THE BAMPTON LECTURES
FOE MDCCOLXXXVn.

Pensa, lettor, s'io mimaravigliava,
Quando vedea la cosa in te star queta,
E nell 'idolo suo si trasmutava.
Puhgatoeio. Canto xxxi. 121—6.

THE PERMANENT ELEMENTS
OF RELIGION
EIGHT LECTUEES
PEEACHED BEFOEE THE UNIVEESITY OF OXFOED
IN THE YEAE 1887

ON THE FOUNDATION OF THE LATE REV. JOHN BAMPTON, M.A.,
CANON OF SALISBURY

BY
W. BOYD CAEPENTEB, D.D., D.C.L.,
BISHOP OF ItlPON,
HONORARY FELLOW OF ST. CATHARINE'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE

MACMILLAN AND CO.
AND NEW YORK
1889
[All Rights Reserved,-]

London:
printed bt perry, gardner and co.,
farringdon road, e,c.

Co ptu iftflotljcv
I OWE MY EARLIEST THOUGHTS
OF RELIGION :
Co JMi) iHotljct-
I DEDICATE MY LATEST.

EXTRACT
FROM THE LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT
OF THE LATE
EEV. JOHN BAMPTON,
CANON OF SALISBURY.
 "I give and bequeath my Lands and Estates to
" the Chancellor, Masters, and Scholars of the Univer-
" sity of Oxford for ever, to have and to hold all and
" singular the said Lands or Estates upon trust, and
' ' to the intents and purposes hereinafter mentioned ;
" that is to say, I will and appoint that the Vice-
" Chancellor of the University of Oxford for the time
" being shall take and receive all the rents, issues, and
" profits thereof, and (after all taxes, reparations, and
" necessary deductions made) that he pay all the re-
" mainder to the endowment of eight Divinity Lecture
" Sermons, to be established for ever in the said Univer-
*' sity, and to be performed in the manner following :
' ' I direct and appoint, that, upon the first Tuesday
" in Easter Term, a Lecturer be yearly chosen by the
" Heads of Colleges only, and by no others, in the room
" adjoining to the Printing-House, between the hours of
" ten in the morning and two in the afternoon, to
" preach eight Divinity Lecture Sermons, the year
" following, at St. Mary's in Oxford, between the com-

x Extract from Canon Bampton'' s Will.
' mencement of the last month in Lent Term, and the
' end of the third week in Act Term.
" Also I direct and appoint, that the eight Divinity
1 Lecture Sermons shall be preached upon either of
'the following Subjects — to confirm and establish the
' Christian Faith, and to confute all heretics and
' schismatics — upon the divine authority of the holy
' Scriptures — upon the authority of the writings of the
' primitive Fathers, as to the faith and practice of the
' primitive Church — upon the Divinity of our Lord and
' Saviour Jesus Christ — upon the Divinity of the Holy
' Ghost — upon the articles of the Christian Faith, as
1 comprehended in the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds.
" Also I direct, that thirty copies of the eight Divinity
' Lecture Sermons shall be always printed, -within two
' months after they are preached ; and one copy shall
' be given to the Chancellor of the University, and one
' copy to the Head of every College, and one copy to
1 the Mayor of the city of Oxford, and one copy to be
' put into the Bodleian Library ; and the expenses of
1 printing them shall be paid out of the revenue of the
' Land or Estates given for establishing the Divinity
' Lecture Sermons; and the preacher shall not be paid
' nor be entitled to the revenue, before they are printed.
"Also I direct and appoint, that no person shall be
' qualified to preach the Divinity Lecture Sermons
' unless he hath taken the degree of Master of Arts
' at least, in one of the two Universities of Oxford or
' Cambridge; and that the same person shall never
' preach the Divinity Lecture Sermons twice."

PREFACE.
The publication of these Lectures has been
delayed much longer than I hoped or intended.
Constant occupation and incessant interruptions
must bear the blame of this delay. More than
once the proof sheets have been left for months
untouched. Various reasons have also rendered
the task of preparation for the press unusually
difficult. The Lectures, I should explain, are
little better than corrected short-hand writer's
reports. As such I trust that they will be read.
Had leisure been at my disposal, I should have
re-cast and re-written the whole. The delay,
which I otherwise regret, has, however, enabled
me to gather some illustrations from works
published within the last two years. In addi
tion to those whose works I have used, I desire
to thank the Dean of Windsor, the Archdeacon
of Durham, Canon MacColl, Canon Waugh, and
Mr. Brownlow Maitland, who, in various ways,

xii Preface.
have given me much personal help. To these I
must add the name of Professor Max Miiller, who,
besides other kind help, allowed me the privilege
of seeing the advance sheets of his Gifford
Lectures. No acknowledgment would be com
plete which did not speak of the uniform kindness
and helpfulness of the authorities at the British
Museum, and here my thanks are specially due to
Mr. Fortescue and Mr. Bendall.
I must not make the kindness of these kind
friends in any way responsible for the many
mistakes and defects which my want of time or
of wit may have left in the pages which follow.
I am aware of my own feebleness ; but I am more
and more convinced that in the path along which
I have been stumbling, lies the solution of many
of our present-day difficulties. W. B. EIPON.

Ripon, Aug., 1889.

CONTENTS. INTRODUCTION. LECTUEE I.
PAGE
Probable Permanence of Religion ... 3
An age of transition makes men ask, Will religion
survive ?
I. — There are reasons for believing that religion will
survive.
These reasons are derived from
1. The experience of the past, -which shows that
religion lives, though religions die.
2. The nature of man — which is (a) permanent, and
(4) religious.
II. — Further, it is not impossible to indicate some of
the conditions of religion in the future, and to
which any religion which aspires to be enduring
must conform; for the permanence of man's nature
means the permanence of certain spiritual conditions
or principles, which, for the sake of convenience, we
may call laws. There are seemingly four :
1. The Law of Environment.
2. The Law of Organism.
3. The Law of Sacrifice.
i. The Law of Indirectness.
The existence of these gives us a guarantee of the sur
vival of religion and the conditions on which any
religion can hope to survive among men.
Thus the survival of religion is likely, and the religion
of the future must conform to certain conditions.
LECTUEE II.
Some Essential Elements of Eeligion . . .47
One guarantee of the permanence of religion is the
permanence of man's nature, and that permanence is
expressed in certain spiritual laws.
It may be asked whether we cannot predict any of
the elements which will be found in the religion of the
future.

xiv Contents.

PAGE

I. — It is likely that we can: for a large field of
investigation is being opened up to us in the
- comparative study of religions. The history of
religions may suggest to us the elements which
the nature of man has demanded in religion.
II — The elements which man's nature asks are three :
Dependence.
Fellowship. Progress.
1. Two of these are indicated by Definitions of
Rehgion.
2. All three are suggested by general considera
tions, but the evidence that they are, as a fact,
demanded by mankind must be sought in the
history of religions.
III. —The evidence on this point will be given by
Non-universal or minor religions.
Universal religions.
1 . Hints of these elements meet us on the threshold.
2. The witness to them in some non-universal reli
gions. (a) The religion of Mexico.
\b) The religion of Israel.
(c) The religion of Greece.
The need of these three elements for man.
LECTUEE III.
Essential Elements of Eeligion Witnessed in
the History of Three Universal Eeligions 7 7
The permanence of religion and the permanence of
man's nature are correlated. There are certain essen
tial elements demanded by man in religion. The main
evidence on this point must be sought in the history of
the three universal religions :
I. — Islamism in its history illustrates this demand.
The original element in Islamism is Dependence
The Sufite movement is the demand for Fellow
ship. The Mo'tazilite movement is the effort
after Progress.
II. — Buddhism in its original form attempted to meet
the demand for Fellowship. Later developments
show the demand for Dependence. The worship
of the Buddha. The multiplication of Deities.
The practice of Prayer. The element of Progress
is recognized in the hope of a Future.

Contents. xv

HI. — Christianity in its history shows the reiteration in
various ways of the demand of human nature for
these three elements :
(i.) The teaching of Christ.
(ii.) The witness of history and controversy —
1 . To Dependence.
2. To the need of Fellowship.
(a) Montanism. (b) The struggles of Athana
sius. (c) Asceticism, (d) Saint Worship.
(e) Mysticism.
3. To the need of Progress —
(a) The Schoolmen, (b) The School of nature.
(iii.) The existence of parties as a witness to the
need of Dependence, Fellowship, Progress.
Thus mankind in all periods has shown the need of
three great elements in religion.
LECTUEE IV.
The Eelation of the Three Universal Eeli
gions to the Essential Elements of Eeligion 1 27
The question now assumes another form. Hitherto
we have been asking what elements man demands in a
religion. We have now to ask how far any religion
has the native power to meet this demand.
With the view of answering this question, it is need
ful to examine : —
I. — Islamism. 1 . The element of Dependence is natural and indi
genous.
2. The element of Fellowship is found to be an
artificial growth.
3. The element of Progress has no natural home.
II. —Buddhism. 1. Fellowship akin with its earliest features.
2 . Dependence demanded in later developments :
North India, China.
3. Progress recognized : Maitreya Buddha.

xvi Contents.

III. — Christianity.
The three elements originally present :
1 . In the teaching of Jesus Christ :
2. In its theological drift.
3 . In the teaching of Apostles.
Thus Christianity alone of the three universal religions
possesses originally and indigenously the three
elements of religion which the History of Religions
shows that man's nature demands.
LECTUEE V.
Eeligion and Morality . . . . .171
It being admitted that Religion is natural, two ques
tions may be raised ; whether Religion is (1) necessary,
(2) ethically helpful to mankind.
Taking the latter first, this Lecture is occupied with
the relation of Religion and Morality.
Ethical efficiency may be taken as a test of Religion.
I . —The question considered as one of Fact.
(i.) The Fact is that the influences of Religions
on morals have been not wholly evil or good,
but mixed.
(ii.) The interpretation of this Fact.
1 . The results of Religion due to more than one
factor, ,. Man a factor, no less than Religion.
2. Examination of this factor. Religion never
sown in virgin or passive soil.
3. Evil may result from man or from religion
II. —The question considered as one of Principle.
(i.) The statement that religious principles are
immoral.
1. The statement is ambiguous.
2. The statement confuses Religion with its
shadow — Religionism.
(ii.) The principles of Christianity in relation to
morals.
1 . Christianity in principle hostile to Religionism.

Contents. xvii

2. The consideration of three charges of de
moralising influence.
(«) Orthodoxy preferred to morals.
(b) Sentiment preferred to conduct.
(c) Energy diverted from the world-life.
(iii.) Conclusion with regard to Christianity.
Its principles embrace all life.
Its orthodoxy is the highest morality.
Conclusion. — Rehgion gives a sort of Eternalism to
Righteousness.
LECTUEE VI.
The Necessity of Eeligion .... 250
Religion being natural to a man, and having capacity
as a moralizing factor, the question meets us — Is reh
gion necessary ? Is there, in other words, any adequate
substitute for religion ?
I. — Morality must be preserved.
(i.) The indispensable elements of real morality.
(ii.) The connexion of these elements with
1. The laws of man's spiritual nature.
2. The needed elements of rehgion.
(iii.) Danger of moralism ; the shadow of morality.
II. — Proposed substitutes for rehgion:
(i.) Three considered as substitutes.
1. Knowledge.
2. Altruism.
3. Drift of the world, or evolution of moral*.
(ii.) The defectiveness of scientific moralism in re
lation to
1. The dark side of life.
2. The unfit and the unfortunate.
3. The deeper side of man's nature.
(iii.) The indebtedness of social sentiment to reli
gion.
1. As a fact in history — Influence of religion. B

xviii Contents.

2. Ethically — the ideal set up.
3. Sociologically.
Conclusion. — Religion seems necessary to men.
LECTUEE VII.
Eeligion and Personality ..... 243
No adequate substitute for religion being found,
religion is a necessity in the future. In a perfect re
hgion, religion and morals should be inseparable. The
need, therefore, of a principle or basis on which rehgion
and morals unite.
This is to be found in the recognition of personality,
i.e., in the recognition that religion and morals are
meaningless except they express relationships between
beings who have wills and affections.
I. — The recognition of Personality not an empty phrase.
The power at work which aims at the education of
man as a personal being.
(i.) History shows the danger of forgetting that
man is man.
(ii.) Nature educates man to — ¦
(a) The consciousness of self.
(b) The sacrifice of self.
(e) A certain completeness of character.
(iii.) Recent knowledge shows us stages of evolution
in the same direction — (a) Physical, (b) Psychi
cal, (c) Social.
IL — The recognition of Personality afiords a, basis of
reconciliation between rehgion and morals.
(i.) The reconciliation afforded by the idea of per
sonal beings —
(«) The word Personality as applied to God.
(b) Anthropomorphism inevitable to man.
(ii.) This recognition applies to {a) the source as
well as to (b) the subject of religion.
(iii.) To the varying standards of morals.
HI.— The religion of the future must be based on a
Person, not on Creed, or Code.

Contents. xix

PAG
(i.) No necessary loss to Definiteness and to Con
duct.
(ii.) But an enormous gain to religion in Creed
and Worship.
Conclusion — Creed so based contrasted with the creed of
science.
LECTUEE VIII.
The Eeligion of the Future ... . . 287
The survival of Religion being probable, the question
arises whether any existing Faith can fulfil the con
ditions needful for survival.
I. — The conditions needful.
(i.) Religion must —
1. Satisfy men's wish for unity.
2. Give guarantee of Permanence.
(ii.) Religion must supply the three elements —
Dependence, Fellowship, Progress.
(iii.) Religion must possess a Power of Inspira
tion.
II. — The application of these conditions to existing
Religions.
(i.) How far existing Faiths possess needful con
ceptions.
1. Non-Christian Systems — •
Islam, Buddhism, Positivism.
2. Christianity.
(a) The three elements — Dependence, Fellow
ship and Progress, (b) The test of unity
and permanence, (c) Some further features.
(ii.) The power of Inspiration.
1. This both in subject and object of Religion.
2. The relation of this inspiring power to —
(a) Law of Environment. {b) Law of Or
ganism, (e) Law of Sacrifice, (d) Law
of Indirectness.
3. This power pervades Christianity.
Conclusion. — Changes of form may be expected, but
Christianity in its essential elements abides.

INTRODUCTION.
Necessity of the Study of Religion.
The unsettled meaning of the word " Eeligion "
has caused inconvenience and misunderstanding.
The question, for example, whether there were any
races or tribes wholly destitute of religion would
have been simpler if there had been agreement
about the meaning of the word religion. But
the discussion became confused when, with some,
religion meant any tokens in rite, custom, or
belief, which indicated the possession of a
religious sentiment, however crude — while, with
others, it meant religion in vertebrate form, or
religion " worthy of the name."
It might be said, then, that the inconvenience
would end with the definition of religion. But
this is not so simple a matter. The historical
school will tell us that we can only define after we
have collected the material facts upon which alone
a definition can be based. Before we can say
what are the indispensable features of religion,
we must study the religions of different races and
times all the world over. To define a word by the
exercise of the easy dogmatism of our study

xxii Introduction.

chair is not a scientific proceeding. The only
definition worthy of the name is that which
results from a large induction of facts. If we
are to learn what religion is, let us leave our own
preconceived ideas on one side, and let us interro
gate mankind. From the study of man, and his
needs and requirements, we shall receive, if not a
clearer answer, yet one which will be founded on fact .
We have therefore to study religions before we
can define religion. Advantage of the Study.
There is a further advantage which may pos
sibly arise from the study of the religious history
of man. A change has come over our mode of
presenting arguments for faith. Certain lines of
argument, once popular, are not felt to be appro
priate to the mind of our age. It is not my
task to deal with the reasons of this change.

"Whether it is due to a mere change of
taste, or to our having drifted away from the
standpoint from which the force of such argu
ments can be estimated — whether we are, as some
imagine, more clever, or, as others believe, more
dull than our ancestors, the fact remains that
arguments which were freely advanced a hundred
or even forty or thirty years ago, fail to produce
much impression on the men of to-day. We do
not now find apologists employing arguments from

Introduction. xxiii

miracles or from prophecy as their predecessors
did. It would be unwise to say that those argu
ments have for ever lost their value. It is true to
say that they are like mines no longer worked,
because there is no longer the same demand for
their produce. The demand diminishing, it has
happened in theology as in commerce, that energy
and enterprise have betaken themselves to mines
which are being developed in other regions : the
workers leave the shafts deserted and ply their
toil elsewhere in the produce of more marketable
commodities. Is it want of faith to believe that
there is a protective function in nature; that
when the sources of wealth fail in one quarter
they may be discovered in another ; and that
arguments derived from physical nature may, with
advantage, for the time be replaced by those which
result from the study of the realms of man's
psychical and moral nature ? In one of his essays,
brilliant with dexterous argument, and bewildering
with startling paradox, the late Professor
Clifford concluded that, out of the clouds
which gathered round our path, the face of our
forefather man looked down upon us, and that
in the future, not the kingdom of God, but the
kingdom of man was at hand. There is a sense
in which we may accept the idea. Led away
from the evidence of cosmical contrivance,

xxiv Introduction.

and driven to undertake the study of the growth
and origin of religion, the witness to the abiding
strength and permanence of religion may be found
in humanity. In the hour of the world's despair,
amid decaying creeds, she may find that the key of
deliverance lies concealed in her own bosom. The
investigation of the laws and conditions of the
kingdom of man may yield fresh and reliable
testimony to the eternal kingdom of God.
In what field is this discovery more likely than
in the history of man's efforts to find God, or,
which is the same thing more fitly expressed, in
the history of God's methods of leading man to
Himself? Natural Limitation of the Study.
Such a study deals with religion mainly from its
subjective side. It is the history and study of
the religious sentiment in man. It cannot deal
with the objective truth of any religion. But,
notwithstanding this, the study may bear indirect,
and none the less convincing, witness to the truth
of religion. It may afford a test of fitness which
may create a strong presumption in favour of or
against the permanent value of one religion or
another. We may at least ascertain those elements
Which man imperatively demands in a religion, and
which, therefore, must be supplied by any religion

Introduction. xxv

which rightly aspires to permanence. These
elements we may call permanent elements of
religion. Range of the Study.
For the purpose of ascertaining what these ele
ments are, we must treat as religious whatever
is religious to any race or people. But we must
distinguish the varying value of the materials at
our command. In other words, we must classify.
In doing so, we may be misled by some uncon
scious bias ; but the risk of this may be minimised
by observing the results of different modes of
classification. Classification.— One Class Excluded.
One class may be excluded — the class of modern
manufactured religions. That which is made wil
fully, and of malice aforethought, so to speak,
can never be accepted as religion. It lacks
the element of faith or simplicity, which is essen
tial to everything religious. They be no gods
that are made with hands, and they be no religions
that are wilfully invented. We may call things by
any name we like, but to devise a system and
call it a religion will not make it such. We may
analyse, and by doing so we may ascertain those
elements which are essential to a religion ; but
when we put them together they do not make a

xxvi Introduction.

religion ; they want the divine element, the
breath of God from the unseen and infinite
beyond to give them life. Build up the image
as carefully as we may, we know that it is
an image. No man can worship the work of his
own hands, knowing it to be such. If he can
persuade himself that a Divine hand has touched
it — that it is He or It, the great Spirit, and not
he himself, who has made it — if by magic, rite
or consecration he can bring himself to believe
that the great unseen Power has transmuted its
nature, then he may bow his head and worship.
But when religion is reduced to the level of an
analysis, and from its elements every touch and
flavour of aught surpassing man's knowledge
has been deliberately rejected — of the residue that
is left, man cannot make himself a religion. The
grouping of those elements which are essential
to religion can no more make a religion than can
colour and canvas make a picture, or linen and
sawdust make a doll. The moment a creed
becomes scientifically measurable, the religious
power of it evaporates. Men may dislike or dis
trust the dogmatism of the Athanasian Creed, but
there is more religion in the grand roll of its
declaration of faith in the Father incomprehen
sible, the Son incomprehensible, and the Holy
Ghost incomprehensible, than in a self-styled

Introduction. xxvii

religion whose position and proportions can be
laid down upon a diagram and measured upon a
plane. If we may so speak, the trajectory of
religion must rush away towards the infinite
beyond, if it is to keep its place as a religion
towards men. The scientific creeds must extend
towards the Unknown and Infinite before they
can become religions in any true sense. Man
must cast his anchor into depths into which he
has never descended, if he is to ride sure amid the
storms and waves of life. To cut off, as Positivism
does, all that is unknown, is to cut religion adrift
from its most needed anchorage.
Ought Buddhism to be Excluded?
Do the same arguments or similar ones exclude
Buddhism? I think not. In the first instance
the element of simplicity is present in the dawn
of Buddhism. There was no deliberate invention
of a religion. It was not built up ; it grew.
But Buddhism has been described as a religion
without God. Is not such a description a con
tradiction in terms? Here, again, we must not
be misled by an ambiguous word. Buddhism is a
complex term. It is true that in some of its
aspects it presents the paradox of a religion
without God. But in its later and in its far larger
and wider developments, it accepts gods as objects

xxviii Introduction.

of worship. Further, even in its earlier aspects
it never cuts itself away from some sort of touch
with the Infinite and Unknown which is above or
beyond us. It is an Agnosticism more than a
Positivism. It is nearer to Mr. Herbert Spencer
than to Mr. F. Harrison. Indeed, in some of its
aspects I have been tempted to call Buddhism an
unconscious Theism. Its ultimate is the wish to
reach that which is above the change of pheno
menal life, outside the reach of time or passion,
which is beyond consciousness and unconscious
ness. It has here a link with that which is above
thought or time-life. We must, therefore, include
Buddhism in our study. But we must exclude
those manufactured systems which, though styling
themselves religions, lack the religious %8os. With
this exception we must treat all that as religion,
which is religious to any race or people. From
the study of these we may ascertain what man
needs in his religion.
But though we cannot ascertain the essential
elements of religion except in the study of reli
gions, we may yet gain some glimpses of the nature
of these elements by considering (1) the various
modes of classifying religions, and (2) the defini
tion of religions adopted by those who have given
special thought to the subject.

Introduction. xxix

Modes of Classification.
We may group religions, as Professor Max
Miiller does, into book-religions and religions
without sacred books. We may arrange religions
according to the races which have produced them,
and consider separately the religions of the
Aryan, Semitic, Mongolian, Nigritian, and other
families. We may divide them into " race-
religions " and " individual religions," i.e., into
those which have grown up, so to speak, un
consciously with the growth of a race or people,
and those which owe, or seem at least to owe their
origin to some distinct individual founder. Again,
we may divide them according to their special
characteristics, arranging them as Professor
lieville does, as "Legalistic" and " Eedemptive ; "
or again, as "national" and "universal."
In each of these methods there is something to
be gained, since each method gives prominence to
some special feature. If our aim be to discover
what man says of himself and his own religious
needs, every classification will be useful, in so far
as it yields up some principle of man's need or
man's nature.
We may illustrate this by considering severally
some of the proposed classifications.
1. No special principle of man's nature is

xxx Introduction.

perhaps to be found in the distinction between
"book religions" and "non-book religions,"
but this classification nevertheless furnishes a
valuable caution.
Those religions which possess sacred books may
be studied with the consciousness that we have
dependable material upon which to base our study.
Difficulties arise respecting dates, no doubt, and it
is important to study the various books with
scrupulous regard to their place in the chronology
of their religion.
But when we come to study the non-book
religions, and especially when we meet with those
religions which belong to races destitute of all
literature, our difficulties increase in proportion to
the doubtfulness of the material at our command.
In studying, for example, the oldPelasgic religions
we may put ourselves under the guidance of
some expert, such as M. Alfred de Maury, feeling
that we can to a degree correct his conclusions
by reference to the pages of classical literature.
But when our studies are of races without litera
ture, and our only materials consist of the reports
of travellers and their mutually discordant accounts
of the same race, then the difficulty is very
greatly increased, and a feeling of doubt haunts
every conclusion.
2. The classification of religions into "national "

Introduction. xxxi

and " universal " maybe objected to, but it cannot be
denied that it has served to emphasize the great
difference which exists between religions which
seem to be limited in their range, and those which
are capable of over-passing the land of their birth ;
between those which are for one people and those
which are for all. It is true that in a sense no
religion can be called universal till it has vindicated
its right to the title by over-spreading the whole
world ; but the existence of a religion which has
spread its influence over divers nationalities and
races, and has shown itself capable of breaking
the fetters of class and family, making little of race
distinctions and much of universal needs, witnesses
to the possibility of a religion which may claim to
be universal in a larger and truer sense.
3. The classification of religions, according to
race, for instance, into Aryan, Semitic, Nigritian,
etc., calls attention to what may be called charac
teristic differences.
As a fact it is admitted that the religions of
the Aryan races possess characteristics which
distinguish them from those of the Semitic races,
while these again differ in religious thought from
the Nigritian and Mongolian races.
These characteristic differences do not imply
that there are no resemblances. They rather
refer to the degree of emphasis with which certain

xxxii Introduction.

features of religion prevail among one people
as compared with another. The idea of sacri
fice, for instance, finds place in almost all
religions ; but one religion might give it such
special prominence that it would be fair to say
that sacrificialism was one of its characteristics.
The features which tend to appear everywhere are
universal features. The features to which special
prominence are given in any religion may be called
its characteristic features.
For instance, the Aryan religions are thean-
thropic, while the Semitic are theocratic. In the
latter the emphasis is laid upon the sovereignty of
God : in the former it is laid on the kinship or
friendship of God. It is not meant that the
Aryan could not recognise the gods as rulers, or
that the Semite could not recognise God as friend,
but still the characteristic difference remains true.
To the Semite, God was the Sovereign, the
Mighty One, the Lord. Man was the subject
under the protection of the Sovereign Lord. In
the strongest and most uncompromising form (for
instance in Islam) the creed is essentially that of
faith in the Absolute Sovereign. Allah is Emperor,
submission is the first virtue. In this way the
Semitic race gave special witness to Dependence as
an element of religion.
The Aryan religion, on the other hand, seized

Introduction. xxxiii

hold of the relationship between the human and
divine. The Godhead is Father, Brother,
Friend. In the extreme forms the gods are so
like men that they share the weaknesses and
vices of human beings. The Aryan races were
alive to the element of Fellowship in religion.
This element was not, indeed, outside the range
of the Semitic mind. Abraham was the friend
of God. " The Lord God walked with Adam in
the cool of the day." But the greatness of God
impressed the Semite ; the kinship of God
attracted the Aryan. These great races gave,
therefore, their emphatic witness to two great
elements of religion — Dependence and Fellowship.
4. The classification of religions as legalistic
and redemptive, deals with some of the deepest
human needs. The redemptive religions (Buddhism
and Christianity) bear witness to the need
of emancipation from inward discord, from the
tyranny of lust and desire, from the thraldom
of moral evil. They are alive to the cry, " O
wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me ? "
Buddhism and Christianity arising in the world
pronounce sentence upon mere legalistic religions.
They touch the heart of human need in their
realization of "the need of redemption.
Their differences are instructive. In Buddhism
redemption comes from below ; in Christianity c

xxxiv Introduction.

it is from above : in Buddhism it comes from
man ; in Christianity it comes from God. This
is not surprising. The race characteristics of
which we have spoken might have prepared us for
this. Buddhism is Aryan, Christianity is Semitic,
in origin. Yet the wonder will remain how
Christianity escaped the limitations of its
Semitic surroundings.
5. Take the classification of religions as
national and individual. This classification has
been criticized. Eeligions which have had no
apparent personal founder, have yet grown up
through the influence of distinguished individuals.
Eeligions which seem to owe so much of their
life and origin to individual founders have derived
much of the material which the individual
prophet vitalised, from the slow, unconscious
accumulation of national thought. There is
truth no doubt in this statement. But the
classification into national and individual religions
still remains valuable. Nothing can alter the
tremendous fact that the three religions to which
alone the title "universal " is accorded are asso
ciated with the story of individual lives, and are
popularly described by names which have prac
tically become proper names of their prophets.
Mohammedanism, Buddhism, and Christianity
are the pre-eminent individual as well as universal

Introduction. xxxv

religions. They seem to bear witness to the
principle that a purely philosophical religion must
fail, and that it is only when a religion is vitalised
by personality that it has power to live and move
and have its being.
These various classifications call our attention ,
therefore, to certain features or elements of
religion. The naturalness of religion, the possi
bility of a universal religion, the importance of
the elements of Dependence and Fellowship, the
need of redemption, and the power of personality,
are among these features.
It will be seen that we reach here the sugges
tion of some possibly permanent elements of
religion. Every classification is of service, as we
are only seeking to know what man has asked for
in his search after religion.
Definitions of Religion.
There is great variety in the definitions of
religion ; but this variety has its value, as it serves
to show what elements are deemed essential to the
idea of religion by various writers and thinkers.
Some of these give special prominence to Depen
dence. Schleiermacher, for instance, says,
religion consists in our consciousness of absolute
dependence on something which, though it deter
mines us, we cannot determine in turn.1 This is
1 Given by Prof. Max Muller, " Hibbert Lectures," p. 19.

xxxvi Introduction.

a very strong statement of Dependence. Hegel
criticises it, saying that, if this be so, a dog would
possess more rehgion than a man. But the view
of Schleiermacher becomes less limited when we
notice that he recognizes an inward appro
priation of the power on which we depend.
"Eeligion is neither knowing nor doing, but an
inclination and determination of our sentiments,
which manifests itself in an absolute feeling of
dependence on God."1 " Eeligion is the imme
diate consciousness of all that is finite within
the infinite, of all that is temporal within the
eternal."2 The sense of dependence is thus
accompanied by a realization of the infinite sig
nificance of life, and by a sentiment of our union
with Him on whom we depend.
Hegel is the advocate of the element of freedom.
"Eeligion is, or ought to be, perfect freedom."
This freedom, however, involves dependence of a
very marked character. " Eeligion is the know
ledge acquired by the finite spirit of its essence as
absolute spirit."3 This would seem to be the
declaration of the emancipation of the finite
spirit from its limitations. But the freedom be
comes veritable dependence when religion is said
i " Christliche Glaubensiehre," § 3.
2 Quoted by Prof. Max Miiller, " Gifford Lectures," p. 68.
3 See " Gifford Lectures," Prof. Max Muller, p. 09.

Introduction. xxxvii

to be " the Divine Spirit becoming conscious of
Himself through the finite spirit." 1
We have thus the elements of dependence and
freedom contending for expression in religion. It
can hardly be otherwise when religion is conceived
of as a relationship between the finite and infinite.
This thought is expressed in the definition
adopted by Pfleiderer in his earlier work, and
mentioned with approval by Tiele, according to
which religion is the synthesis of dependence and
freedom.2 The finite is to become free, capable of
the fullest exercise of its powers, by its voluntary
and conscious recognition of its dependence upon
the infinite. In a sense it enters then into fellow
ship with the infinite. The freedom it finds is the
power to express that which otherwise it would
have failed to express. Freedom is found in
service. We rule by obeying. This is the liberty
of the children of God. This is that service of
God which is perfect freedom.
Professor Caird has admirably combined these
elements in his definition of religion : " Eeligion
is the surrender of the finite will to the infinite,
the abnegation of all desire, inclination, volition
that pertains to me as this private individual, the
1 See " The Origin of Religion," Prof. Max Muller, p. 20.
2 See Art. on "Eeligion," in "Encyclopedia Britannica,"
9th Ed.

xxxviii Introduction.

giving up of every aim or activity that points only
to my exclusive pleasure and interest, the absolute
identification of my will with the will of God."1
If rehgion be thus the surrender of our will to the
will of God, the element of Dependence is in
cluded in the definition, but inasmuch as the
surrender is a voluntary identification of our will
with the will of God, the communion or fellow
ship of the Divine and the human will has taken
place. The finite finds itself in the infinite, and
the infinite finds expression in the finite. The
element of Fellowship is here.
Schelling's definition presents parallels, but
touches on an aspect of religion which the defi
nitions so far have not brought into explicit
prominence. " Eeligion is consciousness, the
highest unity between what we know and what
we do."2 Eeligion, so defined, might seem to be
little more than consistency. But we must not
narrow down the range of know, or limit it to
mere scientific knowledge. It rather, I imagine,
corresponds to the range of the Ideal which
transcends the real as rendered by us. The
infinite significance of life, when perceived, puts to
shame the insignificance of life as we make it.
Eeligion seeks to realize the ideal, and to bring
1 " Philosophy of Eeligion," p. 290.
a"Werke,"vol. i., p. 55.

Introduction. xxxix

about the lofty consistency which lifts the low
actual into view of the ideal.
We are here within reach of the question of
conduct or morality as related to religion. Kant
considered religion (as subjective) to consist " in
the recognition of all our duties as if they were
divine commandments."1 It is duty with the
consciousness of the infinite significance of duty.
It is duty seen with a kind of majestic self-
enforcing power.
Beside this we may place Fichte's definition ;
" Eeligion is conscious morality, a morality which,
in virtue of that consciousness, is mindful of its
origin from God." Or again, "Eeligion is the
living power of morality, a power which has
become conscious of its origin, and which mani
fests itself ceaselessly in moral achievement." 2
Here we may recognise the infinite significance of
duty. Its voice bears witness to more than the
passing act of duty. It has behind it the
emphasis of the Infinite and Eternal. It never
dies in one achievement. It is a living force
which works ceaselessly. In such a view we can
see the element of Dependence. There is a
majestic kinship between duty on earth and
1 " Eeligion innerhalb der Grenzen der blossen Vemunit,"
ch. iv. 1.
' " Ethik," vol. i.,p. 23.

xl Introduction.

the power behind duty. But the eye of duty
goes not only backward to its source, but forward
to the unconquered realms and contemplates
ceaseless moral achievement. The element of
Progress finds place here.
Spinoza seems to include this power of moral
activity when he defines religion as "the love of
God, founded on a knowledge of His divine per
fections." x The element of Fellowship is present
here. The soul is bound by love to God ; but that
love has been called forth by the recognition of
what God really is. Dependence is implied,
and moral or spiritual activity will follow. This
definition includes the Power or Force which can
evoke an admiring and grateful love. It assumes
that there is a real object of love or admiration
before the soul of the worshipper. Whether false
or true in its view, religion is not in this definition
considered as a series of subjective feelings viewed
apart from the Infinite Cause or Object which calls
them forth. The same is true of all the definitions
which either implicitly or explicitly postulate
the infinite or the unknown greater than self.
Eeligion may, like a dream, produce emotions in
the mind of the dreamer by a series of unreal
images, but the moment the dreamer knows that
they are unreal,the dream ends ; the emotions depend
1 Given by Prof. Max Mtiller, " Gifford Lectures," p. CO.

Introduction. xii
for their existence on the assumed reality of the
images. The sentiments or emotions produced in
men by the sense of the infinite or unknown Power
of the universe cannot be called religious except
in so far as they arise from the reality or supposed
reality of that Power. In other words, the
existence of that vast Eeality, other than our
selves, the existence of God, or some equivalent of
God, is an element of these definitions.
If these definitions are correct, there must be
some defect in definitions or descriptions of
religion which leave this element out of sight.
When, for example, religion is said to be the
faculty of " habitual and permanent admiration," 1
we feel that, compared with some other defini
tions, it errs by defect. Eeligion postulates the
idea of the great Beyond and Unknown, the
Infinite, with which relationship is somehow
possible, the Great Power or Force behind
nature, which evokes our feelings of awe or
reverence. It is true, however, that religion ought to
awaken our feelings towards all life. The senti
ment of awe called forth by the sense of the Infi
nite would not be sufficient. According to Goethe,
" a threefold reverence has to be called forth in
man by religion : a reverence for what is above,
1 " Natural Eeligion," 1882, ch. iv., p. 74.

xiii Introduction.

for what is around, and for what is beneath
us."1 Similarly Darwin says: " The feeling of religious
devotion is a highly complex one, consisting of
love, complete submission to an exalted and mys
terious superior, a strong sense of dependence,
fear, reverence, gratitude, hope for the future, and
perhaps other elements."1 We have here the
recognition of Dependence, Fellowship (love), and
Progress (hope for the future), allied with the
recognition of the Power beyond and greater than
ourselves. The necessity for the recognition of the Infinite
or Unknown finds its fit prominence in the defini
tion of Eeligion given by Prof. Max Muller : —
" Eeligion consists in the perception of the infinite
under such manifestations as are able to influence
the moral character of man."1 Two elements
seem to me to be implied : (1) that of depen
dence ; and (2) that of progress as far as regards
moral character.
The definition given by Teichmiiller, and quoted
by Prof. Max Muller, is given in shorter and
longer forms. Eeligion is the " disposition which,
being joined to God-consciousness, symbolizes
1 Quoted by Prof. Max Muller, in his recently published
work "Natural Eeligion" ("Gifford Lectures," 1888), p. 65;
note on p. 09 ; p. 188.

Introduction. xliii

itself in the common function of knowledge,
feeling, and action ; " 1 or again : " Eeligion
consists " (1) Of personal feelings of fear, of complete
dependence on unknown powers, which form a
motive leading man to seek comfort in a view of
the world not supported by experience.
" (2) It consists of (esthetic feelings, which sur
render themselves in admiration to the Beautiful,
and lead to the erection of an ideal world.
" (3) It consists of moral feehngs, which lead
to an attempt to construct such a system of the
universe as should in turn make them (our moral
feelings) intelligible." x
The longer definition, it will be seen, deals with
disposition or feelings. It is occupied with the
subjective side of religion. The "view of the
world," the "ideal world erected," "the system of
the universe constructed," may be untrue and
unreal, but unless these were true and real to the
worshippers, they would not be religious. It
seems to me, therefore, that the definition errs by
not sufficiently recognising the necessity of the
reality of the objective in the mind of the
worshipper. This defect is remedied in the
shorter definition by the introduction of the word
" God-consciousness." The consciousness of the
1 Ibid., note on p. 05, p. 64.

xliv Introduction.

Unknown or other than self is an indispensable
element of religion. The first clause of the longer
definition gives a place to the feeling of dependence.
The second clause, in setting forth an ideal world,
awakens the instinct of progress ; the third clause
gives expression to the necessity of pure synthesis
between things as they are and as they ought to
be. This is the religious feeling which asks recon
ciliation or fellowship.
Beville, in his definition, gives a prominent
place to this element of fellowship. "Eeligion,"
he says, " is the determination of human life by
the sentiment of a bond uniting the human mind
to that mysterious Mind whose domination of the
world and of itself it recognises, and to whom
it delights in feeling itself united."1 The idea
of union or fellowship pervades the whole of
this definition. Eeligion is the sentiment of a
bond which unites : the human mind delights in
the consciousness of this bond. But near and
glad as this union is, it is the link which unites
man to that which is greater than man — the sense
of dependence is never absent. The acquiescence
which the spirit feels in the ruling mind carries
with it a readiness of co-operation — we accept the
domination of the mysterious mind — we delight
in identifying ourselves with it inwardly and out-
1 " Prolegomena of the History of Eeligions," p. 25.

Introduction. xiv

wardly in thought and in action. This implies
the element which I call Progress.
Pfleiderer gives almost equal prominence to the
element of Fellowship. " Eeligion is the relation
of our life to the world-controlling Power, which
is to become a community of hfe with it."1 Here
there is community of life. There is the idea of
dependence in the recognition of the world-con
trolling power. There is the idea of soul-progress
implied when we speak of the future and of that
which is to become richer and fuller than it is at
present. Martineau defines religion as " belief in an
Ever-living God, that is, of a Divine Mind and Will
ruling the Universe and holding Moral relations
with mankind."2 Dependence is recognised here.
Fellowship or spiritual union is possible wherever
moral relations exist. Belief in the Everlasting
One, who rules the universe, carries with it con
fidence with regard to the future and that progres
sive order of life which can never fail or become
capricious, when all things are ruled by an Ever-
living God.
Definitions might be multiplied. The above
are to a degree typical, and probably sufiicient for
our purpose. It will be seen that they vary in
1 " Die Eeligionsphilosophie," vol. ii., p. 29.
a " The Study of Eeligion :" Introduction, p. 1.

xlvi Introduction.

completeness and exhaustiveness ; but on the
whole, it appears to me that there is a general
consensus of opinion that a sense of dependence
is indispensable to religious feeling in man ; but
this sense of dependence is sooner or later
accompanied by a desire of union or self-identifica
tion with the object of worship, or that on which
man depends. Further, that there is always a
hint of a glance forward to the future, in the re
cognition of an ideal to be aimed at, or of a Golden
Age to be reached. The quenchless desire of pro
gress asks a place in man's religious thoughts.
These feelings yield the three elements which I
call dependence, fellowship, and progress. But
none of these can be satisfied except on the sup
position of the truth and reahty of the object of
worship. To resolve this into a mere ideal is to
destroy the basis of religion. Unless man feels
that he yields allegiance or submission to some
Eeal Power greater than self, he has no religion
in the true sense.1
It follows that definitions, which deal only with
subjective feelings, or which seek to make religion
consist of only these, are defective.
Feuerbach, for instance, regards religion as
selfishness.2 This is simply exaggeration. To
1 Cf. Eenouf, " Hibbert Lectures," p. 253.
2 " Wesen der Eeligion," p. 100.

Introduction. xlvii

say that there is a recognition of the needs and
desires of self in religion is true enough — for
man is the subject ; but to make religion consist
wholly in this is to forget that there is an Other-
than-self element in religion. Eeligion is a
relationship of some sort between self and some
Other-than-self. To define it in such a way, that
only one factor in the relationship is reckoned
with, is to miss the mark.
The same objection lies against the definitions
given by Wundt and Gruppe. Wundt says : " All
precepts and sentiments become rehgious as soon
as they have reference to some ideal existence
which can supply the wishes and requirements of
the human heart." x
Gruppe declares that " religion exists because it
satisfies certain selfish instincts." 2 In his view,
it has no other raison d'etre. It is no doubt true
that religion can be given a selfish form by selfish
people. Selfishness is sufficiently strong in human
nature to allow of this. But all human wishes and
requirements are not selfish, and religion as often
as not appeals to man, awaking generous passions
to make war against selfish desires. Eeligion in
many of its phases insists on a self-surrender.
One is inclined to ask whether the writer has not
1 Quoted in " Natural Religion," Prof. Max Muller, p. 73.
2"DieGriechischenCulteundMythen." 1887. p. 216.

xlviii Introduction.

mistaken the remedy for the disease, now can
religion, which is selfishness, get rid of selfishness,
unless Satan can cast out Satan?
Professor Max Muller has devoted some pages in
recently pubhshed " Gifford Lectures " to Gruppe's
position. It is enough, perhaps, to say here, that
in all these hostile definitions of religion there
appear to be radical defects. The writers forget
the sense of the infinite reality which enters so
largely into man's religious thoughts or sentiments.
They further confound men's legitimate Egoism
with selfishness ; all self-affirmation, self-preserva
tion, self-possession, self-mastery, all effort to make
the best of self is not selfishness . It is not a sin to seek
joy, or to find gladness in union with Him who is
higher than ourselves. Self is a sacred thing ; and
the religion which seeks to set it aside, rather than
to lift it to true self-possession, has set the seal of
doom upon itself. You cannot define religion in
terms which do violence to human nature.
Eeligion, according to Mr. Herbert Spencer,
will change, but not die.1 Whatever components
of the religious sentiment disappear, those which
are due to the consciousness of unfathomable
mystery and an Omnipresent Power will abide.
Our capacity for wonder will grow while the one
1 "Religion, a Retrospect and a Prospect," and "Last
Words about Agnosticism." ("Nineteenth Century," July
and November, 1884.)

Introduction. xlix

absolute certainty will remain, that we are in the
presence of an Infinite and Eternal Energy from
which all things proceed. It seems to me that
there is a flavour of Semitic faith in this con
ception. It deepens our sense of Dependence.
Agnosticism has kinship with Semitic Naturism.
Positivism, on the other hand, cuts off the whole
sphere of the Unknown. In its view the incom
prehensible can have no kinship with us. We
must create our philosophy of hfe and religion
without the Infinite or the Beyond. We can find
sympathy in woman. We can have kinship with
the Grand Eire. An active religion can derive its
impulse from the recognition of duty, based on
a kinship with all Humanity. The point which
is emphasized here is kinship. We may worship
Humanity, which is akin to us : we cannot worship
the Infinite. Thus, while Agnosticism dwells on
the infinite, and therefore unknown, Positivism
dwells on the finite, because known. These two
modes of thought give prominence respectively to
the elements of veneration and kinship, to depen
dence and fellowship. Like the Aryan and Semitic
races they attest in their place some of the special
elements which man needs in his religion. Each
mode of thought witnesses to a truth, neither is
complete without the other.

Introduction.

So-called Non-Religious Peoples.
But how are we to deal with the cases of
those peoples and races who are said to have no
religious sentiment whatever ? There are no
books to guide us, and the reports, however
honest, may even mislead us. As M. Eenouf says,
" The habits of savages without a history are not
in themselves evidence which can in any way be
depended on." x
In the first place we may estimate the position
of the argument on the supposition of the facts
telling on one side or the other. Suppose, for
example, that the facts go to show that there are
no races destitute of religious sentiment, then it
must be allowed that religion is natural to man.
Suppose that there are races destitute of all
religious sentiment, then it would seem that we
have discovered peoples who are in the condition of
children in whom certain feelings and instincts are
wanting. The discovery of these would not neces
sarily forbid our saying that religion is natural to
man. If there are infantile races in whom religious
consciousness is dormant or dead, we need not be
greatly surprised. We do not measure man by
his infantile, but by his adolescent or adult powers.
In all adult races religion exists, and is as natural
1 " Hibbert Lectures," p. 125.

Introduction. Ii

to man as his hair, even though hairless men are
to be found.
In the next place, what are the facts ? The
evidence of the existence of non-religious races is
doubtful. It is doubtful, because frequently the
cases cited have been proved to be mistaken. The
case of Darwin and the natives of Terra del Fuego,
the view of Sparrman about the Hottentots, and of
Liechtenstein about the Kaffirs, may serve as
illustrations. Other examples are given in the
Lectures. It is doubtful, because the study of the
native races has been undertaken with an uncon
scious bias. It is easy to see how the missionary,
with strong views of the superiority of the faith he
has to teach, may be bhnd to the value or
significance of the tokens of rehgious sentiment
among native races. It is easy to see how the
anthropologist, in his desire to find evidence of the
low levels from which present-day humanity has
been evolved, may be bhnd to the same tokens.
Added to this is the secretiveness of the barbarous
races. Secrecy is the strength of oppressed
peoples as " deceit is the fist of the weak." J Lastly,
there is the difficulty of language, which prevents
travellers from understanding what these races
really do believe.
Against this doubtfulness which hangs over the
1 Goldwin Smith, " Cowper," p. 9.

Iii Introduction.

evidence on one side, we may put the weight of
authority on the other side. The same facts which
led Sir John Lubbock to declare that there were
non-religious races led Professors Eoskoff and
De Quatrefages to declare the opposite. "As a
matter of fact, the tribes are not found," 1 says
Professor Tylor. On the whole, therefore, we may
conclude we are not at the end of the discoveries ;
we must wait for further hght. But meanwhile the
weight of evidence is on the side of those who affirm
that wherever there is man there is also some re
ligious sentiment. "A religious system," writes Mr.
Herbert Spencer, " is a normal and essential factor
in every evolving society." 2 On the whole we are
justified in speaking of religion as natural to man.
The Religions to be Studied.
The true field of evidence on the subject of
man's religious needs is the history of religions.
Here we can observe what directions man's efforts
have taken ; and what elements he has incorpo
rated into his faith and worship. At times some
one element has been given undue prominence ;
but sooner or later nemesis has followed its
exaggeration, and the neglected elements have in
turn risen into importance. In the Lectures I have
endeavoured to show what may be learned from
1 " Prim. Culture," vol. i., p. 418.
a " The Study of Sociology," p. 313.

Introduction. liii

the record of the three religions called universal.
I am not concerned to justify or condemn
the use of the word universal as applied to
these religions. Strictly speaking, no religion
is universal till it has spread over the whole
world, and gathered all races and peoples under
its sway. No religion has as yet completely
accomplished this triumph. Christianity has
made the largest advances in this direction. She
has embraced the greatest variety of race and
people under her wing. Islam has made little
way among Aryan peoples. Buddhism has found
small favour among races of Semitic blood.
Christianity, rising among the Semites, has made
its home among people of every tongue and
of every blood. In the history of each, three
elements, which I call Dependence, Fellowship,
Progress, have been demanded by man. The
witness of Islam, Buddhism, and Christianity
is the witness of three-fourths of the human family.
The history of other religions seems likely to
yield the same results, and to show that sooner or
later man asks that religion shall meet this three
fold demand of his nature. The religion of Mexico
has been touched on in the Second Lecture. Had
time and space permitted, I should have followed
this out more fully, and treated also of the witness
given by the religions of the Jew and of the Greek.

liv Introduction.

The rehgion of ancient Egypt, as unfolded to us
in the delightful pages of M. Le Page Eenouf's
" Hibbert Lectures," indicates the same instinctive
demand. The element of dependence is clearly marked.
The word Nutar, which is translated God, means
Power. It corresponds to the Hebrew El.1
It was applied indifferently to any powers
believed to be active in the universe ; but
" a Power without a name or any mytho
logical characteristic is constantly referred to in
singular number, and can only be regarded as the
object of that ' sensus numinis,' or immediate
perception of the Infinite." 2 This Power, or God,
is spoken of as forbidding and commanding. He
gives the fields to till. Treasure grows through
His gift. He knows and smites the wicked. He
will protect His servant in his affairs. He is in
the light above the firmament. Sentences like
these clearly state the dependence of man on
the Power greater than man. " A sense of the
Eternal and Infinite, Holy and Good, governing
the world, and upon which we are dependent, of
Eight and Wrong, of Holiness and Virtue, of
Immortality and Eetribution — such are the ele
ments of the Egyptian religion."3 It will be seen
1 "Hibbert Lectures," 1879, p. 98.
2 Ibid., p. 100. s Ibid., p. 251.

Introduction. Iv

that we have here not the mere naked element of
Dependence. It is dependence with an ethical
factor added. But whenever we get this recogni
tion of a moral or righteous order, we are on our
way to the element of Fellowship. Since the
righteous order demands conformity to itself, man
must recognise in his religion more than the idea
that the gods can be persuaded to help him to his
wishes : he must realize that he himself must be
in harmony with the righteous rule. The realiza
tion of this righteous order is strong in Egyptian
religious thought. " The recognition of law and
order as existing throughout the universe, under
lies the whole system of Egyptian religion. The
Egyptian maat, derived, hke the Sanskrit rita,
from merely sensuous impressions, became the
name for moral order and righteousness." x We
can thus see the elements of Dependence and
Fellowship, joined with the recognition of
a Power infinite and beyond man's comprehen
sion. The element of Progress has a place
in these passages, in which gifts and talents
are recognised as divine. "It is He (God) who
granteth genius with endless aptitudes." 2 We may
compare, on this point what M. Le Page Eenouf
says of the significance of the Egyptian word Ka.

1 "Hibbert Lectures," p. 250.
'The Maxims of Ani," ibid., p. 102.

Ivi Introduction.

"The genius was a sort of spiritual double of each
individual. . . . The Egyptian word corresponding
to the Latin genius is ka. Its original signi-
nification is * image.' " It acquired later the
meaning of a divine gift.1
The Three Elements of Religion.
The words which I have used to describe these
three elements are Dependence, Fellowship, and
Progress. I do not claim that they are the best
words, nor am I tied to their use. They seemed
to me to express popularly and most nearly what
I wanted to express. Their meaning will be
made clearer in the Lectures. But here I may say
in explanation, that the order of religious life in the
world seems to move through three stages of con
sciousness, and at each stage to gain something
which tends to complete the religious idea.
1. The first stage I call Nature or God-conscious
ness. Those who accept the theory of a primitive
revelation will admit this at once. For those
who do not, I grant that it might be more exact
to spell the word God with a small g — for the
stage I speak of is consistent with very low
notions of the Supreme Being. It is the stage
in which the powers of nature are felt. Man has
no real consciousness of himself as greater than
i " Hibbert Lectures," pp. 147 — 152.

Introduction. lvii

the animals, or even the trees around him. But
he has a keen sense that there are powers, or
that there is a power greater than himself, and
that he is dependent on it or them for his safety
and comfort. It may only be the sense of the
good which the sun brings to him, warming his
body and delivering his eye from the terror of the
night ; but it is the recognition of the greater
than self, and it enforces on his mind the idea of
dependence. The history of religion shows the
elevation of the idea of the power greater than
seK. The conception of God reached higher and
yet higher ranges ; but the first step out of mere
animalism is the consciousness of Dependence on
other than self. It is certainly anterior to any poly
theistic or henotheistic stage. It is the stage of
naturism if you will ; but it is the stage in which
man conceived of the powers about him as powers
which were alive. It is recognition of a life and
power other than his own. It is what I call
Nature or God-consciousness.
2. The second stage is self-consciousness.
This stage is the dawn of the ethical idea. For
man to become conscious of himself is to realize what
we call his personality, and to be aware of his power
of self-direction. He begins to determine his actions ;
his will is in play. He perceives that there is an
order of life about him ; misfortune when it comes

lviii Introduction.

is realized as involving some mistake or fault on
his own part. Nature has prohibitions. Nature
avenges the violation of her prohibitions. The
gods have a way or order of their own : he must
conform his practice to their will or wish. He
has learned to blame himself. Eelated to this
stage is the propitiatory sacrifice. If we may,
without committing ourselves to the interpretation,
draw an illustration from the early chapters
of Genesis, we might regard the sacrifice of
Abel as typical of the dawn of the self-conscious
stage. Cain is the type of man in the mere
Nature or God-conscious stage. Abel has reached
the stage in which to God-consciousness is
added self-consciousness. This stage is at first
crude ; it is often allied with gross supersti
tion : human sacrifices darken its movements.
But crude or dark, the element which it reveals
and nourishes in man is the recognition that he
must somehow unite himself with the power
above him. The relationship must not be that of
mere dependence. It must be one of communion
or fellowship. In its highest stages the feeling of
dissatisfaction with self becomes full of keen and
poignant anguish : the righteous order presses
upon the self-consciousness of man, alive to his
failures and waywardness. Its language is the cry
of despair from the lips of one who perceives the

Introduction. lix

strife between the life as prescribed by the ideal
of righteousness and the life as self-will has made
it. Then we hear the wail, " O wretched man
that I am ! " The recognition of the idea of sin
belongs to this stage. The idea of sin is the
witness to the element of Fellowship. The idea
of sin (not the sense of sin in individuals) loses its
power whenever the union between the Divine and
the human can be established as complete and un
interrupted. The propitiatory sacrifice is no longer
offered, being no longer needed. The world has
seen one vivid example of this. Wherever the
story of Christ has been accepted as a way of life,
there all propitiatory sacrifice has ceased. In one
sense, sacrifice is the heart of the Christian system.
In another, sacrifice, except in the ethical and
eucharistic senses, is no part of it. The stage of
self-consciousness is followed by another stage.
3. The last stage is world-consciousness.
It is only comparatively late in the world's
history that the claims of the world and of
the race have been recognised among men.
The claims of the family or of the clan
were recognised as the recognition of commu
nity of interest grew. But the view that every
human being all the world over had claims
on his brother man seems to me to stand on a
different footing. Altruism, to whatever source

Ix Introduction.

we trace it, is a nobler thing than clanship or
the claims of goel. It is not the consciousness of
a mere extended self-interest ; it is a world-con
sciousness, and implies not merely an enlarged
range of view, but a clarified vision. It seems to
stand upon the recognition of the fellowship
between God and man, which makes man con
scious that he has a place in working out the
great aim of God. He was once dependent ; like
the animals, he sought his meat from God. He is
still dependent, but not in the old sense, for he
has recognised the moral order, and he has seen
that in righteousness lies life ; but becoming one
with God, he views the world with the eyes of
God. The Father cares for the children — the eyes
with which the Son of God beholds the world are
the eyes of Love. Like St. Paul, such an one
feels that he is a debtor to all — Jew, Greek, Bar
barian, Scythian, bond or free — what matters the
name ? He owes his life-energy to all. Out of
this spirit grew the recognition of the claims
of humanity. There is a goal towards which
humanity can travel. Progress is recognised here.
It becomes a necessary element when out of God-
consciousness and self-consciousness has grown
world-consciousness. Sinai is the expression of
the righteous order, but it would have no meaning
except to those who had reached the stage of

Introduction. lxi

self-consciousness. But the code of Sinai is
before the Sermon on the Mount. This latter
deepens the sense of self-consciousness, but it
also opens the stage of world-consciousness. "Do
good, and lend, hoping for nothing again ; and ye
shall be the children of the Highest ; for He is
kind unto the unthankful and to the evil."1
Can world-consciousness find nobler expression
than this, or Progress find a truer inspira
tion? It is worth noting the connexion of these three
elements with those conceptions of God which have
been current from time to time in the world.
Deism proclaims the transcendence of God. It
leads to absolutism in religion. It is allied with
fatalism in life : it cuts man off from the sense of
kinship. Pantheism, when viewed as a reaction from
Deism seems to bring God nearer, but it does
so at too great a sacrifice. It touches all the
movements of existence and the Universe with a
passing brilhancy : all motion, all advance, are the
pulsations of the hfe of God in the Universe.
Progress is a divine thing. God is near to
Nature and to man ; He is in Nature and in man ;
nay, He is Nature — nearer than this he cannot be ;
but this is not nearness, it is annihilation. In no
1 St. Luke vi. 35.

lxii Introduction.

true sense can the desire of kinship, which makes
man reject Deism, be satisfied by this doctrine of
God's nature. He may be immanent in Nature,
but how can man have fellowship with Him if He
be all Nature, and if man be Nature too ? In this
confusion of substance, to borrow a phrase,
there is no scope for Fellowship. Pantheism
destroys the possibility of the kinship which at
first it seemed to promise.
God must be near and akin to man. He must
be working in the great order of the Universe.
He must be near us, and yet above us. The
realization of the three elements — dependence,
fellowship, progress— protects us against erro
neous, inadequate, and unsatisfying conceptions
of the Divine Nature.
Similarly, the true conception of the Divine
Nature meets man's needs, and proves adequate
and satisfying to man's nature.
These three elements are witnesses of man's
needs. He is conscious ahke of his feebleness
and of his greatness. He must find the Strong
and Eternal One on whom to depend ; he must
become one with the order of the world in which
he is placed ; and he must express himself
in achievement. His sense of dependence, his
desire for kinship, and his ambition of progress,
claim to be heard. These three things are as

Introduction. lxiii

laws of the kingdom of man, and they discover
to us man's nature. The needs of man witness to
the nature of man : they meet with response in
the nature of God. The impression on the coin
corresponds to that on the die. The conceptions
formed by man of the nature of God have often
been grotesque : they must always be imperfect ;
but they may be true, though inadequate. To be
real to man they must be correlated to man.
This correlation we meet in Christianity. If
man's nature asks satisfaction in dependence,
kinship, progress, the conception of the nature of
God given in Christianity corresponds. On the
Eternal Father, man may depend ; in the Eternal
Son, man finds fellowship and true harmony with
the order of life'; in the Eternal Spirit, there is the
guarantee of all true progress.
If our position is true, these elements enter into
the foundation of the religious nature of man, and
they are also of the eternal order of the Universe.
They have been demanded by man : they have
been steadily maintained amid changes and con
troversies. Interpret them as we may, they refuse
to be discarded. An unseen Power has presided
over the history of man as his religious con
ceptions have developed into greater clearness.
The presence, but not the nature of this power, has
been almost universally recognized. It is the

lxiv Introduction.

faith of some of us that the world has never been
left without the guidance of the Maker of all, and
that it has lived and does live in the grace of
our Lord Jesus Christ, the Love of God, and the
Communion of the Holy Spirit.

LECTUEE I.

PROBABLE PEEMANENCE OF EELIGION.

An age of transition makes men ask, Will rehgion survive f
I. — There are reasons for believing that religion will survive.
These reasons are derived from
1. The experience of the past, which shows that rehgion
lives, though religions die.
2. The nature of man — which is (a) permanent, and (J)
religious.
II. — Further, it is not impossible to indicate some of the con
ditions of religion in the future, and to which any religion
which aspires to be enduring musf conform ; for the per
manence of man's nature means the permanence of certain
spiritual conditions or principles, which, for the sake of con
venience, we may call laws. There are seemingly four :
1 . The Law of Environment.
2. The Law of Organism.
3. The Law of Sacrifice.
4. The Law of Indirectness.
The existence of these gives us a guarantee of the survival of
rehgion and the conditions on which any religion can hope to
survive among men.
Thus the survival of religion is likely, and the religion of the
future must conform to certain conditions.

LECTUEE I.
PEOBABLE PEEMANENCE OF EELIGION.
"Hereafter ye shall see heaven open." — St. Johni. 51.
rniMES of transition are times of question and
-*- of doubt. Our age is such ; and it is said
that the age has lost its faith. The saying is
uttered by some who fear that it is true ; it is
echoed by others who wish it to be true. But it
is not true because prejudice and fear say so,
An age which has its face towards the future,
and in which men are full of plans for the welfare
of the world, is not an age Which has lost its
faith. Its temper of mind is constructive ; it is
eager for new institutions, keen for new ideas, and
has already a half belief in a future in which all
things will be new.1 The republic of the future,
the Church of the future, the religion of the
future, are phrases which betray hopes for the
future on the part of those who use them ; and
hope is never unbelieving.
1 Mat. Arnold, " Lit. and Dogma," ch. xi. and xii., Pop. Ed.

4 Probable Permanence of Religion. [Lecl-
If the age has not lost faith, has it lost faith
in religion? and is Christianity slowly taking its
place among extinct things, like the flora and
fauna of earlier times, doomed because lacking
power to adapt itself to changed conditions ? To
these questions I shall try to give answers. I shall
try to give reasons for believing that the age has
not lost its faith in religion ; to shew, too, that the
days of Christianity are not numbered, that her
eye is not yet dim, nor her natural strength
abated — that she holds within her bosom ele
ments which are indestructible, that she has
the power of survival in her capacity of adjust
ing herself to the shifting conditions of the
world, and that thereby she gives promise
of carrying on her beneficent ministry among
succeeding generations. She has been misunder
stood by the world ; she has been misrepresented
by her followers; but she has, if I mistake. not,
powers, the force of which has hardly yet been
realized ; she is much greater than any of us
know — when rightly understood her morrow shall
be as to-day, and much more abundant. This is
my belief ; but belief is not argument.
For the present I wish to leave aside the ques
tion of the survival of Christianity, and to attempt
a consideration of the earlier question. For it
will easily be understood that we cannot

i.J Probable Permanence of Religion. 5
expect the survival of Christianity if all religion
is doomed.
I. — There are reasons for believing that religion
will survive.
1. Experience affords no ground for thinking
that religion will die. It is perfectly true
that we say in melancholy , fashion — " All
things die " : and then we ask why should
religion be exempt from the common lot ?
But the history of religion is a tale of trans
figuration rather than of death. Certain forms of
religion have died. "The Greco -Eoman,
Germanic and Scandinavian mythologies — the
Semitic polytheisms of Nineveh, Babylon, Biblos,
Tyre and Carthage — the rich pantheon of ancient
Egypt — the solar worship of the Incas — all these
are dead, gone for ever. And we could add to this
funeral list."1 But though these have passed
away, religion lives on. Eeligions die : religion
lives. The forms of religion may be said to die :
the spirit and power of religion endure. Of
religion it may be said, that though the outward
man perishes, yet the inward man is renewed
epoch by epoch. Threatened with death, she
passes into the cloud, is transfigured in the cloud,
and comes forth invigorated.
1 Beville, " Prolegomena of the History of Eeligions," Eng.
Ed., 1884, p. 2.

Probable Permanence of Religion. [Lect.

