LIBRARY OF THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY PRINCETON. N. J. PRESENTED BY Herbert Adams Gibbons. Bro ti? 4 829.4898 Schermerhorn, Martin Kellogg, 1841-1923. Renascent Christianity, a forecast of the Twentieth uw) Aa win yi CAE iat! Do ot eked ‘Pp " 74 r j 4 word nae 4 ibe Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2022 with funding from Princeton Theological Seminary Library https://archive.org/details/renascentchristiOO0sche_0O — ‘ <2 eae ANNOUNCEMENT. TWO IMPORTANT VOLUMES. BY “A CLERGYMAN.” (Now ready.) 1.— RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY, A FORECAST OF THE 20TH CENTURY.” [Widely known clergymen and other scholars who are among the leading representatives of Broad Church Christianity in Eng- land and America, to whom proof-sheet copies were sent for ad- vance reviews, returned hearty commendations which will be found in full on the opening pages. | “An earnest attempt to show that the Christianity of Jesus and of his Apostles was eclectic, and so Catholic or universal ; that from the close of the second century has prevailed a ‘tend- ency to revert and degenerate,’ which accounts for all the super- stitions and errors of the historic Church; and that all sectarian divisions, including that between reasonable Trinitarians and conservative Unitarians, may be healed by going back to “the truth as it is in Jesus.’”’ “ This ts a brave, true, manly piece of work.” “ 4 breadth which emulates the Christianity of the late Bishop Brooks.” “ God speed to the potent new volume.” 2.—NEW EDITION OF “ ANCIENT SACRED SCRIPTURES OF THE WORLD.” [From a large number of scholarly reviews, made by some of our most reliable Newspapers and Periodicals, brief selections have been made and will be found, highly commending the vol- ume, on the opening pages. “An eloquent argument for that Catholicity which rises above creeds.” “A valuable addition to every library.” “ Tt cannot fail to arouse interest.” The two are designed as companion volumes. The first is designated as “ The Old Faith in Modern Form,” and the sec- ond as “ The Old Religion in Modern Words.” Uniform in size and style, large octavo of nearly 450 pages; extra paper and type. Price per volume, $2.50 and $2.00 ac- cording to binding. #,% For sale by all booksellers. Sent by mail, postpaid, on receipt of price, by the Publishers. G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS, PUBLISHERS 27 AND 29 WEST 23D STREET, NEW YORK ; 24 BEDFORD STREET, STRAND, LONDON, I SAVOLRI LY STIMULATED BY SELF-FORGETFULNESS AND DIRECTED BY INTELLIGENCE IS THE SOURCE OF ALL VIRTUES, The Creed and Pledge which are given on the following page may be found, with explanations, on pages 37 and 38 of “ Renascent Christianity.” They are repeated here with the hope that they may attract especial attention and also as a suitable connection of the two volumes, “‘ Ancient Sacred Scriptures of the World” and “ Renascent Christianity,” both of which have been prepared as their amplification and enforcement. In the ancient cathedral of Lubeck, in Germany, there is an old slab with the following inscription : “Thus speaketh Christ our Lord to us: Ye call me Master, and obey me not; Ye call me Light, and see me not ; Ye call me Way, and walk me not ; Ye call me Life, and desire me not ; Ye call me Wise, and follow me not ; Ye call me Fair, and love me not ; Ye call me Rich, and ask me not; Ye call me Eternal, and seek me not ; Ye call me Gracious, and trust me not ; Ye call me Noble, and serve me not ; Ye call me Mighty, and honor me not ; Ye call me Just, and fear me not; If I condemn you, blame me not.” INSINCERITY STIMULATED BY SELF-LOVE AND DIRECTED BY IGNO- RANCE 1S THE SOURCE OF ALL SINS, CMETOLIG CEURCH CREED AND VL DIG es (iy lois ICOM Saha PORSTHE BWENTIETH CENTURY end bd 4 bd Looe bead — me I BELIEVE BELIEVE BELIEVE BELIEVE BELIEVE BELIEVE PROMISE PROMISE PROMISE PROMISE PROMISE PROMISE NESS. CREED IN THE FATHERHOOD OF GOD. IN THE TEACHINGS OF JESUS THE CHRIST. IN THE GUIDANCE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. IN THE CLEAN HEART. IN THE SERVICE OF LOVE. IN THE UNWORLDLY LIFE. PLEDGE TO TRUST GOD AND LOVE HIM SUPREMELY. TO TAKE MY CROSS AND FOLLOW THE CHRIST. TO ACCEPT THE HOLY SPIRIT AS MY GUIDE. TO FORGIVE AND LOVE MY ENEMIES. TO LOVE MY FELLOW MEN AS MYSELF, TO HUNGER AND THIRST AFTER RIGHTEOUS- ‘ we ie) oy Ge LRT? ADVANCE REVIEWS. DENASCENT CHRISTIANITY.—A FORECAST OF THE 20TH CENTURY.” Of twelve widely known clergymen and other scholars who are among the leading representatives of Broad Church Ces in England and in America, to whom “ proof-sheet copies ’’ were sent for advance reviews, eleven responded as follows : [Zhe MSS. of the reviews with the names of the reviewers are held by the publishers. | 1.—‘‘ The cycle of the Seasons is typical of the cycle of the Centuries. In each is a Seed-time, a Summer, a Harvesting, and a Winter, during which a silent redistribution of values takes place, undiscovered till the Spring proclaims a re-incarnation. ‘Renascent Christianity, A Forecast of the Twentieth Century,’ is essen- tially a prophecy and a warning that the Spring-time of the Centuries is at hand. It is, as well, a plea, that in things spiritual, we shall not be caught napping, secure in the pride of place and privilege, when the Sun of Universal Truth shall cast its light into the most hidden places and illume and lay bare their secrets. With a breadth which emulates the Christianity of the late Bishop Brooks ; with a scorn for that miserable self-love which, like a miasma, infects all it touches, the author makes Sincerity the touch-stone of religious unity and wel- comes into a common fraternity all those who are intelligently sincere. Science, long since, proclaimed the necessary unity of Truth. It is but now, however, that the ‘ Higher Criticism of the Bible and the study of Compara- tive Religion’ has revealed to earnest students of Religion and Theology the same unity within their own sphere. The author also emphasizes the dominant disaster of our day, as it has been that of other days of superlative progress and proficiency in things material. He sees, as other seers have seen, the monster Money, lying twined about the root of the modern tree-of-troubles. Everywhere the corrupting influence of huge wealth has extended its perni- nious tentacles, until neither the Church nor the State remains pure and undefiled. It is indeed time that a halt were called, and this appeal by ‘a clergyman’ 4 a ADVANCE REVIEWS. 5 may, at least by its sincerity and outspoken candor, attract attention in those quarters which would be deaf to all ordinary petitions. It is with this hope that all will bid God-speed to this potent new volume.” 2,—‘* This volume called ‘ Renascent Christianity,’ is written with prophetic earnestness. Itisa plea for a return to the ‘truth as it isin Jesus.’ Its plea is based upon the novel ground that his teachings were eclectic and resumed in their simplicity all that was best in the world’s sacred scriptures. This idea suggests that Christianity is a p/eroma containing all that is best in all the other great religions of the world. The author’s spirit is essentially catholic and irenic, and invites the codperation of all liberal-minded people of whatever creed. He is very stern in his indictment of those ‘ reversions,’ as he calls them, that have changed the character of Christianity from its original purity. Would not ‘corruptions’ be a better word than ‘ reversions’? More bent on driving home his message than on making a literary impression, he has drawn liberally on many writers for the confirmation of his principle. The patience and the diligence that have gone into the structure of the book cannot be praised too much, and I sincerely trust that they will meet with their reward in a wide and cordial recognition of the spirit and the purpose of his work,” 3.—‘'' The subject of the book is one which must command the interest of all men who are in earnest about religion. The care, and reverence, and scholarly training with which the author has treated it will deserve respect and, it seems to me, interest among all faithful and conservative scholars.” 4.—‘' This is a brave, true, manly piece of work. Brave—because it is so out-spoken as almost certainly to displease those who care chiefly for con- formity and quiet. True—so true in its intents and purposes as to silence all questions of entire intellectual agreement. Manly—in that its breadth of sympathy is as wide as the world and excludes no child of the Heavenly Father. Whether it is really the original Christianity or not this author so earnestly portrays, it is something so fine and sweet that all loving hearts will wish its purpose may be realized. I welcome its clear challenge to intellectual as well as moral seriousness. Give us all this earnestness, this conservatism, this divine and all-inclusive sympathy and we may courageously and cheerfully lift up the cry—‘ Zhe King- dom of Heaven is at hand,’”’ 5.—‘* I respond with gratitude and ‘ God-speed.’ So far as I gather from your line of thought and of argument, it seems to me the defense of a thesis to which the corrupters of the Religion of Jesus will find it difficult to make an answer.” ¥ 6 ADVANCE REVIEWS. ek oe st ns A de a 6.—'' Renascent Christianity is the title of a book whichis a sign of the times, It is one more expression of the movement within Christianity towards a new birth—a reformation, a reconstruction of thought and of life. That there is such a movement at work in our midst, goes without saying. Every worthy ex- pression of this movement is an added impetus to it. Such a work is that which aptly takes its title from this great tendency of our times. The author, himself a Catholic Christian in the true sense of the word— having in his experience personally known widely diverse forms of Christianity, and found the common Christianity which is at the heart of them—wisely in- terprets the movement which he feels within his own spirit and recognizes all about him. He seeks to go back of Christianity to the Christ ; back of institu- tionalism and dogmatic theology, to the life which gave birth alike to institu- tions and to systems of thought. He finds in the later developments of theology and ecclesiasticism much that is in the nature of a degeneration, Renewed life is, in his judgment, to be found in retracing the steps of thought and life back to the primal fount. To open this is to effect a regeneration of Christianity. There is no question that in this he rightly expresses a wide-spread tend- ency of the times. Back through doctors and priests, through school-men and fathers and apostles to Jesus himself—this is the cry on every hand. In inter- preting this original Christianity, the author shows himself in sympathy with the best tendencies of the movement which he expresses. Intellectually he is a liberal of the liberals, While conservative in holding to the historic form of thought, the form of sound words, he is a liberal in reading those forms in the light of the truest and highest thought—that is the simplest and most essential thought of Christianity. How liberal the book is let two passages suffice to show. ‘ What then are the original sources of Chris- tianity? All the Holy Teachings of all the Religions of the World.’ Jesus the Christ was ‘ conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary,’ in the sense that all who on earth shall attain to perfect holiness, must be ‘ conceived in Holiness, and born of a pure mother in particular and of a pure ancestry in general,’ While thus intellectually broad, he is ethical and spiritual, as must needs be the case with one who would go back to the Master. The book is instinct throughout with spiritual vitality,—the vitality of the teachings of Jesus. It is constructive and not merely destructive. It makes for a living faith. The form in which the book is cast—that of short sections, intelligently headed—makes it easy for the average reader to follow understandingly its logi- cal development. The book is one which ought to help on the renascence of Christianity.” 7.—‘* Renascent Christianity is the suggestive title of a volume whose ad- vance pages I have examined. ‘The author is evidently a man of wide observa- tion and of many subjective experiences. He writes with fine flashes of insight, from the promptings of serious convictions, and with a passionate desire to recall Christianity to the simplicity of the Christ—the Christ of the ages and of the Saint ; the Christ of Nature and of Grace. ADVANCE REVIEWS. 7 PRLS ERAT RR ROOST OLA nae LAP Fan le eco EAE Neither churchmen, dissenters, nor so-called liberals will agree with all the writer says. He waves away the churches with a scourge of small cords, and lays about him somewhat indiscriminately. But even those who read with re- sentment will be obliged to whet their eye-beams, to look sharply around and within, and to ask if these things are so.” 8.—‘‘ I have been deeply interested in reading the scholarly work entitled Renascent Christianity, There is evidence on every page of a deep desire to ascertain the truth, and a fervid purpose to set that truth forth accurately for the benefit of Christianity. Students of historical religion are well aware that the original gospel has been greatly perverted. Simplicity has been sacrificed to mystery, and intricate intellectual process substituted for spiritual insight ; formalism has usurped the place of sincerity, and the broad message of Jesus has been narrowed to doctrinal and sectarian purposes, He who ably presents the facts in this great matter, with stirring argu- ments and illustrations, is placing the modern thoughtful world under great obligations. The author of this admirable work has approached his task with combined earnestness and catholicity. He seeks to obtain the truth from errors, and with a sympathetic touch passes in review the degeneration which has oc- curred in Christianity. With no uncertain accent, he sounds the notes of warning at the same time. There is evidence throughout of wide reading, and a throng of witnesses is summoned to attest the correctness of the positions herein maintained. Such a volume ought to aid very much in clearing up misunderstanding with regard to genuine Christianity. It will thereby assist in directing more wisely the vast energies of the true gospel, and point out the quicker fulfilment of its glorious possibilities.” g.—‘‘I hardly feel warranted in giving an opinion upon the treatment of sub- jects of so much importance where (on account of sickness) I have only had time to glance over the pages. But of this I feel quite sure, that, from your own experiences in the theological world, you cannot fail to give a broad, un- sectarian, impartial, and truly religious view of what the Twentieth Century will ask in these matters.” 10.—‘‘ You certainly treat your subject from the right point of view, and your position is an impregnable one. I wish I had time to read the plate-proof Copy more thoroughly, so as to be able to express myself more fully. I thank you for your kindness in submitting it to me.” 11.—[The following letter, written by his own hand, will explain why one of the twelve chosen was unable to review this volume. It will also be, in itself, of wide and permanent interest because of the venerable age as well as the exceptional intelligence and influence of the writer. | 8 ADVANCE REVIEWS. ernie ati Rtas Sie) ei nl) ae OL Aaa ake Na Mle Hae Sk ‘¢ THe POLCHAR, ROTHIEMURCHUS, ABIEMORE, SCOTLAND, ‘October 21, 1897. ae . . « Ihave not forgotten our former correspondence with reference to the Memorial Church in Newport, R. I., and the best mode of turning to ac- count for future generations the characteristics of Dr. Channing’s thought and life. I rejoice to know that you are still engaged in the same work at an ulte- rior stage, and are bringing out this goodly volume in prosecution of it. I shall address myself eagerly to the study of it, if not too soon overtaken by ‘ the night in which no man can work.’ But in my 93d year, moving through my tasks at the slackened pace of a spent life, how can I expect or promise to qualify myself for an adequate re- view of a Treatise so comprehensive as is this one entitled Renascent Chris- tianity. Were, on my study table before me, there are already in advance of yours seven or eight elaborate productions, of as many thousand pages ; English, French, German, Dutch, sent me by their authors and waiting for review and judgment, which I cannot hope to give. It is imperatively necessary for me to contract my remaining attempts within very narrow limits,—hardly going beyond the revision of my own re- prints. I must not therefore undertake the office with which you entrust me. In declining it my comfort is, that with such allies as you cannot possibly gain anything from a worn-out co-worker that has dropped into the past. Nor canI think of any one whose good word would secure more atten- tion for the volume than its own contents, with their lucid presentations, will of themselves secure. Though spared most of the infirmities of old age, I find the still-increas- ing claims upon me,—apparently a man made up of leisure,—more than I can meet. I have to depend on the forbearance of my friends for the many invol- untary neglects with which I have to reproach myself. I remain, with best wishes and thanks, Yours very truly, JAMES MARTINEAU.” NOTE. The omission of names of Advance Reviewers, as of nearly all the recent Authors quoted from in this volume, has been especially assented to by all the parties concerned, This, as elsewhere explained, is not because of anyone’s unwillingness to openly avow his sentiments; but rather to favor the strong desire of the Author that no names should be used in the entire volume except as some unusual demands of revered age, or high office, or copyright regulations should render it advisable or imperative. THE AUTHOR. Epiphany, 1898. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. 9 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. Among other volumes named elsewhere in the following pages from which citations, with the above understanding, have been made are those which follow: ‘Studies of the Inner Kingdom,” ‘‘ Things New and Old,” ‘* Talks About Jesus,” ‘* Faith and Self-Surrender,” * God and Christ,” ‘‘ Our Heredity from God,” ‘‘ The Life in Common,” ‘‘ The Man Jesus,” ‘* What is the Bible we For these and all other helps, cordially extended for the preparation and issue of this volume, sincere thanks are here publicly offered. Acknowledgments are hereby made, with thanks, to the following publish- ers: E. P. Dutton & Co., D. Appleton & Co., Geo. Ellis & Co., American Unitarian Association, Merrill & Baker, The Macmillan Co., Longmans, Green, & Co. Especial acknowledgments and thanks are due, and hereby are made, to Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. for their generous permission for the use of several of the shorter poems of John G. Whittier, but in particular of those used on pages 147-150 to form the ‘‘ Model Sketch of Our Recent Prophet-Bard.” THE AUTHOR. Epiphany, 1898. ait bi Ur ay (ALOVAP AP len a ae ( On tT 4 Vv \ 3 1 Od Bae RRENASCENT CHRISTIANITY A FORECAST OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY INSTHEPLIGHTLOR HIGHER CRITICISM OF THE BIBLE STUDY OF COMPARATIVE RELIGION AND OF THE UNIVERSAL PRAYER FOR RELIGIOUS UNITY BY A CLERGYMAN Mactin Ke) During the past twelve years Rector in Succession of St. John’s Protestant Episcopal Chivch! Arlington, Mass., and of St. Mark’s (Irving Memorial) Church Tarrytown-on-Hudson, N. Y.; Formerly Pastor in Succession of Channing Memorial Church, Newport, R. I., and of Church of the Unity, Boston, Mass. AUTHOR OF ** ANCIENT SACRED SCRIPTURES OF THE WORLD,” ETC. ANNO CHRISTI 1898-2000 G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS NEW YORK LONDON 27 WEST TWENTY-THIRD STREET 24 BEDFORD STREET STRAND Ghe Anicherbocher Press 1898 COPYRIGHT, 1897 BY G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS Ube Knickerbocker Press, Hew Work TO HER WHO FOR NEARLY THIRTY YEARS HAS BEEN THE SYMPATHETIC COMPANION OF MY LIFE AND TO OUR ONLY ONE WHO HAS GROWN TO BE MY CHIEF LITERARY HELPER DO HEREBY AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBE THIS VOLUME ‘* Ye shall know Truth and Truth shall make you free.” ‘‘ Stand fast there- fore in the Liberty wherewith the Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.” ‘* He is the freeman whom the Truth makes free, And all are slaves beside.” ‘** The voice mysterious, which whoso hears Must think on what has been and what will be.” ‘* Often as thy inward ear Catches such rebounds, beware— Listen, ponder, hold them dear ; For of God—of God they are.” a, ’ , | 9 s ; F ba | 2 es Ae yan , y) 4 ai 4 * ti J Pepi ean Wieltit ee Abeer ate ; PREFATORY NOTES. 1. Thus far in the Evolution of Mankind the credulous has prevailed, to the repression and almost universal exclu- sion of the critical, especially so with reference to all sub- jects relating to Religion. By the “critical” is not meant ignorant rejection or unbelief, much less the scoffing spirit of Infidelity or the scorning spirit of Agnosticism: but a tend- ency Zo look into things, a spirit and habit of zzspection. This was the original meaning of those shining words of the Bible —Prophet, Apostle, Bishop; they were names for those who were supposed to be inspectors or lookers-into-things. This of course refers to the generic meaning of the words. Their original significance was true to their derivation so long as Bible Religion was *’ pure and undefiled.” Every recognized Prophet of the Old Testament, Apostle of the New, and Bishop of the first century was a ‘‘ Skeptic” in such a pro- nounced sense of that word (in its generic meaning) as to be a “‘ heretic,” an ‘‘infidel” even, to the popular or ‘‘ orthodox” party of his generation. When Christianity began to degenerate there were no more Prophets (except ‘‘ false Prophets”), no more Apostles, and the word Bishop grew to mean a mere overseer or an official director of dogmatic and ecclesiastical affairs. This critical spirit can only exist in highly evolved indi- viduals, and can only prevail widely in highly evolved periods. Such individuals have been all those ¢rwe Prophets, Apostles, and Bishops who (in all the Past and in every form of Religion) have ‘‘ turned the world upside down” in its superstitions, stupidities, and sins; and have striven to in- augurate the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth through the agency of their Protestantisms, Revolutions, and Reforms. Thus far in History there has been no period so highly evolved as to enable this critical spirit to prevail widely. Most nearly approximating it were the first and second cen- turies and the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries of the Christian Era. (The periods of the Buddhistic, Socratic, Is- lamistic, and of the more ancient Confucian and Zoroastrian Reforms were approximations also; but limited in aspir- ations and local in attempts.) Vv vi PREFATORY NOTES. Ceo eae we eS ee But now, all the signs of the times indicate that the Evolution of Mankind has reached such an elevated stage as to render it possible to inaugurate a Protestantism of the devoutly and reverently Critical that shall so widely prevail over the zgnorantly and degradingly Credulous as to virtually establish that Kingdom of Heaven upon Earth which John the Baptist, Jesus, and the Apostles introduced: and which the Protestant Reforms of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries re-introduced. This conviction has so taken pos- session of the author as to be the compelling motive of every sermon preached, article written, and word of instruction spoken during the entire thirty years of his unceasing service as Minister of the Gospel of Jesus the Christ. He has ever tried to be a ¢rue Skeptic, that is, a devout and reverent looker-into-things. Moreover, he has increasingly believed that, in a new and wider sense than ever before, the King- dom of Heaven is at hand. This belief finally suggested (as a possible forward-helping) this volume and dictated its contents—“ Renascent Christianity, A Forecast of the Twen- tieth Century.” Renascent means reviving, renewing, or newly springing up. Renascent Christianity, therefore, means Original Chris- tianity (2. ¢., Christianity as taught by Jesus and his Apostles), reviving, renewing or springing up anew. Explanatory of the general title is the additional one, A Forecast of the Twentieth Century. Forecast implies fore- sight: and foresight means power to foretell or to prophesy. In this sense this volume is a prophecy of the zd of Christianity that will prevail (or begin to prevail) in the Twentieth Century. After the entire body of this volume was in permanent type, and these Pre- fatory Notes were in the printer’s hands, the following met the author’s eye for the first time: (‘‘ Our Heredity from God.”’) ‘“There is in human evolution also a great deal of what may be termed periodicity. Ideas and lines of thought run their courses in given periods. Religions have from the outset had a period of about five hundred years. Brahminism, itself a reformation of an antecedent faith, burst out simultane- ously over Asia about 2000 B.c. The law-giving by Manu in Southern Asia, by Tschow in Eastern Asia, and by Moses in Western Asia, was spontaneous PREFATORY NOTES. Vil and simultaneous about 1400 and 1500 B.c._ The song and psalm era of David and Homer was about 1000 B.c. Buddha in India, Confucius in China, So- crates in Greece, flashed forth about 500 B.c. Five hundred years later, Jesus, concentering all lines of evolution, symbolized the cosmopolitan unity of all future development. 500 to 600 A.D, the papacy was established, and Moham- med began his crusade of monotheism. 1000 A.D. the completed hierarchy was established by Hildebrand ; 1500 A.D. the Reformation by Luther was kindled. As we near 2000, it seems certain that we are approaching the culmination and establishment of the age of Reason as the basis of Faith. . . . Through all these revolutions has there been evolution ; and all religions have moved on The King’s Highway to higher hopes and purer purposes.” 2. The Author would classify himself as to Ecclesiasti- cism, Ritual, and Dogmatic Theology among the broadest of “Broad Churchmen.” Episcopal Order of Government, so long as it does not degenerate into a tyranny of dictation or of control; Liturgical Worship, so long as it is intellectually sincere and spiritually elevating; Historic Theology, so long as it neither adds to nor takes from the simple teachings of Jesus the Christ, are all heartily accepted. Though much disliking (on account of their bigoted and persecuting asso- ciations) the words Churchmanship, Orthodoxy, and Trin- itarianism, their truths (so far as they are clearly those enunciated by Jesus the Christ) are eagerly retained, while their errors are as eagerly rejected. The well-known Rector of Grace Church, New York City, has recently defined the position tersely and well—“ Such unclassifiable thinkers are by no means so numerous within our ecclesiastical borders as might be wished. They come under the same sort of suspicion as that which overshadows the ‘ independent voter’ in politics. Nevertheless their abiding in the ship inures to the benefit of the voyage. We are stronger and richer with them than we could be without them.” Among the last written words of the late Professor Henry Drummond were the following: “The characteristics of Christianity are that it deals with the roots of things, with the heart and life; that it holds sacred the aspiration and the wants of man and man him- self; that it recognizes above all social distinctions the uni- versal brotherhood of the race, and over all legislation the one Golden Rule of Christ. While claiming no monopoly Vill PREFATORY NOTES. ae oo eh SP binds user! 8 ee re of this high spirit for Christian Liberalism, is it unfair to point out that the interests of Conservatism hitherto have been more centred on institutions than on men? Is it untrue to say that it has sought its sanctions in tradition rather than in the sense of justice and the educated intelli- gence of the people?” Among the latest public utterances of Dr. John Watson are the following: “ When a preacher offers the beautiful verities of Christ and His salvation as the hereditary treasure of our race, then is the soul captivated and made eager for their acceptance. What it has long been seeking for, as in a mist, has now been revealed; what it has bitterly cried out for, as in a dry and thirsty land, is now within reach. When a preacher gathers together various elements of the Christian faith and demands that one should accept them all and at once with an alternative of punishment, then the kindly evangel is held as a pistol to the head and human nature is apt to rebel. “The Gospel is never negative—an embodied threat— ‘refuse if you dare’; the Gospel is ever positive—a living promise, ‘Come and be blessed.’ “Beyond all question and by the consent of all men the Bible has a voice of peculiar and irresistible majesty. Like the deep, mellow sound of a bell floating out from a cathe- dral tower on the violet sky of Italy and arresting for a brief moment at least the confused babel of the carnival below, so does the bell note of this book fall on the restless questions and fretful anxieties of the soul. MHearers are of a sudden hushed into reverence and are graciously inclined to sub- mission, not by the ipse dixit of a fallible preacher, but because the mouth of the Lord has spoken it.” In a sermon recently preached by a scholarly “ Trini- tarian”’ clergyman in Columbus, Ohio, occurs the following : “ The truth is that whatever extravagance may be charged against the Higher Criticism, it has made it impossible for any intelligent Biblical scholar to hold the view of the Bible that was taught to me when I was studying for the ministry and that is held by a great majority of our church members PREFATORY NOTES. ix to-day. That view is simply not true. The Bible is not the kind of a book that we once believed it to be. It is a better book, a diviner book as I believe; and the people of our churches have a right to know just what kind of a book tds A distinguished clergyman of the “ Trinitarian” Faith, in a recent sermon preached in the city of New York, said: “We are approaching an hour in the history of religious faith that may be called the hour before a revolution. All writers, speakers and thinkers are dealing with the subject. “The day is at hand when the world must have a better interpretation of the Bible. The popular education of the people has been such that a revolution of faith is inevitable. “New theology means the sum total of the aggressive thinking of centuries. This revolution in religion will make men better Christians in the broader sense of the word, and do away with ignorance and bigotry.” From various recent “ orthodox” magazines and other periodicals have been gathered the following: “ Until we can put away from the minds of men the com- mon error that the current Christianity of the Church is true Christianity, we can make but little progress in converting ' the world.” “Tt ‘is generally acknowledged that there needs to bea waking up and a reformation in the Church at large. Christ- ians need to be called back to the simple teachings of Jesus and to a Pentecostal sense of their mission for souls and for the world.” “The greatest necessity of our times is the Christzan- ization of Christianity. Back to Christ, back to genuine Christianity !—this is the John the Baptist cry of the coming age and ages.” “It is my firm belief that the Church of Christ is on the eve of a mighty spiritual and moral upheaval, the incoming of a power that will make it truly Christian and sweep the world forward toward the Millennial dawn. For this the whole Church should pray, and in expectation of it move forward to the speedy conquest of the world for Christ.” x PREFATORY NOTES. A renowned Professor in one of our leading American Universities has recently said: ‘“‘ Not a mere shifting of lines, but a change of base; not a mere readjustment of details, but a reconstruction of Christian Theology is now necessary. There can be little doubt in the mind of the thoughtful observer, that we are now on the eve of the great- est change in traditional beliefs that has taken place since the birth of Christianity. But let us not be at all disturbed thereby. For as then, so now, change comes xot to destroy but to fulfil.” One more citation may be made illustrative of still broader interpretations: those of what we may term World-The- ology, or the new, but already well established and widely studied science, known as Comparative Religion. That profound and honored scholar, Professor Max Miiller, a few years ago concluded a personal letter to the author (which may be found on one of the introductory pages of the vol- ume called Axczent Sacred Scriptures of the World) with these words: “There never was a false God, nor was there ever really a false Religion—znless one may call a child a false man. The true religion of the future will be the fulfilment of all the religions of the past—the true religion of humanity, that which in the struggle of history remains as the inde- ° structible portion of all the so-called false religions of man- kind.” The citations now made indicate the position, the method, and the spirit of all that will be found in the following pages. 3. “The originals are not original.’”” Except in phrase, dress, fresh statement or re-arrangement “there is no new thing under the sun”—no new Thought, no xew Truth. Whoever professes to be “ original” displays mingled super- ficiality and conceit. Every wisest speaker or writer takes pains to say with Confucius, “I only hand on”; or with Jesus, “I came to fulfil.” All truth “ was in the beginning ” as God’s eternal Logos, “is now and ever shall be.” There is no more, no less; except as the expanded vision enlarges its Revelation or the contracted vision shuts it out. It is PREFATORY NOTES. xi all a matter of the enlargement of vision; and this is all a matter of clean hearts and clear minds. ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with a// thy heart and mind.” All true Seers see the same everlasting Truth; the cleaner their hearts and the clearer their minds the more expansive their vision. No true Seer can contradict another, for he sees the same things. Neither can he “add unto nor take away from”: for Truth is a constant quantity—“the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.” Neither can he turn or change it into something new, for Truth zs the “Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning,’—‘ the same yes- terday, to-day, and forever.” This scriptural and rational teaching will explain the following marked features of this volume: (a) Its rejection of the common belief that there is an exclusive Revelation, a chosen line of Prophets, a deposit of Truth, a Faith once for all delivered to the Saints, a favorite People of God, or a one and only True Church. (6) Its rejection of the common belief that the Seers of the Jewish and Christian religions saw different Truth from that which the Seers of other religions had seen—though doubtless they saw wider, and deeper, and higher, on account of that enlargement of vision which resulted from cleaner hearts and clearer minds. (c) Its rejection of the common belief that absolutely new Truth is found in the Bible; and its constant affirmation that, so far as they go, all Religions reveal the same Eternal Truth. (dz) Its strong affirmation that “sacred” Scriptures are modern as well as ancient; that the ‘“‘canon” of Divine Revelations has but just reached its Alpha Volume; that there are Seers to-day (or ought to be) as many and as great as ever were “raised up” in all the Past—nay, more and greater they ought to be: that Inspiration includes everything that is “pure, and beautiful, and good”; that all “holy” men (and women) are “inspired of God,” and that the Old Testament Prophecy has, as yet, only just begun to be ful- xii PREFATORY NOTES. filled—* It shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit «pon all flesh ; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; and on all my servants and on a// my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit ; and they shall prophesy.” Such is the promised and ever-ready-to-be-conferred-Enlargement of Vision to all Mankind; so that all may be Seers whenever they fulfil the essential conditions—c/ean hearts, and clear minds. ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and mzind,’—then shalt thou too become one of God’s Prophets, as well as one of His Saints and Sons. “ But when we in our victousness grow hard, O misery on’t! the wise gods seal our eyes CoN eave eon Pernt: A | Make us Adore our errors, laugh at us while we strut Lo our confusion.” “TheLlord . . . hathclosed youreyes . . . andthe vision of all ts become unto you as the words of a book that 2s sealed,” “Their eyes have they closed . . . but blessed are your eyes, for they see.” Blessed are those that are doth pure in heart and clear in mind for they do see God. What is true of seers or prophets in religion is equally true in every other department of human advancement. ‘‘ The same idea, or invention, or dis- covery, has come about in many parts of the world at the same time, Strange views break out all over the globe by apparent spontaneity. Hardly ever is an important discovery made by one man alone. The correlation of force was simultaneously announced in three countries. The discovery of Neptune was announced by a Frenchman coincident with its determination by an English- man. Chloroform was discovered on the same day by two men independently. Darwin and Wallace and Haeckel, without intercommunication, propounded simultaneously the hypothesis of evolution. It is as when mountain tops of equal height catch the morning sunbeam at the same moment. When races or individuals reach an equal height they touch the same ideas. Egyptians, Chinese, Mexicans, and Peruvians, all independently discovered the making of bronze. The Chinese, the Mayas, and the Germans invented the printing- press. Confucius, Zoroaster, and Jesus independently promulgated the golden rule.” (‘‘ Our Heredity from God,”) PREFATORY NOTES. X11 4. In this volume (except in the introductory pages, and pages 19-22) no mames of authors cited or quoted from are given. All citations and extracts are indicated by the usual quotation marks. The special reason for this is that no citations have been made or extracts included but such as are axiomatic or self-evident—to all who combine the three attainments of moral purity, intellectual honesty, and ux- selfish love of truth. For none others than those who have attained (or are hungering and thirsting to attain) these, is this volume designed. General reasons for this omission of names may be found in Section XXXV., page 53, “ All Sacred Scriptures are Anonymous,” and in Section XXXVI, page 34, “ Hiding Self behind Truth.” 5. An unusual number of italicized words, of words begin- ning with a capital letter, as also an unusual number of general marks of punctuation have been designedly used. throughout the volume. The author has thus tried to make clear his meaning in passages that otherwise would (almost certainly) be wrongly understood, and unfairly represented by any sectarian or otherwise prejudiced person who might take the trouble to read or to glance through the pages. The mechanism of a book is of far less account than its meaning; and to be understood (especially in controverted or debatable statements) is of far greater importance than to follow approved methods of punctuating sentences or of printing words. . 6. Sharp phrases and ofttimes seemingly severe (especially in the sections entitled Degeneration of Christianity, Tend- ency to Revert in Protestantism, Mercenary Conformity, Double-tongued Esotericism, and Hireling-Priests) will be found, and by some will be objected to. The author has been conscience-compelled in the use and retention of these. Many times did he propose to strike them out or to modify them. But, convinced that they were truths, and truths that needed to be spoken; convinced that it was only cow- ardice or fear of being criticised that suggested their omis- sion or their smoothing down, at last the resolve was fixed to retain them, and to retain them unchanged. Every sharp XiV PREFATORY NOTES. word and every severe rebuke, as well as every dissenting or (seemingly) heretical opinion expressed in this volume has been many times re-considered; and written and re-written “with all humility of mind and with many tears.” ‘* Then answered one of the lawyers (Doctors of Divinity) and said unto him, Master, thus saying thou reproachest us also. And he said, Woe unto you also ye lawyers! for ye lade men with burdens grievous to be borne. . . . Woe unto you ! for you build the sepulchres of the prophets, and your fathers killed them. . . . Woeunto you! for ye have had taken away the key of knowl- edge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindred.” ‘“You wish pleasanter words . . . and very likely consider my prefer- ence for such f/aim words a perverse sort of apartialityon my part . . . you wish I had not thrust them so butt-foremost at you,—you wish to use milder terms. Well, I admit there may be just a dash of perversity in their choice. The spectacle of the mere word-grabbing game played by the soft-determinists has perhaps driven me too violently the other way; . . . Thequestion is of things, not of exlogistic names for them; and the best word is the one that enables men to know the quickest whether they disagree or not about the things. . . . Any other words permit of guiddling and let us, after the fashion of the soft-determinists, make a pretence of restoring the caged bird to liberty with one hand, while with the other we anxiously tie a string to its leg to make sure it does not get beyond our sight.’’—[ Prof. JAMES in ‘‘ The Will to Believe.” | ‘“’'T is an unweeded garden That grows to seed ; things rank and gross in nature Possess it chiefly.” ** The time is out of joint ; O cursed spite That ever I was born to set it right.” (O blessed privilege that I may help to set it right.) ‘‘ Though all can never be wrong—the existence of even one faithful soul to recognize wrong, or to protest against it, means that something, at least, is right—yet there is always something wrong somewhere, which each of us was probably born to help set right. . . . When we examine it, moreover, we shall probably find that it is not something wholly new which we are required to do, but something in the line of what has been already done ; developing and extending to a new case a principle already recognized.” ‘* Divine Fatherhood and Human Brotherhood constitute the Religion of Jesus. This simple character Christianity retained for two centuries. Then the union of the Church with the State, its corruption by heathenism and its as- sumption of temporal power remanded the simple teachings of Jesus to the background and gave supernaturalism the control of Christianity for centuries. There have always been individuals and sects to keep alive in the Church the PREFATORY NOTES. XV Be sacred flame of pure religion ; but the recovery of the primitive traditions, and the extensive reorganization of Christian doctrine in line with the simple teach- ings of Jesus must be the achievement of the twentieth and succeeding centur- ies. It is now high time to cut loose from sickly supernaturalism and lay all stress on the two great wholesome doctrines of Jesus—the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man.” 7, A word of apology may be added for the inclusion of so many citations, especially in the latter pages of the volume. This has been done for a double reason :—the desire to present every essential aspect of the new interpretations of Christianity, and also to bring forward as many “ witnesses he to these new interpretations as the reasonable limits of the volume would admit of. “Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord.” If “in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be established,’ how much more profound the conviction when “we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses’’—comprising so large a proportion of the most scholarly, devout, and pure-hearted men and women of all the ages; but of this introductory age of the twentieth century in particular. 8. As Virgil sang, and John the Baptist cried, and Jesus the Meésiah prayed, and Paul the Apostle preached, and John the Revelator prophesied in the first century, so at the approach of the twentieth century should all Poets sing, and all Reformers cry, and all Messiahs pray, and all Apostles preach, and all Revelators prophesy : “ The new era of Cum@an Song is now arrived, The great Series of Ages begins anew.” “ The Kingdom of Heaven ts at hand, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make His path straight.” “ That they also may be One in us; I in them and Thou in me, that they may be made perfect in One.” “ The times of this ignorance God winked at ; but now com- mandeth all men, everywhere, to repent.” “ The former things are passed away: and he that sat upon the throne said, Behold I make all things new.” Xvi PREFATORY NOTES. g. With these prefatory notes carefully read and well un- derstood, the elaborations of them in the following pages will be readily comprehended—however much they may be criticised or condemned. If the sharp words which may be found in this volume, like the sharp teeth of the mouse in the fable, shall be able to gnaw even one of the strings of that vast net-work of Superstition which, for sixteen centuries, has been binding down the lion-strength of primitive Christianity, the author will be amply rewarded for his toil. EXPLANATORY NOTES. THE PASTORAL LETTER OF 1894. Among various recent fendencies to revert from the “ glorious liberty of the children of God” to the “yokes of bondage” im- posed by systems and sects, is that signified by the widely known and much debated “ Pastoral Letter of 1894.” Till then it was unheard of and undreamed of that the “Broad” school, or the “ High” school, or any other school in the Protestant Episcopal Church of America should be subject to the direction of the Bishops as to honest interpretations of the New Testament, much less of the creeds and traditions of Historic Christianity. The Author entered this communion and ministry as a pronounced Broad Churchman. As such he was welcomed, confirmed, received, ordained, and nominated to his first Rector- ship by the cordial and always gracious Bishop of New York. He came sincerely believing that the Episcopal Church, more than any other of the various “ orthodox ” Churches, was open to new light; and as such, offered the best common ground for that reconstruction of old Dogmas and reuniting of all who called themselves Christians into one truly Catholic Communion which was, as it still is, his chief prayer and hope. With this prayer and in this hope he has quietly labored in the Episcopal Ministry, with rarely a week or a Sunday of rest, during all these years till now. His first keen disappointment came with the issue of the Pastoral Letter of 1894. This seemed to be an open condemnation of all Broad Churchmen. Though pro- nounced by one of the Bishops, the Bishop of New York, as hav- ing “ undoubtedly no conciliar authority ” and “little more value than is expressed in the more or less close consensus of opinion of some half-dozen individuals” (Letter to the New York 777b- une, February 15, 1895), it was reaffirmed by the House of Bishops at their last General Convention ; and, in spite of the non-concurrence of the House of Deputies, has increasingly been accepted as the law of Dogmatic Interpretation to which all clergy of the Protestant Episcopal Church are bound to con- form. Constant and unmistakable evidences of this reaction toward Dogmatism very painfully came to the Author’s notice ; and he was driven to the conviction that the hitherto progressive Protestant Episcopal Church had turned its face steadfastly backward. xvii XVili EXPLANATORY NOTES. For one he could not consent to go backward with it ; neither could he, by keeping silence, even seem to stand with it in what appeared to be spiritual as well as intellectual reversion and de- generation. Therefore, as an open protest against this and all similar “tendencies to revert and degenerate,” and also as a hoped-for contribution (however slight) to the renascence or revival of New Testament and Apostolic Christianity, this volume was con- ceived and has been completed. (1) An Example for All Official Bodies of the Church Catholic. On page 254 was noticed a recent example, nobly illustrative of what the Bishop of New York, as quoted on one of the open- ing pages, earnestly commends and calls for—the courage of one’s convictions. At the date of this writing appears in all the public journals, with general approval, the reponsive official action of the Cor- poration (referred to on page 254), practically withdrawing its censures, and granting entire liberty of thought and speech. The following extracts from the Resolutions may well be presented as a “text” for all official bodies of the Church Catholic : ‘“Tt was not in our minds to prescribe the path in which you should tread, or to restrain your freedom of opinion or reasonable liberty of utterance. In this liberal and catholic institution all members shall enjoy full, free, absolute, and uninterrupted liberty of conscience, which includes freedom of thought and ex- pression,” (2) The Lambeth Conference of 1897. That which follows is from the Encyclical Letter just issued by the Lambeth Conference of 1897, composed of the bishops of the whole Anglican Communion : ‘‘ That faith is already in serious danger which refuses to face questions that may be raised on the authority or the genuineness of any part of the Scriptures ” (or of the Traditions, Formularies, or Creeds) ‘‘ that have come down to us, A faith which is always, or often, attended by a secret fear that we dare not inquire, lest inquiry should lead us to results inconsistent with what we believe, is already infected with a disease which may soon destroy it.” CONGENT]S: SECTION TOPIC I.—New TESTAMENT SANCTIONS MISSION OF THE HIGHER CRITICISM METHOD OF COMPARATIVE RELIGION PLEA AND PRAYER FOR RELIGIOUS UNITY . II.—PoeETIC SUGGESTIONS 4 y 4 III.—MopERN SANCTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS IV.—THE RENASCENCE . : : : “BEHOLD, I MAKE ALL THINGS NEW ”’ . : V.—STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE—SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST : : : ‘ : : : VI.—TENDENCY TO REVERT IS THE SUPREME DAN- GER. j : 2 : : VII.—DEGENERACY UNIVERSAL IN RELIGION VIII.— DEGENERACY—CHRISTIANITY NO EXCEPTION, Six GENERAL ILLUSTRATIONS FROM His- TORY : s : q : : : THE TWELVE DISCIPLES THE EXPERIENCE OF ST. PAUL p : STATEMENTS OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION, THE FIRST CENTURIES . ALL THE CENTURIES . . : ; : TO-DAY 5 : ; : , : 1X.—THE SIMPLE TRUTH AS IT WAS IN JESUS X.—Back TO FIRST PRINCIPLES : XI.—THE ORIGINAL SOURCES OF CHRISTIANITY XIL—WHAT OF THE NEW TESTAMENT? . XIII.—Tue RENASCENT BIBLE XIV.—THE BIBLE AS LITERATURE . J ; ; Xix Nh Ww mq oowonrunrnnowo womnrnoonn xx CONTENTS. SECTION TOPIC XV.—How Mytus Grow : = : ; XVI.—THE WHEAT GARNERED—THE CHa BURNED, XVII.—Ec.ecticism, INCLUSIVENESS, CATHOLICISM, CHRISTIANITY. ; 4 : : THREE ANALOGOUS CONVERSATIONS ., ; THE MORAL, AS DRAWN FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT. : : ; ; THE MORAL, AS DRAWN FROM OTHER AN- CIENT SACRED BOOKS OF THE WORLD CONCLUSION ; : XVIII.—CuRISTIANITY IS Remeron Roveereee XIX.—JEsuS NO SECTARIAN—HIs RELIGION NO SECT XX.—STUDY OF COMPARATIVE RELIGION LEADS TO CHRISTIANITY ; : : XXI.—CHRISTIANITY A VAST Gaueee ae OF RELIGION . ; : P XXII.—PrRoOvE ALL, HoLp ae THE Gaon : . XXITI.—TuHE RELIABLE CREED AND ITs ESSENTIAL TESTS 7 : : = XXIV.—THE Livinc CREED AND PLEDGE THE LIFE CREED . : : : THE LIFE PLEDGE z : XXV.—CHRISTIANITY THE SUPREME RETIN XXVI.—THE WorLpD’s PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS XXVII.—THE AGE OF COMPARISON AND ITS TEST XXVIII.—RELIGIONS JUDGED BY THEIR FRUITS XXIX.—UNPREJUDICED TESTIMONIES . XXX.—THE VERDICT IS FOR CHRISTIANITY XXXI.—NOTWITHSTANDING q ; XX XII.—WuHaT, THEN, IS epee rat eet : ; ; OORT oh enan SCRIPTURES OF THE WORLD, MODERN AS WELL AS ANCIENT XXXIV.—MOopDERN SACRED SCRIPTURES ; XXXV.—ALL SACRED SCRIPTURES ARE ANONYMOUS XXXVI.—Hupinc SELF BEHIND TRUTH XXXVII.—THE RESURRECTED JESUS ; ; . XXXVIII.—New MEANING or OLp DocMAS AND Crnene XXXIX.—QUEsTIONS OF CRITICISM AND THEIR AN- SWERS PAGE ak 24 27 27 28 A. 30 30 32 32 34 34 CONT LAV S,; a SECTION TOPIC THE CHARGE OF ‘‘ HERESY ”’ ? f REVIVING ANCIENT HERESIES? . ; NEW WINE IN OLD BOTTLES, NEW CLOTH ON OLD GARMENTS? : : INCONSISTENT—A SORT OF HYPOCRITE? WHY NOT WAIT FOR COUNCILS, CONVEN- TIONS, OR AUTHORIZED COMMITTEES? . THE “TRINITY,” “NICENE CREED,” ETC., WHY CONTINUE TO USE THEM? . XL.—ATTEMPT AT REASONABLE EXPLANATION I. THE TRINITY : 4 ; 2. CHRIST . : 3. JESUS CHRIST JESUS THE CHRIST CHRISTIANS SALVATION BY CHRIST JESUS CHRIST AS THE SAVIOUR SON OF GOD JESUS CHRIST THE SON OF GOD ; JESUS CHRIST THE ONLY SON OF GOD CONCEIVED OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, BORN OF THE VIRGIN MARY : 12. THE PRE-EXISTENCE OF JESUS 13. BEFORE ALL WORLDS,—BY WHOM ALL THINGS WERE MADE . : : 14. GOD OF GOD, LIGHT OF LIGHT, VERY GOD OF VERY GOD : BEGOTTEN, NOT MADE, I5. ONE CATHOLIC AND APOSTOLIC CHURCH, 16, THE BIBLE IS THE WORD OF GOD . : 17. THE HOLY SACRAMENTS OF BAPTISM AND THE LORD’S SUPPER . 18. THE HOLY GHOST . ; 19. RECEIVING THE HOLY GHOST : 20, ROSE FROM THE DEAD AND ASCENDED TO HEAVEN ; 21. HEAVEN AND HELL 22. SHALL COME AGAIN TO JUDGE THE WORLD, WHOSE KINGDOM SHALL HAVE NOEND . ’ : ; * re eg Oe aS bea on Do 71 XXi1 CONTENTS. ER NERA it ta Eee Dae NL SR OE SECTION LOPIC PAGE X LI.—STILL OPEN TO NEw LIGHT : : : 1) XLII—DEeEGENERATION OF PROTESTANTISM—PERSIST- ENT TENDENCIES TO REVERT : ee XLIII.—TuHeE PRorestant REFORMATION ONLY THE BE- GINNING OF NEEDED AND ESSENTIAL RE- FORMS . : : , ! 2 ae XLIV.—“THouGH ALL MEN sHOULD ForsakE THEE, YET WILL NoT [” : : : 3 ei XLV.—RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY A REVIVAL OF Com- BINED PIETY AND MORALITY : me, (a) PIETY AND MORALITY COMBINED WAS CHRIS- TIANITY AS TAUGHT BY JESUS : eee (b) THE TWO EXTREMES , : ae (c) RELIGIOUS CEREMONIALISM AND ETHICAL PROPRIETIES . ‘ ; ; : iL (d) PARTIAL TRUTHS ACCEPTED AS THE WHOLE TRUTH, : } ; ; : . Appa (e) ROME OR REASON . ; : 2 : ae (f) THE GOLDEN MEAN. : oe (g) JESUS THE GREAT UNITER AS WELL AS REFORMER : : é' ' Rape is (h) THE OLD STORY OF TENDENCY TO REVERT . 86 (i) BUILDING ON THE SIDE OF ROME, OR OF REASON, OR ON THE “ ROCK”? BETWEEN . 87 XLVI.—RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY A RE-ADJUSTMENT OF THE RELATIONS BETWEEN EMPLOYERS AND THOSE EMPLOYED, OR BETWEEN CAPITAL AND LABOR . A ; : BN The «37, (a) THE RE-ADJUSTMENT STATED, : eee (b) HOW THE CHRISTIAN EMPLOVEE SHOULD BE- HAVE TOWARD HIS EMPLOYER . : a ae (c) PEACEABLE AND PATIENT CONTENT WITH ONE’S LOT : , ; : : ; Og (d) “VENGEANCE IS MINE ; I WILL REPAY, SAITH THE LORDYV¥ | : ; celta (e) BURNING SUB-QUESTIONS—INDOLENCE, PAU- PER-SPIRITED PRIDE, IGNORANCE, VICE, VIOLENCE : ie noe (f) SPECIAL REFORMS FAVORABLE TO THE CONTENTS. Soxiit SECTION TOPIC PAGE WORKING CLASSES WHICH RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY WILL INSIST UPON—LOW- EST PRICES FOR ALL NEEDFUL COMMODI- TIES, EXTREMES OF WEALTH AND POVER- TY RESTRAINED, SYNDICATES AND OTHER MONOPOLIES PUT DOWN, BUREAUS OF IN- DUSTRY, GOVERNMENT SAVINGS BANKS, SAME PAY FOR THE WORKING WOMAN AS FOR THE WORKING MAN 95 XLVII—“ First PurE, THEN PEACEABLE ” 100 (a) PURITY BEFORE PEACE . ; IoL (b) A TRUTH POSTULATED, A PROBLEM STATED, A THEOREM ENUNCIATED 4 i 5 Moe (c) THE CAUSES OF FAILURES AND SUFFERINGS . 106 (d) THE SWORD . ; : 108 (e) MUCH TO BE DONE—ADVANCEMENT WILL BE SLOW . : : : ; : Keke) XLVIII.—HINDRANCES IIT I. MERCENARY CONFORMITY 112 2, INSINCERITY . 116 3. DOUBLE-TONGUED ESOTERICISM 117 4. HIRELING PRIESTS . : : RL LomLLO 5. CONSERVATISM OF INBORN STUPIDITY . 124 XLIX.—PREFATORY EXPLANATIONS AND TopicaL Con- TENTS OF THE NEW EDITION OF ANCIENT SACRED SCRIPTURES OF THE WORLD 129 L.—A MopERN PROPHET-PRIEST—SKETCHED AS A MODEL F : LO LI.—OurR RECENT Seren en eemicrerancns SE- LECTED FROM HIS SERMONS : era LII.—A MopEern PROPHET-BARD—APPROPRIATE SE- LECTIONS : j ely LIII.—REVERSIONS AND ee NT eONS WITH REFER- ENCE TO JESUS-WoRSHIP AND MARIOLA- Rae A ; } ; 5 153 CORRECTING QUOTATIONS 154 LIV.—REVERSIONS AND DEGENERATIONS WITH REF- ERENCE TO CONCEPTIONS OF THE Hoty GHOST 157 XXIV CONTENTS. SECTION TOPIC CORRECTING QUOTATIONS i ) LV.—REVERSIONS AND DEGENERATIONS WITH REFER- ENCE TO CONCEPTIONS OF THE ATONING SACRIFICE . : . , : : : CORRECTING QUOTATIONS . A : : LVI.—REVERSIONS AND DEGENERATIONS WITH REFER- ENCE TO ARCHITECTURE AND ADORN- MENTS AS CONSTITUTING A CHURCH . LVII.—REVERSIONS AND DEGENERATIONS WITH REFER- ENCE TO RITUALISTIC OR OTHER SENSA- TIONAL OR “ POPULARIZED” FORMS OF WORSHIP CORRECTING QUOTATIONS A : LVIII.—Mopern CONFIRMATIONS—A FEW OUT OF MANY ‘ 5 4 P : LIX.—ILLUSTRATIVE SELECTIONS FROM RECENT Books BEARING ON THE HIGHER CRITICISM OF THS*DIBLES. : . ; - I. THE INFALLIBLE BOOK . : ; 2. IDEAS AND FORMS COMMON TO ALL RE- LIGIONS ., ; 3 ? : 3. FALSE AND FANCIFUL INTERPRETA- TIONS : : 4. INFALLIBLE BIBLES MUST BE INFAL- LIBLY PRESERVED ., : ‘ : 5. THE TRANSLATORS MUST BE _ INFAL- LIBLE 3 : : : ; 6. MIRACULOUS INSPIRATION NO LONGER CREDIBLE. ks " : : , 7. HIGHER CRITICISM RESCUES AND EX- ALTS THE BIBLE : : ; ; 8. IMMORAL INFLUENCE OF THE OLD IDEAS OF THE BIBLE, ESPECIALLY UPON THE YOUNG : : 9. THE ESSENTIAL TRUTHS OF THE BIBLE ARE, OF THEMSELVES, SELF-EVIDENT, IO. WHO ARE THE ENEMIES OF THE BIBLE? II, HOW TO VIEW AND USE THE BIBLE 12. HOW THE BIBLE WAS FORMED PAGE 161 CONTENTS. SECTION TOPIC 13. THE BIBLE CANON ALWAYS AN OPEN QUESTION . 14. THE LONG PERIOD OF THE BIBLE’S GROWTH . ; : : : I5, DATE OF THE BIRTH OF JESUS 16. THE STORY OF THE MIRACULOUS BIRTH, 17, THE MESSIANIC HOPE 18, JESUS THE MESSIAH 19. THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO THE HE- BREWS 4 é : , ; 20, THE NEW TESTAMENT MIRACLES . 21. OUR SYNOPTIC GOSPELS. : 3 22. THE FOURTH GOSPEL . / : Z 23. ST. PAUL’S CONCEPTION OF JESUS . 24. THE CORPOREAL RESURRECTION AND ASCENSION ; : : : : 25, A PARABLE OF THE LIFE OF JESUS LX.—MISCELLANEOUS CONFIRMATIONS — EXTRACTS FROM RECENT Books . : s ? , LXI.—EmMpPIRICISM AND EVOLUTIONISM VERSUS INSTI- TUTIONALISM AND CREATIONALISM . : LXII.— TENDENCIES TO REVERT AND TO DEGENERATE HisTORICALLY CONFIRMED a Pare : TXII1—TuHe Present DEGENERATION OF OUR CHURCHES . ; , , : ; : LXIV.—TRUE TO ONE’S OWN SELF LXV.—A. RIGHTEOUS DISREGARD OF Boeri Onno LXVI—THE GOLDEN MEAN OF CONTROVERSY . : LXVII.—FRAGMENTS : I. RISINGS AND FALLINGS OF MAN . : 2, JESUS THE FRUITAGE OF THE AGES . 3. EXTERNAL PROSPERITY AND INTERNAL DECAY ’ . ; : 4. WHAT MANKIND MOST NEEDS , 5. ANSWERING OUR OWN PRAYERS . LXVIIL—Tue SPIRIT AND NOT THE LETTER OF THE CREEDS ; : } LXIX.—MopERN USE OF ANCIENT Tee AND TERMS . 186 188 190 191 192 194. 195 203 208 211 215 217 219 221 224 225 227 228 229 230 XXvi CONTENTS. SECTION TOPIC LXX,—IDEAS AND TERMS FURNISHED BY EVOLUTION- ARY SCIENCE TO RENASCENT CHRISTIANILY LXXI.—THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH AND ITS WORSHIP IN THE FIRST CENTURY : : ; (a) PRAYER IN THE CHURCH DOWN TO THE MIDDLE OF THE THIRD CENTURY LXXII.—CHRISTOLOGY IN THE CHURCH DOWN TO THE CLOSE OF THE THIRD CENTURY : ; LXXIII.—DEGENERATION IN THE CHURCH—HOW IT PROCEEDED AND PROCEEDS : ; LXXIV.—DEGENERATION OF THE APOSTOLIC MINISTRY INTO COMMERCIALISM—AS FOUND AT THE CLOSE OF THE I9TH CENTURY . LXXV.—SERMONS MADE TO ORDER : : ; LXXVI.—TRADITIONALISM AS A MaIn CAusE OF DE- GENERATION ; ; ; : ; LXXVII.—CREDULITY AND Romg, or FAITH AND REA- SON—WHICH ? i : ‘ : ; LXXVIITI.—Evo.LuTion oF THE TRIAD AS AN EXPLANA- TION OF GOD ? . : : : : (a2) DIVINE PERSONALITY. . : : : LXXIX.—A Main REASON WHY SO MANY DISBELIEVE IN GOD AND IN IMMORTALITY ! LXXX.—TuHE ECLECTICISM OF CHRISTIANITY—ILLUS- TRATIONS. ; ; : ; : 7 LXXXI—RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY AND SACRED SCRIPTURES . : , (a) EXPLANATORY NOTE. ; . . (6) MOTIVES : : (c) THE “RETROGRADE MOVEMENT” , PAGE 234 238 240 241 246 250 254 257 260 263 265 266 269 275 275 276 (7) SPECIAL EXPLANATIONS AS TO TRANSLATIONS OF THE BIBLE , ‘ : (ec) THE “RECEIVED TEXT” (f) THE POLYCHROME EDITION (g) CONFIRMING CITATIONS (i) HOW THE ECLECTICISM OF CHRISTIANITY RENDERS IT A WORLD-RELIGION (¢) A PARABLE OF CHRISTIANITY AS THE RELIGION OF ECLECTICISM 278 285 288 290 292 294 CONTENTS. SECTION TOPIC LXXXII.—MystTery oF THE DIVINE IN THE HuMAN— oR, Jesus THE CuRIsT As “GoD MANIFEST IN THE FLESH” . : : ° LX XXIII.—‘“ FILLED WITH ALL THE EeUNECe OF Conn AS THE PRIVILEGE OF EvEeRY MAN . : LXXXIV.—ILLUSTRATIVE SELECTIONS FROM MANY RE- CENT AUTHORS . . ; : (az) OPTIMISTIC FOREGLEAMS (4) COURAGE AND HOPE . : LXXXV.— ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES I. SUCCESS AND FAILURE . : : : 2, FICTION AND FACT 3. A MOST ANCIENT STATEMENT OF THE DOCTRINE ON THE TRINITY . 4. HOW IGNORANCE EVER MISCONCEIVES THE CHARACTER OF GOD . : 5. AS IN RELIGION SO IN EDUCATION, COM- MERCIALISM PREVAILS , ; _ SENSATIONALISM IN THE CHURCHES . MITAPAYSa: ; , : : : . COMMERCIAL BRIGANDS. : : ; _ PUNISHMENT MEANS PURIFICATION AND REFORM ; : : : : 10. GOLDEN ERAS IN RELIGION NO EVIDENCE OF SUPERNATURALISM OR OF PERMA- NENTLY SUPERIOR WORTH 3 ; II. CHURCHES AS SPIRITUAL HOSPITALS AND MORAL REFORMATORIES . : : 12. INSINCERITY THE ONLY UNPARDONABLE SINaae 13. BONDAGE TO TRADITIONS . : 14. TRUE RELIGION IS CATHOLIC, AND AS SUCH INCLUSIVE. : : i ; I5. TENDENCIES TO POMP, LUXURY, AND WEALTH AMONG THOSE WHO ARE CALLED MINISTERS OF CHRIST . 16. THE RESULTS OF PARTISANSHIP IN RE- LIGION AS SEEN IN OUR MISSIONS AND CHURCHES THE WORLD OVER . : 0 oN D Bat 225 323 324 325 326 327 ae) Se Soe 333 335 336 338 XXVill CONTENTS. SECTION TOPIC LXXXV—IxLuLustrraTIvE NotEes—(Continued.) 17. 18. 19. 20. 21, es 23. 24. By 20s 27. 1, EXPLANATIONS TO READERS . ' : ; 2. TO THE 20TH CENTURY—AN OPEN Ren, 3 : 3. TO ALL WHO SEEK THE CHRIST ; : 4. THE RAPID AND BANEFUL GROWTH OF cee ate WHAT THEN IS THE REMEDY, AND WHERE? . : : é 7 : SECTARIANISM AND CATHOLICITY DECAY IN ALL RELIGIONS AND THEIR CONSTANT NEED OF REFORM THE CRITICAL FACULTY AND ITS BENEVO- LENT USE MERCENARY MOTIVES MELIORATION AND MELIORATORS ANOTHER VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS . ““ON, HONOR, HONEST”. ; GRADUAL EXTENSION OF “THE REAL PRESENCE” AS A DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH On, ; 3 THE TRUTH, THE WHOLE TRUTH, AND NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH” ., FKEE CHURCHES AND THE GOSPEL WITHOUT EPRICE amen ; ; : THE “ESTABLISHED ORDER” AND THE “ PROTESTANTS : . SCYLLA AND CHARYBDIS. . : . THE RULING MOTIVE . . : . BELIEFS, THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL . “REPENT YE” : i : : b CLOSING CONFIRMATIONS ' . - ADDENDA. “ Lord God of Hosts be with us yet, Lest we forget—lest we forget.” PAGE 339 341 342 344 344 345 347 352 352 303 355 358 359 366 369 371 373 383 386 391 392 INTRODUCTORY QUOTATIONS. I—NEW TESTAMENT SANCTIONS. (a.) Mission of the Higher Criticism. | Pees ye ; for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make ye ready the way of the Lord, Make his paths straight.” “From this time began Jesus to preach, and to say, Re- pent ye; for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on the Earth as in Heaven.” (b.) Method of Comparative Religion. “ Jesus cried and said, He that believeth on me, believeth not on me, but on Him that sent me.” “ For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, He gave me commandment what I should say, and what I should speak.” “If any man hear my words and believe not, I judge him not: for I am not come to judge the world, but to save the world.” “Why even of yourselves judge ye not what is right.” “ Whosoever doeth the will of my Father, who is in Heaven, the same is my brother, and my sister, and my mother.” XXix XXX RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. (c.) Plea and Prayer for Religious Unity. ‘“And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold and one shepherd.” “Holy Father, keep them whom Thou hast given me in Thy name, that they may be one even as we are. Sanctify them in the truth; Thy word is truth. Neither for these only do I pray, but for them also that shall believe on me through their word, that they all may be one, even as Thou, Father, art in me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in us—I in them and Thou in me, that they may be per- ected into one.” II.— POETIC SUGGESTIONS. “If some new phase of truth thy toil discover— Thine inmost eye with some bright vision blest— Conceal it not, proclaim it as a lover His love proclaims. Awhile, thine honored guest— Thy new-found thought—secret perchance may hover Near Thee alone! But there it must not rest.” —SiIR WILLIAM HAMILTON, “What if cherished Creeds must fade? Faith will never leave us; God preserves what God has made, Nor can Truth deceive us. Let in light—the Holy Light! Brothers, fear it never ; Darkness smiles and wrong grows right ; Let in light forever !”’ —WHITTIER. “All before us lies the way, Give the past unto the wind. All before us is the day, Night and darkness are behind. RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. XXxXi Eden, with its angels bold— Love, and Peace, and Purity— Is not an ancient story told, But a glowing prophecy.” —WHITTIER. III.—MODERN SANCTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS. “Tt is almost certain that the Church will soon begin the reconstruction of Dogma, and that men are living who will have share in the enterprise. The material is rapidly accu- mulating for the work, and the Church will soon demand that the results of the New Criticism and the New Exegesis be gathered and stated to the world. . . . This is a time for which many are praying. . . . It isto be hoped that every branch of the Christian Church will soon exact no other pledge of her teachers than a declaration of faith in Jesus as the Son of God and the Saviour of the world, anda promise to keep His commandments; and otherwise to grant to them the fullest freedom of thought and expres- sion.’— The Rev. Fohn Watson, D.D. [tan Maclaren] zz the Lyman Beecher Divinity Lectures at Yale University, 1899. “The Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man— that is the simple creed that has given inspiration to every religion that has ever struck its roots deep down in the human heart; and no other belief to-day is so dominant among the forces that are making civilizations over again. It marks the point of divergence from the old religions and social systems whose fundamental thought was, ‘God made man, therefore He has a right to damn him.’ ‘Not so,’ say those who speak for a new interpretation of the old dog- mas. ‘Rather let us say, God made man, therefore He will bless him.’ The old creed has always driven men apart: the new creed will draw them together.’—/rom a recent cdttortal of the New York Tribune. [The following, from a recent Sermon by Bishop Henry C. Potter, D.D., is as true of our religious as it is of our so- Stl RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. cial and political conditions—as applicable to the Church as it is to the State: | “This is a universe of order, not of chance nor of freak. Just because behind it there is the sovereign Source of all laws, therefore no mere human caprice can suspend those laws. Into this universe of fixed laws the Author of it has introduced a being with the mysterious and inestimable gift of moral freedom. To him has been vouchsafed not ‘only will, but freedom of the will. He may work, or he may dream. He may sow wheat or tares. But ‘whatsoever a man soweth, that ’—not something else—‘ shall he also reap’ the harvest whose seed he has sown ; not the harvest which he has merely wished for, or coveted, or imagined. As in imperial Rome, glutted with the wealth of her conquests, and drunk and dizzy with the infamy of her vices, there has risen, with much material prosperity, the loathsome spectacle of manhood without virtue, of woman- hood without shame, of a people glorying in its degradation, and rotten to the very core. Harvests, plenty, wealth: what are they but the possible instruments of an unutterable degra- dation, save as they are held as a stewardship for highest ends, and used as agencies for man’s service and God’s honor? This may seem a harsh statement, but its substantial accuracy is very easily tested. . . . For what, in one word, isour condition? J maintain—and I challenge contradiction of that statement—that it is one in which independent action has largely perished. Largely, but not wholly, thank God! The other day on the floor of Congress a member who had convictions gave expression to them, and announced his in- tention of voting, whatever his party might do, in accord- ance with them. Said a fellow-member, as he sat down: ‘You are right, and I agree with you. Jf J too had the courage of my convictions, I should do as you will do. But TI have not, and so, I shall not.’ “A poor creature, we say! A coward, without principle; or, at least, wath principles too weak to make him do his duty! Yes; but who is responsible for him? Again I say, my brother, youand I. . . . There are wrongs to be righted RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. XXXill which, because they have sometimes been exaggerated by rash and reckless men, cannot, nevertheless, wisely be ignored. Above all, there is a noisy and aggressive self-confi- dence which may well make us tremble. . . . Oursis a heritage of great ideals. It is these that we must sow inthe hearts of the people. . . . Let us not be slow to do it.” “A sturdy stock that suffered exile rather than forego the right of free thought and free speech. These are the people who are the salt of the earth. And yet as I read history I see that they are the people who have been hunted with dogs and followed by armed men carrying fagots. . . . Take from America the Puritans, Huguenots, Quakers and other like-minded reformers of Church and State, and it is no longer the land of the free or the home of the brave.” [ The following are recent words by the Rector of Ya) THA Episcopal Church of Albany, N.Y.