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THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 SERMONS, ADDRESSES, AND ARTICLES 
 
 BY 
 
 EDMUND JACOB WOLF, D. D., LL. D., 
 
 Late Professor of Church History and New Testament Exegesis in the 
 Theological Seminary at Gettysburg, Pa. 
 
 COMPILED BY A COMMITTEE OF THE BOARD OF PUBLICATION. 
 
 MEMORIAL EDITIOA'. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA, PA.: 
 
 T HE LUTHERAN PUBLICATION SOCT F.TV 
 
 LIBRARY OF PRiNCETON 
 
 >uN 1 
 
 THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY 
 
Copyright, 1905, 
 
 BY THE 
 
 LUTHERAN PUBLICATION SOCIETY. 
 
PUBLISHERS' PREFACE. 
 
 This book is not a commercial venture. It is not pub- 
 lished for financial profit. It should need no advertisement. 
 
 The publication was suggested by and undertaken in 
 response to the expressed wishes of numerous friends and 
 former pupils of Dr. Wolf. Many of the sermons and 
 most of the papers and addresses were selected upon the 
 suggestion of those who had heard or read them. There 
 was a very general desire to have them collected in per- 
 manent form. This made it evident that the expenditure 
 was justified. 
 
 The book is, first of all, a memorial. Dr. Wolf held a 
 warm place in many hearts. His intense nature often 
 created antagonisms, but his lovable disposition appealed 
 to the heart. He was loyally devoted to his Church and 
 gave his time and strength to its service. He deserves an 
 abiding place in our thoughts. We too soon forget those 
 who do faithful service. 
 
 " When anything is done, 
 People see not the patient doing of it, 
 Nor think how great would be the loss to man 
 If it had not been done." 
 
 The book has intrinsic merit. The sermons and papers 
 are rich in mature thought. They are the ripe fruit of a 
 thoughtful and scholarly mind. Laymen and ministers 
 alike will find the book not only readable but interesting 
 
 (iii) 
 
iv publishers' preface. 
 
 and profitable. It contains clear and strong presentations 
 of truth. 
 
 The selections were made with great care out of a vast 
 amount of material. With a few exceptions, the sermons 
 have never been published. The papers and addresses 
 have appeared in various magazines. Of several of these 
 our limited space made it necessary to make extracts. 
 Care has been taken not to break the logical connection of 
 thought. These selections indicate a wide range of thought 
 and interest. They are typical of the man. They reveal 
 his profound insight of Scripture and the purely evangelical 
 trend of his religious thought, and, at the same time, an 
 intelligent knowledge of and interest in human affairs. 
 The book brings him before us as preacher, professor, and 
 citizen. 
 
 The family of Dr. Wolf have heartily endorsed this 
 publication, and placed in our hands the material from 
 which most of the selections were made. Indeed, it was 
 in line with their desires and purposes that the book is pub- 
 lished, and by The Lutheran Publication Society. The 
 promulgation of such thought as this book contains is the 
 proper and constitutional work of the Society. We send 
 it forth with the hope that it may carry messages into the 
 homes of the Church and strengthen the faith of many. 
 
 THE PUBLISHERS. 
 Philadelphia, September 20, 1905. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Dr. Wolf from the Home-side 7 
 
 Dr. W01.F IN THE Lutheran Church 16 
 
 SERMONS. 
 
 I. The Higher Rock 29 
 
 11. The Third Sunday in Advent 50 
 
 III. The Mother of My Lord 64 
 
 IV. The New Covenant 78 
 
 V. The Preservation of the Jews an Illustration ui' the 
 
 Divine Government 91 
 
 VI. The Rejected Pharisee 109 
 
 VII. The Accepted Publican, a Model Case'of Repentance . . 121 
 
 VIII. Saved from Eternity 136 
 
 IX. The Nature and Power of Faith 145 
 
 X. The Great Mystery 152 
 
 ADDRESSES AND ARTICLES. 
 I. The Drama of Providence on the |Eve [of the j Reforma- 
 tion 161 
 
 II. The Lutheran Church in History 186 
 
 III. The Earliest Lutheran Churches 198 
 
 IV. The Lutherans 212 
 
 V. The Social Conscience 241 
 
 VI. The Value of Ecclesiastical History to the Evangelical 
 
 Lutheran Church 257 
 
 VII. Our DeVjt and Duty to the Immigrant Population ... 283 
 VIII. The Historic Episcopate the Corner-stone^of ajReunited 
 
 Church 316 
 
 IX. The Prayers of the Selfish 324 
 
 X. Eating and Drinking Unworthily 330 
 
 XL Two Facts as to Inerrancy 335 
 
 XII. The Saviour's Prayer 340 
 
 XIII. The Golden Censer in the Holy of Holies 346 
 
 XIV. " He Being Dead Yet Speaketh " 352 
 
 XV. The Easter Fact 357 
 
 XVI. An Address of Welcome ... 368 
 
 XVII. John Burns at Gettysburg 368 
 
 (V) 
 
THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 DR. WOLF FROM THE HOME-SIDE. 
 
 BY ROBBIN B. WOLF, ESQ. 
 
 In the back of a small note book found after my 
 father's death, I discovered the following brief notes 
 of his ancestry : — 
 
 Great-grandfather Michael Wolf came from Germany and 
 
 settled in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania. 
 
 Paul Wolf (his son) 
 
 (Born July 30, 1772. Died June 6, 1822.) 
 
 married Sophia (family name not given). 
 
 (Born March 2, 1772. Died January 29, 1833.) 
 
 Jacob Wolf (son of Paul and Sophia). 
 
 (Born January 26, 1801. Died October 6, 1853.) 
 
 Christian Gast 
 
 (Born April 23, 1726. Died -, 1805.) 
 
 married Christiana Brandt, 
 
 (Born October 29, 1729. Died October 6, 1803.) 
 
 Both came to America from Wurtemburg early in life. 
 
 John Nicholas Gast (his sou) 
 
 (Born April 21, 1760. Died December 2, 1810. ) 
 
 married Anna Catherine Knipe, 
 
 (Born November 15. 1771. Died October 11, 1863.) 
 
 Mary Gast (their daughter), 
 
 (Born May 30, 1802. Died January 6, 1898.) 
 
 Jacob Wolf married Mary Gast. 
 
 (7) 
 
8 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 Edmund Jacob Wolf was born in a quiet valley 
 in Centre County, Pennsylvania, December 8, 1840. 
 His ancestors on both sides were of German descent, 
 remarkable, perhaps, in no respect save the consistent 
 longevity of the maternal line. 
 
 Of his boyhood days I know very little. Dr. 
 Harpster, who was a playmate, tells me that he was an 
 out-and-out boy. Father himself has related to me 
 some of his youthful experiences — but chiefly mere bits 
 of mischief which haunted his acute conscience until 
 later in life. 
 
 At an early age he gave some promise of future 
 distinction, for his father when dying committed the 
 lad, not yet in his teens, to the care of an older brother, 
 saying : "Take care of Edmund ; you can make some- 
 thing of him," 
 
 Fatherless at twelve, he began the struggle which 
 the Almighty has appointed for us all. By means of 
 teaching and with the assistance of a limited patrimony, 
 he prepared himself for the sophomore year at Pennsyl- 
 vania College, and entered it with the class of '63. In 
 college he formed many close and valuable friendships, 
 which continued a joy to him throughout his life. Here 
 also he was won away from his purpose to become a 
 politician ; and, unable to resist the appeals of his con- 
 science, he was led to adopt the ministry of reconcilia- 
 tion. He prepared many of his meals in his room, was 
 a frequent caller up town, but found time for lots of 
 hard study. Success crowned his work in the class- 
 room, and upon graduation he was awarded first honor 
 and the Greek Oration. This oration was never deliv- 
 
DR. WOI,F FROM THE HOME-SIDE. 9 
 
 ered, for about that time General Lee came marching 
 into Gettysburg, and the little band of student volun- 
 teers, greatly outnumbered, sought salutem in fuga. 
 
 Father's military career was brief — I am not posi- 
 tive that he ever saw the enemy. He always seemed 
 confident that he had never shot anyone. At the end of 
 six weeks he was honorably discharged, and he ever 
 after took pride in this small service to his country. In 
 later years he became identified with the Grand Army 
 and served as chaplain of the Gettysburg Post. 
 
 After graduation from college he entered the 
 seminary at Gettysburg, but remained only one year — 
 a year, however, which in great measure shaped the 
 rest of his life. I>r Brown recognized his scholarship 
 and was the moving spirit in his being called to Balti- 
 more and subsequently to Gettysburg. In the academic 
 year 1865- 1866 he completed his theological studies in 
 Germany at the Universities of Erlangen and Tubin- 
 gen. A few years later, in broken health and with 
 failing eyesight, he again visited the land of the Rhine, 
 renewed his former friendships, and then crossed over 
 into Switzerland, whose wholesome climate and rich 
 scenery seemed to create anew the life which had 
 threatened to pass away. 
 
 In December, 1865, he received his first call — to 
 the Paradise charge, in Northumberland County, Pa. 
 He at once married Miss Ella Kemp, of Edgehill, 
 Maryland, and, in his own words, bade adieu to his 
 weeping mother and started with his wife and library 
 for the charge to which he had in God's guidance and 
 providence been chosen. 
 
lO THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 Here he had four congregations, widely separated, 
 and each with its German and EngHsh constituency. 
 Night and day he labored, ministering to the sick, 
 preaching the Gospel and jealously employing any open 
 time in reading and study. 
 
 But the driving from church to church and visiting 
 his flock, often in precarious weather, was too great a 
 tax on his frail physique, and one rainy night he sym- 
 pathetically remarked to his little horse : "I believe you 
 would be more comfortable in a city charge." 
 
 The call to Baltimore came in 1868, and for six 
 years he served as pastor of the Lombard Street 
 Church-. His sojourn at Baltimore was blessed with 
 the formation of happy friendships which continued 
 throughout his life. 
 
 In 1874, he was elected to a chair in the Gettysburg 
 Seminary. At first he declined, but later accepted, and 
 for thirty years gave his best efforts to preparing young 
 men for the holy ministry. 
 
 These, in brief, were the chief epochs of his life. 
 That life has been a public one in the full sense of the 
 word, whether as the citizen or the man of God. But 
 there was also the private side. It is not my purpose 
 to lift the veil from the family sanctuary, but merely 
 to portray enough of father's home life to show that 
 it was consistent and in keeping with the holy office 
 which he professed. 
 
 Four small words seem a complete summary of his 
 daily life at home, viz. : struggle, prayer, faith and 
 love. Father's struggle in life began when as a mere 
 boy, largely dependent on his own resources, he began 
 
DR. WOI.F FROM THE HOME-SIDE. II 
 
 the tedious process of self-education ; it endured until 
 the fatal disease successfully baffled his effort. Rising 
 early in the morning, he was impatient for his break- 
 fast. Having summarily disposed of that, he went to 
 work. 
 
 If his mind grew weary, he would seek some brief 
 recreation in the garden, then hurry back to work. At 
 times he seemed to toil almost slavishly, and had not 
 his weak eyes forbidden, the spark of his life would 
 have burned itself out at even an earlier age. He 
 wrote incessantly, and having no amanuensis, the labor 
 was all his own. 
 
 The duty to save souls seemed fastened upon him, 
 and whether as pastor or professor, he never lost sight 
 of it. Sunday after Sunday, when the close of a hard 
 week's work would naturally suggest rest, he left the 
 leisurely comfort of his home to preach the Gospel. 
 
 In his teaching, he struggled. For thirty years he 
 took his classes over practically the same ground, yet 
 he prepared for each recitation as it came, being unwil- 
 ling to appear before the class stale or unprepared. 
 Every third year he completely revised his lectures. 
 The old lectures might have sufficed, but that was not 
 his standard. 
 
 Again, he struggled for his convictions. Even 
 when seemingly alone, he stood courageously by them, 
 sometimes, alas, at great cost, but little he recked. 
 In his diary he writes : "I was enabled to fear God 
 rather than men. May I never seek the smile of men, 
 nor shrink from their frown." One struggling so hard, 
 it seems, should feel some satisfaction, yet he writes : 
 
12 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 "But O! coldly, how miserably I do my duty! Great 
 God, have mercy on me. Deliver me from this infernal 
 lukewarmness, from this frightful indifference. Give 
 me zeal and give me courage in order that I may labor 
 more earnestly for the Kingdom of Heaven. O, if they 
 who have done all they can, must still reckon them- 
 selves unprofitable servants, where has language a name 
 that is humble enough for me?" 
 
 He was a firm believer in the efiicacy of prayer, 
 and was habitually prayerful. He began and ended 
 the day with a prayer, asked God's blessing on each 
 meal, always had family worship ; and often have I 
 come upon him in the twilight bowed in prayer, or in 
 passing his library overheard him pouring forth his 
 soul in divine supplication. He kept his ministerial 
 diary in a small pocketbook, but he found room on 
 nearly every page for a sentence of prayer. Each 
 entry of a visit to the sick was followed by a brief 
 prayer, e. g. : "May the Lord spare his life and sanctify 
 this sickness for the welfare of his soul." 
 
 As one by one six of his children were called to 
 fest, he did not question the Divine wisdom, nor lament 
 his lot, but knelt by their bedside in humble prayer for 
 light to see the lessons of the affliction, and raised his 
 voice in songs of praise to God. 
 
 He had faith which I have never seen surpassed. 
 Faith was his dearest treasure, and though often sorely 
 tried, he never seemed to doubt or waver for a moment. 
 In reply to the charge that preachers are always biased 
 in the matter of Bible criticism, he wrote : "Why should 
 I not be prejudiced in defending that which sustains 
 
DR. WOLF FROM THE HOME-SIDE. 1 3 
 
 my very life here by the promise of a better Hfe 
 beyond ?" 
 
 At one period of his Ufe, he was almost over- 
 whelmed by care and work ; the strife in the church was 
 at its worst ; the work on his second book was exhaust- 
 ing him; three sons, two of them just entering man- 
 hood, were taken from him at brief intervals ; insomnia 
 was preventing restful sleep; but throughout these 
 trials and a hundred others, his faith in the providence 
 of God was sublime. Faith was the balm for his every 
 wound, the source of his greatest comfort. In perhaps 
 the darkest hour of them all he wrote to a friend: 
 "Pray that my faith fail not." His favorite sermon 
 was "The Nature and Power of Faith;" his favorite 
 hymn, "My Faith Looks Up to Thee." 
 
 Finally, his heart was full of love. Willie, his first 
 born son, was scarcely six months old when he wrote : 
 "How that dear child has twined itself around every 
 fibre of my heart." Being a man of nervous habits and 
 a zealous student, father was often annoyed by us 
 children. Impatience was perhaps his greatest fault, 
 yet his impatience was always tempered with love. He 
 tried to bring his children up properly, and was gener- 
 ally positive, but never severe. The church stood first 
 in his afifections, but he was a loving husband and a 
 self-sacrificing parent, and by the many manifestations 
 of his kindness contributed the lion's share in making 
 ours a happy home. We children inherited his fond- 
 ness for narrative, and it was a common occurrence for 
 the family to linger at the table by the hour in jolly 
 conversation. 
 
14 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 He reveled in the beauties of nature, was fond of 
 dogs and horses and, I fear, it was a limited purse 
 rather than any misgivings of conscience, that forbade 
 his owning a span of trotters. 
 
 He was fond of a joke and had a good sense of 
 humor. His brief review of a none too meritorious 
 book was : "This book is exactly what we should expect 
 from its author." To a young theolog who said he 
 did know but had forgotten, he answered: "I am sorry, 
 for you are the first who has ever known that." 
 
 He was argumentative and a fearless fighter. In 
 the bitterness of ecclesiastical diflFerences, he seemed to 
 make many enemies, but even in the privacy of his 
 home no word of hatred or resentment ever escaped his 
 lips. As a family we deeply lamented the unpleasant- 
 ness which his intensity brought upon him. but we were 
 doubly glad that despite his untimely death, he lived 
 to see the day of peace — the dawn of a better day in the 
 Lutheran Church. We feel grateful that the General 
 Synod saw fit to forget personal differences of opinion 
 and to honor his integrity by electing him its President 
 — a fitting climax to a life devoted almost exclusively 
 to the work of the Church. 
 
 Six weeks before his death he told me, evidently 
 with some premonition, that he would like to live about 
 ten years longer, because of work which he wanted to 
 do. Before that he had begun to let up a little in his 
 work, but apparently was in the best of health. The 
 end came rapidly : for several weeks he suffered excru- 
 ciating pain, but was resigned and happy in that he had 
 escaped so much suffering. Despite the fact that he 
 
DR. WOLF FROM THE HOME-SIDE. 1 5 
 
 had mapped out work for years ahead, that he was in 
 full possession of his powers, that he was for the first 
 time in years at peace with all men, and that everything- 
 pointed to a comfortable enjoyment of his remaining 
 vears, he died fearlessly and without a murmur. Shortly 
 after noon, January 10, 1905, the life that had known 
 turmoil and struggle, passed sweetly and peacefully 
 away. And as I looked for the last time at the lifeless 
 face, there was an expression of triumph on it which 
 seemed to defy the grave and to forbid to weep. 
 
 "He never turned his back but marched breast forward, 
 Never doubted clouds would break; 
 
 Never dreamed though right were worsted, wrong would triumph; 
 Held we fall to rise, are baffled to light better, sleep to wake." 
 
DR. WOLF IN THE LUTHERAN CHURCH. 
 
 BY re;v. w. e. parson, d. d. 
 
 Carlyle, in his life of John Sterling, says : — 
 
 "A true delineation of the smallest man, and his scene of 
 pilgrimage through life, is capable of interesting the greatest man." 
 
 This it is that makes biography the most entertain- 
 ing form of history. How much more true must 
 Carlyle's dictum become when we look at the life of one 
 who helped to make history. 
 
 Rev. Edmund Jacob Wolf, D. D., LL. D., was a 
 writer of history, a teacher of history, and himself a 
 great part of the history of our Lutheran Church in 
 recent times. Therefore "his scene of pilgrimage 
 through life" must have especial interest. 
 
 Dr. Wolf was born December 8, 1840, in Centre 
 County, Pennsylvania. He came of earnest Lutheran 
 parentage, and was from his childhood a son of the 
 Church to which he gave all the years of his mature 
 life. 
 
 After the usual preparatory training in the public 
 schools, and in a local academy, he entered the sopho- 
 more class in Pennsylvania College, at Gettysburg, Pa. 
 The writer's acquaintance with Dr. Wolf began in 
 college days, and continued without interruption to the 
 Tuesday, January loth, when he fell asleep in the faith 
 he so earnestly preached. 
 
 (16) 
 
DR. WOLF IN THE LUTHERAN CHURCH. 1 7 
 
 Two things stand out sharply in the memory in 
 connection with Dr. Wolf's student days. One is the 
 fact that he was President of the literary societv when 
 a large number of freshmen were initiated, pars quorum 
 fid. He was a senior, and showed then, in his address 
 to the initiates, all the intensity of soul and lofty ideals 
 which characterized him to the end. The other inci- 
 dent touches the innermost life of the man. He was 
 but twenty-three years old at the time. His room was 
 immediately overhead, so that the sound of moving feet 
 or the voice of one speaking above could be heard more 
 or less distinctly. There was one voice that regularly 
 occupied a certain few moments of the day in what 
 seemed to be earnest reading. A little more careful 
 inquiry disclosed to us that it was Ed. Wolf (as he 
 was called) at his devotions. The fervency of that 
 voice in prayer has lingered through all these inter- 
 vening years. He never knew that we knew — for, like 
 Moses of old, "He wist not that his face shone." Dr. 
 Wolf graduated with the first honor of his class in 
 1863. 
 
 There were no commencement exercises. Most of 
 the class were wearing blue uniforms, carrying guns, 
 and sleeping in open fields, having responded to the call 
 of the Governor of the State for troops to repel the 
 invading army under Lee. Soldier Wolf was in the 
 ranks. True to his impulse, as always, he joined with 
 a hundred other students, who were the first company 
 sworn into the service for what was called "the Emer- 
 gency." 
 
 Every member of the Faculty of 1863 has gone the 
 2 
 
l8 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 way of all the earth ; and now the bright, particular 
 star of the class. 
 