We are not now dealing with the truth
of this religion or that. We are only noting
facts in the history of rehgions. Brahmanism
was threatened by Buddhism. To men then
alive, the time must have seemed one in
which religion was about to perish. The
event, however, showed not destruction, but
transfiguration. Judaism was threatened by
Christianity, men feared that faith would die.
But religion, transfigured, gathered fresh energy,
and started on a new and victorious course.1
In those days, as now, there were not wanting
men who cried out, some with despair, others
with eager triumph : Eeligion is doomed. If
we have been frightened by these cries,
it is perhaps well to call to mind the
shrewd saying of Archbishop Whately : " A man
does not die because his coffin is made." It is so
easy to say, because certain institutions, customs,
faiths have passed away, therefore all will perish.
A calm spirit will discriminate, will reflect
that there are certain principles, elements, laws —
call them what you will — which survive change,
and smile in the face of every death. Nothing
can rob us of that which is eternally true. The
minor aspects of truth may alter ; the rubbish
1 Of. Matheson, "Can the old faith live with the new?" pp. 5-7.

i.] Probable Permanence of Religion. 7
which has gathered for years round the temple
may be cleared away ; the tables of the money
changers may be overthrown ; false, defective, un
worthy statements of truth may disappear. The
history of the past teaches this, but it also teaches
us that there are things which cannot be shaken.
Eeligion has passed through many a crisis, and
yet she survives. Like force, though she changes
her form, she never dies. Now seen as light in
pure and luminous thought ; now bursting forth
as heat in burning enthusiasm, she always re
mains a force, wielding her sceptre amongst
men. Thus experience shows that rehgion sur
vives : it is the form alone that alters : the living
force abides.
2. And the nature of the case might lead us
to expect religion to survive.
We say that this is a world of change ; and as we
speak we think of the rapid and startling changes
which we have experienced, but we forget that there
are elements which do not change. Our sentiment
and our sadness lead us to fix our thoughts on the
things perishable ; and we forget the things which
endure. We are as one who meets his friend after
long years of absence, and whose first thought is :
How changed he is ! his hair has blanched, his eye
is dim, his head no longer erect, his step no longer
firm, how changed he is ! It is true, but these

8 Probable Permanence of Religion. [Lect.
things are on the surface. The friend has not
changed, his hand is outstretched as freely and
as warmly as of old ; the light of recognition which
kindles in his eye glows with the light of a love
which has not died, and which knows no
change. No ! the friend has not changed. And
we, like him, are all liable to be deceived by the
outside of things ; we take the outside as if it were
the whole ; we are sorry materialists and sad
literalists, and we cannot believe in the un
changing heart of things.
Apply this thought. Eeligions die, we say ; and
we expect therefore to see all religion pass away.
But here again we are misled by the outside
of things ; we note the things which undergo
change, as the modes of thought, the special doc
trines or conceptions of an age or a nation — even
the popular phraseology of a creed or of an epoch.
We see these pass away, but we forget that there
are elements which do not alter. Man may change
his language, his customs, his dress, but man's
nature is permanent ; the roots of his character
and disposition scarcely alter from age to age ; he
may be better or worse ; more learned . or less
learned ; but he is man still, whether the sky over
him be northern or southern, whether he draws
his breath under the rule of the Pharaohs, or is
born under the flag of the American Eepublic.

i.] Probable Permanence of Religion. g
(a) The permanence of man's nature is as a
key which unlocks the door of the past; it
creates that freemasonry which enables the
characters of widely differing times and places
to understand one another. Were it not for
this, the past would be a sealed book to us,
and the most glorious creations of ancient
literary genius undecipherable hieroglyphics ; but
because man is man, whether in Athens or in
London, we can enjoy the works of iEschylus
and of Shakespeare, of Moliere and of
Goethe, and find in them characters who
appeal to our nature as beings who thought and
struggled, sinned and sorrowed, failed and
succeeded as we have done. Prometheus and
Macbeth, Tartuffe and Faust belong not to one
country only : they are the possession of every
land and of all time. It is this fact which
makes variety possible to the modern novelist. We
readfor instance the works of Mr. Marion Crawford.
He sets his scenery in : the far East, and we
listen to the speech of Buddhists in Northern
India; he transports us to Italy, and we are
made intimate with the palaces and aristocratic
pride of Italian nobles ; he puts before us
the scenes of to-day, and we hear the lan
guage of enterprising Germans and versatile
Americans ; he carries us to the distant past,

10 Probable Permanence of Religion. [Lect.
and we live in the age of Zoroaster. But in all
these books, dealing with whatever place or time,
man is still man. We read in all of ambitions
and jealousies. Man is the same creature
of misunderstandings, hopes, fears, of love
lost and found, of resolutions made and
broken. The tragedy of life, and the comedy
of life, move together through all ages ; the
draperies change, the scenery shifts ; but
the characters bear a family likeness ; the
nature of man is unchanged. When calculating,
therefore, the chances of the survival of religion, it
is not wise to dwell merely on the accidental
features of life which are subject to alteration, or
on the intellectual forms of man's faith which
naturally vary with enlarging knowledge. It is
necessary to remember that there are things which
do not change. Man's nature is so far constant
that we can recognise in him the same being
of hopes and fears, of convictions and doubts, of
chivalry and selfishness ; a being timid, confident,
loving, passionate, capable of high aspirations and
profound regrets ; a being who, in spite of all the
weaknesses which provoke our contempt, is yet
the one being whose story in all ages attracts
us, and whose destiny fills us with the deepest
curiosity and interest. He is seen in every age
asserting himself in the midst of tremendous and

i.J Probable Permanence of Religion. n
baffling difficulties as one who has rights, and
is greater than the circumstances which seem to
crush him ; slowly winning his way to the mastery
of the forces around him, he reveals in his
history, if not a continuity of purpose, still a
constancy of nature.
(b) And one feature of that nature stands fixed
by the witness of history and investigation. This
being, whose nature is constant in all ages, shows
himself to be incorrigibly religious.1 Exceptions
have been taken to this statement ; but, as far as
we can ascertain, these exceptions tend to dis
appear. It has been stated over and over again
that there are tribes and races amongst which no
religion has been found. Travellers have affirmed
that they have sought in vain for any traces of
religious system or behef. But negative testi
mony is not conclusive on this question, as
the three following considerations will show.
The difficulty of language has more than
once led to misapprehension. Long residence
among native tribes is needful before the religious
significance of their phraseology is perceived.
Again, the very lowness of the type of religion
existing among some races leads to its being
overlooked. There have been travellers who
have declared that certain savages have no re-
1 See Appendix, Note 1.

12 Probable Permanence of Religion. [Lect.
ligion, because the religious system is so low
that it is not worthy of being called a religion
at all. This is clearly not a very logical method
of carrying on important enquiries. To ignore
phenomena because they seem insignificant is
to miss the opportunity of advancing the growth
of scientific knowledge. This is true always-; it
is especially so when we are investigating the
doctrine of tendencies ; the lowest and crudest
fetishism is, in one sense, as significant of human
tendencies as the most elaborate worship. Lastly,
the very human nature which is being studied
puts a further difficulty in the way of the
investigator. The love of secrecy, strong in many
natures, is perhaps strongest of all among those
whose intelligence and civilization are low. Ignor
ance and timidity are almost always secretive. The
fear lest the betrayal of what they know may be used
against them, and the pride of knowing something
which those who are felt to be their superiors do
not know, are forces which promote secretiveness.
An Englishman lived for twenty years among
the natives of Australia. He became so friendly
with one of the tribes that in token of their con
fidence and esteem they made him a chief. He
had closely observed them during those twenty
years with opportunities more favourable than
any which an ordinary traveller could possess ;

i.J Probable Permanence of Religion. 13
yet during the whole time he had not been
able to discover so much as a trace of any
religious belief higher than fetishism. But at
last he made the discovery that the tribe had been
in the habit of meeting to worship a God to
whom they gave the name, Father. The secret,
entrusted only to the men, had been jealously
guarded, and kept from the knowledge of the
white man, even ¦ though he had been deemed
worthy of chieftainship.1
The difficulties of language, the low type of
the religion, the secretiveness of the natives con
spire, therefore, to place difficulties in the way of
the investigator, and sufficiently explain the fact
that tribes, which at one time were thought to
possess no religion, are now recognised as having
one. "Little by little," writes De Quatrefages, " the
light has appeared, and the result has been that
Australians, Melanesians, Bosjesmans, Hottentots,
Kaffirs, and Bechuanas, have, in their turn, been
withdrawn from the list of atheist nations and
recognised as religious."2
But even if the case were not so strong, the
1 This incident was related to me by one whose work in
the Colonies is well known. Similar evidence is given by a
Benedictine missionary. — See Prof. Max Muller, " Origin of
Rehgion," pp. 10, 17, 97, 98. See Note 1 in Appendix.
* " The Human Species," p. 475. Of. Introd. xlviii.

14 Probable Permanence of Religion. [Lect.
fact would remain that man is religious. The
existence of some exceptions would not make it
untrue to say that man is religious. We say that
man is sociable, though there are numbers whom
we call unsociable ; we say man is a calculat
ing, musical, laughing animal, though there are
thousands who will never understand mathematics,
thousands more who never really relish music, and
probably thousands who never laugh. The state
ment that man is religious can be fairly made,
even were the exceptions spoken of conceded. On
this point the controversy recently revived con
cerning the existence of what is called a Primitive
Eevelation may help us. I do not now deal with
the question whether there was or was not a
primitive revelation. It is enough for my pur
pose to say that there either was or was not
such a Eevelation. If there was, then man
had a religion from the very earliest times. If
there was not, then man must have been naturally
religious, seeing that, without external aid, his
religious conceptions and customs grew as from a
soil whose seed was in itself. "As soon almost as
we know anything of the thoughts and feelings of
man, we find him in possession of religion, or
rather possessed by religion. The oldest literary
documents are almost everywhere religious. ' Our
earth,' as Herder says, ' owes all the seeds of all

i.J Probable Permanence of Religion. 15
higher culture to a religious tradition, whether
literary or oral.' "1 " Eeligion," writes Professor
Eeville, " such as we define it, is inherent in the
human mind and natural. We are justified in
applying these terms to that which throughout
history and over the whole surface of the habit
able globe shows itself inseparable from human
nature. The ancients, when they began to look
beyond their own country, were greatly struck by
this consensus gentium, the result of which was
that in spite of all diversities, they found every
where a rehgion. The more acquaintance with
the world has been extended, the more this obser
vation has been confirmed. Ancient Asia, America,
Africa, Malaisia, Polynesia, Australia, the Polar
regions, have successively furnished their testi
mony. Eeligion is a human fact in the strictest
sense of the word, and here we are in accord
with Benjamin Constant, who .... has enunciated
this principle, constantly verified ever since,
that religion is an indefectible and perfectible
attribute of our species."2
We are now in a position to answer, so
far, the question : Will religion survive ? The
answer must, we think, on any ground, be
'Max Muller, " Hibbert Lectures," p. 4.
2 " Proleg." pp. 32, 33.

1 6 Probable Permanence of Religion. [Lect.
"Yes." The destructive elements in the world,
at any given time, cannot really destroy ; they
can only transform — but transformation implies
the permanence of some essential principle or
elements. The nature of man remains the
same, and the more widely our knowledge of
man's nature is extended, the more clearly
do we perceive that he is religious. I have
said that he is incorrigibly religious. The
epithet can be justified. As the needle tp the
pole, " through all its aberrations, the human
mind always turns towards the Divinity. Efforts
have been made from time to time to impress
upon it a contrary tendency. It has always
resisted, and taken again as soon as possible its
constant direction. It also might say to us, This
is my nature ! "l
We may calculate, therefore, upon the survival
of religion.
II. — But can we calculate upon any of the features
of the religion which will survive ? Can we mark
any of those elements which are likely to endure
after the shaking and sifting of all things ?. There
are two ways in which we may approach this
question. We may take our stand upon the con
victions of our faith, and say, " Those things which
we have from God are certain to endure ; those
1 Reville, " Proleg." p. 63. See Appendix, Note 1.

i.J Probable Permanence of Religion. 17
truths on which we have lived are among the
things which cannot be shaken." It is obvious
that though this position may be perfectly
sound, it is not a position which can be ac
cepted by all. We turn to another method
of approaching the question. The ladder
between heaven and earth has a foot which
rests on earth as well as a summit which reaches
to heaven. We may reach the human from the
Divine ; but we may also approach the Divine
through the human. We may ask what the
nature of man has to say on this question. If
human nature is the same always, and in all
ages, and " Every human heart is human," '
then we may be sure that whatever the nature of
man imperatively demands will be supplied by
religion. This statement may be open to misin
terpretation. It will be said that, of course,
whatever man wants in the form of his religion,
he will be ready enough to invent — that nobody
ever doubted the religious inventiveness of human
nature. This criticism, however, does not invali
date the position here adopted. The question is :
Can we forecast any of the features of the religion
which will survive ? The answer is : If man is a
1 Longfellow, Introduction to " Hiawatha."

1 8 Probable Permanence of Religion. [Lect.
religious being, we may discover what are the
constant elements in his religious nature ; and we
may be sure that the only religion which has a
chance of survival is that which meets the essential
religious demands of his being. Further, we are
not now considering whether the religion which
will survive is true or false, provable or dis-
provable. We are only dealing with the question
of facts in human nature — such as the fact that
man's nature is religious — and we are asking
whether we can lay our finger upon any prin
ciples which seem so essentially bound up
with man's nature as to demand a place in
the religion of the future ? Negatively, we
may say that no religion will survive which
violates any essential law or principle of
man's nature. Positively, we may say that
the religion which is likeliest to survive is that
which shows itself most capable of meeting the
wants of man's nature. To ascertain, therefore,
what features may be expected to survive in the
religion of the future, we must betake ourselves,
for the purposes of this argument, to the study of
man's nature ; we must try and ascertain what
are its spiritual laws ; we must trace these, not
only in man studied alone, but as displayed in the
history of religions ; we must examine religions
with the view of ascertaining how far they meet

i.J Probable Permanence of Religion. 19
these spiritual requirements of man ; and from
this study we may infer the probability or im
probability of their permanence. The survey of
the religious history of mankind will show us the
universality of certain principles. Meanwhile, it
will be convenient, if, before going into the
region of history, we point out certain spiritual
laws of man's nature. We shall thus bring
ourselves closer, as it were, to the heart of
the question, and clear our path somewhat
before advancing.
Those conditions which, with all diffidence, I
-call laws of our spiritual nature may be stated, for
¦convenience hereafter, as three ; but for the pur
poses of clearness, I propose to divide them now
into four. The last two, in reality, are but branches
¦of one law, simple in itself, but needing subdivision
in consequence of the weakness of man, and of
the theological questions which have gathered
round it. The remainder of this Lecture will be
occupied with the consideration of these laws,
stated in fourfold form, laws which cannot, I
believe, be safely ignored or set aside by any
^religion pretending to be universal or hoping to be
eternal. Can we fix on any elements, laws, or con
ditions marked out for permanence ?
It may be well to notice that all spheres of life

20 Probable Permanence of Religion. [Lect.
show us that there are laws or elements which abide
in the midst of change. The man who is rich and
increased in goods may pull down his barns and
build greater ; he may reconstruct all the farm
buildings, so that the whole external aspect of his
estate may be altered ; the yield of his land may
continue to increase ; but the laws by which
the corn, and wine, and oil are supplied remain
the same. He may change buildings and crops,
but the laws of growth remain unchanged.
Similarly, man may increase in knowledge and
experience, his treasury of faith may be enriched,
his learning may grow ; he may pull down the
old systems, theories, and assumptions, and in
doing so he may extend the borders of the
domain of knowledge, and add new wealth to his
store of science ; but the laws of thought remain
unchanged. And man, too, may reconstruct his
religion ; he may alter its outer framework ; he
may enlarge his intellectual conceptions ; he
may destroy his ancient creeds and put new
ones in their place ; he may find his notions of
sacrifice obsolete, his theories of expiation
defective in moral significance, his doctrine of
inspiration purely mechanical, his conception of
revelation dry and barren: but while thus he
pulls down his barns, and seeks (perhaps vainly)
to build greater, the elements of his spiritual

i.]- Probable Permanence of Religion. 21
nature, the laws by which his spiritual nature
grows, remain unchanged. And these are not,
as we think, destined to change ; they are likely
to be as strong, as imperious, and as exacting
in the future as in the past.
I wish to speak of some of these elements.
There are four, which may be called laws of man's
spiritual nature, destined, I think, to be such as
long as man remains man, and allied with prin
ciples the possession of which is needful to any
religion which aspires to permanence. These
laws, closely knit together with man's moral and
spiritual growth, will be found to suggest ground
of reconcilement between many things now at
variance. 1. The first of these laws may be stated thus :
As we think, we are. This, inasmuch as our
thoughts are as a constant environment round
our hearts and spirits, I venture, though con
scious of its inadequacy, to call a Law of
Environment. I place this first, not because
it is first in importance, but because it is
somewhat overlooked, and, if not overlooked,
viewed with suspicion, as favouring too much the
standpoint of the dogmatist. I am perfectly pre
pared to admit the vices of the dogmatist ; he is
an intellectual pedant, prone to exaggerate the
importance of those few opinions which he is in

22 Probable Permanence of Religion. [Lect.
the habit of calling momentous truths. But
exaggeration does not warrant rejection. It is
cheap and easy to say, " Let us abolish creeds,
and get rid of doctrines ;" and every wise man
will be ready to discard doctrines which have
proved themselves untrue : but it is not sufficiently
considered that, as- it is impossible to get rid of the
exercise of private judgment, so it is impossible
to get rid of doctrine or creed. There is no
system in the world without them. Even those
who most mightily decry them are possessed of
them. Emerson said : " As men's prayers are a
disease of the will, so are their creeds a disease of
the intellect." 1 There may be truth in this ; doubt
less our weak and blind prayers are often the
expression of our passionate and petulant will ;
doubtless our cherished beliefs are often only the
expression of our intellectual weakness rather than
of our moral strength. But if Emerson meant to
disparage all doctrine, we can but reply that it
would not be difficult to exhibit a system of doc
trine underlying Emerson's teaching; nor is it
with the slightest want of appreciation of his great
powers that we say Emerson was, notwithstanding
his apparently undogmatic method, as truly a
dogmatist as John Calvin. The truth is, the effort
to get rid of dogma is vain and illusory. A ladder
1 Emerson, Essay on " Self-Reliance."

i.J Probable Permanence of Religion. 23
must have its foot on the earth, and truth must
be capable of intellectual statement; and intel
lectual statement is dogma whether we like it or
not. Dogmas are everywhere ; Comte needs them
no less than John Knox, physical science no less
than theology. The doctrinaire may be a nuisance,1
but he is not essentially a fool. He has a real work
to do. He embodies a protest on behalf of the im
portant place held in the world by our intellectual
conceptions ; he calls our attention to the
sovereignty of ideas ; he exists to remind us that
as we think, so we are.
It is not difficult, perhaps it is scarcely needful,
to show the importance or the truth of this law.
Failing to remember it, we often lose the signifi
cance of history ; and what is perhaps most
curious is the fact that the strongest assaults
made upon religion are based upon the assump
tion of the truth of this law. " Look at the
horrible things," it is said, "done at the bidding
of religion, and learn its injurious effects." But
what is this if it be not saying in other words,
" When men's notions of religion are debased, their
conduct will be debased? " Eeligious notions count
for something in the forming of conduct. When
the Indian widow was burned on the funeral pyre
of her husband ; when the multitudes prostrated
1 See Appendix, Note 2.

24 Probable Permanence of Religion. [Lect.
themselves and sought death beneath the blood
stained wheels of Juggernaut's car ; when the
Mexican crowned the victim with flowers ; when
the devout and sorrowing friends put corn in the
hand of the corpse — they were acting in obedience
to religious notions. We ask, naturally enough,
What was the idea in their minds when they
did this or that? The idea, whatever it was,
represented the doctrine which they received,
and which inspired their conduct.
It is noteworthy that Mr. Buckle seems to
have overlooked this simple law. I say, seems
to have overlooked it, for I would not speak
with certainty. But, as far as I can judge, he
has not reckoned with it. He twits moral laws
with their inability to effect improvement in
regard to the great evil of religious persecution ; J
but it is well to remember that religious persecu
tion arises largely from false ideas — " Whosoever
killeth you will think that he doeth God service."
(St. John xvi. 2.) The conduct in this case is the
result of a religious idea ; there is a theory or
doctrine behind the action — a false theory, no
doubt, but that is immaterial ; it serves just as
well to establish the law that conduct follows
ideas. It is argued, indeed, that ideas wait
on sentiment, and that only as our moral senti-
1 " History of Civilization," vol. i.. pp 1 04, 188 et seq., and 208.

i.J Probable Permanence of Religion. 25
ments vary do our theological notions change; i.e.,
that our theological notions are the result of our
moral feelings. There is a truth in this ; it is the
case, as we shall see shortly, that our perceptions
are coloured alike by our sentiments and by our
character; but to admit this does not get rid of
the fact which is also true, that our characters
grow under the influence of our ideas.
The truth is, that, among the various sovereign
ties of the world, the sovereignty of ideas holds
high place. Homer writes a poem ; but his poem
becomes more than an epic ; it fills the minds
of people with ideas ; and on these ideas a
great people is nourished ; the ideas are appro
priated ; and the characters of the people take form
under their influence. Homer's " poems became
the Book of the Law for the Hellenic peoples,
so that he became for them what Moses was to
the Hebrews. Never again shall we see a society
regulated on the plan of an epic .... Greek
society, in fact, tended by a constant approxima
tion to form itself on the ideal of the Iliad and
the Odyssey .... Greece was not untrue to
the image that had thus been revealed to her ; on
the contrary, she has made of the poem a truth,
of fiction a reality, of presentiment a history."1
In the same spirit the same writer said that
'Quinet, "Genie des Religions," chap, vi., sec. 2.

26 Probable Permanence of Religion. [Lect.
the institution of polygamy was regarded as sacred
when the principle of pantheism was applied to
the family. " A new earth is always the result of
a new heaven," is his doctrine in a work,
the leading object of which is to show "how
entirely each of the civilisations was the offspring
of a religious dogma." x
In the same spirit Euskin speaks of the beauty
of Greece as dependent upon the laws of
Lycurgus, the beauty of Eome on those of Numa,
and our own beauty on the law of Christ. 2 Ideas
and thoughts thus count for something ; yes, for
much in the formation of character. " If you wish
to alter the destiny of a people," said a great
French preacher, " you have only to alter its ideas ;
doctrines are sown in the soil of the mind ; they
are ripened by the sun of the centuries ; they
spring up in action." 3 The age of revolution has
almost always been preceded by a doctrinaire age ;
the teachers to-day, the actors to-rnorrow ; Christ
and his Apostles to-day, a Christianised Empire
to-morrow ; Luther and Erasmus to-day, the
Eeformation to-morrow; Diderot, Helvetius, and
Eaynal to-day, the revolution to-morrow. We need
not wonder at the law. We, who live in a time
1 See " Edgar Quinet," by R. Heath, pp. 265, 294.
2Ruskin, "Art in England," pp. 105, 106
3"Pere Felix."

i.J Probable Permanence of Religion. 27
when the influence of the environment on the
organism is spoken of as a real factor, need hardly
be surprised to find, that man's character takes
colour from the thoughts and ideas which he
habitually cherishes. The lad who feeds on the
criminal column in the newspapers, and makes
the police news his study, is certain to find his
character sink to the level of the thoughts on
which he nourishes it. " Give me a great thought
that I may feed upon it," has been the cry of more
than one great man. Character rises with great
thoughts. " Nature is subdued to what it works in,
like the dyer's hand." l Our characters grow or
shrink with our thoughts. If
" Love, like an insect frequent in the woods,
Will take the colour of the tree it feeds on," s
the same is true of character. " The key to
every man is his thought,"3 says Emerson ; and
the quality and tone of a man's thought are en
nobled or debased according to the ideas and
truths amongst which he dwells. As we think,
we are. It is the Law of Environment.4
Hence the religion of the future cannot afford
1 Shakespeare, Sonnet cxi.
2SirH. Taylor, "Philip Van Artevelde." Cf. Schopenhauer,
" The World as Will and Idea," p. 304.
3 Emerson, "Essay on Circles."
4 Further illustrations of this law will be found in the
Appendix, Note 3.

28 Probable Permanence of Religion. [Lect.
to ignore ideas and thoughts. She must ally her
self with the sovereignty which thought wields in
the world. Laws, as we call them, are little more
than the compact statement of truths derived from
facts. The laws of nature are the formulated
account of an observation of facts. These be
come, in their turn, vehicles of knowledge ; but
they become more, they become rulers in the
realm of progress. Every system which has
grown into influence has made use of them.
Without them, our knowledge would be chaotic,
and we should be the victims of eternal flabbi-
ness. Life would be like a game of tennis, played
against a feather bed, instead of against a firm
responding wall. The religion of the future cannot
ignore this principle — she must have a message to
the region of thought. If she can supply no
thoughts, reveal orteachnolofty ideas, if shebe void
of doctrine, she can hold no place in the confidence
of man. If she have no link with man's thoughts,
man will learn to think without her, and so
learn to live without her. She will fail if she
ignore this law : As we think, we are.
2. The second law may be stated thus : "As we
are, we see." If the first law may be called the law
of environment, this may be called the Law of
Organism. It is correlated with the first law, and
is its complement. Our conduct is largely the result

i.J Probable Permanence of Religion. 29
of the thoughts, views, and opinions which we have
inherited. The principles, which we have been
taught, tend to form our characters ; our characters
reflect them, as a mirror reflects the object pre
sented to it, but the reflection is not wholly
due to the object ; the condition of the mirror
exercises a modifying power, and can make
or mar the image. The creature grows by
influence of its environment ; but it is not
wholly the victim of its environment ; it exer
cises some force, and moulds the environment
to its need. The same conditions may bring
life or death ; the things which one man receives
and on which he grows great, come to another man
and degrade him. We do not see with our eyes only,
nor perceive with our minds only ; we see and
perceive also with our hearts : "Asa man's heart
is, so is he."1 Our thoughts take colour from our
wishes and from our character. We are not pure,
impartial mirrors. Something of the colour or
texture of ourselves mingles with the reflected
image ; the image of the object and the object it
self are not identical in every respect. The truth
of this law is not hard to see. Proof of it
may be found in the realm of nature. The
river primrose is but a yellow primrose to
some ; it is a beauty and a revelation to others.
' Prov. xxiii. 7.

30 Probable Permanence of Religion. [Lect.
The jaded sensualist looks upon the Thames
below Eichmond and sees in it only a volume of
flowing water, which streams by with irritating
and exasperating monotony. The man whose
eyes are opened sees in the same river entrancing
sights. " Not in nature, but in man," says
Emerson, laying down the very law we speak of,
"not in nature, but in man is all the beauty and
the worth he sees." In the same strain, Mrs.
Barrett Browning sings :
" Earth's crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God."
The heart, full of its own thoughts, cannot
escape from them, but imparts their hue to
every vision. Shakespeare, in his play of Julius
Csesar, gives us an illustration of this principle.
It is to be found in a minor scene, which stirs us
strongly. Like the scene in Macbeth, when the
sound of the knocking at the door is heard, its
power over us is unquestionable. The reason is
clear. The scene reveals the intensity and
variety of feeling in the minds of the actors.
" Here lies the East," says Decius. " No,"
answers Casca, with his heart full of the
conspiracy. China interposes, agreeing with
Decius :
" 0, pardon, sir, it doth ; and yon gray lines
That fret the clouds are messengers of day."

i.J Probable Permanence of Religion. 31
Then Casca rejoins :
" You shall confess that you are both deceived.
Here, as I point my sword, the sun arises,
Which is a great way growing on the south."
The calm thoughts of Cinna can contemplate with
simple natural pleasure the lines of luminous
gray, which are the pathways of the morn
ing ; but Casca's heart is full of other things ;
he sees a new day for the republic, which will
dawn through the lines drawn by a sword;
and that day is nearer than his companions
dream.1 In Art the same law shows itself. The artist's
nature shines through the artist's work. For
better or for worse, there it is. Buskin has
preached this many times to the men of this
generation. " To Eossetti the Old and New
Testaments were only the greatest poems he
knew ; and he painted scenes from them with
no more actual belief in their relation to the
present life and business of men than he gave
also to the Morte d' Arthur and Vita Nuova.
But to Holman Hunt, the story of the New
Testament, when once his mind entirely fastened
on it, became what it was to an old Puritan or an
old Catholic of true blood, — not merely a Eeality,
1 "Julius Cassar," Act ii., Scene 1.

32 Probable Permanence of Religion. [Lect.
not merely the greatest of Eealities, but the only
Eeality." l
In poetry — in all the realms of great thoughts —
the same is true. Great thoughts grow greatest
in those who are great of soul. Gray thoughts
reflect the spirit within,
" Doubtless I am old, and think gray thoughts, for I am gray."
No man is degraded in his powers, who is
not first degraded in his tastes.2 The same
principle lies in the lesson which our own
Laureate has taught us in his matchless
music. The Holy Grail — the glorious vision of
the true meaning and power of the life which
is both divine and human — is seen in various
measures by various men. " Ye have seen what
ye have seen," is King Arthur's language to the
Knights. The vision is to them as they are to it.
Some see it in its unveiled glory : some see it as
a casual gleam : some see, but only think they
see it, and what they see is veiled : and how
could it be otherwise ? A Galahad, whose "strength
is as the strength of ten, because his heart is pure,"
can see the vision of God given only to the pure
in heart. Sir Percival may see, but not so fully
and so clearly. Sir Lancelot will look up from his
1 Ruskin, " The Art in England," pp. 7, 8.
a Dr. Johnson, " Essay on Dryden."

i.J Probable Permanence of Religion. 33
land of sand and thorns, and see what is only a
great doubt proving a great certainty.
To this law Eeville refers, when he demands a
sympathetic spirit in those who would study the
history of religion. " We must have the religious
ear in order competently to study phenomena of
the religious order. How could the man who
has no sense of the beautiful ever write the
history of Art?"1
The story of the ministry of our Lord is a com
mentary on this law. There were men who saw
no beauty in that stainless life, and heard no
music in the words which fell from His lips. But
how could the Pharisees, who were covetous, see
any beauty in a life of sacrifice ? or how could those,
whose ambitions were listening for the intoxi
cating applause of men, delight in the melody
of a life which sought no honour save the honour
of doing good ? How could the timidity of world
liness understand the courage which was ready to
lay down its life rather than leave undone the
Father's will ?
The law is true : As we are, we see.2 Our per
ceptions take the colour of our character. There
are some things which the pure alone can see.
The condition of the organism counts for some-
1 "Proleg.," p. 32.
3 See further illustrations in the Appendix, Note 4.a

34 Probable Permanence of Religion. [Lect.

thing in the order of life. May it not be that the
fullest revelation waits for us — not when we have
the keenest wit, the quickest intellect, the farthest-
reaching knowledge, but when we are likest to
God ? Only when we wake up after His likeness
shall we be satisfied with it. Like only can under
stand hke. The law abides always : As we are,
we see.
3. The third law is the Law of Sacrifice. " No
pains, no gains."
In one sense this law may be said to spring
from the former. Our inability to perceive is
caused by fault or defect in ourselves. There
is need therefore of. some change in us in order
that the fault or defect may be removed, and the
power of vision strengthened. For this end
we must sacrifice every hindrance. Eeluctance
to sacrifice is fatal. He that loves his life
loses it. The principle applies to all spheres
and all aims. The man who succeeds in
his object is the man who takes pains,
sacrifices his pleasures, his pride, his daintiness
in the determination to win at all costs. It
is a law written everywhere, that only in sacrifice
is progress possible and success secured. The
corn of wheat must die before the golden
harvest can come. The bright flowing water
yields its free spirit to the stiffening hand of a

i.J Probable Permanence of Religion. 35
frozen death, but it is thus that it gains power to
burst the rocks asunder ; stern necessity drives
men through the paths of pain on their way to
the stronghold of power ; sorrow, bitter and
biting, has struck hard at the hearts of men, who
learned to enchant the world with their music
only after they were broken-hearted. Sacrifice
is the law of progress ; x and it must find its place
in any religion which aspires to guide men, and
win an abiding dwelling-place among them.
But it will be said — are not these three laws suf
ficient ? The nature of man needs to be sur
rounded by pure and gre^t thoughts, that it may
grow pure by being purely shone upon. The
nature of man needs to be cleansed, that it may
perceive the high dignity and worth of the pure
thoughts which are presented to it. The nature
of man needs to bear the cross, if he is to be the
pioneer of better things. If we have thoughts
that are high to regulate our minds, sentiments
which are high to prompt us forward, wills that
are strong and ready to sacrifice whatever hinders
our advance ; have we not enough? True, these
three are great laws ; and in almost every religious
system they find a place. Most religions admit
the sovereign influences of ideas, and therefore
provide their worshippers with doctrines.
1 See Appendix, Note 5.

36 Probable Permanence of Religion. [Lect.
Most religions recognise in some way the
need of a moral fitness in the worshipper. Most
religions have acknowledged the validity and value
of sacrifice in some form. But it is not every
religion which has seen the need of another law
without which the three of which we have spoken
are strengthless. They may be able to bring man
within sight of the goal, but not within reach of
it : to reveal perchance what it is, but not to give
the power to attain it. Like Archimedes, under the
guidance of these laws we may ascertain that the
world can be moved, but we have not been given
the vantage ground from whence to move it. One
thing they lack, and that is the element which
completes and perfects sacrifice ; without which
sacrifice may be dazzling and brilliant as fire, but
not as yet pure as the light. This lacking element
will be understood by the fourth law of man's
spiritual nature.
4. The fourth law, needed to complete the
previous, and which I call the Law of In
directness, is this : A man cannot perfect him
self in anything if he seek perfection directly ;
for if he does so, the shadow of himself
intervenes and spoils his work. Sacrifice,
when it is sought as sacrifice, has a self-con
sciousness which mars its simplicity and spoils
its moral force. When men preach self-sacrifice —

i.J Probable Permanence of Religion. 37
self-sacrifice as the moral force which can re
generate mankind — they forget that self-forgetful-
ness is essential to perfect sacrifice ; a sacrifice,
undertaken because sacrifice is noble, is alloyed
with that self-regarding look which mars its beauty
in the view of the soul itself. Sacrifice, which
knows itself as such, is not pure sacrifice.
Something more is needed, some impulse of
enthusiasm, some inspiration of love, to lift it out
of the level of self-regardfulness. The love of
country, the love of home, the love of children,
become consecrating powers precisely in this way.
The patriot who dies for his country; the
youth who lovingly tries to support his aged
parents ; the mother who rushes into the flames
to rescue her child ; — follow impulses loftier than
those of self-conscious action. Theirs is the
impulse of pure love, which sees not the sacrifice,
but the one object for which they are willing to
dare and to do all.
The truth of this law may be seen in various
ways. The man who aspires to be eminent in
any special line has often to turn his back upon
the direct road. The poet does not find poetry in
making verse ; he must leave this schoolboy
trade ; he must commune with nature, drink in
her spirit, till the soul within him, fed with great
ideas, seeks to express itself in song. The man

38 Probable Permanence of Religion. [Lect.
whose mind is set upon merely being an artist
seldom climbs high in his profession, except
perhaps as a master of technical skill; for really
great work he must have the soul of the artist,
and the artist soul is nourished on more than the
skilful handling of the brush and of colours. The
orator is only great when he entirely forgets the
arts of rhetoric and the tricks of elocution, and
speaks as one possessed of a great theme, to which
he burns to give utterance. Self-consciousness is
the ruin of the highest powers in man ; none reach
the loftiest range but those who scarcely think of
themselves as artists, poets, orators — but just
know that there are thoughts and truths which
cry within them for expression. Such men would
say to the young aspirant for fame : If you would
sing, or paint, or speak — go, fill your mind with
great thoughts ; think, meditate, till the fire of
inspiration comes, till God begins to move, as of
old, upon the teeming thoughts. When the fire
has kindled, and speech is a necessity, then you
may be what you will — for you are not thinking
of yourself. Inspiration takes the place of self-
consciousness. The same principle is true in religious matters.
There is a fatal self-consciousness. A man may wish
to be a saint ; but he who, wishing to be a saint,
strives to be a saint, will never, so striving,

i.J Probable Permanence of Religion. 39
become a saint. The fatal self-consciousness is
there, as it was in Sir Percival :
" Thou thoughtest of thy prowess and thy sins.
Thou hast not lost thyself to save thyself."
Sacrifice seen to be right, and done because it
is right, yet felt and known to be sacrifice, on the
whole is a just and worthy thing. But sacrifice
evoked by the inspiring love of some object, felt not
as a sacrifice but as natural because needful for
the sake of the object loved, is greater still.
This it is which sets the smallest acts of love
higher than the greatest acts of duty. Duty
done is noble ; but the highest duty, done
merely as duty, stands on a lower plane than
the smallest act of pure, generous, unselfish love.
The one is of earth ; the other is of heaven.
The one is great in the realm to which it
belongs ; but the least in the kingdom of heaven
is greater. This is recognised by universal
human instincts. The generous and loving man
is held in higher regard than he whose life is
coldly correct. With all its blunders and mistakes
the soul that moves under the impulse of high,
generous love is pardoned and received; "she
loves much ; she is forgiven." Such a nature,
having no thought of self, or of its own great
ness or its own praise, is forgiven because
of its nobleness. Love acts, like genius,

40 Probable Permanence of Religion. [Lect.
because it must. It wears no pride, no self-
pity on its face. It smiles at the lifted axe and
the glowing flame, because it is love.
This is the truth to which J. S. Mill gave expres
sion when he said, " Those only are happy (I
thought) who have their minds fixed upon some
object other than their own happiness ; on the
happiness of others, on the improvement of man
kind, even on some art or pursuit, followed not as a
means, but as itself an ideal end. Aiming thus at
something else, they find happiness by the way." l
This is the Law of Indirectness. This is the
" siege perilous," in which only the pure-hearted
can sit and find their joy, their power, the free
possession of themselves and their lives, when
they have flung self, and pride, and the desire
of happiness away. This is the philosophy of
St. Paul. He rehearses the record of his doings
and his sufferings ; yet how he scorns himself, as
it wete, in the doing it : "I have become a fool in
glorying." (2 Cor. xii. 11.) Who that has known
love recapitulates his sacrifices, or thinks of his
greatest hardships, keenest sorrows, bitterest self-
surrenders as sacrifice at all? Love knows no
boasting, no language of self-praise ; she is great,
chivalrous, noble, self-denying, self-sacrificing,
yet never knows herself to be these. This is the
1 J. S. Mill, " Autobiography," ch. v.

i.J Probable Permanence of Religion. 41
bloom upon human actions, which, like the bloom
upon the fruit, not only makes them beautiful, but
protects them from invading evil. All deeds of
self-sacrifice are consecrated only when the
love which inspires them blinds the doer of
them to their greatness. This I call the
Law of Indirectness,1 because the principle at
the root of it is this, that the greatness is not
found by one who seeks to be great. Eloquence
is not achieved by one who seeks to be eloquent,
nor saintship by one who seeks to be saintly.
But power of every kind, intellectual and moral,
comes best to those who seek not to be great, but
only to be good.
As we think, we are. As we are, we see.
Progress is through sacrifice. Sacrifice to be
pure must be inspired by something higher
than the desire to be self-sacrificing . If these
four things be true— if these are principles
which are constant in human nature, then it
would seem to follow that any religion, if it is
to be an abiding one, must recognize these Laws.
The religion which has no message to the
thoughts of men, or no appeal to the moral nature
of men, or which ignores the high law of self-
sacrifice, or seeks to establish self-sacrifice apart
from some inspiration of love, will assuredly fail.
1 See Appendix, Note 6.

42 Probable Permanence of Religion. [Lect.
Man cannot do without ideas, without morals,
without sacrifice, without inspiring love. These
four principles have their exaggeration ; when
undue stress is laid on the first, doctrinism be
comes a fetish ; when on the second, we get meagre
moralism; when on the third, we have a cruel
sacrificialism or meaningless asceticism ; when
on the fourth, we reach unpractical mysticism.
Such are the laws of man's spiritual nature to
which, as it seems to me, rehgion must conform
itself if it is to abide in perennial vigour, and
bid defiance to the processes of decay. But
laws, it must be recollected, are nothing in
themselves ; they are but the ordered expression
of facts which underlie them, the formal state
ment of the methods in which inherent powers
and qualities manifest themselves in action.
Beneath the laws of human nature lie the
qualities, the instincts, of human nature ; it is
these which alone produce the laws, and give
them reality and meaning. Our next step must
therefore be to examine what these spiritual
instincts or properties are, of which the laws
already mentioned are the expression; we shall
thus be enabled to discern both the aptitude of
the human heart for religion, and the essential
elements which a religion must possess which
can hope to be universal, and to establish

i.J Probable Permanence of Religion. 43
its throne for ever among the children of
men. In the meantime, remembering that religion
seems natural to men of every race, and that
the laws of their spiritual nature have the
character of permanence, we may believe that
religion will not die. The heaven will be opened.
Nay, was it not in the past also that heaven
was opened ? There was one Teacher who taught
great and gracious truths which men's minds
understood, whose character was bright and
stainless, whose life was one pilgrimage of self-
sacrifice, and the inspiration of whose career was
love. Standing by His side, I think I can see
heaven open and the angels of man's aspirations
rising, and the angel of Divine love descending
upon Him who was so truly Son of Man.

LECTUEE II.
SOME ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF RELIGION.

One guarantee of the permanence of rehgion is the permanence
of man's nature, and that permanence is expressed in certain
spiritual laws.
It may be asked whether we cannot predict any of the elements
which will be found in the religion of the future.
I. — It is hkely that we can ; for a large field of investigation is
being opened up to us in the comparative study of re
hgions. The history of rehgions may suggest to us the
elements which the nature of man has demanded in re
hgion.
II. — The elements which man's nature asks are three :
Dependence.Fellowship. Progress.
1. Two of these are indicated by Definitions of Rehgion.
2. All three are suggested by general considerations, but
the evidence that they are, as a fact, demanded by man
kind must be sought in the history of rehgions.
III. — Tho evidence on this point will be given by
Non -universal or minor rehgions.
Universal rehgions.
1 . Hints of these elements meet us on the threshold.
2. The witness to them in some non-universal rehgions.
{a) The rehgion of Mexico.
\b) The rehgion of Israel.
(c) The religion of Greece.
The need of these three elements for man.

LECTUEE II.
SOME ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF RELIGION.
" Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of
God ascending and descending." — St. John i. 51.
rilHE probability that there will be a religion
of the future may be inferred from the
permanence of man's nature. There are
certain laws of man's spiritual being which
seem constant, and which must be reckoned
with by any religion which aspires to be
enduring. A further question now arises. If we may take
it as probable that there will be a religion of the
future : Can we forecast any of its features ?
The mists are around the form of the future
religion : but when it emerges from these mists,
will it be the faith we have known and loved, or
will it be a form so strange to us that men will
shrink from it in despair? There are always
some eager to take up the prophecy of evil, happy
only when playing the role of the Prophet

48 Some Essential Elements [Lect.
Lugubrious. They predict the decay of familiar
faiths. " Christianity," they say, " is played out.
The heritage of the future does not belong to
her. Her shroud is already prepared. She may
be decently buried."
It is not always wise to prophesy. There
are modern Sauls who like to play the prophet's
part, but who would be better employed in hum
bler avocations. Instead of prophesying, it is
wiser to inquire whether we can ascertain what
features of religion are likely to endure.
I. — Our first duty, then, will be to ask what
are the sources from which we may glean facts
likely to help us. The sources of investigation
are, briefly, the past and the present. It is not
by turning our eyes to the future that we shall
best descry the first glimpses of the morning
which is coming. Like the man who looked for
the dawn and found its earliest tokens on the
summit of the western hills, so,, perhaps, we may
catch our first view of the future by turning our
glance on the past. But we must not gaze only
on the past ; we must look to the present also ;
the future is the offspring of both, and both are
alive with interest and with teaching. The poet,
indeed, speaks of the past as dead, and the
present as living. There is a sense in which
this is true, and, as the poet meant it, doubtless

n J of Religion. 49
it was true. But there is a sense in which the
past is never dead ; a sense in which it is alive for
evermore. The future is not the offspring of dead
parentage, but of the past and present, which are
both alive.
We must, however, notice some difficulties in
the way of our investigation. There are, first,
external difficulties. These arise from the num
ber of religions, and from the variety of views
and opinions concerning the definition of religion.
The number of religions is legion, and they present
strange and conflicting differences of features.
Eastern and Western, barbarian and philosophical
faiths compete for our attention ; and at the same
time the very definition of religion is not agreed
upon. Eeligion, according to Kant, is morahty ;
according to Mr. Matthew Arnold, it is morality
touched by emotion ; according to Fichte, it is
knowledge; according to Hegel, it is freedom.1
But if thus we are met by difficulties, we have the
advantages derived from the progress which has been
made in the comparative study of religions. In this
way our investigation has been made easier. Our
work is simplified by those who have opened up
roads through hitherto impassable country. But it
1 Cf. Max Muller, " Origin of Rehgion," pp. 14, 19, 20.
Matthew Arnold, "Literature and Dogma," p. 16. See
Introduction, p. xxxvi. H

50 Some Essential Elements [Lect.
is here that we are conscious of difficulties which
we may describe as internal, as they arise from
the feelings. There is a feeling of contempt, and
there is a feeling of distrust. Some think the
comparative study of religions to be a danger and
a mistake, others disdain it as nugatory and vain.
It may be true that many who study the
religions of the past and of the present do so
with inglorious aims ; but, if religion be of any
value, we ought to rejoice in every manifestation
of interest shown in its history. Now, the dis
trust, of which we have spoken, arises mainly from
the idea that to engage in such study is to ignore
the special dignity of Christianity, and to place a
divine revelation on the same level with mere
human religions. This objection, if it be one,
shows a strange perversion of mind. By the
supposition, Christianity is different from other
religions in that it is a divine revelation. If so,
nothing, we should imagine, would be more
welcome than the study which most reveals the
difference. It is, perhaps, more important to observe the
strange and false view of life of which this distrust
is a symptom. If we limited our thoughts to man
alone, the comparative study of religions would be
pregnant with interest : it would be like the read
ing of the great spiritual dream of the race. But

il] of Religion. 51
if we believe in God, we must believe that every
page of history will show His hand, and, most of all,
that page on which is written the story of the way
in which man has sought after God, and God has
revealed Himself to man. If we believe in no
guiding hand and no self-revealing Love in the past,
and see in history only the vain struggles of man
against the bars of his prison, then let us refuse, if
we can, to study the history of religions. But if we
believe that behind all life and the things which
darken our hopes and perplex our thoughts, there
is a Love which never fails, and a Wisdom which,
though inscrutable, is wonderfully kind, then
the story of the past must always have a sur
passing interest for us ; for, though it is the record
of the struggles of man, it is more — it is the
story of his education at the hands of that
God who is Love. And what story could
possess greater charm than that which tells
us how man has looked for the knowledge
of God; how the hand of God has from time
to time lifted the veil, and let in the brightness of
His presence upon the darkness of life ? For those
who thus realize God in life there need be no
fear of any investigations which throw light, not
merely upon the aspirations of men, but upon the
power and wisdom of God.
There are others who despise the comparative

52 Some Essential Elements [Lect.
study of religions, not because they fear that irre
verent hands may be laid upon sacred things, but
because they feel a contempt for all studies which
appear to them mere attempts to revive an
interest in subjects dead or doomed to die.
Eeligious history can only be interesting if religion
be above contempt. Hard contempt is a state of
mind no less unworthy of the student than selfish
fear. Extremes meet here as elsewhere : the
religionist and the scientist are at one. The
religionist dislikes such studies, because he fears
their results ; the scientist dislikes such studies,
because he thinks them worthless. But both these
are unworthy tempers, contempt more so than fear,
for contempt brings forth no fruit of knowledge or
faith. It is easy, perhaps fatally easy, to allow a
spirit of contempt to grow. When we open the
door of our ark, and look forth upon the troubled
waters of Life, we may, if we will, send forth
as our messenger the spirit of criticism and con
tempt, but, like the raven, it finds its life in
destruction and death, and can bring back no
pledge of hope. It is only when the spirit which
goes forth is the spirit of sympathy, gentle
ness, and docility that we can expect the olive
branch of hope and knowledge to be brought
to our doors. " Contempt," says a modern writer,
"diminishes as we grow wiser." It is true.

ii.] of Religion. 53
Life, as we learn to know it better, is too sad,
the faults of man are too pathetic, and, at times,
are too noble to be treated with contempt ; and,
I think, when we have learned, through larger
knowledge, both to distrust ourselves and to
love our kind, it dies out altogether. Hence,
we must banish the spirit of fear, and rise above
the spirit of contempt ; we must come to the
study of the religions of the past with the spirit
of those who desire to know, and with the belief
that there is something to be learned in the record
of man's struggles, if we are to gain anything
from the study of the world, which lies in the
hand of God. In this spirit we may reach the
knowledge of those essential elements which
have existed in the religions of the past, and
which will probably be found in the religion of
the future. We shall not despair to see the
heavens open.
The field of investigation, then, is the history
of religions, past and present. In these we must
seek for those elements which give the essential
features of any enduring religion. We must lay
the evil spirits of distrust and of contempt which
haunt our path. We have to seek for truth, and
we must quit ourselves with docility and courage.
II. — Before entering upon the field of investiga
tion, it will be as well to ask whether we can

54 Some Essential Elements [Lect.
obtain from the definitions of religion any indica
tion of the features we might expect to find.
1. From the definitions may be gathered two
of these features, to which a third may be added.
The first is Dependence. "The most primitive
element which it (the theistic idea) contains is
doubtless the notion of dependence upon some
thing outside of ourselves." l Thus Fiske writes ;
following Schleiermacher, who held that
religion is a feeling of absolute dependence on
God. Eeville admits that Schleiermacher was
right in believing dependence to be an integral
part of religion.3
A second feature is Fellowship. Plato saw
that religion was likeness to God, founded
on a sense of kinship between the human and
the Divine.3 Schelling thought that it involved
the idea of fellowship or harmony as opposed to
any contradiction between knowledge and action.
"The first meaning of religion is consciousness,
the highest unity between what we know and
what we do, which makes it impossible that what
we do should contradict what we know; as the
tendency of the spirit to be one with its centre
— God, is morality." 4
1 Fiske, " The Idea of God," p. 62.
2 See Introduction, p. xxxvi. Of. Pfleiderer, " Philosophy of
Religion," vol. i., p. 305.
3 Plato, " Thecet." i Schelling, " Werke," vol. i., p. 55.

il] of Religion. 55
Strauss declared the ineradicableness of this
idea of kinship : "In our inmost nature we feel a
kinship between ourselves and that on which we
depend." x
Eeville's formal definition of religion empha
sizes the same feature which I call Fellowship,
for he says that " religion is the determination
of human life by the sentiment of a bond uniting
the human mind to that mysterious Mind whose
domination of the world and of itself it recognizes,
and to whom it delights in feeling itself united." 2
These (and more might be added) are enough to
show that in the minds of men who have studied
the question — though following different schools
of thought — both the idea of Fellowship and that
of Dependence are among the essential features of
religion. But to these two features I venture to
add a third — Progress. This expresses belief in
the forward and upward movement of creation,
the belief in personal spiritual progress, and the
conviction that not for ourselves alone do the
wheels of time move forward, but that they
bear all things onward to an age in which the
children of men shall be blessed. My reasons
for adding this feature are simple. The
1 Quoted by Max Muller, "Origin of Religion," p. 3. Of.
Introduction, pp. xxxvii., xliv.
* Reville, " Prolegomena to the History of Religions," p. 25.

56 Some Essential Elements [Lect.
idea of Progress refuses to be excluded. The
search for happiness, thought by some to be
universal, involves Progress, for no definition
of happiness seems so complete as that of
Madame de Stael, who said, " Happiness is
constant occupation in congenial work, with the
full exercise of our powers, with a continued sense
of progress."1 If stagnation is misery, progress is
happiness, and it can hardly be ignored in a religion
which aspires to be abiding. Again, religion can
not be one with men, unless it be one with men's
growth and progress. This, which is always true,
will be found to meet with more ready recognition
in an age like the present, when the interest in
forward movements is so keenly felt by all classes.
If, in some quarters, progress has been con
stituted a religion, we may well believe that
religion must possess in itself an element of pro
gress. Dependence, Fellowship, Progress — these
are the three features which we believe to be
essential to religion, if it is to prove a permanent
power in the world.
2. The fitness and naturalness of these three
elements will be seen on reflection.
It has often been said that the progress of the
race resembles the growth of the individual from
(T/.Anstotle, to ccvftpuirivov uyc&ov -^v^rit; Ivscysnx yiveTcci xar
ufiTw. Nicom. Eth., bk. i., ch. 7.

n] of Religion. 57
childhood to manhood. The analogy might be
justified by argument : it is enough that it is
accepted by Eeville, who, in this, follows Voltaire.
Now, let us look for a moment at what takes
place in the history of the child. The first
feature respecting child-life which strikes us
is the infant's often quoted absolute dependence.
From earliest days its needs must be supplied
by another. This is the education by which it
learns dependence. It cries for its food, and
its little cry is one of absolute trust that the cry
will not be unheeded. Dependence is its first
idea. But as the child grows, and intellect
develops, it passes from the stage of absolute
dependence to what is at first partial, and then
complete, companionship. He shares in the
walks with his father. By-and-bye the prattle
of the little child passes into the more
thoughtful speech of the boy ; and this, again, into
the graver reflections of youth. The relation
ship which was once one of Dependence, has
grown to be one of companionship also —
that is, Fellowship is added to Dependence. But
life has a further stage. With manhoood dawns
ambition — the wish to exercise his powers
in the great and moving world. The father
shares those feelings, for, if the; son is
ambitious for work, the father is ambitious

58 Some Essential Elements [Lect.
for the son. He would rather see him enter
into the world, use his energies there, and
become a living force, helpful in the advance of
human life and human civilization, -than selfishly
keep him at his side for the luxury of his friend
ship and companionship. Thus the idea of Pro
gress adds itself in human life to those of
Dependence and Fellowship. The powers which
have been won through Dependence and Com
panionship must be now used in Progress. We
may take a second aspect of this analogy, and
one which is, as I believe, closely allied to the
development of religion. We may reflect on
the way in which love grows. The love
of the child is a love which is scarcely more
than the consciousness of dependence, love
which is drawn out towards those from whom it
receives ; but later, when what is more usually
called love begins to declare itself, it is a love
which desires companionship. The friendship of
boyhood is dear; but it is soon followed by the
love which seeks companionship in wedded life.
And then comes that change which alters the
whole position of man with regard to life. He is no
longer one who merely depends on another ; he has
become the one upon whom others depend. The
man has become the father, and thenceforward
he feels that progress, whether for himself or

n] of Religion. 59
for his children, is a feature of life which can
never be ignored. Thus into the ordinary develop
ment of life, these three — Dependence, Fellowship,
and Progress — enter as natural and familiar ele
ments. It is not surprising that these elements
should enter into rehgion.
Assuming, then, for a moment, that they
are features of religion, we may note that
none of them alone can constitute religion,
nor can any one of them be ignored by
religion. Dependence cannot stand alone. Otherwise
religion becomes a demoralizing force ; l and this
is easily understood, because if religion consist
merely in dependence upon God, man tends to
become weak, greedy or insincere ; his needs and his
desires are the main interests of his religion ; the
question of his moral and spiritual affinity to God
does not necessarily arise ; a religion such as this
becomes open to the reproach that it is little more
than refined covetousness. Jacob prayed at
Bethel that God would keep him, and bring him
to his father's house in peace ; he asked mainly
for prosperity and comfort for his material life.
Viewed thus, he exemplifies religion conceived of
as dependence ; and had Jacob had no experience
beyond that of Bethel — had not Penuel succeeded
1 See Appendix, Note 7.

60 Some Essential Elements |_Lect
Bethel — he would never have outgrown the
selfish timidity of his character.
If religion, viewed only as Dependence, tends to
deteriorate character, it tends also to harm the
race by weakening the springs of moral activity-
Where Dependence is all, there is no need for
effort in life or spiritual co-operation in wor
ship ; worship becomes a mechanical ritualism,
and religion the parent of superstition.
But while Dependence cannot stand alone, it
cannot be ignored, for it carries the idea of reliance,
and reliance is needful in religion, for all who are
conscious of weakness must depend upon the
strong ; and man is weak.
Neither can Fellowship alone constitute
religion. A religion which inculcates Fellow
ship without a sense of Dependence becomes
pantheistic, and is deficient in that reverence
which the less feels towards the greater.
Similarly, Fellowship without the necessity
for Progress becomes a kind of spiritual
luxury. The mystic, yielding to his emotion,
longing to become one with the Deity, and to merge
his spirit in the Great Spirit of All things, is likely
to shut himself up from the more active duties of
life. Intent upon the realisation of the union of
his spirit with the Great Spirit of All, he forgets
the union of his life with the brotherhood of the

il] of Religion. 61

world, and the duties which he owes to men ; he
loses the sympathetic spirit of progress.
Fellowship cannot be ignored, for it is the satis
faction of that craving for harmony which is strong
in human nature, which is felt as a desire for
concord between our thoughts and the life which
is outside ourselves ; for the Divine synthesis, or
the reconciliation between what is and what
ought to be — the peace between our character
and our conscience. It is that desire for inward
harmony, which is, though not always recognised
as such, the longing of the spirit for oneness with
a higher law or higher life. It is seen in that
wonderful and even mysterious desire, manifested
in almost all religions, for atonement.
Nor can Progress alone be counted as religion ;
for the religion which consists solely in the recog
nition of the sacredness of Progress will not prove
sufficient. Having no Dependence upon the Great
Spirit of All, it will lack reverence. Owning no
Fellowship between the human spirit and the
Divine, it lacks that inwardness of life which
has often proved to be the heart of religion. It
becomes a moralism — often a moralism with
Atheistic tendencies.
Again, Progress cannot be ignored. All life is
felt to be sacred. The movement of the world is
not to be regarded as outside the thought of God

62 Some Essential Elements [Lect.
any more than it is outside the interests of men.
And if this be so, the idea of Progress is in
separable from the complete religious idea.
Thus all three — Dependence, Fellowship, and
Progress — seem to be needed. If these three
elements fit the laws of man's spiritual nature,
then it will be seen, from what we have said,
that we cannot ignore them without the
retribution of growing stagnant, and immoral, and
even of losing grasp upon truth. Our ideas of God
become unworthy, our ideas of man narrow,
our powers of touching the world-life wither
away. We become unwilling witnesses that
true and complete peace is only found by man
when his spirit is at peace with the world, itself,
and its God.
III. — Hitherto we have only been dealing with
the need of these three elements as attested by the
nature of the case. We turn now to the history
of rehgion, with the view of ascertaining what
evidence we may gather concerning man's re
ligious needs. At the outset, it may be well
to consider what we expect and what we do
not expect from the study of this evidence. We
do not expect to find these three elements enter
ing as essential elements into every religious
system ; but we do expect the several systems
to show what, according to their history, man

ii J of Religion. 63
has required at their hands. The history of
rehgion will thus reflect the essential needs of
man ; and we are to ask whether man's nature is
constant in requiring certain elements to com
plete religion.
Eeligions have been divided into those which
are universal and those which are not universal.
By universal are to be understood those which
have overlapped the borders of the country of
their birth, and have proved themselves capable
of ministering to men of differing races and
lands ; in distinction from those the history
of whose life has been within the limits
of the land which gave them birth. The
consideration of those religions which are uni
versal, and which are admitted to be so by the
best authorities, will be dealt with in the next
Lecture. In the present we shall only note the
hints of any essential elements of religion which
may be observed in what we may call the lesser
religions. 1. At the outset we meet with evidence.
Take the element of Dependence. The ancient
mythologies are clear on this point. The needs
of man led him to look upward to the hea
venly powers. The forces of nature were in
the hands of great Beings on whose bounty
man depended. The rain must be implored.

64 Some Essential Elements [Lect.
The tempest and the fire must be deprecated.
The gods must be propitiated. Man's earliest
religious feelings are often the pathetic ex
pression of his sense of Dependence on powers
greater than himself. The sacred books of the
East — the Vedas and Mantras — carry evidence.
Here we find prayer and praise ; and the
teaching that " the best road to the knowledge
of God is that feeling of Dependence implied in
prayer and praise." The worship of the Zulus
and Khonds, described by Dr. Tylor, will
further illustrate this: — "Among the Zulus,
the sacrificer says, ' I pray for a healthy
body, that I may live comfortably and
thou, "so — and — so," treat me with mercy!'"1
The Khonds, when offering a human
sacrifice to the Earth -goddess, say : " By our
cattle, our flocks, our pigs, and our grain, we
procured a victim and offered a sacrifice. Do you
now enrich us. Let our herds be so numerous
that they cannot be housed  We are ignorant
what it is good to ask for. You know what is
good for us. Give it to us." 3
The element of Dependence enters into all early
religions. Can we as readily find among them
1 Matheson, " Natural Elements of Revealed Theology "
p. 220. 6"
2 Dr. Tylor, "Anthropology," p. 365. See Note 8 in
Appendix.

n] of Religion. 65
the element of fellowship ? Turn to India alone.
The Brahman Pantheism taught that nature was
the manifestation of God, and that man must
blend himself with Him or it. This expresses the
strong yearning for fellowship with the Divine.
The same element may be found on the
threshold of Indian worship. " Nearly all the
gods," writes Professor Max Muller, " have
epithets applied to them which are derived
from this Eita" (a word meaning road or
path) , " and which are meant to convey
the two ideas, first, that the gods founded the
order of nature, and that nature obeys their
commands ; secondly, that there is a moral law
which man must obey, and for the transgression of
which he is punished by the gods." x The first car
ries with it the idea of Dependence ; the second
expresses the necessity that man should bring
himself into harmony with the will of the gods
as expressed in nature ; and in this we have an
aspect of the element of Fellowship.2 For the
moment you say there is a moral law which man
must obey, you express the idea that it is neces
sary for men to come into complete harmony with
that moral law, and thus — seeing that the moral
law is regarded as the expression of a divine
1 " Origin and Growth of Religion," p. 243.
2 See Note 9 in Appendix. i

66 Some Essential Elements [Lect.
will — into harmony with the Divine Being.
Connected with this is a large class of sacrificial
ideas which imply the need that man should
bring himself into oneness with the ruler or
rulers of the universe.
2. In further illustration we may briefly note
features presented by the lesser religions.
(a) The ancient religion of Mexico shall be
our witness. When Fernando Cortez landed in
Mexico, he found it inhabited by a people far
advanced in civilization. Their irrigation was
carried on by splendid aqueducts; "their streets
were cleansed by day and lighted by night;"
good roads, joining the important centres of
civilization, were provided throughout the whole
of the country, and a system of posts so complete
that his landing was known in the most distant
provinces within a few days of his arrival.1
Our interest lies in the religion , of these people.
Their worship exhibited the element of Depend
ence. The sun and the moon, the gods of fire,
of the rain, of the storm, were regarded as
beings upon whom they depended for health and
food and comfort. They had grasped in a measure
the idea of Fellowship. Their sacrificial system
may illustrate this. Their rites were bloody ;
human victims were sacrificed by thousands.
1 Reville, " Hibbert Lectures," p. 33.

il] of Religion. 67
Twenty thousand human beings are reported to
have been sacrificed in thirty-four years. Yet
we can hardly describe them as a cruel people,
for side by side with such savage practices
we find a tenderness and consideration for the
sick and poor, which raised hospitals and
infirmaries for their benefit. The self-contra
dictions of men are many; and it needs
patience to understand them. We can only do
so by seeking to discover what men are trying to
say as well as what they do say. Many terrible
words and deeds are but brutal and imperfect
attempts to express some great and heartrending
emotion. The explanation of these cruelties of the
Mexicans may be found in some strongly-felt need.
We notice that they not only sacrificed human
victims, but they practised what we may call a
religious cannibalism.1 After they had given up
the eating of human flesh as ordinary food, they
would eat it at religious festivals ; and there was
a religious meaning in this. They felt the abso
lute necessity of entering into communion and
fellowship with their gods. The victim was pre
pared for sacrifice; the priest plunged in the
knife. He seized and tore out the bleeding and
quivering heart, and flung it into the brazier
to be consumed. The worshippers fed upon the
] See Note 10 in Appendix.

68 Some Essential Elements [Lect.
flesh of the victim, and, eating this food, they
believed that they entered into communion with
the god, for that the god had entered into fellow
ship with the victim, and that in feeding on the
victim's flesh they became incorporated with the
god. The same idea seems to have been present
in their practice of asceticism. The idea of
suffering entered- into their religion and duties,
and they mistook suffering in itself for the moral
good which may come from suffering. They believed
that suffering itself possesses an irresistible moral
force. We may regard this as a crude con
ception, but we must realise that there is in it
a certain nobleness, when we perceive a readiness
to endure any pain, if thus they may enter into
fellowship with beings higher than themselves.
They desire to be one with their god, they desire
also that the god may become one with them ;
and in their beautiful legend of the humming bird
they seem to have grasped the notion that God may
become incarnate, and that true kinship and com
munion may be established between God and man.
In the Mexican religion, then, we have found the
ideas of Dependence and Fellowship. Is there
any hint of the idea of Progress ? Among their
numerous deities there was one god, Quetzalcoatl,
elsewhere called Hurakan, from which, it is said,
our word hurricane is derived. But this god is, in

II

.] of Religion. 69

their estimation, more tender in his feelings,
more beneficent in his influences, than their other
gods. He is averse to human sacrifices. His
breath is sweet and life-giving. Where he comes,
beauty is spread over the face of the world, and
all things smile. He bids the seasons appear with
varying blessing. He sends the freshness and
promise of the spring, and the warmth and
brightness of the summer ; he commands the fruits
of the earth to come forth. All the sacrifices
offered to this god are sacrifices of simple
fruits and flowers, tender and beautiful as
the god himself. Their faith concerning him
is touching and sweet. He is one who
sometimes leaves them, and their land is wintry
and forlorn ; in his absence they turn their eyes
to the West and believe that he will return ; not
merely with the returning spring, but with the
true summer of the world, bringing in his train
the virtues of justice and kindness, and establish
ing the reign of the righteous in their midst.1
And what is this ? It is more than a
parable of the Seasons ; it is the dream of a
glorious future, the dream of that golden age
which is the common heritage of many creeds.
And herein we have an acknowledgment of
1 RiSville, " Hibbert Lectures," pp. 62-65 ; cf. pp. 38, 115,
224. See Note 11 in Appendix.

70 Some Essential Elements [Lect.
the element of Progress, and a witness that
man is never satisfied with a religion which is one
of Dependence or Fellowship only. There is a
native philanthropy in the hearts of men which has
its aspirations and yearnings, which dreams of an
age of justice and peace, which prays for the progress
of good, which longs to see the day of peace and
goodwill among men. This spirit we have found,
where we should hardly have expected it, in the
Mexican religion.
(b) Take an illustration from Judaism. We may
remind you that — as has been often pointed
out and recently by one1 to whom religious
thought is deeply indebted — the idea of God,
as revealed in the sacred Hebrew books,
passes through three stages. God is first the
God of Power — El Shaddai— rich in blessing,
mighty in judgment. Here is the idea of
Dependence. Then He is known as Jehovah,
the Eternal, and Unchangeable, the " I Am "
who knows the sorrows of His people, and
in relationship with whom His worshippers
rejoice. Here is the idea of Fellowship.
Thirdly, God is known as the Lord of Hosts,
Jehovah-Sabbaoth, the Lord whose presence is
the guarantee of the national development and
security of the people.
1 Westcott, " Revelation of the Father," p. 6.

ii.] of Religion. 71
(c.) In Hellenism we may find hints of the same.
In his appeal to Penelope's suitors, Telemachus
takes three grounds. "Arouse," he says, " within
yourselves a Nemesis, or moral sense ; an iilds,
or a sense of honour, and regard for the opinion
of your fellow citizens ; and the fear of the wrath
of the gods."
" These three principles," writes Mr. Glad
stone, "were the three great pillars of morality."
Nemesis was self-judgment by our inward law ;
aious was self-judgment according to a standard
applied by others ; and fear was the expectation
of judgment by Divine law.1 In other words, we
see the element of Dependence in the recognition
of the gods whose retribution is to be feared ;
the element of Fellowship in the recognition
of the morality to which we are bound
inwardly to conform ; and the element of
Progress in the recognition of the relation
ship which we bear to mankind at large.
Thus, in this rapid survey, we have seen
how these three elements are demanded by the
religious instincts of men. And the evidence of
which we have spoken has been forthcoming.
Generally speaking, we may say that these minor
religions attest strongly the element of Depend-
1 "Juventus Mundi," pp. 383-4. See Note 12 in Appendix.