|: “Tn every department of thought a new theory or fact is a dis- turbance and an affront. It intrudes upon men’s leisures, It breaks crystallized thought and dislocates mental habits. With the mass of people, a new fact, and especially a new theory, is an intellectual tramp who is unceremoniously turned out of doors with an exhortation to work for his living. This is especially true in regard to facts or theories which compel men to revise those interpretations and opinions which, while not authorized by, are more or less associated with the traditional religion. Zhe new theory or fact has, therefore, got to fight and turn out of doors the orthodox belief before it can take and occupy tts place.” “ Obviously, then, one needful part of the process of reforma- tion in theology which is now happily in progress, is to emanci- pate men’s minds from the tyranny of creedal language, and bring them back to the simplicity of Biblical language. This will greatly help to make religion more true than it has been to the actual facts of human life, relations, and experience. Heartily do we wish success to the new reformation.” % oa ‘os Cer Aw a Verdin he whine al ; as a La 3 } a he” ful i Uh —_ BS ips ps Sea RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. IV.—THE RENASCENCE. “ Behold, I make all things new.” N these days of new science, new thought, new methods, | new aspirations—in short, of a new universe to all who have widely observed and profoundly meditated—the above prophecy is being fulfilled as never, in historic times, has it been fulfilled before. With the ‘new Heavens,” which astronomy is creating for us, and the “new earth,” which evolutionary science is creating; with the new history of mankind which geology and archeology are unfolding, and the new nature of man which both physiology and psychol- ogy are revealing, must come, surely and quickly, new re- ligion, new ethics, and a new Church. In these latter depart- ments there is at present (and quite naturally) chaos. The uncertainties and the pangs of anew birth are upon us. The void and darkness of a new creation are before us and around. In all highly civilized communities of the earth there is to-day such a commotion of enquiry, doubt, and unbelief as no other epoch in the history of theologies, of systemized morals, or of ecclesiastical cults ever experienced —the first four Christian centuries not excepted. In this dissolving, formless, and re-creative condition of things any honest and reasonably intelligent attempt to purify original sources, to reform institutions, to reconstruct creeds, and to restore the ever-living Christ with his vitalizing religion to I 2 RENASCENT CHRISTIANIT Y. Se ee eee SS Eee the world ought to be cordially welcomed. Human agen- cies indeed cannot re-create, but they can and must “ prepare the way.” Without this preparation the kingdom of God never has come to the world and never will. Chaos will continue, void and darkness will prevail “upon the face of the deep.” But in proportion as human agencies vigorously co-operate, the Divine Agency will fulfil its prophetic promise, “Behold I make all things new.” “The spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light, and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good, . . . and the evening and the morning were the first pertod.”’ V.—STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE—SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST. “What I say unto one, I say unto all, Watch. sepelleee was the Divine Master’s oft-repeated injunction. In Religion as elsewhere, Eternal Vigilance is the price of Liberty. In Religion as elsewhere prevail the universal, inviolable laws of Struggle for Existence and Survival of the Fittest. ne Hebrew Scriptures everywhere symbolized these laws by “the shedding of blood, without which there could be no remission’; and the Christian Scriptures everywhere sym- bolize the same by the Cross, without which there can be no Crown. “Strait is the gate and narrow the way which leadeth unto Life, and few there be that find it.” Therefore “ struggle.” Connected with these there is another equally certain and equally universal law, in Religion as elsewhere :— Tendency to Revert, with consequent Deterioration and Decay. These three great laws, Struggle for Existence, Survival of the Fittest, and Tendency to Revert (or to De- generate) are fundamental in Soul, as in Mind and Body; in systems, theories, and practices of Religion as in everything else. No intelligent person any longer questions these laws as existent in the realms of Body and of Mind. And no intelligent student of the Bible, of the Sacred Writings of all nations, of Christianity (through its few bright and many RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY, 3 dark ages till now), of the various religions of the world which have risen and decayed, can fail to be convinced— whether he be prepared to acknowledge it or not—that the same great laws prevail in the Soul of Man, and in all those institutions and products of religion through which the Soul of Man seeks to evolve and express itself. VI.—TENDENCY TO REVERT IS THE SUPREME DANGER. As an unquestionable fact, in Christianity as in every other form of religion, there has been from the first a per- sistent and unceasing Tendency to Revert. The tendency of the masses, headed and guided by priest-craft, always has been, still is, and doubtless always (till the Millennial Ages) will be, to degrade religion into superstition, to transform both worship and morals into pantomimic routines and into dramatic exhibitions. To select one example out of a mul- titude. The original religion of Eleusis, in ancient Greece, was rational, lofty, and solemn; but soon it became inter- woven with fables, corrupted by tradition, and controlled by priest-craft. To please and (as it was supposed) edify the masses, it was permitted to go gradually downward till we see it transformed at last into such spectacles as that of countless multitudes of devotees with eagerness and trans- port gathered to witness ‘Venus rising from the waves,’— the courtesan Phryne personating Venus by entering and emerging from the sea at Eleusis, while priests recited litanies and the breathless multitude gazed, wondered, and adored. “To this came at last the once sublime and elevating religion of Delphi and of Olympia.” So tends every religion down- ward—and Christianity is no exception—unless ceaselessly guarded by reformers and diligently purged from ever accu- mulating fables and corrupting superstitions. In ancient Greece, such men as A¢schylus and Sophocles, Socrates and Plato sought to reform the popular religion by rejecting its irrational fables, dogmas, and rituals, retaining only the essential truths which were beneath them. Had they succeeded in this attempted reform then the noble 4 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. A NDS AP RSS ee Se eed at Rb ee es eR 5 LS religion of Greece—later that of Rome, and later still that of Christendom as well—might have been saved from degen- erating into senseless stories of nymphs, dryads, and demons; of fairies, gnomes, and hobgoblins ; of spooks, witches, and devils: of charms, amulets, and saving sacraments; of magic shrines, magic relics, and supernatural visions; of miraculous healings, inerrant holy books, and infallible popes ; of apos- tolical successions of priests, infallible edicts of official theo- logians; and “many other such like things ” which, in ever- varying forms and versions, are found in all the religions of the world. The popular religion, which is always the religion of the majorities, to-day as ever, here as elsewhere, strongly and persistently tends to revert. Only by the unsparing rejec- tion of its senseless fables, childish rituals, and irrational dogmas (retaining always the essential truths which are hidden beneath them)—only thus can this tendency be re- strained from utter deterioration and hopeless decay. VII.—DEGENERACY UNIVERSAL IN RELIGION. “ Tendency to Revert” is a law of universal application so far as the present earth and its various products are con- cerned. There are certain observations of science and also of history which have now settled into such unquestionable facts as to be self-evident. We may call them axioms. Among these a few may be cited as follows: 1. All moving bodies, unless vigorously and unceasingly propelled, tend to become again inert and motionless. 2. All living organisms, unless vitally sustained and re- newed, tend to decay and death. 3. All domesticated plants and tamed animals, unless assiduously cultivated and restrained, tend to return to their original wildness and ferocity. 4. All civilized communities of men, unless constantly incited and urged forward to a more perfect civilization, tend to fall back to their primitive savagery of tastes and habits. PENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. 5 5. All enlightened minds of men, unless ever moving upward in intellectual culture, tend to their primal stagna- tion and stupidity. 6. All elevated characters of men, unless persistently aspiring to higher and ever higher ideals of virtue, tend to become grovelling and vicious again. These all are recognized as axioms of science and of history, and are confirmed by every thoughtful person’s observations and experience. To these six axioms we add a seventh : 7, All teachings and institutions of religion, unless cease- lessly guarded, purified, and reformed, tend to revert to the corruptions and follies of grossest heathenism. Attempting now to apply these axioms to individual persons, societies, teachings, and institutions, we are almost invariably repelled with the reply—“ Yes, it is all unques- tionably true zz general. But / am an exception: my Country, my Society, my Doctrines, my Religion, are excep- tions. J could never revert to a savage condition ! my coun- try could never become barbarous, my institutions debased, my Religion heathenish again!” So exclaims the average American, European, Asiatic, African, Sea Islander—of every State and Tribe—with equal self-assurance and em- phasis. As to Religion in particular the average Christian, Jew, Mohammedan, Confucian, Buddhist, Brahman, Zoroas- trian—of every sect and school—with equal self-esteem and bigotry would exclaim, “/ am, we are, an exception!” Christians, like all the others, perhaps (on account of their prevalent conceit that they are “God's chosen people” and theirs “the true and only true Religion”) even more than the others, are disposed to make an exception of Christianity, and especially of their own Christian sect and selves. ihe average Christian is highly indignant at any comparison of Christianity with any of the other Religions of the world, all of which he contemptuously spurns as Paganism or Heathen- ism, between which and Christianity “there is fixed an im- passable gulf.” It is as much as any man’s reputation is worth (in some “Catholic” countries or communities as 6 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. much as his life is worth) to venture a suggestion that Chris- tians are not “ God’s chosen people” in any exclusive sense. They forget or reject St. Peter’s affirmation, ‘“‘God is no respecter of persons, but in every nation he that revereth Him and worketh righteousness isaccepted by Him.’”’ Who ever yet heard a sermon preached in any reputable “ ortho- dox”’ Christian Church from this text—except it were to undervalue it and explain it away? What reputable “orthodox” Christian Preacher, Priest, Bishop, or Theo- logical Professor can to-day be found who even dares to openly advocate the zmpartial study of Comparative Re- ligion—all the Religions of the world gathered in one Parlia- ment—with all their Sacred Books open side by side, and all their representative men accorded the equal courtesy of free and honest speech ? VITI.—DEGENERACY—CHRISTIANITY NO EXCEPTION. So much as to the fact that the average Christian (like the average Jew, Mohammedan, or other bigoted Religion- ist of the world) strenuously asserts that 42s Religion is “an exception,’ both as to its Teachings, which are infallible, and as to its institutions, which are not subject to the law of Tendency to Revert. But let us pass from Christianity as one of the great religions of the world to Christianity as divided into numerous sects and schools. The average ad- herent of each one of these sects and schools makes this claim, as against all the others, that his sect or school is certainly “an exception.” The average Roman Catholic affirms this. Protestantism may indeed revert—in fact, has already half reverted—to Heathenism. But Roman Catholi- cism revert—the one and only true and infallible Church re- vert to Heathenism? ever / The average Greek Catholic affirms the same of the “Most Holy, Blessed, and only Orthodox Church” to which he belongs, as against both Roman Catholicism and Protestantism. The average Protestant affirms the same as against both Roman Catholicism and Greek Catholicism. RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. tf Those who call themselves Anglican Catholics, or Church of England Protestants, or Protestant Episcopal affirm that, without the “ Apostolical Succession” and certain other essential characteristics which they claim to possess, there is no “true Church”; hence the average “Churchman ” will have no “ dealings ” with any of the other Protestant “sects” —counting them all as degenerate and likely to degenerate more and more. The same they affirm (but with much less severity) of the Greek and the Roman Churches; while of their own “Catholic and Apostolic Church” they affirm such a degree of infallibility as renders it impossible for 2 ever to revert to its original Heathenism. Onthe other hand the average adherent of any one of the hundred or more Protestant sects affirms substantially the same of his own sect as against all the others. And finally, as we have al- ready suggested, all average Christians, of all the Protestant sects as well as of the Greek Catholic and Roman Catholic, are united in this one respect (and in this one only) that they persistently believe all other religions of the world al- ready so degenerate as to warrant their being called False Religions; and so rapidly degenerating that they are, all alike, certain of speedy collapse and utter decay; “ but Christianity—zever /”’ Is then Christianity an exception to the otherwise univer- sal law of degeneration or tendency to revert? Does this law find no application here? Is there no danger, need there be no anxiety Zeve—though everywhere else there is alarming danger and cause for ceaseless anxiety? Let us glance at a few of a thousand facts of history which plainly show how futile and foolish is this claim that “ Christianity is an exception.” To begin with:—1. Christianity’s first and greatest apos- tles, the Twelve Disciples, reverted so quickly and de- generated so rapidly that one of them sold his Master for money ; all the others deserted him and fled in his time of sorest extremity ; while the chief one of them all, St. Peter, thrice lied and with profane curses and oaths, in the presence of Pilate, denied that he was even acquainted with the man 8 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. whom, a few days before, he had saluted as ‘“‘ Messiah the Son of the Living God.” And many years later, this same St. Peter so reverted and degenerated again that “ for fear of the Jews he dissembled”’ and played both the coward and the hypocrite in refusing to stand by his previously pro- fessed convictions of Christian toleration and charity. 2. The saintly St. Paul was so painfully conscious of this tendency to revert and degenerate that he testifies to ‘“‘ beat- ing till it is black and blue” (a free translation) his body, in order to hold it in subjugation ; and even in his old age he exclaims: ‘“ I exceedingly fear-and tremble lest, after I have preached to others, I myself shall become a castaway.” 3. In the Book of Revelation, which closes the New Tes- tament canon, we find it recorded that large portions of the Christian Church—indeed every one of its seven great geo- graphical divisions to which the Apocalypse was addressed— had already reverted so far as to deserve severe reprimand for various heathenish corruptions and errors to which they had returned, while others had so rapidly degenerated as to be- come ‘‘ Anti-Christ.’”’” And future Anti-Christs were foretold and pictured in most repellent and horrible forms. 4. The reversions and degenerations of the second, third, fourth, and every succeeding Christian century—increasing and deepening as the centuries came and went—are too numerous, too sad, and too well known for us here to re- count. Coming down to the eve of the twentieth century, let us glance at the condition and tendencies of Christianity as we find it to-day. 5. After nearly nineteen hundred years of zealous efforts at self-propagation, ‘‘ making disciples,” not always with the method of Jesus, by ‘“‘ preaching the Gospel to every creat- ure,” but, as well, by proselyting, bribing, driving, compell- ing—resorting to sword and rack and dungeon, to anathema and scorn and contempt, to proffers of wealth and position and honor, to promises of heaven and threats of hell here- after—after all these many centuries of such zealous efforts at self-propagation, by methods of mingled good and ill, what has Christianity accomplished so amazingly different RANASCEN ST CHRISTIAN LLY,. 9 from what other great religions have accomplished, as to entitle it to reprobate them all as “ false religions,” while it alone is so infallibly true as to be “an exception ” to other- wise universally prevailing laws? Putting aside the past, what are the actual conditions and tendencies of Christianity at the close of this nineteenth century ? Roughly stated, according to statistics, three fourths of mankind are still zealous adherents of the pagan or “ false” religions. One fourth of mankind are xominally Christians. Of this one fourth of mankind who are nxomznally Christians, three fourths are zealous adherents of Roman and of Greek Catholicism. So, one fourth of mankind are xomznally Chris- tians; and one fourth of the zomznal Christians are nominal Protestants. Of these zomznal Protestants three fourths are not professed Christians. So, of nominal Protestants only one fourth are professed Christians. Of these professed Protestant Christians—such an insignificant fraction of man- kind—it is not for us to judge how many there are to whom the Divine Master—in his now invisible but ever-present personality—is saying, as he said to the pious formalists and ritualists of old, ‘“‘ Ye hypocrites, how can ye escape the condemnation of Hades?” and again: “ I never knew you: depart from me ye that work iniquity.” Professed Chris- tians are by no means the same thing as genuine Christians, whether Protestant, Roman Catholic, or Greek Catholic. Most Protestants think that there are very few, if any at all, of genuine Christians outside of the Protestant Churches. The Roman and Greek Catholics not only so judge with reference to each other, but join heartily to return the com- pliment—with redoubled emphasis—to all the Protestant sects. Though there is doubtless a great deal of truth in the counter-charges, it would be better for all sides to observe the injunction of the Divine Master—“ Judge not.” 6. With these rough estimates and these counter-charges as to genuineness before us, disheartening as it is, we are still more disheartened by learning from recent statements of the “great Evangelist” of orthodox Protestantism, pub- licly made at revival meetings in the city of New York, that IO RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. tat aed Step hrc nanne nsec owe ee 40,000,000 of souls in Christendom (more likely to be 100,- 000,000) are to-day unreached by any form of Christianity, to say nothing of the three fourths of mankind who are still pagans! Moreover, he assures us that “last year in two Protestant denominations alone, 3000 churches report no accessions.’ From other sources we learn that, in the United States of America, all the churches and chapels and mission halls taken together do not provide sittings for one third of our population. Of these sittings for about one third of our population, on an average, fully one half remain un- occupied on every Sunday, except on some such special occasions as Christmas and Easter Day, when the decora- tzons and music are to be especially fine. These sittings for about one third of our population, not more than half of which, on an average, are occupied, are—as any observer in any part of our country must have often noticed—occupied by at least six girls and women to one man, with rarely a young man ora child to be seen. The men, as a rule (and large numbers of women also), especially those of the more scholarly, refined, and moral classes, are practically not in- fluenced, and seemingly will never be, by what is known as Orthodox Christianity. What is true of the United States of America, in the above regards, is substantially true of all Protestant communities everywhere ; and, largely true, also in all the more civilized and intelligent communities of Roman and Greek Catholicism. To these general statements is added another from unprejudiced and authoritative sources with reference to the arrested growth of what are known as Foreign Missions. What these Missions have accomplished to date, so far as statistics of converts are concerned, may be inferred from a glance at Asia alone. Three fifths of the entire population of the earth—more than 700,000,000 of souls—inhabit Asia; and all these, to-day as firmly as ever, adhere to the Buddhistic, Confucian, and Mohammedan Religions—except about a half million of Protestant, and ten millions of Roman and Greek Catholic Christians. After so many years and so much money spent in zealous propa- gandism, only about a half-million out of more than seven RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. LE Se ee ee hundred millions of souls are drawn to Protestant Christi- anity; and these are, asa rule, from the lowest intellectual and social classes. Moreover, we are assured by almost the united voices of all the higher intellectual and social classes of this immense population of Asia (three fifths of the entire population of the earth) that no form of what is known as Orthodox Christianity will ever be accepted or can hope to make any noticeable progress among them. Their own re- ligions, so far from decaying, are reviving. Their magni- ficent Temples of Worship are being restored and new ones erected. Their priests are becoming more learned, noble, and pure. Their worshippers are growing more intelligent, moral, and devout. They are even beginning to return the compliment of their Christian friends by sending mission- aries to Christian lands to proclaim, not that Christianity is a “false” religion and all Christians “heathen ” (which no well-bred or intelligent Asiatic would ever think, much less teach), but to show to Christians what is best in their much maligned religions, and to convince them of the verity of their own Scripture—“ Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons; but in every nation he that feareth Him and worketh righteousness is accepted with Hine: adding, perchance, some needed instructions upon one of their own beautiful Scripture texts, “ He who is beloved of God honors every form of Religious Faith.” Thus are we not only humiliated as to what our beloved Christianity has actually accomplished in the world, but are brought to a certain conviction also, that it is ‘no exception ”’ to all other things in the universe, so far as concerns its essential con- formity to the three great laws known as Struggle for Ex- istence, Survival of the Fittest, and Tendency to Revert. This last law is the one that has been most disastrously for- gotten. “Degeneration” has wrought its deadly havoc with the pure, simple, and lofty teachings of Jesus all adown the ages. Heathen fables, traditions, and methods, have always been permitted to intertwine and interweave them selves. From the first century and increasingly down to the present century, the Christian Church has been very largely 12 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. tp ne Pagan. Christians have, for the most part, worshipped Heathen Deities under Christian names. The prophets have prophesied falsely and the people have loved to have it so! The mild but radical Jesus has been so grievously mis- conceived, and so untruthfully presented that he would hardly recognize himself in any of the popular creeds, ser- mons, or even Bibles wherein he has been portrayed for so many centuries ; and, more than any other teacher the world has ever known, would have reason to exclaim, ‘‘Save me from my friends!” Such-already has been Christianity’s tendency to revert, and so will it continue—even to a final and entire return to Heathenism—unless it renounces its heathenish errors and retains nothing except the simple truth as it was taught by Jesus. It is high time that this should be done. Certain Bishops of the Church of England not long ago were keenly satirized by a famous essayest of their own church for tragically declaring “It is high time that something should be done for the honor of our Lord’s Godhead!” Not this is what is needed—too much, by far, of this already! But what zs needed and what, in the twentieth and succeeding centuries, must come—is begin- ning to come already—is Renascent Christianity. IX.—THE SIMPLE TRUTH AS IT WAS IN JESUS. “The simple truth as it was in Jesus”’ is Christianity pure and true. To get hold of this Truth as best we can, and bring it forth, and make it live and flourish again is Renas- cent Christianity. This, and this alone, is the sacred object, the holy aim of what is now widely known as Higher Criti- cism of the Bible. Jesus had no system, wrote or dictated no creed, suggested no cult, imposed no dogma, insisted upon no essential doctrine. His “ doctrines” were simple teachings which every child might understand—beatitudes, parables, commendations of sincerity and charity, con- demnations of hypocrisy and of self-love, ethical maxims, theological axioms, beautiful affirmations of eternal life to the truly righteous, and sad warnings of eternal death to RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. 13 See ee Ree nee a ae enn aa ee eee papers ere Sale TERT those who persist in unrighteous deeds or in unholy desires and thoughts. These, together with his foundation teachings, his corner-stone truths, of the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man, constituted His Gospel—His entire Gospel. ‘Go ye into all the world and preach ¢hzs Gospel to every creature; whosoever receiveth it and openly main- tains it [is baptized] shall be saved; whosoever rejecteth it shall be condemned.” This was all. And had it remained all, the kingdom of God would have come and His will would have been done on earth, as in heaven, a thousand—yes, fifteen hundred years ago! But hardly had the Divine Voice of Jesus ceased to be audibly heard before “ degeneration” set in. The same voice continued to speak in the unceasing whispers of the Spirit of Truth—the Holy Spirit—which had been promised. The holiest of the Apostles and first disciples listened to it and, for the most part, followed its dictates. They too con- structed no system, composed no creed, organized no cult— beyond such simple offices, methods, and symbols as Jesus himself had suggested—compounded no dogma, imposed no essential doctrines, wrote no sacred book, but simply “preached the Gospel to every creature,” as Jesus had preached it to them. “ Repent, accept this Gospel of Jesus, openly practise and promulgate it, and thus work out your own salvation and the salvation of mankind.” This was all we hear of in the Apostolic Church of the first quarter-cen- tury after the visible departure of Jesus. Had it remained all, we repeat, the kingdom of God would have come and His will would have been done on earth as in heaven, a thousand—yes, fifteen hundred years ago! But poor human nature, alas! Its tendency to revert is even stronger and more persistent in religion than in any other thing. As the half-domesticated flower or plant tends strongly to become the wild flower or plant of the prairie or field again ; as the half- tamed bird or colt tends strongly to become free and fero- cious again; as the half-civilized African or Indian tends strongly to become a drivelling and roving savage again; as the half-illumined mind and the half-elevated character tends 14 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. ae ane strongly to revert to intellectual stupidity and to moral stag- nation again—so the half-domesticated, half-tamed, _half- civilized, half-illumined, half-elevated soul tends strongly to revert to the sensuous and senseless superstitions of its original Heathenism. Like Milton’s lion half-embedded in slime and pawing to be free—whenever it ceases Zo paw for ats freedom, it sinks downward and is lost again. So it has come to pass in every one of the many religions of the world. Every one of them started as pure, simple, and reasonable reforms. The leader of every one of them was, in some sense or degree, a Christ of God—an “anointed,” a divinely ac- cepted and sanctioned redeemer and saviour of mankind. While the Divine Leader or Master remained visible among his little band of followers all went well. When he was seen no more, and the Spirit of Truth which had spoken audibly through him began to speak only in inward whis- pers “to teach and to guide” those who would listen “into all truth,” only a few souls of men were found pure enough and lofty enough to listen, and to be taught and guided by its holy dictates. When these “few ” passed away degenera- tion always began, and from century to century increased ; so that every religion of the world has again and .again reverted to Heathenism, needing unceasing reformers and un- ending reforms in order to rescue it from hopeless decay. To all this, again we say, Christianity has been, zs no excep- tion. The “degenerates,” in Christianity as in every one of the other great religions of the world, plead super-naturalism. “ Ours is a super-natural religion, the true, ¢he one and only true religion. God incarnated Himself as a man in order to reveal and establish z¢, and so zt, cannot decay. He appointed infallible guardians, authoritative keepers, an in- errant book, holy sacraments, heavenly ceremonials, saving mysteries, divine agencies, and directions of every sort, so that a// ts exactly as He desires it to be in our religion.” So affirms the “degenerate” of every form of religion the world has ever known. In one phrase or another he defies the reformer with the assertion—mzy religion is founded on a rock and the gates of hell shall not prevail against 7#/ He RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. 15 — Sani Ree getter eee ee listens not to the primal cautions and warnings which the Divine Founders of all the religions have joined to give to their followers. “Take heed that ye do not as the heathen Howe Watch; what l say unto one I say unto all, watch.” Neither will he hearken unto what ° the spirit saith unto the churches ”—alike to the churches of every religion the world has ever known. Such is the zusistent hardness of heart and blindness of mind—“ Their eyes have they closed and their ears have they stopped, lest they should see and hear and be converted and I should heal them ’”’—of the leaders and supporters of degenerate religion the world over. And Christianity is no exception. Nie BACK ML Our Ro ]} PRINCIPLES. “Back to first principles ; back to the original sources ; back to the simple truth as uw was in the Divine Founder !” This must be the loud and the unceasing cry of every true religious reformer. And the Reformer of Christianity can not be an exception. XIL—THE ORIGINAL SOURCES OF CHRISTIANITY. Christianity is a Religion, he Religion of Eclecticism. Its founder was the great Religious Eclectic of the World. He taught nothing new, but culled from every field. His epoch was at the meeting and parting of all the ways. The land in which he lived was overrun with representatives of every religious faith. The writings or verbal teachings of all the Divine Masters of all the Divine Religions of the earth were before his eyes or sounding in his ears. Not an accent of the Holy Ghost was he heedless of. All fell as so much good seed into the fruitful soil of his lofty mind and heart, and forthwith sprang up unto a Hundred-fold Harvest. He utterly disclaimed the teaching of any ew Truth. “To this end was I born, and for this came Linto the world, that I should bcar witness tothe Truth. . . - The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself. . . . Itis written. 16 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. ane ea Oh ee er And again it is written. . . . He that is not against me ison my side. . . . He that doeth the will of my Father who is in Heaven, the same is my brother, and my sister, and my mother.” So spake and proclaimed again and again this great Religious Eclectic of nineteen centuries ago. As the invisible Spirit of Truth, during all these centuries He has been speaking and proclaiming the same thing— My doctrine is not mine. . . . The words which ye hear are not mine” but His “ who sent me,’’ and who “has not left Himself without the same witness in any nation or among any people.” What, then, are the Original Sources of Christianity ? AZ the Holy Teachings of all the Religions of the World. Every- thing in all Holy Books or Holy Traditions of Mankind which was genuinely good, and beautiful, and true, the Divine Jesus seized upon by a sort of omniscient faculty of mind and soul; appropriated it—in the name of the Com- mon Heavenly Father—and wrought it into those Teachings which constitute the sum and substance of his Everlasting Gospel. There is nothing new under the sun. All Truth that is xecessary to man’s spiritual elevation had been revealed by the Holy Spirit, and spoken by the holy prophets and sages of all nations before Jesus came. Nota Truth, nora fragment of a Truth, entirely new did he utter or profess to utter. All that he said had been said, in other ways, before. “Search the Scriptures ”’ of every Ancient Religion that has survived till now, and you will find it all. “These are they that testify of me.” Christianity itself was Universal Re- ligion renascent. Jesus was “its resurrection and itslifess His mind was the crucible and his soul the alembic, in which was fused and from which was distilled zz new jorm, the Eternal Truth of God; which Truth had been a common “‘ Deposit” of all the Great Religions,—a “ Faith,” not “once,” but ever and forever, “ delivered to the Saints,” So we arrive at the fact, which needs to be constantly re- peated, that Christianity is a Religion, zhe Religion of Eclec- ticism ; and Jesus its founder, ze great Religious Eclectic of the World. RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. iy: XII.—WHAT OF THE NEW TESTAMENT SCRIPTURES? Christianity, “which was Universal Religion renascent,” existed long before there were any New Testament Script- ures. How dong before no one can exactly tell, for “ God buried ¢he body of this Moses, and no man knoweth of his grave to this day!” Sufficient is the fact that Christianity could exist, does exist, and can exist without any especzal Holy Book feculiar to itself. All books are its Holy Books, and all Truth is its Revelation. But, within a generation or two after the wzszble and aud- ble retirement of its Divine Founder, Christianity—which had already spread over the known earth—seemed to need the support of some Written Records. So “many took it in hand to write.” Who they were nobody exactly knows, and it matters not. The things that were written were so numer- ous and, for the most part, so spurious and worthless, that after perhaps two hundred years, a few of the more helpful and reliable of the manuscripts were sifted out, and gathered into what is now knownas the Canon of the New Testament. As to their special inspiration or inerrancy, not a claim was made by any of their writers nor by any of those who com- piled them into a single volume or “Canon.” They were issued and everywhere known as simple Biographies of Jesus and Letters to Churches. As such they were, and are, Liter- ature—sacred Literature indeed, but still Literature. So they were held to be for two or three centuries, at which time Christianity began to revert to Heathenism so rapidly that these Writings were soon transformed into a Charm or Fetich: and, more and more as Degeneration progressed and the centuries went on, they were idolized instead of “searched.” Finally they were united in one volume or “Canon,” with those Selections from Ancient Hebrew Liter- ature which had come to be known as the Old Testament Scriptures; and the two Collections of Writings combined were called the Bible. A next step was to pronounce them the Word of God: and a next, to hold them inerrant and in- fallible—God’s miraculous and only Revelation to Mankind ! From this point of downward tendency, all the rest was 2 18 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. EI al Net Y Re lie nme a el NU Lehn ET natural and easy. ‘“ Facilis est descensus Avernt.’ Anathe- mas upon all who should question or doubt; Salvation for all who meekly received; and Damnation for all “ Jews, Turks, Infidels, and Heretics” who should dare to reject ! Apostolic, Nicene,and Athanasian Creeds which, ‘“‘ whosoever believeth shall doubtless be saved, and whosoever believeth not shall doubtless be damned!” Sacraments, without which there can be no Salvation! Rituals of Worship, without which no man can please God! An infallible Church, outside of which all are without God and without hope! Vicarious Blood, without which all mankind must eternally perish! Inter- cession of saints, without which none can receive the mercies of God! Infallible Popes for Roman Catholics! Infal- lible Councils for Greek Catholics! An infallible Apostolic Church for English Catholics! And, for all orthodox Prot- estant sects alike, an infallible Book! Such has been the tendency to revert, and such its appalling results. And all because it was supposed that Christianity—which arose, flour- ished, and gloriously prevailed for two hundred years with. out any Holy Book, and for half a century without any recognized New Testament writings at all—could not possi- bly get along without some “ infallible ” book, church; coun- cil, or Pope, to compel and sustain it. A heathenish principle adopted to begin with; and, Heathenism rampant ever since, as a consequence. But now ’t is time, high time, to return to “ The Truth as it was in Jesus.” And all broadest minds and greatest souls of humanity are demanding the return. The twentieth cen- tury will be the opening age, not of any Protestant Reforma- tion merely, but of a Religious Reform world-wide and erghteen centuries deep ; and this reform will be—in spirit, not in name—Renascent Christianity. XIII.—- THE RENASCENT BIBLE. With the written records called the Bible this reform has vigorously begun, and shall more vigorously continue. The Bible, not as an infallible or as a supernatural book, but as a RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. ite) volume of Sacred Literature: one of many, but probably best of all and containing the Truth of all,—as the vastly superior results of its teachings have thus far seemed to indicate— this is the first position taken, and now to be maintained, by the Higher Criticism. As an indication of what is already astir in the Christian world regarding this great impending Reform, a quotation just taken from a leading book review is here added, with the remark that the list of names given contains for the most part those of wltra-conservative work- ers in the cause of Biblical Revision and the New Criticism. XIV.—THE BIBLE AS LITERATURE. “The Bible as Literature is a compilation of articles upon the subject by Professor Richard G. Moulton, Ph.D., Rev. John P. Peters, Ph.D., Rev. A. B. Bruce, D.D., Rev. Henry Van Dyke, D.D., Professor W. J. Beecher, D.D., Rev. Will- iam E. Griffis, D.D., Rev. William H. Cobb, D.D., Professor Max Kellner, D.D., Professor Lewis B. Paton, M.A., Pro- fessor Marvin R. Vincent, D.D., Professor George Frederick Wright, D.D., Professor George B. Stevens, Ph.D., D.D., Rev. Samuel T. Lowrie, D.D., Professor M. S. Terry, D.D., and Professor Albert S. Cook, Ph.D. It may well be im- agined that some pointed things are said by these writers, who represent progressive theology in this country. Pro- fessor Moulton declares that the Bible, the very name of which may be translated as ‘literature,’ is a ‘literature smothered by reverence,’ and he goes on to say: ‘To the devout reader the Bible has become a storehouse of isolated texts, of good words. He scarcely realizes that it exhibits the varieties of literary form familiar to him elsewhere— essays, epigrams, sonnets, stories, sermons, songs, philo- sophical observations and treatises, histories and legal docu- ments. Even dramas are to be found in the Bible, and also love songs; nay, so far does dumb show enter into the ministry of Ezekiel that some of his compositions might fairly be described as tableaux-vivants. The distinction between things sacred and things secular, which exercises so 20 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. SEARED SESE sierra questionable an influence upon our times, seems unknown to the world of the Old Testament. Its literature embraces national anthems of Israel in various stages of its history, war ballads with rough refrains, hymns of defeat and vic- tory, or for triumphant entrance into a conquered capital ; pilgrim songs, and the chants with which the family parties beguiled the journeys to the great feasts; fanciful acrostics to clothe sacred meditations or composed in compliment to a perfect wife; even the games of riddles which belong to such social meetings as Samson’s wedding. With the single exception of humorous literature, for which the Hebrew temperament has little fitness, the Bible presents as varied an intellectual food as can be found in any national literature.’ ” As another indication of “ what is astir” in the way of trying to fulfill the prophetic words and method of the Divine Founder of Christianity, we add here another quota- tion from the same recent book review as that inserted in the section immediately preceding. “Warfare of Science with Theology.” “The aim of the author of this work, Hon. Andrew D. White, late President of Cornell University, has been, in his own words, ‘to try to aid in letting the light of historical truth into the decaying mass of outworn thought which at- taches the modern world to medieval conceptions of Chris- tianity, and which still lingers among us—a most serious barrier to religion and morals, and a menace to the whole normal evolution of society.’ Behind this barrier he sees the flood of increased knowledge and new thought rapidly rising with the danger of a sudden breaking away, distressing and calamitous, sweeping before it not only outworn creeds and noxious dogmas, but cherished principles and ideals, and even wrenching out most precious religious and moral foundations of the whole social and political fabric. ‘ My belief is,’ he says, ‘that in the field left to them—their RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. 21 be eee proper field—the clergy will more and more, as they cease to struggle against scientific methods and conclusions, do work even nobler and more beautiful than anything they have heretofore done. And this is saying much. My con- viction is that science, though it has evidently conquered dogmatic theology based on Biblical texts and ancient modes of thought, will go hand in hand with religion; and that al- though theological control will continue to diminish, religion, as seen in the recognition of ‘a power in the universe, not ourselves, which makes for righteousness,’ and in the love of God and of our neighbor, will steadily grow stronger and stronger, not only in the American institutions of learning, but in the world at large.” The Christian Bible, like the other sacred Scriptures of the world, is henceforth to be reckoned and treated as literature. As such every intelligent and honest student of w will, not only profoundly revere it (as containing most sacred Truth), but also must sharply inspect, critically investigate, and unspar- ingly sift it, in order to help gather the wheat into the garner, but to burn the chaff in quenchless fire. There is much to be done; exactly what, can here only be indicated. XV.—HOW MYTHS GROW. A typical illustration may be presented which will suffice to show how myths grow; and how tradition should always be suspected, credulity restrained, and the records of tradi- tional literature examined critically and sifted unsparingly. Even while he was yet alive our own Emerson had occa- sion frequently to correct misstatements of his sayings that were rapidly and widely circulated, * as also to deny fables that * The author has preserved a letter which painfully reminds him of his own agency in this matter. Ministering one Sunday at the old Unitarian Church of Concord, in either the morning or evening services, he made reference to a sentence which he had caught, as he supposed, from Mr. Emerson’s lips during a lecture he had recently delivered in Music Hall, Boston, on the subject of Immortality. The next morning he received a politely worded letter from Miss Ellen Emerson, who had been present at both the services, saying she had 22 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. oS AR Na itis OE 1h NE had already begun to grow concerning his personality and his doings. After his decease these misstatements and fables con- tinued not only to prevail, but also to increase; so that his various biographers—even within ten years of his decease— have been obliged to sift the evidences and sharply distin- guish between truth and fiction. This is by no means uncommon ; indeed, it is constant and universal, even in these latter days. How much more so in the former days ; and zucreasingly so, century by century, as we go backward to the ages of unwritten history, and of records preserved only in uncertain memories, and handed down by wonder- loving, and—almost always—party or partisan-regarding lips! Everybody knows how, even while they lived, and much more after they were dead, the personalities, deeds, and words of Peter the Great, Napoleon, and Wellington; of Walter Scott, Wordsworth, and Carlyle; of Washington, Webster, and Lincoln—as, indeed, of every other of the greatest men and women of modern centuries down to this. day—have quickly and persistently been distorted, per- verted, or, obscured by mysteries, fables, and myths. And no intelligent person will now read a history or a biog- raphy or any volume of general literature—recognized fiction alone excepted—which has not been sharply examined and thoroughly sifted in order to separate facts from fancies, exaggerations from realities, the genuine from the spurious. So is being fulfilled John the Baptist’s prophecy concerning the Living Christ—who has been and is the refining, purify- ing Spirit of all the ages—“ Whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with un- quenchable fire.” reported the quotation of the sermon to her father ; that he wished to thank the preacher for the honor, but also to assure him that neither the words nor the exact thought were his. Immediately the preacher, being entirely certain that he had heard accurately and quoted correctly, called upon Mr. Emerson— whom he already had the honor of knowing—to convince him of the truthful- ness of his report. The result was that, dy reference to the manuscript, the sentence was found to be as Mr. Emerson had affirmed. RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. 23 ee As an additional hint of the fact that Myth-weaving and Fable-making are still widely and rapidly going on—even among “enlightened Protestants ”’—with reference to both Christianity and the Christian Bible, we may notice two general facts. The Theology of such books as Milton’s Paradise Lost, and the Christology of various Religious Novels, like Prince of the House of David and nearly every one of the many popular Lives of Christ, have insensibly so shaped, and colored, and changed original Christianity, the original Christ, and the original meanings of the Bible, that with every age of Protestantism—as truly though not as com- pletely as with the ages of Roman and Greek Catholicism which preceded it—veversions to Heathenism and conse- quent degeneration have been and are now going on. The popular Book Reviews of to-day are announcing whole crops and floods of popular Novels by popular Novelists who “have been engaged at enormous prices”’ to produce—for the Demetrius-Publishers, to be used for the diversion of the Great -is- Diana-of-the- Ephesians reading Public—various ‘Silver Shrines for Diana” in the way of Popularized Lives of Christ! If such reversions and degenerations are per- mitted to continue, the Holy Bible will soon become a mere Gemara, like that which ruled the Jewish Church in the days of Jesus; and The Christ will be transformed into a mythic Achilles, Heracles, or Jove, as were the real heroes and shining Saints of Ancient Greece who, zo divert the masses, were permitted gradually to degenerate into the “ gods” of degenerate Greece, whose degenerate Holy Book came at length to be the Homeric Hymns to the Gods and the Theog- ony of Hesiod—the former the Old Testament and the latter the New Testament of their Bzble for the Masses ! This is the Age of Fiction. Such another has never before been known in History ; not excepting even that of St. Paul’s time, when “all the Athenians and the strangers sojourning there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell or to hear something new.” Asa confirmation, note such an announcement as this, just made in a thousand periodicals and newspapers all over Christendom: ‘“ The 24. RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. popular novelist has engaged to write a new story to be called ; and, though he has not yet set pen to paper to produce it, he has already been paid $27,000 in advance for the work.” Story-writers, Novelists, and Authors of Fiction—all commendable in their proper spheres and help- ful under reasonable limitations—are the heroes, sages, and divinities of to-day. They furnish ninety-nine one hundredths of the popular pabulum. They amass fortunes in a year and live in splendid luxury, as did the sophis¢s and literary clients of ancient Greece and Rome. Meanwhile the genuine phi- losopher, the ¢ruthful historian, the writer on exact or actual Science, the author of realistic Literature, the teacher or preacher of genuzne Religion “pure and undefiled before God the Father” now as ever—relatively speaking more than ever—must wear the “tattered cloak” and live in humble poverty and retirement. Verily, the danger of to- day, above that of any previous age that History tells us about, is, that Religion and all will end in Fiction—as tran- spired in the Ancient Empires of Greece and of Rome, and in every other decayed or decaying Empire and civilization of the Past. Who will “come up to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty?” XVI.—THE WHEAT GARNERED, THE CHAFF BURNED. This prophecy must also and specially be fulfilled with reference to: first, the Bible itself, and then to the whole mass and body of Religious Literature, Theology, Dogmas, Traditions, Sacraments, Rituals, and Ecclesiasticism, wher- ever existing among civilized people upon the whole earth. ““ Now also the ax is laid unto the root of the trees ; there- fore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit, is hewn down and cast into the fire.” This is the perpetual venas- cence of the living Christ ; and this the “ prepare ye the way,” which all intelligent, reverent Christians ought hence- forth to hear and to heed. The need of this sharp examina- tion and of this thorough and unsparing sifting, overturning, pruning, and purifying, is greater by far as we approach the RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. 25 VEE LTS SSS SS TE ore various records, traditions, and institutions of ancient times. We see myths growing, superstitions arising, and prevailing all about us even in these days of exact records, and of immediate and impartial investigation. In spite of our amanuenses and reporters; in spite of our wondrous modern arts, inventions, and appliances, of Photography, Phonetics, Phonographics, Telegraphy, Telephonics; in spite of our Omnipresent Press and Omniscient Eye of public inquisitive- ness, introspection, sharp discernment, and unsparing judg- ment, (“‘ quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart,” so that there is “no creature that is not manifest, but all things are naked and open”)—in spite of all these astounding characteristics of our century, (which, more than all the preceding eighteen centuries combined, indicates the presence of the Living Christ, and proclaims the Kingdom of Heaven at hand,) even here and now—(right before our face and eyes)—we see myths growing, superstitions arising and prevailing. How must it have been then in the Bible-forming, dogma- fashioning, ritual-building, creed-making, cult-organizing ages! Among untutored, semi-civilized, and highly imagina- tive Orientals! When legend and fable, extravagance, ex- aggeration, and supernaturalism were the very nutriment of the popular mind, and the very atmosphere in which everybody lived and moved! When nothing was wrztten down, but everything called to remembrance, then circulated from mouth to mouth, from group to group, from country to country, and from generation to generation; till some well-meaning writer—himself also a product of his credulous age and a victim of his myth-loving environment—should “take it in hand to set forth, in order, a declaration of those things which are most truly believed among us a What need to add any further reasons for the Higher Criticism? What need of other enforcements of the sacred demands that are upon all intelligent students of the Bible, as of the other Sacred Scriptures of the world—to be, not 26 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. ses mcr eee ee eT only profoundly reverent, but also, (in the name and spirit of the Living Christ), sharply critical, and unsparingly honest and true, both in their own private investigation, and in whatever instruction they may find opportunity to give to others. Now as in all preceding ages, in Christianity as in Judaism and all other forms of Religion, in Protestantism as in Catholicism, in the United States of America as in other States and Countries of the Earth, degeneration continues and persists. The popular forms of Religion are always Reversions. Simply because they are Reversions they de- come and remain popular. ‘ The people love to have it so” —therefore the hireling-priests, now as ever, and ever as now, “prophesy falsely.” Such is the rise, progress, and numerical success of “popular” Religion the World over, and History through. The purest things are always unpopu- lar. Truth is always in the minority. Wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to Degeneration ; strait is the gate and narrow the way that leads to Holiness and Truth. To-day the same as ever, here the same as in ancient Judea, the radical teachings and methods of Jesus are everywhere and urgently needed :—“ Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.” For laying aside the commandments of God, ye hold the traditions of men, as the washing of pots and cups; and many other such like things ye do.” . . . “And He said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandments of God, that ye may keep your own traditions.” . . . “Mak. ing the Word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered; and many such like things do ye.” “Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire.” . . . “And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his teachings; for he taught them as one having authority and not as their scribes.” “Ye are the salt of the earth; but if the salt have lost its Savor, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. 27 ee eee for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. . . . Think not that Iam come to destroy the Law as delivered by prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to full. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle of the Law shall in no wise pass, till all be fulfilled.” So spake, and speaks, the Living Christ. XVII.—ECLECTICISM, INCLUSIVENESS, CATHOLICISM, CHRISTIANITY. THREE ANALOGOUS CONVERSATIONS. (a) Sectionalism and Cosmopolitanism. First American.—* You say that all countries of the earth are interesting and beautiful. Why then do you not go and reside in them ?”’ Second American.— For three reasons. frst. This is the country of my adoption and home. Second. My friends and interests are chiefly here. TZ/ird. To me this is the most interesting and beautiful country of the earth. There- fore, I prefer to continue my residence here.” (b) Sectarianism and Catholicism. First Churchman.—* You say that all denominations of Christians are parts of the true Church. Why then do you not become a member of them ?”’ Second Churchman.— For three reasons. rst. Ours is the church of my adoption and communion. Second. My associations and anticipations are largely confined to it. Third. To me it is more nearly Christian in its beliefs and methods than is any other of the denominations. There- fore, my duty is to remain where I eile (c) Exclusivism and Christianity. First Christian —“ You say that there is divine truth and goodness in all Pagan religions. Why then do you not be- 28 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. SS Se come a Mohammedan, Jew, Confucian, Buddhist, Brahmin, or Zoroastrian ?”’ Second Christian.—< For three reasons. rst. Christian- ity is my native and life-long faith. Second. My spiritual life is quickened and purified by its teachings. Third. To me its truth is more completely divine than that found in the other religions. Therefore, it is my duty, my preference, and my choice to remain a Christian.” THE MORAL—AS DRAWN FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT. JESUS AS A JEW.—“ He that zs not with me ts against me. . . . Lhe woman was a Greek, a Syrophenician by nation; and she besought him that he would cast Jorth the evil spirit out of her daughter. But Fesus said unto her, Let the children first be filled: for it ts not meet to take the chil- dren's bread, and to cast it unto the dogs. . . . Lamnot sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” JESUS AS THE CHRIST.—“ And Fohn answered and said, Master, we saw one casting out evil spirits in thy name, and we forbade him, because he followeth not with us. And Fesus said unto him, Forbid him not: Jor he that ts not against us ts Jor us. Whosoever shall do the will of God, the same ts my brother, and sister, and mother. And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring , and there shall be one Sold, and one shepherd.” THE DISCIPLE AS A SECTARIAN.—“4 nad they went, and entered into a village of the Samaritans, to make ready Jor him. And they did not receive him. . . . And when his disciples James and ¥ohn saw this, they said, Master, wilt thou that we command fire to come down Srom heaven, and consume them.” THE DISCIPLE AS A FOLLOWER OF THE CHRIST.—“ Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God ts no respecter of persons: But in every nation he that Seareth him, and worketh reghteousness, ts accepted with him.” RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. 29 re ne PAUL AS A DENOMINATIONALIST.—‘l gave my votce against them. And punished them oft in every synagogue, and compelled them to blaspheme ; and being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities.” PAUL AS A CHRISTIAN.—‘“ There 1s neither Greek nor Few, circumcision nor uncircumciston, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free. . . . There is no difference between the Few and the Greek: for the same Lord over all ts rich unto all that call upon him. . . . As he saith also in Osee, I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her be- loved, which was not beloved. And ut shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people ; there shall they be called the children of the living God.” -THE MOoORAL—AS DRAWN FROM OTHER ANCIENT SACRED BOOKS OF THE WORLD. “ Have the religions of mankind no common ground? Ts there not everywhere the same enrapturing beauty beaming forth from many thousand hidden places? Broad, indeed, is the carpet God has spread, and beautiful the colors He has givenit. . . . There is but one lamp in this house, in the rays of which, wherever I look, a bright assembly meets me. O God! whatever road I take joins the highway that leads to Thee.” —PERSIAN SCRIPTURES. “What doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God.’’—HEBREW SCRIPTURE. “The catholic-minded man regards all religions as embody- ing the same truths ; the narrow-minded man observes only their differences.’ —CHINESE APOTHEGM. “ Altar flowers are of many species, but all Worship 1s one ; systems of Faith are different, but God ts one.’ —HINDU APOTHEGM. “ He who is beloved of God honors every form of Religious Faith.’ —BUDDHIST SCRIPTURE. 30 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. mi Oe “ God ts by nature the Father of all men ; and all best men fle calls his sons.’ —GRECIAN SCRIPTURE. “Amid all the conflict of opinions there sounds through all the world one consenting law and idea,—that there is One God, the Ruler and Father of All. . . . Ido not blame the va- riety of representations, only let men understand there ts but One Divine Nature ; let them love One, and keep One ever in their thoughts.””—ROMAN SCRIPTURES. “If thou art a Mussulman, go stay with the Franks etfs thou art a Christian, mix with the Fews,; tf thou art a Shuah, mix with the Schismatics. Whatever ts thy religion, associate with men of opposite persuasions. I I} thou canst mix with them freely, and art not the least angered whilst listen- ing to their discourse, thou hast attained peace, and art a mas- ter of creatton.’—ARABIAN SCRIPTURES. “To him who on these pinions has risen and soared away to the throne of the Highest, all religions are like—Christians, Moslems, Guebers, Fews ;—all adore Him in thetr several way and form.”—PERSIAN APOTHEGM. CONCLUSION. Eclecticism is Inclusiveness. Inclusiveness is ¢yue Catholi- cism True Catholicism is genuine Christianity. XVIII.— CHRISTIANITY IS RELIGIOUS ECLECTICISM. True Christianity “was in the beginning, is now, and ever must be” Religious Eclecticism. All intelligent and unpreju- diced study of Comparative Religion must lead to Christianity —that is, to Religious Eclecticism as a method. One of the gravest errors that all the ages have thus far made, is that of supposing Jesus to have been a Sectarian and his Religion a Sect. Every man is likely to portray his Master or Leader in Religion, as he does his God, after his own pattern. The masses of men have always created God “in their own image RENASCEING “CHRISTIANITY. 31 sh he TEL eben ela a LEG LSS Se Se is EE and after ¢heizr own likeness.” An elephant, a tiger, a monkey, a snake would quite naturally (and quite excusa- bly)dothe same. Exactly so the great Masters and Leaders of Religion have always been conceived of by the masses, by the ninety-nine out of a hundred, we may say, as nearly if not altogether like unto themselves. Ninety-nine out of a hundred are bigoted; being so, they build fences about their own Religious Conceptions and shut themselves zm, and all who have different Conceptions owt. They, and all the rest who are zuside, are adherents of the one only and true Religion—the true Church. “The Chosen of God” are they ; while all outs¢de are Schismatics, Heretics, Infidels, Pagans, Heathen. Naturally these ninety-nine out of a hundred—whether Buddhists, Mohammedans, or Christians —always have done, and, so long as they continue bigoted, always will do, the same with their chosen Master’s person- ality and teachings. Around Gautama, Mohammed, and Jesus alike they have built—from the beginning till now— fences of Fables, Traditions, Ecclesiasticisms, Dogmas, and Creeds. All who should choose to come within those fences would be The Faithful, holding the True and Saving Faith; all others would be “‘ Anathema.” In order to justify them- selves they have claimed that secret orders were somehow communicated by their great Leaders to some Chief Apostle, or to his successors, commanding these “‘ fences” to be built and diligently kept up. No records, no tradition even, of such a command or of such “secret orders” are anywhere to be found. But bigotry in general, and priest-craft in par- ticular, always falls back upon infallible Councils, on in- fallible Churches, or infallible Popes whenever the infallible Book proves insufficient. So has it been in all the Religions. Gautama, Mohammed, Jesus, and all the great Masters have been alike treated in this as in almost every other respect. Human nature is human nature everywhere. The masses are always the masses. Priest-craft is everywhere priest- craft. Bigots, like thorns, brambles, and weeds, cover the earth. 32 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. Te TA ARINRSLION tbe GOSS UII AU CAL SI iel! LANA SRC WIENER Ley XIX.—JESUS NO SECTARIAN, HIS RELIGION NO SECT. In spite of all this, Jesus was no Sectarian, and his reli- gion was no Sect. As wide as humanity were his sym- pathies, as old as human history was his Church. No “fences,” except those of humility and of penitence—of a desire to be pure in heart and of an aspiration to hunger and thirst after righteousness—did he build or tolerate. He was the friend of publicans and sinners, of Samaritan heretics, and of theological outcasts. His only detestations were for pompous, self-conceited “Saints,” who clorified themselves and despised others. His only rejections were those of “Scribes and Pharisees, Hypocrites ” and “ Priests and Levites passing by on the other side ”’—using terms of to-day, hypocritical clergymen, self-parading Doctors of Divinity, bigoted and cold-hearted Church officials, and the front-seat-always-on-hand Church members who “devour widows’ houses and for a pretence make long prayers.” These, and these only, he detested and rejected, saying: ‘Woe! woe!—Therefore shall ye receive the greater condem- nation. . . . Thieves and harlots shall go into the Kingdom of God before you.” Jesus then was a sectarian only in the sense that he excluded all hypocrites, bigots, and religious formalists. His religion was a “Sect” so broad that it included—the earth over and humanity through—all who were humble, loving, and sincere. This is the eclecticism of genuine Christianity to-day, “as it was in the beginning and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.” XX.—STUDY OF COMPARATIVE RELIGION LEADS TO CHRISTIANITY. As we have already said, to this genuine Christianity, whose method is religious eclecticism, all intelligent and un- prejudiced study of Comparative Religion must lead. “To which of these religions do you belong? To all, for all combined constitute the genuine religion.” These are well known words of Goethe. They may be taken as the Uni- versal Creed of all greatest scholars, poets, prophets, sages, and saints, including Jesus. Jesus himself formulated the RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. 33 OS Creed so far as its substance was concerned. Goethe only condensed the whole life, and Gospel, of the Divine Nazarene into a single sentence when he composed those words. In- deed they are almost an exact rescript of the only Creed of Jesus that the New Testament traditions have handed down to us: “ Who is my mother? and who are my brethren? Whosoever shall do the will of my Father who is in Heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.” Upon the mind of the writer of these pages these words of Jesus made a deep impression in his early youth, and gradually shaped his Theology and directed his Religious life. While a schoolboy, a devout member and communicant of the Presbyterian Church, he heard a sermon preached by what was called a “loose though scholarly” Presbyterian min- “sister upon the above words, and in the above spirit (though cautiously worded “for fear of the Jews”). That sermon helped him more than all the other sermons listened to during his student days. One figure used by the preacher he never could forget: Truth has been broken into a thousand fragments; every Religious sect and school has a fragment or two, at which they are tugging away, supposing it to be the whole Truth. What all great minds and Christlike souls are seeking to do is, to put an end to the janglings and strife by bringing the fragments together into One United Truth. This was agood figure. Similar ones have since met the writer’s eye:—‘“ Religious Truth is a Shield (not of two only but of a thousand sides); view every side, then will you have the Whole Truth.” —“ All Religions are the same wine in different colored glasses.” This from Emerson would be a more exact figure if thus stated :—All forms of Religion are the same wine tz different dilutions and in different colored glasses. Oriental figures are :—“The many rays emanating from one central lamp ”—“ The vari- ous colors of the beautiful carpet God has spread ””—“ Altar flowers are of many species, but all Worship is one.” —“ To him who on these pinions has risen and soared away to the throne of the Highest, all religions are like; Christians, Moslems, Guebers, Jews, all who are humble and sincere, 3 34 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. adore Him in their several ways and forms.”” To which may be added the saying of that Chief Apostle of Jesus, St. Peter, “Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons; but in every nation he that revereth Him and worketh right- eousness is accepted with Him.” XXI.—CHRISTIANITY A VAST GRADED SCHOOL OF RELIGION. While accepting all these and similar figures as helpful, the writer finds more of comprehensiveness and of exact corre- spondence to World-wide, History-through facts in this similitude.—A great, complex, various, and ever varying System of Education adapted to every degree of intelligence and of culture; ranging from the Nursery and Kindergarten departments up through the Primary and other various grades to the College, the University, and the Post-Univer-: sity; with instructors and instructions adapted to each—like teachers like pupils, “like priests like people.’ —Such, in the wise Providence of the Eternal, is the Universal Religion of Mankind with its numerous and diversified Schools or Sects. If this Providential Scheme could only be recognized ; if each department would attend to its own work and not attempt to dictate to, monopolize, or absorb (much less to anathema- tize) the others; if Priests, Ministers, or Teachers in the several grades would gracefully accept their especial stations and seek only to advance their congregations, and to graduate them upward as rapidly as possible—then all sectarianism, bitterness, rivalry, and hatred would cease and the Kingdom of God would at once be here. This was the Gospel of Jesus; it is time for us to go (as the first disciples did) into all the world and preach it to every creature. This is the Eclecticism of Christianity as Jesus taught and founded it. And this is Renascent Christianity. XXII.