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THE PROTESTANT
POINT OF VIEW

A SERMON PREACHED BY THE

REV. JOHN E. BUSHNELL, D. D.
in^Se'
Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church, N. y. City

DECEMBER 10, 1899

PRESS OK M. J. ROTH

Text : I John I ; j. "And truly our fellowship is with
the Father, and with His Son, Jesus Christ."

Whether we realize it or not, our religion is made
up for us by the idea which exists in our mind as to the
nature of God. If we think of Him for instance as
the Pharisees did, as exacting about outward things,
and particular about forms and ceremonies, our religion
will run in that groove. It is clear from the text what
kind of a God St. John had in view, and you cannot
wonder that the Apostle's religion was a very simple
one, that when he worshiped Him it would be not by
petty little bits of flattery and adulation and outward
incense as to an earthly tyrant or unapproachable and
jealous sovereign, but his whole religion would be
summed up in that word fellowship. That was his
point of view. " Our fellowship is with the Father and
with His Son." What a brushing away of agents that
signified! What a putting aside of mediators and
intercessors and elaborate schemes of approach in his
day. Now as soon as he had that idea of God all else
fell in line, and his religion was constituted. Prayer
was a simple matter and likewise faith and love. We
often err in not dwelling enough on the. point of view.
We argue with a friend about alleged errors in his
religion, but we cannot persuade him in that way. He
has a certain idea of what kind of a being God is and
what He likes, and so he will continue doing those
things which our kind of a God would not be pleased
with at all. Let us be considerate to one another.
We do not look at the world out. of the same eyes.

And so there are some things which ought to be
said occasionally, because they are at the bottom of
things, because they give color and shape to one's whole
religion and life. What I bring at present is not for
controversy, not in any spirit of derision or accusation
against what may be dear to others, and with a very
great desire to be accurate and fair and Christian.
But people ought to have a good reason for their faith,
and, least of all, can Protestant people afford to be con
fused as to their position in essential matters.
And we are going to look at things together from
a Protestant point of view. We are to try to see just
how things look from that particular angle of vision.
We will be presumptious enough to say that John in
this text is standing on the good Protestant point of
view. Religion to us also is right there, in fellowship
with the Father and the Son ; a fellowship of course
which is founded on the reconciliation of God and man,
accomplished by an atoning Saviour. Out of that
foundation idea grow all the rest of our characteristics.
Some of our excellent non-protestant friends seem to be
reversing the position of the telescope, when we discuss
religion with them. They appear to use the end which
makes things appear so far away.
God has such a distant look, with a chilling space
between Him and us which must be filled up with real
live things before we can feel comfortable. In our way
of looking divine things seem near, so near that there
is no room between them and us. And it seems to me
that in the text John is using our end of the telescope.
His words seem true for example to my Protestant
experience. I feel quite at home in his way of express
ing himself, He voices my consciousness.
It is the close individual approach, the personal
contact, the daily fellowship which he feels to be the