72 Some Essential Elements [Lect.
ence ; and not quite so strongly, but still sufficiently,
those of Fellowship and Progress.
In the next Lecture we shall examine the greater,
or universal religions, with the view of ascertaining
whether these three — Dependence, Fellowship, and
Progress — show themselves in the history of the
larger, as they do in the history of lesser, religions.
Dependence, Fellowship, and Progress — man
needs them all. Placed in this little world,
surrounded by much that is dark, man irresis
tibly looks upward ; conscious of the power
of thinking and willing, he looks within ;
linked by subtle and manifold ties to the
millions who share with him the struggle of
life, he looks around, not always to see sights
which inspire hope. Looking around, and seeing
the sorrows and failures of men, he is
filled with pity; looking within, and finding
his own weakness and helplessness, he
begins to despair. The glances around and
within are dark indeed ; he must look
heavenward, even though his eyes fail with
looking upward. Though the heart and the flesh
fail, God is the strength of his heart ; and the
glance upward becomes the look of faith. It
finds utterance in the cry : " Oh God, Thou art my
God." (Ps. lxiii. 1.) The glance inward becomes
one of humility and awakens the cry : " I am not

il] of Religion. 73
worthy that Thou shouldest enter under my
roof; " (St. Luke vii. 6), and the glance around is
no longer that of pity, ending in despair, but that
of strong and hopeful love, which says : " I have
compassion on the multitudes." (St. Matt. xv. 32.)
It is well to take these three glances — to look
around with compassion to see where and how
we can help the faint and hungry ; to look
inward for the wisdom which is born of self-
knowledge ; and to look upward that we may see
that above the ladder of daily duty is the Lord
God of all duty.
Upward, yet not upward only, lest we adopt an
indolent faith, whose motto is : " All for us."
Around, yet not around only, lest, forgetting God,
we should rely only on self, and adopt the life
whose motto is : " All by us." Around, yet
inwards also, that we may learn all that needs
to be wrought within us, and win the precious
gift of true humility. Then, as from the sad
glances, within and around, we turn our eyes
upward once more, we shall see that, notwith
standing the darkness, Heaven is still open, and
that the angels of God are ever ascending and
descending; for, rightly understood, even the
sighs, the self-judgments, and the aspirations of
men are angels which lift them heavenward and
bind them to God.

LECTUEE III.
ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF RELIGION
WITNESSED IN THE HISTORY OF
THREE UNIVERSAL RELIGIONS.

The permanence of religion and the permanence of man's nature
are correlated. There are certain essential elements demanded by
man in religion. The main evidence on this point must be
sought in the history of the three universal rehgions :
I. — Islamism in its history illustrates this demand. The original
element in Islamism is Dependence. The Sufite movement
is the demand for Fellowship. The Mo'tazilite movement is
the effort after Progress.
II. — Buddhism in its original form attempted to meet the
demand for FeUowship. Later developments show the
demand for Dependence. The worship of the Buddha. The
mulplieation of Deities. The practice of Prayer. The
element of Progress is recognized in the hope of a Future.
III. — Christianity in its history shows the reiteration in various
ways of the demand of human nature for these three
elements :
(i.) The teaching of Christ.
(ii.) The witness of history and controversy —
1. To Dependence.
2. To the need of Fellowship.
(«) Montanism. (b) The struggles of Athanasius.
(c) Asceticism, (d) Saint Worship, (e) Mys
ticism.
3. To the need of Progress —
{a) The Schoolmen, {b) The School of Nature.
(hi.) The existence of parties as a witness to the need of
Dependence, Fellowship, Progress.
Thus mankind in all periods has shown the need of three great
elements in rehgion.

LECTUEE III.
ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF RELIGION
WITNESSED IN THE HISTORY OF
THREE UNIVERSAL RELIGIONS.
" Hereafter ye shall see heaven open and the angels of God
ascending and descending." — St. John i. 51.
rnHE position which we have reached is as
follows. We have seen that there are
reasons for believing that religion will survive ; the
grounds for this are to be found in the fact that
man everywhere shows invincible religious ten
dencies, coupled with the fact that man's nature
seems to be permanent. There are certain laws
or principles of man's spiritual and moral nature
which appear to be constant. These point to the per
manence of man's nature, and also to the elements
which the future religion must possess if it is to
survive. Some idea of the form which the re
ligion of the future is likely to take may be derived
from the elements which appear to be essential.
These elements are Dependence, Fellowship,
Progress.

78 The Three Universal Religions. [Lect.
In proof of the need of these three elements
we must turn to the witness of religious history.
We found their need attested in the history of
the Mexican religion. We saw hints of the same
in the language of Hellenism, and in the religious
conceptions of the Hebrews.
These, however, only touch the hem of the
subject. The religious history of the world
centres in those rehgions which are called uni
versal. We can only make approximate guesses
at the population of the world ; but recent
authorities seem agreed that three-fourths, if not
four-fifths, of the population of the world will be
found distributed among the three universal re
ligions — Islamism, Buddhism, Christianity.1
We are about to interrogate the history of these
three great religions, and ascertain whether we find
in them evidence that the elements of Dependence,
Fellowship, and Progress are essential to the
completeness of the religious idea. One point
needs, perhaps, to be made clear before we go
further. We must understand what we mean
when we speak of a religion as universal. We
may recall the distinction pointed out by
Kuenen. A religion may be regarded as
universal, because as a fact it has shown itself
capable of transcending the limits of the land of
1 See Note 13 in Appendix.

in.] The Three Universal Religions. 79
its birth. But this by no means implies that it
has within it the essential elements or qualities
calculated to ensure its complete universalism.
It is universal in fact — as Kuenen1 would say —
because it has shown itself more than national ;
whether it is universal in quality demands fur
ther investigation. This distinction is important,
and it enters deeply into the drift of these
Lectures, the aim of which is to ascertain what are
the elements without which a religion cannot be
said to be possessed of the quality of universalism,
and then to ask how far the great religions truly
possess it.
In the present Lecture our inquiry is whether
the history of the three universal religions bears
witness to the need of the three elements of
Dependence, Fellowship, and Progress. In the
next lecture we shall ask how far these
three elements are native to the religions in
whose history we have found them ; for the
three elements may appear in the history
of a religion, and yet not be of its essence ; they
may be accretions, rather than developments ;
additions, and not evolutions ; adoptions, not
children born in its home ; proselytes of the gate
rather than children of the covenant. In this
Lecture we are merely regarding the history of
1 "Hibbert Lectures," p. 6.

80 The Three Universal Religions. [Lect.
these religions as attesting what are the elements
which man demands in the faith which aspires to
permanence. And our inquiry will show us
that Dependence, Fellowship, and Progress are
asked for by the spirit of man, whether we
interrogate the story of Islamism, Buddhism,
or Christianity.
I. — Islamism.
The figure of Mohammed loomed large and
terrible upon those who saw him only through
the fog which dread and ignorance spread around
him. To them he was an object of horror
against which anything evil might be said.
He was the first-born of Satan, the dealer
in black arts ; his very name became an
epithet of reproach. But, now the mists of
prejudice have cleared away, we can afford to
see the founder of Islamism in a fairer light.
We can understand him better as we recall
his traditional portraiture. A lithe and slender
figure, broad-shouldered, and upbearing proudly
his majestic head, crowned with dark, flowing
and curling hair ; an oval face bronzed by
the sun ; the nose, " the rudder of the face, the
index of the will," strong and masterful ; teeth
brilhant as hailstones, and eyes bright as stars ;
soft, small, nervous hands : all made up a figure
goodly to look upon. His peculiarities also are

in.] The Three Universal Religions. 81
known to us : the deep blood-vessel on the
forehead that darkened with passion ; the
strange egg mark between the shoulders, the
so-called seal of prophecy ; and the gracious
gait, light and springing, as of one stepping
downwards. Joyous he was and loving as a child,
patient as a woman ; ready now to romp with
the children, to tell them stories, now to sit
patiently in a foul dense atmosphere, nursing
the sick child till it died with its head on
his bosom ; full of a sweet, soft courtesy which
would not willingly offend by gesture or by man
ner ; never the first to withdraw his hand from
another's grasp, or to turn aside from another's
converse. Altogether you would say a delicate
organization, sensitive, passionate, responsive ;
drawn to a strange, sad love of solitude, yet
longing for the solace and soothing of a woman's
hand, and flying to her sheltering arms as to a safe
place from the wild terrors which at times fell upon
him. Briefly, he is a man with that mixture of
qualities which Coleridge declared needful for the
highest genius, that blending of masculine and
feminine qualities which is called androgynous ; full
of contradictions with his timidity and his courage,
his passionate indulgence and his wondrous
modesty, his outbursts of cruelty and his patient
tenderness ; terrified at the weight of the task laid
K

82 The Three Universal Religions. [Lect.

upon him, yet finding it impossible to shrink from it ;
hating conflict, yet preferring it to the inward tor
ment of the spirit that, Jonah-like, refuses its errand ;
gaining in his self-surrender the power which was
needful to weld others together, and to inspire them
with that loyalty to God which was the essence of
his teaching.1 From this picture of the Prophet,
we may, after allowing for natural exaggerations,
understand him and his system better. Depend
ence is at the root of Islamism. This may be
called its initial idea. It is seen in the very word
by which the religion is described. The religion
is not Mohammedanism. The religion is Islam —
submission. It teaches that man is of small
account. In the view of the Prophet, God
was all ; the varied and grotesque divinities
and saints which were brought into the worship
of men, Christian or Pagan, were impertinences.
Man could only be rehgious in a complete self-
surrender ; he depended wholly upon God ; he
was but a slave of the Most High, who owned
him and demanded from him the most absolute
service. All other divinities were usurpers,
standing between the sovereign and his subjects ;
man was God's slave, no other could share
that proprietorship, and to the sense of this
relationship with the Creator the Prophet would
1 See Note 14 in Appendix.

in.] The Three Universal Religions. 83
restore man. " Obedience to God and His
messenger is the strength of the Moslem system." l
" Man lives on content with himself, but he must
one day return to his Creator and Lord and give
account to Him. This is in a sense the material
principle of the oldest faith of Islam."2 We can
see that the principle of Dependence shows itself
here. The exalted idea of the sovereign and sole
God, and the necessity of the most complete
obedience to Him, are the emphatic statements
of this Dependence. Islamism starts with this
as its essential idea.
We must note next its relation to the idea
of Fellowship or communion, which is the
second element we are seeking. The alien
gods and intermediate divinities, the worship of
saints and the devotion to shrines, were offensive
in the eyes of the Prophet ; they savoured of the
usurpation which he denounced ; they robbed
God of His glory. But Mohammed thought
more of the glory of God than of the needs
of man. He seems to promise, indeed, the
restoration of union with the Divine, but he
practically makes no provision for it. His mind
is full of God and God's greatness ; God is the
1 Art. in " Encyclopaedia Britannica " on "Mohammed" by
Wellhausen, p. 554.
2 Ibid., p. 548.

84 The Three Universal Religions. [Lect.
Euler, man is the subject; God is the Creator,
man is the creature ; God is the owner and
arbiter of all, man is His possession, and must
surrender to God's will and submit to His decree.
The profoundness of his conviction of the one truth
overshadowed the other needful element ; and he
forgot that the subject, the creature, the slave,
had been made in God's image, and had a heart
which asked for real fellowship with the Divine.
Mohammed hardly saw this ; the emphasis
with which he affirmed the one truth made the
realization of the fellowship of man with his
Maker difficult, indeed impossible. The idea of
God's greatness, and of the absolute authority exer
cised by the fiat of His will, dazzled the popular
mind for a while, but it had the effect of seeming
to push man very far away from God. True
Fellowship was impossible ; the link between the
Creator and the creature was that of power on
the one side and Dependence on the other; the
idea of holiness which satisfies the ethical feeling,
and the idea of love which captivates the heart,
were wanting. No wonder that Fellowship seemed.
impossible. But the after history exhibits a reaction, and
shows eloquently man's desire for some nearness
or fellowship with the Divine. The followers
of Mohammed could not rest in the pure

m.J The Three Universal Religions. 85
Theism which the Prophet sought to preach,
and on his death they commenced the worship
of Mohammed, viewing him as a mediator still
living and pleading with Allah ; and Medina
became, in sanctity, second only to Mecca. Nor
was this all ; the worship of Walis, or saints,
quickly followed. The sense of the need of some
points of contact between man and the object of
his worship led to saint-worship. If a power
high and great cannot minister to this strong
yearning of man's breast, humanity will invent
some other mode of bringing the Divine near
itself. And this is what happened in the history of
Islamism. It was expressed in the saint-worship
of which we have spoken, but it found its most
important expression in the movement called
Sufism. Sufism is a motley phrase ; it covers a
wide area; but from whatever source it sprang,
its significance is clear. The Sufite is the
Mohammedan mystic. He realizes the double
yearning of the human soul: the longing for
reconciliation which springs from the conscience ;
the longing for Fellowship which springs from
the heart. The splendid absolutism with which
Mohammed invested his idea of God made
direct Fellowship between the Creator and the
creature difficult, for the creature was the slave
of the Divine will ; and there can be no Fellow-

86 The Three Universal Religions. [Lect.

ship where the will is enslaved. According
to the saint-worshipper, if man must have
Fellowship with the Divine, let him have it
with those who are nearest to the great God,
seeing that God Himself dwells beyond the reach
of human fellowship. But where shall this be
found, if not with the Prophet and with those
great .heroes of Islam who have been the highest
servants of God ? The Sufite, moved by the same
yearning, took a bolder line and claimed man's
right to go straight to God. These movements in
various ways sought to supply the element of Fel
lowship. " If the mystic element," says Kuenen,
" was almost entirely wanting at first, and if the
pressure of the sense of sin was unrelieved, Sufism
and the behef in the mediation of Mohammed
himself and of the saints so assiduously honoured,
filled up the gap."1 This movement, or rather,
element, is of importance ; for in the eyes of
many its presence in the heart of Islamism is the
omen of its future advance. The only path in
Islamism towards reformation hes in this doctrine
of mysticism, is the language of one writer.3
The third element to be sought in the history
of Islamism is that of Progress. Dogmatism is
1 " Hibbert Lectures," p. 37.
2 Mirza Kasem Beg, quoted by Kuenen, " Hib. Lectures,"
p. 45. See Appendix, Note 15.

in.] The Three Universal Religions. 87
prone to be jealous of this element. True
theology understands that it has a place within
her fold. The laws of God are in Himself:
they can work outside the range of all human
institutions, and they do not therefore end with
the dogmas of any prophet, however great.
Dogmas may express truth or they may not,
but at their best they are no more than expres
sions of it : they do not originate it ; they may
reveal, but they do not create truth. The vice
of dogmatism appears in its virtual denial of
God, or, what is the same thing, the hmiting of
the range of His rule. A doctrine is true and
living when it declares anything which is ; but it
must declare what is, not what merely may or
might be. The glory of doctrinism lies in the
capacity which it has for declaring what exists
as an unalterable fact or truth ; the sin of dog
matism hes in its attempt to pose as a final
authority for the truth, and to limit the operation
of the truth to the system which is conscious of
and which formulates it. It is like the attempt
of an astronomer to prove that the planets
move by the laws of motion, only when
his glass is upon them. Truths can never be
invented : they can only be discovered. The
dogmatist is, in this, different from the prophet.
The prophet perceives and declares truth, which

88 The Three Universal Religions. [Lect.
is true whether people hear or forbear, whether
the prophet speaks or is silent ; the dogmatist
is one who speaks of truth as though it were
his monopoly, and insists that nothing is gen
uine without the trade-mark of his firm upon
it. But truth is of God, and God's truth
remains whether we formulate it wisely or
unwisely, or do not formulate it at all. The
righteous Euler of the world rules the world
in righteousness, and works with the growing
thoughts and endeavours of mankind. Eeligion
must recognize this, if it is to live. Man asks
for the presence of God working in all history
according to right. Eighteousness is of God
wherever it is found. Submission to the will of
God may be an element of religious life ; the
recognition of the righteousness of God's uni
versal rule is needful for the religious life of man
kind. The submission of my will to God's will
may be a religious submission or not ; but the
submission of my will to a system which says
it is God's will, and enforces rules without
grounding them on principles of righteousness, is
neither religious nor wise. This is proved
even in the history of Mohammedanism ; for in
the morning of its history we find those who
resented the hard doctrine of predestination,
who asked for the recognition of ethical

in.] The Three Universal Religions. 89
principles, who reverenced will in man and
righteousness in God, and who could not acqui
esce in blind and unconscientious smrender to
God's will merely because He was mighty. It is
needless to tell the story of this movement. It is
enough to say that those who called themselves the
upholders of God's unity and righteousness, and
who, together with those who, resembled them in
teaching, are called the Mo'tazilites, or Dissidents,
flourished for a time ; but, notwithstanding the
patronage of some of the Caliphs, the day came
when the so-called orthodox, unable to see the
worthlessness of a religion divorced from righteous
ness, rose against the Freethinkers, as they were
styled. " It was not in the God of the Mo'tazihtes
whose essence was righteousness, but in the God of
orthodoxy, the Almighty, subject to no other rule
than his own caprice, that they recognized their
own and Mohammed's Allah."1 The Mo'tazihtes
fell ; but their influence is sufficient to show that,
within the history of Islamism, the plea for the
third element of Progress was put forward. The
movement would have freed Islamism from diffi
culties of its own creation ; it would have enabled
men to recognise the width of God's work in the
world ; it would have opened their eyes to the
revelation of God in nature ; and in giving this
1 Kuenen, " Hibbert Lectures," p. 49.

go The Three Universal Religions. [Lect.
knowledge, it would have saved Islam from the
stagnation which has befallen it. " This is true,"
must ever be the voice of the prophet ; " this only
is true," is the voice of the fanatic and the dog
matist. The difference is slight : but the voice
of the prophet is heard to the end of time, and
the truth, which he declared, mingles with the
flowing hfe of the world and keeps it pure ; the
voice of the fanatic is heard, and it calls up the
spirit of frenzy ; it wins a victory, it binds and
imprisons its foe, but its mad temper is its
destruction, for the bound victim pulls down its
sanctuary and slays the faith of the fanatic in its
ruins. Islam crushed the life within its bosom,
and so doomed itself to prolonged barrenness. But
notwithstanding this, the history of Islamism has
yielded evidence of the three elements of which
we have spoken. Dependence was its point of
departure ; something to satisfy the instinct for
Fellowship was demanded and conceded in its
growth ; and the element of freedom and Progress
was demanded and refused in its history.
II. — Buddhism.
The second universal religion which we are to
examine is Buddhism. Here we are on difficult
ground, for the word Buddhism is used to describe
diverse systems, which, even if springing from a
common stem, have branched off in different,

in.] The Three Universal Religions. 91
nay even in opposite, directions; and, moreover,
the authorities are not so harmonious as we
could wish. But I shall hope to speak only
of such points as seem generally admitted. For
tunately, it is not within the scope of our purpose
to form any theory of Buddhism. Our task is
humbler: we only seek to show the elements
which arise in the history of this rehgion, as in
the history of others, at the bidding of the voice
of the heart of man. Yet here, too, at the
threshold, we may stop for a moment, and
glance at the scenes which revealed the dawn of
this beautiful and pathetic faith. The mists are
great, for the time is distant, and myth and fable
are mixed with history ; we can hardly trust
ourselves to the guidance of historians, and we
certainly shall not depend upon poets. Yet even
if we reject all that is doubtful, the story is one of
simple beauty and true devotion. The central
figure from which the religion sprang is original
and strong. I am not disposed to resolve Gautama
into a' sun-myth ; and that for a reason which I
shall mention later. It is enough, perhaps, to
say that it needs a prophet to create a rehgion ;
and Gautama was the true prophet of Buddhism,
and that being so, I would not rob him of one leaf of
the crown to which he is entitled. There were
beautiful souls in the days before Christendom,

92 The Three Universal Religions. [Lect
and in other lands besides the land of promise,
and Gautama was one of these. We see him in
his pleasant home with his fair young wife,
Yasodhara, and his baby boy — his only son —
Eahula. There is given to him the fourfold vision
which is so deeply to influence his life. "Pictures
of the impermanence of everything earthly pre
sented themselves to him one after the other, in
the form of a helpless old man, a sick person, and
a dead body ; and at last a religious mendicant
with shaven head and wearing yellow garments
meets him, a picture of peace and of deliverance
from all pain of impermanence." x The struggle
has come ; the voice — which, heard and refused,
grows faint and then ceases, but which, heard and
obeyed, summons man to a life of enlarged power
— is calling to him. The fragrance of the night
is breathing over his palace ; the calm of his
home hfe is before his eyes ; his wife and little
one are asleep, and the wavering light of the lamp
illumines those dear faces ; but the crisis has
come : the voice which calls him is obeyed, he
goes forth into the darkness, and the light of his
life seems quenched. The choice, the Great
Eenunciation, has been made. The path towards
higher peace must be trodden. The way is
rough, and the experiences are bitter ; he endures
1 Oldenberg, " Buddha," p. 103.

in.] The Three Universal Religions. 93
hardship, and loneliness worse than hard
ship. At last the light and the peace seem to
come. Disciples gather round him ; his journeys
become marches of triumph ; he is treated with
honour ; he gives rules to his order ; he is enter
tained with hospitality ; he over-eats himself on
one occasion ; he takes some boar's flesh, but he
is too old for such things ; the food is too much
for him ; he dies, and his grave is hidden by the
flowers flung upon it by grateful and reverent
hands.1 It is acknowledged that the early history of
Buddhism is obscure ; but the difficulties are less
in regard to its doctrinal than to its historical
aspects. It is clear, however, that in the earliest
form of Buddhism we have the element of
mysticism. The whole attention of Gautama is
fixed on the idea of salvation, salvation from the
weariness and pain of existence. " Salvation by
self-control and love."3 It is the effort to subdue
and get rid of the thing which makes life a felt
discord. It is, as has been said, a quietistic
philosophy. It is the expression of the soul's
longing to be free from the causes of conflict,
and to find complete and undying rest. Indivi-
1 According to Prof. Max Muller, b.c. 477. See Note 16 in
Appendix. 2 Rhys Davids, " Buddhism," pp. 41 and 149. See Note 17
in Appendix.

94 The Three Universal Religions. [Lect.
duality is the burden : each individual is hke a
bubble, disturbing the smooth and serene
surface of the ocean of existence ; the object
is to touch the bubble and make it sink
back into the great sea, and then there is
peace. This is quietism ; it is an expression
of that element in religion which I have
called the instinct of Fellowship, the wish to
find the secret harmony of existence. It
does not alter the essential drift of this instinct
to say that Buddhism does not admit a supreme
Being. The yearning is for the cessation
of the sense of discord, which is one of
the supreme pains of conscious life. This
seems to me the very root of Buddhism,
even though most divergent views of the
Founder exist. It may be an exaggeration to
say that Gautama was a great philanthropic
reformer, showing a fierce scorn against the
hateful laws of caste and proclaiming the natural
equality of all men. It is absurd to represent
him as holding a doctrine " which centred in
the belief of a personal God." 2 It is not wise
to ignore the drift which it takes in certain
schools towards atheism and annihilation ; but
we need not exaggerate it3 or attempt to
1 E. de Bunsen, " Angel-Messiah," p. 48.
J See Max Muller, "Origin of Religion," p. 312.

hi.] The Three Universal Religions. 95
argue away the spirit which breathed through
his system: a spirit never base or mean; sad,
but not wholly infidel — for sadness, even when
it denies good, is often a most potent witness to
it. There is, of course, the exaggeration of a
reactionary in Gautama. The Brahman religion,
from which he recoiled, had become literal,
mechanical, unethical, unsatisfying to the earnest
and thoughtful soul; ritual and dogmatism
seemed to him outside real life; life was within;
the man within must be subdued ; the discord
which made life a pain was the discord
within ; and when men came asking questions
about a life to come, or the being of God,
I can imagine his answering with a sad and
persuasive earnestness : "I know nothing
about a life to come ; all things perish ; and
there seems an end of all ; what can we
know ? why turn aside from what is certain,
to what is, after all, but a perhaps ? I
know not what comes afterwards ; but this I
know, that right must be right, and the control
of self most noble, and whatever salvation there
is must come through moral and not mechani
cal means ; by self-mastery alone is salvation
secured ; this is the gate of the unknown
Hereafter — this the end of the intolerable
weariness and discord which the sense of

96 The Three Universal Religions. [Lect.
existence brings." Whatever there is of latent
atheism and declared agnosticism here, there
seems to me to be at least the germ of that
human instinct which craves for an inward
harmony; an atheistic mysticism if you will
— an agnostic quietism — but still a quietism
and a mysticism which recognise that the
pathway towards peace lies in the moral victory
of self-control. It is the recognition of this
element which leads Professor Ehys Davids to
say that the Buddhist salvation consists in
an inward change of heart.1 Of course the
phrase is open to the criticism that it is one
which bears in our ears a distinctly Christian
significance, and that to use it of Gautama's
teaching may be misleading, as it may carry
with it Christian ideas which are wanting
in Buddhism. The remark is quite fair, as
regards the phrase ; but we probably shall
not do justice to Buddhism (and why should
we wish to do it injustice ?) unless we remember
that in the very heart of it, as Gautama taught
it, is the thought, that " to obey is better than
sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams" —
that to reform oneself, to gain the inward triumph
of self-control, is better than crying, "Lord, Lord."
" Not to commit any sin, to do good, and to
1 •¦ Buddhism," p. 40.; Cf. pp. 108, 109, 112.

in.] The Three Universal Religions. gy
purify one's mind, that is the teaching of (all) the
Awakened." l
So runs the famous verse ; and it does not stand
a lone — '* It is good to tame the mind,
Difficult to hold in, and flighty;
Rushing where'er it listeth ;
A tamed mind is the bringer of bliss."
Or, again —
" One may conquer a thousand thousand men in battle,
But ho who conquers himself alone is the greatest victor."
The peace will come when the thirst and
craving of the individual are at an end. The
thirst, the grasping state of mind, the longing
for things and even for life, must cease before
rest comes ; then the discord is at an end, for
the universe is all, and the individual has sunk
away and lost itself in the ever-flowing stream.
Here is exhibited faintly the feeble but true
germ of the element which I have called
Fellowship ; the sense of discord within creates
a vague yearning for reconciliation, synthesis,
death of self, loss of self in that which is
1 " Dhammapada," verse 183, Sacred Books of the East,
vol. x. The translation of Prof. Rhys Davids, " Buddhism,"
p. 62, is as follows : —
To cease from all wrong-doing,
To get virtue,
To cleanse one's heart —
This is the religion of the Buddhas.
2 From the " Dhammapada or Scripture Verses," Nos. 35
and 103, quoted by Prof. Rhys Davids in " Buddhism," p. 129.
L

g8 The Three Universal Religions. [Lect.
other than self. The weariness of individual life
leads to a longing for that rest which is oneness
with the order of the world, it seeks that central
point where the world's fret and motion are not
felt. There is a great truth behind this ; but the
history of Buddhism will show us that man asks
more than the emphatic statement of one truth.
There is no faith in the world whose history
is so remarkable as that of Buddhism, or
whose varieties are more distinct. It is im
possible to follow out the history of its branches,
but we can glance at some, and note the
significance of such developments as we meet.
Buddhism is an exile from the land of its birth.
If we would trace its growth, we must go North
or South. We must see it in Ceylon, Siam, and
Burmah ; or in Tibet, China, and Japan. But
between Northern and Southern Buddhism there
is a lack of fraternal appreciation ; they both claim
to hold the sacred deposit of teaching, but the
North claims to hold it in larger and fuller measure
than the South ; and it must be admitted that
the great Vehicle, as it is called, belonging to
the North is more elaborate and complex than
the little Vehicle of the South. But there is one
feature which is common to both, viz., the en
largement of the early faith, notions being added
which indicate the cravings of human instinct.

hi.] The Three Universal Religions. gg
Buddhism, in its primitive purity, is entirely
lacking in the spirit of Dependence. It aims at
the loss of self, but it is through self-control ;
and the self-control is achieved by self; there is
no doctrine of Divine help, no dependence on
another. But as we look into the features
of Northern Buddhism, it is this element
which, supervening, has changed its expres
sion. The religion, which was one of eman
cipation and redemption through self-help,
has become one in which reliance on another
than self has made its appearance. Depen
dence is seen in the worship of the Buddha,
which is a fact in the history of Buddhism ;
it is seen also in the reliance which is placed
on Maitreya Buddha. l In some of the tem
ples of Southern Buddhism a pure white image
appears beside that of Gautama; this is the
Maitreya Buddha — the future Buddha — who
is called also Ajita,3 the Unconquerable One,
whose advent to this world is looked for, and on
whose victorious help the Buddhist places his
prospective reliance. In the Northern Buddhism
the worship of future Buddhas, or Bodhi-satwas,
has been carried further, and as early as
A.D. 400 two Bodhi-satwas, named Manjusri and
1 Kellogg, "Light of Asia," p. 120. Rhys Davids,
" Buddhism," p. 200. " Ibid., Note on p. 200.

100 The Three Universal Religions. [Lect.
Avalokitesvara were worshipped.1 Manjusri is
the personification of Wisdom and religious
Insight ; Avalokitesvara is the personification
of Power and Providence. But this was not
all; later the god Avalokitesvara was clefi
asunder, and, while he remained the Protecting
Providence, his Power was given to another,
who was named Vajradhara, or the bearer
of the thunder-bolt. These are illustrations
of well known developments, and they tend
to the strongest expression of the feehng to
Dependence. One example will make this plain.
When Fa-Hian was returning from Ceylon to
China by sea a storm arose, and the ship was
in imminent danger. The pilgrim was afraid
lest the merchants should wish to throw overboard
the sacred books and images to lighten the ship,
and so, with earnest heart, he invoked Avalokites
vara, and called upon all the Buddhist saints of
China, speaking thus : — " I have wandered far in
quest of religious books. Oh ! by your spiritual
power bring me back and let me reach my resting
place."3 This story carries us to China, where
Avalokitesvara is worshipped under the name of
Kwan-yin ; the meaning of the name is supposed
to be "a being who hears or perceives the cries
of man." The worship was brought by traders
1 Rhys Davids, " Buddhism," p. 201. &c.
2Beal, "Buddhism in China," p. 110.

in] The Three Universal Religions. 101
from Ceylon according to some authorities, and
was introduced into China between the beginning
of the Christian era and A.D. 200. " The idea
of an objective worship," according to Dr.
Beal, " is unknown to the early Buddhists
.... but now we see an ' object ' of worship
introduced, and veritable worship and prayer
offered to it. This cultus, then, is the result
of a necessity felt by the worshippers, who
could never rest satisfied with the adoration of a
logical abstraction or an invisible presence." l In
fact, whenever we look at the developments of
Buddhism, we find the tendency to add the
element of which we have spoken. Mysticism
expresses a truth — the truth that men desire to
" Bury themselves, the whole heart wide and warm, —
In something not themselves."
But one truth, Hke one leg, is of little use ; another
leg, artificial if not natural, must be added, if any
movement is to be attained ; mysticism, as seen in
Buddhism, was lame indeed ; it expressed the desire
for the annihilation of self, but it needed further
the element of Dependence. Men would not only
bury themselves in something not themselves,
"they would belong to what they worship." It is
not enough to wish to lose self, and with it the
pain and weariness of existence ; man wants
1 " Buddhism in China," p. 123.

102 The Three Universal Religions. [Lect.
someone greater than himself on whom he can
rely, and in union with whom the rest of his
spirit can be found.
There is a third element for which we must
look — Progress — the spirit which links itself with
the welfare of the race. Dependence and Fellow
ship are not enough ; the spirit of man desires to
bind itself for good with the growing life of the
world. This spirit shows itself in the dream of
a golden age, in the faith of a better future for
mankind. This element we have already seen
was added early to Buddhist belief. There was
a Buddha to come. The worship of the Buddha,
the reverence paid to his relics, was not enough.
Buddha, or Gautama, had vanished, and was no
longer a power ; men might invoke his shade and
long for a share of his spirit, but strictly he was
no longer a dependable personal help to them.
" As the Buddha himself has reached Parinirvana,
has passed completely away, the pious Buddhist
naturaUy turned with peculiar reverence and
longing to those Bodhi-satwas supposed to be
now living as angels in heaven, who are the
present result of the Karma which will
produce the Buddhas of the future." x The wor
shipper is turning to the future ; he looks forward to
the advent of future Buddhas ; to the Maitreya
1 " Buddhism," Rhys Davids, p. 200.

iii. J The Three Universal Religions. 103
Buddha, of which we have spoken, the Buddha of
power and the Buddha of love, who will achieve
triumph in the world and vanquish sin.
When, then, we see the little white image
of the Maitreya Buddha placed beside that
of Gautama, we see a proof that man cannot
rest in a faith which is defective in any one of the
three elements of which I have spoken. He must
have one greater than himself on whom to depend ;
and while he is ready to merge his own life in that
great bosom of life where there is rest, he casts
wistful eyes towards the future, and will believe
in no rehgion which does not embrace the law
of Progress as well as those of Dependence and
Fellowship. III. — Christianity.
It is not necessary to our present purpose to
investigate attempts made to weaken the claim
of Jesus Christ to be considered the founder of
Christianity. Our aim is only to see whether in
the history of Christianity the same three elements
may be traced.
(i.) We start with the life and teaching of Him
who gave His name to the religion. We note that
He exhibited a spirit of complete Dependence
upon God. He seemed to turn instinctively to His
Father— " Father, save Me from this hour," was
His cry. (St. John xii. 27.) " I knew that Thou

104 The Three Universal Religions. [Lect.
hearest Me always," was His expression of trust.
(St. John xi. 42.) His refusal to turn stones into
bread was the same spirit of trust shown practically.
He hved in Fellowship with the unseen God.
Communion with Him was the breath of His life,
He had no thought in life sundered from what He
believed to be God's will. " I came, not to do
Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent Me."
(St. John vi. 38.) " My meat is to do the will of
Him that sent Me, and to finish His work." (St.
John iv. 34.)
He realized a Progressive order ; He looked for
ward ; He never seized the present at the cost of the
future. The glory of to-day will not compensate
for the loss of to-morrow. When the heart of the
people was set upon making Him a king, He would
not take the crown, for His heart was set upon se
curing the golden age for them and for all mankind.
His teaching touched the same notes. He
taught the principle of Dependence. He taught
men not only that they might safely depend upon
the power of God, but that they ought to rely on
the love and wisdom of Him whom He revealed
to them as their Father. His teaching was, " God
cares for you — you may trust Him. Consider the
lilies. Behold the birds. The Father of all will
provide for His children."
He taught the principle of Fellowship. If men

in.] The Three Universal Religions. 105
were taken out of the dust, they were akin also to
heaven. God was Father. They were children.
This relationship made communion and inter
course between God and man possible. He
Himself was the witness and guarantee of this
fellowship. His prayer was " That they all may
be one, as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee,
that they also may be one in us." (St. John xvii. 21.)
But the harmony between God and man must be
inward and spiritual : for as out of the heart
springs the evil, so in the heart must be the good ;
there the Divine order must rule : " the kingdom
of God is within you." (St. Luke xvii. 21.)
He taught the principle of Progress. He
taught that the individual man ought to
merge his interest in the common good. His life
should follow the law of the Divine life, and
become a perennial beneficence. " Give, and it
shall be given you — that ye may be the children
of your Father which is in heaven." Life's
advantages— the gifts and talents bestowed
upon men— were to be used in helping forward
the purposes of God. The talents or the pounds
entrusted to men were to be laid out in the
great mart of the world's good.
In the life and teaching of Christ we thus note
the existence of those three elements of Depend
ence, Fellowship, and Progress.

106 The Three Universal Religions. [Lect.
(ii.) We shall find them appearing in the
History of Christianity, to which we turn, be it
remembered, with the view of observing what are
the tendencies of man in the matter of religion.
Not always nor everywhere in the history of the
Christian Church shall we find perfection either of
creed or of character. It is a dream to imagine
the Church infallible, or always alive to the higher
interests of mankind, and appreciative of their
deepest needs. She has been often blind to one or
other of the three great elements of which we
have spoken. Her history is the history of many
mistakes, misapprehensions, and exaggerations.
We can admit her faults. She is not without spot
and blameless. But we deprecate the too ready
sneer at her blunders, and the ungenerous triumph
over her failures. The reason is simple, and
should disarm shallow and easy criticism. Chris
tianity has not always been fully comprehended.
We may even ask, Has Christianity ever been
thoroughly understood? Her noblest sons and
her keenest-minded disciples have missed some
truth, or forced it into exaggerated importance.
It is not everyone who has marked her bulwarks
who has been able to set up her houses ; nor have
those who have seen the beauty of Mount Zion's
situation been always able to understand that she
is the joy of the whole earth.

in.] The Three Universal Religions. 107
But the mistakes and struggles revealed in the
history of Christianity have their value. They
serve to teach us caution, as we learn that men
are weak and slow of heart. They also serve to
exhibit with conspicuous clearness the spiritual
needs of humanity. The struggles of the faith in
different ages are often the efforts of men to affirm
a truth with which man could not part. Those
who have struggled to affirm it have often done so
in one-sided and exaggerated fashion ; but they
have been the means of restoring a lost truth, or
an element needful for the completeness of
religious life.
1. The history of Christianity has given emphatic
witness to the need of Dependence. The exagge
ration of this truth has given rise to constantly
recurring controversies.
We are not surprised at the early development
and domination of this one element. The soil in
which the seed of Christianity fell was favourable
to a rapid growth of the idea of Dependence. We
have seen that Eoman Paganism largely rested on
a belief in the powers of the gods, whose aid
could be invoked by mere obedience to routine
worship. The need of the harmony within was
not felt. The ideas of the Eoman world were not
favourable, I imagine, to the cultivation of deep
spirituality. The Eoman Empire was a great

io8 The Three Universal Religions. [Lect.
manifestation of strength of character and gifts of
organization. I do not think that anyone will
consider it to have had any virtue for fostering the
deep spiritual capacities or evoking the tender
sympathies of men.1 Subtle or profound thought,
the loftier flight of creative genius, the culture of
the inward life, the appreciation of what may be
called spiritual experiences, even allowing for
some splendid exceptions, are not to be reckoned
among the special features of the Eoman world.
Order, discipline, the sense of responsibility to one
central power, are more akin to its spirit. The
political atmosphere tended to foster those ele
ments of religion which were related to Depen
dence rather than those which belong to Fellowship.
There was a colour of Imperialism in all its thoughts,
and this gave to its religious conceptions the pre
dominant hue.2 There was a profound sense of divine
power; there was but little idea of divine nearness.
We must not be surprised, then, if the teaching
which grew up under the shadow of Eome took as
its background the profound sense of God's power
and greatness. We should expect that those
elements of Christianity which lay stress on the
deep and mystical union between the spirit of
man and God should be comparatively lost sight of.
1 Lecky, " Hist, of European Morals," vol. i., p. 167.
2 See Appendix, Note 18.

in.] The Three Universal Religions. iog
2. But this could not be for long, if man's spirit
desires Fellowship as well as Dependence. The
thirsty soul will cry out for the living waters.
This is what we find. The cry is a shrill one, but
it expresses a real need.
(a) It is heard in Montanism. Men began
to ask whether the door between themselves
and God had been closed, or if the river of
life which had flowed in Apostohc times had
been cut off. The movement which is called
Montanism covered great varieties of thought, but
it certainly included men who claimed for them
selves direct and immediate intercourse and com
munion with the God of their life. It gave expres
sion to the thoughts of those who could not
believe that there was no longer any open vision,
and who craved for the tokens of God's presence
and the witness of His Spirit. We are not at
present concerned with the errors or extravagances
of Montanists. We are only pointing out that
they attempted to give voice to the claim of man
for conscious fellowship with God, and for a
continued revelation of His nearness and gifts.
Eightly or wrongly they believed that the Church
of their day had lost sight of a truth, or had substi
tuted a lifeless form for a living force. The move
ment affirmed that Dependence was not enough
for man — that he must have Fellowship also. It

no The Three Universal Religions. [Lect.
was allied with errors which were grotesque and
absurd ; it excluded from its view large portions
of life ; it was narrow and one-sided. But those
who affirm a forgotten truth are usually one-sided ;
and we shall miss the meaning of history if we
refuse to see the grain of truth buried in the abun
dance of chaff, or to hear the cry of real distress
among the clamours of madness or folly with
which it mingles.
(b) The demand for Fellowship to which
Montanism gave somewhat incoherent expres
sion finds a clearer utterance in the mouth
of Athanasius. Arianism would have been
impossible, had not one-sided conceptions of
God grown up in men's minds. The infinite
greatness of God is a truth which, if it stands
alone, confuses, because it dazzles the mind.
Transcendent greatness is soon thought to be
unapproachable. If the infinitely great cannot
be approached by the infinitely little, it seems
no less true that the infinitely little cannot
be approached by the infinitely great. The
counterbalancing truth of the eternal kinship
between the infinitely great and the infinitely
little is forgotten. God and man can meet,
because there is a Divine sonship. Arianism
forgot this truth, and its forgetfulness led it to
attempt a retrograde movement. It was a

ru ] The Three Universal Religions. in
reversion to earlier and less universal concep
tions. It was a reversion, as has been said, to
Jewish Theism, and Semitic dependence.1 Union
between the Divine and the human was considered
impossible. Only by a long chain of divinities and
powers linked to one another by subtle gradations
could God hold intercourse with man. The
system thrust God far away from man. The
fundamental idea was greatness, not nearness —
dread, not devotion. It was, to use the words
of Dr. Allen, " a symptom that the popular
Christianity was shifting its basis from love to
fear."2 Conceptions hke this are tokens of the growth
of Imperialism in Christianity. The conception —
though fatal to any religion aspiring to universahsm
— was one which could be well understood and
appreciated in the world that then was. The
great Empire which shadowed and subdued the
world was, in the eyes of millions, a natural and
fit emblem of the realm of God. But it was a
conception which the better natures and clearer
minds resisted as destructive to the growth of the
faith, and incapable of satisfying the heart of man.
Athanasius, in resisting Arius, was a champion of
the faith. He was no less an assertor of the rights
* Cf. Max Muller, " Origin of Religion," p. 313.
2 Dr. Allen, " Continuity of Christian Thought," p. 88.

ii2 The Three Universal Religions. [Lect.
and liberties of man. The Son of God has con
secrated human nature by becoming Son of Man.
Union with the Divine was not merely possible to
man ; it was a reality, based on an eternal fact.
Whatever imagery might be used to describe
the relationship between God and man, the soul
of man could not, in its truer moments, call Him
Emperor ; for God had revealed Himself as Father,
and had proved His kinship with man in the
Incarnation. Athanasius stemmed the tide, and
checked the retrograde movement of his day ; but
he did more, he gave voice to the cry of humanity
for a religion, which supplied the element of
Fellowship as well as that of Dependence.
The victory which Athanasius won has
been established in the later history of Christi
anity. There have been teachers who have
revived the conception of a distant and un
approachable God, or who have had a fond
ness for investing their thoughts of God with
fancies derived from arbitrary Imperialism ;
but their influence has been limited, and their
misconceptions have been presented in alliance
with other and compensating doctrines. The
fatahstic teaching, which is found in certain pre-
destinarian schools, and which shelters itself
under the names of Augustine or Calvin, is an
evidence, however, that the tendency has not

in.] The Three Universal Religions. 113
disappeared. We need not be surprised ; the
element of Dependence is essential to the re
ligious idea, and there will always be those who
exaggerate its importance at the expense of other
equally essential principles. The exaggeration
may win a following; it may found a sect; it
will never establish a religion which is universal,
for it cannot satisfy the heart of man. Its exist
ence, however, and its constant recurrence in the
history and controversies of the Christian Church,
are proofs that man is alive to the need of that
element of religion which we call Dependence.
But the need of the element of Fellowship
has been no less clearly seen. The controversy
with Arianism was the evidence that man is not
content with a religion which is one of chill
Dependence. The Council of Nicaaa acknow
ledged the claim of man to union with the
Divine. The reality of that union was affirmed
and guaranteed in the doctrine that the Son is of
one substance with the Father.
(c) The craving for Fellowship finds its witness
also in the asceticism which marks the history of
the Church. In asceticism there was much which
was alien to Christ's teaching, and which has been
rejected by the purer branches of Christ's Church.
But with the faith of the ascetics we have no
direct concern. Our aim is only to notice the
M

114 The Three Universal Religions. [Lect.
instincts and demands of humanity which make
themselves felt in Christian history. Asceticism
is the outcome of the desire to get rid of every
hindrance which lies between the soul of man and
God. Earthliness hinders man's union with God ;
impurity makes the Divine vision impossible. AU
that is earthly and impure must be got rid of.
Man must rise out of the lower region, where sin
and worldliness dwell, into the pure heaven, where
God's presence is felt. In this we have the
struggle of man towards Fellowship with the
Divine. It is worthy of notice that its ex
aggerated forms have increased in those times in
which the element of Fellowship has been obscured
in Christian teaching. When the greatness and
hohness of God are the main topics of teaching —
when God is spoken of as dwelling in the un
approachable light, and when His nearness to
man as the God of Help and Love is forgotten
— then the soul of man, yearning for Fellowship
with Him, enters upon the course which ends in
revolting self-torture, undertaken with the hope of
expelling the evil which makes communion im
possible. Man tries to reach God by painful effort
and by needlessly inflicted torture, when he is not
told of the infinite compassion and the eternal
nearness of the Father of all.
(d) Saint-worship again is a witness of the

in.] The Three Universal Religions. 115
same craving for Fellowship with the Divine. If
God is imagined to be so far off that man cannot
hold personal communion with Him, then the
demand of man's nature for Fellowship falls
back upon the saint as the nearest substitute.
He asks for more than mere Dependence: he
wants Fellowship based on a sense of kinship.
(e) Mysticism, again, is an illustration of the
same demand of humanity. It had its defects ;
it gave rise to errors, it sank to low levels. It
became fanatic and sensuous ; and, in some cases,
even pantheistic. But it was the cry of the
human for the Divine. Popular theology had
become contracted. Eeligion hinged on feelings
of fear. Imperialism in Christianity showed itself
in organisation as well as in theory. The God
whom the human heart desired seemed very far-
off. The soul's desires found utterance ; brother
hoods sprang up ; rehgious communities were
formed ; new sects of rehgious thinkers arose.
We cannot help feeling that the multitudes who
sought the cloister, or joined religious orders, or
associated themselves with new teachers, were
largely composed of men and women whose
spirits longed after God as the hart after the
water-brooks. The bond of union between man
and God seemed to such souls to have been lost.
The longing for Fellowship with the God of their

116 The Three Universal Religions. [Lect.
spirits breathes in the words and deeds of these
teachers and thinkers. Elements of mysticism
mingle with the utterances of Cathohc devotion,
no less than with the fervour of sectaries. The
Albigenses in France, the sect of the Holy
Spirit, the Petrobrusians, the Apostolical
brethren, and the Waldenses have been recog
nised as possessing common aims. And these
aims were directed towards the realisation of the
idea of Fellowship. " These movements, how
ever diverse in aspect, were yet alike in their
aim to realise a closer relationship and com
munion between God and man, and to seek
for God within the soul, rather than at a distance
from it without." :
The thirst of these souls was shared by
thousands who were never reckoned as separatists,
but who found vent for their thoughts and feehngs
in less conspicuous or more prudent ways. Local
accidents or political exigencies have had their
share in canonizing some and condemning others,
who were seeking to find the same God or to
affirm the same truths. It is not our duty to
touch on the differences which made one
mysticism orthodox and led to the condemnation
of another ; we have only to note that the heart
of humanity cannot be silent. It demands Fellow-
1 Dr. Allen, " Continuity of Christian Thought," p. 207.

in.] The Three Universal Religions. 117
ship in its rehgion, and we can hear its demand
in the history of Christianity; in St. Bernard
and St. Bonaventura — in the mystics of Germany
— in Eckart, Tauler, Nicolas of Basle, in the
company known as the Dear Friends of God in the
Oberland ; in the Quietists, in Molinos, Fenelon,
and Madame Guyon. It is easy to see the
mistakes of the mystics ; it is not difficult for
ingenuity to ridicule them, or orthodoxy to de
nounce them ; but it is acting like the deaf adder
to stop our ears to the voice which they raised,
witnessing to the quenchless desire of humanity,
and demanding that religion should supply not
only a Divine power, but a Divine presence ; not
only Dependence, but Fellowship.
3. Progress is the third element. Does the
history of Christianity show that men were eager
to have this also in their religion ? Illustrations
of this element spring up from various and
unexpected quarters.
(a) It has been the fashion of some to ridicule
the schoolmen with their fine-drawn subtleties and
their dexterity in playing upon the "fringe of great
questions," but few great movements are without
some nobler aim than mere hair-splitting.
Scholasticism will be found to contain within itself
a purpose greater far than that of amusement with
verbal subtleties. It is the witness of man's wish to

118 The Three Universal Religions. [Lect.
establish a fundamental harmony between theology
and the nature of things. The schoolmen were in
a sense rationalists, they were the advocates ol
the necessity of intellectual harmony. In principle
they were hostile to the devotees who were
content to believe without demanding a reason.
If this be so, we have here evidence in the history
of the Church that men were alive to the need
of reconciliation between reason and faith. The
claims of culture and knowledge are admitted.
(b) Another indication of the element of progress
is to be found in the recognition that nature is of
God and has something to teach. This convic
tion enters deeply into man's heart, and is found
in the bosom of Christendom. "You will find
something far greater in the woods than you will
in books. Trees and stones will teach you that
which you will never learn from masters." The
words are St. Bernard's. " The book of nature is
equal to the whole Scripture," was the thought of
Eaymond of Sabunde.1 These are examples of the
spirit which is allied with the spirit of progress.
The development of art may show the same.
Landscape painting was little esteemed in the early
days of mediaeval art. Michael Angelo's drift of
thought is towards man rather than towards
nature; Leonardo da Vinci, in his treatise on
' Dr. Allen, " Continuity of Christian Thought," p. 344.

in.] The Three Universal Religions. 119
painting, replaced man in the bosom of all
created forms.1 The sanctity of art, as well as
the art of sanctity, was recognized. The
religious helps, which spring from natural beauty
and brightness, were perceived and welcomed.
New joy and new love arose in men. " The one,"
says Mr. Buskin, "who loves nature most will
always be found to have more capacity for faith
in God than the other." And the love of nature,
whether in its aspect of flowers, or field, or sea,
or the forms of man, becomes essential to the
growth of human thought and is recognized as
such in the Church.
But of all the illustrations of the recognition of
the element of progress in the bosom of Christi
anity, the strongest is supplied by that truth which,
though sometimes obscured, was never wholly
lost sight of, viz., that all good gifts are of God :
that the man who thinks, the man who discovers,
the man who invents, the man who paints, the man
of science, equally with the man who preaches
and prays, is one of God's workmen, with a
capacity to be used for the welfare of man and to
1 " Michel Ange lui-meme meprisait tout ce qui n'est pas de
l'homme. C'est contre ce point de vue de l'Eglise que s'eleve
Leonard de Vinci, dans son Traits de la Peinture ; relevant
de sa decheance l'univers visible il replace l'liomme au sein
de toutes les formes de la creation." Quinet, "Les Revolutions
d'ltalie," chap. viii.. quoted by Dr. Allen, "Continuity of
Christian Thought," p. 346.

120 The Three Universal Religions. [Lect.
the glory of God. Whenever such a faith is held,
antagonism to progress becomes impossible. When
the Tabernacle of God is reared in the wilderness
of the world, the hands which rear it are not
only those of Moses and Aaron, but those also
of the Bezaleels of the times.
(iii.) One further set of examples may be allowed
as we turn our attention to the history of
religious thought in the Church of England.
There are, if I mistake not, evidences that the
claims on behalf of these three elements —
Dependence, Fellowship, and Progress — have
received emphatic illustration in her story.
There have been recognised in the Church of
England two, or to speak more correctly, three
great schools of thought. If we look dispassion
ately at the relationship between these schools
of thought, we may observe how they tend
mutually to correct one another. In one school
much is said of man's weakness and inability, of
himself, to turn to God. There is a Calvinistic
drift underneath the tide of such teaching. The
emphasis is placed upon what God does for man ;
thus prominence is given to the element of
Dependence. Another school meets this by re
minding us that man holds a power and a respon
sibility in his own hand; that in the use of the
means of grace he may grow full of grace.

in.] The Three Universal Religions. 121
But, again, this latter school in turn teaches
Dependence. It says that in baptism a gift of
God is bestowed apart from subjective conditions.
To this the former school applies a corrective,
when it urges the need of conversion. There
must be, it says, a personal apprehension of
grace ; man himself must feel and know and
co-operate with God, and enter into conscious
Fellowship with Him. And thus does one school
supplement the teachings of another.
Again, one school of thought teaches Depen
dence in the form in which it proclaims the Atone
ment. The great Atonement for sin has been
made. That is enough for man. He has but to
look and live. The other school brings Fellow
ship into prominence when laying more stress
on the Incarnation than on the Atonement.
Thus these two schools of thought are not so
much mutually antagonistic as mutually comple-
mental. But the third element, Progress, is not left with
out witness. The duty of giving emphasis to this
element seems specially to have devolved upon a
third school of thought. Christianity does not
appear to this school as it does to that to which
the individual aspect of religion is of supreme
importance, nor yet as it does to the other school,
to which the sacramental system and corporate

122 The Three Universal Religions. [Lect.
hfe are the essential features ; it appears rather,
as showing that the paramount office of the
Church is to work out those practical questions
which relate to the social life and general progress
of humanity. In its view the Church owes duties
to the health, joy, and culture of the world. In
this we have witness to the element of Progress.
Thus, whether we look at the history of Chris
tendom or the history of our own Church, we find
witnesses on all sides to the three tendencies of
which we have spoken. Christianity bears witness
to the fact that men will have in their religion
the elements of Dependence, Fellowship, and
Progress. The result, then, of what we have said is briefly
this. Eeligion is likely to be permanent, because
man's nature is permanent, and the constancy of
man's nature has been seen in the permanent
character of what we have called its spiritual laws.
Eeligious history shows that the three ideas of
Dependence, Fellowship, and Progress are de
manded at some time or other in the history of
all religions. It remains to be seen what religions,
if any, can really and fitly supply these three.
Meanwhile we must rest here : we have found
thus much at least — man's need of Dependence,
Fellowship, and Progress. Dependence is neces
sary, for we are weak and God is strong. Pro-

in] The Three Universal Religions. 123
gress is necessary, the ladder is set, its foot is
upon earth, it must be climbed, it goes upward
ever. The end is glorious, and reaches unto
God. Yet the ascent is hard, and man is ever
lonely. But, behold, we are not alone. As we
climb, heavenly Fellowship is ours. The divine
sympathy and love are as the angels of God, and
never leave the side of the struggling, the climb
ing, the heaven-seeking children of men.

LECTUEE IV.
THE RELATION OF THE THREE UNIVERSAL
RELIGIONS TO THE ESSENTIAL
ELEMENTS OF RELIGION.

The question now assumes another form. Hitherto we have
been asking what elements man demands in a rehgion. We have
now to ask how far any religion has the native power to meet
this demand.
With the view of answering this question, it , is needful to
examine : —
I. — Islamism. 1. The element of Dependence is natural and indi
genous.
2. The element of Fellowship is found to be an artificial
growth.
3. The element of Progress has no natural home.
II. — Buddhism.
1. Fellowship aMn with its earhest features.
2. Dependence demanded in later developments :
North India, China.
3. Progress recognized. Maitreya Buddha.
Ill . — Christianity.
The three elements originally present :
1. In the teaching of Jesus Christ.
2. In its theological drift.
3. In the teaching of Apostles.
Thus Christianity alone of the three universal religions possesses
originally and indigenously the three elements of religion
which the History of Religions shows that man's nature
demands.

LECTUEE IV.
THE RELATION OF THE THREE UNIVERSAL
RELIGIONS TO THE ESSENTIAL
ELEMENTS OF RELIGION.
"Hereafter ye shah see heaven open and the angels of God
ascending and descending." — St, John i. 51.
rjIHE reasons for thinking that religion will be
"^ permanent in this world strengthen as we
consider them. Man's nature is permanent. The
principles of his moral and spiritual being are
intelligible and constant. In addition to this, we
have seen that the history of religions exhibits
man's nature as habitually demanding certain
elements in his religion. If the religion offered
for his acceptance does not supply them, we
find that they are sooner or later added, as
though man could not do without them. This
shows that the nature of man is constant with
respect to his religious instincts. It shows also
that the religion which ignores these elements
cannot hope for permanence. These elements

128 The Relation of the [Lect.
are, as we have seen, Dependence, Fellowship,
Progress. We are thus led to another and a crucial question,
on the answer to which depends the future of
the great religions of the world. This question
is : How far do the religions which aspire to
be considered universal possess in themselves the
power of satisfying these demands ?
It may be well to recall the distinction which
must always be kept in mind between the emer
gence of these essential elements in the history
of a religion, and their existence as originally
part of the religion itself. No doubt demand
will create supply. If man wants in his
religion Dependence, Fellowship, Progress, these
will appear sooner or later. But there is an
enormous difference between the system which
has added certain elements to satisfy a demand,
and the system which naturally and originally
contained such elements. It is a difference
resembling that between a demagogue and a
statesman. It is the difference between astute
ness and honest genius. In a religion, it is
the difference between spurious and real uni
versality. Three religions stand before us reckoned as
universal. We have to ask whether the uni
versality which they possess is apparent or

iv.] Three Universal Religions. I2g

real, whether it is in their history only or in
their quality also. Their apparent universality
is admitted. They have outgrown the land
of their birth ; they have been accepted in other
lands and by other races ; they have gathered
into their fold children of other climates and
people of other habits. But the question which
follows is this : Is the supremacy which they
have gained fairly won? Is it due to the
possession of native and original qualities
which meet the needs of man? Or has it
been won by the addition of qualities, alien from
their original natures, and added to save them
from perishing? They have the form of uni
versality; have they its spirit?
The elements which man has persistently
asked for have been at least three : Depen
dence, Fellowship, Progress. The history of
religions appears to show that unless a re
ligion possess, not as an after-acquisition, but
as an original inheritance, the power of supply
ing these three, it cannot aspire to permanent
or real universality, for it has not the spirit
or quality fitted for the work.
The question then takes this form : Are
these three elements, in the religions which
are apparently universal, found in them as after
thoughts or politic additions, or are they found
N

130 The Relation of the [Lect.
in them as native elements, legitimate and
natural developments from the germ-principles
of these religions? It is needful that this
should be clear to our minds. It is like ask
ing whether the flowers which are found on a
particular plant have been tied there, or whether
they grew there. It is like asking whether the
features in a work of art are the spontaneous
expression of the thought of the artist, or merely
the clever arrangement of a needy man who
consulted the public taste.
We may ask, then. Are these elements in a
religion additions or growths? are they supplied
in consequence of outward pressure, or are they
the result of inward tendency ? If the answer to
this question be, — These elements are native,
indigenous, the lawful development of the germ-
principles of the religion ; then, so far, the
religion fulfils the condition of real, essential
universality. If tho answer be — They were
added, they are alien from the original drift of the
religion ; then the universality of such a religion
is only apparent. It lacks the quality, though
it may possess the form, of universality : for if
these elements are added to satisfy the demands
of men, then their presence is not an evidence
of the original greatness, but of the original
poverty of such religion ; they show not the

iv.] Three Universal Religions. 131
power of the religion to help man, but the
power of man to modify the religion.
On the other hand, if these elements are
found in a religion, and are seen to belong to
it originally and essentially, then it would seem
that such a religion has a native fitness to meet
man's needs. Such a religion carries in her bosom
the life which blesses man and secures her own
immortality. Such a religion may go forth in
much sorrow, sowing her seed with tears ; but
inasmuch as she carries forth seed of that bread
by which men's souls are fed, her harvest is
assured, and with full gladness and abundant
sheaves she will rejoice hereafter among the sons
of men.
Our task now is clear. We have to take up
once more those three religions whose uni
versality is apparent, and examine them afresh
with the view of ascertaining how far they pos
sess these three elements — Dependence, Fellow
ship, Progress — not as accidental and super-added,
but as essential, original, native qualities.
We shall take them in the order in which we
considered them in the last lecture.
I. — Islamism.
1. We have already seen that the element of
Dependence is supplied by Islamism. It is ad
mitted that this element belongs to its very

132 The Relation of the [Lect.

essence. Islamism would not be Islamism with
out this quality, for it is the religion of
dependence. Submission is the whole of
Mahommedanism.1 To lose this idea would be
to drop the keystone out of the arch of its
structure ; it would be the breaking down of the
bridge which it sought to build between earth
and heaven. The ladder by which man climbs
towards Paradise is the ladder of dependence and
submission. Islamism is surrender. The element
of Dependence is essentially in Islamism.
2. Is the element of Fellowship there also?
Historically it is present. We have seen that
a mystical element began to show itself among
the followers of Mahommed. This mystical
tendency covers and embraces the element of
Fellowship. Man yearns for more than the sense
of his dependence upon one greater than himself ;
he asks for the sense of the nearness of one who
is kin with himself. The worship of the Walis
or Saints is the expression of this yearning.
Greatness does not satisfy ; omnipotence appals ;
fitness and kinship are more attractive than
arbitrary and irresistible might. If man cannot
creep into the heart of God, he will crouch close
under the shadow of those who seem to him god
like. He will worship the heroes, and rain tears
1 See Note 19, Appendix.

iv.J Three Universal Religions. 133
upon the shrines of saints, and invoke their aid,
feeling sure of their sympathy. The Sufite move
ment exhibits in bolder form the same tendency.
It supplied a sense of nearness by saying that
men might go straight to God and that God
was One who felt with them and fought for
them. So the missing element of Fellowship
was supplied in two ways. On the one hand
men had looked up to God with wonder and
awe ; but they could not feel the beating of the
divine heart in sympathy with their own : that
was too much to expect ; Allah was too great a
monarch for that ; therefore the sympathy, which
the conception of God failed to convey, was
sought in the Prophet or the Saint. On the
other hand the Sufite movement, teaching gentler
thoughts of God, grew and became popular
because it also met a want in human nature.
But it was not an indigenous plant. It arose
because man wanted it ; it did not spring
spontaneously out of the heart of the religion
itself. It is using far too mild an expression
when we say it was not indigenous. It is far
more exact to say that it was alien from the
original spirit of Islamism. Those features, which
give evidence of the craving of man for fellowship
with the divine, are features which had no place in
the religion as it came from its founder's hands.

134 The Relation of the [Lect.
Take Saint-worship. In the reverence paid
to Walis or Saints, in the worship given to
the Prophet, the mystical feeling found expres
sion. But such a movement was out of harmony
with the original faith. The adoration of the
Walis " might lead us to regard it as a product
of Islam itself. But, as a fact, it is far from being
so. It is rather a protest against the very
religion in which it occupies so prominent a
place. The Moslem seeks what his faith with
holds from him, and seeks it where the authority
which he himself recognises forbids him to look."
Again : " If it is only in this form that Islam
can satisfy the demands of the pious soul, then
it has become a religion of the world in the teeth
of its own proper nature."1
Take the reverence paid to sacred places. The
disposition from which this proceeds is akin to the
impulse to Saint-worship. But this reverence for
holy shrines is as alien from the original faith as is
the worship of the Walis. The Ka'ba was re
verenced, but its veneration "is in such glaring
contradiction with the Moslem's otherwise pure
conceptions of God, that a reconciliation can
only be effected by the most far-fetched theories,
and even then imperfectly." 2
1 Kuenen, " Hib. Lect.," pp. 43, 45.
2 Sprenger, I.e. ii. 346, quoted by Kuenen, " Hib. Lect.," p. 32.

iv.] Three Universal Religions. 135
Take Sufism. Sufism exists in the bosom of
Islamism ; but she is like Israel, a stranger in
the land of Ham ; she is tolerated, but the son
of the bondwoman cannot be co-heir with, the
son of the free woman. " The Moslem who makes
terms with Sufism thereby gives his own religion
a certificate of poverty, and the true Sufite is
a Moslem no more."1
We need scarcely be surprised at this. The con
ception of God presented by Islamism will account
for it. Islamism is a Deism. God is infinitely
great, dwelling afar off, removed by His majesty
to an immeasurable distance from His creatures.
" Mohammed pointed the world to the solitary
majesty of God, but he left it a solitary majesty ;
he did not bring the object of his reverence
into union with the human soul." Parallel is
the conception of man : man is a slave, the
mechanical executor of God's will, finding " his
highest goal only in absolute submission to a
will he cannot resist, and may not try to com
prehend." 2 This conception excluded mysticism,
for " Deism and mysticism " 3 it has been truly
said, " cannot really go together." We cannot
1 Kuenen, " Hib. Lect.," p. 46.
2 Matheson, " The Growth of the Spirit of Christianity,"
vol. i., p. 336.
s Kuenen, " Hib. Lect.," p. 46. See Note 20 in Appendix.

136 The Relation of the [Lect.
find the element of Fellowship naturally in
Islamism. It is there, but not as a daughter
born in the house. It is there as a historical
fact, but it is of alien, not of native growth.
We must admit, therefore, that Fellowship is
not an indigenous element in Islamism.
3. Can we find there the element of Progress ?
Our first impulse would certainly be to answer
"Yes." Memory and imagination are at hand
ready to paint the glories of the culture and
civilization which have flourished under the
shadow of the Prophet's name. We cannot for
get all that has been said of Arabian Science.
Side by side with the conquerors came the
teachers. Victorious in Africa and Europe, they
brought gifts of surpassing value in their hands.
We cannot ignore the venerable walls of Cordova
and the great stream of knowledge which flowed
throughout Spain, carrying with it fertilizing
power, and regenerating the intellectual life of
Europe.1 We might acknowledge that from the
middle of the eighth century to the middle of the
thirteenth there were not merely great thinkers
and scholars in the Moslem world, but that its
average culture and intelligence were in advance
1 See Bosworth Smith, " Mohammed and Mohammedan
ism," p. 287, 2nd Ed. Cf. Matheson, " Growth of the Spirit
of Christianity," pp. 342-345.

iv.] Three Universal Religions. 137
of those of Christendom.1 We do not undervalue
the services rendered to civilization under the
rule of certain princes who held the faith of
Islam. Thus then, as a historical fact, Progress was
fostered at periods of Mohammedan ascendency ;
but this does not show that Islamism allied
itself naturally and sympathetically with the
progress of the race. This question is one of
great and present interest. No apology is
needed for giving it as full consideration as
our time will allow. One thing is clear. The
relation of Islamism to Progress was not always
one of sympathy. How is it, we may
ask, that the earlier years of Moslem rule do
not show any intellectual movement? Under
the auspices of the first four Caliphs and under
the guidance of the Omayyads, there was no zeal
for culture, no thirst for knowledge, no desire of
progress. Intellectual life drooped. Whatever
growth and knowledge existed, withered at the
touch of Islamism, like vegetation beneath the
fiery breath of the desert.
' M. Renan, "LTslamisme etla Science," p. 4. "Del'an 775
a peu pres, jusque versle milieu dutreizieme siecle, c'est-a-dire
pendant 500 ans environ, il y a eu dans les pays musulmans
des savants, des penseurs tres distingues. On peut meme dire
que, pendant ce temps, le monde musulman a ete superieur,
pour la culture intellectuelle, au monde chretien."