 Dr. Wolf pursued his theological studies in the 
 General Synod Seminary at Gettysburg. After a term 
 of study in Germany, in the universities of Tiibingen 
 and Erlangen, the young preacher was ready for his 
 work. He was called to a country parish in Turbot- 
 ville, Pa. In this small village the elder Albert, father 
 of Doctors Luther and Charles Albert, was living in 
 retirement. To him the young pastor often resorted 
 for advice and counsel respecting the problems con- 
 fronting him. The second and only other church 
 served by Dr. Wolf was in the city of Baltimore. He 
 was called to the Second Lutheran Church of Baltimore 
 in 1866, and remained pastor until in 1873 he was 
 called to the Chair of Church History and New Testa- 
 ment Exegesis in the Theological Seminary of the Gen- 
 eral Synod at Gettysburg, Pa. He received the degree 
 of Doctor of Divinity from Franklin and Marshall 
 College in 1876, and the degree of Doctor of Laws 
 from Wittenberg College in 1901. Dr. Wolf was emi- 
 nently worthy of these distinctions. He earned his 
 degrees. As a theological student and teacher of theo- 
 logical students, he surely was entitled to the Doctor 
 Divinitatis. As historian, translator, contributor to 
 journals, encyclopedias, reviews, and church periodi- 
 cals, he richly earned the title of Doctor of Law. His 
 fugitive pieces, contributions to non-sectarian papers, 
 editorials and unsigned articles, if brought together, 
 would make many volumes. 
 
 He wrote a goodly volume some years ago, entitled 
 
DR. WOLF IN THE LUTHERAN CHURCH. 19 
 
 "Lutherans in x\merica," a book which did much to 
 make the Church better known in this country. He 
 was the contributor of one vokime in the series of 
 Lutheran Commentaries, and had just recently com- 
 pleted the work of translating- and publishing "An 
 Exposition of the Gospels of the Church Year," on the 
 basis of the German work by Nebe. This is a large 
 volume of nearly a thousand pages, representing an 
 amount of labor that could have been possible to the 
 busy professor only through the most methodical use 
 of his time. It was the last work of his hands, fittingly 
 inscribed to his wife, who aided in preparing the vol- 
 ume for the press. Before leaving the period of his 
 Baltimore pastorate, it may be proper to say a word as 
 to the work of Dr. Wolf as pastor and preacher. 
 
 By exchange of pulpits, more common years ago 
 than now, by personal conferences, and occasional cor- 
 respondence, the methods of thought and work that 
 marked "his scene of pilgrimage through life" were 
 well known to many of his brethren. 
 
 He was a most faithful and conscientious pastor. 
 If any criticism were to be made on this part of his 
 work, it would be that he was almost too conscientious. 
 He so fully followed the divine rule to weep with them 
 that weep that he exhausted his nerve forces, and was 
 once on the verge of a physical l^reakdown. A few 
 months' rest and vacation in Europe brought him back 
 to his work completely healed. As an evidence of over- 
 conscientiousness in Dr. Wolf, a visit to his study once 
 found him in great anxiety over the spiritual condition 
 of one in his parish. There was a sick man near the 
 
20 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 end of his life, wholly unaware of his condition. Dr. 
 Wolf was wrestling with that question which comes 
 often to the faithful minister, whether he shoukl plainly 
 inform the man of his nearness to death that there 
 might be time for due preparation. 
 
 "On my next visit," he finally announced, "'I shall 
 have to speak out and tell the man." 
 
 No doubt in the eternal world the redeemed soul 
 will seek out the faithful pastor and thank him for his 
 conscientious work. At the time it seemed a piece of 
 spiritual surgery too cruel. 
 
 As a preacher Dr. Wolf was always inspiring. He 
 had something to say in the pulpit that was fresh, in- 
 structive, hopeful. His pulpit work was well known in 
 nearly every one of our Lutheran Churches, as well as 
 in other denominations. The subjects announced last 
 summer in one of our Washington pulpits supplied by 
 him will suggest the helpful character of Dr. Wolf's 
 pulpit ministrations. These subjects were: "Right 
 Triumphant;'' "What is Required of Believers;" 
 "Union With Christ." 
 
 One of the most impressive, simple, forceful Gos- 
 pel sermons it was the privilege of the writer ever to 
 hear was preached by Dr. Wolf some years ago in St. 
 Mark's Church, Hanover, Pa. The subject was "The 
 Typical Penitent," from the text: "God be merciful to 
 me a sinner." He rung the changes, as the Lutheran i 
 doctrine enjoins, on sin, humiliation, penitence, forgive- / 
 ness, and all the divine truths involved in Christ's sal- 
 vation. Every one in the congregation was roused by 
 the intense earnestness of the preacher's emphasis of 
 
DR. WOLF IN THE LUTHERAN CHURCH. 21 
 
 the deep, searching truths drawn from this familiar 
 parable. 
 
 In many respects Dr. Wolf was a model preacher, 
 but especially in this that he preached God's Word, not 
 human philosophy. He preached the comforts of the 
 Scripture truth rather than the terrors of the law. So 
 for about ten years he gave himself to the pastor's 
 work. Dr. Wolf's real life-work was in the profes- 
 sor's chair. He settled down to the life of a student 
 and teacher at the age of thirty-three, and for nearly 
 that many years more was one of the most influential 
 forces in the making of the pastors for our General 
 Synod Churches. Yet it must be remembered that the 
 sphere of Dr. Wolf's influence was not limited to the 
 school where he taught. He reached into all our 
 schools, by both voice and pen. He had lectured at 
 Wittenberg; and only a few weeks before his death 
 had been out as far as Kansas City, to assist in work 
 that came to him by reason of his office as President 
 of the General Synod. 
 
 Dr. Wolf, at the time of his death, was the senior 
 member of the Faculty in the Theological Seminary at 
 Gettysburg. His hold upon the students was strong 
 both as teacher and man. The young men had con- 
 fidence in him. They went to him with their perplexi- 
 ties. They found in him a friendly, sympathetic and 
 safe counsellor. To those who did not fully know his 
 inner thought he may at times have seemed harsh and 
 over-exacting. But, as often happens with positive 
 natures, there was an inner court to the temple of the 
 soul, where all was gentle, forgiving, sympathetic. The 
 
22 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 sense of honor was large in Dr. Wolf, and he stood in 
 the Church as the most uncompromising Lutheran. 
 Every position he took was held tenaciously through 
 conviction. To some his views seemed extreme, but 
 even his opposers always were willing to grant that his 
 views were so carefully framed and so honestly held 
 that there could be no yielding except through a change 
 JH conviction. 
 
 He seemed to many to be a partisan. In one sense 
 he was. If by the term we mean a man always holding 
 to his own party, always standing by his convictions ; 
 always willing to sacrifice himself for his convictions ; 
 always talking and preaching his particular ideas of 
 the truth ; always arrayed against any other conflicting 
 views; always trying to convert the other man from 
 the error of his ways ; always voting for the man of his 
 own school, and writing letters to see that all others 
 were wide awake to vote the same way ; if these things 
 make the partisan, then was Dr. Wolf a partisan. But 
 he was not offensive in his partisanship. He fought a 
 fair battle in the open field, keeping himself so true that 
 his antagonist must give him full credit for the high 
 honor in which he held all his ideas of truth ; for the 
 loyalty he showed to friends, and the fairness he 
 showed to his opponents. 
 
 An instance of the exalted sense of honor which 
 moved him was once seen in the Maryland Synod, at a 
 meeting held in St. Paul's in Washington, D. C. The 
 question before the Synod was whether the members 
 of the Synod had made themselves individually liable 
 in voting aid to the Memorial Church to the extent of 
 
DR. WOLF IN THE LUTHERAN CHURCH. 23 
 
 five thousand dollars. There was a disposition on the 
 part of some of the members of Synod to evade the 
 responsibility. When Dr. Wolf rose to discuss the 
 question, though not always agreeing with the pastor 
 of the Memorial Church on general church questions, 
 he quickly brushed aside all the specious arguments of 
 those who would shirk their obligations, and in wither- 
 ing words held up to rebuke such a disposition among 
 his brethren. "As for me," he said, ''I count it a per- 
 sonal obligation, against which I set everything that I 
 have until this Synod meets its pledge." 
 
 Dr. Wolf's view prevailed — the pledge was met, 
 paid, and the Memorial completed. 
 
 The editor of the Lutheran World very truly 
 described Dr. Wolf, and the liberality of the man, in 
 these words : — 
 
 "Like most men of real convictions, he was some- 
 times misunderstood, but not by those who came to 
 know him well. He held fast by his convictions, but 
 was withal one of the most tractable men we have 
 known. He could contend with vigor for his convic- 
 tions when occasion demanded, but his friends knew 
 him always also as a most humble and modest child of 
 God." — [Lutheran World, Jan. 19, 1905.] 
 
 It was a rare honor he had, to be permitted for 
 thirty full years and more to influence the minds of the 
 young men who went out to mould the thousand other 
 minds to whom they ministered. His students are on the 
 roll of our Home Mission force; they are in the For- 
 eign Mission work; they are in influential pulpits; in 
 humble places such as their teacher first occupied ; some 
 
24 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 of them became teachers in turn, and so the work of 
 one became the cumulative work of many. In this 
 sense we might say that a thousand representatives are 
 left to carry on the unfinished work which this good 
 soldier of Jesus Christ has thus far so nobly advanced. 
 
 In addition to his other duties, Dr. Wolf sei ved 
 on many standing committees of the General S\nod. 
 He was for years chairman of the joint committee of 
 the General Synod, General Council, and United v^ynod 
 of the South, which prepared the Common Service, the 
 Ministerial Acts, the Catechism, and is at work on 
 the common Hymnal. At the time of his death he was 
 engaged on the work of the Inier-Church Ci nference 
 on Marriage and Divorce, expecting to prt ss the sub- 
 ject at the recent General Synod. He was truly abund- 
 ant in labors, yet showed no outward signs of weari- 
 ness. Though the years ran on, Dr. Wolf (I'd not seem 
 to grow old. He changed with the passing time less 
 than any man of his generation, seeming alert in mind, 
 youthful in spirit, strong in body. In outward appear- 
 ance he seemed to be the same as when he followed the 
 flag forty years before ; the same as when he served his 
 country parish ; the same as when he was the energetic 
 pastor in Baltimore ; the same as when he entered upon 
 his duties in the professor's chair, thirty years before ; 
 the same as two years ago, when he was elected Presi- 
 dent of the General Synod in the city of Baltimore. 
 
 On the day of his funeral, January 13th, 1905, 
 nearly a hundred of his brethren in the mmistry gath- 
 ered at Gettysburg in the College Church to do honor 
 to his memory. He was buried in the beautiful ceme- 
 
DR. WOLF IN THE LUTHERAN CHURCH. 25 
 
 tery of the town, on top of the ridge where sleep thou- 
 sands of his comrade soldiers. 
 
 Our sympathies go out to the stricken family. The 
 whole church will be the poorer for his sudden taking 
 off. No doubt he had already fixed in his mind some 
 of the things he meant to say in the opening sermon at 
 the convention of the General Synod at Pittsburg. But 
 his work was done. The hospitable house, erected by 
 his efforts, is empty of its master; the chair so ably 
 filled is vacant ; the pulpits accustomed to his eloquent 
 words must wait for another voice. 
 
 The tree falls. The forest waves on for genera- 
 tions. The preacher, teacher, true friend and brother 
 departs, but the Church he served abides, made more 
 beautiful and fruitful bv reason of his labors. 
 
SERMONS. 
 
I. THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 Lead me to the rock that is higher than I. — Ps. Ixi. 2. 
 
 It was a noble conception which led His ancient 
 chosen people to sing of God as their rock. In the 
 earliest records of their faith this similitude of strength, 
 security, grandeur and durability was to them a favor- 
 ite symbol of Jehovah — first impressed upon their 
 minds, perchance, when on their march they encamped 
 before the awful cliff of Sinai, towering majestically 
 against the sky. Such an eternal rock w-as the God 
 of the Covenant. With this symbol they often com- 
 bined the idea of an impregnable military defense. The 
 cry for the rock is followed in the text by the testimony 
 "Thou hast been a shelter unto me, a strong tower from 
 the enemy." And again "The Lord is my rock and my 
 fortress," "The Rock of My Refuge." "He only is 
 my rock and salvation, my defense." The Psalmist, 
 addressing Jehovah, calls Him outright "the God of 
 the rock of my salvation." 
 
 This title of God must have had a sublime mean- 
 ing in the worship of the inspired liturgy. It forms 
 the keynote of many of the richest songs of Zion. The 
 mighty attributes of the God of Israel, His righteous- 
 ness, truth, power, and faithfulness are bodied forth 
 in the immovable, indissoluble, unchangeable rock, 
 which pierces the clouds. And this yearning for the 
 higher rock, formulated in our text, is the sighing of 
 the soul for God, the hungering of our innermost 
 
 (29) 
 
30 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 nature for a being that is above its range, the irrepres- 
 sible attestation of the heart to a higher and a divine 
 power. It is but another form of the prayer which 
 occurs so often in the Psalter, "Unto Thee will I cry, 
 O Lord, my rock," Ps. xxviii. i. It is more than a peti- 
 tion of the Psalmist. It is a cry of humanity. It is 
 the inspired embodiment of a prayer that rises from the 
 heart of the race. It is the outflow of one of those 
 instincts which make the whole world kin. It is a 
 universal prayer. 
 
 Carefully analyzed these words articulate : 
 
 I. the: universal consciousness op a supreme being. 
 
 The sense of a higher power is one of the marks of 
 our species. The existence of God is one of those 
 essential truths which somehow are revealed to every 
 mind. The conviction that there is something superior 
 to man, something greater, higher, wiser, the conscious- 
 ness of a supreme, all-embracing power, is found 
 wherever the human race is found. Co-extensive with 
 humanity prevails the idea that behind the visible lives 
 the invisible, back of the natural reigns the supernat- 
 ural, above the transitory abides the eternal, transcend- 
 ing the phenomenal world dwells the absolute, the Most 
 High. 
 
 The thought is indeed not always present, even in 
 the purest minds, but let the soul pause in its distract- 
 ing pursuits, and it will be found that down in its deep- 
 est recesses the sense of God overshadows it. 
 
 Again, the thought may not always be vivid or 
 lofty, the conception may, from the nature of men's 
 
THE HIGHER ROCK. 3I 
 
 minds, often be confused, vague, obscure, distorted. 
 Men may have base, grovelling notions of God, but the 
 idea itself is stamped inefifaceably upon the conscious- 
 ness as the image of the sovereign is cast upon the coin. 
 And however insensible men may at times appear to 
 the solemn truth ; however heedless to its awful signifi- 
 cance — in moments of extremity, when groaning under 
 a great sorrow, startled by a dreadful calamity, or 
 brought face to face with death, the slumbering con- 
 sciousness is wakened and the vision of the eternal 
 rests upon the soul. 
 
 The most benighted and depraved heathen have a 
 feeling of awe before some mysterious and undefined 
 power, a power not themselves, a higher rock, and 
 altars to the great "unknown" are found smoking 
 wherever the foot of man has trod. The religious 
 instinct is a part of our nature, that part in fact which 
 alone distinguishes human nature from the irrational 
 species. Religious worship is the distinctive human 
 faculty, and it is essential to the completeness of the 
 mind of man as is reason or sensibility. This lofty 
 faculty, this attribute of worship, points to an object of 
 worship, to a higher rock, something above man, on 
 which he is dependent and to which he is accountable. 
 
 Whence this conviction comes, whether it be innate 
 or connate, an instinct or an intuition, the remains of 
 a primitive revelation, or the result of a process of 
 reasoning, I care not to discuss here or now. That is a 
 question for philosophers and theologians. The fact 
 itself, the universal presence of this feeling, admits of 
 no question, however men may differ as to its origin. 
 
32 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 On this point philosophers and theologians are all 
 agreed, the foremost thinkers uniting with the most 
 degraded specimens of the race in the recognition of an 
 ultimate power, a persuasion inseparable from their 
 very constitution. Alike from the highest realm of 
 thought, "the rarefied atmosphere of ideas," and from 
 the lowest strata of rude conceptions and sensuous 
 passions, comes the testimony to an unseen, omnipo- 
 tent something. 
 
 All may not designate this omnipotent something 
 by the same title, they may not ascribe to it respectively 
 the same attributes, the}' may not agree in their defini- 
 tions and speculations concerning the supreme arbiter 
 of all things, but the apprehension of His existence 
 belongs to the universal consciousness. The rock above 
 us casts His awful shadow over all. There is no escape 
 from it. Constituted as we are, the recognition and 
 belief of the divine existence is irresistible. God is left 
 nowhere without a witness. "The invisible things of 
 Him since the creation of the world are clearly seen 
 * * * even His everlasting power and divinity." 
 Rom. i. 20. 
 
 David Hume remarked to a philosophical company 
 in Paris that he had never seen an atheist. Men may 
 deny the God of the Bible, may keep aloof from Chris- 
 tian worship, but the veriest leaders and titans of skep- 
 tical thought dare not disavow their belief in the Infi- 
 nite and the Almighty. "We are driven by an inexor- 
 able logic," says Herbert Spencer, "to the conclusion 
 of a first cause, including within itself all power, and 
 transcending all law." 
 
THE HIGHER ROCK. 33 
 
 ^^latthew Arnold has written some of his most ele- 
 gant periods on "the power not ourselves that makes for 
 righteousness." And even Renan writes : "Under one 
 form or another, God will always stand for the full 
 expression of our supersensual needs." Frederick the 
 Great pronounced it an absurdity to hold that a person 
 possessing no such attributes could have endowed 
 man with intelligence and conscience. So Goethe in a 
 letter to Jacobi admits that he "needs a personal God 
 for his personal nature as a moral and spiritual man." 
 Surely no one who reads the cathedral scene in Faust, 
 in that terrible climax of the judgment hymn, when 
 the organ peals and the choir sings and poor Gretchen 
 feels the sinner's helplessness, could conclude that this 
 Titan had lost the sense of the eternal. Beautifully 
 has it been said that "the consciousness of God is the 
 transfiguring thing in Emerson." These mightiest of 
 human intellects "cannot let go the thought of the 
 absolutely perfect being." It is borne in upon their 
 souls wuth irresistible power. They are unanimous 
 and emphatic in the avowal that the existence of God 
 is self-evident. 
 
 The scientific method will not allow the elimina- 
 tion of this idea from the human mind. Of the eight 
 essential propositions of Theodore Parker's absolute 
 religion the first declared "that man has an instinctive 
 intuition of the fact of the divine existence — the con- 
 sciousness that there is a God." 
 
 Humanity is not the climax of intelligent being. 
 "The maker must be more glorious" than the thing 
 made." Alexander, Napoleon, and others whose unex- 
 
 3 
 
34 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 ampled exploits raised them to the pinnacle of power,, 
 felt after all their conquests, that there is one whom 
 they could not conquer, that there were heights they 
 could not scale, that there was a transcendent energy- 
 moulding their own career and fixing their destiny. 
 
 Socrates, Plato, Kant, Hegel, Faraday, Agassiz,, 
 men pushing their inquiries into the farthermost 
 reaches of thought matter, peering into the depths 
 and soaring into the heights, from every point of their 
 observation beheld zvith azve the outlines of a rock, 
 that is higher than all ! 
 
 The universality of the belief in God is commonly- 
 regarded as an invulnerable proof of His reality. In^ 
 scientific argument for the divine existence this stands, 
 among the first. The instincts are scientifically accept- 
 ed as proof of the correlate. The law of correspond- 
 ence is as true and unfailing as the law of gravita- 
 tion. The idea points to reality. The idea of God 
 involves of necessity His real existence. A universal, 
 conviction is not a universal delusion. The voice of all 
 nations, tribes and tongues, a voice that sounds from 
 the deepest, holiest ' notes of the human heart, must 
 be the voice of truth. The universality, the persist- 
 ence of this feeling forms an unbroken and an unques- 
 tionable attestation to God. 
 
 The consciousness of God must be His revelation 
 in the soul. An idea graven upon the constitution of 
 man bespeaks something real, not an abstraction, but 
 a substantial something, a substance that towers over 
 all, a cliff unmoved by the surging sea, an enduring 
 
THE HIGHER ROCK. 35 
 
 rock whose bosom is the throne of the universe and 
 in whose cleft humanity finds refuge and peace. 
 
 II. the; human aspiration after god. 
 Although the rock is far above us, humanity 
 boldly aspires to the high and holy place. "Inseparable 
 from the recognition of God, is the inherent tendency 
 to commune with Him." The finite spirit yearns 
 for an infinite good. So far from being appalled by 
 sublime conception of the absolute power above him, 
 man seeks to ascend the awful height. The universal 
 sigh of human hearts is "Lead me to the Rock that is 
 higher than I." A craving for God is among the most 
 powerful instincts of human nature. Man scorns to 
 be satisfied with all which the world can offer him. 
 He is the only being that is discontented with his lot. 
 All other creatures have peace. The desire of every 
 living thing is satisfied. They are of the earth, earthy 
 — and earthly things suffice for them, but man is pos- 
 sessed of an idea that his destiny transcends his present 
 limitations, and nothing earthly suffices for him. He 
 is incapable of peace as long as the rock is beyond his 
 reach. The impulses of our nature move us to some- 
 thing outside of, beyond and above ourselves. 
 
