YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

1942

" To speed the word of God afresh in each age, in accordance
with both the novelty of the age and the eternal antiquity of
truth, this is what St. Paul means by 'interpreting the unknown
tongue.' " — PERE Gratry.

' ' He who wishes to understand the historical Jesus will have
recourse to the witnesses who came under the first unmixed
effects of the spirit of Jesus." — Prof. Otto Seeberg, Univer
sity of Berlin.

THE
POST-APOSTOLIC AGE
And Current Religious Problems.

BY

JUNIUS B. REMENSNYDER, D. D.,LL.D.,
'it
Author of" Heavenward/' " Doom Eternal/' " Six Days of Creation/'
''Lutheran Manual/' " The Atonement and Modern Thought/*
'* Mysticism," etc., etc.

PHILADELPHIA, PA. :
LUTHERAN PUBLICATION SOCIETY.

Copyright, 1909,
BY THE
LUTHERAN PUBLICATION EOCIETV.

FOREWORD.
The question of our time is whether the claim of
Christianity to a special divine revelation is, or is
not, authentic. No graver, more momentous issue
was ever presented.
The peculiarity of the present is that a group of
scholars in the Church is challenging the historical
view of twenty centuries. Hence doubt as to the
authority of the Scriptures and the certainty of the
Christian faith is whispered from ear to ear.
And the multitude are saying : " Well, then, we
will trouble ourselves little with either Bible or
creed." As the practical result, there is a growing
dissolution of the bonds of religion.
And the worst is, that, from this point of view,
the multitude is right. If Christianity be true, it
cannot undergo a radical change. Only the false
can be torn up by the roots. Only the cancer
must have the knife to the core.
Old truths must, indeed, recognize new truths
and embrace them in a larger synthesis. For all
truth, scientific as well as religious, is one. Nature
and revelation, reason and faith dare not and cannot
conflict. The old body of truth must wear new
(v)

VI FOREWORD.
garments, fitted to the new issues made by progress
and by modern thought and life. But while truth
thus grows, develops, spreads, deepens, it is not by
repudiation of, but by building upon, its past. What
was true in Christianity as it fell from the lips of
Christ and His inspired apostles, has been true ever
since, is true to-day, and will be forever true.
From whatever source light can be thrown upon
this vital question it should be welcome.
The aim of this volume is to show that the
Christian faith, though varying in adaptation to
the changing conditions of men and society, has
ever preserved its essential identity. It has been,
is, and will be, one. It has never cut from be
neath it the foundations of antiquity and history.
Its vital doctrines are generically the same to-day as
they were interpreted by the generation in closest
touch with its origin, and as they have been held
these centuries. All the advances of modern
progress and all the discoveries of science have not
shaken one central pillar of this blessed edifice of
the faith and hopes of man. Whatever else has
passed away, or will pass away, Christianity, reared
by the pierced hand of its Founder upon the Rock
of Truth, endures. Only to such a religion, which
can face unmoved the eternal years, can the soul
entrust its immortal destiny.
New York, Reformation Day, 1909.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER 1.
The Age Succeeding Christ and the Aposti.es . ii
CHAPTER II.
Who Were the Apostolic Fathers ?. 16
CHAPTER III.
Their Idea op Christianity — A Revelation . 24
CHAPTER IV.
The Christology of the Apostolic Fathers . 26
CHAPTER V.
The Trinity • • 38
CHAPTER VI.
The Atonement . . . • • 43
CHAPTER VII.
Justification by Faith . . -49
(vii)

Vlll CONTENTS.
CHAPTER Vin.
The New Christian T,ife. 53
CHAPTER IX.
Inspiration of the Scriptures . 63
CHAPTER X.
Baptism. 72
CHAPTER XI.
The Lord's Supper. . .81
CHAPTER XII.
The Holy Christian Church 88
CHAPTER XIII.
Church Government,:and Polity 97
CHAPTER XIV.
The Christian Ministry . 102
CHAPTER XV.
Authoritv of Church Ministry 115
CHAPTER XVI.
Christianity and the Supernatural— Miracles and
the Resurrection I22
CHAPTER XVII.
The Apostolic Fathers and Current Views as to the
Supernatural ¦ .130

CONTENTS. IX
CHAPTER XVIII.
The Supernatural Fundamental to Religion 142
CHAPTER XIX.
Protestantism Versus Romanism . 154
CHAPTER XX.
The Primitive Church and Charity . 163
CHAPTER XXI.
The Church and Social Reform. . 173
CHAPTER XXII.
Primitive Rites of Public Worship. 189
CHAPTER XXIII.
Joy in Martyrdom. The Catacombs 201
CHAPTER XXIV.
Educational Religious Methods. The Early Church
and Christian Nurture . 217
CHAPTER XXV.
The End of the World — Other- World liness. 229
CHAPTER XXVI.
The Apostolic Fathers and the Future State . 237
CHAPTER XXVII.
The Old Faith and the " New Theology " 249

X CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
The Old Faith and the " New Theology "—Contin
ued. Back to Christ — Christian Dogma . 269
CHAPTER XXIX.
The Cessation of Miracles and Modern Healing
Claims . . ¦ 284
CHAPTER XXX.
Inferiority of the Patristic Literature to the In
spired Writings of the New Testament . 296
CHAPTER XXXI.
General View. Lessons for the Present 303
CHAPTER XXXII.
General View — Continued. Authority of the Post-
Apostolic Age ¦ .314
CHAPTER XXXIII.
General View — Concluded. Essential Identity of
Primitive and Modern Christianity . 322

The Post-Apostolic Age.
CHAPTER I.
THE AGE SUCCEEDING CHRIST AND THE APOSTLES.
A VISITOR of Ewald relates that the great theo
logian, taking in his hand a small volume of the
Greek New Testament, said, " In this little book
there is more wisdom and creative force than in all
the libraries of the world."
Similarly writes Henry Van Dyke, D. D. " The
literature of the world holds no other doctrine so
limited in bulk, so limitless in meaning." *
And this because it depicted that unique fact of
history — the origin of Christianity. That was the
fullness of the times. The Christ then appeared.
God was manifest in the flesh. Truth spoke with
uncreated voice. At last light was cast on the
troubled deep of human thought. Absolute au
thority solved the great problems of knowledge.
* " Gospel for an Age of Doubt," chap. v.
(II)

12 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
Sin, error and sorrow fled from the face of the only-
begotten of the Father. The age-sealed walls be
tween the visible and the invisible realm were
parted. Supernatural powers shook and gleamed
athwart the fixed frame of nature. The grave was
opened. Death was abolished and life and immor
tality brought to light. It was the era in which
was wrought out the drama of human redemption,
in fulfillment of the eternal purpose of the Father.
No wonder, then, that all succeeding ages have
looked back to it as the central era of history.
And that to it all minds have turned for knowledge,
for instruction, for help and for inspiration, with
an intensity of interest such as no other era can
incite. And that the literature, portraying that
period, as contained in the gospels and epistles of
the New Testament, is daily under every eye.
THE TIME NEAREST TO CHRIST.
But there is an epoch only second to this original
one, in instruction and surpassing interest, and
which is all too little known. This is the post-apos
tolic age. The time immediately succeeding the
incarnation wonder. Christ has been crucified and
ascended. The apostles have all departed. The

AGE SUCCEEDING CHRIST AND THE APOSTLES. 1 3
authoritative preachers of the gospel are gone. The
inspired representatives of Christianity are no
more. The mighty pillars of the Church no longer
uphold it.
Yet, departing, they bequeathed the great work
to their successors. How incalculable was the re
sponsibility thus committed to their hands ! Their
supreme task it was to interpret Christianity truly
to their age, to defend it from the dire perils threat
ening it, and to transmit it in its purity to after
generations. To this seemingly superhuman task the Christian
fathers of this period brought exceptional advan
tages. The Sun of Righteousness had set, but a
great effulgence yet lingered on the horizon. The
primitive Christian tradition abode in its first cast
of absolute purity. They were men most, if not
all of whom had known the apostles personally.
Take, for instance, the exquisite account which
Irenaeus, in a letter to Florinus gives of the way in
which he heard Polycarp discourse concerning
Christ and the apostles : " When I was yet a child,
I saw thee at Smyrna in Asia Minor, at Polycarp's
house. I can more distinctly recollect things which
happened then than others more recent ; for events

1 4 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
which happened in infancy seem to grow with the
mind, and to become part of ourselves ; so that
I can recall the very place where Polycarp used to
sit and teach, his manner of speech, his mode of
life, his appearance, the style of his address to the
people, his frequent references to St. John and to
others who had seen our Lord ; how he used to re
peat from memory their discourses, which he had
heard from them concerning our Dord, His miracles
and mode of teaching ; and how, being instructed by
those who were eye-witnesses of the word, there
was in all that he said a strict agreement with
the Scriptures." the primitive fathers providential men.
In addition to these exceptional advantages,
there can be no doubt that God, who calls the man
for the hour, who gives the strength for the day,
and who fits the hero for the occasion, specially
endowed these leaders for their work. They were
providential men. They had a special baptism of
the Holy Ghost. The Lord " stood by them " in a
remarkable manner. A quasi-inspiration strength
ened them for the superhuman enterprise of suc
cessfully publishing the gospel to mankind and

AGE SUCCEEDING CHRIST AND THE APOSTLES. 1 5
launching the ship of Christianity upon the surging
sea of the world. And if, then, we make a constant
and earnest study of the New Testament era, shall
we neglect the study of this sub-apostolic age ? Cer
tainly none other is so closely in contact with, so rich
in associations, traditions and instructions direct
from the original source, and shines with so strongly
a reflected light from the gospel sun as this. Truly
does Guericke, in his " Manual of Christian Antiq
uity," say of it : " This period contains the basis of
the whole development of the Church, to which
whatever was of later origin attached itself as a
mere accident of it." *
Fortunately, there is left behind a literature of
this time. The writings of the representative apos
tolical fathers have been preserved sufficiently to
give an accurate transcript of their thoughts. Let
us, from a bird's-eye view of these precious written
monuments, have placed before our minds a sketch
of Christianity — the primitive Christian teaching
and faith, — as conceived by the pious thinkers and
leaders of the generation in immediate touch with
the original founders. * Chap, xii., p. 221.

CHAPTER II.
WHO WERE THE APOSTOLIC FATHERS ? *
Clemens Romanus, called Clement of Rome,
is one of the earliest writers of the post-apostolic age.
According to the unbroken opinion of the primitive
Church, and especially attested by Origen, Eusebius,
Jerome, and others, he is the co-worker to whom
Paul refers in Phil. iv. 3 : " Whose name is in the
Book of Life. " This identity is confirmed by the
judgment of modern scholarship. His epistle to
the Church at Corinth may have been written as
early as A. D. 75, certainly not later than 97. The
"beloved disciple," St. John, was then still living,
either at Patmos or in Ephesus.
Bishop Lightfoot thus fixes Clement's period.
He says : " The date of the epistle was nearly simul
taneous with the close of Diocletian's persecution,
when the emperor's cousin, Flavius Clemens, the
* " The origin of the term ' Apostolic Fathers ' should proba
bly be traced to the idea of gathering together the literary re
mains of those who flourished in the age immediately succeed
ing the apostles, and who presumably, therefore, were their
direct personal disciples." — "Apostolic Fathers," Lightfoot,
ol. I., Introduction. (16)

WHO WERE THE APOSTOLIC FATHERS? 1 7
namesake of the writer, perished during or immedi
ately after the year of his consulate, A. D. 95, and
his wife Domitilla, Domitian's own niece, was
driven into punishment on charges apparently con
nected with Christianity." *
Tertullian states that Clement was appointed by
the Apostle Peter as overseer of the Church at
Rome. He was a personality of almost apostolic
force and influence, so that the early historian, Eu-
sebius, states " that his epistles were publicly read
in most of the Churches." f His epistles, therefore,
were regarded on almost a level with the canonical
writings. The Alexandrian Manuscript accordingly
places this epistle in order the first after the in
spired books.
Bishop S. Cleveland Coxe, in his edition of the
" Ante-Nicene Fathers," writes : " The Epistle of
Clement is the legacy of one who reflects the apos
tolic age in all the beauty and evangelical truth
which were the first fruits of the Spirit's presence
with the Church." HERMAS.
This father's voluminous book, " The Pastor, or
*" Apostolic Fathers," Introduction, p. 3.
t " Ecclesiastical History," Vol. III., chap. xvi.
2

1 8 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
Shepherd," " was composed, most probably, in A. D.
97-100."* Hermas was generally believed in ancient
times to be the person mentioned by the same name
in Romans xvi. 14. The greatest Christian writers
of the second and third centuries speak of his book
as " divinely inspired." It, too, was read publicly
in the churches. " The Pastor " of Hermas was more
widely read by the primitive Christians than any
other book except the New Testament. " It occu
pied a position analagous, in some respects, to that
of Bunyan's ' Pilgrim's Progress ' in modern times."
It accordingly gives us an invaluable portraiture of
the faith and devotional ideas prevalent among
Christians of that period. IGNATIUS.
The great bishop of Antioch at the time of the
destruction of Jerusalem, A. D. 70. He suffered
martyrdom at Rome, being thrown to wild beasts
in the amphitheatre, December 20th, 107, a date
ever after held sacred by the primitive Christians.
Seven of his epistles to the early churches — Ro
mans, Ephesians, Philadelphians, etc., — are extant.
" The Ignatian Epistles are an exceptionally good
* " Text-Book of History of Doctrines," Seeberg, Vol. I., p. 55.

WHO WERE THE APOSTOLIC FATHERS? 1 9
training ground for the student of early Christian
literature and history. They present in typical
and instructive forms the most varied problems,
textual, exegetical, doctrinal and historical. One
who has thoroughly grasped these problems will be
placed in possession of a master key which will
open to him vast storehouses of knowledge." *
The ancient tradition, showing how close to
that period he lived, had it that Ignatius was the
little child whom Christ (Matthew xviii. 2), placed
in the midst of the disciples as an example of inno
cence. His noble personality and saintly charac
ter were a mighty inspiration to the faithful in
those sorely tried times. POLYCARP.
This illustrious father, Tertullian states, was
made bishop of Smyrna by St. John. According
to the ancient tradition Ignatius and he were fel
low-disciples of that apostle. His pupil, Irenseus,
gives an exquisite picture of his boyish memory of
this saintly man. As he recalls the times he sat at
the feet of this companion of the apostles, we can
not but think what a precious legacy it would have
* " Apostolic Fathers," Lightfoot, Part II., Vol. I.

20 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
been had he written down some of these conversa
tions, especially those describing the personal ap
pearance of our Lord ! But the tenor of them
speaks in his epistle to the Philippians. When fi
nally, at a great age, Polycarp was brought to the
stake at Smyrna, to the entreaty of the proconsul
that he should save himself by denying Christ, he
answered : " Eighty and six years have I served
Him, and how now can I blaspheme my King and
Saviour ? " and with this noble confession gave him
self to the flames. BARNABAS.
An epistle to the Church at large has come down
to us from this apostolic father. All the external
evidence points to him as being the Barnabas of the
New Testament, St. Paul's companion and fellow-
laborer. " No other name is ever hinted at in
Christian antiquity as that of the writer." * The
Vatican Manuscript of the Latin text has for its
title, " Epistle of Barnabas, the Apostle." Origen
even ranks it " among the sacred Scriptures, t
* Roberts and Donaldson, "Ante-Nicene Christian Library,"
Vol. I., p. 135.
f Com. on Rom., i. 24.

WHO WERE THE APOSTOLIC FATHERS? 21
PAPIAS.
This father wrote five books, entitled " An Ex
position of the Oracles of the Lord." His era was
about A. D. 125. He was bishop of the Church in
Hieropolis, and was martyred in Rome near A. D.
150. He had the friendship of Polycarp and with
him had been a disciple of St. John, and had min
gled with " others who had seen the Lord." His
aim evidently was to gather and set down floating
traditions of the Lord's sayings. Only fragments
of his books, preserved by others, are extant.
their methods of gathering facts.
As showing the method used by the fathers of
this period, who were writing for believers in far
off times, we cite these words of Papias as to his
care in gathering memorials of these sacred events :
" I took pleasure but in those who rehearsed the
commandments given by the Lord and proceeding
from the truth itself. If, then, anyone who had
attended on the apostles came, I asked minutely
after their sayings — what Peter said, or what was
said by John, or by Philip, or by Thomas, or by
James, or by Matthew, or by any other of the
Lord's disciples. For I thought that what was to

22 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
be got from books was not so profitable to me as
what came from the living voice."
"THE didache, or teaching of the twelve apostles."
The author of this treatise is unknown. As its
name implies, it professes to give a summary of the
teaching or message of the apostles, and incident
ally reflects the Christian usages current at the
time of its composition. Its date is fixed with great
precision by the internal evidence. " No one,"
says Bishop Lightfoot, " could or would have forged
it." * It bears every mark of originating in the im
mediate sub-apostolic age. Its vocabulary and
style are those of the New Testament, as distin
guished from classic or Patristic Greek. Its refer
ences to ecclesiastical customs, rites and practices,
are pervaded with the atmosphere of the earliest
Christian antiquity.
Quotations from the gospel of St. Matthew are
frequent, but the four written and canonical gos
pels are unknown. Friday still bears the name
— the " Preparation " — as in Scripture. The here
sies of the second century — Ebionite and Gnostic —
have not yet arisen.
* "Apostolic Fathers," Part II., Vol. I.

WHO WERE THE APOSTOLIC FATHERS? 23
It is earlier than Clement of Alexandria ; earlier
than the Shepherd of Hermas ; and earlier than the
Epistle of Barnabas, for all these quote from it ;
and it is older than Ignatius, for the ecclesiastical
order at which he hints is not as yet existent. Its
place in order of time, then, is immediately after
Clement of Rome and Polycarp.
Its date, therefore, is most probably that assigned
it by Lightfoot, from A. D. 70-90. It thus becomes
one of the most authoritative of the Patristic writ
ings, bearing the highest evidential value. " The
Didache," wrote Professor Schaff, "fills a gap be
tween the apostolic age and the Church of the sec
ond century, and sheds new light upon questions of
doctrine, worship and discipline."

CHAPTER III.
THEIR IDEA OF CHRISTIANITY — A REVELATION.
It is evident that these writers, directly in touch
with the original authors of Christianity, had a far
greater opportunity than any other generation can
ever have for learning the mind of Christ, for cor
rectly imbibing the purport of the gospel, for truly
divining the genius of Christianity. They virtu
ally give us a sub-edition of the New Testament,
a close-at-hand light thrown upon the great mes
sage. What, then, from their study of the sources,
was their interpretation of Christianity ? They con
sidered it a revelation. They believed that a
new religious era had appeared. A creative epoch
in religion had arisen. After the silence of four
centuries, God had spoken again to His people. A
greater prophetic age than all others, that toward
which the whole history of Israel led and which
the great prophets of the past foretold, had come.
A new religion is born. From the Old Testament
comes the New ; out of the decaying soil of Judaism
springs Christianity. It comes not as an evolution
(24)

THEIR IDEA OF CHRISTIANITY — A REVELATION. 25
of religious thought, or as the supreme flower of
natural religion, but is emphatically a revelation.
In it the heavens bend earthward and the eternal
doors open. The Divine Spirit gives a new body
of truth to men, undiscoverable by their reasoning
powers. " The gospel came to us by historical
tradition. It was not invented, it was preached.
Christian inspiration never ceases to draw from it
an indefinite progression of thought, but without
ever breaking the historic unity which joins it to
its origin." * This conviction of a positive revela
tion was at once the inspiration and power of the
apostolic fathers.
* "Religions of Authority and of the Spirit," Sabatier, p. 242.

CHAPTER IV.
THE CHRISTOLOGY OF THE APOSTOLIC FATHERS.
The chief constituent in this revelation is JESUS
Christ. He is for them its beginning and end, its
sum and center, its all in all. He is Himself the
Revelation, and Christianity springs entirely from
and is altogether molded by Him. Who, then, did
they think Jesus Christ to be ? What is their Chris-
tology ? Their constant references to Him show an
overpowering sense of His glory and majesty.
Thus, Clement of Rome, the friend of Paul, says :
" Jesus Christ, the High Priest of all our offerings,
the defender and helper of our infirmity. By Him
the Lord has willed that we should taste of immor
tal knowledge, who being the brightness of His
majesty, is by so much greater than the angels." *
" The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you,
through whom, be to Him glory, honor, power,
majesty and eternal dominion from everlasting
to everlasting. Amen." f
* First Epistle, chap, xxxvi.
t First Epistle, chap. Iviii.
(26)

CHRISTOLOGY OF THE APOSTOLIC FATHERS. 27
The author of the Epistle to Diognetus writes :
"The Father did not, as one might have imag
ined, send to men any servant, or ruler, or angel,
but the very Creator and Fashioner of all things —
by whom He made the heavens — by whom He en
closed the sea within its bounds — whose ordinances
all the stars observe — from whom the sun has re
ceived the measure of his daily course." * Poly
carp calls him " Son of God and High Priest — the
only begotten, King forever, the Son of God, ac
cording to the Godhead and power, to whom be an
everlasting throne." f He also states that from
His seat " at the right hand of God He will return as
the Judge of all the earth." Barnabas : " The glory
of Jesus, for in Him and to Him are all things.
Behold how David calleth Him Lord and the Son
of God ! " % Barnabas, also, affirms His " pre-exist-
ence and divine creative activity." § Hermas :
" The holy, pre-existent Spirit that created every
creature. God made to dwell in the flesh." || Ig
natius : " And God, the Word, was truly born of
*Chap. vii.
t Epistle to Philippians, chap. xii.
% Chap. xii.
\ Epistle, chap. xii.
|| Book III., " Similitude," v.

28 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
the Virgin, having clothed Himself with a body of
like passions with our own." *
The apostolic fathers have also as vivid a con
ception of the humanity of Christ as of His divin
ity. He is truly God made flesh, taking upon Him
all the infirmities and limitations and subjection to
trial and need of human nature, by virtue of which
self-emptying He is enabled to enter into closest
living touch with men in every phase of human
weakness and sorrow. Ignatius : " Christ is both
fleshly and spiritual, born and unborn. God be
come incarnate, both from Mary and from God. "t
Prayer is offered to Christ as God. Pliny, the
younger, Roman governor of Judea, reports to the
emperor that the Christians in their assemblies
" were accustomed to sing a hymn of praise respon-
sively to Christ as it were to God." Lucian, the
Latin satirist, writes : " The Christians are still
worshiping that great man who was crucified in
Palestine." Justin Martyr writes : " We reasonably
worship Jesus Christ, having learned that He is the
Son of the true God Himself. J
* Epistle to the Trallians, chap. x.
t Epistle to the Ephesians, chap. vii.
I " First Apology," chap. xiii.

CHRISTOLOGV OF THE APOSTOLIC FATHERS. 29
The earliest liturgies, as those of St. James, St.
Mark, St. Adaeus, St. Maris, and the Apostolical
Constitutions, prove by their formulas of prayer that
the worship of Christ was an essential feature of
an ordered Church service.
THE DIVINE-HUMAN PERSON OF CHRIST.
These testimonies show that the integral feature
of Christianity with our fathers was the Person of
Christ. They regarded Him as divine. They did
not look upon Him as the greatest of the prophets,
or as the chief of the sons of men. But they as
cribed to Him a true and essential divinity. They
adored and prayed to Him as God. And this was
the fact that first of all commanded their interest.
It is the Lord's true and proper divinity that chal
lenges their inquiry, demands their reverence, fixes
their faith and settles their hope. Because of this
unique characteristic they believe His word, bow to
His authority, yield themselves to His service, and
will die before they will deny Him. And in the
assurance of this divinity of their Lord and Master
will they confidently undertake the overthrow of
infidelity, Paganism and Judaism, and the conver
sion of the whole world to His name.

30 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
Thus revering His person they are thrilled, also,
with His MESSAGE. They regard Him as sent of God
to publish the new covenant of grace. He reveals
the love of the Father in a new degree. He brings
to light life and immortality. He proclaims a
universal brotherhood of man under the universal
Fatherhood of God. He founds a religion not for
Jews alone, but for Gentiles and the whole human
race. He preaches a kingdom of God, in which
religion is not one chiefly of ceremonies and
of formal worship, but spiritual — a matter of the
heart, a renewed soul, an inner life. And now that
this gospel of good tidings is published, that this
Door of Grace is opened, He calls upon all men to
note the fullness of the times and to turn from the
temporal to the eternal, from the earthly to the
heavenly life.
But eagerly as they listened to the teaching of
Him who spake as never man spake, not His mes
sage, nor His sinlessness, nor His supreme good
ness, so made Him the object of their devotion as
His self-revelation of the Divinity, that He was
"God manifest in the flesh." It is charged by
some critics that the Synoptics have not discovered
this Deity, but that it is an invention of the philo-

CHRISTOLOGV OF THE APOSTOLIC FATHERS. 31
sophical tendency and mystical spirit of St. John.
But whence, then, did the apostolic fathers get it ?
For the most of them — Clement, Barnabas and Poly
carp, at least — wrote before John's Gospel had been
written. Their proclamation of it proves beyond
doubt that the divinity of Christ was the teaching
of all the evangelists and was the common posses
sion of the primitive believers. Not the faintest
conception do we find here of Arianism. That, and
not Christ's true divinity, was a later development.
" ' The History of Doctrines,' if it is to understand
the further development of Christianity, must keep
this constantly before it as the starting point. It
is one of the most certain facts of history that the
thought and feeling of the apostolic age was based,
not upon the man Jesus, but upon the Lord in heaven,
who pervades and governs the universe, omnipotent
and omniscient. It is simply absurd to attempt
to explain in a psychological way, the immense
impression made by the man Jesus, for no imagi
nation could mistake the most powerful man for
God. " * CUMULATIVE AUTHORITIES.
Canon Liddon, in a resume" of the teaching of
* "Text-Book of the History of Doctrines, " Seeberg, Vol. I.,
p. 41.

32 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
the great Church leaders of the first three centuries,
reaches the same conclusion. " A chain of repre
sentative writers, reaching from the sub-apostolic
to the Nicene age, asserts in explicit language, the
Church's belief that Jesus Christ is God. Thus
Ignatius of Antioch dwells upon our Lord's divine
nature as a possession of the Church and of indi
vidual Christians ; he calls Jesus Christ " my God,
our God." The sub-apostolic author of the " Let
ter to Diognetus " teaches that the Father hath
sent to men the very Architect of all things on
whom all depends. He has sent Him as being God.
St. Polycarp appeals to Him as to the Everlasting
Son of God ; all things on earth and in heaven obey
and worship Him. He is the Author of our justi
fication, the Object of our hope. Justin Martyr
maintains that the Word is the First-born of God,
and so God. Tatian is aware that the Greeks deem
the faith utter folly, but he nevertheless asserts that
God has appeared in human form. St. Irenseus says :
" If Christ is worshiped, if Christ forgives sin, if
Christ is Mediator between God and men, this is
because He is really a Divine Person. Clement
speaks of the ( Living God who suffered and who is
adored.' Origen maintains Christ's true divinity

CHRISTOLOGV OF THE APOSTOLIC FATHERS. 33
against the contemptuous criticisms of Celsus.
Tertullian anticipates the Homoousion in terms.
' Christ,' he says, ' is called God by reason of His
oneness of substance with God.' St. Cyprian ar
gues that those who believe in Christ's power to
make a temple of the human soul must needs be
lieve in His divinity." And Liddon concludes :
" This language of the preceding centuries does in
effect and substance anticipate the Nicene de
cision." *
We may add here the affirmation of a modern
divine of liberal tendencies. Dr. Henry Van Dyke,
writing of this period, says : " If we are to have a
Christianity which is real and historical, we must
get into line with history. If we are to have be-
hindj'us the power which comes from actual achieve
ment in the world, we must understand the relation
which it has always held to the Person of Christ.
If we are to be in any sense the followers of the first
Christians and to share the joy and peace and power
of their religion, we must take the view they took
of Jesus of Nazareth. Now the first Christians saw,
and that the Church has always seen in Jesus Christ,
* Oxford Lectures on the Divinity of our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ (Lecture VII., pp. 415-425).

34 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
a real incarnation of God, a true and personal un
veiling of the Father, God in Christ reconciling
the world unto Himself." * Hence His advent in
augurated a new historic era. The revelation of
God to men inspired the race with new ideas, ener
gies and hopes. Springtime blossomed such as man
has never seen again, and its fragrance and life-giv
ing power streamed through the universe as on a
new creation morning.
CHRIST'S PERSONAL APPEARANCE.
A noteworthy feature of the sketch, which these
writers give of Christianity, is that there is no at
tempt to draw other than a spiritual portrait of
Christ. We have here nothing like the Gospel of
the Infancy. Great as must have been the temp
tation to those who were setting forth so wonderful
and unique a character, no mythical narratives, no
extravagant stories, or trivialities mar their picture.
We are not surprised that so few, if any, new say
ings of the Lord are given. This fact simply shows
that none but the directly inspired writers were
held adequate to that, and that the gospels then
written were considered so fixed and sacred that
nothing could be added to or detracted from them.
* " The Gospel for an Age of Doubt," chap. vii.

CHRISTOLOGY OF THE APOSTOLIC FATHERS. 35
But it seems strange and is the occasion for some
disappointment, that, with all the facilities these
writers had and with the eagerness with which they
tell us they discoursed with those who had known the
Lord, they do not give us some of those particulars
which would be of priceless interest to all the
Christian world. But never, through all these pages,
is there a personal anecdote of the Saviour, or the
least hint of how He looked, or any description of
His physical person or appearance. Of all the
legends and tales, which could not help by this pe
riod gathering like a mythical halo about the per
sonal history of our Lord, not one is interwoven
with these memorials. The same reticence on these
points is observed as that maintained by the authors
of the canonical Gospels.
This shows the poise, the sanity and the rever
ence of the apostolic fathers. And especially does
it show that they were so vividly impressed by the
transcendent glory of the divinity of Christ's person,
as well as by the high redemptive purpose of His mis
sion, that those features and marks of His humanity,
which would be of such absorbing interest to our
curious thought, were lost to view in their adoring
gaze.

36 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
The Gospels are really not designed as personal
biographies. But their intent was to set forth the
Divine-Human personality, the authority as a re-
vealer of truth, and the redemptive kingdom of
Jesus Christ. They portray His word as an au
thority for the mind, as well as His conduct as
an example for the life. They depict Him as
living on and working with divine power as the
Lord of Mankind. It is evident how totally irre
concilable their conceptions of Christ are with
those of a representative of the extreme school of
modern theological thought, viz., " Christ must be
understood and explained after the manner in
which all other things under the sun must be un
derstood and explained, as the result of factors and
forces that are also operative outside of Christianity.
It has been impossible to understand Christ in this
way in the past, because the deification of Jesus by
the Church has made such an objective estimation
of the founder of the Church impossible. It must
now be the purpose of advanced theological thought
to discard all that yet remains of the reactionary
conservatism of former days in reference to Christ
and His teachings." *
* Otto Pfleiderer, " Origin of Christianity."

CHRISTOLOGV OF THE APOSTOLIC FATHERS. 37
The divinity of Christ, contrariwise, was with our
fathers the chief and all-engrossing consideration.
It glorified His humanity. It constituted the in
carnation. It was the supreme basis for faith.
In it lay the uniqueness of Christianity and the
pledge of its world-conquering sway.

CHAPTER V.
THE TRINITY.
The consideration of the supernatural personality
of Christ naturally forced to the front a question
of momentous import. If Christ were truly God,
and yet was the Son, what was His relation to the
Father, and what to " the Holy Spirit who proceed-
eth from the Father " ? This brought the apostolic
fathers face to face with one of the most difficult
problems of religion, and one of the profoundest
depths of metaphysical thought. As a result, they
elicited the doctrine of the Trinity.
In the Didache — Teaching of the Twelve Apos
tles — we find the Baptismal Formula in use co
ordinating the names of Father, Son and Holy
Ghost as equally divine.*
At the close of the Epistle of Philo and Agathopus,
describing the martyrdom of Polycarp, the language
is used, " In Christ Jesus our Lord, by whom and
with whom be glory and power to the Father, with
the Holy Spirit forevermore. Amen."
*Chap. viii., sec. 3.
(38)

THE TRINITY. 39
Similarly the Epistle of the Church at Smyrna re
cites this last prayer of Polycarp : " 0 Lord God
Almighty, the Father, I bless Thee, I glorify Thee
along with the everlasting and heavenly Jesus Christ,
Thy beloved Son, with whom, to Thee and the Holy
Ghost be glory, both now and to all coming ages.
Amen." Clement : "As God liveth, and Jesus
Christ liveth, and the Holy Ghost liveth, who are
the faith and hope of the elect," — where the three
sacred names are co-ordinated as in the Baptismal
Formula. Justin Martyr : " Jesus Christ, the Son of
the true God Himself, and holding Him in the sec
ond place, and the prophetic Spirit in the third." *
In these citations divinity is expressly ascribed to
the Father, the Son, and also to the Holy Spirit.
Prayer is offered to each, and in speaking of divine
acts and ceremonies a threefold source is ascribed
to them. This is true iu a much larger sense with
the Son, but it is also the case with the Holy Spirit.
" Faith in the God of Israel became faith in God the
Father ; added to this was faith in Jesus, the Christ
and Son of God, and the witness of the gift of the
Holy Spirit, i. <?., of the Spirit of God and Christ." f
*" First Apology," chap. xii.
t " History of Dogma in the First Generation of Christians,"
Harnack.

40 THE post-apostolic age.
THE GREAT TRINAL MYSTERY.
The manner in which this unity of divine nature,
and yet this trinity of person and acts, is to be recon
ciled has not escaped their attention. Yet they
have not given it close study. The designation of
God as Father, Son and Holy Ghost is preserved
in connection with the Baptismal Formula, and is
occasionally employed, but not made (especially as
to the Holy Ghost) a subject of particular study.*
They simply accept the fact and leave the mystery
to faith.
More thought have they given to the unique
Person of Christ. They recognize God as His
Father, and on the human side the Virgin Birth.
They, therefore, see in Him the Divine-Human,
the God-Man. Yet, as to how the Son was generated
by the Father ; or in what manner the two natures
blend in the Person, Jesus Christ ; or how the
properties of the divine and human natures can be
united and yet distinct, or how they reciprocally in
fluence one another, they have not reached a definite
conclusion. That the Son has always existed co-eternal with
the Father ; that He is the Logos, the Word, the
* " Apostolic Fathers," Seeberg, p. 78.

the trinity. 41
Revealer of the Father ; that God can be known
only through the Son, and that He ever does the
will of the Father, was their satisfactory and work
ing conviction. Thus though they had taken up
the Person of Christ, yet their Christology was not
equal to that of Irenseus and Tertullian a genera
tion later. There is no definite statement of the
later formula of two natures in one person of Christ,
nor of three co-eternal, co-equal persons united in
one Godhead.
Nevertheless, that these formulae were framed at
a later period does not show that they originated
then — for example, at the era of the Nicene Creed,
— for we find the generic truths upon which they
rest all here. Their roots and primary germs lie
in the soil of this period. For we can distinctly
see in the writings of the apostolic fathers the
embryonic, if somewhat crude, efforts to give co
herent statement to these great Christian realities,
of which they had a vivid conception as facts, and
yet whose mysteries it would require the deepest
philosophy of the acutest minds of coming ages to
formulate in as reasonable fashion as possible.
Their concern, however, with the doctrine of the
Trinity is not metaphysical, but practical. They

42 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
do not seek for it a philosophical definition, but
find in it a fact most helpful to spiritual life. God
the Father creating, ruling and governing in right
eousness and love ; God the Son, becoming incar
nate and saving the world by offering Himself for its
sin ; and God the Holy Ghost, applying this re
demption in the process of regeneration and the
holy Christian life, make for them the indispensa
ble need, the blessing and power of the Holy Trin
ity. Their use of the doctrine is eminently practi
cal. " In all the forms of the Trinity, from the
sharply defined tri-personal Trinity of Athanasius
to the essentially tri-modal Trinity of Augustine,
the great service it has rendered is not abstract
nor philosophical. It is practical. It has protected
the conviction that the real nature of God is re
vealed in Christ ; it has justified the conscious
ness that the Spirit of Christ, animating the Chris
tian life, is the Spirit of God ; it has preserved the
sense of real communion with God in Christ, which
is the nerve of Christian worship."*
* Van Dyke, " Gospel for an Age of Doubt," chap. iii.

CHAPTER VI.
THE ATONEMENT.
A vivid sense of sin pervades the consciousness
of these early Christian writers. The holiness of
God is brought into sharp contrast with the wick
edness of men. The exceeding divine goodness
and benignity make more repellent the sins
and vices of the race. The human heart is seen
to be alienated from God. Sin and immorality
are regnant in society. The whole fabric of the
Pagan world is morally corrupt. " Let us," writes
Barnabas, " utterly flee from all the works of iniq
uity and let us hate the vices of the present time ;
let us not give loose reins to our souls that we
should become like these. Let us utterly hate the
works of wickedness." * On account of this uni
versal sinfulness and degradation, the judgment of a
righteous God has fallen upon men. A curse, infi
nite and eternal, impends over the guilty race.
But over against this doctrine of sin stands that
of grace. Love in the Father's heart prompts to
* Epistle, chap. iv.
(43)

44 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
the world's rescue. Justice and wrath are to be
circumvented by love and mercy. From these con
ditions issues the scheme of the Atonement. The
incarnation is primarily conceived as a means of
salvation. Jesus comes as the Revealer of the grace
of God. But He not only publishes the new cove
nant of mercy, but He Himself is the means of the
victory over sin. Sin is to be blotted out by for
giveness, but this remission is to be by His sacri
ficial blood. Here the apostolic fathers are at
one with the New Testament epistles.
We cite : " Our Lord Jesus Christ, who for our sins
suffered even unto death," * writes Polycarp ; and
again : " Let us then persevere in our hope, which
is Jesus Christ, who bore our sins in His own body
on the tree." f Clement : " Let us reverence the
Lord Jesus Christ, whose blood was given for us."
" He bore our iniquities. He carried our sins. He
was an offering for our sins." J Epistle to Diogne-
tus : "He Himself took on Him the burden of our
iniquities. He gave His own Son as a ransom for
us, the Holy One for transgressors, the blameless
* Epistle, chap. i.
t Epistle, chap. viii.
% Epistle, chaps, xvi. and xxi.

THE ATONEMENT. 45
One for the wicked, the incorruptible One for the
corruptible." *
Barnabas : " For to this end the Lord suffered,
that we might be sanctified through the remis
sion of sins, which is effected by His blood of
sprinkling." And again: "Christ also offered
Himself as a sacrifice for our sins." f Ignatius :
" Jesus Christ, who died for us in order that by
believing in His death ye might escape from
death." { " Ignatius dwells frequently and with
great emphasis on the ' blood ' of Christ, ' the
passion ' of Christ, the ' cross ' of Christ as an object
of belief, a center of unity and a source of life." §
" Clement speaks frequently of Jesus Christ as
our High Priest, and with other additions which
show the completeness of his conceptions on this
point (sections 36, 61, 64). So the repeated men
tion of the blood of Christ (sections 7, 12, 21,
49, 55), with the references to ransom, deliverance,
and the like, tells its own tale. Again, the constant
repetition of the preposition Sia, 'through Jesus
Christ,' denotes the mediatorial channel. "||
* Epistle to Diognetus, chap. viii. t Epistle, chaps, v. and vii.
t " Epistle to Trallians," chap. ii.
$ "Apostolic Fathers," Lightfoot, Vol. I., p. 595.
|| Ibid., Vol. I., p. 398.