138 The Relation of the [Lect.
But, when the sovereign power passed from Arab
to Persian hands,1 a change took place. The throne
of the Moslem world was moved eastward, and
its sceptre was wielded by the Abbasids. When
new conditions are followed by new results, we
can hardly refuse to admit the probability that
the new conditions have contributed to the new
results. The land to which the Moslem power
came was a land of culture. Unlike the Arab,
who was destitute of all the instincts of higher
civilization, and changeless as his changeless
deserts, the Persian welcomed knowledge, loved
science, and kept alive his intellect. It was on
the soil of Persia, and under the rule of intelligent
princes like the Abbasids, that the forward
movement took place. That is, under Persian,
rather than Moslem influence, civilization and
knowledge began to flourish. Euclid, Galen,
and Ptolemy were translated, and became the
heritage of the eastern lands. There arose great
thinkers, among whom Alfarabi, Avicenna, and
Averroes reached the front rank.2 Astronomy and
1 It will be understood that this paragraph only refers to
the questions of culture and progress. The question of cor
ruptions of the faith of Islam in Persia is distinct. According
to Mr. Bosworth Smith, " in no nation in the Mohammedan
world has the religion less hold on the people as a restraining
power" than in Persia. — "Mohammed and Mohammedanism "
p. 290, 2nd Ed.
2 Renan, " LTslamisme et la Science," p. 10.

iv.] Three Universal Religions. I3g
algebra were studied, a fresh development of
chemistry took place, the theory of distillation
was reached, and, as some think, the invention
of gunpowder belongs to this epoch.
We cannot argue Post hoc, ergo propter hoc.
We cannot say that because culture and
civilization advanced after the rise of Islamism,
therefore the advance was due to Islamism.
But we may, perhaps, argue, — ante hoc, ergo non
propter hoc — we may plead that if before the rise
of Moslem influence there was a cultivated soil in
Persia, therefore the advance was probably due not
to Mohammedan but to Persian influence.1 Are
we then to consider the state of the case to be
this : to the Arabs culture was nothing ; to the
Persians it was much ? The transference of the
Faith from the one soil to the other was the
transference of religion from a soil which was
unlikely to develop culture to a soil which
was pre-eminently likely to do so. It dwelt then
in a country open to a twofold stream of thought
and culture from the West and from the East.
Influences reached it alike from India and from
Greece. Are we to assign, therefore, the whole
of that culture to the soil ? Are we to conclude
that Islamism as such is actually hostile to
culture ? The answer of Eenan is that what we
1 See Note 21, in Appendix.

14° The Relation of the [Lect.
are accustomed to call Arabian science, " because
it is written in Arabic, is, in reality, Greco-
Sassanidean ; or, more strictly, Greek, for the
fertile element of it springs from Greece." The
answer may be challenged on the ground that it
does not sufficiently recognize the influences
which came from India ; but few will challenge
its accuracy as regards the Arab. But if not
Arabian, might it be called Moslem science?
Did the religion of Mohammed reach forth a
fostering hand for its progress ? If the race of
Mohammed was heedless of culture, was the faith
of Mohammed equally so ? The answer is a
sad one. The growing culture only "won from
the orthodox Moslem his malediction." "Islam
persecuted philosophy and science." !
Progress has always had to fight against timid
conservatism and hot-house religionism, against
ignorance and self-opinionatedness. Hence it is a
fair question to ask : Was the persecution and
opposition to culture the work of an individual
or of a party, or was it of the very tendency
of the faith ? The answer of Eenan is that in
treating science as an enemy, Islamism had only
been consistent.2 Notwithstanding this opinion,
some may be tempted to ask : " What is there in
1 " LTslamisme et la Science," pp. 11 to 16.
2 Ibid., p. 20.

iv.] Three Universal Religions. 141
Islamism hostile to science ? " Are there dogmas,
held to be of the essence of Mohammedanism,
which make the maintenance of the faith incon
sistent with the spirit of Progress ? The doctrine
of the uncreated Koran, which is accepted by
orthodox Islamism, affirms the changeless in
fallibility and, in most uncompromising form, the
verbal inspiration of the sacred book.1 This
foolish dogma necessarily creates a collision
between the creed of Islam and the growing
life of the world of thought. But it may be
suggested that the faith of Islam could freely
surrender this ossified idea of inspiration without
damaging the essential elements of her creed, and
so become free to welcome those discoveries which
reveal the unity of the world, the unity of the
race, and the unity of nature. But even were this
possible, which it is not, for the doctrine of the
uncreated Koran forbids it, there still would be
wanting a real link between the faith of Islam
and the spirit of culture and progress. It
is not enough that a religion which aspires
to universality should be passive towards cul
ture — it must at least be sympathetic. But
in Islamism there is no encouragement to
culture. It offers no benediction to the student
of nature; it speaks no cheering words to the
1 See Note 22 in Appendix.

142 The Relation of the [Lect.
pioneers of progress. God is far away from
human life ; His sovereignty too august to heed
the arts and thoughts of men. He is great, we
are little ; it is as vain to study His world as to
try and understand His ways. The answer of the
Caliph, when Sir H. Layard asked information
respecting the population, commerce, and history
of Mossoul, may illustrate this : — " What you
ask," he said, " is both useless and harmful. You
know much which does not interest me, and what
you have seen I despise. Will greater knowledge
improve your digestion, and can your wandering
eyes discover Paradise 9"1 Whatever springs from
such a faith is cut and dried, barren and limited.
It has no sap, no seed of future life in itself; and
its impotence is the more apparent, when we find
behind it the conception of a God, who does not
care to touch dead things to make them live. The
inspirations of God cannot be claimed for man's
art and science, man's songs and implements.
He has bestowed inspiration once, and it lies
within the covers of a book, and there is no
inspiration for the working or for the thinking
sons of men, to consecrate thought and dignify
art. Man may paint,2 and sing, and study, and
1 Renan, " L'Islamisme et la Science," pp. 21, 22.
'As a fact Islamism discourages painting. See Note 23
in Appendix.

iv.] Three Universal Religions. 143
discover ; he may explore and explain the
wonders of God's works ; he may alleviate by
his discoveries the burden of life ; but it is not
by a divinely-given wisdom he has done these
things. God takes no delight in such things.
It is little wonder that a hopeless fatalism has
become a part of the creed of the Moslems.
The movement commenced by the Wahha-
bites,1 who have been called the Puritans of
Islamism, has, in the opinion of many, reasserted
the purest and most essential features of the
faith of the Prophet. Under their auspices the
dogma of the uncreated Koran reigns supreme.
Commenting on the phrase, " Puritans of Is
lam," Kuenen says : " The comparison is not
unjust. But whereas no serious historian would
ever dream of simply identifying Puritanism and
Christianity, Wahhabism really is Islam itself —
Islam, the whole of Islam, and nothing but Islam." 2
The conclusion, then, seems to be this :
Islamism has been, and still is, a great
power in the world. There is much in it
that is calculated to purify and elevate man
kind, at a certain stage of history. It has the
power of reclaiming the slaves of a degraded
1 Cf. Bosworth Smith, " Mohammed and Mohammedism,"
p. 315, 2nd Ed., and Kuenen's " Hibbert Lectures," p. 52.
2 " Hibbert Lectures," p. 52.

144 The Relation of the [Lect.
polytheism from their low grovelling conception
of God to conceptions which are higher : l it has
set an example of sobriety to the world, and has
shielded its followers from the drink-plague which
destroys the strength of nations. And, in so far as
it has achieved this, it has performed a work which
entitles it to the attention of man, and no doubt
has been a factor in God's education of the world.
But when we come to the wider question, and
ask whether Islamism possesses those elements
which will qualify her to stand the crisis
of the future, and to emerge from its trials
as a religion fitted to guide the future of
humanity, to satisfy the demands of man's heart,
and to be considered universal in gift and quality,
we are bound to answer " No. It can teach
man reverence and service. It can meet his
instinct of dependence; but to minister to the
higher needs of man, it is powerless." For the
spirit of man, when it cries aloud in its agony,
"Oh, that I knew where I might find Him ! that I
might come even to His seat ! " (Job xiii. 3) Islam
has no answer. For the cry of him who asks that
our fair world with all its beauty shall be regarded
as a thing growing up under the inspiring hand
of God, Islam has no sympathy. It is like one
i Bosworth Smith, "Mohammed and Mohammedanism,"
pp. 161, 308, 2nd Ed. See Note 24 in Appendix.

iv.] Three Universal Religions. 145
of those countries in which the verdure is
luxuriant, the flowers are of glorious colours,
and the birds soar over our heads resplendent in
plumage and majestic in flight ; but where the
flowers lack fragrance, where the birds lack song,
and where the homes of men are not. The
mirage-fever of the desert is upon us ; we dream
of water, we wake to thirst ; we think of shelter,
and we wake to yearn for the shadow of a rock in
the weary land. Such faith can never be universal ;
it provides for Dependence, but not for Progress,
and it supplies no link of Fellowship between the
spirit of man and the Spirit of God who made him.
II. — Buddhism.
We have seen that the history of Buddhism
exhibits all the three great elements — Depend
ence, Fellowship, Progress ; but we have to ask
whether these elements are indigenous and native
products of the soil of Buddhism.
1. We shall take first the element of Fellow
ship. It is well to take this first, because the
fundamental ideas of Buddhism, if allied to any of
the three elements, seem to me to have some kinship
with what we have called Fellowship. Buddhism,
indeed, does not recognize that communion with a
Personal God which the word Fellowship implies ;
but it must be remembered that, under this
word, we include that group of feelings and
0

146 The Relation of the [Lect.
desires which make men cry out against the
burden of life, whether of sin or of sorrow;
which prompt the yearning to be rid of
self, and which crave for that inward harmony
which is, though not always recognized as
such, the longing of the spirit for oneness with
a higher law or higher life. This instinct, even
when God is denied, is the unconscious desire of the
soulfor Him. It finds expression in quietism or mys
ticism, and, strange as it may seem, its presence may
be traced in theories which place the ultimate goal
of humanity in absorption or annihilation. Some
thing akin to this is possessed by Buddhism, and,
in one sense, lies at its very root. The Buddhist,
like the quietist, yearns for the calm, equable,
painless, passionless life ; he longs to be free
from the tyranny of desires which disturb
him here. Only thus can true insight come to
him. Thus he may reach the Nirvana. For
this purpose life must be a sacrifice. A life of
righteousness is higher sacrifice than oil and
honey. It is higher still to become a monk,
refusing joy and seeking repose ; higher still, and
highest of all, "when he obtiins deliverance, and
gains this knowledge, — I shall not again return to
this world. This is the highest perfection of all
offering."1 The quietistic spirit, which speaks in
lCf. Oldenberg, "Buddha,' pp. 173, 174.

iv.J Three Universal Religions. 147
such words, appears also in the teachings that it is
not byright views, nor by traditions, nor by virtuous
works, that purity is won, but by becoming what
Buddha was, and endowed with insight.1
Desire, unrest, pleasure, are the tempters ;
they disturb or make impossible the true life.
Buddha sitting under the tree, resolved not to
quit it till he has attained the knowledge which
makes free, is the picture of the quietist ; he is
the type of all those who have longed to reach
that inner harmony which is peace. As far as
the element of fellowship expresses itself in the
longing for inward or self-rest, it exists in the
very soul of Buddhism, though its expression is
often given in a crippled and mutilated form.
- The soul longs for harmony and rest in itself.
The God of peace indeed is not there. But the
voice of the soul of man demanding Fellowship
is heard in Buddhism, though Buddhism failed
to perceive that the longing for inward peace
is the longing for harmony with the 'higher
law, or in other words, Fellowship with the
Divine. 2. Is the element of Dependence supplied
naturally by Buddhism ?
As a fact — so we have seen — the element of
1 Cf. " Sutta-Nipata," translated by Fausboll. Sacred Books
of the East, vol. x. p. xiv. pp., 160-1, 62, 212.

148 The Relation of the [Lect.
Dependence is present and recognised among
Buddhists. Wherever Buddhism holds sway,
we shall find expressions and tokens which
only spring up when there is a felt need of
some one greater and stronger than self on
whom to rely. There is a constant and pathetic
acknowledgment of this need in the prayer-wheels
which revolve in Buddhist Temples, and in the
sacred ribbons, which, among the branches of the
trees in Burmah and Tibet, wave in the breeze and
raise their silent cry, "Ah, the jewel is in the Lotus,"
i.e., as Prof. Ehys Davids explains it,— the self-
creative Force is in the universe.1 Most of the
great movements in the history of Buddhism
have tended to restore to man the God whom
he had lost, and to give him back One on whom
he may rely. As a matter of history the element
of Dependence is present ; but does it belong to
the essence of the Buddhistic creed ? Our answer
is only too plain. It is an addition, not only
independent of Buddhism, but at variance with
the essential features of original Buddhism. This
is easily seen ; the relation of Buddhism to
previous beliefs will make this clear.
Professor Ehys Davids tells us that the noblest
teachers prior to the rise of Buddhism believed
" that there was something far higher than the
1 "Buddhism,' pp. 210, 211

iv.] Three Universal Religions. 149
right performance of sacrifice ; that the object
of the wise man should be to know, inwardly
and consciously, the Great Soul of all." But when
Buddhism arose, it swept away the whole " Great
Soul Theory." " For the first time in the history
of the world, it proclaimed a salvation which
each man could gain for himself, and by himself, in
this world, during this life, without any the least
reference to God, or to gods, either great or small."
" God is in us, the seed eternal is within all,"
was the saying of the Brahman. " No," is the
reply of the Buddhist, "all is transitory; gods
and men alike pass away."1
Parallel with this is the fact, generally ad
mitted, that the looking to Buddha for deliver
ance, and the offering of prayers to deities or
Bodhi-satvas for help, were all of later growth.
Again, mark another feature. Buddhism is a
religion, but it is a religion almost wholly with
out recognised theological dogma.2 I say without
recognised dogma because no philosophy or re
ligion has existed, or can exist, without dogmas,
at least unconsciously held. But a religion
which pretends to do without theological dogmas
must exclude the idea of Dependence. When-
1 " Hibbert Lectures," pp. 28, 29 ; see p. 209, et seq.
2 Reville, " Prolegomena of the History of Religions," p. 20:!.
Kuenen, " Hib. Lect.," pp. 283, 284.

150 The Relation of the [Lect.
ever Dependence, or the sense of reliance, on
a greater than ourselves is admitted, a creed,
concerning that greater one or thing, is sure to
follow. But in Buddhism there is such a
shrinking from dogma, that, on many of the
questions which most deeply touch human life
and destiny, it refuses either to affirm or deny, or
even to affirm that it refuses to affirm or deny.1
The element of Dependence, therefore, cannot be
native to Buddhism.
3. Is the element of Progress indigenous to this
religion ? has Buddhism any natural link with the
advance of the world, and with the growing order
of human life ? We saw, indeed, in its history a
recognition of the idea of Progress. Some hope
of a golden age grew up, and found expression in
Buddhism. But this is the growth of a later time ;
it does not belong to its essence. Interest in life,
the strong enthusiasm which fills the souls of
those who believe that the ages are leading up to a
golden year, the delight in the powers and forces
which manifest themselves in the world, are
entirely wanting in the original and orthodox
Buddhism. Such a spirit is optimistic, but
Buddhism is a pessimistic quietism. Quietism
in Christianity has been blamed, because it turns
its face away from human progress ; but what
1 See Note 25 in Appendix.

iv.J Three Universal Religions. 151
shall we say of the quietism of Buddhism ?
How can we hope to amend a life, which is
radically bad, by the aid of a system which
teaches that man's highest aim should be to escape
from life? All that has been said against the
ascetic and non-worldly attitude of Christianity
might be urged with additional force against
Buddhism. It is full of the strong, sweet, pathetic
compassion which looks upon life with eyes full of
tears, but only to turn them awayfromit again, as
from an unsolved andinsoluble riddle. On this point
let us listen to those who can speak with authority.
Seville writes: — "Buddhism, born on the
domain of polytheism, has fought against it, not
by rising above nature in subordinating it to a
single sovereign spirit, but by reproving nature
in principle, and condemning life itself as an evil
and a misfortune." x
In the same strain, Kuenen writes : — It has
" turned away from life and is blind to its
significance and its worth."
It has, according to the same writer, no
natural function to deal with evils, against
which more hopeful creeds are wont to contend.
" Its mission is not to root out what it
holds to be deadly errors or to proclaim precious
truths, nor, in the first instance, to contend
1,1 Prolegomena of the History of Religions," p. 98.

152 The Relation of the [Lect.
against moral evil, or to build up a society in
which righteousness and peace shall dwell. It
seeks not to convert, but to rescue, — to rescue
from delusion and desire. The moral life is not
its end, but its means."
Similarly he tells us that Buddhism has its
purpose, but that purpose is not allied with the
spirit of progress. Buddhism has helped "order
and discipline ; but has it ever supported a people
in its endeavours after progress, in its recupe
rative efforts when smitten by disaster, in its
struggle against despotism? No such instances
are known. And, indeed, we had no right to
expect them. Buddhism does not measure itself
against this or that abuse, does not further the
development or reformation of society, either
directly or indirectly, for the very simple reason
that it turns away from the world on principle." x
Buddhism is not the religion of progress, if,
as Oldenberg tells us, it has no message for
the classes which most need upward help
and encouraging impulse : — " For the lower
order of the people, for those born to toil in
manual labour, hardened by the struggle for
existence, the announcement of the connection
of misery with all forms of existence was not
made, nor was the dialectic of the law of the
1 " Hibbert Lectures,"pp.293, 284, 281. See Note 26, Appendix.

iv.J Three Universal Religions. 153
painful concatenation of causes and effects
calculated to satisfy ' the poor in spirit.' ' To the
wise belongeth this law,' it is said, ' not to the
foolish.' Very unlike the word of that Man who
suffered 'little children to come unto Him, for
of such is the kingdom of God.' For children
and those who are like children, the arms of
Buddha are not opened."1
It may be urged that these views scarcely do
justice to Buddhism. We are willing to admit
that there is much of high and beautiful moral
teaching in the Dhammapada. In it great truths
are taught of gentleness and self-control. Wrong
doing and violence are rebuked. The love of self
is to be cut out like an Autumn Lotus. The
way to inward rest is open to all. Pity, sad and
earnest, for the weakness and sorrows of life, lifts
up her voice in Buddhism. Under its auspices
Asoka, "the first liberal king in India, ruled as a
man of the people and for the people." But for all
this the voice of Buddhism sounds like the voice
of Pity without hope. Its sweet pathos cannot
compensate for the lack of that robust faith whose
word is Forward, and whose martial music stirs
man to go in and possess the Land of Promise.
Hence we see that Fellowship, as a scanty
thing, robbed of its joy and personal communion,
'" Buddha," pp. 157, 158.

154 The Relation of the [Lect.
may be found in Buddhism ; but of Dependence
upon any but self, there is none ; while Progress
towards a goal of gladness and fuller life is out
side its range. This religion, so beautiful and so
sad, cannot therefore wholly satisfy man. There
are moments indeed in which we are all Buddhists.
When life has disappointed us ; when weariness
is upon us ; when the keen anguish born of the
sight of human suffering appals and benumbs us ;
when we are frozen to terror, and our manhood flies
at sight of the Medusa-like head of the world's
unappeased and unappeasable agony ; then we
too are torn by the paroxysm of anguish, and
would flee to the Nirvana of oblivion and un
consciousness, turning our back upon what we
cannot alleviate, and longing to lay down the
burden of life, and to escape from that which has
grown insupportable. " Save me from this hour,"
is our cry.
That hour must come, — if it has not come —
to all, except the hardhearted, who never suffer ;
that hour must come when you find yourself
beneath the weight which has rolled down upon
you, and bruised and broken you : when the spirit
and the life cry out against contending anymore —
it must come, for Buddhism represents a phase of
universal human feeling. Then, when it comes, re
member, that natural as is the cry, " Save me from

iv.] Three Universal Religions. 155
this hour" (St. John xii. 27), it is higher to re
solve " The cup that My Father hath given Me,
shall I not drink it ? " (St.Johnxviii.il.) "I must
work the works of Him that sent Me." (St. John ix.
14) . It is better to forget self than to wish to rescue
self, better to face duty, than to shrink from it ; better
than giving way to despair is it to press manfully
on across the wilderness of life, though as yet the
land of promise be all unseen ; for such pilgrims,
even in the desert, streams will break forth and
glory will shine from their crown of thorns.
III. — Christianity.
We turn to Christianity. Are the three
elements here? Are they indigenous? We saw
that, as a matter of history, they were present.
But the history of Christianity is a history of
controversies ; and those controversies are viewed
by the many, either with indifference or
with indignation, and by the few with in
terest, as having a significance far beyond the
subjects in debate. Wise people will read in
them indications of the drift of human thought
and feeling, and the interpretations of life given
in different periods of the world's history ; and
more, they will regard them as witnesses to
the desire to preserve some principle which is
felt to be needful, though often its breadth and
fecundity are not fully realised even by the com-

156 The Relation of the [Lect.
batants themselves. Human nature, indeed,
knows more than it can consciously express.
The contest over trifles, thought to be con
temptible, may be sometimes sublime. It can
never be contemptible when we hear in it the
voice of a soul in agony, lest it should lose
something which it feels to be needful to its
life. The instincts of humanity are often
right, even when clamouring unreasonably.
The contest to the outsider may seem to be
a contest for a straw, and even the combatants
can hardly explain their own earnestness. But
when the struggle is surveyed by the daylight
of after facts, it will be found that the bhnd
instinct was often a true one, and that men
were striving to preserve something which
neither they nor humanity could afford to lose.
In the light, then, of the three elements of
Dependence, Fellowship and Progress, let us
look at some of the controversies of Christian
history. The crude and novel dogmas, which
have been regarded as heretical, have often been
the expression, lame and incomplete, of those
who strove to place emphasis on some for
gotten or ignored truth. In emphasising a truth
they have exaggerated it, and in exaggerating it
have lost sight of some equally-needed truth.
Patripassianism affirms Fellowship, for it ex-

iv.] Three Universal Religions. 157
presses its belief that God can be one with
human suffering ; but in affirming Fellowship it
tended to destroy Dependence, and was opposed
by the Church, because the Church felt that
Dependence upon One above the reach of human
infirmity, strong where man was weak, was
needful as a refuge for the human soul. Arian
ism, while seeking to bring God nearer, in
reahty thrust Him further away. It declared,
in fact, the impossibihty of God becoming man,
of God being able to feel the touch of human
infirmity, or the throb of human sorrow ; and
Arianism was opposed, because it tended to de
stroy the element of Fellowship. By an opposite
route Docetism and Gnosticism reached the same
result, weakening the sense of Fellowship be
tween the human and the divine. The same is
true of Sabelhanism. The Son and the Spirit were
made unreal, and consequently humanity appeared
less and less capable of working out the Divine
purpose in the world. We are not surprised
then to find that, the true ground of Fellowship
being obscured, a Pantheistic tendency soon made
itseK felt in Sabelhanism.
In the heresy taught by Paul of Samosata,
there is an absolute tendency to revert to Deism,
that is, to the theory of a distant God. Hymns
distinctively Christian were suppressed by him

158 The Relation of the [Lect.
and the Psalms of Judaism put in their
place. According to him, Christ was not a
revelation of God Himself, but merely a man
who became God.1 He thus impaired the sense
of Fellowship between the human and the
divine of which the Incarnation is the ex
pression. In later times Calvinism, in its asser
tion of the supreme sovereignty of God, again
remarkably emphasised the spirit of Depen
dence ; but it tended to weaken the sense of
Fellowship, and to strangle the power of Pro
gress. Mysticism was the exaggeration of the
element of Fellowship, but it tended also to
reduce the personal greatness of God, to weaken
the sense of reverence, and to withdraw Him
from the progressive life of the world. Humani-
tarianism in the Church affirmed the element of
Progress, but it often did so at the expense of
the elements of Dependence and Fellowship.
Thus in the history of the Christian Church,
through controversies and inward conflicts, the
three elements have made themselves manifest.
But are they indigenous, belonging to the very
heart of essential Christianity ? If I can show you
that they are present in the first teachings of the
Founder— if I can show you that they are inter
twined in the earliest conception and form of the
1 See Art. in Christian Biog. Diet., " Paul of Samosata."

iv.] Three Universal Religions. 159
Christian faith, and also are enforced by His imme
diate followers, then it seems to me that we may
conclude that these three elements were essen
tially, radically, and originally present in Chris
tianity. We have in ameasure dealt with this point.
1. Take the teaching of the Founder in the
Sermon on the Mount. The need of Depen
dence is enforced. Look up to Heaven, and see
the birds of the air — your Heavenly Father feeds
them ; look around and see the flowers — your
Heavenly Father clothes them : you are of more
value than they. Learn to depend on your
Father in Heaven.
The element of Fellowship is present also. The
beatitudes, with which the Sermon opens, express
this, for they affirm that the true blessedness of
man is to be found in communion with God,
and that there must be an ethical similarity be
tween God and man. This is the true fellow
ship of the kingdom, " Blessed are the poor in
spirit, blessed are the peacemakers, blessed are
the merciful." (St. Matt. v. 3, 9, 7.)
Again, the element of Progress also is to be
found. The theories which Christ lays down
touch human life. Man is not to alienate himself
from the life or the needs of his brother men.
He has to give largely and liberally; to throw
himself into the system and order of the

160 The Relation of the [Lect
social life around him, and to render the duties and
services which his country lays upon him. " Who
soever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with
him twain." (St. Matt. v. 41.) " If smitten on one
cheek, offer the other ; if asked, give ; if defrauded
of thy coat, surrender also thy cloke ; if wronged,
forgive; if persecuted, bless." What mean these,
and kindred expressions, but this — do not separate
yourselves from the normal interests of hfe, re
member that you owe something to the humanity
with which you are connected ? That is Christ's
teaching. Or, if I wanted to have it summed up
in a single phrase, I would find it in that utterance,
" Be ye perfect, as your Father also is perfect "
(St. Matt. v. 48), for in it He combined the three
ideas, Dependence, Fellowship, Progress. You
have a Father. Here is Dependence. You must be
perfect as your Father, for there must be spiritual
resemblance between God and man. Here is
Fellowship. And if we want Progress, what
according to Christ is the character of that Father
after whose perfection He bade men strive ? He
is One who is working ceaselessly for man's
good. He scatters His rain upon the evil and the
good, and sheds His sunshine on the just and
the unjust. If then you take your hfe and powers
into the world, give as your Father gives, use
your energies and your capacities as your Father

iv.] Three Universal Religions. 161
uses the forces of the universe, associate your
self according to your measure with your Father's
purpose and work — then the whole of your being
and energy becomes identified with the onward
movement of the great world in which God has
placed you. There is Progress. Or take the
Lord's Prayer. Thus pray we to our Father,
"Give us this day our daily bread." There is
Dependence. " Forgive us our sins." There is
the cry for Fellowship ; for sin is the dark
shadow which comes between us and God.
" Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth."
(St. Matt. vi. 9-13.) There, in the earnest yearning
for the golden age of humanity, is Progress.
Or take some of Christ's parables. Man is as
a lost sheep, sought by the loving Shepherd.
What picture more fitly conveys the sense of
our Dependence ? Man is also a prodigal
son, who can return to his Father's heart and
his Father's home ; and what more beautifully
conveys the Fellowship that is possible between
man and God ? Man is as one entrusted with
talents or money, to be laid out so that the
Lord may receive His own with usury; and
here the teaching is that man has no right to
use powers and opportunities for himself alone ;
but that his duty is to expend all for the welfare
of humanity, for the good of the race, which is
p

162 The Relation of the [Lect.
the desire of the Lord of all. He is to be a
worker for Progress.
2. The same features are found in the earliest
conception and form of the Christian faith.
The Benediction, with which St. Paul closes
an epistle,1 carries the same thought. His
benediction is of grace, love, and communion ;
we depend upon God, we are united with God,
and we can labour with God. And as the
Church has seen in this benediction the doctrine
of the Trinity, we may pause to ask whether
this doctrine, so strange, so inscrutable, yet which
has been deemed so essential in Christendom,
may not, in the nineteenth century, acquire
a new and a deep significance as an emphatic
mode of expressing elements of truth which
men cannot afford to lose. Its mysteriousness
might have hindered its acceptance, but the
conviction that it enshrined a fact, in which
alone man's highest spiritual aspirations could be
satisfied, was so strong in the Christian con
science that the doctrine has prevailed in spite
of its mystery. For what is it that, after all,
by a strange providence, has caused it to enter
into the very heart of Christendom ? What is it
which has given to it its fulness of meaning ? I
answer, its conception of God. Say what you
1 2 Cor. xiii. 14.

iv.] Three Universal Religions. 163
will about creeds, the glory of them lies in their
conception of God ; and it is precisely here that
the splendid power of Christianity to minister
to the triple need of mankind is found. It
revealed One upon whom you may depend,
for it called Him God the Father, and it said
His name was Love. It taught us of God the
Son, that it might reveal to us the absolute
fellowship which subsists between God and
humanity. It taught us of God the Holy
Ghost, and it said there is not a virtue, nor a
grace, nor a talent, nor an intellectual faculty, nor
any power of genius, which is not the gift of
that Spirit. The gifts of statesmanship, and of
magistracy, the opportunities and talents of
prophecy and foresight, the power of working
miracles, the creation of sympathy and com
passion, they are all the gifts of that one Spirit,
and are in seven-fold measure distributed
throughout the world. Intellectual gifts, far-
reaching keenness and sober sagacity; moral
gifts, of courage, truthfulness and love ; physical
gifts, strength of body and endurance, are instru
ments in the use of which the world's progress
and culture have been secured ; but according
to the Christian system, and according to its
doctrine of the Holy Spirit, they are all of
them gifts from God Himself, and teach us

164 The Relation of the [Lect.
that the progress of the world is as dear to
God, as it is needful to man, and that
whether man wields the gifts of magistracy, of
poetry, of prophecy, of discovery, whether he
be statesman or artist, evangelist or theologian,
he is one who has been raised up by God, and
fitted by the gifts of the Divine Spirit for
carrying out the will of God in the progress of
the world.
3. Every apostle witnesses to the three elements
of which we have spoken. St. John tells us that
his Master said, "I am the Truth and the Life."
(St. John xiv. 6.) When the disciples longed to see
the Father and be satisfied, the answer of Christ
was that the Father could be seen in the Son,
or that He, upon whom men could depend, was
the One also who had entered into fellowship
with them. When the disciples asked how the
Divine Presence could be manifested to them
and not to the world, Christ answered that, in
the progress of the holy hfe, through holy
obedience, the inward divine fellowship would
be realized; the Father and the Son would
tabernacle within the spirit of man, and the
light, which is never seen on land or sea, would
abide in constant hope in the heart of the faithful
man. St. Paul's teaching exhibits the same
features. He speaks of one God and Father of

iv.J Three Universal Religions. 165
all on whom all creation depends. The idea of
Fellowship he expresses thus : " I live ; yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me." ' But he also
recognizes Progress. "I reach forward." "I
press on."2 There is something towards which
we are growing. We shall all come to the perfect
man. 3 The groaning creation travails, 4 and
reaches forth its lame hands ; but it yearns for the
better era when Progress shall be perfected, when
men shall have reached the climax of their growing
life, when they shall be manifested as sons of God.
Similarly the doctrine of the Incarnation exhibits
these three elements also. The Word was God —
therefore a surety for our Dependence. The Word
was made flesh — there is the Fellowship between
the Divine and the human. The Word dwelt
among us — there is the guarantee of human
Progress. The doctrine is the witness not only
that God becomes man, but, as the ancient
creed has it, that the humanity is taken into
God. Dependence and Fellowship will be admitted,
I think, to be indigenous and native elements
in Christianity ; Progress is the only element
upon which doubt is likely to be cast. Kuenen says
that the attitude of religion towards asceticism is
1 Gal. ii. 20. 2 Phil. iii. 12, 14, Old and Revised Version.
8 Ephes. iv. 13. 4 Romans viii. 22.

1 66 The Relation of the [Lect.
always the test of religion.1 But Christianity
never favoured that asceticism which expressed
its abhorrence of matter as such. Indeed, in
this sense Christianity is not ascetic. If in
Christianity we find such asceticism, that ascetic
ism is not native to Christianity. For Chris
tianity has declared that every good and perfect gift
is from above — that the earth and its fruits, the
dust from which man is born, earth's tabernacles
in which the Divine spirit dwells, are not un
clean, but holy. For since Christ wore human
flesh, none can say that the flesh is unclean,
and none can say therefore that the fruits of the
earth are in themselves unholy, or that anything
which tends to beautify and brighten our earthly
existence is outside the range of Christianity.
Christianity was championed by men who
identified themselves with the great and pro
gressive life of the world. The indignant protest
of TertuUian illustrates this. " We," he said, " are
not those who live naked and self-exiled in the
woods. We are one people with you. We do
not shrink from your life. We are found in your
forum, in your market places, in your baths, in
your shops, your bridges, your inns, your fairs ;
we served as soldiers with you and as sailors
with you, we were merchants with you, we
1 "Hibbert Lectures," p. 288. See Note 27, Appendix.

iv.] Three Universal Religions. 167
practised the same arts and contributed to the
same public works."1 The conception, which
underlies such a protest as this, is the sanctity
of human thought, consecrated in the gifts which
the Divine Spirit had given to man. I look to
Islamism, and I find there a conception of life
which is different. Whatever we have to do, that
the will of God assigns us to do. As with Casa-
bianca, standing on the burning deck, the hour
of fate has come, and fate has come in this wise.
Kismet. I must meet it. That spirit breeds
heroes, I think, and when a man realizes that his
life is in the hands of a Power greater than death,
he does confront his foes more bravely. The soft
pathos of Buddhism almost seems to become a
girlish thing alongside the stalwart heroism of
Islamism, and yet both are features of life. The
dignity and courage displayed by the followers
of the Prophet are not in themselves ignoble
things. But when I look at Buddhism stooping
in pity over the sorrows of life, I cannot call the
heart of compassion an ignoble thing. These
religions are as ladders, and they go up to
God, and the angels of God will support those
who seek to climb them. But when I ask
whether these fulfil all the conditions which
humanity demands in an universal and abiding
1 Apol., cxlii.

1 68 The Relation of the Religions. [Lect. iv.
religion, I am bound to say " No." They do not
satisfy our sense of Dependence; or they only
give us a crippled feeling of Fellowship, and they
bar the way of Progress. But in Christianity
these conditions are fulfilled — they are all here.
Dependence : for God is love, and mercy is His
attribute ; Fellowship : for He has identified Him
self with human sorrow ; Progress : for the ad
vance of the world and the development of all its
beauty and glory, its present culture and future
power, are but expressions of Divine life and
energy in the world. The ladder disappears, and
in its place stands the Son of Man saying : " There
are ladders that lead to God, but it is weary
chmbing, even though angel hands should help
you." With Him are the angels of life and of
love ; over His head the heavens open ; upon
Him descends visibly the symbol of life and the
prophecy of power. The heaven is open, and
the angels of God are ascending and descending.
They are most clearly seen, and heaven is most
fully open where He stands, who is the Son of
God and the Son of Man — most truly Son of
God, because most truly Son of Man.

LECTUEE Y.
RELIGION AND MORALITY.
It being admitted that Eehgion is natural, two questions may
be raised ; whether Eeligion is (1) necessary, (2) ethically helpful
to mankind.
Taking the latter first, this Lecture is occupied with the relation
of Eehgion and Morahty.
Ethical efficiency may be taken as a test of Eehgion.
L— The question considered as one of Fact.
(i.) The Fact is that the influences of Rehgions on
morals have been not wholly evil or good, but
mixed.
(ii.) The interpretation of this Fact.
1. The results of Eeligion due to more than one
factor. Man a factor, no less than Eeligion.
2. Examination of this factor. Eeligion never sown
in virgin or passive soil.
3. Evil may result from man or from religion.
II. — The question considered as one of Principle.
(i.) The statement that religious principles are immoral
1. The statement is ambiguous.
2. The statement confuses Eehgion with its shadow
— Eeligionism.
(ii.) The principles of Christianity in relation to morals.
1. Christianity in principle hostile to Eeligionism.
2. The consideration of three charges of demoralis
ing influence.
(a) Orthodoxy preferred to morals.
(b) Sentiment preferred to conduct.
(e) Energy diverted from the world-life.
(iii.) Conclusion with regard to Christianity.
Its principles embrace all life.
Its orthodoxy is the highest morality.
Conclusion. — Religion gives a sort of Eternalism to Eighteons-
ness.

LECTUEE V.
RELIGION AND MORALITY.
" Hereafter ye shall see heaven open." — St. John i. 51.
rpHE position which we have now reached is
-^ clear : that religion will exist in the future,
because religion is natural to man, and man's
nature is permanent. We have noted also that
man's religious nature demands certain elements.
Further, in Christianity we find essentially and
originally the supply of these elements. Judged
on the grounds of fitness, Christianity possesses
qualities which render likely the continuance
of her power. But here we meet another question.
It may be conceded that religion is natural, but
it may be asked, " Is it so certain on that account
that religion will live on ? " Must we not dispose
of another question first, and ask, " Is religion
necessary?" "Does it serve any indispensable
object? does it achieve anything which cannot
otherwise be achieved? Is humanity dependent

172 Religion and Morality. [Lect.
on it to such an extent that it cannot do with
out it?"
It may be said, that we can secure by other
means everything that it was thought religion
only could safeguard. Scientific moralism for
instance will prove a sufficient guardian for
morality without the aid of religion. Further
it may even be urged that history shows that
rehgion is not the guardian of morality; on the
contrary, it has been declared that religion is a
demoralising force in the world, and that con
sequently the strongest of existing religions is
destined to follow other extinct faiths to the
dim shades of death, leaving its place to be taken
by the growing conscience of mankind.
There are, in a view of this kind, two points.
First, religion, it is said, is needless, because
we have a fitting and dependable substitute for
it ; secondly, religion is a demoralising force in
the world. Our business is to consider these
two points, and it may be convenient to take
the latter first, and that for a simple reason :
If the latter be true, it becomes needless to
discuss the former, for that which is demoralising
may fairly be considered to be needless. It has
indeed been maintained that the question of
morality must not be allowed to settle the
value of religion ; because religion professes

v.] Religion and Morality. 173
to deal with something which is higher than
morahty, and therefore the necessity for re
ligion might exist, even although it could not
be claimed as a moral factor in the world.
There is an element of truth in the theory ;
this will be seen later ; but for the present, we
may admit that the ultimate test of religion is
ethical efficiency. Far higher — if I do not mis
read the signs oi the times and the moods of
men's thoughts— far higher than the question of
miracle or prophecy, lies that other question of
the ethical force at work in the world ; and
if it can be shown that rehgion is a demoralis
ing influence, the question is ended, and there
is no need to ask whether it is necessary or
not. But is religion a demoralising force?
There are some who reply that it is. You
have only, they say, to look back upon history
to see cowering under the shelter of religion, great
crimes, blind ferocity, fierce fanaticism. The
so-called " ages of faith " were ages without mercy,
without morality. Further, it has been said that
not in its history alone, but in its very principles
religion is demoralising. Eeligion, it has been
urged, prefers orthodoxy to morality, lays more
stress upon sentiment than upon conduct, and
bids men secure heaven rather than do their
duty upon earth. It teaches men, therefore, to

174 Religion and Morality. [Lect.
be eager about eternity but careless about the
present, and to withdraw from the world forces
which might have been used there for the welfare
of mankind ; and thus religion, by misdirecting
the energies of human nature, proves itself
injurious to the moral development of mankind.
We shall first take up the historical aspect of
the question. In dealing with this my answer is
twofold. First, the fact is not altogether as it
has been stated, and, secondly, the true interpre
tation of the fact is different from that which
has been advanced.
I. — The unqualified statement, that the influence
of religion is demoralising, is not verifiable in
fact. The statement, if it means anything, means
this, that all religions have been demoralising
forces. Facts, it is said, support this. Look
at the massacres of so-called heretics and un
believers, the tortures which have been inflicted
on the pioneers of progress in the name of religion,
the tyrannies which have been permitted, the im
moralities which have darkened even Christian
countries. And men are disposed to quote with
approval the old indictment which has been made
against religion by Lucretius,1 and to exclaim
against the flagrancy of the wrongs which it has
impelled men to perpetrate.
1 De Rerum Nat., i., 102.

v.] Religion and Morality. 175
(i.) It is well for us to consider the real aspect of
these facts. The truth is, the influences exerted
by religions are neither wholly good nor wholly
bad. It is easy to show religions whose influences
have been evil, and religions whose influences have
been good. If on the one side we cannot forget
how religions have degraded the thoughts and
affections of men, if there dwell in our minds the
car of Juggernaut, the terrible hecatombs of the
Mexican religion, the fires of Smithfield, the
massacre of St. Bartholomew, and the tor
tures of the Inquisition, we can on the other
side speak of the earnest sighing after righteous
ness of men like Zoroaster,1 of the chivalry
and heroism which have beautified Christian lives,
of the devotion of Elizabeth of Hungary, of the
heroic self-sacrifice of the monk Telemachus in
the Coliseum, in our own day of Father Damien
among the lepers, and of the myriad stories of
those who in every age and every clime under
the banner of the Cross have shown themselves
to be the true servants of humanity.
Taking all such facts into account we are per
fectly prepared to answer, that the true, sensible,
and reasonable statement of the case is this, that
the influences of religions cannot be reasonably
said to be either wholly bad or yet wholly good ;
1 See Note 28, in Appendix.

176 Religion and Morality. [Lect.
they produce mixed results. This is the judg
ment of those who have impartially studied the
question. Eeville says: "Morahty has suffered
from religion; it has also enormously gained."
" Sometimes morahty is in advance of rehgion,
sometimes the reverse." x Hallam says : —
" Beyond every doubt, the evils of supersti
tion in the middle ages, though separately
considered very serious, are not to be weighed
against the benefits of the rehgion with which
they were so mingled."2 So, too, M. Eenan,
speaking of the ages of faith, says of Christianity,
that " It evolved order, hierarchy, authority,
obedience from the voluntary subjection of wills :
it organized the crowd ; it disciplined anarchy.
What effected this miracle, which astonishes us
quite otherwise than pretended infringements of
the laws of physical nature ? It was the Spirit
of Jesus, strongly grafted into His disciples ; the
spirit of sweetness, of self-abnegation, of forget-
fulness of the present ; that unique pursuit of
inward joys which kills ambition ; that preference
boldly given to childhood; those words perpet
ually repeated as from the lips of Jesus, ' And
whosoever will be chief among you, let him be
your servant.' (St. Matt. xx. 27.)" 3
1 " Prolegomena," pp. 64, 84.
- " Middle Ages," vol. iii., chap, ix., parti., note (1848.)
3 " Hibbert Lectures," p. 159.

v.] Religion and Morality. 177
Even prejudiced writers are ready to admit
the same. One who has touched with a very
partial and partisan hand on the ages of faith,
frankly acknowledges that to Christianity must
be ascribed one supreme achievement — an un
equalled power of cultivating saintliness of
character.1 But to grant that any religion is
capable of creating saints is to grant that re
ligion is a power for good. It is a power for good,
for we must measure a man's hfe by his capacity
for influencing others. The moral and intellec
tual worlds are, like the world physical, worlds
of plains and valleys and hills ; and the power
of filling the valleys with water comes ever
from the heights. When men eminent in in
tellect rise high above their fellows, they be
come the water-sheds, so to speak, of intellectual
culture ; when men become great in saintship,
they pour forth energies which, like the waters
which run among the hills, flow down to
baptise and invigorate the world. There is
a power in saintship which, as an influence
for good, would go far to compensate the
seeming evil which has flowed from many a creed.
Hence the fact is, and I claim for the moment
no more than this, that the results of the
religious influences in the world are mixed results.
1 J. Cotter Morison, " The Service of Man," p. 197. 0

178 Religion and Morality. [Lect.
It is not a fact that they are an unmitigated evil,
but it is a fact that the results are partially good
and partially bad.
(ii.) The true interpretation of this fact
may be perfectly consistent with the view that
rehgion is a moralizing factor ; or, in other
words, before we blame religion for those im
moralities which the history of religions displays,
it is fair to ask whether they may not be due
to some other cause. There is, surely, some
reasonableness in this suggestion.
1. When more causes than one are at work, to
attribute the effect to one of them exclusively,
without further investigation, is confessedly illogical.
The case may be found mirrored in the language of
a domestic quarrel, wherein you find the father
and mother in absolute antagonism to each
other upon the origin of the passionate nature
of their child, and each says to the other, " This
is the fault of that terrible temper which you
know belongs to your family." It is surely not
the way to deal with a result like this, to say
that it is solely due to one cause. If C is the
resultant of A and B, the evil in C may be due
to A or B, or to the combination of both.
The laws of growth illustrate the same truth ;
when the farmer looks upon his harvest and finds
it faulty or scant, he knows that the defect may

v.] Religion and Morality. iyg
be due either to the quality of the seed or the
quahty of the soil, or to some incongruity between
them. So it is with the moral facts of which we
have been speaking. If religion can be illustrated
by the seed, humanity is the soil, and the results
which have been spoken of may be due to
religion which is the seed, or to humanity
which is the soil, or to a combination of both.
2. We may examine in this case the soil — that
is, humanity. No seed of thought or action sown
here is sown in a virgin soil. Beneath the
surface are latent seeds, the energies, the ideas,
the thoughts, the feelings, the prejudices and the
hopes of past ages. Other seed has been sown
there in times gone by. Other harvests have
been reaped from the field, and seeds which have
failed to fructify hitherto, may, when the warmth
of the new day begins to be felt, spring up and
mingle with the new seed which has been sown.
The poppies will be mingled with the corn ; the
tares with the wheat. There are customs existing
among civilized, intelligent, and Christian people
which are only the relics of a once vigorous
Paganism. We hang up mistletoe at Christmas,
and we forget we are only carrying out a Druidical
ceremony. We toss our pancakes on Shrove
Tuesday ; but we do not mean to sacrifice to
heathen gods, and yet we are following a Pagan

180 .Religion and- Morality. [Lect.
custom. The very days of the week may remind
us that we derive, as it were, a substratum
of ideas from other religions than that of
Christianity. So true is it, as Eenan says, " that
almost all our superstitions are the remains of a
rehgion anterior to Christianity, and which
Christianity has not been able entirely to root
out." l The new growth in any field cannot free
itself from contact with earlier sowings. The soil
itself is charged with energy, and in it linger seeds
which may spring up with power ; and to argue
that the harvest is the result of the new-sown seed
is to show yourself deficient in historical instinct.
3. But again, the soil is not merely the
human nature of yesterday, it is also the living
humanity of a particular age. Every new move
ment deals with a humanity which is a living
aggregate. We speak sometimes of humanity as
if it were a dead thing, and forget that it is
possessed of personal force, will, passions, preju
dices, and strong powers of self-assertion. When
a truth is sown among men and women who
have passions and wills of their own, its task is
not light and easy; its results cannot be calcu
lated with that certainty which belongs to
things material. When the chemist goes into
the laboratory, the elements with which he deals
1 " Hibbert Lectures," p. 32. See Appendix, Note 29.

v.] Religion and Morality. 181
are passive ; but the reformer and the religious
teacher encounter elements which are by no
means passive. Every one of the beings, amongst
whom his work is cast, has life, is moved by feel
ing, is stirred by prejudices, is capable of strong and
passionate resistance. The temperance reformer
has to contend with the passion of self-indulgence,
the man who preaches greater activity has to
contend with natural apathy, the philanthropist
has to fight against the selfishness of the world ;
and if religion bids men sell what they
have and give to the poor, she finds that the
selfish heart of the hearer takes up arms against
her. If she preach the Cross, she finds that
the flesh shrinks from it. If she bid men gird
up their loins and live like men, she finds that
the spirit of slumber is strong among them. It
is to be remembered that resistance to religious
teaching is always possible. It is calmly
said in the nineteenth century — for notwith
standing our boasted knowledge, we are some
times ignorant of theology — it is calmly said in
the nineteenth century, " The latter [i.e., grace
in contrast with evolution], as emanating from
Almighty power, can no more be arrested or
withstood by imperfect development in the race,
than by moral degradation in the individual.
At least, that is the theory."1 I do not know —
1 J. Cotter Morison, " The Service of Man," chap, vi., p. 147.

1 82 Religion and Morality. [Lect.

there may have been sects and small bodies of
men who have held such a theory as that, — but
I never knew any reasonable Christian who held
it. Jesus Christ did not hold it, for He taught
in His parable of the sower, that men could
receive or reject the good seed sown ; and that the
world was free to be saved or to perish, when
He left that great unanswered question — " When
the Son of Man cometh shall He find faith on the
earth? " : Certainly the followers of Jesus Christ
never held it, for there is St. Stephen's indictment
against men, "Ye do always resist the Hoby
Ghost." 2 Certainly St. Paul never held it, for
he warned men lest they should " quench the
Spirit." 3 And even if religion desired to hold it,
I venture to say that she could not do so without
suicide, for the idea of coercive grace is des
tructive of faith. Where would be the glory
of any creed which was able to sweep away
a man's convictions like a whirlwind that
sweeps the surface of the earth, and which called
that conversion which is only desolation ? The
destruction of individual will, the denial of
the power of man to resist his Maker, is the
negation of the possibility of religion. There
fore, when you are dealing with the souls of
1 St. Luke xviii. 8. 2 Acts vii. 51.
8 1 Thess. v. 19.

v.] Religion and Morality. 183
men you are no longer dealing with passive
and obedient material ; you have to reckon
with caprice, passion, self-will ; and it becomes
unreasonable and unfair to charge the immo
ralities noticeable in religious history wholly
upon the influence of religion.
Again, it is unfair to charge the inconsistency
of the professors of religion on religion itself.
No impartial man would declare that Islam
ism permitted intemperance, because he ob
served drunken Turks in the streets of Constan
tinople. It would be unfair to say of any Eastern
creed that it sanctioned cruelty to the brute
creation, because some Orientals were found ill-
treating animals. No person would charge science
or medicine with intolerance, because the Eoyal
College of Physicians once excommunicated Dr.
Geynes for impugning the infallibility of Galen.1
So also, when we hear of the immoralities which
have darkened and disfigured the history of
Christianity, we should not, because men " lived
like Pagans and believed like Christians," charge
this looseness of hving upon the religion which
they professed. We shall rather adopt the im
partial tone of Eousseau, and say that this con
tradiction between profession and practice does
' Cf. Dr. Munk's " Roll of the Royal College of Physicians,"
1878, vol. i., p. 62.

184 Religion and Morality. [Lect.
not " prove that religion is superfluous, but that
very few people are religious." l Or, we shall
say, with Montesquieu, the assertion that re
ligion is useless because religious people have
been wicked, is about as absurd as to say that
law is useless because it is sometimes broken.3
Eeligion must reckon with the passions, the
appetites, and the covetousness of man. The
condition of the soil is not wholly favourable to
the life of the seed. The harvests of which we
complain may spring from the weakness and
wickedness of men, and not from the worth-
lessness of religion.
But, further, if religion suffers from the
influence of past superstitions and present
passions, it suffers also from the faults of those
who teach it. The best religion is not always
administered by those who are infallible in
judgment or in morals. We admit that religion
has often been laid open to ridicule by those
who have misinterpreted its meaning, misused
its power, and distorted its doctrines. But as
it would be unfair to judge science by the
weakness of its exponents, so is it unfair
to judge religion by the weakness, intel-
1 Emile, tom. hi., 199, quoted by Croslegh, " Christianity
judged by its Fruits," p. 140.
2 Esprit des Lois xxiv., p. 2. Ibid., p. 137.

v.] Religion and Morality. 185
lectual or otherwise, of religious teachers. The
treasure is always in the earthen vessel. The
light is enclosed within a lamp, and the beams
which shine upon our faces are not always pure
light, but light changed, perhaps partially absorbed,
by the medium through which it passes.
" Eeligious ideas," says George Eliot, "have the
fate of melodies, which, once set afloat in the
world are taken up by all sorts of instruments,
some of them woefully coarse, feeble, or out of
tune, until people are in danger of crying out
that the melody itself is detestable." J But
the original music is beautiful as ever. Nothing
can mar its glory ; yet, when we heard the
song from the lips of the costermonger, or
produced with the nasal twang of the street
singer, we were ready to denounce it as execrable.
This really means that we recognise how cruel
a thing it is, that what is noble should be debased
by false or feeble interpretation.
The historical aspect, then, of the question is
this : it is not true that religions act wholly
as demoralising forces. The results vary, and the
variety of the results may be due to the quality
of the soil into which the seed has been cast.
II. — But the second accusation is that the
essential principles of religion are hostile to
1 "Janet's Repentance."

1 86 Religion and Morality. [Lect.
morality. If this be so, then, although the
result may be partly due to the passions of
men, yet religion herself cannot be wholly exon
erated from blame. Our question, therefore, at
present is this : Are the principles of religion
thus hostile to morahty?
(i.) 1. It is well nigh ludicrous to ask such a
question when we consider the ambiguousness of
the word Eeligion. Eeligions are as various as
philosophies, and some, in their principles, are
moral, some immoral, some neutral. Seville writes :
"As we rise in the religious scale the
relation between morality and religion comes
into operation." "Eeligion," he says, "desires
to realise the synthesis of the human spirit,
and of the superior spirit whose existence and
sovereignty man believes that he discerns in the
world." l There is nothing intrinsically and
specially moral in this. In seeking it, religion
might use means which morality rejects. Every
religion must be tested by its principles.
2. Further, there is a thing which is found
near religion, but which must not be confounded
with religion. There is a great shadow which
follows every movement in the world, and
troubles it. Such a shadow waits upon religion ;
I shall venture to call it religionism. It is an
1 "Prolegomena," pp. 95, 201. See Introd., p. xliv.

v.] Religion and Morality. 187
absolute foe of all morality, and of all true
religions. It is to religion what charlatanism is
to science. Its source is not difficult to seek.
There is a strong wish, amongst men of a certain
type, to avoid the difficulties of existence and the
labour which belongs to it ; to win without conflict ;
to get credit for learning without burning the mid
night oil; to gain the prizes of life without the
strenuous labour which merits them ; to grasp
the crown without the lawful striving. Such
men are to be found, and doubtless we have
felt the temptation ourselves. We love the
applause, we scarcely love the needful toil. We
love the prize, we shirk the examination, and
we feel how true it is, that we all desire to produce
results by short and labour-saving methods. Mr.
Buskin speaks of giving the angels barrel-organs
to make their music easier. There are some, who
are not angels, who would be willing to turn
the handle all their life long, if only the world
would take them for musicians. In every walk
of life this spirit appears. Medicine is followed
by quackery as its shadow, art by trickery which
strives to produce effects by an imposing arrange
ment of curtains, screens and lights. The
great speculators, who make haste to grow
rich, are examples of the way in which
men seek to reap harvests before they have

1 88 Religion and Morality. [Lect
borne the burden and heat of the day. Learn
ing has had its shadow; the pedant is the
parody of the scholar. We are not surprised
that a temper, which is thus universal, should
show itself in religion. Eeligionism is the shadow
of religion. It makes itself a home in all religions,
in Buddhism, in Islamism, Judaism, and Chris
tianity : its effect is to de-ethicize religion.
In some religions it early shows itself, for they
are little better than religionisms at the outset.
In others, affinity of temperament makes its
development easy, for they have already a predis
position towards religionism. An example of this
is supplied in the old religion of Latium. Prayer
was a magic formula producing effect without
reference to the moral disposition of the man who
prayed. In worship, "the exact observance of
the rites compels the Deity, who, if the petition
be presented in proper form, has no inquiry
to make into piety or the feelings of the heart."
This is witnessed by M. Eenan.1 Eastern
religions show the same spirit. Buddhism in
its earliest and purest form tried to shake itself
free from ritual, but in later Buddhism we find
the prayer-wheel, i.e., a kind of mechanical
method of winning the result, which, under the
nobler conception, could only come to those who
1 "Hibbert Lectures," p. 13. Ses Appendix, Note 30.

v.J Religion and Morality. i8g

were morally fit for it. In Islamism, the pil
grimage to Mecca is supposed to produce high
privileges and almost magical results. Zoro
aster cried out for righteousness, and yearned
to see in nature symbols of the highest truth;
but the degraded forms of Sun-worship and Fire-
worship were those shadows of his teaching,
which took the outside of the thing for the whole.
In Judaism the same spirit is seen. When
Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,
a great power of healing went forth to the
people. The serpent on the pole expressed the
fact, that there was a power to heal greater than
the power which smote, and man's faith grew
strong and the deadly wounds lost their power.
In later ages it became the intrument of sheer
charlatanism. The brazen serpent was wor
shipped, incense was burnt to it, it was a
symbol no more ; it was a fetish. In the same
way, in the earlier times, the ark was the
sign of the Divine presence ; but in a more de
generate age the cry was " Let us fetch the ark,
that it may save us." l Bather than purify their
own lives and reform their own habits and
realise God once more in their midst, they
thought that by some mechanical expedient
they might gain the victory, without having
1 1 Samuel iv. 3.

i go Religion and Morality. [Lect.

the moral courage to produce within themselves
the true means of success. Christianity in
its history shows examples also. There the
worship of system took the place of reverence
for Christianity. Men grew more anxious to
gain adherents to the system, than converts to
its spirit. They were content with submission
without conviction. Multitudes were driven
wholesale into the Dneiper for baptism at the
sword's point. The spirit of the bigot and
the charlatan was abroad. In a later period
there were missionaries who used in worship
heathen idols to which they had given Chris
tian names.1 Their action was like that of the
man who takes a novel of Zola's, binds it, and
backs it with the title " Moral Philosophy." He
has changed the cover, but not the book; it is
easy to alter names ; it is difficult to change
characters. An indolent religion is content with
superficial results, but thereby it betrays a spirit
of religionism and not of true religion. This is that
spirit which turns everything high and sacred into
a fetish. There are people who treat their Bible
as a fetish. They read their chapter, as they call
it, they care not to understand it, nor to per
ceive its truths. There are others who make the
Holy Communion a fetish. They attend or
1 See Appendix, Note 31.

v.] Religion and Morality. igi

assist at a celebration as if it were a charm, but
they fail to repent and reform their lives. The
same spirit is seen when the Christian ministry
is degraded to the level of a priestcraft ; when
the hysterical cries of excited and not over-
responsible people are accepted as evidence of
a deep religious change ; when the easy utter
ance of a few stereotyped phrases is allowed to
pass instead of the noble argument of a rege
nerated life ; when apathetic and mindless atten
dance at certain ceremonial acts is permitted
to stand as a substitute for conviction of
spirit and reformation of morals ; when the
Church is venerated and her work neglected ; when
the machinery is everything and the fabric nothing ;
when the great end of all religious systems is
forgotten in the eagerness to preserve some un
important details of imaginary orthodoxy. Wher
ever this spirit shows itself, there we find that
shadow of religion which I call religionism ; and
wherever this shadow exists, there we are pre
pared to admit that the tendency of the religion
thus debased is towards demoralization. It
matters not with what high and holy truths
the teacher may have been entrusted, if he
become religionistic, and is not anxious for the
moral elevation of his hearers, he confuses the
issue and lowers the aim of his religion; he

1 92 Religion and Morality. [Lect.
insensibly and unconsciously degrades the moral
tone of the people amongst whom he ministers.
Eeligionism then is demoralising, but religion
is not necessarily so. The religionistic spirit
lowers the moral tone ; and one of the safe
guards of the moral influence of a religion is to be
found in its freedom from the religionistic spirit.
(ii.) 1. Genuine Christianity has no affinity with
this demoralising spirit. In essence it is antago
nistic to it. Our Lord's teaching was in contrast
with the religionistic teaching of His age. The
religionistic spirit spoke on this wise : " It is
expedient for one man to die,"1 i.e., we must
preserve our system by the sacrifice, if need
be, of an innocent life. Or, " let us call down
fire from heaven,"2 i.e., let us destroy those
who withstand our teaching and our progress.
Men actuated by this spirit vainly thought
that they did God service. In contrast is
the language of Christ. He will hear of no
unrighteous counsels of expediency. He says,
"Why even of yourselves judge ye not what
is right?" (St. Luke xii. 57.) To those
who would call down fire from heaven He
says, " Ye know not what manner of spirit
ye are of." (St. Luke ix. 55.) Upon His
followers He enjoined the duty of leaving
1 St. John xviii. 14. 2 St. Luke ix. 5.

v.J Religion and Morality. 193
unmolested those who did not receive the
faith ; they were to leave unharmed the
tares which, alas, were mixed amongst the
wheat ; they were to show kindness to the un
thankful and unholy, and to exercise gentleness
and benevolence even towards those who perse
cuted them. He insisted upon right actions,
and refused the easy substitutes of sentiment
and profession. A man's religion must be doing,
not hearing only, if it is to be founded on a rock.
The Apostles taught in the same strain. Circum
cision was nothing. The man whose character
was moulded by the power of religion, and
whose life was purified by it, was the man of
true religion. St. Paul believed in the faith
which worked by love. St. James would recog
nize no faith that did not show itself hi
action. St. John taught that only the love which
showed itself in loving thought, in loving word,
and in loving deed, could guarantee the reality of
religion. Impartial witnesses attest this truth.
" Christianity," says Eeville, " derives its chief
strength from the beauty of its morality." l
Similarly Mr. Lecky writes : " Unlike all Pagan
religions, Christianity made moral teaching the
main function of its clergy, moral discipline the
leading object of its services, moral dispositions
1 See " Prolegomena," p. 84. B

ig4 Religion and Morality. [Lect.

the necessary condition of the due performance
of its rites." 1
The history of Christianity attests the same.
Ambrose withstanding Theodosius, because his
hands were stained with blood, Chrysostom
preaching at Constantinople, bore witness to
the truth of that sacred utterance, " If I regard
iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear
me." (Ps. lxvi. 18.)
2. (a) We can now meet the three accusations
of which we have spoken. Orthodoxy, it is
said, is preferred to morality. True, the reli
gionist prefers it. Orthodoxy and ceremonial
are put by him above the Eeligion of Life.
But Christianity, the Christianity of Christ,
reverses the order. " I was an hungred,"
said Christ, " and ye gave Me meat ; thirsty, and
ye gave Me drink." (St. Matt. xxv. 35.) And
when He speaks of these actions of love, those
to whom He speaks arc surprised. These men
might not have been orthodox, intellectually
or ceremonially, but the orthodoxy of their
lives is clear, and it is that which Christ
honours. Eight thinking is indeed of impor
tance to men, as we have shown in dealing with
that law of man's spiritual nature, " As we
think, we are." To believe rightly, to beheve
1 Lecky, " Hist. Morals," vol. ii., p. 2. See App. Note 32.

v.] Religion and Morality. ig5
that life is governed by love and not by evil,
to believe that we are not alone in our
struggles or left to despair, but that there is
a power to help men towards a righteous and
loving hfe, is essential to a true Christian
feehng. Eightly used it is a help and not a
hindrance to morality ; but in the view of our
Lord no orthodoxy will atone for the lack of the
spirit of obedience and love.
(b) The second accusation is that rehgion prefers
sentiment to conduct. The religionist may do
so, but Christianity does not. Here the words
of Christ are again familiar. He warns men of
the folly of crying out, " Lord, Lord," if they do
not the things which He commands. (St. Matt. vii.
21.) "If ye love Me, keep My commandments." (St.
John xiv. 15.) But whilst Christianity says that
sentiment must not be preferred to conduct,
Christianity itself insists upon sentiment, i.e.,
upon the truth that religion must have root in
the feelings of man. Christianity is justified in
this. A true feeling of attachment, and a loyal
sentiment towards morals are essential to true
morality. But while Christianity insists on this
truth, she no less discountenances the notion that
feehng or sentiment can be an adequate substitute
for obedience.
(c) The third accusation is that religion with-

ig6 Religion and Morality. [Lect.
draws energy from the life of the world. Under
its influence it is said men become ascetics, and
forget to be patriots. Mr. Lecky has said that
Christianity withdrew energy from the world
because it was deficient in civic virtues.1 The
answer shall be given by M. Eenan. Speaking
of Christianity, he claims its universality as
" one of the causes of the greatness of the
new religion. Humanity is a many-sided,
changeful thing, urged this way or that by
opposing desires. Country is great, and holy
are the heroes of Marathon and Thermopylae.
But, nevertheless, country is not everything
here below. We are men and sons of God,
before we are Frenchmen or Germans. The
kingdom of God — that eternal dream which
will never be torn from the heart of man — is
the protest against all that in patriotism is too
exclusive. The organization of humanity, with
a view to its moral improvement and its highest
happiness, is a legitimate idea. But the State
understands, and can understand, only the
organization of egotism. . . . But it is not
1 " Ascetic Christianity decisively diverted moral en
thusiasm into another channel, and the civic virtues, in
consequence, necessarily declined." " Patriotism itself, as
a duty, has never found any place in Christian ethics, and
strong theological feeling has usually been directly hostile
to its growth." — " History of European Morals," vol. ii.,
pp. 142, 145.

v.] Religion and Morality. ig7
enough. ... Tp him who belongs to a great
race, self-devotion is as natural as egotism, and
religion is the organization of self-devotion." 2
Christianity was not wholly oblivious of the con
siderations of patriotism, but its arms embraced
men of every nation ; the brotherhood to which
it looked forward was not the limited brother
hood of any one race, but that of the world of
redeemed humanity. But I am not afraid to
admit the indictment. If it be an indictment
against Christianity, that she weakened national
feeling because she yearned for universal
brotherhood — I plead guilty to it, and if the
nineteenth century will not find herein a
triumphant vindication of Christianity, I have
done — I can say no more.
A similar indictment is made when it is
said that on principle Christians prefer the
unseen to the seen. It is as if men, so thinks a
modern writer, were so much attracted with the
thought of the distant land to which they are
going, that they are perfectly heedless of the pre
paration for the voyage which is to take them
there.2 The illustration may be answered by
another. The keen realisation of the unseen,
so far from rendering a man regardless of the
1 ¦' Hibbert Lectures," p. 30.
2 See J. Cotter Morison, " The Service of Man," pp. 90, 91.

ig8 Religion and Morality. [Lect.
things seen, intensifies his view of their im
portance. The recognition of larger purposes
gives force to present opportunities. The general
who surveys the country through which he is to
lead his army in battle, will mark the outline of its
hills, the length of its roads, the undulations of its
valleys, with keener eyes than the mere holiday
traveller, because he has an end in view which is
unseen by the ordinary world. In the same way
the man who sees beyond the things present, who
believes that all things move forward to some
far-off end, will measure at their true value the
significance and importance of apparently in
significant things below. He sees the temporal
glorified in the light of the eternal.
(iii.) But, further, there is a spirit in Christianity
which consecrates life, and which makes men
see, if they will, that everything is holy. There is
a narrow Christianism which does not reahse the
sanctity of all life, and which can only see good
when it can be uttered in rehgious phrase. But
the Christianity of Christ is higher and deeper
than this. The Christianity of Christ says it
matters not how insignificant man's occupation
may be, if only it be righteous, and helpful
to others. The difference hes not in what
men do, but in the spirit in which they do it.
The sculptor or the poet, the statesmen, the

v.] Religion and Morality. igg
lawyer or the writer, may carry on the work
of God as well as the priest or the preacher.
All life is claimed by Christ, and every vocation
in His esteem is great and worthy.
We maintain, then, that Christianity is in the
highest degree an ethical religion. Its morality
goes deep ; it sinks beneath the surface and asks
for the heart ; it claims man's conduct ; it
demands that his sentiments should be pure,
and his actions truthful. Its morality is deep and
strong. Its orthodoxy is its highest morahty;
for its orthodoxy is a desire to be like God,
and to realize that the aim of our life is to grow
like unto our Father which is in Heaven.
Our conclusion on the whole is this. It is a fact
that the influences of religions, speaking generally,
are mixed. This arises partly from defects
in the soil of human nature, which do not
give rehgion fair play, and partly from the im
perfection and feebleness of the religions them
selves, which lay them open to that disease
which afflicts all religions, even the best, and
which I have called religionism. But as regards
Christianity, there is nothing demoralising in its
principles. Christianity is a fact in the world,
and she affirms that morality is not a mere
passing shadow having relation only to the con
ditions of this world, but something which has

200 Religion and Morality. [Lect.
a corresponding reality in the eternal world.
She tells us, that beyond the morality which we
see, there is an eternal righteousness. She teaches
lis to look deep, and see the spirit within the form,
the soul within the body of things. It is as when
one looks into the face of a great leader either of
science or of letters. We marvel at its force, and
are conscious of its fascination. The physiognomist
tells us that the breadth of the forehead, the
prominence of the brow, and the keenness of
the eyes, mean qualities of intellectual power
and cultivated habits of observation. He
reads in chin and lip perseverance and the
power to endure. But others look at the
same face and read deeper. They see the
buman history there. They read in that brow
not merely intellectual strength, not merely
indomitable energy, but the tragic story of a
soul which in its pursuit of knowledge would
not make its judgment blind, but was content
to bear all the taunts of men rather than
forego what it believed to be true. In that
compressed lip they read of the soul that
can suffer, and also of the heart that
can love ; behind the outward they read
the inward man. We feel then, that behind
the face which fascinates us there is the
inward man, the true man, greater, more fasci-

v.J Religion and Morality. 201
nating in the tragedy of his life, than even the
outward man could express. In some such
fashion religion points us to the principles and
powers of which morality is but as the visible
countenance; she affirms those eternal principles
of which righteous conduct is but the expres
sion ; she says that behind the trite legalism of
our morality there is an eternal righteousness and
an eternal hohness. Where morality gives rules,
rehgion points to principles ; where morality speaks
of duty, she speaks of the love of duty. Eeligion
and morality are one in pointing out that there
is a ladder from earth to heaven, and that it must
be climbed ; but while morality can see no more
than the ladder, religion can see the angels on
either hand. Morality can behold only the clouds
into which the ladder goes, but religion can
anoint our eyes to see that in the open heaven
above its summit stands the Lord God Almighty.