essential truth in his relation with God. And we are
to consider how that fellowship is found in at least
three different relations : in life, in knowledge and in
plan or service.
First, from that point of view our relation to God
may be considered as one of fellowship in life. In Him
we live and move. No one can be a real safe Protes
tant who does not see with John that God is very near,
that he can speak to him at any time, that the connec
tion between them is fellowship, which is an exceedingly
familiar relation, that there is no one so easy to reach
or speak to as the Divine One. Study the cases of
many who have felt sincerely compelled to go out ot
the Protestant fold, and you will see that their trouble
began in standing off from God and using symbols of
Him as if His own spiritual presence could not be
approached, or by dependance on other people whom
they thought to be nearer to Him and enjoying especial
prerogatives. It is not in unkindness that I say, for illustration,
that when my friend of another religious system
takes me into his beautiful church, I am impressed and
pleased with the dignity and the sublimity of divine
things and a great hush steals over the soul as if on
holy ground, but the second sober thought comes in
presently, where is my Lord ? Way over there in the
misty background ? Rather hard to get at ? Phillips'
cry is at the heart, " Show us the Father and it
sufficeth us."
We wonder what God has ever said or done that
makes people feel the need of so many human names,
shrines and advocates, and why they need the symbol
where they may easily have the realty itself. But that
is only the different point of view. God appears so
differently to us, that we treat him differently. The
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God whom the Protestant sees stands in the foreground
of life, not in the background, and wanting to hear
your voice and mine addressed to Himself and not
brought to him by another. If we differ at this point
We differ over what is fundamental and our ways must
more and more diverge.
When Jesus said, thus pray ye, "Our Father," we
think He was giving us a point of view from which all
religion begins. It seems impossible that one who has
ever seen his Father in just that way should ever be
willing to let anything come in between him and that
view, or should ever feel the need of any other point of
view. The Protestant danger is that of irreverence, of
treating the Divine too familiarly, and so failing in the
dignity and sublimity of worship. But the danger is
on the safe side, the danger of non-protestant systems
is that of a false reverence which awes too much until
the trembling soul is glad of the help of saints and
angels in its approach.
Between the two dangers you must choose the least.
The moment you see God's nearness in the Protestant
sense, religion and life become very simple, there is no
mystery, no magic, no trivial rule nor mechanical
device, it is the Father and Son arrangement, all else
is built on that, and what beclouds that thought is to
be swept away.
It seems to us then almost an affront to. the love of
God, that anyone should address a prayer otherwise
than to "Our Father," as Jesus said. The thought
that His power to heal and help is remote and concealed
and to be found in such ways as by adoring sacred
relics, and by touching the bones of some one, long
dead, or in any other manner which implies difficulty of
access or lack of direct contact with the soul is incom
prehensible to one who says, "Our fellowship is with
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the Father." Talk to your children of the nearness of
God until they can almost see His face. Make great
things simple and near and natural, and then they will
never incline to make little things great and remote.
Accustom yourself to think of tbe deep and hidden
things of God in the simple terms of Jesus, when He says
"I call you friends," of Paul when he talks of union
with Christ, and of John when he comprehends the
Christian life under the name of " fellowship " and then
you are safely Protestant, feeling no need of a
better point of view.
In the second place from the Protestant point of
view the relation between God and men is one of
fellowship in knowledge. Those who look at things
with us see that to know more and more, to grow more
intelligent and possessed of truth, wherever it is, is both
man's privilege and duty. You can honor God in
thinking and knowing as much as in that which is more
often called worship. God has a great deal to tell His
children which he wants them to know. He does not
want unintelligent, superstitious, untaught, illiterate
sons and daughters any more than you parents do.
And from the Protestant point of view there is no rea
son why everyone should not be taught, and be trusted
to know, what He has said, and we are unable to find
aught in His word or in the nature of man, to indicate
that truth may not be entrusted to all his people or be
the prerogative of few. What is the result of seeing
things in this way ? Wherever that point of view
prevails they have pushed school houses as fast as
meeting houses; the Bible and the spelling book go
out by the same post. It is absurd to think of having
a Protestant nation without knowledge. We thrive on
intelligence, we fear nothing so much as ignorance,
our cry is for more light.

It was a characteristic act that they founded Har
vard College just as soon as they could catch their
breath between fighting and felling forests. What is
wanted is more light, always more light, and see what
has been done thereby! Protestantism is surpassed
numerically by several other religious systems which
have had many more centuries at the work than it has.
And yet numerically so small, in age so youthful the
destiny of the world to-day is in its hands.
The people who have embraced it stand out of all
comparison with all others as world forces. There is
no real unquestioned civilization of the first class in the
modern sense of the word, except where it holds the
supremacy. And what is the reason ? It is that in
the Protestant point of view ignorance is wicked,
intelligence is life. God made the body and you must
honor that, He made the soul and you must honor that,
He made the reason and if you do not honor that, you
dishonor the Creator and pay the penalty in an arrest
ed development or complete decline. Certainly, too, we
must pay the cost peculiar to our own system. An
intelligent people told that they must think for self, fall
apart, divide up into subdivisions and contend. One
of the greatest charges brought against us is concerning
our schisms, denominations and lack of unity.
Another penalty is that we have to hear new
views. Someone writes a book, old positions are
assailed, for of course if you set the mind free it is going
to work some havoc. Liberty has its drawbacks, leaves
its wounds and kindles fear in the weak. If you have
no patience you cannot be a good safe Protestant, for
some day you will be in danger of becoming so tired
and irritated, that you will say let me go where there
is'peace, and of course there is peace to be had, if you
will pay the price — Oh yes, there is peace to be had at

