transgressors, and the remedy is medication of "the old man" rather than death to the body of sin, and a new life regenerated. What has been left of Christian- ity is the sympathetic beautiful. This is but a small portion of Christianity, and consequently the new depar- ture and liberal theology, which have their root and be- ing in this- new science of sociology, can only believe a fractional portion of Christianity. Thence their pitiable attempts to reconcile the irreconcilable, which inevitably ends in a sneer at the Bible. The system of modern so- ciology and that of the Bible, are as distinct as any two systems that ever confronted each other, and here lies the difficulty; it is not that the Bible has suffered by any discovery of facts, it is the different spirit which can not possibly find itself at home in the Bible. Yet, the Bible follows for quite a little way alongside this science. It does not deny the influence of environ- ment, and that some of it is in its nature evil. The un- favorable environment is spoken of under three heads; the world, the flesh, and the devil. The felt influence is called trials and temptations. This is all familiar Sociology and Crime. 163 enough, but no less scientific for that. In regard to heredity and its possible evil effects and tendencies, even modern sociology would not care to go farther than the theological definition of total depravity; nor would they wish to express themselves in stronger language than David, when he said: "I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me." The Bible and science unite in setting forth the possible evil tendencies of heredity and environment, and both in equally strong language. So far they follow along side each other, but here they part. Science says that man must be con- trolled by his environment. The Bible says that he must control it. The one says he must be made and moulded by inherited evil tendencies, the other says he must re- sist and overcome them, or be damned if he does not. The Bible does not allow us to believe that the effect of in- fluences and tendencies connected with environment and heredity is identical with coercion. Man's conscious- ness is evidently on the side of the Bible. He can dis- cern and discriminate between the various influences that effect him. He is conscious of the kind of motives that prompt him. He recognizes his responsibility in the choice he makes, and is conscious of blame, guilt and ill-desert, or the contrary. One is not helpless, ex- cusable or irresponsible, unless it can be proven that he is wholly unable to distinguish between right and wrong, or is impelled by some mechanical necessity to act in a certain way; neither of which is true of any but idiots, whose irresponsibility is recognized everywhere. Being incapable of the nicest distinctions is not fatal to one's effort for improvement; it may reasonably be expected of any one that he shall do right when he perceives what is right, and shun the wrong when he knows it to be 1 64 Christianity and Our Times. wrong. To one who acts on this principle the horizon would soon widen, and the plan for improvement broaden. Tendencies and influences inherited or subjected to by surroundings are so balanced with a personal con,- scious individuality, will power and moral freedom, that while parents and teachers may reasonably hope to effect and influence those to whom they are related, yet a per- son is not so bound by these influences, but what he may and does in every case assert his individuality and makes a character that is properly his own. This is a matter of consciousness that it would be idle to argue against. And it is easy to see the reasonableness of this law of our na- ture; it would be a sorry thing if parents had no reason- able hope to be able to influence or afl"ect their children, and it would be equally fatal to the individuality of man if he was wholly unable to resist these influences and cre- ate a character and personality of his own. That this balancing could not be so adjusted as to exclude the nat- ural effects of evil is evident, but it is undoubtedly so ad- justed as to give man the best possible chance in a world like ours. The Bible not only holds us responsible and guilty if weyield to evil tendencies and influences, but teaches that man — collectively and individually — is responsible for environment and heredity such as it is, be it good or bad. It has been of our own making from the begin- ning till now. We have made the world what it is.. In some measure the individual is involved in the general doings of the race, and the net result of it up to the time of his existence. God has, and is doing a great deal to make up for this possible disadvantage to the individual. But in a great measure the individual is independent; he not Sociology and Crime. 