LECTUEE VI.
THE NECESSITY OF RELIGION.
Eehgion being natural to man, and having capacity as a
moralizing factor, the question meets us — Is rehgion necessary ?
Is there, in other words, any adequate substitute for religion ?
I. — Morahty must be preserved.
(i.) The indispensable elements of real morahty.
(ii.) The connexion of these elements with
1. The laws of man's spiritual nature.
2. The needed elements of religion.
(iii.) Danger of moralism ; the shadow of morahty.
II. — Proposed substitutes for religion:
(i.) Three considered as substitutes.
1. Knowledge.
2. Altruism.
3. Drift of the world, or evolution of morals.
(ii.) The defectiveness of scientific moralism in relation to
1. The dark side of life.
2. The unfit and the unfortunate.
3. The deeper side of man's nature.
(ui.) The indebtedness of social sentiment to rehgion.
1. As a fact in history — Influence of rehgion.
2. Ethically — the ideal set up.
3. Sociologically.
Conclusion — Eehgion seems necessary to men.

LECTUEE VI.
THE NECESSITY OF RELIGION.
' ' Hereafter ye shall see heaven open. " — St. John i. 51 .
IT1HE result of our thoughts, thus far, is as
-*- follows. Eeligion is likely to survive, be
cause religion is natural to man, and man's nature,
as' far as we can see, is permanent. Various
religious ideas have grown up in the world ; they
have passed through vicissitudes ; they have been
modified by changes ; but most persistently man
has insisted on the presence of these elements —
Dependence, Fellowship, Progress. Christianity
alone has shown itself to possess all three
elements, naturally and originally.
Christianity may on this account be reckoned
as the flower of the rehgious idea. Judged
therefore from a mere human standpoint, we
should say that the chances of survival are on
the side of Christianity. Whatever modifica
tions of the religious idea are likely to occur in
the future, Christianity embodies, in all proba-

206 The Necessity of Religion. [Lect.
bihty, the conceptions out of which the rehgion
of the future will grow.
But other questions press upon us. Eehgion
may be natural, and the religious idea supplied
in Christianity may be the most congenial to
human nature, but it does not follow that religion
is always needful to man or helpful to morahty.
The charge that religion is demoralizing, we
have seen to be one which needs to be put in
another form, unless we wish to confuse our
selves with ambiguities. The statement is such
that no student of the history of religion will
for a moment consider it to be even rational. It
has more rhetoric than reason in it, and may be
justly suspected.
To-day this other question meets us : Is re
hgion necessary? Can man do without it? It
may be true that it is natural to man, but time
and education combine together to make it pos
sible for man to do without many things which
were necessary for him in his earlier growth.
Man outgrows the cradle and the nursery. To
say that a thing is natural does not carry
with it the presumption that it will be always
necessary. But besides this, it is also suggested
that there is something better in the world at
present to supply its place. Eeligion may have
been necessary in the earlier ages of man's history,

vi.] The Necessity of Religion. 207
but is it necessary now ? Have we not acquired
a knowledge of nature which enables us to dis
pense with the aid of religion in the future?
Now, when we ask that question, it seems to
mvolve yet another — Is there in the world an
adequate substitute for rehgion? It is essential
to our purpose to consider this ; for unless there
is a substitute, and an adequate substitute, we
cannot say that rehgion is unnecessary.
I. — This,then,is our subject : "Is religion neces
sary ? " On all sides it is allowed that what is
wanted is a guide and influence which will call
out all that is best in man, and be capable of
forming the highest and truest type of character.
For morality, in its widest and best sense, is the
order of what is needed to constitute true
character in man. It is not enough to provide a
feeble moralism in lieu of a sturdy morality.
The substitute for religion must be a force suffi
cient to educate completely and perfectly the
human character.
(i.) For this end it must be able to develop
the three elements which all agree are needful
— conscience, intelligence and will. We must
have the conscience to tell us that there is a
right ; the intelligence which enables us to per
ceive what is the right ; and the will, that is the
strength to resolve, " I must do this." In other

208 The Necessity of Religion. [Lect.
words, a character is not perfect unless it is sensi
tive to right, clear in thought and firm in action. It
may be well to cite some independent authorities in
support of this triple analysis. Mr. John Freeman
Clark tells us that what is needed is a sentiment
of right and wrong, an idea of what is right, and
the effort to achieve right.1 M. Paul Janet describes
the three things which are needful as " Good, duty,
virtue." 2 The sentiment that there is a good is
what is perceived by conscience ; the idea of what
is duty is grasped by the intelligence ; and when
the right is followed by a firm act of will there is
virtue. Dr. Martineau says there is a distinct
preference for the higher principle over the lower,
which constitutes conscience.3 And this seems to
me to involve the three things of which we have
spoken : firstly, the perception that there is a
higher principle ; secondly, the sense that we
ought to be at one with that higher principle ; and
thirdly, the choice of it, which involves will.
(ii.) a. Now these three elements,which go towards
the maintenance of the complete human character,
correspond with the laws of man's spiritual
nature. There must be affinity or sympathy of
nature on our part with the thing which is higher,
in order that we may perceive its loftiness. This
1 " Self Culture," p. 195. • " La Morale," p. 1.
3" Types of Ethical Theory," vol. ii.,book ii., ch. ii., § 7 & 8.

vi.] The Necessity of Religion. 209
is only another statement of the law that " as we
" are, we see." But, again, the mere sentiment
that it is higher is not enough. There must be
an intelligent recognition of it also. There is
need of perception as well as sympathy, and this
corresponds to the law — " as we think, we are."
The third law is sacrifice, but every effort of will
to carry out what we feel to be right is of the
nature of a sacrifice. Every exercise of the will
means a determination of victory over some
hindrance or foe.
(b) It may be seen further that these three ele
ments correspond with what we have been
speaking of as the three needful elements of
religion. For Dependence arises from the recog
nition of that which is higher (and in most cases
better) than ourselves. Fellowship is the feeling
which desires to be in accord with that high and
righteous will. And, thirdly, Progress, which is
impossible without effort, corresponds to the
exertion of our will which, as we have seen, has
the nature of a sacrifice. These three imply con
science, intelligence, and will. A true and perfect
morality can never exist without these three ele
ments. Briefly, then, what seems to be true is
this : if morality is to be preserved, it must be in
the frank recognition of all that morality involves.
Man is only a perfectly moral being when he has.
s

210 The Necessity of Religion. [Lect.
sympathy with goodness, intelhgence to perceive
his duty in regard to it, and will to achieve it.
Sympathy with goodness is needed ; for a series of
moral actions done without moral sympathy does
not make a man truly moral. But, again, a moral
being must have thought : he must not only
feel that there is a duty, but he must know wherein
that duty lies. He must have, that is, not only
an affection for right, but some intelligent com
prehension of it. Possessed of a conscience, but
not of thought, he would scarcely be able to play
his part in the world in which right often depends
upon the even balance of various considerations.
And, again, he must have will, for if he be inca
pable of exerting a determining influence over his
own actions, he can hardly be called a moral
being. For if there be no power of choice, there
can be no blame or praise.1 These three things
must be reckoned with by any substitute for
Eeligion, for no system will be sufficient which does
not recognise man in the completeness of his being.
(iii.) It is all the more important to notice this,
seeing that there is in the realm of morality a
shadow corresponding to that which we saw wait
ing on religion. This shadow we shall call
Moralism. Let me ask you to notice the difference between
1 See Appendix, Note 33.

vi.] The Necessity of Religion. 211
morality and its pale shadow. What we have
first to examine is the case of an action, good
externally, but not accompanied in its performance
by any sympathetic appreciation of goodness.
Let us suppose that the action in itself is good,
and that the world looking upon that action
merely on the outside, approves of it. Let
us suppose that it has been achieved by the
exercise of thought and will. Here, two
conditions are fulfilled — the right is perceived and
acted upon ; but there is no inward sympathy with
right as such. Such an action is moralistic rather
than moral, for it has not been prompted by the
sentiment of goodness. The sentiment of good
ness, if I may translate it into other words,
means that the inward feeling is in sympathy
with the moral object pursued. Hence a man
may pursue an object with outward energy
all his life, while goodness has never dwelt in his
heart as a welcome guest. His actions may
win wide approval and applause. He may give a
large contribution to a charity, but it does not
necessarily follow that he has any of the sentiment
of goodness which seems to be indicated by his
hberality. There may be other motives at work.
He may know that his munificence will come
under the notice of royalty, and that some reward
or distinction may follow. The world applauds

212 The Necessity of Religion. [Lect.
the action, but in its heart condemns the man.
Far differently the world judges of an action like
that of Casabianca. Whatever may be our
opinion of his wisdom, we feel that he was heroic.
We render him a homage of sympathy and
approval which we refuse to the self-seeking
person who serves his own ends under the cloak
of charity. Thus, where inward sympathy with
good is lacking, though there may be outward
moralism, there can be no true morality.
Again, an act may be wrong and the motive
right, yet it may be an act of moralism rather than
morality. A high end may be sought, there may
be even an enthusiastic desire to maintain what
is good, yet the action may merit condemnation
because evil in its method. A man may feel an
impulse to good, yet he may display unscrupulous-
ness in his mode of promoting the good. Care to
do no wrong when seeking to do right is essential
to the highest right. No action is perfectly moral
that does not show self-control as well as self-
exertion; and no man can safely act on the
impulse of even the highest sentiment without
the safeguard of moral judgment. When, through
attachment to a cause which, in their consciences,.
they believe to be high and good, men are
prepared to employ unworthy or impure means,
their good motive does not excuse them.

vi.] The Necessity of Religion. 213
Their conduct is not the conduct of pure morality.
There is nothing which tends more rapidly to
demoralise a man's character than the deter
mination to defend a cause which he believes to
be right, by means which he knows to be wrong.
To do this is to play the game of life, but not by
the laws of hfe. It is taking unlawful power into
our own hands ; the higher morality would say,
" Do right, and leave the rest." Virginius
had a high motive when he plunged the dagger
into his daughter's heart. Charlotte Corday was
impelled by a generous impulse when she struck
the tyrant in his bath. Simon Peter might have
pleaded a good and chivalrous purpose when
he drew his sword against the servant of the high
priest. But perfect morality tells those who wish
to work right by ways that are not right, that they
have missed the meaning of right. There is
another and a better path to take. "Put up thy
sword into the sheath," is the language of the
highest and the best. Unrighteous weapons
are not needed in a righteous cause. To do evil
that good may come, merits a damnation which is
just and right. The shadow takes the place of
the reality; and moralism overthrows morality
when men sacrifice right means on the imaginary
altar of right motives.
Thirdly, moralism exists where there is a

214 The Necessity of Religion. iLect.
want of a co-operating will. The subjective merit
of actions is to be measured by the effort of will
required to accomplish them. Some men are
born with an aptitude for virtue. Moral actions
are more difficult to some men than to others.
The merit of the action, therefore, is not to be
measured so much by the action itself, as by the
effort which the man makes in order to perform it.
Submission is easy to the docile, hard to the
impatient. There is more merit, therefore, in the
patience of the eager man than there is in that
of the naturally submissive. This may explain
how it is that morals may be high while virtue is
low. For if men live amid surroundings of high
morality and up to the level of those surroundings,
their moral life is high, but virtue, that is, the
energy and effort of will, is not greatly taxed. It
is the remembrance of this which determines our
interest in certain characters. We see no difficulty
when a man like Eichard III. acts strongly and
firmly. But the spectacle of Hamlet believing
that he ought to do a strong and terrible thing,
yet conscious that he is infirm of purpose and
feeble in will, fills us with measureless pity.
We see that there would be merit in the
strong self-exertion of a Hamlet, while the same
action would be meritless, because effortless, to a
Eichard. It has been said that the grace which

vi.] The Necessity of Religion. 215
would be sufficient to make St. John a saint
would hardly do more than keep St. Peter from
knocking a man down. In other words, self-
restraint in St. Peter would be a greater virtue
than in St. John ; and hence, if it could be
shown that a man had inherited all the best
moral qualities, he yet might be a man of less
vigorous morality than one, who with cor
responding disadvantages, was deliberately and
consciously striving after right. True morality,
then, demands the exercise of will, the exercise
of judgment, the exercise of sympathy. With
out these, morality dwindles into moralism.
Deficient in will, it has no virtue ; deficient in
self-controlling judgment, it is passionate ; deficient
in sympathy, it is hypocrisy. This will explain
what we mean by moralism.
All are agreed that morality must be preserved ;
but what is wanted is not moralism but morality.
In other words, the character of man as a moral
being must be nourished, and this, in the three
particulars of which we have spoken. Any
substitute for religion will be found inadequate
which does not recognise sentiment, intelligence
and will.
II. (i.) We are now in a position to examine the
proposed substitutes for religion. These may be
arranged under three heads — the power of Know-

216 The Necessity of Religion. [Lect.
ledge, the sentiment of Altruism, and what we
may call the Drift of the world.
1. First, let us take Knowledge. Science, it is
said, will adequately safeguard morahty. We
must ask what this means. It cannot mean
that science, which is only organised knowledge,
is capable of guarding morality. Some men tell
us that our theology is incapable of guarding
our morals, and theology which is only the
organised knowledge of religion, is in this sense
of the nature of a science. All the Apostles
taught that, in this sense, theology could not
preserve morals. There is an unquestionable
value in organised knowledge ; it helps us to
perceive more clearly what our duty is by making
what we know more readily applicable to the
details of conduct.
But the argument goes far beyond this. It
is claimed that the diffusion of knowledge will
enable us to live more truly moral lives, that
is to say, that all the mistakes of the past have
been due to ignorance ; and the theory is urged
in one celebrated book, that the progress of the
world is due solely to knowledge.1 I am perfectly
prepared to grant — and I do not suppose any
one who studies the moral history of man with
an impartial mind will do otherwise than admit
1 Buckle, " Civilization," see Appendix, Note 34.

vi.] The Necessity of Religion. 217
— that to the progress of knowledge we owe
clearer conceptions of what our duty is.
For instance, we have gained a knowledge of
sanitary matters ; we know now what our duty
is. If the citizens of a great town allow the
sanitary conditions to remain imperfect, there is
blame to them, because knowledge is within
reach. Or again ; we have learned, through
political economy, that indiscriminate charity
does more harm than good, and hence we
have had impressed on us the knowledge
of our duty to exercise inquiry and wise
judgment before we follow the impulse of our
charity. All this is true, but while know
ledge has given us information concerning
what our duty is, it has not in the least altered
the original principle of duty. Take the case of
a landlord who has upon his estate cottages which
are not fit for human beings to live in. Their
condition is absolutely at variance with the laws
of health. That man, indeed, is bound now by
the possession of knowledge to put them into
a sanitary condition. But why is he bound to do
so ? Because there is a principle anterior to that
of knowledge to which he owes allegiance, and
that principle is the duty of caring for his brother
man. But the knowledge of the sanitary condition
of the houses did not create his duty towards his

218 The Necessity of Religion. [Lect.
brother man. The old Baron, who knew nothing
whatever about sanitary laws, was just as much
bound to do his duty according to his light
as the landlord of to-day. Knowledge does not
create the obligation of duty, though it does create
sometimes a knowledge of what our duty is in
particular cases ; it helps our powers of judg
ment, and in that degree it may extend the field
of duty. It is the same with regard to charity.
The political economist tells us that indiscriminate
charity is bad. We are ready to concede it ; but
the new knowledge that it is so does not alter one
whit the great original principle which, in the
conscience of man, tells him to be kind to his
fellow-man. When our ancestors gave their
alms to the beggar or the cripple on the road,
they were following the instincts of their con
science to do good, just as much as the man
who now goes to the proper authorities and
institutes an inquiry. It is perfectly true that
this latter man is wiser than the former ; but he
is no better man for that. Good and bad,
better and worse, turn not so much upon the
knowledge, but upon the original motive by which
a man determines his actions, and increasing
knowledge can only give us clearer ideas of the
most effectual way of doing our duty. It cannot
give us any new principle of duty. Knowledge

vi.] The Necessity of Religion. 219
thrusts upon us responsibilities, because it in
creases our opportunities of duty ; but no know
ledge, under heaven or beneath the earth, has
created our sense of duty. It cannot create that
sympathy with goodness without which the best
moral actions are but pale moralisms. Hence,
knowledge standing alone cannot afford an ade
quate substitute for religion.
2. The second substitute for religion is the
theory of Altruism — the theory, that is, that men's
actions may be governed by the sentiment which
desires to serve humanity. There is truth and
glory in this. Here we get something of the
sympathy with goodness, which was lacking under
the guidance of mere knowledge. Here is some
thing deeper and higher than the theory that
the diffusion of knowledge will protect morality.
It is higher because it does set up an ideal of
life for men to aim at. It is deeper because it
seeks to move the heart and waken the sympathies
of men. But can it be accepted as a substitute for
religion? First, it is doubtful whether this
Altruistic sentiment is strong enough for the task.
The egotistic or selfish tendencies are strong and
real ; their strength is admitted by those who
have no great sympathy with religion. " As a
general rule," says Biichner, " these principles "
(that is, philanthropic ones) " only make them-

220 The Necessity of Religion. [Lect.
selves felt where the good or the interest of the indi
vidual as such is not in question, whilst, wherever
this is the case, social egotism has no bounds,
; and recoils before no deeds."1 In the same way
Comte admits that active life is essentially
egoistic, and sympathy only possessed of feeble
energy.2 It will thus be seen that there is a
doubt whether the Altruistic sentiment is alone
strong enough to hold its own against the selfish
impulses of men. But, further, supposing that
the Altruistic sentiment superseded the selfish,
yet it will not secure morality, for the ultimate
force to which it appeals is public opinion. And
pubhc opinion, though it is a great power, is not a
moral power, as Dr. Martineau has reminded us.8
The principle of Altruism will, no doubt, win its
way in the world ; in the future it will be uni
versally recognised. The happy days for which
the poet has yearned, and for which faith has
laboured, will assuredly come. Though we may
doubt with the doubt that is born of dechning
years, the vision of Hope will yet be realised.
But when that vision is realised, it will not be
through the unaided sentiments of man — the holy
1 " Man," translated by W. S. Dallas, p. 161.
2 Quoted by Dr. Martineau, " Types of Ethical Theory,"
vol. i., p. 466.
3 Ibid., vol. i., p. 468.

vi.] The Necessity of Religion. 221
city of universal brotherhood is a city whose
builder and maker is God.
3. The third substitute for religion is the great
Drift force. Let us see what it means. It means
that the accumulated experience of past ages has
created our social instincts, and will continue to
do so in a constantly improving way, so that the
weight of the past is a continually growing force
for moral good in the world.
Man began his career in a struggle for existence.
He soon found that the interests of the community
were essential to the individual welfare, and now
the morals of to-day bear witness to the vast
growth of common interests which possess a kind
of instinctive force over the conduct of men.
" The impulse of human nature," says Buchner,
' ' towards movement and progress is so con
siderable that it attains its object even under the
most unfavourable circumstances,"1 thus arguing
that we may fairly leave the morals of the future
to this wide and powerful drift.
Conscience according to this theory is the pro
duct of social factors.2 Conscience, like every
other power or faculty of man, has been evolved
in the progress of the past.
There are many who feel immense dread of suck
1 " Man," p. 159.
- See Appendix, Note 35.

222 The Necessity of Religion. [Lect.
a theory as this ; they can recognise the theory of
evolution in things physical, but any theory of
the evolution of conscience appears to them fatal
to the very hfe of religion. But there is no need
to be afraid of truth, and if it can be shown
that conscience has been evolved, it is the part of
rehgious and wise men to accept it. It is of
course far from true that this has been proved, but,
even were it proved, it would still leave the first
germ of conscience unexplained ; for the theory
of evolution is a theory of method, not a theory
of origin. The evolution of the moral sense does
not explain the origin of it, any more than the evo
lution of the world explains the origin of the world.
Evolution is merely the name for a mode in which
the forces of life and nature show themselves at
work. A Divine power would still be found in
conscience, were it subject to a law of evolution,
just as there is none the less Divine power in
nature by reason of the evolution of nature.
Moreover, there is a truth in the theory of moral
evolution, there is a power constantly at work
in the world, a power not ourselves, which makes
for righteousness, as Matthew Arnold would
say. The point we have to deal with, however,
is not whether there is a truth in this theory,
but rather whether this drift or tendency

vi.] The Necessity of Religion. 223
offers a fitting substitute for religion. I
scarcely think so, for the morals thus formed
would rather be moralistic than truly and
completely moral. We must refer to what we
have already said : viz., that to preserve perfect
morality, we must keep alive sympathy with
higher right, perception of the right, and the
effort of the will in achieving that right. But
if man's morals are formed merely by slow
inherited tendencies, which have been born into
him by the past, the credit and merit of moral
life disappears. For, I may ask, am I more
moral than my ancestors? True, the influence of
my surroundings may have raised my moral
conduct above that of my ancestors. My morals
may be better, but my morality is not necessarily
greater. It is needful to remember that virtue
may be high, though morals are low; virtue, I
mean, in the sense of the conscious exertion of
moral force. The real virtue of a man's morality
consists in the energy which he shows in rising
above a conventional level. The men and women
who rose above their age and exhibited grand
pictures of sturdy energy towards the right were
moral heroes in their time. But the morals
which do not rise above the level of the age
scarcely express any virtuous morality at all. If,
then, the progress and growth of moral life be

224 The Necessity of Religion. [Lect.
left to the influence of this drift force, we may see
higher morals from age to age, but we need not
necessarily see greater or more real morality
among individual men. We do not yield
admiration to those characters which owe their
beauty to influences with which their will did not
co-operate. We may acknowledge a certain good
ness, but it lacks greatness when it is sundered
from will. Greatness consists largely in the
exercise of will. A man is great when he is able
to impress his will on others. It is thus that
Napoleon and Cromwell are great. A man is
great and good when he is able to impress on
others his passion for right and his sympathy with
good. But if the only force at work be what we
have called the drift force of the world, then we
see not our tokens ; there is not one prophet
more. The light which shines from the prophet's
face is no longer the light of heaven — the only
light which he has to give to men is the light
which he reflects from their countenances.
Nothing is left for us to admire when we find that
brilliant deeds of self-sacrifice are only due to the
pressure of irresistible tendency ; hope also dies,
for conflict is useless, effort is needless and vain.
The bad is bad, the good is good ; but the bad
cannot become good — man is as he was born ; hope
dies. The race may be growing better, and in

vi.] The Necessity of Religion. 225
long ages hence, it may climb into regions of a
purer morality, but meanwhile it is vain for the
individual to wrestle with the terrible inheritance
of evil, or hope to snatch, in the improvement of
his own character, a victory from the resistless
force of social influences.
These three alleged sources of morality —
Knowledge, Altruism, and the Drift of the world,
can hardly, therefore, become adequate substitutes
for religion.
(ii.) But it is needful to go further, and to notice
the deficiencies of these substitutes. It is not too
much to say that there are whole realms of man's
life which are left untouched by them. We
shall notice three defects.
1. The dark side of life is not sufficiently
reckoned with. The theory that all things will
inevitably grow good, narrows our vision of life,
and promotes an easy optimism which is soon
followed by demoralising indifferentism. What it
sees is the growing good, and it sees only the
good. It forgets that men may be passion-led
and self-interested.
Advocates of this theory resemble Timon of
Athens. The banquet of life is spread, the guests
are assembled, and they, being noble and generous
themselves, believe that all who are gathered at
the table are noble and generous also. But the
T

226 The Necessity of Religion. [Lect.
time comes when the dark and shabby things ot
life begin to show themselves : meanness and
selfishness are found at the table as well as
generosity and nobility. Soon comes the penalty
of not looking facts in the face, and of not recog
nizing the dark as well as the bright side of men's
nature. Timon, finding himself deceived, is
determined to discard all faith in humanity. With
wild ravings he insults the friends who are still
true to him. He who has refused to believe evil in
any is now incapable of believing good in any. It
is a dangerous thing to stake the whole of our life
and happiness upon the belief in the absolute
and entire goodness of humanity. Such optimism
is followed by indifferentism, if not cynicism.
This reliance upon the moral drift theory
fosters the visionary hope, against which Mr.
Herbert Spencer warns us. " A visionary hope,"
he says, "misleads those who think that in an
imagined age of reason, which might forthwith
replace an age of beliefs but partly rational,
conduct would be correctly guided by a code
directly based on considerations of utility."1
Again, is it wise to ignore one dark shadow
of life — the tendency to deterioration? It is
not my province to lay down any opinion on
the theory of reversion to type. But there can
1 " Study of Sociology," p. 300.

vi.] The Necessity of Religion. 227
be no question that there are in the history of
man what we may call ebullitions of animal
ism constantly taking place. It is time, says
Letourneau, that man was told that he is animalin
every fibre and particle of his being. J Those who
are acquainted with the history of aboriginal races
know well what this means. The "boundary boys "
in Australia seem to be periodically seized with
an irresistible desire to return to savage hfe, and
after having posed as the dandies of the colony,
they frequently drop back into wild, if temporary,
savagery. It is a fact that men are governed
by their passions and their feelings, and no theory
is hkely to work which ignores this fact. We are
beginning to see that for the victory of goodness in
man we need more even than sentiment, percep
tion and vigour.
We may well recall the caution of Mr. Spencer
against assuming " that men's beliefs and actions
are throughout determined by intellect ; whereas
they are in much larger degrees determined by
feeling."2 2. There is no message for the unfit or un
fortunate. There are some born unfit to cope
with hfe, or to struggle against the weight of
inherited tendencies. The proposed substitutes
1 " Sociology," p. 450; of. Biichner, " Man," pp. 75, 108, 136.
2" Study of Sociology," p. 307.

228 The Necessity of Religion. [Lect.
for rehgion offer little help to these. They are as
they are — change is impossible. Unfit to take their
part in the world, they must just be allowed to
die out. The unfortunate hear no words of tender
ness from this theory of drift. The world may be
moving forward towards a bright goal, but the
weak must be sacrificed ; their lot is to die, crushed
beneath the wheels of the advancing world. To
bid them ask philosophers for a scientific solution
of their position, is to bid them despair. Mr.
Cotter Morison trusts that the day is coming when
the artizan will peremptorily refuse to share his
crust with the eight or ten children of his brother
artizan, because his brother artizan ought not to
have married. -1 But what about the children —
the victims of this folly — are they guilty ? These
sheep — what have they done ? It seems to me
that when we begin to apply such philosophy we
forget our charity. Life, indeed, will improve ;
we are at one with the thinkers who believe this,
but we cannot forget those men and women who
in life's march have dropped out of rank, and we
ask for them a better verdict than that they must
perish. Humanity cannot always stretch its own
arms wide enough to shelter the feeble and
the unfortunate. It wants One who will not cast
away the broken reed nor quench the smoking flax.
1 " The Service of Man," Preface, p. xxix.

vi.j The Necessity of Religion. 229
3. The deeper side of man's nature is not met.
The substitutes for religion have no answer to the
two cries of the saint — the cry against sin and the
cry after God. But these cries cannot be ignored,
the reahzation of sin is widespread and deep ; and
it is most deeply felt where men's lives have been
purest, and their aspirations after holiness greatest.
Those who have seen the vision of God can never
be self-complacent ; a noble discontent is theirs.
The cry over wrong and the cry after God come
loudest from the lips of the best. Is there no
meaning in the voices of yearning and lamentation
which are lifted up by David and St. Paul, by
Augustine and Fenelon ? Is there no reality in
the cry of the soul athirst after God ? " My soul
thirsteth for God, for the living God." (Ps. xiii. 2.)
To tell men that the answer to these cries is to
be sought in cold and philosophical moralism
seems like offering stone to the soul that is
asking for bread. The fact that no growth of a
humanitarian moralism can do away with a
distinct religious need in man is admitted by Mr.
Spencer. " However dominant may become the
moral sentiment enlisted on behalf of Humanity,
it can never exclude the sentiment, alone properly
called religious, awakened by that which is behind
Humanity and behind all other things." " No
such thing as a ' Eeligion of Humanity ' can ever

230 The Necessity of Religion. [Lect.
do more than temporarily shut out the thought of
a Power of which Humanity is but a small and
fugitive product." x
(iii.) These defects are fatal to the theories which
we have been examining. But suppose for the
sake of argument that we accept the theories
of scientific moralism and Altruism. Christian
people, in one sense, will not deny the hope they
hold out. They believe that the earth will be
full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters
cover the sea. They believe in a golden age.
They believe in a new city whose foundations will
be strong, and whose walls will embrace a
regenerated society, whence sin, sorrow, and death
will be excluded. They believe as much as the
most splendid theorists of to-day in the happy era
to which the world is tending. So far there is
agreement. But when we seek to know the power
which is destined to achieve this change, and
we are told that it is the accumulated social
sentiment and drift of humanity, we have a right
to ask what are the forces which form this
sentiment and drift power. These forces are
not merely physical, but intellectual ; and not
intellectual only, but moral ; and not only moral,
but religious, for the humanity of to-day is the
product of all the influences of the past. Eeligion
1 " Study of Sociology," p. 311.

vi.] The Necessity of Religion. 231
itself is one of the factors which has been at work
in the creation of the social sentiment.
The world could not be as it is without the
influence of the past, and the various religious
thoughts and sentiments in different parts of the
world have all had their share in the formation of
the present. Eenan notices an example of this
when he calls our attention to the fact that the
worship which Eome has spread abroad in the
world is by no means that of the old Jupiter
Capitolinus or Latiaris ; still less the worship of
Augustus or of the Genius of the Empire ; " it is
the worship of Jehovah." " It is Judaism," he
says, " in its Christian form that Eome has
unconsciously propagated." l
1. In the same way it would take a treatise to
show how largely men's thoughts have been
influenced by the teaching of Gautama and by the
enterprise of Mahomet. No person describing the
movements of the world could afford to ignore
these men who have so largely coloured the
thought and habits of succeeding generations.
And the Christian may fairly claim that from the
life and teaching of Jesus Christ there have
spread influences into the very heart of humanity,
which, even were Christianity as a recognized
religion to disappear, could never be obliterated
1 " Hibbert Lectures," p. 16.

232 The Necessity of Religion. [Lect.
from the life and the sentiments of the
human race. But further, the power of
Christianity may be observed in this, that it has
been able to influence the world, not so much by
opposition as by a magnificent power of absorp
tion. Take for example the two rival philosophical
tendencies of stoicism and epicureanism; we might
study these with the air of critics who desire
to find out defects, but we prefer to read them
with the wish to discover their good elements.
Epicureanism, in its best aspects, was a protest
on behalf of the beauty and the gladness of life ;
it was not the gross and sensual thing which we
associate with the word in the present day. It
was the endeavour to win the happiness of life by
the exercise of a prudent moderation ; it did not
turn away from the good things of existence,
but it taught men to use them. Stoicism, not
unlike Buddhism, turned away from life's glad
ness and sternly urged as a virtue the necessity
of self-control. The happiness of life, according
to the Stoic, is to be found within ; the happiness
of life, according to the Epicurean, may be found
without. It is clear that there is an element of
good in both teachings. Christianity, possessed of
that wondrous magnetic force which could draw
the good out of every system, came into contact
with both philosophies, and reconciled what

vi.J The Necessity of Religion. 233

seemed opposing elements. While teaching men
that gladness might be found within, she taught
also that God had given men all things richly to
enjoy. By such processes Christianity enlarged
her power, and diffused her influence among men.
Such influences have entered into the conscious
ness of the world, and have tended to create the
faith and the habits of mankind ; they have been
what we may call ethical factors in the formation
of human thought and feeling as it is to-day.
To talk of doing without religion is to talk of
ignoring the rich inheritance which already
belongs to men, whether they will or not. It is
as if a banker were to declare that he would not
be indebted to the accumulation of capital and
credit which has been gathered in the earlier
days of the firm's existence. It is precisely the
possession of that capital and credit which enables
him to do business so successfully as he does ; he
may attribute his success to his quickness or his
sagacity, but his quickness and sagacity, unaided
by the possession of capital and credit, would
soon bring about disaster. It is in the same way
difficult to calculate the influence, on the ethical life
of humanity, of that moral capital which has been
accumulating in the world through forceswhich have
been largely religious. Is it wise, we may ask, even
were it possible, is it wise to destroy them ?

234 The Necessity of Religion. [Lect.
2. The same thought may be illustrated when we
note the ideal which faith has set up before men.
Various ideals have claimed men's attention ;
the world's history may be read as a history of the
struggles between competing ideals of life. If we
ask what ideal has after long ages of conflict pre
vailed over all others, we find that victory belongs
to the ideal set up by Christ. To be such as He
was, to hve a life like His, to resolve that the
guiding star of our being shall be the law, not of
self-indulgence, but of self-denial, not of self-
assertion, but of self-sacrifice, is the ideal of life
which is now approved by humanity.
Heine dreamt that he saw the gods gathered
at their banquet. Goblets of heavenly wine were
before them; they drank and lived at ease, till
the door was flung open, and there came tottering
in a pale-faced figure, panting, and bearing the
weight of a large cross, which he flung down upon
the table. The faces of the gods turned pale,
and slowly one by one they vanished away. The
dream recognised that there was an ideal of life
higher than that of strength, or wisdom, or
joy, and that this ideal alone could survive.
Before the majesty of the ideal of sacrifice, all
must bow. Every creed that did not reahse this
in its morality was doomed to perish. Self-
sacrifice has come to be recognised as the highest

vi.] The Necessity of Religion. 235
moral law ; Altruism is but another name for it ;
the ideal is recognised and accepted. But the
ideal was set up by Christ. The German poet
saw that He, whose hand put down the gods of
might and wisdom, and taught the victorious
power of sacrifice, was none other than the Christ
who both taught and lived the life of loving
sacrifice. The ideal then set up by Christ has survived,
and every year has added to the recognition of its
strength. This, too, is a factor which has had its
share in moulding the thoughts and characters ol
men ; it is part of that reserve capital by which
the world can stretch forward to greater enterprise
in the future. Still more remarkable is the fact
that, in setting up this ideal of life, Christianity
anticipated the ideal which is now recognized as
the highest ideal for man. The unconscious
witness to this among the assailants of Christianity
is most striking. Biichner tells us that " our
present state of culture has already long since left
far behind it all and even the highest intellectual
ideals established and elaborated by former re
ligions." x
And what is this lofty ideal which has out
stripped the ideals of religion? We can give
it from the same authority. " The only correct
1,1 Man," p. 219.

236 The Necessity of Religion. [Lect.

and tenable moral principle depends upon the
relation of reciprocity. There is therefore no
better guide to moral conduct than the old and
well-known proverb : ' What you would not have
done to you, that to others never do.' If we
complete this proverb with the addition : ' Do to
others as you would they should do to you,' we
have the entire code of virtue and morals in
hand, and indeed in a better and simpler form
than could be furnished us by the thickest
manuals of ethics, or the quintessence of all the
rehgious systems of the world." J
The reader of the Gospels will be amused at
this language. Here is a man declaring that the
very principles which Christ laid down are better
than all that can be found in the thickest manuals
of ethics, including, we venture to suppose, his
own writings, and the quintessence of all the
religious systems of the world. The Christian
asks no more startling vindication of his position
than this which is offered by Professor Biichner.
When Auguste Comte sought to condense his
teaching into a single maxim he could find no
better than the words of the Lord Jesus, " It is
more blessed to give than to receive," 2 but he is
apparently unaware of the source from which he
1 " Man," p. 211.
2"Discours," p. 216 ; Acts xx. 35.

vi.] The Necessity of Religion, 237

is quoting. It is not too much to say then that
by the admission of those who are not favourable
to Christianity, the ideals set up by Christ are
precisely those which are acknowledged in this
age of culture to be the highest and the best.
A standard of life which is proclaimed as the
discovery of to-day and the climax-morality of
the ages was displayed to the heart of humanity
two thousand years ago. And since our Lord
lived and died this ideal has been working
amongst men. Wherever Christianity has been
preached it has been proclaimed. The wealth of
such ethical teaching has been invested over and
over again in the great market-place of the world,
and it seems strange to deny to the Lord of this
teaching that which is His own, and to withhold
from Him the usury of that glorious and unselfish
success which is to be found in its universal
recognition at the hands of the best and the
most thoughtful of men.
3. The truth is that the religious factor cannot
be got rid of; it is part of the history of the
past, and of all men the sociologist will admit
this to be the case. The power of the religious
sentiment, the force of the moral ideal, have been
transmitted from generation to generation. The
religious influence is in the blood of humanity,
it has ennobled men, even though they have been

238 The Necessity of Religion. [Lect.
unconscious of the source of such ennobling. It
is vain to attempt to falsify the pedigree of
humanity, or turn back the stream of its history.
It is too late to think of withdrawing the capital
out of which the moral greatness and moral
riches of the world have been created. It is im
possible to ignore the supreme power of religion
and the large share which religious thoughts and
feelings have had in the formation of the
characters of men and of the life of humanity.
To conclude, we have asked whether religion
is necessary, and whether we can find an ade
quate substitute or power which can preserve
those sacred things which have hitherto been
considered to depend almost entirely upon
rehgious influence. We have seen that of the
various substitutes proposed, none can be accepted
as satisfactory. To rely upon the mere drift of
the world is to lose the advantage of active
co-operation on the part of the individual, and to
disturb the relationship between morals and
virtue. To rest upon the influence of diffused and
growing knowledge is to ignore the fact that
sentiment and feeling are among the great moving
forces of human life. To believe that the cultiva
tion of the heart, as it is said, or the proclama
tion of altruistic principles will regenerate the
world, is to fall into the old error of imagining

vi.] The Necessity of Religion. 239
that the machine will work of itself as soon as we
have put together its parts.
The substitutes offered for religion have been
tried and found wanting; they have been found
wanting because they do not embrace all
humanity, because they do not touch the whole
man, because they have no message to the weak,
no response to the cry of him whose heart con
demns him, and no answer to the soul that is
athirst for the hving God. And even were we to
concede to these substitutes for religion all that
they ask, we could not get rid of the fact that it is
to the influence of religion that the great force of
moral sentiment to-day is so largely due. x It
would seem therefore fair to infer that it would be
difficult and disastrous to attempt to get rid of
religion altogether. To do so would be to ask
man to stand once more at the foot of the ladder
which all desire to climb, and to bid him look
upward and to see the summit lost in the darken
ing of the clouds, but to see no longer the angels
ascending and descending, to look in vain for the
opened heavens and their heart-inspiring light.
Far other is the future which, we believe, is in
store for the sons and daughters of men. Eeligion
will not perish, not only because religion
is needed by men, but because the Divine One
1 Cf. Lecky, " History of Rationalism."

240 The Necessity of Religion. [Lect. vi.
will not leave men without the witness of Him
self, and without some sweet ministry to their
yearning spirits and their fainting hearts. The
ladder which all true men long to climb — the
ladder of noble endeavour, of stern self-control, of
victory over the base and lower passions — will
always be seen wherever men have caught, as the
best thinkers of all time have caught, some
glimpses of the true view of life's meaning and
life's duty ; but the guarantee of the realisation of
their desires belongs only to those who believe that
the world is governed by love and by wisdom,
whose eyes are open to see not only the ladder, but
also the hands from the unseen world which are
stretched out to give help to the struggling sons of
men. Moralism and Eeligion stand side by side
at the foot of the ladder of life ; but when they
severally begin to climb, it is religion which will
outstrip the tardy steps of Moralism, because
religion moves forward with confidence as she
points to the opening heavens ; her eye alone can
pierce the clouds and behold the light of the
promised day ; she sees the angels of God ascend
ing and descending, and for her the hopes of
humanity are assured in One to whom all power
is given, Who is to her both Son of God and Son
of man.

LECTUEE VII.

RELIGION AND PERSONALITY.
No adequate substitute for religion being found, rehgion is a
necessity in the future. In a perfect rehgion, religion and
morals should be inseparable. The need, therefore, of a
principle or basis on which religion and morals unite.
This is to be found in the recognition of personahty, i.e., in the
recognition that rehgion and morals are meaningless except
they express relationships between beings who have wills
and affections.
I. — The recognition of Personahty not an empty phrase.
The power at work which aims at the education of
man as a personal being.
(i.) History shows the danger of forgetting that man is
man.
(ii.) Nature educates man to —
(«) The consciousness of self.
(b) The sacrifice of self.
(c) A certain completeness of character.
(hi.) Eecent knowledge shows us stages of evolution in
the same direction — (a) Physical, (b) Psychical,
(c) Social.
II. — The recognition of Personality affords a basis of recon
ciliation between rehgion and morals.
(i.) The reconciliation afforded by the idea of persona)
beings —
(a) The word Personahty as apphed to God.
(J) Anthropomorphism inevitable to man.
(ii). This recognition applies to (a) the source as well as
to (b) the subject of religion.
(iii.) To the varying standards of morals.
III. — The religion of the future must be based on a Person,
not on Creed, or Code.
(i.) No necessary loss to Definiteness and to Conduct.
(ii.) But an enormous gain to rehgion in Creed and
Worship.
Conclusion. — Creed so based contrasted with the creed of science.

LECTUEE VII.
RELIGION AND PERSONALITY.
" Hereafter ye shaU see heaven open, and the angels of
God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man."
— St. John i. 51.
IT1HE position which we have reached is this.
Eeligion is natural to man. Some religions
have alhed themselves to man's vices, but, on the
whole, religion (not religionism) has supported
man's moral nature. Viewing religion, then, as
a moral power in the world, we may doubt the
wisdom of dismissing it, since no adequate sub
stitute has yet been found.
What is needed, then, is not to dismiss
rehgion, but to secure complete harmony between
morals and religion. We feel that ethics and
religion ought never to be at variance. Eeligion
without ethics seems little else than irreligious
religion. Ethics without religion are rootless
ethics. There ought to be no divorce between
them. We seek, therefore, their meeting-
point.

244 Religion and Personality . [Lect.
Between religion and morals we want the
true synthesis. To reconcile the things which
we feel ought to be at harmony with one
another — to reconcile the interests of the many
with the interests of the one, the pursuit of
pleasure with the possession of virtue, science
with religion, and faith with morals — have been
frequent problems. But more than an intellectual
synthesis is needed. We can hve with a great
many intellectual inconsistencies, but we cannot
hve with a moral or spiritual inconsistency. If
we cannot reconcile to our mind's satisfaction
determinism and freedom, faith and science, we
can go on hving a tolerably comfortable life, not
withstanding the intellectual discord ; but discord
between our moral and spiritual sentiments we
cannot endure. Life involves beauty and culture.
It involves also duty and the stern glories of
virtue ; and it involves, besides our relation with
the unseen world, the harmony of our spirit with
the unseen spirit ; these factors of life must be
brought into accord. The human spirit must be at
one with the world, itself, and its God. It cannot
rest till it has brought about the reconciliation of
these elements. We feel that life ought to be
beautiful and sweet ; yet it is so sad. We feel
that the beautiful ought to be always true, and
that the true ought always to be beautiful. We

vn.] Religion and Personality. 245
feel that faith and right, goodness and success
ought to be inseparable. We are doomed to
disappointment, but though disappointed, we do
not surrender our conviction of what ought to be.
When Philoctetes hears that Ulysses is alive,
he says, —
" I did not doubt it ; evil never dies ;
The gods take care of that. If aught there be
Fraudful and vile, 'tis safe. The good and just
Perish unpitied by them.''
But though he says this, he feels it ought not to
be so, for when Ulysses pleads that he is but
obeying the will of the gods, Philoctetes replies, —
" Detested wretch !
Mak'st thou the gods a cover for thy crime ?
Do they teach falsehoods ? "
In the same spirit Neoptolemus is made to say, —
" Can I offend the gods by doing good ? " 1
It is thus that everywhere men refuse to
accept the discord between religion and morals.
Eefasing it, they seek the bond in which
religion and morality are one.
This bond, I think, is to be found. Lines which
diverge may also converge. Eeligion and morals
1 Soph. "Philoc," Act ii., Sc. 1 ; Act iv., Sc. 2; and
Act v., So. 4.

246 Religion and Personality. [Lect.
seem to diverge, but by altering our position we may
see the point of their intersection. When I hold a
prism in my hand, I may scatter the ray of light and
break it into broadening and various colours ; but it
is possible also to combine these scattered rays and
to show that, various and divergent as they are,
they may be reconciled in one pure beam of light.
To apply this illustration, it is possible to take up
a position in which religion and morals appear to
contradict one another ; it is possible also to find
a point in which they are reconciled ; that point, I
believe, is found in Personality.
I. — Eehgion is a great force, but it requires
a personality to exhibit that force. It is not
in theories, nor in arguments, nor in contro
versies that its real power is manifested, but
in the hves of men. Controversies are for the
most part outside the tone and scope of religion,
and serve often to demonstrate that " the wrath of
man worketh not the righteousness of God." 1 In
the same way, where does morality find expression,
if it be not in a personal being ? Where there is
no personality, there can be no morality. Eeli
gion and morals converge in man. In moral and
religious controversies it has been too often for
gotten that neither religion nor morahty have any
meaning apart from the idea of personality.2 It is
1 St. James i. 20. 2 See Appendix, Note 36.

vii.] Religion and Personality. 247
the remembrance of man as a personal being, with
a character which can be perfected, which gives us
the link.
We shall consider some points in support of
this theory.
(i.) First, there are the facts of history. Is it
not one of the truisms of history that the doc
trinists have failed ? When we ask the reason of
their failure, we find that they have forgotten one
great factor in life's problem — man. Men have
vainly striven to drive the world by theories and
by doctrines, religious, scientific andpolitical. They
have missed the mark by following bookish
theories and ignoring man. The politician, no
less than the theologian, has made this mistake.
Alva had theories, and his failures were the
failures of a theorist ; for he forgot, as many others
have forgotten, that he had to deal, not with mere
inanimate matter, but with men and women who
had will, intellects, feelings, personal power and
consciences of their own. Alva failed in his plans
because he forgot that man was man. England
forgot this in her struggle with America. She was
deaf to the voice of Edmund Burke when he
reminded her that in this problem she had to
deal with men ; that not by " bonds, affidavits,
cockets, and clearances " could she bind America to
the mother country, but by a large and generous

248 Religion and Personality. [Lect.
recognition of their common blood and common
humanity. " You cannot falsify," he said, " the
pedigree of this people. An Englishman is the
unfittest person on earth to argue another English
man into slavery."1 Frederick the Great was
wont to say: "If I wished to ruin a province
I should commit it to the government of philoso
phers." He meant just this : that men with
theories are of very little good, for they are liable
to forget that they are governing men. Life
is hke a game of chess, which has its laws. But
there is one piece upon the board conditioned dif
ferently from the rest. It is exempt from capture.
Others may be taken ; you may take knight, castle
and bishop, but you cannot take the king. You
may take and manipulate every other element in
the world, because you know its materials and its
laws, but man still remains man, and at unex
pected moments he starts up and asserts himself.
He is the little Oliver who disturbs the serene
stupidity of the workhouse-politicians of the world.
He is the piece on the board which refuses to be
taken. History shows us that it is fatal to forget
man as a personal being.
(ii.) The voice of nature proclaims the same, in
the way in which she seems to be aiming at the
formation of character, (a) For the first voice of
1 Speech on " American Conciliation."

vii.] Religion and Personality. 249
nature is ever saying to man, in one form or
another : " Be yourself. Life may be ' labour and
travail,' but yet be yourself." Her first utterance
of this is in the primal law of self-preservation.
The conflict for subsistence is the earliest ex
perience of man. He must exert himself to live ;
he must find his food ; it does not drop right into
his hand. Necessity then becomes the mother of
invention ; the intellectual efforts of ingenuity and
contrivance must henceforth be a law of his life.
Physical necessity forces upon him manly effort ;
but, in being thus his stern guide and nurse, she
teaches him what he is, and educates him in
consciousness of self. But his selfhood is still
further forced upon him. His days have bettered,
his life is easier, he has leisure, and his energy
is free to go into other channels. Nature,
which taught self-preservation, tells him that
to be himself he must express himself. J Under
this guidance the man becomes the artist, the
musician, the poet, the statesman. The artist
seeks to express himself in form, the musician in
song, the poet in verse, the statesman in law and
authority. And this all teaches consciousness of
self. For man finds it is only in the victory first
over nature and then over his own powers, that it
is possible for him to express himself. Self-
1 See Appendix, Note 37.

250 Religion and Personality. [Lect.
expression is followed by self-possession. The
feeling rises in a man's being, that even though he
is able to express his thoughts in the way of art, or
the way of poetry, or the way of government, he is
not on that account complete master of himself.
When things go wrong, and he becomes petulant
and wrathful, he finds that he is not master of him
self. We say, when a man loses his temper, that
he forgets himself. It is only in the determination
to do the thing from which he shrinks that man
reaches his best. This victory over the flesh, or
over the fear which the flesh engenders, is
heroism. In the hero we admire, not courage, but
the self-possession which we call presence of
mind. It is this control of his faculties which
enables him to rise superior to the fears which
betray men of a weaker sort. And thus nature's
first voice is : " Be yourself," for she teaches self-
preservation, self-expression, and highest and best
of all, self-possession, (b) But nature is not content
to leave man here, she calls to hirn again, she says :
" Sacrifice yourself." She has taught man the
treasure of selfhood. She has taught him that
he becomes great when he has himself well in
hand, as we say. But the moment he finds him
self in possession of this great treasure, he dis
covers that it is only put into his hand in order
that it may be surrendered, for nature does not

vii.] Religion and Personality . 251
allow him long to possess himself without
demanding that he shall sacrifice himself. This
command to sacrifice seK is first heard in the
family. He must give time, labour, and
thought for the sake of wife and children.
His country calls him to sacrifice himself. Patriot
ism, which is but the love of the larger home,
bids him go forth and lay down his life, if needs
be, in his country's cause. Again, duty calls, and
her cry of " Sacrifice yourself" finds an echo in
man's conscience. There is a thing which duty
bids a man do ; it is better to die than to leave it
undone. There is a thing to be resisted ; it is
better to die than to do it. Though it is noble
to possess yourself, it is nobler still to do that
homage to duty which prefers death to disgrace
and would rather sacrifice self than ignobly pre
serve hfe. And if duty and conscience call to
sacrifice, rehgion does so too. Faith cries :
" Sacrifice yourself" to what you are convinced is
true, and to the maintenance of that spiritual ideal
which rehgion demands. Thus there grows up a
feeling in man that all his acquirements are to be
used for others ; that the power to possess himself
only confers the privilege and opportunity of self-
sacrifice, (c) What is the result of these two voices
of Nature, the one crying: "Be yourself;"
and the other, "Sacrifice yourself"? I answer,

252 Religion and Personality. [Lect.
it is character. Sometimes it is asked : Which
is the higher, the good deed which is effortless, or
the good deed which has cost effort ? The answer
is neither. The good deed without effort is the
sign of a higher goodness ; the good deed with
effort of a higher virtue. For there is no virtue
in the goodness which has involved no effort.
There are, indeed, three stages in the develop
ment of man's character. The first is effortless ;
the second has effort ; the third effortless again.
In the sphere of knowledge, for instance, a man
begins with complete ignorance, and as long as he
remains ignorant, there is no effort required of his
mind. The stage which he next enters is the
stage of learning, and here is the beginning of
effort. The third stage is the stage of proficiency;
that is to say, the stage in which he has
knowledge, and the need of effort is at an end.
The same is true in man's moral nature.
At first his conscience is uninformed, and he
follows unquestioningly his desires. There is no
conscious need of the exercise of will or control in
combating his passions. This is the animal stage.
But there comes a time in which he begins to
question the righteousness of his desires. A moral
law says, " Thou shalt not." From that time for
ward he is impelled into a hfe of effort, if he is to
be true to the moral instincts awakened within

vn.J Religion and Personality. 253
him. From this he can emerge into the third
stage, in which, having become master of himself,
his desires and passions are so well under control
that there is no longer any need of effort to restrain
them. He no longer struggles or cries out : " Oh,
wretched man that I am ! " He dehghts in the
right, and in the doing of the right. He has
passed the stage of mere morality ; he has become
a spiritual man, for the period of mere moralism is
left behind. These stages are expressed by St. Paul :
" I was alive without the law once," that is the
animal stage ; " but when the commandment came,
sin revived," here is the stage of moral effort, " and I
died." (Eom. vii. 24 & 9.) But this period passed and
another stage came in which he cried, "Not I, but
Christ liveth in me." (Gal.ii.20.) That is, he passed
from the effortless stage, through the stage of pain
and effort, and on again to the stage of effortless
ness. Apply this thought to the idea of sacrifice.
Sacrifice is everywhere. It is not confined to human
devotion. The law is written in nature. The
harvests we reap result from the death of the seed,
and the power of the earth is renewed by the life-
toil of the earth-worms, as Darwin told us. The
river only gathers the wealth and music of tribu
tary streams to yield them up again, and to lose
itself in the bosom of the ocean. The white cliffs
of our own land and the coral islands of the dis-

254 Religion and Personality. [Lect.
tant seas owe their strength and beauty, nay, their
very existence, to the labour and sacrifice of insect
life. The lower civilisations which have passed
away are sacrificed on the altar of the growing
culture of mankind. But all these are sacrifices
without that glory which belongs to sacrifice when
self is a reality to consciousness. The sacrifice of
the corn, which is all unconscious, or of the worm,
which but follows the irresistible law of its being,
has not a glory like the sacrifice of Winkelried.
When Gareth stared at the spate he cried to
the senseless cataract, " Thou dost His will,
the Maker's, and not knowest." But the eager
obedience of the spate had no glory like the
glory of Gareth's own sacrifice when wearing
" the sooty yoke of kitchen- vassalage." The
stream which sacrifices itself in tumbling over
the rocks has no sense of effort, but you and I —
and here is the dignity and glory of sacrifice — are
conscious that it is a sacrifice. It requires effort.
The dead sacrifices of nature do not compare with
the living sacrifices of human consciousness. The
act of the little child who rushes into the street
where the bullets are raining thick and fast, does
not compare with the act of the fireman, who,
taking his life in his hand, climbs the crumbling
and tottering walls and faces a flaming death to
save the lives of others ; or that of the soldier who

vn.] Religion and Personality. 255
charges against overwhelming odds ; or that of the
doctor who puts his lips to the patient's wounded
throat and draws the poisoned breath. These, and
men such as these, know exactly the measure of
their danger, the terrible reahty of the risks they
run are vividly before them, and it is this know
ledge which makes them heroes. Our Lord gave
a touching emphasis to this thought, and a
transcendent example of this heroism. Speaking
of His own hfe He said, " No man taketh it from
Me. I have power to lay it down " (St. John x. 18) ;
that is, the sacrifice which I make is a sacrifice
which it is within my power to make or not to
make, but which is willingly and consciously made.
It would seem, then, that nature is emphasis
ing selfhood, character, and personality. She
leads man up to a conscious possession of
himself, and when he reaches this point the
altar is before him, and he learns to sacrifice
himself. Here is the education of his character.
Here is a law which has been working up to
the perfecting of the personality and the develop
ment of character in the conscious possession
of our will, and in the obligation of sacrifice. Of
course, it may be argued that this consciousness
of self-possession in man is only imaginary ; that
his freedom is only a sense of freedom, that
actually, all is determined beforehand, and that

256 Religion and Personality . [Lect.
where determinism rules, freedom is absurd. This
may be an argument, but this is not the place to
argue it. But even were it so, and the freedom
of man an illusion, the consciousness of that free
dom would be enough for the education of man's
character. The child who is learning to walk
runs an imaginary risk ; the mother is at hand
and she will not let it fall ; but though the risk is
imaginary the education is real, for the child does
acquire that physical self-mastery which is needful
for walking. In the same way, man may be sur
rounded by laws which look strangely like the
laws of necessity, but the education of his cha
racter may be going forward. The sense of free
dom is within him, and is sufficiently strong to
form the basis of the development of his character.
He becomes persuaded that he is a free agent, and
this is sufficient for the education of his character.
(iii.) The voice of nature is thus impressing upon
man the sense of his personality as a being who can
possess himself, and who ought to sacrifice himself.
(a) The voice of science has a word upon this subject.
It may be objected that we are falling into the
whoUy exploded heresy which taught that man
is the centre of the universe. Man was made,
by that heresy, the victim of pleasing delusions
and imagined himself an important personage.
Like Christopher Sly, he was intoxicated by

vn.J Religion and Personality. 257
flattery, deceived by his dreams, and imagined
himself a king, the favourite of heaven to whom
all things ministered. Like the raw son of the
patriarch he believed that sun, moon and stars,
and the fruits of the ground bowed down and
did him obeisance. But all that is changed
now. The stern hand of truth, in the form of
science, has shown him his insignificance. Facts
have been too strong for fancy. The Copernican
theory has dethroned man in space. The dis
coveries of geology have dethroned him in time ;
and, unkindest cut of all, the Darwinian theory has
dethroned him from that unique position which he
believed himself to have occupied in the earth,
and has traced his origin to a lowly ancestor. He
is no longer a special creation enthroned in time
and space. He thought that earth was the centre
of all things, and heaven's dome the roof of his
palace, but he is only a dweller in one of the minor
mansions of the universe. He believed himself
the privileged possessor of a brand-new world
which was specially completed for him, but behold
there were aaons and races before him, and he is
only one in a succession of tenants of a very old
planet. He believed himself to be created by a
special act of the Creator, that deep revolving
thoughts on the Creator's part led to his birth ;
but behold he is only a link in the vast far-
x

258 Religion and Personality. [Lect.
reaching chain of hfe holding kinship with the
lowest forms of existence. Man's pride has been
humbled, he has been rudely awakened from his
dream. He is king no longer. But even if these
words of science be true, man is not necessarily
dethroned. Everything depends on the view we
take of God, and the view we take of man. If we
believe in some special localization of God, then we
may believe that man on the earth was nearer or
further from God, as the case might be ; but if our
thought of God is of that one Spirit who pervades
all things, in whom we live and move and have our
being, then no astronomical theory can remove
men further from God. Do we believe that God
inhabits a metropolis, so to speak, and that the
influence of His power grows faint and indistinct
at the distant parts of the universe? Hazlitt said,
" In Jacob's day there was a ladder between heaven
and earth, but now the heavens have gone further
off, and become astronomical." But this is only
true in the minds of those who have misunderstood
the nature of God. There is no dethronement of
man by any theory of astronomy, for he is neither
less nor more man than he was before, he is still
the work of God's hands, and the creature of His
love. The true greatness of man is not lessened
by these theories. Our view of man is that his
greatness is not determined by place, time, or

vii.] Religion and Personality. 259
antecedent history. Geography does not make a
man great. A man standing on the top of the
Himalayas is not a greater man than the man
standing on the plain. Position is nothing ; true
greatness is in character. A man's greatness
depends upon the moral energy which he displays.
The stage is nothing, the part he plays is httle,
but the way in which he plays his part is every
thing. His greatness is in his character, and
there is no need to suppose that any theories
which have altered our ideas of man's physical
relationship to time, space, or animal life, can rob
him of the heritage of being a moral creature.
(b) But the voice of science, through some of
its interpreters, shows that there is in nature a
marvellous care for the development and growth
of man towards moral perfection. The increase
of our knowledge seems to intensify the glory of
man, and to indicate that man's moral perfection
is, in some sort, the end of nature's work. One
eminent writer has taken the pains to show this
very clearly. Evolution is to him a natural term,
and an admitted fact. But he holds that the
evolution, which is first physical, is afterwards
psychical, and finally moral. The physical evolu-
lution we understand ; but, according to him,
there came " a wonderful moment ... at which
psychical changes began to be of more use than

260 Religion and Personality. [Lect.
physical changes to the brute ancestor of Man."1
A new chapter was, as it were, opened in the
history of the universe. When " the process of
zoological change had come to an end, a process
of psychological change was to take its place.
Henceforth along this supreme line of genera
tion there was to be no further evolution of
new species through physical variation, but
through the accumulation of psychical variations
one particular species was to be indefinitely
perfected and raised to a totally different plane
from that on which all life had hitherto
existed." And in relation to this, he notes
this fact : the increase of size in the cerebrum
and the lengthening of the period of infancy. And
he sums up the case by saying : " Whereas in
its rude beginnings the psychical hfe was but an
appendage to the body, in fully-developed
Humanity the body is but the vehicle for the
soul." But this leads to the evolution which is
moral. The rudimentary moral sentiments are,
it is thought by some, observable in the higher
members of the mammalian orders ; and, however
this may be, it will be admitted that "the
primordial unit of human society is the family,
and it was by the establishment of definite and
permanent family relationships that the step was
1 Fiske, " Destiny of Man," p. 28.

vii] Religion and Personality. 261

taken which raised man socially above the level of
gregarious apehood." And this was attained by
the prolongation of infancy, knitting together
more closely the feehngs of family life, and causing
a reaHzation of the general welfare to supersede
selfish feelings, and thus the way was opened
for the development of ethical feelings by showing
that conduct must be judged by principle and not
by individual caprice. The result of all this is
that by a perpetual reaction " a creature
different in kind from all other creatures has been
evolved." The creature thus evolved has become
dominant over the earth, in a sense in which
none of its predecessors ever became dominant,
and " henceforth the work of evolution, as far as
our planet is concerned, is chiefly devoted to the
perfecting of this last and most wonderful product
of creative energy."1
(c) The further perfecting of man is carried on
by means of social influences. For the same
writer shows how the history of war has passed
through changes, clearly manifesting a move
ment in a higher direction. War, in the
first instance, had for its aim mere conquest
without incorporation ; in its next stage it was
conquest with incorporation, and the privileges
of citizenship were in a measure extended to the
1 Fiske, "Destiny of Man," pp. 28, 30, 65, 67, 70. See Ap., Note 38.

262 Religion and Personality. [Lect.
conquered, and these stages prepared the way for
the idea of Federation. Thus the perfection of
man, individually and socially, has been carried
on, and the genesis of the high spiritual qualities
in man is the goal of Nature's creative work.
If Nature is thus still making man the object
of her care, man is not so far dethroned. It
does not matter for our purpose whether the
view be correct scientifically, or not ; but it does
illustrate this — that men who think and look
into the world, and ask concerning its history
and its meaning, are beginning to agree in this —
that the evolution of the world is not a meaning
less thing, but is suggestive of a purpose. So
that the men, whose standpoint is not that of
religion, are yet the men, who are telling us that
nature works for an end and expresses ideas.
Fouillee, no friend of religion, asks : "Is there,
then, in history a pre-established design ? " This
he dismisses as the mere hypothesis of the
metaphysician. But he declares that there is
certainly a self-accomplishing design which must
be recognised, if sociology is not for ever to remain
a barren speculation, instead of being a practical
study.1 The metaphysician has a perfect right
1,1 Ya-t-il dans l'histoire xmdesseinpreetabli ? Pure hypothese
de me'taphysique ; mais il y a assur^ment ' un dessein qui se
fait; qui s'etablit lui-meme et c'est la une verite scientifique

vii.] Religion and Personality . 263
to say that there are directing forces working
towards an ideal in nature, and that the ideal is,
when stripped from all religious and mythical
creeds, Justice, Morality, Liberty, Fraternity.1
What is this but saying, that if you look into the
face of Nature, and ask what Nature is doing, you
discover that she has somehow or another been
exercising a kind of parental interest, and has
been watching over the development of man.
Man, mark you, not as a physical being, but man
as a moral being ; man as possessed of high moral
and spiritual qualities ; or in other words, Nature
has emphasised this thought of his personality.
Eenan also says : " The business of all living things
is to make God perfect, to contribute to that grand
ultimate resultant which will establish universal
unity. Hitherto this work has been accomplished
in the dark by the secret instinct of all living
creatures ; some future day Beason will take the
task in hand, and after having organised humanity,
will organise God."2
However much these views may shock us, they
are at least expressions of the thought that we
are not hving in the midst of chaos, but that the
influences around us are directed towards the
sans laquelle la sociologie demeurerait une speculation sterile
au lieu de devenir une etude pratique." — " La Science Sociale,"
p. 386. 1 Ibid. p. 385.
2 " Theophrastes," Westr. Beview, rol.l.,U.S., July, 1876, p. 119.