 "The world can never give the bliss for which we sigh." 
 
 Give man the wealth of Croesus and it only aggra- 
 vates the insatiable lust for gold, lay the world at his 
 feet and he only longs for other worlds to conquer. 
 Raise him to the highest seats of power, and he is 
 
36 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 Still heard crying "Lead me to the Rock that is higher 
 than I." Let his faculties be enlarged to titanic pro- 
 portions, and he feels himself a child with pebbles, 
 standing upon the shore of a fathomless sea. 
 
 The text is supposed to be the prayer of a King, 
 it comes from out of the midst of royal grandeur, 
 pleasure and power, it is the outburst of a mind itself 
 more splendid than its environment. Yet out of this 
 most favored situation comes the cry, O for something 
 better, something higher ! O for the Rock that is 
 higher than L 
 
 Whatever our hearts, our attainments, our pos- 
 sessions, our advancement, our elevation, the horizon 
 only widens and the goal recedes. Man never is, but 
 always to be blest. His labor is spent for that which 
 satisfieth not. Employment, society, travel, culture, 
 amusement, all avail not to still his cravings. The 
 dreadful vacuum, the "aching void" remains. He 
 yearns to see Him that is invisible. He finds nowhere 
 a substitute for God. The spirit cannot rest until it 
 touches the Infinite. It thirsts for God, the living God. 
 "As the hart panteth for the water brooks," so panteth 
 the soul for the living spring at the foot of the rock. 
 
 This aspiration may be undefined, unintelligent, 
 or for the time really obscured or latent, if not grossly 
 misdirected. Man wants he knows not what. It is 
 the vague character of this craving, doubtless, that 
 sometimes goads man to the wild pursuit of sensible 
 objects in hope of thereby quenching this unrest of 
 the soul, attempting to fill with a measure of the finite 
 the unmeasured capacity for the infinite. But this 
 
THE HIGHER ROCK. 37 
 
 hunger is inarticulate. You cannot impose upon it 
 stones for bread ! 
 
 You may, like Goethe, resolve to stifle this longing 
 of nature, attempt as by suicidal means to rid yourself 
 of its presence, but this can only result in the sadder 
 desolation of your spirit. "In my seventy-fifth year," 
 says this philosopher and poet, this genius who receiv- 
 ed the homage of Napoleon, "I may say that I have 
 never had four weeks of genuine pleasure. The stone 
 was ever to be rolled up anew." "Whatever peace 
 came and went had no perpetual source." 
 
 It is to be noted, too, on the other hand, that how- 
 ever unpropitious our circumstances, however forbid- 
 ding our lot, whatever successive waves of disappoint- 
 ment and disaster may roll over our heads, man does 
 not ordinarily despair. The soul's desolation only 
 deepens the consciousness of need and inflames the 
 longing for support and solace from the Eternal. The 
 thicker the darkness, the louder man's cry for light. 
 His unavailing struggle against a sea of troubles 
 drives him in search of the rock which in the gloom 
 peers high above him. Blinded by the spray, he yet 
 descries distinctly above the billowy main something 
 firm against the waves, towering above the tempest, 
 a rock immovable amid the breakers, a pillar of eternal 
 safety, higher than all around him, higher than the 
 heavens ! And for this rock he sighs, "out of the 
 depths" he cries unto the Lord. An instinct of his 
 nature prompts him to it, an instinct common to all 
 races, tribes and tongues. Men are everywhere found 
 seeking the Lord, if haply they may find Him. From 
 
38 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 the end of the earth they cry unto Him, from creation's 
 verge men turn toward the centre and source of all 
 things ! Wherever humanity is found, it is yearning 
 for the primordial rock, exclaiming with the psalmist, 
 "When shall I come and appear before Him." "My 
 flesh longeth for Him in a dry and thirsty land where 
 no water is." 
 
 Like the social instinct which longs for converse 
 with congenial spirits, and makes solitude insuflFerable 
 to a normal mind, we have an affinity for God, a yearn- 
 ing for fellowship with the Father of our spirits. A 
 sense within us draws us toward the skies. Whatever 
 the happiness of our associations, no earthly home cor- 
 responds to our ideal, no fellow mortal is perfectly the 
 complement of my nature. Even in the crowd, in the 
 bosom of our dear ones, at the social feast, the thought 
 of loneliness possesses us, we miss the absent One, we 
 would lean upon our Father's bosom, we pine for the 
 smile of His face. 
 
 Whether or not we can trace this instinct to its 
 ultimate source does not affect the fact of its exist- 
 ence. Some ascribe it to our sense of dependence. 
 "Underlying the feeling of dependence there is a sense 
 of that on which we depend. The one feeling is 
 implicated in the other." Conscious of our impotence 
 against overwhelming odds, we instinctively reach out 
 for some power to sustain us. As one moves over the 
 shifting sands, as one realizes the uncertainty and 
 insecurity beneath him, he feels the imperative need 
 of some firmer foundation on which he may safely 
 plant his feet. Finding no peace or safety around us, 
 
THE HIGHER ROCK. 39 
 
 we turn to something above us. Where all that is 
 known proves worthless we fain lay hold of the un- 
 known. Groaning- under pains, sorrows and perplexi- 
 ties, the weary soul sighs for a rock on which it 
 may lay its burdens down. 
 
 Certainly the consciousness of need ordinarily 
 prompts our prayers. "In my distress I sought the 
 Lord." "When my spirit was overwhelmed within 
 me I cried unto the Lord." The sense of my in- 
 sufficiency draws me toward the all-sufficient. The 
 necessities of my spiritual nature reveal the need of 
 God. The fathomless void seeks to be filled. Aly 
 unquenchable thirst demands an inexhaustible foun- 
 tain. "I need Thee every hour" — thy gracious arm, 
 thy fatherly heart ! 
 
 The aspiration after communion with God may 
 be due also to a feeling that in some way we sustain 
 a vital relation to God, that somehow our own myster- 
 ious being was struck from the Rock, which now looms 
 so high above us. By an inversion of the law which 
 •makes water raised to the clouds seek again its ocean 
 home, so the soul descended from the skies seeks 
 again its native element. It presses toward the rock 
 underneath which bursts the hidden spring of its own 
 life. 
 
 "Man is a God in ruins." The indestructible im- 
 press of the divine spirit is found upon the human 
 spirit, and some have claimed that inseparable from 
 the feeling of God is the feeling of a relationship to 
 him. Certainly the bonds by which we are drawn lay 
 hold of every part of our spiritual organism, the intel- 
 
40 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 lect as well as the heart ; and even the conscience in 
 torture over sins committed against God can find no 
 rest until it attains to peace with God, This is the 
 most surprising phenomenon of experience, and it is 
 the most powerful demonstration that the soul must 
 have God for its portion. The same anguish which 
 inspires the penitent wnth an awful terror of God, 
 makes him at the same time cry out after God. Con- 
 science scourges him away from God, and yet prompts 
 him to exclaim, "O that I knew where I might find 
 Him!" Driven from His presence, yet struggling to 
 come near Him — that is the sinner's dilemma. The 
 more he is oppressed by his guilt the keener becomes 
 the thirst for God. Escape from the Judge of all is pos- 
 sible only by flying into His arms. The awakened soul, 
 the broken and the contrite heart feels instinctively 
 drawn to the heavenly bosom. Just when we have the 
 fullest vision of our fallen state, of the far-ofif land in 
 which we sojourn, we yearn for the home of the soul, 
 and for communion with Him by whom and for whom 
 we are made. 
 
 III. THE UNATTAINABLENESS OF THIS COMMUNION BY 
 HUMAN e;FF0RT. 
 
 The rock is higher than I — literally translated the 
 text reads the Rock which is "too high for me." I 
 may not approach it. Away above in the dizzy heights 
 I descry the Infinite, the Everlasting One. But I find 
 no way to get to Him. I have no means of knowing 
 Him. I can have no communion with Him. The 
 ascent to God is beyond my power. I cannot scale 
 
THE high?:r rock. 41 
 
 tlic heights. I have no wings to soar. I can con- 
 struct no ladder on which to mount to the habita- 
 tion of the Eternal. I know of no marble staircase 
 that leads to the audience chamber of the Most High. 
 "The world's altar stairs," of which the poet speaks, 
 do indeed "slope through darkness," but they do not 
 bring me to God. 
 
 With all man's power over nature, and the sub- 
 serviency of the elements to his purpose, with all his 
 magnificent achievements, he flutters like a struck eagle 
 upon the plain, incapable of soaring to his native skies 
 — unable to escape from God and yet unable to find 
 Him. He can cut a pathway through the mountains. 
 He can traverse the sea, he can turn the elements into 
 chariot wheels. He may yet by his bold inventions 
 construct a highway to the stars, go flying through 
 the ether, communicate with all the planets and com- 
 plete the annihilation of time and space, but he cannot 
 build a way to God, he cannot bridge the chasm which 
 yawns between him and the Rock, he cannot lift him- 
 self to the bosom of his Father, he cannot by search- 
 ing find out God. "Thy way is in the sea, and Thy 
 path in the great waters, Thy footsteps are not known." 
 "It is high as heaven, what cans't thou do; deeper than 
 hell, what cans't thou know ?" 
 
 Here too universal experience reaches one conclu- 
 sion. With the same positiveness with which the 
 unanimous voice of humanity declares that God is, 
 it also declares that He is unsearchable. Held in awe 
 by the conviction of the Highest, man's futile efforts 
 to commune with Him have forced from him the sigh, 
 
42 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 "Whom none can comprehend, and none explore, 
 Being whom we call God, and know no more." 
 
 Man has surely sought to know God. The bold- 
 ness and persistence of his endeavors have yielded to 
 literature its richest treasures, but his uttermost search- 
 ingfs have been like 
 
 "Ships that sail for Sunny Isles, 
 But never come to shore." 
 
 Science and theology are at one, the testimony of 
 revelation and that of reason. Herbert Spencer in his 
 "First Principles" declares that "the power which the 
 universe manifests to us is utterly inscrutable," and 
 Martin Luther used language almost indentical with 
 this. The cultured Greeks ignorantly worshipped the 
 objects of their reverence ; the unpolished Samaritans 
 worshipped they knew not what, and now when the 
 latest induction of science avows that God is unknown 
 and unknowable, it simply registers the experience of 
 the universal heart in the succession of ages. It is 
 nothing new that God cannot be truly known. An 
 inspired Apostle taught that God dwelleth in light that 
 is unapproachable, whom no man hath seen, nor can 
 see, and the Psalmist by a counter figure places Him in 
 the midst of clouds and darkness. 
 
 The stupid creeds and the revolting rites of super- 
 stition are only so many confirmations of the truth that 
 the knowledge of God and communion wdth Him sur- 
 pass the boundaries, the resources and the devices of 
 mortal minds. Ae-nosticism is but the inevitable con- 
 
THE HIGHER ROCK. 43 
 
 fession that human reason h.as reached its hmits ! It 
 cowers before an unattainable height. Its proud waves 
 cannot rise to the crest of the rock. Nature with all 
 her forces and laws it can command and overcome, but 
 God is above nature. Man's desires go struggling 
 upward, but the rock is too high. 
 
 "From all sides comes the same confession." "In 
 all places we see all sorts of men building altars to 
 the unknown and unknowable God." Every seeker 
 brings back the same report. Science scales all heights 
 and sounds all abysses, counts the stars, turns over 
 the granite leaves of the globe's history, bathes amid 
 the light of the morning and broods amid the shadows 
 of the evening, and comes back from ocean caverns 
 and mountain peaks, from beds of fossils and from the 
 silvery pavement of the milky way, with the same un- 
 varying message : "There are footprints, but He that 
 made them could not be found." 
 
 The heart sends out over the waste of waters the 
 dove of its tender feeling, but the wearied wing finds 
 no resting place on the boundless billow. The timid 
 bird hurries back to its home, in its mouth no message 
 but an olive branch, the symbol of peace. 
 
 "With sturdy resolution conscience goes forth to 
 sound the dim and perilous way. But the scent is 
 lost amidst the jungles and rocky passes of the world. 
 Terrified by the glare of the tiger, the spring of the 
 leopard, the coil of the serpent, the sting of the reptile, 
 horror-stricken by triumphant iniquity and bleeding 
 equity, shocked at seeing a Tiberius on the throne and 
 a Jesus on the cross, * * * it loses the thread of 
 
44 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 the moral law, and recoils from the problems it cannot 
 confront. 
 
 "Boldest of all the soul plumes her wings of faith 
 for a flight to the very_empyrearu Her pinions of 
 aspiration bear her above the earth ; she distances vision 
 
 * * * leaves time and space behind, with open eye 
 looks steadily at the sun ! But the sun itself is a 
 shadow. Light there is, a shoreless ocean of light, 
 
 * * * On its waves she floats serenely; in its 
 silence she rests at peace. But no voice breaks the 
 silence, no form of creative Godhead walks on the sea 
 of Glory," Vain, vain is its search to find the soft 
 bosom of the parent in whose breast the child can 
 nestle. 
 
 Most of all does the consciousness of sin reveal 
 an impassable barrier between man and God. When 
 once the sense of guilt can no longer be stifled, when 
 the soul stands shivering and condemned before its 
 own bar, then it is made to realize its incapacity for 
 communion with God. Conscious of its shame and 
 degradation, so far from rising to God by its own 
 powers as it fain would, it finds itself sinking into the 
 dread abyss. So far from having wings by which it 
 may struggle upward, it is loaded with chains that drag 
 it down to ever lower depths, while it calls out, O 
 wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me ? 
 
 Salvation is infinitely above us gleaming like an 
 Alpine cliiT against the face of the sky, whilst we are 
 toiling in the mire below, held in terror by the very 
 majesty and height of the rock. The way to the holies 
 
THE HIGHER ROCK. 45 
 
 is not open, though the tabernacle stands in view. We 
 may draw nigh to its altar of blood and smoke, and 
 view our gifts and sacrifices ascending by fire, but only 
 to learn that we are shut out from the Shekinah and 
 that no voice comes forth to give us peace, only to 
 realize on the one hand that without holiness no man 
 can see the Lord, and on the other that in us lies no 
 power to become holy, no possibility of atoning for 
 sin, no means of eflfecting reconciliation. 
 
 What is there left for the sinner but irremediable 
 despair? Is not the soul doomed to sink into an eter- 
 nal abyss, with the everlasting Father upon an inac- 
 cessible throne? Yet depair cannot be the end of 
 existence. The soul cannot give up — cannot surrender 
 to remediless woe. Hope springs eternal in the breast. 
 But how is salvation possible? In what way can I 
 get to the Rock? In the way pursued by the Psalmist 
 — the way indicated by the text — by a supreme act of 
 faith, by an appeal for help. 
 
 IV. THE EFFICACY OF BEUEVING PRAYER. 
 
 In the agony of his thirst the Psalmist betakes 
 himself to prayer. In the anguish of his heart he 
 exclaims, Lead me to the Rock that is higher than I. 
 As he comes to the realization of his own impotence 
 and of his desperate needs, he sends out over the dark 
 expanse a loud but distinct shriek for relief. Aban- 
 doning his own futile struggles he makes an afifecting 
 and effectual appeal that a line for his rescue may be 
 thrown from the Rock. Lead me to it, he cries, lift 
 
46 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 me up the way my feet cannot tread. Do for me what 
 is beyond my powers, take me to the bos:m of ihe 
 Rock. 
 
 Some minds are perplexed about the rationale of 
 prayer. What else is a man to do ? What else can he 
 do? What is more natural in an extremity than to 
 pray? How can one help praying, calling for help, 
 when his hold is giving way and the abyss yawns 
 beneath? Prayer is the instinct of distress — man's 
 only refuge from despair. 
 
 "When other helpers fail, and comforts flee, 
 Help of the helpless, O come jiear to me." 
 
 Prayer is the most rational act of the mind, the most 
 logical as it is the necessary outcome of human reason- 
 ing. Given these three conditions, the sense of a 
 supreme power, an inborn aspiration for communion 
 with that power, and the realization of our inability 
 to rise to that spiritual height, and the inexorable con- 
 clusion is prayer. That Rock is mightier than I am, 
 this thirst of my soul is destined to be satisfied. My 
 own inability is itself a prophecy of aid from without. 
 Hence we are driven to implore the aid where alone 
 it can be found. 
 
 Once roused from the stupor so common to the 
 thoughtless, once seeing his little boat filling up with 
 the sea, man will not go down without crying, "Lord, 
 save, I perish." H there is no help in me nor in the 
 wide world around me there may be help in Him. If 
 my arm is too short to reach up, I am sure His is long 
 enough to reach down. Mv resources are exhausted 
 
THE HIGHER ROCK. 47 
 
 in searching for Him. Surely His resources are inex- 
 haustible. If God cannot be known from any data I 
 possess, that does not debar Him from making Him- 
 self known. I cannot go to Him. Nothing, however, 
 can preclude Him from coming to me. Clouds and 
 darkness veil Him from my vision, but He can lift the 
 veil and let me see His face. 
 
 I have no firm base on which to plant a ladder 
 wherewith to ascend, but a ladder may be thrown to 
 me from the crest of the rock. The knowledge of 
 God, like every other good and perfect gift, is from 
 above. Salvation is of the Lord, The grace that 
 redeems us must come from the skies. Atonement 
 and pardon, renew^al and sanctification are the work of 
 divine mercy. Man must be saved by a power not 
 himself, lifted to the summit of the Rock by the arm 
 of omnipotence. 
 
 Brought by faith to the apprehension of this, the 
 human soul betakes itself to prayer. In the darkness 
 it calls for light, in its overwhelming sense of weak- 
 ness it begs for strength, in the bitterness of guilt it 
 cries for pardon, in the thirst for righteousness it 
 pleads for an atoning sacrifice and a renewing spirit. 
 in the face of death it seeks the ultimate fountain of 
 life. 
 
 "Lead me to the Rock that is higher than I" is 
 the expression not only of a universal belief, of a uni- 
 versal aspiration, and of a universal confession, but 
 also of a universal prayer. 
 
 The prayer is heard. The answer is here. God 
 has mercifully anticipated the yearnings of our being. 
 
48 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 He has provided against our inability of rising to Him. 
 He has not remained beyond the stars unknown and 
 at an infinite distance. He has come near to us. Before, 
 we called a response came from the skies, a revelation 
 of His face and of His heart. Through Moses and the 
 prophets the veil was in part removed. But through 
 the only begotten Son the fullness of the Godhead 
 appeared among men in bodily form. The word of 
 the Eternal was made flesh and dwelt among us. The 
 divine has appeared under human conditions and men 
 beholding Him were made to sing : 
 
 "Mine eyes have seen the salvation of the Lord." 
 
 God was manifested in Jesus Christ. He that hath 
 seen Him hath seen the Father, and he that hath the 
 Son hath the Father also, and holds fellowship with 
 Him through the Spirit. The Gospel is the response 
 to the prayer of the text. It answers the yearning of 
 the soul. He that drinketh of this fountain shall never 
 thirst again. We could not rise up to the Rock but 
 the Rock has moved down to us, descending into the 
 depths of human woe. While a shoreless and tem- 
 pestuous sea surges between man and his Maker, while 
 with all his craving to pass over this great deep he 
 has no ship that will bear him across, no compass to 
 point the course, and no chart by which to steer, there 
 comes in the middle of the night a bright form walk- 
 ing calmly on the angry waves, stilling the tempest, 
 and calling to the afifrighted soul, "It is I, be not 
 afraid." 
 
 It is the Rock itself, the Rock not cold and hard 
 
THE HIGHER ROCK. 49 
 
 and high and inaccessible. It has a hving face aglow 
 with love. It has eyes beaming tenderness, it has ears 
 which note the feeblest pulsations of my being, it has 
 a mouth from which comes words of power, it has arms 
 reaching down into the deepest mystery. It has a 
 soft bosom on which the weary soul may rest. O the 
 Rock is as sweet as it is firm and sure ! I look into 
 that face and it gives me peace. I behold those fatherly 
 eyes and their recognition is the pledge of my sonship. 
 I pour my wants and sorrows into His ears and I feel 
 the throbs of infinite mercy. I hear His heavenly voice 
 and I know that all is well. I reach out to grasp a 
 hand from heaven, and lo ! beneath me are the ever- 
 lasting arms ! 
 