165 only has the power to choose, but something to choose between. We are a bundle of tendencies inherited not only from two, perhaps widely different parents, but from a long line of ancestors, these tendencies are mixed in their character, some good, some evil. The influences to which we are exposed by our surroundings are vari- ous and scarcely ever wholly bad; it is not true that this environment is already made for us, except perhaps in early childhood when we are least responsible. The great- er part of life, man has it largely in his power to create his own environment, or choose between what exists. In the same city are good persons and bad, institutions for the promotion of what is good and likewise for the furtherance of what is evil. Quite often man not only creates the temptations that beset him, but the weakness that yields to them. He goes voluntarily to places that exist for the very purpose of luring astray, and under- mines his strength by bad habits, idleness and luxury till he has no power of resistance. In this is involved the law of reflex action, which makes our bad choices doubly dangerous. We make our environment and our environ- ment makes us. We create darkness and the darkness makes us in turn more dark. But upon the whole, the world is evil, so the Bible teaches. Man is depraved — not totally in the strictest sense, for that is the depravity of devils — but totally in that he is helpless without divine assistance to rise to- ward God and goodness. But the Bible teaches that God is in the world as a force wholly on the side of righteous- ness, and wholly on the side of those that would choose righteousness. Man is not unduly handicapped in the strife. The prodigal need but to nourish a heart-desire to return, and straightway the Father is looking out for 1 66 Christianity and Our Times. him and coming half way to receive him. The way God has revealed himself in the world and made our redemp- tion possible, the way in which he is working among us as an active force to save us, and the way in which he has distinctly expressed his will concerning us. This is all revealed fully and perfectly in the Bible, and as much outside of it as the depravity of man has made possible and practicable. There can be no revelation of God with- out mediums through which his spirit may work, when these fail or are very imperfect, the revelation must fail, or be incomplete. In view of the general depravity of the race, any at- tempt to account for the criminal as a peculiar physio- logical product, or on any ground outside that of com- mon humanity, becomes superfluous. There are enough evil tendencies in and around us to make a criminal or libertine of every son of Adam, if he allows these tenden- cies to have their own way with him. On general prin- ciples, all the difference between the criminal and those that are not, is the difference in the degree of resistance. The allowance which maybe made on account of circum- stances which increase temptations and put man at a dis- advantage, cannot be put down as a definite quantity. The Scriptures recognizes it as a quantity, but insignifi- cant in comparison with the willfulness of the individual. Man, generally and individually, is spoken of as willfully wicked, responsible for his wickedness and deserving punishment. The scriptural estimate of the allowance that can be made on the one hand, and the blame that must be attached on the other, will probably be borne out by observation and experience. The rich classes who have every opportunity to surround themselves with what is beautiful, ennobling and pure, who can make Sociology and Crime. 167 their environment all that they choose, are not morally better than the poorer classes; more often they are spoken of as worse, but they are about on one level. The poorer classes produce the burglar, the wealthy classes produce the schemer and manipulator, the bribe- giver and corruptionist. Immorality is at least as com- mon among the rich as among the poor. Generous im- pulses and natural sympathies are found equally in both classes. Birth may imply a great advantage or disad- vantage, and early training is a still greater factor, but it is not uncommon to see men go to the bad, who have had every advantage of birth and early training. On the other hand, we find not a few examples of men rising to honor and moral greatness, who hav^ labored under great disadvantages in these respects. The assertion of the will at critical moments and all through life, has made it possible for "the last to become first and the first last"; to take it for granted that the criminal or flagrantly wicked has become so because he was worse situated than others, is a begging of the question there is no proof for it but rather, the contrary. We do not know in a single case the exact amount of temptation and trial that has been brought to bear upon an individual. To suppose a man who has become a criminal must have had more than his share of temptation is wholly gratu- itous. Many of those who remain virtuous and honest may have been exposed to far severer trials than those who have ignominously yielded. The very fact that one has risen to greatness of character and moral strength, is proof that he has been subjected to severe trials and temp- tations and exerted his individuality in overcoming them, for such greatness is never the result of smooth sailing and favorable circumstances. So far from man being i68 Christianity and Our Times. the inevitable victim of circumstances, it is possible for him to make the worst of circumstances stepping-stones to the highest attainments in character and destiny. In one particular our sociologists are not consistent, for although they practically acquit the individual of re- sponsibility, they blame society. It is very soothing to refer blame and responsibility to an abstraction that can- not be called to account, for society in this sense is noth- ing more. If society is indeed responsible and guilty, then the individual is, for what is society but an aggre- gation of individuals. If an individual is worse than society in general, then he is responsible both for the average wickedness of society and for his own "super- fluity of naughtiness." But how much soever the criminal classes may be to blame, it is not questioned that society has a duty towards them. It is a duty imposed without our choice. In some way society has to deal with crim- inals. How to deal with them is one of the problems of the age. Our dealing with them of recent years has been strongly influenced by the recognized science of sociol- ogy, and it has proven a failure. Crimes and criminals have increased enorm.ously, out of proportion to the in- crease of population, and this in spite of increased educa- tional facilities. The law of Moses and of Christ, which declares the criminals willfully wicked, responsible and deserving of punishment, has been disregarded, and in place thereof, criminals have been made the pets of so- ciety. But the law of Moses, in this as well as in other respects, has a way of avenging itself on those who dis- regard it. Where arguments are of no avail, experience comes to our help, and we are beginning to discover, that in spite of heredity, environment and all the sociol- ogical paraphernalia, criminals must be punished or we Sociology and Crime. 