a price!- A good friend who left us because he did not
want to do with a system which did not keep better
order and have some final authority to declare what
view in scholarship is right, stop discussion and relieve
the individual of the tiresome responsibility of decid
ing momentous questions, in which they might stumble.
But when the Lord made us and set us here and gave
us freedom, He knew there were dangers in His plan,
but the fruits of freedom seemed so much greater
than the drawbacks, that He choose to go on with the
plan. Someone will abuse his reason, someone will
disturb our peace, but from our point of view we see
that truth is a very precious thing and sacred, and
better that many should err and blunder than that the
search for truth should stop.
Protestants can better afford to be patient a long
time and stretch toleration to the tearing point than
seem to join those who have retarded human develop
ment by setting a police force over the realm of the
understanding. Peace can be bought at too high a
price, and is not the most important of earthly posses
sions when you do get it. And so when some tired
one impatiently and with irritation at our follies and
strifes, seeks rest for mind and soul elsewhere, it is not
an occasion for harsh names nor evil thoughts. All
that can be said is "he is that kind of man." He is
no Protestant. Now what does make a good safe Prot-
estant in this direction ?
One who loves truth so much and respects so
much the duty of every man to be fully informed and
persuaded in his own mind that even theological debates
do not seem the worst events which can happen ; that
he is willing to wait God's time for truth to be vindi
cated ; that to get immediate peace he is not willing to
pay the fearful cost which he pays who gives his

thinking into the hands of another, and feels that
apathy, ignorance, indifference are far worse than dis
cussions on creeds and agitations about orthodoxy.
There are those who cannot stand the pace of Prot
estant Christianity. They are like men who get out
of breath in a race. For it is alert, wide awake for truth,
confident. Has it not paid for all it has cost ? Look
back a little and see what fellowship with God in
knowledge has done for us. We make rationalists,
sceptics, infidels, it is charged. All systems make
them, just as all seas have wrecks upon their coast. We
do not know which one turns out the most of such kind,
we have not seen the roll and it makes no difference.
But if any contemplate leaving us because of our belief in
fellowship, in knowledge, let him remember that her
price is above rubies, and that those most precious things
of our age, the liberty we enjoy and the things which
enrich that liberty most, have come to us as the result
of Protestant high thinking in fellowship with God's
truth. In the third place, from the Protestant point of view,
we have fellowship with God in His plans and service.
And here is where our historic name especially applies.
The word Protestant means a protest against what is
contrary to the will of God. Sometimes the word
seems too small. It was given at first with particular
reference to the sins of the then ruling Christian
Church, and we do not like to think that we exist
simply to protest against that or any other institution
or system. If it were created to-day we would probably
not name it Protestant, yet for the sake of the battles
it has fought, the good it has done, the blood in which
it has been baptized, the glory which God has given it
in putting it at the head of the march of mankind,
we love the name, and use it not in its narrow but