—PROVE ALL; HOLD FAST THE GOOD. While yet a student in Williams College, but more es- pecially in the Union Theological Seminary of New York and in the Yale College Divinity School, the writer was frequently reproached by his fellow-students for his habit of <> RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. 35 closely questioning and often refusing to accept, the Calvin- istic Dogmas of his Presbyterian Sect, Text-books, and Pro- fessors. ‘These profound books, these learned instructors, our dignified and respectable Presbyterian Faith—who are you, a mere schoolboy, to question them!” The response always was,—Yes, but every one of the fifty or more Pro- testant Sects claims that z# has profound books, learned in- structors, a dignified and respectable Faith. The Roman Catholics claim the same; so do the Greek Catholics; so do the Jews; so does every one of the various schools and sects of the Mohammedan, Buddhistic, Confucian, Brahmanistic, Zoroastrian, and other Religions of the World. All alike claim and proclaim their wisdom, scholarship, and wide in- fluence. Asa fact there ave learned men, influential men, and saintly men in them all. What then shall I dow lo whom listen? Which especial System or Sect shall I un- questioningly accept? The one in which I was born? Then—“ By the simple accident of birth I might have been High-Priest to Mumbo Jumbo.” No! I will listen to a//, will question every one ; and from them all will accept whatever I intelligently and honestly can. “Prove all things; hold fast that which ts good.” The great question is—not Which Religion, Church, Sect, School, System sazts me best; to which can | most conventently and agreeably belong? This may do as a starter; may be excusable until one can find time and opportunity to become broader and wiser, so as to make choice from his own intellt- gent conviction. But the “ great question ” is, What, 22 each and in all, can J accept as true, and conscientiously make into a Creed by which to guide and inspire my life? Of course such a Creed cannot be arrived at ina day or in a year. So every creed should be a gradual and a growing one— always open to new light, eager for improvement, like the busy bee ‘“‘gathering honey from every flower,” and ready to be changed or even retracted should growing intelligence and holiness combined demand it. “What! Changed your mind so soon? Not /. But z¢; that, changing to my thoughts, has changed my mind.” 36 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. “Yesterday you wore acloak: Why not to-day?” “Yes- terday was cold—to-day is warm.” Consistency is more frequently the fool’s excuse, the sluggard’s plea, or the coward’s boast than the watch-word of those who are wise, devoted, and brave. “ Constancy in Error ts Constant Folly.” In Religion—which is, more than anything else, a matter of unfolding intuitions, of widening wisdom, and of evolving Spiritual Life—all this is especially pertinent and true. XXIII.—THE RELIABLE CREED AND ITS ESSENTIAL TESTS. But how perplexing it all is ; and, after all, who can hope ever to arrive at any permanent certainty! To these very natural exclamations answers may be made as follows: First—No creed is of any account that has not a practical side to it ; in fact, that is not far more practical than theoretical. So noth- ing should be accepted, or sought for, except that which will surely elevate and inspire, as well as broaden and brighten one’s every-day life. If you are ot inspired and elevated, are not growing sweeter and better, suspect your Creed and hasten to correct it. Second—No Creed is of any account which has not an zntellectual side to it, and does not grow out of one’s jrst-handed investigations and convictions. ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with all thy mznd, as well as soul and strength, is the first and great Command.” Therefore never repeat a Creed like a parrot, nor accept one without serious questioning, nor continue to accept it without unceas- ing inspection, and readiness to enlarge or improve. Third— In studying Comparative Religion adopt the Platonic test of an otherwise credible Belief ;—What the wzsest and best men have always and everywhere affirmed, on questions of The- ology and of Ethics, is likely to be true. Whatever is com- mon to the fundamental teachings of all the Great Religions may be gathered into a Creed of Mankind and accepted as Truth. This was the method of Jesus and this is Christian- ity. Hourth—That great and Divine Eclectic who was the founder of Christianity has left two Condensations of Divine RIN A OGL ACL hod le AT Ye 37 Truth, of which all the rest of the Gospels and the Epistles of the New Testament are only elaborations—zamely, The Beatitudes, and the Two Commandments. These, like all the rest of his Divine Teachings, are Eclectic and (in other phrase) are common to all the Great Religions of the World. So, on the Platonic basis, as well as because they are self evident to what we may term the Universal Human Mind, they may be accepted as Truth. As such they may consti- tute a Creed with which all who seek to be pure in heart, and who hunger and thirst for righteousness, may at least start the inspiration and direction of their every-day lives. These Beatitudes and Commandments, however, need a con- stant study of the whole Christian Bible (of which they are only asummary) for their illumination and enforcement.— The Christian Bible expurgated and corrected we mean; for it—(like all other ancient books) is cumbered with much of traditional accumulation and débris, which Higher Criti- cism is now Providentially commissioned to remove. The expurgated and corrected Sacred Books of the other Great Religions of the World should also be studied ; not only because they so wondrously confirm all the essential teachings of the Christian Bible, but also, because they fur- nish those varied statements and beautiful illustrations of the Common Truth, which nothing can supply so well as Oriental Piety and Oriental Imagery combined. XXIV.—THE LIVING CREED AND PLEDGE. The Beatitudes and Two Commandments of Jesus, being accepted as the summary of the Christian Bible, and of all the other Bibles of the world, might (as they are found in the New Testament) be taken as the Common Creed of Man- kind. However, greater brevity and simplicity may be an advantage for ordinary concerted, and individual, use. In a recent volume of notable Sermons entitled The Mind of Christ, a well-known clergyman of Scotland has suggested such a simplified Creed joined to a Pledge of equal spirit and simplicity. Venturing to add two or three clauses to 38 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. NDT RD eta raecrrneear cre ee ee ee OATES each, to change a few words, and to give a more Creed-like and Pledge-like form to both, they are here added, The Life Creed. I believe in the Fatherhood of God. I believe in the Teachings of Jesus, I believe in the Guidance of the Holy Spirit. I believe in the Clean Heart, I believe in the Service of Love. I believe in the Unworldly Life. The Life Pledge. I promise to trust God and love Him supremely. I promise to take my Cross and follow Christ. I promise to accept the Holy Spirit as my Guide. I promise to forgive and love my Enemies. I promise to love my Fellow Men as myself. I promise to hunger and thirst after Righteousness. XXV.—CHRISTIANITY THE SUPREME RELIGION. Thus far Christianity is Supreme. Spite of its many, great, and persistent degenerations : spite of the Com- mercial Spirit—inherited from Judaism,—of Priest-craft— common to all Religions,—of stupid Conservatism—the “block-head ” mystery prevailing everywhere ;—spite of all these reversions, and perversions, Christianity has proved itself superior to all the other Religions of the World. This superiority is evident from even the brief study of Compara- tive Religions that intelligent and unprejudiced scholars and observers have, up to date, been able to make. The comparative study of Sacred Books, of Literature drawn from or growing out of those Books, and of grades of ad- vancing or receding Civilization that may fairly be said to be essentially or inseparably connected with them—this is our field of observation and of judgment. Of the superior- ity which we claim there have been various notable op- portunities for public manifestation during the Christian RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. 39 Centuries; some of them, we confess, very unfavorably resulting, for Christianity—as, for instance, during all the Medieval Centuries, when the Scholarship, Morality, and higher Civilization of the world belonged, unquestionably, to Islamism in particular, and to Confucianism, Brahminism, and Parseeism in general. But, spite of these many centuries of decadence the partial renascence of Christianity, known as the Protestant Reformation, and the much more radical and complete one now in progress, together with the thriving scholarship, morality, and civilizing influences of the first three Christian centuries, have so combined to rescue the Divine Religion of Jesus from reversion and decay that, to-day, it stands before the world unquestionably supreme. XXVI.—THE WORLD’S PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. Without doubt the most notable manifestation of this superiority that has ever transpired was that known as The World’s Parliament of Religions, held in connection with the recent Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Not “three wise men from the Orient” only, but a large assembly of wise men—the wisest, the most saintly, the most noble, the best as we may truthfully call them—out of every civilized nation under heaven, representing every highest or more intelligent form and phase of religion, from every continent and corner of the earth, were there gathered together to witness—they knew not what at first! But in the end, as in the providence of God it proved, to witness the transcendent power of Christ’s personality, and the supreme glory of his religion, as compared with all the other personalities and religions of the world. Not as on that greatest of historic Epiphanies, the day of Pentecost, when those gathered were representatives only of various tribes, sects, and proselytes of the Jews scattered abroad among all the nations who had “come up to Jerusalem for to worship ’—this assembly was composed of representatives from all the great nationalities, and all the ancient as well as most recent religious faiths of the civilized world. 40 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. SaIRSBREUERIpanranscitaracceeee ieee a ea This most remarkable manifestation is not only “most remarkable,” but is also bound to have most wide reaching, world illuminating, and history transforming results. After nineteen centuries of historic illumination, trans- formation, and evolution, what has the world to say about Christianity? Let us examine and answer this question in the light of the nineteenth century, as focused in the recent “World’s Parliament of Religions.” At the very beginning we are met by an objection thought by some to be unanswerable; an old objection and yet very new; an objection many times answered, and yet forever pressed upon us not only by Jews, Pagans, and Skeptics, but also by many honest enquirers among those who—in some sense—call themselves Christians. The objection is this: The claim of superiority is a claim that long has been and still is made with equal sincerity and emphasis by the devotees of all the other great religions of the world, Jew- ish, Persian, Buddhistic, Confucian, and Mohammedan—all say the same thing,—claim the same superiority. No doubt that all the representatives of the great re- ligions of the world, from the most ancient Hindoo and Parsee faiths to the most recent of the Protestant Christian sects, crossed seas and continents coming up to this World’s Parliament of Religions, each with this thought in his heart and this word on his tongue,—J/y Religion is supreme! In view of this fact there were many of “the most straitest sects’ of all these Religions (our own Christian Sects in- cluded) who doubted of the benefits, to say nothing of the reverence, of such a World’s Parliament of Religions. Others of the most liberal, or what one may better term “ free-thinking,” Sects concluded that the time had come (and the Parliament of Religions would settle it) when the indefinite article “a” should be substituted for the definite article “the”; so that all the claims would be right and none wrong—My Religion is @ Superior, not tke Superior Religion. This they thought should be done as a timely compromise, in the interests of universal peace and good will. It is time, they said, that we acknowledge the good RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. 4I in all Religions—and not any longer set up one as true and try to pull down all the others as false. What is now demanded is an acknowledgment, on all hands, that there are “Lords many” and that all forms of Religions are equally authentic and divine; or better still perhaps that all put together make the True Religion—the Universal Re- ligion. A famous essayist of this free-thinking sort (Thomas Wentworth Higginson), in a well known essay entitled “The Sympathy of Religions,” has written this: “The main differ- ence between the various Religions of the World is, that each fills some blank space in its creed with the name of a different teacher. The Parsee, for instance, wears a pure white garment bound around with a certain knot; and whenever this knot is undone, at morning or night, he re- peats the four main parts of his creed, which are: ‘To believe in one God and hope for mercy from Him only; to believe in a future state of existence; to do as you would be done by.’ Thus he keeps on the universal ground of Re- ligion. Then he drops into the language of sectarianism and adds ‘to believe in Zoroaster as a supreme teacher.’ The creed [he continues] thus furnishes a formula for all Faiths. It might be printed in blank like a circular, leaving only the closing name to be filled in. For Zoroaster write Christ and you have Christianity; write Buddha and you have Buddhism; write Mohammed and you have Moham- medanism. Eachof these is true Religion plus an individual name. It is by insisting on this p/ws that each Religion stops short of being universal the World over.” So say all “free thinkers.” To claim that there is one Superior Re- ligion—that any one of the Religions is essentially superior to the others, is narrowness, sectarianism, bigotry. It is time, they say, for a Universal Religion, and a Universal Religion must be the residuum of all the great Religions of the World fused into one. This is what some thought the Parliament of Religions meant, or would come to mean. But it proved otherwise. Every representative was cor- dially received, and equal civilities and rights of speech were 42 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. ae EO granted to all. They were simply invited to come and compare their Religions—not so much as to their original teachings as in their actual historic results. It thus became a study—a most interesting, important, and timely study—in Comparative Religion. It was indeed a World’s Exhibition of Religion—not of religious theories but religious results. What has your religion accomplished? Show us its superior fruits and we will then believe in its superior worth. XXVII.—THE AGE OF COMPARISON, AND ITS TEST. Happily we are now living in an age of the World in which the test, which Jesus himself gave, can be applied, and is being applied, in its most impartial and universal sense,—the test I mean, “By their fruits shall ye know them.” Our age is an age of Comparisons. All our World’s International and National Exhibitions are exhibitions of comparative values. All our literature and ever advancing civilization means a sifting of values and an exhibition of superior worth by means of the comparative method. Which of several pieces of machinery shall have the medal? Place them side by side and see how they work. Which of various theories of Political Economy, of National Government, of Science, of Sociology, of Ethics, is worthy of ultimate or of exclusive adoption? Place them side by side, compare their practical workings, and, after a reasonably prolonged and impartial witnessing of results, judge as to superiority. So the whole civilized World is doing to-day. We have entered upon the age and the ages of Comparisons. “ By their fruits shall ye know them.” This test is being applied, whether we know it or not, first of all, among the various denominations of our own Christianity. Men are beginning to look about them and inquire for the Christian body or name that can show, not the most, but the best fruit: not Antiquity, Creeds, Cathe- drals, Sum Totals, but real fruit—souls saved, characters RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. 43 regenerated, society uplifted, the world advanced. Man- kind, here and now, are beginning to listen to the teachings which are enunciated, not by the most oracular or pre- tentious theologians or ecclesiastics, but by those who are most like the Divine Master—simple, loving, and wise. The Christian World is beginning to believe not in the institu- tions which ¢a/k most, but in those which do most, and do it most effectively. Christian “orthodoxy” is no longer tested by creeds, but the creeds themselves are being tested by their results. Those interpretations of the Bible which are found to have the greatest power over—not the tongues or professions, but—the consciences and lives of men, are beginning to be received as the true interpretations, and that form of Christianity which, after the test of centuries, has shown its superior power to refine and elevate and purify, is being accepted—must henceforth be accepted—as superior. This is what is going on among the various Chris- tian communities. The same is the test, and the only real test of Christianity as against the other great Religions of the World. “ By their fruits shall ye know them.” XXVIII.—RELIGIONS JUDGED BY THEIR FRUITS. Christianity must stand or fall, must be ranked as superior or inferior—now after this lapse of nineteen centuries, sim- ply on the ground of comparative merit, or of relative worth. It is no longer—as it once was and doubtless had to be—a question of Antiquity, Prophecy, or Supernatural Sanctions, chiefly or exclusively. It is no longer a question, as it used to be, of Numerical Strength, or of Institutional Grandeur, or of Political Domain. All these are broken earthworks, decayed fortifications of the Past, which modern culture, and wisdom, and purity, and humanity are forcing us to abandon. The question of to-day and of the future is, not what are the Sanctions or Accessories of this or that religion, but what is it? What has it done? What is it doing and what does it promise to do? We as Christians will no longer permit other Religions to reckon up the Antiquity of 44 KRENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. ; eet ce Nt ES oe their Faiths, figure up their Prophecies, add their Miracles, count their Adherents—as they have always been doing,— and thrust their sum-totals in our face, or in the faces of one another, as final evidences that they are superior or divine. We will no longer permit this. Neither must we permit ourselves to do the same to them. If we do, we shall con- tinue to find that almost every other great Religion can thrust back a sum-total of these very boasts or claims at least equal to our own; while infidels will meanwhile stand by and scoff to see us worsted with the weapons of our con- tinued choice. Neither may we claim, as some have claimed, that Divine Truth has been revealed ¢o us alone, in the sense that God has deigned to send Prophets to us only. For, studious research has already drawn forth many a golden treasure from those “rubbish heaps of superstition,”—the Sacred Books of the Ethnic Religions. Impartial criticism is more and more proving the truth of our own _ blessed Bible, that “ God is no respecter of persons,” and that He has “never left Himself without witness among any people, but has from time to time raised up prophets among them all such as they were able to hear.” None of these methods of the past are to be continued as the methods of to-day or of the future. Rather, now and hereafter, must be adopted the New Testament method— “ By their fruits shall ye know them.” Recognizing gladly all that is good, or beautiful, or true, in other Religions ; conceding to their great teachers all the authority which they can, rightfully, claim; we are to place them side by side with the Religion of Jesus; and, by witnessing their practical workings—their relative civilizing, regenerating, ennobling, and purifying influences and results—are thus to determine, in these “latter ages of the world,” which is the best Relig- ion, which is truest, and—as a reasonable inference—which is most divine. This henceforth is the only tenable as well as the only truly Biblical ground upon which we may base our claim for the great superiority of the Christian Religion. Prophecy, Miracles, Inspiration, Martyrdoms—all of these, as many and as great are claimed by the other Religions, RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. 45 Of course we may believe that ours are true and theirs mis- taken or false. But however much we may Jdelzeve this, we have no adequate method of demonstrating it except by pointing to the unique, the transcendent power of Christian- ity, as seen in its incomparable triumphs, as a co-operating agency at least, in regenerating and civilizing the World. And now, for the first time in History, we are able to demonstrate this with a great and ever increasing power of demonstration. Till quite recently the Sacred Books of the various Religions of the World were sealed to our view. Within the past twenty-five years they have been unsealed and are now open to us all. Till now, too, the true history and the real progress of civilization among the so-called Pagan nations of the World has been hidden from us. Inaccessi- ble, shut in and shut out each from the other, and from all the rest of the World, how could they be known or how could any right comparison be instituted? But Christian Missions first, Christian Commerce second, Christian Educa- tion, Invention, and Enterprise third, have battered down all partition walls, have demanded and secured “ open sesame”’ to every corner of the world, have piled upon our book shelves and placed before our eyes the materials for an adequate and just comparison. China, India, Persia, and the Islands of the Sea, with their inhabitants, customs, institu- tions, laws, and grades of civilization—their past progress and future promises are now definitely placed before us. Railroad, and inter-oceanic and telegraphic and telephonic communication have made us next door neighbors to every tribe and people of the earth. Hence to all who read, study, and observe, with intelligence and candor, the Argu- ment from Comparisons has become cumulative. So over- whelmingly is it on the side of Christianity that it seems well-nigh absurd even to re-state the claim. This is what our World’s Exhibitions, held, every one of them, in Christian lands, originated and sustained by Christian intel- ligence, industry, and enterprise, have meant. Providentially they all have been Epiphanies of Christianity. Japan, China, India, Persia, Africa, and the Islands of the Sea have 40 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. sent representatives to them who have returned—as did those sent in ancient times to spy out the Promised Land— bearing tokens substantial and convincing of the superiority of Christian institutions. From the last World’s Exposi- tion—grandest and best of all,—especially from that depart- ment of it known as the “ World’s Parliament of Religion,” returned many an intelligent, devout, and truth-loving delegate who exclaimed, as did the Queen of Sheba, return- ing from the court of Solomon, “ Behold the half was not told me.” XXIX.—UNPREJUDICED TESTIMONIES. And all this is not, as some of the scoffers might say, “American spread Eagleism” or “ nineteenth century brag”’ or the “partisan boastings of Christian bigotry.” As one of our prominent Christian ministers, heard and known all over the earth, has recently said, “It is the religion of Jesus that has abolished slavery, emancipated childhood, uplifted womanhood, and fought all battles for human freedom and the rights of man. All that distinguishes the workingman of America and Europe from the Chinese coolie, the Hindoo pariah, the Egyptian fellah, and the proletare of ancient Rome is due to Christianity. Christianity has promoted in- telligence, has been the mother of science, the nurse of art, the promoter of invention. Industry in its greatest sense— the industry of steam and electricity—which defies time and space, does not exist except in Christian lands.” Lest this should be called the “ special pleading” of inter- ested parties—of clergymen and others who are paid to say it—let us quote also the recent language of one who is not an ecclesiastic, nor a theologian, nor even an “orthodox” Christian,—one of our most distinguished American scien- tists, doctor of laws, professor of chemistry and mineralogy in Harvard University :— ‘““As modern science dates from Newton, so all that is noblest and best in man, all that is most pure and lovely in life, all most unselfish morality, all most heroic chivalry, all most holy charity is dated Anno Domini. Looking at RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. 47 Christian Institutions simply as outward facts—without regard to sanctions of doctrines, dogmas or creeds of any sort —what do wesee? No less than this: that everything in the world that is loftiest and profoundest in thought, which is most ennobling and heroic in character, which is bravest and most unselfish in action, which is purest and loveliest in art, which is most consoling and hopeful in philosophy; and above all this, every form of most beneficent charity, every great movement for the amelioration of mankind, every in- fluence most sanctifying to family ties, dates from one con- spicuous and definite epoch of the world’s history from which civilized men began to count again the revolving years. Who can speak the matchless worth of Christianity.” These are fair and honest statements of the results, to date, of this science which is now widely known as the Science of Comparative Religion. But, lest this too should be consid- ered partisan, or be classed among the Exclusive Statements of Sectarian Religionists, let us add one of many statements from those who have been born and bred in other Religions. One of the distinguished delegates to the World’s Parliament of Religions in Chicago, a reformed Brahmin of India, after- wards made scores of addresses in various parts of this coun- try, every one of which was a fervent eulogy of Christianity. His favorite quotation was that of his great fellow reformer of India: ‘‘ How we wish that Jesus had been born in India! We should have devoted an epic to his glory, sung his name through every city and village, comforted the weak in their sorrows and the dying on their death beds with his holy words, remembered him in every act of daily life, and died finding consolation and strength in his blessed example. We wish indeed that Jesus had been born in India.” XXX.—THE VERDICT. So it is that even the chief representatives of so-called Pagan Religions are joining in the testimony; are coming to acknowledge not only that Christian civilization is supreme, but also that it is verily the personality of Jesus and the promulgation of his gospel upon which, asa chief corner- 48 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. stone, Christian Civilization is built. The great masses of truth lovers and truth seekers, impressed with the supreme majesty and dignity of Jesus, convinced of his superior wisdom, authority, purity and grace, have taken his Gospel —the Gospel of the Fatherhood of God, the Brotherhood of Man, the Forgiveness of Sins and the Immortal Hope—and, upon this for nineteen Centuries have been building, and building “better than they knew,” a great kingdom of light, and love, and humanity.» They have proclaimed the teach- ings of Jesus, perpetuated his memory, immortalized his deeds, and exalted his example; so that now, more than ever, he stands out in glory, with all the world wondering before him. They have taken the name of Jesus, “name of wondrous love, name all other names above,” and crying out “All hail to its power,” have been singing all through the centuries—and to-day with a louder, fuller, sweeter voice than ever: a voice heard in millions of temples all over the earth, yes, in every corner of every continent and in every habitable island of the sea—are singing the old hymn, the one united, unbroken Hymn of Christendom, we may call it: ‘‘ Jesus shall reign where’er the sun Does his successive journeys run ; His kingdom stretch from shore to shore, Till moons shall wax and wane no more. ‘“ To him shall endless prayer be made, And praises throng to crown his head ; His name like sweet perfume shall rise With every morning sacrifice. ““ People and realms of every tongue Dwell on his love with sweetest song ; And infant voices shall proclaim This early blessing on his name. ““ Blessings abound where’er he reigns ; The prisoner leaps to burst his chains, The weary find eternal rest, And all the sons of want are blest. RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. 49 eee ‘’ Let every creature rise, and bring Peculiar honours to our King: Angels descend with songs again, And earth repeat the loud Amen.” XXXI.—NOTWITHSTANDING. All this 2 spite of the many, great, and persistent Degen- erations with which genuzne Christianity has been cumbered ; and by which, from the Second Century zucreasingly until now, its progress has been impeded! What then must have been the inherent, latent, as yet largely undeveloped and widely misapprehended power of original Christianity! What it was may be inferred from what it accomplished as a world-conquering, world-regenerating Religion, “ pure and undefiled before God and man” during the First Century. What it zs, may be, and shall be, may be gathered from the title of this volume, Renascent Christianity— Christianity springing up anew. Had original Christianity escaped the universally prevailing law of Tendency to Revert, had it remained pure and uncorrupted, as it issued from the lips and life of its Divine Founder! verily, verily, his Holy Dream, and that of all his Apostles and first zealous followers, would have actually been accomplished— the Kingdom of God would have come and His Will would have been done, on Earth as in Heaven, long before the Nicene and Athanasian Creeds were imposed as yokes and goads upon the degenerate Christians of the degenerate Christian Church! And now, should Christianity become truly renascent—springing up again as it did in the First Century, and so continuing—verily, verily, the long dreamed of Millennium would actually be here before the close of the Twentieth Century! “Even so, Jesus Master, come quickly!” “Repent, Pre- pare the Way ’’—so shall the “Kingdom of Heaven” verily be “at hand.” 50 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. XXXII.—WHAT THEN IS CHRISTIANITY ? What then zs Christianity ? Why is it, as we have shown, essentially superior? In all truthfulness we are reminded that it “‘ was inferior during several Medieval Centuries.” We are also told that it only-Lappens to be at the top now: and why may it not again revert to Heathenism so completely as to become inferior again to one or more of the Pagan Religions? We answer—This sad Reversion may indeed take place again, and repeatedly. There will doubtless come yet many fall- ings away as Jesus and his chief Apostles repeatedly pre- dicted. But “Truth crushed to earth shall rise again.” Simply because Christianity is “Truth” in a broader, as well as purer, and higher form than is found in any of the other forms of Religion, therefore has it been—as in the Protestant Reformation—still more now is, in the present Reformation, and promises more and more to be as Scholarship, Culture, and Civilization increase—a ceaselessly renascent Religion. But why és it a “ broader, purer, and higher form of Truth’’? Simply because it was in the beginning, is now, and ever must be an Eclectic Religion—and the only one of the Great Religions that was, is, or can be eclectic. This claim has been made and substantiated in a previous section, and so need not be further considered here. As an Eclectic Re- ligion it st#/Z as at first, and forever as now, claims, takes possession of, and appropriates as its own, all Truth wher- ever found. Thus it is that the Spiritual Fruitage of all the Ages, the genuine Inspirations and Products of the Holy Ghost every- where and always, “‘ world without end,” belong to genuine Christianity. If those who call themselves Christians will only recognize this and permit renascent Christianity to claim and appropriate its own, then will it soon become and to the end continue, in fact as in name, The One Holy Catholic and Apostolical Religion of Mankind. XXXIII.—SACRED SCRIPTURES OF THE WORLD—MODERN AS WELL AS ANCIENT. Christianity as an Eclectic Religion, as the only Eclectic Religion, still as at first, and forever as now, claims, takes KENASCEN I VGHRISTIANIEY, 51 f LPP TRAITS 25) Fa hills Weave lie RB ae RR possession of, and appropriates as its own, a// Truth wher. ever found. AAs such, its “Bible” is comprehensive and enlarges itself, ever and ever, to take in “all Truth wherever found.” Hence it has, and must have, its Sacred Scriptures “new and old —modern as well as ancient. The word Scriptures means, of course, Writings, or Things Written. The word Sacred means venerated, highly valued, or held in highest esteem. “Sacred Scriptures of the World” then, as a title, means those writings of the world which are or are worthy to be venerated, highly valued, or held in highest esteem. In a lower sense all writings which contain any Truth or Beauty are Sacred Scriptures. But, by common consent of all people and ages, the word Sacred is reserved for writings which bear on highest Truth and Beauty—which universally are recognized as those only which relate to Religion and Ethics; or to Piety and Morals. So, in any Collection of Sacred Scriptures of the World, nothing can be wisely included but such writings as relate to the Supreme Being and to Mankind in their nature and relations. Such writings however are modern as well as ancient. It is a serious practical error as well as an outgrown super- stition to suppose “a deposit” of Sacred Truth and Beauty made in ancient times once for all, and never to be added to, repeated, newly adapted, or changed. “The faith once delivered to the Saints” has been delivered not once only, but countless times—indeed, unceasingly, and increasingly, as the ages have gone by. Possibly there have not been so many “ Saints ""—that is, persons of such high attainments in Holiness—in some of the modern as in some of the ancient ages, through whom the Holy Communications could fit- tingly be delivered, but in all the ages there have been some. “ God hath zever left Himself without witness.” In these latter ages there have unquestionably been those of equal attainments in Holiness, and of vastly wider and more profound intelligence. Through these has been “ delivered” to the World that deeper Truth and higher Beauty of which he prophesied who said to his disciples, “I have many things to say to you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when 52 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. He, the Spirit of Truth, is come He will guide you into all Abartaal’ It is high time then that we should have not only a volume, but volume upon volume, of recognized and so designated modern~Sacred Scriptures of the World. The crowing intelligence, the lessening superstitions and narrow- ness of the world, as well as its more widely-prevailing and perfectly-balanced saintliness, demand, more and more, such a recognition and such a designation. As a response to this evident demand a volume has recently been collected and edited, and will be duly issued under the title, Wodern Sacred Scriptures of the World. The same editor has previously collected and published a companion volume under the title, Ancient Sacred Scriptures of the World. XXXIV.—MODERN SACRED SCRIPTURES. No especial merit is claimed by the compiler and editor of this volume soon to be issued for his share in the work. Out of several volumes of his own manuscript notes entitled “Quotations and Thoughts’’—accumulated during forty years of reading and meditation—he has simply selected such brief, pointed, and luminous portions as seemed to him best fitted to be called “‘Sacred” Scripture and best adapted to make up asingle volume. This volume he has called by a new name indeed; many of its arrangements and some of its contents are also new; but otherwise it claims no merit above that of other Selections and Anthologies which have —in less methodical ways—sought to condense the Religious and Ethical Literature of Modern Times into a single volume for devotional and practical purposes. Had all been included which the editor has accumulated under the title of “Quotations and Thoughts” during his. many years as student, theologian, and clergyman—all of which he highly values as quickening to his own private as- pirations and resolves—not one volume only, but three or more, would have been offered to the publishers as a result. This accumulation, however, is but a fraction of what might RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. 53 be gathered—of equal, and in some cases doubtless of still higher value—from the vast bulk of Sacred Writings both in Poetry and Prose, which holy men and women have “ in these last days” produced. Thus may be indicated what inexhaustible treasures remain for succeeding editors to draw from ;—to say nothing of those “ deposits”? which shall un- ceasingly be made, as the future centuries and generations shall come and go. The volume referred to is but the gathering of a few pebbles from the sea-shore. The xovelty of its title and method may be a beginning of those days when wise men shall not only realize for themselves—as an esoteric treasure—but also boldly teach to the world, that Divine Revelations have never ceased ; that wherever a holy soul is found there is an Oracle of God; and that ‘“ Sacred Scriptures of the World”’ include everything, in all writings, that are genuinely “true and beautiful and good.” XXXV.—ALL SACRED SCRIPTURES ARE ANONYMOUS. Besides the xovelty of the title and of the general method of the volume to be known as Modern Sacred Scriptures, the editor has ventured upon another—which in the Arthnzc Scriptures of the previous volume he also adopted—that of withholding all names of those who are, or are reported to be, authors of the various Quotations and Thoughts. This is a novelty indeed so far as Modern Literature is concerned. Among the ancients, to be, and to remain axonymous was highest genius and most beautiful humility combined. He who forbade his disciples to make him known, charging them, again and again, “ See that thou tell no man”; who consented to leave no record of his deeds or words, except in the characters and memories of those with whom he lived and to whom he spoke; who provided for no such record, except as it might spring forth as inspiration from the lips and pens of others after he should disappear; even instruct- ing his disciples—as he doubtless did—to forbear adding their own names as biographers or as authors, so that nearly all the New Testament writings remain to this day as practi- 54 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. cally anonymous: thus is he, the Supreme Man, here as else- where, our supreme authority and example. How surprising that those who call themselves his followers have—in these modern times—so rarely been willing, in this regard as in many others, to obey his authority or to follow his example! The author of that ‘“‘ Second Bible,” commonly known as the Dramas of Shakespeare, is one of a very few who, in recent centuries, has sought, like his Divine Master and his Dis- ciples, to hide himself behind his words so that the world might not consider zm, but only the Truth and Beauty his words are designed to reveal. But the time is approaching, or rather, is reapproaching, when all Highest Thoughts and Deeds shall be, and remain, anonymous. The lower—that is “profane” or secular—thoughts and deeds doubtless need the backing of their author’s name, in order to make them comprehensible or authoritative. Their authors, too, need the glamour and glitter of notoriety, in order to feel ade- guately compensated for their effort or toil. But highest Truth and Beauty, which alone are worthy to be called “Sacred,” are—like axioms and intuitions—self-evident. As such ¢hey need no backing of an author’s name; and ¢heir authors, like themselves, are too lofty to need or to accept, as compensation, the glamour and glitter of notoriety. “Things done are won ; Love’s joy lies in the doing.” XXXVI.—HIDING SELF BEHIND TRUTH. To apprehend Truth in somewhat of its highest Grace and Beauty, and to be privileged to disclose somewhat of that apprehension to the World—this, aud nothing else, is what all loftiest souls desire. Attaining this, they seek for, ask for,no other reward. “I say unto you, rejoice, not that the spirits are subject unto you; but, rejoice rather, that your names are written in Heaven.” Divine approval, not human; God’s praises, not the praises of men; eternal attainments and accomplishments, not temporal commend- ations and rewards, is what all holiest and highest souls RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. 55 desire, and seek. Over this ¢hey rejoice, and over this only. In the Old Scriptures it is written God buried Moses so that no man knoweth of his sepulchre to this day. In like manner has God buried all who have been His accepted prophets. God’s highest mediums of communication with mankind have always been tucognitus: who exactly they were no man knows “‘to this day.” Theauthorship of nearly every book of the Bible, as well as of the other most Sacred Scriptures of the World has been contested ; and even when the zame of the author has been conceded, the author him- self, in all the details of his personality, remains to this day practically unknown. So should it be! ‘Tis the Divine Method—the Method of Grace as well as of Genius! Why obscure self-evident Truth and Beauty with the shadow of an author’s name? an author who, at his best, is only a mouth-piece or a medium. It is a hindrance, and an im- pertinence besides. There is but ove Author—the Supreme Wisdom and Love. Him alone should men consider and adore. Better far will it be when the names of Moses, David, Ezekiel, Isaiah, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, Apollos, Homer, Zoroaster, Confucius, Gautama, and the whole line of Sacred Writers, down to “ Shakespeare and Bacon,” and the geniuses and saints of to-day, are entirely forgotten as authors, so that God, the Outshining Central Sun “ may be all in all.” Then will men no longer enquire for Authors in order to do them homage, but only for Truth and Beauty in order to adore them, and be themselves trans- formed into their “image and likeness.”’ ‘‘ Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh ; yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.” “ And when all things shall be subdued unto Him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto Him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.” Of a stately Temple or an artistic Palace it may gratify idle curiosity to know who was the architect, or who is the owner. But only those who appreciate least, stop to ask or require to know this. The stateliness of the Temple, the 56 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. ee beauty of the Palace speak for themselves to all most intel- ligent observers; and so lost are ¢hey in study and admira- tion of these, that mere curiosity as to architect’s or owner’s name finds no place in them. The watch, not the watch- maker; the machine, not the mechanic; the statue, the painting, the invention, the self-evident theory, the demon- strated problem, the luminous saying, the convincing propo- sition, the irresistible book—not the artist’s, inventor’s, student’s, or writer’s name, is what the Higher Intelligence of this and of all coming ages will, zxcreasingly, call for. “Proverbs are sayings without an author.” “ The originals are not original.” “ For neither now nor yesterday began These thoughts, which have been ever, nor yet can A man be found who thetr first entrance knew.” XXXVII.—THE RESURRECTED JESUS. “Behold, there was a great earthquake; for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door and sat upon it. His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment was white as snow: and for fear of him the keepers did shake and become as dead men. And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye; for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was cruci- fied. He ts not here, for he ts risen, as he said. Go quickly and tell his disciples that he zs risen from the dead. And they departed quickly from the sepulchre with fear and creat joy ; and did run to dring his disciples word. “And Jesus came and spoke unto them, saying, All authority is committed unto me in heaven and on earth. Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And lo, lam with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.” RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. oF XXXVITI.—NEW MEANING OF OLD DOGMAS AND CREEDS. Among “orthodox” Christians there are in common use now—as there have been since the fourth century—certain doctrinal words and phrases, which demand adjustment to Renascent Christianity and to the new interpretations of the Bible known as Higher Criticism. The volumes prepared by the writer, entitled Anczent Sacred Scriptures of the World, and Modern Sacred Scriptures of the World, are both pre- pared in the interests of Renascent Christianity and of Higher Criticism of the Bible. Any readers of those volumes, and all students of the Bible and of other Sacred Books of the World, will be much assisted by any reason- ably intelligent and reverent attempt to vevitalize—if not to reconstruct—the Dogmas and Creeds which are yet in com- mon use. The following attempt is certainly made ina “reverent ”’ spirit. He who makes it believes himself to be “reasonably intelligent’ with reference to the subject in hand. He hopes that it may, dy zts very tnadequacy tf for no other cause, be the means of stimulating other attempts and many; until finally “new bottles” shall be fit¢zngly pre- pared for the “new wine,” and “new cloth for the new garment.” “In vain I turned, in weary quest, Old pages, where—God give them rest !— The poor Creed-mongers dreamed and guessed, And still I prayed, ‘ Lord, let me see How Three are One, and One is Three! Read the dark riddle unto me!’ “ Then something whispered, ‘ Do’st thou pray For what thou hast? This very day The Holy Three have crossed thy way. Do not the gifts of sun and air To good and ill alike, declare The all-compassionate Father’s care? In the white soul that stoops to raise A lost soul from its evil ways, 58 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. Thou seest the Son, whom angels praise ! The still small voice that spoke to thee— The bodiless Divinity— Is the Holy Spirit’s mystery ! “In Love, and Sacrifice, and Grace, The Zrinity stands before thy face ! ’T is thus in this and every place,— The Father, seen in rain and sun: The Christ, in good for evil done: The Voice Within,—the Three are One!’ “IT shut my Book of Doctrines fast— The monkish gloss of ages past :— The Schoolman’s Creeds aside I cast : And my eart answered——Lord I see How Three are One and One is Three! The riddle hath been read to me.” XXXIX.—QUESTIONS OF CRITICISM AND THEIR ANSWERS. The author, in penning this section in particular, is certain that he will meet with violent outcries from the traditionally “orthodox.” From those sofeless ones, especially, belonging to that class of ‘scribes and pharisees’’ who exclaimed to Jesus, “‘ Art thou greater than our father Abraham? Whom makest thou thyself ?’’—these violent outcries are certain to come. The old reply of Jesus and of all the prophets must be returned ¢o them :— ““This people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.”’ But to open-eyed, opened-eared, open-hearted objectors and enquirers the following questions with their answers are submitted : First Question—Are you not opening yourself to the charge of ‘‘ Heresy”? Answer.—There are no terrors in this charge, as it has been a familiar one to the author from RENASCENT CHRISTIANIT Y. 59 College and Theological Seminary days. ‘“ After the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers ” for these thirty years past. Second Question.—But are you not reviving “ancient here- sies’’ which were long ago and repeatedly condemned? Answer.—Yes; but it is always in order ‘‘ to move a recon- sideration.” Third Question.—But are you not disregarding the injunc- tion of Jesus, ‘“ Put not new wine into old bottles. Sew not new cloth upon an old garment”? Axswer.— Tempo- rary expedtents are always allowable, and sometimes are advisable. Till the new bottles are made, it is wise to tie up the old “ wine-skins ” as best one can; till the new gar- ments are patterned and prepared, it is necessary to patch up the old. This, however, not as a finality, but only asa makeshift. Jesus himself and his apostles used nearly all of the out- worn forms, formularies, and symbols of the Jews with az entirely new meaning. For three centuries the ‘orthodox ” party, with their Fudatzings as to circumcision, bloody-sac- rifices, priestly-successions, temple-worship, and other such ‘“essentials’’ and ‘“ essential meanings,” was overwhelmingly uppermost in the Christian Church. St. Paul fought an almost single-handed battle with them throughout his entire life ; insisting upon using the old forms, formularies, and symbols in a new and rational way. After his death, St. Paul’s suc- cessors of like spirit and method rapidly increased and finally prevailed. Then, but not till then, the new wine was put into new bottles; the new garments were made out of new cloth. The same was the case at the time of the Protestant Reformation,—that beginning of the Renascence of Christianity. Two centuries before Luther, individual priests and saintly scholars began to use, and to insist upon using, old forms, formularies, and symbols, with meanings entirely new. Till Protestantism was a fact, organized and established, this rational use of irrational rituals, creeds, and sacraments was persisted in dy individuals ; till, at length, the various corporate bodies of Protestantism were com- 60 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. pelled to accept the rational meanings and adopt new forms of ritual, creeds, and sacraments appropriate to them. So has it been ever, and everywhere, and in all classes of reforms. Never an adrupt transit from the old to the new; but gradual changes—first in the spirit, then in the letter. Not revolution but reform is the meaning of Renascent Christianity ; Christianity springing up into renewed life, and the renewed life, in due time, assuming its appropriate forms—vre-forming itself. In this view of the matter our next question may be very briefly answered. Fourth Question.—Are you not inconsistent—indeed, a sort of hypocrite—to remain officially, or even nominally, con- nected with a religious body which almost unanimously adheres to the old spirit as well as letter of its beliefs? Ax- swer.—Reform comes never except through the agency of self-consecrated, self-forgetting reformers, who are zuside the needing-to-be-reformed religious body; and who insist upon the right to remain inside, as long as free interpreta- tion and free speech are granted them. ‘Give mea platform upon which to stand, and I will shake the world,” said Archimedes. But there is no platform given—in the pres- ent life—except zmszde the world. When we are driven out, then—of course we must go! fifth Question.—But why not wait for councils, conven- tions, or authorized committees, of the great religious bodies to do the “tying-up”’ and the “patching,” if they so much need to be doner “By what authority doest thou these things?” Answer.—One of the best known, most scholarly, most saintly, and venerable of the clergymen of America has recently given a reply to this always and everywhere proffered question—proffered especially by the “scribes and pharisees, hypocrites,” who always “urge it vehemently.” “Always there is the same danger when you trust to priests and Levites instead of bidding every man testify for the truth. The priest goes on his side of the way on his decorous journey. The Levite goes on his. It is the out- side Samaritan who listens to the voice of God. The Mor- mon Church of yesterday, or the Roman Catholic Church of RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. 61 the dark ages or any of its little Protestant imitators, are all in the same condemnation. From the nature of the case they look backward and despise the word of prophecy. Most dangerous, as I believe, to liberty of conscience is a com- pact organization where wealth, and dignity, and prestige, combine to insist that Middle Age dogmas shall be clamped over the mouth of the preachers of to-day,—men who have been taught by Hamilton and Le Conte, Darwin and Agassiz, Maurice and Robertson, Martineau and Stanley, Channing, Emerson, and Brooks.” To which we add :—In Religion as elsewhere, the Indi- vidual has rights as well as Corporations ; among which is the right of Free Conscience and Free Speech. For sixteen centuries the autocratic Church and Churches have tried to suppress this right; but in these enlightened days, and in this enlightened land especially, “‘ Ecclesiastical Authorities” can no longer be slave-holders or slave-drivers. ‘‘The word of God is not bound” any longer. Emancipation of thought and tongue has been proclaimed in Church as in State. Slave-holders and slave-drivers, in remote and degraded communities and ‘‘communions,”’ still resist; and there are many of the newly manumitted who cravenly hug their broken chains and, slave-like, dare not speak as the Spirit seeketh to give them utterance. Notwithstanding, to all who are willing to be freemen, the Declaration of Spiritual Independence is an accomplished fact forever. Original Christianity was this Declaration; through eighteen cen- turies of warfare it has been contested ; Protestantism was its first signal victory; Renascent Christianity is, and will be, its complete achievement and permanent establishment. ‘“‘ Brethren, ye have been called unto Liberty . . . Stand fast therefore in the Liberty wherewith Christ has made you free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. : For where the Spirit of the Lord is there is Liberty. . ... The glorious Liberty of the children of God.” All Reform is a return to, or foward, First Principles. This has never been secured, in the History of any Religion, 62 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. er neem ANN -Late nae aS EC UE CREA CREA except by individual ¢s7stency—supplemented, often, by the persistency of combined Protesters, or of organized Dissent- ers, who have been conscience-compelled or persecution- compelled to combine or to organize. In one of a series of Advent Sermons, just now being preached in St. Paul’s Church, New York City, the scholarly and bold preacher has drawn bitter criticism, and the pour- ing out of vials of wrath upon himself, by venturing to Say many things that a Prophet-Priest ought to say in rebuke of common opinion and practice. Among the more notable of them is the following :—“ Never yet have the Officials or the Authorized Leaders among the people recognized the signs of the times.” This is a great fact of Universal His- tory—in Religion move than in other things, in Church more than in State. Who have been the Reformers and true Builders-up of Religion in all ages? Not the High-Priests, who belonged to the Aaronic Succession; nor the Scribes and Rabbis who sat in Moses’ Seat; not Popes, Cardinals, Arch-Bishops, Bishops, nor well-paid Professors in Theology, nor popular Doctors of Divinity. But mocked Elijahs, men- of-sorrow-and-acquainted-with.grief Isaiahs, despised - and -re- Jected-of-men Jeremiahs, unauthorized John the Baptists, the unordained Jesus, non-commissioned Sauls of Tarsus, anathe- matized Monks of Erfurt, and Prophet-Priests of like Spirit ; ordained and approved of God, though not of man—these everywhere and ever, have been the Reformers and true Builders-up of Religion. From Moses and all the Old Testament prophets down to Jesus and Paul, and from these down to Luther and to-day ; in Judaism, in Christianity, and in every other form of Re- ligion, it has been the Individual—never the Council, Con- vention, or Authorized Committee—that has “turned the World upside down ” in its Errors and Wrongs, and ushered in all the new Light and Life that have ever come to Man- kind. It isnot Egotism, nor presumption—as commonly affirmed—to be true to one’s convictions. Every commtis- stoned teacher, especially, should speak the Truth as God has revealed it to him by His Holy Spirit—and “ speak it RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. 63 boldly as he ought to speak.” One’s light, even if it be but the light of a farthing candle, is not his own; and he is bound to put it “not under a bushel, but on a candle- stick.” Never yet has the Holy Ghost spoken through Council, Convention, Committee, or Church until it first had spoken in the “still small voice”’ to Individuals who, like Elijah and Paul, were “ not disobedient to the heavenly vision.” No one is so small or humble—be he truly sincere, pure-hearted, and devout—but that the Spirit of Truth will speak to him; and not an accent should be lost. ‘“ What ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops.”’ Such are some of the main reasons why no Prophet-Priest, however humble his name or station, should dare await the cumbrous, tedious, and uncertain action of Ecclesiastical Officialsk—however much esteemed and revered—before giving, to whomsoever will receive it, whatever new Light has clearly shined into his soul through the agency of that Spirit of God, which “lighteth every man that cometh into the world.” Sixth Question.—But why continue the use, at least, of such Un-Scriptural terms as The Trinity; and of such Un- Apostolic formularies as The Nicene Creed; and of much of the language common to both the written and extempo- raneous Devotions of “Orthodox” Christians—the medieval and modern meaning of which is so wrdely different from that which you, and multitudes of others, now believe ; and which—as you claim—neither Jesus nor any of the more spiritual and intelligent Christians of the first two centuries believed? Answer—By analogy, an answer is furnished us in recent words of a celebrated American Physician, who, in a profound book on Pathology, has defended himself for the use of ancient medical terms— which have long since ceased to have their original mean- ing—as follows: ‘“ Nearly all our Medical Terminology ex- presses our ignorance, more than our knowledge. Despite all our progress in Medical Science we are yet obliged to retain old terms, which are very inadequate, for even our best known diseases. But, provided we understand what they 64 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. mean now and to us, there is no serious objection to their use. Indeed, their retention is a matter of necessity, until such a time as the fuller nature of the various diseases shall be unveiled ; then, these old and largely meaningless terms can be, and will be, gradually abandoned.” Exactly so we say of Theological Terminology. Such terms as The Trinity, such Creeds as The Nicene, and such dogmatic or symbolic words as those so much and widely used in ‘‘Orthodox” Instruction as well as Devotion, express “ignorance more than knowledge.’ Despite all our progress we are “yet obliged to retain them”’ al- though “very inadequate ” to convey our higher meanings. As we seek—not Revolution but—Ae-form, we must retain them until our own knowledge, and also the knowledge of those whom we are called upon to guide and instruct, is more complete. There is no serious objection to this ‘“‘ provided we understand,” and also ¢ry to make those whom we guide and teach understand, “what they mean now, and to us.” In this sense their retention is allowable, and perhaps essen- tial, “until such a time as the fuller nature” and meaning of Theological Truth “shall be unveiled.” Then, “these old and largely meaningless terms can be, and will be, evadu- ally abandoned.” XL.—AN ATTEMPT AT REASONABLE EXPLANATION. 1.— Trinity. The Trinity is a common and helpful phrase wherewith to designate those Historic Manifestations of the Divine Being which are known as Fatherhood, Sonship, and In- spiration. Fatherhood is God seen in Creation; Sonship is God recognized in Man; Inspiration is God enthroned in the Soul. Looking upward to the Universe we behold God the Father; looking about to Mankind we behold God the Son; looking within to Spiritual Holiness we behold God the Holy Ghost. Aznd these Three are One.* * NOTE. The word Trinity, in its original, means, any three-fold manifestation—as the length, breadth, and height of a cube; all are equal and all are aspects of RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY, 65 ee eee EN rc Ry NE OND Le er LANL ARCN INE EP LAI VE AUS 2.— Christ. The word Christ is a Greek form of the Hebrew word Messias, which means anointed, that is, set apart or conse- crated. Priests, Judges, Kings, Rulers, Officials of any sort, who were anointed, set apart, or consecrated, were called Messias in the Old Testament Scriptures—which is, being interpreted, Christ. 3.—Fesus Christ. Jesus Christ is he who—living in Judea nineteen hundred years ago—set himself apart or consecrated himself xure- servedly to God for the Service of Mankind. To signify this he called himself, and allowed himself to be called, Messias, or Christ. 4.— Fesus the Christ. Because Jesus was the first, and zs the only one, of men who has wureservedly consecrated himself to God for the Service of Mankind, he is called, and deserves to be called, The Christ. 5.—Christians. Christians are those who, like Jesus, consecrate themselves to God for the Service of Mankind. Strictly speaking, no one has a right to the name who has not so consecrated himself. Whoever is so consecrated, wheresoever found, is a Christian. And those who are the most unreservedly consecrated are most truly Christians. one thing. As a figure, or as a means of apprehension, its use is helpful and allowable. But as the Dogma of a Triad, or of an Actual Tri-Personality of Divine Being, it is a degradation both of thought and theology. This Dogma is found as a teaching in the Sacred Books of all the Ancient Pagan Religions (except in the Koran of Islamism), but is not so much as hinted in the Bible— except by impossible and far-fetched inferences. The one passage which has long been quoted as a proof-text, that of the Three Witnesses, has always been considered spurious ; and is now rejected as such by the Revised New Testa- ment. The dogma of Tri-Personality came from the Pagan Religions and (most unfortunately) was adopted by Christianity during its ‘‘ Philosophical Period” of the 3d, 4th, and 5th Centuries. 5 66 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. nani i Si OL Rae Ee ae a ee = A SaaS OAR 6.—Salvation by Christ. As Christ means Messias, or Anointed, or set apart, or consecrated, “Salvation by Christ’? means the same as does the term Christian—Consecrated to God for the Service of Mankind. All who are so consecrated are being saved. All who are not so consecrated are being lost. In proportion as one is unreservedly consecrated he zs saved. In pro- portion as one is mot at all consecrated he zs lost. Such is Salvation always and everywhere. And there is no other way. There is none other name given on Earth, or in Heaven, whereby we must be.saved but ‘‘ Christ,’ that ‘1s, Consecration. 7.— Fesus Christ as the Saviour. Jesus was the first of the Holy Teachers of the World who clearly taught, and personally illustrated, this way of salvation; therefore he, above all, is Saviour. As he was and is the only Saviour who unreservedly consecrated him- self to God for the Service of Mankind, therefore is he worthy to be called “ The Saviour.” 8.—Son of God. A son of God is one who, having consecrated himself to God for the Service of Mankind, is accepted into that high approval and relationship which belongs to a son. The consecration to God is called being “ born” of God, and the acceptance is called “adoption.” Strictly speaking, none but those who have consecrated themselves to God for the Service of Mankind are entitled to consider themselves His Sons. And all who are so consecrated, always and every- where, are “Sons of God.” 9.—Fesus Christ the Son of God. Jesus Christ is ‘The Son of God,” because, having un- reservedly consecrated himself to God for the Service of Mankind, he was fully and forever accepted of God, by the Adoption of Sonship, as “ the first-born of many brethren ” RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. 67 Fa RRS Fae FORE FRE Tr py RTRSY care cae rg Ve cre mor pam ecee arc t ehoh Larn through whose leadership and example all men may, in like manner, become Sons of God;—as the Scriptures teach, “ Beloved now are we the Sons of God,” and “ As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are Sons of God.” * 10.— Fesus Christ the Only Son of God. Jesus Christ is the “only” or “only-begotten ” Son of God in the sense that, inasmuch as he is the only one of men who has unreservedly consecrated himself to God for the Service of Mankind, therefore is he the only one whom God has fully and forever accepted by “the adoption of Son- ship ’’ as—in the highest sense—His Son. Therefore is he worthy to be called God’s only or “only-begotten Son”: according to the Scriptures, ‘He learned obedience by the things that he suffered,” and “Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee,” and “ Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of ¢hzugs in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess Jesus Christ is Master to the glory of God the Father.” 11.—Conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary. Jesus Christ was “ Conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary” in the sense that all, who on Earth shall attain to perfect Holiness, must be conceived in Holi- * NOTE, Alexander the Great in the Temple of Ammon was saluted by the High- Priest as Son of God. Alexander respectfully accepted the salutation, but added : ‘‘ God is by nature the Father of all ; it is no wonder then that all best men may, without irreverence, be called His Sons.” So (but in an unspeakably higher and holier sense) Jesus Christ as the supreme, the zdeal man called him- self and is rightly called THE Son of God. Among the Romans, Greeks, and Hebrews, for centuries before the Christian era, the phrases ‘‘ Sons of God ” as applied to all good men, and ‘‘ The Son of God” (or ‘a god,” or ‘a god in human form,” or ‘‘ /ogos incarnate,” or ‘‘ word made flesh ”) as applied to the best, greatest, or zdeal man, were in common use. So Christianity added nothing new when, by its Divine Method of Eclecticism, it adopted and made use of these phrases, 68 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. eae ee RO ene a i et tere ness, and born of a pure mother in particular and of a pure ancestry in general. The “ Holy Spirit,” or Spirit of Holi- ness, is the guzckening power of God in man—pre-natal as well as post-natal.* 12.—The Pre-existence of Fesus. Jesus was “ The Word—or Logos—of God Incarnate ‘oan the philosophical or metaphysical sense of Neo-Platonism, as found in the Proem of the Fourth Gospel. This doctrine is not taught in any other part of the Bible. Neither as a dogma nor as a widely received teaching was it known in the Christian Church of the first two Centuries. Therefore, in the view of Higher Criticism, 2¢ may or may not be re- ceived. But “The Pre-existence of Jesus” is everywhere * NOTE, In other respects Jesus may have been born by natural agencies, as have been all other men. His birth was supernatural in the above sense. But in that sense only, so far as Historic Confirmations are concerned—thatis, his own claims, the claims of his parents, the testimony of his Disciples, the writings of his Chief Apostle St. Paul, or of others who ought to have known ; and who, had they known or éelieved it, would most certainly have proclaimed it widely as the first and chief Supernatural Sanction of Christianity. Of all this nothing reliable or sufficiently confirmed is found in the Bible. The claim of Pro- phetic Announcement (as that of Isaiah) is fanciful and unfounded. The beautiful accounts of The Annunciation and The Birth, are the Poetry of Ad- miring Reverence, which must be interpreted and believed szmply as Poetry. For a hundred years after The Annunciatian and The Birth not a word is heard of them, not a hint is found, except in the Apocryphal Marvels, which ignorant men wrote and ignorant people believed. One of these ** Apocryphal Marvels” happened to be retained in (or, more probably, added to) the opening Chapter of Matthew’s Gospel as an Addendum of the /argely Apocryphal Genealogy of Jesus. Except here, and in a single interrogation found in the first Chapter of St. Luke’s Gospel thirty-fourth verse, not a reference to or hint of any such a Supernatural Conception or Birth as is popularly claimed is found in the entire New Testament. Without its recognition the Christian Church was founded, organized, and (for two of its most important and holy Centuries) flourished. If it could be dispensed with then, certainly it can be now. It is not in- credible, and whoever must, may believe it. But it is certainly not historically verified ; and all who have given up the dogma of the Verdal Inspiration of the Bible, must also reject the dogma of the Supernatural Conception and Birth of Jesus (in the sense of popular ‘‘ Orthodoxy”) as binding upon the Faith and Consciences of intelligent Christians. RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. 