169 will be punished. We must rule them or they will rule us. But, "reform" is the watchword; the criminal must be reformed. This is very true, but there is no reformatory measure like that of justice. Even the death penalty is reformatory. A murderer is far more likely to reform himself in good earnest when brought' face to face with the just penalty of his crime, than when committed to prison, and he will not fare worse in the next world for having paid it. If committed to prison his first and only thought will be how to get out, "hope springs immortal in the human breast," and it has good reason to spring, for very few committed on a life sentence, but what are pardoned out sooner or later. "Whosoever sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed," is the law of God and nature, and when society disregards il it may expect to receive in itself the punishment with interest, of which it acquitted the murder. As a pre- ventive or warning, one execution is more effective than a dozen life sentences. But punishment, although pre- ventive of crime, is not the only preventive; for this reason those are at fault who measure the record of murders by this circumstance alone, where there is no disposition to commit murder, none would be committed whether the penalty is this or that. Education, moral and intellectual, must be combined with strict laws and strict enforcement. But even as an educational measure, justice is of great value. A government expresses its regard or disregard for crime by the punishment meted out, and the fact, either way, impresses itself on the population, and creates or destroys the moral sentiment. Sometimes the tide of corruption and moral depravity has been turned in a nation or age by the strict enforce- 170 Christianity and Our Times. ment of law and justice, in the hands of an efficient and honest government. History furnishes us with such examples. In adopting reformatory measures for our prisons, we should do well to study those in operation in the world at large. The world may be looked upon as a reformatory, of which we all are inmates. The Al- mighty has an interest in our reform, and adopts meas- ures to that end. There is something to lure us to a better life, rewards for obedience; but on the other hand, there is strict discipHne and enforcement of pen- alties. To our sentimentalists, the Almighty would not appear as a philanthropist; he does not abolish pain, but depends upon it largely as one of his reformatory measures; pain of hard labor, of discipline, of penalties, for disobedience. Even capital punishment is not abol- ished: "He that hardened himself is suddenly destroyed and that without remedy." In so far as society is called upon to co-operate with God in this work of reform, it "will do well to adopt his measures. The fundamental in all reform is justice. Attempts to reform a prisoner by setting aside justice in his case, is like building a house without foundation. No criminal can be reformed till he has got the idea of justice into his head and heart, and adopted it as the fundamental in his life and char- acter. Next in order as a reformatory measure is strict dis- cipline. Till one has learned thoroughly the lesson that his inclinations, likes and disHkes are not to be the mo- tive force in his life, he cannot possibly stand alone and take care of himself. In this is included the discipline of honest and regular work, this is necessary not only as Sociology and Crime. i;i a corrective, but as a means of living honestly outside the prison. The general influence of mind and heart may be re- formatory. But this is an element that can hardly be bargained for in public institutions, it is too subtile to weigh or balance. Call it love, and you may have a sen- timent void of moral qualities, or you may hav^ the sum total of all moral qualities. Call it sympathy, and the same wide difference may exist. Whether love and sym- pathy is effective depend altogether on what it is in man. A sympathy that can easily feel for the criminal because it has no feeling about his crime, will only create or strength- en self-sympathy in the criminal, and harden him against reformation, so much the more as it is sure to adopt false methods. Godly sympathy is a standing rebuke against sin and selfishness, while recognizing the possibilities of good there may be in a man, and appeals to it to culti- vate and strengthen it. Unless love of righteousness and truth predominate, and a desire to make the transgressor righteous and true is uppermost, unless, in short, there is divine power mixed with the sympathy, it is useless as a reformatory measure. Modern sociology has produced a crop of sentimen- talists, which directly or indirectly, tends to defeat jus- tice and increase crime. They are ever on the lookout for a chance to prove their moral