46 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
THE ATONEMENT SUBSTITUTIONAL.
These strong, unqualified assertions are the utter
ances of a simple, deep and all-pervading certainty
as to the fact that the mystery of the incarnation
had for its chief intent the redemption of a lost
world. Christ comes as Jesus — the Saviour from
sin. He dies that He may save us from death, the
penalty of sin. He bears the curse Himself, that
we may be delivered from it. He sheds His blood,
that our hearts sprinkled with it may be cleansed.
He suffers on the cross the stroke of justice, that
God may be just and yet forgive. He is made an
" offering " and a " ransom " for us. He is the
great " sacrifice " by which the guilty escape. He
suffers in our stead. He identifies Himself with
fallen humanity, that as its representative He may
be its Deliverer.
" That Christ died on account of our sins was the
apostolic tradition and the general belief. The
death of Christ was universally regarded as the
means by which we are transported into a new
moral state of life, and this because Christ died the
just for the unjust, in order that He might lead
them into a new relation with God." *
*Seeberg, " Text-Book of the History of Doctrines," p. 47.

THE ATONEMENT. 47
The broken law must be fulfilled, the guilt and
penalty of sin must be borne by a spotlessly Right
eous One and by an infinitely efficacious Redeemer.
The atonement is as fully the justification of
God's unbending attitude toward sin as it is the
redemption of the sinner. " It was the severity of
Christ that made the agony of Christ, this love
of God's holy law, even more than of His brother
man. Do you realize how, first to last, He stood
on God's side against men?"* And it was only
when Christ had honored in full the holiness of
God's claim upon the cross, that Paul could take
the attitude to the law he did and speak of Christ
as its end.
Certainly we have in these Patristic presentations
no conception of the sufferings and death of Christ
as limited to the influence of imitation or example.
Nor is the more abstract problem particularly dis
cussed as to how God could and did suffer. Nor do
we have the substitutional nature of the sacrifice in
the later Anselmian theory. But just as clearly and
decisively as any theological statement could formu
late them, we have the vital ideas of the doctrine
of the atonement as a propitiation. As to this
*Forsyth, "Positive Preaching and Modern Mind," p. 147.

48 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
evangelical truth, as set forth in the inspired Script
ures, and as in course of time appearing in the
great confessions of historic Christendom, they do
not waver a moment. The incarnation for them
has no religious value but as the background of
the atonement. The cross is the key to the
whole redemptive history. They believe with all
their heart that, " First of all, Christ died for our
sins according to the Scriptures." *
* i Cor. xr. 3.

CHAPTER VII.
JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH.
To participate in the redemption provided by the
atonement, the fathers teach that Christ must be
apprehended by faith. First of all, faith in Him
as a Person. As the Son who revealed the loving
heart and compassion of the Father. Faith reach
ing out to Him, laying hold upon Him and living
in and through Him. Faith in Him as Lord,
King and Shepherd.
But specifically faith in Christ as Saviour. As
the One who, by His offering unto death on the
cross, ransomed from sin, reconciled unto God, and
restored the prodigal to sonship with the Father.
It is this view of the Lord of Glory suffering for the
sinner, that provides faith with its surety of forgive
ness, as Polycarp writes, " The strong root of your
faith is in our Lord Jesus Christ, who for our sins
suffered even unto death." *
" It was just the death ' for our sins,' which con
firmed the impression given by His Person and pro-
* Epistle to the Philippians, chap. i.
(49)

50 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
vided faith with a sure hold. He died as a sacrifice
for us, and He now lives. His death had the na
ture of an expiatory sacrifice, for otherwise it would
not have had strength to penetrate into that inner
world in which sacrifices originated. But it was
not a sacrifice in the same sense as others, or else it
could not have put an end to them ; it suppressed
them by settling accounts with them ; the validity
of all material sacrifices was destroyed by Christ's
death." * By this one great propitiatory offering
we, making it our personal possession by faith, are
justified. Thus writes Clement of Rome : " And
we, too, being called by His will in Christ Jesus,
are not justified by ourselves, nor by our own wis
dom, or understanding, or godliness, or works,
which we have wrought in holiness of heart ; but
by that faith through which Almighty God has jus
tified." f This faith is not, however, merely the
subjective grasp of the soul on the Person and
work of Christ — the inclination of the heart in
trust and love. But it is also faith objectively con
sidered, not simply faith, but the faith. Not
merely the faith that believes, but the faith that is
*" History of Dogma" — Laying the Foundation, Harnack.
t First Epistle, chap, xxxii.

JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH. 51
believed. Hence it is faith in the teachings of
Christ, in the Word of Revelation, in the mysteries
of the truth, in the common Christian confession.
That justification, regeneration and salvation are
effected by the merits of Christ through faith, in
stead of obtained by our own merits, are facts
either assumed or expressly taught.
FAITH THE PRIMARY DUTY.
Not an echo is heard of the modern opinion, so
potent with the world and often, more or less,
affirmed by the clergy, that faith is a matter of indif
ference, that one needs but keep in view the regu
lation of his life, that if the aim be to live rightly
it matters not what is believed. This view, to
this primitive literature, is essentially un-Christian.*
It is true, however, that the doctrine of " justifi
cation through faith alone " is not laid down with
the evangelical purity with which it was later ap-
*In Dr. Forsyth's recent Yale University Lectures, the fol
lowing passage indicates the return to a more Scriptural concep
tion : " It is not give and take ; it is all giving on God's part.
He receives but what He gives and in His life we live. Our syn
ergist pride is quelled as we realize that. Our self-satisfaction
has its saving relief. We are no partners with God, fellow-
workers as we may be. Our best faith, with all its works, is
purely the gift of God, because it is aroused by His one gift,
Jesus Christ." — " Positive Preaching and Modern Mind," p. 55.

52 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
prehended by Luther and wielded as the wand of
might which revolutionized Christendom. Nor
was it consistently maintained in its full applica
tion. Often it was conceived as that momentary
act by which pardon was bestowed for all past sins.
But thenceforward obedience was looked upon as
meritorious, and the forgiveness of sins was not re
garded in strict accord with Scripture teaching, as
always and wholly dependent upon faith alone.
Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit there is an
evolution in the apprehension of divine truth. So
the Augustinian conception of sin and grace is an
advance upon that of this period, and still greater is
that of Luther in this article of justification.

CHAPTER VIII.
THE NEW CHRISTIAN LIFE.
" The beginning is faith, the end is love," wrote
Ignatius.* That the believer was justified by
faith, so far from relieving him from the necessity
of good works, was to be their primary incentive.
Faith was to be the fruitful root of the new Chris
tian life of love. Thus Barnabas writes : " Having
received the forgiveness of sins through faith in
the Lord, we have become new creatures, formed
again from the very beginning. Wherefore, in our
habitation God truly dwells in us." t Here we have
the relation of faith to life in the most intimate
sense of gospel teaching. The Christian dynamic
is a faith that finds expression in love.
THE LIFE OF THE ANCIENT WORLD.
The review of this period of the world shows
three types of character or phases of life. One
was that prevalent among the Pagans. This was
* Epistle to Ephesians, chap. xiv.
t Epistle, chap, xvi., "The Spiritual Temple of God."
(53)

54 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
that of skepticism in religion, profligacy of morals,
selfishness, tyranny, avarice and cruelty. Those
highest in the social scale revelled in the lowest
and most degrading forms of vice. St Paul gives
a vivid picture of the shameless conuptions pre
vailing in his terrific indictment in the famous first
chapter of Romans.
Farrar gives this graphic description of the Pagan
morals, which is well worth transcribing : " The
epoch which witnessed the early growth of Chris
tianity was an epoch of which the horror and the
degradation have rarely been equalled, and perhaps
never exceeded, in the annals of mankind. The
abundant proofs of this decadence of morals are
stamped upon its coinage, cut on its gems, painted
upon its chamber walls, sown broadcast over the
pages of its poets, satirists and historians. I need
but make a passing allusion to its enormous wealth ;
its unbounded self-indulgence ; its coarse and taste
less luxury ; its greedy avarice ; its sense of in
security and terror ; its apathy, debauchery and
cruelty ; its hopeless fatalism ; its unspeakable sad
ness and weariness ; its strange extravagances alike
of infidelity and superstition. Ostentation, caprice,
gluttony, impurity, rioted in the heart of a society

THE NEW CHRISTIAN LIFE. 55
which knew of no other means by which to break
the monotony of its weariness or to alleviate the
anguish of its despair." *
" On that hard Pagan world disgust
And secret loathing fell ;
Deep weariness and sated lust
Made human life a hell."
That this shameless and woeful state befell Pagan
society at a time when mental culture was at its
greatest strength and beauty, and when the immor
tal works of classic literature and art were pro
duced, proves how impotent the natural reason is
to save itself or to regenerate the world.
The second phase was that of fudaism. This,
indeed, was in notable contrast to Pagan debauch
ery. It recognized the living God of the Old Tes
tament. Its ideals were those of righteousness,
justice and judgment to come. And it maintained
an external piety and virtue. Nevertheless, it was
largely a religion of legalism. Its horoscope was
narrowed by a harsh bigotry. In common practice,
it was self-satisfied with a religious observance of
mere rites and ceremonies. Hence, even its most
* " The Early Days of Christianity," p. 4.

56 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
illustrious exponents were characterized by what
has received the fitting epithet of Pharisaism. It
utterly failed to frame men in the type of real
piety and to invest them with the elusive charm
of saintliness.
The third phase was that of the Christian life.
This was totally new. It took its rise from the love
of God in Christ. It was based upon the great fact
" that God commendeth His love to us in this,
that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."
And so the believer's heart, warmed and suffused
by his faith in this great truth, overflowed with
love. He earnestly desired the good and welfare
of his fellow, and was willing to sacrifice for his
happiness. What a spectacle and reproof in that
cold, hard, gloomy Pagan world this sweet Chris
tian spirit of gentleness, meekness, patience and
love ! This was a life the Christian could not effect
in himself, but it was the fruit of divine grace,
wrought by the regenerating, recreative agency of
the Holy Spirit. Christ is our life, in that He
personally dwells in us, and works in us spiritual
and eternal life. Here is felt the force of a great
primitive experience — the Christ in us, who is
our strength, who renews us in our hearts, and

THE NEW CHRISTIAN LIKE. 57
draws our hearts upward from this earth toward
Himself. THE IMITATION OF CHRIST.
The motive the early Christian kept before him
self was the imitation of Christ " How will you
love Him who first so loved you ? And if you truly
love Christ, you will become an imitation of Him." *
His love, His patience, His gentleness, and His self-
forgetful sacrifice were ever in the thought of the
disciple. The mind and temper of Jesus were the
spirit of the new Christian life. And as its sources
were faith and love, so was its outcome an intensely
spiritual piety, the freedom of willing filial service
rather than the constrained obedience of the slave.
Purity was the next distinctive trait of this life.
The morality of the believer presented a shining
contrast to Pagan impurity. The lives of the
Christians were chaste, they were pure husbands
and faithful wives. Their family circles were true
homes, beautified and blessed by all the domestic
virtues. The apostolic writers perpetually urge
the grace of chastity, of which converts stood so
eminently in need, amid the temptations of environ
ing debauchery. The eleventh chapter of the ninth
* Epistle to Diognetns, chap. x.

58 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
Similitude of the " Shepherd," describing the asso
ciation of Hermas and the pure virgins, is, perhaps,
the most beautiful parable of chastity to be found
in literature.
The cynical critic, Gibbon, is compelled to bear
this testimony to the morals of the primitive Chris
tians : " Their serious life, averse to the gay luxury
of the age, inured them to chastity, temperance,
economy, and all the sober domestic virtues. The
contempt of the world exercised them in the habits
of humility, meekness and patience. The strictest
integrity and the fairest dealings removed the sus
picions of the profane." *
Charity was one of the most marked of their
qualities. " Let not widows and the poor be neg
lected. Be thou, after the Lord, their protector
and friend," writes Ignatius, f
Clement writes : " He who takes upon himself
the burden of his neighbor ; he who is ready to
benefit another who is deficient ; he who becomes a
distributor to the needy is an imitator of God." J
This spirit of charity not alone breathes through
* " Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," Vol. I., p. 546.
t Epistle to Polycarp, chap. iv.
t First Epistle, chap, xxxviii.

THE NEW CHRISTIAN LIFE. 59
all their writings, but it was illustrated in practical
methods. Regular offerings were taken for the
needy. Each church was held responsible for the
care of its widows, orphans, sick and destitute.
Instead of the Pagan selfishness and absolute indif
ference, the poor and the suffering were the objects
of kindness, sympathy and care. Children and
aged, instead of being exposed and left to perish in
the most abject misery, after the Pagan fashion,
were tenderly nursed and cheered by the ministries
of love.
Hallam gives this testimony to this early custom
of charity : " This eleemosynary spirit remarkably
distinguishes Christianity from the moral systems
of Greece and Rome, which were very deficient in
general humanity and sympathy with suffering.
Nor do we find in any single instance during
ancient times those public institutions for the alle
viation of human miseries which have long been
scattered over every part of Europe. *
We find in this period, then, the seeds of that
sweet spirit of charity which have taken root and
flowered out into all those beneficent institutions
of modern times, which afford such indescribable
* Hallam's " Middle Ages," p. 583.

6b THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
relief and help to the children of sorrow, and whieh
write the most glowing page in Christian civili
zation. The new Christian life, taking its note from the
cross, taught, also, the preciousness of sonow. It
had learned that by means of its discipline was
evolved a depth of love, a height of heroism, a
moral grandeur of soul and a fineness of spiritual
beauty, which could never spring from the soft
experiences of pleasure. " If Christianity lost the
antique zest, the animal happiness, the naivete of
children who knew not the insufficiency of life, or
that they shall love and lose and die, it gained a
new potency in a sublime seriousness, that heroism
that confronts destiny and that ' most musical, most
melancholy ' sadness which conveys a rarer beauty
than the gladdest joy — the sadness of great souls, of
Christ Himself, who wept often, but was rarely
seen to smile. It discovers that if, indeed, our ' sweet
est songs are those which tell of saddest thought,'
it is better to suffer than to lose the power of suf
fering." * Thus, confronting that age-long prob
lem of unvanquished evil and unrequited pain, in-
* " The Nature and Elements of Poetry, " chap, v., Edmund
Clarence Stedman.

THE NEW CHRISTIAN LIFE. 6 1
stead of being driven to stoical hardness or despair,
Christianity spanned this dark gulf of mystery with
the goldern arch of God's ultimate purpose and
thereby transformed it into a salutary discipline
and added it to the blessings and triumphs of hu
manity. CONTRAST OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE.
Martineau thus eloquently points the contrast
between the life originated by Christianity and the
old world one : " The very center of gravity in hu
man interests was changed. So great was the effect
of this fresh power that you had only to step from
the forum to the Church to find quite a new edition
of human nature and a reversal of established sen
timents and manners ; in the young a reverence and
simplicity ; in the slave a dignity and quietude ; in
the woman a modest self-forgetfulness ; in the man
a frank humanity, not ashamed to stoop to the
smallest service or lift the voice in highest prayer ;
all proclaiming that here an ideal of character and
affection prevailed, quite different from the fevered
and festering world on which the sunshine glittered
without. I know not how anyone can appreciate
these great changes without owning the presence of
an intense divine agency." *
* " Seat of Authority in Religion,", Book III., chap. i.

62 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
Such was the new spiritual life which Christ
brought into the world and generated in the hearts
of believers. This was the life that smote the Pa
gans with wonder. It was " the life hid with Christ
in God." And it was this life — the outcome of
faith — that was to conquer the world to the religion
of Jesus of Nazareth.

CHAPTER IX.
INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES.
The apostolic fathers, of course, received the Old
Testament as the Word of God, but what was their
view of the writings constituting the New Testa
ment ? There was no question with them as to the
authority of Christ's words. These they regarded
as truth, and hence infallible. The teaching of
Christ — the gospel — they looked upon as that seed,
which, quickened by the Holy Ghost, bore the fruit
of the new spiritual life. Christ's words were truth,
spirit and life. They were charged with regener
ative force. They were the chief means of grace.
"At the close of the apostolic era," says Ferris, in
" The Formation of the New Testament," " author
ity was recognized in any saying or tradition which
embodied the spirit of the Lord."
But how was it to be determined what were the
words of the Lord ? He left no written record.
Oral testimony is ever unreliable. The most care
ful and reverent memory is liable to en. The
primitive fathers as we have seen, resorted to every
(63)

64 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
means to learn most accurately of Christ and His
teachings from eye-witnesses and auditors. But in
a matter of such primary moment as having the
Divine Word absolutely correct and pure, oral
methods could not be perfectly satisfactory or con
clusive. ORIGIN OF THE GOSPELS.
At first, however, the words of our Lord were
but preserved by tradition. His sayings were treas
ured in the memories of the disciples with the great
est reverence. They, doubtless, compared and re
hearsed these under the guidance of that Holy
Spirit of whom Jesus had promised " He shall
guide you into all truth," and " He shall bring all
things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said
unto you." * Thus, by degrees, a tradition, com
mon in main outline, was evolved. Then, the
evangelists sat down to write out their several me
morials, differentiated by their individualities.
Thus originated our Gospels. Paul, then, " not in
the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but in the
words which the Holy Ghost teacheth," t added his
Epistles, as did the other writers.
The following dates may be accepted as approxi-
* John xiv. 26. f 1 Cor. i. 13.

INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. 65
mately conect as to the times when the different
books of the New Testament were written : Matthew,
between the years 55 and 65 ; Mark, between the
years 63 and 70 ; Luke, between the years 55 and
58 ; John, toward the latter part of the century ;
Acts of the Apostles, about the year 63 ; Romans,
1 and 2 Cor. and Gal., about the year 58 ; Eph.,
Phil., Col., Philemon, about the year 62 ; 1 and 2
Tim. and Titus and Heb., about the year 67 ; Peter
(Epistles), about the year 58 to 63 ; James (Epistle),
about the year 48 ; John (Epistles), about the year
85 ; 1 and 2 Thes., about the year 52, or within
twenty years after the resurrection of Christ ; Reve
lation, about the year 95. And, as the Apostle John
lived until the close of the first century, the early
Christian churches had ample opportunity to in
quire of him concerning the genuineness and au
thenticity of all the books of the New Testament.
Now, the question of vital moment for us is, what
attitude did these great leaders of the generation
next to Christ take to these writings ? There was,
as yet, no established canon. Neither the Church
nor any authoritative tribunal had passed any ver
dict upon them. Our answer is found with abso
lute decisiveness in their literature. They quote
5

66 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
from the Gospels, especially the earliest of St. Mat
thew [that of St. John, which was written a gener
ation later, had not appeared when some of them
wrote] and the Epistles of Paul, as Holy Scripture,
regarding them the word of God just as they do
the Old Testament.
Barnabas is the first to preface these citations
with the phrase, " As it is written." Ignatius also
writes : " When I heard some saying, ' If I do not
find it in the originals, in the gospel, I do not
believe,' and when I said to them, ' It is written,'
they answered me, ' That settles it.' " * So Clem
ent, making a citation from Paul's First Epistle to
the Corinthians, applies to it the term, " Inspira
tion." f And Papias states that Mark wrote his
life of Christ by dictation from St. Peter, and con
cludes : " Wherefore Mark made no mistake in
thus writing, for he took especial care not to omit
anything of the Lord's sayings he had heard, and
not to put anything fictitious into the statement."
We append a few instances of citations :
Barnabas : " As it is written, ' Many are called,
but few are chosen ' " (Matt. xx. i6).f Ignatius :
* Epistle to Philadelphians, chap. viii.
f Epistle, chap. iv.

INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. 67
"Handle me and see, for a spirit hath not flesh
and blood, as ye see me have" (Luke xxiv. 39).*
Papias : "In my Father's house are many man
sions " (John xiv. 2). And a notable one from
Polycarp : " I trust that ye are well versed in the
sacred Scriptures. It is declared, then, in these
Scriptures, ' Be ye angry and sin not ' (Ps. iv. 5) ;
and, ' Let not the sun go down upon your wrath ' "
(Ephes. iv. 26) .f Here not only is the phrase
" sacred Scripture " applied to Paul's epistles, but
they are placed on an exact parallel with the Old
Testament. AUTHORITY FOR NEW TESTAMENT WRITINGS.
These citations from the Gospels and Epistles
run all through the fathers. In fact, the warp
and woof of their writings are made up of them.
They are so interwoven as to form their very text
ure. And in making these citations it is evident
by their manner that not the faintest shadow of
doubt has ever entered their minds as to the au
thenticity of the writings making up the gospel
deposit, or as to their authority as inspired by the
Holy Ghost. * Epistle to Smyrneans, chap. iv.
t Epistle, chap. xii.

6* THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
Treating of this period, writes Seeberg : " That
such was the esteem in which the writings of the
apostles were held is confirmed by the facts that
the documents which we have just examined
abound throughout in references to nearly all the
New Testament books, and that the latter, as well
as the Gospels themselves, were read in the assem
blies for worship." *
And writes Bishop Lightfoot : " The reception
of the Gospels by the early Church was immediate
and universal. They never were placed for a
moment in the same category with the spurious
documents which soon sprang up after them. In
external history, as in internal character, they differ
entirely from the apocryphal gospels, which, though
in some cases bearing the name and pretending to
contain the teachings of an apostle, were never rec
ognized as apostolic. Upon the authenticity, /. e.,
the apostolicity of our Gospels, rests their claim to
inspiration." f
How, we may ask, was it that so unqualified an
acceptance was given these writings, when, as yet,
the canon of the New Testament was not definitely
* " Text-Book of the History of Doctrines," p. 82.
t " New Testament Prologomena," chap, i., sec. 6.

INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. 69
formed or closed ? The answer is that if there was
no formal, there was yet a virtual canon. Those
writings which were held to be inspired were fixed
by the universal consent of the Christians of the
time. Later, when doubts and cavils began to
arise, it became necessary for an authoritative ec
clesiastical tribunal, expressing the concurrent
opinion of the Church, to fix "the limits of the
canon — to decide what it should include and what
exclude. And so also, when disputes began to
originate respecting the meaning of Scripture,
there, says Harnack, rose " the need of a fixed out
ward standard, in order to be able to disprove false
doctrines, and to be able to maintain the true con
ception as apostolic doctrine." * From this need
originated by degrees the Apostles', and then the
other great historic creeds. They were all, as
Forest shows in his " Christ of History and Ex
perience," defensive, forced upon the Church by
the necessity of definitely interpreting the Script
ure, to save it from being wrested to the support
of soul-destroying heresies. Hence, they were not,
as is often charged, metaphysical formulas, but ex
pressions of practical need.
* " History of Dogma," p. 86.

70 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
MEANING FOR OUR TIME.
This reverence of these apostolic writers for the
Scriptures of the New Testament is of vital import
for our time. When so many are in grave doubt,
unsettled as to how much or how little authority
to attribute to what has always been received as the
Word of God, all shaken as to whether the sands
under their feet are shifty or no, how strength
ening to look back to this ancient period, when
such opportunities as our modern age can never
have existed for solving the question, and find the
absolute certainty that in the Scriptures we have
a veritable divine revelation on which we can re
pose our faith and hope with unbroken assurance.
Nor did that modern theory of a continuous
revelation ever occur to our authors. They be
lieved that the inspiration which indicted the Holy
Scriptures was unique. Sabatier gives this ex
pression to this claim of many current writers :
" Inspiration is in the essence of faith. All Chris
tians have their part in it. This state of inspira
tion as a common and permanent privilege, a trans
ference from the exterior domain [the canonical
Scriptures] to the conscience, is the vital point of
the antithesis between the religion of the letter

INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. 7 1
and the religion of the Spirit." * It is evident
that this was not the point of view of the apostolic
fathers. And, as to it, the question naturally
arises, Why, with this immediate inspiration of
the Spirit on the human mind and conscience,
aided by the vivid light of modern progress, dis
covery, science, philosophy, archaeology and ethics,
not an additional senteuce or line — to say nothing
of a book — has been written to take place and rank
with this revelation, originated nearly twenty cen
turies ago ? This is its sufficient refutation. Facts
:ire stronger than theories.
* " Religions of Authority and of the Spirit," p. 308.

CHAPTER X.
BAPTISM.
The sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's
Supper occupy a prominent place in the Patristic
literature. Baptism was regarded as essential to
Christian discipleship, both on account of its insti
tution by Christ and as the door of admission into
the kingdom of God.
But it was esteemed not merely for these external
reasons, but also on account of its objective efficacy.
It was not only a sign, but a seal of the blessings
of the covenant. It was at once a symbol and an
instrument. The cleansing which the washing
with water taught in figure, it also wrought in
spiritual purification.
Their views are in perfect accord with the teach
ing of St. Paul that the ordinance is " the washing
of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost "
(Tit. iii. 5). Thus Barnabas argues that the re
mission of sins procured by the cross is applied
through the water of baptism, and says that before
baptism " we are full of sins and defilement, but after-
(72)

BAPTISM. 73
ward have faith in Christ and the fear of God, and
fruit in our hearts, and shall live forever." * And
Ignatius writes : " Let your baptism be your
armor, panopling you with faith as your helmet,
with love as your spear, and with patience as a
complete defence." f
Clement says : " The Christian should preserve
his baptism without stain. It has publicly cleansed
him from his sins." X And he calls it a "seal" of
this forgiveness. Barnabas says that he " who has
thus received through baptism the forgiveness of
sins and the renewing indwelling of God will ful
fill the new law of Christ." §
From such and similar passages it is evident that
baptism was, in their opinion, much more than an
ecclesiastical rite, imprinting a formal label of
Christianity, and that it had a direct, objective
efficacy for the recipient. It offered remission of
sin, and caused the subject to be born again unto
spiritual and eternal life.
Writes the Reformed theologian, Hagenbach, in
his " History of Doctrines " : " Like the apostles,
the first teachers of the Church regarded baptism
* Epistle, chap. xi. f Epistle to Polycarp, chap. vi.
| Homily, chap, vi., sec. 9. $ Epistle, chaps, vi., xi.

74 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
not as a mere ritual act, but as having its objective
results. It was to them not merely a significant
symbol, representing to the senses the internal con
secration and renewal of the soul, but an efficacious
medium for really conveying to believers the bless
ings of the gospel, and especially the benefits of the
sacrificial death of Christ."*
And Guericke, the Lutheran historian, says :
"The Lutheran Church has followed the ancient
tradition in retaining the formula for the renuncia
tion of the devil, as a sign and a testimonial that
those who through the laver of regeneration and
renewing of the Holy Ghost enter the kingdom of
God are thereby at the same time emancipated from
the power of Satan." f
It was by reason of this assurance of spiritual
cleansing and re-creation in the divine life, as con
nected with baptism, that these fathers placed so
high an import upon it, that it was a subject of
such rich suggestion to them, and that it clothed
them with such a panoply of defensive armor in
their Christian warfare.
THE BAPTISMAL CONFESSION.
In the administration of the rite, a public con-
*Vol. I., p. 198. t " Christian Antiquities," p. 226.

baptism. 75
fession of faith was demanded. This, in the first
instance, was simply that of the trinal confession
instituted by our Lord (Matt, xxviii. 20).
But to make the truth more emphatic, that faith
was insisted on as a fundamental act for the re
ception of grace, this confession was developed
by degrees into the Apostles' Creed. " These writ
ings," says Seeberg, " indicate the existence of a
baptismal confession in the early apostolic age." *
Irenaeus and Tertullian declare that this " rule of
truth " has been " identical and everywhere em
ployed in the Church since the time of the apostles."
It was at first unwritten and transmitted by oral
recitation as a means of defence against persecution
and those who would betray the mysteries of the
Church. This accounts for its written form not
appearing until a later period. But " the contents
of the Apostles' Creed, used as the primitive bap
tismal confession are incontestably of apostolical
origin." f IMMERSION AND AFFUSION.
The mode of baptism in common usage seems
to have been that of a trine immersion. But two
* " Text-Book of History of Doctrines," p. 85.
f Guericke's " Christian Antiquities," p. 228.

76 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
references to it have been discovered by the writer.
One by Barnabas, viz., " This meaneth that we,
indeed, descend into the water, . . . but come up,"*
where the reference is to baptism and that by im
mersion. The other is in the " Didache," or Teach
ing of the Twelve Apostles. It runs : " Baptize
into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of
the Holy Spirit, in living (probably, running) water.
But if thou have not living water, baptize into other
water. But if thou have not either, pour out water
thrice upon the head." f Here either immersion
or pouring is recognized as an authorized mode.
From this it would appear that one mode was not
so fixed by apostolic practice but that it could be
varied. And as the dispersion of Christianity
throughout the various climates of the globe made
pouring or sprinkling more feasible, that method
came into general practice concerning baptism.
" Cyprian argues the whole case out with respect
to the baptism ,of the sick by affusion. No con
trary voice is ever raised ; but in various ways a
full body of testimony is borne to the unhesitating
acceptance throughout the early Church of baptism
by affusion as equally valid with that by immer-
* Epistle, chap. xi. t Chap. vii.

BAPTISM. 77
sion. And, despite the consentient testimony of
the literature of the period to immersion as normal
baptism, the entire testimony of the monuments is
to the opposite effect. This makes it clear that
from the second century down baptism as actually
administered was not an immersion but an affusion,
although ordinarily apparently affusion upon a
recipient standing in shallow water." * Through
out then, the whole Patristic period the validity of
baptism by pouring or sprinkling was not ques
tioned. ADULT OR INFANT BAPTISM ?
There is no reference to the question whether
baptism should be administered to infants. Origen,
a century later, writes : " The Church has received
the tradition from the apostles that infants should
be baptized. " f Had adult baptism alone been
originally instituted, we are at a loss to conceive
how, with the obedient reverence with which rites
instituted by Christ were venerated, so radical a
change could have been introduced. Hence, al
though we find no instances recorded of it in this
* The New Schaff-Herzog ' ' Encyclopedia of Religious Knowl
edge," Vol. I., p. 449.
t Epistle to the Romans, chap. v.

78 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
primitive literature, there must, as Origen declares,
have been apostolical precedent for it " Without
some apostolical tradition," writes Guericke, " it is
wholly inconceivable how its claim to an apostol
ical origin could ever have gained such unhesitating
assent as it received from Origen. But, besides,
we find the practice of infant baptism generally
adopted even in the second century." * The Apos
tolical Constitutions thus speak of it as an apos
tolical injunction.
The conception of infant baptism seems to be of
the essence of baptism. It was established as a
means of introduction into the covenant and Church
of God. But as there was a Jewish rite for the ad
mission of children in the Old Testament dispensa
tion, how natural that there should be a Christian
rite for their reception in the new and larger cove
nant of grace ! Baptism, again, was established
for cleansing from sin. And shall the adult alone
be cleansed and the individually innocent child be
left with the taint of original sin, inevitably to de
velop into actual ? And if it be said that faith is
essential to receptivity for grace, does not Christ
speak of infant faith ; — " Of these little ones which
* " Christian Antiquities," sec. 31.

baptism. 79
believe in me " (Matt, xviii. 6) ? For if there be a
sub-conscious sin, may there not be a sub-conscious
faith ? And if the infant without its fault is stained
with sin's evil dye, is it not but in accordance
with divine justice and goodness that its sinful
state should be cleansed without its personal act ?
Moreover, baptism is the sacrament of the new
birth, which Christ declares must take place before
one can enter into the kingdom of heaven. And
shall then the infant be denied that ordinance which
is necessary to implant within it the germs whence
shall develop the new life? Hence we conclude
with Irenseus : " Christ came to redeem all by Him
self : all who through Him are regenerated to God ;
infants, little children, young and old." * And
with the great church historian Neander : " In the
child born in a Christian family, the idea of Chris
tianity was that the new birth was not to constitute
a new crisis, beginning at some definable moment,
but it was to begin imperceptibly and so proceed
through the whole life. Hence baptism, the visible
sign of regeneration, was to be given at the very out
set ; the child was to be consecrated to the Redeemer
from the beginning of its life. From this idea,
*II., chap, xxii., sec. 4.

80 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
founded on what is inmost in Christianity, becom
ing predominant in the feelings of Christians, re
sulted the practice of infant baptism." *
But however true this line of reasoning, the
question — one of so great practical moment — is not
settled, one way or the other, in the works of the
Patristic fathers. Apparently there is neither di
rect nor indirect reference to it.
*" History of the Christian Religion and Church," Vol.1.,
p. 312.

CHAPTER XI.
THE LORD'S SUPPER.
The writings of the apostolic fathers show the
profound impression which this ordinance had made
upon them, the reverent regard in which they held
it and the weighty blessings which they attached
to its observance. We find no trace of such a con
ception of it as that of Professor McGiffert, viz.,
that it was merely designed as a farewell meal of
fellowship and love. But their writings prove that
it existed among them as a permanent rite, insti
tuted by the Lord Jesus for His Church to observe
to the end of time.
The references to it show also that it was held to
be for more than a memorial of the death of Christ.
The words of institution were so direct, simple and
emphatic, that, with St. Paul, the fathers rejected a
merely figurative interpretation of them. The four
fold iteration of the identical formula of institution
of which Dean Stanley wrote: "These famous
words thus form the most incontestable and the
most authentic speech of the Founder of our relig-
6 (81)

82 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
ion," * convinced them of an objective reality in
the ordinance. They look upon it first, indeed, as
a confession, — a testimony to the sacrificial death
of Christ — a public witnessing of their faith in Him
who was a propitiation for the sins of the whole
world. The celebration of the Lord's Supper is
" the Church's confession to the world — the con
quering power of the death of Christ."
THE REAL PRESENCE.
But further, they see in it a sacrament, a holy
mystery. They believe that, more than a memo
rial and a . confession, it has a supernatural aspect,
it conceals a divine grace. This mystery presents
no objection to their minds, more than does the In
carnation, or the Trinity. In fact, it is the charac
teristic of Christianity that the natural and the su
pernatural, the material and the spiritual, the earthly
and the heavenly, should thus be held in inexpli
cable union. And the mystery in the Lord's
Supper was that, with the bread and wine, were
somehow united the body and blood of Christ, so
that in receiving one the other was likewise
received. It was, as St. Paul had termed it, a
* " Early Christian Institutions," p. 95.

THE LORD'S SUPPER. 83
" communion" [literally ' participation ' ] of the
body and blood of Christ." * Thus Ignatius : " The
eucharist is the flesh of our Saviour Jesus Christ,
which suffered for our sins." t So the Didache :
"Thou dost here freely give spiritual food and
drink and life eternal through Thy servant." J
This view concurs with that of the later father,
Justin : " We have been taught that the food blessed
by the word of prayer is also the body and blood of
the same Jesus, who was made flesh." § And of Ter-
tullian : " The eucharist consists of two things, the
earthly and the heavenly." ||
With regard to its effect, the forgiveness of sins,
therein conveyed to the believing recipient, be
stowed also life, spiritual and eternal. Thus Igna
tius : " Breaking one and the same bread, which is
the medicine of immortality and the antidote that
we might not die, but live in Jesus Christ for
ever."! Harnack recognizes this aspect of their
views in these words : " The Lord's Supper was
viewed as l medicine of immortality,' as a mysterious
communication of knowledge and life." ** So the
* 1 Cor. x. 16. f Epistle to Smyrneans, chap. vii.
t Chap. ix. I Chap i. 66.
|| IV., xvii. 5. 1f Epistle to Ephesians, chap. xx.
** "Text-Book of History of Doctrines," p. 56.

84 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
historian, Neander : " The most common represen
tation of the Lord's Supper was as the means of a
spiritual, corporeal communion with Christ." *
Hagenbach : " The Christian Church attached, from
the earliest period, a high and mysterious import
to the bread and wine used in the Lord's Supper." f
The modern view, entertained in many quarters,
of a merely memorial or figurative character, is
excluded by the whole tenor of the Patristic teach
ing. The post-apostolic age knew nothing of it.
THE FATHERS REJECT TRANSUBSTANTIATION.
Was this doctrine the Roman Catholic one of
transubstantiation ? Evidently it was not. Tran-
substantiation is an attempt to explain the mystery.
A miracle is wrought — the bread and wine become
the body and blood of Christ as it had hung upon
the cross, and while the miracle is present the mys
tery is solved. The idea in transubstantiation also
is that by this change the bloody sacrifice may
be repeated and offered up to God. Hence, also,
the elevation of the host and adoration. But the
Lord's Supper with the fathers is not a sacrifice, a
something offered by man to God. It is contrariwise,
* " Church History," Vol. I., p. 647.
f " History of Doctrines," Vol. I., p. 204.

THE LORD'S SUPPER. 85
a sacrament, a something given by God to man —
the communication of a divine grace. That the
Lord's Supper was a sacrifice to be re-offered at the
altar was originated at a later period by Cyprian :
" The priest acts in the stead of Christ, imitating
that which Christ did and offering a full and true
sacrifice in the Church to God the Father." *
No suggestion of such Romish teaching appears
in these fathers. Rather does their doctrine seem
to be that of the reformers, especially that of
Luther, viz., the real presence. This is not to be
confounded with consubstantiation, — a mingling of
the earthly and heavenly elements, — which Luther
opposed quite as much as he did transubstantiation.
The real presence distinguishes from the Romish
doctrine of a change of the bread and wine, and
also from a figurative or non-real presence. Gieseler,
the eminent Church historian, concludes that this
was the primitive view. He says : " The idea
which lies at the basis of most of the statements
about the Lord's Supper is, that as the Logos was
once united with the flesh, so in the Supper it is
now united with the bread and wine." f This be
lieves and holds to the verity of Christ's words of
* Ep. lxiii. 14. t " History," p. 408.

86 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
institution, and while recognizing the testimony
of the senses that the bread and wine remain
unchanged, is assured of a holy mystery, a sacra
mental union by which, through the elements as an
unconfused medium, the body and blood of our
Lord are received to the remission of sins, to the
strengthening in grace and to the communication
of immortal life.
No one was allowed to partake of the Lord's
Supper unless he had been baptized. Thus the
rule is prescribed in the Didache : " Let no one eat
or drink of the eucharist but they who have been
baptized into the name of the Lord." * Confession
was demanded before participation. This shows
the vivid sense of sin and the intimate connection
of the sacrament with the forgiveness of sins. Fast
ing was also usual in connecting with the prepara
tory discipline of penitence. The ancient liturgies
abound with warnings against unworthy partaking
and with exhortations that the communion should
be taken fasting, f The sacrament was observed
frequently [every Lord's Day in the earliest period] ,
and was universally regarded as the most sacred
*Chap. x.
t " Constitutions of the Apostles," chap. viii. 12.

THE LORD'S SUPPER. 87
Christian ordinance, the highest and holiest feature
of public worship and a most precious means of
grace. This spiritual power came to it alone
through the words of institution. It was, therefore,
the specialization of the word, and the individual
application of the grace offered by it. The word
remains the chief means of grace.