69 pete LEN a ie iS ee ee A nal a oi aa taught in the New Testament, and was everywhere held in the Early Christian Church. So also is the Pre-existence of all Human Souls everywhere taught, or implied, or taken for granted, in the whole Bible; as it was also an almost Uni- versal Belief of the Early Christian Centuries. 13.—Before all Worlds ;—By Whom all Things were made. The above explained teachings of the Bible render it com- prehensible and reasonable to believe that Jesus the Christ was “begotten of his Father before all worlds”; and that he was the /ogos, or word, “ by whom all things were made.” 14.—God of God, Light of Light, Very God of Very God: begotten, not made. In a general sense every man whom “God created in His own image and after His own likeness”; in a special sense every “new born” or spiritually re-created man; but,in an unspeakably higher sense, Jesus the Christ is “God of God, Light of Light, Very God of Very God: begotten, not made.” In this Bible sense, as well as philosophically and rationally, Jesus the Christ zs God; and it is proper to obey and adore him as such. 15.—One Catholic and Apostolic Church. There is “one Catholic and Apostolic Church” in the sense of the Scriptures, which teach that “God is no re- specter of persons, but in every nation he that feareth Him and worketh righteousness is accepted with Him,” and “Whosoever doeth the will of my Father who is in Heaven the same is my brother, and my sister, and my mother ’— which teaching is beautifully expressed in the Communion Office of the Book of Common Prayer of the English—or Episcopal—Church in the words “ The blessed company of all faithful people.” 16.—The Bible ts the Word of God. The Christian Bible is ‘The Word of God” in the sense that it has thus far proved itself to be chief and supreme 70 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. among those manifold Divine Revelations concerning which itself teaches ‘‘ The invisible things of Him from the Crea- tion of the World are clearly seen, being understood from the things that are made, even His eternal power and God- head”; and ‘“ God, who at sundry times and in divers man- ners spoke in times past unto the fathers through Prophets hath, in these last days, spoken unto us through a Son.” 17.— The Holy Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper. Baptism by the use of water is a “Sacrament” in the sense of an “ outward sign of inward Grace” proffered, ac- cepted, and diligently retained “till life’s end.”” —The Lord's Supper is also a “Sacrament” in the sense of a “‘remem- brance that Christ died for us, feeding on him in our hearts by faith with thanksgiving.” According to all the teachings of the New Testament Scriptures, and of the Church of the Early Centuries, these two, and these only, are “ The Holy Sacraments ”’ of The Christian Religion. 18.—The Holy Ghost. “The Holy Ghost” is The Spirit of God, or The Spirit of Truth, or The Spirit of Holiness, which—forever and every- where—seeks to enlighten, inspire, guide, comfort, and save the souls of men; with the one and only condition that they will devoutly proffer acceptance, welcome, and eager co- operation. 19.—Recetving the Holy Ghost. Such hearty and entire acceptance and welcome of The Spirit of God, or The Spirit of Truth, or The Spirit of Holi- ness, and such ceaseless co-operation as to result in God's enthronement in the soul, is “receiving the Holy Ghost.” Whosoever has not thus enthroned God in his Soul, has not been “born of the Spirit. And ‘ whosoever is not born of the Spirit, cannot enter into the Kingdom of God.” RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY, 71 20.—hose from the Dead and Ascended to Heaven. Jesus Christ “rose from the dead and ascended into Heaven” in the sense of the Scriptures, which teach that “there is a Spiritual Body” over which Death hath no power; that “Flesh and Blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God”’; and, that all who live and die in Holiness shall, in like manner, “rise from the dead and ascend into Heaven.” 21.—Heaven and Hell. The alternatives of human choice and destiny are ‘Heaven ” and “ Hell,” in the sense that they are “ within ”’ us, as holy or unholy characters which will “ comfort” us or “torment” us forever, without regard to locality, or to ex- ternal conditions—which was emphatically the teaching of Jesus and of his chief Apostle, St. Paul. 22.—Shall come again to judge the World, whose Kingdom shall have no End. Jesus The Christ and The Only Son of God—as already explained—is the “ highly exalted ” of God and ¢he “ Teacher,” the “ Example” and ¢he “ Saviour” of Mankind. As such he must also be “ Our Judge.” Himself said ‘I will not leave you; I will come unto you; Lo! I am with you always even unto the end of the World.” In this sense—though physically invisible—he is the ever-Living, ever-present Christ ; and Christendom is his rightful “ Kingdom,” and shall be, “World without end, Amen.” In this, his Rightful King- dom, he, for eighteen centuries, has been, is now, and ever shall be enthroned as ‘“‘ Judge of the World.” Amen and Amen. . ALI.-—STILLSOPEN | TOANEW LIGHT, The mere Hireling in Religion as in other things, may say —as a Hireling Politician is represented as saying,—“ These, my constituents, are my sentiments ; if they do not suit you they—can be altered!” But the Truth-lover and Truth- loyalist always says, These are my convictions; they can be altered, dut only by the suggestions of The Spirit of Truth 72 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. speaking anew, and more audibly, through my own increased Intelligence and Floliness. “He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of Zéving water. This spake he of The Spirit, which a// who believed on him should receive.” “ Howbeit when He, The Spirit of Truth, is come, He shall guide you into a Truth.” ““ And they were a// filled with the Holy Spirit ; and began to speak . . . as The Spirit gave them utterance.” “In Like manner The Spirit also helpeth oxy infirmities.” “ For as many as are led by The Spirit of God, they are Sons of God.” “The Spirit Himself beareth witness with our Spirit.” “ And it shall be in the Zast¢ days, saith God, I will pour forth of my Spirit upon all flesh: And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, And your young men shall see visions, And your old men shall dream dreams : Yea and on my servants and on my handmaidens in those days Will I pour forth of my Spirit ; and they shall prophesy.” These promises and assurances only Jegan to be realized at Pentecost. Since the Second Century they have been either widely perverted or largely forgotten. Renascent Christianity is to be their revival and gradual-leading-on, through the ages, to a final and full Realization. XLII.—DEGENERATION OF PROTESTANTISM—PERSISTENT TENDENCIES TO REVERT. When the scholarly, broad-minded, warm-hearted Chap- lain of the departing Speedwell and Mayflower said to his weeping flock—about to leave him forever—‘ There is more light yet to shine from the Word of God,” he scattered the first seed of that Advanced Protestantism which has ever since been springing up and ¢ryzmg to flourish—in spite of RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. 73 the unceasing efforts of “ Orthodoxy”’ to trample it down and root it out. Till then, it was generally conceded that Protestantism as Luther, Henry VIII., Cromwell, and Laud left it, was the final stage of Christianity’s Evolution. In its Rituals of Worship probably, in its Ecclesiastical Methods possibly, but in its Doctrines or Dogmatic Statements certainly it should never be changed. The Ultima Thule had been reached. No navigator would ever venture beyond; should he be so fool-hardy, certain disaster and ruin would await him. The end had been attained; the height, depth, length, and breadth of Divine Truth fully and forever compassed. The three Creeds, and especially the Athanasian, contained it all; whosoever should doubt it, ‘“‘let him be Anathema ”—with- out question he should “ perish everlastingly.” Such were the common, seemingly almost unanimous, conceptions of all ‘Orthodox ”’ Christians. ‘The Reforma- tion” had settled it all: no more questions were to be asked. The Earth on the back of the Elephant, the Ele- phant on the back of the Tortoise; Sixteenth Century Pro- testantism on the back of Fourth Century Theology, Fourth Century Theology on the back of Judaism—that explained it all. To enquire any further, certainly to expect any further changes, was “to fly in the face of Providence.” On such or similar suppositions, Lutheranism organized itself in Germany and in Scandinavia; Anglicanism and Presby- terianism in Great Britain; Puritanism in New England; Episcopacy and all the other Denominations in the United States of America. All were one in this, and in this only, that all alike fixed about them a Faith-line (in military phrase a Death-line). This Faith-line fixed about them was in triangular form: unalterable Ritual on this side, ux- changeable Ecclesiasticism on that side, and zzfallible Doc- trines on the other side. True, every one of the hundred or more “ orthodox ”’ Sects, as they sprang up, differed as to the nature and limits of the first and second sides; but as to the third they were, and are, united. Each, of its own triangular boundaries, said, sternly, 7ius far and no farther. 74 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. In this way Protestantism became, virtually, another Papacy or Patriarchate ;—with endless popes and patriarchs instead of one. So too, in its degeneration, it soon came to repeat the intolerance and even the persecutions of the Autocratic Romanism whence it sprang. It hung Quakers, burnt Witches, banished Baptists and Romanists alike, in one portion of its domain; and, in all portions and among all its “orthodox” Sects alike, inhibited a free Religious Press, prohibited free Theological Speech, bound Reason, gagged Conscience, stifled Conviction, suppressed Enquiry, just as always had been done by degenerate Christianity back to the Fourth Century. True, on the part of most of the Protestant Sects, the triangular boundaries have been slightly extended now and then; but this only as compelled by indignant and influential Protesters from inside. True also that the prohibitions and penalties have grown less numerous and less severe; this, also, only as compelled, and in like manner. But the boundaries are still fred, with their accompanying prohibitions and penalties; and none but the boldest and bravest ever venture to disregard them. As to the “ penalties,’ they have changed in form, but hardly in substance, from those of Maternal Romanism. Ostracism (social as well as religious) has taken the place of Anathemas. Expulsions or depositions have super- seded gibbet, and pyre; heresy-trials the inquisition, and whispers-of-heresy the thumb-screw and rack. The perse- cutions of medieval Romanism, nay, even the stones and the cross of First Century Judaism, were, after all, easier for a genuine hero to bear than is the pusillanimous ostracism, the pestering heresy-trials, and the wz-get-at-able suspicions which now are the punishments of all accused of “ hetero- doxy”’ or charged with Theological Unsoundness. All this and much more—so painful to recall, and yet demanding to be recalled, in order to warn against continued degeneration—indicates the past and present Degeneration of Protestantism ; it shows also how strong, even zn zt, is the old, universal, always persistent Tendency to Revert—zz Religion as in everything else. RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY, 75 “Mine hand shall be upon the prophets that see vanity, and that divine lies: “ Because, even because they have seduced my people, saying, Peace; and there was no peace ;— “Lo wit, the prophets of Israel which prophesy concerning Ferusalem, and which see visions of peace for her, and there ts no peace, saith the Lord God.” “Think not that I am come to send peace upon the Earth ; L came not to send peace, but a sword.” “ The Wisdom that is from above is first, pure—then peace- able.” XLITII.—THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION ONLY THE BEGIN- NING OF NEEDED AND ESSENTIAL REFORMS. When Christianity began to revert, it began, and till now has continued, to revert in three general directions. Its Symbolism (or Ritual) grew toward that of Heathenism ; its Ecclesiasticism grew toward Despotism ; and its Dogma grew toward the Superstitions of Paganism. The Protestant Reformation began, and has continued, as only a partial Reform of the first, a very slight Reform of the second, and no Reform at all of the third. (@) The Ritual of all the Protestant Sects is a marked advance upon that of the Medieval Churches—Roman and Greek Catholicism. (4) The Ecclesiastism of all the Protestant Sects is a slight advance; the same tyranny (in councils, conventions, and other officialisms) exists in modified forms; instead of one Pope or Patriarch, there have come to be hundreds or thou- sands called by various names. (c) The Dogmatism of the Fourth Century, increasing in popular favor down through the Dark Ages till now, remains essentially un-reformed, except among those Protestant sects known and condemned as Heretics—the Unitarians, United Brethren, Christians, etc. What is now needed, called for, and demanded by rapidly increasing Protestants of the Higher Order (the most scholarly, virtuous, and reverent Christians of Christen- dom) is a Completed or, at least, a rapidly Completing Re- 76 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. form. Away with the Symbolisms or Rituals of essential Heathenism! Down with Tyrants and Tyrannies in Church even more than in State! Banish to the shades of the past all Dogma or Forms of Dogma that bind Christianity to the superstitious beliefs of the degenerate Religions of Pagan- ism! This is, and more and more is to be, the Three-fold Cry of those “ Protesters” who represent, and will continue more and more to represent, the Highest Intelligence, Morality, and Faith of the Christian World. “And while he lingered, the man laid hold upon his hand . and they brought him forth, and set him without the city. “And it came to pass, when they had brought them forth abroad, that he said, Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou tn all the plain.” “T will overturn, overturn, overturn . . . until He comes whose right wt ts.” “ And Fesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, ts fit for the Kingdom of God.” “TT know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars: “ And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted. “Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. “ Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, aud do the first works, or else I will come unto thee guickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent. “ He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches: To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth tt. “As many as I love, 1 rebuke and chasten ; be zealous there- fore, and repent.” RENASCENT CHRISTIANIT ¥Y, Tf XLIV.— “‘ THOUGH ALL MEN SHOULD FORSAKE THEE, YET WILT NO Tale It is hard for a Leader to be deserted and left to stand alone. Almost as hard is it for a follower to stand alone, or almost alone, with his deserted Leader. The most tragic in- cident in the life of the Divine Founder of Christianity was that of Calvary ; when, deserted by all the world and his few bosom friends besides, he felt himself, for a moment, de- serted by his Heavenly Father too! The next most tragic incident was that of Gethsemane, concerning which he spoke prophetically : ‘‘ Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone: and yet Iam not alone, because the Father is with me”’ ; and during which he said, so piteously, to his sleeping chosen three, “‘ What, could ye not watch with me one hour?” But even more ¢ryzng to faith and courage, though not so impressive to the world, was that incident recorded in the sixth chapter of the Fourth Gospel: “ Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard /hzs, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it? . . . From that time many went back, and walked no more with him. Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away?” Deserted by all the rest because of his “ hard sayings,” he turns—imploringly and yet defiantly—_to the twelve and asks, What are you going todo? Will you stand by me? Ifso, most glad shall I be; if not, so must 2¢ be / I will not retreat, I will not prevaricate, I w2d/ stand alone! Almost as brave were the twelve, who at once responded: “‘ Master, to whom shall we go? Thou only speakest the words of Eternal Life.’ He who was mouthpiece for the twelve on this occasion, on another equally trying one still more bravely exclaimed, “‘ Though all men should be offended at [forsake | thee, yet will I not.” This spirit of disregard for the number of one’s adherents or co-adherents ; this unconcern as to majorities and popu- larities ; this willingness to stand with the few; this resolve 78 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. to stand even a// alone with Truth—as God reveals it to the soul through that ‘Spirit of Truth’ which He ever “ gives freely ” to all who seek it zz pureness of life and sincerity of heart—this spirit is the one and only test of a genuine Chris- tian. Who has little of this has little of Christ. Who has much of this has much of Christ. Who rule and direct the whole life according to it—let men “ take knowledge of them that they have been with Jesus.” The great leader of the Protestant Reformation pro- claimed himself a follower of Jesus in no other words more truly than when he exclaimed—“ Here I stand, I cannot otherwise, so help me God!” and again—in the very face of an impending martyr-death—“ If every tile on every roof were a devil, I would go forward!” All that has ever been wrought for God, and Truth, and Humanity—from the day of faithful Abraham to the day of The Christ, and from the day of The Christ till now—has been wrought in this spirit of genuine Christianity. ’T is hard to stand in the small and scattered ranks of the always unfashionable, always despised minority. Many there are, even in this “ wicked and adulter- ous generation,” who know well, from bitter experience, what are the self-sacrifices and sorrows that belong to Truth-seek- ing; and what the obloquy and shame that belong to Truth- speaking. But there are, as they also well know, the unspeak- ably higher compensations of a good conscience ; so that one can gladly as well as boldly say, ‘“‘ If there are but ten people in the world who deal with Religion intelligently and hon- estly, Iam resolved to be one of the ten.” They also find comfort in remembering that all who have been noblest in themselves, and most helpful to the world, have stood among the despised minority and endured, as martyrs, the cross and the shame. He who was derided by Pharisees and Sadducees; whose followers ‘went back and walked with him no more”; whose disciples “all forsook him and fled ” ; and who, in his extremity, cried out ‘“ My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken me?’’—even he is our Divine Example of steadfast loyalty to honest convictions of Duty and Truth. RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. 79 He who wrote that sublime Epistle to the Hebrews, teaches and exhorts us out of his own brave, blessed experi- ence: “Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate. Letus go forth therefore unto him wzthout the camp, sharing his re- Proactive) 28) Por, Godiihathjsaidja tl willtneversleave thee, nor forsake thee. Sothat we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.” XLV.—RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY A REVIVAL OF COMBINED PIETY AND MORALITY. (a) Piety and Morality combined was Christianity as taught by Fesus. Among the first words of Jesus was the injunction, Seek ye the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness—that is, God Himself as an object of love and worship, and God in his characteristics or virtues as a model of human char- acter; in short, piety or internal religion, and morality or external religion. Both of these, as mutually related and mutualiy dependent, are to be sought, sought with great diligence and persistency as that word would imply, and sought as first both in order of time and order of im- portance. “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.” True Christianity is piety and morality combined; or more exactly, is morality based upon piety and growing out of it. Observe: not morality the basis and piety the outgrowth, but the opposite. Piety, z. ¢., recognition, rever- ence, worship, and love of God, is the ground, the soil, the womb from whence all true morality must spring. Zrue morality: not meaning by that the morality of respecta- bility, of policy, of esthetics, which is the morality of man; but the morality of principle, of righteousness, of holiness, which is the morality of God. If a man is moral merely because it is respectable or politic to be so, or because he thinks it beautiful, as a pretty face is beautiful, his morality 80 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. is only skin deep, pocket deep, public-sentiment deep; and like the seed in thin soil it will be scorched and withered as soon as the sun is up. But the man who is moral from principle, moral because his recognition of the omniscient holiness of God inspires him to rectitude, and purity, and truth ; rectitude of heart, as well as of life; purity within, as well as without; truth in secret thought and silent motive, as well as in profession and in deed ;—the man whose moral- ity is thus based upon his soul’s conscious and constant recognition of God, is the truly moral man; his is the morality of piety, as deep-rooted as God Himself, because planted in him ; and, like the seed in good soil, it shall bring forth fruit unto everlasting life. This is what we mean by saying that true religion of any form, but true Christianity in particular, is a combination of piety and morality ; or more exactly, is morality based upon piety and growing out of it. (b) The two Extremes. Now, as a matter of fact, the two extremes towards which the masses of mankind have always been tending, the Scylla and the Charybdis against which they have alternately been dashing, the two opposite directions of that “ broad road” which at either end terminates in destruction, have been these two elements or components of true religion—piety and morality—divorced and made to stand at a distance; while the “ golden mean,” the “mid-stream,” the “ narrow way,” that leadeth to everlasting life, and which “few” have been able to find, has been a combination of the two. Piety without morality—theoretical belief in God, formal worship, verbal adoration, professional love,—without any particular emphasis upon personal righteousness as the fruit and sub- stance of all—this has been one extreme towards which the greater multitude has always been tending. Morality zwzthout piety—without practical recognition of God, without conscious communion with Him, without worship, or adoration, or love; in other words, moral char- RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. SI a acter emphasized: goodness, blamelessness in the sight of man, external rectitude, the commandment “Thou shalt love thy neighbor,” observed without any particular regard to the first commandment, “ Thou shalt love the Lord thy God,”—this has been the other extreme towards which the lesser multitude has always been tending. While piety and morality, God and His righteousness, worship and fidelity, adoration and goodness, love doth in sentiment and in life, both to God and to man, the first and second command- ments combined—this is the Golden Mean which, as the old Chinese sage used to say, “few have been able to at. tain.” Nor do we wonder that few have attained it when we remember how much easier it is for everybody to run to extremes than to hold themselves in equilibrium ; how much less effort is required to drift with the breeze and the im. petuous current than to pull at the oars of self-regulation and restraint; how much more zatural it is to seize a half of the truth or a little portion of it and make a “ hobby ” of that, than it is to wisely seek and patiently practise the truth in its completeness. (c) Religious Ceremonialism and Ethical Proprieties. To transform religion into a sentiment and a ceremony on the one hand, and to transform it into a routine of external Proprieties on the other, is much easier, requires much less effort, is much more in accordance with the inclinations of human nature than is the practice of that true religion which comprehends both God and man; both devotion of soul and devotion of life ; both piety of the heart and morality of character. This, as Plato says, “isa most difficult thing,” and just because it is difficult the masses of men have always been shrinking from it and satisfying themselves with being either very pious to the neglect of morality or very moral to the neglect of piety. And so the world has been forever drifting, now to one extreme, now to another; now toward superstition, and now toward infidelity; now toward gross ceremonialisms and idolatry, and now toward theoretical irreligion and open atheism. 6 $2 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. Sake ee Ge Lo a ee Rea ee oe eS EA ee Ea Jerusalem, as Jesus found it, “a whitewashed sepulchre, filled with dead men’s bones,” a house of God transformed into a den of thieves; Athens, as Paul found it, “ wholly given up” to senseless superstitions and gross idolatries ; Germany, as Luther found it; England, as Wickliffe and Wesley found it, full of religious institutions and churches transformed into organizations of debauchery and intrigue —these have been the final results of piety divorced from morality. Imperial Rome as it was in the time which suc- ceeded Epicurus and the Stoics, full of heroisms, but at the same time full of inhumanities, suicides, and despairs ; France, revolutionized by infidelity, as it was in the time of Mirabeau and Robespierre, when God, religion, and im- mortality were not only practically but theoretically dis- carded—these have been the final results of morality divorced from piety; or of an attempt to direct individual character and human events without a positive recognition of God and a devout reliance upon Him for wisdom and help. (d) Partial Truths accepted as the Whole Truth. A partial truth adopted as a fundamental principle, or emphasized with an emphasis which belongs only to the whole, is always dangerous, both to individuals and com- munities ; its immediate results may not be so perceptible ; but, if persisted in, its final results must be disastrous. And the main reason why the moral and religious history of the world is a history of disasters and failures is because men have always been emphasizing partial truths, building up theories, characters, institutions upon them, when they ought rather to have sought “the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.” Now the partial truths of re- ligion are piety and morality divorced, with an emphasis placed upon one or the other which belongs only to both combined. “ Fear God and keep His commandments,” was the whole truth as propounded by the ancient teacher of Wisdom. But one class of religionists have taken only the first clause RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. 83 a aL ee a et, as their motto, and with “ Fear God” upon their banners, they have always been leading their ecclesiastical hosts into all sorts of gross and sensuous as well as senseless supersti- tions. The other class, in their reaction, have caught only the last clause, “keep the commandments,” and giving the main, sometimes the whole emphasis to this, have led their smaller but equally mistaken hosts, first, into a religion of pure humanitarianism ; second, into religious skepticism; third, into infidelity, and fourth and finally, into theoretical and practical atheism. Jesus re-stated this old truth in its wholeness at the very beginning of his ministry, when he said: Seek the kingdom of God, and Seek the righteousness of God. But one class of men seized the first half of his truth and construed it into ceremonial piety, while another Class seized the last half and construed it into external mo- rality. So history has always been repeating itself down to the present day, and is now repeating itself as faithfully as ever before, in that superficial method and tendency of the multitude to get hold of a fraction of the truth and run with it into dangerous and disastrous extremes. (e) Rome or Reason. There has never been a time in which there was a wider separation between ceremonial piety and external morality, as distinct characteristics of two opposite tendencies in re- ligion, than there is at present throughout most of the Chris- tian world. Ritualists, on the one hand, are emphasizing titualism, as though it were the all-important thing. Ration- alists, on the other, are emphasizing reason and its codes of ethics, as though these were all-important. And toward the one or the other of these extremes the multitude of indi- vividuals and of organizations seem to be tending. ‘“ Rome or Reason ” is the question which almost all religious think- ers are putting to themselves, with the supposition that they must necessarily take one road or the other; while almost no one seems to dream that the whole truth is, not Rome or Reason, but Rome and Reason. Almost no one seems to comprehend the fact that Rome has run mad with half the 84 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. truth, and Reason has run mad with the other half. The right way is to cast the devil out of both, and bring them together into one complete truth of religion and reason, piety and morality, the fear of God and works of righteousness conjoined. We speak of ‘“ Rome and Reason”’ in this con- nection because, historically and practically, piety has been the distinguishing feature of Romanism and morality the distinguishing characteristic of Rationalism. And these two bodies are the two extremes toward which, naturally and logically, all must tend, in proportion as piety is emphasized more than morality or morality more than piety. Both are partial developments produced by the unnatural repression of certain parts of religious truth, and by the unnatural stimulating of other parts; and, like all partial develop- ments they are both, relatively speaking, monstrosities and deformities.* —(f) The Golden Mean. Now, between these two, as between all extremes, there must be a Golden Mean, a “ mid-stream current,” a posi- * As an illustration we may take the following from the New York 7imes of the date of this writing : . ‘“SAW THE ‘ DEVIL’ BURNED, ‘* A PERFORMANCE AT THE SALVATION ARMY HEADQUARTERS. ‘¢ Visitors to the Salvation Army Headquarters last night saw the ‘ devil’ dis- membered and dissected by Major , and also saw him burned to a crisp, from his cloven hoof to his horn-topped head, Incidentally they also heard the Major’s physiological lecture on the several parts of the ‘ devil’s’ anatomy, ‘* His heart was called deceit, his wings were labeled as the ungodly amusement of prize fighting, his tail was composed of a pack of cards fastened end to end, his internal organs were composed of a string of whisky bottles and tobacco pipes. Each part or portion represented some supposed evil against which the army js waging war. ‘« As a finality the lights were turned out and red fires ignited, and in the midst of the flame appeared the ‘ devil,’ who was quickly consumed and then vanished. ‘« The performance was preceded by a parade of the army through the streets in the vicinity of the hall with the usual music.” Almost every day, and in almost every News Publication, similar reports of the doings and sayings of the popular Religious Bodies are made. Verily, Pro- testantism has already reverted to the Ages of Miracle Plays when, for instance, they enacted ‘‘ God the Father being waked up to come and see the rascally Fews murdering His Son!” RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. 85 rene ee A se eT tion of equilibrium, in which piety and morality can be made to counterbalance, or to equiponderate, the one against the other. As we study the history of Christianity and of all reli- gions, we find this position of equilibrium has been attained by individuals in all ages, and approximately, now and then, by religious organizations. David, Pythagoras, Socrates, Paul, Luther, Wesley, Channing, are only a few represena- tive names taken at random from that large number of in- dividuals, known and unknown, of all religions and ages, who have both feared God and wrought righteousness: who have, in theory and practice, emphasized both piety and morality with an equal emphasis; and hence have become at the same time fervently devout toward God, and beauti- fully blameless and pure in the sight of men. Now and then, too, Institutional Religion has approxi- mated to, and in some cases has been made for a time to occupy, this position ; indeed all great religious reformations have been an attempt to arrest Institutional Religion in its wild rompings, its frantic dashings hither and thither, and bring it back to a just equipoise between Piety and Morality. This was what Moses attempted to do, when he established among the Israelites both an elaborate religious ritual and an elaborate code of morals; and though, on account of the inwrought stupidity of the people, his attempt was a perpetual failure, it nevertheless came nearer being a success than any other attempt of ancient times. Buddha too, Pythagoras, and Mahomet sought to draw the masses of their countrymen from superstitions on the one hand, and infidelity on the other ; and to bring them, through sincerity of worship and purity of character, into organized harmony both with God and with one another. (g) Fesus the great Uniter as well as Reformer. Jesus especially, of all religious reformers, made it the ob- ject of his reformation to institute a religion with God and Humanity as its corner-stones—with recognition of doth, love 86 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. PETE ean eA Ona Soe etd ns ME a en LRT for both, service of both, blamelessness in the sight of both as its supreme characteristics and its fundamental truths. “ The kingdom of God is at hand, therefore repent.” “‘ Be born again of spirit and of water.” “ Be pure in heart,” and “ Hunger and thirst after righteousness.” “ Love God with all your heart and mind and strength,” and “ Love your neighbor as yourself.” ‘‘ Pray to God always,” and “ Do good to all men.” This was the well-balanced Gospel—the truth in its wholeness and completeness which Jesus spent his life in teaching, which he commissioned his disciples to teach, and which he made the “ Rock” upon which he de- sired his followers to build his church. 3 (h) Zhe old story of Tendency to Revert. But hardly had the building commenced, hardly had the foundation been laid, when all but a few solitary workmen deserted it, and, with partial truths as new foundations, ac- cording to their own extravagant fancies, began to build on the one side Dogmatisms, Ceremonialisms, and Superstitions; and on the other, Rationalisms, Humanitarianisms, and In- fidelities: and so it has been through all the centuries down to the present time. There has been, indeed, an Apostolic Succession of well-balanced reformers, who, planting them- selves firmly upon the rock of Faith azd Works, of Piety and Morality which Jesus himself established, have there been building, slowly but surely, the True Church against which “the gates of hell shall not prevail.” But the multi- tude of Christians, both individually and institutionally, have always been tending to extreme positions. They have al- ways been building either on the side of Rome or on the side of Reason; either with ceremonial piety, or with ex- ternal morality, as their corner-stone. And the farther from that true foundation which combines them both in a living, well-wrought, well-balanced truth they have been able to get—whether to the one side or the other—the greater has seemed to be their satisfaction and their content. And so it is in a great degree to-day. RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY, 87 ee ee oe eNO een Sage Oe RHE (i) Building on the Side of Rome, or of Reason, or on the “ Rock” between. Should we attempt to give an illustration of the geograph- ical distribution and relation of the various religious organi- zations of Christendom at the present time with reference to this ‘true foundation” we should say: Romanism is on the extreme right, and over against her are built all those who emphasize Dogma and Ritual more than they do Reason and Morality; Rationalism is on the extreme left, and over against her are built all those who emphasize Reason and Morality more than they do Doctrine and Worship; while all those who, with Jesus, emphasize both Faith and Works, Piety and Morality, with an equal emphasis are standing upon the true foundation itself, where the true Church of Christ is being built; and where, when built, it shall stand and shine forever. In short, now, as always, in proportion as individuals or organizations emphasize one side of re- ligious truth more than another, in that proportion they are building upon another foundation than that which Jesus laid. His foundation was God and Humanity; God first and Humanity second, but both conjoined in service and in love. Only those who stand with their feet firmly planted upon these two stones, believing in God and believing in Man, loving God and loving Man, serving God with fervent piety and serving Man with blameless devotion—only these —and all these, without regard to sectarian distinction or name—building upon the true foundation “which is Jesus the Christ.” This was Christianity as Jesus founded it; and Renascent Christianity 1s its revival. XLVI.—RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY A RE-ADJUSTMENT OF THE RELATIONS BETWEEN EMPLOYERS AND THOSE EMPLOYED OR BETWEEN CAPITAL AND LABOR. (a) The re-adjustment stated. Of the twentieth Century ze burning question will be, that which has smouldered beneath the smotherings and 88 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. quenchings of Hierarchism, in Church and State, for sixteen centuries, but is now bursting forth with threatenings of fury and devastations everywhere in the civilized communi- ties of the world. The relations between Employers and those Employed or between Capital and Labor is, and more and more is to be, that “ burning question.” Among the first of all the practical issues which renascent Christianity will meet and mend is this. It must be true to its Divine Founder; and his first words of practical Holiness were words that concerned this primal relation of man to man. Himself a laboring man, a carpenter by trade, and toiling in that trade for his daily bread unceasingly, until within about two years of his martyr death, quite naturally his sympathies were with the working classes to which he belonged. From the first utterances that Tradition has preserved for us, down to the last, he was the tender, helping friend of the poor, the unfortunate, the oppressed, the outcast, the “ publicans and sinners”’: whom the rich and oppressive Pharisees and Sadducees, as Employers and Capitalists, held ever in iron grasp and beneath their compelling heels. ‘“ The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised.””’ Such was the opening sentence and the sub- stance of his initial sermon as a Reformer. Such also was the spirit and sum of all his sayings and doings for the entire two and a half years of his holy life as a public teacher. What exactly his position was on the question before us is well shown in the two central sentences of the Beatitudes taken from his matchless Sermon on the Mount. To the employers or capitalists he said, ‘‘ Blessed are the merciful; for they shall obtain mercy.” And to those em- ployed or the laborers he said, “‘ Blessed are the peace- makers; for they shall be called the children of God.” In these two Beatitudes lies the whole question of the re- adjustment of relations between “the classes and the masses’ so much agitated just now—and more and more to be agitated as the centuries shall come and go. RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. 89 (b) How the Christian Employee should behave toward his Employer. The parable of Jesus about The Laborers in the Vineyard was intended to illustrate, if we may so speak, the sacred- ness of a bargain between man and man. The master of a vineyard had made a bargain with certain laborers. When the work was done they thought they ought to have more than their stipulated wages. Their reason was that they saw others were getting more, or more in proportion; so they seem to have extemporized a sort of secret labor organization, or there may have been one already organized —who knows ?—and possibly it may have been called “ The Knights of Labor’’—for things that have been are, and things that are have been, and there is nothing new under the sun. At any rate, they talked it over together, and appointed or commissioned a spokesman to act as their leader and present their complaint, practically demanding higher wages. To this complaint their employer answered: “Friend, did I not agree with thee for so much?’’—as much as to say, A bargain is a bargain, business is business. I agreed with you and with the others for a certain amount per day. I cannot, or I choose not, to pay more. If you prefer not to come another day, very well; I will employ others. There are your wages for to-day. I do thee no wrong. Didst thou not agree with me for so much? Now, what are these dissatisfied employees going to do about it? If they are Christians and gentlemen—a gentle- man is a Christian always and a Christian is always a gentle- man—if they are Christians and gentlemen, they will follow the advice of John Baptist to the laborers, tax-collectors, and soldiers of his day: advice which Jesus enforced in all his teachings; as also did St. Paul, even to sending back the run-away slave, Onesimus, whom he called his beloved “friend and brother,” and even his “son,” sending him back to his master; because in running away he had broken a compact which he had made, or which the existing laws of the state had made for him—which laws, however unjust while they existed, ought to be reverenced; and which com. gO RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. pact, however offensive, ought not by violence or rebellion to be broken. The advice of John Baptist was: ‘“‘ Do violence to no man. . . . Be content with your wages.” The two sentences thus coupled together would seem to imply this: Be content with your wages as long as possible, as long as you can manage to live on them and cannot do better else- where. But at any rate, do violence to no man; your present employers, or your late employers, or anyone else. Go quietly and seek other ways of living; by all means, other remedies than violence for your wrongs. This advice the protesting employees of the parable of The Laborers in the Vineyard, would certainly follow if they were Christians and gentlemen. If they were atheists and loafers, nihilists and anarchists—as most of the bomb-throwing, dynamite-using leaders of modern strikes and mobs, and of social revolutions generally, are said to be—they would be likely to do most anything that is violent and revengeful. Believing in no God, they will assume to be gods themselves, and take matters in their own hands. Let us see, by illustrations, what the Bible and Christian way is. We must remember that those employees to whom Jesus and John the Baptist and St. Paul addressed themselves, were oppressed with double oppression, either of which was far more burthen- some than is any form of modern oppression. The Jewish yoke of national exactions and the Roman of civil exactions joined to make poverty poorer, toil severer, and compensa- tion far less adequate than any yoke of modern times—even than those of Russia on the necks of its peasantry, or of Britain on the necks of its subjects in Ireland and India are said to be to-day. And yet Jesus, John the Baptist, and St. Paul joined with all others whose words we find recorded in the New Testa- ment to recommend peaceable and patient content with one’s lot. (c) “ Peaceable and patient content with one's lot.” What does that mean? Why, it means belief in two things: first, in this statement of the Psalmist, “I have RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. gl been young and now am old, yet have I never seen the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging for bread.” And second, it means belief in the statement found everywhere throughout the Bible, but especially emphasized by Moses, and the Psalmist and St. Paul, ‘“‘ Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.” As to the first of these statements, to this day who ever saw a righteous man or woman—a man or woman who had loved and practised righteousness from youth up—who ever saw such an one utterly deserted, or his or her seed, xurtured and trained in righteousness, beg- ging for food? No one. Utter poverty and want are always the punishment of sin; we may be sure of it; sins of omission if not of commission, secret if not open, for- gotten if not remembered. So the truly righteous have nothing to fear, as to utter poverty and want, however small their wages may be. With St. Paul they may ex- claim, ‘‘ Having food and raiment, let us therewith be con- tent”: ‘“ Though we have nothing, yet do we possess all things”: Or with the Psalmist, ““I have been young and now am old, yet have I never seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.” (d) “ Vengeance 1s mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.” That is a thunderbolt of Divine threatening hurled at the head of all human oppressors, and the Christian, believing it to be such, is content to leave Almighty God to do His own work in His own good time. As the Psalmist again Bayo ee usawatiesprosperity oLatnes wicked 0m .4) pride compassed them about, violence covered them, their eyes stood out with fatness, they had more than heart could wish; they spake wickedly concerning oppression, they prospered in the world, they increased in riches’’—and yet what was their end? “Surely thou didst set them in slippery places. Thou castest them down to destruction. Now are they brought into desolation as in a moment they are utterly consumed with terror. God shall suddenly shoot at them with a swift arrow and they shall be wounded. And all men that see it shall say, This hath God done, for they Q2 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. shall perceive that this is His work. But the righteous shall rejoice in the Lord, and put their trust in Him; and all they that are true of heart shall be glad.” The Bible is full of such expressions. ‘O! earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord, write this man childless, a man that shall not prosper in his days; for no man of his seed shall prosper.” ‘ Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee; then whose shall these things be?” ‘“‘In hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torment.” ‘Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl, for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver is kankered, and the rest of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were with fire. . . . Behold the hire of the laborers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth; and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabbaoth. . . . Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord . . . behold the judge standeth be- fore the door.” And not only is the Bible full of this, but also history is full of illustrations and confirmations of it. There is a tradition that the Israelites in Egypt, when compelled by their oppressors to make brick without straw, used to comfort and encourage one another by quietly whispering as they met or passed : “ There is One who sees, There is One who sees ; He will punish them, He will punish them.” There was One who saw; there was One who punished. And there was One also who, in due time, delivered, and prospered, and blessed the patient Hebrew toilers, who tried to be content with their lot. On the banks of the Nile, travellers, we are told, may now hear these same words rhythmically repeated by hard toiling, poorly paid men, women, and children. As they toil they cheer each other RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. 93 by singing the ancient words of trust in Divine care and over rulings: “There is One who sees, There is One who sees ; He will punish them, He will punish them.” Not only in ancient times, but now; not only on the banks of the Nile in the days of Pharaoh, but on the banks of the Nile in these days—now and always, here and every- where—there is One who sees, One who will punish: One who in due time will deliver, and prosper, and bless, all who are truly righteous, and who put their trust in Him. ‘“ Ven- geance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.” This, then, is the Bible and Christian way—the Bible and Christian attitude of the employé toward the employer. (e) Burning Sub-Questions. But there are some burning sub-questions of to-day which we of to-day must look squarely in the face, and consider the right way to meet and answer them—dquestions affecting the welfare of that vast body of employees, of all civilized States, who are citizens; and, as such, holding in hand the ballot—hold, if they only would realize it, the righting of their own wrongs; and, under Providence, the shaping and securing of their own present as well as eternal welfare. Some of these sub-questions let us glance at. But, lest our words of sympathy for and encouragement of the working classes should be misunderstood, let us first say that there are three or four things that a genuine Christian can have no sympathy with, and no toleration for, in either the work- ing classes or the wealthy classes—the poor or the rich. 1. Indolence. The rich man’s indolent son or daughter who, without toil, lives upon another’s toil; and the striker or the tramp who eats another’s bread rather than work even for the smallest wages—even for ten cents a day, or for the poor crust he eats—these both, and both alike, all should condemn 94 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. and detest. If a man will not work—it matters not who the man is—it isa shame for him to eat. And of an indolent woman, whether rich or poor, the same is equally true,— God’s truth, not man’s. 2. That pauper pride or pride of pauperism,—whether in rich or in poor,—which permits one to live in dependence upon others, merely because the work which he or she finds to do is supposed to be too humble, or servile, or socially degrading. There is nothing so degrading as voluntary or avoidable dependence upon others: and, whoever has a spark left of manhood or of womanhood will dig in the ditch or scrub in the kitchen rather than be an idle, worthless parasite—sustained by the toil and sweat of parents, rela- tives, neighbors, or friends, to say nothing of public charity. 3. Avoidable zgnorance and vice. The two generally go together, whether among the rich or among the poor. The empty-headed, dissipated children of wealth, whose leisure hours are devoted to fashionable amusement and folly; and the working classes, who spend their leisure hours on street corners, in groggeries, in sensational theatres, and in other idle and empty ways—and get up strikes chiefly because they want more money for strong drink and for other means of dissipation—for both of these classes and for both alike nothing but condemnation and contempt should be felt and expressed. 4. Those who attempt to secure their rights by wzolence of any sort; whether it be by rebellion against established laws—so long as they are established laws—or by threaten- ing mobs—with their daggers, pistols, dynamite, bomb- shells, and infernal machines—or by labor organizations— which devise secret machinations, refusing to show their hands, and seeming to prefer darkness rather than light— or by one man or body of men commanding or even re- questing another man or body of men to “strike,” or to cease work merely because they themselves have chosen to do so. All of these things are impudent interferences with law, and order, and personal rights; and, especially on the part of Christian citizens, ought not for a moment to be RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. 95 resorted to or tolerated. Especially not on the part of American citizens. Why? Because American citizens, above all others, hold in their hands the ballot, and by this can—if they will wisely work and patiently wait—rectify their wrongs and secure their rights. A Roman senator being asked how to secure public re- form, answered: ‘‘Agitate, agitate, agitate!’ In this American democracy, where the laboring classes are and always must be the overwhelming majority, and where im- partial suffrage is and always must be universal; here es- pecially the way, and the only Christian way, to secure public reform is to agitate, agitate, agitate ; and, in addition, to legislate, legislate, legislate ; vote, vote, vote / (f) Special Reforms Favorable to the Working Classes which Renascent Christianity will insist upon. Having thus suggested the way by which reforms favora- ble to the working classes are to be sought and secured, let us now enumerate, with briefest comments, some reforms which appear to be not only timely, but also pressing neces- sities. As such every genuine Christian will join in efforts to secure them. 1. That rent, food, clothing, and all needful commodities may be reduced to the very lowest prices for the advantage of the working classes. Public Revenues must be secured and Taxes paid chiefly if not entirely by the wealth of our country. To this end the working classes must demand at the ballot-box this four-fold method of relief: Tariff or import duties only on the luxuries of life. Pro- tection or export restrictions only on the necessities of life. Graduated Taxation, so that as wealth increases the per cent. of tax shall increase in regular proportion; wth severe penalties for any misstatements as to one’s taxable property. This is necessary: for as the famous revivalist says, ‘‘ More lies are told about money in general and about tax-lists in particular than about anything else in the world.’”—And, finally, large Succession Duties imposed upon all devised 96 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. and inherited estates. With reference to this last it is suff- cient to quote the following from one of the leading daily papers: “ The chancellor of the exchequer has received $1,100,000 as succession duty on the property of the late Duke of Buc- cleuch.” The above is from acablegram from London to New York, and is worthy of note. A more just and equita- ble tax cannot possibly be levied than that of ‘ Succes- sion.’ Why should our rich men’s heirs enjoy money they never earned without paying a tax upon it? In this four- fold way let the working classes demand, and at the ballot- box secure, reduced prices for all the needful commodities of life, to begin with. 2. Then let them demand—azd at the ballot-box secure tt —that the present wide gulf between luxurious wealth of employers and depressing poverty of employees—the ex- tremes of capital and labor—be narrowed by some system of co-operative wages, whereby all employees shall share both the prosperity and the adversity of theiremployers. ‘“Ifone member suffer, all should suffer with it; if one member re- joice, all should rejoice with it.” This must be the law in Christian business as well as in the Christian church. As it now is, what have we in our Christian (?) communities all over the earth! The same extremes of luxurious wealth and of depressing poverty, which characterized, degraded, and at length destroyed, the mighty civilization of pagan Rome, and of all other pagan states to this day. Let us take some everywhere familiar examples. On a certain railroad, employees are getting $1.50 a day for from twelve to fifteen hours of hardest, most disagreeable, and dangerous work; and sometimes are months left without their pay at that; while the president is regularly drawing $30,000 a year for a few hours per day of sitting in a busi- ness office. The president in his easy-chair a few hours each day must regularly draw his $100 per day; while the break- man, trackman, coal-heaver must toil at $1.50 for fifteen hours of hard and dangerous work! Take another case. The receiver of a railroad—no wonder they are called RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. 97 recetvers—received one-quarter million of dollars for a few months’ overseeing of the road, while hard-worked em- ployees, from conductor and engineer down, were hardly able to keep their families from starving; and, worse still, thousands of widows and orphans all over the country were deprived, nay robbed, of their little stores put aside fora scanty livelihood by the “insolvency”’ of the Corporation which solicited their subscriptions, and then managed to “legally” transfer them to their own already swollen purses! Widows and orphans may be cheated, and hard-working employees’ families half starved: but the employers, and especially the recezvers, must recezve all they can manage to lay their hands on! And the worst of it is, that the laws of our Christian (?) land are made and executed iz favor of these high-handed robberies and oppressions. Another illustra- tion, this time a wholesale one. Presidents and directors of banks and of insurance companies ; of gas, water, telegraph, telephone companies ; presidents and directors of mining and milling, of manufacturing, of commercial and of extensive farming companies, pile up millions, live with every luxury, have more than heart can wish—while those who do the work and really earn the money, cramped and stinted, are driven to toil from dawn to dark; and when humbly asking an hour or two taken off their long day, or a shilling or two added to their scanty wages, are gruffly told that the “com- pany cannot afford it!” The company cannot afford it! It can afford to its well-dressed, easy and luxurious officials everything they ask—to its hard-working, self-denying em- ployees—zothing / And, if ever the times are hard and the companies’ income reduced, how do they manage it? By asking the wives and daughters of the rich officials to try and get along with fewer elegancies, and the officials them- selves to smoke less expensive cigars and drink less expen- sive champagnes? No, no! this cannot be done! but by telling their workmen that their wages must be reduced a shilling a day, and they must be content to wear their ragged coats, and their wives and daughters their shabby dresses “during these hard times.” Nay, they go further. If they 7 98 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. must live in a cellar henceforth instead of in a garret as now; and, Lazarus-fashion, beg crumbs upon the doorsteps and from the rich tables of Dives—Dives being a president or vice-president, or director or other official of the company— let them do it “ during these hard times”’! “‘ Dives in robes, Lazarus in tatters ; Half-starved Lazarus, Dives full fed. Dives’ children plump and ruddy, Lazarus’ gaunt and pinched for bread. “ Dives in a gorgeous palace— Guilded ceilings, marble floors ; Lazarus lying on his door-steps, With the dogs to lick his sores. “Let Azs starving children shiver, Pinched and blue with Winter’s cold ! Mine in furs shall still be mantled, And ¢heir pockets filled with gold.” Yes, now as in our Saviour’s day ; now, as in the days of “ Rome’s proud climax tottering to its awful fall,’ Capital— and Christian (?) Capital, as often as that which is called Pagan or Infidel—is ‘‘a monster gorged ’mid starving popu- lations.” In proud Rome, as in many another proud state and city, small fortunes were spent on a single meal; and ladies, like the famous Leullia Paulina, wore robes covered with pearls and emeralds costing a million of dollars; while tens of thousands of human beings in Italy and in other lands were without daily bread, or even a warm tunic to protect them from the winter’s cold. So is it now. See the cartoons, read the recitals of poverty, for instance, in recent New York, London, Paris, Berlin, daily papers—then walk up and down the fashionable avenues in cities and towns all over our land! We must acknowledge that shiftlessness, indolence, and vice have much to do with it; but not all, not even chiefly :—It is for the most part depressing, disheartening wages, and the great gulf fixed .between capital and labor—the extremes of RENASCENT CHRISTIANIT Y., 99 luxury and poverty represented by employers and employ- ees—that must bear the guilt and blame. The remedy must be some system of co-operative wages by which the prosperity of capital shall ensure a proportion- ate prosperity of labor—the employer and employee rising together as well as falling together. Some remaining demands which must be made, favorable to the laboring classes, need only be stated. 3. Christian governments should protect and encourage labor by suppressing all syndicates, or other monopolies, which exist for the purpose of centralizing capital and con- trolling markets. Such are syndicates for the ownership of lands; syndicates for the control of manufacturing indus- tries; syndicates for speculation in grain, coal, oil, and other commodities. As a rule, “syndicates” are only a reputable name for gangs of robbers and dens of thieves. What can a small farmer, manufacturer, mechanic, merchant, or other laborers with little capital do in the face of these giant monopolies? They are gradually transforming the working classes into slaves and serfs: they can no longer produce anything themselves; they must be overshadowed, crushed out, and forced to go at the beck and call of con- centrated capital. Let the word syndicate and the thing which it stands for, become a by-word and a hissing in the land, with millions of workingmen’s ballots aimed at its vile heart untilit is destroyed. This we say, and pray, in the name of the Ever-living Christ—A men. 4. In every city, town, and village of Christian lands governments must establish and control bureaus of indus- try,—employment offices, not almshouses,—for aiding em- ployees in finding suitable employment ; and, in particular, for guaranteeing that work, at reasonable prices, shall always and everywhere be furnished to those who cannot secure it themselves. Not charity, but work; not alms, but respect- able labor, at reasonable prices, is what Christian govern- ment must henceforth provide for all able-bodied men and women who are in need of it and cannot find it for themselves. 100 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. 5. In addition governments must organize and sustain such institutions as savings banks, guaranteeing absolute security for the small savings of the working classes; which must be free, of course, from taxation. 6. And finally, the working qwomen must demand for the same work the same pay as the working man: in schools, factories, stores, everywhere. How shall the working woman demand this, as she has no vote and almost no voice in public affairs? She may demand it zow by her private appeals and influence; and ere long, let us hope, Christian governments will become so ¢ru/y Christian, that they will give and guarantee the ballot to woman, the same as to man. But now to sumup. While atheists and anarchists will doubtless continue to try and right their wrongs by mobs, violence, and revenge—all to their own harm—no one who is a Christian or a gentleman—nay, no one who is a humani- tarian or a patriot in any true sense—will have anything to do with such methods of relief. Zhey will stand by their bargains, and be content with present compensations, as long as they can. And when they must do otherwise, they will seek their ends quietly, leaving vengeance and com- pulsion to Almighty God. Trusting ever in a kind and wise over-ruling Providence, they will adopt and prescribe peace- ful agencies for righting their wrongs—such as agitation, legislation, the ballot-box. Through these agencies it is now high time to seek vigorously the reforms mentioned ; bearing ever in mind the workingman’s Beatitude, falling sweetly from the lips of him who was The Ideal Working Man—*“ Blessed are the peacemakers ; for they shall be called the children of God.” The same lips pronounced also the Beatitude which must mould the methods, temper the spirit, and direct the life of every truly Christian Capitalist or Employer—‘ Blessed are the merciful; for they shall obtain mercy.” XLVII.—‘ FIRST PURE, THEN PEACEABLE.” This may be—nay, must be—taken as the Motto, the Watch-word, and also as the War-Cry of Renascent Christi- KENASCENT CHRISTIANIT VY; IOI anity, as it was of original Christianity. Among the first utterances, and the most emphatic, of the Divine Founder of Christianity was the famous text, ‘‘ Think not I am come to send peace on earth; I came not to send peace, but a sword.” The Angel-Cry of Christianity in its first announce- ment was, as it now is and ever must be, “Glory to God in the highest ; and, on earth, peace to good-willing men.” To all others “‘there is no peace’’—never was, never can be. “No peace, saith God, unto the wicked !”—“ First pure, then peaceable.” “ After long intervals of peace, wars ever enter the stage,” as truly in Religion as elsewhere. In Church as in State applies the sentence of the Puritan preacher,—“ Till the Lord hath created his universal and everlasting peace in the world, men ought to be in readiness, not only to pray but also to fight for the peace of Jerusalem.” (a) Purity before Peace; the World must be made Pure before it can become Peaceable. When Napoleon the First stepped from the top of the Alps to the throne of France, grasped the throat of the Rev- olution in one hand and drafted his code of French law with the other, he supposed that the problem of anarchy was solved forever; the ruffian mob held down by force; the higher and better inclined citizens held zz by law; the neigh- boring powers held of by alliances, treaties, and threatened retaliations: this was the First Consul’s solution of the problem of peace. But, hardly were his figures concluded and his result announced before the “ scarlet robe of France began to drip again with human gore’’; all his bonds of force, law, and policy were broken; another revolution pro- jected him from his throne, and raised again “a bloody- fingered Bourbon”’ to his place. Insurrections, upheavals, and reactions, in the midst of external prosperity and refine- ment,—like frequent eruptions from a volcano whose sides are covered with foliage and skirted with flowers,—was for the succeeding half-century the history of the French mon- 102 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. archy and the French republic. Then came a second great upheaval, shaking Europe to its centre, filling the civilized world with sympathy and alarm; spilling the best blood, expending the richest treasures, destroying the noblest monuments of the once imperial France; and terminating in a“ Reign of Terror,” which almost repeated the horrors which succeeded the overthrow of the Girondists under the ferocious leadership of Robespierre and his revolutionary accomplices. Hardly had we as American citizens begun to moralize upon the causes of our recent Rebellion, and to consider how to prevent the recurrence of commotion and bloodshed in our own country, when that international and civil conflict of Germany and France burst like a thunder- cloud over Europe. The whole world, Pagan as well as Christian, was startled byit. Prussia, though victorious, was scathed and scarred and demoralized. And France, the champion of nations, foremost in art, superior in science, ex- alted in civilization, unrivalled in gayety, polish, and grace; built, as her citizens supposed, upon a foundation of ada- mant ; adorned, as they believed, with imperishable beauty ; surrounded, as they imagined, with defensive bulwarks which might defy the armies of the world,—France, as, “‘in the twinkling of an eye,” was thrown from her pedestal of grandeur; and so marred was her countenance and exhausted her strength, that it must even yet be generations before she can hope to re-attain her former position of beauty and prosperity. These and similar events which have been, and are, tran- spiring in this last half of the Nineteenth Century are not causeless. Neither are their causes, as most men suppose, freaks of Nature or mysteries of Providence. They are not insoluble, except to those who refuse to study them. Their causes are not hidden, except to those who are unwilling to search them out. The inferences which they suggest and the lessons which they teach are designed to increase wis- dom in this and all succeeding generations. They are the time-spirited events which, though Sphinx-faced, stand pos- tulating truths for humanity to consider, stating problems KENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. 