264 Religion and Personality. [Lect.
working out of an idea ; and that idea, the moral
and spiritual amelioration of man. Man, though
dethroned, has become the centre of the problem.
We are moving towards the goal of which
Professor Huxley speaks : " The goal for the
schoolmen, as for us, is the settlement of the
question how far the universe is the manifestation
of a rational order." l I almost think I can see
beneath these expressions a trembling towards the
recognition of that great hving force behind the
universe whom we call God. If all things are
tending towards the development and perfection
of moral and personal character in man, we may
be at least forgiven for calling this a rational
order. But whether this be so or no, our
conclusion at this point is this : There is an
enormous and varied force working out the educa
tion of man, developing his sense of freedom,
responsibility and nobihty. Life's facts, life's
progress, duty's call, and religion's aspirations, all
are working for man and promoting his develop
ment as a personal being, whose highest perfection
is character.
II. — (i.) The recognition of personality affords a
basis of reconciliation between rehgion and morals.
This recognition must apply to the subject as
1 " Scientific and Pseudo-Scientific Realism." Nineteenth
Century, Feb., 1887.

vn.] Religion and Personality . 265
well as to the source of religion ; to man, and to
God the object of man's worship, (a) An objection
is felt on the part of many to the use of the word
personahty in connection with the unseen Power
of the universe. Personality, they say, is an
expression tainted with anthropomorphism,1 and
further, it implies limitations. With regard
to the first of these objections, it may be remarked
that it is impossible to escape altogether from
anthropomorphism ; as long as men are men they
will speak in the language of men, and no phrase
or conception expressed by the mouth of man
can wholly escape the accusation of anthropo
morphism. No doubt there are exaggerated
descriptions of God. No doubt many speak and
think of the Great Power which lies behind the
whole world as though in that power there were
the weaknesses, the passions, the caprices, and
the limitations of humanity. But the exaggeration
or the misuse of a term is only a caution in the
eyes of sensible men ; it cannot destroy the truth
that even in the language to which we take
exception there is an effort to describe some real
thing, (b) The second objection to the use of
the word personahty is that it implies those
limitations which belong to personal beings as we
know them on earth. This, I am ready to admit,
1 See Note 39 in Appendix.

266 Religion and Personality. [Lect.
is a more serious objection. In answer, we can
only say that we are not tied to the word if any one
will invent a better. I am quite prepared to admit
that the word personality is inadequate to express
all that we mean, and may imply much that we do
not mean, but I think that it is a word which ex
presses an honest attempt to say something which
we do mean, and for which we have as yet no better
word. It does not express all that we want ; I am
quite content to believe with Mr. Herbert Spencer
"that the choice is not between personahty and
something lower than personality, but between per
sonahty and something higher ; " l and if you will,
I am ready to call that Great Power the personality
which is above personality, only I cannot call that
power "it." Every word we use is weak and unfit.
In speaking of that Great Power we say "He;"
but "He" is an inadequate word, for it implies
limitation of sex. " They " is misleading, because it
suggests the possibility of divergence of will. But
if "He" and "They" are inadequate or misleading
words, "It " is still more so, for we cannot think
of the power which is behind all things, and upon
whom humanity must depend, as being a mere
abstraction, or a neutral and will-less thing.
Eeville says, " Abstract infinities, infinite time,
infinite space, are empty notions, silent to the
± "Retrogressive Religion." Nineteenth Century, July 1884.

vii.] Religion and Personality . 267
rehgious soul." l And if we speak of the Great
Unseen One as being not personal, as being such
as we may describe by the word " It " rather than
" He," the same silence and deadness is felt ; for
the soul of man can hardly worship, reverence,
love, or rely upon that which he is forbidden to
regard as possessing the sympathy and life which
we believe to be the heritage of those only who
are personal beings.
Further, the life and order of the universe
seem to rebuke us if we speak of the
Guiding Power behind all as "It." We have
seen the beauty of the world, the influence
of laws which are fitted to compass the educa
tion of man. We have seen that great pro
gressive order moving forward with dexterous
footsteps, changing its methods to meet the grow
ing intelhgence and will and affection of those
beings who seem to be nature's chiefest charge.
We have seen the advance of religion, pointing
humanity, from age to age, forward and onward to
higher ideals and larger life. All these things,
we say, are due to the influence of one mighty
force, that unseen Power, that will within the
world, which seems recognised in one form or
another, by the clearest and profoundest thinkers ;
and seeing all this, we cannot speak of that power
1 " Proleg.," p. 23.

268 Religion and Personality. [Lect.
and that will as being less than personal, as being
"It" rather than "He." Hence I cannot but
beheve that the true account of life is that it is an
education of beings who can think, will and
love, by a Being who can will and love ; and,
till some better phrase is found, I shall call
this the education of persons by a person, whose
personality is as much higher than theirs, as the
consciousness of a human being is higher than
the consciousness of a plant, and in comparison
with whose love our love is but the faintest
shadow of a shade.
(ii.) Eecognising then personality alike in the
source and in the subject of rehgion, it is needful to
point out that in this recognition we have the means
of reconciling religion and morahty. (a) First, with
regard to their source. If the great Power behind
all things may be regarded by men as a Beino-
having personality, then religion and morality
have union in the source from which they both
spring ; they are not at variance, they are but
different aspects of the same power. Morality is
the expression of God's will ; religion is the
expression of our trust in that will. If the senti
ment of duty involves the feeling that God is trust
ing us, we may add religion is our trusting God.1
The sense of duty and the emotions of religion are
1 Cf. Martineau, " Hours of Thought," vol. i., S. 22. See
Appendix, Note 40.

vn.] Religion and Personality. 269
but different moods of the consciousness of the
relationship between personal beings, and One
whose personality is higher than theirs. As light,
and heat, and energy are but variations of one
force, so truth spoken by prophets, noble and
generous feelings springing up in the hearts of
men, strong and energetic resolutions for good,
determined endeavours of philanthropic enthusi
asm, spring from one source whose inspiration
has never failed the sons of men. The force which
expresses itself in moral feeling, in deep emotion,
or in lofty aspiration bears witness to One from
whom all good things do come.
As in the ancient story the Shekinah light
moved before the hosts of Israel, now luminous,
now cloudy, now in advance of them, and now
behind them, now guiding them in their forward
march, now sheltering them from the pursuit of
the enemy ; so has Divine power in human history,
working in nature, welling up in consciousness,
witnessing in conscience, inspiring in faith, guid
ing, elevating, restraining and impelling, marched
ever with the forward march of all mankind.
Eeligion and morals become but expressions of
what God would have us feel, and what God
would have us be. In essence they are one, and
only the moralist or the religionist divorces them.
From of old they were one ; morality is the ex-

270 Religion and Personality. [feet.
pression of rectitude in conduct, and rectitude
in conduct is only conduct in harmony with the
order of God ; religion is the turning of the soul
to God as the source of its life. They are one,
and what God has joined together man must
not put asunder. Thus moral life and religious
life owe their being to the one fountain of right
eousness and peace.
(b) Secondly, with regard to their subject. Here
too the reconciliation of religion and morality
may be seen in the recognition of man as a
personal being. Morality deals with the relation
of man towards those around him ; religion deals
besides with what man is towards One above
him ; and both relate to man as a personal being
who can will and think and love.
(iii.) Further, the recognition of personality re
conciles the difficulty which has been often felt
regarding the varying standard of morals. It has
often been said that morality is an indeterminate
science, for what is moral in one age is deemed
immoral in another. There is no fixity it is said in
the standard of morals. The objection that there
is no fixed code of morals, and that what is right
in one age is wrong in another, is an objection
which can only arise from the disregard of man as
a being who is to be educated through the ages.
We are perfectly aware and ready to admit

vn.] Religion and Personality. 271
that the saint of one age would perhaps hardly be
tolerated in another ; that the morals of David,
and the conduct of Samson, would not be the
level of morals and conduct required of every
ordinary Christian in the present day. If the
aim of life be morals, the objection is a valid one.1
If the aim of life, however, be character, the ob
jection is null and void. It is character which
God seeks to improve in a world which is being
educated, and it is perfectly possible that morals
may be high when character is low, and that
character may be high when morals are low.
The morahty of an age is just the standard of
morals which prevails at that particular time, but
character is the energy, the moral energy in an
individual man which is striving to rise to the
highest level possible in his day. There may be
as much credit to a man in achieving, in an age
of low morality, what we to-day would deem a
low moral standard, as there is in a man attaining
a very high moral standard in an age when the
level of morals was high. We measure a man's
powers of climbing, not by the position which
he happens to occupy upon the mountain side,
but by the difference between the position from
which he started, and the position to which he
has attained. An illustration may make this
1 See Appendix, Note 41.

272 Religion and Personality. [Lect.
clear. The merit of a clock is that it shall keep
time ; that is to say, that when once it is set it
shall work with regularity and precision. The
hour indicated on the face is in one sense of no
moment. If all the clocks of the world were
brought together to one place, the varieties of the
time indicated would be numberless, and any man
who objected that there was no fixed standard of
time because all the clocks contradicted one
another would only betray his ignorance of the
duty of clocks. The variety to which he objected
would be the witness of the fidelity of the clocks.
The merit of the clocks from Dublin, or Greenwich,
or Calcutta, would not be that they agreed with
one another, but that they faithfully recorded the
position of the sun with regard to their respective
homes. There is virtue in their diversity, in so
far as it indicates fidelity to their meridian. In the
same way the measure of men's conduct is not to be
judged by the meridian of our age, but by the
meridian of the age in which they lived. Their
merit is fidelity, regularity, precision, in regard to
those things which were of the moral order of
their day. Just as Macaulay said "that poems
might be better when poets were worse ; " the rude
inspiration of one age may be a nobler thing than
the smooth versification of a later time. Men's
lives may be measured as poems in proportion

vn.j Religion and Personality. 273
as they express the moral force and energy of
their day.
Thus, it is the moral energy put forth in
response to the bidding of duty or the call of
faith, which constitutes the measure of men's
actions. When we realize this, we can view
without perplexity the varying standards which
tempt us to believe that there is no fixity
in morals. There is no fixity in one sense, be
cause there is progress ; but there is fixity in
another sense, because there is always a point
from which we can measure the progress of the
past. It is a cheap and easy thing to deride men
whose advantages were less than our own, and
to treat the great characters of the past without
reference to the stage upon which they played,
or to the circumstances of the drama in which
they were engaged. A larger wisdom and a
kindlier charity is shown by those who measure
men's achievements as we measure the efforts of
children, not so much by what they do, as by
what they seek to do, or, in other words, not by
the cold standard of a rigid code, but by the truer
measurements of those who remember that the
world is growing under the educating hand of God.
I'll. — From these considerations we may forecast
somewhat the religion of the future.
It has been asked, on what will the religion of
Y

274 Religion and Personality. [Lect.
the future be based? Will it be founded on
new intellectual conceptions, or will it be the
promulgation of some lofty and stately morality,
or will some new prophet arise who will
lead the world forward to its promised land?
Will it be founded on a creed, or a code, or a
Person ?
Our answer, I think, must be : not on a creed,
nor on a code, but on a Person. Not on a creed,
unless we desire to have a cold religionism
instead of a hving, moving religion. Not on a
code, unless we are prepared to hand over the
race-progress to the chill ministry of a bloodless
moralism. But on a Person, for in a Person alone
is the conception of religion real and the thought
of morality a living thing. (i.) The strictest
theologian and the most anxious moralist need
not fear that either doctrine or conduct will suffer
at the hands of a faith which is founded on a Per
sonal Being. It is only in a Person that a creed
can be truly preserved. Sundered from a person
the creed becomes a series of interesting specula
tions, or a voiceless assemblage of lifeless dogmas.
It is only in a Person that morality can be vitalized.
Morality without a Person becomes at best a cold
convention or an inherited necessity. But with a
Person, faith and morals alike live and are kept
alive. We can have a creed without a Person

vii] Religion and Personality. 275
and a code without a Person ; but when we have
the Person we possess both a creed and a code.
The creed is what we beheve of him ; his character
becomes itself a code of morals. It is in the
thoughtof One, of whom we may say, " He is," that
we find the life of faith and the life of morals.
But however this may be, it is well to observe
that much of the force of the world'shistory lies here.1
In persons centre all the deepest and most abiding
interest of this world's mingled story of sorrow
and joy. The drama may be old or new, but the
strong and undying interest is in the characters
who walk the stage. From persons radiate the
powers which have made history. Thought is
great ; but thought is powerless till it is wedded
with the man who gives it expression. Action,
action, action, has been the cry ; but what is
action in its noblest sense if it be not the
expression of personalized thought ? In great
movements, the time of action follows the time
of theorizing ; but where were either without the
men who preached and lived the truth ? All great
rehgions have centred round a person; and no
rehgion has ever achieved any real greatness or
established position which has been without a
person as its author, or the hero of its early days.
The need of this personal element is, perhaps,
1 See Appendix, Note 42.

276 Religion and Personality. [Lect
nowhere more significantly expressed than in the at
tempt to supply the lack of a being to be worshipped
in the Grand Etre of the religion of humanity. It
is everywhere felt that religion loses its signi
ficance, when there is no personal being with
whom it can bring its worshippers into relationship.
(ii.) And as religion cannot do without this per
sonal being, so his presence elevates, enlivens
and widens religious thought and worship. The
creed, as we have said, becomes ethicized. There
is need of this. There fras been enough
philosophizing of creeds ; they have been treated
as though they were a series of propositions de
manding the assent of the mind, and to which
the assent of the mind was sufficient. The eager
and shallow dogmatist who worshipped not God,
but clung vehemently and immorally to his creed,
demanded intellectual assent. Heedless of the
need of intellectual honesty, or of the ethical
significance of the creed, he saw no alternative
between the declaration of assent to a theological
proposition and the eternal damnation of a human
soul. He made it possible for men to say,
and to say it with a measure of truth, that ortho
doxy was the sin against the Holy Ghost. His
creed became a fetish, instead of " Believe in God,
believe in the Lord Jesus Christ ; " he held aloft
his creed, and cried, " Beheve It." " It " was sub-

vii.] Religion and Personality. 277

stitutedfor "Him," and the whole plane of religion
was lowered. No era of the Church's history,
perhaps, is wholly free from this fatal mistake;
no party in the Church is without need of guard
ing against it. When men say of anything — creed,
book, ordinance, — " it can save us," then the down
ward road towards fetishism has begun. Men,
devout and pious in their way, write religious
books about the Bible, or the Creed or the
Sacraments, and they scatter their pages with
profane capital letters when they speak of what
It can do for men. This is perilously near rank
and degraded fetishism ! It is certainly heresy.
There is no power in the Creed to help man,
except in so far as the Creed reveals to man a
Person who can help. There is no power in
the Bible to help man, except in so far as it
reveals Him who has never left the world with
out His present aid. There is no power in the
Sacrament to help man, except in so far as He
is made known to us in the breaking of that
bread. It is Himself, not the dogma about
Him ; the Word, not the words ; the true Bread,
not the outward sign ; His presence, not His
memory, that must be sought, if living power
is to be ours. To forget this is to degrade the
Bible to the level of a charm, the Creed to the
level of cabalistic words, and the Sacraments

278 Religion and Personality. [Lect.
to the level of magical rights. These — Creed,
Bible, Sacraments, — exist as witnesses of One
who is Himself the life and power of all. He
is greater than these ; He is greater than any
It. Men need to check themselves, and to ask
whether they have sunk back to lower and
pagan conceptions of spiritual things, and
whether they are seeking the living among the
dead ; whether, in the access of their furious
partizan zeal, they have not lost faith in the living
personal God, for whom the soul of man cries
out, who is behind the Bible, behind the services
of the Church, behind the Sacraments, behind
all the operations of the universe, and who is
the energizing power behind every movement for
good. The realization that the end of all worship
is the benediction of persons in the recognition of
a Person, will produce a wider toleration of
varieties of form. If the end of religion be the
perfection of man's whole nature, the develop
ment of man's character in the formation of a
true resemblance to God, then we must see
that the essential aim may be secured in an
almost measureless variety of means. There are
differences of administrations as well as diversities
of gifts ; there are methods which help the rude
and ignorant, which would be valueless for the
instructed; there are creeds which help the

vn.] Religion and Personality. 279
cultured, but which would be powerless to evoke
a responsive Amen from the unlearned. Had
the true aim been more clearly recognised, a
nobler toleration of variety would have been
seen, and the Church might have been saved
from the practice — the fountain-head of Schism
as far as I can see — dear to narrow souls and feeble
brains, of declaring the things which they have
found helpful to be essential to the Christian life
of all. The schismatic is the child of the fanatic
who insists that the custom which has aided the
weak should be adopted by the strong, or who
would keep the wise and educated, who have
need of strong meat, feeding on the children's
milk. No modern practice is more calculated
to promote division in the Church, than the
pernicious habit of those sectarian minds, who
persistently call every novel custom or mediaeval
revival by the name of Catholic usage, when
the usage in question is only temporary, local,
partial, and not by any means observed always,
by all, in all places. Self-opinionated men or
ignorant men are naturally intolerant of variation,
and believe only in that to which they have been
accustomed. Thoughtful and kindly men under
stand the variety of method which is directed by
unity of purpose. The Pharisee saw incon
sistency between the habits of John the Baptist

280 Religion and Personality. [Lect.

and those of our Lord, and failed to recognise
the value of either or of both. He failed because
he was a Pharisee. It was only a Satyr who
charged the man with inconsistency for blowing
hot and cold. Neither the Pharisee nor the
Satyr have wholly disappeared from the world.
But he who is neither Pharisee nor Satyr, but
just a man, who realizes that the function of
religion is to lift humanity higher, and bring
men of differing habits, feelings, and thoughts to
the One true God, will not only tolerate but will
try to meet with joyous sympathy, the varying
modes in which the One Spirit of God works in
the Church of God.
With the realisation that religion expresses the
relationship of persons to a Person will come
clearer views. Doctrines will be seen to be based
on that relationship, and will be interpreted ac
cordingly. Men will awake out of their dreams
of petty dogmatism into the recognition of eternal
facts. They will remember that they and all men
are in the hands of One eternal, man-educating,
man-redeeming God. They will see that the
paramount aim of all must be to help forward
men and mankind towards likeness to God ;
that * salvation is indeed salvation from sin ;
that damnation is just want of harmony between
the soul and the God who made it, between the

vn.] Religion and Personality. 281
spirit and the life of the spirit. The highest
gladness is reached by man when his will
is lovingly merged in the holy and righteous and
loving will of God ; when without effort the
spirit responds joyously and naturally to the
promptings of the Holy Spirit of all life ; when
the " I " is " not I " but the " I " which has most
truly found itself in the life of another ; when
the "I" is "not I," but the Christ within
(Gal. ii. 20), yet not within only, but both with
out and within, making harmony between man
and his environment, between desire and duty,
between the self and the higher than self. For
such a man, all things work together for good.
Such are some of the advantages which arise
when religion is based on Personality, rather than
on a creed or a code.
On a person, then, the religion of the future
will be based ; on one who will supply both the
ideal and the power of the ideal.
The defect of the scientific creed is that it
supplies no ideal. There are excellent precepts,
there are strong reasonings, there are stern en
forcements, but there is no ideal. Its power of
looking forward is bounded by its power of look
ing backward, and its backward glance is limited
by the range of knowledge. But the spirit which
claims an ideal refuses such limitations ; it refuses

282 Religion and Personality. [Lect.

to believe that an arbitrary combination of virtues
can make up an ideal ; it asks for an ideal which
is free from the too obvious touch of the labouring-
tool, it asks for an ideal which exhibits that self-
evidencing touch of genius and inspiration, a royal
unity of conception.
But the religion of the future must not only
supply an ideal, but also a power ; a power, that
is to say, which shall enable men to rise towards
the ideal presented to their gaze. In that religion,
we must have not merely the high, pure, beautiful
life, the code of moral and spiritual activity, but
the hving, breathing, inspiring embodiment of
that ideal. From this alone can radiate that
quickening power, which can rouse and kindle
the desire and the endeavour of men. And where
shall we meet with this power ? The doctrine of
the new religion must satisfy these requirements,
must teach men that the force, which they need
in order to attain this ideal, is near to them and
available for their assistance.
Humanity needs not only a leader, but an
inspirer ; not only the guide who will go before
the people, but the life which will link itself with
them, which will bind up the broken in heart,
give strength to the faint and medicine to heal
the sicknesses of humanity. The recognition of
this need is at the root of those dreams of an

vn.] Religion and Personality. 283

Incarnation which we find scattered throughout
the religions of the world. Apotheosis which is a
land of inverted incarnation, and idolatry which is
its caricature, alike postulate the idea of person
ality. No religion has given in stronger, more
touching, or more dependable form the manifesta
tion of this idea of an Incarnation than Christianity.
She is distinguished in this, that she has not only
presented to the world an ideal which is unsur
passed, but that, moreover, she has proclaimed to
the world the presence of a power which will enable
men to grow towards the realization of that ideal.
She says not only, " Eise and follow this ideal, for
it is worthy," but she says that " the ideal life may
be formed in the hearts and characters of men."
But, it will be said, this is the thing for indi
viduals, and do you not know that philosophy
requires that man should not be regarded merely
as an individual, but as belonging to an organism
which is humanity? It is true, but the Chris
tianity which has a sweet message for the indi
vidual has also its grand message for the race.
She proclaims that the Incarnation was the
Incarnation of One, who should be not only the
type and the power of every individual life, but
also the power of the organic life of humanity.
The Incarnation, according to the Christian faith,
was not the conversion of the Godhead into

284 Religion and Personality. [Lect. vn.
flesh, but the taking of the manhood into God.
Thus it is witnessed that humanity lies wholly
within the grasp of God. In Christ, it is brought
into contact with Him who thus has over
shadowed it, and has breathed into it the power
of the regenerated life. Thus there is opened to
humanity the possibility of realising for the race
that golden dream of a social and political para
dise, which has been attempted by unpractical
dreamers, striven for by large-hearted philan
thropists, cried out for by the weary and the
toiling, but whose realization can never come
through the efforts of man, but through the power
of God. The ideal city, like the ideal man, de
scends out of Heaven from God. What then do
we see ? The religion of the future ; and the
religion of the future based upon personality,
upon personality in man, and upon that personality
in God which is above all personality. I see at
last the heavens open, and the angels of God are
ascending and descending, but the ladder of the
patriarch is gone, and that which binds heaven to
earth, and round which angelic light is hovering,
is a form like to the form of the Son of Man.

LECTUEE VIII.

THE EELIGION OF THE FUTURE.

The survival of Religion being probable, the question arises
¦whether any existing Faith can fulfil the conditions needful
for survival.
I. — The conditions needful.
(i.) Rehgion must—
1. Satisfy men's wish for unity.
2. Give guarantee of Permanence.
(ii.) Religion must supply the three elements —
Dependence, Fellowship, Progress.
(iii.) Religion must possess a Power of Inspiration.
II. — The application of these conditions to existing
Religions.
(i.) How far existing Faiths possess needful conceptions.
1. Non- Christian Systems —
Islam, Buddhism, Positivism.
2. Christianity.
(a) The three elements — Dependence, Fellowship and
Progress, (b) The test of unity and permanence.
(c) Some further features.
(ii.) The power of Inspiration.
1 . This both in subject and object of Rehgion.
2. The relation of this inspiring power to —
(a) Law of Environment. (6) Law of Organism.
(c) Law of Sacrifice, (d) Law of Indirectness.
3. This power jjervades Christianity.
Conclusion. — Changes of form may be expected, but Christianity
in its essential elements abides.

LECTUEE VIII.
THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE.
" Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the Angels of God
ascending and descending upon the Son of Man." — St. John i. 51.
TTTILL there be a religion in the future ? This
' ' was the question with which we began.
We have tried to reach an answer ; and the
answer has been that from our knowledge of
man's nature, and from the evident permanence
of that nature, it is at least unlikely that religion
will perish. In this view we are supported by
those who have studied the question from different
standpoints. For instance, M. Eenan says,
" Eeligion is the organisation of self-devotion.
Let no one therefore hope to dispense with re
ligion and religious associations." * Professor Max
Muller, to whose labours in this field we owe so
much, says : " I maintain that religion, so far from
being impossible, is inevitable, if only we are left
in possession of our senses." 2 Mr. Herbert Spencer,
1 " Hibbert Lect," p. 30. 2 " Origin of Religion," p. 32.

288 The Religion of the Future. [Lect.
who- has shown a deep interest in the future
prospects of religion, reminds us that the element
which gives rise to religious feeling is one which
is not likely to disappear from human life or
thought : " This consciousness of an incom
prehensible Power, called Omnipresent from
inability to assign its limits, is just that conscious
ness on which religion dwells." x
We may believe then, that religion will sur
vive ; but we are naturally led to further
questions. Will religion in the future be one or
many ? Is the germ of it extant ? If so, can we
find this germ in any known religion ?
I. — We shall endeavour to answer the first two
questions, in the belief, that we may thus dis
cover some tests by which to arrive at an answer
to the last question.
Will religion in the future be one or many?
We have seen that there is reason to believe
that religion will survive. It seems to me that
there are grounds for believing that in the future
there will be one religion for all mankind.
(i.) 1. First, there is the acknowledged craving
for synthesis, which will not be set aside. Man asks
for it, and remains restless till he finds either it
or something which he persuades himself is a
1 Quoted by J. B. Crozier, "Religion of the Future,"
p. 104.

viii.] The Religion of the Future. 289
substitute for it. The love of systems, the
striving to reduce everything to a law, the per
suasion that there is somewhere an eternal order,
illustrate this intellectual necessity. The im
patience of creeds shown by some is a pain to
others ; but it is one of the paradoxes of human
nature, that those most eager to maintain
certain forms of religious belief, and those most
impatient of them, may be seeking the same
thing. The same instinctive feeling lies at the
root of the obstinate conservatism of the one,
and of the destructive criticism of the other.
Both are eager for unity of thought and feeling
among men; both are earnestly desirous that
the principles which will express and maintain
this unity should be reached and manifested.
Both are aware of the fact, that forms are but
the expressions of things greater than all form.
One, however, sees in the special form of his
choice the expression of those principles which
he feels are needful, and which cannot other
wise be so fully expressed. The other man
is impatient of the forms which, as he believes,
half conceal the eternal principles which they
seek to express.
Much of the perplexity which surrounds our
thoughts to-day arises from the conviction of the
inadequacy of forms to express "the thing itself.' z

290 The Religion of the Future. [Lect.
All modes of expression are imperfect ; even the
intellectual Puritan must learn to put up with
much that is imperfect ; to tolerate the child-
language because it is spoken by children ; and in
doing so, he may, perhaps, even feel that he too
would be content to use the faulty speech of
childhood, if only he could have the child-heart
given back to him. The desire to reach the
underlying principles of life and thought ; the
behef that forms are but efforts to express the
thing itself; the longing to pass behind the forms,
and grasp the root from which they derive their
life ; these are ways in which a craving for the
divine synthesis shows itself. The faith of men
turns to rehgion in the belief that it is her function
to reveal this synthesis, or at least to supply some
unifying power to life if not to thought.
(a) The recognition of the unity of the race
points the same way. Men are grasping at
everything which gives promise of unity. The
nations of the world are dreaming of the brother
hood of man. In various quarters significant
attempts to give reality to this dream may be
noted. The worship of Humanity is a religion
with some. Commerce, science and navigation
draw closer the bonds of the world. The study
of history and of the laws which govern
life, exhibits the solidarity of the human

viii.] The Religion of the Future. 2gi
race. Again, the progress of the race is an
advance from lower to higher; such progress
makes more easy the recognition of the brother
hood of men. It is in the baser things that
men are divided. In regions where interest and
ambition, greed and self-glory have sway, men
find themselves at feud. In the higher regions
of faith, hope, kindliness, the discord ceases.
There was a stormy day in France when an angry
crowd were ready to sacrifice a woman as the
victim of their wrath ; in a moment of inspiration,
a friend gave a child into the terrified and
threatened woman's arms, and she passed through
the crowd in safety. The touch of Nature stilled
the storm of passion. It did more. It trans
figured the feelings of the people, by the influence
of a tenderness which rebuked their rage, and
cried, "Ye are brethren." It lifted them into
these higher regions in which manhood is one.
Armed with a like strength, bearing in her arms
the symbol of our common nature, rehgion may
yet appear, allaying men's baser passions and
bowing their hearts as the heart of one man.
The acceptance of one faith, as embodying the
eternal principles of rehgion, ceases to be impossible
when men have recognised the common blood,
and common ties, and common interests of all
mankind.

292 The Religion of the Future. [Lect.
It would seem therefore not over sanguine to
believe that the Eehgion of the Future will re
cognise and embody this growing desire for union.
Eeligion will hardly survive if it is the source of
division instead of the power of concord. When
we ask whether religion in the future will be one
or many, we feel justified in saying, " it will be
one." It may include varieties of thought and
feeling ; but it must supply a power of union to
mankind. It must realise, in some way, the hope
and prediction of the Prophet, that in a future
day, men would recognise one Lord and His name
as One.
We turn to our next question. Is the religion
of the future extant? Is its germ to be found
among us to-day ? Or are we to look for a religion
built on new lines, the outcome of new conditions ?
We look into the faces of the religions and
prophets which the world has seen and worshipped,
and we ask, "Art thou he that should come or do
we look for another?" As we ask the question,
we feel that it is possible to-day, as it was of old,
that the prophet and faith of the future are in our
midst. It is not given to every man to discern
the prophecy of power written on familiar
faces. It is not every one who sees the dove
descending on the Christ. There may stand
among us one whom we know not, but who yet

vm.] The Religion of the Future. 293
will baptise future generations with fire. It is
possible that the religion which is to rule in the
future may be among us to-day.
2. Is it too much to say that it is more than pos
sible, that it is next to certain that it must be so ?
Eehgion, if it is to survive, must have a pedigree
which defies the analysis of time. There is a
sense in which, if she is to be without end of days,
she must be without beginning of life also. We
sometimes, indeed, confuse the beginning of things
with their first manifestation; but we are living
too late in the world's history to be excused if we
make this confusion. The laws of gravity and the
laws of motion, as we call them, were at work
thousands of years before Newton and Kepler
proclaimed them. They embody principles which
stretch beyond the reach of known time ; they
defy change and they know no death. Like the
trees which the Heavenly Father has planted, they
cannot be rooted up.
Her basis must be eternal. She must draw her
light from Him who is before all time, if she is to
embody principles which are for all time. She
must reveal herself as belonging to every age.
She must be the bond between the humanity
which has passed away, and that humanity which
is, and that which is to come. Humanity in
deed, may paint religion in different colours

294 The Religion of the Future. [Lect.
and in different forms in different ages ; but the
essential principles of a religion must be those
of all time, or it is not a religion for man. It
cannot, therefore, owe its life to the ingenuity
or wisdom of any man ; it cannot be invented,
though it may be discovered. It cannot be
made, but like the best things it must grow.
If this be so, the essential elements of the future
religion must be in existence now. Whatever
manifestation of them may take place in the
future, whatever changes of form may be seen,
we may be sure that the seed and living principle
of the religion of the future will be no new
thing, but old as the eternal hills.
We are now in a better position to deal with
the further question. Will any of the religions
familiar to us supply the germ of the future
faith ? Is the cradle of the rehgion of the future
to be sought in the home of any existing creed ?
What religion among us is great enough, and holy
enough, to be the mother of the religion of the
ages to come ?
(ii.) We have seen that men look to religion to
supply unifying power, and that it must be for all
time, and not the mere creation of to-day or
yesterday. It must be one and eternal. It must
also minister to the never-failing demand of man
for Dependence, Fellowship, and Progress. . Its

viii.] The Religion of the Future. 295
conceptions must, therefore, be of an order to-
meet these conditions ; but even more is needed.
(iii.) Eeligions, like men, are great in proportion
as they combine great ideas with great personahty.
Greatness of thought wedded to greatness of soul
seldom fails to win its way to ascendancy. For,
while one defines the range of life, without the
other, life would lack inspiration. Like the sun,,
such characters rise upon the world gifted with
powers to illumine men's thoughts and kindle
men's hearts. Cold illumination is not enough -r
the fire must be burning upon the altar. Eeligion
must inspire as well as instruct.
Thus the question whether any existing religions
will supply the seed of the religion of the future
seems to depend upon two other questions, viz.,
Do they possess fitting conceptions ? Have they
the power of inspiration ?
II. (i.) The ideas or conceptions of religions
may be taken first.
1. In regard to non-Christian systems we have
seen that there are three elements needful and
demanded by man — Dependence, Fellowship, Pro
gress. We have already applied this threefold
test to various religions. We have seen that
Islamism meets the demand of Dependence, fails
to satisfy naturally the instinct of Fellowship,
and can scarcely be reckoned upon as affording

296 The Religion of the Future. [Lect.
any efficient stimulus towards Progress. In Bud
dhism we have found an attempt to meet the desire
for Fellowship ; but Buddhism supplies nothing
upon which man can rest, none upon whom he
can Depend ; and it offers no countenance to
Progress, seeing that it turns away from life as
evil. We have interrogated Positivism, and we
have found that in it the three elements are
apparently provided for. There is all nature for
man to Depend on ; all humanity for man to hold
Fellowship with ; and scientific order as the
guarantee of Progress. But it may be questioned
whether the satisfaction promised is not illusory.
Man is promised Dependence, but the object
offered for his trust is nothing higher than him
self. Instead of the relation between the weak and
¦one who is strong and good, we are put off with
the relation between ourselves as individual men
and humanity taken in the abstract. Instead
of an equation, we are offered an identity. The
satisfaction offered is only the idealized form of
that which asks the satisfaction. Man has gone
too far on the road of life to be satisfied with
such an offer as this. As Mr. Herbert Spencer
says, " The religious sentiment can never again
(unless by retrogression) take a Finite Knowable,
like Humanity, for its object of contemplation." J
1 " The Classification of the Sciences," p. 41.

viii.] The Religion of the Future. 297
The conceptions or ideas, therefore, of these
religions stand in relation to the threefold test we
have applied as follows : Islamism and Buddhism
must be reckoned as deficient and incapable of
meeting fully or adequately the demands of man
kind ; Positivism, on the other hand, shows itself
alive to this triple need of human nature, but the
satisfaction she offers is more theoretical than
real. We have now to ask, whether these religions
meet the requirements which the religion of the
future must fulfil, by possessing unifying force
and that characteristic which raises them above
any special time, and is the pledge of perpetuity.
We commence with Islamism. Has it unifying
force ? Has it power to meet the hopes and
desires of men for a religion which shall embrace
every race, complexion and character ? The
answer must be that Islamism is essentially rigid
and frigid. Islamism is great, but great as an
iceberg is great ; its tendency is to stiffen and
harden. Whenever, under more genial influences,
it melts to meet the needs of humanity, it
ceases to be Islamism. It was destined — such
is the view of those who have studied it —
to stereotype itself once for all and assume
unalterable shape. " Almost as old as Islam
itself, and destined to last as long, there stood

298 The Religion of the Future. [Lect.
and there stand immoveable the Koran and the
tradition." J
" So while the world rolls on from change to change.
And realms of thought expand,
The letter stands without expanse or range,
Stiff as a dead man's hand."
It can hardly supply the unifying force requisite
in a great religion of humanity.
It cannot claim perpetuity. There are indeed
elements in it which never die, but these are
common to other creeds. In its special
characteristics it is limited ; it is of an epoch ;
"it is a side branch of Christianity, or, better still,
as we should now say, of Judaism : a selection, as
it were, from Law and Gospel, made by an Arab
and for Arabs." J
Buddhism can hardly exhibit unifying power in
the world, seeing that, as we have shown, it turns
away from all life. It is true that sorrow, dis
appointment, the readiness to pronounce the
verdict that life itself is an evil, is a universal
feeling. But a religion which offers to man, as
the foundation principle of union, the vanity
and hopelessness of life, is superfluous ; we are
already united in sorrow ; we need no rehgion to
tell us this ; we need a religion which will unite
1 Kuenen, "Hibbert Lectures," p. 54. See Note 43, in
Appendix.

viii-] The Religion of the Future. 299
us with our suffering brothers in the bonds of
hope. But here Buddhism fails, and, in failing,
pronounces sentence of sterility in the future
upon itself. There is no golden age before the
Buddhist's eye. There is no "belief in the
ultimate triumph " of God over all, no " confident
trust in the realization of a moral ideal. This is
what Buddhism does not possess and cannot
give." x
Positivism, in a measure, meets the demands of
mankind for Dependence, Fellowship and Progress
as elements in a universal religion. Can it fulfil
the conditions of possessing unifying force and
independence of time ? In so far as it makes the
service of humanity an aim of its followers, it
possesses a capacity for drawing men together.
But a fatal difficulty, in its path to ultimate
success, is its avowed limitation to the things of
the present life and the existing visible world ; it
denies to itself any grasp upon the great eternity
of things; it is of time, and belongs to time; the
temple of humanity which it rears is vast in
structure, and noble in its proportions, but it has
no Holy of Holies, no shrine where the soul of
man can enter into the presence of the Eternal.
It is, at best, "the worship of man by man."
"He (Comte) succeeded in founding a true
1 Kuenen, " Hibbert Lectures," p. 291.

300 The Religion of the Future. [Lect.
mysticism on this narrow base." J But we feel
that the base is too narrow for the temple of
universal worship. The foundations of the temple
which will endure must not alone be built upon
the holy hills ; it must have foundations which
are not of time. Man cannot find the temple in
any city made with hands. It can only be found
in the city which hath the foundations and whose
builder and maker is God.
2. We have applied certain tests to certain
religions. It is our duty to apply the same to
Christianity. (a) We have already tested it in relation to the
three elements — Dependence, Fellowship, Pro
gress ; and we have seen that it possesses power
and fitness to meet these requirements of mankind.
It tells us of One on whom we may depend, with
whom we may hold fellowship, and in whose
strength we may fulfil our life and help forward
the progress of the world.
(b) Can it stand the twofold test? Does it come
to us with the promise of perpetuity and the
prestige of unifying power ?
Perpetuity. We must revert to the caution on
which we insisted in a previous Lecture. We are
interrogating Christianity; we are separating it
in our thoughts from Christianism. There are
1 Reville, " Prolegomena," p. 19.

viii.] The Religion of the Future. 301
many in the Christian Church who believe in
Christianism more than they do in Christianity.
Probably they do not know the difference, having
perhaps never thought upon the subject. But
many Christian people would feel no hesitation
in saying that they believed in a religion founded
by Christ, and called Christianity because it was
founded by Christ. But this is Christianism, not
Christianity. To treat the religion of Christ in
this way is to sin against the spirit of the religion
which we pretend to honour. There is no
word in the New Testament to sanction such a
thought. Our Lord and His apostles set up a far
nobler and larger conception. Jesus Christ did
not come to found a religion, except in a secondary
sense. He is not the founder of Christianity ; He
is its foundation. And even thus we do not
express all the truth, unless we see in Him the
foundation of all the higher faiths of men. He
came to make manifest eternal facts ; the mani
festation of these facts was a new revelation, but
it was not a revelation of things which were new
in themselves. The proclamation of these eternal
facts was the foundation of a new covenant, but
did not set up any new religion without root in
the past.
There was in the life of Christ a manifestation
of glory ; but it was a glory which He had with

302 The Religion of the Future. [Lect.
the Father before the world was, a glory which
men might fail to recognize, but which was
recognized in heaven and by those who were
heavenly-minded. Only pure hearts could see
God ; and only loving and pure spirits could see
that the glory of life consisted in purity, sacrifice,
and love. There was the manifestation of a mystery,
but it was a mystery which existed beforehand ; it
was unrevealed, but existing, a mystery which in
these ages was not made known to the sons of
men. The events of our Lord's life took place in
time ; but in the eye of the Christian Apostle
these too were not of time. The Eedeemer,
who hung upon the Cross on Calvary, was
"the Lamb slain from the foundation of the
world." (Eev. xiii. 8.) No new principles
came into existence with what we call Chris
tianity; even those which seemed to be new
were eternal. Jesus Christ did not invent a
rehgion, He revealed the laws of the eternal
kingdom of God ; laws older and more abiding
than the laws by which rivers run and planets
move. Christianity was the manifestation of
eternal principles ; it was the making known of the
kingdom of God. Against any conceptions of
it, which tended to give it a time-born foundation,
St. Paul contended. When they cried at Corinth,

viii.] The Religion of the Future. 303
" I am of Paul, of Apollos, of Cephas," he rebuked
the partizans, not only as partizans, but as those
who would limit Christianity, making it a
Paulinism or a Petrinism ; he would not suffer
them to say " I am of Christ," lest Christianity
should degenerate into a Christianism. To say
so was to alter the conception of the faith, and to
view it as a novel religion founded by Christ. He
said with tender earnestness, " Ye are Christ's ; "
he recognized the love which had redeemed them ;
but the love, which he saw there, was no love
which had its birth in time — it was eternal. He
carried them to the source of life and love. " Ye
are Christ's, and Christ is God's." (1 Cor. iii. 23.)
But has Christianity unifying force? Is not
Christianity exclusive ? In one sense, Christianity
is intolerant. She refuses to be classed among
other religions. She declares that she is not
one religion among many of equal or varying
respectability and authority ; she claims to
be everything or nothing. But the principle
which lies at the root of this intolerance is, when
rightly understood, the principle which makes
Christianity magnanimous, tender, and tolerant.
She refuses to be classed with other religions,
for she refuses to enter into rivalry with them.
She does not claim in their sense to be a religion ;
she views the contests of rival systems, with the

304 The Religion of the Future. [Lect.
calm self-possession of one who dwells in a region
wholly different from theirs, and above the reach
of storms. She is not a religion competing with
others for man's attention ; she seeks not her own
glory ; she asks men to observe the laws of the
kingdom in which they dwell ; and to believe in
that kingdom which, being the Kingdom of God,
is eternal and above the small systems of men.
She claims to bring into fuller view the light which
was before all the wisdom and opinions of men,
which dwelt among them often unseen, sometimes
half apprehended. She reveals the eternal order
which was before the consciousness of men, and
before the existence of systems and the creeds of
churches. Christianity truly understood is the
manifestation of eternal facts— He who is its light
was the light of this world in all ages, shining
more and more unto the perfect day.
It is needful to realize this claim. When grasped
firmly, it saves timid Christian people from needless
fears and causeless doubts. Many, for instance,
are anxious on what they call the claim of Chris
tianity to originality. It is the survival of a foolish
controversy which has existed too long, and chiefly
from a want of understanding Christianity.
There was a time in which Christian apologists
refused to see good in any other religious system.
AVhen any good element was pointed out in

viii] The Religion of the Future. 305
a non-Christian system, they were eager to
prove that it was derived by some side stream
from the Christian or Jewish Scriptures. For
a time the Christian apologist had matters
his own way. Now the argument is plied
on the other side. There are men eager to
prove that every characteristic feature of Chris
tianity has been derived from some other system.
It owes its virtue and teaching to the Therapeutse.
It is an offspring of transplanted Buddhism. It
is needless to enumerate further. There are those
who would deny to it every vestige of originality.1
Extremists are seldom right, because extremists
are mostly men who have a theory to maintain,
and who are apt to overlook some obvious principle.
The apologist who sought to strip all good from
every system but Christianity, and the antagonist
who denies every good to Christianity, are alike
in their misapprehension. They incline to the
belief that originality is a test of truth. Origi
nality is a cant word, and is, in its current sense, a
very poor ambition for men or systems. There
is only one originality worth striving for, and that
is truth. All truth is original in a large sense.
It is original because it is of the eternal origin
and order of things. In this way, all real
originality in men is but a brightness shining in
1 See Appendix, Note 44. A A

3o5 The Religion of the Future. [Lect.
them from the eternal light. Christianity there
fore may well be heedless of the ambition of being
called original. She is original, because she mani
fests facts and truths original in the order of the
kingdom of God. But she has no sympathy with
the schoolroom squabbles of men and systems who
wrangle like boys over the question, " Who said
it first?"
Christianity is the manifestation of facts, laws,
and principles which are eternal — not first created
when Christ appeared, but then brought into
clearer and fuller manifestation. Christianity does
not deny the brightness and splendour of those
beams of light which in all ages shone amongst
men.1 She points to them in proof of the eternal
basis of the kingdom of God. She throws new
meaning into truths which men had already
perceived. She draws together the scattered
beams which men saw, but did not wholly
comprehend; and uniting them, she is able to
diffuse throughout the world a purer light. She
takes freely the loaves which are handed to her by
wise and the good ; and the holy bread multiplies
in her hands, stretched out to feed the famine of
the world. She collects the scattered fragments
of marble ; she reconstructs the broken statue
and its beauty becomes a joy to men. She does
1 See Appendix, Note 45.

viii.] The Religion of the Future. 307
more, she touches the dead image and it lives.
Thus, she comes not to destroy, but to save. She
does not seek to make a new system, but to open
men's eyes to the kingdom which was always
there. In this way she proclaims the One Life
which is the life of all — the One Light which
is the light of all — the One God who is the
Father of all.
(c) The value of this light diffused by
Christianity will become more evident, as we
examine some of the characteristic ideas which
she gives to the world, and notice how these
meet and satisfy men's thoughts and dreams.
Take for instance the idea of God.
There are obvious difficulties in the way of
presenting the thought of God to men. If He
be God, He must be the Universal Sovereign ;
but also if He is to be God truly to men, men
must be sure of His friendship. Men's thoughts
have on these matters run into extremes. In their
wish to preserve the idea of God's sovereignty,
they have sacrificed His nearness to man. To
make Him great, they have banished Him from
man. This has been the tendency of Deism. To
bring Him near, they have identified Him with
the work of His own hands, and, in their effort
to realise His nearness, they have lost Him as
God. This has been the tendency of Pantheism.

308 The Religion of the Future. [Lect.
To steer a middle course between these ex
tremes is needful. Christianity, like every other
system of faith, has to meet this difficulty ; and
she does so by presenting the idea of God as that
of the Father. This idea of the Fatherhood of
God is regarded by Professor Max Muller as
specially characteristic of Christianity.1 And it
meets the difficulty. There is no danger that
by this thought God will be thrust far away
from men. The Heavenly Father knows what
things they have need of. There is no fear that
the thought of God will be lost in the works of
His hands. He, who is the Father of men, gives the
rain and the fruitful seasons, clothes the flowers
in their beauty and watches the bird in her flight.
He who is Father is also God of all. " One is our
Father, which is in heaven." (St. Matt, xxiii. 9.)
Or examine the same idea in the hght of the
needs of men. The search which man made for
God has been described as the search for the
principle of fatherhood. " Men wanted a Father
in heaven, who should take count of their efforts
and assure them of a recompense." 2 The process
of their search has been stated by Professor Max
Muller ; he says that they have passed through
three stages, the first in which they were tempted
1 " Biographical Essays," p. 120.
2 Renan, " Hib. Lect.," p. 42.

viii.] The Religion of the Future. 309
to say " God is not a Father," the second in which
they said with hope, " God is like a Father," and
the third the stage of a happy assurance when
they said God is a Father.1
The craving of man, therefore, was for the
recognition of God as his Father. Eeligious con
ceptions have not always fully grasped the
fatherly idea of God ; men ran to extremes.
Augustine and Calvin, no less than Mahommed,
were inclined to push God far away. Looking
npon Him as the Supreme Euler, the Absolute
Sovereign of the universe, they were tempted to
dwell upon His arbitrary power till the thought of
His fatherly care dropped into the background ;
losing the wholesome doctrine of Fatherhood, men
lapsed away from all that was highest and best in
religious life. "Without it," says Dr. Fairbairn, " the
religions of the West had perished amid license
and apathy, while the more fervid spirits of the
East took refuge in the thought of annihilation." 2
Nor is the importance of the idea of Father
hood less evident when we come to modern times.
The notion of God, as an absolute and irre
sponsible ruler, is needlessly at variance with the
spirit of modern scientific thought. We are
reminded of this by Mr. Fiske, who says : " It "
1 " Origin of Religion," p. 228.
2 " Studies in the Philosophy of Religion," p. 56.

310 The Religion of the Future. [Lect.
— that is, the Deistic conception of God — " is
chiefly responsible for that complicated misunder
standing which, by a lamentable confusion of
thought, is commonly called the conflict between
rehgion and science." And again he says : " It is all
the more instructive to note how closely Athanasius
approaches the confines of modern scientific
thought, simply through his fundamental concep
tion of God as the indwelling life of the universe." x
It would seem then that, when the ideas of God
sink below the true Christian level, the mis
understandings and conflicts between knowledge
and faith increase; but, when the higher Chris
tian idea of God prevails, conflict disappears.
Knowledge and faith become then united as
children of the same family, and as joint ministers
to the needs, the thoughts, and the hopes of
humanity. In the recognition of God as the
Eternal Father, we avoid the dangers which arise
from naked Deism; we are saved from falling
into the confusions of Pantheism ; we satisfy both
the scientific spirit and the rehgious spirit alike.
In other words, the conception of God which
is offered by Christianity is that which avoids
the pitfalls into which the religionist of the past
has fallen.
Again, the conception of man presented by
1 " The Idea of God," pp. 96, 86.

viii.] The Religion of the Future. 311
Christianity is equally helpful. If God is the
Father of man, man is the child of God, and a
child who is therefore under the educating hand
and care of wisdom and love. Life here is the
carrying forward of man's education, the gradual
ripening under the trials, temptations, and
sorrows of life, of his moral and spiritual character.
The Sermon on the Mount shows that this was
Christ's view of life. He held up before us the
true aim and end of life ; it was not wealth, it was
not success, it was simply character, and the per
fection of character meant resemblance to Him
who is our Father. From the beginning to the
end, His sweet and divine words are the pleadings
of One who wishes men to realize how greatly
God cares for them, how ceaseless is His love, how
earnest is His desire that they should ripen like
the corn under the changing seasons of life, into
that perfection which can make glad the heart of
God, as when the father sees the features and the
form of perfect manhood growing in the life of his
son. Nor was this all. Before men's eyes this
aim was made still more clear, by the simple and
noble ideal and example set before them. To
grow like to God men must realize what God was
like ; they could guess at His power and acknow
ledge His wisdom, but how could they form a true
conception of His character ? The ideal and

312 The Religion of the Future. [Lect.
pattern took human form, and lived and breathed
in the life of Christ. The ideal was not that of
the acquisition of power, the achievement of
success, or the display of dazzling wisdom ; it was
the manifestation of a perfect character ; the ideal
was moral and spiritual.
It has indeed been objected, that the Christian
ideal gives undue prominence to the more
feminine virtues ; that it makes more of charity
than of justice, more of purity than of courage,
more of humility than of decision. But it is for
gotten that there is comparatively little need to
emphasise the more masculine virtues. The
teaching of Christ will be found on examination
to take for granted the value of those masculine
virtues. The man who has to make money by
trading must be a man of force, of courage, of
alertness. The man who would build his tower
must possess decision, prudence, and a certain
heedlessness of the derision of his fellow men. It
can never be said that to bear the Cross needs
the exercise of the softer virtues only. But there
is a reason why it was needful to give prominence
to the more feminine virtues. Masculine energy
resembles talent which sees what has to be done,
and exerts itself in a regardless, perhaps un
scrupulous, way to attain it. The feminine virtues
are more analagous to genius, which catches, in

viii.] The Religion of the Future. 313

quietness and in retirement, inspirations which
seldom reach the more stormy soul. It has often
been the gentle and timid spirit which has risen to
acts of heroism and self-devotion impossible to one
who possessed merely the masculine virtues. And
the reason is simple : such a soul, like genius, lies
more open to inspiration. As woman's enthusiasm
in her more exalted moments puts to shame the
more prudent courage of man, so the possession
of what are called feminine virtues has often
been a source of higher and more conspicuous
heroism than could have been achieved by force
or firmness or courage. But let this pass.
Christianity did not depreciate the manly virtues
when she insisted on the need of sweetness and
purity. In Christ an ideal was set up which is
practically accepted. It has been pointed out, by
a writer of deep insight and careful thought, that
the ideal figure which has survived all the conflicts
and anxieties of centuries is the ideal set up by
Christ.1 Men recognised that that ideal met all
their needs ; the active virtues and the passive
virtues were alike included in it. It has survived,
and, if it has survived, science must admit that it
was the fittest ideal.
It satisfied them because it witnessed against all
iMatheson, " Can the Old Faith hve with the New?" ch
xiv., p. 384, et seq.

314 The Religion of the Future. [Lect.
forms of weakness and sin, and men will be
satisfied with no faith which does not • set itself
against the moral evil, not only in the world, but
in themselves. But the idea of redemption and
the idea of fatherly care brought hope to all, and
with it the inspiration of endeavour ; for though
the ideal was high and beyond his dreams, it was
no impossible ideal to him who was the child of
God. God had stretched forth His hand and en
dowed him in Christ with the opportunity of
reaching the best and noblest ideal. The revela
tion of Sonship was the revelation of a Divine
education. There was now within reach that
high character and holy image, which, without
Divine help, was an impossibility and a despair.
Once more, the conception of the kingdom of
God presented by Christianity is in accord with
the widest and; truest views of life. There has
been a vain and foolish struggle between the
religionist and the secularist. Both have missed
the mark, because both have lost sight of the
fulness of life in the division which they sanctioned
between the sacred and secular. Christianity re
cognised no such division ; nothing was secular in
a kingdom which was wholly God's. The king
dom proclaimed by Christ was a kingdom which
was everywhere and all-embracing. All life, and
all life's powers were embraced within its scope.

vm.] The Religion of the Future. 315
A modern writer, after saying that the conception
of the kingdom of God was a chief factor in the
genesis of Christianity, shows that in this idea "it
joins in every legitimate effort of individuals or of
the peoples who profess it ; " " strikes right into the
course of their development, and gives it the true
direction, the genuine inspiration, the higher con
secration."1 It is easy to see what flows from this.
The Divine hand is in everything. The Divine
Spirit is everywhere. The gifts of God are sacred
gifts, though they may be employed in what we
call secular hfe. No gift comes but behind it
comes also the grace — if men will but receive it —
to use their gift aright. No duty is put before
men, but that the ever-present help of God is near
to enable them to rise to the doing of it. The
infirmities which spring from sin, the weaknesses
which are hereditary, the despairs which are born
of the experience of life, all are free of the help
which heaven is even more eager to give than
humanity is to receive. Hope may visit every
human heart and every human home, since the
sense of Divine power and Divine sympathy in
every department of life brings to humanity the
conviction, that the progress of the world which is
desired by men is dear also to the heart of God.
Thus in the conception of God presented by
1 Kuenen, " Hib. Lect." p. 291. 2 Appendix, Note 46.

316 The Religion of the Future. [Lect.
Christianity, in her conception also of man's
position, and in the idea which she puts forward
concerning the kingdom of God, she gives to the
world what the world has wanted, and she avoids
those extreme views which, embraced with eager
ness, end by provoking the sense of helplessness.
To mankind she declares that all things are
tending towards a golden age ; to the individual
she says, God is educating you that you may grow
like Himself. And all this is true, because God is
neither the arbitrary monarch which was conceived
of by Mahomet, nor the impersonal All which the
Orientalist imagined, but One who in the bright
ness of His perfection, and in the tenderness of
His love, is the Father of all.
(ii.) But a religion must be tested by the force
of its inspirations as well as by the fitness of its
conceptions. We have seen how the principles of Christianity
meet the needs which are recognised by men's
thoughts. But behind the sanctuary of holy
thoughts there is a Holy of Holies. Behind the
thoughts to which religion gives expression, there
is its spirit. Its secret strength lies there. The
author of the "Patience of Hope" reminded us
that there were books which, though not osten
sibly religious, were really religious, and more
fully so than many a formal treatise on faith. A

viii.] The Religion of the Future. 317
theological work may be irreligious ; a literary or
scientific work maybe eminently religious. This
is a way of stating the well-known truth that
the spirit is more than the letter, "the life
more than meat, and the body than raiment."
(St. Luke xii. 23.) It is possible, then, that
a religion may present conceptions eminently
fitted to satisfy men's thoughts, and yet fail
to inspire them with the ardour of goodness.
Its form may be good, but the spirit which ani
mates it may be a spirit far from religious. It
becomes then a question of interest, what will be
the spirit of the religion of the future ? I think
there can be but one answer : the religion of the
future will be animated by Love. There are good
grounds for this assertion. Differing schools of
thought recognise this need, and seek to promote
the spirit of love. Men proclaim Altruism, "the
service of man," " the brotherhood of the race,"
and in doing so express their belief that only
in love can the true spirit of the religion of
the future be found. But the preaching of a
doctrine is not the inspiration of a life ; and in the
proclamation of Altruism, or " the service of man,"
or the "brotherhood of humanity," we only
possess intellectual conceptions of religion, and
these are inadequate. A moment's reflection will
show that these are, at the best, only affirmations

31 8 The Religion of the Future. [Lect.
of the duty of hfe. They are like excellent and
weU-planned machinery ; the construction is per
fect, but the power of movement is still wanting.
You preach to men the duty of love and service
and brotherhood, but who will create in man the
spirit which responds to your appeal, and which
triumphs over egotism and selfishness ? Man
needs not only theories but inspirations. The
religion of the future must not only tell a man
what he ought to do, it must also bring with it
the inspiring force which will create in him the
desire to do it. Hence the need of the religion of
the future is an inspiring love.
1. But seeing that love only can create love,
love must be found in the Object of worship
as well as in the heart of the worshipper.
In other words, the religion of the future must
be based upon a Person rather than an idea. In
the recognition of this truth will be found the
synthesis of religion and morals. Knowledge be
comes virtue and virtue becomes knowledge1 in
the relationship between God and man ; to know
God is to be like Him, and to be like God is to
know Him, and this can only be when religion is
a bond between living beings and the Living One,
whose breath is their life, from whom they came
and to whom they go. We may take it for granted,
1 See Appendix, Note 47.

viii.] The Religion of the Future. 319
then, on every account, that the religion of the
future must be a religion inspired by love.
2. It will be well to point out the wide bearing of
this conclusion. Go back in thought to the four
laws of which we spoke in our first lecture :
"as we think, we are;" "as we are, we see;"
" sacrifice is the root of progress ; " " indirectness
is the law of sacrifice." Now what do these
amount to? The first is equivalent to saying
that there is no religion without a creed, that
is, without ideas. The second is equivalent to
saying there is no religion without character,
that is, without moral fitness and affinity in man.
The third is equivalent to saying there is no
perfection of character without sacrifice ; and the
fourth is equivalent to saying there is no sacrifice
without fire. Now if these four laws be true, it
seems clear that they can only be provided for by
a religion of love. The reasons are these : —
(a) Love alone can give the interpretation of life
aright. Our first law was, "as we think, we are;"
that is, a religion must present men with ideas.
These ideas should supply a key to life's perplexity
and difficulty. Life is capable of opposing interpre
tations. The pessimist can see in it abundant
reasons for his pessimism : everything is dark ;
hope is dim ; failure is frequent, all is vanity,
men are more vicious than virtuous. So into

320 The Religion of the Future. [Lect.
gloom the pessimist would lead us. But it is
possible to interpret life in an opposite way. The
optimist bids us look at the eternal upspringing
of hope ; he asks us to behold the flowers, and to>
sit in the sunshine, and to see how life to most
creatures is but joy. Life is like a game of chess ¦:
the pessimist sees only the victory of the black
pieces, and the optimist only that of the white.
But neither of them quite sees the real value of
the game, which is not in the victory of white
over black, or black over white ; the victory is
nothing, the game is the thing ; the colour of the
men is nothing, but the intellectual practice is
everything. Whether the player is victor or
vanquished he may gain good, his powers of
observation, reflection and self-control have been
exercised. This inward good is the real gain from
the game. It is thus that love would teach us about
life. " As we think, we are." If we think that life
is to be interpreted by its pleasing successes, then
we shall become self-complacent, as the optimist ;
or, if we think that it is to be interpreted by its
disastrous failures, we shall become cynical, as the
pessimist. But if we think of love as behind all
that we see, if faith has taught us that education
is the end of life, and that inward good wrought
in man is more than man's worldly success or
worldly failure, that the game and the practice of

viii.] The Religion of the Future. 321
the game is the thing which the Divine Love has
in view, then the interpretation of life becomes
a happier and a truer one. Life is discipline,
education ; there is an unseen good greater than
vulgar and shallow worldliness can perceive.
Seeing this, we learn that by our onesidedness
and selfishness we may be wronging Him, who
orders all things by a wisdom and a love larger
than our knowledge.
We may understand this by reflecting on our
own experience. How often have we done our
best, sincerely endeavoured to do what was right
and just towards man, and yet have only been
met by the accusation of base motives. We have
grown indignant. We pour out words of scorn
against the base world, which cannot believe in
good intentions because it is base itself. May it
not be that we, too, have misinterpreted God?
God is unknowable, we say. It is true that there are
depths in Him which we cannot fathom, heights
which we cannot climb ; to our poor faihng
intellects God may be unknowable, but the
reproach, which will visit us in the other world,
will not be that we have deemed God unknowable,
but that we have so often misinterpreted Him.
In misunderstanding Him and disbeheving in the
goodness of His government, we not only do Him
wrong ; but in wronging Him we wrong also
B B

322 The Religion of the Future. [Lect.

ourselves. " As we think, we are." As are our
thoughts of God, and as are our interpretations
of life, so are we ourselves. Disbehef in goodness
becomes pain, and afterwards degradation ; like
Timon, vexed at our failure, often the result
of our own stupidity, we refuse to beheve in
the faithfulness and good of our dearest friend.
Like Hamlet, having met with disappointment
in the object we deemed pure and good, we
leap to the conclusion that there is no purity
and goodness anywhere. Like Othmar, we have
lived with good, but we have rejected it and
disbelieved in its purity, its loyalty and its truth,
and we wake up like Othmar at last to find that
our obstinate disbelief in goodness is visited with
its penalty ; the good angel of our life perishes
from our side, and we are left poorer and sadder
by the loss. It is wise to think that we may have
been wrong with regard to God ; we may have
been wrong in our interpretation of life. If the
end which is set before us be the education of our
characters, then we shall not think it strange that
we are called on to struggle, permitted to fall,
given the experiences of success, and exposed to
the vicissitudes and the seasonal trials of life,
" Esteeming sorrow, whose employ
Is to develop, not destroy,
Far better than a barren joy."

viii] The Religion of the Future. 323
For it is thus that a Divine Love deals with us,
that in the end we may become possessed of that
wealth which the world cannot take away, the
spiritual wealth of a perfected and developed
character. Notwithstanding then our feebleness
and our misrepresentations, after all God may be
Love. It is certain that only the religion which
proclaims the love behind all hfe will meet and
satisfy men in the future.
(Jo) But again, love alone gives the standpoint
for the interpretation of life. Our second law is,
" as we are, we see; " that is to say, each man's
character is as a view-point, from which he beholds
the world ; what is wanted is the true view-point.
To behold the sweep and beauty of the landscape
aright we must take the elevated ground ; to
understand the action and conduct of men we
must stand where they stand. The criticism
which is levelled against public men is often
unfair, because it is criticism made by those who
occupy a different standpoint, and cannot see
things as they do.
" Who would the poet understand,
Must go with him to the poet's land."
The cheap critic of the kitchen or of the attic may
be mistaken in his estimate of a great man. The
French saying, " To know all is to pardon all,"

324 The Religion of the Future. [Lect.
expresses this truth ; if we could only stand where
we could fairly survey all the conditions, inheri
tances, temptations, difficulties, and complications
of a man's life, we should understand and be tender
to his errors. " Put yourself in his place," we often
say, as if we felt that only when we stand where
the derided or the criticised man stands can we
possibly perceive the meaning of his actions,
measure the amount of his failure, or understand
the greatness of his success.
But how shall we do this in the case of God ?
We cannot stand where God stands, or view the
universe with His eye, or measure its march with
His wisdom. The agnostic tells us it is impos
sible to know God ; we must let such knowledge
alone for ever. It is true that we cannot under
stand all His ways. His thoughts are very deep.
But it is not true that we cannot understand Him.
What He does we may not know now ; we must
wait for the hereafter ; but what He is we may
know. There is one choice spot to which we can
climb, and climbing there we can stand at His
side, and see the world with eyes anointed of God.
There is one temple into which we may enter and
surely meet with Him, and meeting with Him
we shall hear the music of the universe, not
understanding it all, but marking the keynote to
which every melody is set. That choice spot is

viii] The Religion of the Future. 325
the eminence of Love. That temple is the
Temple of Love. The keynote of all the music
of all the world is assuredly Love. But only on
that eminence and only in that Temple is God
understood. As the eye is needed to behold
beauty and the ear to catch melody, so Love is
needed that we may know God. He who loves
stands where God stands, and may see the world
with the eyes of God. God is Love. " He that
dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and God in
him." (1 St. John iv. 16.) If we could climb
to this point, if our hearts could be filled with
deep and measureless love, how much that now
perplexes and saddens us would be clearer !
Where love dwells there is a double gain. Love
has a power of vision ; love is the friend and not
the servant that knoweth not what his Lord
doeth. (St. John xv. 15.) But love is blind also.
She too confesses her sweet and patient agnos
ticism ; she is content to wait, for her Lord has
said, " What I do, thou knowest not now, but
thou shalt know hereafter." (St. John xiii. 7.)
She has the source and the solace of her patience,
seeing that, even when she cannot understand,
she loves. And as she loves, she stands on that
hill whence indeed she may not descry all
God's wondrous works, but where God Himself
may be seen and known. Love is the instrument

326 The Religion of the Future. [Lect.
of that knowledge. God is not to be discovered
by analysis, nor understood by argument. He
will not be found by exploration of the universe,
by mere investigation of the dry facts of life. " I
have searched the heavens for years," said one,
"and I have not found God." No sane man
expected that he would. We do not test friend
ship by the stethescope, nor God by telescope or
microscope. We do not know man by dissection,
we know him by something higher and nobler
than physical analysis. We may examine his
brain, his sinews, his bones, his arteries, but we
shall not find in them the touch of his genius,
the breadth of his wisdom, or the force of his
love. We must live with him, and then, though
from a scientific standpoint we cannot fully trace
the movements of his inward life, we shall know
him. The key to hfe's deepest things is not so far
away as the intellectual pride and untamed ambi
tions of men believe. It is not in Heaven for some
Prometheus' hand to pluck it down ; it is not in the
dark places explorable only by profound wisdom :
it is near ; the key is in the hand of daily kind
nesses and in the heart of daily love. The simple
may hold it when the sage has forgotten it, or flung
it away. Love knows love. Man may know God,
as the child who knows little of his father's
thoughts, but who yet knows his father and

viii] The Religion of the Future. 327
stretches out his tiny hands for greeting or
embrace. But alas for us ! how many of us,
spoiled by life, forget the sweet child-nature and
shut ourselves up in dark despair, when the key,
the golden key, is still within our bosom as long
as our hearts can beat with love of what is good.
The recollection of this may enable us to
perceive that there is a truth, which underlies
the teaching (hateful to so many), that unbelief
is a sin.
Inabihty to recognise intellectually the truth of
certain theological dogmas is not a sin. But there
is a sense in which unbelief maybe a sin. " As we
are, we see." The reason that we do not see
may arise from moral as well as from intellectual
causes. If we have lost the power of love, and
cannot therefore see the love which lies around us,
then the fault is in ourselves, and such fault
surely is a sin. It is not simply inteUectual defect
which causes the child to leap to the conclusion
that he will no longer trust his father, because
his father does some things which are hard to
understand. Is it too much to say that some of
the hard things said about God betray want of
heart no less than want of head ? For example,
God's apparent inconsistencies are made much
of by the literalist who insists on what he calls
consistency ; he cannot understand the flexibility

328 The Religion of the Future. [Lect.
and variations of method which are so character
istic of love. Shallow and idle chatterers, narrow-
headed and stony-hearted, are ready enough to
cry out that God's ways are not equal ; but love
understands that mutability of method may pro
ceed from immutability of love. The captain
may still be making for the port when he tacks to
meet the varying gale. Love may now pipe to
ns and may now mourn, but love, understanding
love's unchanging earnestness as manifested in
the changing experiences of life, is able to see
what is unseen by the heart which cannot love.
(c) Our third law is — sacrifice is essential to
progress. Sometimes indeed we are angered at
what we call the apparent needlessness and heed
lessness of the sacrifice required in life. But
suppose that sacrifice on our part is the oppor
tunity God gives us of promoting good. Suppose
that He means us to understand that in this way
we shall best make known the highest good, then
we may be content that life should be full of
sacrifice. The men of Thermopylae, who laid
down their lives for their country's good, did not
understand indeed all that their sacrifice achieved.
We, who look back upon it, know that when they
stood and died there that day, the voice of the
Divine wisdom and love was saying to them,
" This is the sacrifice I ask on behalf of freedom,

viii.] The Religion of the Future. 329
your death will minister to the world, and you
will illuminate the ages with the light of hberty."
It is the same in the case of suffering which is
inherited. The man is born bhnd ; it is a hard
case, no fault of his can be urged, but how does
Christ interpret it ? Through this infirmity
of his the works of God were to be known.
(St. John ix.) If pain and weakness become the
means of higher revelations to men, who will not
be content to suffer? Human hfe becomes
exalted as man recognizes that not out of caprice,
but for the sake of making man through pain the
instrument of good to others, does suffering enter
into his lot. IT the blow, which causes the
string to quiver as in pain, brings forth music
to make men glad, the thrill of anguish is
abundantly repaid. Did we know what power
lies in weakness, we should, like the Apostle,
glory in our infirmities. Men who start in
life deprived of the powers needful for temporal
success are, like those who play a game of chess,
deprived of their best piece. It is little matter.
The game is the thing. The difficulty of playing
the game with enfeebled forces is greater, but the
very difficulty which they encounter is the sign
that a larger trust is reposed on their skill. The
need of greater thought, and more adroit manage
ment, brings its reward of more fully exercised

330 The Religion of the Future. [Lect.
judgment. Increased skill is a better reward than
victory. The pains and sacrifices of hfe have a
recompense, and the man who seems to lose his
life may be the man who most fully finds it.
(d) Fourthly, there is no real sacrifice without
Love. If the fire of love is not there, the sacrifice
is not acceptable. Great sacrifices need the conse
cration of inspired motives.1 Such inspirations
destroy self-consciousness. Sacrifice offered with
the full consciousness that it is sacrifice, and
accompanied by the sense of merit in making it, is
not perfect sacrifice. Energy of will, it must be
remembered, is not the same thing as perfection
of character. Sacrifice indeed tends to the
perfecting and energizing of our will, but energy
is nothing without inspiration. Self-consciousness
spoils sacrifice, even though the self-oblation be
consummated with commanding energy. The
perfection of the fruit is not its size but its
flavour. Perfection of character is not found in
the greatness of the sacrifice, but in its beauty.
Perfection of character is only reached when the
sacrifice, made for the sake of good, is not so
much felt to be meritorious as to be simply
natural. Very moral men may be very conceited men ;
chivalrous men may be proud, being conscious how
1 See Note 48, Appendix.

vin] The Religion of the Future. 331
chivalrous they are ; and the altruist may probably
be the greatest egotist. For perfection we need to
sweep away the conceit of egotism and the pride
of men; as long as these remain, human
character is defective. Love alone can sweep these
away. Love, like fire, burns ; unworthy feelings
perish at her presence. This is that fire from
heaven which consumes the sacrifice — making the
sacrifice the more real, and yet the less visibly a
sacrifice. Love's offering is ever the whole burnt
offering. Her sacrifice is full, perfect and com
plete, free from pride and self-consciousness. The
mother does not pride herself on her devotion when
she dashes into the flames to save her child. The
true hero does not know that he is a hero. Christ
Himself laid down His life freely, without the
consciousness of His own heroism, but as One
who felt that the sacrifice that He made in life and
in death was necessary and natural to Him. It was
His meat and drink to do His Father's will. Love,
love to His Father, love to the world, was the law
of His being and the motive force of His life.
3. For the perfection of character the crown of
love is wanted. Sacrifice is essential to character ;
love can give us the true standpoint for the inter
pretation of life ; and love recognised behind the
world makes us content with life. The religion of the
future must be a religion of love. Where then is

332 The Religion of the Future. [Lect.
such a religion to be found ? If men are to look
anywhere among the existing faiths of the world for
the religion of the future, they will nowhere find a
religion of love better realised than in the faith
which Christ taught. Doubtless there is much in
popular Christianity which would be more fitly
called Christianism than true Christianity; the
clay clings to the pure ore, the tares mingle with
the wheat ; these will disappear in the future. The
great cathedral has been hemmed in by ungainly
structures. Bound transept and choir crowd
huts and shanties which hinder our view of the
stateliness of its walls or the majesty of its
proportions ; but these cannot count as original
blemishes, the glory of the fabric is distinct from
these. These are additions, which time and the
growing sense of order, fitness and beauty will
remove. Criticism, whose rude touch sometimes
makes us fear for the future, will aid in this work,
and will restore to the building its pristine glory.
The accretions of time will vanish ; the everlasting
elements will remain. Before these, the additions
which time and human weakness have made, are
as nothing. Nothing can rob Christianity of
the glory which she possesses of giving to men
the very things which history shows that man
has needed.1 She gives them those right and
1 See Appendix, Note 49.

viii] The Religion of the Future. 333

high views of life which foster in men the power
of right feeling. She tells men that God is Love,
and men, learning this, gather fresh courage for
the duties of life. Knowing that they are loved,
they learn to love ; and learning to love, they
learn to know God. Knowing that love alone
can know God, in learning to know Him they
begin to grow like Him. The love is no dream ;
for Christianity speaks of the power of an in
carnate love, which makes it easier for men to
know God. She, in common with other creeds,
points to the necessity of sacrifice, but she shows
it to us as the highest manifestation of love.
The Cross wins for men the education of life.
But further and above this, she so inspires men
that sacrifice is no longer felt to be sacrifice.
In all the trials, conflicts and struggles of life,
men, in whose hearts God's love is shed abroad,
are more than conquerors. In that love they
vanquish, and from that love they cannot be
sundered. The many things which have been built up upon
the Christian basis, but which are not of the
essence of Christianity, will disappear ; the wood,
the hay, the stubble, the materials out of which
men have fashioned their own fancies and their
own interpretations of faith will be burnt up, but
"the foundation of the Lord remaineth sure,"

334 The Religion of the Future. [Lect.

and this foundation will not fail, " nor shall the
gates of hell prevail against it." x There will no
doubt at all times be difficulties in human life.
In the present and in the future, varying
characters of men will be found ; we shall still
have the agnostic, like Thomas, who says, " Lord,
we know not whither Thou goest, and how can
we know the way?" 2 We shall still have the men
of philosophy, like Philip, who will say, " Show
ns the Father and it sufficeth us ; " 3 or the
materiahst, hke Jude, who will say, " How is it
that Thou wilt manifest thyself unto us and not
unto the world?"4 But the Teacher of mankind is
patient and loving, and He will educate all. He
will invigorate the weak, and illumine the blind.
Great and noble men may still stand aside doubt
ing. Achilles may " ponder in his tent," many
may still stumble at the thoughts which Chris
tianity presents, but it will be found to be a hving
power, promoting the spirit of Altruism, and
preaching the service of man. Slowly its force
will be felt. In various ways its worth and
power will be recognised. And thus, almost
without perceiving the road by which they came,
men will be led to a knowledge of God. It is not
by hard thinking that we are filled with the joys
1 1 Cor. hi. 11—13 ; Matt. xvi. 18 ; 2 Tim. ii. 19.
2 John xiv. 5. 3 John xiv. 8. i John xiv. 22.

viii] The Religion of the Future. 335
and the beauties of nature, it is by loving them
and dwelling with them. Let us put away
anxious thought ; we cannot interpret nature
when the mind is filled with harassing cares.
Let us walk down life's leafy lane ; the lark
is singing, and there is still joy in the world. Let
us try the same method with religion. Let us
lay down our eagerness, and forget our disputations
for awhile ; and we too may reach a joy which
springs from the presence of God. His song is
still in our life ; His smile is upon us, we may
find Him and put our hand in His, and know
that He is love indeed. Heaven may yet break
into new glory above our heads ; life may be
filled with new meaning ; duties may become
delights ; obstacles and hindrances, doubts and
despairs, may become steps of the Heaven-
mounting ladder. Even the dark things of life
may be as ministering angels to help us upward.
But who shall see that vision, and be assured of
that hope ! He sees it whose heart is purified by
love, and who knows that love is incarnate in the
world. For him all things work for good. Out of
darkness comes light ; the wind and the storm
fulfil the biddings of love; he sees in all life's
fiercest trials a form like the form of the Son of
God ; for him evermore the heaven is open,
and the angels are ascending and descending in

336 The Religion of the Future. [Lect.vin.
sweet and ceaseless ministry on Him who binds
earth to Heaven and man to man — who is Lord
of Life and Lord of Love, Son of God and Son
of man.