CHAPTER XII.
THE HOLY CHRISTIAN CHURCH.
Christ came to regenerate the individual man.
But He remembered that man did not live alone.
He was a social being, the member of a commun
ity. And his highest well-being could only be
attained when united with his fellow-man, one mu
tually influencing and perfecting the other. Thus
the spiritual leaven was to change all men and
Christianity to be for the whole world.
But to affect this there must be a Christian soci
ety, an organization. Hence from the very first
we read that Christ came preaching " the gospel of
the kingdom." Its citizens were to be regenerate
souls, its spirit righteousness and love, and its Head
the Lord Jesus Christ. This kingdom, society and
brotherhood, He called the Church. But this
Church, — in its inner constitution, spiritual and in
visible, — to be an efficient working force in the
world must realize itself in a visible form. And so
He constituted the Church as visible, founded upon
the word and sacraments. " Upon this Rock [the
(88)

THE HOLY CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 89
truth of His divine Sonship] I will build my
Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail
against it." * Its purpose was that, by preaching
the word and administering the sacraments, through
them, as means of grace, the Holy Ghost should
build up Christians in the spiritual life, who, work
ing together, should spread abroad the gospel of
the kingdom. It was thus to be a holy and a
universal Church, a spiritual empire transforming
all the peoples of the earth and bearing every
where the sceptre of righteousness and peace. Its
primary aim was salvation. " He that believeth
and is baptized shall be saved," f was Christ's
declaration as He called men to enter it. The
apostolic conception is the same : " And the Lord
added to the Church, day by day, those that were
being saved." J
THE CHURCH'S AIM SPIRITUAL.
The purpose of the Church was not ethical,
but religious ; not philanthropic but spiritual. Its
chief business was not to go about social reform,
but to effect the regeneration of the inner life.
It was to deal not primarily with the body, but
* Matthew xvi. 18. t Mark xvi. 16. t Acts ii. 47.

90 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
the soul. Its aim was to eradicate sin, not to
heal sickness. From this new Christian life, re
created in the image of Christ, there would issue,
as a secondary but inevitable result, the leaven of
social righteousness and the streams of beneficence
and pity in unwonted vitality and power. With
this thought in view Ignatius writes : " A Christian
has not power over himself, but must always be
ready for the service of the Church." * The serv
ice of physical want and needs was but to be in
strumental to the service and healing of the spirit.
The bodily help was to be an avenue through which
the soul could be reached and turned toward the
heavenly goal.
That this secondary result was most effectually
reached by the Church holding fast to religion and
the conversion and saving of the soul as her prime
duty is shown by such emphatic testimonies as that
which Gibbon in the " Decline and Fall of the
Roman Empire " bears to the blessed change
which the spirit of Christianity wrought in the
hard, pitiless and selfish Pagan world. The Gospel
that transformed the soul made it an agent of
" love in the service of those who suffer."
* " Epistle to Polycarp," chap. vii.

THE HOLY CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 91
NECESSITY OF THE CHURCH.
This was the view of the Church held by the
apostolic fathers. They believe its purpose is to
convert and save men, and through this means to
reform and uplift society. And if it ever occurs to
them that enlightened men can secure this salva
tion out of the Church they do not state it. Their
position is that the Church is Christ's mystical Body,
and that they who wish to share His redemptive
power must be members of that mystical Body.
Hermas thus likens the Church to a tower builded on
the earth ; the saved are all gathered into it, the un
saved remain without. His words are : " If you desire
to enter into a city and the city is surrounded by a
wall and has but one gate, can you enter into that
city save through its gate ? So, in like manner, a
man cannot otherwise enter into the kingdom of
God." * This corresponds to the rule of Augus
tine : " He who has not the Church for his mother
cannot have God for his Father." Of course, both
are treating of the rule ; exceptions belong to the
providence and mercy of God. It is assumed that
Christ instituted the Church to propagate His gos
pel. Christianity and churchliness are deemed in-
*" The Shepherd," Book III., "Similitude," chap. xii.

92 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
separable. That one should share in the salvation
provided for a lost world and yet not confess Christ,
not enter the visible kingdom of God, not join with
the faithful in the holy mysteries of the sacraments,
was to the fathers inconceivable. In no later pe
riod of christian history were the lines more sharply
drawn between the Church and the world, between
confessors and non-confessors. CHRISTIAN UNITY.
Unity is a prime trait of the Church. The holy
Church universal is one. It was to have " one body,
one Spirit, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one
hope," * the world over. In this it was to be a
contrast to earthly kingdoms. Their divisions,
strifes and discords, were to be unknown in this
blessed spiritual unity. There is nothing, accord
ingly, that the apostolic fathers so deplore and seek
to repress as schisms of any kind between christian
brethren. Thus Ignatius : "If any man follow
him that makes a schism in the Church, he shall
not inherit the kingdom of God." f Again : " Live
in unblamable unity, that you may always enjoy
communion with God." J Clement: "Ye, there-
* Ephesians iv. 4, 5. t Epistle to Philadelphians, chap. iii.
% Epistle to Ephesians, chap. iv.

THE HOLY CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 93
fore, who laid the foundation of this schism repent,
bending the knees of 37our hearts." * The idea of
churches with divers confessions, rearing ecclesias
tical bars, excluding from mutual inter-fellowship,
would have been considered an un-christian rend
ing of the body of Christ. " These early testimo
nies," says Canon Westcott, " prove that Christianity
was catholic from the very first, uniting a variety
of forms in one faith. They show that the great
facts of the Gospel nanative and the substance of
the Apostolic Epistles formed the basis and molded
the expression of the common creed." f
Accordingly an open door awaited the members
of any one congregation when they passed to that
of another. And the various churches interchanged
letters for the mutual strengthening of faith and
for cementing still more strongly the close bonds
of christian unity. " The designation of the uni
versal Christian Church as Catholic, dates from the
time of Irenseus (130 A. D.), that is, from the begin
ning of the second part of our first period. This
name characterizes the Church as the one univers
ally spread and recognized from the time of the
* First Epistle, chap. lvii.
f " History of the Canon," p. 55.

94 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
apostles, and so stigmatizes every opposition to the
one Church that alone stands as the sure foundation
of Holy Scripture and pure apostolic tradition, as
belonging to particularistic, heretical and schis-
matical sects." * AUTHORITY.
A further note of the Church was authority. The
liberal Roman Catholic Loisy is right when he
asks, What is a " kingdom " without authority ? f
No kingdom or institution can exist, can have a
consistent historical development, or stand for any
thing definite, without a constraining and regulative
authority. So our Lord recognizes the authority
of the Church : " Tell it to the Church, and if he
neglect to hear the Church let him be unto thee a
heathen and a publican." J This authority, after
the Lord's ascension, was lodged with the apostles.
They exercised supreme rule over the Church. In
Acts xv. we find the apostles co-operating in this
rule with the whole Church, so that their decree
goes out, " The apostles and elders and brethren
send greeting," etc. Later, Paul speaks of it as
*" Church History," Kurtz, Vol. I., p. 72.
t " The Gospel and the Church," p. 147.
X Matthew xviii. 17.

THE HOLY CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 95
issuing from the Presbytery. * And, at a still later
period, as the Church spread through many lands,
General Councils, representative of the whole chris
tian community, were to settle vexed and disturb
ing questions. In the era we are describing, al
though there was no constituted court, yet the idea
of authority was fully acknowledged. Thus writes
Hermas : " The Church is the city of God with its
own laws." f Of these laws the bishop or pastor of
each congregation was the representative. And so
influential was the spirit of Christ and the teaching
of the apostles, that this authority was found effect
ual for preserving purity of doctrine and the peace
of the Church.
This, the apostolic conception of the Church,
is that taught in these writings of the next genera
tion. The visible form of the spiritual kingdom of
God, holy, one, universal, authoritative, instituted
by Christ, founded by the Holy Ghost on the day
of Pentecost, and the instrument of the Holy Ghost
for the application of the means of grace to the
conversion of souls and to the doing the work of
God in the world, until the whole earth should be
* 1 Timothy iv., 14.
t" Similitude," I., 1,3,9.

96 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
redeemed from the reign of darkness and translated
into the kingdom of light.
This note of authority has, in many parts of the
modern Church, been largely lost. To break away
from allegiance to Christ, to Scriptures and to creed,
and to preach a doctrine of liberty, recognizing
alone the autonomy of the human conscience, is a
current tendency. " Religion itself," writes Profes
sor Woodberry, " so far as the general thought of
nineteenth century civilization is concerned, has
suffered a diminution of authority, and consequently
the spiritual life of man has filled a less prominent
part in the eyes of these generations." * There is
an authority of science, an authority of reason, and
no less an authority of faith. Christ was authority
over the mind for truth, as well as an example for
conduct. The Church is the kingdom in which
He rules, and it is only when she comes to men in
His name and with His divine and inesistible au
thority, that men will heed her message. " In this
loyalty to the gospel lies the hope of the Church.
Outside of it is suicidal division." f
* " Makers of Literature," p. 147.
t " The Church and the Changing Order," Professor Shailer
Matthews, p. 89.

CHAPTER XIII.
CHURCH GOVERNMENT AND POLITY.
The conception of the Church we here see pre
vailing is an intensely spiritual one. Yet, as there
must be an outward organization, and as for that
authority and laws are essential, the question
arises, what shall this form be ? Is there one pre
scribed in the New Testament ? We find there
no definite model fixed, and but the faintest features
outlined. This evidently means that the particular
form of church organization was a matter of free
dom to be determined by the exigencies of time
and occasion.
Provided, then, that the pure faith be retained,
one form of government, adapted to the spirit of a
people, or to the particular needs of an age, is just
as legitimate as any other, and should prove no bar
to inter-christian fellowship. This is the view of
the constitution of the Church which Luther took,
as learned from Scripture, and as justified by the
excesses and oppression to which the Roman Catho
lic view had led. That conception of the Church
7 (97)

98 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
as a great material organization, with its central
seat in Rome, and its authority absolute and infalli
ble, extending over all the churches to the minutest
detail, is thus set forth by Loisy : " The Church
had to find for herself a government or cease to ex
ist ; but government in a church, one and universal,
is inconceivable without a central authority. A
central ideal, with no real power as conceived by-
Cyprian, would have been useless. Particular coun
cils could not have had sufficient prestige ; General
Councils could never have been anything but a tri
bunal for extraordinary occasions, and experience
showed that these assemblies had many great in
conveniences. The tribunal, before which all more
important cases should naturally come, by which
all conflicts should be finally decided, could be only
that Church, the most apostolic of all, holding the
traditions of Peter and Paul, whose chiefs did not
hesitate to call themselves successors of the Prince
of the Apostles." *
THE CHURCH NOT A HIERARCHY.
But this hierarchical scheme receives no counte
nance in the literature of our Patristic age. These
* " The Gospel and the Church," p. 160.

CHURCH GOVERNMENT AND POLITY. 99
writers know nothing of it as an historical fact, and
their statements positively exclude its existence.
The author of the Didache knows of no primacy
of Peter. "The Epistle of Ignatius to the Ro
mans is utterly inconsistent with any conception
on his part that Rome was the see and residence of
a bishop holding any other than fraternal relations
with himself." * Not in all the writers of this first
century is there an intimation that Peter had ever
been Bishop of Rome. In their references to the
individual apostles, Paul is ever referred to in the
highest terms as the second founder of Christianity.
Ignatius is the first father to use the phrase Catho
lic Church, but in so characterizing it he defines it
to be "wherever Christ is," making no reference to
a primacy of St. Peter. Moreover, in their constant
references to the Church we find only a spiritual
conception of it, with Jesus Christ as its Head,
which consists alone with a spiritual authority and
not with the idea of a temporal sceptre wielded by
the Roman, or any other pontificate.
For example, Barnabas, after showing that the
material temple at Jerusalem with its hierarchical
* Bishop A.Cleveland Coxe, " The Anti-Nicene Fathers,"
Vol. I., p. 46.

IOO THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
system has been superseded by the Christian
Church, comments : " Is there, then, still a temple
of God ? Such a temple does exist. Learn, then,
how it is built in the name of the Lord. Before
we believed, our heart was corrupt, as being indeed
like a temple made with hands. But, having re
ceived the forgiveness of sins, we have become new
creatures. Wherefore, in our habitation God truly
dwells in us." * Man thus becomes the dwelling
of God and the Church a spiritual temple, in which
the glory of Christ, the invisible King, manifests
itself in the hearts of believing members. Thus a
thoroughly spiritual idea of religion, of the Church
as a spiritual kingdom, and of worship, not as a
round of external rites and duties, but as a service
of heart and life, permeates these writings.
The momentous transformation in the idea of
the Church took place in the next century under
Cyprian. The evangelical definition of the Church
is superseded by the Roman Catholic. The Church
is no longer essentially the assembly of believers
and saints, nor an object of faith, but a visible
body, controlled by divinely-authorized ecclesiastic
al law. The chief claim made for this view, viz. :
* Epistle, chap. xvi.

CHURCH GOVERNMENT AND POLITY. IOI
that it has the warrant of history and tradition, is
positively negatived by the undeniable fact that
such a tradition was non-existent during this sub-
apostolic era and for nearly two centuries after
Christ. The primitive tradition, then, is decisively
against it.
The theory and practice disclosed here teach,
therefore, that such polity and government as are
necessary for the administration of the Church as a
visible organization, are relegated to the freedom
of Christendom. And this principle, making the
Church capable of adaptability to all varieties of
race and temperament, to either republican or
monarchical forms of government, and to all the
changing conditions of history, is the one best
calculated for an institution that is to have the
mark of universality.

CHAPTER XIV.
THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY.
The New Testament abrogated the priestly hier
archy of the Old Testament. In the new spiritual
kingdom of God there was to be no separate priestly
order. There is under the Christian dispensation
an universal priesthood. Every man is his own
priest and need not go to a distinct class to whom
divine grace is bound alone. Nevertheless, all
things must be done in order. Each individual
must be willing to transfer the exercise of his right to
one who represents him in the necessary ministra
tions of the Church. This necessitates the ministry,
— not as an order but as an office. It is charged
with the oversight of the Church. This office is
of divine institution. At first Christ gave an im
mediate call to the twelve, named apostles. They
founded churches and set ministers over them. Thus
the institution of the ministerial office was directly
divine. The apostolic fathers ever so considered
it. Thus Ignatius : " Bishops are by the will of
Christ."* Clement: "Both these appointments,
* Epistle to Ephesians, chap. ii.
(102)

THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 103
then [of officers of the Church ], were made in an
orderly way according to the will of God." *
NO MINISTERIAL ORDERS.
The three orders in the ministry, — bishop, priest
and deacon, — as claimed by high church systems,
find no wanant here. The term " priest " is unused
by the fathers. The Christian minister is not a
priest in the Old Testament sense. He does not
stand in the holy place as a mediator between God
and man offering sacrifice. That has been accom
plished by the one great High Priest, Jesus Christ,
" who now once in the end of the world hath ap
peared to put away sin by the sacrifice of
Himself." f
Polycarp, in writing his Epistle to the Philip-
pians, begins : " Polycarp and the presbyters [min
isters] with him [at Smyrna], to the Church of
God sojourning at Philippi." Further on in the
epistle he urges the Philippians to be " subject to
their presbyters and deacons." This language is
inconceivable had there been a bishop of a distinct
and superior order, set over the presbyters at
Philippi. Evidently there were but the presbyters,
* Epistle, " Order of Ministers in the Church," chap. xlii.
t Hebrews ix. 26.

IO4 THE POST- APOSTOLIC AGE.
and the deacons, as a divinely-appointed office to aid
the ministry, as instituted by the apostles (Acts vi.
3). So Clement, St. Paul's co-laborer : " The apos
tles, having first proved them by the Spirit, ap
pointed bishops [used in the New Testament and
the early Patristic writings as a synonym of pres
byter, just as we say minister, pastor or clergyman,
denoting the same office] and deacons of those who
should afterward believe." * The Church, then, as
we find it organized, when the apostles had passed
away, was under the supervision of but two classes
of officers — the bishop or presbyter, i. e., the minis
ter — and the deacon, i. e., the diaconate.
Deaconesses were also appointed. The office of
the diaconate was at first instituted especially as a
ministry of mercy. Later it came to be regarded
as a subordinate order of clergy, whose chief duty
it was to aid the minister in public worship. The
office of the deaconess was that of care for the sick
and suffering. According to the " Apostolic Con
stitutions" the female diaconate arose from the
many necessities of the Church connected with
works of charity and relief, especially among
women, which such female officials were more es-
* Epistle, " Order of Ministers in the Church," chap. xlii.

THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 105
pecially fitted to discharge. Besides these there
were no other regular Church offices. The three
orders — bishop, presbyter, and deacon — are an un
supported fiction. APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION.
The apostolical succession falls with that of
clerical orders. The claim that the apostles ap
pointed the episcopate as the succession to the
apostolate, clothed with its powers and with that of
a perpetual succession, and that no other church
constitution is legitimate — a tremendous claim, in
deed — is without historical support. It is admitted
that it is not authorized in Scripture, and hence, if
authorized at all, must have been given by the
apostles through tradition to our fathers of the en
suing generation and by them transmitted to fol
lowing times. But they are unaware of such a
succession. With the ministerial office ever in their
minds and hearts and upon their pens, not a sug
gestion that they know of it escapes them. Igna
tius, with all his tendencies to exalt so extremely
the clergy, is yet ignorant of it.
Harnack is justified in saying : " Ignatius knew
nothing about the apostolic succession, (the bishop

106 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
is the representative of God unto His own church),
and neither did Clement, and even the basal docu
ment of the Apostolical Constitutions is silent." *
The learned Bishop Lightfoot, himself so honored
a representative of the Church of England, is
equally positive. Quoting Ignatius in the Epistle
to the Magnesians, chap. vi. : " If the bishop occu
pies the place of God, or of Jesus Christ, the pres
byters are as the apostles, or the council of God,"
the bishop comments :' " This comparison shows
how widely the idea of the episcopate differed from
the later conception, when it had been formulated
in the doctrine of the apostolical succession. The
presbyters, not the bishops, are here the repre
sentatives of the apostles. Of a diocese, properly
so called, there is no trace." f And again he writes
of Clement : " Not only have we no traces of a
bishop of bishops, but even the very existence of a
bishop at Rome itself could nowhere be gathered
from this epistle of Clement. We find eVto-/co7ro5
still used as a synonym for Trpeo-/3vTepo<; as it is in
the New Testatment. It should be remembered
* " History of Dogma," p. 96.
t" Apostolic Fathers, Epistles of St. Ignatius," Vol.1.,
P- 397-

THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 107
that when Clement wrote this epistle, the last of
the twelve apostles [John] , if the best ancient tra
dition may be credited, was still living, the center
of a body of Christian disciples, at Ephesus." *
ORIGIN OF THE EPISCOPAL FICTION.
How, then, did it come about that this theory
should become the foundation upon which was
reared the hierarchical system destined to play so
vast and harmful a part in the history of the Church
of Christ? As Christianity spread and churches
multiplied and there were many ministers in a city
or district, a presbytery was formed for mutual delib
eration and strength. Over this body a president
was elected. At first he was only primus inter
pares, the first among equals, simply a leader of his
brethren. By degrees he grew in prominence and
power. In the severe persecutions it was almost ab
solutely necessary that all power be concentrated
in his hands.
And finally a reason was discovered for his not
surrendering it. For a century later we find it
strongly championed by Irenaeus, who writes : " The
charisma of truth depends upon the office of the
*Ibid., Vol. I., p. 352.

108 THE POST- APOSTOLIC AGE.
bishops, which rests upon the apostolic succession."
It originated in the Western Church, but was much
later in gaining recognition in the Orient, although
at the time of Origen it began to appear at Alex
andria. Chrysostom, in the fourth century, pro
tests : " Let the bishops know that they are greater
by custom than by any real appointment of Christ."
And Jerome, the renowned author of the Vulgate
— the Bible of the Christian world for a thousand
years — says : " Among the primitive fathers, pres
byters and bishops were the very same, but, little
by little, all the authority was concentrated in the
bishop." That the apostolical succession had this
origin, Bishop Lightfoot declares thus : " The epis
copate was formed, not out of the apostolic order,
but out of the presbyterate, and the title, which
originally was common to all, came at length to be
appropriated to the chief among them." This
original identity of presbyter and bishop is not only
insisted on by Lutherans, Presbyterians, Congrega-
tionalists, Reformed, Methodists, Baptists, etc., but
it is freely admitted by the foremost scholars of the
Church of England, as Whitby, Bloomfield, Cony-
beare, Howson, Alford, Ellicott, Lightfoot, etc., etc.
The episcopate, as an office of the Church, may

THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. IO9
be of the utmost administrative value, most efficient
for wise oversight and a stronghold of Christian
unity. But, as grounded upon a succession of the
apostolate, it is distinctly anti-Scriptural, anti-Pa
tristic, Romish, exclusive, bigoted and charged with
dangerous hierarchical potencies. The only legiti
mate apostolic succession is the succession of the
apostolic faith. The idea still prevalent in this
primitive era is, then, the Scriptural one that the
ministry is not a priestly caste with sacerdotal func
tions, nor a succession to the apostolate through
whom alone grace is transmitted, but an office in
stituted by Christ. " Pastors are stewards of the
m}7steries of God " and shepherds for the care of
souls. THE EPISCOPATE AS AN OFFICE.
Respecting the episcopate, looked upon not as
an order but as an office of the Church, the notable
fact that it came at so early a period into universal
prevalence and has so flourished in large parts of
the Church to the present time, is undeniably of
the greatest significance. Neander declares that
" the triumph of the episcopal system undoubtedly
promoted the unit}-, order and tranquillity of the

IIO THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
churches," * at a time when such united action was
necessary to preserve their very existence. An
office in the Church of such venerable history and
bringing such efficient vigor to the administration
of the Church, and so successful in the churches
using it to-day, may well challenge our regard.
It provides a supervision by a wise and exper
ienced head, which pastors and congregations so
often need. The episcopate is probably the wisest
form of the Christian ministry.
As to the manner of calling ministers, they were
appointed by the bishops or presbytery, with the
consent and approval of the congregation. " The
first presbyters were chosen directly by the apos
tles (Titus i. 5 compared with Acts xiv. 23), while
in the times immediately succeeding they were ap
pointed by those who, even at this date, were al
ready styled bishops, not, however, without the
assent and concunence of the whole laity." f
Clement : " We are of opinion that those appointed
by the apostles, or afterwards by other eminent
men, with the consent of the zvhole Church, who
*" History of the Christian Religion and Church," Vol. I.,
P- 193-
f " Christian Antiquities," sec. viii., p. 25, Guericke.

THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. Ill
have blamelessly served the flock of Christ, can
not be justly dismissed from the ministry." * The
Didache states this rule [as apostolic] : "Appoint
(or elect), therefore, for yourselves, bishops and
deacons, worthy of the Lord, men meek and not
lovers of money, and truthful and proved." f
THE MINISTERIAL CALL AND ORDINATION.
The call to, or choice for, the ministry comes,
then, from the Church, either through the individual
congregation, or representatively through the Pres
bytery or Synod. Originally, the presbyters were
chosen and ordained by the laying on of hands,
either by an individual apostle, or by the college of
presbyters, as St. Paul says to Timothy : " Neglect
not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee
by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the
presbytery." J Although the congregation was con
sulted and final action only taken with its approval,
yet the original choice was made by an apostle or a
body representative of the whole Church. Paul
sends Titus to " ordain elders in every city," and
* Epistle, chap. xliv.
t " Bishops and Deacons," chap. xv.
\ I Tim. iv. 14.

112 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
this not only in the founding of new congregations,
but also in the case of congregations that had al
ready been organized. There is no instance in the
New Testament where a congregation makes an
original selection for itself of its pastor. But the
choice, which it may ratify or reject, comes from a
higher source, representative of the authority of the
whole Church. This is necessary, also, because an
individual congregation is not competent to pass
upon the theological attainments requisite for one
to fill worthily the ministerial office. Hence, we
find no Scripture precedent for that modern laxity
which would leave the choice wholly to the con
gregation. The induction into the office was, by the rite of
ordination, conferred by the laying on of hands,
with the prayers of the congregation. The Script
ures attribute a special " gift of God which is in
thee by the putting on of my hands "* to ordination,
a gift or grace which is distinct from the grace con
ferred in the sacraments. That ordination need not
be repeated, like installation into the pastorate of
an individual congregation, is significant of the fact
that it represents an authority not emanating di-
* 2 Tim. i. 6.

THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 113
rectly from the individual congregation, but con
ferred by the whole Church representatively.
THE MINISTERIAL OFFICE.
The sphere of the ministry is preaching the word,
administering the sacraments, and the exercise of
the power of the keys — i. e., the declaration of the
remission or retention of sins, to the believing or
unbelieving, as authorized by the gospel (John
xx. 23). Sacramental grace is not validated by the
ministry, but by the power of the word.
The Lutheran theologian and acute thinker,
Martensen, says : " Though we do not depreciate
priestly ordination, we do not rank it with the sac
raments — Baptism and the Lord's Supper — far less
place it above these. This is the very secret falsum
of a hierarchy, that it makes ordination in reality
the chief sacrament, for the efficacy of all the
other sacraments depends upon this, that the priest
has been ordained ; so that the priesthood actually
becomes the constituent and sustaining principle of
the Church. The evangelical Church, on the con
trary, maintains most distinctly that it is not ordina
tion that gives the sacraments their efficacy, but
the word and appointment of God alone." *
* " Christian Dogmatics," p. 448.

114 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
Still, the legitimate administration of the sacra
ments, as a matter of order, pertains to the minis
terial office. " Let that alone," says Ignatius, " be
deemed a legitimate Eucharist, which is adminis
tered by the bishop. It is not lawful without the
bishop to baptize — so that everything that is done
may be valid." * " They also render to you the
service of prophets and teachers, "t says the Didache.
All that embraces the guidance and care of souls
belongs to the office of the holy ministry.
* Epistle to the Smyrnaeans, chap. viii.
t " Bishops and Deacons," chap. xv.

CHAPTER XV.
AUTHORITY OF CHURCH AND MINISTRY.
Holding these simple, non-priestly, evangelical
beliefs as to the ministry does not prevent the
fathers from according to the office a legitimate
authority. While mediately it is given through the
Church, it comes immediately from the Holy Ghost,
and is therefore of divine institution and authority.
The authority of the minister was not temporal but
spiritual, but in that sphere he was supreme. He
was looked upon as the representative of God,
clothed with the power of the Word.
Pastors were, therefore, not only to be loved, but
to be obeyed. Leaders and rulers by divine inves
titure, their judgment is decisive, and submission
to it, though voluntary, is a Christian duty. And,
as " holiness," in the words of Amiel, " is the chief
authority of the ministry," their lives of sacrifice
and saintliness, in this testing age, strengthened
this sentiment of reverence. Ignatius writes : " I
exhort you to do all things with a divine harmony,
while your bishop presides in the place of God, and
("5)

Il6 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
your presbyters in the place of the assembly of the
apostles, along with your deacons, who are intrusted
with the ministry of Jesus Christ." * In like
manner he says : " Let all reverence the deacons as
an appointment of Jesus Christ, and the bishop as
Jesus Christ, and the presbyters as the Sanhedrin
of God and assembly of the apostles." f
Yet, strong as is this language, and certainly an
advance upon Clement and Hermas, it is not meant
that bishops, were of apostolical appointment any
more than presbyters and deacons. It is simply a
strong affirmation of the spiritual authority of the
leaders of the Church, as holding their appointment
from Jesus Christ, and representative of Him as the
Church's head. Thus writes Professor Uhlhorn :
" Ignatius knows nothing about an apostolical estab
lishment of an episcopate, nor does he connect it
with those ideas of a priesthood which afterward
were borrowed from the Old Testament. The epis
copate is to him an office in the congregation, not
an office in the Church. The bishop is to him not
the successor of the apostles, nor is he the bearer
of the doctrinal tradition."
* Epistle to Magnesians, chap. vi.
f Epistle to Trallians, chap. iii.

AUTHORITY OF CHURCH AND MINISTRY. 117
AUTHORITY A NECESSITY.
But the ministry stands for order, for purity of
doctrine, and for discipline, which are a necessity,
however voluntary be membership in a society.
So Ignatius writes : " Let all things, therefore, be
done by you with good order in Christ. Let the
laity be subject to the deacons ; the deacons to the
presbyters ; the presbyters to the bishop ; the bishop
to Christ, even as He is to the Father." * While
the essential equality of the laity is conceded, yet
when once they have placed their representative in
the ministerial office, and while he has not been
removed, which right Clement asserts for the
congregation, his spiritual authority is to be de
ferred to. He is to be truly leader, guide and
head. Beyond question, there is a legitimate authority
vested in the Church for efficient administration.
Without this there is no means for securing its
efficiency or for maintaining its identity, or for pre
serving its very existence. This authority the
Church has exercised to decide the limits of the
canon of Holy Scripture. And nothing was more
absolutely essential to Christendom. But for this
* Epistle to the Smyrnaeans, chap. ix.

Il8 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
believers could not for ages have rested in the pos
session of the pure and uncorrupted word of God.
GENERAL COUNCILS.
'' Similar authority has established the ecumenical
creeds, as guardians of the foundation truth of the
divinity of Christ, and the scriptural doctrines of
sin, grace and redemption. As the ministry has
been locally authoritative for the individual con
gregations, so supreme questions of doctrine have
been settled by authority of General Councils, rep
resenting the whole Church.
Luther justly challenged the infallibility of even
these councils and showed how in many cases they
had ened. As in the case of civil government, the
right of revolution inheres to the Church and was
exercised in the Reformation to the rescue of that
greatest boon, religious freedom. But such ex
ceptional crises do not mean that the Church is
to be without legitimate and regular authority or
that every member shall believe and do that
which is "right in his own eyes." The Church
has authority by the Word of God to set up tests
of a pure confession, to exclude heretics and to
discipline unworthy members. Christ could have

AUTHORITY OF CHURCH AND MINISTRY. 119
meant no less than this when He gave into her
hands " the power of the keys."
DANGERS OF INDIVIDUALISM.
Liberal as was Emerson, he saw the danger to
which Protestantism was here exposed, and wrote :
" Now men fall abroad — want polarity — suffer in
character and intellect. Luther would cut off his
right hand sooner than write theses against the Pope,
if he suspected that he was bringing on with all his
might the pale negations of Boston Unitarianism.
To a self-denying, ardent Church has succeeded a
cold, intellectual race, who analyze the prayer and
psalm of their forefathers, and reject every yoke of
authority and custom with a petulance unprece
dented. It is a mark of probity to declare how lit
tle you believe, and we have punctuality for faith
and good taste for character." It is well for Prot
estantism to heed this warning and to take care
that liberty be not caricatured into license, and that
the right of private judgment be not made a shield
for lawless excess.
While we are thankful to escape that domina
tion, which in the Roman Church holds in its grip
freedom of conscience, represses the spirit of inquiry

120 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
and exorcises scientific progress, let us guard against
the dangers of the opposite extreme. To allow
heresies to poison her very vitals, to tolerate assaults
upon her foundations, to permit all manner of
breaches in her unity, is certainly an abnegation of
that authority which she has received from her
Lord and without the exercise of which no king
dom, human or divine, temporal or spiritual, can
exist. If Neander holds that the unquestioned authority
of the Church, in the third and fourth centuries,
" undoubtedly promoted order, unity and tranquil
lity," in a time when persecution and the greatest
dangers threatened Christendom with destruction,
and if it was the means of bringing the Church
safely through this trying period, none the less is a
reasonable degree of authority needed to rescue the
Church from the perils which confront it in this
modern time.
As a sign of healthful reaction amid the cries in
the air for an utterfy unregulated license of opinion
over against an ordered faith, one is pleased to read
such words as these, lately written : " The question
of the ultimate authority for mankind is the great
est of all questions which meet the West, since the

AUTHORITY OF CHURCH AND MINISTRY. 121
Catholic Church lost its place in the sixteenth cen
tury and since criticism no longer allows the Bible
to occupy that place. Yet the gospel of the future
must come with the note of authority, and that
note must sound in whatever is the supreme utter
ance of the Church, in polity, pulpit or creed. The
Church can never part with the tone of authority,
nor with the claim that, however it may be defined,
the authority of its message is supreme. That is
the very genius of evangelical religion." *
* " Positive Preaching and Modern Mind," Forsyth, p. 41.

CHAPTER XVI.
CHRISTIANITY AND THE SUPERNATURAL — MIRA
CLES AND THE RESURRECTION.
Three views of the supernatural are prevalent
in present thinking. One denies it altogether.
Miracles have never occurred. No break in the
uniformity of nature has ever taken place. There is
no proof, or, as Hume put it, there can be no proof
to validate a divine extraordinary intervention. As
representative of this attitude, a late review in the
Outlook of Archbishop French's work on the mira
cles of our Lord, says : " Since His time the progress
of learning has carried the discussion of miracles to
a further point than He rested at. The wonderful
works of Jesus in healing disease, treated in this
volume as miraculous, are not so regarded by mod
ern psychologists." Sabatier thus frankly states
this position : " The modern historian never pre
supposes a miracle. However imposing may be
the destinies of the Church, its birth, its develop
ment, its triumphs and its reverses are none the less
a series of phenomena, interlinked and conditioned
(122)

CHRISTIANITY AND THE SUPERNATURAL. 1 23
by the circumstances of time and place, like all
other historic phenomena. If miracle is found
neither in the circumstances nor the progress of
the history, in which have met and mingled all the
social forces of two thousand years, why should it
have occuned at the beginning ? " * So Professor
Foster, of Chicago University, declares, with the
indorsement of that body, in his recent book on
The Finality of the Christian Religion, that " a
miracle cannot be admitted." According to this
view either Christ must have played upon the su
perstitious weakness of invalids, or what He pro
fessed to be " wonderful works " were wrought by
mental suggestion, telepathy, or some other form
of pyschotherapy.
A second new removes the bar between the nat
ural and supernatural. One is but a development
of the other. They are obverse and transverse
sides of the same thing. As says Dr. Whiton :
" The natural is the outwardness of the supernatu
ral ; the supernatural is the inwardness of the natu
ral." "When our perception reaches a larger range
we will see that the forces of nature have the ca
pacity of the supernatural and merge into it. All
¦* " Religions of Authority and of the Spirit," p. 19.

124 TflE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
the wonders, therefore, claiming to have been
wrought by Christ were simply natural, and may be
reproduced by some advanced psychologist.
The reply to this is that supernatural and natural
stand for two thoughts, which do not supplement,
but exclude each other. The natural is the exer
cise of ordinary, the supernatural of extraordinary
power. The natural is uniform, the supernatural
is exceptional. The natural is traceable to second
causes, the supernatural is unaccountable by any
second cause. Certainly two separate, distinct
ideas are embraced here, and if language is to be the
organ of intelligible thought, then these diverse
ideas cannot better be differentiated than by the
diverse terms, natural and supernatural.
The third view is the historic Christian one, af
firming the reality of the supernatural.
FUNDAMENTAL NATURE OF THE CONTROVERSY.
The question involved is fundamental. It lies at
the very heart of religion. All religions have
claimed supernatural sanction. And this because
without such sanction they are not religions but
philosophies. They are merely subjective guesses,
blind gropings after God. A religion unveils the

CHRISTIANITY AND THE SUPERNATURAL. 125
unseen, gives sight of the invisible, makes known
objective facts as to the immaterial sphere, instead of
fancies. It answers those questions which the nat
ural reason finds unanswerable. That is, it must be
a revelation. And a revelation cannot be natural,
for that is a self-contradiction in terms. " What
kind of a revelation would that be," asks Lessing,
" which reveals nothing ? " Unless it unveils that
which is beyond the reach of our natural powers,
it can give us no more than the great Pagan
thinkers attained, of whom Luthardt writes : " A
strain of inconsolable lament, arising from despair
as to future existence, runs through all their great
literatures." * THE PATRISTIC TEACHING.
On this far-reaching problem, there is no doubt
as to the position of our Patristic authors. They
accept Christianity as not only having features of
the supernatural, but as based upon it. This is
indisputable from a perusal of their works. The
references to the supernatural constitute the warp
and woof of their utterances. " The mysteries of
the gospel," is an ever-recurrent phrase.
* " Fundamental Truths of Christianity," p. 317.

126 THE POST- APOSTOLIC AGE.
First of all, they regard Christ as a supernatural
personality. He is supernatural in his pre-exist-
ence. Other men's lives begun in natural birth,
but He " pre-existed eternally."* His nativity was
supernatural. Other beings have a human father
and mother, but " Christ was begotten by the
Father before all ages, but was afterwards born
of the Virgin Mary without any intercourse with
man." f The virginity of Mary, the nativity, and
the sacrificial death of Christ, are called the three
cardinal mysteries. "God the Word," says Bar
nabas, "was truly born of a virgin."
The Person of Christ was a mystery. " Jesus,
who was manifested by type and in the flesh, is
not the Son of man, but the Son of God." J He is
the God-Man, the divine and human blended in His
mysterious person.
His life was supernatural in its sinlessness. This
unique feature set Him apart from all others
of natural birth, into whose being passed the in
evitable stain of sin. His words were supernatural.
He spoke as never man spake. He revealed the
invisible, for it was His pre-existent home. " He
* Ignatius to the Magnesians, chap. xi.
t Ibid. X Epistle of Barnabas, chap. xii.

CHRISTIANITY AND THE SUPERNATURAL. 1 27
brought immortality to light." He spoke as famil
iarly of heaven as of earth.
He was invested with supernatural powers. He is
the Teacher who " spoke and it was done." All the
main constituents of His life rose above the natural.
Writes Ignatius : " He lived a sinless life, and healed
every kind of sickness and disease among the
people, and wrought signs and wonders for the bene
fit of men. He made known the one and only true
God. He endured the cross, died and rose again,
and ascended into the heavens, and is set down at
the right hand of God, and shall come at the end
of the world with His Father's glory, to judge the
living and the dead." *
They believed the Christian life itself to be a
supernatural one. It was a second birth, a spiritual
creation, a new and heavenly beginning wrought
by the Holy Spirit. And its continuance was by a
mystical union with Christ, through the indwelling
of the Holy Spirit, who made of the soul and body
a spiritual temple.
They perceived a supernatural aspect in the
Atonement. In it Christ, sinless, identified Him
self with sinful humanity, and, as its representative,
* Epistle to the Magnesians, chap. xi.