broadest sense, as signifying that we try to keep in line
with the eternal purpose of God for the redemption of
earth and war against all that opposes that divine
purpose. We shall inherit a world where there will be
nothing to protest against, but not here.
From the Protestant point of view all that is not of
God must be put an end to. The mere conformity to
outward control does not signify much. All rites and
fasts and gorgeous pomps are nothing when the inner
life is far removed, and external conformity a mockery,
if the secret soul is not yet a piece of the eternal
harmony. Protestantism is unresting — dissatisfied.
That is why some leave it. Protestantism means
progress. It is the spirit which is not satisfied
with the present. To-morrow the standard of life on
earth must be above that of to-day. What is the result
in fact ? A virility among Protestant nations. An
ability to raise its people higher.
It is impossible to imagine a nation faithful to the
Protestant schools and churches for several centuries as
some of the nations have been so pathetically faithful to
other religious systems, and be to-day a part of the
wreckage of nations as they are. It is the eternal
protest of our religion that keeps our people throwing
off oppressive governments, and bursting bands of
ignorance and exposing the unreal and false. Protes
tant people do not accept any institution as having
divine right if its fruits are bad. It was its unrest
which made government by the people and which others
only accept when compelled to do so.
Put other religions where Protestantism is and by
the very force of rivalry they are compelled to make
advance, to give some restriction and progress. In the
lands where the Protestant rival is not found, however,
they are no friends of progress or of education.

But it makes no difference to our Protestant
spirit whether it be surrounded by rivals or be en
tirely alone in that field. It presses just the same
for higher education, higher civilization, higher stan
dards of life. It has caught the vision of what God's
will is, of what he requires, of what men may become.
It is a self-accusing body. The worst things said about
us are not from our neighbors, who do not publish
our faults and sins as we do ourselves.
We have talked so much about our weakness
and decline and corruptions, that some who do not
know our ways imagine that we are about to disappear
from the earth. Presbyterians in particular have
talked a part of their constituency out of our body in
this city by their self-accusings. It all comes from
having a high idea of what God requires.
There is little worldly wisdom in a real Protestant
body, and let us hope there never will be. Where else
will you find public lamentations over conscious defects?
Who else uses the public press to advertise their sense
of weakness and failure ? Decry their virtues and
exploit their fears until they drive some away who do
not think it quite respectable to be in such company ?
Who that hears the moans and cry for help and self
upbraidings of our Protestant Christianity would
dream that it is just on the edge of the greatest adven
tures in its history as the force which keeps the world
moving on, before whose glowing face stand new
realms long closed to the light now to beome sharers in
that education and life, which have lifted other people
to lead the nations, and never before so possessed as
now with the Master's love for souls and longing for
their redemption. If Protestantism has been the pro
gressive force which is educating and civilizing the
the world it is because from its point of view it sees the

infinite purpose of God reaching out for universal
righteousness and truth and love. It is that vision
which makes it restless, discontented, rebellious while
it longs for the new heaven and the new earth to
appear. I have said these things to-day very plainly, because
I believe that the world needs very much what Prot
estantism alone has to give, in order to clear the spiritual
atmosphere, and in the cause of straight thinking and
holier living. We inherit the proudest memories ; we
are privileged to have enjoyed the highest knowledge
which can be had. In our own midst even are those
who do not see things from the Protestant standpoint.
With pain we see the noble Anglican Church tottering
and sick, not because of foes without, but because some
within have lost the point of view. But, let nothing
cloud our vision. Let us see what things are of value,
and what things possess reality. Tell them to your
young. Talk of them by the way. Suspend sometimes
the trivialities of the social hour to converse about
themes so inspiring. Become a witness in the world, so
full of obscurity, superstition and ignorance, to the
blessed truth that our relations to God are one of fel
lowship in daily life, in knowledge more and more
complete, and in the doing of His will, and the fur
therance of His plans for all mankind. Then we shall
retain a spiritual religion as simple as the simplicity
that is in Christ, and powerful as the Holy Ghost is
powerful. Our dependence will not be in the external,
and every one shall be a priest. For the triumph of
our cause we will not ask that courts of nations shall
find room for our trained diplomats to represent us at
the doors of legislative chambers or in the seats of
their politicians, for our weapons are spiritual. We
will not be swift to decorate our worship too much
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with the beautiful and costly adornments of art, and
forget realities in our infatuation for their symbols,
remembering how often others, as strong as we, have
fallen beneath "the lust of the eye." And if others,
seeing our point of view, shall prefer the outlook from
another place, we will cherish no rankling anger nor
scorn, but press on whither the vision leads, hoping for
the time when all who have been truly led of God shall
see at last, eye to eye, in the land where all discords
cease and truth is clear.

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