imbecility. In harmo- ny with their science, they believe there is only one evil, that of pain; and one faculty that ought to be exercised, that of pity. If a murdered person is out of the way, and his suffering past, then there is no more any feeling for him, all their tender sympathies are centered on the murderer, who is in danger of becoming a victim of the law. The fact that he may suffer is sufficient cause for 172 Christianity and Our Times. all that is in them to rise in his behalf. The question of right and wrong, guilt or innocence, or even public safety, is not a consideration. The only question is how to pre- vent a certain amount of pain. This sentiment, combined with the selfish interest of lawyers in trials of criminals has made the work of justice laborious, difficult and very expensive. No wonder that in the poorer sections of the South and West, a kind of home-made justice is resorted to when that furnished by the lawyers becomes too ex- pensive to be afforded or too uncertain to be depended upon. It is easy to point out the evil results of such ir- regularities, but justice defeated or denied will lead to evil results in some form or other. Society in a rude and uncultured state, is apt to err on the side of harshness and undue severity. But in highly civilized and cultured communities, a state of mind and feeling is easy developed that makes it much harder to do the stern work of justice, and take up arms against crime, than to preserve the placid and unruffled temper and quiet unconcern. Selfishness becomes of the passive type, that is always characteristic of a luxurious and ef- feminate people. Patience, forbearance, mercy and for- giveness become comparatively easy, they require only a passive state of mind and placid temperament, one does not need to rise from an easy chair to exercise one and all of them. But whatever calls for strong action, either of mind or body, is at once a hard trial and a disagreea- ble task. This liberalism and indifference to moral issues, misnamed " charitableness," is only the acute sensitive- ness and shrinking from pain or exposure natural to the hot-house plants of an effeminate civilization. It has no moral quality. When a population reaches this state, it is easily subjugated by foreign foes, and is at the mercy Sociology and Crime. 173 of the criminal classes within itself, if it does not suddenly dissolve into chaos by the weight of its own corruption. " The goodness of God leaded, or tended, to repentance," or was meant for that purpose, it is written. Patience, forbearance, forgiveness and mercy, in order to bejusli- fiable must be active, looking, hoping and working for some good end. They are only so many excuses for in- dolence and cowardice if no moral good is actually looked and hoped for in their exercise. " Righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne " they are the foundation of all order, and mercy itself must be built upon this foundation to be well founded, it must be cal- culated to promote righteousness. In the divine plan, mercy is only another way of gaining the ends of justice, and in this is justified. The spirit of liberalism, of moral indolence and cow- ardice, begets a narrowness of view which, while boast- ing of breadth and liberality, is the most pitiable of all narrowness. It is generally centered around some pet theory, and its advocates are blind to everything beyond and above it. A few passages of Scripture that seeming- ly favor their liberalism and sentimentality are selected and insisted upon as representing the spirit and teaching of Christ. But as the soul of nature and man is complex and vast so the spirit of Christ, as exhibited in the New Testament, is even more so. The spirit of Christ is rep- resented in his terrible denunciations of sin; his day of judgment, his agony in the garden, his death on the cross, as much as in the passages of the sermon on the mount that speaks of love and forgiveness. They would confine the spirit of Christ to their own little artificial flower garden, carefully cultivated, but it is broad as the wide landscape and vast as the heavens, It is not mere^ 174 Christianity and Our Times. ly a flower garden or a lovely dale, it is the expanse of the ocean, the rocky heights, the snowy range of mount- ains, it is every feeling and faculty of God and man brought into the service of righteousness. CHAPTER XIII. MODESTY. "First pure then peaceful.''— James. It is doubtful whether the appreciation of virtue is greater now than the average, since our first parents emerged from the garden of Eden, clothed with the garments made for them by the Almighty in place of the fig-leaf covering, with which they had at- tempted to hide their shame. There have been changes from the better to the worse, and from the worse to the better, in every country and clime. In one particular, we are ahead of our fore-fathers some centuries ago; we do not like the rank and silly aspect of vice. Even Shakespeare tastes so strongly of the unwholesomeness of his age as to be often offensive, and ought to be purged from all obscenity. But it does not follow that because our age dislikes the rank and silly show of in- decency, that it is therefore more virtuous; sometimes the very consciousness of the prevalence of the foul fire damp of lust makes us the more sensitive to any- thing that might cause an explosion. In earlier ages there was less sensitiveness about this subject, and seem- ingly less need of. The very Scriptures bear witness to this. Even the free expression of the innocent in the joy of love, as in the song, of Solomon, would not now be considered good taste. But it would be r