128 THE POST- APOSTOLIC AGE.
was bruised in its stead, dying, the just for the un
just, in contravention of a natural equity.
They teach that the sacraments have a super
natural side. In both baptism and the Lord's
Supper, there are not alone present the natural con
stituents, water, and bread and wine, but a super
natural grace, sacramentally united with these
earthly agents.
And, finally, they hold that the records of all the
events and teachings and doctrines constituting this
revelation have more than a natural authority.
They regard them as divinely true, quoting them
not as ordinary human writings, but as the " Sacred
Scriptures," and not merely as uninspired produc
tions, but as the word of God, indicted by the
Holy Ghost.
Now, as these fathers had minds as we, intui
tively suspicious of every cause that puts forth
claims to the supernatural, and, as living so near
the time, they could find eye-witnesses and first
hand testimony, it cannot be doubted that they
searchingly investigated the evidence for these re
markable pretensions. And the result was that they
were so convinced by indubitable proofs, that they
risked upon the reality of them their reputations,

CHRISTIANITY AND THE SUPERNATURAL. 129
their temporal well-being, their lives and the ever
lasting welfare of their souls.
And, in presenting the new religion for the con
version of Jews and Gentiles, they do not hide or
repress these supernatural characteristics, but keep
them in the very forefront as the salient truths of
their message. For, though they well knew that
they will be be but " foolishness " to the philosoph
ical Greek mind, and a " stumbling-block " to Jew
ish prejudice, they, on the other hand, are fully as
sured that it is just in these exceptional marks that
Christianity attests itself " the power of God, and the
wisdom of God." * To be a Christian one must
first of all bow his reason to these divine mysteries.
For, says Ignatius, " If anyone praises the creation,
but calls the incarnation merely an appearance, he
hath denied the faith." t
* i Cor. i. 24. f Epistle to Philippians, chap. vi.
9

CHAPTER XVII.
THE APOSTOLIC FATHERS AND CURRENT VIEWS
AS TO THE SUPERNATURAL.
The point here discussed is a living and crucial
one to-day. The last century has been marked by
the attack of one school after another upon the su
pernatural in revealed religion. It cannot be
denied that the New Testament accounts of Chris
tianity represent its origin as interwoven with super
natural events. For example, the evangelists record
thirty-three miracles wrought by the Saviour, and
adding to these the miraculous features of the birth
narrative, and those attendant upon the crucifixion,
and those crowned by the greatest of all, the resur
rection, it can be seen how large a part of the brief
biographies is occupied by the supernatural ele
ment. This shows the impossibility of representing these
miraculous characteristics as but the scaffolding- of
Christianity, which, the edifice completed, can be
thrown away. " Contrariwise," as Professor W. H.
Green has said, " our religion is an historical re-
(J3Q)

CURRENT VIEWS AS TO THE SUPERNATURAL. 13I
ligion based on a series of redemptive acts. And
to cast doubt on the reality of the historical occur
rences is to cast doubt on the reality of that religion
which they embodied."
EVOLUTION OR REVELATION OF THE SCRIPTURES.
The gist of much of modern Biblical criticism is
to account for the origin of the Old Testament by a
process of evolution. Only natural factors and
forces were operative in the process by which the
various books of the Old Testament grew. Their
contents did not come down from God, but rose up
by degrees from the mental laboratories and varied
experiences of the nation and its authors. " In
reality," as Kuenen openly acknowledges, "the
' newer criticism ' has a standpoint which includes
among other claims that the religion of the Old
Testament is one of the most important religions ;
nothing less, but nothing more."
Comparing these views with the Old Testament
itself we see them to be altogether irreconcilable.
The Old Testament claims at every step of the
history of Israel a divine intervention. The whole
book is a great supernatural stage in which God is
ever, not through secondary natural causes, but

132 THE POST- APOSTOLIC AGE.
directly, appearing on the scene. He calls Abra
ham. He gives the commandments in His own
handwriting to Moses. He works signs and won
ders to sanction His word, to deliver His chosen
people and to advance His divine purpose.
From first to last, the volume claims a distinction
from all other volumes on the ground that it is a
record of a series of divine redemptive acts, and that
its contents sprang not from the natural reason, but
that, as St. Peter says, " The prophecy came not in
old time by the will of man, but holy men of old
spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." *
If, then, it really emanated but as other books, and
if all these pretended divine revelations and super
human wonders were but the cunning devices of
the writers, could a more palpable fraud than this
be perpetrated — all the worse when done in the
holy name of religion !
Well does Bishop Ellicott say : " We are begin
ning to realize the gravity of the Old Testament
controversy. The traditional views are being re
examined under the light of modern discoveries,
and efforts are being made to put in contrast that
inspired and trustworthy record of the past, bearing
* Second Epistle, ii. 21.

CURRENT VIEWS AS TO THE SUPERNATURAL. 1 33
the name of the Old Testament and sealed with a be
lief of more than two thousand years in its genuine
ness and integrity, with that strange conglomerate
of myth, legend, fabrication, idealized narrative, fal
sified history, dramatized fable and after-event
prophecy, to which modern critical analysis has
sought to reduce that which the Church, day by
day, calls the most Holy Word of Almighty God." *
The same critical alembic is to be applied to the
New Testament. The motive that has impelled
many modern students of our Lord's life has been
their hope and endeavor to account for Christ on
the basis of a purely natural development, to find
the secret of His power in the conditions of His in
dividuality and age, and to explain His person and
His works in the terms of the laws of psychological
and historical evolution. They have found no
more eloquent interpreter than Renan. "Let us
place, then, at the summit of human greatness the
person of Jesus. Humanity presents in its totality
an assemblage of low beings, selfish, superior to the
animal only in the single particular that its selfish
ness is more reflective. Still, from the midst of
this uniform depravity, pillars rise toward the sky
* " Christus Comprobator," chap, ii., pp. 43, 44.

134 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
and testify to a nobler destiny. Jesus is the highest
of these pillars that show to man whence he comes
and whither he ought to tend. In Him was con
centrated all that is good and elevated in our na
ture." * Yet this splendid panegyric follows a pas
sage expressly denying anything superhuman in
Christ's being.
What, then, are these claimed results of modern
scholarship ? One writer sums them up thus :
" A pantheistic god instead of a personal God.
A human saviour instead of a divine Saviour. In
fallible scholarship instead of an infallible Bible.
Reformation instead of regeneration. Culture in
stead of conversion. The natural in all things, the
-supernatural in nothing."
And, as Dr. Strong, of Rochester Theological
Seminary, writes : " We seem to be on the verge
of another Unitarian defection. We need a new
vision of the Saviour to convince us that Jesus
is lifted above space and time, that His existence
antedated creation, that He conducted the march
of Hebrew history, that He was born of a virgin,
suffered on the cross, rose from the dead, and now
lives forever more, the Lord of the universe, the
* " Life of Jesus," p. 264.

CURRENT VIEWS AS TO THE SUPERNATURAL. 1 35
only God with whom we have to do, our Saviour
here and our Judge hereafter."

PRIMITIVE AGES AND THE SUPERNATURAL.
As the supernatural is of necessity exceptional,
and must only occur at marked historical periods,
especially at those creative epochs, when some great
Providential beginning is made, it is just to regard
it with the utmost caution. We see how large a
sphere it has wielded in the world's childhood and
how strong a hold it has upon the ignorant, and
that irrational and hideous superstitions have often
been its progeny. But abuses and excesses do not
invalidate a principle. There is great force in the
fact that in uncultured peoples, the simplicities
and germinal truths manifest themselves with
greatest power. Intuitive truths and innate beliefs
are weakened by those complexities and elabora
tions of thought and life which weigh down the
spirit's freedom and originality, and obscure great
cardinal, elemental ideas.
It is not, therefore, against, but makes for their
verity, that belief in the invisible, in prayer, Provi
dence, the miracle and divine intervention, have
been so pronounced in what are called the child-

136 THE POST- APOSTOLIC AGE.
ages of the world. Confronting the same dread
mysteries of sin and pain and death as we, yet
their minds not materialized by scientific drill, and
their faith not weakened by disproportioned culture
of reason, it was inevitable that early peoples
should walk more "as seeing the invisible," and
have a firmer grasp upon the great supersensible
verities of the universe.
Whatever evolution teaches, and however much
it has narrowed the range of the supernatural, by
tracing results to heretofore unseen and unimagined
second causes, it has not at all disproved the super
natural. " To attribute the potency we find in evo
lution to chemical and physical forces, as does
Haeckel," writes Walker, in " Christian Theism
and a Spiritual Monism," "instead of to some
supernatural agency, does not lessen the mystery
one whit, nor make it the less a divine work ; it
only throws us back upon the play of those wider,
law-ordered forces which constitute the universe,
through which the divine reason acts." *
But, argues Professor Foster in the " Finality of
the Christian Religion," in the course of an argu
ment against the credibility of miracles : " We may
* Part I., chap, ix., 173.

CURRENT VIEWS AS TO THE SUPERNATURAL. 1 37
not suppose that there is a twofold activity in God,
a natural and a supernatural. Rather, natural law
itself is the will of God ; in which case it is impos
sible to see how God, beside this will of His, could
have another will, how anything could happen
which did not happen according to law. But belief
in the miraculous logically implies that the natural
and historical order is not so constituted that all
of the divine ends admit of being attained thereby.
God finds resistance to be overcome in His own
moral order. As Hoffding says, it is as though
there were two Gods, the one operative in the cus
tomary course of things, the other conecting in
single instances the work of the first."
But why may we not suppose "a twofold ac
tivity in God " ? Who has limited the Infinite to
one kind of action ? Why should His energy and
wisdom be alone shown in creative activity, and
not equally in administering that which He has
created ? That God should lock Himself up in the
creation the moment He had made it, that He must
forever be hidden and helpless behind the laws of
nature, and that He could never draw near in ex
traordinary glory and power, would make of this
universe a piece of cold, hard, pitiless mechanism.

138 THE POST- APOSTOLIC AGE.
And this is Professor Foster's conclusion with re
spect to that divine intervention which brought
such glad, glorious tidings to our sin-smitten, death-
ridden earth — the Incarnation. Of it he says :
" Christ was not the incarnate Son of God, but only
a man of clear religious intuition. He shared the
enors of His age, and the idea of His absolute sin-
lessness is no result of historical study."
How much more rational and logical is the con
clusion of Christendom, when, from a study of all
the momentous phenomena, it pronounces the
verdict voiced by the concurrence of two thousand
years : a supernatural Person, Christ came in a
supernatural way, with supernatural powers, to do
a supernatural work.
SCIENTISTS AND THE SUPERNATURAL.
As philosophical thought strengthens our belief
in the transcendence as well as in the immanence of
God, — in the fact that He is not only in His works
by an all and ever-permeating presence, but also
over them by a free personal will, — so neither does
science antagonize this truth. Haeckel, the great
exponent of anti-supernaturalism, is compelled to
make this admission of the change produced in

CURRENT VIEWS AS TO THE SUPERNATURAL. 139
leading scientists, by their gathering larger premises
of scientific fact and by ripening maturity of re
flection. He says : " This entire change of philo
sophical principles, which we find in Wundt, as we
found it in Kant, Virchow, DuBois, Reymond,
Baer, Romanes and others, is very interesting. In
their youth these able and talented scientists em
braced the whole field of biological research in a
broad survey and made strenuous efforts to find a
unifying, natural (monistic) basis for their knowl
edge. In their later years the}- concluded that this
was not attainable and entirely abandoned the
idea," * and reversed their opinions, embracing be
lief in a supersensible first cause.
And with Huxley affirming that the divine mi
raculous intervention is intrinsically possible and
wholly a question of evidence, and with such lead
ing philosophers and scientists as Lord Kelvin, Sir
Oliver Lodge and Professor Henry James affirming
their belief in the supernatural, Christians have no
reason to be shaken in their faith. Even that lib
eral but incisive thinker, Amiel, cannot solve the
mysteries of time and history without essential ad
mission of the supernatural. He writes in his
* " Riddle of the Universe," p. 102.

140 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGK.
"Journal Intirne": " The supernatural is now the
stone of stumbling. It might be possible to agree
on the idea of the divine ; but, no, that is not the
question — the chaff must be separated from the
good grain. The supernatural is miracle, and
miracle is an objective phenomenon independent
of all preceding causality. Now, miracle thus
understood cannot be proved experimentally, and,
besides, the subjective phenomena are left out of
account in the definition. Men will not see that
miracle is a perception of the soul, a vision of the
divine behind nature, which reveals to us the
heavenly powers prompting and directing human
action. For the indifferent there are no miracles.
It is only the religious souls who are capable of
"recognizing the finger of God in certain given
facts." *
Even the destructive critic, Schmiedel, while re
solving the New Testament miracles into a spiritual
illusion somewhat after Strauss's visionary hypo
thesis, yet admits the possibility of miracles. He
says : " It would be clearly wrong to start with any
such postulate as that miracles are impossible.
Such a proposition rests upon a theory of the uui-
* " Journal Intinie," p. 193.

CURRENT VIEWS AS TO THE SUPERNATURAL. 141
verse, not upon exhaustive examination of all the
events spoken of as miracles. The present exam
ination will not start from the proposition that
miracles are impossible."

CHAPTER XVIII.
THE SUPERNATURAL FUNDAMENTAL TO RELIGION.
The question of the supernatural is that of the
hour. A ringing call is sounding through the air
to face the true issue, the reality of God's super
natural interference in the history of man versus
the universal reign of unmodified law. The ques
tion is not whether the old evangelical scheme
needs some adjustments to adapt it to our present
knowledge, but whether its most fundamental con
ception, the very idea of the gospel, is true. A re
ligion founded upon God's self-revelation of Him
self, or a pure rationalism by which truth in re
ligion is attained as it is in physics, or any other
realm of knowledge — these are the antitheses. The
line of cleavage runs just here. Can the super
natural facts of Christianity be discarded and the
life-giving doctrines saved? The answer is, that
Christianity is not primarily a system of ethics or
moral truths, but a series of divine acts moving
historically from the beginning of the Old Testa
ment interventions to the manifestation of God in
(142)

SUPERNATURAL FUNDAMENTAL TO RELIGION. 1 43
the incarnation of Jesus Christ. These historical
facts are of the very essence of the religion. How
strongly Paul felt this when he argued, "For if
Christ be not raised your faith is vain." * He does
not make the fact of the resurrection a sequence on
the doctrine, but he builds the doctrine upon the
fact. It is because he is convinced of the super
sensible fact of the resurrection, that he believes
Christ to be the Lord of Life.
The vital place of the supernatural in religion
was given in the significant answer of the French
critic to Compte, when the positivist philosopher
asked him if he thought he could establish his new
religion of humanity. " Yes," was the response,
" if you can be crucified for it and rise again."
And Harnack and Renan assume the same integral
place for it, when the former says that from the
empty Easter grave went forth the creative power
of the gospel, and when the latter declares that
Christianity was built upon the faith of a woman
— the testimony of Magdalene that she had seen
the risen Lord.
The truth here cannot be better expressed than
in the words of the late Rev. William R. Hun-
* I Cor. xv. 17.

144 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
tington, D. D., rector of Grace Church, New York
City, in the "Gospel of the Infancy." "Con
cerning the so-called new theology, in so far as it
is an attempt to eviscerate the New Testament of
the miraculous element, I am persuaded that it is
doomed to failure. Can a gospel of the resunec-
tion etherealized into a ghost-story account for the
upspringing of Christendom? Will preachers be
helped to uplift the people, when criticism shall
have dwarfed the ' holy nativity ' into a common
birth, and the precious death into a common dying ?
Will not sensible people quickly reach the con
clusion that the whole story, from first to last, is
but a cunningly devised fable ? I feel more and
more deeply that the choice lies between Chris
tianity and no Christianity. Robert Elsemereism is
not going to be the religion of the future. Its ex
ponents are trading on borrowed capital and use
only cut flowers."
The supernatural is not, then, as is often alleged,
the weakness of Christianity, an impeding luggage,
which, if we be wise, we will disload. It is not
Christianity that upholds the miracles, but they
are an arm of its strength. The apostles saw this,
and, accordingly everywhere, to overcome a hostile

SUPERNATURAL FUNDAMENTAL TO RELIGION. 1 45
world, preached the resurrection. They realized
that the greatest supernatural fact of Christianity
was also its sword of conquering power.
We find the same true of the apostolical fathers.
It is the resurrection of which they bear witness.
"Let us, brethren," writes Clemens Romanus,
" contemplate the resurrection, the raising of Jesus
Christ by the power of God from the dead." * "I
greatly rejoice," writes Ignatius, " beloved, with you
in our Lord Jesus Christ, whom God raised from
the dead, having loosed the bands of the grave." f
Again, " Christ was truly raised. His Father quick
ening Him, even as after the same manner, His
Father will raise us up who believe on Him." J
RELIGION NEEDS THE SUPERNATURAL.
The reason of the convincing force of a great
supernatural work is that it brings us into im
mediate contact with God. In nature we see Him
but as a Power, here we behold Him as a Person.
The original witnesses of the miracles felt this
when they cried out : " This is none other than the
power of God." " This is of a truth that prophet
that should come into the world." §
* First Epistle, chap. xxiv.
t Epistle to Philippians, chap. i.
X Epistle to Trallians, chap. ix. § John vi. 40.
10

146 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
When men saw that Christ did works such as no
mere man could do, they believed in the divinity of
His person and mission. Just so to-day, it is the
basis of Christianity in a supernatural origin that
gives it its divine sanction and arms it with con
verting power.
Even in the missionary field, while it is so far
above reason and excites inevitable opposition, yet
it is in preaching it and in the convincing force
of these miraculous facts that lies the mission
ary's only hope of success. Dr. James S. Dennis,
so great an authority on missions, on account of his
long observation and experience, tells us that it is
these miraculons records and features that incite
the profoundest interest of the listener. To put it,
as Dr. Dennis says, in the language of the heathen,
when he hears the supernatural facts of the gos
pel : " If you have news straight from God, I will
hear you."
Sabatier thus is compelled to admit that " all re
ligions have asserted a divine, supernatural inter
vention in their origin, and have rested their prim
ary sanction in miracles." * J. Stuart Mill saw this
necessity truly enough, and so, in his " Logic,"
* " Religions of Authority and the Spirit," p. 201.

SUPERNATURAL FUNDAMENTAL TO RELIGION. 1 47
when he maintains that all superhuman acts and
influences on the mind recorded in history were but
a dream, at once reaches the conclusion that all
" definite faith and acts of devotion and prayer are
but childish superstition."
So John Morley, in a thoughtful paper, discusses
the question, " Why decay in dogmatic beliefs leads
to a decline in Christian ethics," as he sees that it
does. And Prof. Woodbeny, in his "Makers of
Literature," accounts for relapse in public and so
cial morals by the passing of belief in the inspira
tion of the Bible, and the consequent de-Christian-
ization of the modern world.
Well, then, may we say with Walker : "In this
we see clearly the source of our highest inspiration,
and discern that the want of a real belief in these
verities, is just the deepest want of our time. When
men cut themselves off from the supernatural, they
sever themselves from the Fountain of spiritual
power, and we need not wonder at the result."*
Or, as writes a great thinker and theologian, Dr.
M. Valentine, " Christian theology can never con
sent to obliterate the valid distinction between the
natural and the supernatural self-manifestation of
* " Christian Theism and a Spiritual Monism," p. 8.

148 THE POST- APOSTOLIC AGE.
God, without giving up the special soteriological
character of the latter, and permitting Christianity
to drop down to the rank of a mere human prod
uct, as one among the simple nature religions of
the world."
CHRISTIANITY WILL NOT YIELD THE SUPERNATURAL.
The Christian Church, then, shows a true in
sight when she refuses to surrender or attribute lit
tle emphasis to the supernatural. But she realizes
that it is the secret of her evangelical power. Not
for a moment will she abate her belief in the di
vinity of her Founder, or in the validity of the
mighty acts of God inaugurating her origin.
All the stress of present opposition will not
drive her to so suicidal a position as to surrender
the holy mysteries which at once veil her truths
and are their divine investiture. As writes the
acute German thinker, Rothe : " Our duty nowa
days is to establish the authority of the supernat
ural in Christianity in the strictest sense of the
word, but with unconditional exclusion of the
magical." *
St. Augustine profoundly remarks : " All things
begin in some wonder, and in some wonder all
* Still Hours," p. 323

SUPERNATURAL FUNDAMENTAL TO RELIGION. 1 49
things end." As all scientific researches at last
reach a gulf of mystery, a deep of wonder which
they cannot fathom, as in the origin of life and per
sonality, so was the new Christian life introduced
into our world by a mysterious and wonderful series
of supernatural acts. And it is in the fact that,
whenever men go back to these birthdays of Chris
tianity, they come face to face with God, wherein
lies her unique authority. And if men are to ac
cept her as a safe and trustworthy guide for their
souls to the haven of eternal life, ever must she, as
in all the ages of the past, affirm her supernatural
credentials, and especially that miracle of miracles,
the Resunection of her Founder from the dead.
In the fine words of Forsyth : " With all her
liberalism, the Church must be positive. She must
insist on the autonomy of faith in the matter of
knowledge and certainty. She must descend on
the world out of heaven from God. Her note
is the supernatural note which distinguishes in
carnation from immanence, redemption from evo
lution, the kingdom of God from mere spiritual
progress, and the Holy Spirit from mere spiritual
process." *
* " Positive Preaching and Modern Mind," p. 121.

150 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
THE "NATURE" RELIGIONS AND THEIR FAILURE.
Ex-President Eliot has lately thus expressed the
idea that a " New Religion," destitute of the super
natural, is soon to supplant Christianity : " The
New Religion will not be based on authority or
bound by dogma or creed. There will be no super
natural element ; it will place no reliance upon
anything but the laws of nature. It will admit no
sacraments except natural, hallowed customs, and
it will deal with natural interpretations of such
rites." In view of the wide publicity of such statements
and the tendency of many to take them seriously,
it is pertinent to this discussion to summon in re
view the various Nature Religions. That is, let us
glance at the great world religions evolved from
the natural reason and compare or contrast them
with that supernatural one — Christianity — which
has not come up from man, but down from God.
Buddhism, the religion having, perhaps, the
largest number of adherents in the world, denies
creation and ignores any Ruler or Governor of the
world. It repudiates immortality and progress, the
highest development of the soul leading to Nir
vana, or annihilation.

SUPERNATURAL FUNDAMENTAL TO RELIGION. 151
Brahmanism is a system of pantheism, in which
God is resolved into such a spiritual haze that His
personality is lost, and nature, the soul, time, space
and matter become "illusions." Says the " Ve-
danta " : " From the highest state of Brahma to
the lowest condition of a straw all things are delu
sion." Confucianism is, in fact, no religion ; has no real
conception of a Deity or of responsibility to a Su
preme Ruler, is but a utilitarian scheme, and, ac
cordingly, lacks any motive and sanction, even, for
morality. In the religions of Zoroaster, Egypt and the
Eddas, dual gods, light and darkness, Ormazd and
Ahriman, Osiris and Typhon, Odin and Loki, in
eternal battle, leave the universe in a hopeless
dualism between the forces of good and evil.
Mohammedanism is, indeed, monotheistic, but it
represents God as pure will, absolute power, with
out compassion or love, and demands the submis
sion of slaves instead of the loving obedience of
children. Hence,1 it has no sense of universality or
brotherhood, and uses the sword as its only means
of propagation. Its sensual and selfish heaven
makes impossible all pure and noble ideals.

152 THE POST- APOSTOLIC AGE.
In the Greek and Roman pantheon, polytheism
carried variety to the extreme of disorder. The
Deities are, at first, identified with, then raised to,
personifications of Nature. They are anthropo
morphic to the furthest degree, often exhibiting the
lowest passions, and resorting to the meanest and
most cowardly artifices. They are not supreme,
but subject to a mysterious and inexorable fate,
and, utterly lacking holiness, they could exert little
or no authority or moral influence over the actions
of men.
Such are those Nature Religions — " Religions
growing wild," as Martensen aptly terms them —
which the powers of man's natural reason have
been able to summon from the vasty deep of the
unknown. And it is to these vague guesses, to
these blind gropings after truth, to these misty,
confused, irreconcilable hypotheses utterly impotent
to give any certain answer to the mind, any sure
comfort to the heart, or any compelling motive to
the will, that ex-President Eliot and those of his
school would lead us as the supreme achievement
of modern progress.
And are we to believe that the world is ready to
set up these impotent theories for that religion,

SUPERNATURAL FUNDAMENTAL TO RELIGION. 1 53
founded upon the supernatural Person, direct
communion with the Father, and absolute author
ity of Him who was the Truth itself, which has
upset kingdoms, reversed the currents of the ages,
swept the civilized world, transformed barbarous
cruelty into brotherhood and sweet charity, and
set mankind forward on its course with a new in
spiration of courage and eternal hope ? Scarcely.
" The tree is known by its fruits."
Where the Nature Religions have wretchedly
and despairingly failed, the religion of revelation,
of pure monotheism, of a God immanent in nature
and man, yet not losing His transcendence and
personality, of a righteous Deity who is yet a
Father, of reconciliation of the dualism between
good and evil, of atonement for sin, of faith in
divine companionship and consolation, of triumph
over death, and of a sure pledge of eternal life, has
mightily and gloriously succeeded.
And not until this earth turns backward on its
axis will this modern age yield up this, its most
precious heritage, for chaff and dust and ashes.

CHAPTER XIX.
PROTESTANTISM VERSUS ROMANISM.
The Roman Catholic Church bases its claim to
be an authoritative representation of Christianity
largely upon antiquity. It has perpetuated the
faith of old. It has held it through an unbroken
chain of witnesses. As Christianity is an historical
religion, this claim, if true, is just. The faith
preached by the Founder, and the usages traceable
to apostolic practice, give the most authentic ex
pression to the religion. And the greater the an
tiquity of these, the closer their contact with the
original sources, the more apt are they to be truly
Christian. The stream may be greatly conupted
as it flows afar, but as we approach the fountain,
we find it in its original purity.
And it is just this test which exposes the ground
lessness of many distinctly Romish claims. Not
alone in lesser features, but in those great outlines
which differentiate Romanism from Protestantism,
and which are vital to the former's claim to be
the only true Church of Christ, we find its claims
(154)

PROTESTANTISM VERSUS ROMANISM. 1 55
to the authority of history unsubstantiated by this
period. The whole external fabric of the Roman Church,
reared upon the premise that an ecclesiastical
order was instituted by the apostles, and that such
order was essential to a truly constituted Church, is
invalidated by this testimony, for, not alone are
many of the foremost fathers utterly ignorant of
such a polity, but even those who are acquainted
with it do not deem it of apostolical origin, or to
have been perpetuated by succession. The thesis
upon which the churches of Protestantism stand,
that their various forms of government are second
ary and matters of freedom, is the one we here find
in force. THE PATRISTIC PERIOD PROTESTANT.
The assertion that Peter was the first bishop of
Rome, and that the bishop of Rome was invested
with a primacy over the other great episcopal sees,
has not left a single trace in the records of this
period. Paul is referred to more frequently, and in
far more glowing terms, as the real founder, after
Christ, of the Church. There is no reference to
Peter ever having occupied the see of Rome, a
thing inconceivable if it had been the fact.

156 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
The Lord's Supper is not treated as " a sacrifice,
presenting anew, in an unbloody form, the bloody
offering of the cross." * There is not the least hint
to suggest that it should be given only in one kind
to the laity, while the priests partook of both kinds.
The fiction that the body includes the blood, and
and that therefore the cup is unnecessary, has not
as yet been formulated in a brain wiser than that of
the Master Himself, who when He said, " Drink ye
all of it," gave no intimation of such a limited use.
On the contrary, the instruction given in the
Didache, or Teaching of the Twelve Apostles,
viz., " Let no one eat or drink of the Eucharist,"
etc., f and the prayer before the Lord's Supper
in the Constitutions of the Holy Apostles : " Do
thou show this bread to be the body of thy Christ,
and the cup to be the blood of thy Christ, that those
who are partakers thereof may obtain the remission
of their sins, and be strengthened for piety," J prove
conclusively that the wine as well as the bread was
distributed to the whole congregation.
There is no Mariolatry. Mary is never called
"the mother of God." She is never spoken of as
a Mediator, through whose motherly heart the com-
* Roman Catechism, f Chaps, ix. and x. X Book VIII. , chap. xii.

PROTESTANTISM VERSUS ROMANISM. 1 57
passion of her blessed Son will be the more readily
reached. There are no stronger expressions respect
ing her than the Scripture ones, or than any Prot
estant would justly use. Again and again is she
referred to, but with no suggestion of more than a
becoming extraordinary regard. " The Word was
truly born of the virgin." " Christ made for Himself
a body of the seed of the virgin." "The virginity
of Mary was hidden from the prince of this world "
— such and no more, is the honor accorded her.
THE FICTION OF INDULGENCES.
We discover nothing of such a doctrine as that
" Indulgences remit the temporal punishment due
to sin by applying to us the superabundant satis
faction of the blessed Virgin Mary and of the saints,
which merits and satisfactions are the spiritual
treasury of the Church." * It is not, as Tetzel said,
the clink of the coin in the Church treasury for the
indulgence that sets free the soul from purgatory,
but heart repentance for sin. As writes Hermas :
" He who has sinned must repent with his whole
heart and be exceedingly humble and contrite, and
then God will assuredly have compassion when He
* Roman Catholic Catechism of Christian Doctrine — Plenary
Council of Baltimore.

158 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
sees the heart of the penitent pure from every evil
thing." * Luther, when he nailed up his ninety-
five theses against indulgences on the door of the
Castle Church at Wittenberg — " the blows of his
hammer," as Carlyle says, " echoing round the
world " — gave no more evangelical definition than
this of repentance.
Nor do the apostolic fathers lay any claim to
supernatural powers in the Roman manner. There
are no visions and healings by the Virgin Mary.
There is not even reference to the anointing with
oil in sickness, which would imply that the .words
of St. James were of but temporary application.
There is no sacrament of extreme unction, or it
would certainly have been used in the instances of
the last hours of holy martyrs recorded.
The gift of tongues is not perpetuated.
There are no records of healings by the great
spiritual leaders of the period, about whom legend
ary honors would naturally have accrued. Nor
were miraculous powers ascribed to the relics of
the martyrs. If such would have been the case
with anyone it would have been with Ignatius,
held in such extraordinary veneration during his
* Pastor, Book III., "Similitude," viii.

PROTESTANTISM VERSUS ROMANISM. 1 59
life. Yet it is stated that his holy remains were
conveyed to Antioch and deposited in the church
for honorable memory alone.
Fasting was lightly practiced, but there was no
asceticism. There was no celibacy of the clergy.
There was no purgatory. There was no monasti-
cism. There was no asking the prayers of the dead.
In short, the review of the whole field of belief
and practice brings us into the atmosphere of Prot
estantism. The distinguishing traits of Romanism
belong to a later period. If it be contended that
many of these have been originated by the Church
herself exercising a legitimate right, there must
not then, however, be assumed for them that great
authority which justly belongs to antiquity. That
a doctrine was originated at a later period, as for
example, purgatory by Cyprian,* but was entirely
unknown at an earlier date, severs it altogether
from Christian antiquity, from any sanction of
apostolic or divine origin whatever.
NO PAPACY IN THE EARLY CHURCH.
We discover in this era, moreover, not a germ of
the dogma of papal infallibility. How could there
* Epistle, lv. 20.

160 THE POST- APOSTOLIC AGE.
be such when no one had heard of a Pope ? And,
especially, there have arisen no signs of that doc
trine of the supremacy of the Church over the State,
which was yet to darken all Christendom with
its huge dimensions, and to hold mankind in the
dungeon of spiritual slavery. This tyrannical dog
ma our age has outlived by the achievement of that
religious toleration, which Canon Liddon calls the
finest fruit of the last four centuries. And yet the
Pope, in our very day, has re-asserted it, affirming
in the " Papal Syllabus " : " The Church has the
right of applying force and the temporal power of
the Episcopacy is not the gift of the State and may
not be recalled by the State."
To any historical authority for this tremendous
claim, with all its grave possibilities, Canon Mozley
truly replies : " The very earliest Christianity, that
which is co-eval with the fountain-head, is the most
modern in its tone in this respect. The Church is
a spiritual society to educate us by revealed doc
trine for an eternal existence ; the State is a tem
poral society to preserve order and peace and to
maintain human life under the proper visible con
ditions. The whole weight of facts, the whole
weight of truth, is irresistibly against the Roman

PROTESTANTISM VERSUS ROMANISM. l6l
claim. This is a point on which Christianity and
civilization, which look suspiciously at each other
at times, entirely join hands ; they speak one lan
guage ; they abjure with one mouth, force, as the
property of the Church, and force as applicable to
religion at all. The earth must roll back on its
axis again before the moral sense of society recants
on this question." *
ROMANISM'S FALSE ANTIQUITY.
One of the strongest arrows in the quiver of
Romanism is her boasted antiquity. But the study
of the sub-apostolic age brings out beyond dis
pute the fact that true antiquity pertains to Prot
estantism, that its doctrines have the sanction of
that primitive antiquity which outweighs a thou
sand to one the authority of later, degenerated
ages. This feature Luther took acute advantage of in
his struggle with Rome. He was too little of a
radical and iconoclast to hope for success in the
conflict with so formidable and venerable a hier
archy without the support of any authority. Herein
lay his signal divergence from Savonarola, and the
* University Sermons, " The Roman Council," p. 21.
11

162 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
secret of the latter's failure. So Luther appealed
not alone to the Scriptures, but to the sub-apostolic
era, in which the gospel teachings and the traditions
of the Church yet remained pure. And, supported
by this legitimate and powerful authority, he won
the confidence of Christendom and prevailed.
Rome can make no valid claim to authority.
Eck admitted that the Protestants had the Script
ures, but claimed the fathers. But history shows
that the Christian Church, in its pure apostolic
phase, gives no countenance to Romish traditions.
The argument from an era of such vast authorita
tive significance is conclusively with Protestantism.

CHAPTER XX.
THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH AND CHARITY.
Of the new moral ideals taught by Jesus to men,
none stood in more pointed contrast to the stand
ards of the ancient world than that of charity. The
Jew, indeed, had been taught the duty of brother
hood, but that he understood as narrowed to his
own race.
Pagan life was characterized by the severest form
of selfishness. Unbounded luxury and extrava
gance went side by side with extreme poverty and
hopeless misery. Nowhere in history have social
contrasts been so startling as in this period. Some
reveled in the extremest excesses of opulence, while
others were submerged in the lowest squalor, misery
and vice.
" In Imperial Rome a whole population might be
trembling lest they should be starved by the delay
of an Alexandrian corn-ship, while the upper classes
were squandering a fortune at a single banquet,
drinking out of myrrhine and jeweled vases worth
(163)

164 THE POST- APOSTOLIC AGE.
hundreds of pounds, and feasting on the brains of
peacocks and the tongues of nightingales. Vitellius
set on the table at one banquet two thousand fishes
and seven thousand birds, and in less than eight
months spent on feasts a sum that would now
amount to several millions." *
As poverty is the shadow cast by inordinate
wealth, so the accumulation of such enonnous for
tunes and such recklessly lavish expenditure could
only subsist with a conesponding depth of poverty
and wretchedness. This seems to have caused no
concern among the political rulers, and, on the part
of the citizens, there was no evidence of commisera
tion to relieve it. No societies were formed, no in
stitutions built, and no money appropriated for
relief. The burden of children was relieved by in
fanticide, and the sick, the suffering and the in
curable were left to a hopeless fate.
INHUMANITY OF THE PAGAN WORLD.
" In reading the works of Cicero or Seneca, one
must glean and glean for single humanitarian senti
ments. Their writings are exquisite in form, and
polished like statues, but they are without heart or
* " Early Days of Christianity," Farrar, p. 2.

THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH AND CHARITY. 1 65
humanity. To-day all literature is working for the
once despised and unbefriended classes." *
Christ, by the parable of the Good Samaritan,
taught that we owed a duty of pity and relief to the
unfortunate. And in that remarkable phrase, which
has been the inspiration of so many a charitable
soul and cause : " Inasmuch as ye have done it
unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have
done it unto me," f He called attention to the image
of God stamped on every man, and to the Christ
even in the poorest and most unfortunate.
Not till Christianity appeared did the love of
one's neighbor, in the true sense of the word, exist.
Christianity introduced humanity into the world
and inculcated the virtue of compassion. Care for
the sick and poor, which has played so famous a
part in the history of the Christian world, was one
of its happy fruits. That spirit of love, of resigna
tion, of self-sacrifice, which is the loveliest and
noblest part of the moral life, proceeded from
Christianity, from the cross of Christ. J
* "Great Books as Life Teachers," Newell D wight Hillis,
P- 75-
¦f Matt. xxv. 40.
j Luthardt's "Fundamental Truths of Christianity," Lec
ture X.

1 66 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
Accordingly, the idea and duty of charity were
impressed upon the early disciples. And so vital a
part of Christianity was this deemed that, at the
very outset of the Church's history, we find in
Acts vi. that regular provision was made for a
daily ministration of supplies for the needs of the
poor. This duty was considered only secondary to
that of its ministry of the word, and was at first
discharged by the apostles themselves, but asserting
that " it is not reason that we should leave the
word of God and serve tables," * deacons from
among the laymen were selected to be " appointed
over this business."
CHRISTIAN DEACONS AND DEACONESSES.
The diaconate thus was originally instituted as
a ministry of mercy. Although its powers were
subsequently enlarged, yet its primary purpose
was the oversight and administration of this work
of practical beneficence, which ever grew larger
and greater with the increasing spread of the
Church. " The deacons," says Dean Stanley, " be
came the first preachers of Christianity ; they
were the first evangelists, because they were the
first to find their way to the homes of the poor.
* Acts vi. 2.

THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH AND CHARITY. 167
They were the constructors of the most solid and
durable of the institutions of Christianity, viz., the
institutions of charity and beneficence." *
A female diaconate likewise was instituted for
the same work of relief, especially among those of
their own sex. According to the Apostolical Con
stitutions, faithful and holy women were to be or
dained as deaconesses, because the Church had use
for them in many necessities. They were to min
ister to women in sickness and distress, relieve the
saints in prison, and, in general, to engage in such
works of charity and relief as heathen opinion
would not allow male deacons to perform.
Accordingly, the Didache, or Teaching of the
Twelve Apostles, gives instructions for the duties of
deacons who are to have charge of " the distribu
tion of alms as prescribed in the gospel of our
Lord.f Polycarp also charges that this ministry
of mercy should not be overlooked by the pastoral
office itself, but that " ministers should be compas
sionate and merciful to all, bringing back those
that wander, visiting all the sick, and not neglect
ing the widow, the orphan, or the poor." J Again :
* " Early^Days of Christianity," p. 171.
t Chap. xv. X Epistle, chap. vi.

1 68 THE POST- APOSTOLIC AGE.
" When you can do good, defer it not, because alms
deliver from death." * Clement urges the same vir
tue, thus : " He who takes upon himself the burden
of his neighbor ; he who, in whatsoever he abounds,
helps another who is deficient ; he who, whatsoever
things he has received from God, by distributing
these to the needy, is an imitator of Christ." f
Ignatius : " Let not widows be neglected. Be
thou after the Lord, their protector." J
THE IMITATION OF CHRIST.
These exhortations abound on the pages of this
primitive literature. The conception of Christian
piety was that of the imitation of Christ, "who
pleased not Himself," and that of the maxim of
Paul : " Look not every man on his own things,
but every man also on the things of others." § The
poor, the orphans and the widows were regarded as
the precious " treasures of the Church," and to sac
rifice for them was esteemed both a privilege and a
joy. Nothing, indeed, is more impressive than the
sight of these early Christians, stigmatized by the
society of the times, persecuted by the civil power,
* Epistle, chap. x. f Epistle to Diognetus, chap. x.
X Epistle to Polycarp, chap. iv. \ Phil. ii. 4.

THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH AND CHARITY. 1 69
impoverished and suffering all manner of hardship
themselves, yet, instead of growing hardened and
embittered, overflowing with kindliness and sympa
thy for the suffering, whether of the Church or of
the Pagans, and out of their own dire needs and
extremity making large and regular contributions
to human relief. Even Gibbon is compelled to
admit this fine exercise of generosity. He says :
" The uses to which their liberality was applied
reflected honor on the religious society. The
sacred patrimony for the poor was distributed to
support widows and orphans, the lame, the sick and
the aged of the community, to comfort strangers
and pilgrims, and to alleviate the misfortunes of
strangers and captives. A generous intercourse of
charity united the most distant provinces, and the
smaller congregations were cheerfully assisted by
the alms of their more opulent brethren. Such an
institution, which paid less regard to the merit than
to the distress of the object, very materially con
duced to the progress of Christianity. The Pagans,
who were actuated by a sense of humanity, while
they derided the doctrines, acknowledged the be
nevolence of the new sect." *
* " Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," Vol. I., chap, xv

170 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
From this review it is manifest that, while the
first aim of the primitive Church was to preach to
the soul the necessity of religion, spirituality, the
forgiveness of sins, and inward regeneration, so far
was it from neglecting the needs of the body, that,
hand in hand with its spiritual, went its charitable
work. And from the principles and practices of this age
have sprung all those benevolences, from the mer
ciful orders of the middle ages to the sisters of
charity in the Roman Catholic Church, and the
Protestant Deaconesses, numbering their thousands,
and the institutions of mercy and relief which now
overspread the globe.
When it is charged by unbelieving critics that
the modern Church has lost the spirit of the early
Church in this respect, the conclusive answer is
given by the facts. The activity in works of mercy
and relief by the churches of the civilized and
heathen world is unparalleled, or, at least, unsur
passed by any preceding age. All the mighty
streams of charity either issue directly from the
Christian Church, or have arisen from the influence
of her teachings and standards.
Prof. Shailer Matthews thus forcibly states this

THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH AND CHARITY. 171
point : " Until there can be shown some other social
institution or movement which can boast an equal
record of social reforms — of slavery ended, of life
protected, of woman ennobled, of children educated,
of homes sanctified, of schools and missions and
martyrs — your social reformer had best give him
self a course in church history." *
The real edge of this modern criticism of the
Church with respect to charity is disbelief in her
as an institution of religion. Men of the world do
not believe in her faith, in the divinity of her
Founder, and in the power of the gospel. Hence,
they would like to see her abandon her prophetical
office towards the souls of men, and devote herself
wholly to philanthropical work. But the position
of the Church is that she owes her life to her faith,
that philanthropy is the child of religion, that
the gospel she proclaims must first change and re
new the hearts of men before they will burn with
the sense of brotherhood. She holds, with Carlyle :
" Show me what a man or nation believes, and I
will tell you the character and the deeds of that
person or people."
The Church understands the secret of her power
* " The Church and the Changing Order," p. 168.

172 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
too well, and too thoroughly understands the pur
pose of her critics to cut off her right arm by
abandoning religion and faith and the cure of souls
for the work of charity. She will keep the fount
ain strong and pure under the throne and altar of
God, knowing that thence will flow the mightiest
streams of beneficence. And she will ever re
member that the soul of charity is charity to the
soul.

CHAPTER XXI.
THE CHURCH AND SOCIAL REFORM.
Closely connected with the theme of the pre
ceding chapter is the relation of the Church to
social, economic, civic and governmental efforts for
the amelioration of bad conditions and for the uplift
and well-being of the masses. That Christianity
concerns itself, first of all, with the soul and with
the spiritual side is no reason why it should not
seek the good of the whole man and his betterment
in all the spheres and relations of life. This it
does primarily in that the greater includes the less,
and it does it indirectly in that when men's ideals
are changed or when right principles are inculcated,
the leaven tends to spread through all the series of
social strata until the whole is leavened.
There remains the question, however, in how far
it is conect, judicious and safe for the Church, as
an organization, directly to ally itself with dis
tinctively ethical, humanitarian and reformatory
movements as such. Social reformers are insistent
that the Church should take direct part in these
(*73)

174 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
propaganda, that the pulpit should make them its
theme, and that all the forces of the Christian or
ganization should be thrown into the arena. The
contention is that the Church is losing a large op
portunity for usefulness, and also declining in influ
ence with the masses, whereas a contrary policy
would win over to her great numbers who now
remain aloof, and vastly accelerate her own growth.
The demand is also made that in the curriculum
of our theological seminaries less time be given to
such studies as Biblical Exegesis, Church History,
Systematic Theology, etc., and that a larger sphere
be allotted to the practical concerns of every-day
living. We should have more chairs for the investi
gation of topics suggested by Modern Sociology, and
the studies of students should more profitably be di
rected along sociological lines. It is charged that
our theological seminaries are doing little, if any
thing, to equip ministers for the task of reaching
the man with the dinner pail, of bridging over the
chasm between the Church and labor.
The question is a vital one, and, as bearing on
the legitimate scope of the Church's agency, and
also on the favorable or unfavorable estimate held
of her by the public at large, should be carefully

THE CHURCH AND SOCIAL REFORM. 1 75
considered and wisely and decisively answered by
every conscientious minister.
THE CHURCH AND SOCIOLOGY.
The manner in which our Lord met these ques
tions, as far as they confronted Him, is, for the stu
dent of practical Christianity, of the first impor
tance. Having not Himself whereon to lay His
head, and traversing on foot the fields and thor
oughfares where He encountered the toiling masses,
with His quick and sensitive sympathy He bore all
their burdens upon His heart. No burden is more
oppressive than that of political bondage. "No
yoke," says Macaulay, " is so galling as that of the
foreigner." ' Christ found His countrymen suffer
ing under this well-nigh intolerable yoke, and a
great revulsion in the popular feeling toward Him
ensued when He declined to interfere.
All that He was willing to do in the premises was
to lay down the cardinal guiding principle, " Render
unto Csesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto
God the things that are God's." * One of the most
fruitful causes of wrong in human society is the
maladministration of justice. One such aggrieved
* Mark xii. 17.

176 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
party came to our Lord as the imagined adjudicator
of all rights, with a request that He intervene.
But His only response was, " Man, who made me a
judge or a divider over you ? " * Yet, who has
done so much to subvert the yoke of the oppressor,
and to vindicate to nations the right of self-govern
ment, and who has so advanced the equal-handed
administration of justice between strong and weak,
rich and poor, as has the great Teacher ?
It was not that He did not smart under the
sense of pain for social wrongs and injustices, but
that He felt that by embroiling Himself in battle
with them He was drawn apart from the supreme
mission for which He came, as a spiritual Prophet,
to bear witness to the Truth, and that thereby this
wider and greater sway over the well-being of man
kind would be weakened. And history has vindi
cated His far-seeing wisdom and His well-poised
judgment. Thus says Luthardt : " Christianity introduced
the era of humanity — of the rights of man. It
made no changes in the external arrangements of
society ; it left laws and privileges, manners and
conditions, customs and ranks as it found them ;
* Luke xii. 14.

THE CHURCH AND SOCIAL REFORM. 1 77
but it introduced a new spirit into all these rela
tions of life. It did not even externally abolish
slavery ; but it taught all to recognize in the slave
a man, a Christian brother, and thus gave an in
ternal blow to this objectionable institution. It
raised the condition of women from a degraded to a
most honorable and influential one. It made love,
— which, as Montesquieu said, at the time of its in
troduction, still bore only a form which cannot be
named, — the noblest and tenderest power of mental
and spiritual life. It withdrew children, whom the
heathen world had felt no scruple at destroying
either before or after their birth, from the arbitrary
power of their parents as mere property, and placed
them under the Saviour's protection by declaring
them to be by baptism children of God, and in
heritors of the*kingdom of heaven." *
RELIGION THE CHURCH'S AGENCY OF REFORM.
The same lesson is taught the Church by a study
of the course pursued by our holy fathers. The so
cial situation confronting them was desperate. The
masses were regarded as without souls. Three-
fourths of human beings were slaves, with their lives
* " Fundamental Truths of Christianity," Lecture X.
12

178 THE POST- APOSTOLIC AGE.
at the caprice of their masters. There was no regard
for human life. Augustus sacrificed the lives of
three thousand men in a sea-fight to delight the
blunted moral sense of the citizens. Vices that hide
from modern view, unblushingly looked out from
the decorations and statuary of the palaces and
public baths, as revealed in the unearthed cities of
Heculaneum and Pompeii. It was almost time,
one feels like saying, that such repulsive horrors
should be covered by the tenible agency of the
volcano. The " social evil " was universal. Plato
advocated a community of wives. So deplor
able was the prevalent immorality that even the
Roman moralist, Seneca, wrote : " Everything is
full of vices and crimes. There is a great struggle
who shall exceed in turpitude. Day by day the
love of sin increases and shame diminishes." * And
the satirist, Juvenal, exclaims : " Truly the present
is a ninth age of the world, far worse than the iron
age, and one to express whose badness nature her
self can furnish no name, and has produced no
metal." t
And what, now, were the means taken by the
* Luthardt's " Moral Truths of Christianity," p. 345.
t Ibid.

THE CHURCH AND SOCIAL REFORM. 1 79
apostolic fathers and spiritual leaders of this age
to redress these shocking evils and to save society
from this awful abyss of sin, vice and misery ?
They simply held up Christ. They preached the
gospel. They called men to repentance and faith.
They urged all to become believers. They insisted
on Baptism and the Lord's Supper. They declared
that regeneration, through the means of grace, was
the only hope of the regeneration of society. They
held to the power of their message to cure these
vile conditions and to pour the streams of a cleans
ing, purifying life through all the bogs and quag
mires of moral corruption.
In short, their practice reveals their conviction
that religion, mediated by the Church, was society's
only hope. And the more desperate the social con
ditions, the more definitely and positively they held
the Church to her supreme function. And it is not
to be doubted that in this course they were guided
by a wisdom not their own. They were led by the
Holy Ghost.
That a reaction from the modern tendency to
make the Church chiefly a social reform bureau is
beginning to appear, is shown by these recent
words from the eminent thinker at the head of

180 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
Princeton University, President Woodrow Wilson :
" I believe that we have erroneously conceived
the sphere of the Christian Church in our age. If
my observation does not mislead me, the Christian
Church nowadays is tempted to be regarded as
chiefly a philanthropic institution, chiefly an instru
ment that shall supply the spiritual impulse which
is necessary for carrying on those great enterprises
which relieve the distress, distress of body and dis
tress of mind, which so disturbs the world and so
excites our pity, among those men particularly who
have not had the advantages of fortune or of eco
nomic opportunity. And yet I believe that this is
only a very small part of the business of the Church.
The business of the Church is not to pity men.
No man who has recovered the integrity of his soul
is any longer the object of pity, and it is to enable
him to recover that lost integrity that the Christian
Church is organized."
What the minister has to do is to reveal God
to men, reveal God to them in their own spirits,
reveal God to them in thought and in action, re
establish the spiritual kingdom among us, by pro
claiming in season and out of season that there is
no explanation for anything that is not first or last

THE CHURCH AND SOCIAL REFORM. l8l
a spiritual explanation, and that man cannot live
by bread alone.
And this conservative, far-seeing sagacity, this
strength with patience, this faith in her spiritual
weapons, has characterized the Church of Christ in
every age.
The first mission of the Church is spiritual.
Her work is to reconstruct the moral nature. She
is to awaken the soul from its death in trespasses
and sins. She is to be the interpreter of Religion.
She is to point men to the higher life. She is to
preach to them the Word of God. She is to recre
ate them by the power of the Holy Ghost. She is
to build them up in the image of Jesus Christ.
Whatever may be her secondary activity, this spir
itual and religious mission must ever be her su
preme aim.
THE GOSPEL THE CHIEF AGENCY OF REFORM.
Social reform needs reinforcement just at this
point. It is not enough to clean up the slums, to
build school-houses with play-grounds, to appoint
boards of arbitration. All these and countless other
reforms are necessary and invaluable. But if they
ignore God, what promise is there in them of a

1 82 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
completed social evolution ? In addition to reform
men need to feel that there is something more pow
erful making for social peace than even better men
in a new environment. That something is God.
" To make a Church a religious mixture of civil
service reform, debating societies, gymnasiums, sup
pers, concerts, stereopticon lectures, good advice,
refined negro minstrel shows and dramatic enter
tainments, is to bring it into competition with the
variety theatre. And when the masses have to
choose between that sort of church and its rival, if
they have any sense left within their perplexed
heads, they will choose the society theatre. That,
at least, is performing its. proper social function." *
The " up-to-date " minister prides himself in having
his hands in everything. Paul said : " This one
thing I do." He was all-absorbed in his "high
calling in Christ Jesus." Such a minister gains in
dignity and spiritual power far more than he loses
by " leaving the Word of God to serve tables " with
every propaganda labeled Social Reform. The
Church must educate its members in the principles
governing social conduct by bringing their lives
*"The Church and the Changing Order," Prof. Shailer
Matthews, p. 158.

THE CHURCH AND SOCIAL REFORM. 1 83
into vital relationship with God, and then it must
leave them to act freely on political or social ques
tions as their judgment may dictate.
And while she has had to bear many reproaches
for it, and has lost much superficial applause, there
is no doubt that she has thereby achieved incalcu
lably vaster results for the well-being and progress
of the race. One by one she has seen the various
forms of social injustice weaken and disappear,
until, under the influence of her teaching and com
munion, the worst evils that have darkened the
course of human history are now relegated to a for
gotten past, or exist but as a byword and memorial
of warning.
For example, the Church as a whole in Amer
ica was indignantly held to answer because it
would not join many of the New England churches
in an open campaign against slavery. But the
Church felt that, inasmuch as slavery had a quasi-
recognition in the Constitution and was held
by a large body of citizens to be a political ques
tion, it was so involved with existing policies
and social conditions that it was beyond its
sphere directly to attack it. It assumed that the
least harmful and the most thorough method to

1 84 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
overthrow what was an undoubted evil was by
turning upon it the light of gospel liberty, and as
serting those generic Biblical teachings of human
brotherhood, under the force of which it must in
evitably disappear. And we think the dispassion
ate judgment of history approves the Church's long-
suffering wisdom in that acute crisis.
In these lessons of history the Church can find
her guiding principles for the present age with re
spect to the various phases of Social Reform.
Take, for example, the relation of the organized
Church to organized labor. Here is a statement
of labor's demands by a leading representative :
" The wage workers, seeing no interest, or but little
interest, manifested in the Church in the human
side of a religious question, or in the question of
bread and butter and a decent living, have naturally
drifted away from the Church to a great extent ;
and I am constrained to believe that they are not
going back in large numbers until the Church will
emphasize just as strongly the human side of the
religion of Jesus Christ as it does the spiritual
side." Were the Church to yield to such an insistence,
she would have to reconstruct her organization fun-

THE CHURCH AND SOCIAL REFORM. 185
damentally. And such a revolutionary policy
would, in the end, overthrow that power which,
exerted in accord with her primary character, has
been the means of removing so many a yoke from
the neck of labor, and elevating the laboring classes
to a position of dignity and comparative equality
of opportunity such as they had never known but
for her potent, beneficial influence.
THE CHURCH PRIMARILY A SPIRITUAL TEACHER.
And so, when we are told that we must make the
Christian religion less divine and more human, less
spiritual and more social, rather an elaborate organ
ization for social service than a kingdom of God,
simply " a union of those who love for the service
of those who suffer," and disencumber the church of
word and sacrament, of creed and confession, of faith
and worship, of the agency and power of the Holy
Spirit, and of calling men first of all " not to live
by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth
out of the mouth of God," let us be on our
guard. When Christianity surrenders these, her Samson
locks, at the behest of superficial social reformers,
she will be false to her high and unique calling as

1 86 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
the spiritual teacher of mankind, and she will be
shorn of her reformatory power. The Church, as
the visible organization of the kingdom of God —
the communion of saints — can only do her ordained
work in her own way, and by fidelity to her historic
conservatism. As an illustration of the effectiveness of this
method, of the Church not entangling herself with
compromising alliances with secularistic, social
and ethical reform movements, or resorts to legal
authority, Kurtz, in his "Church History," has
this significant note : " The three inveterate moral
plagues of the ancient world, contempt of foreign
nationalities, degradation of women, and slavery,
were overcome, according to Gal. iii. 28, (' For ye
are all one in Christ Jesus,') by gradual elevation
of inward feelings, without any violent struggle
against existing laws and customs, and the con
sciousness of common membership in the one head
in heaven, hallowed all the relationships of the
earthly life." *
The Church is not a sociological lectureship.
One of the chief reasons why the social influence of
* Vol. 1. , pp. 63, 64.

THE CHURCH AND SOCIAL REFORM. 1 87
the pulpit is not greater among the masses is un
doubtedly the fact, that in its zeal to get in touch
with the masses it has been nagged into under
taking every sort of reform.
But, in the same proportion as the Church has
been diverted from her peculiar field, has she lost
not only her religious, but her general social in
fluence. She must, therefore, in self-protection,
sternly object to making religion a mere instrument
for the furthering of a propaganda which is purely
secular. All these efforts to induce the Church to
make herself an appendage for the advancement of
social reform in any of its phases is but another
way of saying that she shall be secularized.
No disciple of Jesus is true to his divine Master
whose heart does not thrill in response to the cries
of humanity suffering from wrongs and vices. And
no Church is true to its intent that is not awake to
the importance of the various benevolent causes and
reformatory movements, inspired by the laudable
purpose to aid, help and relieve the needy and
downtrodden. Ministers must not merely preach,
but engage in a personal ministry of mercy. Lay
men must not merely profess religion, but practice
it in active lives as co-laborers in every good cause

Io» THE POST- APOSTOLIC AGE.
in human behalf. But all this can be most ef
ficiently done without compromising the Church
as the instrument of religion and the congregation
of believers.

CHAPTER XXII.
PRIMITIVE RITES OF PUBLIC WORSHIP.
Primitive worship was naturally conducted to
some extent after the pattern of the service of the
synagogue and temple, as Christianity was a devel
opment on the foundation of Judaism.
The service was held in a consecrated chamber
or house. The place must be holy to the Lord, set
apart from common and unhallowed uses. Chris
tianity, no less than Judaism, needed for a place of
meeting with God an atmosphere permeated with
religion ; a sanctuary, or church, a place conse
crated to prayer and praise.
CHIEF FEATURES OF THE SERVICE.
The first characteristic difference, however, was
that instead of the Jewish Sabbath, public worship
was observed on Sunday. This was because, as
Justin Martyr stated in his apology to the Emperor
Titus : " Sunday is the day on which we all hold
our common assembly, because it is the first day on
which God, having wrought a change in the dark-
(189)

190 THE POST- APOSTOLIC AGE.
ness and matter, made the world ; and Jesus Christ,
our Saviour, on the same day rose from the dead." *
So Ignatius writes : " Let every disciple of Christ
keep the Lord's Day as a festival, the resunection
day, the queen and chief of all the days of the
week." f The Didache likewise enjoins : " Every
Lord's Day do ye gather yourselves, together." J
This was the most important symbol of the decisive
break with Judaism, and the claim of Christianity
to be a unique and the only true religion.
The singing of hymns was from the earliest time,
after the example of Christ and the apostles (Matt.
xxvi. 30, and Acts xvii. 25), an important feature
of the service. " Spiritual Songs," as the Psalms,
or paraphrases of such Scriptures as were worshipful
were selected. The hymn was a veritable prayer,
offered to God, and not a sensuous appeal to human
emotion. LECTIONARY OF SCRIPTURE LESSONS.
The reading of the Scriptures formed from the
earliest date a principal and fundamental part of
the worship of the Christians, as it ever had of the
Jews. At first, Old Testament lessons were read,
* " First Apology," chap, lxvii.
t " Epistle to Magnesians," chap. x. X Chap. xiv.

PRIMITIVE RITES OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 191
but later, when they had been written, the selec
tions were made from the Gospels and Epistles.
The writings of the apostolic fathers themselves,
such as the Pastor of Hermas and the Epistle of
Clement of Rome were also often read, but only for
edification and not with the authority of the in
spired writings. " These writings were very far
from being thereby placed on an equality, or made
co-ordinate with the canonical Scriptures, and, least
of all, in the primitive times of Christianity," *
which we are sketching.
At first, these lessons were taken at will from any
part of the Scriptures, but later, a regular lection-
ary came to be appointed. " By the end of the
second century fixed tables of lessons for the Festi
vals had been largely adopted." f This was done
evidently for two reasons : to present a more com
plete synopsis of the life of Christ and the essen
tial doctrines of Christianity, and also to secure
uniformity, the Church everywhere joining in the
same lessons at a common time. This plan also
emphasized the chief events in the life of Christ,
and naturally led to the idea of a Church Year.
* Guericke's " Christian Antiquities," p. 212.
t Ibid., p. 214.

192 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
About the end of the sixth century such a lec-
tionary or order of lessons for all the Sundays of
the Christian year had been established. It is
essentially the table common to the churches to
day using an historic liturgy. When the Gospel
was announced it was the custom of the congre
gation, out of reverence to it as the Word of God, to
rise. " While the Gospel is read, let all the pres
byters and deacons and all the people stand up in
great silence, for it is written : ' Be silent, and hear,
O Israel ' (Deut. xxvii. 8). And, again : ' But do
thou stand there and hear' " (Deut. v. 31).*
CENTRAL PLACE OF THE SERMON.
The reading of the Scriptures was followed by
the sermon, which was less of an ambitious, rhetor
ical character, and more of an expository, practical
nature. The sermon, in tribute to its importance,
occupied a central position in the service. The
minister, as he ascended to the pulpit, prepared
himself by a moment of silent prayer, a habit that
no doubt guarded him from introducing secular
themes, and wandering into current sensational
discussions, which might attract the crowd of
superficial curiosity seekers.
* " Constitutions of the Holy Apostles," Book II., sec. 7.

PRIMITrVE RITES OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 1 93
The sermon was followed by the prayer or
prayers, which were considered as an answer of the
congregation for the Word proclaimed and ex
pounded. The congregation, instructed and warmed
in heart and quickened in conscience, was thought
to be prepared more devoutly to offer worship.
This practice of the ancient Church has been re
versed in the practice of the Reformed Protestant
Churches. It, however, remains the usage of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church throughout the
world. The attitude in prayer was standing, in contrast
to the Jewish kneeling, and in testimony of the
light and joy of the worshiper's approaching to
God in view of the glad tidings of grace and re
demption. The prayer, according to the Didache, was pre
faced by a confession of sins. " In the Church
thou shalt acknowledge thy transgressions, and
thou shalt not come near for thy prayer with an
evil conscience." * This indicates a vivid sense of
sin. The Lord's Prayer was most prominently
used.f * " Teachings of the Twelve Apostles," chap. iv.
tlbid., chap. viii.
13

194 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
The sacrament of the Lord^s Supper, which was
celebrated every Sunday, constituted the central
and crowning part of the service. It was preceded
by an exhortation to communicants to join ear
nestly in the preparatory confession of sin. " The
elements in the Lord's Supper were consecrated to
their sacramental purpose by a prayer of praise and
thanksgiving, together with a recital of the words
of institution which contained a proclamation of
the death of Christ"* The wine was mingled
with water, indicating that it was fermented. As
the principles of the Manichean sect forbade their
use of wine, they communicated only in one kind —
bread. This usage was condemned by the ancient
Church as heretical. It insisted on communion in
both kinds, sub utraque specie, and required this of
every member, f A prayer of intercession was then
offered for the whole Church and its ministers, for
kings and all in authority, for soldiers and sailors,
for all Christians, for the city and its inhabitants,
for those in affliction or under persecution, for all
the absent members of the Church, for enemies, for
those who had relapsed, and for such members of
*Kurtz's " Church History," sec. 17, p. 62.
t Chrysostom, Horn. XVIII.

PRIMITIVE RITES OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 1 95
the congregation as had fallen asleep, but who
in Christ were still alive. To these prayers the
congregation answered, " Amen." All then joined
in the Lord's Prayer. The communicants then came
to the altar and the distribution followed. A hymn
and thanksgiving followed: "Now that we have
received the precious body and the precious blood
of Christ, let us give thanks to Him who has
thought us worthy to partake of these holy mys
teries," * etc. The congregation then knelt (show
ing that kneeling also had its proper place) for the
benediction, or prayer of blessing, and the service
was over.
We observe in these primitive rites of public
worship a number of instructive particulars. There
remains, as yet, the purity of the Gospel, with no
amalgam of later Romish errors. Spirituality, rev
erence and dignity characterize the liturgic usages.
They constitute a distinctly religious service, every
tendency of which is to incite to piety and com
munion with God.
By the side of the prominence given the preach
ing of the Word, we note also the emphasis ac
corded the Sacrament. It is regarded as an essen-
*" Constitutions of the Holy Apostles," Book VIII., p. 15.

196 THE POST- APOSTOLIC AGE.
tial sustenance of the Christian life. A Christian
lives not alone by the Word, but by the grace com
municated by the sacrament, constituted by the
Word. Emphasis is thus placed upon full com
munion with the Church as the only true position
for a genuine Christian life.
And we note the brevity and simplicity of the
service. It is so adapted to human nature as to en
courage the hearty expression of the sense of wor
ship without depressing it by tedious and redundant
forms. PUBLIC WORSHIP RESPONSIVE.
We mark, too, that this primitive worship is re
sponsive. The minister is simply the leader. He
does not act as its representative for the people, but
the congregation takes its own part, joins audibly
in the worship, and, in its own person, makes ap
proach to the mercy-seat. The responses not only
fan the devotional flame, but give all a share. This
is the true ideal — congregational worship.
We observe, moreover, that the service is a thor
oughly ordered one. It is not left to the optional
guidance of unlettered laymen, tending to scenes of
disorder, nor even to the caprice of the officiating
minister. But the Christian consciousness, gradu
ally acquiring a well rounded conception of a full,

PRIMITIVE RITES OF PUM.IC WORSHIP. 197
judicious service, expresses itself in an order, which
is authoritatively prescribed, so that the service be
comes representative of the pious and intelligent
judgment of the whole Church.
Such an ordered service, uniting the worship of
the fathers with that of their posterity, and blend
ing in unison, by Creed, Litany, Glorias, etc., the
worship of God's people in an universal service of
praise, must, of necessity, be liturgic.
Bishop Lightfoot culls attention to the prayer
with which Clement closes his Epistle to the
Corinthians, remarking that its careful fonn, clus
tered petitions, balanced clauses and rhythmical
cadences indicate no extemporaneous production,
but point to it as a liturgical fonn, elaborated by
time and usage. From such evidences liturgical
prayers must have originated in the earliest historic
periods of Christianity. ANTIQUITY OF LITURGIC FORMS.
In the primitive period these liturgic fonns or
orders were used and preserved but by oral tra
dition. At a somewhat later period, they began
to appear in written fonns. The most important
of these ancient liturgies are those of St. James,
or of the Church of Jerusalem ; the liturgy of

198 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
St Mark, or of the Church of Alexandria, and the
Clementine Liturgy, that given in the eighth book
of the Apostolical Constitutions. Although these
liturgies are not the work of the apostles whose
names they bear, internal evidence proves beyond
dispute that they are not later than the latter part
of the second century.
And, as at the time we meet them, they are elab
orately constructed and of wide authority, and since
such common forms must have had slow growth, it
is reasonable to conclude that their historic roots
strike far back into the antecedent past ^H n°t
improbably into the apostolic age. Thus, in the
year 347, we find Cyril, Bishop of Jerusalem, in
structing his catechumens in the prescribed church
services and giving them the rationale of them, as
suming that the order is a settled, well-known and
venerable one, handed down, at least, from sub-
apostolic times.
These were all true liturgies ; the}- were adapted
to the use of the congregation. The worship was
responsive throughout ; the people reply at all the
appropriate places, " Domine Miserere;" " Mise
rere Nostri," " Deus Salvator Noster," etc. They
repeat aloud the oratio dominica — the Lord's

PRIMITIVE RITES OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 199
Prayer — they resound the creed and doxology, and
at the end of all tlie prayers swells tlie chonis of
tlie "Amen." This made a true service for tlie
people (Aeirovpyia), and justified the concluding
prayer of thanksgiving : " O God, who hast given
us grace with one accord to make these our com
mon supplications unto Thee," etc. These litur
gies are also " saeramentaries," t, e\, contain orders
for the Lord's Supper, assuming it an integral part
of a full Christian service.
That as we have them, the}- have been elaborated
from the simplicity and to some extent from the
doctrinal purity of primitive worship, is true.
Nevertheless, on tlie whole, they are rich and
precious storehouses of the vital truths of the
Gospel, and almost inimitable expressions of the
sweetness and power of Christian prayer and praise,
and were wonderfully fitted to nourish tlie spirit of
piety on the part of the congregation. And they
abide as great historic testimonies of the convic
tions of the Primitive and Mediaeval Church to the
value of liturgic usage.
THE REFORMATION AND THE CHURCH SERVICE.
The great religious movement of the sixteenth
century was not a work of destruction, but of re -

200 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
formation. And this principle Luther applied to
rites and usages as well as to doctrine. Accord
ingly, in 1523, Luther issued his Order of Public
Worship and Communion, which was not a new
liturgy, but the historic Church service, pruned of
corrupt and redundant ceremonies, so as to be re
stored to internal harmony with the worship of the
Primitive Church. The Latin was displaced by
the vernacular of the people. " The sermon has a
greatly increased importance, and the purity of
doctrine is most carefully guarded ; church-song
takes a new flight ; a few new features are added ;
but the whole outline and structure of the Western
Church for a thousand years before the Reforma
tion are preserved.
" Whatever was pure and scriptural was retained
in the old order of parts, and thus the continuity of
Christian worship in all centuries and places was
kept unbroken. This order of Luther became the
basis of all Protestant orders." The universal dis
position seems now to be the return to the liturgic
use which prevailed immediately after the Refor
mation, and nothing argues more brightly for the
spiritual power and unity of Protestantism.

CHAPTER XXIII.
JOY IN MARTYRDOM. THE CATACOMBS.
IT was characteristic of the sagacious spirit of
Imperial Rome, in its world-conquering policy as
well as in its religious indifference, to exercise re
ligious toleration. A conquered country, upon its
union with the empire, could retain the right to
the practice of its distinctive faith and worship.
As illustrative of this broad, liberal spirit, an an
cient tradition states that the Emperor Tiberius
was so impressed by the report made to him of the
scenes attendant on the crucifixion, that he pro
posed to the senate the enrollment of Christ among
the Roman gods and the erection of a statue in his
honor. But two considerations differentiating Christian
ity from all other religions soon attracted attention
and wrought a change in the imperial policy. One
was that Christianity claimed not to be a national,
or a racial, but a universal religion. It was all-
embracing in its scope. Thus it would naturally
tend to the subversion of the established Roman
(201)

202 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
religion. The second was, that it asserted itself as
unique. It was the one only religion. It was the
true religion. Others were not merely akin to it as
members in the one great family of religions, but
were in error, were largely false, were perversions
of the faith and worship of the only true and living
God. Hence, the Christians, for conscience sake, re
fused to do that to which those holding other faiths
did not object, viz., to offer incense to the Roman
emperors as deities. As religion was intimately in
terwoven with the Roman state, this refusal was
not merely regarded as impious, but as an act of
disloyalty. The Roman people, also, were not slow
to perceive that the Christians, who had attained
the soul enlightenment of the gospel, looked with
scorn and derision upon the Pagan images of dei
ties, and regarded their worship as profane, and
felt the deepest contempt for the superstitious and
absurd rites of the popular religion.
Add to this the tremendous energy of the Chris
tians, the indomitable purpose with which they set
about the overthrow of all rival religions, their
willingness to endure all sacrifices for their belief,
their untiring aggressiveness, and the marvelous

JOY IN MARTYRDOM. THE CATACOMBS. 203
strides with which the new religion was making
progress on all sides, and it is not to be wondered
at that the Roman rulers took alarm.

PRIMITIVE PERSECUTION OF CHRISTIANS.
So widespread had the Christian faith already
become that, in the year no, Pliny, the Roman
governor of Judea, complains to the Emperor
Trajan that, owing to the prevalence of this per
nicious heresy, the temples and worship of the
Roman gods are practically deserted. Feeling,
therefore, the necessity of self-preservation, the
most energetic measures of repression were taken.
It was made unlawful to profess publicly, or to
practice the rites of the Christian faith, or to have
in keeping the Christian Scriptures.
The first persecution was begun by the Emperor
Nero in the year 64. Under Domitian, twenty
years later, the property of Christians was confis
cated and the professors banished from the empire.
Under Trajan, about the year 100, Christian pro
fession was made punishable with death by fire or
wild beasts, and thence the horrors of persecution
raged with pitiless fury for two long, bloody cen
turies.

204 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
The demeanor of the disciples of the Nazarene
prophet under this ordeal has written one of the
most glowing chapters in the annals of history.
The primitive Christians, taught, no doubt, by our
Lord's rebuke of Peter's denial, and by His own
unmoved confession before Pontius Pilate, felt that
to deny the Lord was an act of unworthy betrayal.
They saw, too, that the Roman persecution aimed
at the total extermination of Christianity, and that
should they prove inconstant, Christianity would
fail of its world-saving mission.
We know how human nature shrinks from extra
ordinary sacrifices, and how the body quivers under
excruciating agonies, and hence, no matter how
strong their motives, we can never sufficiently won
der at the attitude of this age toward the fiery
ordeal of martyrdom. CONSTANCY OF THE MARTYRS.
Polycarp, the aged bishop of Smyrna, when the
prefect besought him, in deference to his great age,
to save himself by offering homage to Csesar, made
the heroic answer : " Eighty and six years have I
served Him, and He has ever been faithful to me.
How, then, can I blaspheme my King and my

JOY IN MARTYRDOM. THE CATACOMBS. 205
Saviour ? " * And joyfully he went to the stake,
exclaiming : " He will give me strength to endure
the fire."
Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, about to be thrown
to the lions, so fortifies himself to the test that
he looks forward with yearning to so glorious a
confession of his crucified Lord. For he counsels
the Christians thus : " Pray, then, do not seek to
confer any greater favor upon me than that I be
sacrificed to God while the altar is still prepared,
that being gathered together in love, ye may sing
praise." f
Clement holds up these examples for the inspira
tion of others. " Let us take the noble examples of
spiritual heroes furnished in our own generation.
The great multitude of the elect, who, having en
dured extreme indignities and tortures, furnished us
with a most excellent example." J And Polycarp
characterizes "the chains worn for Christ as the
fitting ornaments of saints, and which are, indeed,
the diadems of the true elect of God." §
* Epistle of the Church at Smyrna on the Martyrdom of Poly
carp, chaps, ix. and xiii.
t Epistle to the Romans, chap. ii.
J Epistle to the Romans, chap. ii.
\ Epistle to the Philippians, chap. i.

206 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
The refusal to confess Christ, though exposed to
severest tortures, was universally deemed treason to
the faith, and such were excluded from the com
munion of the Church. On the other hand, those
remaining faithful and escaping with their lives,
earned the honorable title " confessors," while those
constant unto death attained the illustrious name,
" martyrs." This constancy was illustrated not alone by
strong men, but by women and even young and
tender girls, as it is recorded of Blandina, that,
scourged, her body scorched on a red-hot iron chair,
and her limbs torn by wild beasts, her last joyful
utterance was the confession, "I die a Christian."
So, Perpetua, of noble family, a mother of twenty-
two years, with her infant in her arms, and her
weeping father enticing her to yield, remained true
to the faith, tossed on the horns of a wild cow.
The soldier, Basilides, who was charged to immerse
the beautiful Potamisena slowly in boiling pitch,
was so moved by her heroic fidelity that he himself
embraced Christianity and was beheaded.
PAINTINGS AND INSCRIPTIONS OF THE CATACOMBS.
At a still later period, the catacombs bear
thrilling witness to the sufferings and heroism of

JOY IN MARTYRDOM. THE CATACOMBS. 207
the primitive martyrs. The catacombs are under
ground galleries and chambers cut in the soft vol
canic rock which abounds in the vicinity of Rome.
The passages, if extended in a straight line, would
reach for several hundred miles. They are only a
few feet wide, so as to make passage possible.
These paths and chambers were used at first by
the Christians as cemeteries. During the perse
cutions they were selected as hiding places, as re
treats from persecution, and as places where the
forbidden worship could be secretly conducted.
Bishops were often hidden in these gloomy recesses
for years. Tertullian speaks of a " lady unaccus
tomed to privation, trembling in one of these dark
vaults, apprehensive of the capture of her maid, on
whom she depends to secretly bring her daily
bread." Great numbers of martyrs were interred in these
catacombs, and the inscriptions can still be read.
One of the tombs states that five hundred and fifty
are therein buried. The inscriptions are most
touching, as, " Primitius, in peace, after many tor
ments. A most valiant martyr. His wife erected
this to her very sweet and excellent husband."
" Here lies Gordeanus, deputy from Gaul, who was

208 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
martyred for his faith, with all his family. May
they rest in peace. Their handmaid, Theophila,
made this." The word most frequently found is,
Peace. " Being called away, he went in peace."
"I'll rest in peace." "Thou dost rest in peace."
" He sleeps in hope." " He went to God." " Not
lost, but gone before." " Alterna requies felici-
talis," i. e., " Everlasting rest of happiness." "In
pace decessit " : " He departed in peace."
These inscriptions are in marked contrast to the
Pagan ones. On these we find affection and ten
derness, but very faint hope. Here are some
of them : " I was not, I am, I shall not be."
" Here it is. So it is. Nothing else could be."
Here I lie in darkness, unhappy girl ! " "I lift my
hands against the gods, who took me away at the
age of twenty, though I had done no harm." " Our
hope was in our boy ; now all is grief and ashes."
A more striking commentary on the difference
between Christianity and merely natural religions
could not be found than in the faith and despair
contrasted in these epitaphs.
The number of martyrs buried here is very large,
noted as running into hundreds of thousands. It
is sufficient, at least, to justify the tribute of the

JOY IN MARTYRDOM. THE CATACOMBS. 209
Te Deum ; " The noble army of martyrs praise
Thee." We find in these catacombs the earliest instances
of Christian art And the symbolic lessons they
teach are very significant as to the spirit of Chris
tianity as interpreted by its confessors of that age.
What is remarkable is, that in the face of such
hardships and rigors and sufferings, life is not shad
owed, but its prevalent tone is that of peace, hope
and joy. PORTRAITS OF CHRIST.
The oldest portrait of Christ is in one of these
catacombs, the cemetery of Domiulla — a grand
daughter of the Emperor \ "espasian. Another is
on a sarcophagus of a later period. Both of these
portraits are full of dignity and gravity, and the
representations of Christ that adhere most faith
fully to their expression are superior to later ideal
ones. Jesus is not represented as suffering on the cross
or with head crowned with thorns, but as a Shep
herd in the bloom of youthful manhood, with a
countenance of cheerful, tender grace. Often
He is carrying a lamb in His arms. Always He
wears a sweet gentle expression of face. All
14

2IO THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
these pictures are symbols of hope ; they suggest
faith and comfort. In these gloomy caverns noth
ing is gloomy. The earliest of the pictures are the
brightest, cheeriest, most hopeful of all. The
scenes are those of pleasant places. Beautiful
grape vines climb over the walls ; little birds sit on
the branches and peck at the grapes.
There is a picture of the baptism of our Lord in
the Jordan. His feet stand in the edge of the river
and John the Baptist pours the water from a cup
on His head.
Little assurance do Romanists find for some of
their cardinal beliefs from these ancient paintings.
There are many representations of Peter and Paul.
But they are always depicted as equals, some
times one on one side of Christ and the other on
the other. Had the primitive Christians believed
in the primacy of Peter we might expect to find at
least one representation of our Lord giving the
keys to him as head of the Church. But there is
no suggestion of the kind. That theological fig
ment has not been discovered at this historic stage.
Nor does the Virgin Mary ever appear as receiving-
extraordinary homage. She is simply depicted as
the Virgin Mother holding the Blessed Babe, who

JOY IN MARTYRDOM. THE CATACOMBS. .211
receives the adoration. Instead of receiving
prayers, she is herself kneeling in the act of prayer.
Nor does the nimbus, an invention of a later the
ology of superstition, ever appear about her head.
JOYOUSNESS OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART.
Dean Stanley, after portraying the melancholy
and brooding despair shrouding the spirits of the
leading Pagans, amid all the beauties of classic
literature, and the reveling in opulence and luxury,
points to this contrast of the teaching of the mural
art of the catacombs : " The graves of these poor
sufferers, hid from the public eye in the catacombs,
were decorated with an art, rude indeed, yet so tri
umphant as to make their subterranean squalor
radiant with emblems of all that is brightest and
most poetic in the happiness of man. While the
glimmering taper of the Stoics was burning pale,
as though amid the vapors of a charnel-house, the
torch of Life, upheld by the hands of the Tarsian
tent-maker and the Galilean fisherman had flashed
from Damascus to Antioch, from Antioch to
Athens, from Athens to Corinth, from Corinth to
Ephesus, from Ephesus to Rome."
* "The Early Days of Christianity,'' chap, i., p. 10.