Lect. I.]

NOTES TO LECTURES.

LECTUEE I.
Note 1, pp. 11, 13, 16. — Mast as a Beligiotts Being.
"The result of my investigations is exactly the
opposite of that to which Sir John Lubbock and
M. Saint-Hilaire have arrived. Obliged, in my course
of instruction, to review all human races, I have sought
atheism in the lowest as well as in the highest. I have
nowhere met with, it, except in individuals or in more
or less limited schools, such as those which existed in
Europe in the last century, or which may still be seen at
the present day." So writes M. De Quatrefages (" The
Human Species," p. 482), who enumerates three causes
of mistake respecting the religious condition of savage
tribes : —
1 . Arising from contempt of barbarian peoples :
a traveller asks a few questions ; he speaks
the language badly; understands answers im
perfectly.
2. Arising from the hidden character of the religion :
he would not understand the customs and
superstitions, or perceive the religious character
of them. C C

338 Notes to Lectures. [Lect.
3. Arising from the missionary ; who assumes the
most extravagant notions of the degradation of
those to whom he goes, and is inclined to under
value their faith or to ignore it. — Ibid., pp.
473, 474.
He also gives examples of cases in which no religion
was said to be found, yet afterwards the most full
religious notions were discovered.
" Wallis, after a month's intimacy with the Tahitians,
declared that they possessed no form of worship, whilst
it entered, so to speak, into their most trivial actions."
—Ibid., p. 474.
Other similar cases may be referred to. In the
journal of the Anthropological Society for February,
1878, Mr. C. H. E. Oarmichael draws our attention to
a mission established by Benedictine monks in Western
Australia. These monks took great pains to ascertain
the religious sentiments of the natives, and for a long
time they were unable to discover even the faintest
traces of anything that could be called rehgion. After
three years of missionary life, Monsignor Salvado
declared that the natives did not worship any deity,
whether true or false. Yet he states that they believe in
an Omnipotent Being, creator of heaven and earth, a tall,
powerful, and wise man, whose method of creation was
by breathing. They believe, too, in an author of evil,
of whirlwind, storm and death. Yet the Bishop adds,
l; Never did I observe any act of external worship, nor
did any indication suggest to me that they practised
any internal worship."
Similarly Dr. Codrington speaks at a missionary

i.] Notes to Lectures. 339
meeting held in St. John's College Hall Oxford : —
" Some people imagined that the heathens had no idea
of good and bad, and that they had no conscience. He
knew for a fact that these Melanesians had words
expressive of moral goodness. They had a very clear
notion of the separate existence of the soul and body.
. . . They had this idea, that there was a power in
nature surrounding them on every side, not in one
particular place, but everywhere. . . . He could bear
testimony to this truth, that wherever one might go
amongst whatever people, there was sure to be found
some religious truth."
Prof. Tylor describes the case of non-religious tribes
a,s " in some degree similar to that of the tribes asserted
to exist without language, or without the use of fire ;
nothing in the nature of things seems to forbid the pos
sibility of such existence, but, as a matter of fact, the
tribes are not found." — (Primitive Culture, vol. i., p. 418.)
Prof. Oscar Peschel is even more emphatic. Cf. " The
Races of Men," p. 261, quoted by Mr. Newman Smyth,
" The Religious Feeling."
A paper was recently (Jan. 16, 1888) read at the
Victoria Institute on this subject. The writer of the
paper, Dr. Fraser, of New South Wales, from his own
experience gave interesting evidence calculated to
dispel the popular mistake that the aborigines of
Australia have no behef in a Deity. Much of the con
troversy on this subject has arisen — hke so many other
controversies — from the want of defining the sense of
the words employed. If religion is to be limited only
to the possession of a certain level of theistic concep
tions, many races may be shown to have none ; but
where the object is to ascertain how far man is a

340 Notes to Lectures. [Lect.
religious animal, we must be content with much less
than this : religion then means any customs, tenden
cies, conceptions however crude, which show a faith in
any thing or person outside things sensible. " The
mere savage," says Prof. Max Muller, "may not even
have a name for religion ; still, when the Papua squats
before his luuwar, clasping his hands over his forehead,
and asking himself whether what he is going to do is
right or wrong, that is to him religion." (" Origin of
Religion," p. 13.) Mr. Fiske hits a point of importance
when he says, "Travellers have now and then reported
the existence of races of men quite destitute of religion,
or of what the observer has learned to recognise as.
religion ; but no one has ever discovered a race of men
devoid of a belief in ghosts." ("The Idea of God,"
p. 66.) It is just in the cases where the conceptions.
of a tribe or race are very low that the greatest care
is needed. There may be nothing which the traveller
would call religion, but there may be much which
the natives feel and treat as religion. The belief in
ghosts is evidence of the belief in things outside.
things sensible, and is not improbably allied in
the native mind with much that is to it religious.
Prof. Max Muller's words are clear as to the uni
versality of religion at certain stages of civiliza
tion : —
" Wherever there is human life, there is religion,
and wherever there is religion, the question whence
it came cannot be long suppressed. When children
once begin to ask questions, they ask the why and
the wherefore of everything, religion not excepted ;
nay, I believe that the first problems of what we call

i.] Notes to Lectures. 341
philosophy were suggested by religion. — " Origin of
Religion" p. 7.
Taking Seville's definition of religion (quoted in
Lecture II., p. 55), we may safely recognize the re
ligious instincts of men in the lowest forms and under
the most grotesque conceptions. As we note the
maternal instinct in the fondness of the little girl for
her doll, we may note the religious instinct in the
blunders and failures which yet betoken the gropings
of man's mind and the longings of man's heart after
the unseen. We may be among those
" Who believe tbat in all ages
Every human heart is human,
That in even savage bosoms
There are longings, yearnings, strivings,
For the good they comprehend not ;
That the feeble hands and helpless,
Groping blindly in the darkness,
Touch God's right hand in that darkness
And are lifted up and strengthened." Longfellow, "Hiawatha.''
On this subject it is important to remember that feeling
precedes reflection, and sentiment precedes argument.
Dr. Matheson, one of the most careful and entirely
truthful as well as deeply spiritual teachers whom God
has given us, reminds us of this in the opening of his
latest work : " The religious sentiment is the earliest
and the latest fruit of the religious spirit ; it begins
before the birth of dogma, and it survives after dogma
has passed away. Men feel before they have learned
to see. As in the individual life the first impressions
of the mind are those of simple pleasure and pain, so
in the life of the religious spirit the earliest impressions

342 Notes to Lectures. [Lect.

of tho recipient are those of feeling and sentiment." —
" Psalmist and Scientist," p. 1; ef. Schopenhauer, "The
World as mil and Idea," vol. i., pp. 309, 310.
Note 2, p. 23. — The Doctetnaire.
The doctrinaire demands that we shall reduce our faith
to intelligible form. He is brisk, and intensely logical,
though often within somewhat narrow range. He is
useful in showing how very unsatisfactory are the
nebulous-minded folk who prefer vagueness, not because
they are large-minded, but because they are loose
thinkers. He is useful, as the man who insists on
classification is useful. He is probably right in saying
that the progress of knowledge depends upon our
determination to reduce it to formal expression and
correct classification. The value of this is recognised.
Kuenen insists on its importance in the study of
religions. "As the chronicle must yield to history, so
must the bare enumeration of phenomena yield to
classification. If this is true in general, it is true like
wise in its special application to one of the youngest in
the rank of sciences — the science of religion." — Introduc
tion to "Hibbert lectures," p. 4.
Emerson says that " in all unbalanced minds
classification is idolized, passes for the end, and not
for a speedily exhaustible means." (Essay on " Self-
Reliance.") We may admit the truth in this without.
losing sight of the importance of classification. We
may admit, too, that in reducing faith to form and creed,
we have not reached the end of religion, but only
manifested a means of its working, without losing sight
of the importance of intelligible statements of faith as
a means of educating men in the knowledge of faith,

i-J Notes to Lectures. 343
and of reaching the heart through the understanding.
We may say that to understand a theological proposition
does not necessarily make a man better ; but we may also
ask whether a man who can give no intelligible account
of his faith is therefore a better man than his neighbour,
who has, or thinks he has, some definite ideas on the
subject. But whatever we may say on the matter, the
tendency of man to reduce his belief and his knowledge
into form is irresistible. It is part of that desire for
expression which seems universal.
We may note also that art and science must have
their leading principles, which serve the same place as
creeds in religion. Without such foundations, the
lecturer on science and art would be able to teach
nothing. Mr. Buskin reminds us that art must have a
grammar which must be mastered before a man may
take liberties with the language. — See Lamp of Obedience
in " The Seven Lamps." Note 3, p. 27. — Law I.
The authority of Mr. Herbert Spencer may be cited
against this law. He says, "Ideas do not govern and
overthrow the world : the world is governed or over
thrown by feelings, to which ideas serve only as
guides. The social mechanism does not rest finally
upon opinions; but almost wholly upon character."
(" Classification of the Sciences," p. 37.) But Mr. Spencer
admits that ideas do count for something in the ad
vance of the world. They serve as " guides to
feeling;" and, further, "advanced ideas when once
established, act upon society and aid its further ad
vance." — Ibid., p. 38.
The perception of this law must have been present in

344 Notes to Lectures. [Lect.
Quinet's mind when he wrote his " Genie deBeligions,"
a leading object of which was to show "how entirely
each of the civilizations was the offspring of a religious
dogma." With this seems to agree what Mr. Buskin has written
in the " Art of England."
"A beautiful thing may exist but for a moment, as a
reality ; — it exists for ever as a testimony. To the law
and to the witness of it the nations must appeal ' in
seculae seeulorum ;' and in very deed and very truth, a
thing of beauty is a law for ever. That is the true
meaning of classic art and classic literature ; — not the
license of pleasure, but the law of goodness ; and if,
of the two words, v.a.'Kd% x'tzyaQos, one can be left un
spoken, as implied by the other, it is the first, not the
last. It is written that the Creator of all things
beheld them — not in that they were beautiful, but in
that they were good. This law of beauty may be one,
for aught we know, fulfilling itself more perfectly as
the years roll on ; but at least it is one from which
no jot shall pass. "The beauty of Greece depended
on the laws of Lycurgus ; the beauty of Borne on those
of Numa; our own, on the laws of Christ." — " Art of
England," pp. 105, 106.
With this we may compare Goethe's saying, "No
evil can touch him who looks on human beauty; he
feels himself at one with himself and with the world."
The following seem to illustrate this law : —
"The key to every man is his thought."
Emerson, " Essay on Circles."

i] Notes to Lectures. 345
" All characters
Must shrink or widen as our wine skins do,
For more or less that we can pour in them."
" The Spanish Gypsy."
With this we may compare Schopenhauer ( ' ' The World
as Will and Idea") — writing of the object of art:
"Imitators, mannerists, imitatores, servum pecus, start, in
art," from the concept ; they observe what pleases and
eff ects. us in true works of art ; understand it clearly,
fix it in a concept, and thus abstractly and then imitate
it, openly or disguisedly, with dexterity and inten
tionally. They suck their nourishment, like parasite
plants, from the works of others, and like polypi, they
become the colour of their food." The influence of the
•artistic standards, which in less gifted men becomes
servile imitation, is a real influence in the case of men
of genius : " for he is indeed educated and cultured by
his predecessors and their works ; but he is really fruc
tified only by life and the world directly, through the
impression of what he perceives ; therefore the highest
culture never interferes with his originality." — p. 304.
Again : " Greek sculpture devotes itself to the per
ception, and therefore it is cesthetieal ; Indian sculpture
devotes itself to the conception, and therefore it is
merely symbolical." — Ibid., p. 304.
In the same spirit writes Lord Byron : —
" I live not in myself, but I become
Portion of that around me, and to me
High mountains are a feeling."

346 Notes to Lectures. [Lect.

Note 4, p. 33. — Law II.
Illustrations of this law will occur to the reader's
mind. They are numerous. The following, drawn at
random from the less obvious sources, will illustrate
the widespread recognition of this law : —
"Chacun ne comprend que ce qu'il retrouve en soi."
Amiel, " Journal," vol. i. p. 63.
"Ein Jeder sieht was er im Herzen tragt."
Goethe, "Faust."
It is curious to read Amiel's criticism on Goethe and
his school : —
"Le malaise de notre epoque n'existe pas pour
Goethe et son ecole. Cela s'explique : il n'y a pas de
dissonances pour les sourds." — " Journal," vol. ii., p. 121.
Similarly Charles Dickens : " Men who look on
nature and their fellow-men, and cry that all is dark
and gloomy, are in the right ; but the sombre colours
are reflections from their own jaundiced eyes and
hearts. The real hues are delicate, and need a clearer
vision." — " Oliver Twist."
Mr. Herbert Spencer says: " Practically, the popular
character and the social state determine what ideas
shall be current ; instead of the current ideas determin
ing the social state and the character." — " Classification
of the Sciences," p. 38.
The same principle underlies Lord Beaconsfield's
saying that " A man's fate is his own temper." It is
included in the often quoted, " Like can only be known
by like." Buskin reminds us that when we read we

l] Notes to Lectures. 347
gather food for our own dispositions. He says that
those who are naturally proud and envious will learn
from Thackeray to despise humanity ; those who are
naturally gentle, to pity it ; those who are naturally
shallow, to laugh at it. ("Sesame and Lilies") Mr.
Howells, in the same strain, speaking on Spiritualism,
says, " I wonder that I was never struck before by that
element of derision in it. The Calvinist gets Calvinism ;
the Unitarian gets Unitarianism ; each carries away
from communion with spirits the things that he
brought." (" Undiscovered Country .") In"Festus"we
¦have the hint that the conflict between faith and reason
arises from a f orgetfulness of this principle —
" The golden side of Heaven's great shield is faith ;
The silver, reason. I see this, you that ;
The junction is invisible to both." P. J. Bailey.
So writes Emerson : "Not in nature, but in man, is
all the beauty and worth he sees. The world is very
empty, and is indebted to this gilding, exalting soul
for all its pride. ' Earth fills her lap with splendours '
not her own." — " Spiritual Laws."
Mr. Lowell gives quaint expression to the same law.
"Truth is said to lie at the bottom of a well, for the
very reason, perhaps, that whoever looks down in search
of her sees his own image at the bottom, and is
persuaded, not only that he has seen the goddess, but
that she is far better-looking than he had imagined." —
Address at Birmingham, 1884.
"We see matter, because only love can see love, and
where there is not love is matter. Christ Himself
would have been but matter to a crocodile." — Hinton,
" Philosophy and Religion."

348 Notes to Lectures. [Lect.
"Empedocles said: Like can only be known by like :
only nature can understand itself : only nature can
fathom itself: but only spirit can also understand
spirit." — Schopenhauer, " World as Will," vol. i.,
p. 288.
Sir F. Leighton, in his address to students at the
Boyal Academy (December, 1881), spoke on the rela
tion between character and work. He said: — "The
man is stamped on his work, and his moral growth or
lessening faithfully reflected in the sum of his labours.
I believe this to be a cardinal truth, the disregard of
which may bear fatal fruits in an artist's life. . . .
The more closely you consider this subject, the more
clearly will you feel, for instance, the mischief to us as
artists which must infallibly attend a tolerant indulgence
within ourselves of certain moral weaknesses and
failings to which nature is too often prone. Of these
failings some are palpably ignoble and in the long run
debasing ; others are not, on the surface, so evidently
mischievous. Amongst such as are palpably ignoble,
I will instance the greed for gain. I believe no evil to
be more insidious, none more unerring in its operation
than this sordid appetite. Its poisonous taint creeps
into the moral system ; numbs by degrees all finer
sense ; dulls all higher vision ; is fatal to all lofty effort.
No worse snare lies across our path. Another such
deadening taint is the vulgar thirst for noisy success,
the hankering of vanity for immediate satisfaction ;
of this the outcome is a deliberate sacrifice of the
abiding appreciation of the intelligent for the tran
sitory and noisy clamour of the unintelligent and
shallow, with the fatally-sure result of a paralysis of
the sense of self-respect, a lowering of standard, and,

i.] Notes to Lectures. 349
in the end, an important disinclination for every sus
tained and serious effort. Other failings there are of
which, as I said, the bearing is not so immediately
evident, but of which the dangers are scarcely less.
As one instance of these, I will quote the indulgence in
a narrow, unsympathizing spirit, a spirit ever awake
to carp and cavil, feeding its self-complacency on the
disparagement of others. This spirit stunts and
shrivels those who yield to it, and by blinding them
more and more to the work and Beauty that are in the
work which is not their own, deprives them of the
priceless stimulus of a noble emulation. . . . What
ever of dignity, whatever of strength we have within
us will dignify and will make strong the labours of our
hands ; whatever littleness degrades our spirit will
lessen them and drag them down. Whatever noble fire
is in our hearts ivill burn also in our work, ; whatever
purity is ours will chasten and exalt it ; for as we are, so
our work is, and what we sow in our lives, that, beyond a
doubt, we shall reap for good or for ill in the strengthening or
defacing of whatever gifts have fallen to our lot."
"The malicious are perforce the very worst judges
of human nature, for only charity sees far into
another's heart. Malice, moreover, invariably implies
a defect of intellect." — Geo. Gissing, " Thyrsa," vol. ii.,
p. 134.
With this compare Benan's saying that, " The moral
value of the man is in proportion to his faculty of
admiration." — "Marcus Aurelius," p. 8.
There are thousands of illustrations of the same
principle ; many of them will occur to the reader.
There is one with which we may fitly conclude this
Note, as it comes from a little poem which, notwith-

350 Notes to Lectures. [Lect.
standing one strange mistake, is one of the brightest
and best little pieces among many that are bright and
good in Mr. Lowell's last volume : —
" All round about our feet shall shine,
A Hght like that the wise men saw,
If we our loving wills incline
To that sweet Life which is the law."
" Heartsease and Rue."
(Christmas Carol for the Sunday School Children.)
Note 5, p. 35. — Law III.
To illustrate this principle within reasonable limits
is impossible. It is a principle as universal as it is
obvious. The dimmest and crudest ideas of sacrifice
are shadows of it. There are few enlightened men
who will doubt it. The higher life in man is only
possible to those who live by it. "It is only with
Benunciation that life, properly speaking, can be
said to begin." (Carlyle, "Sartor Resartus.") "In a
valiant suffering for others, not in a slothful making
others suffer for us, did nobleness ever lie." ("Fast
and Present. ") "There is but one sole virtue in the
world- — the eternal sacrifice of self." — George Sand.
"May I reach
That purest heaven ; be to other souls
The cup of strength in some great agony.
So shall I join the choir invisible,
Whose music is the gladness of the world." George Eliot.

i.] Notes to Lectures. 351
" Tou talk of self as the motive to exertion ; I tell
you it is the abnegation of self which has wrought out
all that is noble, all that is good, all that is useful.
nearly all that is ornamental in the world." — Whyte
Melville, " Bones and I."
"A man was born, not for prosperity, but to suffer
for the benefit of others, hke the noble rock-maple,
which, all round our villages, bleeds for the service of
man." — Emerson, " The Method of Nature."
Indeed this principle belongs everywhere to our
world. Darwin, in his book on earth-worms, shows
us that the worms under our feet are God's ministers
to us in more than we think. Prof. Taylor writes about
"Altruism in Plants." The poet sang, " Sic vos non
vobis." The Apostle says the same: "No man liveth
to himself: no man diethto himself." Lamartine sang
of the perfume wafted forth at death: "La fleur
tombe en livrant ses parfums au zephyre" (L'Automne),
as Talf ourd did of the "wild myrtles, which preserve
Their hoard of perfumes for the dying hour
When rudeness crushes them." "Ion."
The legend of the Pelican, of the Dying Swan, and
the fancy of the Greeks (referred to by Professor
Westcott in " Christus Consummator,") that the clay of
which man was made was moistened not with water but
with tears, among other similar legends, show the drift
of men's thoughts ; they felt that pain or sacrifice was
the root of life.

352 Notes to Lectures. [Lect..
' ' And when God formed in the hollow of His hand
This ball of Earth among His other balls,
And set it in His shining firmament,
Between the greater and the lesser lights,
He chose it for the Star of Suffering," " The Disciples."'
Note 6, p. 41. — Law IV.
This law is, as far as I can see, most frequently
forgotten. Men are impatient, they like direct methods.
It is hard to tell a man that the moment he has seen the'
ideal is the moment in which he must look away from
it, lest he should imagine that it can be reached at a
single bound, or by some short cut. Yet experience-
soon teaches us that there is an enormous difference
between the realization of what ought to be done and
the power of doing it. Blunt understanding or blind
theory says, "There is the thing to be done —
do it." The imperative mood, however, is not
omnipotent. The psychologist can correct the false
expectations of the theorist or philosopher. He has
been studying the instrument, and can tell something
about its powers and its needs. The student of history
is inclined to say, "The facts are obvious; the lessons
of history all too plain ; men can never fall into the
same mistakes again, when once they know what the
past can teach." But men do fall into the same
mistakes again, and history does repeat itself; men
learn nothing and forget nothing. They are the
same passion-led creatures which they ever were.
Professor Seeley hit the right mark when he said that
if people do not follow or care about history, he would

Notes to Lectures. 353,

never dream of attempting to make history interesting.
Of course not ; no amount of tinkering up facts to suit
a garish taste would produce that real love of history
which creates of itself true taste. Men must be in
spired by the love of the thing before they can do the
thing. Admiration is not enough ; inspiration is-
required. Christianity is right when it teaches men to
pray that they may love the thing which God com
mands. Love is not only the inspirer of ardent desires,,
but it is the destruction of that hideous self-conscious
ness which accompanies the man who pursues what is
noble because he feels that there is nobility in pursuing
it. One chief characteristic of Christianity Hes, as I
think, in the recognition of this law or principle,
"To be good" is the aim which the moralist
puts before men. "To be like God" is the aim
which Christianity puts before men, and in doing so,
she adds the force of a persuasive and inspiring love.
She achieves her aim indirectly, by dwelling upon the
love which the Holy One had for the unholy. Mr.
Cotter Morison, in his book, " The Service of Man,"
would never have assailed the Christian doctrines of
Grace and Forgiveness had he understood this law of
indirectness. Two of the best modern novels illustrate
this law. "The Son of Vulcan," by Mr. Walter
Besant, and " John Herring, " by Mr. Baring Gould. In
both these booksthe rescue of outcast characters is effected
by their becoming aware of the fact that some one better
and holier than themselves cares for them. When Jesus
Christ said, "Thy sins be forgiven thee," He did not.
put a premium on wrong, He bestowed afresh incentive
to right. It is possible that men may be effortless
towards right, because they have been the victims of
D D

354 Notes to Lectures. [Lect.
iarsh judgments as well as of hard circumstances. We
need to remember that men do not start equal in the
race of life. The most demoralized are often just those
who have had little chance of high morality, and who
liave smarted under the Pharisaic opinion that there
is no use trying to rescue them. Such will not be
helped much by the modern Pharisees who tell them
that they are past hoping for, and that there is no
power to whom they can be prayed for. Such will be
helped into righteousness through love. This is only
another way of stating that they may be justified by
faith. The consciousness that they are loved evokes
-trust, and the awakening of trust shows them the
possibilities of a purer life ; they are taught to see
their potential self ; they are told that love sees that
nobler and better self ; they grasp hope and life in thus
seeing themselves as love sees them. They are conscious
¦of salvation then; they are justified by faith, as
St. Paul would say.
The law of indirectness enters into the very heart of
Christian doctrine. It has been noticed by various
thinkers who have not had a directly theological object
in view. The following may stand as specimens.
" 0 Aristotle ! if you had had the advantage of being
' the freshest modern, ' instead of the greatest ancient,
would you not have mingled your praise of meta
phorical speech as a sign of high intelligence, with a
lamentation that intelligence so rarely shows itself in
speech without metaphor — that we can so seldom
declare what a thing is, except by saying it is some
thing else ? "—George Eliot, " Mill on the Floss."
" Those movements of which the uninterrupted per
formance is essential to the maintenance of Life " (such

i] Notes to Lectures. 355
as the beating of the heart and act of respiration) "are
primarily automatic." — Dr. W. B. Carpenter, " Mental
Physiology," p. 16.
Mr. Buskin says the earth is an entail, not a possession.
Self-denial must be exercised for the sake of posterity,
practising economy for them, and planting forests we
shall not enjoy. — " Seven Lamps (Memory J."
"Nature has happily ordained it as one of the great
laws on which she has founded our moral happiness,
that the performance of love and kindness to others
should be a genuine and never-failing source of plea
sure to our own hearts. It is thus strictly, as well as
poetically true, 'that, seeking other's good, we find
our own.' The exercise of the profession is, when
followed out in its proper spirit, a continued realiza
tion of active beneficence." — Sir Jas. Simpson, " Address
to Students." " In our great hall there stood a vacant chair.
And Merlin call'd it ' The Siege perilous,'
Perilous for good and ill ; ' for there, ' he said,
' No man could sit, but he should lose himseK.'
And once by misadventure, Merlin sat
In his own chair, and so was lost ; but he,
Galahad, when he heard of Merlin's doom,
Cried, ' If I lose myself I save myself ! ' "
Tennyson, " The Holy Grail" p. 43.
" To aim at thine own happiness is an end idolatrous
and evil.
In earth, yea, in heaven, if thou seek it fro itself,
seeking thou shalt not find.

356 Notes to Lectures. [Lect.
Happiness is a roadside flower, growing on the high
way of usefulness :
Plucked, it shall wither in thy hand ; passed by, it is
fragrance to thy spirit.
Love not thine own soul, regard not thine own weal."
Tupper, " Of Discretion."
"Patience and abnegation of self, and devotion to
others,
This was the lesson a life of trial and sorrow had
taught her.
So was her love diffused, but like to some odorous
spices,
Suffered no waste nor loss, tho' filling the air with
aroma." Longfellow, " Evangeline," part II., canto v.
Speaking of Spinoza, Goethe says, "His all-recon
ciling peace contrasted with my all-agitating endeavour ;
his intellectual method was the opposite counterpart
of my poetic way of feeling and expressing myself ; and
even the inflexible regularity of his logical procedure,
which might be considered ill-adapted to moral subjects,
made me his most passionate scholar and his devoted
adherent. Mind and heart, understanding and sense
were drawn together with an inevitable elective affinity,
and this at the same time produced an intimate union
between individuals of the most different type." — Quoted
by Prof . Caird, " Contemp. Review," Dec, 1886, p. 794.
"What we seek
Is but our other self, other and higher."
L. Morris, " Narcissus, Epic of Hades."
"We must not forget another characteristic of
poetry b}' which it is separated at once from science

n.] Notes to Lectures. 357
and philosophy — viz., its spontaneous and even un
conscious character. After all, the effort of the poet is
to provide a free channel for a power that works in
him like a natural force. Wordsworth's criticism of
Goethe's poetry, that it was not inevitable enough (a
¦criticism which is singularly wide of the mark in regard
to the best of Goethe's work), is an apt expression of
this truth. Creative imagination is a power which is
neither lawless, nor yet, strictly speaking, under law ;
it is a power which, as Kant said, makes laws." —
Prof. Caird, " Contemp. Review," Dec, 1886, p. 790.
"Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the
world." — Beticonsfield, " Venetia."
" There is not an Angel added to the host of Heaven
but does its blessed work on earth in those that loved
it here." — Dickens, " Old Curiosity Shop."
We may close with a word from a philosopher. It
carries with it the germ of much which Christianity
has made clear. Zeno, when asked what a friend was,
replied, "Another I."

LECTUEE II.

Note 7, p. 59.
In places where ethical conceptions are low, and are
little related to religion, religion is found to be largely
a mere dependence on a power which can help and pro
tect. Examples will occur to the reader, but it is im
portant to notice that religion, when criticised as being
mere selfishness, is conceived of in this very limited

358 Notes to Lectures. [Lect.

sense. No doubt the criticism would be true were
religion a mere instinct of dependence, but it is hardly
scientific to criticise the crude and undeveloped form, or
make the part stand for the whole.. — Cf. -opinions of
Wundt and Gruppe, given in Introduction, p. xlvii.
Note 8, p. 64.
The Khonds are a small aboriginal Indian race, near
the top of the Bay of Bengal, 250 miles or so from
Calcutta, who worship the earth-goddess with human
sacrifices, which the English Government has had great
difficulty in suppressing. The victims, called merias,
are mostly children, bought of traders, and luxuriously
kept, sometimes for years, till wanted for sacrifice. The
Khonds practise infanticide of females, holding that the
principle of evil is incarnate in the female sex. An
account of this will be found in Larousse, "Diet, des
XIX. Siecle."
Writing of the Algonquin and Mingwe Bedskins, De
Quatref ages tells us that their great Spirit, the Michabou
of the Algonquins — the Agrescoue of the Iroquois — is the
father of all existing things. He himself, or by his mes
sengers, watches over children, and directs the events of
the world. To him the Bedskin prays : the following
is an example of prayer or song of the savages, on de
parting for war, preserved by Heckewelder :
"Oh, poor me — who am just about to depart to
fight the enemy — and know not if I shall return
— to enjoy the embraces of my children and wife.
' ' Oh, poor creature — who cannot order his own hfe —
who has no power over his own body — but who tries
to do his duty— for the happiness of his nation.

il] Notes to Lectures. 359
" Oh, thou great Spirit above — take pity upon my
children — and upon my wife — keep them from sorrowing
on my account — grant that I may succeed in my enter-
prize — that I may kill my enemy — and bring back
trophies of war.
" Give me strength and courage to fight my enemy-
grant that I may return and see my children again — see
my wife and relations — have pity upon me and preserve
my life — and I will offer to thee a sacrifice." — De
Quatrefages, " The Human Species," p. 492.
Note 9, p. 65.
The recognition of the moral link between the seen
and the unseen is an acknowledgment of the principle
of Fellowship.
A priest told Byron that, when a child, he had
eaten something deposited in sacred images. Surprised
and reprimanded by his father, he excused himself by
saying that he had found out by various experiments
that these gods of wood neither saw nor heard. The
old priest then said to him in a severe tone: "My
son, the wood, it is true, neither sees nor hears ;
but the spirit which is above sees and hears all, and
punishes wicked actions." — De Quatrefages, " The Human
Species," p. 491.
We are reminded here of Quinet's remark, "The
first great step was made when the human head was
substituted for that of an animal in the statues of
the gods." — " Genie des Religions," ch. vi., sec. 2;
And of Mr. Browning's Lines in " Sordello : "
"One character
Denotes them through the progress and the stir, —
A need to bleud with each external charm,

360 Notes to Lectures. [Lect.
Bury themselves, the whole heart wide and warm, —
In something not themselves ; they would belong to
What they worship  "
On this, the element of fellowship, compare Dr.
Dollinger's words : —
"His (Socrates) position, that the Deity only was wise,
and that human wisdom was little or nothing worth, in
comparison with divine, might have carried him a long
way further ; much depends, too, on the sense he at
tached to another expression reported by Xenophon
that the human soul partook of the divine.
" .... If he had really worked out the thought
of the ' soul's partaking in the divine,' the influence
of it upon his other views must necessarily have been
considerable. "  He instructed his disciples to ask nothing
by prayer of the gods, except only the good gene
rally, as they, the gods, best knew themselves what
was good for man ; also that it was not the most
costly sacrifices they preferred, but those that came from
religious hearts." — " The Gentile and the Jew," p. 276-7.
The Ascetic tendency is a witness of the element
of fellowship in religion.
" This theory, which is developed at length by the
Stoic [the theory that the more prodigies are believed,
the more they are announced] in the first book of the
De Divinatione of Cicero, grew out of the pan
theistic notion that the human soul is a part of the
Deity, and therefore by nature a participator in the
Divine attribute of prescience. The soul, however,
was crushed by the weight of the body; and there

ii.] Notes to Lectures. 361

were two ways of evoking its prescience — the ascetic
way, which attenuates the body, and the magical
way, which stimulates the soul. Apollonius declared
that his power of prophecy was not due to magic,
but solely to his abstinence from animal food." — Philost.
" Ap. of Tyana" viii., 5; Note in Lecky's "Hist, of
European Morals," vol. i., p. 368.
Note 10, p. 67.
" Cannibalism, in ordinary life, was no longer prac
tised. The city of Mexico underwent all the horrors of
famine during the siege conducted by Fernando
Cortes. When the Spaniards finally entered the city,
they found the streets strewn with corpses, which is a
sufficient proof that human flesh was not eaten, even
in dire extremities. And, nevertheless, the Aztecs not
only pushed human sacrifices to a frantic extreme, but
they were ritual cannibals, that is to say, there were
certain occasions on which they ate the flesh of the
human victims whom they had immolated." — Reville,
"Hibbert Lectures," p. 89.
Note 11, p. 69.
" Perhaps that quasi-messianic expectation of the
return of Quetzaleoatl, to be accompanied by a com
plete renewal of things, may have given an addi
tional point of attachment to this belief in the caducity
of the whole existing order. What is certain is that
this sentiment itself was very widely spread. It served
as a consolation to the peoples who were crushed
beneath the cruel yoke of the Aztecs." — Ibid., p. 115.
Of. Article in the " Gentleman's Magazine" Sept., 1888,
on the "Messiah of Mexico."

362 Notes to Lectures. [Lect.

With this account of the god of the Mexicans may
be compared what Prof. Ehys tells us of the Celtic god
Woden. After alluding to the change, which at some
time came over Gaulish paganism, whereby the Gaulish
Mercury or culture-god, became practically the head and
chief of the Gaulish Pantheon, he proceeds to show that
the Teutonic counterpart was Woden, and that both
families of nations, the Gauls and the Norsemen, pro
ceeded on the same lines, in that they made the culture
hero paramount over the old gods. " It is gratifying
to come upon such traces of progress in the theology of
our early ancestors, whether Celts or Teutons ; and still
more so to think that in the practice of their heathen
religion it meantthe establishment, probably, of a milder
worship, making in some small degree, for humanity
and greater regard for human life." — Prof. Rhys,
" Hibbert Lectures," 1886, pp. 231 and 232.
Note 12, p. 71.
To this Nemesis, self-judgment, (often inaccurately
rendered as revenge) Menelaus appeals when exciting the
Greeks to defend the body of Patroclus from insult
(" Iliad" xvii., 254, «Ma ti? uutU itu vspeo-ifyaQu S'liil 6vjj,u).
But the whole matter is best learned from an address of
Telemachos to the Suitors, where he says, (a) "Bouse
within you of yourselves a nemesis (or moral sense) ; and
(b) an alKs (a sense of honour, or regard to opinion of
your fellow-citizens) ; and (c) fear the wrath of the Gods "
(" Odyss," ii., 64—67). These three principles were the
three great pillars of morahty  " This aX? is a
sentiment which has ultimate reference to the standard
of opinion ; but it does not require that opinion to be

in.] Notes to Lectures. 363
in present and immediate action. It is self-judgment,
according to the standard supplied by the ideas of others ;
as nemesis is self -judgment by the inward law." — W.
E. Gladstone, "Juv. Mundi," p. 383, 384.

LECTUEE III.
Note 13, p. 78.
There is considerable difficulty in ascertaining the
exact number of the adherents of various religions
throughout the world. The estimated population of
the world varies from twelve to fourteen hundred
millions. M. Hubner sets it at 1,392£ millions. Of
these, from 150,000,000 to 200,000,000 may at the
utmost be claimed for Mohammedanism. M. Hubner's
estimate is 80 millions. The numbers ranged under the
complex term of Buddhism have been placed at from
400,000,000 to 500,000,000, while Christianity claims
from 300,000,000 to 400,000,000.— Cf. Rhys Davids,
"Buddhism," p. 6 (S.P.C.K.); W. Scawen Blunt' s article
in "Fortnightly Review" 1881, vol. ii. p. 208; also an
article on " Missions " in " Quarterly Review," July, 1886.
De Quatrefages, "Human Species," p. 485.
Note 14, p. 82.
"Mohammed was a man of middle height, but of
commanding presence ; rather thin, but with broad
shoulders and a wide chest ; a massive head, a frank,
oval face with a clear complexion, restless black eyes,
long heavy eyelashes, a prominent acquiline nose, white
teeth and a full thick beard are the principle features of
the verbal portraits historians have drawn of him.

364 Notes to Lectures. [Lect.
"He was a man of highly nervous organisation,
thoughtful, restless, inclined to melancholy, and pos
sessing an extreme sensibility, being unable to endure
the slightest unpleasant odour or the least physical
pain. . . . From youth upwards he had suffered
from a nervous disorder which tradition calls epilepsy,
but the symptoms of which more closely resemble
certain hysterical phenomena well known and diagnosed
in the present time, and which are almost always
accompanied with hallucinations, abnormal exercise of
the mental functions, and not unfrequently with a
certain amount of deception, both voluntary and other
wise." — Prof. Palmer, Introduction to vol. vi. of " Sacred
Books of the East " (Qur'an) p. xix.
The following may illustrate some of the positions
adopted in the Lectures : —
"For three days they lay concealed, their enemies
once coming so near that Abu Bekr, trembling, said,
'We are but two.' 'Nay,' said Mohammed, 'we are
three ; for God is with us.' " — Ibid., p. xxxiii.
"Mohammed, in one point at least, used his supreme
authority as prophet to make provision for the flesh "
(Prof. Wellhausen, Article on " Mohammedanism," Encyc.
Brit., 9th ed.). This refers to the affairs of his harem.
One of these marriages, it is well known, "gave great
scandal to the faithful, namely, that with the wife of
his adopted son, Zaid, whom her husband divorced and
offered to surrender to Mohammed on finding that the
latter admired her. This also required a revelation to
sanction it." — Prof. Palmer, Introduction to vol. vi. of
" Sacred Books of the East." p. xxix.
" It is a fact that the politician in him outgrew the
prophet more and more, and that in many cases where

in] Notes to Lectures. 365
he assigned spiritual motives he merely did so to give
a fair appearance to acts that emanated from secular
regards." — Wellhausen, "Mohammedanism," " Encyc.
Brit.," 9th Ed.
"It is less easy to free him from the reproach of
perfidy and cruel vindictiveness. The surprise of
Nakhla in the month Bajab (ordered by him, though
he afterwards repudiated it), the numerous assassina
tions which he instigated, the execution of the 600
Jews at the close of the war of the Fosse, burden the
Prophet heavily, and sufficiently explain the wide
spread antipathy in which he is held." — Ibid.
"Mohammed, though deeply grieved at losing, as he
feared, his uncle's protection and goodwill, exclaimed
in reply, 'By Allah! if they placed the sun on my
right hand and the moon on my left, to persuade me,
yet while God bids me, I will not renounce my pur
pose ! ' and bursting into tears turned to leave the
place." — Prof. Palmer, Introduction to vol. vi. of " Sacred
Books of the East," p. xxv.
" I demand no reward of you for my preaching unto
you ; I expect my reward from no other than the Lord
of all creatures."— Safe's "Koran," ch. 26 (The Poets),
vol. ii. p. 207.
Compare also Sir William Muir's "Life of Moham
med," passim, and Article on "Islam" by E. Deutseh, in
" Quarterly Review," vol. cxxvii., reprinted in "Essays
and Remains." Note 15, p. 86.
Sufism — " the mysticism of Islam " — among Moslems
was beheved to have been founded by a woman,

366 Notes to Lectures. [Lect.
RabVa by name, who Hved in the first century of the
Hijra. "Her doctrine was simply the theory of Divine
Love. She taught that God must be loved above all
things, because He alone is worthy of love ; and that
every thing here below must be sacrificed in the hope
of one day attaining to union with God." (Prof. S.
Guyard, "Encyc. Brit.") One feels a sense of high fitness
on reading that this woman was buried at Jerusalem.
It has been thought that this movement, which carries
the hope of reformation for Islam, may supply the
bridge by which the Moslem may yet pass to a higher
faith. "It is to the progress of Sufism, which is constantly
spreading amongst the people of Persia, that we must
look for that preparation of the Mohammedan mind,
which in due time may lead to the overthrow of Islam
for a purer creed." — " Persian Literature," by E. B.
Cowell, " Oxford Essays," 1859.
In some cases Sufism led to Pantheism. " In the
reign of Moktadir, a Persian Sufi, named Hallaj, who
taught publicly that every man is God, was tortured
and put to death." — Prof. Stanislas Guyard, " Encyc.
Brit." "Mohammedanism," 9th Ed.
" The Kharijites are the most interesting feature of
the then phase of Islam (time of All, Caliph). In
the name of rehgion they raised their protest against
allowing the whole great spiritual movement to issue in
a secular and political result, in the establishment
within the conquered territories of an Arabian
kingdom, a kingdom which diametrically contradicted
the theocratic ideal. . . . The Kharijites pro
tested, not merely against the dynastic principle and

in.] Notes to Lectures. 367

the rule of the Omayyads, but also against orthodoxy ;
they disputed the doctrine of predestination and the
proposition that a great sinner could yet be a good
Moslem, because they did not understand how to
divorce reHgion from practice. To some degree they
caU to mind the Montanists, but their opposition
was much more energetic in its expression." — Prof.
Wellhausen, Article on "Mohammedanism," Encyc. Brit.
9th Ed. Note 16, p. 93.
See Oldenberg, "Buddha;" Prof. Rhys David's
"Hibbert Lectures" and "Buddhism" (S.P.C.E.);
Bigandet, "Legend of Gaudama." Triibner's Oriental
Series, 3rd Ed., 1880.
"Now at the end of the night, Kunda, the worker
in metals, made ready in his dwelHng-place sweet
rice and cakes, and a quantity of dried boar's flesh.
And he announced the hour to the Blessed One,
saying, ' The hour, Lord, has come, and the meal is
ready.' And the Blessed One robed himself early in
the morning, and taking his bowl, went with the
brethren to the dwelling-place of Kunda, the worker in
metals. When he had come thither he seated himseH
on the seat prepared for him. And when he was
seated he addressed Kunda, the worker in metals, and
said : ' As to the dried boar's flesh you have made
ready, serve me with it, Kunda ; and as to the other
food, the sweet rice and cakes, serve the brethren with
it.' ' Even so, Lord!' said Kunda, the worker in metals,
in assent, to the Blessed One. And the dried boar's
flesh he had made ready he served to the Blessed One ;
whilst the other food, the sweet rice and cakes, he

368 Notes to Lectures. [Lect.
served to the members of the order. Now the Blessed
One addressed Kunda, the worker in metals, and said :
' Whatever dried boar's flesh, Kunda, is left over to
thee, that bury in a hole. I see no one, Kunda, on
earth nor in Mara's heaven, nor in Brahma's heaven,
no one among Samanas and Brahmanas, among gods
and men, by whom, when he has eaten it, that food
can be assimilated, save by the Tathagata.' ' Even so,
Lord ! ' said Kunda, the worker in metals, in assent, to'
the Blessed One. And whatever dried boar's flesh
remained over, that he buried in a hole. . . . Now
when the Blessed One had eaten the food prepared by
Kunda, the worker in metal, there f eU upon him a dire
sickness, the disease of dysentery, and sharp pain came
upon him, even unto death. But the Blessed One,
mindful and self-possessed, bore it without complaint."
— " Sacred Books of the East," vol. xi., p. 71 ; " Mahd-
Parinibbdna-Sutta," ch. iv., sect. 17 — 21.
Note 17, p. 93.
" The best of ways is the eightfold ; the best of truths
the four words ; the best of virtues passionlessness ;
thebest of menhe who has eyes to see." — "Dhammapada,"
v. 273.
"There is no fire Hke passion; there is no losing
throw like hatred ; there is no pain Hke this body ;
there is no happiness higher than rest." — Ibid., v. 202.
"One's own self conquered is better than aU other
people ; not even a god, a Gandharva, not Mara with
Brahman could change into defeat the victory of a man
who has vanquished himself, and always lives under
restraint." — Ibid., w. 104, 5.

in.] Notes to Lectures. 369
" Self is the lord of self, who else could be the lord?
With self weU subdued, a man finds a lord such as few
can find."— Ibid., v. 160.
" Even in heavenly pleasures he finds no satisfaction,
the disciple who is fully awakened delights only in the
destruction of all desires." — Ibid., v. 187.
" He is not a friend who always eagerly suspects a
breach and looks out for faults ; but he with whom he
dweUs as a son at the breast (of his mother), he is
indeed a friend that cannot be severed (from him) by
others." "He who hopes for fruit, cultivates the energy that
produces joy and the pleasure that brings praise (while)
carrying the human yoke." — " Sutta-Nipata EMavagga 3.
Hirisulta," vv. 3, 4.
" As a mother at the risk of her life watches over
her own child, her only child, so also let every one
cultivate a boundless (friendly) mind towards all
beings." "And let him cultivate goodwill towards all the
world, a boundless (friendly) mind, above and below
and across, unobstructed, without hatred, without
enmity." — " Uragavagga, 8 Mettasutta," w. 7, 8.
"As I am so are these, as these are so am I,
identifying himself with others, let him not kill nor
cause (anyone) to kill." — " Mahdvagga, 11, Ndlakasutta,"
v. 27, " Sacred Books of the East," vol. x.
Note 18, p. 108.
Personal religion, or the realization of communion
with the Divine, was lacking. " Devoutness is a defect ;
it implies a dangerous exaltation in the popular mind.
Calm, order, regularity — this is what is wanted. Any-
E E

370 Notes to Lectures. [Lect.
thing beyond this is excess (super stitio). Cato absolutely
forbids that slaves should be aUowed to entertain any
sentiment of piety — 'Know,' he says, ' that the master
sacrifices for the whole household.' " — Renan, "Hibbert
Lectures" p. 13.
"The utter powerlessness of the Boman people in
matters of religion was expressed by this sacramental
phrase : ' The plebeians have lost the right of their
auspices.'" — Edgar Quinet, " Genie des Religions," ch. vii.,
sec. 1.

LECTUEE IV.
Note 19, p. 132.
The absolutism in Islam Theology can hardly be more
strongly expressed than in the foUowing : —
" Dieu a implante le bien et le mal dans la nature
humaine, ainsi qu'il l'a dit lui-meme dans le Coran : ' la
perversite et la vertu arrivent a fame humaine par l'in-
spiration de Dieu.' " — " Ibn Khaldoun," i., 268.
" The central idea of this religion," writes Archbishop
Trench, "in its noblest aspect is just the surrendering
of oneself to God as the absolute Power." In the
same strain Wellhausen puts God and His mastery as
tho strength of the Moslem system; and thus the
view which Bishop Butler expressed is seen to be true,
when he said, " Submission is the whole reHgion of
Mohammed." — Cf. "Mohammed and Mohammedanism,"
by Bos worth Smith, p. 161, 2nd ed.
" Who will be averse to the religion of Abraham but
he whose mind is infatuated ? . . . When his

iv] Notes to Lectures. 371
(Abraham's) Lord said unto him, Besign thyself unto
Me ; he answered, I have resigned myself unto the
Lord of aU creatures. And Abraham bequeathed this
religion to his children," &c. — " Al Koran," ch. ii., Sale's
Ed., 1812, vol. i. pp. 24, 25. Cf. " Mohammed and Moham
medanism," by R. Bosworth Smith, p. 161, 2nd ed.
Note 20, p. 135.
Sale calls attention to one verse in the Koran, which
he thinks, perhaps, indicates that the Mohammedans were
no strangers to Quietism. He speaks, however, doubt
fully. The words on which he lays stress are these :
" 0 thou soul that art at rest !" He thinks that these
may indicate the deep soul-quiet so dear to the mystic ;
but he admits that they may have a more superficial
meaning, and may be understood of the soul secure of
salvation and free from fear. The words afford a very
slender foundation on which to build any superstructure
of Quietism. It is iU hanging doctrines on the frayed
thread of a doubtful text. The Quietism which ap
peared in the history of Islam, sprang from other
sources than the Koran. It had a much securer founda
tion in the heart of mankind than in the language of
the Prophet, from whom, according to WeUhausen,
" contemplative piety received only the praise of words."
— See Encyc. Brit. : " Mohammed." 9th Ed.
Note 21, p. 139.
"The influences it met with on this (Persian) soil, and
out of which pecuHar religious tendencies were de
veloped, were foreign — Indo-Germanic ; and these ten
dencies besides have always been regarded by Moslem
orthodoxy as aberrations and heresies, and were there-

372 Notes to Lectures. [Lect.
fore soon, with a greater or less degree of decision,
expeUed from Islam."— Pfleiderer, "Phil, of Rel," vol.
iii. p. 180. Cf. also vol. iv. 98—100.
Note 22, p. 141.
" The tendency to deify Scripture only reached satis
faction in the dogma that the Koran, just as it is
written, its very letters and breathings, was 'uncreated,'
and had an eternal and independent existence as
God's own word, having no part in the conditions and
the imperfection of all created things." — Pfleiderer %
"Phil, of Rel.," vol. iv., p. 63.
With this we may compare :
"Dans le Coran, un grand nombre de versets te-
moignent que ce livre fut communique auProphete sous
la forme d'une lecture ( Coran) faite a haute voir et dont
chaque sourate etait un miracle (de style qui sur-
passait le pouv.oir des. hommes." — Ibn Khaldoun,.
"Proleg.," vol. i., p. 195.
An orthodox and authoritative Moslem treatise (used.
as a text-book in aU Turkish schools and coUeges), en
titled " Bisala-i-Berkevi," says: "The Koran is the
word of God, and is eternal and uncreated." — See Sell's.
" Faith of Islam," p. 118.
Note 23, p. 142.
" Mohammed cursed the painter or drawer of men
and animals (Mishkat, bk. xii., ch. i., pt. 1) and con
sequently they are held to be unlawful." — Hughes,
" Dictionary of Islam," Pictures, p. 458.
' ' The making of carved, graven, or sculptured figures
is understood to be forbidden in the Qur'an

iv] Notes to Lectures. 373
Consequently sculpture is not aUowed according to
Muslim law." — Ibid., Sculpture, p. 566.
Ibn Khaldoun (see Canon MacColl's account of him
in the Contemp. Review, Ap., 1888) gives a dissertation
on the arts generaUy (Proleg., French ed., vol. ii., pp.
357 — 406), but says nothing about painting and sculp
ture, because they are forbidden by the sacred law.
And even of the arts which are allowed, he observes,
"La pratique des arts est en general tres-limitee dans
le pays dont les Arabes sont originaires et dans les
contrees dont Us se sont empares depuis la promulga
tion de l'islamisme."— Proleg., vol. ii., p. 365.
Mohammed had no love for the poets : — " They rove
as bereft of their senses in every vaUey," he said.
But he had a shrewd appreciation of the advantage
which he and his cause might derive from Ihe employ
ment of satire: — "Ply them with satires," he once
said to Caab Ebn Malec ; ' ' for, by him in whose hand
my soul is, they wound more deeply than arrows." —
Sale's "Koran," vol. ii., p. 211, and note.
Note 24, p. 144.
"Mohammedanism is the only form in which the
knowledge of the true God has ever made way with
the native races of Africa ; and the form of Christi
anity which it supplanted in the North — that of the
Donatists and of the Nitrian monks ; of Cyril, strangely
caUed a saint ; and of the infamous George of Cappa
docia, stiU more strangely transformed into St. George
of England — was infinitely inferior to Mohammedanism
itself." — Bosworth Smith, " Mohammed and Mohammedan
ism," p. 285, 2nd Ed.

374 Notes to Lectures. [Lect.
With this we must compare what is said by Prof.
Pfleiderer :
"We must, however, observe that Islam cannot be
caUed a universal reHgion in quite the same sense
as Christianity and Buddhism. Its founder certainly
contemplated the universal spread of his religion ; but he
certainly lacked the true universal human spirit. Though
the founder of a religion he never ceased to be an
Arab, and he impressed on his rehgious community
forms of thought and life, which however weU they
answered the genius of the Arabs, were to the mem
bers of aU other peoples nothing but a heavy yoke, and
a fetter which prevented all sound and Hving develop
ment. Even the customary spread of Islam by force
of arms shows that the religion now before us is not
a reHgion of humanity, which overcomes the limits of
race by the inner influence of spiritual universality."
— " The Philosophy of Religion," vol. iii., p. 180.
Note 25, p. 150.
"Not by (any phUosophical) opinion, not by tradi
tion, not by knowledge — 0 Magandiya, so said
Bhagavat, — not by virtue and (holy) works can any
one say that purity exists ; nor by absence of (philo
sophical) opinion, by absence of tradition, by absence
of knowledge, by absence of virtue and (holy) works
either ; having abandoned these without adopting
(anything else), let him, calm and independent, not
desire existence." — " Mdgandiyasutta," v. 5.
"The Brahmana, for whom (the notions) 'equal'
and ' unequal ' do not exist, would he say, ' This is
true?' Or with whom should he dispute, saying,

iv.J Notes to Lectures. 375
' This is false ? ' With whom should he enter into
dispute ? "—Ibid., v. 9.
" There are not many different truths in the world,
no eternal ones except consciousness : but having rea
soned on the (philosophical) views they proclaim a
double Dhamma, truth and falsehood." — " Kulaviyu-
hasutta," v. 9.
"A dogmatist is no leader to purity, being guided
by prejudiced views, saying that good consists in what
he is given to, and saying that purity is there, he saw
the thing so."
"A Brahmana does not enter time, (or) the number
(of living beings), (he is) no follower of (philosophical)
views, nor a friend of knowledge ; and having pene
trated the opinions that have arisen amongst people, he
is indifferent to learning, while others acquire it."
"The Muni, having done away with ties here in the
world, is no partisan in the disputes that have arisen ;
appeased amongst the unappeased he is indifferent,
not embracing learning, while others acquire it."
" Having abandoned his former passions, not con
tracting new ones, not wandering according to his wishes,
being no dogmatist, he is delivered from the (philo
sophical) views, being wise, and he does not cling to
the world, neither does he blame himself." — " Sutta-
Nipata Mahdviyiihasutta," vv. 16, 17, 18, and 19;
" Sacred Books of the East," vol. x., p. 173.
" The wandering monk, Vacchagotta, spake to the
Exalted One, saying, ' How does the matter stand,
venerable Gotama, is there the ego ? ' When he said
this, the Exalted One was silent. ' How then, venerable
Gotama, is there not the ego ? ' And still the Exalted
One maintained silence. But the venerable Ananda,

376 Notes to Lectures. [Lect.
when the wandering monk Vacchagotta, had gone to a
distance, soon said to the Exalted One, ' wherefore,
sire, has the Exalted One not given an answer to the
questions put by the wandering monk Vacchagotta ? '
'If I, Ananda, had answered 'the ego is,' then that,
Ananda, would have confirmed the the doctrine of the
Samanas and Brahmanas who believe in permanence.
If I had answered, 'the ego is not,' then that would
have confirmed the doctrine of the Samanas and
Brahmanas who believe in annihilation.' " — Oldenberg,
"Buddha," p. 272.
"The truth is, that a strong conviction with the
resultant zeal to propagate it is hardly consistent with
the quietism commended by the Buddha." "Buddhism
raises the rejection of every affirmation to the rank of a
principle." — Kuenen, "Hibbert Lectures," pp. 283,4.
" But he who is dependent undergoes censure
amongst the Dhammas ; with what (name) and how
should one name him who is independent? For by
him there is nothing grasped or rejected, he has in
this world shaken off every (philosophical) view." —
" Sutta-Nipata, Dutthatthakasutta," v. 8 ; " Sacred Books
of the East," vol. x., p. 150.
"The belief in self or soul is regarded so distinctly
as a heresy that two weU-known words in Buddhist
terminology have been coined on purpose to stigmatise
it." — Rhys Davids, "Buddhism," p. 95.
" In the Times of Oct. 14, 1886, you wiU find recorded
a remarkable conversation between a Lama priest and
a Christian traveller, in the course of which the Lama
says that ' Christians describe their religion as the best
of aU religions ; whereas among the nine rules of conduct
for the Buddhist there is ono that directs him never

iv] Notes to Lectures. $jj
either to think or to say that his own religion is the
best, considering that sincere men of other religions are
deeply attached to them.' " — Monier Williams, " The
Holy Bible and the Saered Books of the East," p. 12.
Note 26, p. 152.
"He who maintains a wife, and is at the head of a
household ; and that other who lives righteously, pos
sessing nothing, these are not equals. The head of the
house lives unrestrained, and brings about the destruc
tion of men ; but the wise and restrained is a protec
tion to aU living beings." — " Muni Sutta," 15, given by
Rhys Davids, "Buddhism," p. 156.
"His thought is quiet, quiet are his word and
deed, when he has obtained freedom by true knowledge,
when he has thus become a quiet man."
" The man who is free from credulity, but knows
the uncreated, who has cut aU ties, removed aU tempta
tions, renounced aU desires, he is the greatest of men."
" Dhammapada Sutta," w. 96, 97 ; " Sacred Books of the
East," vol. x., p. 28. Note 27, p. 166.
" Surely the lesson that the new covenant conveys by
its substitution of baptism for circumcision, is, that the
time for asceticism has passed away, that we may no
longer think to please God by self-inflicted sufferings —
a 'voluntary humUiation,' which is 'will worship,'
and not the religion of Christ — but that we are to Hve,
as Christ did, in the world, eating and drinking such
things as are set before us, not abstaining from
wine, not holding marriage in disesteem, not flying

378 Notes to Lectures. [Lect.

human society or its harmless pleasures and amusements,
not macerating the flesh by austerities, but stiU taking
care that we deal not with these things as the worldly and
fleshly deal, but in every case purify what the ascetic cuts
off and casts away, and only use it after such purification."
Canon 67. Rawlinson, " Contrasts of Christianity with
Heathen and Jewish Systems," p. 105.