II. THE THIRD SUNDAY IN ADVENT. 
 
 Art Thou He that should come, or look we for another? — Matt. xi. 3. 
 
 The greatest of prophets stumbhng over the object 
 of His prophecy, the herald of the Messiah doubting- 
 the identity of His personaHty ! Surely such an inquiry 
 is at first glance calculated to stagger believers, though 
 on the other hand this most extraordinary question 
 has drawn various satisfactory solutions from exposi- 
 tors. 
 
 To some it simply indicates doubt whether the mar- 
 vellous works of which John had heard in prison were 
 wrought really by Jesus, or by some other one. Who is 
 the person of whom he heard such wonderful accounts? 
 This was actually the question in the public mind. 
 Some : Elijah, possibly Jeremiah, or some other prophet 
 risen from the dead. John learning in his dungeon 
 of this diversity of judgment seeks to ascertain for 
 himself whether it was another reformer or prophet 
 that wrought these works, or whether really the Christ 
 Himself on whom he had seen the Holy Ghost alight 
 was stirring up the people ? Then the answer returned 
 would have been : It is Jesus Himself who is doing^ 
 these things, not some other great one. Or, the in- 
 quiry was made by John in behalf of his own disciples. 
 Strong in their attachment to their master, they were 
 slow to become followers of Jesus. They showed jeal- 
 ousy over his popularity, party strife was brewing,. 
 
 (50) 
 
THE THIRD SUNDAY IN ADVENT. 5 1 
 
 and they felt a growing prejudice aginst the spirit of 
 Jesus, whose freedom and cheerfulness and fondness 
 for social intercourse antagonized the ascetic rigor of 
 their master. Thus while it was the specific aim of 
 John to make followers for Jesus, his most loyal dis- 
 ciples w^ere standing aloof from Him as if He were 
 a competitor. Instead of joining the Bridegroom they 
 hold on to His friend, and the disciples of him who 
 was but the forerunner of Him that was to come, are 
 forming a rival camp. John perceives the growing 
 danger, and hearing of some great miracles of Jesus 
 sends several of their number to the spot in order that 
 by ocular proofs they may be convinced of His Mes- 
 siahship and transfer their allegiance to Him. But 
 Luke says : The disciples of John sliozved him all these 
 things. From which w'e conclude that it was not the 
 unbelief of his disciples, but his own wavering faith 
 which prompted the inquiry of the text, and that our 
 Lord's answer was directed to John and not intended 
 primarily for the benefit of his disciples. 
 
 The interpretation most naturally drawn from the 
 narrative is that the Baptist himself was really stag- 
 gering, that sore doubts for the time overpowered the 
 mind of one who was more than a prophet, that after 
 all his revelations, experiences and attestations his 
 faith suffered a temporary eclipse. Like Paul, who 
 after preaching to others felt it possible to be a cast- 
 away himself, the forerunner whose special mission 
 it was to bear testimony to Christ and to prepare the 
 w^ay for Him, now that Christ has come and is rally- 
 ing the multitude, is himself w'avering in his faith. 
 
52 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 The gloom of John's prison, the injustice and pri- 
 vations he was suffering, and the prospect of an early 
 and violent death would naturally tend to work in a 
 mind like his melancholy broodings, painful appre- 
 hensions and pessimistic doubts. So that he really 
 fell into suspense concerning '"the proper and full Mes- 
 siahship of Jesus." 
 
 This is indeed somewhat astounding. We have 
 seen John stand like a wall of adamant in the face of 
 opposition. His courageous deliverances to Herod 
 brought him into prison. Has he now become a reed 
 shaken by the wind? He had with his own eyes seen 
 the Spirit of God descending upon Jesus and abiding 
 upon Him, he had with his own ears heard the voice 
 of God from heaven, saying, This is My beloved Son, 
 in whom I am well pleased. He had pointed Him out 
 as the Lamb of God. Can it be that he distrusts his 
 -own eyes and ears? Oh the dreadful power of un- 
 belief! Who is fortified against the assaults of tempt- 
 ation? The weakness of man, though advanced in 
 grace, exposes him to doubt even under the most favor- 
 able circumstances. And the wiles of the devil are 
 such as to make man not only disbelieve the word of 
 God, but even to distrust his own senses. Is it really 
 more unreasonable to doubt our own consciousness 
 than to doubt the word of our Creator ? 
 
 Look into God's word and into the mirror of 
 human experience, and as astonishing as such a lesion 
 of faith may appear, it is so far from being abnormal 
 that it is actully to have been expected. 
 
 The sacred record contains a shining catalogue 
 
THK THIRD SUNDAY IN ADVENT. 53 
 
 of the heroes of faith, but it furnishes not a patriarch 
 nor a prophet, nor apostle, in whom the light was not 
 at times almost quenched. Abraham, the father of 
 believers, gave way to unbelief ; Moses, the most faith- 
 ful servant of God, was overborne by the same weak- 
 ness; David, the man after God's own heart, became 
 a victim of his passions ; Elijah yielded to despair and 
 begged that his life might be taken. The same tragic 
 experience runs through the New Testament. The 
 Apostles were greater than John, yet each and all had 
 their fierce temptations, their terrible conflicts with 
 the powers of darkness, before and after Pentecost. 
 Mary, the holy virgin mother, had a sword pierce her 
 own heart, and found that the public excitement was 
 unsettling her Son's mind. There is nothing impossi- 
 ble, incredible or unparalleled in this temporary obscur- 
 ation of a believing consciousness. Why should John 
 alone have been exempted from such a trial? Why 
 should not he win a crown of life w^hich is promised 
 to all them that endure temptation? The Lord Himself 
 was not exempted from this lot of His faithful follow- 
 ers. Even He had His forty days and forty nights of 
 struggle in the desert, facing the interrogation, "If 
 Thou be the Son of God." John's fit of despondency 
 is not so extraordinary after all. 
 
 It will be interesting to inquire what was the 
 ground or the occasion for these mental struggles? 
 What offered Satan a handle by which to direct his 
 assault on the forerunner? John had the strongest 
 proofs of Jesus being the Messiah, and he bore clear 
 and decided testimony to it, but this does not imply 
 
54 'THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 that he had clear and full enlightenment as to the 
 nature and full scope of the Messiah's reign. To pro- 
 ■claim that was not a part of his mission, and hence he 
 had no revelation on that point. From his study of 
 the Scriptures and from his education and public opin- 
 ion in his day he doubtless had imbibed the idea of a 
 powerful temporal monarchy. His views were indeed 
 more spiritual than those of the Pharisees, and in his 
 preaching he laid stress on the moral element in the 
 kingdom, and the need of moral reformation as a prep- 
 aration to its establishment, yet he labored undoubtedly 
 under the misconception which fixed the eye on the 
 aspects of majesty and power, judgment and glory in 
 the Redeemer's Kingdom. At all events he could not 
 reconcile the methods of Jesus with the picture which 
 he had drawn for himself. 
 
 The Jewish mind at that time offers a remarkable 
 example of a whole nation or church making a false 
 interpretation of the Scriptures or laying such empha- 
 sis on one set of truths as to lose sight altogether of 
 other truths. 
 
 The Messiah's reign was to be a redemption from 
 the oppression of the conqueror, from the disorders 
 under which the nation groaned ; salvation for the 
 righteous, destruction for the wicked. It was to be a 
 great and dreadful day, a day that would burn as an 
 oven. Who may abide the day of His coming ? And all 
 the proud and all that do wickedly shall be stubble, and 
 the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord 
 of hosts. It was to be to His enemies a day of God's 
 ^vengeance, of His terrible wrath. John himself had 
 
THE THIRD SUNDAY IN ADVENT. 55 
 
 predicted : He shall baptize on the one hand with the 
 Holy Ghost, but on the other hand with fire, and he 
 had represented the Lord about to come as haviui^ an 
 axe in His hand cutting away the very root of every 
 tree that bringeth not forth good fruit and casting it 
 into the fire — as standing with a fan on His threshing 
 floor gathering His wheat into the garner but burning 
 up the chaff with unquenchable fire. 
 
 The prophet Esaias and others had indeed fore- 
 told "He shall not strive nor cry ; neither shall any 
 man hear His voice in the streets. A bruised reed shall 
 He not break nor quench the smoking flax till He send 
 forth judgment unto victory." But the Jews had not 
 apprehended those sweet and brighter passages con- 
 cerning the gentleness, the lowliness, the grace and 
 compassion which should mark Messiah's Kingdom. 
 And while John had learned better the all-comprehen- 
 sive character of that reign, he undoubtedly expected 
 judgment as well as mercy to be exercised, the more 
 awful and more glorious features, as well as the ele- 
 ments of mildness and tenderness and love. The ERROR 
 •of his mind was the confusion of the Second advent 
 with the first, the failure to understand the perspec- 
 tive of prophecy, which embraces long intervening 
 ages between the advent in the flesh, to heal and to 
 teach, to suffer and to die, and the advent in glory, 
 when He shall come a second time without sin unto sal- 
 vation to judge the quick and the dead, and to put all 
 His enemies under His feet. 
 
 John expected a sudden, glorious, overwhelming 
 crisis, a crisis of judgment as well as of grace. How 
 
56 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 different the issue ! All things continue about as they 
 were before. The Romans still defile the Holy City, 
 Herod keeps on the throne, an adulteress shares, op- 
 pression is rife, iniquity abounds. The Pharisees still 
 stalk in their hypocrisy and make their long prayers. 
 His own activity is abruptly brought to a close. The 
 prophet, if not stoned, is languishing in prison, and the 
 supposed Messiah raises no hand for his deliverance. 
 He is indeed working many and great miracles, but 
 they are confined to healing diseases; to deeds of mercy, 
 to the relief of individual misery or momentary want. 
 There are no signs of a movement on a larger scale, 
 no deeds of power with a national import. Only in 
 a humble, unobtrusive way is Jesus gathering a com- 
 pany of followers, teaching them the rudiments of 
 spiritual life and exemplifying the law of disinterested 
 kindness. 
 
 Where is the other side, the judgment upon the 
 wicked, the overthrow of unrighteousness, the righting 
 of the wrongs of men ? What can it mean ? Instead 
 of fire and storm, thunder and destruction, we hear 
 nothing but the still small voice of grace and goodness. 
 Power that could crush all unrightousness is expended 
 in healing sick bodies and comforting disturbed minds. 
 This is the stumbling block! He has not surrendered 
 to unbelief. He has not given up hope. He is not 
 an apostate. 
 
 The very fact that he makes inquiry of Jesus him- 
 self concerning whom he doubts, shows after all a 
 belief stronger than his unbelief, a faith prevailing over 
 doubts. 
 
THE THIRD SUNDAY IN ADVENT. 57 
 
 The heavenly Father will not suffer us to be 
 tempted above that we are able. He sets bounds to 
 the ordeal, and with the temptation He also and 
 always makes a way to escape, that ye may be able to 
 bear it ! There is relief for the troubled mind. There 
 is a solvent for despondency. John's is a case of hon- 
 est doubt, of real perplexity, of heartfelt fears. This 
 does not lead him away from Jesus. Because of the 
 things that stagger him, he does not cast away the 
 things that comfort and sustain him. Because his 
 mind encounters difficulties in connection with Christ, 
 he does not turn his back on Christ. These very diffi- 
 culties only deepen his interest in the ^Messiah, prompt 
 him, as he cannot go himself, to send an embassy mak- 
 ing further inquiry, and asking of him the solution of 
 his trouble ! The very nature of the question shows 
 that he believes in Jesus, believes him to be the teacher 
 of divine truth, from whom he begs the settlement of 
 doubts. Paradoxical as it may appear the mission w^hich 
 exhibits his want of faith brings out strikingly the 
 strength and tenacity of the Baptist's faith. He virt- 
 ually says, I'm losing my faith, and, in the same breath. 
 Behold my faith. It will not, it cannot let go of Thee. 
 Only speak the word and my soul has peace. Jesus' 
 own declaration will suffice. Art thou He, or look we 
 for another? 
 
 He did not send in vain ; no one ever made a fruit- 
 less application. No fear or doubt or sorrow carried 
 to Jesus will fail of relief. 
 
 In that same hour, says Luke, He cured many of 
 their infirmities and plagues, and of evil spirits ; and 
 
58 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 unto many that were blind He gave light. And then, 
 fully sympathizing with the trial of His faithful servant, 
 He kindly directs go and show John again, once more, 
 those things which ye do hear and see. They could 
 perhaps not at once gain an audience with Jesus. They 
 had to stand off behind the crowd, where they might 
 Jiear from others as well as see for themselves what 
 was going on. They would hear the voice of gladness 
 pouring out thanks for merciful relief and giving glory 
 to God for the wonders wrought. They might hear 
 also blessed sentences of the Gospel falling from the 
 lips of Jesus himself. They would hear the multitude 
 testifying to the resurrection of some that were dead, 
 and with their own eyes they saw blind ones receiving 
 their sight, the cripple leaping on sound limbs, the leper 
 cleansed, and the deaf opening their ears at the voice 
 of Jesus. 
 
 Thus they could return armed not with the testi- 
 mony of their senses regarding the miracles of Christ, 
 but with Christ's ozvn charge to give this as His answer 
 to John. The answer had a yet wider scope. This 
 very message, while it clearly expressed what these 
 messengers saw and heard, is at the same time the very 
 language of the Scriptures, and therefore a reminder 
 to the doubting Baptist that the solution for his diffi- 
 culty was found in the prophecies. How readest thou ? 
 How couldst thou stumble at My course if thou hadst 
 faithfully pondered the prophet who in speaking of 
 My reign says : The eyes of the blind shall be opened 
 and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped ; then shall 
 
THE THIRD SUNDAY IN ADVENT. 59 
 
 the lame man leap as an hare, and the tong-ue of the 
 dumb shall sing? Is. xxxv. 5, 6. 
 
 And finally He encourages his faith to firmness 
 and fortitude. All things are not g'oing as you had 
 expected — as you wish them to go. J\Iy reign is unrav- 
 elling very slowly ; the wheels of the chariot are tarry- 
 ing; the kingdom is not being restored at this time. It 
 may be a far-off event ; blest are those whose faith 
 keeps them standing and watching and waiting. The 
 day of the Lord is a thousand years. Blessed is he 
 whosoever shall not be offended in Me. 
 
 The Kingdom of God cometh not with observation. 
 My reign is to be in individual hearts, to be established 
 within men. The advent power of glory is yet to come. 
 Divide your question, cut it in two. / am He that zi'as 
 to come. Search the Scriptures and you'll find My 
 lineaments unmistakable. Prophecy and fulfilment unite 
 in Me. And you look for another. Certainly another 
 coming is in store, the counterpart of the first. The 
 Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His 
 mighty angels in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them 
 that know not God and that obey not the Gospel. He 
 is at once the Lord zi'hich is, zvhich was, and which is 
 to come. 
 
 And what is this to us? How easily we can put 
 ourselves in the Baptist's place, and out of the dun- 
 geon of our doubts exclaim: Art thou He, et seq.f 
 Christianity has been on earth for nearly 2000 years. 
 Its founder died for the sins of the world, and is pos- 
 sessed of all power in heaven and upon earth — and 
 
6o THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 yet 66 per cent, of the total population is heathen 
 to-day, without God and without hope. "Art thou He 
 that comethf" And then consider what has transpired 
 upon the planet since He set up His kingdom. 
 
 The fall of the Roman Empire, sinking under its 
 own corruption and the waves of barbarism ! The 
 religion of the false prophet, spreading over the fairest 
 Christian provinces of Asia, Africa and Europe and 
 stifling and paralyzing the Church for more than looo 
 years ! 
 
 The monstrous imposture of the papacy placing its 
 iron heel upon the body of Christ, and forging chains 
 upon the hands and the feet of God's children ! The 
 Reign of Terror, the awful catastrophe of revolution in 
 France, under the spirit of Atheism, and the deluge of 
 blood which under Napoleon swept over a continent — 
 and all this while Jesus was holding the sceptre ! "Art 
 thou He that should come?" Sad and staggering is 
 the spectacle, and he who reads history superficially 
 and riotlessly may easily lose his faith in Christian- 
 ity. Yet he who studies history will find that down 
 these centuries a stream of life has been pouring 
 through the nations, purifying, healing, renewing and 
 gladdening the race, a stream ever widening in its 
 channel, ever increasing in its volume, so that while 
 human wickedness and error continue to spread deso- 
 lation and woe, the Gospel has turned the wilderness 
 into spiritual gardens, and made the desert to rejoice 
 and blossom as the rose. It has freed the captive, it 
 has rescued the oppressed, it has comforted the 
 mourner, it has bound up the broken-hearted, it has 
 
THE THIRD SUNDAY IN ADVENT. 6 1 
 
 purified the home, it has spread a multitude of bless- 
 ings in its pathway. 
 
 And with all this, whatever has opposed the prog- 
 ress of Christianity or stifled its beneficent influence 
 was, we find, clearly foretold by the author of the 
 Christianit}-, and by His apostles, who first preached it 
 to the world. The wheat and the tares are to grow 
 together. They are grozcitig together. Think of the 
 frightful atrocities in South Africa! Think of the 
 unspeakable horrors witnessed in China ! Think of the 
 responsibility of so-called Christian nations for these 
 monstrous crimes ! Think of Christian Europe main- 
 taining armies which aggregate 10,000,000, and grind- 
 ing the people by intolerable burdens to build and main- 
 tain ships of war ! Think of the colossal tide of sensu- 
 ality, vice and crime sweeping over our land ! And 
 listen to the cries that come from the habitations of 
 cruelty, suffering and woe ! Stanley had hardly com- 
 pleted his volume on Darkest Africa, when it was fol- 
 lowed by a volume on Darkest London, depicting con- 
 ditions more revolting than those of the black continent, 
 and if an author should dare to exhibit to public view 
 Darkest New York, what a ghastly spectacle it would 
 be. Think of the indescribable havoc in society made 
 by the liquor traffic! Take in, if you can, the awful 
 significance of a single issue of the daily press, or, for 
 a specimen of the filth in which the world wallows, 
 examine the contents of a Sunday sheet, and with tri- 
 umphant iniquity grinning at you, with truth forever 
 on the scaffold and wrong forever on the throne, the 
 anguish of your soul must force from you the cry : 
 
62 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 Art thou He that should come, or look we for another ? 
 Yet over all this moral darkness there streams from 
 the cross the light of the world, chasing- before it the 
 poisonous mists and miasms which nourish and pro- 
 mote human depravity, and he must be blind indeed 
 who does not note the advance of moral development, 
 the growth of righteousness and charity, the progress 
 of religious thought and power among men. While the 
 world itself may be growing no better, men and women 
 in it certainly are, and the vital interest in religion and 
 righteousness was never so profound and so marked 
 as it is to-day. Christian charity was never so active^ 
 never so comprehensive and so pure-minded. Never 
 before was so much done for the removal of poverty^ 
 for the relief of suffering, for the care of the friendless, 
 for the strengthening of the weak, for the education 
 of the ignorant. Never was there a more earnest pur- 
 pose to right the wrongs of the injured; never was the 
 bar of public opinion so merciless to private or to public 
 immorality. 
 
 And if notwithstanding there is still many a stum- 
 bling block for our unsteady feet, turn to the good 
 book and you will be amazed at its faithful forecast 
 of the conflict the Gospel encounters in its march. And 
 with the sure promise of another coming of our Lord 
 in power and glory, it becomes us to judge nothing 
 before the time, until the Lord's coming, who both will 
 bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will 
 make manifest the counsels of the hearts. 
 
 Christ is the one that should come, and yet we 
 look for another. And let this assure and comfort 
 
THE THIRD SUNDAY IN ADVENT. 63 
 
 every tried and tempted believer. What weakness, 
 sinfulness, prejudice, uncharitableness ; what pride, 
 ambition, selfishness, what passion yet remains in each 
 one of us! Who does not at times cry out: Art thou 
 He that should come? And yet all is not vile. You 
 have better impulses, loftier aspirations, a kinder dispo- 
 sition, more self-control, a tenderer conscience, and a 
 more spiritual mind. You are making- a good fight, 
 and He who has begun a good w'ork in }"ou will cer- 
 tainly finish it unto the day of Jesus Christ. 
 
 The Scriptures show abundantly that it is by 
 great tribulation that we enter the kingdom, that sanc- 
 tification is a process long and slow, that it is by 
 ceaseless watching and praying and self-denial that the 
 new- life is maintained. 
 