103 for humanity to solve, enunciating theories for humanity to demonstrate. If humanity wd/ not consider, if the problems are unsolved, and the theories unproved,—then will the voice which in all the past has been thundering them out, wax louder and louder. But whosoever will have courage and wisdom to attend, shall deduce magnificent results, and receive splendid rewards ; working out, meanwhile, with the sureness of the stars, a superb destiny for themselves and for human-kind. (b) A Truth postulated, a Problem stated, a Theorem enunciated. Of these “postulated truths”’ let us select one which is most important :—Purity before Peace. Of these “stated problems” let us present one which is both most difficult and most comprehensive :—/zrst pure, then peaceable. Of these “enunciated theorems” let us press into the fore- ground one which is most practical and fundamental :— 7he Church first, and the World second, must be made pure before God will permit them to have Peace. Let us state the matter concisely and consecutively. The most important truth for Church and State alike to learn, is, that every human event has a human, as well as a divine, cause. The most important problem of every age, is, to find out what are the causes of tts failures and sufferings. The most important proposition which the logic of history and the facts of to-day are waiting to prove, is,— That the great evil ts, not failure or suffering, but the causes of these; and that until these causes are removed, failure and suffering will continue to be in the future what they have been ever in the past,—both the warning and the lesson, the scourge and the balm, the curse and the blessing of mankind. One of the most curious facts of history is, that the Natural has been so swallowed up in the Supernatural ; Human agency, as a correlation of the Divine, has been so completely lost sight of; Mankind has been so entirely dis- carded as one of the powers, factors, efficient and morally 104 RENASCENT CHRISTIANIT Y. responsible forces of the universe, as practically to transform the human race into a complicated machine, all of whose clatter and clang, confusion, tangles, breaks, and disasters are attributable alone to that Invisible Hand which in the be- ginning invented it, set it in motion, and still drives it on. Theories have been considered rather than facts. Self- conscious freedom, cause and effect, individual volition, the fruits of neglect or wrong, the good results of doing good, and the ill results of doingill; the praise or blame connected therewith, and the lessons of prudence and wisdom to be drawn therefrom,—all these facts had been overlooked in the intense supernaturalism which has prevailed. Men have delighted to “shirk” responsibility, and to “shoulder” the blame of all calamity and suffering upon the Almighty. When the plague devastated the army of the Greeks before the walls of Syracuse, they said, “The gods are fighting against us,’”’ but thought nothing of their camps swarming with vice and all manner of sanitary neglect. When Sparta, Athens, Carthage, Rome, fell, the people said, “ The deities are avenging some impiety or some neglected sacrificial offering,’ but thought not of the licentiousness and luxury which were gnawing at the vitals of their national life, as the worm gnaws at the stem of a plant, until both flower and branches lie withering upon the earth. When Jesus was weeping over Jerusalem, which he saw quaking upon its cor- rupt foundation, as a city upon the crater of a volcano, the Jews, instead of heeding his warning and “repenting”’ of their evils, were praying at the street corners, and offering sacrifices in the temple. When the contagion was sweeping through Spain in the last century, the citizens of Madrid persecuted the “ innovators’? who proposed to cleanse the loathsome streets of their dirt and filth, and spent their time, meanwhile, in consulting physicians, saying mass, and re- peating prayers. The language of old Achilles to the assembled Greeks, inspired, as Homer represents, by the “ white-armed goddess Juno,” may be taken as the universal language of the past, in all times of calamity and suffering, — RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. 105 i EEL dre daca al, ea “Ye sons of Atreus, here at once By war and pestilence our forces waste. But seek we now some prophet or some priest, Or some wise vision-seer, who may the cause explain, Why with such deadly wrath Apollo fires ; If for neglected hecatombs or prayers He blames us; or if the fat of lambs and goats May soothe his anger and the plague assuage.” No need to come down to the plagues, diseases, disasters ; to the riots, insurrections, and revolutions of which even the nineteenth century is full, and which many—calling them the “ inscrutable providences of God ”—have been inclined to doctor with fast-days, humiliations, and prayer. No need to cite instances with which all are familiar, in our own age, of both beseeching and blaming Heaven for calamities brought on by the most reckless violation of all sanitary, social, moral, and humane laws. No need to come so near home, or so near the present time for historical illustrations of this almost universal tendency on the part of men to “shirk ”’ re- sponsibility, and to “shoulder” both the burthen and the blame upon God. Happy are we to believe that, though this tendency is still strong and prevalent, the increasing in- telligence and better common-sense of the civilized nations of to-day are beginning to react against this old, old super- stition, and by their reaction are drawing men into a moral consciousness, both of self-reliance and of self-responsibility. Men are beginning in these days to understand what is the meaning of that old maxim, “ God helps him who helps him- self”; they are beginning to understand that whether there be “ God o’erhead ” or not, there is a god of this earth, and that god is man himself,—so absolutely its god, that if he neglects its control, it will fly into chaos; if he neglects to use it wisely for Azs good, z¢ will use him; and, using him, will play the tyrant, making him both its victim and its slave. In short, men are beginning to learn that there is a humanity as well as a “divinity” in all human events, and that the “ rough-hewing ”” must be done by humanity, while the “‘shaping’’ may be left to the divinity. 106 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. To worm, fish, and fly a thunder-storm, an earthquake, a cyclone is, doubtless, and must remain a miracle. But this is no reason why these things should beand remain miracles to intelligent men. The more intelligent human beings be- come the more natural is everything, zzszde as well as outside the Bible ;—the less of freak, fable, mystery, and myth; the more of law, order, reasonableness, and naturalness there is to the entire Universe, as studied or observed. (c) The Causes of Failures and Sufferings. When this truth is sufficiently comprehended, men will begin to inquire understandingly into the causes of their fail- ures and sufferings. St. James in the Scriptures long ago answered the ques- tion. ‘Come they not hence, even of your lusts?” Ad human fatlures and sufferings are a culmination of some particular evil, or else result from a complication of various evils. This statement will be made more clear by an illustra- tion. Hereis a man who is a “ fast liver,’ in the fast sense of that term. All his bodily instincts, both natural and artificial, are gratified to the utmost ; with full speed he drives along the highway of sensual enjoyment. Suddenly he falls sick; a council of physicians, after a careful examination, announce that it is no disease in particular that ails him, but all dis- eases in general,—a complication of diseases, resulting from the general and prolonged violation of the laws of health; and little can be done except to allow the attack to take its course, until it shall terminate either in convalescence or in death. So, every failure and every suffering—individual or general—is brought on by repeated violations of the laws of personal, or social, or physical, or intellectual, or spir- itual, well-being. When the paroxysm has once begun, as all history shows, you can do but little, except to let it take its course, until it terminates either in convalescence or over- throw. Not during the failure or suffering, but before it, or at once after it, is the time to consider its causes and seek their removal. RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. 107 We who call ourselves Christians, and Christian nations, have “ failures and sufferings” back of us in history—a long, dark, disheartening record. And now is the time—if we have any wisdom or prudence or humanity left—for us to figure profoundly upon that hard old problem, What were the causes of those failures and sufferings, and how shall we remove them? Thank God, we are beginning to figure and to “figure profoundly”’ upon this problem. A few men among us have, at least, approximated its solution. Phillips and Garrison, in their theories of political reform; Sumner, in his statesmanship ; Peabody and Cooper, in their social benevolence ; Horace Mann and Henry Barnard, in their plans to educate and elevate the masses; and last, but not least, an increasing number of liberal theologians, in their broad gospels of Renascent Christianity. Such men as these have theoretically approximated the solution of the much- vexed problem, What are the causes of Christianity’s many, long-continued, oft-repeated failures? After nineteen cen- turies, why has the Kingdom of God so signally failed to come? And now if the people who cali themselves Christians can only be brought to hear and to heed such teachings, we shall have—even during the twentieth century, perchance— the “‘ New Jerusalem descending out of Heaven from God,” bringing to the world permanent prosperity and enduring peace. We may not dwell upon this point except to remark that, while the causes of failure are manifold, they may be grouped into the three following divisions: (1.) The ignorance and vice of the masses. (2.) The lux- ury, selfishness, and oppression, ecclesiastically and socially, of what are called the “upper classes.” (3.) And, princi- pally, the time-serving bigotry and intrigue of covetous and ambitious rulers, both in Church and in State. These are the main styes from which the miasm of all calamity is wafted through the Church and the Nations. These are the chief fountains whence all the bitter waters flow; and so long as these are permitted to remain, the language of Jesus 108 RENASCENT CHRISTIANIT Y. will be the language of every true reformer: ‘“ Think ye that I am come to bring peace upon the earth? I tell you nay, but a sword.” (d) The Sword. “ Out of His mouth went a two-edged sword.’’ ‘‘ Repent therefore; or else I will come to thee quickly, and will fight thee with the sword of my mouth.’’ The sword, whether of the hand or of the mouth—of the intellect, or of the spirit—is God’s instrument of rebuke and medium of reform. It is, at the same time, the bitter drug and the sharp blade by which, when all other remedies fail, the diseases and wounds of humanity must be healed. Like the remedies of those physicians mentioned by Sophocles,— “Who bitter choler cleanse and scour, With drugs as bitter and as sour,’— the sword, when the necessity for it arises, only denotes that there is a bitter ‘“choler” back of it, which demands an equally bitter remedy in order to its removal. One of our distinguished fellow-citizens is reported to have said, “If all the drugs of the apothecaries in this city were thrown into the sea, it would be better for the health of our inhabitants.” If he had included in this rash remark all the physicians, surgeons, and nurses, his proposition would have been about as wise as is that of those “ peace- loving fools,’ who, while all the causes of failures and suf- ferings remain undisturbed, pass a wholesale condemnation of wilful mischief-making upon agitators and agitations, upon reformers and reforms—crying out “ peace, peace, where there is no peace.” When all men become wise enough and good enough to strictly obey sanitary laws, and when all causes of disease are permanently removed, then, but not till then, drugs—with those who now make and administer them—may be “cast into the sea.” Men talk of beating swords into ploughshares, and transforming the metal of cannon into church-bells. This may do as a prophecy of RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. 109 bright things to come; but asa proposition of to-day, it would be as wise to beat the surgon’s knife into knitting. needles, or transform the physician’s cruse into a jar for sweetmeats. While humanity remains imperfect; at least, while ignorance, vice, crime, selfishness, ambition, and irre- ligion hold sway in the world, the sword must come. Not the sword are we to condemn, Sut tts causes. Here let men bestow their curses, offer their opposition, make their prayers, pour their tears, and expend their energies! Here let the strong arm be lifted and the melting heart poured out! Here,—in efforts to elevate the masses, to repress so- cial evils, to disarm caste and selfish pride; especially in efforts to reform the ballot-box, to straighten crooked judges, to exorcise corrupt officials, to regenerate the social life and broaden the religious spirit of the people—here is both the Thermopyle and the Marathon of Renascent Christianity. Here let philanthropists and benefactors lay down their lives,—pouring out, if need be, their blood! Here, upon the battle-field of truthful words and honest deeds, let the “red flowers of martyrdom” henceforth grow! So shall the Church militant become the Church triumphant: and long-expected, long-enduring peace, like the golden sun of morning, with stately and majestic stride shall come walking o’er the earth. (e) Much to be done—Advancement will be slow. But this, all, is prophecy! Long time yet will it be be- fore these bright days shall come, because there is so much for us to do meanwhile. Nature, in her progressions, never “makes a leap.” So is it in the progress of social and of re- ligious life; here, as everywhere else, all grand achievements, at least all permanent achievements, must be attained by hard work in connection with slow and gradual approxima- tions. To elevate the masses both in intelligence and vir- tue, to break down selfishness and social oppression, to cleanse official injustice and intrigue—in Church or in State —as all past experience demonstrates, is by no means an easy task ; but it is, nevertheless, a task which God has given TIO RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. humanity todo. It cannot be done ina year or a century, per- haps not in many centuries; but zt must be done ; and human- ity, divinely commissioned, must do it, before any Church or nation of the earth can permanently enjoy the reign of peace. God never does by a miracle for us what he has once com- mitted to the industry and prudence of his creatures. One might as wisely stand upon the banks of the Mississippi or the Amazon, “ waiting for the river to flow by,” as to stand waiting for God to establish His Kingdom of Heaven upon earth before men have eagerly and fully prepared the way. One might as well think to hold back the tide of the ocean by throwing in sticks and stones, as to think to prevent sin and sorrow in the world merely by offering protests, holding conventions, preaching sermons, and repeating prayers. You cannot stop contagion in a city whose streets are heaped with filth, and whose inhabitants are living in con- stant violation of sanitary laws; you cannot prevent pain and exhaustion in a body filled with disease; you cannot give a virtuous and beautiful exterior to a character which is internally corrupt; you cannot quench the lightning while the atmosphere is surcharged with electricity; you cannot smother Vesuvius with the palm of your hand, or hold back Niagara with your finger. No more, while degradation is among the masses, while selfishness reigns in society, while wrong triumphs in the nation, while bigotry, insincerity and oppression hold sway in the Church, can you prevent those upheavals and revolutions, those failures and sufferings, those sins and sorrows which, now as ever and ever as now, depress and curse the world. “Not with the burial of the sword, Dire war shall cease.” Not by beating swords into ploughshares or transforming cannon into church-bells, but dy removing the causes of these evils, shall be brought to pass that happy time when ‘“ Na- tions shall no more lift up a sword against nations, neither shall they learn war any more.” Till then, it matters not how loud the cry for “ peace,” there can be no peace. Till RENASCENT CHRISTIANIT Y. Ii! then, war “must needscome.” Till then, in the language of Joel, let men “beat their pruning-hooks into spears.” Or, in the language of Jesus, “let him that hath no sword sell his garment and buy one,’——xot the sword of the flesh, but of the mind and soul, of the heart and lips, and life. Such was the Spirit, and such were the demands and methods, of original Christianity. Renascent Christianity must possess, adopt, and continue the same—until “every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.” XLVITI.—HINDRANCES. Of genuine Christianity, as of genuine Religion of every form, there are various prevailing and popular hindrances— holding it ever down from its Heaven-born manifestation to the world, keeping it ever back from lofty accomplish- ments in the interests of Mankind. Of these hindrances the main ones may be designated as follows—Mercenary Con- formity, Insincerity, Double-tongued Fsotericzsm (or Private Interpretation), Hireling-Priests (or Priestcraft), and Conser- vatism of Inborn Stupidity. To somewhat assist in “ pre- paring the way,” perchance, for Renascent Christianity, these five main hindrances are here noticed; and it will be excusable if the writer ‘“notices”’ them with sharp, cutting, John-the-Baptist rebukes. ‘“‘ Ye generation of vipers! Who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Behold now the axe is laid at the root of the tree; every tree that beareth not good fruit shall be hewn down and cast into the fire.” 1.—Mercenary Conformity. “ Fesus answered and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seck me, not because ye care for the works which I do, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled.” ‘(A certain man named Demetrius . . . who made stl- 112 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. PN aN Fr ne, ee tea RENEET STENT Tr ver shrines for Diana and brought no small gain to the crafts- men... said, Sirs, ye know that by this craft we have our wealth. . . . And when they heard this . . . all, with one voice, about the space of two hours, cried out, Great ts Diana of the Ephesians.” Such is the spirit of Mercenary Conformity the world over and History through. Jesus, like all other Messiahs of God, recognized it: and, among his first words to the world, as among his last, he declared that every worldly motive, and every selfish advantage, must be completely and forever renounced by everyone who would becomea Christian. To his first disciples he said plainly, If you follow me you must leave all; I have nothing to give (but a good Con- science), nothing to promise (but the approval of God). “Birds have nests and foxes dens but the Son of Man hath not where to lay His head. . . . The disciple must not seek to be above his Master.’’ Poverty and Persecution are mine: you too must be willing to accept them for the King- dom of Heaven’s sake—otherwise ye cannot be my disci- ples! We are told this was said to the disciples only: to the few who were to be the jirst Apostles and Con- fessors of Jesus! Not to the world in general, not to us especially, was it said! “And there went great multitudes with him; and he turned and said to them a//, If any man come to me, and is not willing to forsake his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, to lay down his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. And whosoever doth not bear his cross and come after me, he cannot be my disciple.” Thus to a//—to all the world and to all times did Jesus speak, rebuking the Mercenary Spirit in religion, and affirming that no man coudd, or ever can, bea Christian who (however secretly or little) is influenced by desire of worldly advantage or hope of worldly gain. So, in like manner, have taught and declared all the Holy Prophets of all the Religions of the world. From righteous Abraham, who left all and went out “ he knew not whither”: and devout Moses, who “ forsook Egypt, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. 113 Ee a eR aloe) 2 Nie pleasure of sin for a season”: and sakya Muni, who forsook his kingdom and spent a long life in poverty, friendlessness, and suffering for the attainment of Holiness and the uplift- ing of his fellowmen: and Socrates, who, rejecting bribes of large wealth and great public honors, cheerfully accepted a Martyr’s death rather than by a word betray Heavenly Wis- dom and Virtue. “And what more shall we say? Time would fail us to tell” of the prophets, saints, confessors of all Religions and ages—women, children, and men, “a great multitude whom no man can number ”—who, leaving all to follow Sacred Convictions of Truth and Duty, “were tor- tured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection: and others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover, of bonds and imprisonment : they were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheep- skins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented (of whom the world was not worthy): they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.” All these, in all the ages to this day,—the martyr-spirited, self-renouncing, self-forgetting souls of every Religion and time—join with the Holy Jesus to rebuke the Mercenary Spirit ; and to affirm and reaffirm the every where-always- and-to-everybody-applicable Truth, that Vo man can be a Christian (that is an accepted Son of God) who ts (however secretly or little) influenced by desire of worldly advantage or hope of worldly gain. Spite of all this, in these as in all times, Commercialism prevails, in Religion as elsewhere. How much will you give me? What pay? What advantage? What reward? These are first, middle, and last questions: from the minister who stipulates for his salary, and the missionary for his stipend, down to “the grocer, the baker, and the candlestick maker,”’ who profess Religion because it is sore respectable to do so; and adhere to the sect or church that promises the largest dividends of personal advantage, “ both for the life that now is and for that which is to come.” Not @// ministers, mission- 8 I1l4 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. aries, and professors of religion are of this commercial spirit. Everybody knows of some, in every religion and sect of the world, who, utterly regardless of results to them- selves, are completely consecrated to Truth and Holiness. Everywhere upon the earth can be found some, of every religious faith, who (having no “eye to the main chance,” no thought of “what people will say,” no care for social station, popular applause, or pecuniary reward) are willing to live unhonored and die unsung, in humble devotion to that which they believe to be God’s command and Human- ity’s good. Who cannot recall some with whom they have chanced to meet in the various paths of life, who verily answered to this description—a ‘“‘ Christian who loves his cause well enough to throw into it all that he has; and, not deeming that enough, throws himself?” Nevertheless, the mercenary spirit prevazls, in Religion, as in everything else. Alas! poor Human Nature, in its upward Evolution, is so little removed, as yet, from the ox who moves only for the lash, and the dog who serves only for the bone. Buta man should not remain a brute; he may, perhaps must, szart down there; but to wish, or even to be willing, to remain there, is shameful, and will degrade him more and. more. So Jesus, with all the Lofty and Holy of the world to join in his words, says: “If any man come to me, and is not willing to forsake his father, and mother, and wife and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea to lay down his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.’ Notwithstanding these Divine words, which have come thundering as well as ringing down the ages, the mercenary spirit as prevailed, and prevails. ‘“ What will ye give me, and I will deliver him to you?” said one of Jesus’ own chosen disciples to the rich, fashionable, pious, orthodox Religious Body of that day—which called itself the True Church, and despised all others.. Centuries later, to a similar Religious Body (which for a thousand years had lived and flourished chiefly by means of threats and bribes), Henry IV. responded, “A crown is worth a mass.” These are two marked illustrations out of a multitude that cover-the pages of Christian history RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. 115 is tal Al een eM —nothing being said of the greater multitude unrecorded, which await the day when the secrets of men’s hearts shall be revealed. Henry IV. bid higher than did Judas Iscariot, but both alike betrayed their Master, and were Traitors to Truth. Mercenary conformity, whether for “a crown,” or for “thirty pieces of silver,” or for only “a piece of bread,” is always and everywhere Treason to Truth. Truth, whether incarnate in a Holy Man (as it was in Jesus), or embodied in a Holy Cause, or enunciated in a Holy Proposition, or speaking in a Holy Conviction, is as divine as God Himself; nay, zs God Himself—‘ The Word made Flesh and dwelt among us full of grace and truth.” In these, or in any other of the various forms of Truth, whoever knowingly betrays it for worldly advantage or for self-seeking aims, is a Traitor to Truth. Whoever in any thing, but in his relig- ion above all, thinks one thing and (deliberately) says an- other, believes one thing and (deliberately) professes another, betrays his Christ as basely as Judas did, and deserves that Historic Traitor’s infamy and shame. Bribes are everywhere proffered. Satan tempts every man as he did Jesus. Bread, applause, riches, glory, position, smiles of friends, popularity, patronage, prosperity,—these are proffered as inducements to conform. As threats against non-conformity, their oppo- sites—poverty, reproach, starvation perhaps, domestic Op- positions, social criticism; especially Church opprobriums and Ecclesiastical anathemas, such as the cry of Heretic, Infidel, Atheist, Agitator, Communist, Outlaw, Peculiar, Eccentric, Crank! So coax with rewards, or alarm with threats, the Devil and his Agencies, now and ever. And whoever yields is lost. Whoever would be saved from the awful, the “unforgivable Sin” of Mercenary Conformity— the Sin against the Holy Ghost, the Ananias-and-Sapphira Sin of lying, not unto men, but unto God—must resist to the death. As Jesus did, so must he repel all these tempters with such words as, “Get thee hence, Devil, for it is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. And again it is writ- ten, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him alone shalt thou serve.” 116 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. 2.—Insincerity. The deadliest foe of Truth (whether it be of Science, of Philosophy, of Ethics, or of Religion) always has been, is, and must be, Insincerity. To say one thing and think an- other, to profess one thing and believe another, is, not only to betray Truth, but also to build a cross and openly crucify Truth upon it. When it comes to that most sacred of all forms of Truth, Religious Convictions (the dictates of the Holy Ghost, God’s voice in the Soul), what an unspeakable crime it is to publicly pervert or openly misinterpret that! “Verily I say unto you, all sin shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and blasphemies wherewithsoever they shall blaspheme; but he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal condemnation.” As to Religious Belief, one xeed not speak, may keep silent ; but, if he does speak, by all that is sacred, let him speak what, in the most sacred depths of his heart, he honestly be- lieves. As to Ecclesiastical Conformity, one need not con- form; but if he does conform, by all that is sacred, let him conform to nothing that violates his settled convictions of what is true and right. As to Theological Creeds, one need not profess; but if he does profess, by all that is sacred, let him profess nothing (with hand, or posture, or lips) that does not correspond with the innermost sincerities of his soul. Insincerity is the hypocrisy of ‘Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites,” upon which the Divine Jesus poured out all his vials of wrath. To him there was, in reality, but ome szw— the fertile, fiendish Mother of all sin; and that sin was re- ligious insincerity. He called it the sin against the Holy Ghost. His chief apostle, St. Peter, said of it, ‘‘ Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God!” Even those who are called Pagans have everywhere most bitterly denounced it. Everybody may recall those two ines of fire from Homer: “Who dares think one thing and another tell, My soul detests him as the gates of Hell.” KENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. Lb7 Nothing more heroic and grand, but, also, nothing more reproachful to the hypocrite, can be found, in any litera- ture, than is the following, translated from the ancient Persian : “ Ottayd from his earliest youth Was consecrated to the Truth, And if the universe must die Unless Ottaya told a he, He would defy the Fates’ last crash, And let all sink to one pale ash, Or ever from his truthful tongue One word of falsehood should be wrung.” 3.—Esotericism. Nothing is more cowardly or more wicked than all this talk, imported from Heathenism, and now so much in vogue among ‘Orthodox Christians ’’—ministers and the better educated laymen—about esoteric and exoteric beliefs—be- liefs which one may keep secret, or speak only to an inner circle of kindred minds who are practically sworn to secrecy ; and beliefs which one may profess and teach in public. “ Esotericism ”’ has been the method and the excuse of priest- craft, Papacy, and tyranny, as well as of hypocrisy, in every religion and in all the ages. Its importation into Protestant Christianity (merely to quiet the consciences and save the reputations of those who profess to be “‘ orthodox’ when they know, and to their secret circles confess, they are not)—is a certain sign of degeneration, a growing evidence of reversion to Heathenism. The cowardice and shame of such a double-tongued orthodoxy was what the “ pagan’ Homer, in the lines already quoted, so strongly rebuked. But it is more than cowardice and shame. It is sin against the Holy Ghost. It is “ Lying to God.” It is stifling holy thoughts, smother- ing holy convictions, the “ Infanticide of Sacred Beliefs.” The truth and nothing but the truth should be sought for in the Bible as in all other writings; in religion as in other things. And when truth is found it should be openly pro- 118 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. claimed to the world ; in defiance of personal advantage, of popular demands, and even of the threatened wreck of sys- tems venerable and strong. The time to give truth to the world is whenever the Spirit of Truth gives it tous. Not ours to enquire for consequences. Leave consequences to Him who rules and overrules! Man’s duty is to do right and also to speak the Truth “though the Heavens fall.” “What ye hear, that preach ye upon the house-tops,” is the commission of Jesus to all who claim to be his disciples. “Paid hypocrites, who turn Judgment aside, and rob the Holy Book Of those high words of Truth, which search and burn In warning and rebuke ! Woe to such Christians ! Woe To those whose hire is the price of blood,— Withholding, darkening, changing, as they go, The searching Truth of God !” ‘A glorious ‘remnant’ linger yet, Whose lips are wet at Heavenly Fountains, The coming of whose faithful feet Is beautiful upon the mountains ! Men, who the Living Gospel bring Of Holiness and Love forever, Whose joy is an abiding Spring, Whose peace is as a flowing river.” The Reverend Make-Believe is, in religion, what the Hon- orable Make-Believe is in politics—never a reformer, always a caterer. He makes it his business, for zs own peace and policy, to suit Truth to the tastes of his constituents—not to demand (as he ought to) that his constituents shall cultivate and adapt their tastes to Truth. “Lift up your voice like a trumpet and cry aloud, spare not,” and proclaim the Word of God to men, “ whether they wtll hear or whether they will forbear.’ This is the old, the new, the everlasting command of God. RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. IIgQ 4,—Priest-Craft or Hireling-Priests. “ And tt shall come to pass, that every one that ts left in thy house shall come and crouch for a piece of silver and a morsel of bread, and shall say, Put me, I pray thee, into one of the priests offices, that I may eat a piece of bread.” Since penning this quotation from the Book of Samuel, the daily newspaper has been read and from it extracted the following: “Many After This Pulpit.” “Tt is said that the official board of the Church, in Street, near Madison Avenue, has received more than two hundred applications from pastors of Churches located in cities and towns in the vicinity of New York city since the resignation of the last Pastor.” Were this a rare report it might be passed without partic- ular notice. But similar ones are so common as to excite the sorrow and shame of all who revere that Apostolic Christianity, the only cry of whose Ministers was, ‘‘ Woe is me if 1 preach not the gospel’; whose only glory was the “ Cross of Christ’; and whose only boast, ‘“‘ I have coveted no man’s silver, or gold, or apparel. Yea, ye yourselves know that these hands have ministered unto my necessities, and to them that were with me.” We learn from every source and from all over the Chris- tian World that the scramédle for place, and pay, and fame, is as great among the Clergy as it is among the Politicians. The same methods are resorted to—Advertisements, Per- sonal Presentations, Wire-pulling, Diplomacy. In addition to this eager place-hunting, consider the lux- urious living, and mountain, seaside, across-the-continent, across-seas, over-Europe, and around-the-world Tourings-for- Pleasure of most of those who have the large salaries, the high places, and “ who seem to be pillars!’ Contrast all this with the camel’s-hair raiment, the seamless coat, the thread- bare cloak, the coarse sandals, the empty wallet, the roofless homes, the scant food, the long pedestrian journeyings, and the ceaseless preaching of the Gospel in every place and 120 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. every day, “ without money and without price,”—with only the Heavenly Compensation of unceasing persecutions of men and the unfailing approval of God—which characterized Christianity as Jesus and his Prophet-Priest predecessors and successors established it! Prophet-Priests and Hireling- Priests—what a contrast! To be sure “the people love to have it so”: for the vzch supporters of vzch Churches, as a rule, demand soft words and “smooth things” now as ever. Ease, luxury, and comfortableness they z2// have, in their Churches as in their homes; no Clergyman is accepta- ble who will not provide them with this, and they are willing to pay him his price. Alas, that the supply should be greater than the demand—two hundred-fold greater, some- times, as the Newspapers and Church Officials report! Where the Churches are not already rich and “ fashionable,” their main desire, as a rule, seems to be to become so. Answering to this demand the Hireling-Priest makes it his first object to secure money for a jfimer edifice in a more centrally located neighborhood. His next object is—as a sort of auctioneer—to sell, to let, or to otherwise f// the Pews. This secured, he becomes—like all other smooth- tongued, oily-mannered Priests whom the “ Scribes and Phari- sees, hypocrites,” patronize and approve! Our picture does not single out azy one Congregation or Priest. Our garment is not made to order. But wherever the reader of these pages sees the resemblance, let him smite it! Wherever the garment will fit, let it be put on! The “great evangelist” of orthodox Protestantism says many true things—when he lets Theology and the Bible alone—and says them wondrously well. Among recent true and well said things the newspapers report the following: “The trouble is we have too many man-sent men, and some of them are devil-sent.” “Tam tired of silver-tongued people. I have been going around Christendom for years, and I never found one of these silver-tongued preachers who amounted to anything.” ‘““The way in which the fashionable and popular Clergy- men chase the Devil out of their Churches, reminds me of RENASCENT CHRISTIANIT Y, 121 the way I once saw dogs chasing swine out of a field—the dogs were ahead, and kept so far ahead that the swine were none of them in sight.” The Prophet-Priest—like the true Physician of the body, the true Reformer, Patriot, Scholar, each in his department— has but one desire and aim ; which is, to cure permanently, to render vital and sound. The Hireling-Priest—like all other Charlatans and Quacks—seeks only to give present relief; and so ministers with soothing words, hypnotic gestures, narcotic rituals, somnolent dogmas, and anodynous creeds— anything, everything—within the bounds of reason—that his parishioners or patrons may ask, and Ge welling to pay well for ! Rich-Parishioner— Do you see yonder cloud that’s almost in shape like a camel?” Hireling-Priest—“ By the mass, and ’t is like a camel indeed.” Rich-Parishioner—* Methinks it is like a weasel!” Hireling-Priest—* It is backed like a weasel.” Rich-P arishioner— Or like a whale!” Hireling-Priest—*“ Very like a whale.” The Hireling-Priest is not by any means always found in the Azgh stations; but he zs always aiming to get there. If conscious of inferior talents—of diplomacy,—and of un- favorable environments—lack of influential patrons,—he will, for the nonce, be satisfied with a “piece of bread.” For a mere livelihood—if he can get no more—well sea- soned with flattery and applause, he will, for a while, be content to mildly say that white is black and that black is white. Or, if not quite so submissive, he will compromise the matter by saying that white is only a pleasant aspect of black and black only an unpleasant aspect of white. But, not long, is he content with an humble position and small pay. His ideal is, to secure—by hook or crook—a rich and “fashionable ” parish ; with a “ magnificent ” church edifice, an imposing and “enriched ” service, a “ snug” salary with large “ perquisites,” a “comfortable” parsonage or rec- tory; and—what is sure to come with these—with male parishioners to take him on excursions and invite him 122 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. frequently to dine, and with devoted ladies to embroider his slippers and—if he be a Ritualist—to make and adorn his many-colored Vestments. Nor does his ideal end here. It in- cludes, besides, the hope of soon being called “‘ Rabbi, Rabbi,” by receiving the title of Doctor of Divinity for his name; and the aspiration, some day, to secure even the chief office of his sect or church—Chairman, President, Ruling-Elder, Bishop, Archbishop, Cardinal, or Pope. Again we say: Our picture does not single out any one individual of any one Religion. Our garment is not made toorder. But wherever the reader of these pages sees the resemblance—whether in the Buddhistic, Moslem, Jewish, or Christian Priest—let him rebuke it! Whoever the garment will fit, let him put it on. And we may be sure of the fi¢tzng and the resemblance when- ever we hear a Priest angrily or bitterly condemning them. Not to one age, religion, or sect alone, but to every age, religion, and sect applies the pathetic and reproach- ful exclamation of the brave Prophet-Priest, Jeremiah— “A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land. The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof?” THE VOICES.* Hireling-Priest— “Why urge the long, unequal fight ? Truth’s lamp les trampled in the street ! Why lift anew the flickering light, Quenched by the heedless millions’ feet ?” Prophet-Priest— “T’ll do my work ; it shall succeed In mine or in another’s day ; And, if denied the victor’s meed, I shall not lack the toiler’s pay.”’ Hireling-Prtest— “ Give o’er the thankless task: forsake The fools that know not ill from good ; Eat, drink, enjoy thy own, and take Thine ease among the multitude.” * See special acknowledgement on page g of opening pages. RENASCENT CHRISTIANIT ¥Y, 123 Prophet-Priest— “My meal unshared is food unblest ; I hoard in vain what love should spend ; Self-ease is pain; my only rest Is labor for a worthy end.” Lfireling-Priest— “Live for thyself ; with others share Thy proper life no more; assume The unconcern of summer air For life or death, for blight or bloom.” Prophet-Priest— “Free-lipped the liberal streamlets run, Free shines for all the healthful ray ; The still pool stagnates in the sun, The lurid earth-fire haunts decay.” fTireling-Priest— ‘““Thy task indeed seems over hard, Thou scatterest in a thankless soil ; Thy life, as seed, has no reward Save that which duty gives to toil.” Prophet-Priest— “ Faith shares the future promise ; Love’s Self-offering is a triumph won ; And each good thought or action moves The dark world nearer to the sun.” Hireling-Priest— “ The world is God’s, not thine; let Him Work out a change—if change must be; The hand that planted, best can trim And nurse, the old, unfruitful tree.” Prophet-Priest— ‘“‘ Break off Love’s sacred chains! Turn On myself my thought and care! Myself mine own mean idol! Burn Faith and Hope and Charity there ! I24 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. “© God! let us Thy servants dare Thy Truth in all its power to tell; Unmask the priestly thieves, and tear the Bible from the grasp of Hell ! From hollow rite, and narrow span of Law and Sect, by Thee re- leased, O teach us that the Christ-like man is, everywhere, Thy holy priest. Chase back the shadows, gray and old, of the dead ages, from our way ; And let our hopeful eyes behold the dawn of Thy Millennial Day,— That day, when fettered soul and mind shall know the Truth which maketh free, When he who Christ-like serves his kind shall, Child-like, claim the love of Thee.” 5.—The Conservatism of Inborn Stupidity. “ Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy decetts.” This is the fifth of our ‘“ main hindrances” to Renascent Religion of every sort, but to Renascent Christianity in par- ticular. “Inborn” traits or defects are not to be blamed so much as regretted. We must exercise great forbearance toward them, and yet point them out and patiently seek to reform them. Every aspiring, progressive, mind and soul knows what an almost hopeless obstacles in the path of advance- ment the Conservatism of Inborn Stupidity is, and how dif- ficult to deal with. Everything has a use, we are assured ; but the use of this is one of the deep mysteries. The famous Rev. Dr. Chapin used to explain it, in his lecture on Columbus, thus: ‘ The Conservatism of Stupidity was probably permitted as a block upon the wheels of Reform ; but still the mystery remains—why such a multitude of conservative blockheads are needed!’ They are found everywhere, always, and in every department of human RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. 125 life. They are officials as well as constituents, representa- tives as well as patrons, priests as well as people. Their further characterization and reproof let us leave to the following quotations—one from a recent edition of the Protestant Episcopal Church Standard, and the other from the closing book of the New Testament : “THE POWER OF DULNESS.”’ “ There is a certain power and weight in dignified dulness which the prudent man will consider. ‘There is nothing more unsafe than brightness. The man who sees clearly and speaks clearly, the bright, bold, alert man, whose mind works rapidly, is a very unsafe man. The world is always suspicious of him. He has new ways of looking at things, new ways of saying things. He startles and annoys people. His reasoning may be very clear; his conclusions very conclusive; his method bright and to the point; but his clearness and precision, and brilliancy of comprehension and statement, are against him. “The general average of humanity does not see clearly, nor think clearly, nor express itself clearly. It is a very muddled affair generally. If it is to be taught and influ- enced, it must be on its own ground. It has the conviction that muddle and confusion are the normal state of things. It is very suspicious of the man who undertakes to disen- tangle the confusion, and bring precision out of the muddle. It resents his pretence that anything can be clear which is not clear to itself. It pronounces him ‘an able man, perhaps a brilliant man, but an wzsafe man.’ “Tt turns with a sense of relief from him and his ways to the safe timidity, the decorous dulness, the dignified and solemn heaviness of respectable commonplace, which dis- turbs nobody, and against which not a word can be said. “In the pulpit perhaps there is nothing that at times has greater influence. When decorous and solemn common- place occupies that position, and gravely confines itself to large round platitudes, it is a positive relief to a man of ner- vous temperament. He can close his eyes and go to sleep 126 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY, quietly, satisfied that when he wakes everything will be as he Jeft it. There is a sense of serene rest and calm, asifa man were removed from all the turmoil of the wicked world, when he can incline his head at a comfortable angle, and let the round and balanced sentences lull him to his rest. ‘““We entered once, awhile since, a church which shall be nameless. The pew backs were very high. They were well- cushioned. The preacher stood in a thing shaped like a giant’s wine-glass. There were seventy-five heads before him, exclusive of our own, all gray or bald. These seventy- five heads just appeared above the backs of the pews, clothed in their venerable gray crowns of glory, or shining in their bareness, where sermons by the hundred had hit and glanced off to the next pew. The venerable heads were calmly reposing in that sweetest of all sleeps since infancy— a Sunday sleep in a well-stuffed pew—all except perhaps a half dozen whose consciences or ledgers kept them awake. It was only at rare intervals that a noise, as of one in an un- easy dream, disturbed the solemn cadences of the preacher. ‘‘Hewas preaching on the duty of reading a chapter in the Bible every day. It was a thoroughly safe subject, and he handled it in a thoroughly safe way. The sentences were all round and well finished after the approved pattern, and they rolled out with a full and musical intonation, as if the speaker enjoyed the sound of his admirable voice. Evi- dently he was ‘ the right man in the right place,’ a man of weight and influence, a thoroughly safe man, to whom those dignified gentlemen could intrust the preaching of the Gos- pel in ¢hezyv church, satisfied that all was well, while ‘drowsy tinklings lulled the fold.’ It was a touching sight to see the quiet confidence those world-weary men reposed in their chosen shepherd ; with what infantile simplicity they dropped to rest, as if each one said, ‘ The doctor is preaching. It is all right. He will go through that manuscript in a way to command any man’s confidence and respect. We can go to sleep like lambs while “e guards the sheep-fold.’ “To be sure it is only fair to say that sometimes there come crises in social and political life which set all rules at RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. L27. defiance, and your dull man looks on with a dazed and im- becile look in his glassy eyes which is really tragical and pitiful. There is need of something more than dulness then, or things go very badly. But as soon as the crisis is over, dulness assumes its ancient worship, and clothes itself in all its primeval dignity. “ In literature the influence of dulness is not given, we are sorry to say, its due consideration. Readers are getting into a bad habit of impatience with it. They have been known to condemn it, and speak bitterly and sarcastically about it—to resent it almost as a personal injury. This is the case in general literature, however. Religious literature has not thus cast off all regard for the past, and abandoned itself to new-fangled ways. “The religious book, or the religions publication, being in some sort akin to the sermon, retains still due respect for dignified and solemn dulness. It is read as a duty, some- times as a penance perhaps, and the reader resents any attempt to render his toil lighter or his penance less pene- tential. He wants to go in the old respectable and decorous path and the ponderous periods of a grave discussion, pon- derously involved and elaborated, have a great weight with him. They sound very magnificent and learned, and, at all events, are thoroughly safe; and his religious book or re- ligious newspaper must first of all be safe. ‘ Whatever is is right,’ must be their motto. The same venerable straw must be threshed over again and again with the same regular and grave beat of the wooden flail. The writer must not disturb his reader with any subject on which there is a dif. ference of opinion, or with any view or any question later than his venerable great-grandfather. ‘““We know religious papers, for instance, which owe their weight and consideration, and both are considerable, to the fact that they never had an opinion and never will have; that they never expressed themselves on any matter on which there is greater doubt than on the propositions that ‘honesty is the best policy’ and ‘ virtue is its own reward’ ; whose secret of influence is the owl-like gravity and highly- 128 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. respectable dulness with which they repeat Mother Grundy’s oracular utterances to an over-awed world. So, as we have taken the liberty to say, he is a very thoughtless man who underrates the high position which dulness holds in the minds of men, or the dangers and the failures of bright- ness. “We cannot ourselves see why the pulpit should be dull, why religious books should be unreadable, why religious newspapers should be stupid. We do not see the connection between piety and owliness, nor understand why necessarily brightness should be condemned as hostile to religion. “But though we cannot see the subtile bond of connec- tion, we recognize the fact.” “And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous there- fore, and repent.” “‘ Now too oft, the priesthood wait at the threshold of the great,— Waiting for their beck and nod ; servants of men, not of God. Fraud exults, while solemn words sanctify its stolen hoards ; Slavery laughs, while ghostly lips bless his manacles and whips, “Not on them the poor rely, not on them looks liberty, Who with fawning falsehood cower, to the wrong, when clothed with power. O, to see them meanly cling, round the master, round the king, Sported with, and sold and bought,—pitifuller sight is not ! “Tell me not that this must be: God’s true priest is always free ; Free, the needed truth to speak, right the wronged and raise the weak. Not to fawn on wealth and state, leaving Lazarus at the gate,— Not to peddle creeds like wares,—not to mutter hireling prayers,— RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. 129 a “ Nor to paint the new life’s bliss on the sable ground of this,— Golden streets for idle knave, Sabbath rest for weary slave ! Not for words and works like these, priest of God, thy mission is ; But to make earth’s desert glad, in its Eden greenness clad.” XLIX.—PREFATORY EXPLANATIONS AND TOPICAL CON- TENTS OF THE NEW EDITION OF ANCIENT SACRED SCRIPTURES OF THE WORLD. The Prefatory Explanations and Topical Contents of the new edition of Ancient Sacred Scriptures of the World (which may be found in that volume) were prepared and inserted for two reasons: One, that they might furnish suggestions as to methods of Translation, of Expurgation, of Correcting, and of Compiling, to students in general, of Higher Criticism of the Bible and of Comparative Religion. The other, that by their very faults and defects—as initial and novel efforts—they might stimulate wiser and more effectual attempts on the part of others in the interests of Renascent Christianity. The author of these Prefaces and Contents claims no superior scholarship, and assumes the possession of no extraordinary intellectual or spiritual in- sight. He simply has felt that certain things in the interests of Higher Criticism and Comparative Religion Studies needed to be said and done; he has waited long for others to say and do them in both a reverent and a radical spirit— which, in these enlightened times, is the only spirit in which they can be effectively said and done. After many years of waiting—with scoffing Radicals on one hand turning the Bible and all Religions into ridicule, and orthodox Con- servatives on the other making them still more ridiculous to all who are zutelligently reverent or reverently intelligent— he could no longer resist the sense of duty that impelled him to open efforts for the renascence of Christianity and of its Holy Book, however bitter the criticism or severe the con- demnation he might thereby draw upon himself. “Let me perish, but let Truth survive.’ Whatever re- proach or loss may result to himself, the Truth-lover irre- sistibly must be a Truth-speaker. “J cannot otherwise. God help me.” 130 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. Pas asc se DMP ineaNaie Roma NR SE From the first this has been the Compelling Spirit of genuine Christianity. Its Divine Founder made it the clos- ing and climax of his Beatitudes: © Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad; for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.” He himself was Truth-compelled even to the Cross and the Sepulchre. “ / have not spoken of myself ; but the Father which sent me, He gave me a commandment what I should say, and what I should speak.. I have given you an example that ye should do as I have done.’’ And all his disciples, ex- cept Judes Iscariot who betrayed him, did as he had done. “ But that it spread no further among the people, let us straitly threaten them, that they speak henceforth to no man in this name. “ But Peter and John answered and said unto them, Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. “ For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard. “And now, Lord, behold their threatenings: and grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word.” L.— A MODERN PROPHET-PRIEST—SKETCHED AS A MODEL. “He was despised and rejected of men.” He was friend and benefactor, though in less signal ways perhaps, to many other churches besides his own ; in- deed, he was a sort of Bishop in its best sense, a Shepherd in its genuine New Testament sense, of all Churches in America. Not one ever appealed to him for counsel or help in vain ; his sympathy, his words, his efforts were with all; freely offered, nay gladly, eagerly offered. So heart and soul and head and life consecrated to his cause was he, that no Macedonian cry, “Come over and help us,” ever fell un- heeded upon his ear. For nearly half a century he came and * Chiefly from ‘‘ What is the Bible?” and ‘‘ The Man Jesus,” and “ The Religion of Evolution.”—By special permission. RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. 131 altace See Ma OAL OY ES a el Ca al Rec went, with his richest thoughts, his devoutest efforts, his deepest and purest love—sacrificing his home comforts, spending his money, risking his health; heedless indeed of everything but ¢fat which he might help or zhose whom he might bless. His whole ministerial life might be called an uninterrupted Labor of Love. And, as was fitting, a “labor of love” ended his life. For, called to a distant city of the West, to speak in advocacy of his cause, and also to preach the dedication sermon of a new church, neither his age, nor his bodily infirmities, nor the severity of the weather, nor the length and weariness of the journey withheld him; but, asin his earliest days, he left his home and went, discharged, with even unwonted inspiration and grace, the duties there laid upon him; and then, stricken with disease, returned—to die. Of him was true what long ago Homer sang of his never- yielding, never-resting hero : “Whose soul no respite knows Though years and honors bid him seek repose. But now the last despair surrounds our host, No hour must pass, no moment must be lost.” Not only his own bereaved church in New York, but also all Churches of America owe tributes of affection and grati- tude to his most precious memory. In his varied labors, his wide and numerous circles of inter- course, he had gained a host of personal friends. It is im- possible that one should be both loved and admired more intensely and more sincerely than was he, by those who en- joyed the rare privilege of his acquaintance and friendship. He had the wondrous faculty without deceitfulness, flattery, or pretense of seeming to be the particular friend—the most particular friend—of each one of his friends; so that he was unaffectedly a father, a brother, nay even a lover, to every one who knew him well. The author’s acquaintance with him began when a student at the Presbyterian Theological Seminary in the city of New York. He chanced to drift into his church one morn- ing and was at once drawn in admiration toward him; 132 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. ee ee eee chiefly, because his appearance and manner were so striking- ly similar to those of the venerable President of Williams College—from which institution he had just graduated — who, up to that time, had been the most paternal and sym- pathetic, as well as most majestic, manly, and scholarly of all the preachers the author had enjoyed the privilege to know or to hear. Very soon a personal acquaintance was sought. The young student was received warmly, taken into his fatherly counsels, adopted, as it were, into his family, drawn to his heart and held there, more and more closely, until the hour of his death. What he was to one he was to many others of the younger clergymen. - All who knew him clung to him as a wisest, dearest friend—even as the sons of the prophets in ancient times clung to Elijah. And when he was parted from them and carried up out of sight, they all stood gazing after him and exclaiming, “ My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof.” Many there are who can join in thus testifying to the honor, excellence, integrity, genius, and worth of this bishop of so many churches, this shepherd of such a multitude of souls. One of his own distinguished parishioners,—whose charac- ter no doubt was very largely shaped, and whose sen- tences and songs were, in some measure at least, inspired by the eloquent teachings, the sublime influences, the sweet, pure, and beautiful examples of his life-long pastor and friend, sang of all good and noble men in general, but pro- phetically of this good and noble man in particular— * Let the light Stream on his deeds of love, that shunned the sight Of all but Heaven; and in the book of fame The glorious record of his virtues write And hold it up to men, and bid them claim A palm like his, and catch from him the hallowed flame.” When Jesus said of the approaching Nathaniel: “ Behold an Israelite indeed,” he doubtless meant to say, Behold a man!—a true, well-endowed, well-balanced, and well-de- veloped specimen of manhood. Such aman in any age Is RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. 133 rarely found, and when found he attracts the attention and wins the admiration of all who observe him. Now and then there appears a man who seems to be a god descended to earth in human form—so large is his pattern, so majestic his endowments, so superior his developments of body, mind, and soul. It was tosuch as these that Napoleon the First referred when he exclaimed, “ How rare are men! in all Italy I have found only two.” It was to such as these that Shakespeare referred when he said, “ But thou, O thou So perfect and so peerless, art Created of every creature’s best.” And again, “ There ’s nothing ill can dwell in such a temple.” It was to such as these too that Pope referred when he said, “°T is not a lip, an eye, we beauty call, But the joint force and full result of all.” When a man answering to these descriptions appears among men, so rare an apparition is he that there is no won- der he becomes at once a sort of divinity, whom all delight to honor and revere. It is simply the homage which man- kind pays, and rightfully pays, to typical or ideal manhood. We have been told that Mr. Gladstone, who, for a half century nearly, has above all others been admired, almost adored, by his fellow-citizens of Great Britain, is a man of this peerless pattern and mould,—every inch a man, which is much higher praise than to say “ every inch a king.” And those who have known them both well, have said that this “Modern Prophet-Priest,’ though moving in quite a different sphere, was the Gladstone of America—if not of the American people, certainly of the American pulpit. Though a preacher instead of a statesman, he was neverthe- less every inch a man, as all who saw him much or heard him sympathetically hastened at once to acknowledge. Nature had endowed him, to begin with, not only with a “sound 134 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. body,” but also with a noble, graceful, commanding form and figure; with a massive head, an intellectual brow, a winsome as well as intelligent and penetrating eye, a coun- tenance soft and serene but capable of expressing the wrath of Mars or the indignation of Jove, a voice, as musical asa harp and as gentle as a purling stream, but adapted also to the swelling anthems of his thoughts and the sending forth of his occasional thunderbolts of argument or rebuke. Seen upon the streets, or in whatever promiscuous crowd, the observing eye would at once single him out as a superior man. To look in his face was.both to love and to fear him; and to listen to the accents of his voice was to know that there was authority back of it—the authority both of a great heart and of a giant mind. Such were the rare physical or mechanical endowments with which Nature had generously furnished him; and no one could know better than he how to use them to their best advantage—to their most efficient and excellent results. In this sound and noble body dwelt a correspondingly sound and noble mind; indeed the body was only the mould in which the mind had cast itself—the coarser, less beau- tiful and less perfect outer image of his own inner self. “The mind is the measure of the man”; but you can take, or at least begin to take the measure of the mind from the shape, outlines, and expressions of its materialistic mould, its physical representation, the body. And no one who knew this Prophet-Priest even a little, much less they who knew him well, could fail to be convinced that his body was no mask or disguise, but as perfect an exhibition as flesh and blood could give of the personality within. The‘ word”’ made flesh and dwelling among us full of grace and truth. Intellectually, he was not what is called a profound mind; which generally means narrow and deep. But he was well- - balanced, many-sided, comprehensive, broad; and also deep enough for the seeds of wisdom and thought to take root, to be well nourished, and to grow mightily and beauteously to the bringing forth of abundant fruit. And this, as all history and observation show, is the manly type of mind— 7 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. 135 te Nh i Serht AAS A NEA SEAT RE TD EM PRUE LRT fel RT the type of those who have been and are, in the highest sense, the thinkers, teachers, and leaders of the world. He had a thorough classical education to begin with, grad- uating while yet almost a boy from Harvard University. Afterwards he studied theology with an open mind and a free range of inquiry and of thought—tied to no essential creed, anchored to no pre-determined set of doctrines, pledged to no system, school, or sect, responsible to no one but to God, and caring for nothing but to seek, and find, and know, and do, God’s truth and will. Thus studying, with all books wide open before him, with all good and wise men as his teachers, and with his own conscience as his own and only monitor, he laid firmly and broad the foundation not only for his professional career, but also for that many- sided culture, that wide-reaching wisdom, that everything- appropriating, all-comprehending intellectuality which fitted him well to be what he finally was—a teacher of teachers in almost every department of thought, and a leader of leaders in almost every social, industrial, charitable, politi- cal, and educational, as well as ecclesiastical department of activity and life. His was a splendid mind; and, by contact with the world in a hundred ways, by wide, various, and intimate relation- ships with men and women of all stations and nations, as well as by classical culture and the wisdom of books, he had been educated widely and well. His superior, with reference to versatility of education, in its best sense, could not be found. He was at home on all subjects, was posted on all topics, was fully prepared both to appreciate and to com- municate wisdom with reference to almost everything. He was no specialist—deeming it necessary to know only one thing in order to know it well; but rather deeming it essen- tial to know many things, nay, so nearly as possible, to know everything in order to know even one thing of importance, as it ought tobe known. Thus, not “narrow and deep,” but broad and comprehensive was his education—a true, effec- tive, manly education. Manly endowments, character, and culture he was possessed of to almost a miraculous degree. 136 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. But all the virtues have never yet been granted to any one man; a portion has always been withheld from each, as a sort of “thorn in the flesh,” lest, as Paul said, they should be exalted above measure. Though not a “saint” in the sense that we may apply that word to some who have lived, he was certainly a saintly man; though not possessed of miracu- lous spirituality he was always and in all things spiritually- minded. All his springs were in God. He was rooted and grounded in the faith of Jesus Christ. His conversation was in heaven, in all holiness and godliness; and in his everyday practice, as well as in his preaching, the kingdom of God and His righteousness were ever foremost and supreme. The pathos of devotion that marked his prayers, his ser- mons, his ordinary conversation even, running like a current of inspiration through every sentence, through every word, indicated that in his innermost soul was a closet of prayer, with closed doors, wherein he uninterruptedly communed with the Father who seeth in secret and rewardeth openly. Theologically speaking he was not an angel with one wing, as so many of the “angels of the church” always have been and are. He was not radical to the exclusion of conserva- tism, nor conservative to the exclusion of radicalism; he was not a skeptic to the exclusion of belief, nor a believer to the exclusion of skepticism; he was both—radical and conservative, a believer and a skeptic. The two organs of his brain, “‘ destructiveness” and ‘‘ constructiveness”’ seem to have been harmoniously and equally developed, so that there was nothing partial, one-sided, or incomplete about his religious convictions or theories. He possessed the rare faculty of discrimination ; of being able not only to detect error and to reject it but also to discover the truth and to conserve it. This is why to extremists on both sides he often seemed inconsistent; now, from some utterance in which he pointedly criticised or discarded an error, the ex- treme radical would claim him for his side; again, from some utterance in which he zealously defended some ancient method or truth, the dogmatic conservative would claim him for his side; and when he refused, as he always did, to RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. 137 a re ert a ee eS Ee en be counted in on either side, both would join to condemn him as illogical, inconsistent, unreliable. “To which of these religions do you belong? To all, because all combined con- stitute the true religion,” said Goethe in his Wilhelm Mester. This is what our prophet-priest was always saying; and because the dogmatists—both radical and con- servative—could not comprehend him, they charged him with poor logic, inconsistency, unreliableness. They looked only upon one side of the shield, he upon both sides; they considered only one phase of the star or the planet, he all phases. Then too, he understood well, and practised well, what Goethe in another place says—“If you have got any faith, for God’s sake give me a share of it; but your doubts you may keep to yourself, I have plenty of my own.” His skepticism he reserved like a hidden instrument for the secret workings of his own mind; his faith, positive and sin- cere, was all that he felt called upon to give public or pro- miscuous expression to. Results, not processes; ends, not means; the refined gold and not the alloy, or the methods of refining were the stock in trade of all his pulpit teachings, of all his public instructions and ministrations. No better illustration of this prime characteristic of all his theology and theological methods could be cited than that furnished us in one of the last sermons that he preached, and the very last that was printed—the sermon entitled “ Christianity Unchanged,” preached a few weeks before his decease at the dedication of a church in St. Louis. We may quote here two or three selections from it, though the entire ser- mon is needed in order to furnish a complete illustration :— “ Be sure, then, it is really upon its merits that Christianity rests. If it had not maintained that ground all other kinds of evidences would long ago have broken down. Let its enemies crowd together and pile up the proof of the incon- sistencies, infirmities, persecutions, dogmatic extravagances and incredible opinions, or indefensible usages of the his- toric church, and make of them as ugly and awful a heap as they can. It only redounds more to the strength of the constitution of Christ’s religion that it has borne these sick- 138 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. nesses and survived the weight of these burdens, and the sorrow of these tears, and comes down to us, in spite of the perversities of its ignorant or imperfect supporters, its rash interpreters, its unreasoning: ado, in the purity and power with which it survives.’ “There are too many glorious and Renee traditions of the church universal; too many saints and martyrs; too many signs of divinity in its hymns and prayers and festi- vals, in the mystic faith hid often in its harsh creeds; in the meekness and patience and loving kindness of the Christian saints and apostles of the past,to make it anything less than a dangerous impoverishment of spiritual wealth to dis- sever the hereditary connection with and direct descent from the freest modern Christianity and its historic ancestry in the Church of Christ.” ‘Christianity is even greater, diviner and richer—surer in its sway than its loudest champions suppose. They encum- ber it with assumptions, bolster it with defences, deform it with claims it neither owns nor needs. If anyone can con- ceive or anticipate the appearance of a spirit holier, lovelier, or more spiritually illumined than Jesus, or one whose ex- ample, temper, faith, heroism, could be fitter to elevate and guide the moral and spiritual fortunes of humanity, he may expect with reason a new revelation and a new religion. But the universe must be rich indeed if it holds another soul like his. Meanwhile, we cling confidently to the hem of his garment. He is the nearest to God the holiest history has handed down. The instincts of civilization have crystal- lized about him. The church is the setting of the jewel that sheds its lustre far beyond its frame. But let us pro- tect and strengthen the setting, and not disown it if it bear some marks of the antiquity in which its earlier efforts were made; for it holds up before new generations the splendor and glory of the one name that has hitherto had power to hold the reverence and confidence of the race, and to whose pre-eminence, and rightful honor, and mastership, we can see no end. Therefore, we in the midst of modern light, and children of reason, sons of progress, do from our RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. 