LECTUEE V.

Note 28, p. 175.
It would not be difficult to illustrate the two levels
of reHgion. It has been said by Professor Max MiiUer
that "religions often deteriorate." The tendency to
reduce religion to this "Fetish" level is only too
common. The note of superstition is frequently
sounded at the same moment that lofty thoughts find
utterance. An example of this is given in the foUow
ing, which is aU the more striking as it shares
Zoroaster's thirst for righteousness.
"2. The reciter is represented as standing in the
appropriate place as a priest, with hands stretched
towards Ahura, or His Fire, and praying for the
possession of spiritual graces from an unselfish motive,
and in order that be might appease the grief of the
Kine's soul (explained elsewhere as representing the
herds of the holy Iranian people, their only means of
honourable livelihood) for whose relief Zarathustra
had just been appointed.
" 3. He approaches Ahura Mazda, spiritually inspired
by the Good Mind as he declares, and asking for attain-

v.] Notes to Lectures. 379
ments and boons for both the bodily and spiritual
lives, derived from Bighteousness, whereby that per
sonified Bighteousness might estabHsh the elect in a
beatified state.
" 6. With a piety as fervent as it is profound, and
speaking with great earnestness, he asks Bighteous
ness, as a person, when he shall see him, becoming
fuUy acquainted with the Good Mind of God, the way
which leads to Him, and above aU with Obedience.
But although he addresses these lofty abstractions as
persons, it is utterly out of the question to suppose that
he did not speak in the deepest meaning of the words
as expressing states of mind and qualities of character :
0 Thou Divine, Eighteous order! (thus he seems to
have meant) — 0 Thou Divine, Eighteous order ! when
shaU I see Thee as if present in my own soul and in
those of the people whom Ahura has committed to my
charge ? . . . . One cannot well exaggerate the
rehgious depth or subjectivity. Then, with a bathos
which shows how then as ever superstition could hold
its own side by side with the truest piety, he exclaims
(if the third line was really so composed by him, as
it has come down to us) 'By such a prayer as
a Mathra spell we can with the greatest vigour repel
the unclean beasts and creatures which defile our
sanctity, or endanger our Hves.'
" 9. He prays for  aU the duration of the
Good Mind, using the expression in its concrete sense
as heaven ; for heaven to him consisted in an inward
state  (It is the mind which chiefly enjoys or
suffers)." Introduction to Yasna, xxviii., " Sacred Books of the
East," vol. xxxi. (" The Zend-Avesta") p. 14.

380 Notes to Lectures. [Lect.
"The exaggeration of dependence leads often to
Fatalism. Its effect is to degrade. "This horrid
doctrine of fatalism is the barrier which obstructs
the way to the improvement of the Hindoo on every
side, — which shuts his heart against every better im
pression ; it makes him like a block. Both the poor and
rich regard their sins as the necessary consequence of
actions performed in a former state of existence ; hence
the greatest criminal never considers himself guilty ;
his conscience is seared, and repentance is unknown to
him." — Weitbrecht, " Missions in Bengal," p. 256.
Note 29, p. 180.
"Irish Druidism absorbed a certain amount of
Christianity ; and it would be a problem of considerable
difficulty to fix on the point where it ceased to be
druidism, and from which onwards it could be said to
be Christianity in any restricted sense of that term." —
Prof. Rhys, "Hibbert Lectures," 1886, p. 224.
Mr. Borlase teUs us that a canon in King Edgar's
reign forbade weU-worshippings and necromancies
and divinations and stone worshippings. Th.6 Council
of Tours forbade stone-worship by name. "Yet
the Pagan element has survived through it all.
' Pisqy stones ' are stiU haunted by their fairies ; pins
are stiU dropped into weUs ; and in West Penwith
strips of crape are still hung upon the plants in the
window when a death has occurred in the house, for
fear the evil influence might resent the neglect, and
strike other living things dead also." — " The Age of the
Saints," p. 52, by William Copeland Borlase (Truro, 1878).
A curious instance of the survival of old and foreign

v.] Notes to Lectures. 381

customs is to be found in the practice (still extant in
some parts of Cornwall) of hanging a piece of " Pass
over" cake in the house as a protection against fire.
Note 30, p. 188.
Parallel to the passage from M. Benan is the foUow
ing from M. De Quatrefages, respecting the Tahitians : —
"Trusting in his religious observances, in the prayers
of his priests, and in the indulgence of his gods, the
Tahitian thought himself at Hberty to do almost
anything." (" The Human Species," p. 488.) He
remarks, so did the Christians of the Middle Ages,
everywhere indeed, there is the tendency to get
rid of the moral force or claims in religion. Mr.
Weitbrecht, for many years Missionary in Bengal,
was of opinion that there was a distinctly demoralizing
influence in Brahminism, and that no system was
better calculated to destroy every disposition towards
that which is true, lovely, and of good report, and so
entirely to eradicate every moral feeling. — "Missions
in Bengal," p. 72. Note 31, p. 190.
" . . . . The island of Cozumel was reputed a
holy place, and contained many considerable temples,
to which the Indians went on pilgrimage from several
parts of the continent to sacrifice to their gods, and their
idolatry moved the religious zeal of Cortes to bring them
to a knowledge of 'the true faith.' The account which
Bernal Diaz has given of this attempt on his part is
very characteristic. ' One morning we perceived that
the place where these horrible images stood was

382 Notes to Lectures. [Lect.
crowded with Indians and their wives. They burnt a
species of resin, which very much resembled our
incense, and, as such a sight was so novel to us, we paid
particular attention to aU that went forward. Upon
this, an old man, who had a wide cloak, and was a
priest, mounted on the very top of the temple, and
began preaching something to the Indians. We were
aU very curious to know what the purport of the
sermon was, and Cortes desired Melchorijo to interpret
it to him. Finding that aU he had been saying tended
to ungodliness, Cortes ordered the caziques, with the
principal men amongst them and the priests, into his
presence, giving them to understand as weU as he
could, by means of our interpreter, that if they were
desirous of becoming our brethren they must give up
sacrificing to their idols, which were no gods, but evil
beings, by which they were led into error and their
souls sent to hell. He then presented them with the
image of the Virgin Mary and a cross, which he desired
them to put up instead. These would procure a blessing
to them at aU times, make their seeds grow, and
preserve their souls from eternal perdition. This, and
many other things respecting our holy religion, Cortes
explained to them in a very exeeUent manner.'" —
"History of Yucatan," by C. St. J. Fancourt,
p. 30.
Mr. Borlase, in his "Age of the Saints," calls attention
to similar methods employed nearer home. "It was
by engrafting the new faith on to the Pagan supersti
tions as they found them that they finally succeeded in
winning over the nation. The great Pagan festivals of
Beltine and Samhain became our May Day and AU
Hallow-Een."— p. 27.

vi.] Notes to Lectures. 383
Note 32, p. 194.
"First of aU, their tone, Hke that of aU moraHty
except the Christian, is negative ; whereas Christianity
is whoUy positive : and this is really the difference
between the finite and infinite. What a difference,
for example, between saying with HiUel or Confucius,
' Do not unto another what thou wouldest not have
another do unto thee,' and saying, ' Whatsoever ye
would that men should do to you, even so do ye
unto them;' between saying, 'Do no harm even to
enemies,' as Plato said, and saying, 'Love your
enemies ; ' between ' It is better to suffer wrong than to
do wrong,' though that was a noble paradox of Socrates,
and 'Bless them that curse you, do good to them that
hate you and persecute you.' " — Campbell," The Christian
Ideal," p. 207.

LECTUEE VI.
Note 33, p. 210.
" H in every mind the springs of action had strength
in exact proportion to their worth, and in their appHca
tion were directed by correct judgment of their effects,
the best forms of conduct, and nothing else, would
spontaneously arise. They would arise, however, not
by reason of their goodness, but by reason of then-
force, with no more virtue in them than in the growing
of the clover or the incubation of the bird. ' Nothing
takes place moraUy,' says Bothe, 'except what takes
place through one's own self-determination ; and this it is
that converts it from a mere taking-place into an
action.'" — Martineau, " Study of Religion," vol. ii., p. 109.

384 Notes to Lectures. [Lect.
" We never judge our spontaneities, but only our
volitions." — Martineau, " Types of Ethical Theory," vol. ii.,
p. 32.
Cf. Plato's treatise, " Meno," in which he labours to
show that virtue must be divinely bestowed and cannot
be taught. — Lewes, "Biog. Hist. Phil." p. 261.
Note 34, p. 216.
" Since, then, in the two most important phenomena
which the progress of society presents, the moral laws
have been steadily and invariably subordinate to the
inteUectual laws, there arises a strong presumption that
in inferior matters the same process has been foUowed.
To prove this in its fuU extent, and thus raise the pre
sumption to an absolute certainty, would be to write
not an Introduction to History, but the History itself.
The reader must, therefore, be satisfied for the present
with what, I am conscious, is merely an approach
towards demonstration ; and the complete demonstra
tion must necessarily be reserved for the future volumes
of this work : in which I pledge myself to show that
the progress Europe has made from barbarism to
civiHzation is entirely due to its inteUectual activity ;
that the leading countries have now, for some centuries,
advanced sufficiently far to shake off the influence of
those physical agencies by which in an earlier state
their career might have been troubled; and that
although the moral agencies are stiU powerful, and
stiU cause occasional disturbances, they are but
aberrations which, if we compare long periods of
time, balance each other, and thus in the total amount
entirely disappear. So that, in a great and compre
hensive view, the changes in every civilized people are,

vi.] Notes to Lectures. 385
in their aggregate, dependent solely on three things ;
first, on the amount of knowledge possessed by their
ablest men ; secondly, on the direction which that
knowledge takes, that is to say, the sort of subject to
which it refers ; thirdly, and above aU, on the extent
to which that knowledge is diffused, and the freedom
with which it pervades all classes of society." — Buckle,
" History of Civilization," vol i., p. 224.
Knowledge "can never bring about that the wiU
shaU wUl something actually different from what it has-
hitherto willed ; this remains unchangeable, for the
wiU is simply this willing itself, which would have to
be abolished." The modifications of conduct through
knowledge may extend so far that a man may seek
to attain his unalterable end, " at one time in the real
world, at another time in a world of imagination,
adapting the means to each. . . . But its effort
itself has not therefore changed, stiU less the wiU
itself." — Schopenhauer, " The World as Will and Idea,"
p. 380.
"He (man) learns to develop his powers in one
direction, curtaU them in another, in order to secure
for himself the maximum of benefit and the minimum
of injury, hoping thereby to estabHsh his own position
in the scale of human beings. Is action directed to
this end and guided by this view of self to be caUed
moral ? Many moralists (including the whole of the
hedonistic body) assert that it is : in the development
of my thesis I may perhaps be aUowed to assert, for
the present dogmaticaUy, that it is not. It is only
when a second result of the action of reason asserts
itself that a man can properly be termed a moral being."
— Courtney, "Constructive Ethics," p. 60. F F

386 Notes to Lectures. [Lect.
"It is not to be expected, and it is not maintained,
that men in aU ages should have agreed about the
application of their moral principles. All that is con
tended for is that these principles are themselves the
same." "In every age virtue has consisted in the cultivation
of the same feelings, though the standards of excellence
attained have been different." — Leeky, " History of Euro
pean Morals," vol. i., pp. 102, 109.
Note 35, p. 221.
The conscience is not something apart from the man,
but it is the witness of something which is greater than
the man. Conscience may be the conventional name
given to man's consciousness of right and wrong, but it
is more than this, for it implies that passing of, judg
ment upon self, which brings shame, or the feeling of
self-consciousness. Conscience is not merely con
sciousness of right and wrong, it is self- consciousness
in regard to it. It is not necessary to assume an organ
or a special faculty ; it is enough that man judges in a
special way concerning matters of right and wrong.
He weighs them in the balance of the sanctuary, not
in that of the market-place. The mode of action may
not imply any special faculty. There is a danger of
speaking as though conscience were apart from the
man himself. The same mistake in theology which
speaks of grace as though it were something apart from
God, occurs in ethics when conscience is spoken of as a
thing apart from man.
But notwithstanding this, conscience bears witness to
that which is above man, to a law, if it may be

vi] Notes to Lectures. 3S7
so caUed, higher than that of interest, or pleasure, or
pubHc opinion. This law sets a restraint upon man's
actions, it may be called an interference with his
liberty, and yet it is a law which, being obeyed (and
man is free to obey or to disobey it), leads to a nobler
Hberty, setting a man free from aU bondage to desire,
or fear of pubHc opinion. This is the case even when
conscience is but poorly informed.
Conscience is not to be viewed as a weU-fiUed library,
possessing a weU-learned librarian, who can answer
any question, and furnish any authority. Conscience
is the name given to that consciousness of our
selves, and of our own actions which impHes the
perception of some ideal, and the power of self-judg
ment in relation to it. The ideal may be low, the
process by which this class of consciousness was aroused
may be gradual; but, when once it is aroused, it is
different in its judgments from other consciousness.
It may have grown up through the influence of social
feelings and public opinion ; but its greatness Hes in
this, that it judges often in spite of, and always in
dependently of, pubHc opinion. We may be confused in
our estimate of ourselves, but we can recognise the
difference between our actions when motived only by
fear of pubHc opinion, and by our own sense of right.
Man can refuse to quit the " Curule seat,
To please a people's veering will."
This does not imply wide knowledge or acquaintance
-with facts. Indeed, the conscientious man, who goes
against public opinion, may be quite wrong, and yet it
would be immoral of him to run counter to the inward
-voice. This it is impossible for him to ignore without

388 Notes to Lectures. [Lect.
losing self-respect, and the sense of harmony between
himself and such law or principle higher than self, and
higher than the world's opinion.
When such a state of consciousness is reached in
man, by whatever stages of development it may have
been preceded, he is standing on a different platform
than previously.
He is as one who has climbed through deep
and darkly-foliaged woods up the steep side of a
mountain, and has at last emerged upon a lofty
spur, from which he can see the beauty and character
of the country he has been traversing. He has
reached a spot, and he begins to know where he
is. His view point is altered. Or, to change the
illustration, he judges things by a different standard.
At an earlier stage he judged by quantity, he now
measures by quality. Then he reckoned values by size
— now he reckons by weight. Conscience is the
balance of the soul. It is not responsible for what is
put in the scale; it weighs whatever is given to it.
It is a principle of judging, not between the greater
and the less, but between the higher and the lower.
Prof. Max Midler, then, is right in cautioning us
against viewing conscience as a thing apart from man.
"Whether we caU it a faculty or not, depends upon our
mode of using the word. It does not seem to me that
those who urge the authoritative power of conscience
mean to affirm that it is a power apart from man, but
only that it is the witness of some law or power higher
than man : it witnesses to man's origin, it prophesies
of his destiny, but it is always in man's voice that the
oracle speaks.
After mentioning Mr. Stephen's objection to

vi] Notes to Lectures. 389
the theory which " sets up the conscience as a
separate and permanently fixed faculty, ' an ulti
mate factor,' privileged against analytical scrutiny,"
. . . as " inconsistent with the conception and with
the evidence of evolution," Dr. Martineau says that
this objection "depends entirely upon an arbitrary
interpretation put upon the word ' conscience,' and
disappears when that interpretation is renounced.
True, it does imply a function in our nature so far
' separate ' as to leave with us an idea which else we
should not have. Whenever you come upon an idea
which baffles analysis, I suppose you can say no less
than that it is ' an idtimate factor ; ' and tiU you can
analyse it and resolve it into something else, so it must
remain. But, in affirming this, you do not say, either,
that the idea was always present in aU the possible
animal progenitors of the existing race, in the first
mollusc as in the last Christian ; or, that it is an idea
incapable of growth and ramification, of blossoming
and fruit-bearing. I cannot indeed point out the
moment in the chronology of species or in the history
of our own, when the idea of Bight entered the con
sciousness ; but the evolutionary expositor is here just
as much at fault, and, as we have seen, cannot pretend
to have no lacunoe in his story. And as for conscience,
supposing it a primitive datum, being thereby pre
cluded from development, I can only appeal to the
friendly alliance in which they have worked together
in the foregoing exposition : the germ being in the
first felt difference of claim between two competing
instincts." — " Types of Ethical Theory," vol. ii,
p. 377.
"At the root of aU morals lies an inteUectual judg-

3 go Notes to Lectures. [Lect.
ment which is clearly distinct from liking or disliking,
from pleasure or from pain." — Lecky, " Hist, of European
Murals," vol. i., p. 67.
"The fact is that evolution, taken by itself, as a
scientific dogma, does not necessarily imply ameliora
tion, as so many thinkers seem to suppose, but only
advance. And a moral theory which is based on evolu
tion does not derive from it the explanation of a
moral ideal, unless there be added to the dogma an
ontological principle, which can be construed as con
scious intelligence." — Courtney, " Constructive Ethics,"
p. 316.
"Confining ourselves rigorously to the region of
facts, and carefully avoiding the territory of philosophy
and theology, we may state, without hesitation, that
there is no human society or even association in which
the idea of good and evil is not represented by certain
acts regarded by the members of that society or asso
ciation as morally good or moraUy bad. Even among
robbers and pirates theft is regarded as a misdeed,
sometimes as a crime, and severely punished, whue
treachery is branded with infamy ; the facts noticed by
WaUace among the Kurubars and Santals shew how
the consciousness of moral good and truth is anterior to
experience, and independent of questions of utility." —
De Quatrefages, " The Human Species" p. 459.

vii] Notes to Lectures. 391

LECTUEE VII.
Note 36, p. 246.
This appHes to the reality of the object of worship as
weU as to man.
" We would not need religious faith if its objects were
not. For if man has made behef in those objects be
cause he needs it, he did not create the circumstance
that he needs belief in them for his continuance and
welfare, and is therefore obHged by that necessity to
make it. The production of this faith by man must
therefore be based on the same real nature of things
which produced man with his needs. It would be to
impute an absurdity to the nature of things, and it
would be contrary to experience, so far as we can speak
of experience in such a matter, to say that nature had
constituted man in such a way that he could only prosper
whUe cherishing a belief in a thing that is not." —
Fechner, quoted by Pfleiderer, " The Philosophy of
Religion," vol. ii., p. 296.
"Morality requires the supposition, not only of an
Absolute, in contrast to ourselves, who are relative
and individual, but an Absolute and Self-conscious
Spirit. Without such a supposition the moral law
lacks validity, the moral ideal has nothing whereby to
explain its aspiration, and, more than this, the ameliora
tion of the world and of humanity is an impossible
conception." — Courtney, " Constructive Ethics," -p. 317.
Note 37, p. 249.
" L'univers entier n'est il point lui-meme une vaste
societe en voie de formation, une vaste union de con-
scienses qui s'elabore, un concours de volont^s qui se

392 Notes to Lectures. [Lect.
cherchent et peu A peu setrouvent?" — FouilUe, "La
Science Sociale," Introduction, p. vii.
"Qu'y a-t-il en effet de vrai dans la philosophie
metaphysique de l'histoire ? C'est cette pensee que la
societe humaine a un certain ideal, qu'eUe prend pour
fin, et dont la poursuite plus on moins consciente doit
donner un sens a son histoire." — FouilUe, "La Science
Sociale," Introduction, p. vii., p. 385.
"In every phenomenon the trace, intimation, and
plan of the higher phenomenon that lies next to it in
point of development shows itself, but also because aU
these forms belong to the world as idea, it is indeed
conceivable that even in the most universal forms of
the idea, in that peculiar framework of the phenomenal
world space and time, it may be possible to discern
and establish the fundamental type, intimation and
plan of what fills the forms." — Schopenhauer, " The
World as WiU and Idea," p. 187.
"There is nothing in nature that does not manifest
its internal form externally; for the internal continuaUy
labours to manifest itself. . . Everything has its
language by which to reveal itself. . . . And this
is the language of nature when everything speaks out of
its own property, and continually manifests and declares
itself . . . for each thing reveals its mother, which
thus gives the essence and the will to the form." — Jakob
Bbhm, "De Signatura Rerum" ch. i., § 13-15.
" Throughout my books, the implication is that our
Hves, alike physical and mental, in common with all
the activities, organic and inorganic, amid which we live,
are but the workings of this Power." — Herbert Spencir,
Article in the "Nineteenth Century," No. 89, p. 7.

vn.] Notes to Lectures. 393
" The final outcome of that speculation commenced
by the primitive man, is that the Power manifested
throughout the Universe distinguished as material, is
the same power which in ourselves weUs up under the
form of consciousness." — H. Spencer, Article in "Nine
teenth Century," No. 83, p. 9.
Note 38, p. 261.
" Perhaps you wiU admit that man is the culminating
point in the system of nature here on earth ; but wfll
object that he is the inevitable result, not the contem
plated end, of aU its prior history. And if he were
the contemplated end, would he not equaUy be the
inevitable result, of the instrumentality instituted for
attaining it ? In insisting on this necessary sequence,
you only declare that the purpose is not left without
provision for its accomplishment. With or without design,
this feature — of adequate physical efficiency — cannot be
absent, and the specific mark of intention lies in the
ascending scale by which the series of means mounts to
a supreme result, and presents a hierarchy in which
the lower serves the higher, and each succeeding step
bears more the character of an end and less that of a
mere means, tiU you rest on the summit which com
pletes the scheme. To mere necessary causation no
such ascent belongs : it is not physical, but inteUectual,
and speaks to our thought because spoken from
nature's." — Martineau, " Study of Religion," vol. i.,
p. 318. Note 39, p. 265.
"Beligion, in its ultimate essence, is a sentiment of
Beverence for a Higher than ourselves. Higher
than ourselves, however, none can be, that have not
what is most august among our endowments; none,

394 Notes to Lectures. [Lect.
therefore, by reason of size, of strength, of duration ;
none simply by beauty or by skiH, none even by large
ness of discerning thought, but only by free and realising
preference of the most Just and Good. A Being of
living WiU can alone be nobler than myself, lift me
above the level of my actual mind by looking at my
latent nature, and emancipate me into the captivity of
worship. In other words, reverence attaches itself ex
clusively to a Person ; it cannot direct itself on what is
impersonal — on physical facts, on unconscious laws, on
necessary forces, on inanimate objects and their rela
tions, on space, though it be infinite, on duration,
though it be eternal. These aU, even when they rule
us, are lower than ourselves ; they may evade our know
ledge, defy our power, overwhelm our imagination,
but never rise to be our equals, or conspire to furnish
even the symbol of our God." — Martineau, " Studies
of Christianity," Anthropomorphism, p. 368.
" With different writers, it is true, the offence begins
at different points : in order to avoid it, Theodore
Parker forbids us to say that God ' thinks, ' but aUows
us to believe that He ' loves ' : Mr. Arnold wiU not
aUow that he either ' thinks or loves : ' Caro insists that
he both thinks and loves, yet declares that to con
ceive of him as resembHng and transcending such
faculties as ours involves us in the mischief of anthropo
morphism." Professor TyndaU detects it in Darwin.
"Of originating power he (man) has no personal ex
perience ; yet, in ascribing it to God, he is an anthropo-
morphist! From these examples it is obvious that
the term so variously used has become a mere vehicle
for the expression of dislike." — Martineau, " Study of
Religion," vol. i., pp. 334, 335.

vn] Notes to Lectures. 395
Note 40, p. 268.
" Morality is the realisation of our destiny as reason
able creatures in the world of social relations, religion
the realisation of the same destiny in reference to God.
Social relations being based, along with the rest of the
world-order, in God, the ultimate ground of all moral
obligation consists in the religious feeling of dependence,
which is reinforced by the feeling of trust, and by the
striving after communion with and Hkeness to the Deity,
which provide an encouraging and inspiring motive." —
Pfleiderer, " The Philosophy of Religion," vol. iv., p. 272.
Note 41, p. 271.
On "the utter futility of the objections . . . brought
against the theory of natural moral perceptions, upon
the ground that some actions which were admitted as
lawful in one age, have been regarded as immoral in
another," see the quotation in Note 34 from Mr. Lecky's
"Hist, of Morals," vol.i., p. 109.
Note 42, p. 275.
" When we consider that the worship of sacred
human personalities is the one point common to the
three world-religions of Islam, Christianity and Buddh
ism, which in other respects differ from each other so
widely, we can scarcely help supposing that this pious
reverence for human ideals, as the visible types and
supports of the rehgious Hfe and effort of the community,
is the spring of the specific power of expansion these
religions possess. At all events this point appears to
me to deserve more consideration than it has yet found."
— Pfleiderer, " The Philosophy of Religion," vol. iii., p. 180.
It is interesting to note that Mr. Lecky considers Islam
comparatively weak in this respect : —

39& Notes to Lectures. [Lect.
"Barren Mohammedanism has been in all the higher
and more tender virtues, because its noble morahty and
its pure theism have been united with no living ex
ample." — Lecky, " Hist, of Morals," vol. H., p. 10.
Dr. Martineau weU says: "Personality is not the
largest, but it is the highest fact in the known cosmos."
— " Study of Religion," vol. ii., p. 365.
On the personaHty of Mohammed, cf. Bosworth
Smith, "Mohammed and Mohammedanism," p. 110, and
the Article on "Mohammed," by Wellhausen, in the
Ency. Brit. 9 th Ed.

LECTUEE VIII.
Note 43, p. 298.
" The rock on which they split was the character of
Islam, which was then fixed or had been fixed from
the beginning."— Pfleiderer, "The Philosophy of Re
ligion," vol. iii., p. 181.
" From the stiff and rigid shroud in which it is thus
swathed, the religion of Mahomet cannot emerge. It
Has no plastic power beyond that exercised in its
earliest days. Hardened now and inelastic, it can
neither adapt itself nor yet shape its votaries, nor even
suffer them to shape themselves to the varying circum
stances, the wants and developments of mankind." 
Sir W. Muir, "Rise and Decline of Islam," p. 41.
" Tous ceux qui ont ete en Orient ou en Afrique sont
frappes de ce qu'a de fatalement borne l'esprit d'un

viii] Notes to Lectures. 397
vrai croyant, de cette espece de cercle de fer qui
entoure sa tete, la rend absolument fermee a, la science,
incapable de rien apprendre ni de s'ouvrir a aucune
idee nouveUe." — Renan, " E Islamisme et la Science," p. 2.
Note 44, p. 305.
" And, that you may learn that it was from our
teachers — we mean the account given through the
prophets — that Plato borrowed his statement that God,
having altered matter which was shapeless, made the
world, — hear the very words spoken through Moses."
He then quotes the first chapter of Genesis.— Justin
Martyr, 1st Apology, ch. lis., p. 57. (Ante-Nicene Chris
tian Library.)
"MeanwhUe, I think I may safely affirm that we
must abstain from assigning to Buddhism the smaUest
direct influence on the origin of Christianity." — Kuenen,
"Hibbert Lect," 'p. 236.
" I can find no evidence whatever of any actual and
direct communication of any of these ideas from the
East to the West."— Rhys Davids, "Hibbert Lect.,"
p. 151.
" It would, of course, be going too far to deny that
coincidences of beHef are occasionaUy produced by
actual contact of mind with mind ; but it is no more
necessary to assume that they always are so, than to
suppose that chalk cliffs, if there be such, in China
are produced by chalk cliffs in the downs of Sussex."
—Rhys Davids, "Hibbert Led." p. 3.
Note 45, p. 306.
" Clement's Christology is often spoken of as meagre

398 Notes to Lectures. [Lect.
and unsatisfactory. In one respect this is jmjust. For
Clement's idea of the Saviour is larger and nobler —
may we say less conventional ? — than that of any other
doctor of the Church. Christ is the Light that broods
over aU history, and lighteth every man that cometh
into the world. AU that there is upon earth of beauty,
truth, goodness, all that distinguishes the civilised
man from the savage, the savage from the beasts, is
His gift." — Bigg, " Bampton Lectures," p. 72.
"The barbaric (Jewish) and the HeUenic philosophy
have in some sort rent the eternal truth into frag
ments, a dismemberment not like that mythic one of
Dionysos : but a severance of the Divine wisdom
(theology) from the Word of the eternally-existing
One. Now, he who shaU join together again the
severed portions, and make the Word once more whole,
and at one, such an one shall assuredly gaze on the
truth without peril." — Clement of Alex., quoted by Bunsen,
" Godin History," vol. iii., p. 97.
. . . " Sic doctrinae omnes gentilium non solum
simulata et superstitiosa figmenta gravesque sarcinas
supervacanei laboris habent, quae unusquisque nostrum
duce Christo de societate gentilium exiens, debet
abominari atque devitare ; sed etiam Hberales discipHnas
usui veritatis aptiores, et qufedam morum prsecepta
utiHssima continent, deque ipso uno Deo colendo
nonnuUa vera inveniuntur apud eos." — St. Augustine,
" De Doctrind Christiana," Liber ii., § 60.
" A quocumque enim verum dicitur, Ulo donante
dicitur, qui est ipsa Veritas." — St. Augustine, " Ep. ad
Hieronymum," Ep. clxvi., § 9. Cf. also Justin M.,
2nd Apol., ch. x.

viii.] Notes to Lectures. 3gg

" The first of these claims put forth by Christianity
is the claim to be regarded as an original law of the
universe. Throughout the New Testament Epistles
there is a constant reiteration of the statement that this
religion, although a new manifestation to the world, is
not a new principle in nature. Paul speaks of it as
' the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from
generations, but now is made manifest.' What is this
but to say that the Christian principle existed in the
universe before it existed in the heart of man?" —
Matheson, "Can the Old Faith Ike with the New?"
p. 380. Note 46, p. 315.
" Men wanted a Father in heaven, who should take
•count of their efforts and assure them a recompense.
Men wanted a future of righteousness, in which the
earth should belong to the feeble and the poor ; they
wanted the assurance that human suffering is not all
loss, but that beyond this sad horizon, dimmed by tears,
are happy plains where sorrow shaU one day find its
consolation." — Renan, " Hibbert Lects." p. 42.
' ' The wants of humanity are diverse, its aspirations
many, its aims contradictory. PoHtics are not every
thing here below. What the world wanted, after the
frightful butcheries of antiquity, was gentleness, hu
manity  The establishment of Christianity
answered to this cry of aU tender and weary spirits." —
Ibid., pp. 26, 27.
"But there is no human virtue which the love, the
truth, the righteousness of Christ will not inspire and
draw out into a nobler form. Christianity is a reH-

400 Notes to Lectures. [Lect.
gion for the weak, not because Christ is weak, but
because He is so strong, because 'to them that are
weak Heincreaseth strength.' " — Campbell, " The Chris
tian Ideal," p. 220. Note 47, p. 318.
" That virtue is knowledge, and conversely that
knowledge is virtue, is, as Prof. Jowett remarks in
his 'Plato,' a truth which in the history of ethics is-
ever being lost and ever being re-discovered. Formu
lated long ago by Socrates and Plato, it was lost by
the school that succeeded the death of Aristotle ; re
discovered by Cudworth and Clarke, it was lost again
in the philosophies of Shaftesbury and Hutcheson.
Once more, it was set in its true Hght by the moral
genius of Kant, however much its true significance
has been obscured in the contemporary schemes of
Scientific Ethics. For the truth is, that morality belongs
to that creative and paramount Beason which science
seeks to explain as the latest development of material
istic atoms and energies, but which vindicates its reaHty
and its supremacy by the imaginative power with which
it is able to form a theory of its own origin. Man is
above nature, because it is due to man that we have
a theory of nature." — Courtney, " Constructive Ethics,"'
p. 130. Note 48, p. 330.
"The noblest souls of whatever creed, the Pagan
Empedocles as weU as the Christian Paul, have insisted
on the necessity of an inspiration, a joyful emotion, to
make moral action perfect ; an obscure indication
of this necessity is the one drop of truth in the ocean.

viii.] Notes to Lectures. 401

of verbiage with which the controversy on justification
by faith has flooded the world ....
" The paramount virtue of religion is, that it has
lighted up morality ; that it has supplied the emotion
and inspiration needful for carrying the sage along
the narrow way perfectly, for carrying the ordinary
man along it at aU. Even the religions with most
dross in them have had something of this virtue ;
but the Christian religion manifests it with unex
ampled splendour." — M. Arnold, " Essay on Criticism,"
pp. 402, 403 ; 3rd Ed.
"The spirit who shall attain pre-eminence in moral
obligation, and become support to others and feUow-
worker in the realisation of their destiny, has solved the
problem of the centre of gravitation for aU souls — " he
wUl be found to have grouped for ever around his
person aU who deserve the name of man. Of this
problem Jesus first discovered the solution, and then
actuaUy reaHsed it. He has been to humanity the
genius of holiness." — Godet, "Biblical Studies," p. 84.
" The history of self-sacrifice during the last eighteen
hundred years has been mainly the history of the
action of Christianity upon the world. Ignorance and
error have no doubt often directed the heroic spirit into
wrong channels, and sometimes even made it a cause of
great evil to mankind ; but it is the moral type and
beauty, the enlarged conceptions and persuasive power
of the Christian faith, that have chiefly called it into
being : and it is by their influence alone that it can be
permanently maintained." — Lecky, "History of
Rationalism." " The radical difference between Jesus and Socrates
G G

402 Notes to Lectures. [Lect.
is that such a conception as Paul's [conception of faith]
would, if appHed to Socrates, be out of place and in
effective. Socrates inspired boundless friendship and
esteem ; but the inspiration of reason and conscience
is the one inspiration which comes from him, and
which impels us to Hve righteously as he did. A pene
trating enthusiasm of love, sympathy, pity, adoration,
reinforcing the inspiration of reason and duty, does not
belong to Socrates. With Jesus it is different. On
this point it is needless to argue ; history has proved.
In the midst of errors the most prosaic, the most im
moral, the most unscriptural, concerning God, Christ,
and righteousness, the immense emotion of love and
sympathy inspired by the person and character of Jesus
has had to work almost by itself alone for righteous
ness ; and it has worked wonders." — Mat. Arnold,
" St. Paul and Protestantism," p. 79, 3rd Ed.
Note 49, p. 332.
Eichard Bothe has said, "Das Christenthum ist das
aUerveranderlichste ; das istsein besonderer Buhm." —
"Stille Stunden" (Wittenberg, 1872), s. 357.
"If, on the contrary, the Christian reHgion which
proceeded from the prophets and apostles of the Bible,
not only exhibited from the very first an unlimited impulse
to spread, but also the capacity to enter into the life of
the different peoples  if history shows aU this
to be the case, then it manifestly furnishes us with the
most briUiant and irrefutable apology for the unique
superiority of Christianity to aU the other rehgions." —
Pfleiderer, " The Philosophy of Religion," vol. iv., p. 312.
" Christianity wUl survive because of its natural

viii.] Notes to Lectures. 403
truth  Neither wiU the old forms of Christian
worship be extinguished by the growth of a truer con
ception of their essential contents  Christianity
wiU find the ways for its own future. What is certain
is that it will not disappear. Whatever progress may
be made in science, art, and literary culture — however
much higher, more general, and more effective than at
present the value for them may become, — Christianity
wiU be stiU there as what these rest against and imply ;
as the indispensable background, the three-fourths of
life." — Mat. Arnold, "Last Essays," Preface, xxx, xxxi.
" Christianity has, it seems to me, been overlaid and
obscured by the exclusive attention paid to miracle and
dogma. Progress, as was said before, is conterminous
with Christendom. Outside the pale of Christendom aU
is stationary ; there have been notable outbursts of
material wealth and splendour, transient flashes even of
inteUectual briUiancy, as in the Caliphates and the
Mogul Empire, though the light in these cases was
mainly borrowed ; real and sustained progress there has
been none. Japan, to whatever she may be destined to
come, has kindled her new civilization with a coal taken
from the Christian hearth."
* * *
"PhUosophers speak of four universal rehgions,
Christianity, Judaism, Mohametanism, and Buddhism.
There is only one. No religion but Christianity has
attempted to preach its Gospel to the world ....
Mohametanism and Buddhism are more than tribal
perhaps, but they are far less than universal. Mo
hametanism is mUitary, as its Koran most plainly shows ;
in conquest it lives, with conquest decays ; it also prac
tically belongs to the despotic, polygamic, slave-owning

404 Notes to Lectures. [Lect. viii.

East ; it has never been the reHgion of a Western race
or of a free industrial community ; by arms it has been
propagated or by local influence and contagion, not by
missions. Buddhism, if it is reaUy a reHgion and not
merely a quietist philosophy engendered of languor and
helpless suffering, is the religion of a climate and a
race : its boasted myriads are aU enclosed within a ring-
fence, and it may have a prospect of becoming universal
when an EngHsh man becomes a Hindoo, while in the
heart of its domain Hindoos are becoming Christians.
Judaism, after surrendering its universal and spiritual
element to Christendom, fell back into a tribaHsm, which,
as a relapse, is of aU tribaHsms the narrowest and the
worst, being not primitive and natural but self-chosen
and obstinately maintained in the face of humanity."
— Prof. Goldwin Smith, " Evolutionary Ethics," " Contemp.
Review," vol. xHv., p. 801.

INDEX

Abbasids, 138
Abstract idea, humanity an, 296
Abstract ideas silent to the soul, 266
Admiration, moral value of, 349, xii
African races and Mohammedanism, Note 24, p. 373
Agnosticism, xlix
„ in Buddhism, 96,
„ in Christianity, 325, 334
aM(, 71, Note, 12, p. 362
Aj'ita, 99
Albigenses, 116
Alfarabi, 138
Algonquins, Note 8, p. 358
Allen, Dr., " Continuity of Christian Thought," 111, 116, 118
Altruism is sacrifice, 235
in Christianity, 230, 317, fix
„ in nature, 351
„ a substitute for religion, 219
Alva, 247
Ambiguity of the statement that religion is demoralising, Lect.
V, and p. 206
Ambrose, St., 194
Amiel, influence of character on thought, 346
Analysis, God not discovered by, 326
•' Angel Messiah," Bunsen, 94
Anthropocentric theory, 257
Anthropomorphism, 265
Apostolic brethren, 117

406 Index.

Arabian science, 136
,, ,, more strictly Greek, 140
Arianism, 110, 157
Aristotle, definition of happiness, 56
Arnold, Mr. Matthew, power in the world, 222
„ „ definition of rehgion, 49
Art, influence of character on, 348
Aryan Religions, xxxi
Asceticism a witness for fellowship, 113, Note 9, p. 359
,, not belonging to Christianity, 166, Note 27,
p. 377
"As we are, we see," 28, 346
" As we think, we are," 21, 343
Athanasius, 110
„ his ideas modern, 310
Atheistic tendency in Buddhism, 94
Augustine, fatalistic teaching of, 11-
„ yearning for holiness, 229
Automatic, action, Dr. W. B. Carpenter on, 355
Avalokitesvara, 99
Aztecs, ritual cannibals, Note 10, p. 361

Bailey, P. J., "Festus,"347
Baptism, wholesale, 190
Baring Gould, Mr., on powers of love, 353
Barrett Browning. Mrs., on Law II, 30
Beaconsfield, Lord, power of poets, 357
,, „ temper is fate, 347
Beal, "Buddhism in China," 100
Behef, coincidences of, not necessarily caused by contact,
Note 44, p. 397
Bernard, St., 117
Besant, Mr. W., on power of love, 353
Better poems, worse poets, 272
"Be yourself," 249
Bodhi-satwas, 99
Bohm, Jakob, on self-expression, ;.U3
Bonaventura, St., 117
Book of nature, 118
Borlase, Mr. W. C, on Pagan customs, Note 29, p. 380 ;
Note 31, p. 382
Bosworth Smith, " Mohammed and Mohammedanism," 136
•i ,, on Persian corruptions of Islam, 138

Index. 407

Bosworth Smith on Wahhabites, 143
Boundary boys, Australia, 227
Brahmanism, 6
„ demoralising, Note 30, p. 381
„ deterioration of, 95
„ pantheism in, 65
Buckle on religious persecution, 24
„ on progress due to knowledge, Note 34, p. 384
Biichner on present culture, 235
,, on social egotism, 219, 220
,, on the highest moral code, 236
„ unconscious witness to Christ, 236
Buddha, his death, Note 16, p. 367
Buddhism, a complex term, 90
„ agnosticism in, 96, xxviii
a pessimistic quietism, 150
,, atheistic tendency in, 94
„ dependence demanded in history of, 99, 148
,, „ lacking in, 98
„ developments of, 98, 148
fellowship in, 94, 145
Great Soul Theory, 148
„ introduction into China, 100
„ its reluctance to afliim or deny, 150, Note 25,
p. 374
„ no message for the poor in, 152
„ number of its adherents, Note 13, p. 363
no progress in, 102, 150, 299, 404
salvation in, 93, Note 17, p. 368
self-control in, 93, 96, Note 26, p. 377
significance of life unrecognised in, 151
„ undogmatic, 149, Note 25, p. 374
Bunsen, "Angel Messiah," 94
Burke, Edmund, 247
Byron, Lord, on Environment, 346
Caird, Prof., on poetical power, 357
Calvin, fatalistic teaching of, 112, 158
Cannibalism, religious, 67, Note 10, p. 361
Carlyle on sacrifice, 350
Carmichael, Mr. C. H. E., on man a religious being, 338
Carpenter, Dr. W. B., automatic action, 354
Character, education of, 259
., explains varying moral standards, 271

408

Index.

Character, is greatness, 259
„ Mr. H. Spencer on, 343
„ perfection of, through love, 330
China, introduction of Buddhism into, 100
Christ the Light of men, 306, Note 45, p. 397
Christian idea of incarnation, 283
Christianism not Christianity, 300
Christianity, 103, 159
„ alleged sources of, 305, Note 44, p. 397
and altruism, 317
and patriotism, 196
,, an original law of the universe, Note 45, p. 397
,, a religion for the weak, 328, Note 46, p. 399
,, Christ the foundation of, 301
„ conception of man, 310
,, exclusiveness of, 303
Fatherhood of God in, 308
„ fellowship in, 104, 159
fellowship demanded in, 109, 120
humanity preferred to patriotism by, 197
., idea of redemption in, 314
inspires, 316, Note 48, p. 400
„ its relation to Druidism, Note 29, p. 380
„ „ to Epicureanism and to Stoicism, 232
,, misunderstood, 106
Mr. Lecky on, 193
„ not ascetic, 166, Note 27, p. 377
,, not religionistic, 192
„ number of its adherents, Note 13, p. 363
,, origin uninfluenced by Buddhism, Note 44, p. 397
progress in, 104, 159, Note 49, p. 403
Reville on, 193
teaching of Apostles, 162, 303
Christ, 159
the answer to men's needs, Note 46, p. 399
the increased importance of things seen in, 197
„ the survival of, Note 49, p. 402
unifying power of, 196, 232, 303
,, witnessed to by A. Comte, 236
Chrysostom, 194
Church of England, schools of thought in, 120
Clark, J. Freeman, 208
Classification, importance of, 342, xxix
Clement's Christology, Note 45, p. 397
Codrington, Dr.. on man a rehgious being, 338

Index. 409

Cpmparative study of religions, 49, xxii
„ „ „ advantages of, 5
„ „ „ dread of, 50
Comte, Auguste, witness to Christianity, 236
,, „ egoism of life, 220
Conscience, 208, 268, Note 35, p. 386
,, a social product, 221
,, Dr. Martineau on, 268
„ education of, 218
„ evolution of, 222
„ independent of public opinion, Note 35, p. 387
„ not a power apart from man, Note 35, p. 386
,, self-consciousness in regard to right and wrong,
Note 35, p. 387
Consciousness of moral good anterior to experience, Note 35,
p. 390
Constant, B., on man a religious being, 15
Contempt injurious, 52
" Continuity of Christian Thought," 111, 116
Copernican Theory, 257
Corday, Charlotte, 213
Cortez and Religionism, Note 31, p. 381
Courtney, Dr., on Morality, 385, 390, 391
Crawford, Marion, 9
Creed, no ideal in scientific, 281
,, witnesses to a person, 278
Creeds, a disease of intellect, 22
„ necessary to rehgion, 22
„ not the foundation of religion, 274
Croslegh, Dr., " Fruits of Christianity," 184
Crozier, J. B., " Religion of the Future," 288
Davids, Prof. Rhys, on salvation in Buddhism, 93, 96, 99

Definition of Rel:

igion by Prof. Caird, xxxvii
Darwin, xiii
Feuerbach, xlvi
Fichte, 49, xxxix
Fiske, 54
Goethe, xii
Gruppe, xlvii
Hegel, 49, xxxvi
Kant, 49, xxxix
Matthew Arnold, 49
Martineau, xiv
Prof. Max MiiUer, xiii

410 Index.

Definition of Rehgion by Pfleiderer, xxxvii, xiv
Plato, 54
„ ,, Reville, 55, xliv
Schelling, 54, xxxviii
„ „ Schleiermacher, 54, xxxv
„ Spencer, Mr. H., xlviii
,, Spinoza, xl
,, ,, Strauss, 55
Teichmiiller, xhi
,, Tiele, xxxvii
„ „ Wundt, xlvii
Deism, a banishing of God, 307, lxi
„ reversion to, 157
Deistic idea, 310,
Dependence, 54, 209
„ becomes fatalism, Note 28, p. 378
„ depraved in history of Buddhism, 99
„ in Christianity, 103
„ in Egyptian religion, liii
,, lacking in Buddhism, 98
„ original in Islam, 131, Note 19, p. 370
,, witnessed to in Brahmanism, 65
,. , „ Islam, 83, xxxii
to by Khonds and Zulus, 64, Note 8,
p. 358
„ „ to in Vedas, 64
Dhammapada Sutta, quoted from, 97 ; Note 17, p. 368; Note
26, p. 377
„ „ the moral teaching of, 153
Docetism, 157
Doctrinaire, the, 341
„ age precedes revolution, 26
Dogma inevitable, 22
Dogmatism absent in Buddhism, 149
„ denying God, 87
Dogmatist contrasted with prophet, 87
Dollinger on Fellowship, Note 9, p. 300
Drift, the theory of, 221
Druidism, Irish, Note 29, p. 380
Eckart, 117
Education of conscience, the, 218, 207, 252
Effort, the law of, 252
Elements of rehgion, Positivism ahve to some of the, 296, 299
Eliot, George, on character-growth, 345

Index. 411

Eliot, George, on religious ideas, 185
„ „ on sacrifice, 350
„ „ on the law of indirectness, 355
Emerson on classification, 342
creeds, 22
,, self-sacrifice, 351
,, the influence of environment, 27
„ ,, „ organism, 30, 347
„ thought, 344
Energy withdrawn from the world by religion, 196
Environment, the law of, 21, 343
Epicureanism, 232
Ethics and religion, 188, 243
Euclid, 138
Evolution, moral, 222, Note 35, p. 386
„ physical, 259

Fa Hian, story of, 100
Fairbairn, Dr., on religions, 309
Fatalism, 112, Note 28, p. 378
„ barrier to improvement, Note 28, p. 380
Fatherhood of God, the, in Christianity, 308, 112
„ ,, needed by man, 308
Feehng determines faith. 227
Fellowship, 54, 209, Note 9, p. 359
and Athanasius, 110
and Calvinism, 158
craving for in Asceticism, 113
demanded in history of Christianity, 113
in Aryan religion, xxxii
in Brahmanism, 65
in Buddhism, 94, 145
in Christianity, 104, 159
in Egyptian religion, lv
in Hellenism, 71
in Judaism, 70
in Mexican religion, 67
lacking in Islam, but supphed, 84, 132
Montanism, a cry for, 109
Mysticism and, 158
Patripassianism affirms, 156
witnessed to in Saint worship, 114
in the idea of sin, fix
Fenelon, 117

412 Index.

Fenelon, yearning for holiness, 229
Fetishism in rehgion, 189, 276, Note 30, p. 381
Fichte, definition of religion, xxxix
Fiske, Mr., definition of religion, 54
" Destiny of Man," 260
" Idea of God," 310, 340
Fouillee, 262
Foundation of religion of the future, 274
Fraser, Dr., on man a religious being, 339
Freedom in religion, xxxvi
" Friends of God." 117
Galen, 138, 183
Gareth, 254
Gautama, a person, 91
death of, 93, Note 16, p. 367
Geynes, Dr., excommunicated, 183
Gissing, Geo., on malice, 349
Gladstone, Mr. W. E., on Nemesis, 71, Note 12, p. 362
Gnosticism, 157
God, the Fatherhood of, 308
,, known by love, 324
„ misunderstood, 321
„ name of, in Hebrew, 70
„ not discovered by analysis, 326
„ trusting us, 268
„ consciousness, xiii, Ivi
Goethe on kinship, 344
on power of vision, 346
„ on religion, xxix, xii
Golden age, belief in a, 230
Grace, doctrine of, misunderstood. 181
Great Renunciation, the, 92
„ Soul Theory, the, 149
Gruppe, his definition of Religion, xlvii
Guyon, Madame, 117
Hallam, on the benefits of Religion, 176
Hamlet, 214, 322
Hazlitt, 258
Hebrew religion, the, 70
Hegel, his definition of Rehgion, 49, xxxvi
Heine's dream, 234
Hellenism, 71

Index. 413

Herder on man a religious being, 14
Hinton on hke seeing like, 347
Homer a sort of Bible, 25
Howells, " Undiscovered Country," 347
Human sacrifices, 66, Note 10, p. 361
Hubner, M., on the population of the world, 363
Humanity cannot be worshipped, 290
Hurakan, 68
Huxley, Prof., on rational order, 264
Idea of God in Christianity, 307
Ideas, combined with personality, 295
,, need character, 343
,, the power of, 344
Ideal of Christ unsurpassed, 236, 237
„ in religion of the future, 282
Imperialism in the Roman religion, 108, 112, Note 18, p. 369
„ in Christianity, 111
Incarnation, need of, 283
,, Christian idea of, 284
Intellectual judgment at the root of all morals, Note 35, p. 386
Islamism, 80
absolutism in, Note 19, p. 370
achievements of, 144
dependence in, 83, 131, xxxii
discourages painting, 142, Note 23, p. 372
„ fellowship demanded in history of, 85
lacking in, 84, 132
fixity of, 297, Note 43, p. 396 ; see Note 22, p. 372
foreign influences expelled from, Note 21, p. 371
mysticism in, 85, Note 20, p. 371
number of its adherents, Note 13, p. 363
persecuted science, 140
Persian influence on, 138, Note 21, p. 371
„ progress not original in, 136
Puritanism in, 143
sculpture forbidden by, Note 23, p. 372
submission in, Note 19, p. 370
not universal, 298, liii, Note 24, Note 29, Note 49
Jacob, God's education of, 59
Janet, Paul, on a perfect moral action, 208
Jehovah, the worship of, 231
Jesus Christ contrasted with Socrates, Note 48, p. 401

414 Index.

Jowett, Prof., on virtue is knowledge, 400
Judaism, 70, 404
Julius Caesar, the play of, 30
Ka.lv Ka'ba, the, 134
Kant, his definition of Rehgion, 49, xxxix
Karma, 102
Kellogg on the worship of Buddha, 99
Kharijites, the. Note 15, p. 366
Khonds, the, U4, Note 8, p. 358
King, Mrs. Hamilton, " The Disciples," 352
Knowledge, 216, Note 34, p. 384
„ and will, Note 34, p. 385
,, is virtue, Note 47, p. 400
„ sense of duty anterior to, 218
Koran, doctrine of uncreated, 141, Note 22, p. 372
,, hindrance to progress from the, 141
„ painting and sculpture forbidden by, Note 23, p. 372
Kuenen, on Buddhism, p. 376
,, on classification, 342
„ on Sufism, 135
„ on universal religion, 79
Kwan-yin, 100
Lamartine, 351
Latium, religion of, 188
Law of effort, 252
,, environment, 21, Note 3, p. 343
indirectness, 36, Note 6, p. 352
„ organism, 28, Note 4, p. 346
„ sacrifice, 34, Note 5, p. 350
Laws of man's sphitual nature, 19, 319, 343-357
Layard, Sir Henry, 142
Lecky, Mr., on Christian morals, 193, 401
„ on civic virtues, 196
,, on Mohammedanism, 396
,, on virtue, 386
Legalistic rehgions, xxix
Leighton, Sir F., on influence of character, 318
Leonardo da Vinci, 118
Letourneau, on man an animal, 227
Life, significance of, 311
,, all sacred, 314

Index. 415

Life, interpreted by love, 319
"Light of Asia," Kellogg, 99
Longfellow on the law of indirectness, 365
„ on man as a rehgious being, 341
Lotus. " Self-creative force," 148
Love interprets life, 329
„ knows God, 324
,, purifies sacrifice, 41, 330
Lowell, Mr. R., on like seeing hke, 347, 350
Lubbock, Sir John, on man a religious being, 337, hi
Maat, lv
Macaulay, 272
Maitreya Buddha, 99
Malice, an intellectual defect, 349
Manjusri, 99
Mankind one in higher things, 291
Man, conceptions of, in Christianity, 310
„ naturally religious, 11, 16, Note 1, p. 337, li
„ „ B. Constant on, 15
„ ,, Herder on, 14
„ his self-assertiveness, 248
„ his nature permanent, 7
,, the contemplated end of history, 261, Note 38, p. 393
Mantras, the, 64
Martineau, Dr., his definition of religion, xiv
,, on Anthropomorphism, 393
,, on conscience, 208, 389
„ on perfection of man, 393
,, on personality, 396
„ on public opinion, 220
Matheson, Dr., 135, 313
„ on man a religious being, 341
Melville, Whyte, on self-sacrifice, 351
Merit and virtue, 214
Mexico, the religion of, 66
„ ,, its tenderness, 67
,, the siege of, Note 10, p. 361
Michael Angelo, 119
Mill, J. S., on law of indirectness, 40
Mingwe RedsHns, Note 8, p. 358
Mirza Kasem Bey on reformation of Islam, 86
Missions, superficial at times, 190
Mohammed, his personal appearance, 80, Note 14, p. 363
„ androgynous, 81

416

Index.

Mohammed, characteristics, Note 14, p. 363
an Arab, Note, 24, p. 374
Mohammedanism in Africa, Note 24, p. 373
Molinos, 117
Monier Williams, Sir, 376
Montanism, a cry for feUowship, 109
Montesquieu, 184
Moral elements correspond with the laws of man's spiritual
nature, 208
„ aim in nature, 263
Moralism, 210
Morality of Pagan rehgions, Note 32, p. 383
and religion, 172, Note 48, p. 400
„ increase of kinship hetween, 186
„ not a mere moral act, Note 34, p. 385
Morals, depraved, 183
„ high and virtue low, 214
,, low and merit high, 214
no fixed standard of, 270, Note 34, p. 386
,, orthodoxy preferred to, 194
„ the beauty of Christian, 193
Moral synthesis, 244
Morison, Mr. J. Cotter, misunderstands law of indirectness, 353
„ „ on Christian saintship, 177
,, ,, on the unfortunate, 228
„ „ on things seen and unseen, 197
Morris, Mr. Lewis, " The Epic of Hades," 356
Moslem scholars, 138
„ science, 137
Mo'tazihtes, 89
Muir, Sir W., on the fixity of Islam, 396
Muller, Prof. Max, his definition of religion, xiii
,, ,, on man a religious being, 339
on rehgion inevitable, 287
on Rita, 65
on the Fatherhood of God, 308
Mysticism in Christianity, 115, 158
in Islamism, 85, Note 15, p. 365 ; Note 20, p. 371
„ in Positivism, 299
Name of God, three stages in Hebrew books, 70
Nations, unity of, 290
Natural moral perceptions, the theory of, Note 41, p. 396
Nature-consciousness, Ivi
Nemesis, W. E. Gladstone on, 71, Note 12, p. 362

Index.

417

Neoptolemus, 245
Nicsea, Council of, 113
Nicolas of Basle, 117
Nutar, liv
Object of worship must be real, xlvi, 277, Note 36, p. 391
Oldenberg on highest offering in Buddhism, 146
Omayyads, 137
Orthodoxy preferred to morals, 194
Originality, true, 305
Othmar, 3*22
Pagan customs, survival of, 179, Note 29. p. 380 ; Note 31,
p. 382
Paganism, Roman, 107, Note 18, p. 369
Pagan rehgions, Note 32, p. 383
Painting, Islam discourages, 142, Note 23, p. 372
Pantheism, 307, 310, Note 9, lxi
„ in Islamism, Note 15, p. 360
Parinirvana, 102
Patriotism and Humanity, 190
Patripassianism, 156
Paul of Samosata, 157
Perfect morals, elements of, 207
Permanence of man's nature, 7, 9
„ Longfellow on, 17
Permanent elements of religion, 54
„ neglect of any, dangerous, 60
„ „ how far indigenous in universal religions,.
131, et seq.
Perpetuity a test of rehgion, 300
Persian influence on Islam, 138, Note 21, p. 371
Person, all great rehgions centre in a, 275, xxxiv
„ witnessed to by creeds and sacraments, 278
Personahty and religion, 246, Note 42, p. 395
highest known fact, Note 42, p. 396
in the future religion, 274
in the source of rehgion, 268, Note 39, p. 393
in the subject of religion, 270, Note 39, p. 393, lvii
linked with ideas, 295
„ of God, 265
Persons, the power of, in history, 275
Pessimism in Buddhism, 150
Petrobrusians, 116
Pfleiderer, his definition of religion, xxxvii, xiv
,, on Islam and culture, 371
H H

4i8

Index.

Pfleiderer, on Islam not universal, 374, 396
„ on objective reality, 391
„ on personality in religion, 394, 395
„ on superiority of Christianity, 402
„ on the Koran, 372
Phfioctetes, 245
Plato, his definition of religion, 54
„ Justin Martyr on, Note 44, p. 397
„ on Virtue, Note 33, p. 384
Positivism a mysticism, 299
,, narrow foundation of, 300, xxvii
„ recognizes some of the elements of religion, 219,
296
Power behind aU things, Mr. H. Spencer, 25 ft
„ of history, a person, 275
Primitive revelation, a, 14, Ivi
Progress in Christianity, 104, 117
in the theology of Celts and Tuetons, Note 11, p. 302
in Egyptian religion, lv
in Buddhism, 102, 150
not original in Islam, 86, 136
sacrifice essential to, 209, 328, 350
the element of, 55
the Koran against, 141, Notes 22 & 23, p. 372
witnessed in Scholasticism, 117
Ptolemy, 138

Quatrefages, De, on feUowship, Note, 9, p. 359
„ on man a religious being, 337
„ on the population of the world, 363
„ religious races. 13, hi
Quetzalcoatl, 68, Note 11, p. 361
Quietists, 117
Quinet, Edgar, on art, 119, 359
,, the influence of dogma on civilization, 26, 344
„ the Romans and their religion, 370

Rab'i'a, Note 15, p. 366
Race-growth analagous to chhd-growth, 57
Rahula, 92
Rational order in the universe, 264
Raymond of Sabunde, 118
Reciprocity, 236

Index. 419

Redemption in Buddhism, 93, 146, xxxiii
„ in Christianity, 314, xxxiii
Redskins, Note 8, p. 358
Religion a dependence, 59, Note 7, p. 357, xxxvi, xiii, lvii
„ ambiguity of the word, xxi
and Ethics, 243
„ and Morality, 172, Note 40, p. 394
and personality, 246, 268, 396
„ change of arguments about, xxiii
„ contrasted with moralism, Lect. VI
„ definitions of, 49, xxxv
,, depraved morals not always due to, 178
„ energy withdrawn from the world by, 196
„ fetishism in, 189, 276, Note 30, p. 381
freedom in, xxxvi
„ inconsistency of followers not chargeable on a, 183
„ increase of kinship between morals and, 186
inevitable, 287
„ its principles not hostile to morality, 186
„ mechanical, 188
,, must inspire and instruct, 296, 316
of Aryan races, xxxi
„ of Egypt, liv
„ of Humanity futile, 229, 296, xxv
,, of Latium, 188
., of Mexico, 60, 361
,, of native races, 12, 1
of Semitic races, xxxi
,, permanent elements of, 54, Ivi
„ recognition of the Infinite in, xxvii, xii
„ reverence in, xlviii
„ substitutes for, 207, 216, 219, 221, xxv
,, survives, 5, 7
,, tested by perpetuity, 300
„ the benefits of, 176
,, the Hebrew, 70
„ the organization of self devotion, 287
Rehgionism, a shadow of religion, 186, Note 31, p. 381
Rehgion of the Future, the, features of, 54, 273
Ideal in, 282
,, „ inspiring power in, 282
„ „ must be eternal, 293
,, „ „ unite man, 292
„ „ one or many, 288
on what founded, 274

420 Index.

Rehgions, book- and non-book, xvii, xxix
centred in a Person, 275, xxxiv
classification of, xxv
comparative study of, 49
die, 5
Dr. Fairbairn on, 309
Legalistic, xxi
manufactured religions, xxv
non-universal, 63, xxxi, hi, 403
redemptive, xxxiii
universal, 63, 79, Iii, 403
Religious cannibalism, 67, Note 10, 361
,, influences, a fact, 231, 401
Reluctance to affirm or deny in Buddhism, 150, Note 25,
p. 374
Renan on Moslem Science, 137
„ patriotism, 196
„ self-devotion, 287
the aim of Humanity, 263
„ the benefits of religion, 176
Reversions to type, 227
Re'ville, his definition of religion, 55, xliv
on abstract ideas, 266
on Christian morality, 193
on man as a religious being, 340
on the death of religions, 5
on the influence of disposition, 33
Richard III., 214
Boman paganism, 107, Note 18, p. 369
Rothe, R., 402
Rousseau, 183
Ruskin, Mr., on Holman Hunt and Rossetti, 31
self-denial, 355
Thackeray, 347
the grammar of art, 343
the influence of laws, 26, 344
the love of nature, 119

SabeUianism, 157
Sacrifice, Carlyle on, 350
,, essential to progress, 36, 328
„ in Altruism, 235
„ in Christianity, hx
„ Geo. Ehot on, 350

hidex. 421

Sacrifice, Geo. Sand on, 350
„ human, 66, Note 10, p. 361
„ none without love, 330
Sacraments witness to a Person, 278
Saint-Hilaire, M., on man a religious being, 337
Saintship in Christianity, 177
Saint-worship, witness for feUowship in, 85, 114
Sand, Geo., on Sacrifice, 350
Schelling, his definition of religion, 54, xxxviii
Schism, cause of, 279
Schismatic, the, the child of the Fanatic, 279
Schleiermacher, his definition of religion, 54, xxxvi
Scholasticism, its witness to Progress, 117
Schopenhauer on man a rehgious being, 341
„ on like knowing like, 318
„ on the influence of environment, 27, 345
Science persecuted by Islam, 140
Sculpture, Indian, 345
,, forbidden in Islam, Note 23, p. 372
Secretiveness of native races, 12, li
Secular and rehgious ideas, 314
Seeley, Prof., on love of history, 352
Self-accomplishing design in nature, 262
Self -consciousness and conscience, 268, Note 35, p. 386, Ivii
,, danger of, 39
Self-control in Buddhism, 93, 96, Note 26, p. 377
Self-determination, need of in moral action, Note 33, p. 383
Self-expression, need of, 249
„ Jakob Bohm on, 392
Self-possession, need of, 250
Self-sacrifice, 250, Note 5. p. 350, lx
Whyte Melville on, 351
Semitic rehgions, xxxii
Sentiment and conduct, 195, 220, 343
Sense of duty anterior to knowledge, 218
Shakespeare, the influence of environment, 27
,, the power of thouglit, 30
Significance of life increased by Christianity, 197
„ unrecognized by Buddhism, 151
Simpson, Sir Jas., on law of Indirectness, 355
Sin, idea of witnesses to FeUowship, lix
Sly, Christopher, 256
Social influences on man's development, 261
Sophocles, 245
Spencer, Mr. H., on character, 343, 346

422 Index.

Spencer, Mr. H., on feeling and belief, 227
,, ., rehgion essential in society, Iii
,, „ the personality of God, 266
„ „ the Power behind all things, 229, 392
„ „ the inevitableness of rehgion, 287
„ „ the worship of Humanity, 296
,, ,, utility no substitute for religion, 226
Sprenger, 134
Smith, Prof. Goldwin, on Christianity, 403
Stael, Madame de, definition of happiness, 56
Standard of morals, no fixity in, 270, 387
Stoicism, 232
Strauss, his definition of religion, 55
Substitutes for religion, 207, 216, 219, 221, xxv
defect of, 225
,, „ knowledge, sentiment, drift, 216
„ „ Mr. H. Spencer on, 226
Sufism a mysticism, 85
„ in Islamism, Note, 15, 365
Sutta-Nipata, 147, 369, 375
Sympathy with goodness, necessity of, 21 0
Synthesis, need of moral, 244

Talfourd, " Ion," 351
Tauler, 117
Taylor, Prof., Altruism in Plants, 351
Telemachus, 71
Tenderness in Mexican rehgion, 67
Tennyson, Lord, on law of indirectness, 355
Tertulhan, 166
Theory, Copernican, 257
„ Darwinian, 257
Therapeutae, 305
Thermopylae, men of, 328
Thirst for Righteousness in Zoroastrianism, Note 28, p. 378
Timon of Athens, a type, 225, 322
Truth the only originality, 305
Tupper, Mr. Martin, on law of indirectness, 356
Tylor, Dr., on Khonds and Zulus, 64
„ on non-religious tribes, hi

Ulysses, 245
Unbelief, how far a sin, 327

Index. 423

Unconscious sacrifice, 38
Unfortunate, message of Christianity for the, 227, .'
Mr. Cotter Morison on the, 228
Unifying power of Christianity, 196, 232, 303, 402
,, none in Islam, 297
Unity of Nations, 290
Universalism, two kinds of, 79
Utility no substitute for rehgion, 220
Vajradhara, 100
Vedas, the, 64
Virginias, 213
Virtue and merit, 214
and morals, Note 34, p. 384
low when morals high, 214
,, wherein consists real, 223
Virtues, masculine and feminine, 312
Voice of history on personality, 247, 275
nature witnesses to character, 248
,, science on character growth, 256
Wahhabites, the Puritans of Islam, 143
Waldenses, 110
Walis, the worship of, 85
Wellhausen, pp. 366, 370, 371, 396
Westcott, " Christus Consummator," 351
,, on Judaism, 70
Will power in great men, 224
Wrokelried, 254
Whateley. Archbishop, 6
Woden,- 362
World-consciousness, lix
Worship of Jehovah, 231
Wundt, Prof., his definition of religion, xlvii
Yasodhara, 92
Yucatan, Hist, of, 381
Zeno, on friendship, 357
Zoroaster, 189, Note 28, p. 378
Zulus, 64

LONDON:
PRINTED BY PERRY, GARDNER ANB CO.,
FARRINGDON ROAD, E.G.

YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

3 9002 08844 6464