 Blessed is he who does not stagger at the slow 
 unfolding of the kingdom within him or in the world. 
 Blessed is he who so far from despairing over perplex- 
 ing conditions, turns only the more to Jesus himself, 
 and in childlike docility cast every problem and every 
 mystery at his feet, confident that He who has come is 
 the very one that cometh again, that the very thing 
 which perplex and try His people now are but the sig- 
 nals of another coming, the port signals of another 
 advent, not in weakness but in power and great glory. 
 Not in some future w^orld alone 'twill be, 
 
 Not in some future world alone 'twill be, 
 
 Beyond the grave, beyond the bounds of time; 
 
 But on the earth thy glory we shall see. 
 
 And share thy triumph, peaceful, pure, sublime. 
 
III. THE MOTHER OF MY LORD. 
 
 Blessed art thou among women. — Luke i. 42. 
 
 The poet speaks of the soul of good in things evil. 
 With greater propriety may we speak of the heart of 
 truth in forms of error. The most flagrant and perni- 
 cious error is often but a false garb thrown over truth, 
 an exaggeration, a distortion of truth. And the surest 
 method of exposing and dislodging false doctrine is to 
 uncover the true doctrine of which it is a perversion, 
 to understand the truth which lies at its root and to 
 maintain the correct principle over against its corrup- 
 tion. 
 
 The exaltation of the Virgin Mary above all of her 
 species was brought about naturally, gradually, with 
 good intent and with a measure of consistency, in the 
 early centuries of Christianity. The extraordinary 
 glory which attached to her as the mother of our Lord, 
 the terms of Scripture which made her the most blessed 
 among women, the superlative purity of her heart and 
 life, the gentleness, goodness, the grace and beautv 
 incarnated in her personality, came in course of time 
 to make her an object of devotion, of faith, until more 
 worship and more prayers were addressed to the sin- 
 born human mother than to her sinless and divine Son. 
 
 The history of ancient Christian art illustrates the 
 progress made in the homage of many. At first the 
 painter portrays simplv the noble woman full of grace ; 
 
 (64) 
 
THE MOTHER OF MV I.ORD. 65 
 
 gradually he represents the mother and the babe ; later 
 appears the Son on a throne and the mother crowned 
 tho' sitting as yet below Him ; still later the crowned 
 mother is shown on a level with the Son ; the next 
 stage exhibits the mother on a throne above the Son, 
 and, finally, the climax is reached. The eternal Son 
 in wrath is about to destroy the earth, when the virgin 
 mother interposes, pleads her maternal rights, and 
 saves the world from His vengeance. Thus theology 
 having in its endeavor to secure for Christ divine 
 •majesty, designated her as the Mother of God, pro- 
 ceeded by a false development to ascribe to her an 
 immediate share, the chief share in the work of re- 
 demption, until she became the object of a scandalous 
 and blasphemous idolatry. Her worship came in time 
 to overshadow the worship of her Son ; she was en- 
 throned as the Queen of Heayen, adored as the hearer 
 of prayer, virtually invested with supreme power in 
 heaven and on earth. 
 
 From all this paganising of the Gospel, Protestant- 
 ism recoils with horror, but such is naturally the 
 force of the rebound that we strike another extreme, 
 and withhold the meed of our reverence from her who 
 according to the Scriptures is to be called blessed by 
 all nations. As if ^lary were responsible for these 
 abominable idolatries, we seem to cherish harsh preju- 
 dice against her, to disparage her character, to over- 
 look her resplendent office, and disdainfully to ignore 
 what she was to God and what she was for us. Some 
 people have well-nigh a feeling of aversion to the 
 name : some would be ashamed ^o betray any special 
 
 5 
 
66 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 reverence for the mother of their Lord. They would 
 degrade rather than exalt her. 
 
 Savs Robertson : "As the Romanist represents all 
 connected with her as mysterious and immaculate, so 
 is the Protestant disposed to vulgarize her to the level 
 of the commonest humanity and exaggerated into re- 
 bukes the reverent expressions to her in which Jesus 
 asserted His divine independence." 
 
 Between these two extremes is doubtless found the 
 golden truth, and to the ascertainment and unfolding 
 of this let us here give our attention. 
 
 In certain aspects the Mother of our Lord holds 
 undoubtedly towards her species : i. A position of supe- 
 riority. In other aspects she holds undoubtedly : 2. A 
 position of equality, 
 
 "Hail thou that art highly favored, 
 The Lord is with thee; 
 Blessed art thou among women!" 
 
 Such was the salutation of the Angel to Mary, and 
 surely never before nor ever since was a mortal thus 
 addressed, altho' angelical salutations came to Abra- 
 ham, to Daniel, to Elizabeth, and to Zacharias. This 
 language of Holy Scripture, we doubt not, finds its 
 proper interpretation in the ascription to Mary of dig- 
 nity and honor such as no other mortal has ever borne, 
 such as none will ever bear again. She has a claim 
 to the title : most Blessed. In what this exaltation 
 consisted we may in a measure comprehend. 
 
 I. When the hour had come for the execution of 
 God's eternal counsel of grace, when the stupendous 
 mvsterv of the incarnation was to be enacted, when 
 
THE MOTHER OF MY LORD. 67 
 
 a work greater than that of building and ruHng worlds 
 was to be brought to pass, the Virgin Mary was the 
 elect instrument for its accomplishment. It may be 
 assumed that this chosen vessel corresponded in a 
 measure with the office she was to fill ; while, on the 
 one hand, her renown and distinction are justly asso- 
 ciated with the glory of her mission, she must, on the 
 other hand, have possessed personal elements of fitness 
 for this transcendent office. With the dignity of her 
 mission must be counseled the highest personal attri- 
 butes. It verily looks as if the honor with which she 
 was invested was held back, reserved for her, for one 
 whose purity and piety, whose thoughtful, meditative, 
 prayerful and believing soul qualified her beyond all 
 others for the holiest and most mysterious union with 
 God. Finding so fit an instrument, God Himself 
 showed extraordinary regard for His lowly hand- 
 maiden. He vouchsafed an incomparable distinction 
 to the Virgin. He made her the brightest star in the 
 firmament. Of a truth could she sing as no other : 
 "He that is mighty has done to me great things." In 
 the superhuman work of redemption God drew her 
 body, mind, and spirit into fellowship with Himself, 
 overshadowed, took possession of her in such a way 
 that she brought forth a child, and this child of hers 
 was at the same time the Son of the Highest, meekly 
 submitting herself to the divine will. The Holy Ghost, 
 the life-giving creative power of God, came upon her 
 and with a view to creating a new humanity the divine 
 presence and power created in her womb a new man, 
 the Second Adam, the infant God. In her heaven and 
 
68 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 earth were united as nowhere else, the divine and the 
 human met as they have met but once. A pure maiden 
 was espoused unto God, in the holiest mystery of the 
 incarnation. She was selected by divine love and di- 
 vine wisdom for a distinction that has fallen to no 
 other. She was raised to a pinnacle in which she has 
 no fear, no rival. Within and through the blessed vir- 
 gin God assumed human nature. Therefore, also, 
 that holy thing which was born of her was "called the 
 Son of God." 
 
 Surely in this mysterious, unfathomable, inefifable 
 union with God Mary was highly favored, attained 
 the highest eminence that can be reached on earth, and 
 was the chosen of God to bring into the world the 
 Savior promised long. 
 
 And this unique service to which she was chosen 
 presents another aspect in which Mary has a glory 
 above all other mortals. 
 
 2. She gave birth to the Savior of mankind. From 
 her is the seed of the woman which shall crush the 
 serpent's head. Prophecy foretold, a virgin shall con- 
 ceive and bring forth a son. When the fullness of 
 time was come God sent forth His Son, made of a 
 woman. To her the human race is indebted for its 
 Redeemer in as real a sense as this nation is indebted 
 to Mary Washington for the father of his country. He 
 is part of herself. All that is human in our Lord was 
 derived from her substance, created from her nature. 
 In her flesh, through her flesh, of her flesh, God sent 
 His only begotten into the world to save sinners. She 
 was His mother not in appearance or by semblance, but 
 
THE MOTHER OF MY LORD. 69 
 
 she was to Him in absolute reality all that a mother 
 can be to her offspring. Her blood flowed in His 
 veins, her life nourished His life, with absolute truth 
 as well as infinite tenderness, the divine Son could say 
 to her, "My Mother.'' 
 
 "When Thou tookest upon Thee to deliver man : 
 Thou didst humble Thyself to be born of a \'irgin." 
 
 That Alary was the subject through which this 
 humbling of the Son of God took place entitles her 
 to a singular distinction, and we say it reverently, we 
 cannot doubt that our Lord Himself in His human 
 make-up owed an inestimable debt to the elect mother 
 through whom was mediated His incarnate existence 
 and from whom He received all that is embraced in a 
 mother's love. As His eyes first opened upon her dear 
 face, so was their dying gaze fixed on her, while His 
 blood was flowing for the world. Surely Mary is 
 most blessed, because blessed is the first of her womb. 
 
 In the supreme hour for which the centuries had 
 been waiting, in the focal point of the w-orld's history, 
 this virgin was chosen of God to act the mother's 
 part, to fill the mother's ofiice for a divine Redeemer. 
 
 He was born underneath her heart. He was fed 
 from her life. He was folded in her arms. He was 
 kissed by her lips, He was lulled to sleep by her voice. 
 He was bathed by her hands. He was dandled on her 
 knees. He lisped His prayers at her feet, He was nur- 
 tured and shielded by her, moulded and guided 
 throughout childhood and youth, and not till He had 
 lived in her presence and basked in her motional coun- 
 tenance for thirty years did He feel qualified to go 
 
70 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 forth and enter upon the supreme task for which He 
 had come into the world. 
 
 Aye, there is a most precious as well as a most pro- 
 found meaning in the truth that our Lord was Mary's 
 Son, that He was true man born of the Virgin Mary, 
 as He was true God, begotten of the divine Spirit. 
 When it is remembered what she was to her Son and 
 what in Him she contributed to humanity, surely she 
 can be awarded a meed of glory whose splendor dims 
 every other earthly halo. 
 
 From still another point of view Mary is invested 
 with a peculiar glory. She was exalted by God to be — 
 
 3. The ideal and type of Christian motherhood. 
 The Roman and Greek Churches have emphasized the 
 virginity of Mary. To magnify this they have invented 
 the theory of her perpetual virginity. And the great 
 system of monasticism, as well as the monstrous wrong 
 of a celibate priesthood, seeks support from the virgin- 
 ity of Mary. But her motherhood is made far more 
 conspicuous in the Scriptures than her virginity. Three 
 times Mary is spoken of in the New Testament as a 
 virgin, twenty-six times as a mother — a fact which 
 points its own moral. That which transfigures Mary 
 and entitles her to a blessed and resplendent distinction 
 among all nations is the glory of motherhood. 
 
 It is not for us to say whether redemption was 
 possible through any other expedient than that of the 
 Savior being born of a woman. It is certainly con- 
 ceivable that the incarnation might have been effected 
 by creative fiat. The second Adam, like the first, 
 might have appeared upon earth by direct creation, 
 
THE MOTHER OF MY LORD. 7I 
 
 without the intervention of a second cause, but intinite 
 wisdom ordained that the incarnation should at the 
 same time servo the purpose of exalting and glorify- 
 ing motherhood. The word was made flesh through 
 a mother. The Christ entered substantially our 
 humanity by becoming the seed of the woman. The 
 mother act, the mother ministry, shed lustre on Mary, 
 a truth caught by the painters whose Madonnas are 
 never without, always with, the Child. 
 
 She who shines brightest and highest in the splen- 
 did galaxy of woman, achieved her distinction not by 
 a vow of perpetual virginity, not by declining the 
 sacred office of parentage, not by denying her sex nor 
 by exchanging it for man's sphere and aspiring to 
 man's glory. Not by being false to her nature, but 
 by being true to it ; not by tearing away from her 
 sphere, but by gratefully, contentedly accepting her 
 God-given office ; not by subverting the divine order 
 of society, but by illustrating and magnifying it in 
 bringing forth the Holy Child Jesus, has Mary become 
 the most highly favored among women. Her glory 
 was attained through her being herself — a lesson for 
 her sex — never more needed than to-day. There is 
 a glory of manhood and there is a glory of woman- 
 hood. One sex differs from the other sex in glory. 
 The glory of each is of a different order, not only of 
 a different degree. The glory of man is strength, 
 courage, justice, sternness. The glory of woman is 
 meekness, gentleness, purity and love, sympathy, long 
 suffering; and it requires no extraordinary insight to 
 see which outshines the other, that which is womanly, 
 
72 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 or that which is manly, the feminine graces, the mas- 
 culine virtues, the ministrations of Clara Barton or 
 the work of a military conqueror, the love which by 
 self-denial and sacrifice heals and saves, or the strength 
 w^hich wounds and slaughters. It is because Mary 
 magnified the glory of what is womanly, it is because 
 she wears the crown of motherhood, that she has a 
 claim on the reverent contemplation of Christendom. 
 She is to be venerated above others not as the Queen 
 of Heaven, but as the Queen of home, not because she 
 became deified, but because she was so perfectly 
 humanized ; not because of her own immaculate birth, 
 but because she gave birth to Him who redeemed the 
 world. 
 
 It is said to have been the ardent aspiration of 
 every Jewish bride that she might bear the Messiah. 
 While thus aspiring to the glory of the Messianic 
 maternity these pious women testified to the glory of 
 motherhood in general, for childlessness was abhorred 
 by every Israelite wife as a peculiar calamity and 
 disgrace. 
 
 Here, then, we have undoubtedly an expression 
 of the divine will and order : that woman's highest 
 glory is motherhood, that nothing raises her so near 
 to the divine as to be a parent, to bring into existence 
 and nurture immortals. 
 
 The humblest mother of a poor family, who, 
 while cumbered with much serving, piously contem- 
 plates her offspring and tenderly, patiently, ministers 
 not only food and material comfort, but instructs them 
 and inspires in them hope and joy, transfiguring com- 
 
THE MOTHER OF MV LORD. 73 
 
 mon things by self-forg"ettin,2,- love, what is lower and 
 homely, bv the spirit with wliich she attends to all. 
 mav experience hardship, servitude and sorrow, but 
 she wields a dominion and she shares a glory and 
 knows a joy that link her close with God. He that 
 would be greatest among you let him be as one that 
 serveth, and no other service, or ministry, reaches 
 the height of maternal ministration, in the holding 
 and moulding, guarding and guiding infant life. 
 Woman must love, her God-given nature impels her 
 to it, and what so fit an object of her sympathetic ten- 
 derness and self-sacrificing devotion as her own child ! 
 
 Surely Christ's first public appearance, his con- 
 secration of marriage, his fixing the stamp of divine 
 approval on this fundamental institution, must never 
 be forgotten. Nothing is nearer heaven, nothing more 
 pleasing to God, than this natural sphere of woman. 
 Voluntary virginity is not to be condemned ; it is 
 nowhere condemned by the Scriptures ; but mother- 
 hood is the supreme destiny of womanhood ; it is the 
 graduation of virginity. And Mary is greeted from 
 heaven and honored in the creed not because she 
 remained a virgin, but because she brought forth a 
 Son. Jesus Christ our Lord, conceived by the Holy 
 Ghost, was born of the Virgin Mary. 
 
 A most momentous truth shines out from these 
 considerations, namely that the motherhood of Mary 
 is typical of the place, the office, which woman bears 
 in the salvation of the world. Motherhood is funda- 
 mental in human salvation. Mothers render the first 
 and most effective and most abiding spiritual service. 
 
74 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 Without mothers our preaching is vain. The work of 
 the Gospel stops where woman decHnes her pecuHar 
 office. 
 
 Recognizing the uncommon glory with which 
 Mary is invested, admitting even, as we do, that in her 
 maternal office she was a connecting link between 
 earth and heaven, yet we are constrained also to view 
 her 
 
 II. ON A LEVEL WITH THE REST OF MANKIND. 
 
 Neither the President of the United States nor 
 the King of Great Britain, lofty as is their position 
 and great as is their power, are exempt from the com- 
 mon conditions, infirmities and needs of mankind. An 
 elevation and purity of personal character ought to 
 correspond with the height of official station, but in 
 a fallen world, all flesh is heir to certain ills, and 
 whatever honor and rank, whatever exalted office or 
 service may have come to Mary, we have no warrant 
 in Scriptures or in reason for making her an excep- 
 tion. If such were the case it could not have escaped 
 the sacred writers. If Mary had been conceived and 
 born immaculate how could the Apostles have failed 
 to note a truth so remarkable? How could her own 
 Son, the Light of the World, have maintained silence 
 on a matter which casts superhuman glory on His 
 mother ? His own distinction from sinners. His exemp- 
 tion from every taint of depravity, is repeatedly noted 
 by Himself and by His Apostles. He challenged His 
 enemies to convict Him of sin, and the Epistle to the 
 Hebrews declares Him "holy, harmless and separate 
 
THE MOTHER OF MY LORD. 75 
 
 from sinners." But such testimony concerning His 
 mother can neither be developed nor forced from the 
 New Testament. It certainly never occurred to the 
 first worshippers of her Son — the Magi — to divide 
 His worship with her. The universal depravity of 
 mankind is most attested by revelation. What is born 
 of the tlesh is flesh. We are all by nature the children 
 of wrath. There is none that doeth good, no, not one. 
 Mary must have been, therefore, born in sin. The 
 dogma of Roman Catholicism, which holds to her 
 immaculate conception, is derived not from revela- 
 tion, nor from history nor from tradition, but from 
 Pope Pius IX. It is a bold assertion of the Roman 
 claim to decree doctrine independently of Scripture, 
 of the principle that the Church is a source of doc- 
 trine. To overthrow this heresy we need no stronger 
 weapons than were forged by Church Fathers whom 
 Rome herself is wont to honor. 
 
 Several historic incidents reveal infirmities which 
 would certainly not be expected in one untainted by 
 original sin. When she lost her divine boy in the pro- 
 cession returning from Jerusalem, and when on find- 
 ing Him she addressed Him with what sounds like a 
 mild reproach, we can hardly associate such practical 
 mistakes — whether of thoughtlessness or of anxiety— 
 with absolute sinlessness. At Cana her conduct betrays 
 perhaps maternal pride over the proposed exhibition 
 of supernatural power, perhaps anxiety over material 
 things and earthly comforts, and some detect "a tinge 
 of impatience and a tone of rebuke in Jesus' reply." 
 Again, when His brethren took alarm at the excitement 
 
76 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 caused by the crowds surging around Him and went 
 to draw Him into retirement, she may or she may not 
 have shared their unkind suspicions. These three 
 instances combine to show that she certainly had 
 neither the faith nor the enhghtenment required to 
 com.prehend Him. Evidently her own soul needed 
 the washing which comes through the blood of her 
 Son, and she obtained the white robe of the saints 
 only by that efficacious medium. All were concluded 
 under sin that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ 
 might be given to them that believe. Christ is for her 
 as for others, the door to glory — the only name given 
 under heaven among men whereby they must be saved. 
 
 Already at Cana her Son signified to her that the 
 filial relation was virtually dissolved, that no claim, 
 no wish, no prayer of hers could be based upon her 
 maternal status. And that He, after all, answered her 
 request means necessarily no more than that He 
 answers also our intercessions for one another. And 
 Christ avails Himself very notably of another opportu- 
 nity to declare once for all that in the realm of grace 
 she was to Him no more than any other mortal who 
 does the will of His Father. "Blessed is the womb 
 that bore thee and the paps which thou hast sucked," 
 shouted an enthusiastic woman. "But,"' was the reply, 
 "Yea, rather blessed are they that hear the word of 
 God and keep it." Do we not in the Magnificat hear 
 her spirit rejoicing in God her "Savior?" 
 
 She had grace no doubt above all otliers, but it 
 was not inherent, but the grace which reflected from 
 
THE MOTHER OF MY LORD. 77 
 
 the glory of her Son. A diadem may have encircled 
 her brow, but she has cast it at the feet of her Son. 
 
 She stands on high not with God. but with the 
 ransomed ; not with the never-sinning, but with those 
 who have washed their robes ; not with the worshipped, 
 but with the worshippers, nearest the throne, it may be, 
 yet lowliest in her posture. The poet makes her sing 
 
 "Albeit in my flesh God sent His Son, 
 Albeit over Him my head is bowed 
 As others bow before Him, still my heart 
 Bows lower than their knees." 
 
 Her glory in heaven is that of the redeemed sin- 
 ner, not the mediator or intercessor ; she swells, not 
 divides, the song of Moses and the Lamb. She shines 
 among the sanctified not in the glory which accrues 
 to her from the unique honor she received from the 
 Father, not because she brought forth the incarnate 
 Son, not because she was the ideal mother, but because 
 she was saved through grace. She believed on Him 
 who loved and died for us all. 
 