139 corpeehaaltinil scant 4 oc tl le ELLA el bl al ile i te PLE RDS heart of hearts call him Master and profess our unfeigned faith in his teachings, and in the Church he planted.” Turning from the general to the more particular and per- sonal there are a few special delineations of his grace and worth that we may make. Who that has ever been a cuest in his home, or had him asa guest in their homes, can soon forget the charm and the cheer that emanated from and sur- rounded his personality! It was like the mellow radiance or the soft glow of a summer morning ;—the birds began to sing, the flowers to open, the valleys to smile, the hills to dance, the trees to murmur their gladness, the floods to clap their hands, the heavens and earth, and all nature to rejoice as soon as his beaming face appeared, or his tender voice, with its always warmly welcoming, affectionately solicitous, love-inspiring and love-compelling greetings, fell upon the ear. Nor is this a mere rhetorical figure of personal and perhaps extravagant admiration; it is the exact experience of everyone who has ever spent a day in his home, or had him asa guest for one day in theirs. Now and then there isa person of that rare calibre and gift that literally carries sun- shine everywhere ; no darkness but that recedes, no sorrow but that vanishes, no burden but that falls, no tear that is not dried, no sigh that is not changed to singing, no pessi- mism that does not become optimistic, hopeful, and glad in the presence of such an one. “Did not our hearts burn within us as he talked with us by the way and sat with us at meat?” said the two disciples of Emmaus when, their eyes being opened, they found they had entertained an angel unawares. What heart-burnings of purity, wisdom, hope, and gladness have we not experienced, in common with all who ever walked by the way with this modern prophet-priest, or sat with him at meat! The grace of his manner, the tenderness of his words, the wisdom of his speech, the immaculateness of his ideas and ideals ; together with the inspiration of his eye, the expressiveness of his countenance, and the wonderful eloquence of his eloquent tongue—the combined effect, who can forget it, or fail to be forever wiser, purer, and happier on account of it ! 140 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. ‘He was only with us one night,” said the father of a family not long ago, ‘“‘ but he left in our home an atmosphere of sweetness and purity which the children as well as our- selves did not cease to recognize and enjoy for weeks and months thereafter.”” How many heads of families not only all over America, but also in various parts of Great Britain, France, Switzerland, Germany, where at different times he travelled, and was invited or received as a guest, would gladly testify to the same beautiful, almost divine influences left behind in their homes like the lasting perfume of flow- ers, or the odor of sweet-smelling incense—cassia, spikenard, and myrrh, very costly and very precious! This personal, domestic, and social influence and inspiration, so widely spread and long continued, was by no means the least im- portant outflow, benediction, or blessing of his life. It was moreover the basis of all his public, the fountain-head of all his professional ministrations; he carried the same well- rounded, many-sided, to-all-and-to-everybody adapted per- sonality with him wherever he went. Chief among equals was he, as well as chief among inferiors. He was the chief organizer, counsellor, director, and inspirer of his own Chris- tian denomination, throughout the entire forty years of his public ministry; and that by common consent, not by his own election or choice. And so it was that hardly nowhere, from Maine to California, could a church edifice be dedicated, a pastor installed, a convocation called, or an assembly held, without his presence being solicited and his leadership if possible secured. He was always the recognized leader. He was captain of the craft, always at the wheel, always on the watch; and at the same time was the “ placidum caput’ above the tem- pestuous waves, ever to rebuke their violence and reduce them to acalm. A natural born leader was he, spontane- ously chosen and unanimously recognized, not only in the church but also in every department of life to which his activities were given. The Sanitary Commission, the the most splendid charity of our age, he organized, and, asa historian has said, ‘was not only its parent, but also its never-flagging spirit and its daily slave.” Time would fail RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY, I4t to speak of the charities, the industries, the humanities, the reforms, in church, city, and nation, which he organized, or helped to organize, and became the heart and soul of. In everything that he attempted the advocacy or advancement of he was, or soon became, by the persistent wish and will of all, tZe man. As a reformer, in church, society, or state, one sentence as applied to him may express it all, ‘‘ Nobility is insensibility to opinion.” He invariably sought not the praises of man, but the praise of God; and though no man could be more tender of the feelings of others than was he—as tender as the fondest mother of her dearest child—yet such was his loyalty to Truth and Right, that he spared the feelings of no one; nay, mortified, wounded, crucified his own feelings, if circumstances required, in order to stand by what his intellect assured him was true, or to defend what his con- science pointed out as right. From his pulpit, and from whatever position, public or private, he assumed, in other language he continually exclaimed—“Aloft on the throne of God, and not below in the footprints of the trampling multi- tude, are the sacred rules of right, which no majorities can misplace or overturn.” And this is why he was never the preacher, teacher, or leader of the masses; was never in any way or sense, what we call popular. His head and his heart, his intellect and his conscience, his theories and his principles were too lofty for the masses to reach; and he was too God-like, for the sake of mere popularity, to aban- don them and come down. It is without doubt providential that among the teachers of the world, especially among religious teachers, both intel- lect and conscience are so graded as to constitute a sort of Jacob’s ladder, whose bottom rests on the earth but whose top at the same time touches Heaven. Upon the upper- most rounds of this ladder stand a few of God’s most highly favored and endowed, whose mission it is to take directly from Him revelations of truth and duty and hand them down to a succession of less highly favored and endowed, grade by grade, until at length they reach the earth. In their transmission they become, of necessity perhaps, per- 142 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. haps providentially, less and less heavenly,—more and more of the earth, earthy ; so adapting themselves to the less and less heavenly, more and more earthy-mindedness of the dif- ferent grades of teachers and of men; until finally, 2 some diluted form, they reach and are received by the masses. The preachers, teachers, leaders of the masses must of neces- sity be more or less like the masses, of the earth, earthy. “From that time many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him. Then said Jesus unto the twelve, will ye also go away?” This modern Prophet-Priest- was one of the chosen few, one of the Anointed of God, whose station is appointed to them upon the topmost round of the ladder of Heavenly Revelation. To desert that station and come down would be not only to leave a gap in the line, but also to debase and degrade the sublime endowments wherewith God has providentially, and for providential purposes endowed them. Why did he not resort to the tricks and devices of the ministerial trade, to fill his church, Sunday after Sunday, with an applauding multitude! Why did he consent patiently, nay even submissively, to speak his best words—which, to those who had ears to hear them, were the words of ‘God’s highest angels—much of the time to half-filled pews; or even, at times, as did Jesus at the well of Samaria, to a single lis- tening auditor? Why did not he, endowed as he was with so large a measure of the wisdom of Plato, the eloquence of Demosthenes, the piety of David, the faith of Paul and the tender, glowing heart of love of the Master himself—why did not he, thus endowed, grow envious of some of the great congregations which thronged the churches about him, and enter the list as a rival of ministers whose name and fame were upon everybody’s lips ? “Then the Evil One taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; and saith unto him, all these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me; and Jesus said unto him, get thee hence, Satan ; for it is written, thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.” RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. 143 He loved men and the approbation of men, but he loved God and the approbation of his own conscience far better ; this is why he did not, why he could not descend to become either the idol or the mouth-piece of the masses. He knew that it was his mission to bea teacher of teachers ;—to teach and charm those who were to teach and charm others, which others were in the end to teach and charm the multitude; and true to his mission he was; though all his life long it caused him to stand comparatively deserted, and at times— with God—alone! And yet, what a band of the very elect, small in numbers though it was, he gathered and held ever about him. New York city directly, and indirectly New York state, and all the states in this union of states, owe more, in intel- lectual, moral, social, and political influence, of the highest leadership and type, to the past half-century’s personalities, words, and works of the congregation of the church of which this Prophet-Priest was pastor—than to any other half-dozen churches combined in New York city or Brooklyn, we may venture to affirm. Distinguished names might be mentioned as confirma- tions, and many facts might be adduced to strengthen the confirmation ; such as the leadership which he himself and his prominent parishioners had, and have, ever bravely assumed and persistently held, over almost every organiza- tion, project, or movement which had in view the radical remedy and reformation of public affairs. The Sibyl of ancient times wrote her prophecies on the loose leaves of trees, and made the winds her messengers, to bear them everywhere. Such, not in fable but in fact, is the influence which this modern Prophet-Priest exerted for more than forty years upon his city, his country, the world. May similar priests—similar in spirit and method if not in endowments and power—in ever increasing numbers— arise to lead and feed the flock of Christ, and to hasten on that Renascence of Christianity which shall be a glorious ful- filment of his prophecy, who said, ‘‘ There shall be one fold and one Shepherd.” 144 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. LI.—OUR RECENT PROPHET-BISHOP—-SENTENCES SELECTED FROM HIS SERMONS. “T shall grow so that I shall be able to understand vastly more of what God is and of what He is doing. God also will be ever doing new things. . . . Therefore each year grows sacred with wondering expectation. . . . Beready for any overturnings, even of the things which have seemed most eternal, if by these overturnings God can come to be more the King of His own Earth . . . A universal Commerce is creating common bases and forms of thought. For the first time in the history of the world there is a mani- fest, almost an immediate possibility of a untversal religion. : Our ordinary life so hangs fast in the dull middle regions of conventional propriety and selfish expediency, that it becomes, not the fountain, but the grave of individuality. Let us put aside everything that hinders the highest from coming tous. . . . He who takes any new word of God completely gets both a new truth and a new duty—zs continu- ally seeing new truth and accepting the duties that arise out of it. . . . Oh, if you could only know two things about yourself: first, that you are a different creature from any that the world has ever seen; and second, that you area real utterance of the same Spirit of Life out of which sprang TIsatah and St. John. . . . God has been here, and God is here still. . . . That miracles have ceased is a sign of increasing spirituality. . . . Itis not for us to catalogue and inventory Deity. . . . Oh, in this world of shallow believers and weary, dreary workers, how we need the Holy Spirit! The power of the Holy Spirit—an everlast- ing spiritual presence among men! What but this is the thing we want? . . . Insist on having your soul get at God and hear His voice. . . . Be profoundly honest. Never dare to say, . . . through conformity to what you know you are expected to say, ove word which at the moment when you say it you do not belteve. Seek great experiences of the soul, and never turn your back on them when God sends them, as He surely will. RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. 145 Kevelation is not the unveiling of God, but a@ changing of the veil that covers Him. For man to accept the pattern of his living absolutely from any other being besides God in all the universe would be for him to sacrifice himself and lose his originality. . . . Because no other being ever was or ever will be just the same as you, and because precisely the same conditions never before have been and never will be grouped about any other mortal life as are grouped around yours, therefore for you to do and be what you, with your own nature in your own circumstances, ought, in the judgment of the perfect mind to do and be, that is originality for you. . . . There is an Atheism which still repeats the Creeds—a belief in God which does not let fim come into close contact with the every-day life. . . , Many who call themselves Theists are like the savages who, in the desire to honor the wonderful Sun-dial which had been given them, built a roof over it! Break down the roof ; let God into your life. . . . This has always been true, that the new tdea has been born of the old,—not by flinging their nets out into the heavens in hopes to catch a star, but by digging deeper into the substance of the earth on which they stood, and finding there a root. . . . And that is what we have to look for in the future. You and I cling to the old historic statements of our faith. . . . What is our feeling as we hold fast there? We stand expecting change and progress, new truth, new light. . . . We believe that the new truth must come out of this old truth, the perfect truth out of this partial truth, some day. Only he who consents to enlarge his own conception of the possibilities of faith with God’s can calmly watch the ever- lasting growth of Revelation and see the old open into the new. To discriminate between the eternal substance of Christianity and its temporary forms; to bid men see how often forms have perished and the substance still survived; to make men know the danger of imperfect and false tests of faith, and to encourage them to be not merely resigned but glad as they behold the one faith ever casting tts old forms away, and by its undying vitality creating for itself new— 146 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. that ts to open wide the great gates of the Divine Life, and make the way more clear for the children to their Father. Every new experience is a zew opportunity of knowing God. Every xew experience is like a jewel set into the texture of your life, on which God shines and makes interpretation and revelation of Himself. You hang a great rich dark cloth up into the sunlight, and thesun shines on itand shows the broad general color thatisthere. Then, one by one, you sew great precious stones upon the cloth, and each one, as you set it there, catches the sunlight and pours it forth in a flood of peculiar glory. A diamond here, an emerald there, an opal there; the sun seems to rejoice as he finds each moment a new interpreter of his splendor, until at last the whole jewelled cloth is burning and blazing with the gorgeous revelation. . . . A much-living life is like a robe that bursts forth of itself to jewels. They are not sewn on from the outside. They are born out of the substance of that life as the stars are born out of the heart of the night. And God shines with new revelation upon every one.” “We cannot kindle when we will The fire which in the heart resides, The Spirit bloweth, and is still— In mystery our soul abides : But tasks in hours of insight will’d, Can be, through hours of gloom, fulfill’ d. “With aching hands and bleeding feet We dig and heap, lay stone to stone ; We bear the burden and the heat Of the long day and wish ’t were done. Not till the hours of light return All we have built do we discern,” RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. 147 LII.—A MODERN PRKOPHET-BARD.* Appropriate Selections. “To us have Prophet-Bards of old, Their deep and constant sorrows told ; The same which earth’s unwelcome seers Have felt in all succeeding years. Sport of the changeful multitude, Nor calmly heard nor understood, Their song has seemed a trick of art, Their warnings but the actor’s part. With bonds, and scorn, and evil will, The world requites its prophets still. So was it when the Holy One The garments of the flesh put on! Men followed where the Highest led For common gifts of daily bread, And gross of ear, of vision dim, Owned not the godlike power of Him. Vain as a dreamer’s words to them His wail above Jerusalem, And meaningless the watch He kept Through which his weak disciples slept. Yet shrink not thou, whoe’er thou art, For God’s great purpose set apart, Before whose far-discerning eyes The Future as the Present lies! Beyond a narrow-bounded age Stretches thy prophet-heritage, Through Heaven’s dim spaces angel-trod, Through arches round the throne of God! Thy audience, worlds !—all Time to be The witness of the Truth in Thee!” “Our common Master did not pen his followers up from other men : His service liberty indeed, he built no Sect, imposed no Creed ; * See special acknowledgement on page g of opening pages. I4o RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. But, while the boasting Pharisee made broader his phylactery, As from the synagogue was seen the dusty-sandalled Nazarene Through ripening cornfields led the way upon the awful Sab- bath day, His sermons were the healthful talk that shorter made the mountain-walk, His wayside texts were flowers and birds, while mingled with his gracious words The rustle of the tamarisk-tree and ripple-wash of Galilee. “With noiseless slide of stone to stone, the mystic Church of God has grown. Invisible and silent stands the temple never made with hands, Unheard the voices still and small of its unseen confessional. He needs no special place of prayer whose hearing ear is every- where ; He brings not back the childish days that ringed the earth with stones of praise, Roofed Karnak’s hall of gods, and laid the plinths of Philx’s colonnade. Still less He owns the selfish good and sickly growth of soli- tude ; Dissevered from the suffering whole, love hath no power to save a soul. Not out of Self, the origin—but, out of Others saved from sin, The living waters spring and flow, the trees with leaves of heal- ing grow.” “ T ask no organ’s soulless breath to drone the themes of life and death, No altar candle-lit by day, no ornate wordsman’s rhetoric- play, No cool philosophy to teach its bland audacities of speech To double-tasked idolaters, themselves their gods and worship- pers, No pulpit hammered by the fist of loud-asserting dogmatist, Who borrows for the hand of love the smoking thunderbolts of Jove. I know how well the fathers taught, what work the later school- men wrought ; RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. 149 I reverence old-time faith and men, but God is near us now a then ; His force of love is still unspent, his hate of sin is imminent ; And still the measure of our needs outgrows the cramping bounds of creeds ; The manna gathered yesterday already savors of decay ; Doubts to the world’s child-heart unknown question us now from star and stone ; Too little or too much we know, and sight is swift and faith is slow ; The power is lost to self-deceive with shallow forms of make- believe. “We walk at high noon, and the bells call to a thousand oracles. I lay the critic’s glass aside, I tread upon my lettered pride, And, lowest-seated, testify to the oneness of humanity. He findeth not who seeks his own, the soul is lost that’s saved alone. Not on one favored forehead fell of old the fire-tongued mira- cle, But flamed o’er all the thronging host the baptism of the Holy Ghost ; Heart answers heart ; in one desire the blending lines of prayer aspire ; ‘Where, in my name, meet two or three,’ The Christ hath said, ‘TI there will be!’ “So sometimes comes to soul and sense the feeling, which is evidence, That very near about us lies the realm of spiritual mysteries. The sphere of the supernal powers impinges on this world of ours.” | THE ANSWER. “True Worship’s deeper meaning lies in mercy and not sacrifice, Not posturing of penitence, but love’s unforced obedience. The Book and Church and Day are given for man, not God,— for earth, not heaven. The blessed means to holiest ends, not Masters are, but helping friends ; 150 RENASCENT CHRISTIANIT Y. And the dear Christ dwells not afar the King of some remoter star,— Listening, at times, with flattered ear to homage wrung from selfish fear :-— But here, amidst the poor and blind, the bound and suffering of our kind, In works we do, in prayers we pray, life of our life, he lives to- day.” “What care I that the crowd requite My love with hate, my truth with lies? ’T is but to Faith, and not to sight, The walls of God’s true Temple rise! “T ’ll faint not, falter not, nor plead My weakness: Truth itself is strong : The lion’s strength, the eagle’s speed, Are not alone vouchsafed to wrong. “My nature, which, through fire and flood, To place or gain may fight its way, Hath equal power to seek the Good, And Duty’s holiest call obey. “So, haply, when my task shall end, The Wrong shall lose itself in Right, And all my week-day darkness blend With that long Sabbath of the Light.” “ Grown wiser for the lesson given, I fear no longer, for I know That, where the share is deepest driven, the best fruits grow. The outworn rite, the old abuse, the pious fraud transparent grown, The good held captive in the use of wrong alone,— These wait their doom, from that great law which makes the past time serve to-day ; And fresher life the world shall draw from their decay. “Take heart !—the Waster builds again,—a charméd life old Goodness hath ; The tares may perish,—but the grain is not for death. RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. “ ak “ God works in all things ; all obey His first propulsion from the night : Wake thou and watch !—the world is gray with morning light !” “ Blow, winds of God, awake and blow The mists of earth away ; Shine out, O Light Divine, and show How wide, and far we stray ! “Our friend, our brother, and our Lord, What may thy service be ?— Not name, nor form, nor ritual word, But, simply following thee. “No fable old, nor mythic lore, Nor dreams of bards and seers, No dead fact, stranded on the shore Of the oblivious years ; “ But warm, sweet, tender—even yet A present help is he, And faith has still its Olivet, And love its Galilee. “ The letter fails, and systems pall, And every symbol wanes : The Spirit, over-brooding all— Eternal Love remains.” “If ye have precious truths that yet remain Unknown to me, Oh teach me them! Each way Into my soul I open wide, that they May enter straightway, and belief constrain. But urge no fear of loss, nor hope of gain— Hell’s terrors, nor Heaven’s joys—to essay To force my soul’s belief, or quench one ray Of inward Light ! such self-born faith would pain The Holy Ghost within—who asks assent Not even to simplest truths until the hour, Arrives of their belief-constraining power.” 152 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. ‘“‘T have not seen, I may not see, My hopes for man take form in fact ; But God will give the victory In due time; in that faith I act: And he who sees the future sure, The baffling present may endure ; And bless, meanwhile, the Unseen Hand that leads The heart’s desire—beyond the halting step of deeds.” “O loving God of Nature! Who through all Hast never yet betrayed me to a fall,— While following Creeds of men I went astray, And in distressing mazes lost my way : But turning back to Thee, I found Thee true, Thy love unchanged and fresh as morning dew,— Henceforth on Thee, and Thee alone, I rest, No warring sects shall tear me from Thy breast. I doubt no more, nor trust in man-made creeds : Thy Light I trust, and follow where it leads.’’ “O friends, with whom my feet have trod The quiet aisles of prayer, Glad witness to your zeal for God And love of men I bear. “T trace your lines of argument ; Your logic, linked and strong, I weigh as one who dreads dissent, And fears a doubt as wrong. “ But still my human hands are weak To hold your iron creeds; Against the words ye bid me speak, My heart within me pleads. “Who fathoms the Eternal Thought ? Who talks of scheme and plan ? The Lord is God! He needeth not The poor device of man. KENASCENT CHRISTIANITY: 153 “ T walk with bare, hushed feet the ground Ye tread with boldness shod ; I dare not fix with mete and bound The love and power of God. ‘“O brothers, if my faith is vain, If hopes like these betray, Pray for me, that my feet may gain The sure and safer way ! “And thou, O Lord! by whom are seen Thy creatures as they be, Forgive me if too close I lean My human heart on Thee !”’ LIII.—REVERSIONS AND DEGENERATIONS WITH REFERENCE TO JESUS-WORSHIP AND MARIOLATRY. The most emphatically quoted and enjoined of all Old Testament Scripture, by Jesus as also by all New Testament writers, was, ‘ The first and great commandment” which for- bids, as idolatry, all qworshzp offered to any other than the one and only God. Who this one and only God is, Jesus constantly explained as Our Father or The Father. ‘Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan; for it is written Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve. . . . God is spirit; and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. : The true worshippers shall worship the Father. . . . The Father seeketh such to worship Him: ..).. When ye pray, say Our Father.” All Old Testament worship was of The One God Jehovah alone; and all New Testament wor- ship was of the One God the Father alone. And yet the masses of Protestants to-day worship Jesus almost to the ex- cluston of the Father, even as the masses of Romanists worship the Virgin and the Saints almost to the exclusion of both Jesus and the Father. Jesus-Worship is the popular worship in all the ‘Orthodox ”’ Protestant Denominations as Mary-Worship is in the Roman Church. Both alike, and 154 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. — equally, are idolatry; both are reversions to Heathenism. Praying 12 the name of—‘ Calling upon the name of’’—Je- sus, or of Mary, or of any real saint; reverencing, admiring, adoring one, or all, of these is one thing. Worshipping them, praying zo them, confusing or confounding them with the Father—The One and Only God—whom alone men are commanded to worship and taught to pray to, this is quite another thing. The former is Scriptural and reasonable ; the latter is unscriptural, heathenish, idolatrous. Corrective Quotations. ‘‘ T]l-informed persons are apt to suppose, that the disciples were accustomed to worship their Master as God, even while he lived familiarly among them in Galilee and Jerusalem—a conclusion utterly unfounded and untenable. Thus we read, ‘Then came to him the mother of Zebedee’s children, wor- shipping him.’ The word used in this and other such cases does not denote religious worship, but only the respectful salutation or obeisance which one person might offer to an- other, probably by prostration in the oriental manner. This may be clearly seen from a parallel expression in the same Gospel, relating to the unforgiving servant and his, lord: ‘The servant, therefore, fell down and worshipped him say- ing, Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all.’ ““We have in these cases examples of the old and well- known meaning of the English word ‘worship ’—that is all. The Greek verb strictly and exclusively denoting religious worship is a different word, and this is never applied to Jesus. It will be found that in no instance was Jesus the object of religious worship during his lifetime. Even after his resurrection, when it is said that his disciples saw him ‘and worshipped him,’ the word used is the more general word, expressive of respectful and reverent salutation. An excellent illustrative example occurs in Genesis xxxvii. 6, where the sheaves are said to have ‘made obeisance’ to Joseph’s sheaf. The word thus rendered is, in the Septua- gint version of Genesis, expressed by the same Greek word 12 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. 155 which, in the English N. T., has been so often and so indis- criminately rendered ‘worshipped,’ as applied to Jesus and other highly respected persons in common. “Of any other kind of worship than this being offered to Jesus there is no trace anywhere in the New Testament. We know that it was a charge brought by the Jews against the Christians in later times, when probably the worship of Jesus was growing up into an established practice. It is impossible that it should not have been brought forward by the bigoted enemies of the early Christianity, had fitting occasion been afforded to them. But there is no trace of it in the Book of Acts, or in any other book of the New Tes- tament. The inevitable inference is, that during the first century such a charge was not thought of, and could not be made, in the face of the fact that the disciples did mot speak of Jesus Christ as God, nor pay him religious adoration. “When Jesus taught his disciples to pray, he said nothing about the adoration or worship of himself. Hetold them to say, ‘Our Father which art in heaven.’ He even said to them that, after he was gone from them, they were to ask him nothing, but to ask the Father in his name. He said to the woman of Samaria in clear and precise terms, which it might be thought that no one could misunderstand or ex- plain away, that ‘the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth.’ In the Book of the Acts we find a prayer of the disciples recorded, and to whom is it addressed? ‘They lifted up their voice to God with one accord and said, Lord, thou art God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is.’ It is unnecessary to quote more, for it is evident to whom the prayer of the assembled disciples was here offered, and that it was in no sense to Jesus Christ. Similarly, on the even- ing before his crucifixion, Jesus himself, according to the fourth Evangelist, prayed and said, ‘Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee. And this is life eternal, that they might know THEE, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast Sontag 156 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. ‘““ Wherever, in short, there is any clear statement in the New Testament as to the prayers or the worship of the first Christians, it is always to the same effect. It is in no case Jesus that is addressed. The great Object of religious wor- ship is everywhere God, the Heavenly Father, even ‘the God and Father of Jesus Christ.’ “It was nearly two hundred years before that peculiar development of Christianity, since known as Jesus-Worship, reached predominance, at and through the Council of Niceza. But such an advance as this, or anything like it, can nowhere be seen within the limits of the New Testament. Let any one compare the abundant and varied evidence of the wor- ship of Jesus found in hymns and liturgical forms of the time of Tertullian in the third century—let any one com- pare and contrast that with the total absence of everything of the kind from the Christian books. It requires nothing more to show that the worship of Jesus, like that of the Virgin Mary, was the growth of a long period of time, and of a credulous and superstitious period. It requires nothing more to show how highly unjustifiable, on Scriptural grounds, is the modern practice of the Churches of uniting Jesus Christ in an equal offering of worship with Him ‘who is above all,’ whom Jesus himself habitually worshipped, and whom, even in the fourth Gospel, he is recorded to have ad- dressed in prayer as ‘the Only True God.’ “When the grand hereditary truth of Judaism, which is transmitted to Christianity, was lost sight of in the third and fourth centuries of our era, polytheism and idolatry in new forms sprang up forthwith, and multiplied with rapid in- crease through the whole medieval period. First, the Son, then the Virgin Mother, and at length countless hosts of saints and martyrs, rose into the rank of Deity, and were invoked with fervent prayers—the last personage so exalted being usually the most popular object of worship; till, finally, at the altars which filled the churches before the Reformation, the name of the Father Himself was never heard. * RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. 157 —— LIV.—REVERSIONS AND DEGENERATIONS WITH REFERENCE TO CONCEPTIONS OF THE HOLY GHOST. The common conception of the coming and presence of the Holy Ghost has reverted and degenerated from that lofty one found in the Bible to something like the following :— The God-Family from all Eternity consisted of three Per- sons. These three kept close and continual companionship until the necessity came for one to go and try to save the fallen and perishing Human Race. The second Person of the Trinity offered to go and remain on Earth thirty-three years; the third Person, meanwhile, to remain with the first Person to help Him, and to keep Him company. This “scheme” was accepted and fulfilled :—with the understand- ing, however, that, when the “ expiatory work” was done and the “body of flesh and blood” brought back, by the second Person, into Heaven, “there forever to dwell,” the third Person would be spared to go and complete the “ Re- demptive Scheme.” Hence it came to pass that, about forty days after the Ascension of the second Person, came the Descension of the third Person,—As first appearance upon frarth. The second Person has, ever since, “remained at the right hand ” of the first Person “on High”; while the third Person has been trying to carry forward the redemptive work of Mankind. On the “Day of Pentecost” the Holy Ghost descended for the first time; before that day no one had ever “received the Holy Ghost”; since that, all who believe on Jesus as an “ Atoning Sacrifice” and are baptized with water in the Triune Name—and none others—also “receive the Holy Ghost.” That this is not travesty—much less scoffing or ridicule—let any intelligent and honest per- son prove by listening to the preaching, teaching, and wor- ship in the “ orthodox ” Churches of all denominations and names. In five out of six he will probably gain this as the popular conception. Correcting Quotations. “Our English words Ghost and Spiriz, the one of Anglo- Saxon, the other of Latin origin, correspond to and repre- 158 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. sent only ove word in the original Scriptures, Hebrew and Greek respectively. This should unquestionably everywhere be rendered by ‘ Spirit,’ especially in the New Testament, the word Ghost being, in our days, by no means free from objectionable associations. It can only tend to convey false impressions to many English readers, to use sometimes the one, sometimes the other, inan English version of the New Testament, the original word being always, without excep- tion, the single neuter substantive mvevya. “This ‘ Holy Spirit’ has been upon the Earth and in the souls of men from the beginning tillnow. Inthe Old Testa- ment all life, intelligence, mental energy, and mental skill, were of its operation. ‘The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters’ at the dawn of creation, and reduced the chaos into order. The same inspiration upholds us in being, gives us understanding and strength to do whatever man is capable of doing ; and when that Divine power is withdrawn, we die and return to the dust. “Tt is evident that, in all such representations, what is really meant by the term in question, is no other than God Himself. It is the Almighty Being, inscrutably putting forth His power in the creation, support, control, inspiration, of the universe of animate and inanimate things—acting upon us and in us by the operation of His living and will energy. There is nothing to shew that the ancient writers of the Old Testament, in thus speaking of the active power of God, ever attributed to it a separate personal existence. Nor has this, in fact, ever been maintained. The Holy Spirit, in the older Scriptures, is indeed the Divine Being in His action upon the material world, and in communion with the soul of man; but this fact will not justify us in saying that it is ‘God the Holy Spirit,’ as though it were a some- thing distinct, something to be thought of and named as God, apart from Him who alone is Jehovah and The Father. The personal conception, if admitted into the Old Testament, would manifestly tend directly to weaken or destroy the proper monotheistic idea of the Mosaic religion. It will be found, that nothing approaching to so dangerous an infringe- RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. 159 a ment of the great characteristic principle of that religion is anywhere to be met with throughout the Hebrew Books, “The truth of these statements may be shewn by a refer- ence to various expressions which occur in the New Testa- ment. When Jesus reasoned with the Jews respecting his own authority as a Divine teacher, and the power by which he wrought his miracles, he said to them, as reported by the first Evangelist, ‘If I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you.’ In the paral- lel place in St. Luke, the same saying is reported thus: ‘If I with the finger of God cast out devils, no doubt the king- dom of God is come upon you.’ The two forms of expres- sion were evidently understood by the Evangelists to mean the same thing. What that meaning is cannot be doubtful, and is well illustrated by the words of the fourth Gospel, where Jesus says on another occasion, ‘The Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.’ But this, again, cannot reasonably be taken to mean that the Infinite Father was in Christ, in the Evangelist’s conception, in any other way than by the Divine help and power which He gave him; or, also, by means of the indwelling Logos; and such forms of ex- pression simply amount, in fact, as already observed, to the statement of the Apostle Peter at the Pentecost. The Al- mighty Father was manifested in Jesus, and, in the Apostle’s conception, was seen to be so, ‘ by miracles and wonders and signs which God did by Him.’ “It is thus clear, that the ‘ finger of God’ and the ‘ Spirit of God’ are simply God Himself, the Heavenly Father, acting in and through the Christ; and it is no more necessary, or allowable, to make a separate person of the Spirit, than it is to suppose such a distinction to be hidden or implied in the phrase ‘the finger of God.’ “There are still one or two facts to be mentioned which are wholly unaccountable on the supposition of the truth of the popular teaching on this subject. First, there is no doxology, or ascription of praise, to the Holy Spirit, in either the Old or the New Testament. Nor is there any instance, we believe, on record, in all the Scriptures, of any 160 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. prayer having ever been addressed to the Holy Spirit as a separate personality. It is inconceivable that this should be the case, had this Divine power been regarded in the early Christian times as separately God, a definite personal being, even as much so as the Almighty Father. “Tt is, indeed, in the second place, to be remembered, that no example can be adduced, from the first and second cen- turies, of the Holy Spirit being made an object of worship, or perhaps even of its being spoken of as a distinct existence —as distinguished, that is to say, from the idea of it asa power, gift, blessing, conferred by God. Even in the Apos- tles’ Creed, which probably comes down from the end of the second century, the Holy Spirit does not appear in a personal character. It may be questioned whether it does so in the original Nicene Creed, although at the time when this was composed (A.D. 325), the doctrine of a Trinity of equal per- sons was beginning to be held by some of the more specu- lative of the Church Fathers. The absence of the fuller definition of the Spirit from the Nicene Creed proper is well known. It was the Council of Constantinople (A.D. 381) which introduced the longer form now found in the English Prayer Book. “No reasonable mind can suppose that the Spirit of God is confined in its movements within the limits of Churches, one or all of them; that it can only visit the humble, wait- ing soul through the medium of a ‘Sacrament’ or through the person of a ‘ priest.’ “ All true religion, whether in ‘Church’ or out of it, is founded upon, is identical with, the sense of the Living Presence of God with and in the human soul—that alone. Such is also the evident foundation of Christianity, as recog- nized in almost every act and word of the Christ and his Apostles. With them, the Heavenly Father is the all-per- vading Spirit of the universe, a living God, who can hear our prayers, and see our efforts to do His will; and who, by His Spirit, can help, enlighten, and comfort the souls of all that faithfully look to Him, whether they shall bow down in the humblest meeting-house, or in the grandest cathedral of RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. 161 human Art. Not, indeed, in the presence of elaborately or superstitiously observed formalities, any more than amidst fanatical noise and excitement, can we think that the Spirit of God most effectually visits the waiting soul, or lets the ‘still, small voice’ of His presence be most clearly and touchingly heard within the heart. It is rather in the hour of quiet and lonely meditation that this will come to pass :— when we think with penitence about our past sins, when we reflect upon the duties we have to do, and how best we may do them, when we strive and pray to give ourselves up to all God’s will concerning us; then will the communion of His Holy Spirit be ours; ‘the grace of Jesus Christ’ be with us, and the Divine Love be shed upon us. Then, too, shall we know that we are true disciples of His Son, acceptable servants and children of our Father which is in Heaven.” LV.—REVERSIONS AND DEGENERATIONS WITH REFERENCE TO CONCEPTIONS OF THE ATONING SACRIFICE. | Not less and less, but more and more, the entire public Worship of Roman (and Greek) Catholicism is becoming one unceasing ‘Mass’; a perpetually reoffered Sacrifice of the body and blood of Christ upon the Altars of Cathedrals and Churches: without participation in which no human soul can be saved. Not less and less, but more and more, the Anglican and Protestant Episcopal Churches are tending to this same reversion and degeneration. Rarely now can be found a Communion Table; all are “Altars.” Rarely now do we hear of a preacher, or a prophet, or even of a minister; all are “ Priests.’ All the paraphernalia, and cere- monies, and vestments, and Altar-adornments, and fastings, and genuflections of Romanism are slowly but surely creep- ing into the Anglican and Episcopal Churches all over Great Britain and America, and their outlying Mission Fields in common. They call it the “enrichment” of their services. Among the “ Denominations” or “Sects” there is, happily, an almost universal tendency upward—instead of downward —in this regard. We must except, however, the Revival- II 162 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. istic Sects and the Salvation Army, and similar organiza- tions whose singing, preaching, and praying are all about “the atoning blood ’—even more than ever. Correcting Quotations. ‘On the subject of the death of Christ, it may be enough to remind the reader that this is nowhere in the New Testa- ment, or in the Apostolic Church, represented as possessed of a propitiatory or expiatory efficacy, zz the old heathen sense of such expressions. It was simply the Providential means by which the admission of the Gentile world was secured to the faith of the Gospel. The phraseology in which it is spoken of is, indeed, at times very largely figura- tive—arising naturally out of the Levitical ideas and institu- tions of the Jews. But, while this is true, one literal fact is usually expressed by it. That fact is what has just been stated—not the incredible doctrine that the All-merciful God, in His ‘wrath,’ required to be propitiated by the death of an innocent victim; nor the equally incredible doctrine that Christ’s death has redeemed men from everlasting suf- ferings in hell, because he has borne their punishment, and thus given ‘satisfaction’ to Infinite Justice. No such bar- barous ideas as these are anywhere either plainly stated in the New Testament, or veiled and conveyed, as in a parable, under its more figurative expressions. “Tt follows by necessary consequence, that the Romanist and high Anglican doctrine of the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, as also the common doctrine of the ‘Atoning Blood,’ are perversions of Christianity and reversions to Paganism. All these miserable animosities and controver- sies to which these doctrines have given origin have been only so much energy misapplied and wasted, or worse. There is no Scriptural evidence whatever, no evidence at all which rises above the character of early Christian supersti- tion, by which the Lord’s Supper can be shewn to be of the nature of a sacrifice for sin, requiring to be perpetually re- newed by a ‘sacrificing priest.’ There is no evidence, in truth, worthy of the name, by which it can be shewn to be RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. 163 anything else, in its institution and nature, but a simple service of devout commemoration. ‘Do this in remem- brance of me,’ are the words of Christ himself, when he founded the rite. Whatever, in modern doctrines concern- ing it or concerning the nature of Christ’s death, passes beyond this, in form or in spirit, can only be set down as misunderstanding, or as the inherited remains of ancient error.” LVI.—REVERSIONS AND DEGENERATIONS WITH REFERENCE TO ARCHITECTURE AND ADORNMENTS AS CON- SLL UTINGPAVCHURGH: When the Disciples directed their Master’s attention to the magnificent Temple in Jerusalem, they doubtless still retained some of the prevalent conception that the value, or truth, of a religion is signified, if not measured, by its ex- ternal glory and show. The Master quickly rebuked this erroneous conception by his pointed reply: ‘“ Not one stone shall be left upon another.” Never were the externalities of the Jewish Church—Temple, Synagogues, throngs of de- voted worshippers, immense offerings of the rich, zeal for Orthodoxy and for Ritual and for the True Church—so mag- nificent or flourishing or intense. And yet all was “a white- washed Sepulchre full of dead men’s bones.” So may it be in all days, and to-day and here. Certain it is that, every- where, chief emphasis is now being placed on finely con- structed and adorned church edifices; and more and more so. If you have not these you are nobody; having these you have (practically) everything! Grinding demands upon the purses of poor and rich alike are made to secure these: and crushing burdens of debt are imposed, rendering the one unceasing object of the Church seemingly to be—‘o raise money! And with it all, so often, a decrease of Spirit- ual Life! As our Prophet-Bishop used so often to exclaim: “ All this complicated Machinery and magnificent Equipment of the Christian Church, while the fires beneath are smoulder- ing or gone out!” If this be true, or in proportion as it is true, of any Church it is surely reverting and becoming de- 164 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. generate. And “not one stone shall be left upon another that shall not be thrown down.” Said Epictetus: “If you have a mind to adorn your city by consecrated monuments, first consecrate in yourselves that most beautiful of all monuments, a character formed to purity, justice,and benevolence. Not by raising magnificent temples will you confer the greatest benefits upon mankind, but by exalting magnificent souls. Do not variegate the structure of your walls with Eubzan and Spartan stones only, but adorn yourselves with culture and virtue, for God is honored by the characters of those who worship him, not by wood or stone.” The original church was the people without reference to the place; they might meet in an upper room, in a private house, beneath a tree, in an open field, in a cave or cavern of the earth, it was all the same a church :—not z¢ but ¢hey, the people assembled. To such churches as these Paul wrote all his letters; and through the agency of such churches,— not aided by magnificent piles of architecture, nor by archi- tecture of any sort, but aided simply by the enthusiasm of Humanity and of the Divine Spirit which had taken com- plete possession of them—through the agency of such, houseless, homeless, roofless churches, (assemblies of devout people, organized andco-operating for devout purposes), was brought about that wonderful reformation of the first and second centuries we call the introduction and propagation of Christianity. LVII.—REVERSIONS AND DEGENERATIONS WITH REFER- ENCE TO RITUALISTIC OR OTHER SENSATIONAL OR ‘* POPULARISED’ FORMS OF WORSHIP. When the tempter said to Jesus “If thou be the Son of God cast thyself down,” he simply proposed to him the adoption of the popular methods of degenerate Religions the world over. By parade, trick, or show, attract the crowd and secure success! Wherever, whenever, or howsoever this is done it is a yielding to the Devil, and is a reversion to RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. 165 a a = nC oa HE TST HA AT cD Ses Ta Heathenism. Elaborate Ritual is only a more refined form of that many-formed Sensationalism by which the Church and Religion are made popular so as to catch and please the masses. This is the “wide gate and broad way that leads to” Degeneration; “and many there be that go in thereat.” Correcting Quotations. “In the ruder stages of national and individual life, men are educated religiously by and through the aid of sensuous imagery, either in outward embodiment, or in those ceremo- nial observances which suggest and typify the inward and recondite truths aimed at,—which Paganism everywhere uses, which with a nicer application and a wiser forelook made up the Hebrew polity, and which the Church of Rome now so largely retains in her ritual,—or in those less gross and ideal forms which make the staple of our modern creeds and practices; and it remains yet a profound problem, whether, dispensing with them, society could have attained the spiritual culture and intellectual elevation which now characterize it. Yet, with all the admitted advantages which have flowed from such a machinery, it has been liable to the most serious abuse, when not closely watched and guarded by divine counteractants, in landing the devotee into the depths of a degraded and besotted idolatry. The reason is apparent: between the idea or truth aimed at, and the human mind on which it is to be impressed, stands the symbol, the rite, the agency, the instituted means; by ceremony, by picture, by cross, by altar, by temple, by whatever of sensu- ous appliance designed to aid the imagination and impress the sensibilities, which tradition or custom may have intro- duced and sanctioned. Here intervening as by authority, they gain for themselves a lodgment, which gradually ob- scures the truth they were originally designed to symbolize; and so the agency supplants the principle, and what was in- tended as the scaffolding comes in process of time to be regarded as the building. And, by a degeneracy easily under- stood, the imagination dominates every other faculty, and leads to the worship of the altar, instead of God , the cross, instead 166 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. of Him who died on it ; or wastes the sensibilities in an absurd fiutter of robes and tippets of sacred millinery, and the ritual- istic posture—putting of head and hands and knees to ape the external form of a devotion which has wholly escaped the heart. “The religious sense turned awry, all is disordered and out of harmony. Egypt—Greece—Rome! what a sad wor- ship, and a sadder morality, when the keen eye of Paul rested on the Acropolis, or scanned the magnificence of the palaces of the Czsars! And just as the religion of mankind 7s withdrawn from common life and practice, and becomes a thing of parade and priestcraft,—a liturgical and transac- tional economy carried on for its own sake, and apart from the people,—it becomes an institution builded—every wall, and tower, and turret—to subserve the personal or corporate power and aggrandizement of those who conduct its mysteries or minister at its altars! And lo! we have at once repeated a historic picture of Dagon and Juggernaut, the priestcraft of India, Egypt, and Rome. Yet all this spiritual darkness and despotism, which has rested so long upon the nations, originated in a simple perversion of the religious instincts of humanity, from supplanting the substance by the symbol, and enthroning the means in place of the end.” LVIIIL—MODERN CONFIRMATIONS—A FEW OUT OF MANY. Out of the heart of Nature rolled The burden of the Bible old.” “Our highest Orpheus walked in Judea eighteen hun- dred years ago. His sphere-melody, flowing in wild, native tones, took captive the ravished souls of men; and, being of a truth sphere-melody, still flows and sounds, though now with thousand-fold accompaniments and rich symphonies, through all our hearts, and modulates and divinely leads them.” RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. 167 aren ence tN I i Pe a ‘“ Let knowledge grow from more to more, But more of reverence in us dwell ; That mind and soul, according well, May make one music as before, But vaster.” “ The truth-seeker is the only God-seeker. “The curse of both religion and science, in all ages, has been the thought that there was somewhere an ultimate,— a place to stop. Here we are, finite minds in the midst of infinity. And, for the finite that is moving toward infinity, there is nowhere a place to anchor, but only the privilege and the opportunity of endless exploration.” “Beneath all the various widespread and disconnected labors, discoveries, and experiments of the great body of scientific workers, there is the common belief that all scien- tific truth is one; that the universe is all of one piece; that distant truths are only different parts of one divine pattern that runs all through the whole visible garment of God. This scientific faith is grander than any that the religious world has yet attained. But we must come to this. Re- ligious truth is one, as God is one. Go forth, then, ye religious explorers, and seek only for truth; knowing that all truth-seekers are brothers, and must come to hand-clasp- ing and looks of recognition by and by!” “T apprehend that there is but one way of putting an end to our present dissensions ; and that is, not the triumph of any existing system over all others, but the acquisition of something better than the best we now have.” “We search the world for truth, we cull The good, the pure, the beautiful From graven stone and written scroll, From the old flower-fields of the soul ; 168 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. And, weary seekers of the best, We come back laden from our quest, To find that all the sages said, Is in the Book our mothers read.” “After all that Biblical critics and antiquarian research have raked from the dust of antiquity in proof of the gen- uineness and authenticity of the books of the new Testament, credibility still labors with the fact that the age in which these books were received and put in circulation was one in which the science of criticism as developed by the moderns —the science which scrutinizes statements, balances evidence for and against, and sifts the true from the false—did not exist ; an age when a boundless credulity disposed men to believe in wonders as readily as in ordinary events, requiring no stronger proof in the case of the former than sufficed to establish the latter, namely, hearsay and vulgar report; an age when literary honesty was a virtue almost unknown, and when, consequently, literary forgeries were as common as genuine productions, and transcribers of sacred books did not scruple to alter the text in the interest of personal views and doctrinal prepossessions.” “The word unto the prophets spoken Was writ on tables yet unbroken ; The word by seers or sibyls told, In groves of oak or fanes of gold, Still floats upon the morning wind, Still whispers to the willing mind. One accent of the Holy Ghost The heedless world hath never lost.” “The two indispensable conditions of a nobler and truer theology for the time to come, are, first, a thoroughly honest use of learning—a determination never to ignore or evade whatever criticism history or science demonstrates to be fact, RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. 169 SIS a SAR SO OY ENS | UI a however it may upset our preconceived notionsor unsettle our traditional belief; and, secondly, to cultivate with the utmost veneration and tenderness that spiritual element of our being which brings us into living communion with God, and which, though wonderfully nourished and strengthened by the teachings of Scripture, flows from the same divine source, and is only another working of one and the self-same Spirit which uttered Scripture itself.” “The fact, so much lamented over by the clergy and the religious press, that so many of the most intelligent minds of the country are already turning their backs upon Chris- tianity, clearly finds an explanation to no small extent inthe blind folly of Christianity in continuing to demand that men must subscribe to the belief in an infallible Bible or else stay outside the Christian fold. Why does this folly continue? Is Christianity bent upon intellectual suicide ? Can it be pos- sible that it does not see that it is putting itself in a position where men who read and think for themselves on religious subjects, have no alternative left them ?—they must either subscribe to what they do not believe to be true, or else they must turn their backs on Christianity !” “The collection of writings which forms the Bible is, in its greater part, the remains of the ancient Hebrew literature. It is not a Creed nor a Creed-book, which men are called upon to receive under penalty of damnation. It nowhere claims to be so. Nor is it a body of immutable laws for our time, or for any other. Many of its ideas on creation, on the Divine Being, and His intercourse with men, and on various other subjects, are simply such as were suited to the infancy of the human race. The Bible may nevertheless, if wisely used, be a help and an influence to guide and enlighten the conscience ; as it is a channel through which the Unseen Spirit has often spoken to men, and may still speak to us, if we will listen.” 170 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY, ‘The experience of many ages of speculative revolution has shown that while knowledge grows and old beliefs fall away, and creed succeeds to creed, nevertheless that Faith © which makes the innermost essence of Religion is inde- structible.” ‘“No one would venture now-a-days, to quote from a book, whether sacred or profane, without having asked these simple and yet momentous questions: When was it written ? Where? and by whom? Was the author an eye-witness, or does he only relate what he has heard from others? And if the lat- ter, were his authorities at least contemporaneous with the events which they relate, and were they under the sway of party feeling or any other disturbing influence? Was the whole book written at once, or does it contain portions of an earlier date; and if so, is it possible for us to separate these earlier documents from the body of the book?” ‘Neither shall ye tear out one another’s eyes, struggling over ‘ Plenary Inspiration’ and such like; try rather to get a little even Partial Inspiration, each of you for himself.” ‘An Inspiration as true, as real, and as certain, as that which ever prophet or apostle reached, is yours if you will.” ‘“‘ Jesus came to reveal the Father. But is God, the Infinite and Universal Father, made known only by a single voice heard ages ago on the banks of the Jordan or by the Sea of Tiberias? Is it an unknown tongue that the heavens and earth forever utter? Is nature’s page a blank? Does the human soul report nothing of its Creator? Does conscience announce no Authority higher than its own? Does reason discern no trace of an Intelligence, that it cannot compre- RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY, Los hend, and yet of which it is itself a ray? Does the heart find in the circuits of creation no Friend worthy of trust and lOve Tae “Our own religion takes a place not distant from, but among, all religions, past or present. Its relation to them, is not that they are earth-born, while it alone is divine, but it is the relation of one member of a family to other members, who ‘are all brothers, having one work, one hope, and one All-Father.’”’ ‘“‘ Every race above the savage has its Bible. Each of the great religions of mankind has its Bible. These books con- tain the highest and deepest thoughts respecting man’s re- lations with the Infinite above him, with his fellows around, and with the mystery of his own inward being. In them are found the purest expressions of faith and hope, the finest as- pirations after truth, the sweetest sentiments of confidence and trust, hymns of praise, proverbs of wisdom, readings of the moral law, interpretations of Providence, studies in the workings of destiny, rules for worship, directions for piety, prayers, prophesies, sketches of saintly character, narratives of holy lives, lessons in devoutness, humility, patience, and charity.” “There is acommon impression that the Bible has created a religion for man by a positive enactment. The Bible has not made religion, but religion and righteousness have made the Bible.” “In holy books we read how God hath spoken To holy men in many different ways ; But hath the present worked no sign nor token? Is God quite silent in these latter days? 172 RENASCENT CHRISTIANIT Y. “The word were but a blank, a hollow sound, If He that spoke it were not speaking still ; If all the light and all the shade around Were aught but issues of Almighty Will.” “The only safe way of meeting this danger (that threatens the Bible—the danger, on one hand, of hostility ; and, on the other, of indifference), is to find, as grounds for men’s con- tinued veneration and use of the Bible, propositions which can be verified, and which are unassailable. This, then, has been our object: to find sure and safe grounds for the con- tinued use and authority of the Bible.” LIX.—ILLUSTRATIVE SELECTIONS FROM RECENT BOOKS BEARING ON THE HIGHER CRITICISM OF THE BIBLE.* 1.— The LInfallible Book. In early times the use of metals was unknown, and conse- quently the knives which the priests of a certain religion used in connection with certain of their rites, of necessity had to be of stone. Later, when metal had come into use, we should naturally suppose the crude stone knife would give place to a better knife of metal. Notso, however! The knife originally used was of stone ; nothing else therefore would ever do in any future time but a stone knife. The fact that the Book had grown to be regarded as infallible petrified the religion it taught —cut off the possibility of future progress and improvement,— made sacred every crudeness, every imperfection, every child- ish rite or ceremony, as well as every false doctrine which, but for the notion of a faultless Book, the people in due time would have outgrown. Thus it is that in India a single text of the Vedas (misinter- preted, at that) resulted in the immolation of vast numbers of widows on the funeral piles of their husbands. Thus, too, it is, that we see many a religious rite practised, and many an * See list of volumes chiefly selected from on opening pages—page g. RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. 173 CS absurd doctrine believed to-day in Christendom, which long ago would have been laid aside but for the notion of a Book whose every word must be accepted, and whose lightest injunction must be carried out to the letter, as long as time lasts. Jen can’t get away from the stone knife.” “ Another thing seems to be common with nearly all the great Sacred Books of the world, or rather with the believers in nearly all these books; and that is, that, just as soon as any one of these books comes to be set up as a Bible, it is from that time forward regarded by its adherents as the only Bible, and all the other Sacred Books of the world are cast out as false. In other words, the process of canonization of a book, if I may so say, or of lifting it up from a merely good book into a Bible, seems as arule, to be a process of degradation or condemna- tion of all other books and religions. So the Buddhist has ever been the bitter foe of the Brahman, and the Moham- medan of the Buddhist, and the Christian of the Mohammedan. Whereas, the evident truth is, each of the world’s Bibles contains a great deal that is good, with more or less that is of no value, if not positively bad. Each religion has divine elements in its as well as elements that are very undivine, and it is a great pity that the eyes of men should be blinded to this fact. It is not only a great pity that the adherents of other Bibles and religions of the world should be blinded to this fact as regards our Christian Scriptures and religion, but it is also a pity that we should be blinded to the same fact as regards scriptures and religions which are not Christian.” “In regard to our Old Testament, as is well known, the idea of infallibility attached first to the Pentateuch, or the Five Books of Moses, or the Law, as it was called. And the infalli- bility of even this seems to have been something very shadowy and intangible for a long time. The part of the Old Testament called by the Jews The Prophets came next to be so regarded ; while all that part then known as Hagiographa, or Chetubim, and including such books as the Psalms, and Proverbs, and Job, which are generally held to-day in higher esteem than any other of the Old Testament books, did not come to be regarded as really sacred much before the time of Christ. Indeed, at the time of Christ, all this part of the Old Testament was ranked much lower in authority, or sacredness, than the rest.” 174 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. “As to the New Testament writings, the Epistles seem to have come to be regarded as authoritative, considerably earlier than the Gospels or the Acts. But for a long time—certainly for two centuries—the New Testament writings were none of them looked upon by the Christian church as equally sacred with the Old Testament. And at least three or four centuries passed away before it was decided, more than in part, which particular ones, of the large number of writings produced within a century or two after the death of Jesus, should be included in the New Testament canon.” 2.—ldeas and Forms Common to all Religions. “The ideas of immaculate conceptions and virgin mothers and virgin-born gods are common to many religions and Bibles besides the Jewish and Christian. The Greek god Mars was fabled to have been born by an immaculate conception of Juno. Zoroaster was supposed to have been born of an im- maculate conception by a ray from the Divine Reason. Both Buddha and Krishna of India are reported to have been immaculately conceived. The Hindoo Scriptures tell us that the mother of the latter (Krishna) was overshadowed by the god Brahma. The Messianic idea, too, is one found in other Bibles besides our own. The Chinese Scriptures con- tain prophecies of a Chinese Messiah who was to come. The Hindoo Scriptures contain like prophecies of a Hindoo Mes- siah,”’ “Tn the different religions of the human race, we constantly meet the same leading features. The same religious institu- tions—monks, missionaries, priests, and pilgrims. The same ritual—prayers, liturgies, sacrifices. The same implements— frankincense, candles, holy water, relics, amulets, votive offer- ings. The same symbols—the cross, the serpent, the all-seeing eye, the halo of rays. The same prophecies and miracles—the dead restored and evil spirits cast out. The same holy days ; for Easter and Christmas were kept as spring and autumn festi- vals, centuries before our era, by Egyptians, Persians, Saxons, Romans. The same artistic designs for the mother and child stand depicted, not only in the temples of Europe, but in those of Etruria and Arabia, Egypt and Thibet.” “So also the idea RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. 