212 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
And Martineau speaks thus eloquently : " There
the evergreen leaf protests in sculptural silence
that the winter of the grave cannot touch the
saintly soul, the blossoming branch' speaks of vernal
suns beyond the snows of this chill world ; the
good shepherd shows from his benign looks that
the mortal way, so terrible to nature, had become
to those Christians as the meadow-path between the
grassy slopes and beside the still waters." *
A wonderful illustration, sorely needed in our era
of an ease and luxury that often tend to material
ism and effeminacy of character, is the fortitude
here shown, illustrative of that Scripture : " This is
the victory that overcometh the world, even your
faith." f There we learn how far the soul is
stronger than the body, and how the immaterial
element in man can triumph over the mightiest
outward forces. And how faith can so strengthen
itself in the divine as to meet all earthly perils and
powers with patience, and even with a masterful
joy- it even came to be regarded as so sure a test of
Christian fidelity, and to be felt that the noble con
fession made by martyrdom would bring into so
* " Hours of Thought," p. 155. f x John v. 4.

JOY. IN MARTYRDOM. THE CATACOMBS. 213
much more intimate a relation with the Lord, that
despite the crucible of anguish, it was sought
with gladness. The courage of Christians grew
stronger in the midst of dangers and horrors. " An
enthusiasm for martyrdom sprang up, a desire to
win an eternal heaven through a few hours of suf
fering. Martyrdom came to be believed to be the
surest road to heaven, better than all good works.
The Christians offered themselves to die — seeking
persecutions, glorying in shame." " These tortures,"
said St. Basil, " so far from being a terror, are rather
a pleasure." " Kill us, rack us, grind us to powder,"
says Tertullian, " our numbers increase in propor
tion as you mow us down." *
Undoubtedly, the apostolic fathers did believe
that constancy to a good confession brought a
special reward, yet there is manifest no visionary
or intemperate enthusiasm in their conception.
Thus, Clement speaks "of the noble steadfastness
of the martyrs, and of the striking example of
patience " f given by their firmness. And Hermas
gives this incitement to fidelity : " All who have
suffered for the name of the Lord are honorable be-
* " Events and Epochs in Religious History," Clarke, p. 19.
f First Epistle, chap. v.

214 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
fore God. Ye who suffer for His name ought to
gldtify God because He deemed you worthy to bear
His name, that all your sins might be remitted." *
Arid, following- in the line of our Lord's promise to
James and John, if they should be baptized with
His baptism, it is said that those " who have borne
scourges, prisons, crosses, wild beasts, great tribu
lations for God's name's sake, shall sit on God's
right hand." But, then, to show the sober script
ural view of the writer, it is added, " But both for
those who sit on the right, and for those who sit on
the left, there are the same gifts and promises." t
A GLORIOUS EPOCH OF CHRISTIAN HISTORY.
The unflinching courage of the Christians of this
prirnitive age, and their endurance of martyrdom in
its extremest form in an era of barbaric cruelty, con
stitute riot only the most glorious epoch in Chris
tianity, but in the history of our race. Man}- sad
and degrading things have made the annals of man
kind often a most humiliating one, but here we
see it transfigured with a splendor that glorifies our
coinmori humanity.
* " Pastor of Hermas," Book III., " Similitude," IX.
t Ibid., Book I., Vision III., chap. ii.

JOY IN MARTYRDOM. THE CATACOMBS. 215
We see, with all the lack of appreciation for it,
what a priceless treasure religion is to the soul
that realizes its value, and what it will sacrifice and
endure before it will abjure its unspeakable hope.
We learn, too, the power of the Christian faith.
The adherents of heathen religions have, too, been
willing to die for their beliefs, but never would they
have the settled, patient strength of conviction to
endure, as did the early Christians, the power of
raging, all-powerful persecution for century after
century. And this faith at last exhausted all the
resources of the persecutors. The blood of the
martyrs only became the seed of the Church. And
when the last of the Pagan emperors, Julian, saw
the final collapse of the resort to bloody force, and
dying, exclaimed, " Tandem vicisti Galilcee ! "—
"At length thou hast conquered, O Galilean!"
The victory of Christianity was complete.
As was the fierceness of the trial of the early be
lievers, such was their invisible help. And, as the
disciples who witnessed the martyrdom of their
beloved bishop, Polycarp, thought they saw the
fire, instead of burning his body, shaping itself into
an arch about him, so that it but shed a golden
halo upon his person, so may we believe that, as her

2l6 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
visions came again to Joan of Arc when the flames
burst about her, the ascended Lord was with the
saints in spirit, if not in vision, to strengthen them
until, the fiery crucible over and the victory won,
they received their heavenly crown.
The constancy of the martyrs has shown the in
vincibility of the soul stayed on Christ, and the in
destructibility of the Christian Church. It excited
the wonder of the Pagans ; it silenced the mockery
of infidels ; it convinced the serious inquirers of the
supernatural sanction of the religion of Jesus. It
will forever be the heroic age to which Christians,
amid new perils to the faith, can return for a new
birth of that devotion and courage which will en
able them to evince a no less unshaken constancy
and to win a no less memorable victory.

CHAPTER XXIV.
EDUCATIONAL RELIGIOUS METHODS. THE EARLY
CHURCH AND CHRISTIAN NURTURE.
The qualities equal to times that try men's souls
are not of sudden growth. Patience is not born in
a night. Courage and endurance are the results of
a process. Character, that has issued from the
formative forces of instruction and experience, can
alone withstand the severe onsets of temptation.
The vessel most carefully constructed, whose hull
has been fitted by painstaking preparation to meet
coming shocks, though later in launching, will
most safely ride the dangers of the deep.
This principle was well understood by the early
Christians. There was no use in hastily-made con
verts. They could not afford to resort to emotional
methods. Such additions would be but a source of
weakness. Those who, like the seed sown on the
rock would hastily spring up, but for lack of root
in time of temptation fall away, would only weaken
the cause. Disciples must be well grounded in
their profession. Their convictions must be deep
(217)

2l8 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
in order to hold. Their confidence must be rational
to meet the challenges it must encounter. To
make answer for the faith that is in them, their be
liefs must be intelligently embraced. To overcome
in so hot a warfare, they must be armed with the
whole panoply of defence. Not to lose heart under
trial, they must have given proof of deep, genuine
and thorough spiritual renewal.
THE CATECHUMENATE.
Hence, the methods of the primitive period were
adapted to effect these solid results. The greatest
care was exercised in the reception of members.
Adults and youth of an understanding age were di
vided into two or three classes, in which they under
went a course of thorough instruction. " The
Church was profoundly earnest in its preparation.
The more sensible the ancient Church was of the
fact that merely nominal Christians intruded them
selves too often into the communion of the Church,
the more seriously did it occupy itself with the
catechumens. From the beginning of the second
century, such as sought to be incorporated into the
Church received, under the title of catechumens,
preliminary instruction from a teacher expressly

EDUCATIONAL RELIGIOUS METHODS. 2 19
appointed for the purpose. The whole period of
their probation lasted two years." *
The Apostolical Constitutions make the course
three years. This passage will show the cau
tion exercised in the admission of candidates :
" Those that first come to the mystery of godliness,
let them be brought to the minister by the deacons,
and let them be examined as to the causes where-
for they are come to the Word of the Lord. And
let those that bring them inquire exactly about
their character, and give them their testimony. Let
their previous manners and lives be inquired into [to
find that they are tolerating no action or habit in
compatible with a religious profession] . Let him
who is to be a catechumen be a catechumen for
three years. Any candidate who is diligent and
has a good will to his business shall be admitted.
Let him that teaches be skillful in the Word and
grave in his manners, for they shall be all taught
of God." f
The catechumens were instructed in the Script
ures and in the meaning and significance of the
*Guericke's " Christian Antiquities," sec. 31.
t " Constitutions of the Holy Apostles," Book VIII., chap.
xxxii.

220 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
sacraments, and in the Creed, which, at that period,
was transmitted not by writing but by word of
mouth. Before baptism, a definite and positive
profession of faith was demanded in the formulary
prescribed by the Church. At the same time, there
was a careful examination conducted as to their fit
ness. In connection with the baptism, after the
precedent of the Apostolical practice (Acts viii.
1 6, 17), it was customary to bless by the imposition
of hands as a sign of religious consecration, and
also of the gift of the Holy Spirit.
CONFIRMATION AND CHRISTIAN NURTURE.
At a later period this rite, in view of the preva
lence of Infant Baptism, was separated from Bap
tism, and called Confirmation. It then became the
ceremony by which baptized children, having
reached years of intelligent decision, made their
public profession of faith, were received into full
communion with the Church, and admitted to
participation of the Lord's Supper. This they
were only permitted to do after a thorough curricu
lum of study under the pastor or skilled lay teacher.
It was one of the greatest evils in the degeneracy
of the middle ages that this intelligent instruction
of candidates for Church membership had fallen

EDUCATIONAL RELIGIOUS METHODS. 221
into disuse, and that, accordingly, gross igno
rance prevailed among Christians on the essential
doctrines of Christianity. Luther, to remedy this,
prepared his Catechism, in which, by means of a
system of questions and answers, he expounds, as
he says, in a simple manner, " such as it should be
taught by the head of a family," the Ten Command
ments, or divine law ; the Creed, or the plan of re
demption ; the Lord's Prayer ; and the sacraments
of Baptism and the Lord's Supper. Added to les
sons in this Catechism were instruction in the Bible,
in Church History, in the Church Confessions, etc.,
so that the candidates for confirmation were thor
oughly grounded in the essential doctrines of the
faith they were to profess.
This idea of Christian nurture harmonizes with
that of the ancient Church. It is that the child by
baptism is received into the covenant. It is now
a member of the kingdom of God, baptized not
alone with water but with the Holy Ghost. By
this act God has sealed it to Himself, and has im
planted within it the seed of regeneration. Its
sanctification is now a process of growth. There is
to be no sudden conversion, no violent transition
from the world to God, no startling or revolutionary

222 THE POST- APOSTOLIC AGE.
religious experience. But, through Christian nur
ture, the child is to progress in the new life, daily
growing stronger, and bearing maturer fruits of
grace. By this process, it passes naturally to the
stage of confirmation, and, well-grounded and pre
pared, enters into full church communion. This
is the true conception of the position of a child of
Christian parents, instead of the view which would
consider it out of Christ, out of the kingdom, and
out of the reach of salvation, until, in later years,
by a sudden conversion it is admitted to the num
ber of the saved. RELIGIOUS EDUCATION.
This is the theory of Christian nurture based
upon the educational system, and we believe it to
be built upon the teachings of Scripture and sus
tained by the soundest principles of pedagogy, as
it is upheld by the experience and history of the
Church. And it is, we think, to be regretted that
this judicious system has to so large an extent been
deserted by modern practice for that of the revival-
istic method. As compared with the latter, a late
number of the Reformed Church Review remarks
on a new edition of Luther's catechetical writings :
" Since the American churches have for more

EDUCATIONAL RELIGIOUS METHODS. 223
than a century forsaken the educational system of
religion and have largely sunendered their heri
tage to revivalism, we consider this publication
most timely. It sets forth clearly the interdepend
ence of religion and education. Christianity is to
appeal to the intellect and conscience, and to mold
the mind and heart. It is not a mere momentary
experience, a passing ecstasy, or a sporadic emotion.
It is a life which is begotten by the Spirit of God
through His Word. It is nourished by Christian
instruction in the home, the school and the congre
gation. It is sustained by the sacraments and Chris
tian fellowship. In this way only will the churches
develop a normal Christian manhood, increase the
number and holiness of their members, and extend
their borders to the ends of the earth."
Many of the principles of religious pedagogy,
which are now proclaimed as new discoveries, are
only rediscoveries of original Protestant ideals
which were held alike by the reformers of the Lu
theran and Reformed churches. While no one will
deny that great progress has been made in the un
derstanding of the child mind and in the prepara
tion of juvenile literature, we must not forget that
the Reformers were the fathers of these move-

224 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
ments. In a sense, we can go forward only by
going backward to their principles, though we
would not be forever bound by their forms.
MODERN EVANGELISTIC METHODS.
It is sometimes argued that the outpouring of
the Holy Ghost on the Day of Pentecost, and the
conversion of three thousand souls, is an example
countenancing the modern revivalistic idea of a
sudden accession of large numbers. But assuredly
there is nothing analogous in the cases. A very
different method is necessary for the founding of
a Church from that required for its continuance.
That was, as the occasion demanded, a supernatural
outpouring of the Holy Spirit ; now we have
emerged from the miraculous period, and the gift of
the Spirit is in accordance with the natural order.
Our Lord's teaching is certainly the true guide
here. He represented the descent of the Spirit as
silent and imperceptible. " Thou canst not tell
whence it cometh and whither it goeth ; so is
everyone that is born of the Spirit." * The noise
and publicity and demonstration and spectacular
methods necessary to a revivalistic campaign are
*John iii. 7.

EDUCATIONAL RELIGIOUS METHODS. 225
anything but favorable to the deep, silent, powerful
working of the Spirit, as our Lord here portrays
it. It is not amid such scenes that the soul
hears "the still small voice." Further, our Lord
likens the general work of religion on the spirit to
a growth : " First the blade, then the ear, after that
the full corn in the ear." * Here we have out
lined most forcibly the idea of Christian nurture.
And Christ ever insisted on faith, which is an
energy of the will, instead of feeling, which is an
energy of the heart.
Every thoughtful consideration, then, gives the
preference to the ancient and historic method of
making religious converts. The modern method
prevalent in many quarters is emotional instead of
educational. It makes religion a matter of feeling
and impulse instead of intelligent and deliberate
action. Consequently, with the subsidence of the
impulse dies the resolve. The reaction is most
hurtful, if not fatal, to the religious sense. As
Phillips Brooks wrote : " After the fever comes the
chill." It prompts to reliance on special instead of regu
lar effort But the religious life is supported by the
* Mark iv. 28.
15

226 THE POST- APOSTOLIC AGE.
constant and orderly application of means. When
a church loses faith in its regular agencies and de
pends for divine visitations on special and excep
tional efforts, it foregoes its chief and normal
source of strength. It brings into prominence the
individual instead of the Word of God. The regu
lar preacher, through his ordinary ministrations,
cannot win souls, but some remarkably endowed
personality is charged with that extraordinary spir
itual power. Thereby the human instrumentality
is exalted to the depreciation of the divine. But
our faith is not to stand " in the wisdom of men,
but in the power of God."
REGULAR AND ORDERLY RELIGIOUS AGENCIES.
The practice of the primitive Church in this re
spect is most significant. As it was some time be
fore all the churches could be provided with a reg
ular ministry, teachers — variously called apostles
or prophets — made tours of the congregations,
instructing them in the Gospel. But, not only was
the greatest care exercised to see that they be thor
oughly equipped and pure in doctrine, but they
were only entertained as guests, and not permitted
to make but the briefest stay.
The Didache (Teaching of the Twelve Apos-

EDUCATIONAL RELIGIOUS METHODS. 227
ties ) gives these guarded directions respecting
such evangelistic visitors : " Whosoever, therefore,
cometh and teacheth you all these things that
have been taught before, receive him. But con
cerning the apostles and prophets, according to
the decree of the Gospel, thus do. Let every
Apostle [Gospel messenger] that cometh to you be
received as the Lord. But he shall not remain but
one day ; but if there be need, also the next ; but if
he remain three days he is a false prophet. And
when the Apostle goeth away, let him take nothing
but bread until he lodgeth, but if he ask money, he
is a false prophet." * It is evident that such a rule
would reduce quite materially the number of mod
ern professional evangelists. They would find
themselves urgently called to some other business.
So jealously did the early Church guard the pre
rogatives of the settled ministry from the occa
sional religious itinerant.
Once more, the revivalistic method depreciates
the Church and its order. Its special function is the
saving of souls. It is not merely a home to which
those are to resort who have been saved by some
other way. The divine order is that the Holy
* Didache, chap. xi.

228 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
Spirit is not given immediately, but mediately.
The new birth is to be mediated by Word and Sac
rament. It is to be attained through the Means of
Grace. The Means are not to be used as a second
ary thing after conversion. But they are the in
struments by which it is to be wrought. Hence,
the divine order is inverted and the whole plan
of grace confused and totally misconceived by the
revival method. How can fraitful and enduring
results in soul birth and religious culture be ex
pected from work conducted on such unscriptural
and injudicious pedagogical principles.
Accordingly, it is noteworthy that the churches
pursuing the historic educational method are the
growing churches. Their accessions may not at
any one time be so large, but they are regular and
constant. They may not be demonstrative or at
tract so much public attention, but they are last
ing. We conclude with the view lately ex
pressed by Rev. Dr. Charles E. Jefferson : " The
Church has never made lasting conquests, except
where it has used the interlocutory method of in
struction. Instruction — painstaking, continuous,
systematic instruction — this is the crying need of
the Christian Church in our day."

CHAPTER XXV.
THE END OF THE WORLD — OTHER-WORLDLINESS.
Gibbon utters the taunt with respect to the sub-
apostolic time that the believers were so busily pre
paring themselves in heavenly virtues for the ex
pected coming of Christ that " It was not in this
world that the primitive Christians were desirous of
making themselves useful. They were not less
averse to the business than to the pleasures of this
world." * Yet then, on the next page, he shows
that " this contempt of the world " " exercised them
in the habits of humility, meekness and patience,"
" inured them to chastity, temperance, economy
and all the domestic virtues," prompted them to
unselfishness and charity, and kept them from any
acts "disturbing the public peace of society." It
would be hard to specify qualities constituting
more valuable citizens and more desirable neigh
bors. The fact that their lives were in such pointed
* "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," Vol. I., chap.
xv. (229)

230 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
contrast to the immorality and pitiless selfishness
of the surrounding Pagans, certainly shows that the
love of their fellow-men and the desire to be useful
were animating and dominant purposes. The taunt
is one that has often been made against a spiritual-
minded society, and with as little ground.
The early Christians did, indeed, look for the
coming end of the world. Thus writes Clement :
" Of a truth, soon and suddenly shall His will be
accomplished, as the Scripture also bears witness :
' the Lord shall suddenly come to His temple, even
the Holy One.' " * As the prophecy of Malachi in
which this prophecy of Christ's speedy coming to
end the world had already been delayed for five
hundred years, we can understand with what caution
as to undue expectation Clement here applies it.
Again, Polycarp writes : " He comes as the Judge
of the quick and the dead." f Whereupon he fol
lows this warning with an exhortation to "forgive
and it shall be forgiven you ; be merciful and ye
shall obtain mercy," and to the practice of those
virtues of love and gentleness and patience, which
banish the asperities and enhance the sweetness of
* Epistle of Clement, chap, xxiii.
t Epistle to the Philippians, chap. ii.

THE END OF THE WORLD. 23 1
life. Ignatius : " He also died and rose again and
ascended into the heavens to Him that sent Him,
and is set down at His right hand, and shall come
at the end of the world, with His Father's glory, to
judge the living and the dead, and to render to
everyone according to his works." *
No stronger allusions to the end of the world
than these are made in any of their works. It is
noticeable that these references are chiefly in
Christ's own words, and refer as much to His glory
as to their importance as warnings. They are
marked by strength and dignity, and are no more
declarative and emphatic than the Church's con
fession of the second coming made in the ecumen
ical creeds to-day. Nowhere is there the slightest
intimation that the primitive Christians looked for
such a speedy coming of the end of all things as to
loosen their hold on the present, or relax their in
terest in the instant duties of life.
There is not a particle of evidence that extrava
gant views on the Parousia were held. There is
no fanatical assembling on some mountain-top, like
the Millerites, anayed in white robes, expecting the
Lord's sudden descent. They only held, as Christ
* Epistle to the Magnesians, chap. xiii.

232 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
meant believers to hold, that His second coming
and the end of the world impended over every age,
and that they should ever " be looking and hasting
unto the coming of the day of the Lord." >
That is, they viewed life under the aspect of
eternity. And this but gave it a vaster scope, and
clothed it with a greater grandeur.
ONLY SINFUL PLEASURES SHUNNED.
That they largely kept aloof from participation
in the pleasures of the age was owing to the natural
tendency of every time for excess in these, but also
especially to the fact that these pleasures were in
the hands of the heathen, and could not be entered
into without sharing the immoral vices with which
they were associated.
It is only sinful pleasures against which they
warn. As Clement : " Seeing, therefore, that we
are the portion of the Hoi}- One, let us do all
those things which pertain to holiness, avoiding all
evil speaking, all impure embraces, together with
drunkenness and execrable pride. But moderation,
humility and meekness belong to such as are blessed
by Him." f
:t 2 Peter iii. 12. '< First Epistle, chap. xxx.

THE END OF THE WORLD. 233
Similarly, they largely abstained from business
for the most valid reasons. They could hold no
public office, or be members of the Roman senate,
for each member, on taking his seat, was required
to offer incense at the Pagan altar. And acts of
similar idolatry were connected with banquets and
festivals, so that they could not consistently take
part in them.
For Christians thus to live in a dominant heathen
society, where there was such a contrariety in all
their beliefs, principles and motives of conduct, was
a most difficult thing. And to maintain their
Christian character and to gain respect and influ
ence for the faith they professed, it was absolutely
necessary that they keep themselves from compro
mising associations.
But, further than this, they did not stand aloof.
They exhibited no fanatical indifference to earthly
tasks and human interests. A remarkable proof of
this is their repudiation of Montanism. The Mon-
tanists did seek to have Christians maintain an ex
clusive attitude to the heathen and to lead lives of
the severest rigor and to have the Church exercise
the strictest discipline in view of the near coming
of Christ, but the judicious common sense of Chris-

234 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
tiaus condemned this sect as extreme. " By the con
demnation and expulsion of Montanism, in which
the inner development of the Post-Apostolic Age
reached its special and distinctive conclusion, the
endeavor to naturalize Christianity among the so
cial customs of the worldly life was certainly legit
imized by the Church, and could now be unrestrict
edly carried out in a wider and more comprehen
sive way." *
PRIMITIVE PIETY NOT ASCETIC OR SINGULAR.
The Epistle to Diognetus defines the primitive
position in these significant terms : " For the Chris
tians are distinguished from other men neither by
country, nor language, nor the customs which they
observe. They do not lead a life which is marked
out by any singularity. But, inhabiting Greek as
well as barbarian cities, according as the lot of each
of them has determined, and following the customs
of the natives in respect to language, clothing, food
and the rest of their ordinary conduct, they display
their confessedly wonderful method of life. They
are in the flesh, but they do not live after the flesh.
They pass their days on earth, but they are citizens
of heaven. They obey the prescribed laws, and, at
* Kurtz's " Church History," Vol. I., p. 73.

Till'. KN1> OK THE WORLD. 235
the same time, surpass the laws by their lives.
They love all men and arc persecuted by all. They
are poor, yet make many rich." *
A finer portraiture than this of the Christian
character could not be painted. It is in perfect har
mony with our Lord's charge to His disciples that
they should not be taken "out of the world " and
" yet not be of the world." t And with St. Paul's
counsel, to " use the world as not abusing it." X hi
short, they illustrated that acute thought of Charles
Kingsley as to the large and discreet wisdom with
which Christians view worldly things: "None
know less of the world than those who pride them
selves on being men of the world. For the true
light, which shines all around them, they do not
see, and therefore they do not see the truth of
things of the light." §
There was no asceticism in the maimers of the
primitive Christians. Their lives showed an equal
balance between temporal pleasures on the one hand
and a one-sided spirituality on the other. Their
other-worldliness was of a true type. They led
* Epistle to Diognetus, chap. v.
(John xvii. 16. t 1 t-,°r- v»i- 3'-
$ "Truths from Kingsley," p. at.

236 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
holy lives, evincing to all that their minds were
not immersed in temporal pleasures, but that while
they enjoyed with thankful hearts the good things
of life, they were "seekers for a city that hath
foundations, whose builder and maker is God."
They associated freely with unbelievers that their
faith and piety and hope might be a leaven to re
generate and save them. But in so doing, they
took good care that the reproach could not be cast
upon them that they worshiped Mammon, and
sought as eagerly after perishing prizes as did the
surrounding Pagans.
In short, their other-worldliness was one of the
most unanswerable arguments and one of the loud
est sermons in favor of Christianity. And if be
lievers to-day only illustrated the same ideals, it
would take away much reproach from the Church
and mightily tend to win the world to Christ.

CHAPTER XXVI.
THE APOSTOLIC FATHERS AND THE FUTURE
STATE.
The apostolic fathers lived in an environment of
gloom with respect to the future. The greater the
thinker the deeper were his misgivings and doubts.
Life, to the vision penetrating into the heart of it,
and taking into account its hopeless end, was es
teemed rather a tragedy than a blessing.
The symbols by which the Pagan writers de
scribed man were those of sadness without hope.
To Homer they were a generation of " leaves," to
Pindar a " shadowy dream," to .ZEschylus " phan
toms " passing away. Sophocles, in the " GSdipus,"
thus bewails their fate : " Happiest never to have
been born, and never to see the piercing rays of the
sun ; and for one who is born soon to pass through
the gates of Hades, and to lie deep under the earth."
These were the bitter refrains of an earlier Pagan
time, but that no further light had been gained since
the era of Homer and Socrates is shown by the say
ing of Pliny : " Many have thought it the best lot
(237)

238 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
never to have been born, or to have died very
speedily," and the sentiment of Plutarch :
" Come, O death, thou true physician for all our ills ;
Thou heaven, that shelterest man from the storm of pain."
The deep notes of subdued despair which sound
from the innermost hearts of these writers show
what a crushing burden it is to thinkers brooding
over the deepest problems of life to contemplate the
black abyss of the extinction of being.
But in what a different realm of thought do
we find ourselves when we look into these early
Christian writers. Nothing can give us a more
vivid glimpse of the revolution on this darkest
question of the ages inaugurated by the teachings
of Jesus. Here life wears the glow of eternity.
Death has been abolished. The grave has lost its
gloom. All over the mysteries and crosses and
sorrows of life arches the rainbow of hope. We
have passed from darkness to light, from defeat to
victory, from wails of despair to songs of triumph.
The transit from the Pagan to the Christian era is
as the entrance upon another world.
Polycarp : "If we please God in this present
world, we shall receive also the future world, ac.

APOSTOLIC FATHERS AND THE FUTURE STATE. 239
cording as Christ has promised that He will raise
us again, and that if we live worthily of Him, we
shall also reign together with Him." *
IMMORTALITY AND BODILY RESURRECTION.
Immortality is assumed as settled beyond ques
tion. Nor is the future state to be that of a disem
bodied spiritual existence. Clement : " Let us con
sider, beloved, how the Lord continually proves to
us that there shall be a future resurrection, of which
He has rendered the Lord Jesus Christ the first-
fruits by raising Him from the dead." t " For I
know," says Ignatius, "that after His resunection
Christ was still in the flesh, and I believe Him to
be so now, for after His resurrection He did eat
and drink with them." t Not, then, was this life
to be that hoped for by the ancients, where the
unhappy shades bewail the loss of those senses
which gave zest to existence. But as the soul was
to live, so was the body to rise. And, though it
was to be changed, yet this change was not to take
from it the qualities of body. Though, then, it is
to be a spiritual as against a natural, it is none the
* Epistle, chap. v. j First Epistle, chap. xxiv.
i Epistle to Trallians, chap. ix.

240 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
less to be a real body, instrument and servant of the
spirit. Their view is in harmony with that of Mar-
tensen : " When we speak of the resurrection of
the body, or of the flesh, we do not mean literally
those sensible materials making up our present
frame, which in this life even are in a continual
state of change, and are continually vanishing ; we
mean the eternal and ideal form (not to vKikov, but
to etSo?, as Origen says) ; and we acknowledge,
at the same time, the essential identity of that new
body with the earthly tabernacle in which we dwell
during this temporal life ; that it will not be an
other, but the same corporeal individuality which
shall be raised again and glorified, according to its
ideal." * CHRIST'S RESURRECTION REAL.
This assurance of resunection and immortality-
was based upon the belief in the Lord's resunection.
That was held to be a literal fact. Our Lord arose
from the dead with a true body, and this identical,
— though so changed and spiritualized as to be
" glorified," — with the one He had worn on earth,
even to bearing the wounds made on the cross. It
*" Christian Dogmatics," sec. 275.

APOSTOLIC FATHERS AND THE FUTURE STATE. 241
was this crowning miracle that certified the divinity
of Christ, and gave boldness to the apostolic mes
sage, even as St. Paul affirms that " Jesus Christ was
declared to be the Son of God with power by the
resurrection from the dead." *
The claim of rationalistic thought, even within
the Christian Church in the present day, is that the
apostles were deceived, their heated imaginations
creating a delusive vision of the Christ, or, as
Walker suggests — while he holds to the reality of
the resurrection — that it was only an apparitional
manifestation, f
Yet all admit the fundamental place the fact of
the resurrection held in primitive Christianity.
Without the belief in it, there would have been
no proclamation of the gospel. " It is undeniable,"
says Schmiedel, " that the Church was founded, not
directly upon the fact of His resurrection, but upon
a belief in His resurrection, and this faith worked
with equal power whether the resunection was an
actual fact or not."
And Harnack admits : " Whatever may have
happened at the grave, and in the matter of appear-
* Rom. i. 4.
t "Christian Theism and a Spiritual Monism," p. 408.
16

242 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
ances, one thing is certain, this grave was the birth
place of the indestructible belief that death is van
quished ; that there is life eternal." *
There is no need for strained hypotheses and
subtle evasions here. Christianity is based upon
historical facts. Its evidences are realities, not il
lusions. It is altogether inational and incredible
that the religion which gives every sign of being
the one true, absolute religion should be built upon
a myth. " Why should it be thought a thing in
credible that God should raise the dead ? " There
is nothing in the New Testament so thoroughly
substantiated by impartial criticism as the belief of
the apostles in the reality of Christ's resunection.
As yet there has been suggested no way of account
ing for that belief so satisfactory as the hypothesis
that the apostles actually experienced what they
thought they experienced.
" Take away the historical, risen Jesus and you
take away the Gospel in its original sense. And
you change the definition of Christianity itself.
The facts on which the Gospel was based were ob
jective." f
* " Essence of Christianity," p. 162.
t " The Church and the Changing Order," Shailer Matthews,
p. 62.

APOSTOLIC FATHERS AND THE FUTURE STATE. 243
Historicity is an essential characteristic of the
Gospel. It is built upon a revelation of objective
facts. The crowning one of these is the true bodily
resurrection of Jesus Christ. Why should one who
professes to receive Christianity deny it ?
This veritable resurrection, in a changed but
identical form, of the earthly body, bore with it a
perpetuation of the experiences, reminiscences and
endearments of the earthly stage. And yet, " glori
fied," after the fashion of Christ's risen body, it is to
be endowed with new attributes of incorruptibility,
painlessness, and a vast enlargement of powers.
STATE OF THE HOLY DEAD.
The future life, too, was to be one in the king
dom and presence of God. The saints were to
reign with their ascended King, and life to be one
eternally progressive scale of holiness, rapture and
glory. It was thus to fulfill the Saviour's signifi
cant promise : " I am come that they might have
life, and that they might have it more abun
dantly." *
According to the Reliques of the Elders, pre
served in Irenseus, V., 36, there were to be different
* John x. 10.

244 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
degrees of reward in this one heaven of happiness.
" As the Elders say, then also shall they which
have been deemed worthy of the abode in heaven
go thither, while others shall enjoy the delight of
Paradise, and others again shall possess the bright
ness of the city, for in every place the Saviour shall
be seen, according as they be worthy who see
Him." *
No wonder, then, that in this larger, transfigured
view of the existence to come the grave was robbed
of its sting, and death swallowed up in victory, so
that, though he must pass the testing ordeal of
martyrdom to reach it, Ignatius, in prison, entreats
his friends not to seek to prevent his departure,
saying : " I shall willingly die for God, unless He
hinder me. Suffer me to become food for the wild
beasts, through whose instrumentality it will be
granted me to attain to God. But, when I suffer, I
shall become the freedman of Jesus, and shall rise
again, emancipated by Him. Pardon me, I know
what is for my benefit." f
THE FUTURE STATE FIXED AND ETERNAL.
The future state, for our patristic writers, is not,
* Cited in Lightfoot's " Apostolic Fathers," p. 562.
f Epistle to the Romans.

APOSTOLIC FATHERS AND THE FUTURE STATE. 245
however, without its dread responsibilities and
stern realities. They look forward to a general
judgment, and to a separation between the right
eous and the wicked. And these diverse states they
hold to be everlasting. Barnabas writes : " But the
way of darkness is also the way of everlasting
death, with punishment, in which way are the
things that destroy the soul." * Clement : " For if
we do the will of Christ we shall find rest, other
wise nothing shall deliver us from eternal punish
ment." f Polycarp answers to the threat of the
Roman Proconsul : " Thou threatenest me with
fire which burneth for an hour, and after a little
is extinguished, but art ignorant of the fire of the
coming judgment and of eternal punishment, re
served for the ungodly." J
The state of the dead, subsequent to the General
Judgment, is here seen to be fixed. Time is the
sphere of probation, that of eternity the era of ir
revocable condition.
IS THERE FOR SOME A SECOND PROBATION ?
There is, however, difference of view as to a sec
ond probation between death and the judgment.
* Epistle, chap. xx. t Epistle, chap. viii.
X Encyclical Epistle of the Church at Smyrna, chap. xi.

246 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
Clement states : " But after that we have departed
from the world, we shall no longer then be able to
confess, or to exercise repentance." * But Hermas
has this remarkable passage : " If any of Christ's
elect sin after a certain day which has been fixed,
he shall not be saved. For the repentance of the
righteous has limits. Filled up are the days of re
pentance to all the saints ; but to the heathen re
pentance will be possible even to the last day." t
The reconciliation of these seemingly diverse state
ments, no doubt, is found in this, that Clement
speaks only of those enlightened, and Hermas equally
excludes them from a future repentance. While
Hermas's further assertion of an opportunity to be
given the heathen in the future, and before the
General Judgment to have Christ preached for their
acceptance or rejection, is one of the most important
utterances we find in the fathers.
As to the intermediate state — the souls of the
dead awaiting the resurrection — that which has
sometimes been called after Scripture imager}- a
sleep, which, however, cannot be taken in a strictly
literal sense, — as it evidently implies no more than a
state of quiet review of the past and of profound
* Epistle, chap. viii. f Vision II., chap. ii.

APOSTOLIC FATHERS AND THE FUTURE STATE. 247
self-fathoming, — the lives of the fathers seem to have
been too strenuously occupied with the realities of
the present to have given thought to it.
THE GREAT FUTURE HOPE.
Although, then, their views of the future state
are set on the dark background of the divine neces
sity of a distinction between sin and righteousness,
and between an evil and a well-spent life, and of an
eternal separation between the two, yet they are
convictions of assurance and hope. They make
being in time not a shadow, but a substance. Life
is not the sport of a pitiless fate, but the guarded
child of an Almighty Father. The future is not a
shroud of gloom, but a clothing upon with a new
and more glorious life.
In fact, in their view of the blessedness of the
coming state, the brightness of that heavenly exist
ence illumines even the deepest sorrows and dark
est passages of the life on earth with a prophetic
splendor. Professor Woodberry, in his " Great
Writers," * calls attention to the strains of triumph
and hope in the early Christian literature at about
the same time that Virgil was writing his immortal
* " Critique on Virgil," pp. 136-140.

248 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
poem, the " iEneid," breathing the spirit of pitiless-
ness and struggle and defeat and suffering, which
reflected the despairing temper of the ancient
world — as vividly seen in .Eneas, even in the
Elysian fields, marveling why any soul should de
sire to see the light of life.
" Pain, pain, ever, forever," rings through the
" .Eneid " like a Promethean cry. So does the
greatest poem of the Pagan world, expressing the
temper of the mightiest race of antiquity, present
its contrast of pain and despair with the tranquil
lity and faith and joy which shine on the pages
illumed by the great future hope.

CHAPTER XXVII.
THE OLD FAITH AND THE "NEW THEOLOGY."
In nature we find two determining forces, the
fixed and the variable, the settled and the changing.
The laws, the forces, the substance, are and abide
the same. The phenomena are variable." The
former feature gives nature its solidity and security,
the latter clothes it with the diverse forms of
beauty. The same principle holds true in the
realm of thought. There are basic truths which
are settled forever. Upon the immovability of
these alone is built the ever-shifting scenery of
thought. Shake or unsettle these fixed foundations
and the whole intellectual structure falls.
The new has a wonderful charm for the human
mind. Man is vigorous and alert, and presses on
to every new field of discovery with unabated ardor.
This progressive spirit is the noblest attribute of
the mind, and to it we are indebted for the great
and beneficent advances that have been made in
knowledge and happiness in the course of history.
And it is the glory of our modern time that this
(249)

250 THE POST- APOSTOLIC AGE.
spirit of pressing on to the new and unknown is
everywhere rife. Yet we must be on our guard that
it be not a one-sided movement. That it do not
forget the rock whence it is hewn and on which it
stands. Progress, it must ever be remembered, is a result
ant of these centrifugal and centripetal thought
forces. The one must hold it to the center, must
bind it to the universal order, if the propelling
force is not to plunge all into chaos. Thus cone-
lated there will be an orderly and beneficent ad
vance. True progress must ever have its feet fixed
upon the past, while its face is towards the future.
EVERY AGE NEEDS A NEW THEOLOGY.
These axiomatic truths have their highest appli
cation with respect to religion. Hence it is justly
held that, on the one hand, we must persevere and
stand fast in the Old Faith, while our age needs a
new theology, as does every age. The Old Faith,
" once delivered to the saints " is of God, is divine,
is of absolute and eternal authority. But it must
be stated in modern terms, in the categories of pres
ent-day thought, and must be adapted to the phases
and experiences and problems and needs of the
time.

THE OLD FAITH AND THE " NEW THEOLOGY." 251
It is a caricature of orthodox conservatives to
assert that they expect the theology of to-day to be
identical with the theology of the past. Only its
fundamental principle must abide that it forms
itself by the substance of the divine revelation. Its
concrete expression must ever be regulated by and
in adaptation to the thought, knowledge, science,
problems, temptations and living conditions of
to-day. " The Church must preach some form of
theology, and theology, in the first analysis, is the
result of the effort of thinkers of an age to conelate
the facts of religion with the other facts they see." *
Hence, Christian Theology must be progressive and
have a history, as it, in fact, has.
But the substance of the faith must not be
changed in the theological crucible. For it is alone
in its basal invariability that lies its claim to be
absolute truth, and that consists its power to assure
and satisfy the soul. It is " the same yesterday,
to-day and forever." The faith that has been con
fessed in the primitive, mediseval and modern age,
that has stood immutable amid all the fluctuations
of the human stage, is that in which men alone
* "The Church and the Changing Order," Shailer Matthews,
P- 13.