IV. THE NEW COVENANT. 
 
 For finding fault with them, etc. — Heb. viii. 8-11. 
 
 A covenant-keeping God is the splendid title with 
 which God was honored by His ancient people. "He 
 is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and 
 mercy with them that love Him and keep His com- 
 mandments, to a thousand generations." He origi- 
 nates His covenants ; of His own will He engages to 
 bestow blessings ; from pure love He contracts 
 gracious relations with sinful men and binds Himself 
 to confer on them extraordinary favors. And the word 
 of God cannot be broken. 
 
 The first covenant we read of is that with Noah 
 concerning the flood : "And thou shalt come into 
 the ark; thou and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy 
 sons' wives, with thee." God kept His covenant. 
 
 Then follows the world covenant, in which after 
 the flood God gave to creation a pledge of its preser- 
 vation, covenanting with Noah and with his seed and 
 with every living creature ; in fact with the whole 
 order of nature : "While the earth remaineth, seed- 
 time and Harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and 
 winter, day and night shall not cease." And this 
 covenant He is keeping. 
 
 Soon thereafter the covenant of promise is estab- 
 lished with Abraham, a covenant including the gift 
 of a country, an innumerable posterity, and the divine 
 
 (78) 
 
THE NEW COVENANT. 79 
 
 blessing to issue from that posterity to all races and 
 all nations of the earth. And the course of history 
 from that hour marks the fulfillment of this covenant. 
 
 Then, four hundred and thirty }ears after, came 
 the great Sinaitic covenant, a system of ordinances, 
 rites and precepts, the dispensation of the law, which 
 had the two-fold purpose of giving efificacy to the patri- 
 archial covenant of promise, and of typifying, fore- 
 shadowing and leading up to the inheritance of the 
 new covenant, which is really the everlasting covenant, 
 to which all others are subordinate and tributary, re- 
 newals, types and pledges of the fulfillment of the 
 promises it contains. In the Mosaic covenant God 
 made Israel His chosen and peculiar people ; not indeed 
 restricting to them His purposes of grace, but taking 
 them into special relations that He might transmit 
 through them His salvation to the world. In contrast 
 with the heathen they were the covenant nation, they 
 were a chosen generation. 
 
 They held this in course of time to be a fixed ex- 
 clusive relation. The Mosaic covenant must be exter- 
 nally and universally binding, and while receiving the 
 new dispensation, which by fulfilling its figures and 
 types terminated the functions of the old, they were 
 so infatuated with its ordinances and with their fav- 
 ored position under them, that they failed rightly to 
 appreciate the gospel. Even after having tasted the 
 heavenly gift, they continued under the spell of the 
 ancient rites, and clove to the whole round of carnal 
 ordinances which had been imposed for temporary and 
 disciplinary purposes. 
 
8o THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 It was to break this spell that the Apostle wrote 
 several of his epistles, showing that the new covenant 
 was the preordained result of the old, prefigured and 
 predicted by it, and that having served its purp se, 
 having reached its goal in Jesus Christ, the old was 
 destined to pass away. 
 
 The outpouring of the Holy Ghost, by which on 
 the day of Pentecost the new covenant was inaugu- 
 rated, was but a fulfillment of the promises under the 
 old covenant. This, says Peter, is that which was spoken 
 by the prophet Joel : "And it shall come to pass in 
 the last days, saith God, I will pour out my Spirit 
 upon all flesh." And so in our text, to show the 
 spiritual character of Messiah's kingdom, the Apostle 
 cites the prediction of Jeremiah, "Behold the days 
 come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new cove- 
 nant," etc. The old covenant by its very arrangements 
 confessed its inferior and faulty character, while its 
 silent types as well as the lips of its teachers proclaimed 
 a better covenant, a new and living way to God. 
 Moses was the schoolmaster to Christ. His covenant 
 was the husk holding the kernel, from which germ 
 was developed salvation in Christ. The new covenant 
 is in every way the legitimate successor of the old, 
 its outcome, its fulfillment, its end, its crown. 
 
 The gospel in distinction from the old covenant 
 has three characteristic features. 
 
 I. IT IS NtW. 
 It is not the old covenant modified, repaired, en- 
 larged. It is a false view of Christianitv to make it 
 
THE NEW COVENANT. 8 1 
 
 an improved Judaism. The new covenant is m t the 
 same as the old. In contrast with that it is like a 
 new garment, a new house, a new ship, a new insti- 
 tution, a new era. It is a new dispensation, specificall\- 
 different in character and content from the old. The 
 imdoubted word of God declares that this covenant 
 is "not according to the covenant that I made with 
 their fathers." Christians are not Jews. Christ is not 
 another Moses. His Church is a New Testament 
 Church. xA.fter faith has come we are no longer under 
 a schoolmaster. Having the antitype we drop the type, 
 just as men put out the candle after the sin rises. 
 
 The old was a system of restraint, of legal iirposi- 
 tions and prohibitions, of outward barriers and l.onds, 
 of servile fear and physical force — a yoke of bondage 
 dooming the soul to an endless, hopele-s struggle be- 
 tween the law in the members and the law written 
 on tables of stone. The new coveiiant brings glad 
 tidings, reveals divine love, fulfills ancient promises, 
 offers forgiveness, creates a new heart, awakens the 
 spirit of childhood, begets moral strength, makes man 
 free, and fills him with joy and peace. 
 
 In the nature of things the new covenant takes the 
 place of the old. The free act of God, pron using 
 through Jeremiah a new covenant, stamped the old as 
 antiquated, as about to terminate. 
 
 We cannot emphasize this truth too much. The 
 Church has suffered greatly from attempts to perpetu- 
 ate a dispensation that has passed away, although some 
 carried their opposition to the Old Testament too far. 
 It must be admitted that it contained the germ of 
 6 
 
82 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 Christianity ; but we are no longer concerned with 
 the germ since we have the fruit. The gospel unfolds, 
 embodies and conveys the great truths and blessings 
 which the Mosaic covenant typically represented. Its 
 love had, indeed, a place in the old, and the law of 
 the old has some place in the gospel ; but this does 
 not change the fact that the new is throughout origi- 
 nal, distinct, unique, further removed from the old 
 than the east is from the west. 
 
 Of not many things can it be said that they are 
 new. There is very little originality. We borrow from 
 Shakespeare, and Shakespeare owed a large debt to the 
 past. There is no new thing under the sun, some one 
 hath said. Ideas, institutions, inventions, bearing the 
 stamp of novelty, are but the resurrections of what 
 had long been buried ; or they have been slowly evolved 
 through successive forms and stages, making it diffi- 
 cult for one to tell what was the original form or 
 stage. 
 
 But Christianity is original ; it is a new thing on 
 the earth. It establishes itself everywhere in the face of 
 the sacred customs and opinions and maxims of an- 
 tiquity. Jesus Christ, by His teachings and His life, 
 gave a shock to saint and sage. He was a revolution. 
 He was so far out of touch with the ideas of His 
 time, so far in advance of His age and of all ages, 
 that the wisest were incapable of comprehending Him, 
 and He was supposed to be either demented or pos- 
 sessed. His conceptions of God and of man, of truth 
 and of duty, of law and of liberty, of labor and of 
 worship, of earth and of heaven, confounded the wis- 
 
THE NEW COVENANT. 83 
 
 dom of Oriental and Greek philosophy, and were con- 
 demned as superlatively absurd. It was a new philos- 
 ophy, a new relig'ion, a new covenant. 
 
 Who had ever taught disinterested love, the self- 
 expiation of deity for human sin, redemption by sub- 
 stitution, salvation as a free gift, with works as the 
 result and not the condition, the Fatherhood of God 
 and the brotherhood of all men. the transformation of 
 human nature, the forgiveness of injury, the resurrec- 
 tion of the body, and, most surprising of all, the con- 
 quest of the world by the cross, the sign of helplessness 
 and ignominy? 
 
 By the reflex light of the gospel we may, indeed, 
 find here and there traces, anticipations, or even proph- 
 ecies of such things in the Old Testament, but they 
 are dim and indistinct, and belong obviously to those 
 things which the prophets vainly sought to understand. 
 It is possible to find hints and presentiments of them 
 even among lofty heathen minds, but their expression 
 of such ideas is no proof of a consciousness of their 
 import. 
 
 Christianity is something new, a leaven dropped 
 into human thought, a column of light falling from 
 another world, a remedial economy transcending the 
 highest reaches of human thought and aspiration. It 
 is not according to the covenant made Avith their 
 fathers. It is something new, a force so original, so 
 powerful, that it proposes in due time to make all 
 things new : to produce not only a new spirit, a new 
 life, a new man and a new song, but even a new heaven 
 and a new earth. 
 
84 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 II. IT IS INTERNAL AND SPIRITUAL. 
 
 '*I will put My laws into their mind and write 
 them in their hearts." Nothing of this kind appears 
 in the old economy. The law was written on tables 
 of stone. Every command, every impulse, came from 
 without, and consisted in some outward arrangement 
 or practice. 
 
 Nothing shows so well the contrast between the 
 two covenants as their externality and internality, 
 respectively. 
 
 In the one case an outward law. a material sanc- 
 tuary, an endless routine of observances, the burning 
 of incense, the slaughter of victims, the manipulation 
 of blood, the consumption of sacrifices, "meats and 
 drinks and divers washings and carnal ordinances." 
 a system of rules, a wearisome round of regulation? 
 and mechanical performances, a yoke of legalism, 
 which neither the fathers nor the children were able 
 to bear. No one could approach God save through 
 the service of a priest. No one could be a priest unless 
 he had a particular lineage. No sacrifice could be 
 offered except at the one local altar, and none could 
 be accepted unless it was physically perfect. 
 
 In the other, no locality is prescribed, no routine 
 observance, no regulations or precepts imposed from 
 without. Everything centres in the heart. Every 
 good is conditioned by the mind. Every interest is 
 dominated by ethical considerations. An invisible 
 throne of grace is accessible to all ; an unseen High 
 Priest stands at God's right hand ; the sacrifices re- 
 quired are spiritual, and they may be laid on the altar 
 
THE NEW COVENANT. 85 
 
 anywhere, for faith consecrates every place into a 
 sanctuary. 
 
 Christ enters the spiritual domain of man. He 
 touches the heart by grace and truth. He introduces 
 at the centre of our being a new life-force, which acts 
 upon the conscience, the emotions and the will. He 
 creates a new life at the springs of action. He 
 assures the sinner of forgiveness, and brings him into 
 a life communion with God, exercised in a spiritual 
 worship and evidenced in an ethical transformation. 
 He deals not so nuich with outward conduct as with 
 the inner mind from which it proceeds. He aims at 
 the things which are unseen, while Moses dealt with 
 the things which are seen. 
 
 The external and the visible still have their use. 
 As long as man consists of soul and body mysteriously 
 united, and our life is largely conditioned by the exter- 
 nal world, the outward element remains an indispensa- 
 ble medium for the inward. The mystic Quaker advo- 
 cates, indeed, a purely spiritual worship, going the 
 length of omitting the sacraments and depreciating 
 the written word, but the carrying out of his principles 
 has demonstrated them to be quite too ethereal for 
 our present composite existence. 
 
 But, while the spiritual requires as yet an outward 
 embodiment, the new covenant is not content with the 
 visible form. It holds on to the letter, for the spirit 
 requires it as its vehicle and expression, but it lays 
 the stress upon the spirit. It desires truth in the 
 inward parts, which it is the office of the Holy Spirit 
 to employ for our sanctification. It lays down no 
 
86 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 rules and legalistic bonds which only provoke resist- 
 ance, but aims for the inner life, the thoughts, the 
 affections, the aspirations and the activities of our 
 spiritual nature. Giving its attention primarily to 
 these, and converting the body into the temple of the 
 Holy Spirit, the fruits of the Spirit will most certainly 
 appear, to wit, love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentle- 
 ness, goodnes;. meekness, temperance, faith. And they 
 will appear lut as the result of mechanical effort, not 
 from outward constraint, "not for the sake of winning 
 heaven or of escaping hell," but from a vital force hid- 
 den within, from the impulse and constraint of love 
 as the ruling principle. They are the spontaneous 
 outflow of the heart, the product of the soul's free 
 activity under grace. Truly, this is a better covenant. 
 The thunders of Sinai cause men to fear and quake, 
 but the spectacle of Calvary moves them to swift and 
 loving obedience. It transfers the law to the tables 
 of the heart, and there it enforces itself. 
 
 III. IT IS e;fficacious. 
 
 It accomplishes what the law of Moses could not 
 do in that it was weak. The old covenant was a fail- 
 ure. The very promise of another stamped it abortive. 
 If that first one had been faultless, if it had effected 
 salvation, there would have been no occasion for a sec- 
 ond one. It was the capital defect which made another 
 desirable and necessary. 
 
 "They continued not in My covenant," is the sad 
 lament of Jehovah over its miscarriage ; and "I also," 
 He adds, "was not concerned for them." Scarcely had 
 
THE NEW COVENANT. 8/ 
 
 it been promulgated when it was ruthlessly broken, 
 and its subsequent history records only disobedience, 
 provocation and revolt. 
 
 The confession of the inadequacy of the covenant 
 runs throughout this epistle, serving as an argument 
 to wean the Christian Jews from their infatuated 
 adherence to a worn-out, antiquated, impotent system. 
 "There is a disannulling of the commandment going 
 before, for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof," 
 vii. i8. It was only a shadow of good things to come, 
 an unsubstantial, shadowy outline, devoid of power and 
 life, only "a figure for the time present." It could 
 "never with those sacrifies which they ofifered year by 
 year continually make the comers thereunto perfect," 
 X. I. "It could not make him that did the service per- 
 fect as pertaining to the conscience," ix. 9. Hence 
 the endless repetition, "every priest standing daily min- 
 istering, and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, 
 which can never take away sins." x. 11; "for where 
 remission of sins is, there is no more offering for sin." 
 As long as the offerings for sin are continued, it is 
 self-evident that no remission has taken place. The 
 conscience is not relieved. In those self-same sacri- 
 fices there is "a remembrance again made of sins every 
 year," the terrible, ineffaceable record is called up 
 afresh. "For it is not possible that the blood of bulls 
 and of goats should take away sins," x. 4. And yet 
 the removal of sin is the first requisite in the soul's 
 redemption, for only the forgiven soul springs into 
 newness of life. 
 
 The new covenant guarantees its efficacy by mak- 
 
88 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 ing forgiveness the first and underlying basis of the 
 whole economy: "For I will be merciful to their un- 
 righteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will 
 I remember no more." Thus what the old covenant 
 with all its rites and its shedding of blood struggled 
 to obtain, is realized under the new covenant. What 
 the ordinances of the old covenant represented, the 
 sacraments of the new convey. The shadow turns to 
 substance, the blood of dumb animals is replaced by 
 richer blood than theirs. "Christ having come a high 
 priest of good things to come by a greater and more 
 perfect tabernacle, neither by the blood of goats and 
 calves but by His own blood. He entered in once into 
 the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for 
 us." ix. II, 12. Oiicc He entered— a second offering 
 would have been superfluous. 
 
 His sacrifice was efficient, for it was a spiritual, 
 voluntary, moral act, not merely the ceremonial manip- 
 ulation of blood drawn from slain victims. Of His 
 own will, and from a deliberate self-sacrificing pur- 
 pose, for the glory of His Father, for the redemptiorr 
 of man, He offered Himself, through His eternal spirit, 
 unto God — and this free ethical act of His "purges, 
 your conscience from dead works to serve the living 
 God," ix. 14. Spiritual forces are mightier than mate- 
 rial forces. Christ's supreme surrender to the will 
 of God, in our behalf, rent the vail of the most holy 
 place. It opened for us a new and living way to God. 
 It was an act of the highest love, and such a priestly 
 act is efficacious not only for the pardon of our sins, 
 but for genuine communion with God and for the births 
 
THE NEW COVENANT. 89 
 
 of a new heart of trustin<^ obedience. The gospel is 
 the power of God. It effects in the world what no 
 human power, no combination of human oowers, can 
 effect. It is incomparably the mightiest force ever 
 introduced into our world, and its results are the lofti- 
 est and greatest known to man. 
 
 The gospel breaks a sinner's heart, it gives balm 
 to a sinner's conscience, it changes a siimer's nature, 
 it purifies a sinner's life, it makes the drunkard sober, 
 the dissolute chaste, the miser generous, the surly 
 sweet, the rude soul refined. It changes malice into 
 charity, pride into humility, envy into brotherly 
 kindness. It turns sorrow into joy, and makes the 
 desert bloom as the rose. Its march through the world 
 is a pathway of light, and its transformation of society 
 reveals a leavening power to which nothing short of 
 omnipotence would be equal. 
 
 Thus the new covenant is life and power, for it 
 is spiritual. It rests on spiritual conditions, an offer- 
 ing of the ^lediator's own blood freely shed by His 
 eternal will. And so it enters man's spiritual domain. 
 It starts the vital energies within. It enspheres "'truth" 
 and love. 
 
 A few practical lessons : 
 
 We are not under Moses but under Chris*, not 
 under the law- but under grace. Let us not imperil the 
 sweet W'ine of the gospel by putting it into old bo'. ties 
 Let us hold fast the spiritual and internal character of 
 the covenant we are under. Let us seek holiness not 
 by rules, bonds and commands, which sustain to us 
 onlv an outward contact, whereas we need ever to be 
 
90 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 quickened and nourished and fired at the heart, and 
 if we open our souls to the Lord and Giver of life, we 
 shall know what fullness there is of saving power. 
 
 Then, too, shall we see that grace is mightier than 
 law, that its incitements infinitely transcend the con- 
 straints and the restraints of an outward authority. 
 None live so correctly as those who follow virtue from 
 the love of it, none are so strictly righteous as those 
 whose righteousness springs from the love of it, none 
 give so largely as those who are moved to give by the 
 spontaneous action of love, and only tl;ose :^erve God 
 truly who love and trust Him with all their heart. 
 
V. THE PRESERVATION OF THE JEWS 
 AN ILLUSTRATION OF THE DIVINE 
 GOVERNMENT. 
 
 [From Pulpit Treasury.] 
 
 For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall 
 there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place; 
 . . . and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for 
 such a time as this? Then Esther bade them return Mordecai this 
 answer: Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, 
 and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day; I 
 also and my maidens will fast likewise, and so will I go in unto the king, 
 which is not according to the law; and if I perish. I perish. — Esther 
 iv. 14-16. 
 
 The condition of the captive Jews under the Per- 
 sian monarchs was by no means opp:essive. A strong 
 sympathy obtained in fact between the two religions, 
 since Magism, Hke Judaism, was violently set against 
 all forms of idolatry. Repeated instances are given 
 of special reverence for the God of Israel by the Per- 
 sians, and an edict from the throne immediately upon 
 the conquest of Babylon, gave liberty for the captives 
 to return, authorized the rebuilding of the Holy Citv 
 and made appropriations from the royal exchequer 
 for the building of another temple. 
 
 So favorable was the lot of the exiles and so con- 
 tented with their condition were most of them that 
 but a small proportion of pious patriots — only some 
 50,000 — embraced the privilege of returning to their 
 sacred fatherland extended by Cyrus, the Persian king. 
 Those who preferred to continue their residence in the 
 
 (91) 
 
92 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 far East appear to have enjoyed considerable prosper- 
 ity, and some of them, after the fashion of this people 
 in their successive misfortunes, rose even to high dis- 
 tinction and power. Daniel, who had enjoyed exalted 
 rank among the Babylonians, reached under the Per- 
 sians the very first position of a subject, being pre- 
 ferred above all the presidents and princes. Others 
 like Mordecai attained prominence at court, basking 
 in royal favor and rendering important services to the 
 government, while one of the women, having by her 
 beauty captivated the great king, came to share the 
 royal diadem, and the devotion of Queen Esther has 
 secured for her the foremost place among the illus- 
 trious women of the world. 
 