175 eee of incarnation. He (the Messiah) is predicted by prophecy, hailed by sages, born of a virgin, attended by miracle, borne to heaven without tasting death, and with promise of return. Zoroaster and Confucius have no human father. Osiris is the Son of God; he is called the Revealer of Life and Light ; he first teaches one chosen race ; he then goes with his apostles to teach the Gentiles, conquering the world by peace; he is slain by evil powers; after death he descends into hell, then rises again, and presides at the last judgment of mankind ; those who call upon his name shall be saved. Buddha is born of a virgin ; his name means the Word, the Logos, but he is known more tenderly as the Saviour of Man ; he embarrasses his teachers, when a child, by his understanding and answers ; he is tempted in the wilderness, when older, etc.” 3.—Lfalse and Fanciful Interpretations. ‘“ The Brahmin, repeating Vedic hymns, sees them pervaded by a thousand meanings, which have been handed down by tradi- tion ; the one of which he is ignorant is that which we perceive to be the true one.” ‘Greater violence is done by successive interpreters to sacred writings than to any other relics of ancient literature. Ideas grow and change, yet each generation tries to find its own ideas reflected in the sacred pages of their early prophets. Passages in the Veda and Zend Avesta which do not bear on religious or philosophical doctrines are generally explained simply and naturally, even by the latest of native commentators. But as soon as any word or sentence can be so turned as to support a religious doctrine, however modern, ora religious precept, however irrational, the simplest phrases are tortured and mangled till at last they are made to yield their assent to ideas the most foreign to the minds of the authors of the Veda and Zend Avesta.” “This practice of interpret- ing into Sacred Books what later ages think ought to be in them, and out of them what later ages think ought not to be in them, is pointed out and illustrated with regard to the Chinese, Brahmanic and Buddhist Sacred Books, by Dr. Legge, Dr. Muir, Burnouf, and others.” “Illustrations of the same with regard to our own Bible are more numerous still. Indeed the whole history of Christianity 176 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. is full of exhibitions of the most marvellous and unflagging ingenuity, in inventing new interpretations of Scripture, to keep pace with the growth of human thought and the progress of knowledge and science.” “Almost every scientific theory that comes into existence is found to conflict in some point or other with the theological notions which an unscientific past has handed down. But the theologians are ever on the alert ; and war to the knife is at once declared against the scientific intruder. All friends of the Bible are summoned to the holy war. The conflict rages fiercely and shows no sign of abatement until itis seen that the scientists are getting the day ; then, it begins to be discovered by the theologians that, after all, the new theory is harmless ! z- deed there is no discrepancy between tt and Scripture! ‘The dis- crepancy that had been supposed to exist grew out of a wrong Scripture interpretation. In fact, instead of the two being in conflict, the scientific theory is really taught in the Bible.” 4.—Lnfallible Bibles must be Infallibly preserved. “Grant even that the Bible was originally infallible,—that is to say, grant that the books were written in such a marvellous way as to insure their infallible correctness at the time of their writing ; and grant that all the books which have been excluded from the canon of Old Testament and New by us Protestants, are just the ones that ought to be excluded, and that all which have been included are just the ones that ought to be included, and that all which have been lost were spurious, so that the loss does not affect at all the perfectness of the canon—grant all that ; yet even now how far have we got toward certainty that this Bible which we hold in our hand ¢o-day is infallible—is infallible as zt comes to us? In other words, grant that the stream as it began its course away back yonder in Palestine twenty- two or twenty, or eighteen, or sixteen centuries ago, was infal- lible in its outset, what assurance have we that now, after wandering and winding down through the dark maze of the ages, it is s¢/7 infallible? For mark: after we have got the writings all infallibly written, and then after we have got them all collected together just as they should be into a canon or infallible collection, we have still got to devise a way to get them down to our time, without error or change.” RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. 177 See ree a AOS 5.—Lhe Translators must be Infallible. “ To-day translators are very fallible beings. Have the trans- lators of all the ages, who have translated Hebrew into Greek and Latin, and Greek and Latin into English, and Hebrew into English, in connection with the Old and New Testament books, been miraculously preserved from making errors? If so, what mean the many thousands of errors which the great Commission of English scholars, who made for us a new English translation of the Bible, found in the common translation or version of King James? “© The whole number of various readings of the text of the New Testament that have hitherto been noted exceeds a hundred thousand, and may perhaps amount to a hundred and fifty thousand. Some of these variations, it is true, are very slight, and inno way affect the sense. But others again are very marked, and affect the sense most materially, For example, the celebrated text (I. John v. 7, 8) of the three heavenly witnesses, which has been for a thou- sand years the strongest scripture bulwark of the doctrine of the Trinity, is admitted now on all hands to be an interpolation.” “So, then, what becomes of our infallible Bible? It has melted away into thin air zf there be one single link imperfect in all the two-thousand-years-long chain of preservation and transmission of the original writings down to us.” 6.—Miraculous Inspiration no longer Credible, “The Bible does not claim to be infallible. While in places certain claims of superior inspiration or guidance of God are doubtless put forth, there is not even one single book of the Bible that claims to be znfallible.” “The doctrine of the infallibility of the Bible, in the rigid sense in which it is widely held and taught now, was unknown to the early Christian church. Indeed it did not come into existence until the sixteenth century, not having been held even by the earliest and greatest of the Reformers, The Catholic church has never adopted it.” “ The doctrine of the New Testament’s miraculous inspiration is no longer a doctrine that can be entertained by any person who is at the same time honest, thoughtful, and intelligent. 12 178 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. This is a frank expression ; but I am confident it is a saying that will stand. Omit the honesty, the intelligence, or the thoughtfulness, and the saying thus mutilated would not hold good. Taken in its entirety, its force cannot be broken. Show me an intelligent man who entertains this doctrine, and the chances are ten to one that he lacks either thoughtfulness or honesty. Show me a thoughtful man who entertains it, and he must be lacking either in honesty or intelligence. Show me an honest man who entertains it, and either intelligence or thought- fulness is a missing link in the chain of his individual complete- ness. For every man of honesty, intelligence, and thoughtfulness knows that the result of criticism is, that of the twenty-seven books of the New Testament the authorship of only four is abso- lutely certain. But to elevate into the position of a supernatural revelation a book the authorship of six-sevenths of which is extremely doubtful, is manifestly an unwarrantable procedure. We may be tolerably sure of the authorship of another seventh. This is the extremity of critical concession.” 7.—Higher Criticism rescues and exalts the Bible. “Nor could the surrender of the dogma of the infallibility of the Bible hurt the volume, as some fear, as a book of devotional and practical religion. Rather, in important respects, it would help it as such. For, as already intimated, the loss of the idea of infallibility would affect not in the least the higher and more spiritual teachings of the Bible—these portions that are ‘ profit- able for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.’ It would be simply the letting in of a healthy wind to blow away such chaff as has no power to feed anybody. For example, the imprecations of three or four of the Psalms ; the brutal exploits of Samson; exaggerations like those that I have pointed out in connection with the number of years lived by the patriarchs, and the number of soldiers in the armies of Jeroboam and Abijah ; the falsehood of Abraham when he de- nied that Sarah was his wife ; the various contradictions between Scripture and science.” ‘“We are driven to the alternative either of confessing that God is a superhuman tyrant, an infinite devil, or else denying that the Bible can be infallible. Does any one fail to see which of RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. 179 Nk ales teeta he ar a ROT ck Ee CET the two is the religious as well as the reasonable thing to do? Surely there is a weighty and solemn religious obligation resting on us to deny the truth of a dogma which aims so cruel a blow at the character of the Being we worship, and the validity of our moral intuitions. The highest and holiest things of religion and life are very deeply at stake. As we care for religion, therefore, we must not shrink ; when we come upon representations of God in the Bible that are degrading and immoral, we must say, “They are wrong; the men who wrote them had the low and imperfect ideas of their age; we, to-day, standing in the light that shines from Jesus, and from the eighteen centuries since, worship a God vastly more exalted and holy.’” 8.—Immoral Influence of the old Ideas of the Bible, especially upon the Young. “Think of millions of Sunday-school children, with their young and plastic minds, being systematically taught from Sun- day to Sunday, for years, such things as that it was right for Joshua to perpetrate his massacres of men, women, and _ babes, and for Jehu to murder all the house of Ahab, and for Hosea to break the seventh commandment, and for Moses and Aaron to lie to Pharaoh, and for the Jewish people to put witches to death and hold slaves, and the like (things, all of them, which we are told God commanded ), and then reflect what a foundation all this lays in these millions of children, upon which to build virtuous characters and sensitive consciences, and pure and high manhood and womanhood! Can anything ever compensate for, or make good, such an utter confusion and perversion of moral ideas in the minds of the young? Can we expect anything else but that children thus instructed will have low and confused ideas of right and wrong, and blunted consciences, as well as unworthy conceptions of God, when they grow up to be men and women ? No! while we continue to hold earnestly to the Bible, we must discriminate. While we cannot appreciate too highly the rich legacy of moral and religious truth and sentiment that comes down to us in its revered pages, let us not be guilty of the fatal folly of concentrating error because it happens to be associ- ated with truth. While we may well keep the Bible in our Sun- day schools, and churches, and houses, as our great, and in a 180 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. true sense, our sacred book of religion, to be studied reverently and appreciatively by ourselves and by our children, we must beware that we do not make it a curse instead of a blessing, to ourselves, and especially to them, by accepting it and teaching them to accept it as what it 1s ot, viz., an infallible book.” 9.— The Essential Truths of the Bible are, of themselves, Self-evident. “Tf there are errors and imperfections in the Bible—that is to say, if the Bible is not all infallible inspiration, how are we to know what parts are true and inspired, and what parts are untrue and uninspired—in other words, what parts we should keep and what parts we should cast out? This question, I know, often causes real trouble to earnest and conscientious minds, and yet it seems strange that it should ; for the answer is surely very simple and plain. With reference to all scientific and historical questions, and all questions of fact, connected with the Bible, doubtless we are to find out what is truth and what is not truth in exactly the same way that we find out truth and falsehood anywhere else, viz.—by inquiry and investigation. By honest inquiry, and candid investigation, almost all the more important of these questons of fact can doubtless be solved. That so many remain still unsolved, is undoubtedly due in large measure to the fact that as yet so little really honest and unbiassed inves- tigation has been made.” “And so, too, with regard to the great spzrztual teachings of the Bible—these also all carry their credentials and authority in themselves. Such utterances as the Golden Rule, the Beatitudes, and Paul’s chapter on Charity, it is impossible that men should mistake about. The whole matter reduces just to this—and nothing could be simpler—whatever in the Bible, as men read it, helps them, strengthens them, gives them nobler conceptions of God, increases their faith in humanity, widens their sympathies, purifies their desires, deepens their earnestness, brightens their hope, sends them forth with a more abiding consecration to the true, the beautiful, and the good, is certainly of God—and is to be received as such with as much assurance as if it were spoken to every one by an audible voice from the skies. Whereas, on the other hand, whatever is in the Bible, or anywhere else, that tends to degrade men’s conceptions of God, or confuse moral RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. 181 rk SI ie ge Ee INO distinctions, or lower their ideals of life or standards of duty, or dim their spiritual vision, is certainly not of God—and no eccle- siastical consecration or sanction, and no alleged attestation of miracles, or anything else, can make it their duty to do anything else than reject it.” 10.— Who are the Enemtes of the Bible? “We are friends of the Bible. They are the enemies of the Bible who insist on keeping it standing upon a fictitious basis, which tends ever to melt away before free thought and candid investigation, as ice melts before fire. They are the enemies of the Bible who refuse to allow men to discriminate, judge, apply tests of reason and common sense—who say such utterly sense- less things as that the Bible is ‘ either all true or all false,’ and that we must “either believe it all, from cover to cover, or else throw it all away.’ If the array of facts, of so many and varied kinds, exhibited in the preceding pages, proves anything, it proves that the Bible is n’t either all true or all a lie. Ten thousand things in it are true, and grandly true—but some things in it are not true. We are not necessitated, either to believe it all or else throw it all away, any more than I am necessitated to tear down a beautiful picture from my walls because there are scratches or dust specks on it, or turn my mother out of my house, because, with all her wealth of tenderness and love and goodness, there may be possible flaws or imperfections in her character, as there are flaws and imperfections in the character of us all.” 11.— How to view and use the Bible. “Probably there is no truer conception of the Bible than as a gold mine—a gold mine inestimably rich—yet a mine still. There are quartz and earth in no small measure mixed with the gold, as in all mines ; but there is also gold—true gold of God, more precious than we shall ever fully find out—mixed plentifully with the quartz and the earth. Evidently, then, the part of rational men and women is, neither to resort to the folly on the one hand, of declaring that the quartz and earth are gold, nor yet the equal folly on the other hand, of throwing away all, and declaring there is no gold, because they can plainly see quartz 182 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. and earth with the gold ; but the part of rational men and women surely is to delve earnestly in the mine, casting out, without hesi- tation, what plainly is not gold, but saving and treasuring up, with glad appreciation and thankfulness, rich stores of what clearly is gold.” 12.—How the Bible was formed. “The exact principles that guided the formation of a canon cannot be discovered. Definite grounds for the reception or re- jection of books were not very clearly apprehended. The choice was determined by various circumstances. The development was pervaded by no critical or definite principle. No member of the synod (that might be at any time engaged in considering the subject of what books ought to be regarded as canonical) exercised his critical faculty ; a number would decide such mat- ters summarily. Bishops proceeded in the track of tradition or authority.” ‘‘ Moreover, a great deal of bigotry, and partisan- ship, and bad blood was manifested from first to last. Bishops freely accused bishops of forgery of sacred writings and of alteration of the oldest texts, and altogether the debates and pro- ceedings of the synods and councils that had part in settling the canon, remind one very much of some of the political conventions. of our day.” “ And yet, out of all this a result came, the excellence of which, on the whole, we may well be appreciative of. It is easy for the scholarship of to-day to see that the men who are responsible for our Bible being what it is now, made many and grave mistakes.” 13,.—TZhe Bible Canon always an open Question. “Luther was decidedly of the opinion that our present canon is imperfect. He thought that the Old Testament book of Esther did not belong in the Bible. On the other hand, in trans- lating the Old Testament, he translated the apocryphal books of Judith, Wisdom, Tobit, Sirach, Baruch, First and Second Macca- bees, and the Prayer of Manasseh. In his prefaces he gives his judgment concerning these books. With regard to First Macca- bees, he thinks it almost equal to the other books of Holy Scripture, and not unworthy to be reckoned among them. Of Wisdom, he says he was long in doubt whether it should be num- RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. 183 a MORENO RTA i Rs aS bered among the canonical books ; and of Sirach, he says that it is a right good book, proceeding from a wise man. He had judgments equally decided regarding certain New Testament books, He thought the Epistle to the Hebrews came neither from Paul nor any of the apostles, and was not to be put on an equality with Epistles written by apostles themselves. The Apocalypse (or Revelation) he considered neither apostolic nor prophetic, and of little or no worth. He did not believe the Epistle of Jude proceeded from an apostle. James’ Epistle he pronounced unapostolic, and “an epistle of straw.’ “The great Swiss reformer, Zwingli, maintained that the Apoca- lypse is not properly a Biblical book. Even Calvin did not think that Paul was the author of Hebrews, or Peter of the book called Muehetera: “As to the New Testament canon, that was never settled only in a most haphazard and utterly inadequate way. Up to the beginning of the second century, no one seemingly ever thought of such a thing as any writings ever being regarded as Sacred Scripture, except the Old Testament writings. For a long time after the gospels and various epistles came into existence, they were much less esteemed than the Old Scriptures. Indeed, up to about the middle of the second century they were not so highly esteemed as the oral traditions of the churches in which any of the apostles had preached. By the close of the second century, however, a change appears. Certain New Testament books have come into more general favor than the rest, and are beginning to be classed to a certain extent by themselves as a new collection of Sacred Scriptures. As time goes on, they grow more and more into use among the churches. Yet for centuries the various churches continued to use, side by side with the writings which make up our New Testament to-day, various books which we call spurious.” 14.— The long Period of the Bible's Growth. “The various histories, biographies, poems, prophecies, letters, and productions of one kind and another which make up this collection of literature called our Bible, was more than a thousand years coming into existence ; some of the productions making their appearance (at least in substance, if not in their present 184 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. form) in the morning of Jewish civilization, as early in the na- tion’s history as the nation had a literature at all; while others did not come into being until the nation had passed through long and varied experiences of contact with some of the richest civili- zations of the ancient world, including among others the Phe- nician, the Assyrian, the Persian, the Greek, and the Roman.” “Comparing the date of the origin of our own Sacred Scrip- tures with the date of the origin of the other great Sacred Scriptures of the world, we see from the foregoing that no part of our Scriptures can have been written so early by probably some centuries as the earliest portions of the Vedas and Zend Avesta, which are decided by the best authorities to have been produced as far back as from 1000 to 2000 B.c. On the other hand, we see that certain portions of our Sacred Scriptures—the whole New Testament part, with possibly one or more books of the Old—were written considerably later than any of the other great Bibles except the Koran, which was not produced till the seventh century after Christ.” “The writings nearest the time of Jesus after the Epistles of Paul are the Epistle to the Hebrews (certainly not Paul’s) and the book of Revelation. These were both written from 65 to 7OvA,D..” “Of the existence of the Four Gospels we learn with certainty only in the fourth quarter of the second century, one hundred and fifty years after the death of Jesus. The earliest, Matthew, cannot have received its present form much before the end of the first century. The latest, John, dates from about the year 135. Possibly from a few years earlier than this, possibly from a few years later.” 15.—Date of the Birth of F esus. “Popular chronology implies that Jesus was born 1896 years ago last Christmas-day. But this chronology is notoriously inac- curate so far as the year is concerned, and arbitrary as concerns the day. The Christian era, that is, the dating of events from the birth of Jesus, was an invention of the abbot Dionysius in the sixth century after Christ. Before this time events had been dated from the founding of Rome, or from the accession of this or that emperor to the throne. But the investigation of Diony- sius was conducted without any critical acumen. The Gospels RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY, 185 represent Jesus as being born before the death of Herod; but Herod died four years before the beginning of our era. Luke associates the birth of Jesus with a certain taxing of Quirinius. But this taxing was six years after the beginning of our era. The relations of Jesus to John the Baptist afford somewhat more satisfactory data. Reckoning from these, the average of critical opinion gravitates to a point three or four years before the be- ginning of our era. If Jesus was born, as Keim and others think, before the death of Herod, some three or four years earlier would be the true date, and this year of ours (1897) would properly be the year 1903, 1904, or 1905. Certainty is here impossible. It is only safe to say that Jesus was born from three to eight years before the time suggested by our popular chronology.” 16.—The Story of the Miraculous Birth. “ The genesis of the story of the miraculous birth of Jesus is so easily accounted for without supposing any basis of reality, that one must be wilfully credulous to entertain the idea for a single moment. It is of a piece with various stories predicating the miraculous birth of famous persons, especially of famous teach- ers of religion. Buddha and Zoroaster share with Jesus in this doubtful honor, The fundamental Gospel tradition is wholly innocent of any such idea. So, too, are the Gospels in their present shape, beyond the legends of the infancy. Paul is equally silent where he would have been voluble enough if he had heard or given a moment’s heed to such atale. No, he is contradictory rather than silent. For when he speaks of Jesus as “born of a woman,” it is only the madness of dogmatic precon- ception that can imagine any denial of the human father. The expression was the current phrase for human generation. But we have more emphatic contradiction close at hand in the leg- ends of the birth and infancy. Both Matthew and Luke deduce Jesus from David through F$oseph. What are we to infer from this remarkable phenomenon, if not that these genealogies were the invention of a time when the miraculous birth of Jesus was an unheard-of fable? 17.—The Messianic Hope. “Few subjects have received more conscientious study than the Messianic hope ; and now, at length, though much remains in 186 RENASCENT CHRISTIANIT Y. doubt, a few clear outlines have been well made out, which we may hope will not be blurred by any future investigation. These outlines are, however, as different as possible from those of the popular Christian exposition. The gist of this exposition is that the Messianic hope originated in the time of Abraham, was cherished by Moses, attained its most complete development in the age of the prophets, from 800 to 400 B.c., and then retired into comparative obscurity for centuries, to await its consumma- tion and fulfilment in the birth and life and death of Jesus Christ, Jesus the Christ, that is to say, the Anointed, the Messiah. Such is the popular Christian exposition, and the commentary which an intelligent and scientific criticism makes upon it is this: The Messianic hope displayed itself most characteristically and powerfully, not from 800 to 4oo B.c., but from 175 B.C. to 135 A.D ., and that from the birth of Jesus onward to the final extinc- tion of the Jewish nation by the Emperor Hadrian was the period of its most remarkable growth. This criticism assures us that the Messianic element in the prophetic writings is entirely sub- ordinate ; that much that is accounted Messianic is the reflection back upon the prophets of the Messianic ideas of a later time.’” “The Jewish hope of a Messiah became in the Christian the hope of Jesus’ second coming ‘in the clouds of heaven with great power and glory.’ The forms taken upon itself through all this period by the Messianic hope were exceedingly diverse... The factor of a personal Messiah was frequently wanting altogether. But in one form or another it was omnipresent and omnipotent. From the death of Herod, 4 B.c., to the death of Bar-Cochba, 132 A.D., no less that fifty different enthusiasts set up as the Messiah, and obtained more or less following. No one of these attained to general recognition before Bar-Cochba, under whose leadership the hope was quenched in seas of blood. Some saw the Messiah even in Herod the Great! This was the lowest point reached by the Messianic ideal.” 18.— Fesus the Messiah. That Jesus should come at length to think of himself as the Messiah was not so strange as the simultaneous conclusion that he must be a suffering Messiah ; for, the Messianic idea was so omnipresent to the Jewish mind that, for a man conscious of a great mission not to connect his mission in some way with that RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. 187 1 A RR lhe TA scl I RLS ts I a | Baoan ARN idea, was quite impossible. It was the grandeur of his spiritual ideal that compelled Jesus to identify his mission with the Messi- anic office. He remained the herald of the kingdom so long as he could consistently do so. The Messiah must be the incarna- tion of the highest possible ideal. To himself Jesus was this. This wonderful self-confidence on the part of Jesus did not ne- ’ cessitate self-righteousness, only an absolute devotion to the moral welfare of mankind,—only an absolute conviction that righteousness and love were fundamental facts in the new order. It was as representative of these that he demanded personal allegiance.” “ The first thing we have to do, then, is to take the record of the facts, if we can, absolutely without the warp of any precon- ceived opinion, or any theological dogmatism. Looking at them SO, it appears plain that what we call the Messianic consciousness of Jesus, which is so intense and even predominant towards the close of his ministry, was a comparatively late development in him, To put it in theological phrase, his generation as son of God was anterior to his appointment as Messiah of the Jews. In the language we usually apply to human experience, his vocation as a moral and spiritual teacher was recognized first; and only as an after-result came his strong conviction that He was the chosen deliverer of his people, though by a way they could not understand or follow.” 19.—The Gospel according to the Hebrews. ‘Time was when our New Testament Matthew was thought to be a translation of the Gospel according to the Hebrews. But one of the fixed facts of modern criticism is that our Matthew is not atranslation. And still its relation to the Gospel accord- ing to the Hebrews is one of the most interesting questions of New Testament criticism. The agreements of the two ‘are many, and where they disagree the uncanonical work sometimes preserves the more reliable tradition. The Gospel of the He- brews seems to have existed in various forms, in this respect being in no wise different perhaps from the New Testament gospels. Whether its earliest form was the germ of our own Matthew, or the two branched from a common stock, is a dilemma which impales on either horn an equal number of New Testament scholars. This much, however, is tolerably certain : that through- 188 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. out the second century the Gospel according to the Hebrews enjoyed a reputation not inferior to that of our New Testament gospels. The decline of its reputation synchronized with the decay of Jewish Christianity.” “Tt is even possible that Matthew arrived at a written form before the destruction of Jerusalem in 7o a.p. It contains sentences that could not have originated after that event, and the crudity of the method of aggregation is evinced by the fact that these sentences are allowed to stand and bear the contra- diction of events. The result at which we finally arrive, there- fore, is this: Zhat from thirty to forty years after the death of Fesus the tradition of his life and ministry and death had shaped itself into the basis of our present Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. The contents of this fundamental tradition (fundamental to our Gospels, but in its turn, no doubt, the result of various accretions)—the contents of this tradition are as flattering to the anti-supernaturalist as he could reasonably expect. Accounts of miracles are here, even some of the most startling ; but there is nota hint of the miraculous birth of Jesus, nor of the legends of his infancy, and the tradition ends with the discovery that his tomb is empty, without a word to signalize that he was seen again by any woman or disciple. In this tradition the personality of Jesus is revealed in lines so firm and strong that the accretions of a later time add little to their force. The man behind the myth is there, no thin abstraction, but an individual with blood in his veins, and in his heart the love of human kind.” 20.— The New Testament Miracles. “The strangest thing of all in this connection is that the Fourth Gospel, cherishing a conception of Jesus as the pre-ex- istent Logos, nevertheless does not avail itself of the miraculous birth, but plainly intimates that Jesus was the son of Joseph in the line of human generation.” “ There is, indeed, much better evidence for the miracles re- corded by St. Augustine than for any recorded in the New Testa- ment. We come much nearer the events, and we know some- thing of the narrators, where in the New Testament we know nothing. Never was there a place and time where and when stories of prodigy and miracle were more likely to be fashioned RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. 189 Nad BD cit Yak Rha SS ts 2 el without any basis of reality, and to obtain credence without any evidence, than in the years immediately succeeding the lifetime of Jesus. Considering the place and time, the wonder is that the miraculous element in the New Testament is not much more obtrusive than it is, much more extravagant.” “There was no conflict here with modern science. For dis- eases of the imagination, to this day the most effective remedies are psychological. Much more must it have been so in the time of Jesus, when all concerned were alike under the dominion of an appalling superstition, the belief in demoniacal possession. But given a few cures of the so-called demoniacs by Jesus, also the spiritual soil and atmosphere of Palestine, and these cures would bring forth in a dozen or twenty years a crop of miracle- stories so extensive that not one quarter of its bulk could be husbanded within the limits of the New Testament. And a few cures of this sort, or temporary alleviations, are, I am persuaded, the bottom facts which underlie the entire structure of the mi- raculous in the New Testament, and in Christian history.” 21.—Our Synoptic Gospels. “Of the three Gospels that still remain to us the relative values are still in some dispute. That we are certain of the authorship of any one of them only a very ignorant or exceedingly dogmatic person would be likely to declare. Nor of the time when they assumed their present shapes can we be more than proximately sure. We are for the first time definitely aware of their existence as Matthew’s, Mark’s, and Luke’s, from 170 to 180 a.p, Nor are we aware of their existence in any shape or under any name at a much earlier period. Writing in the middle of the second century, Justin Martyr quotes from certain “ Memoirs of the Apostles,” as he calls them, so freely that a consistent biography of Jesus might be collected from his quotations. But he never names the authors of these memoirs. His quotations from them often disagree with our Gospels, and seldom agree with them ; and if our Gospels (the Synoptics) were used by him, they were used in conjunction with others which were apparently as highly, if not more highly, esteemed. If we had only external evidence to rely upon, it would be quite impossible to predicate the ex- istence of our Synoptic Gospels earlier than the middle of the second century.” 190 RENASCENTIT CHRISTIANIT Y. 22.—The Fourth Gospel. “The idea of the Logos or Word came into Jewish thought from two sides, from Persia and from Greece; from Persia by way of Babylon, from Greece by way of Alexandria. The Per- sian-Zoroastrian religion taught that God created all things by his word. The cosmology in Genesis is of Persian origin. ‘God said let there be light, and there was light.’ His word is the creative power. Before the time of Jesus this Word of God had become personified in Jewish thought, most frequently under the name of Wisdom. * Wisdom hath been created before all things,’ we read in the Book of Proverbs ; ‘Wisdom has been created before all things,’ in Ecclesiasticus; and in the Wisdom of Solomon, “She is a reflection of the everlasting light, the un- spotted mirror of the power of God, and the image of his good- ness. The Greek influence contributed to the same tendency of thought. The later followers of Plato, the Neo-Platonists, had personified his doctrine of the divine idea or reason. They called it the first born Son of God, born before the creation of the world, itself the agent of creation. It was the image of God’s perfection, the mediator between God and man. Philo Judzus, who was born about twenty years before Jesus, was possessed with these ideas and endeavored to connect them with the Old Testament teachings.” “Thus it was that the writer of the Fourth Gospel found this doctrine of the Logos ; and on the other hand he found a con- ception of Jesus expressed in terms the most exalted, and bearing a very strong resemblance to the terms of the Logos doctrine of Philo. True, Philo had never dreamed of a human incarnation of the Logos, and Paul had never identified his exalted Christ with the Alexandrian Word. The first to do this was pretty cer- tainly not the writer of the Fourth Gospel. It occurred to many writers at about the same time. To effect an alliance between Christianity and Alexandrian Platonism was the one passionate enthusiasm midway of the second century. Of this enthusiasm the Fourth Gospel is the grandest monument. The Fourth Gos- pel is not less valuable on this account. Only its value hence- forth is that of a contribution to our knowledge of second-century ideas. Every true word that it contains is just as true as ever. Every beautiful thought is just as beautiful now as before.” RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. IOI et ie ae ee A “ Of the Fourth Gospel we find no mention till the second century is drawing to its close. Of its existence we have little if any notice earlier than this. But we have ample evidence that if it was in existence midway of the second century, and back of this for five and twenty years, it was little known and less es- teemed, and certainly was not regarded as the work of an Apos- tle. That it was meant to pass for John’s there cannot bea doubt ; but so was the book of Daniel meant to pass for Daniel’s, who had been dead three hundred years when it was written. To seek prestige for one’s own thought under the cover of some mighty name was for hundreds of years before and after the time of Jesus the commonest proceeding. It was a species of self- abnegation. The writer sacrificed his personal renown to some high cause that had enlisted his enthusiasm and demanded his service. “ That one biography of a person is written subsequently to an- other is not necessarily a circumstance that is prejudicial to the later work. The latest is frequently the best. But if it is SO, It must be in virtue of a closer adherence to, or a more vital ap- preciation of, the fundamental biographical material.” “ Since the sponge dipped in vinegar moistened the dying lips of Jesus, no such service has been rendered him as that of the critics who have transferred the Fourth Gospel from the province of biography to that of theological controversy and imaginative dogma.” 23.—S?¢. Paul's Conception of Fesus. “If with Ferdinand Christian Baur we accept as authentic only four of Paul’s Epistles out of the fourteen ascribed to him in the New Testament, namely, Romans, the two Corinthians, and Galatians, Paul’s theory of Christ’s nature is quite homoge- neous. If we also accept, as I am inclined to do, with the sup- port of many able critics, First Thessalonians, Colossians, and Philippians, then we have in Paul also a development of which the starting point is found in First Thessalonians, his earliest epistle, the middle point in Romans, Galatians, and Corinthians, and the culmination in Colossians and Philippians. In Thessa- lonians the conception is hardly different from that of the Sy- noptic Gospels. In Romans, Corinthians, and Galatians it has already made a great advance. To the actual historical Jesus, 192 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. eS ee eee ee Paul was quite indifferent. He does not quote his words. He does not recount his deeds. He does not dwell on his example. His self-denial is not that of a man among men. It is the laying aside of heavenly glory, and the assumption of a human form, Paul’s thought centred not in the historic Jesus but in an ideal Christ of his own conception.” “This was his first thought,—that Jesus was glorified by his death and resurrection ; but this could not satisfy his specula- tive genius. A glory with which Christ was invested did not satisfy him. He wanted a glory for him that was essential to his personality ; and so his death and resurrection became only the means of his resuming a glory which he had ages before his earthly manifestation—the glory of a heavenly, archetypal man. Henceforth to Paul the human life of Jesus was the merest epi- sode in the career of the heavenly man, the ideal Christ of his speculative imagination ; and yet lofty as was Paul’s conception of the Christ, he cherished the idea that all men who would might be even such as he. Although an image of the divine glory, he was not less an image of the possible glory of the saints. It was not the character of the historical Jesus that marked Paul’s limit of possible human attainment. It was the nature of the heavenly pre-existent Christ.” 24.—The Corporeal Resurrection and Ascension. “ Article IV., of the established Church of England, reads : ‘Christ did truly rise again from death, and took again his body with flesh, bones and all things appertaining to the perfection of man’s nature, wherewith he ascended into heaven and there sit- teth, until he return to judge all men at the last day.’ ” “With his corporeal substance,—in the language of the Article, ‘with his flesh and bones and all things appertaining to the per- fection of man’s nature ’—he ascended into heaven. Assuming all this, where is the argument for our personal immortality ? The resurrection of Jesus is a resurrection of the Jody ; his as- cension is an ascension of the Jody ; his immortality is an immor- tality of the Jody. Now it is quite impossible for us to have any such resurrection, any such ascension, any such corporeal immor- tality. Our dodies moulder away. They mingle with the ele- ments. They are taken up into vegetable and animal structures. What analogy can there be between our resurrection at some RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. 193 bite sesame NBG SORA eo HEE PI ot a infinitely distant day and that of Jesus from twenty-four to thirty-six hours after his death? There can be no analogy whatever, and therefore there can be no argument from the one thing to the other.” ‘ Having reviewed the testimony of the Gospels to the corporeal resurrection and ascension in almost every particular, what is the net result? No single account is self-consistent or agrees with any other. The different accounts are self-destructive and mu- tually destructive all. They agree in hardly a single particular. They differ in particulars of the first importance. Here the ap- pearance of the risen Jesus is placed in Galilee, there, in direct contravention of his own assertions, in Jerusalem. Here his as- cension is definitely placed on the first day ; elsewhere, by differ- ent writers, later, but without general agreement, Here the risen Jesus is a man of flesh and blood: elsewhere a bodiless ghost ; and so on through all the catalogue of difference and contra- diction.” “ The two from Emmaus are still talking with the eleven when Jesus stands in their midst. They are affrighted and think they see a spirit. While eating with them, he takes bread, breaks It, and gives thanks. Then they recognize Jesus and he vanishes from their sight. A body with flesh and bones capable of ‘ ap- pearing’ in a room whose doors are fastened, and in the same way disappearing, and vanishing like a shadow !” “What is the amount and nature of Paul’s evidence to the corporeal resurrection and ascension of Jesus? In First Corin- thians, xv. 3, we read, ‘ForI delivered unto you that which I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that he was raised again on the third day ; and that he was seen by Peter, then by thetwelve. After that he was seen by above five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain unto this present day, but some are fallen asleep. After that he was seen by James, then by all the apostles ; and last of all he was seen by me also as by one born outof due time. a “ But this concluding clause is exceedingly significant : ‘and last of all he was seen of me also.’ Paul makes no distinction between fis sight of the risen Jesus and ¢hat of the others. That Paul had seen the risen Jesus, and that he considered Ars sight of him as good as any other,—so much is certain. 13 194 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. NN “¢ Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Master ?’—This sight of Jesus must have been years after his death. That it was a sight of the dody of Jesus which hung upon the cross there is not an ‘ntimation. . . . Whatever it was, it was something which occurred years after the death of Jesus, and it must have been something entirely different from the appearance of Jesus in the same Jody with which he died, the resurrection of which is represented with much inconsistency in the four Gospels. “So much for the testimony of Paul. “ And now aword in regard to the ascension. Matthew does not mention it. Mark is equally silent ; but in the Shen a Spurious Verses 9-20—to this Gunn it is said that ‘he was taken up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God.’ John also is silent. So, then, we have three Gospels, out of four, making no final disposition of the risen Jesus. . . . In the original tradition, there was no ascension. The resurrection and as- cension were one and the same thing. This is Paul’s thought as well. Though he has so much to say about the resurrec- tion, he has not a word concerning any ascension. Such is the most reasonable account that can be given of tHe causes that were operative in producing the New Testament tradition.” “ Ascension into heaven ‘with his flesh and bones’ ! That men could believe this centuries ago, when the learning of the few was as superstitious as the ignorance of the many, I can easily understand. That the ignorant and superstitious of the present time, who know nothing of the laws of evidence, who have no appreciation of the inviolable sanctity of the natural order of the world, and no perception that it is men’s growing faith in this which marks the hours of progress on the great dial of history,— that such can s#//,in this last quarter of the nineteenth century, believe the same is also not hard to understand. Aut how any thoughfully intelligent person, in these days, can believe it passes the bounds of credibility.” 25.—A Parable of the Life of Fesus. ‘“ T have read or heard somewhere of aremarkable Indian plant or tree which grows, isolated from others, to a great height, throwing out few, if any, lateral branches, but suddenly, at the very top, bursting into a single flower of marvellous brilliancy and RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY, 195 aac eae se IY Vor TO IES beauty, and with a fragrance that enchants the sense with an unspeakable delight. And then—it dies! It is a parable of the life of Jesus. Year after year it grew in silence and obscurity, sending no lateral branches, that we know of, out into the sunny Galilean air; but suddenly its top, as if drew-sprinkled with the baptism of John, as if expanded by the fierce heats of a nation’s patriotic and religious zeal, burst into a flower whose beauty and whose fragrance have enriched whole centuries of time. But as we may be sure that all that patient waiting, silent growing, of the Indian tree were necessary to its one consummate flower, we may be equally sure that all the patient waiting, silent growth, of Jesus were but the needful preparation for his brief years of active service among men, a flower whose fragrance, even to this day, enriches every wind that blows.” LX.—MISCELLANEOUS CONFIRMATIONS—EXTRACTS FROM RECENT BOOKS. “ During the life of Buddha no record of events, no sacred code containing the sayings of the master was wanted. His presence was enough, and thoughts of the future seldom entered the minds of those who followed him. It was only after Buddha had left the world to enter into Nirvana, that his disciples attempted to recall the sayings and doings of their departed friend and master. Then everything that seemed to redound to the glory of Buddha, however extraordinary and incredible, was eagerly welcomed, while witnesses who would have ventured to criticise or reject unsupported statements, or detract in any way from the holy character of Buddha, had no chance of being listened to. And when, in spite of all this, differences of opin- ion arose, they were not brought to the test of a careful weigh- ing of evidence, but the names of ‘unbeliever’ and ‘heretic ’ were quickly invented in India as elsewhere, and bandied back- wards and forwards between contending parties, till at last, when the doctors disagreed, the help of the secular power had to be invoked, and kings and emperors convoked councils for the suppression of schism, for the settlement of an orthodox creed, and for the completion of the Sacred Canon. We know of King Asoka, the contemporary of Seleucus, sending his royal missive to the assembled elders, and telling them what to do and 196 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. ee what to avoid, warning them also in his own name of the apoch- ryphal or heretical character of certain books, which, as he thinks, ought not to be admitted into the Sacred Canon. “We here learn a lesson, which is confirmed by the study of other religions, that canonical books, though they furnish in most cases the most authentic information within the reach of the student of religion, are not to be trusted implicitly ; nay, that they must be submitted to a more searching criticism and to more strin- gent tests than any other historical books.” “In reading the above, one can hardly believe that it is not the history of the origin of our own New Testament writings and the formation of our own New Testament canon, that Prof. Miiller is tracing, instead of the origin of the Buddhist Sacred Writings and the formation of the Buddhist Canon. For if we substitute ‘ Jesus’ in the place of ‘ Buddha,’ the © coun- tries around the Mediterranean sea’ in the place of ‘ India,’ and the ‘Emperor Constantine’ with one or two other Christian em- perors in the place of “ King Asoka,’ we shall have an almost exact record of the origin of a large part of the literature which came into being as the result of Fesus’ life and teachings, and the manner in which a portion of this became singled out from the rest and by degrees united into essentially what is now our New Testament.” “The Jehovah of the Old Testament makes himself a local habitation, appears in the temple, walks and talks, and thinks and plans, loves and hates, gets angry, takes vengeance, and changes his mind, very much after the fashion of an Oriental despot. This is not to be wondered at; for as water cannot rise above its source, so the human mind cannot think of God as being anything higher than its highest and best conception of what is worthy of divinity. MWumantty cannot escape itself ; and so its thought of God ts always the best tt is capable of thinking at the time. As man grows and develops, so does his idea of divinity. The divine does not change; but as you can put only twelve quarts of the Atlantic in a twelve-quart pail, so in a finite brain you can put only so much of the Infinite as the finite can con- tain. As the thought of man gets larger, its contents increase.” RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. 197 = emma eer errr aT Ns cer Ny RELL, “ Every historic religion, that has won for itself a place in the world’s history, has evolved from a core of fact, a nimbus of legendary matter which criticism cannot always separate; and which the popular faith does not seek to separate. Christianity, like every other religion, has its mythology (or legends) so inter- twined with the veritable facts of its early history, so braided and welded with its first beginnings, that the myth and legend are not always distinguishable from the history. Yet the mythi- cal (or legendary) interpretation of certain portions of the gos- pels has no appreciable bearing on the character of the Christ. The impartial reader of the record must see that the evangelists did not tnvent the character ; they did not make the Fesus of thetr story ; on the contrary, it was he that made them. It is a true saying that only a Christ could invent a Christ.” “ After all that Biblical critics and antiquarian research have gathered from the dust of antiquity in proof of the genuineness and authenticity of the books of the New Testament, credibility still labors with the fact that the age in which these books were received and put in circulation was one in which Zhe science of criticism as developed by the moderns—the science which scrutinizes statements, balances evidence for and against, and sifts the true Jrom the false—adid not exist ; an age when a boundless credulity dis- posed men to believe in wonders as readily as in ordinary events, requiring no stronger proof in the case of the former than suf- ficed to establish the latter, viz.:—hearsay and vulgar report ; an age when literary honesty was a virtue almost unknown, and when, consequently, literary forgeries were as common as genu- ine productions, and transcribers of sacred books aid not scruple to alter the text in the interest of personal views and doctrinal pre- possessions.” “And the best scholarship of the church is still unsettled about Hebrews, James, Jude, the second epistle of Peter, the second and third of John, and the Revelation. If there be infallible books, of which to make an infallible Bible, and if these be infallibly preserved and transmitted to us, we are still undecided and in trouble, unless we have also an in- Jallible catalogue to tell us which they are. Jf there are two or 198 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. three guide-posts, and one is infallibly correct, and the others not, it matters little to us, unless some one is able to tell us which isright. And then, if words be so important, how comes it that the New Testament writers quote the Old loosely and incorrectly ? In one place, the Septuagint is followed where its translation from the original Hebrew is blunderingly wrong, and even re- verses the sense ; and not only are these things so, but ¢here are in the Bible palpable errors and inconsistencies and contradictions that no one would think of trying to cover up, were it not for the pressing necessities of special pleading.”’ ‘Again, there are irreconcilable difficulties in connection with the genealogies of Jesus given by Matthew and Luke. Both these genealogies trace the ancestry of Jesus through Joseph. But having done this, both Matthew and Luke tell us that Joseph was not the father of Jesus at all. Thus Fesus 1s claimed to have descended from David, because a man who ts not his father descended from David. A most extraordinary claim! Moreover, Matthew says the number of generations from Abraham to David is fourteen, and from David to the Captivity fourteen, and from the Captivity to Christ fourteen. But if we look carefully at the genealogy, as he himself gives it, the number from Abraham to David is only ¢hirfeen, and the number from the Captivity to Christ is only thirteen. Furthermore, the genealogies of Joseph, the husband of Mary (called the genealogies of ¥esus, but not the genealogy of Jesus at all unless Joseph was Jesus’ father) as given by Matthew and Luke, are radically different, agreeing in only fifteen names in the whole list, and differing in forty names. Now, when we bear in mind that these genealogies both run back in the male line, from son to father, and then grandfather, and then great-grandfather, and so on, we see that divergence can mean nothing else but error in one or the other of the authorities, or both. Nor may we suppose that one genealogy is that of Mary. Such a supposition rests on not a shadow of evidence, while it is posi- tively contradicted by the language of the text.” “ Neither faith, nor love, nor truth, nor disinterestedness, nor forgiveness, nor patience, nor peace, nor equality, nor education, nor missionary effort, nor prayer, nor honesty, nor the sentiment RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. Ig9 SEAS IESIEIER TERT PaL er Nel nd cde a Mae of brotherhood, nor reverence for woman, nor the spirit of hu- mility, nor the fact of martyrdom, zor any other good thing ts mo- nopolized by any form of faith. All religions recognize, more or less remotely, these principles ; all do something to exemplify something to dishonor them.” “ He is the Curist. This word literally means the‘ anointed,’ and the idea conveyed by it is derived from the ancient ceremony of consecrating a king to his kingly office. In connection with: Jesus it is clearly a figurative term, involving, however, the idea that he who bore it had been called and appointed to his office ; intimating, therefore, the existence of a higher power which had chosen him. "ence Peter terms him ‘the Christ of God ’—God’s Christ, that is, one anointed of God, or appointed by Him to be what he was. “ This word, we need scarcely remind the reader, is the same in meaning as the Hebrew word ‘Messiah,’ and the same explanation holds good of both. We learn the true value and import of the latter, when we find that it is applied, in the Old Testament, to a heathen king, one who ts made the instrument of executing a par- ticular purpose of Fehovah. Cyrus, the king of Persia, was the means of putting an end to the captivity of the Jews. Hence the later Isaiah says of him, ‘ Thus saith Jehovah to his anointed, to Cyrus.’ Literally this might be rendered ‘ to his Messiah,’ the same word which in Christian times is applied to Jesus under the Greek form of Christ, “The term which was applied to Cyrus only incidentally and because of a particular purpose, zs used of Fesus as his usual and abiding designation ; and he is, therefore, Jesus the Christ, an appellation which soon passed into a personal name, and became Jesus Christ. But thts fact does not alter the relation between him and the Creator which the word denotes. That was the same, in truth, as for the time existed between the Almighty Being and His chosen instrument the king of Persia. The one was the Anointer and the other the anointed ; the one the Sender and the other the sent; the one was the Creator and the Source of power, the other the creature and the recipient of any authority or power which it pleased the Father to confer upon him.” 200 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. “The term Son leads us to the same conclusion. According to our usual ideas and experience of human relationships, a soz is, indeed, of the same nature with his father. The same or like mental and bodily powers belong to both ; and therefore it might be inferred, in the case of Jesus, that he, being said to be the Son of God, zs tn all respects of the same essential nature as the Being of whom he ts so often termed the Son. And this is constantly either expressly affirmed, or tacitly assumed, by orthodox writers, But granting this, there is at least one important point in which the word necessarily implies inferiority, according to all ordinary ideas and the usual force of human language—except, indeed, among persons who are satisfied to set human language at defiance, and speak of ‘ Eternal Sonship,’ and pledge their ministers at or- dination to believe in it. A son, at all events, is younger than his Sather, so that to speak of eternal sonship is something like speaking of an eternal fifty years.” “Of course I am aware of the cheap way of meeting these state- ments, which is coming to be so common, viz., sneering at them as the ‘invention of infidels,’ declaring that they are ‘as old as Christianity,’ ‘and have been answered a thousand times over.’ To this I only care to say—they are not the “invention of infidels,’ or of anybody else; they are simply obstinate facts, that refuse to accommodate themselves to the wish of either ‘infidel’ or Christian. As to their being ‘as old as Christianity,’ this is true; that isto say, careful and unprejudiced students of the Bible from the earliest ages have perceived contradictions in it, though with the lapse of time and the advance of biblical scholarship, she number of these contradictions discovered has constantly increased. As to their having been ‘ answered a thousand times,’ I have only to say, they have been replied toa thousand times—they have never been answered at all.” “So far from its being painful to give up the doctrine of Biblical Infallibility, I hesitate not to say that, just in so far as one has the spirit and love of Christ, and at the same time com- prehends intelligently the points at issue, he will rejoice to be able to give it up; and what Uittle comfort there may be in RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. 201 eee a thinking he has an infallible guide, he will gladly sacrifice to the larger and better results. Asa matter of fact there is not the least justification for ‘ orthodox’ writers and preachers, when they say that those who question the infallibility of the Bible are undermining the hope of man.”’ “Who, then, is the God of evolution? Not the mechanical contriver, or the Oriental despot of the Old Testament ; not the Zoroastrian Ahura-Mazoa, ruling but half the world ; not the Hindoo Brahm asleep in the heavens; not a deity dwelling in temples, and only to be sought at special altars; not the partial and implacable God of Calvin ; not one sitting afar on his throne, to be reached only through mediators. The righteousness which is by evolution speaketh on this wise : Say not in thy heart, Who shall ascend into heaven to bring him down ? nor, Who shall de- scend into the deep to bring him up? But what satth it? God is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart. And tt says this with a reality and meaning never satd before. Or it borrows the beautiful and mystic tongue of Wordsworth, and speaks of ‘A sense sublime — Of something far more deeply interfused, Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns, And the round ocean, and the living air, And the blue sky, and in the mind of man; A motion and a spirit that impels All thinking things, all objects of all thought, And rolls through all things.’ ” “Now, then, what can science do for religion? Science has been doing for hundreds of years one of the greatest services possible. It has been destroying the superstitions, the crudities, the falsehoods, the misconceptions of men concerning religion. For example, the doctrines of astrology, of demoniacal posses- sion, of witchcraft, the doctrine of the material resurrection of the body, of a material hell just under the surface of the ground, and many others that were once considered central and essential parts of religion,—these things which were only hurts and damages, barnacles on the ship that hindered tts satling,—these things science has stripped off, and thrown away, and utterly destroyed. 202 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY, “I do not wonder that men have cried out against science be- cause it has done these things ; for if once a man identifies his own thought with the very central life and thought of the universe, of course, when you touch him, he thinks the throne of God is giving way. But science has reconstructed religious thought : that is one thing that it has done for it. Another thing I have already enlarged upon. J¢ has heightened infinitely the objects of religion, giving us a grander God, a nobler humanity, a more mag- nificent universe as the theatre for human action.” “God has more truth than is in the Bible ; and the process of the ages is but the unrolling of His divinely written scroll. What matter, then, though we do not certainly know each step we are taking? Are the children of a ship-captain less safe be- cause they do not understand the log-book, the quadrant, the path of the vessel through the waves? A wise head and a loving heart are in the cabin, and a strong and wakeful hand its on the wheel, ‘The Captain knows where He is going ; and He knows His route ; and the smallest, weakest, and most ignorant child shall go sailing up the harbor, and when the anchor is dropped, and the boat lowered, shall set foot on the wave-washed, sandy beach of the Everlasting Shore, just as surely and safely as the Captain Himself. Have faith, then, not in churches, nor creeds, nor councils, nor books : ‘ have faith in God’ ; for * I doubt not through the ages one increasing purpose runs. Not in vain the distance beacons. Forward, forward let us range ; Let the great world spin forever down the ringing grooves of change. Through the shadow of the globe we sweep into the younger day.’ “T have a great deal of doubt of men,—their thoughts, their creeds, and their systems ; but with all my heart and soul T believe in God and the future. He has inspired and led in all the past ; fle inspires and leads to-day ; He will inspire and lead to-morrow ; for ‘ He is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever.’ ” PART SECOND. ““BUT I HAVE ¢his AGAINST THEE, THAT THOU DIDST LEAVE THY FIRST LOVE. REMEMBER THEREFORE FROM WHENCE THOU ART FALLEN, AND REPENT, AND DO THE FIRST WORKS; OR ELSE I COME TO THEE, AND WILL MOVE THY CAN- DLESTICK OUT OF ITS PLACE, EXCEPT THOU REPENT.” ‘*? KNOW THY WORKS, THAT THOU HAST A NAME THAT THOU LIVEST, AND ART DEAD, BE WATCHFUL, AND STRENGTHEN THE THINGS WHICH REMAIN, THAT ARE READY TO DIE: FOR I HAVE NOT FOUND THY WORKS PERFECT BEFORE GOD.” ‘“AND TO THE ANGEL OF THE CHURCH IN SARDIS, WRITE : ‘““THESE THINGS SAITH HE THAT HATH THE SEVEN SPIRITS OF GOD, AND THE SEVEN STARS: I KNOW THY WORKS, THAT THOU HAST A NAME THAT THOU LIVEST, AND THOU ART DEAD, BE THOU WATCHFUL, AND STABLISH THE THINGS THAT REMAIN, WHICH WERE READY TO DIE: FOR I HAVE FOUND NO WORKS OF THINE FULFILLED BEFORE MY GOD. REMEMBER THERE- FORE HOW THOU HAST RECEIVED AND DIDST HEAR; AND KEEP 77, AND REPENT, IF THEREFORE THOU SHALT NOT WATCH, I WILL COME AS A THIEF, AND THOU SHALT NOT KNOW WHAT HOUR I WILL COME UPON THEE. BUT THOU HAST A FEW NAMES IN SARDIS WHICH DID NOT DEFILE THEIR GARMENTS: AND THEY SHALL WALK WITH ME IN WHITE; FOR THEY ARE WORTHY. HE THAT OVERCOMETH SHALL THUS BE ARRAYED IN WHITE GARMENTS ; AND I WILL IN NO WISE BLOT HIS NAME OUT OF THE BOOK OF LIFE, AND I WILL CON- FESS HIS NAME BEFORE MY FATHER, AND BEFORE HIS ANGELS. HE THAT HATH AN EAR, LET HIM HEAR WHAT THE SPIRIT SAITH TO THE CHURCHES,” ‘“ AND TO THE ANGEL OF THE CHURCH IN LAODICEA, WRITE: ‘* THESE THINGS SAITH THE AMEN, THE FAITHFUL AND TRUE WITNESS, THE BEGINNING OF THE CREATION OF GOD: I KNOW THY WORKS, THAT THOU ART NEITHER COLD NOR HOT: I WOULD THOU WERT COLD OR HOT, SO BECAUSE THOU ART LUKEWARM, AND NEITHER HOT NOR COLD, I WILL SPEW THEE OUT OF MY MOUTH. BECAUSE THOU SAYEST, IAM RICH, AND HAVE GOTTEN RICHES, AND HAVE NEED OF NOTHING ; AND KNOWEST NOT THAT THOU ART WRETCHED, AND MISERABLE, AND POOR, AND BLIND, AND NAKED : I COUNSEL THEE TO BUY OF ME GOLD REFINED BY FIRE, THAT THOU MAYEST BECOME RICH ; AND WHITE GARMENTS THAT THOU MAYEST CLOTHE THYSELF, AND that THE SHAME OF THY NAKEDNESS BE NOT MADE MANIFEST ; AND EYESALVE TO ANOINT THINE EYES, THAT THOU MAYEST SEE, AS MANY ASI LOVE, I REPROVE AND CHAS- TEN: BE ZEALOUS THEREFORE, AND REPENT. BEHOLD, I STAND AT THE DOOR AND KNOCK : IF ANY MAN HEAR MY VOICE AND OPEN THE DOOR, I WILL COME IN TO HIM, AND WILL SUP WITH HIM, AND HE WITH ME. HE THAT OVER- COMETH, I WILL GIVE TO HIM TO SIT DOWN WITH ME IN MY THRONE, AS I ALSO OVERCAME, AND SAT DOWN WITH MY FATHERIN HIS THRONE. HE THAT HATH AN EAR, LET HIM HEAR WHAT THE SPIRIT SAITH TO THE CHURCHES,” RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. 203 ep cn eee etl lL Sita Re ak PAu UOTE Oe. Ei ts A LXI.—EMPIRICISM AND EVOLUTIONISM VERSUS INTUITION- ALISM AND CREATIONISM. THE various schools of Philosophy and Science—rather of scientific-Philosophy or of philosophical-Science—are now, more eagerly than ever, contending for Truth as indicated by such methods as those above named. Renascent Chris- tianity, here, as on questions of Theology and of Ecclesiasti- cism in general, occupies the middle ground. Intuition is accumulated experience: and the accumulated experience of all the past plus the experience of the present life (the present incarnation of the human individual) is what is called empiricism. Evolution is gradual unfolding ; and gradual unfolding is the one and only observed method of Creation. So, of the empiricist and of the dutuitionalist, of the evolutionist and of the creationist, we may say: ‘ You are both right and both wrong, the Truth lies between you.” All knowledge of Truth comes, ever has and must come, to man from the gradual experience of the individual in con- nection with the systematized experience of the race. The Universe, in all its parts and details, is forever a gradual un- Solding and becoming rather than suddenly created or super- naturally perfected—i. e., mechanically produced and con- trolled. The experience of the individual hitched on to the Sys- tematized experience of Mankind, and individual unfoldings added to the (scientifically observed) unfoldings of the Uni- verse, this is, seemingly, the true method of Human Knowl- edge and the only one that is adequate or wise. From such interpretations of Man and the Universe many luminous and helpful teachings have come. Chief among them are the following dzstinctions which bear directly upon the general method and contents of this volume: (2) Traditional or “orthodox” Christianity, from the Fourth Century downward, has been based on one or an- other form of what is now called zztudztionalism in Philosophy and (mechanical or supernatural) creationism in Science. Its attitude has been, is, and must be face-backward. On the 204 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY, other hand Materialism and Agnosticism, in all their forms, have always been based on what are now called empiricism and evolutionism. Their attitude has been, is, and must be face-forward. Primitive Christianity and its present revival, which we call renascent Christianity, being essentially eclec- tic, is based on the common truths of both sides and of all sides. Hence its attitude was in the beginning, is now, and must be Janus-like—doth backward and forward. It avoids extremes, rejects mere speculations (philosophic, scientific, and theologic alike) and combines into one ever-accreting and hence ever-living and ever-growing System, all verifiable facts of human experience and observation. It looks with- in and without, up and down, backward and forward, yes, and all around (‘see that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise”) and whatever it sees, and is sure it sees, that it accepts—and nothing else. It includes origins and results, the past avd the future, the descent of man azd the ascent, experience avd intuition, evolution and creation, the termi- nus a quo avd the terminus ad quem. The questions of traditional Christianity on the one hand and of Materialism and Agnosticism on the other are important; but primitive Christianity revived (that is renascent Christianity) includes them all—simply because it, and it only, is eclectic. As to methods, the one extreme says: In order to know truth and avoid errors pray. The other extreme says: Prayer is super- stitious and useless—think. Eclecticism says: Pray and think—the two great commandments are, first, Thou shalt think and, second, Thou shalt pray (“Watch and pray”); on these two commandments hang all the laws of safety and of salvation; ¢he two must go together ; each is a hemi- sphere, incomplete and worse than useless without the other. Again, one extreme teaches: Avoid the evil zz order to attain the good. The other extreme teaches: Seek the good zz order to escape the evil. Eclecticism says: “ Abhor that which is evil and cleave to that which is good, : prove all things and hold fast that which is good.” Error is the only evil and Truth is the only good, abhor that and love this with all thy mind as well as with all thy heart: so RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. 