252 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
will be ready to trust the everlasting welfare of
their souls. Contrariwise, a religion whose teach
ings would shift with every flutter of the vane of
transient thought, never has gained and never will
command the serious attention of men.
In accord with these principles we find that,
while the cardinal truths of the Gospel were pre
sented in germinal purity in the writers of this sub-
New Testament era, we to-day stand far ahead of
them, both in our fuller appreciation of their signifi
cance and in the clear, philosophic conception and
statement of them. All truth is endowed with life,
and growth is an unfailing trait of life. Especially
is this so of the great Christian truths. "My
words are spirit, and they are life," said Jesus. The
Word of God is not only a seed to fructify in the
heart, but to gather increase of light and power and
wonder in the mind.
THEOLOGY A PROGRESSIVE SCIENCE.
So the intellects of acute Christian thinkers have
developed nobler systems of tnith on the basis of
the Gospel in every age. Especially asthese truths
came into conflict with enor were they more ex
actly apprehended and more accurately set forth in

THE OLD FAITH AND THE " NEW THEOLOGY." 253
the Church's historic confessions. Or, as these
beliefs were subjected to the test of persecution
were they fashioned in the crucible of experience
to a finer, purer and more durable texture. Fonest,
in the " Christ of History and Experience," thus
shows how those carefully framed definitions, to
which loosely girded thinkers take objection, were
forced upon the Church by polemical assaults and
were absolutely essential to the defence and preser
vation of the Christian system. Thus, in the
adoption of the Nicene Creed, there was a notable
advance as to the Trinity ; in the era of Augustine
.1 far clearer and more helpful statement of the
doctrines of sin and grace ; in Luther's time the
most evangelical unfolding of the saving tnith of
justification by faith ; while Dr. Dorner's great
work on the " Person of Christ " marks an acuter
insight into the deep question of the union of the
divine and human natures in the God-Man, Christ
Jesus. The office of a true theology, as John Stuart
Mill says of philosophy, " is not to set aside old
definitions, but it conects and regulates them."
But this progress has not been, as many would
now claim, negative, but positive. It has not been
an advance by demolition, but by conservation and

254 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
construction. It has not diminished and weakened
the edifice of Christianity, but enlarged and fortified
it. It has added to the body of the faith, not de
creased it. It has given a vast enrichment to Chris
tian theology, not undermined and denuded it.
That is not progress which destroys the pillars sup
porting it and cuts away the foundations on which
it rests. But that alone is progress worthy the name
which retains and conserves each past gain, and
builds upon a structure ever rising higher and ever
gathering larger proportions of strength and majesty.
Or, as Ruskin puts it : " The generations as they pass
do not carve their work in snow that will melt, but
are rolling a great, white, gathering snow-ball—
higher and higher, larger and larger — along the
Alps of human power."
Such has been the advance of theology. Its
progress has not been by subtraction, by paring
down, by excision, but by growth, by development
from the inmost core. The process has rather been
that of condensation, of sloughing off the skin, while
the nucleus has been retained, in greater purity,
vitality and power. " A modern theology," truly
writes Dr. Forsyth, " must be an appreciation of the
old, done lovingly and sympathetically, and with

THE OLD FAITH AND THE " NEW THEOLOGY." 255
scientific continuity. The great authors of these
systems loved and trusted at least as deeply as we
do, who never have the word love off our lips —
at least <7.v deeply, and, on the whole, perhaps
more deeply. They had among thern some of the
spiritual giants of the race. They thought in an
atmosphere of Christian experience. Their theology
was like the wounds of Christ, graven on their
hearts and on the palms of their hands. To de
nounce and ridicule here is sheer heartlessness.
The need of the hour in respect of past theologies
is informed and s}-mpathetic re-interpretation." *
THE "NEW THEOLOGY'' OF TO-DAY.
The " New Theology " is the theme occupying
large present attention. Its advocates and dis
ciples are exceedingly in evidence It declares that
the old theology misinterpreted and discredited
Christianity, and that its interpretation is in har
mony with the changes necessitated by science and
the advance of modern thought. Its claim, of
course, is to give more conect expression to, and to
conserve more efficiently the old faith, the pure
gospel. " Positive Preaching ami Modern Mind," p. 137.

256 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
Let us see on what grounds it makes this claim,
and whether or not it effects it.
First, it emphasizes the Immanence of God. As
one of these writers states it : " Another character
istic of to-day's thought is the certainty that God's
presence is in the affairs of men. The theology of
some generations ago made God an absentee Deity.
He is sitting on the throne of the universe direct
ing all things for the good of man and His own
glory." Or as Dr. Dresser, in the " Philosophy of
the Spirit," puts it, " He is the immanent Spirit
inhabiting all the universe to its ultimate particles."
He does not admit that this conception is identical
with pantheism, but holds it rather to be an inter
mediate between the old-time deism and modern
pantheism. In regard to this anaignment of the Old Theol
ogy, we would like to know when it taught an
" absentee Deity," or when it denied the immanence
of God in His creation ? Citations would here be
in place. But as no Christian writer and no system
of orthodox theology has ever made such a state
ment, the charge falls to the ground. The Old
Testament taught that God was upon His throne
ruling all His creation, but it also taught His Omni-

THE OLD FAITH AND THE " NEW THEOLOGY." 257
presence in spirit and space : "If I ascend up into
heaven, Thou art there ; if I make my bed in hell,
behold, Thou art there." * The New Testament
teaches that God is " all and in all," " upholding all
things by the word of His power." f And in the
Church's doctrine of the Holy Spirit it has special
ized this all-filling, ever-brooding presence of Deity.
The New Theology cannot insist more positively
upon the immanence of Deity than did the Old, and
it lays so little stress upon God's transcendence as
seriously to imperil His personality. The Old The
ology was only cautious not to identify God with
those impersonal forces and principles which were
the secondary causes by which He wrought. The
New Theology does not, therefore, forefend the Old
Faith as does the historic theology.
MIRACLES, THE VIRGIN BIRTH.
The Old Theology, again, holds to the super
natural agency of God, and believes in the miracles
of the Bible, the New relegates the supernatural to
the sphere of superstition. But, as Christ professed
to work miracles ; as the apostles did not doubt that
He wrought them ; as they are interwoven with the
'* Ps. cxxxix. 8. t Heb. i. 3.
17

258 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
very fiber of the Gospels ; as the fathers in this
primitive period constantly refer to them with un
questioning assent ; and as the Church in all times
has been unwavering in her conviction of their
reality, it is most difficult to see how the Old Faith
is buttressed by charging that Christ deceived all
witnesses by professing to heal the blind and raise
the dead, when He was only using some form of
hypnotism, mental suggestion, appeal to sub-con
scious mind, etc.
The historic theology is built upon the true
Divinity of Jesus Christ. It denies a human pater
nity and teaches the supernatural conception
through the Virgin Mary. It holds Christ to be
the Son of God, in the unique sense that He was
pre-existent and co-substantial with the Father.
The New Theology holds, with Harnack, that the
" specific conception of Jesus as the Son of God does
not belong to the Gospel" at all, but has been
foisted upon it, so that even the liberal theologian,
Loisy, makes answer : " It is his own religion, not
that of the Gospel, which Harnack expounds, when
he announces that " God and the soul and its God,
are the whole content of the Gospel." * Christ's
* " The Gospel and the Church," p. 106.

THE OLD FAITH AND THE " NEW THEOLOGY." 259
own testimony to Peter was, that the confession of
His divinity is " the Rock upon which He has built
His Church," * and experience shows that upon
this Rock all the forces of unbelief have spent
themselves in vain.
A few years ago, when a combined effort was
made by the new theologians in Germany to elimi
nate the Virgin Birth from the creed, as necessitat
ing the Divine Paternity of Christ, the utter failure
of the attempt shows how hopeless will be Rev.
R. Campbell's scheme of establishing a Church
upon a Christ from whom has been eliminated the
attribute of Divinity. Speaking of the need of
placing special emphasis upon this central article
of the Old Theology, Dr. Henry Van Dyke says :
" To imagine that we can adapt our preaching to
this age of doubt by weakening, conceding, or
abandoning the truth of the Deity of Christ, is to
mistake the great need of our times. It is to seek
to commend our Gospel by taking away from it
the chief thing that men really want — an assurance
of sympathy and kinship with God." f
Take from Christ His true and real divinity, and
Christianity loses that sanction of authority as the
*Matt. xvi. iS. f "Source of Authority in Religion," chap. v.

260 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
heraild Of absolute truth in and through which alone
it holds its unique supremacy over mankind.
CHRISTIANITY A UNIQUE RELIGION.
The Old Theology taught that Judaism and Chris
tianity were unique, that they constitute the self-
revelation of the living God. Hence, that Chris
tianity was not a man-made, but a God-given re
ligion. That it was not a product of the human
brain, a philosophic answer in response to the cries
of man's soul, but that it was a revelation in which
God spoke to men, and the record of which is given
in His holy Word. The New Theology is voiced
by Prof. Otto Pfleiderer, in " Early Conceptions
of Christ," thus :
" As we survey the numerous points of likeness
between the faith of the early Christians and the
religious ideas current in the world around them, we
can scarcely fail to be convinced that Christianity
could not have fallen from heaven as something
quite new and unique, but that it sprang up in the
world of those days as the ripe fruit of ages of de
velopment and in a soil that was already prepared.
Now it is, of course, easily comprehensible that this
new evolutionist method of inquiry should have

THE OLD FAITH AND THE " NEW THEOLOGY." 261
such a disturbing influence upon many persons,
conservatives as well as critics ; that they at once
draw the most radical conclusions and imagine
that Christianity is robbed of its unique character
and its abiding worth, because it appears to be
nothing more than a combination of ideas that had
existed for ages, and are nowadays altogether anti
quated. But such conclusions are most hasty and
rash." Another leading representative of this school.
Prof. John Watson, in " The Philosophical Basis
of Religion," argues that the theology of the
future must take the form of a pure philoso
phy of religion. He claims that all attempts to
base religion on revelation, or any specific divine
authority, fail to satisfy the modern mind. We
must either abandon all systematic thought in this
field, or rebuild our theological beliefs on the basis
of reason. EVOLUTIONARY THEORY OF RELIGION.
According to this view, there were no theoph-
anies in the Old Testament, the history of Israel
was a wholly natural one, the Bible was the mere
naturalistic production of a semi-barbarous age, thai
by a strange anomaly chanced to be the most re-

262 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
markably gifted for religion in all history. And
Christianity, by the science of Comparative Re
ligion, merely takes its place as the last factor in
the course of an evolution.
But the Old Faith reads the Bible as the Word
of God inspired by the Holy Ghost, and recognizes
Christianity as the one true religion, which must
be pushed onward to the displacement and over
throw of every other. It sees the finger of God in
the founding and whole course of revealed religion,
and from this confidence in a divine sanction draws
that missionary enthusiasm which alone can Chris
tianize the world.
The New Theology, also, makes much of " The
Fatherhood of God, the Brotherhood of Man, the
Social and Ethical Teaching of Jesus and the
Prophets." But it is impossible that it can em
phasize this doctrine more than orthodox Chris
tianity has ever done. To profess that this is a
modern discovery savors of the absurd. On the
contrary, that God was a Father of such passing
tenderness as to give His only begotten Son, and
that Christ, in dying for all, gave His followers a
most vivid lesson of universal brotherhood, has been
the precious inheritance of all Christian periods.

THE OLD FAITH AND THE " NEW THEOLOGY." 263
The brotherhood of man is graven on the very fore
front of historical Christianity.

MODERN VIEW OF THE ATONEMENT.
Again, the new theology denies the sacrificial
character of the death of Christ. It considers the
value of His death as merely that of an example.
But evangelical Christianity has ever regarded this
a central doctrine. It holds that the chief signifi
cance of the death of Christ lay in its atoning power.
That Christ was there giving " His life a ransom for
many." That He "bare in His own body our sins
upon the tree." That, having by a true incarnation,
identified Himself with our humanity, He accepted
the burden of the world's sin, and, acting as our
representative, made a full and perfect offering in
our stead, to the righteous Judge.
This doctrine, so unspeakably precious to the
Christian heart, and charged with such power to
draw men in loving gratitude and wonder to the
foot of the cross, and forming the very substance of
the Old Faith, the New Theology asks to be sur
rendered. The new theology claims to exalt the love of God
more than did the old. Hence, less emphasis is

264 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
laid upon His justice, there is a less vivid recog
nition of sin, which is regarded more as an inevi
table evil, in fact, a necessary stage in the process of
man's evolution, and so there is less stress placed on
God's judgment against it, and life is taken less
seriously. As far as it is true that human progress
has attained less austere views of life, and that
Puritanical ideas of piety have been largely relaxed,
as well as in the escape from arbitrary conceptions
of divine sovereignty, there has been an undoubted
gain, but this beneficent progress was made by the
Church and her theology long before the appear
ance of the New.
For the rest, it is extremely doubtful whether, in
an age of such laxity regarding sin, such disregard
for the Church and the Lord's Day, such prevalence
of vice, scandals in society, and corruption in busi
ness and official place, it is right or wise to gloss
over the fact that God is a God of conscience as
well as of love, a God who " is of purer eyes than to
behold iniquity," and who "hath appointed a day "
" in which He will judge the secrets of men by
Jesus Christ." * On the contrary, it is one of the
first duties of a real religion both to plead the love
* Rom ii. 16.

THE OLD FAITH AND THE " NEW THEOLOGY." 265
and as well to remind of that justice to which the
deity is bound by the necessity of His moral nature.
LEGITIMATE SPHERES OF FAITH AND REASON.
The New Theology places reason above faith.
It is far more religious to be rational and scientific
than to be believing. The Church's historic the
ology holds, with Coleridge, that faith is a more
primary, basal faculty than reason, and that the
truths apprehended by it are higher than those cog
nized by the discursive reason, and are the real cer
tainties. The philosopher, Locke, defined the rela
tions between faith and reason, as applied to the
eternal verities of religion, thus truly : " In reason
ings concerning eternity, or any other infinite, we
are apt to blunder and involve ourselves in mani
fest absurdities. But since God, in giving us the
light of reason, has not thereby tied up His own
hands from affording us when He thinks fit, the
light of revelation in any of those matters, revela
tion, where God has been pleased to give it, must
carry it against the probable conjectures of rea
son." * Faith must, indeed, be rational, but reason
cannot supplant it in its legitimate sphere. Ro-
* " Essay on the Human Understanding," Book II.

266 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
manes, in his final conversion to faith, makes the
confession " that he had been trying to solve this
great problem of religion with only one of his facul
ties, that of reason, and had left out of account the
testimonies of those deeper faculties which belong
to the moral and spiritual nature of man."
The Old Theology has no need, then, to regret
its stand for the rights and supremacy of faith. To
rationalize religion is to reduce it to the nanow
level of ethics, bereft of its celestial insight. Rea
son and science have their scope in the region of
nature ; to faith belongs the higher realm of the
spiritual, the supernatural, the invisible and eter
nal. As reason is supreme in natural things, so
must faith hold the scepter in the world of religion.
Similarly, the New Theology urges the pre
eminence of life over faith. The Gospel, it says, is
a thing to be lived, not to be believed. Its teach
ing runs : " Attend to your life, and your faith is a
matter of indifference."
The Church has ever taught that life is the
outcome of faith, and that, to lead a right life, one
must have the true evangelical faith. It holds that
false teaching will lead the soul into dangerous
paths, and hence is zealous for the pure doctrine,

THE OLD FAITH AND THE " NEW THEOLOGY." 267
and deems it a duty to exclude heretics from the
pulpit. And surely here the current tenets of Christen
dom reflect the precepts of the Gospel. Jesus made
knowledge, life and salvation dependent on faith.
Paul and the great religious teachers all followed
on this same line. Augustine, failing with phi
losophy, saved the collapsing structure of ancient
civilization by the faith of the Gospel. It is the
Church's confession of the pure faith, and the pul
pit's preaching of the cardinal truths of the Gospel,
in which to-day, as ever, lie her power to regener
ate the lives and mold the conduct of men.
MYSTERY IN RELIGION RATIONAL.
The Old Faith teaches that there are mysteries
in religion. The New Theology will have none of
them. Everything must be explained, or it can
not be believed. But this will not stand the test
of reason. We may not understand how God can
develop from one seed a tiny blade of grass, and
from another, which, under the microscope, seems
identical, the mighty oak, but we can believe it.
When God speaks, must we not expect to be told
that which in itself may be incomprehensible ?

268 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
Says Lessing : "Of what use would be a revela
tion that would reveal nothing ? " Dr. Charles H.
Parkhurst lately declared : " I revel in the mysteries
of our holy faith, — the more and the greater, the
surer I am that our religion is divine." Reason is,
indeed, baffled at mysteries, and an un-Christian
reason may recoil from them, but faith sees in these
holy wonders the shining robe of Deity and adores.
Truly wrote Pascal : " The last discovery of reason
is that there is an infinity of things beyond reason."
And again, most truly said that acute thinker :
"If we submit everything to reason, our religion
will have nothing in it new, divine or super
natural."

CHAPTER XXVIII.
THE OLD FAITH AND THE " NEW THEOLOGY."
— CONTINUED. BACK TO CHRIST — CHRISTIAN
DOGMA. A battle-cry of the New Theology is "Back to
Christ." Thus Prof. Otto Pfleiderer tells us in one
of his latest volumes, that he has tried by separat
ing later accretions and by falling back upon the
oldest historic sources, to approach as nearly as pos
sible to the historic truth concerning Christ, " and
to present His form, in its simple human grandeur
and stripped of all mythical accessories, as the ideal
of a lofty and noble religious hero, worthy of the
veneration of the mind and heart of the modern
world." But a more auto-destructive slogan could not
be employed. Thankfully the Church accepts
the challenge. To go "back to Christ," we must
go to two primary sources, the New Testament and
our writers of the Post-Apostolic Age. And they
afford not a particle of evidence for this merely
human, white marble Christ, " this noble religious
(269)

270 THE POST- APOSTOLIC AGE.
hero." But they place Him on the pedestal of
Divinity, " above every name that can be named,"
" to which every knee should bow," whom even
" the angels of God worship," and to whom all
powers and principalities raise the ascription :
" Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever." *
The Church to-day, as in all preceding periods,
takes its stand neither on the spirit of the age, nor
on the Christian consciousness, nor on the Chris
tian principle, but on the historic and whole New
Testament Christ.
The Old Theology had doctrines, had a definite
faith, taught a system of beliefs — in other words,
held to certain dogmas. On the other hand, noth
ing is more repellent to what assumes to be the
New Theology than church dogmas. It magnifies
the " faith that believes," but depreciates " the faith
that is believed." It urges men to believe, but for
bids them from arriving at any definite beliefs. To
believe is the essence of Christianity, but to believe
something and to be able to state it intelligently,
and to hold to it loyally, it calls the essence of
bigotry. Now Paul "knew in whom he believed," and
* Heb. i. 8.

THE OLD FAITH AND THE " NEW THEOLOGY." 27 1
he knew what he believed, and he fearlessly
affirmed that Christianity had certain cardinal
doctrines, and of these he declared it the duty of
Christians to " hold fast the form of sound words,
which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love
which is in Christ Jesus." * But the New Theo
logy never fails to make Christian dogma synony
mous with nanowness, intolerance and ecclesiasti
cal tyranny.
According to it, all that the experience of Chris
tians has attained, all that the great Christian exe-
getes have elicited from the study of Christ and
the Gospel, all that profound Christian theologians,
reflecting upon the teachings of Scripture, have for
mulated into simple and intelligent conceptions,
is to be rejected as nanowing, hurtful and retro
gressive. NECESSITY OF DOGMA.
Nothing more than these assertions forms the
staple of the New Theology, and the grounds upon
which it seeks for popularity by meeting half way
the secular spirit of the time. Yet no position
can be more illogical and indefensible.
If anyone believes, he must believe something,
* 2 Tim. i. 13.

272 THE POST- APOSTOLIC AGE.
and be able to give coherent voice to it, or expect
his belief to be rejected as lacking substance and
reason. A religion that exalts faith, but refuses to go
before the world with a coherent, rational state
ment of the doctrines to which it holds, and to
which it seeks to convert others, is doomed to fail
ure, and deserves to fail. " Our spiritual posses
sion," writes Luthardt, " subsists in no other form
than that of cohering conceptions. In their com
mon experience Christians discovered the highest
and most precious content of history and of their
souls. There follows, of inward necessity, an en
deavor to transform these many views and feelings
into a short, concise system. The experienced re
ligion had to be intellectually formulated, and this
need became imperative as wild and confused concep
tions were entertained. So arose church doctrine,
dogma or dogmas, in the course of a long history,
so it grew to one of the mightiest forces in the
life of mankind. Dogma is a historical necessity.
Through it there presses into Christendom a vast,
ancient treasure of Christian thoughts and concep
tions of Christian sentiments and formulae. The
primary question for the Christian is not concerned

THE OLD FAITH AND THE "NEW THEOLOGY." 273
with the scientific formulae of the dogmas, but with
their quite practical aspects. But these practical
things [catechism, hymn book, liturgy, devotional
literature, etc.,] have received their stamp under
the influence and in virtue of the power of the
dogmas." *
Such is the challenge which the New Theology
presents to the Church's historic theology. It is a
reflex of the spirit of the time. " Those great mod
ern traits," which Professor Woodberry specifies as
"the free exercise of reason, the appeal to nature,
the restless curiosity, the plea for toleration, the
disposition to examine all things anew, and bring
them to the test of practical reality, to think out
the world afresh,"f are now, with a rash license,
exercised upon the Church and her faith.
We hear the phrase, " New Thought versus
Canned Theology." It is said that : " Every
thing has progressed except Christianity. Many
thinking and progressive young men and women
have been driven from the Church by the stupidity
of the preachers. The pulpit is out of touch with
the times, treading always the same old paths of
* " Fundamental Truths of the Christian Religion," p. 124.
t " Great Writers," p. 177.
18

274 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
a thousand years, hidebound and restricted in their
actions, and have become the laughing stock
parrots of dead Church cries instead of preachers of
the living Christ." MODERNISM.
Ever, but especially in such an aggressive,
searching age, must Christianity be progressive.
It must have an open mind for things that are new.
So far as the New Theology is able to present
new facts, to be dedicated, not as a matter of feel
ing, but as a matter of evidence, and in accordance
with principles of a thorough scholarship, in so far
the doors of the Church are wide open. Neither
the Scriptures, nor Christian doctrine, nor ortho
doxy itself, can maintain itself in strength and
honesty, if it begins to close its eye to the actual
facts. The truth is above all, and even those who
have most confidence in it as it is in Christ Jesus,
and as it is taught in the creeds, should have
enough confidence in its ultimate ability to endure
any test, to give fairest opportunity, in the proper
place, for the presentation of any facts that seem to
bear against it.
The attitude of the Roman Church in its an
tagonism to " modernism," — resolved to cling to

THE OLD FAITH AND THE " NEW THEOLOGY." 275
dogmas opposed to enlightened faith and reason,
opposing religious toleration, pleading the " semper
idem," which can only pertain to revealed truth,
divorcing religion from legitimate science, and ex
communicating original investigators and inde
pendent thinkers from the Church, is an extreme
which confounds religion with superstition, and
would oppose ignorance and bigotry to the quick
ening breath of modern progress.
But we must equally beware of the opposite
extreme. The apostles were opposed by the rea
son and worldly wisdom of their age, to which the
preaching of the cross was foolishness, and the
fathers of our primitive age found themselves the
subject of the ridicule of environing Pagan culture,
but they did not yield to the temptation of de-
christianizing their message that it might win the
approval of the spirit of the time. On the con
trary, the more bitterly the age protested against a
doctrine, the more uncompromisingly they insisted
on it. THE NEW THEOLOGY OPPOSED TO THEOLOGY.
The pertinent question now is, Does this New
Theology conserve and strengthen the Old Faith f
Calling itself a Christian Theology, it was bound

276 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
to proclaim this as its purpose. And very loud has
been its claim that it was going to give a new and
more impressive and illuminative setting to the
cardinal Christian truths. It was to set the Bible
on a higher pedestal of influence. It was to honor
and make forceful Christianity in contrast to the
Old Theology, which was discrediting and impair
ing it
But does not candor compel the statement that,
after a careful examination of its propositions, a
theology which denies the essential Divinity of
Christ, rejects the inspiration of the Scriptures, re
pudiates a real atonement, disbelieves the Christian
mysteries, — and, accordingly, disconnects grace
from the appointed means, — excludes every super
natural factor in the history of revelation, subjects
faith to reason and makes life independent of be
lief, instead of conserving, is absolutely destractive
of the old faith, and thus becomes not a true but
a pseudo-theology ? In fact, this New Theology is
opposed to theology. It professes to believe in re
ligion, and to hold theology as hostile to it. And
this quite naturally. Theology is the philosophical
or scientific statement of Christianity, its purpose
being to erect bulwarks about Christianity, to make

THE OLD FAITH AND THE " NEW THEOLOGY." 277
it impregnable against assault. Hence, nothing is
more obnoxious to the enemies of Christianity than
a systematic Christian theology. Thus Professor
Zueblin, in his book, the "Religion of a Demo
crat," says : " Readjustment in religion is becoming
a necessity. Theology is ceasing from the world
and must die. Religion, then, will become more
spontaneous, more genuine, more personal, and, at
the same time, more social."
That this depreciation of theology should come
from professedly Christian scholars and thinkers,
and that it should even come from liberal theo
logical schools themselves, is one of the anom
alies of the time. Even the Unitarian thinker,
James Freeman Clarke, pays this just tribute to the
power of theology : " To those who think that
theology is empty speculation, no longer influenc
ing men, a study of the life and work of Augustine
may teach a different lesson. Carthage, conquered
and destroyed by Rome, reconquered and governed
the world for fifteen hundred years through this
great Christian thinker. Immense good or evil
comes from the view of God, of Christ, of man,
taken by Christian teachers. Theology is the body
of which faith is the soul. We must have theology.

278 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
The great and deep-rooted system of Augustine
will be fulfilled in something still deeper, higher,
nobler and purer." *
But the New Theology, rejecting the facts and
doctrines of Christianity, has nothing positive with
which to construct a theology. As a building can
not be erected without wood or stone, so no
theology can be framed where there are no in
spired, objective, authoritative truths. As, too, it
is so extremely radical, it is revolutionary, and its
prevalence, so far from strengthening Christianity,
would necessarily work its overthrow.
THE NEW THEOLOGY AND A NEW CHURCH.
It is altogether consistent, therefore, that Rev. R.
J. Campbell, one of its most thorough-going lead
ers, declares that he and his adherents are finding
themselves so uncomfortable and in such an incon
sistent position in the orthodox churches that they
must organize an independent church, based on a
non-divine Christ.
Mr. Campbell is practically compelled to this
step by the publication of the new Trinitarian
creed, prepared and signed by the most influential
leaders of English Congregationalism. The creed
* " Events and Epochs of Church History," p. 142.

THE OLD FAITH AND THE " NEW THEOLOGY." 279
was plainly an invitation to the City Temple pastor
to take himself out of the Congregational fellow
ship, and he has no choice but to accede, since no
Congregationalist of prominence stands with him.
He writes : " Hitherto I have declined to take any
steps in the direction of organizing the new theol
ogy movement for fear of doing anything divisive
or antagonistic to the churches, but the time has
come when that consideration no longer holds
good." That is, the New Theology, so far from being a
necessity to give such a statement of the historic
faith of Christianity as to adapt it to the present
time, finds itself by an inherent necessity compelled
to seek a totally new faith. Whatever its present
creed be, it is forced to confess that there are re
tained in it so few shreds of the faith of the Gospels
of the primitive period, and of the Christian beliefs
of every age, that it is necessary to construct an
entirely new confession.
How sweeping and destructive these claims are
we learn from such an utterance as that of the Ger
man theological critic, Professor Bousset : " History
would appear to destroy the idea of inspiration, that
is to say, of any special revelation, in the Old and

28o THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
New Testaments ; the conception of redemption ;
the dogma of the divinity of Christ ; the doctrine
of the Trinity ; the idea of vicarious sacrifice ; the
belief in the miraculous; the old view of revela
tion. We see how all these have been swept away
in the stream of human development."
It is to be remarked that the skepticism of these
writers as to the old is more than made up by their
credulity as to the new.
FAILURE OF A NEGATIVE CREED.
But a creed cannot be made up of negations, and
as the principle of the New Theology we thus see
to be chiefly negative, the difficulty before it is a
trying one.
That such a movement means inevitable failure
is the teaching of history. At the height of the
rationalistic movement of the eighteenth century
in Germany, Bahrdt bewailed the fact that the
churches where its most brilliant advocates minis
tered were deserted by the people, whereas, if any
pastor would frequently speak of the divine Jesus,
and plead the merits of the cross, the people would
rally to hear him. Kuenen, the great representa
tive of the movement in Europe, has lately com-

THE OLD FAITH AND THE " NEW THEOLOGY." 281
plained that "if it becomes known that a candidate
has studied theology at one of the radical semi
naries no congregation will call him." It was a
prophetic utterance of Horace Bushuell that any
religious movement which wrote the word " liberal
ism " on its banner was doomed to certain failure,
and that 110 such cause could progress unless it at
least used the altar-terms of orthodoxy.
This simply shows that the Christian common
sense correctly interprets the situation. It is con
vinced that Christianity is based on a revelation of
vital and eternal truths, undiscoverable by reason,
and giving unspeakable light and blessing to the
soul. It believes that a true Christian theology
should expound, illumine and defend these funda
mental saving truths. And when it discovers that
the so-called New Theology evades, impairs or de
nies the distinctive and essential doctrines of the
old faith of the Gospel, verified by the common
Christian experience, it is assured that it is not its
friend but its enemy, and it will have none of it.
It says " the old is better." Its verdict is that even
of the liberal, Amiel : " I heard this morning a ser
mon, good, but insufficient. Why was I not edified ?
Because Christianity from a rationalistic point of

282 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
view is a Christianity of dignity not of humility.
Holiness and mysticism evaporate ; the specifically
Christian accent is wanting. My impression is
always the same ; faith is made a dull, poor thing
by these attempts in the pulpit or elsewhere to re
duce it to a simple moral psychology. The simple
folk will say, ' They have taken away my Lord,
and I know not where they have laid Him,' and
they have a right to say it, and I repeat it with
them." *
And even the liberal Dr. Lyman Abbott, in
his late baccalaurate at Dartmouth College, finds
it necessary to warn his radical collaborators :
'' I am a believer in the New Theology, yet I be
lieve that any theology that scoffs at the past, any
theology that commits to the waste basket all the
sacred doctrines and beliefs of the ages, is a false
theology. You are not to throw away the theology
of the past. Sift and find the truth and apply it
to present needs. We need reform, social, scientific,
medical, theological reform, but the roots must be
in the past."
Were the so-called liberals, and even Dr. Abbott
himself, always or frequently as temperate and
* "Journal IntimeV' p. 78.

THE OLD FAITH AND THE " NEW THEOLOGY." 283
judicious as this, their cause would be the stronger.
But it is just in the fact that the New Theology
has detached its roots from the Christian past, and
calls for a radical reconstruction of the Old Faith,
in which its elemental doctrines disappear, that
lie its unscripturalness, its illogicalness, its ficti
tious claim to be a true theology of the age, and
its doom to inevitable failure.

CHAPTER XXIX.
THE CESSATION OF MIRACLES, AND MODERN
HEALING CLAIMS.
It falls in with the negative tendency of the
time to depreciate the value and to contest the
reality of the Scriptural miracles. Thus Canon
Westcott writes : " In nothing has the change
of feeling during the century been more violent
than in the popular estimation of miracles. At
the beginning they were singled out as the master-
proof of the Christian faith ; now they are kept
back as difficulties in the way of its reception."
The Canon should have added, however, that this
feeling was confined to those of rationalistic views.
The evidential value of the miracle to the minds
of men is as great as ever, and the miracle can
never be displaced from its integral position in the
scheme of revelation. Miracles are necessary to
the introduction of a new epoch in the kingdom of
God. Consequently, we do not find them of con
tinuous occurrence. But they are sent to inaugu
rate the epoch, and when that is sufficiently authen-
(284)

THE CESSATION OF MIRACLES. 285
ticated, they are withdrawn. The supernatural is
only employed for the extraordinary ; the necessity
disappearing, the natural order resumes sway.
Accordingly, the two greatest cycles in the his
tory of the kingdom of God, the leading forth of
the Israelites to begin the history of a divine reve
lation, and the founding of Christianity, were the
periods of the most wonderful breaking forth of
miracles. Our Lord should be a competent judge.
And when He said, " If I had not done among them
the works which none other man did, they had not
had sin,"* He taught the indisputable value of the
miracle as a supreme and decisive testimony to the
divinity of His mission. Miracles are demonstrative
proof of the presence and power of God, and leave
no excuse for unbelief. No honest reader of the
New Testament can doubt that Christ professed to
work miracles and meant His followers to under
stand that He did. Professor Seeley thus writes :
" The fact that Christ appeared as a worker of mir
acles is the best attested fact in His whole biogra
phy." This power He also communicated to His
apostles and to the seventy whom He sent forth.
Without such a signal proof of divine sanction our
* John xv. 24.

286 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
Lord well knew that it would be absolutely impos
sible to get the ears of men in introducing a re
ligion so totally foreign to human ideas. And that
the evidential value of these initial miracles might
continue for all time they were set down in the
Gospel record, as John tell us : " These [signs] are
written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the
Christ, the Sou of God, and that believing ye might
have life through His name." *
MIRACLES AT EXCEPTIONAL EPOCHS.
But miracles would cease to be such if they were
made a regular and ordinary mode. And if they
were to break forth, occasionally, here and there,
endless opportunity would be afforded for fraud,
and Christian history would be thrown into dis
order and utter confusion. Hence, miracles ceased
at a very definite time. The apostolic period over,
Christianity being sufficiently authenticated, its
propagation is thenceforth to be without this visi
ble supernatural intervention.
Consequently, there are no miracles in this Post-
Apostolic Age. The great spiritual leaders who
have bequeathed to us this literature neither as
sumed to work them nor make record of any such.
sJo)ni xx. 31.

THE CESSATION OF MIRACLES. 287
Gibbon's testimony may be supposed to make a spe
cific contradiction of this. He says : " The Chris
tian Church, from the time of the apostles and their
first disciples, has claimed an uninterrupted succes
sion of supernatural gifts and miraculous powers,
the gift of tongues, of vision and of prophecy, the
power of expelling demons, of healing the sick and
of raising the dead. The primitive Christians per
petually trod on mystic ground, and their minds
were exercised by the habit of believing the most
extraordinary events. The most curious or the
most credulous among the Pagans were often per
suaded to enter into a society which asserted an
actual claim of miraculous powers." *
Gibbon is here led into error by his cynical skep
ticism toward Christianity, and by his desire to give
a discreditable reason for its remarkable growth.
In reply, Dr. Middleton wrote : " From the time of
the apostles there is not a single instance of this
miracle [raising the dead] to be found in the first
three centuries. And Chrysostom [fourth century] ,
in a remarkable passage, affirms the long discon
tinuance of miracles to be a notorious fact." It
* "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," Vol. I., chap.
xv.

288 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
is one thing to make assertions and another to
write genuine history.
The remarkable passage to which Middleton re
fers occurs in a very temperate and judicious discus
sion by Chrysostom of the special and limited pur
pose of the miracle, and in a discriminating argu
ment against the attempt of fanatics to use it in
behalf of their propaganda. Chrysostom first re
jects the miracles of Christ's infancy : " Hence, it
seems clear to us that the miracles which they say
belong to Christ's childhood are false and the inven
tions of those who bring them into notice. For, if
He had begun at His early age to work wonders,
how could John have been ignorant of them ? " *
Here follows the passage : " Miracles were
wrought also in the Old Testament among the
Jews when wandering in the wilderness ; as also in
our case ; for among us, too, when we had just
come out of error, many wonderful works were
shown forth, but afterwards they stayed, when in
all countries true religion had taken root." f
So we find no account of even supernatural signs
in this sub-apostolic time. Even the gift of tongues
* Homily XVII. on St. John.
t Gospel of St. Matthew, Homily IV.

THE CESSATION OF MIRACLES. 289
has wholly ceased. And to this assertion the visions
of Hermas form no exception, for they are con
fessedly clothed throughout in the imagery of sym
bolism. Nor is there anything supernatural in the
account of the vision of Ignatius after his martyr
dom. It is merely a vision in a dream, as is evi
dent : " Having slept the whole night in tears, and
having entreated the Lord with much prayer, it
came to pass on our falling into a brief slumber,
that some of us saw the blessed Ignatius suddenly
standing by and embracing us." *
Miracles, then, of all kinds had ceased in the
sub-apostolic age. Imitation of them was regarded
as the attempt to employ evil, occult powers, and
was thus repudiated by Ignatius : " When Christ
was manifested to the world every kind of magic
was destroyed, and every bond of wickedness dis
appeared, and the kingdom of evil was abolished." f
NO CLAIM OF MIRACLES.
There is, in fact, a remarkable absence of miracu
lous signs, such as we might think it perfectly nat
ural would yet have lingered in this age, even as the
rays of the sun illumine the horizon after he has
* "Martyrdom of Ignatius," chap. vii.
t Epistle to the Ephesians, chap. xix.
19

29O THE POST- APOSTOLIC AGE.
set from view. And that, in their extreme needs
and dangers, no assertion of extraordinary powers
or confirming signs was made, shows both the
poise and sanity of these leaders, and also that a
clear line of demarcation was drawn between this
and the apostolic period. Nothing could be more
convincing to prove that one of the clearest of these
marks was the cessation of the miracle.
This conclusion is fully borne out by the
learned Bishop Lightfoot, who calls attention to
the absence of miraculous events in the patristic
writings. Speaking of the epistle of the Smyr
naeans, describing the martyrdom of Polycarp,
in which some marvelous signs are reported by
the witnesses, he says : " Considering all the cir
cumstances of the case, we have more occasion to
be surprised at the comparative absence than at the
special prominence of the supernatural in the
narrative. Compared with records of early Chris
tian martyrs, or with biographies of mediaeval
saints, or with notices of religious heroes at any
great crisis, even in the more recent history of
the Church, as, for instance, the rise of Jesuitism,
or of Wesleyanism, this document contains nothing
which ought to excite a suspicion." *
* " Apostolic Fathers," Vol. I., p. 614.

THE CESSATION OF MIRACLES. 29 1
The assertion, therefore, of the Christian Scien
tists that Christ meant the gift of supernatural
power to belong to His followers for all time is
disproved. So the advocacy of the healing min
istry of the Church, as lately made, on the ground
that the practice is merely a return to observances
of the early Church, involves a total misreading of
history. The CJiristian Register is conect in say
ing : " For the clergy to ignore the verdict of the
ages and attempt to revive an outgrown function
will be harmful to both public health and to the
Christian Church as it would be for surgeons to
substitute magic for anaesthetics, or for doctors to
give physic when repentance of sin is needed."
MODERN HEALING CLAIMS.
Two points are especially worthy of note in the
modern claim for healing in the Church, as put
forth by the Emmanuel Movement of Dr. Wor
cester. The first is, that the statement that it is
a return to the practice of the early Church is
altogether equivocal. If it refers to what will be
generally understood as the early Church — that
immediately succeeding Christ and the apostles —
it is absolutely untrue. If it refers to a later period,
entirely dissevered from the origin of Christianity,

292 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
and arising from a perversion of it, then such a
corrupted origin utterly invalidates its authority.
Or, if it refers to Christ and the apostles, then
it is a groundless appeal, for no later period can
lay claim to their extraordinary and supernatural
powers. " The point I want you to understand," says the
Rev. Hugh Birckhead, rector of St. George's Epis
copal Church, New York, "is that the miracles
which Christ regarded as important evidential proof
of His power have never stopped." The proof ad
duced for this is that given by the Christian Sci
entists, viz., Christ's assertion to His apostles :
" And greater works than these shall he do." *
But that these words were not to be taken literally
is manifest from the impossibility of doing greater
miracles of nature than Christ did. Hence the
Church has universally interpreted the words in a
spiritual sense, refening to the miracles to be
wrought by the Holy Spirit in the soul's re-birth
and re-creation. So Luther : " These great spiritual
miracles happen every day, viz., in that Christ's
word produces faith, gives blessedness and peace."
But no one more decisively than Luther denounced
* John xiv. 12.