 But while his race was held in considerable esti- 
 mation and enjoyed a fair degree of worldly prosperity, 
 one of the Jews, who evidently filled a post of honor, 
 gave mortal offense to his superior who had just been 
 promoted to a seat above all the princes, and by this 
 wanton insult precipitated the whole nation to the verge 
 of extermination. Haman, like Mordecai, was a for- 
 eigner, an Amalekite, a nation which of all others the 
 Jews had abhorred from the time of their wanderings 
 in the desert. And with heroic scorn Mordecai de- 
 clined to render to this high representative of the 
 crown the customary and extravagant honors 
 demanded both by his dignity and by a special execu- 
 tive mandate. Stung to the quick by his daily expe- 
 rience of personal contempt, and writhing all the more 
 because it proceeded from a Jew, Haman resolved 
 upon a terrible revenge. His own people had ages 
 
THE PRESERVATION OF THE JEWS. 93 
 
 ago been extirpated by the sword of the Jews, and 
 now personal resentment unites with the spirit of 
 national hate in planning a frightful retribution. The 
 extermination of his ancestry must be avenged by the 
 utter extermination of the detested race through whom 
 that had been effected. With one blow he Avill close 
 forever the chapter of Israel's history ! In an abso- 
 lute despotism and with no one between him and the 
 throne nothing stood in the way of his diabolical pur- 
 pose. The king believes his lying accusation against 
 the lo\alty of this nation whose "laws are diverse from 
 all people.'' and. persuaded of the danger of having 
 such an element scattered over the provinces, gives 
 plenipotentiary authority to his minister to carry out 
 his awful deed of blood. '"And there was written 
 according to all that Haman had commanded, unto the 
 king's lieutenants, and to the governors that were over 
 every province, and to the rulers of every people of 
 every province, according to the writing thereof, and 
 to every people after their language ; in the name of 
 King Ahasuerus was it written, and sealed with the 
 king's ring." At the hand of couriers — and here is 
 the first record of the postal service, an institution 
 which civilization owes to Persia — the horrible decree 
 was swiftly promulgated through all the king's prov- 
 inces "to destrov, to kill and to cause to perish, 
 ALL Jews, both voung and old, little children and 
 WOMEN, IX ONE DAV. and to take the spoil of them for 
 a prey.'" 
 
 What a terrible fate overhangs this devoted peo- 
 ple ! And there appears to be no alternative. No 
 
94 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 appeal, no refuge, no escape seems possible. The 
 good offices of the queen might perchance intervene 
 in behalf of her kindred. But was not she herself one 
 of the doomed? And even apart from this, could she 
 be expected to attempt interposition when instant death 
 would in all probability be the penalty for such a ven- 
 ture? Or should she even be inspired with a courage 
 to defy death, could any success be hoped for from an 
 efifort by one who was included in the impending mas- 
 sacre, and whose very opposition to the fatal decree 
 would bear the impress of treason in a government 
 whose laws were never changed or revoked? This, 
 then, was the only visible possibility of securing deliv- 
 erance, the last earthly resource, the frailest shadow 
 of a hope, and to put any reliance upon this desperate 
 venture must have seemed the madness of despair. 
 And yet, though this forlorn hope should fail them, 
 though the queen, quailing before the ordeal, should 
 prove deaf to the piercing cry of her kindred, though 
 nothing apparently remains for them but to await the 
 tragic doom which was rapidly approaching, an indom- 
 itable faith sustains their leader. Deliverance must 
 come from some quarter, is the sublime assurance of 
 Mordecai. "For if thou altogether boldest thy peace 
 at this time," is his message to the queen, "then shall 
 there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews 
 from another place." 
 
 The text presents for our consideration, 
 
 I. A FIRM CONVICTION IN AN OVERRULING PROVIDENCE). 
 
 The last visible hope of escape would in all prob- 
 
THE PRESERVATION OF THE JEWS. 95 
 
 ability vanish. There was no reasonable groniul to 
 expect any relief throngh the services of the qneen. 
 The unappalled confidence of Mordecai, to whom 
 Esther stood endeared like his own daughter, it is evi- 
 dent, did not rest upon her possible interposition. She 
 might hold her peace altogether. And yet the Jews 
 will not be destroyed. Deliverance for them shall 
 arise from another place. The great king has indeed 
 issued the bloody decree, and under the principle of 
 the Medo-Persian laws there can be no recall. And 
 the fiend whose infernal hate had devised this plot will 
 see to its execution. And if executed — it must wnpe 
 the Jews out of existence. There was probably not 
 a Hebrew on earth outside the limits of the vast Per- 
 sian dominions. And the decree for their destruction 
 had been promulgated in every language of the one 
 hundred and twenty-seven provinces, so that the mas- 
 sacre would be coextensive wath the frontiers of the 
 empire, and not a soul would be left to tell the tale of 
 horror ! But deliverance will come. Relief will arise 
 at the extreme moment. Faith is imperturable. 
 
 But whence can it possibly come ? From Babylon ? 
 It has never recovered its independence since the night 
 of Belshazzar's feast. From Nineveh ? The proud 
 capital of the Assyrian had fallen before the united 
 assaults of the Medes and Babylonians more than a 
 century before, and was still prostrate. From Eg>'pt? 
 That great power had been annihilated by the Persian 
 arms, and its very gods hewn to pieces by the sword 
 of Cambyses. From Greece? Those petty republics 
 had not yet attained sufficient importance to tempt the 
 
96 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 eye of Persian conquest. From Rome? Will mighty 
 Rome, by an army of invasion, avert the impending 
 slaughter of the Jews ? That great empire, which 
 subsequently subdued every nation but the Persians, 
 had as yet hardly a place on the map of the world. 
 From whence then does this man expect deliverance? 
 Aye, there is an empire of yet vaster extent than 
 the one embraced in one hundred and twenty-seven 
 provinces. There is a Ruler of still mightier power 
 than the great king who now held universal sway. 
 There are laws even more vmchangeable and inexora- 
 ble than the laws of the Medes and Persians. An 
 invisible hand wields the sceptre of the world, and the 
 march of events is held under absolute control. There 
 is one who is supreme over all potentates, King of 
 kings and Lord of lords, and every moment on the 
 stage of history must bend to His sovereign will. 
 Human relief may fail the Jews. To all appearances 
 the die is cast. They are defenceless, they are doomed. 
 But the Jews will not perish ! They are people of 
 Jehovah. They are the chosen instruments of the 
 world's salvation. They are the depositories of great 
 and precious promises which have not been fulfilled. 
 There had been revealed to their fathers the far-reach- 
 ing purposes of God concerning Israel, and these have 
 not yet been realized. The hopes of mankind are 
 bound up with the Jews. And while they may be des- 
 tined to endure great sufferings, inhuman and atrocious 
 oppressions, it was as certain as God's throne that they 
 could not be destroyed. Deliverance will come. 
 Deliverance did come. IMordecai's undaunted 
 
THE PRESERVATION OF THE JEWS. 97 
 
 and inextinguishable hope was not the chimera of 
 superstition, not the wild dream of a deluded and dis- 
 ordered brain. The issue justified his perturbed con- 
 viction that the arm of Omnipotence would save his 
 people from destruction. More than three thousand 
 years of Jewish history have warranted the faith that 
 they arc under the protection of heaven. Centurv after 
 century has witnessed the determination of kings and 
 nations to blot out the hated race "whose laws are 
 diverse from all people," but the stars in their courses 
 have fought for Israel, and the waves of the sea have 
 opened a path for their rescue. Even at that day 
 IMordecai might look back upon a never-to-be-forgot- 
 ten deliverance from a fate as imminent as the present 
 one. Egypt, at the summit of its power, had put forth 
 its bloody hand for the destruction of the Hebrews, 
 but its mighty hosts were at last engulfed in the sea, 
 while the song of Israel's triumph arose from the far- 
 ther shore. 
 
 So at a later day the conquering Assyrian had 
 crushed the kingdom of the Ten Tribes and the irre- 
 sistible Babylonian had put an end to that of Judea. 
 and had transported beyond the desert the bone and 
 sinew of the nation, but at this very moment the walls 
 of Jerusalem were rising from their ashes, and the 
 temple of Jehovah was again lifting its towers over 
 Mount Moriah, whereas Nineveh and Babylon were 
 never to see a resurrection. x\nd from that day till 
 the present day what persistence and malignity have 
 characterized the jmrpose of every great power in its 
 turn to extirpate this unique nation. The Syrian 
 
 7 
 
98 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 Antiochns, in the second century before Christ, pkin- 
 dered the city and sanctuary, defiled the altar, profaned 
 the temple, committed the Scriptures to the flames, and 
 by every imaginable species of oppression and torture 
 sought to put an end to their nationality and religion. 
 
 Rome, with its colossal dominion and its valiant 
 soldiery, Rome, that could conquer and conciliate to 
 its rule almost every other people, was somehow never 
 able to absorb or to assimilate the Jews, and failing in 
 every efifort to make of them loyal subjects, it resorted 
 to almost incredible butcheries, turned Judea into a 
 desert, established heathenism in Jerusalem, and pro- 
 hibited the entrance of a Jew into the sacred city. 
 
 Even Mohammed, so closely allied to them by 
 blood, raved against them with implacable hatred to 
 the last moment of his life and dispossessed them of 
 all their territory in Arabia. And as we come to the 
 Middle Ages, with all their barbarism and monstrous 
 cruelties, it is very evident that their savage thirst for 
 blood was never so keen and so insatiable as when 
 whetted by the remorseless purpose of eradicating 
 what Constantine called "that most hateful of all peo- 
 ple." Frightful persecutions were inflicted upon them 
 by the Franks and Visigoths in the sixth and seventh 
 centuries. During the ninth century the kings of 
 France, "bishops, barons, and even the municipalities 
 all joined in a carnival of persecution. From the 
 eleventh to the fourteenth century their history is a 
 succession of massacres." Their goods were seized, 
 their treasures confiscated, again and again the whole 
 
THE PRESERVATION OF THE JEWS. 99 
 
 body was banished from the kingdom with all the 
 accompaniments of horrible cruelties, and sometimes 
 I)/ zi'holc provinces every Jexv ivas burned! And what 
 occurred in France was repeated in almost every city 
 and principality of Germany. Even England, so fain 
 to boast of its preservation of free institutions during 
 that period, after persecuting, plundering, and by 
 incredible brutalities maltreated for ages the detested 
 people, finally under Edward I. drove them in a body 
 from its shores, "pursued by the execrations of the 
 rabble, and leaving in the hands of the king all iheir 
 property and treasure." 
 
 And Spain — it makes one's blood curdle to read 
 of the inhuman atrocities endured by this devoted race 
 at the hands of the Spaniards. The culmination of 
 their oppressions and robberies and nnirders and mas- 
 sacres, and of the fiendish work of the Inquisition, was 
 at length reached in the horrible fate of their expul- 
 sion from the country, without being permitted to carry 
 with them either their gold or their silver. About 
 half a million of souls were thus ruthlessly driven out, 
 with almost every land under heaven shut against them, 
 with apparently no alternative before them but to 
 plunge into the sea and disappear forever from history. 
 Even the illumination and liberal spirit of the Reform- 
 ation efifected hardly any relaxation of the singular 
 and universal hostility to this despised yet irrepressi- 
 ble nation. The Jews were driven from Bavaria in 
 1553, from Protestant Brandenburg in 1573. They 
 were outlaws in Ens^land even in the davs of the Com- 
 
lOO THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 monwealth, they were expelled from Russia in 1743, 
 and were prohibited from touching the soil of Lutheran 
 Norway until the year of grace i860! 
 
 And to this very day the spirit of murderous hate 
 against them is so rampant in many parts of Europe 
 that neither the civilization of the nineteenth century 
 nor the vigilance of its most efficient police is able to 
 restrain it. Yet the Jews have not been destroyed. 
 They are still here, everywhere, the most homogeneous 
 nationality, the most vigorous stock of the species. No 
 weapon forged against them has prevailed. Mordecai 
 was not a fool. His prophecy rested on enlightened 
 conviction. He knew who was the God of Israel. He 
 knew in whom he believed. He knew what hands 
 hold the balance of power. 
 
 And his people, it ought to be further remarked, 
 have not only survived all the bloody crusades and 
 butcheries which infernal hate has organized against 
 them, but even in their dispersions and opp"essions, 
 and while universally detested, they have asserted 
 themselves, and have risen, like Joseph, and Daniel, 
 and Mordecai himself, to the foremost positions of 
 honor and influence and culture. x\bundant illustra- 
 tions of this meet us at the present day. A Rothschild 
 awarded a seat with the proudest aristocracy on earth ! 
 A Disraeli, born a Jew, and by all accounts keeping 
 to his ancestral faith in the dying hour, guiding for 
 years the most colossal empire of Christendom ! The 
 bankers of Europe, without the opening of whose 
 vaults no great power can decide upon a war ! The 
 trade of the world under their control ! The press of 
 
THE PRESERVATION OF THE JEWS. lOI 
 
 Germany and Austria almost exclusively in their 
 hands! The judiciary of those countries largely held 
 by Hebrew jurists ! The proportion of Jewish students 
 at the universities far exceeding that of either the 
 Protestant or Catholic populations, while many of the 
 most important professional chairs are occupied by 
 the cultured representatives of this people. What a 
 race ! From Abraham to Jesus the Christ— from Jesus 
 to Sir Moses Montefiore ! Four thousand years have 
 passed since their ancestor was selected as the founder 
 of a nation to which were committed the oracles of 
 God, and from whom salvation was to proceed for 
 mankind — and though every powerful nation has by 
 turns attempted to crush them, though they have for 
 long ages been scattered and peeled, and trodden down 
 and despised, and detested, and tortured, and mas- 
 sacred, they have proven the one indestructible race 
 of the human family. Deliverance in the supreme 
 moment has never failed to come. 
 
 "Show me a miracle!" said a scoffing Prussian 
 king to one of his faithful chaplains. "Sire." was the 
 response, "will your majesty have the grace to send 
 for your principal banker?" 
 
 Notice here also, 
 
 II. THE RECOGNITION OF HUMAN INSTRUMENTALITIES 
 IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 
 
 That a supreme, all-wise and righteous govern- 
 ment determines the course of all earthly events is the 
 epic of history. That human destiny is fixed by an 
 omnipotent will is the profoundest conviction of the 
 
I02 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 best minds of the world, fjiit how is this effected? 
 It may not be for us to know. And yet if the Sov- 
 ereign Disposer of all things employs intermediate 
 agencies in His government, it becomes our duty to 
 recognize and contemplate their presence. Some 
 appear to deny such secondary agencies. God governs 
 by fiat, they say. He speaks and it is done, He com- 
 mands and it stands fast. But the more we study the 
 economy of Providence, the more evident it becomes 
 that God employs means to work out His sovereign 
 will, and that these means are visible. The devout eye 
 can recognize them. 
 
 The great forces of nature undoubtedly continue 
 in the employ of their Creator. He makes winds His 
 angels and flames of fire His ministers and execu- 
 tioners ; 
 
 "Clouds arise and tempests blow 
 By order from His throne." 
 
 But the chosen agent of God's intervention in human 
 affairs is man. His government of this world is not 
 only of man and for man but emphatically by man. 
 Whenever His interposition in a momentous crisis has 
 been clearly discernible, the instrumentality of man 
 could be just as clearly distinguished. And so when 
 Mordecai, in the face of the horrible slaughter which 
 was impending over his captive race, is perfectly secure 
 of deliverance, he yet makes the memorable appeal to 
 the queen : "Who knoweth whether thou art come to 
 the kingdom for such a time as this?" Who knows 
 but that you are the chosen instrumentality of our 
 deliverance? Is not vour sacred relation to the throne. 
 
THE PRESERVATION OF THH JEWS. 103 
 
 your supreme place iu tlie heart of the kinj^f, itself the 
 stroke of Providence by which the threatened destruc- 
 tion of your kindred is to be averted ? 
 
 And it may be noted in passing that his conviction 
 of certain deliverance did not make IMordecai person- 
 ally indifferent to the employment of means to bring 
 it about. 
 
 It is by man that God executes His purposes for 
 man. By man He delivers man. Even in the case 
 of our eternal redemption it behooved the Son of God 
 to become a man in all things, sin excepted, th:U He 
 might accomplish the salvation of man. 
 
 And besides cherishing an unalterable conviction 
 that God reigns, it becomes a devout duty and an 
 inspiring study to recognize the chosen instrumental- 
 ities through whom He reigns, to discern in the great 
 revolutions of history the notable persons whom God 
 signally brought to the kingdom for such a time — in 
 each momentous epoch always the very man required 
 by the occasion, the only one properly endowed ar.d 
 adequately equipped for the hour. 
 
 Let us look at but a few famous examples. Not 
 going back to men into whose career it might be 
 charged too much of the supernatural element entered 
 to serve as illustrations of the general government of 
 God. such as Noah, Moses, David. Elijah. Paul, we 
 think of a Charlemagne coming to the kingdom just 
 at a time when his coming was indispensable. When 
 the barbarian hordes had overrun Europe and like a 
 deluge swept away the very foundations of its ancient 
 and rotten civilization, when the demons of social and 
 
I04 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 political chaos were everywhere holding their bloody 
 sway, there arose a man endowed with almost super- 
 human penetration, foresight and executive force, who 
 like a giant established civil order, founded schools, 
 erected churches and organized an empire which res- 
 cued Europe from Gothic and A^andal barbarism and 
 became the bulwark of civilization for a thousand 
 years. 
 
 Coming down seven centuries later to a period 
 when the old systems were tottering, when a corrupt 
 hierarchy had brought on the greatest crisis of mod- 
 ern history, when Europe was quivering in a universal 
 ferment and the old institutions were everywhere pass- 
 ing away and new ones waiting to be created, a Luther 
 was at hand to grasp the mighty forces, to imperson- 
 ate the tremendous revolution and to control the intro- 
 duction of a new era. 
 
 Coming nearer to our own times, when on the 
 virgin soil of this continent there was to be founded 
 a new empire embodying the wisest principles of civil 
 government that had been wrung from the conflicts 
 of ages, and establishing a home and a model of free- 
 dom for the world, a Washington stood ready to lead 
 an army and a nation to the magnificent achievement. 
 Charlemagne, Luther, Washington. Suppose the order 
 of their appearance had been reversed, what a mess 
 they would have made ! Each came to the kingdom 
 at the time for which he was uniquely fitted and qual- 
 ified. And so it has been with thousands on a less 
 conspicuous theatre. Whenever the clock has struck, 
 the man for the hour has appeared upon the stage ! 
 
THE PRESERVATION OF THE JEWS. I05 
 
 The text further emphasizes, 
 
 III. THE PRINCIPLE OF SELF-SACRIFICE WHICH ENA- 
 BLES MEN TO BE ACCEPTABLE INSTRUMENTS OF 
 THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 
 
 In this awful crisis it was pretty clear to the mind 
 of Mordecai that the one possibility of human help 
 lay with the queen, that her place on the bosom of the 
 king must at this supreme juncture afford her the 
 opportunity of interposing for her people. Then, 
 again, her own feelings must be such that the appeal 
 from their distress becomes irresistible. And, doubt- 
 less, if the customs and privileges of the court had 
 made this an ordinary office for her, if Persia had been 
 the United States and the palace our own White 
 House, she would quickly have fled with her remon- 
 strance and prayer to the presence of the sovereign. 
 But in an Eastern despotism such a course is not to 
 be thought of. In Persia it involved almost certain 
 death. "All the king's servants, and the i)eople of 
 the king's provinces do know, that whosoever, whether 
 man or woman shall come unto the king in the inner 
 court, who is not called, there w o)ie lazu of his to put 
 him to death, except such to whom the king shall hold 
 out the golden sceptre, that he may live : but / have 
 not been called to come in unto the king these thirty 
 days." This indicates at what peril Esther would enter 
 uncalled the royal presence. 
 
 This law was no dead letter — no extravagant 
 oriental phraseology. Nor could she have the least 
 ground for presuming upon any especial forbearance 
 
Io6 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 or grace on the part of the monarch. Her own mar- 
 riage with him was the result of his stern and remorse- 
 less disposition. A former queen, who had dared to 
 oppose his wishes, he had driven out from his palace, 
 though her remarkable charms had made her the pride 
 and the joy of his heart. 
 
 This cruel, inexorable tyrant, who for thirty days 
 had kept his queen from his presence, she was asked 
 to approach, in defiance of sacred and inviolable usage, 
 with intercessions for her doomed people, and that, 
 too, in the face of a decree which by his authority had 
 been already promulgated, and which no principle of 
 Persian law would sufifer to be revoked. To make 
 the endeavor was to enter the jaws of death. And 
 she would have been more than human had she not 
 shrunk from the dreadful encounter. But the appeals 
 of her dear kinsman, the gravity of the situation, the 
 appalling calamity that was lowering, the convictions 
 and hopes of her religion, all combined to bring her 
 to the heroic decision. Fully sensible of the hazard 
 assumed, and prepared for the issue, whatever it might 
 be, she resolves, in language never to be forgotten, to 
 make the venture : "I will go in unto the king, which 
 is not according to the law' — and if I perish. I perish!" 
 Noble daring, majestic courage, sublime self-sacrifice ! 
 No need of marble or brass to enshrine for immortal- 
 ity this act of moral grandeur. For the relief of others 
 she perilled her all. For the deliverance of her people 
 she put at stake her exalted station, her diadem, her 
 very life. And her name will never die. 
 