205 shalt thou walk in safety and attain to a present and perpet- ual experience of Eternal Life. But, zake notice ; abhor- rence of Error and love of Truth is not passionate desire to get the beliefs of others overthrown and my own beliefs confirmed ; rather is it passionate desire to get all shams over- thrown and all vealitzes confirmed—even should it involve the shattering of all my systems and the establishment of those I now deem heretical or false. Let se/f be forgotten, let systems be excluded, let nothing be hated but shams and nothing desired but vealitzes; thus, and only thus, canst thou follow Jesus the Christ and attain the experience of his promise “Ye shall know Truth and Truth shall make you irecen (2) A second difference is that of /zberty as distinguished from slavery to Law on the one hand and slavery to Logic on the other ; this is categorical bondage and that dogmatic, this is called Consistency of Thought and that Conformity of Belief. Both alike are enslaving to mind and heart, and the Eclecticism of renascent Christianity breaks off the fet- ters and exclaims “ Stand fast therefore in the liberty where- with Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.” Traditional Christianity commands all to delzeve what has always been believed—“ the faith once delivered to the saints.” Materialism and Agnosticism alike command all to think what the laws of thought compel—“ The Categorical wmperative.’ Eclecticism (which is true Christianity) rejects both the “ once delivered’ of Dogmatism and the “ impera- tive” of Logic; it commands nothing, but “ Be pure in heart’ and “ He that hath ears to hear, let him hear;” it condemns all yokes of Belief and burdens of Consistency, and commends in their place the yoke of Love and the burden of Duty—“‘ Come unto me all that are weary (with yokes of Traditional Belief) and heavy laden (with Categorical Im- peratives) and I will give you rest.” In soul-life as in body-life and mind-life fluency is essential to health and happiness. When the respiratory, circulatory or other normal motions of the body are obstructed there 206 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. result distress and disease. When normal intellectual pro- cesses are interrupted there result mental distress and dis- ease. So, and in like manner, spiritual distress and disease result from any obstruction or restraint of the normal inves- tigations or aspirations of the soul. Fluency, in other words Sreedom, is essential to Soul-life as it is to body-life and mind-life. Hence any authority, creed, or book imposed as wnfallible and binding upon the Soul throttles and enslaves it—chokes its respiration, impedes its activities and ulti- mately produces disease and distress. No such imposi- tions were made or permitted by Jesus the Christ, or by Apostolic Christianity :—no forced options, no compelled convictions, but (as the Book of Common Prayer well states it) “ perfect freedom.” The formulated beliefs of renascent Christianity, like those of primitive Christianity, must not be strait-laced, must not divide “heresy” from “orthodoxy” by any sharp-drawn line. ‘There must be left over and above the proposition to be subscribed, ‘ubzque, semper, et ab omnibus, another realm into which the stifled soul may escape from pedantic scruples and indulge zts own faith at its own risks.” So taught the Founder of Christianity: “Why, even of yourselves judge ye not what is right? . . . Man, who made me a ruler or adivider over you? . . . Neither do I condemn thee. . . . I judge no man.” So taught also the chief Apostle: “Brethren, ye have been called unto liberty. . . . Who art thou that judg- est another man’s servant ? To his own Master hestandeth or falleth, . . . Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. . . . Every one of us shall give account of himself to God. . . . Let us not therefore judge one another any more.”’ (c) A third and final difference is the following: Material- ism and Agnosticism alike are forever asking the old ques- tion of Pilate (half-doubtingly and half-sneeringly) What is Truth? and, because they ask it of empiricism and of evolu- tionism alone, no satisfying answer has ever yet come to them. On the other hand Traditionalism (of every sort) KENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. 207 has forever asked the same question of zutuztionalism and of creationism alone; and, as a consequence, have received nothing but the ancient half-answer (with which none but dormant minds and stagnant souls can be satisfied)—“ Truth is a deposit long ago and once for all supernaturally made.” Eclecticism, in the form of primitive and of renascent Christi- anity, asks the question of Experience aud of Intuition, of Evolution avd of Creation; and, from the combined voices, receives the reply: “Truth is God zmminent and incarnate both in Nature and in Man—the eternal Logos always self- revealing.” New light ever makes new truth. To believe that any phase of Truth that mankind has yet observed is abso- lute, final, and unchangeable is “A weakness of our na- ture from which we should free ourselves as fast as we can. . . . I sincerely believe that this course is the only one we can follow as reflective men, . . . to besurewe must go on experiencing and thinking over our experiences, for only thus can our opinions grow more true ; but to hold any one of them—TI absolutely do not care which—as if it never could be reinterpretable or corrigible, I believe to be a tremendously mistaken attitude; and I think that the whole history of philosophy will bear me out.” These are recent words of one whom we all revere as our highest living authority in the reverent and broad interpreta- tions of Philosophy and Science from the theistic stand- point—a venerable and venerated Professor in Harvard University. They only confirm what true Eclecticism has always taught, namely :—Truth, though in its substance un- changeable, in its Jogos or self-revealings is manifold and progressive: its phases are (like itself) infinite and always adapted to the expanding powers of the finite mind and the increasing immaculateness of the human heart. Therefore it must be self-evident that Mew light ever makes new truth. Also it follows; as a method, that The desire for Truth is what brings tts self-revealings. The more eager and persist- ent the desire, the quicker and more fully will Truth come. Ardent desire is the soul’s effective wooing of Truth; she 208 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY, flies to the arms of those who ardently desire her. As Jesus said “Be asking” (ask eagerly and persistently), “‘be seek- ing ”’ (in the same way), “be knocking” (in the same way), and “ye shall receive, ye shall find, it shall be opened unto you.” For to every one who has ever ¢hus asked, sought, and knocked, Truth has responded with assuring and loving self-revelations. LXII.—TENDENCIES TO REVERT AND TO DEGENERATE HISTORICALLY CONFIRMED. OuT of thousands of historic confirmations of the main theory and warning of this volume, that of the reversions and degenerations of Christianity, we will here notice but one. In 1485, the Pope who is known as Innocent VIII. issued a bull enjoining the persecution of the Waldenses, even to their extermination. He, as the mouthpiece of God, promised absolution for this life and highest seats in Para- dise to whatever rogues, sensualists, or outlaws who should profess the Catholic Faith and join to exterminate the here- tics. Asaresult, writes a Vaudois historian: ‘‘ There is no town in Piedmont where some of our brethren have not been put to death. Jordan Terbano was burnt alive at Susa; Hippolite Rossiero at Turin; Michael Sonato, an octogenarian, at Sarcena; Vilermin Ambrosio hanged on the Col di Meano; Hugo Chiambs of Fenestrelli, had his entrails torn from his living body at Turin; Peter Gaymoroli of Bobbio in like manner had his entrails taken out in Lu- cerna, and a fierce cat thrust in their place to torture him further; Maria Romano was buried alive in Rocco Patia; Magdalena Teauno underwent the same fate at San Gio- vanni; Susana Michelini was bound hand and foot, and left to perish of cold and hunger on the snow at Sarcena; Bartholomeo Foche, gashed with sabres, had the wounds filled up with quicklime, and perished thus in agony at Fenilo; Daniel Michelini had his tongue torn out at Robo for having praised God; James Boridari, perished covered with sulphurous matches which had been forced into his RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. 209 Se flesh, in his nostrils, mouth, and all over the body, and then lighted. Daniel Rovelli had his mouth filled with gun- powder, which being lighted, blew his head to pieces. Sarah Rostignol was split open from the legs to the bosom, and left so to perish on the road between Eyral and Lu- cerna; Anna Charbonnier was impaled and carried thus on a pike from San Giovanni to La Torre "—and much more of the same sort. Other historians of that period record numerous similar facts such as these :—“In one year (1485) forty women were executed in Burbia as being bewitched or possessed of the Devil.” “Peasants in the vicinity of Déles were authorized,by parliamentary license, to hunt, as wild beasts, men, women, and children afflicted with the disease of Demonomania, who were called Werewolves.” “In the electoral see of Tréves, within a few years, six thousand five hundred men were executed as enchanted, bewitched, and possessed of the Devil.” “The ministers held it to be imperatively requisite to bring the whole power of justice against devil-worshippers ; hundreds of human beings were burnt or incarcerated. The judges worked the rack actively in order to get complete confessions from the bewitched and from those who were supposed to be sold to the Devil.” The Church itself sowed the seed and richly fertilized it through its supersti- tious Dogmas and fanatical Teachings; then, when the crop of heretics and of fanatics appeared it proceeded to torture them or to cut off their heads. All this at the beginning of the Sixteenth Century. And it is only a fragment of what has been done, zx the name of Christ, by Protestants and by Patriarchists, as well as by Papists, from the Athana- sian triumph at Nicewa down to this day! The latest out- croppings of the same degenerate spirit are such e¢ ceteras as the Andover and Union Theological Seminary Heresy Trials; denominational exclusions of “open communion- ists;” sectarian excommunications of those who doubt the saving power of Atoning Blood; Papal Edicts and Pastoral Letters dictating exactly what all “true Churchmen” must hold and teach; the bitter reproaches and threatenings 14 210 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. of “Orthodoxy” poured forth upon the devoted heads and consecrated lives of such reformers of to-day as were the late Phillips Brooks and Professor Drummond, and as are Dr. Watson, Dr. Abbott, Professor Harper, and other con- servative leaders of the New Criticism—to say nothing of the unceasing condemnations and crucifixions of Unitarians and of all others who question the Supreme Deity of Jesus the Christ, on the ground that he never called himself nor in the New Testament is called by any higher name than that of Son of Man and Son of God. Almost every daily newspaper brings some account of Heresy-persecutions. On the date of this writing appears the following : ‘‘ The Protestant Episcopal Bishop of , who is generally beloved for his virtues, esteemed for his talents, and admired as one who has the courage of his convictions, is accused of heresy by no less than fifty local ministers of all Evangelical Sects. Formal charges have been drawn up and signed by these ministers, and great excitement over the matter prevails in all the religious circles of the State. Denial of the Trinity, of the miraculous birth of Christ, and of bodily Resurrection are the main charges.” Degenerate Christianity has out-paganed Paganism in its bigotry, intolerance and persecutions for full fifteen hundred years past. Even Mohammedanism can hardly show so bitter and bloody a record. But ’t is ever thus—the higher the attainment the deeper the fall, the more lofty the genxuzne Religion the more ignominious its corruption and decay. In an article on the late Professor Harry Drummond by “‘ Ian Maclaren” in the May number of the 7%e North American Review the following passage occurs, which is of special interest as bearing upon the recent heresy trial of its author by the synod of the English Presbyterian Church : ‘When one saw the unique and priceless work which he (Dr. Drummond) did, it was inexplicable that the religious world should have cast this man, of all others, out, and have lifted up its voice against him. Had religion so many men of bountiful and winning life, so many thinkers of wide range and genuine culture, so many speakers who could move young men by hundreds towards the kingdom of God that she could afford to have the heart to withdraw her confi- dence from Drummond? Was there ever such madness and irony before heaven as good people lifting up their testimony and writing articles against this most gracious disciple of the Master, because they did not agree with him about certain things he said or some theory he did not teach, while the world lay around them in unbelief and selfishness, and sorrow and pain? ‘ What can be done,’ an eminent evangelist once did me the honor to ask, ‘to heal the RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. 211 Seta arr ey ne EE Eee MNES tad breach between the religious world and Drummond,’ and I dared to reply that in my poor judgment the first step ought to be for the religious world to repent of its sins and make amends to Drummond for its bitterness, The evangelist said it was unlikely to do any such deed, and I did not myself remember any instance of repentance on the part of the Pharisees,” A recent correspondent of “ The Observer,” a Presbyterian Journal of New York, has discovered the fatal defect in Pro- fessor Drummond’s Theology. He attended some of his lec. tures and “in one of them” erroneous views were presented with reference to the Doctrine of the Atonement! The same Journal, commenting on the large number of persons re- cently admitted to membership in Plymouth Church, Brook- lyn, exclaims: “ A mere roster of converts means little unless we know what sort of converts they are!” This isthe same remark long and often made “ by skeptics and scoffers ” with reference to the sum-totals of professed Christians as prof- fered evidences of the truth of Christianity, and in criticism of the argument from numbers for the superiority or spiritual worth of any particular church or sect. And it is as perti- nent in the latter case as in the former. In either case and in all cases “a mere roster of converts,” though it should amount to millions or hundreds of millions of names, is no certain evidence of truth or worth. Non multa, sed multum —not many, but much; not quantity, but quality. “And Jew there be that find it.” LXIII.—THE PRESENT DEGENERATION OF OUR CHURCHES. AT a recent Bi-Centennial Jubilee of Trinity Church in New York City a well-known Episcopal Rector was brave enough to say, as reported by the Daily Newspapers :— “The great sin of to-day is that of giving too much promin- ence to the rich in our Churches.” “ During my 15 years in New York I have seen the city’s population south of Fourteenth street, increased by the addition of 100,000 souls. In the same period I have witnessed the sad specta- cle of 19 churches moving farther uptown. Can any man be blind to the fact that it has been and is the policy, nolens 212 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. volens, to take spacious churches away from the people who most urgently need them?” “ Another thing we want zs freedom of speech in our pulpits. We hem and haw; we wait foracue. The times in which we live demand some- thing more than that. Let our clergymen be beyond the control of monetary considerations.” He might well have continued his criticisms, and given them especial emphasis, in application to four main and growing evils in all the Protestant Sects, vzz.- Proprietor- ship of Pews, Rich Men’s Churches and Poor Men’s Churches, Fat-salaries and Starving-salaries, and Sensational-Worship instead of Gospel-Worship. (2) No Church is worthy to be called Christian in which there is a square foot of space that is not open to all alike without any stzpulated price. (6) No Church is worthy to be called Christian in which the rich and the poor do not meet together with fraternal and cordial recognitions. (c) No Church is worthy to be called Christian which per- mits what are known asits “ popular’ and “ talented ”’ minis- ters to feast while those who fail to attain these flattering distinctions must fast. As the first ministers of Christ had “all things in common,” so always should there be a’ com- mon fund from which all who are received as ministers of Christ should have a community of support, justly propor- tioned to their several circumstances and needs. No one should have more, and no one less, than what might fairly be called a comfortable livelihood. Such a method would be truly Christian and would effectually forestall that wide- spread bribery—in the way of luxurious salaries and large perquisites—which now ties tongues, seals lips, and elicits soft words and smooth flatteries, from what is called the Pulpit. (2) And finally :—No Church is worthy to be called Chris- tian which rejects the simplicity, fervor, plainness, and pointedness of Gospel-Worship—as pictured and patterned in the New Testament—substituting in its place the Sensa. tional Worship of noise or of novelty, of elaborate ritual or of mere esthetic effect. A// of these ave sensational; the xozse RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. 213 eee of the Salvation Army, the novelty of the Pulpit-Crank, the pageant of the elaborate Ritual and the studied softness and soothingness of the Program of Service—all alike are Sensation and not Gospel. No true Christian Church ever has toler. ated them or ever will; it is only degenerate Christianity that can devise or welcome them. Whenever our Clergy will vigorously attack these “four main and growing evils in all the Protestant Sects” and con- tinue the attack till they are somehow remedied, Christianity will spring up anew and begin again to be the same reform- ing and regenerating power in all the world that it was in the Apostolic age and in the two succeeding centuries. To the plea for more moderate salaries and fewer perqui- sites for ministers of the Rich-men’s Churches and more equalized support for all the Clergy in general, it is com- monly objected that “superior talent and worth should have superior pay.” To which we reply: “What then! Is the reward of Virtue, bread?” 1s money “the measure of the man’? In these money-grasping, every-thing-by-money-measuring days, ’t is a shame that any- one called a minister of Christ should be found grasping with the rest ; should allow his “talent and worth”’ to be meas- ured and rewarded by money, or by anything that money can procure. Magnificent church edifices, fashionable con- gregations, exquisite music, enriched rituals, elegant par- sonages, and parson’s pockets filled with gold are foreign enough from Gospel Christianity. But when they indicate “superior talent and worth” it is high time for some Clergy- rebukes and Clergy-reforms similar to those of nineteen cen- turies ago when money and applause, as measures of talent and worth, were rejected and trodden under foot: when one who “had his raiment of camels’ hair, and a leather girdle about his loins, and his meat was locusts and wild honey,” dared to say to his would-be aristocratic parishioners, “ O, generation of vipers”; when one who had “ not where to lay his head” said, of the magnificent temple with its mag- nificent ritual, crowds of formalistic worshippers, pompous priests and overflowing treasury : ‘ Not one stone shall remain 214 KENASCENT ‘CHRISTIANIT Y, upon another that shallnot be throwndown . . . hypo- crites, that pray to be seen of men . . . hypocrites, that do alms that ye may have glory of men . . . hypo- crites, that minister for earthly reward . . ._ behold, your house is left unto you desolate”; when one who had renounced the highest positions and worldly promises of his ancestral “‘ Orthodoxy,” and wrought daily at tent-mak- ing that his ‘‘own hands”’ might minister to his “ necessi- ties” said: ‘ Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one, thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned to whom gave we place by subjection, no, not for an hour . . . those who seemed to be somewhat, whatso- ever they were, it maketh no matter to me; God accepteth no man's person . . . and when Peter was come to An- tioch, I withstood zm to the face, because he was to be blamed . . . and the other Jews adssembled likewise with him . . . but when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the Gospel, I said unto Peter before them all . . . I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me”’; when, in short, all those ministers of the Gospel whom the world now delights to honor were, like their Divine Master, “good shepherds” who came not for salary or applause but to “lead out,” to ‘go before,” and to “‘ lay down their lives, for the sheep.” Moreover it zs xot true that the highest “talent and worth”’ are found in what the world calls the “ highest places ’—any more in the Church than elsewhere. The discouragements, difficulties, and many-sided requirements of the obscure Mission, or of the humble Country Parish develop and (if faithfully responded to) indicate higher “talent and worth”’ than those required, or usually found, in the well-equipped Rich-men’s Parishes where everything moves along of its own accord. Here money is superabundant for all desired external- ities, hundreds of hands are ready to co-operate in all fashion- able or formalistic work, the attractions of exquisite music RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. 215 Sr da and of luxurious surroundings avail to draw and hold the crowds, to be a member and especially a “ communicant ” of such a Church is both reputable and profitable ; nothing then is needed or (in most cases) is even acceptable in the line of “talent and worth” on the part of the minister beyond superior attractiveness of person, manners, and voice in con- nection with unusual adaptations as a manager, a diplomat, and a patron of those who constitute “aristocratic” society. In addresses delivered at the Centennial Services of a New England Parish the following significant facts, relative to one of its first and most ‘‘ distin- guished” pastors, were mentioned :—As a young man of twenty-six years he officiated as candidate at Church, The Committee reported, ‘‘ he pares an apple and lights a pipe more like a gentleman than any of the other candi- dates”—and so he was chosen. His subsequent popularity is suggested when we read, ‘* The richest shippers of the city and their negro servants made up the congregations chiefly.” Still more so when we learn that the Church and its pastor remained neutral throughout the War of the Revolution ; and that their successors and descendants in the same city zealously defended Slavery and bitterly opposed the Anti-Slavery leaders. While no burning words of protest against popular wrong or in advocacy of unpopular right are quoted we find such quotations as this : ‘‘ We madea fine appearance as we walked together in our gowns and cassocks.” Not in Roman Catholic, Greek Catholic, and Anglican or Protestant Episcopal Churches alone are such tests of ‘‘ talent and worth” found ; but in all the Sects they are beginning to prevail widely. “Verily I say unto you They have their reward ”—and let them have it; only let them not have a/so the undeserved rewards of being exalted, both as those “who seem to be pillars ” and as those of “superior talent and worth,” above their brethren who are faithful ministers of Christ in obscure or humble stations. As to the relative requirements of large and rich Churches on one hand and of small and poor ones on the other, the author is speaking from his own long experience as well as wide observation. Of the thirty continuous years of his ministry, the first fifteen were spent as Pastor of unusually large, intelligent, and wealthy (but, fortunately, not in any marked degree “fashionable” or “ aristocratic”) Parishes; the last fifteen years have been spent as Rector of small and poor Parishes. Whatever “talent and worth” he has, were both developed and demanded ss in the first fifteen years 216 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. than in the last; and, if he has any “treasure in Heaven”’ it has accumulated chzefly during this latter period, when, with- out any especial regard to “money or price” he has tried to be true to that sign and seal of genuine Christianity which its Founder himself authorized :—‘‘ The poor have the Gospel preached to them.” To the Clergy at large, as well as to the World at large, how deeply hidden, as yet, is the meaning of those words of Jesus, “Verily I say unto you, they have their reward” ; and again (as if in explanation) “ There be many that are first that shall be last and many that are last shall be first.”’ LXIV.—TRUE TO ONE'S OWN SELF AND WORKING IN ONE’S OWN WAY. THE following passage is from the Table-talk of Luther :— *T am radical, plain-spoken, boisterous and disposed to be warlike. I seem born to contend against innumerable mon- sters and devils. It seems my mission to remove stumps and stones, cut away thistles and thorns, and clear the wild forests; then Master Philippus (Melanchthon) comes along, softly and gently, sowing and watering according to the gifts which God has bestowed upon hzm.” So it was, that each was contented to do his own work. It should ever be thus: Every man true to himself and faithfully putting to use whatever gift God has bestowed upon zm. The radical and plain-spoken Peter must not try to copy John: if he does his Master will rebuke him and say, “‘ What is that to thee? follow thou me.” Paul must content himself with planting and leave Apollos to water. Transposing some well-known words, “You want to be like everybody else; don’t do it; one’s enough.” Be yourself; and permit every other one to be himself. Do your own work; and do it in your own way—leaving results to Him who rules and over- rules. Without the radicalism and sharp-speech of Peter, Paul, and Luther the conservatism and soft-speech of John, Apollos, and Melanchthon would have been as water falling upon a rock or as seed scattered upon unploughed ground. RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. 217 The Peters, Pauls, and Luthers of the world—being called to agitate, protest, and reform——-must always be ready to ac- cept the martyr’s obloquy and shame; but, in the midst of their essential unpopularity, they may comfort themselves by believing that “in duetime,” their words will be accepted and their methods approved. They who sow in tears, doubt- less shall come with joy at the harvest, bringing their sheaves with them. After many days, they who cast their bread upon the waters shall find it. At any rate they must scatter their seed, speak their word, do their deed as Conscience bids them: “ When Duty whispers low, ‘thou must,’ Ay be) The soul replies, ‘[ can’ :”’— I can and I wé/, leaving the results to Him who rules and overrules. “With the vision of certain duties to be done, of certain outward changes to be wrought or resisted—no matter how we succeed in doing them—do them we somehow must: for the leaving of them undone is perdition. No matter how we feel; if we are only fatthful—the world will in so far be safe, and we quit of our debt toward it. Take, then, the yoke upon our shoulders; bend our neck beneath the heavy legality of its weight; regard something else than our feelings as our limit, our master, and our law; be will- ing to ‘live and die in its service,—and, at a stroke, we have passed from the subjective into the objective philoso- phy of things; much as when one awakens from some fever- ish dream, full of bad sights and noises, to find one’s self bathed in the sacred coolness and quiet of the air of the night.” LXV.—A RIGHTEOUS DISREGARD OF PUBLIC OPINION. THE terms Dissenter, Schismatic, Heterodox, Heretic, Un- believer, Infidel, Atheist, Servant of Beelzebub, Child of the Devil are all synonymous in the popular conception and speech. In every nation, religion, and age this has been so. 218 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. It is as truly, though not as intensely, so now and here as formerly and elsewhere. The commonly accepted opinion whatever it may be, is, always and everywhere, called Ortho- doxy. The true Religion, as also the true standards in Society and in State, is supposed to be whatever the masses dictate and delight in. The voice of the Populace is ac- cepted as the voice of God. Stand with the majority, and you stand presumably on the Lord’s side. Count the votes, and the overwhelming suffrage is thought to indicate the absolute and final Truth. Say what your constituents want you to say (and will pay you well to say) and you are be- lieved to speak as “the Spirit giveth utterance.” Above all things be popular; for the favor of men is considered to be the same thing as the favor of God. “Shout with the mob —if there be two, shout with the largest one” :—thus you will be called a Conformist and a member of the True Church. If you do otherwise you will be a Dissenter, a Schismatic—and all the rest, as named above. All observing travellers and all intelligent historians tell us that this is everywhere and always so—in every Nation, in every Society, in every Religion. Moreover the more barbarous the Nation, the more uncivilized the Society, the more irrational the Religion the more widely and persistently is it so. Considering this fact the true disciple of Jesus always hears a Voice saying to him, ‘‘ What is that to thee? follow thou me.” It is so natural to inquire, What thinks this one and that? What is the belief of the multitude? What is the opinion of the majority? The New Testament answer is: Why, even of yourselves judge ye not what is right? Enter ye in at the strait gate and narrow way though few there be that find it. Blessed are ye when men shall revile you, and persecute you, for my sake; for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. Even if wife or husband, parents, children, kindred, friends, and all the world oppose you, still take the cross and follow me. The simple meaning of all such Bible teachings is this :— Conform if you can conform zxtelligently and sincerely, but otherwise bravely accept the Dissenter’s reproach and shame. RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. 219 Be “ orthodox” if you can be zutelligently and sincerely, but otherwise follow Jesus even to Gethsemane and the Cross. “What ts that to thee ? follow thou me.” Said a popular critic to one of our greatest nineteenth- century poets, in criticism of a poem he was about to pub- lish, ‘‘ That will never do.” The poet replied, “It must do; I know very well that it will be unpopular, but zt must do.” The martyr-spirited clergyman of the Church of England, whom everybody knows as author of The Eternal Hope, published and circulated that “heretical” volume, (in his own words) “perfectly well aware of the gravity of what I was doing. At last it had become my duty to express my convictions unmistakably. ‘While I was musing the fire burned, and at last I spoke with my tongue.’ I felt con- strained to publicly repudiate doctrines which had been almost universally professed and proclaimed by Christians for fifteen hundred years. I knew that to do so was an act that would cost me dear . . . that I could not escape the most savage animadversions. The odium theologicum is as virulent and anti-Christain in this day as it ever was. The religious newspapers are often as unfair and remorseless as the Inquisition itself. . . . A leading clergyman of London said to me, ‘ You have spoken out what nearly every- one of us secretly believe’; and yet it soon began to rain de- nunciations. I was assailed in scores of pamphlets; annihi- lated in hundreds of reviews ; lectured against by University professors; anathematized by Anglicans, Baptists, and Meth- odists. The refutations, the replies, the revilings would alone filla small library. . . . Suchisthe ‘eternal spirit of the populace’ . . . the anathema Maranatha of tra- ditional and partisan theologians.” Such is a single one out of very many recent illustrations. To proclaim and try to promulgate (or even to quietly pro- fess) opinions that are not “orthodox”’ (i. e., popular) is almost as much of a reproach, requiring a martyr-spirit to endure, in the Church of to-day as in that of the so-called Dark Ages; and among Christians almost as persistently as among Moslems, Buddhists, and other Pagans. It is the 220 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. same old intolerance of Orthodoxy that has prevailed through all the ages back to the Sabbath Day upon which transpired this which follows: “And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath; and rose up and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill where- on their city was built, that they might cast him down head- long.” Let us all pray for that heroic grace of Jesus—A righteous disregard of popular opinion. LXVI.—THE GOLDEN MEAN OF CONTROVERSY. THERE is a world of wisdom in the homely words of that landlord (portrayed in one of our finest modern works of Fiction) who used to close the hot and prolonged debates of the famous literary patrons of his Inn with the excla- mation, “ Ye are both right and both wrong, gentlemen! the truth lies ’atween ye, the truth lies ’atween ye.” It was only a plainer way of stating the old lesson of Scylla and Charybdis—hold to the mid-stream, avoid extremes, occupy the Golden Mean. The author of this volume is, and long has been a believer in the Golden Mean of all intelligently and sincerely contro- verted opinions. In all intelligent and sincere controversy each side and every side presents both partial Truth and partial Error. Indeed a fraction or fragment of Truth taken for the whole Truth is Error: and the only way to overcome this kind of Error is to add fraction to fraction, fragment to fragment by the eclectic or inclusive (instead of the radical or exclusive) method. Controversy ceases when extreme (that is exclusive) posi- tions are abandoned. When each says to all and all say to each, “‘ Truth is broader than any of our systems, broader than all our systems and includes them all; come and let us reason together ’’—then destruction ends and construction begins. In polemic periods extremes are forced upon those who RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. 221 oes AiR a Se ak amid A Lok uel arse ie, VO Dice Laas MA eagerly desire to destroy some particular error: but when that error is destroyed, those who eagerly desire to construct Truth in its place abandon extremes, and select their material for construction from both sides and all sides. That is, they become eclectzcs and are no longer partisans. They discard self-made or party-made systems and as soon as they do this, find to their joy that “everything fits in.” Truth as seen from all sides—everybody an observer, everybody a helper, everybody a “‘ Witness for the Lord ”—is what they now care for. They have ceased to defend systems and seek nothing but Truth. And Truth is infinite; co-exten- sive with the Infinite One, of whom it is the eternal and uni- versal Logos, or Word, or Revelation. This, in Religion as in every other department of human thought, is the constructive method. This is Eclecticism, or the Golden Mean. Such has been the method of this volume. The author, adhereing to no party or sect, has sought to draw from all parties and all sects whatever is pure, and beautiful, and good. He believes that the common truths of all Religions constitute True Religion; that this is what Jesus the Christ and his Apostles taught; and that this is genuine Christianity. Each party or sect observes but a single side of zxfinzte-steded Truth. Assured of this no wise observer will confine himself to a party or a sect. Yesterday he stood with one group and, asa Seer, tried to see what they saw; to-day he stands with another; to-morrow he will stand with another; and so he will continue to do, if he be ¢ruly wise, ‘“‘ World without end. Amen.” The broadest of the “ Broad Churches” is the only one that he will belong to; and that must be so broad as to include in its cordial fellowship every earnest seeker and sincere lover of Truth beneath the sun. When it fails to be this, he will protest, agitate, dissent—at whatever risk of opprobrium, of poverty, or of being ‘“‘cast out.” He will gladly suffer the loss of all things and “count them but dung” rather than be separated from that love of God which was in Christ Jesus toward all who seek for Righteousness and Truth. 222 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. a cE ee Ke Flis must be the Church of the Communion Office in the Book of Common Prayer—‘“the blessed company of all faithful people.” This is an znvdszble company ; and rather than be separated in sympathy and spiritual communion from even one of these he will prefer to be cast out, from the vistble Church. For he who stands with God stands never alone, but has the happy assurance that the blessed majority are all about him. “And Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, be- hold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.” Such is true Churchmanship and true Christianity. LXVII.—FRAGMENTS. 1. Resings and Fallings of Man. ‘HUMAN History always has been and doubtless will long continue to be a succession of risings and fallings of Man, a series of “‘ Paradise” lost and regained. In the language of Evolutionary-science—“ Struggles for Existence” resulting in more or less lofty attainments, followed by Inaction and con- sequent decline: ‘“ Survival of the Fittest’ in some ennobled characters who create and lead an epoch, thena “ falling away” or reversion and degeneration of the masses. Such ever has been Human History, and such doubtless it will long con- tinue to be; not of necessity, nor of the w#// of God, but simply because the inviolable law universally prevails that, gong upward requires effort and to cease Srom effort ts to go downward. It is difficult to rise, it is easy to fall. “Inthe sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat thy bread aZ/ the days of thy life.” To cease from effort even for a day is to revert, and to revert means degeneration or going downward. “ This law the immortal gods to men have set That, none arrive at Virtue but by sweat.” This is recognized as a universal law, ceaseless and invio- lable. Effort propels and inaction repels—alike in body, mind, RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. 223 and soul: the more vigorous the effort the more rapid the ascent, the more complete the inaction the more rapid the descent. The cardinal vice, the “ besetting sin”? of Human Nature is Indolence: physically this is true, mentally still more true, and spiritually truest of all. It was this Indolence that caused the first highly evolved man and woman (whom His- tory tells us about) to degenerate. They ceased to aspire and to struggle, then they fe/7; and a period of reversion and decay succeeded both to them and to their posterity. This is the old story of Adam and Eve and The Fall of Man. The story began, though we have no wir?tten or tra- ditional records of it (plenty of geological and_ similar records) countless ages before the evolution of “ Adam and Eve”; and it has been going on, with uneceasing alterna- tions of rzseugs and fallings ever since. In “Adam's” rise we rose all ; In “Adam's” fall we fell all. For countless ages to come this will be the summarized History of Mankind, as it has been for countless ages past. Such is the corporate relation (taught by Science as fully as by Scripture) of descendants to ancestors and of ancestors to descendants forever and forever. There are no separate interests, there is no such thing as zxzdividual salvation. The human race, (from the first Amceba-to-ape-developed man up to “Adam” and from “ Adam” up to the last Kingdom-of-Heaven-established-on-Earth generation), is so bound together that—AWZ must rise together and together fall, In this sense it is true that in the first Adam’s fall ““we sinned all,” and in the second Adam’s rise we all rose. That was “death,” z¢hzs was “resurrection from the dead.” “As in Adam all died, so in Christ ave all made alive.” “TI, if I be lifted up will draw all men with me upward.” The Ameceba (or whatever other lowest form of individualized life) aspiring, and struggling to ascend, starts upon the path of “ Eternal Life”’ and carries all its progeny upward with it. The Ape (or whatever other higher form of evolving 224 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. individual life) contented, and ceasing to struggle upward, starts backward upon the path of Reversion, of Degeneration, or of “Eternal Death” and carries all its offspring down- ward with it. Such are the risings and fallings of Man. To be contented and to cease struggling upward is to revert, to degenerate, Zo die ; to aspire and to struggle upward is to have life, and Zo have tt more abundantly. This, in both an individual and a corporate sense, is a law seemingly universal, eternal and in- violable. To neglect it is to be “dead in trespasses and sins’’; to conform to it is ‘the Resurrection of the dead, and the Life of the world to come. Amen.” Moreover, to proclaim it, everywhere and unceasingly, is to “preach the Gospel to every creature”; to refuse to thus proclaim it, is to be “‘ disobedient to the heavenly vision”’ and to perish with “them that perish.’”—‘ Then shall He say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels; . . . Verily I say unto you, /nasmuch as ye did tt not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. And these shall go away into enduring punishment.” From this point of view, common to both Scripture and Science, all the evolutionary interpretations of the Universe and all the ever-alternating facts of History are clearly ex- plained. Ax inviolable law of Aspiration and of upward Struggle , conformity to this law brings ever-unfolding life and peace, non-conformity brings the opposite. This explains all. All the oly precepts of Holy Books, all the Zofty maxims of Sages and Saints, all the w7se induc- tions and deductions of Philosophy and of Science as well as of Theology point to this one law—lead to it, and confirm it. “Not to the dor saint, but to the sinner becoming a saint the full length, and breadth, and heighth, and depth of life’s meanings are revealed.” Not the absence of vice, but vice there and virtue old- ing tt ever by the throat, seems the ideal human state.” The wretch languishing in the felon’s cell may be drink- ing draughts of the wine of Truth which are untasted by RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. 225 the so-called favorites of fortune who, content with luxury and selfishness, have ceased to struggle for a higher existence —both for themselves and for that Humanity of which they are an essential part. The ascent and the descent of man, the joys and sorrows of life, the achievements and failures of the human race, and all the processions and recessions of sentient forms of exist- ence beneath the sun are natural consequences of conformity or of non-conformity to Nature’s inviolable law—Thou shalt struggle and help others to struggle upward, and forever upward. 2. Fesus the Fruitage of the Ages, and the Product of His Environments. THE century which opened the Christian Era was in every way remarkable. Being such it could not fail to produce remarkable men; and, among the many remarkable men, one most remarkable of all. It was the Harvest of the Ages. The great saints, sages, and prophets of Israel; philosophers, poets, and artists of Greece; law-givers, legislators, and heroes of Rome; mystics, dreamers, and “‘ wise men” from the East (Persia, India, China) had all combined to scatter the seed which, in the first Century came to an abundant harvest. Jesus the Christ was its “first fruit,” its finest product: and his Religion became its “Garner.” The ante- cedents and environments of Jesus could not fail to produce him (in a lofty sense) any more than those of Moses, David, Isaiah, Sakya Muni, Confucius, Socrates (and hundreds more who sprang loftily forth from the teeming soil of teeming ages) could have failed to produce them. The first Century was not only one of the Golden Eras but the Golden Era: the Era of Universal Empire, Peace, Cul- ture, Refinement, Toleration, Intellectual Vigor,—of Dog- matic Decline and Religious Resurrection, of Ecclesiastical Decay and Ethical Renewal. Judea was the centre of it all; through it were travelling and in it were dwelling “ de- vout men, out of every nation under heaven.” 15 2260 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. ERS Pe PeA NE UA NA BRM ite ROL ONE Soka Out of this best prepared soil of Humanity and most teeming life of History, what a mzracle it would have been had not at least one mzraculous product issued,—one, as far superior to all others as his Era was superior (in remarkable antecedents and environments) to all the Eras which pre- ceded and succeeded it! Such a product was Jesus, mzraculous and yet entirely natural; the supreme and yet the typical and prophetic fruitage of all the ages. 3.—External Prosperity and Internal Decay. The sharp eye of him who “knew what was in men and needed not to be told”’ detected in individuals, and also in the institutions of Church and of State alike, the “dead men’s bones” within the “ garnished sepulchres ""—the un- reality or the “uncleanness”’ beneath gilded and glorious exteriors. Such zxdividuals, with whom the Temple and the Synagogues were thronged, he constantly rebuked and scorned as “ hypocrites’; and such zustztutions, never more glorious with external prosperities and pieties, he unceasingly predicted would he completely overthrown so that “not one stone should remain upon another.” In all religions and generations to this day the popular individuals and the popular institutions have been of the same kind; exteriors regarded, interiors unconsidered—ap- pearances, not actualties. This is so because popularity (in its wide or “ orthodox” sense) means the judgment of the majority; and the majorities have never yet risen to an in- tellectual, moral, or spiritual elevation sufficient to enable them to form anything but superficial judgments in these several departments. Taking advantage of this fact, self- seeking individuals and self-parading institutions have al- ways flattered the majority into believing that their vote and verdict isthe voice of God. Their vote has always been for externalities, their verdict for superficialities. So, pretentious Hypocricy has flourished, and glittering Emptiness prevailed, in State and Church alike (but in Church far more than in State) to this day. RENASCENT CORISTIANIT Y, 227 External glory may be the product of internal decay. A magnificent show of Piety may co-exist with hearts “ full of all uncleanness.” So that stately temples with thronged courts, gorgeous adornments, grand rituals, impressive cere- monies, and imposing formalities of Worship (even if abun- dant charities and humanities of the self-parading sort are added) are no certain evidences of vital soul-life in the Christianity of to-day more than they were in the Christi- anity of the fourteenth century; nor in the Christianity of the fourteenth century more than they were in magnzficently decaying Judaism at the beginning of the Christian Era. Thus far, in the history of every name and form of Re- ligion, ‘‘the zenith of formalistic Piety has ever been the nadir of ‘ Religion Pure and Undefiled.’”’ Ifsincerity be not in the heart, intelligence in the head, and love in the life the prosperities, ceremonialisms, and splendors of Religion are “only sounding brass and tinkling cymbals.” Sincerity, Intelligence, Love—these three are co-essential; “but the greatest of all is Love.” 4.—What Mankind Most Needs. Thus far, in the history of all Religions and Theologies, the greatest lack has been ¢he historic sense and the logical insight combined by which to discriminate between fact and fiction, truth and error. Blind credulity and readiness to believe ‘‘every word that is told him” without criticism, investigation, or caution has been the fatal defect of the overwhelming majorities of mankind. “Its cardinal weak- ness is to let belief follow recklessly upon lively conception, especially when the conception has instinctive liking at its Daca nee mV hatysuchepeoplesmostmneed 15 that their beliefs should be broken up and ventilated, that the north- west wind of Science should get into them and blow their sickliness and barbarism away.” The masses of men have never read the “ first and great Commandment” beyond the word heart—‘ Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart.” It is high time that 228 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. Priest-craft should not only permit but urge them to proceed to the next clause—‘and mind.’ Simply this is what Renascent Christianity insists upon. Till the “mind” is reverenced egually and put to use co-operatively with the “heart,” in the love and service both of God and of Man, it matters not how much false prophets and hireling-priests of all the degenerate Religions combined may say “ Peace, Peace !’’—in the name of God and for the welfare of Mankind Renascent Christianity will reply, There shall be no Peace ! At the date of this writing (May 12, 1897) the Mew York Times has the fol- lowing significant and not at all uncommon item: “ Mr. is one of the most worthy members of the Church at , and gives freely of his means to support it. He is a deacon, and a teacher of a Bible Class, Until a few weeks ago he was a firm supporter of the Rey. , the pastor of the church. Recently the Rev. heard that Mr. was inculcating the doctrine of an intermediate state, and he denounced the theory as heresy, Hot words passed between the men and the controversy has extended until it has involved the whole church. ‘ The names given by the newspaper are here left blank. The church is located within a hundred miles of New York City and its Pastor is called a Protestant. If it were located in Central Africa or in the South Sea Islands, or if its Pastor were a Romanist or a Mohammedan: or even if such intolerant Protestants were not the rule but rather exceptions, the circumstance might pass without notice. As it is, the least that can be said of such ‘‘ Pastors” and ‘‘ Protestants ”’ is to quote the words of the Master to similar teachers and leaders of his day: ‘* Ye have taken away the key of knowledge, ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered. . . . Blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.” 5.—Faith and Works, or Answering our own Prayers. In a section preceding it was affirmed that Eclecticism (or Renascent Christianity) combines all that is true and good in both of the opposing Systems known as Supernatur- alism and Naturalism. The relative conceptions and methods of these three dif- ferent schools of interpretation may be illustrated by the following :—A gentleman calling on friends, found a bright little girl much grieved that her brother was making a trap to catch birds. A few days later, calling again, he asked her “‘ What about the trap?” She said, “I first went out and RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. 229 told the birds not to go near the trap; but that same day one was caught. The next day I asked the Lord to keep the trap from catching them ; but it caught two before noon. Then I prayed the Lord #o help me to keep the birds from getting caught, and I went out and kicked the trap all to pieces.”’ So the Naturalist apostrophizes Nature, and awaits results; the Supernaturalist prays to the Lord, and awaits results; the Matural-Supernaturalist or Eclectic prays the Lord to help, and then goes to work vigorously and £zcks the trap to pieces. Neither Nature nor Providence ever does for man anything that he is competent to do himself, by using the faculties and powers with which he is endowed. Every man is thus endowed for the attainment of all that it is wisest for him to have in the present life; to recognize, reverence, and use to their utmost those endowments is, of ttself, Prayer. True Prayer asks for nothing (of a worldly or temporal nature) but that Indolence and Cowardice may be overcome, and that Industry and Courage may be aroused sufficient to do with one’s might whatever one’s hands find to do. To drive out Sloth and Fear and to cultivate Energy and Bravery (toward all that is true, and beautiful, and good) is to invoke both Nature and the Super- natural. Petition for the stimulus and the will to do what one ought and can is the wise man’s only (personal) prayer. This prayer he will pray with every effort and with every breath. In the same way for everything received or accom- plished, enjoyed or secured he will devoutly give thanks. Such are the Faith azd Works, the Prayer and Thanks- giving of Eclecticism, which is ¢rwe Christianity. “ Pray without ceasing: in everything give thanks.” LXVIII.—_THE SPIRIT AND NOT THE LETTER OF THE CREEDS. IN attempting to give a modern meaning to the ancient formularies of Historical Christianity, in the preceding pages, the position was taken that, in every department of 230 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. Religious Interpretation (the same as in the Bible), it is equally and ceaselessly true that “the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.”’ The scholarly and beautifully conservative book (of one of our most Christ-like modern Divines), well known as Orthodoxy, Its Truths and Errors, elaborates this position in the spirit of the New Testament. We may take a funda- mental illustration—that of the dogma of the “ Trinity.” After showing its popular errors and urging their rejection, the author says of its truth: ‘‘ The Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are not merely different names for the same thing, but they indicate three different Revelations, three different views which God has given of His character, and which taken together constitute the total Divine Represen- tation. . . . This Trinity of Manifestations is founded in the truth of things, and is also according to the teachings of the greatest Fathers of the Church. There is no ante- cedent objection to the form of the Trinity as a threefold mantfestation of the Divine Being; and we have only to ask, Is it ¢rwe asa matter of fact? Has sucha threefold mani- festation of God actually taken place? We reply that it is so. According to observation and experience, as well as to scripture, we find, such to) beithe fact.) yi Accord tam to the New Testament the Father would seem to be the source of all things: the Creator, the Fountain of being and life. The Son is spoken of as the manifestation of that Being in Jesus the Christ. The Holy Ghost is spoken of as a spiritual influence proceeding from the Father and the Son, dwelling in the hearts of believers as a source of their life—the idea of God seen in Causation, in Reason, and in Conscience—as making the very life of the soul itself. There are these three classified Manifestations of God, and we know of no others. They are distinct from each other in form, but the same inessence. They are not merely three names for the same thing, but they are real personal Mani- festations of God, real Subsistencies, since God is personally present in all of them, . . ., There is, therefore, an €s- sential truth hidden in the idea of the Trinity. While the RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY, 231 church doctrine in every form which it has hitherto taken has failed to satisfy the human zzftel/ect, the Christian heart has clung to the substance contained in them all. . . . A simple unity, as held by the Jews and Mohammedans, and by some Christian imitators, may be a da/d unity and an empty unity. This it certainly is when it shows us God withdrawn from Nature, from Christ, from the Soul; not z7zmanent, but outside of them. This is to make Nature godless; Christ merely human; the Soul a machine, moved by an external impulse, not by an inward inspiration. Such is the practical view of the Trinity, when rzghtly understood.” The substance of this citation seems to be as follows: The /etter of the doctrine of the Trinity is that there are three persons in one God; its sfzret is that there is one God in three personal Manifestations. Of all Unitarians and Trinitarians alike the common ground is that there is One God, and that He is a person in some unspeakably glorious and expanded sense of that word. This personality of God, being an infinite mystery, should only be affirmed and trusted in; it should not be defined except in its Manifesta- tions. These Manifestations, as classified, are three—in the language of Science they are Causation, Reason, and Con- science; in the language of Theology they are Father, Son, and Holy Ghost: these Three are One, or, One zs in the Three. Simply this is the spirit of the doctrine of the Mrinity edie eclseapeloncse toa thesletterwanden they letter. killeth, but the spirit giveth life.” LXIX.—MODERN USE OF ANCIENT IDEAS AND TERMS. The Philosophy of which Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and Philo were successively chief expositors (which was an Eclec- ticism of all widest learning and deepest thought of the entire world down to the first century), furnished Apostolic Christianity with many of its most effective ideas and terms. Among these were especially the following: (2) “ Logos,” or Word of God: teaching (what before had been, and even now is, but very narrowly and imper- 232 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. fectly apprehended) the Divine zazmanence in Nature and incarnation in Man; or God zz Nature and zz Man. An ever-present God, not an absentee; a speaking God, not a silent one, who spake “in the beginning” and has been speaking ever since. How forcible is all this in the sense of the common German Proverb, ** Speak that I may know you.” No other self-revelation is so real and satis- factory as Speech. Speech is not only the vehicle of Thought but is also its incarnation, Speech is Thought embodied and ‘‘ dwelling among us.” Men live in their words ; and if men, how much more He who is the One and the All! ‘‘ The Speech (Word) wasGod . . . by Him were all things made. H{e was made flesh and dwelt among us ; and we beheld His glory.” This means a God who is ere as well as everywhere and within as well as without: ‘* Whose body Nature is and God the Soul.” “ “Shines tn the stars and whispers in the breeze.” “ O ye who seek to solve the knot, Ye live in God yet know Him not.” “ Closer ts He than breathing, And nearer than hands and feet.” “ le ts not far from every one of us; for in Him we live and move, and have our being.’ “In the beginning was the Divine Self-Revealer (Word), and the Divine Self-Revealer (Word) was God. . . . All things were made by Him - . . Ln Him was life and the life was the light of Men - . . and the Divine Self Revealer (Word) was made flesh aud dwelt among us.’ ‘“TIand my Father are One... as thou Father art in me,and I in Thee, that they also may be One nus. . . . Lin them, and Thou in me, that they may be made perfect in One.” “In him (Jesus the Christ) dwelt all the fulness of the God- head bodily, . . . Know ye not that ye (also) are the tem- ples of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you ? as God hath said, I will dwell in them and walk in them.” RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. 233 po ee ee All these teachings grew out of the term Logos and the ideas unfolded from it. The term itself was in common use in all the great schools of Philosophy, especially in that of Philo. The ideas had been gradually unfolding in all the great Religions of the world, especially in the Jewish, long before the time of Socrates. The philosophers of Greece, and later of Rome, by no means originated, but only re- ceived and transmitted them. As Confucius said, “I only hand on,” so they only anded them on to the Founder and Fathers of Christianity. What is true of the term Logos and its outgrowing ideas, is likewise true of what follows. (0) “ Threefold Revelation,” or Trinity: teaching that God is zmmanent in Nature, incarnate in Man, and enthroned in Conscience. This had been taught vaguely by all the great Religions, had been made clear and emphatic by the great Philosophers, and finally became a common teaching of the Founder and Fathers of Christianity. But the term Trinity, and its dogmatic formula, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, did not come into popular use till a later century. (c) “ Twice-Born” or Born Again; teaching that degree or stage of spiritual evolution at which a man first awakens (clearly and fully) to the threefold consciousness of God, the Soul, and Eternal Life. God-Consciousness, Soul-Con- sciousness, and Eternal-Life-Consciousness ; these, one or all, could only be experienced by the “ Twice-Born.” A spzrit- ual New Birth, absolutely essential to all true knowledge of God, of Self, or of Immortality, was a fundamental teaching of all the great Philosophers from Socrates to Philo. This teaching, too, they did not originate, but only handed on with new clearness and emphasis. Christianity received it as still more a fundamental teaching and as nothing new. Hence the surprise of Jesus when he exclaimed to Nico- demus, “ Art thou a ¢eacher in Israel and knowest not these things! Ye must be born again. Truly, truly, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again he cannot see the King- dom of God.” Apostolic Christianity made this the first and chief of all its doctrines—the New Birth, or Regenera- tion, or receiving the Holy Ghost, or being made Sons of 234 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. ST or rere ree er eR Ls tlie) God, or Christ formed within, or the Kingdom of God wthin, or “the new man which after God is created in Righteousness and true Holiness,” or “hath degotten us again unto a lively Hope,” and similar terms everywhere found in the New Testament, all having a common meaning. (Z) “Altruism” or Self-denial and the Cross: teaching that complete self-consecration to God for the service of Man- kind that includes every helpful, vicarious, or atoning self- renunciation,—even to renunciation of the bodily life itself. This teaching also was fundamental with all the great Phi- losophers (in the form of Heroism and Martyrdom) and by them was handed on with new emphasis to John the Baptist, Jesus the Christ, Paul and all the other Apostles and Con- fessors of the first centuries. Such are illustrations of the ideas and terms which Apos- tolic Christianity received as a timely legacy from the great Schools of Philosophy which immediately preceded it. LXX.—IDEAS AND TERMS FURNISHED BY EVOLUTIONARY SCIENCE TO RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. In like manner Evolutionary Science (which also is a simi- lar “ Eclecticism of all widest learning and deepest thought of the entire world down to the” close of the nineteenth century) has furnished Renascent Christianity with many of its most effective ideas and terms. Among these are especially the four following : (2) “Development”; teaching the humble origin and gradual evolution of every form of organic or individualized life—physical, mental, and spiritual. (2) “Struggle for Existence”: teaching that nothing in the visible Universe (as thus far revealed) advances or can advance to its zdeal unfolding and destiny except by per- sistent effort—physical, mental, and spiritual. (c) “ Reversion”; teaching that there is, in every devel- oping form of organic or of individualized life, a strong and persistent tendency to revert (to fall back or to degenerate) to original lawless and degraded conditions—of body, or of mind, or of soul. RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. 235 (dz) “ Survival of the Fittest”; teaching that only those who struggle for existence attain, or can attain, their “ideal unfolding and destiny ”—which for Mankind, is a pure and ennobled life on Earth, issuing into self-conscious Life Eternal.* Upon these ideas and terms which Evolutionary Science has received as a “timely legacy” from all the thought and research of the past (expanded, verified, and handed on), must the Renascent Christianity of the twentieth century chiefly depend to render itself effective and widely understood. This volume has been written entirely in the spirit and phrase of these ideas and terms—which are now universally accepted in all departments of thought and of life (among highly civilized people) except in the religious. In the religious, too, they must be accepted sooner or later. To hasten their acceptance, in some even slightest measure, is the devout object and the only hoped for reward of the author of these pages. * By no means is meant, even in Science, much less in Religion, a merely self- ish INDIVIDUAL struggle to exist: but a struggle of co-operation, of fellow-feel- ing, and of general helpfulness toward all mankind ; and not only toward all mankind but also toward every sentient creature that has capacity for a higher life. A struggle to rise by helping others to rise—helping everywhere and always; this is what is meant by that Struggle for Existence which resulis in Survival of the Fittest, 1. e., of all who are FIT to survive. The gold-paved, pearl-gated Heavens of the popular religions filled with harp- playing, self-pleasing and self-conceited “ saints” are—in the words of a revered and well-known essayist— lubberlands, pure and simple, one and all tedium vite is the only sentiment they awaken in our breasts. To our crepuscu- lar natures, born for the conflict, the Rembrandtesqgue moral chiaroscuro, the shifting struggle of the sunbeam in the gloom, such pictures of light upon light are vacuous and expressionless, and neither to be enjoyed nor understood. “Tf this be the whole fruit of the victory, we say s t if the generations of mankind suffered and laid down their lives ; if prophets confessed and martyrs sang in the fire, and all the sacred tears were shed for no other end than that a race of creatures of such unexampled insipidity should succeed, and protract in secula seculorum their contented and inoffensive (useless) lives,—why, at such a rate, better lose than win the battle ; or at all events better ring down the curtain before the last act of the play, so that a business that began so importantly may be saved from so singularly flat a winding up.” What is really meant by Survival of the Fittest is, an endless continuance of aspiration and (of its essential accompaniment) effort and struggle, An effort- 236 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. less existence would be aspirationless ; and an aspirationless existence would be a living death. Hence of the eternal life as of the present, and of what are called Heaven and Hell hereafleras now, every enobled soul says with Fesus, ‘ My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.” —If I am, or shall be, in Heaven, I will work so long as even a single soul remains outside. If Lam, or shall be, in Hell, I will start improvements and never cease the struggle to reform both others and myself, This is Gospel as wellas Law: Religion ‘‘ pure and undefiled’’ as well as Evolutionary Science, In Carlylean phrase—‘ Hang your sensibilities, stop your snivelling complaints and your equally snivelling raptures! Leave off your general emotional tom- foolery, and get to WORK Like men,” The genuine Altruism of Science as well as of Religion, is beautifully por- trayed in a poem (representing a ‘‘ pure, white soul” at the gates of Heaven, refusing to enter while any are left in misery outside) of which the following are concluding stanzas : ‘« «Should I be nearer Christ,’ she said, ‘ By pitying less The sinful living, or woeful dead In their helplessness ?’ And the angels all were silent. ‘* «Should I be liker Christ were I To love no more The loved, who in their anguish lie Outside the door ?’ And the angels all were silent. *** Did He not hang on the curséd tree, And bear its shame, And clasp to His heart, for love of me, My guilt and blame?’ And the angels all were silent. ‘* * Should I be liker, nearer him, Forgetting this, Singing all day with the Seraphim, In selfish bliss ?’ And the angels all were silent. ** The Lord Himself stood by the gate, And heard her speak Those tender words compassionate, Gentle and meek ; And the angels all were silent. RENASCENTD CHRISTIANITY. 237 ‘* Now, pity is the touch of God In human hearts ; ’T was in that way Christ ever trod And ne’er departs : And the angels all were silent. *¢ And He said, ‘ Now I will go with you, Dear child of love, I am weary of all this glory, too, In heaven above’ ; And the angels all were silent. ‘* * We will go seek and save the lost, If they will hear, They who are worst but need us most, And all are dear’ ; And the angels all were silent.” 238 RENASCENT CHRISTIANITY. LXXI.—THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH AND ITS WORSHIP IN THE FIRST CENTURY. (From a recent issue of “Our Anglican Review,” contributed by the Archdeacon of London, and Chaplain in Ordinary of Her Mazesty the Queen.| “THE first glimpse that we get of primitive Christian wor- ship, apart from the meeting of the Feast of Love and the Lord’s Supper, is from the fourteenth chapter of the First Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians: “