THE CESSATION OF MIRACLES. 293
the miraculous claims of the Zwickau prophets as
false and fanatical pretense.
The second point is suggested by Dr. Worcester's
book, in which, while claiming extraordinary gifts
of healing for the Church to-day, he rejects the
miracles of Christ as either simple instances of
hypnotism or mental therapeutics. True miracles,
the mighty works, which Christ claimed to work,
Dr. Worcester does not believe He really could do.
It is characteristic of religious charlatanry that
while it exalts its own artifices and powers, it should
depreciate the omnipotent working of the Master.
The Emmanuel movement is based upon such a
fusion of mind and body as to make its philosophy
or psychology a species of materialistic monism.
It rests upon the same basis as that of Dubois, a
leading authority on psychotherapy — mental heal
ing — whose position is frankly that of materialistic
monism. This is a repudiation of the foundation
of Christianity.
Accordingly, while he glorifies Christian Science,
saying : " I venture to say that the rise of Christian
Science is the most significant phenomenon that
has taken place in our generation," he charac
terizes the Church as dying : " This is new life for

294 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
the Church, for the lack of which the Church is
dying." But the Church is still alive and powerful as the
organism for man's spiritual life, and will wisely
turn a deaf ear to the " clerical clinic " that would
first diagnose her as in a dying state, and then seek
to revive her by a false union of religion and
pseudo-science. The Church was commissioned not to heal the
bodies but the souls of men. The credentials of her
divine authority are not to be confounded with her
spiritual purpose. The miracles necessary to vali
date it merely took the form of healing that the
divine power might be exercised beneficently.
That feature was wholly incidental and secondary.
Accordingly it passed with its occasion.
DANGER OF PERVERSION OF THE CHURCH.
The great purpose of the Church is no modern
discovery. Through all the ages it has witnessed
of the invisible things of God and ministered to
man's spiritual being and called him to his eternal
welfare. When drawn aside from this high mis
sion, or when commingling it with non-religious
schemes and efforts, the Church is dangerously
compromised and suffers incalculable loss of power.

THE CESSATION OF MIRACLES. 295
Physical miracles have ceased, and she can no
longer lay claim to their exercise, but the spiritual
miracle of the regeneration of the soul and the
growing sanctification of the spirit into the divine
image, belongs to her perpetual agency, and history
continually adds to her record wonderful and glori
ous examples.
The attempt to drag the Church into the medical
arena and to institute an ecclesiastical department
of psychotherapy is a violation of the spirit and
purpose of the Church, against which primitive his
tory and all the pure Christian eras protest. Such
movements are but a politic appeal to the sensation-
loving spirit of the time, and those who run after
them are seriously misled as to that faith, repentance
and spiritual healing, which the Church is com
missioned to preach to a world lying in the bondage
of sin and death. Christianity ever suffers serious
hurt from temporizing with such false popular
tendencies, and alone by promptly rejecting them
can maintain her unique spiritual mission and the
supremacy of her moral power.

CHAPTER XXX.
INFERIORITY OF THE PATRISTIC LITERATURE TO
THE INSPIRED WRITINGS OF THE NEW TESTA
MENT.TiSCHENDORF dates the Muratori document,
which gives the first catalogue of the books of
the New Testament which from the earliest period
were considered canonical and sacred, at about 150
A. D. At the head of the list it places our four
Gospels. A little later, perhaps, 160 or 170, we have the
Syriac version, called the Peschito, and the Latin,
named Italic, showing their wide acceptance. At a
still earlier date, 139 A. D., Justin Martyr, in his
first apology to the emperor, makes the statement
that the " memoirs of the apostles, called Gospels,
were read after the prophets every Lord's Day in
the assemblies of the Christians."
In the recently found " Apology of Aristides,"
addressed to Emperor Hadrian (about 140 A. D.),
Aristides speaks of the Gospels as written, and
(296)

INFERIORITY OF THE PATRISTIC LITERATURE. 297
offers the emperor the Christian Scriptures, thus
confirming what is suggested in Barnabas, and sus
taining the position of Justin.
And Tatian, in his " Diatesseron " (combination
of four), the earliest harmony of the Gospels, tells
us that they were widely read in the churches.
These testimonies bring us close to the verge of
the first century, and show that practically at the
death of the Apostle John, the books of the New
Testament were generally read in the churches on
the same level as the books of the Old Testament,
and hence regarded as inspired.
THE PATRISTIC WRITINGS READ AT PUBLIC WORSHIP.
Now, it is a fact that the writings of our post-
apostolic fathers were also read for edification in
the churches. Eusebius, the Church historian,
who gives the account of the Council of Nice in
325, thus states "that the Epistles of Clement
were publicly read for instruction in most of the
churches, both in foreign times and in our own." *
And there is abundant testimony that the writings
of Hermas and the other great spiritual leaders
were similarly read. This, in a time of such
* " Ecclesiastical History," Vol. III., chap. xvi.

298 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
trouble and persecution, was most natural and
proper. These letters sounded like a clarion call
of faith and courage, to strengthen and hold to
gether, and mutually comfort the widely scattered
and sorely tried congregations.
And it is beyond question true that these epistles
were held in the highest veneration, and were re
ferred to by Irenseus, Tertullian and Origen as
sacred or inspired, not using the term in the strict
est sense, as it is also the fact that there was for a
time considerable confusion as to whether or not
some of them should not be recognized as quasi-
Scriptural. But, on the other hand, they were never placed
on a level with the canonical gospels and epistles,
for although the canon had not yet been definitely
fixed, there existed in the Christian consciousness a
definite conviction of the bridgeless chasm that sep
arated an inspired from a" non-inspired author. The
period of a supernatural agency of the Holy Spirit
necessary to produce an inspired writing was ended,
and however much their great and holy teachers
might be venerated, no one thought of according
to them the authority attached to the utterances of
Christ and His apostles.

I NFERIORITY OF THE PATRISTIC LITERATURE. 299
NOT REGARDED INSPIRED.
An examination of this literature shows this to
be borne out by the internal evidence. The post-
apostolic fathers make not the least claim to inspi
ration. They preface no statement with a " Thus
saith the Lord," or with " It was given me by the
revelation of Jesus Christ," as do the inspired writ
ers. Moreover, they ever cite the books of the New
Testament as Scripture, deferring to their authority
as absolute. They do not assume to originate, but
only to comment upon the received Scriptures.
Their style, also, quite lacks the force and creat
ive character of the writings which compose the
New Testament. Canon Farrar, in defending the
canonical character of the Second Epistle of Peter,
comments on this fact thus : " A consideration of
capital importance is the superiority of this epistle
to every one of the uncanonical writings of the first
and second centuries. Who will venture to assert
that any apostolic father — that Clement of Rome,
or Ignatius, or Polycarp, or Hermas, or Justin Mar
tyr, could have written so much as twenty consecu
tive verses so eloquent and so powerful as those of
the Second Epistle of St. Peter?" * The critic,
* " Early Days of Christianity," chap, viii., p. 115.

300 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
Renan, likewise calls attention to the " immense
superiority and discourses of divine beauty in the
Gospels." *
This is a notable fact. Some of the writers of this
next generation were remarkable for ability, as, for
example, the author of the Epistle to Diognetus, and
evinced qualities of character and leadership of the
highest type. But when we compare their writings
with those of the New Testament we do not find
those great original truths, those creative thoughts
which give us pause, which shine by their own
light, which we feel none but authors " inspired by
the Holy Ghost " could have written. The differ
ence marks the line between Theopneustic (God-
inspired) and naturalistic writing.
Nevertheless, we must give these writers their
due. Their letters or epistles or homilies are
marked by the deepest devotion, by a profound
spirituality, by thorough familiarity with the Old
and New Testament Scriptures, and by the finest
precepts of practical piety. Many passages are of
great elevation, and, if they do not approach the
New Testament, yet breathe a lofty religious senti
ment, such as would make their reading illuminat
ing and stimulative to the modern Christian mind.
* "Life of Jesus," chap, xxviii., p. 259.

INFERIORITY OF THE PATRISTIC LITERATURE. 301
GREAT CHARACTERS, NOT GREAT WRITERS.
" The apostolic fathers," it has been justly said,
" are not great writers, but great characters." They
present a marked contrast to the depth and clear
ness of conception with which the several apostolic
writers place before us different aspects of the Gos
pel, and by which their title to a special inspiration
is vindicated. But there is a breadth of moral sym
pathy, a simplicity and a fervor of Christian de
votion which are the noblest testimony to the in
fluence of the Gospel.
" The gentleness and severity of Clement, whose
whole spirit is absorbed in contemplating the
harmonies of nature and of grace ; the fiery zeal of
Ignatius, in whom the one overmastering desire of
martyrdom has crushed all human passion ; the un
broken constancy of Polycarp, whose protracted life
is spent in maintaining the faith once delivered to
the saints — these are lessons which can never be
come antiquated or lose their value." *
Take as an illustration the following stirring
sentences from Barnabas's " The Way of Light " :
" Thou shalt love Him that created thee ; thou
shalt glorify Him that redeemed thee from death.
Thou shalt not let the Word of God issue from thy
*" Apostolic Fathers," Lightfoot, Vol. I., p. 7.

302 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
lips with any kind of impurity. Thou shalt be
meek ; thou shalt be peaceable. Thou shalt not
be mindful of evil against thy brother. Thou shalt
not be joined in soul with the haughty. Receive
thou as good things the trials which come upon
thee. Thou shalt not issue orders with bitterness
to thy maid-servant, or thy man-servant, who trust
in the same God. Do not be ready to stretch forth
thy hands to take, whilst thou contractest them to
give. Thou shalt seek out every day the faces of
the saints and meditate how to save a soul by thy
word. Thou shalt not make a schism, but thou
shalt pacify those that contend by bringing them
together. Thou shalt confess thy sins. Thou
shalt not go to prayer with an evil conscience.
This is the way of light." *
* Epistle, chap. xix.

CHAPTER XXXI.
GENERAL VIEW. LESSONS FOR THE PRESENT.
As a summary of the results of this study of
these Post-Apostolic Fathers, we note these domi
nant characteristics. A CREATIVE EPOCH.
All these writers are permeated with the enthu
siasm of a new-born time. They feel that they
live in a creative epoch. There is a second
beginning of things. The breath of a new morn
ing has awakened the world. The Creator has
stood upon the earth, and has said : " Behold, I
make all things new." * An all-pervasive convic
tion animates their minds that a new spiritual
force for individuals and the human race has ap
peared. The first creation was material ; this is the
second — the moral creation. The mystery of a
divine origin and potency confronts them. Thus
writes Ignatius : " Now three mysteries of renown
*Rev. xxi. 5.
(3°3)

304 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
are wrought in silence by God. The old kingdom
disappears, and God Himself is manifested in
human form, for the renewal of life. In our day
the divine decree has made a new beginning." *
A new religion, a new type of character, a new
soul-passion, a new birth of humanity is in the air.
It is the first chapter of the coming golden age of
mankind. It bears the potency of a new era of
human rights, a new brotherhood, a reconstructed
civilization. It is the spiritual renaissance of history. Mir
acles will be wrought in the moral sphere. The
Christ-spirit shall dominate the sons of men. A
new ethical code shall prevail among nations. The
whole social state of men shall be recast after the
Christian pattern. The new heaven of love shall
overarch a new earth of righteousness and peace.
The world has shaken off the lethargy and despair
of the ages, and sets forth upon a career of inspira
tion, energy and hope. The spirit of progress is
rife. Forward is the word ! On, on, to the fulfill
ment of the glorious counsels of God. A creative
breath from the eternal throne has swept over all
the face of the earth.
* Epistle to the Ephesians, chap. xix.

GENERAL VIEW. LESSONS FOR THE PRESENT. 305
A TRUE CHRISTIAN IDEALISM.
This conviction of the divine re-creative force
and purpose appearing in Christianity inspired the
primitive fathers with what they constantly mani
fest — a noble Christian idealism. Christ had taught
that His disciples should have for their aim the
regeneration and reform of society and the world.
This could be effected alone by sacrifice — the last
effort of love. He had said their prime motive
should be : " He that findeth his life shall lose it,
and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find
it." *
It is this aim at the evangelization of the world
through the Crucified, as shown in the spirit of
sacrifice, which burns in the hearts of the primitive
leaders. They will supplant the Pagan spirit by a
character less sensual than the Greek ; less martial
than the Roman ; less proud than the Stoic ; less
bigoted than the Jew ; and greater than all in the
might of love, the beauty of purity, the victorious
power of truth.
The conclusion^which the great moralists of the
past have hitherto reached is that high aims may
be ridiculous ; that heroism often is folly ; that the
*Matt x. 39.

306 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
finer the soul the more utter its earthly defeat. The
moral ideals of the race, how sublime ; but oh !
the irony of it at last, and no form of it so ironical
as the will to serve mankind, the passion for re
forming the world !
But with this cumulative experience of humanity
against them, these men abated not one jot of their
high moral idealism. This is the passion that
controls all their thoughts, words and deeds.
Though they lose all, and give their bodies to the
lions or to the flaming pyre, yet they will transform
and save the world. This was the ideal which the
Lord had left in visible form before their eyes, and
to translate it into reality was their high and tire
less resolve.
And this same Christian idealism has had its
heroes since, as in a St. Bernard, a St. Boniface, a
St. Francis, and in the representative Christians of
every age. In a world where materialism seems
to crush society in its octopus grasp, and where
pessimism sinks so many brave hearts, and where
the irony of justice fills many a noble spirit with
despair, the Christian Church holds aloft this ideal
ism of the triumph of righteousness, love and bro
therhood.

GENERAL VIEW. LESSONS FOR THE PRESENT. 307
UNIVERSALITY OF VISION.
The transforming mission to which the Post-
Apostolic Fathers had committed their lives em
braced nothing less than the horoscope of the
world. There appeared for the first time now
upon the historic stage an universal religion. As
Harnack says : " It is an astonishing fact in the
history of the Gospel that it left its native soil
and went forth into the wide world and realized its
universal character. It became a world-religion,
in that, having a message for all mankind, it
preached it to Greek and Barbarian." *
Judaism received its complement in Christianity.
There was proclaimed but one God, and He not a
tribal or national God, but " the God of all the
peoples of the earth." This was a truth totally-
new to mankind and at cross-purposes with all the
traditions and experiences of the race. It was the
conception which made the primitive Church a
great missionary organization and which has given
birth to modern Home and Foreign Missions. Its
principle was, that as God was the Father of all
men, so should all men be brothers, and that there
should not be an antagonism of faiths and interests,
but a community of belief and of mutual welfare.
* " History of Dogma," pp. 11 and 12.

308 THE POST- APOSTOLIC AGE.
One universal Church, under the spiritual su
premacy of which Christian states were to guar
antee equal rights to all, was to engirdle the
globe. "It was Christianity that broke down the
wall of partition between ranks, nations and
states. Not before did there exist on earth such
a thing as international law, upon which, in
our day, the whole framework of society de
pends. That we have liberty of conscience, that
right and law form the foundation of national life,
and that commerce and a general civilization
of mankind have been rendered possible on earth,
are blessings for which we are indebted to Chris
tianity." *
This magnificent conception of a universal
spiritual empire filled the early Christian with a
stiblime enthusiasm and armed him with a wand of
might. But it also involved the assertion of the
uniqueness of Christianity, and therefore for its
realization obligated its advocates to the overthrow
of all the age-long religions and the subversion of
every Pagan deity to the scepter of One crucified as
a malefactor.""The Fundamental Truths of Clnixliiiiiity," Lecture X.,
I.utlmnlt.

GENERAL VIEW. LESSONS I'OK THE PRESENT. 31 . KJ
THE CERTITUDE OK FAITH.
With such a seemingly Utopian scheme and with
such unequal odds against them, with their utter
feebleness against the force of intellect and the
overwhelming superioiity of material power, noth
ing is a greater moral miracle than the absolute as
surance of our Christian fathers.
Universal agnosticism confronts them, but "they
know in whom they have believed." No show of
force, no lire of persecution, no apparent defeat can
shake the perfect security of their faith. They are
so irrefutably grounded in tlu gospel that their
confidence in all its blessed truths cannot be
moved. No other explanation of this unique phe
nomenon can be given than that they had realized
the Christian faith in a personal experience. They
knew by a positive, inner testimony that "the Lord
was working with thetn and confirming the word
with signs following." *
Certaintv was their one watchword as to all the
cardinal doctrines and promises of the gospel. The
truths of Christianity had become such living and
eternal verities that nothing on earth or in hell
could shake their conviction. f Mark xvi. 20.

310 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
And this certitude, as it ever does, gave them
power. To those who thus preach, the truth be
comes a tangible thing, an incarnate energy. The
ancient world, with its religious indifference and
its philosophic doubt, could not stand before this
energy of invincible confidence that animated the
army of the cross. The result verified the saying of
the beloved disciple : " This is the victory that over-
cometh the world, even our faith." * So astonish
ing was the progress of Christianity in the face of
the most appalling obstacles that already Justin
Martyr could boast: "There exists not a people,
whether Greek or Barbarian, or an}' other race of
men, whether they dwell under tents or wander
about in covered wagons, among whom prayers are
not offered up in the name of a crucified Jesus to
the Father and Creator of all things." f
What a lesson this faith of these spiritual heroes
to us whose faith is so often feeble and wavering,
though we now have twenty centuries of its tri
umphs to confirm and strengthen it ! And what a
warning, also, as to those who to-day wish us to
weaken in our faith all along the line as the only
means to success ! On the contrary, we learn here
* I John v. 4. f " Dialogue with Tryphou."

GENERAL VIEW. LESSONS FOR THE PRESENT. 311
that it is only where Christian teachers and minis
ters are armed with this indubitable certitude as to
the great truths of the gospel that the Church will
go forth and continue to conquer as of old.
PAST AND FUTURE.
The face of Christianity in this era is towards the
future. She feels that hers is a mission of conquest.
The coming generations are to be hers. She is to
press forward and onward to the throne of the world.
And ever and ever is she to lift humanity to greater
heights. Progress — spiritual and material — is to
be her note. Under her sceptre sin is to be de
throned, ignorance banished, misery relieved, and
liberty, intelligence and happiness to reach their
highest phase. Onward, to an earth redeemed and
transfigured with grace — a truly Christian era !
But while her conquering career thus lies towards
the future, her inspiration must ever be drawn from
the past. Only by looking backward to Christ and
the apostolic times can she go forward to victory.
The course of Christianity is cast amid^the current
of the ages. She must address herself to the needs
and problems of the present. But to meet these
adequately, she must renew her strength, revive her

312 THE POST- APOSTOLIC AGE.
energy and reburnish her arms from that age
whence she derived her origin. The present
emerges from the past, and is the soil out of which
must grow the future. He who discards the moral
unity of the ages puts himself out of touch with
the universal order. He forgets the great truth in
Tennyson's couplet :
"Yet I doubt not through the ages, one increasing purpose
runs,
And the thoughts of men are widened with the process of the
suns."
Says Schleiermacher : " The tree of Christianity,
to be flourishing and vigorous to-day, must have its
roots struck deeply into the soil of the past."
So, while the outlook of this period is towards
coming times, there is never a severance from the
old foundations. The " fullness of the times " lies
back of them, the fullness of the dominion before
them. And so their message is at once old and
new, is redolent of the past and adapted to the
living present. It unites antiquity and mod
ernity. It is age-long and yet breathes the
spirit of the times. It pulsates with a universal
life. Christianity is surely progressive, because it
is wisely conservative. We never think of Chris-

GENERAL VIEW. LESSONS FOR THE PRESENT. 313
tianity as a thing of yesterday or of to-morrow only.
It is of both. Therefore it is an eternal force in the
world. " You are an American," said a Brahman
to a traveler, "and I am an Asiatic. You belong
to a conquering faith ; I belong to a dying faith."
Every ethnic faith save Christianity is on the road
to death. Not one has the power of expansion.
The so-called ethnic faiths are dying faiths. But
Christianity, built upon the past, spanning the cur
rent of the ages, ever presses towards the future,
gaining a wider horizon and a larger career.

CHAPTER XXXII.
GENERAL VIEW — CONTINUED. AUTHORITY OF
THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
Christianity, being thus an historical religion,
naturally is under the influence of history. And
those ages most instinct with the life and power of
the gospel are most potential with it. Of all these
periods, the Post-Apostolic, next to the New Testa
ment, Augustinian and Reformation eras, is most
weighty. For, if Christianity be historical, then
it must have an unbroken continuity of life, reach
ing back to its origin. And that which is nearest
its source represents its most pristine purity.
Doctrines and rites, originating subsequent to
this age, lack real historical authority. For unless
their roots, at least, are found here, they are not
connected by the smallest link with Christ and the
apostles. They are totally severed from primitive
Christianity. The contiguity of the teachers of this
period to the beginning, their personal touch with
the apostles, and through them with Christ Him
self, gave them a view of the new religion so direct,
(3H)

AUTHORITY OK THE POST-APOSTOI.IC AGE. 315
unique and all-pervasive as to be a source of au
thority to which every succeeding age, in some re
spects, must defer.
On that question, most vital and absorbing to us
to-day, " What is Christianity ? " what its essential
feature, what its original content, what its primitive
fonn, who was Christ, and what were His teach
ings? the}- had such an opportunity as no suc
ceeding age could have. Their testimony lay at
first hand. They could inquire as to the meaning
of even- doctrine, investigate every fact, solve
even inconsistency and contradiction. If they had
prepossessions, they were of such recent date that
they could easily have freed themselves from them.
Ever}- motive was against their acceptance of Chris
tianity. And that, at such extreme loss and sac
rifice, they accepted and held it in substantially the
fonn in which it has overspread the world, can only
be explained by their overwhelming conviction,
that the}- had it as Christ delivered it, and that their
consciences were inevocabh- bouud by it. There
is eveiy reason, then, to believe that the Christian-
it}- they confessed was drawn from its purest original
type- Shall it be said that these writers were ignorant

316 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
of modern science, knew nothing of evolution, were
not acquainted with advanced thought, had not
our wide intellectual outlook, and that therefore
they lack authority for our time ?
The reply is that we are here in quite another
sphere. It is not with material progress or with
speculative philosophies that we have to deal. But
the questions are those relating to the spiritual
sphere, to revelation, to faith, to Christianity, to
religious insight, and to their historical setting and
facts. These were within the witness of those
living in the primitive age as of no other, and
hence do they have an authority, of a kind, un-
equaled in the field of Christian history.
A FORMATIVE AGE.
Such an era must naturally have been a fruitful
field of inquiry, and have afforded the most satis
factory results for all those who in succeeding
times sought for side lights upon the origin of
Christianity. And so Church history shows the
formative character of this period in the molding
of Christianity and in its gaining definitive and
ordered statements.
As the Apostle John, having had a generation to

AUTHORITY OF THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE. 317
think over the teachings of Christ, saw in them
deeper views of divinity than did the synoptic
evangelists, so the Post-Apostolic Fathers began
that process of study, reflection and assimilation
which made the beginning of a scientific presenta
tion of Christian doctrine.
To these patristic writings, in conjunction with
the New Testament, the great leaders of the next
century went for those ideas which they developed
by degrees into a systematic Christian theology.
"The Christianity of the third century," says
Seeberg, " presents itself to us as a direct continu
ation of the doctrinal teachings of the second cen
tury. The roots of the ideas here developed may
in almost every instance be traced back to the
Apostolic Fathers." * As the great aim of these
Fathers had been to interpret and appropriate in
its purest and fullest form the saving truth trans
mitted by the apostles, so their teachings helped
Irenseus in the first effort of a great thinker to
frame a churchly theology. Likewise Tertullian
only furthered their work in defining and fixing
the Christology of the west. Similarly their views
exerted a shaping force upon the Alexandrian the
ology and its great representative, Origen. So,
* " History of Doctrines," Part II., chap. i.

318 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
again, Athanasius finds here strong support for the
doctrine of the Trinity ; and Augustine learns of
salvation through grace alone ; and Anselm is here
sustained in his fuller gospel view of a substitution
ary atonement.
And, in the Reformation era, it is to the study of
this period, as far as uninspired history was con
cerned, that Luther goes to purify the Church of
those later innovations and corruptions against
which the purity of this time was a protest. When
Luther appealed to the Scriptures, and when Eck
said that he could not refute him out of the Script
ures, but that he could from the Fathers, Luther
was able to make answer that the Apostolic Fathers
were greater authority than the Mediaeval School
men, and that none of the errors against which he
protested were countenanced by them or existed in
their time. Thus this Post-Apostolic became a
formative age for the Christian theology of all
succeeding periods of the Church, and from their
immemorial thrones these fathers still sway the
christian world.
OF LIVING AND PRESENT-DAY INTEREST.
Truth never becomes antiquated. The older it
grows the more it proves its claim to live. It

AUTHORITY OK THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE. 319
becomes venerable but not senile, gathering greater
authority with the lapse of years. It is endued
with the " power of an endless life."
So is the study of every period of christian his
tory a stud}- of truth in the toils of conflict and ex
perience, and hence of living interest and iustnic-
tiou. Hence we find that while the writings of
their classic contemporaries are known but to tlie
scholarly few, and their themes touch the present
very remotely, if at all, the questions discussed by
these primitive fathers arc full of vitality for our
time. They are just such as are burning ones to
day. Their difficulties are our difficulties ; the
attacks they have to meet are such as meet
us ; the bulwarks they defend are the very ones
we are guarding ; tlie doubts against which they
must contend are largely identical with those of
to-day. For example, we may well compare tlie utterly
alien spirit of Roman skepticism and stoical con
tempt for the distinctive doctrines of the new
Christian faith, with that boastful, and, we may say,
supercilious confidence with which modern science
and philosophy often assail the doctrines and super
natural claims of Christiantv as being rendered im-

320 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
possible and relegated to outworn superstition by
our enlarged knowledge.
And as their problems and difficulties and di
lemmas were largely coincident with those of
Christians in this age of criticism, negation and
doubt, so can we learn from their conduct under
similar fire. NO COMPROMISE WITH THE AGE SPIRIT.
And we see that there was no attempt at com
promising with the wisdom of this world. No effort
was made to adapt these tenets of Christianity
most hostile to unregenerate reason, so that they
would be acceptable to current systems of thought.
At a later period, Origen did attempt to unite with
the Christian doctrines the profound speculations of
the Gnostics, so that Christianity could maintain its
standing with the literary circles of the time. But
the hope that this compromise would succeed met
with lamentable failure. It neither saved the
Church's beliefs nor propitiated her opponents.
And it caused untold harm and weakening to the
cause, felt for generations after.
But our Apostolic Fathers stood out firmly
against this temptation. They neither disguised

AUTHORITY OF THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE. 32 1
nor pared down the distinctive and offensive feat
ures of Christianity. But they set forth the pure,
simple and entire gospel as they had received it,
whether men would hear or whether they would
forbear. They were convinced that their message
was of Christ and God, and that this divine author
ity- would give them the victor}-.
And if thus faithfnl these primitive Christian
heroes stood, in an ancient world of culture so
directly antagonistic to their message, and if
through this fidelity they triumphed, let the modern
Church learn a lesson.
There can be no compromise of onr faith suffi
cient to placate its opponents which will not sur
render the fundamentals of the gospel. The only
method of honesty, as well as of success, is to hold
forth the pure old gospel in all its simplicity, full
ness and power. We cannot bring the world into
allegiance to the Church by interpreting Christian-
itv in harmonv with the wisdom of the world.

CHAPTER XXXIII.
GENERAL VIEW — CONCLUDED. ESSENTIAL IDEN
TITY OF PRIMITIVE AND MODERN CHRISTIANITY".
The supreme fact which emerges from the study
of the writings of the Post- Apostolic Fathers is that
the conception of Christianity they set forth is, in
its main features, coincident with that of orthodox
Christianity to-day. The central dominant thought
of the primitive fathers is that of the divinity of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Ignatius, Clement, Barnabas
and all, worship Christ as the eternal Son who came
to reveal God, and, through His redemptive offer
ing, to restore man to his Father.
This primitive idea of Christianity appeared as
the characteristic feature in the second and third
centuries. Thus says Seeberg : " A general view of
the historical development thus far traced leads to
the conviction that the Christianity of the Apostolic
Fathers was that which characterized the Church
of the second century. Everywhere we note the
consciousness of the sinner's lost condition and the
conviction that he can be saved only through
(322)

PRIMITIVE AND MODERN CHRISTIANITY. 323
grace, through Christ, through the sacred ordi
nances of the Church." *
THE CENTRAL DOGMA.
Of the succeeding Nicene Age, in which were
settled those great fundamental doctrines which be
came regulative of the Christian faith in all suc
ceeding times, Harnack affirms: "Athanasius
brought everything back to the thought of redemp
tion through God Himself — i. e., through the God-
man, who is of the same essence with God. He
was not concerned about a formula, but about a de
cisive basis for faith, about redemption unto a
divine life through the God-man." f
This was the central dogma somewhat confusedly
held during the degeneracy of the Middle Ages. In
the Reformation we see it republished in all its
pristine purity and power. It was held alike by
Wesley and the High Church Tractarians and the
great modern preachers.
It is the backbone of every great Church confes
sion. The history of church doctrine shows the
divine, redeeming Christ as that truth which runs
through Christian theology as the keel stretches
* "Text-Book of the History of Doctrine," Part I., chap. iv.
t " History of Dogma." Part IV., Book I.

324 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
the whole length of the ship, giving support to
every brace and timber in it. It is that central
truth in every age, in the light of which the whole
Christian scheme was seen in variant forms.
THE CRADLE OF CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY.
All the proof overwhelmingly refutes the asser
tion that this and the dependent generic doctrines
were the growth of a later age, inventions of philo
sophical thought, formulas devised to uphold spe
cial systems of theology.
On the contrary, not alone do we see them dom
inant in every period, but the closer we get back to
the New Testament original, the more vital and
all-controlling do we find them. Primitive, Medi
aeval and Modern Christianity are at one in these
three essential statements : The Fall of Man ; A Di
vine Revelation ; Its Purport, Redemption through
the Incarnation of Christ, the God-man. Look at
Christianity in any age, in any phase, in any the
ology, these cardinal doctrines emerge. To this
primary doctrine all variant views have been but
secondary and incidental.
But now we are confronted with the challenge
that after these twenty centuries of identity, there
must be an essential change.

PRIMITIVE AND MODERN CHRISTIANITY. 325
President Schurman tells us that we are on the
brink of a revolution where not merely the divisive
lines between the denominations will disappear, but
those which differentiate Christianity itself from
ethnic faiths. Another great literary writer asserts
that we are " passing through the crisis of the de-
christianization of the modern world." * And on all
sides, even from ministers, commentators and theo
logians we hear the demand that Christianity submit
to a radical readjustment of its beliefs, aligning
them with the philosophical deductions of scientists,
and with the rationalistic and monistic materialism
of modern thought, or that it must pass from its
spiritual thraldom over men.
MODERNISM.
In response, let us contrast these two concep
tions. The one, as given in a recent volume, " The
Programme of Modernism," asserts that there has
been no revelation. That all that is supernatural
in Christianity is false. That the only religion
man can have he must evolve. That the only
truth he can get he must discover through the ex
ercise of his natural faculties. Hence, such a thing
as truth — in the real or absolute sense — is impos-
* Professor Woodberry, " Makers of Literature, p. 143."

326 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
sible. Commenting sympathetically on the book,
the Outlook says : "If Christ came to give an un
alterable dogma, He did not come to give life, for
life will as certainly demand change in the dogma
which expresses it as the life of the artist will
demand different artistic expression at different
periods of his development. The authors of ' The
Programme of Modernism ' make no attempt to
¦obscure this issue."
The significance, then, of this modern critique
of Christianity is clear. There is no settled object
ive truth. As the human mind is fallible, so its
view of truth will always be shifting, indefinite and
uncertain. With Montaigne it must ever cry du
biously : "What can I know?" Upon all the
questions for which the soul seeks answer with un
utterable yearning, there can be no light. The
quest of the ages remains a sphinx, the seekers after
God are blind as in the pre-Christian eras. There
is nothing upon which man can build or rest — no
security, no light, no hope — nothing but the ancient
classic despair, or the modern rayless agnosticism.
The physical universe has its fixity, its laws, its
central unity and order. But the spiritual universe
lacks reality. Truth does not sit upon the throne.

PRIMITIVE AND MODERN CHRISTIANITY. 327
No bond of authority holds it under the sway of
law. Liberty of thought is the central principle.
Everyone can think as he pleases, and form what
opinions he will, for there is no truth, no criterion
of enor, no spiritual supremacy. This system
means not lawful freedom, but unlimited license
of opinion, with its necessary conelatives of doubt,
ignorance and spiritual darkness.
Over against this negative scheme of Modernism
stands that which has ever been, and is still, the
distinctive christian conception. It is that man by
his natural reason cannot know God, has never thus
found Him, and is just as greatly in darkness amid
his modern progress as ever, as evinced, for exam
ple, by the tragic farewell words of the philosopher,
Spencer. But it has pleased God to give a reve
lation, through His co-eternal, co-divine Son. As
God is the Truth, so the revelation of Jesus Christ
is true. Being the Truth, it is perfect, without
enor. As such it is authoritative, and fallible
human reason must defer to it Faith is the
spiritual organ of its reception.
CHRISTIANITY A RELIGION OF AUTHORITY.
Christianity thus becomes a religion of Tnith,
and hence of authority. It proclaims the Gospel

328 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
and calls upon all men to believe. Bishop Gore,
in his recent volume, " The New Theology and the
Old Religion," thus summarizes it : " There is an
essential difference between human nature and
divine nature ; religious truth cannot be arrived at
by the human faculties ; it is furnished to men in a
completed revelation ; and a summary of that rev
elation is to be found in the Apostles' and Nicene
Creeds, which are to be accepted by faith."
The Church is made the guardian of this revela
tion, of which the Scriptures are a reliable record.
And as Truth is perfect and unchangeable, so the
generic marks of the Church are identical in even-
age. And, while this message of revealed, flaw
less, unchanging truth is the chief point of opposi
tion and attack, it is yet that which distinguishes
Christianity as a God-given religion and gives it its
unique power over the minds and hearts of men.
Even so liberal a theologian as Harnack is com
pelled, by his fidelity to history, to admit : " Upon
this surety alone, that the divine which appeared in
Christ has the nature of the Godhead itself, can
faith receive its power, life its law, and theology its
direction." *
* " History of Dogma," Part II., Book 1

PRIMITIVE AND MODERN CHRISTIANITY. 329
And, however loudly present-day critics may
prophesy, Christianity knows its secret too well to
attempt to confound its character with the secular
demands of the age. There is no sign of an im
pending revolution. The hand that is laid upon
the essential articles of Christianity is doomed to
fall. Not a line has been erased from the Ecumen
ical Creeds of Christendom. The Augustana of
1530 — the venerable creed of the Reformation, of
which Schaff says, " It struck the keynote of all the
Evangelical Confessions," * — remains unchanged,
and is to-day, perhaps, more authoritative than ever
over its seventy-five million [half of the Protestant
world] adherents. Nor is there the slightest move
ment to eliminate the christian essentials of doc
trine from any of the more modern Christian
creeds. Modern Christianity, then, confronts the prob
lems of the times and faces the future in a form
identical with Primitive and Historic Christianity.
Some may, indeed, sigh for the birth of a new
Christianity, which knows no definite faith, but
changes with every transient hue of thought, but
we prefer to rest our confidence on the Rock that
* " Creeds of Christendom."

330 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
stands moveless amid the rise and ebb of seas. Nor
do we believe that a Christianity shifting with every
mood of thought is that in which men will trust.
But a religion which is " to bring them strength,
comfort and peace can alone be one which will
speak with no uncertain voice.
CONTRAST OF MODERNISM AND HISTORICAL CHRISTIANITY.
Between this historical conception of Christianity
and that of the proposed new cast of theology there
can be no agreement. The two views are irrecon
cilable. One offers us a natural, the other a
supernatural Christianity. One proposes a human,
the other a divine religion. One receives holy
mysteries in faith, the other disowns them in the
spirit of rationalism. One has a revealed and
unique, the other an evolved and comparative
Christianity. One has the Word of God, the other
a mere ethical treatise. One has a Church with
sacraments and means of grace, the other a mutu
ally helpful society with symbolic ordinances. One
speaks with the authority of Truth, the other claims
unlimited liberty, since one opinion is no surer
than another.
The one is historic, tracing its roots back to the

PRIMITIVE AND MODERN CHRISTIANITY. 331
New Testament Age, the other boasts a " Modern
ism," from underneath which are cut the founda
tions of antiquity anil history. The one has cer
tainties and a surety of eternal life, the other " faintly
trusts the larger hope." The one "puts away sin "
by a propitiatory sacrifice, the other holds the
Atonement unethical, and knows no remedy for
sin. One meets and conquers death by a risen
Saviour, the other sees the glorious Easter victory
but an illusive myth. One opens the kingdom
of heaven and secrets of the invisible world to
believers, the other sees not behind the rayless
wall. One is positive, the other negative. One is con
servative, the other revolutionary. One is con
structive, the other destructive. Hence, there can
he no compromise between these opposing views.
They are mutually exclusive. They cannot co
exist, for they would cease to subsist.
CONCLUSION.
Aye ! Let us not yield our precious Christian
birthright to the advance of this cold, destructive
wave of skeptical criticism, lest we be driven to
Matthew Arnold's despairing moan in that pathetic

332 THE POST-APOSTOLIC AGE.
poem, where, " wild with all regret " he laments
that — "The Sea of Faith
Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore
Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furl'd.
But now I only hear
Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
Retreating to the breath
Of the mighty wind, down the vast edges drear,
And naked shingles of the world.
Ah, love, let us be true
To one another ! for the world which seems
To lie before us like a land of dreams.
So various, so beautiful, so new,
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain.
And we are here as on a darkling plain,
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight
Where ignorant armies clash by night. ' '
We do not, indeed, contend for an unchanging and
identical historical Christianity — the semper idem —
in the Romish sense, that the Church's expression
of the faith cannot vary, or that new light on God's
works may not aid to larger and deeper interpre
tations of His Word, or that Truth is not vital and
endued with inherent power of growth and devel
opment, but we do hold that the great spiritual
verities and eternal truths revealed by the Son of
God are in their essence fixed and unalterable.

PRIMITIVE AND MODERN CHRISTIANITY. 333
And that the Church must not waver in her con
fession of them to the end of time.
Christ Himself said of His revelation: " Heaven
and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not
pass away." *
And so, Primitive, Mediaeval and Modern Chris
tianity, and the Church of all ages and times, join
in the sublime confession : The article of Faith,
the ground of Hope, the object of Worship — " JESUS
Christ, the same y-esterday-, and to-dayt, and
:r." t
Matt. xxiv. 35. + Heb. xii. 8.

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