 It is self-devotion like this to the good of others. 
 
THE PRESERVATION OF THE JEWS. 107 
 
 self-forgetful services to our kind, a willingness to 
 stand in the breach that others may escape, an unfal- 
 tering readiness to brook danger, trial, loss, dishonor, 
 death itself, in behalf of those whom it is possible for 
 us to relieve, or to bless, that makes men heroes in the 
 strife and furnishes the moral requisites for the amelio- 
 ration of humanity. 
 
 But for this act of self-sacrifice there was to 
 human reason no possible deliverance for Israel. But 
 for the similar self-devotion of Moses, who chose to 
 suffer affliction with his kindred rather than enjoy 
 the treasures and pleasures of Egypt, the chosen peo- 
 ple were destined to perish on the banks of the Nile. 
 But for the crowning example of this principle upon 
 Calvary there would have been no redemption from 
 sin, no escape from the wrath to come. The Son of 
 Man came to give Himself a ransom for us ; He died, 
 the just for the unjust, and became propitiation for 
 the sins of the whole world. And by His own provi- 
 sion this principle of self-sacrifice was made the stand- 
 ard of discipleship for His followers: "If any man will 
 come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his 
 cross, and follow Me. For whosoever will save his 
 life shall lose it; and whosoever will lose his life for 
 My sake shall find it." Without this principle no ser- 
 vice for God or man has any intrinsic worth or any 
 accredited marks of genuine beneficence. It is doubt- 
 ful whether any progress, any social reform, any good 
 work has ever been accomplished for mankind with- 
 out the exercise of self-devotion. Certainly no state 
 has ever risen to independence, no nation has ever 
 
I08 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 achieved glory, no people have ever been freed from 
 bondage or from barbarism without the sacrifice of 
 many for the good of others. No beneficent institu- 
 tions are possible, no home can be founded, no family 
 can live together, no children can be reared except by 
 the law of self-sacrifice. 
 
 Its application is of universal force. Who would 
 board a vessel to cross the deep, who would even trust 
 to ride for an hour on the railway but for the confi- 
 dence that those in charge will peril their own lives 
 before they will suffer ours to be endangered? That 
 virtue, then, of which the text furnishes such a thrill- 
 ing and illustrious example, is what in other spheres 
 and in an obscurer lot is constantly required of every 
 one of us. That we ever find it in us to spare our- 
 selves to secure first our own advantage and safety, 
 only shows how we may become lost to the best 
 instincts and noblest capacities of our being, as well as 
 recreant to the clearest teachings of nature and revela- 
 tion. O, if by grace we should rise from our self- 
 seeking, and quench the supreme care for our happi- 
 ness, what relief for our fellow-men and what improve- 
 ments we might effect ! What moral heroism we 
 might achieve ! What blessings we might diffuse ! 
 How sublime we could make our lives ! 
 
VI. THE REJECTED PHARISEE. 
 
 [From Homilettc Review.] 
 
 The Pharisee stood and prayed tlius with himself: God, I thank 
 thee, that I am not as other men are. extortionists, unjust, adulterers, or 
 even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all 
 that I possess. — Luke xviii. 11-12. 
 
 The various persons which figure in sacred history 
 possess, as a rule, a typical interest. They personate 
 respectively certain varieties of the species. The vari- 
 ety represented by the Pharisee is not extinct. The 
 characteristics of that class were not merely an out- 
 growth of corrupt Judaism. Their appearance was 
 not limited to the peculiar religious circumstances 
 which attended the introduction of the Gospel. Phari- 
 sees flourish on Christian as well as on Jewish soil. 
 Without being organized into a party or a sect the\- 
 still abound, scattered among all sects. Their presence 
 may be detected in every congregation. They sit dis- 
 guised often as leading members ; as of old they 
 occupy chief seats in the synagogue. 
 
 It is unfortunate that this particular Pharisee. 
 who went up into the temple to pray, has been much 
 misunderstood and grossly misrepresented. Accord- 
 ing to a popular impression he was a base fellow, alto- 
 gether devoid of principle ; a vile, despicable, superla- 
 tive wretch. Now there is nothing in the record to 
 justify such estimate of the man before us. There is 
 positively no reproach cast upon him. His conduct, 
 
 (109) 
 
no THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 SO far as it is outlined here, stands unaccused of any 
 criminal actions, free from every serious irregularity. 
 The facts as they appear make him 
 
 1. A moral man, according to a common accept- 
 ation of morality. He is chargeable with nothing 
 criminal. He is guilty of no wrong. There is no evi- 
 dence of any scandalous vice. His own portrait of 
 himself as he stood praying, is accepted as faithful and 
 correct. The man's naive claim to various virtues is 
 not disputed. He is better than many others are. He 
 is confessedly no "extortioner" — that is, according to 
 the interpretation of the original word, he does not 
 seek to possess himself of his neighbor's property by 
 force. His hands are free from violence and blood. 
 Nor is he unjust or unfair in his business relations. 
 He has wronged no man, either by force or fraud. 
 This is clearly the import of the first two terms. And 
 he does not wallow in the filth of uncleanness. He is 
 no adulterer. He is represented, likewise, as being 
 
 2. A strictly pious man. He is conscientiously 
 attentive to all religious ordinances. He is a devout 
 worshipper ; stands reverently in the temple of God, 
 engages in prayer, not only there, but, as we well know, 
 on the corners of the streets and in the house of mourn- 
 ing for the solace of the widow. He makes thankful 
 acknowledgment of the divine favor which has dis- 
 tinguished him above others, especially in religious 
 character. He maintains, twice a week, a solemn and 
 severe fast. He is shown to be eminently and system- 
 atically liberal, and, as we learn from the practices of 
 
THE REJECTED PHARISEE. Ill 
 
 his sect, he is uncommonly scrupulous in keeping the 
 Sabbath day. 
 
 In fact, clnirch members possessed of the quaHfi- 
 cations of this Pharisee are to-day held in very hij:^h 
 esteem by pastors and congregations. They are in 
 demand everywhere. A church made up of such peo- 
 ple would rank as a model. Its Christian zeal and 
 saintly piety would attract universal attention. God's 
 favor is presumed to rest signally upon the organiza- 
 tion. What solemnity reigns on the Sabbath ! What 
 devoutness marks their worship ! How full their 
 prayer-meetings, and what readiness on the part of 
 every one to lead in public prayer! And what sums 
 are given to the Lord ! The tenth of everything ! 
 Apportionments are raised to the uttermost farthing; 
 the pastor is promptly paid according to contract; no 
 church debt is ever possible. Such a people are, in- 
 deed, exemplary — in their way. They may well thank 
 God that they are not as other men are, either in the 
 church or out of it. 
 
 W^hat more could, in fact, be expected or required ? 
 How can a soul endowed with all these excellences be 
 rejected and condemned by a merciful judge? Who 
 can be saved, if that strict Pharisee was lost? Ay, 
 there's the rub ! That one possessed of these conspic- 
 uous moral and religious attributes was held u\^ by 
 our Lord and Savior as lacking the essential rec|uisites 
 of salvation, is enough to startle every one that has 
 felt secure and sat at ease in Zion. If a vital defect 
 somewhere vitiated and nullified this man's moralitv 
 
112 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 and religion, it becomes a matter of intense practical 
 interest to ascertain the nature of that defect ; in other 
 words, to examine into the: grounds of the Phari- 
 SE^e's re;j^ction. 
 We mention : 
 
 I. HIS SELF-SATISFACTION IN VlFW OF THE POSSES- 
 SION OF A FEW VIRTUES. 
 
 The man boasts that he is not a robber, not a 
 cheat, not an adulterer. Of these offenses he is, hap- 
 ily, blameless : but is this the extent of ll.e ir.oral law-, 
 the sum total of human duty? Do three negative vir- 
 tues comprise the entire range of obligation which is 
 involved in man's relation to his fellow-man ? Is every 
 bond of humanity canceled, every debt disch.arged, 
 when a man requires no police to keep him decent, no 
 judge to make him honest, no jealous husband to pro- 
 tect females from his lust? Might he not pass muster 
 on these points, and yet fail in a thousand others and 
 be lacking every positive moral quality? There is no 
 evidence that this Pharisee had the faintest vestige of 
 benevolence, sympathy, generosity, or kindness in his 
 breast. His heart was probably devoid of every ten- 
 der feeling. He may have been supremely selfish, 
 without one spark of human pity, without one thought 
 of doing anything to ameliorate the lot of the unfor- 
 tunate. 
 
 Correct behavior in some respects is no proof of 
 a sound moral character ; and morality is, at all events, 
 not a matter of figures — three, seven, ten virtues ! It 
 is a state of mind, the exponent of a sound conscience 
 
THE REJECTED PHARISEE. I13 
 
 that seeks to observe every duty and to be faithful in 
 every human relation. No robber, no rogue, no rake ! 
 How much, after all, does that say for an individual? 
 ^^llat sort of a neighbor was he? What had he ever 
 done for the poor, for the orphan, for the sufferer? 
 Whose tear had he ever dried, whose wound had he 
 bathed, whose burden had he borne? What sort of a 
 husband, what kind of a father, was he? With his 
 boasted virtues, he may have been a brute, with whom 
 no wife could have Hved ; a monster of hatefulness 
 and cruelty from whom children would flee in disgust 
 and dismay. Strange as it may seem, the most hor- 
 rible traits of dc]iravity dwell often side by side with 
 some shining virtues, and the most execrable speci- 
 mens of the race have not been without redeeming 
 qualities. To hope, therefore, that with a few virtues 
 you may reach heavenly bliss beyond the deep waters 
 of death, is to attempt, with a few fragile stones, to 
 spring an arch across the vast abyss. If but one stone 
 be wanting, this passage to eternal life is impossible. 
 "For whosoever shall keep the whole law and yet 
 offend in one point, he is guilty of all." 
 
 II. HIS SELF-SATISFACTION IX VIFW OF HIS RXTERNAL 
 RELIGIOUS OBSERVANCES. 
 
 In that which constitutes the outward forms of 
 piety the Pharisee doubtless excelled. He kept the 
 Sabbath strictly, he was regular at divine worship, 
 rigid in fasting, diligent in prayer, glowing with zeal, 
 and giving a large proportion of his income to the 
 8 
 
114 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 Church. If only God could be satisfied or duped with 
 punctilious masquerading in religious service, this 
 Pharisee must have drawn forth the smiling approval 
 and fervid encomium of Heaven. But God is a Spirit. 
 The worship which He requires, the only worship that 
 is consonant with His nature and consistent with His 
 will, is spiritual worship. He requires truth in the 
 inward parts. The trick of drawing nigh unto Him 
 with the mouth and honoring Him with the lips, while 
 the heart is kept far removed from Him, was long ago 
 exposed. God's abhorrence of this mumm-'y has not 
 been specially concealed. It argues, indeed, very 
 poorly for human intelligence that any one should 
 insult the divine perfections with such a parade of 
 hypocrisy ! There must be, in the nature of things, 
 an outward form in our public worship, a sensible 
 manifestation of spiritual states and exercises. Out 
 of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. 
 But the outward must be a faithful transcript of the 
 inward. Otherwise the devotional act is a lie unto 
 God, as glaring and wicked as the lie of Ananias ?nd 
 Sapphira. Speech and action must be true mirror of 
 thought and affection. The lips and the life must be 
 the correct expression and index of the heart. 
 
 The proper relation between the external and in- 
 ternal always forms an attractive study. Each has its 
 place, and when they harmonize, when the former fitly 
 corresponds with the latter, when the outer world 
 reveals and embodies the inner and invisible spirit, the 
 intrinsic worth and office of each are very striking. 
 
THE REJECTED PHARISEE. II5 
 
 But with what mockery that wliich is without some- 
 times attempts to disguise what is witliin. 
 
 What a difference, for instance, between outside 
 finery and genuine refinement! How ludicrous and 
 pitiable the efforts of a woman, arrayed in all ihe ele- 
 gance and splendor of millinery art, to pass for a lady, 
 as long as she lacks the elements of real gentility, pol- 
 ish and culture ! To what purpose is all her parade 
 of extrinsic ornamentation and style while she is inher- 
 ently coarse and vulgar! Only stupid people are 
 imposed on by such affectation of quality ; only bar- 
 barians take tinsel and trumpery in exchange for com- 
 modities of real value. Enlightened and acute minds 
 generally distinguish shadow from substance. And 
 God is not mocked by the affectation of pious conduct. 
 Men may be deceived, not God. He knows your hearts. 
 True religion is in His light something more than easy 
 observances and cheap formalities. 
 
 Sacred, appropriate and necessary as the ordi- 
 nances of religion are as vehicles of spiritual exercises, 
 they can never, before the eye of Omniscience, become 
 a substitute for a broken heart and a contrite spirit. 
 Not he that keeps the Sabbath, not he that goes to 
 church, but the pure in heart, shall see God. Not he 
 that gives, nor he that fasts, but he that loveth is born 
 of God. "Though I speak with the tongues of men 
 and of angels and have not charity, I am become as 
 sounding brass. And though I bestow all my goods to 
 feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, 
 and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing." 
 
Il6 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 Underneath this outward show of godliness there 
 may have been a heart as destitute of love of God and 
 man as an adamant, as black with malignity as the 
 spirit of a fiend, as full of bitter envies as the breast 
 of the first murderer who slew his brother "because 
 his own works were evil and his brother's righteous." 
 That commendable exterior, like a whited sepulchre, 
 was but a covering for putrescent rottenness within, 
 a beautiful screen for the foulest affections, the most 
 odious thoughts, and the most wicked purposes. Pride 
 and greed and selfishness, hatred and cruelty and spite, 
 may have reveled in that soul like reptiles in a putrid 
 pool. 
 
 Herein lay the overwhelming deficiency, the mon- 
 strous sin of the Pharisees. They gave supreme atten- 
 tion to externals. Having cleansed with great scrupu- 
 losity the outside of a bowl, they swallowed the filth 
 of the contents without a qualm. "Ye also appear out- 
 wardly righteous unto men," said Jesus, "but within 
 ye are are full of hypocrisy and iniquity." They were 
 singularly absorbed in externality. Appf^arances were 
 everything. They did their alms sounding a trumpet 
 before them, that they might have glory of men. They 
 offered their prayers in conspicuous places, that they 
 might be seen of men. They performed their fasts 
 disfiguring their faces, that they might appear unto 
 men to fast, perverting thus the holiest rites of religion 
 into instruments of low ambition and sordid self-inter- 
 est. 
 
 And then, what is most astonishing of all, they 
 depended on this horrible pervasion of sacred ordi- 
 
THE REJECTED PHARISEE. II7 
 
 nances for salvation. Because of these thinj^s they 
 considered themselves, par excellence, the heirs of the 
 kingdom of God. Xo wonder that these hypocrites 
 evoked the fiercest denunciation of the world's Savior, 
 that large portions of His discourses are occupied with 
 the woes denounced upon them. 
 
 Let us beware that we do not fall into the same 
 wretched system of externalism. We are as liable to 
 this danger as were the Jews of old. We are given 
 too much to parading our religious character. As some 
 one has forcibly put it, "our religion is too much below 
 the elbows." It consists mostly in outward activity 
 and publicity. There is too great a disproportion 
 between the closet and the platform. To be a regular 
 church-goer, to pray in public, to be a habitual com- 
 municant, to give largely — are these not the things 
 most emphasized in many pulpits to-day ; and are not 
 those who excel in these held up as pillars, and pointed 
 to as blessed examples ? Yet, almost every issue of the 
 press contains disclosures of atrocious villainies perpe- 
 trated by persons whose outward devotedness to relig- 
 ion had won them universal confidence. Tithing mint 
 and rue. they passed over judgment and the love of 
 God. 
 
 "These ought ye to have done," says the Lord, 
 "and not to leave the other undone." "Keep thy heart 
 with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life." 
 "The fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, long- 
 suffering, goodness, gentleness, faith, meekness, tem- 
 perance." "The greatest of these is charity." "The 
 kingdom of God is unthin you." 
 
Il8 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 III. HIS SE^LF-SATISFACTION IN VIEW OF HIS FAVOR- 
 ABI^e; COMPARISON WITH OTHERS. 
 
 After estimating himself from the standpoint of 
 the moral law and by the standard of outward religious 
 requirements, he next institutes a comparison between 
 himself and other men, and comes to a very satisfac- 
 tory and proud conclusion. He first tests himself by 
 the conduct of men in general, and, enumerating extor- 
 tioners, unjust and adulterers, the result is highly 
 favorable. "Thank God, I am not one of the criminal 
 class !" Finally, how striking the contrast between him 
 and the publican, who followed an unpopular calling 
 and who might be considered a prodigy of sin ! 
 
 All this is quite natural. We are constitutionally 
 disposed to be imitators. And in consequence of this, 
 we are sure to draw comparisons between ourselves 
 and others, and ascertain what degree of equality or of 
 superiority obtains. And in this forensic process we 
 always judge ourselves quite partially. For we see 
 others' defects and faults much mor<= easily than our 
 own. Then, too, we are sure, like the Pharisee, to 
 select for comparison some one of unsavory repute. 
 He might have found for this purpose better specimens 
 of society than swindlers, libertines, and publicans ; but 
 the result would not have been so agreeable. To have 
 discovered that some men were better than himself 
 would have been galling. He was not engaged just 
 then in cultivating humility. He was no John Brad- 
 ford, who, on seeing a man led to the gallows, 
 exclaimed : "There goes John Bradford, but for the 
 grace of God." 
 
THE REJECTED PHARISEE. II9 
 
 We generally adopt the Pharisee's method. We 
 hold up to disparagement and condemnation some of 
 the baser sort. How quickly and how gladly we perceive 
 our superiority ! We ar-e not like them, thieves, swear- 
 ers, drunkards, outcasts. How good we are, in com- 
 parison, thank Heaven! It does, somehow, not occur 
 to us to compare ourselves with those whose temper 
 and life are confessedly noble, lovely, and stainless. 
 This betrays our insincerity, our disinclination to find 
 a higher plane of living, our unwillingness to rise to 
 a truly good and holy life. We are entirely satisfied 
 with our pitiful attainments. The kind of comparisons 
 we draw strengthens this satisfaction. We are good 
 enough, better than many we know of. 
 
 Measuring ourselves by others, if honestly and 
 fairly conducted, might not be altogether unprofitable ; 
 but there is only One w^hom we are warranted in 
 making our model. Jesus Christ is the one touchstone 
 by which men are either to rise or to fall. Only an 
 absolute standard is of any worth in testing moral 
 qualities ; only the likeness which one bears to Christ 
 is sure of the kingdom of heaven. Let a man bravely 
 view himself in this mirror, and he will see another 
 picture than that drawn by the Pharisee. He will fail 
 to notice his superiority to others, even the worst of 
 men. He will abhor the sight of himself, and will prob- 
 ably, like Paul, call himself the chief of sinners. 
 
 And only such a one has the promise of mercy. 
 "I came not," said He who came to save, "to call the 
 righteous, but sinners, to repentance." As long as a 
 soul is pufiFed up with spiritual self-assurance and 
 
I20 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 boasts even before God of its superior moral and relig- 
 ious excellence, it can have no part in the divine mercy. 
 Let us be warned by this example to put no trust in 
 ourselves, no confidence in our virtues, no faith in our 
 outward religious exercises, no reliance on our sup- 
 posed superiority. Not the Pharisee, but the publican, 
 points us to the way of life, and that more pleasing 
 subject we hope to consider at an early day. 
 
VII. THE ACCEPTED PUBLICAN, A MODEL 
 CASE OF REPENTANCE. 
 
 [From Homiletic Review.] 
 
 And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much 
 as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be 
 merciful to me a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house 
 justified. — I.vKE xviii. 13-14- 
 
 The publican represents the lower classes. I use 
 the term "lower" in its moral significance. High and 
 low are strangely intermixed in the strata of human 
 society. Some who stand high in the world are exceed- 
 ingly low and degraded in the moral scale. This pub- 
 lican may have been rich like Zaccheus, who belonged 
 to the same caste ; but wealth was not a passport to 
 good society among the Jews. To see these specimens 
 of abandoned character enter into the kingdom of God 
 was a terrible shock to the righteous feelings of the 
 Pharisees. In this they had evidence enough that the 
 Rabbi from Nazareth was not the Messiah. The com 
 pany of these social outcasts was all-sufificient to invali- 
 date every claim to be put forward to a divine con.- 
 mission. To receive sinners and to eat with them, this 
 was horrible in one who professed to fulfill all the law 
 and the prophets. 
 
 Well, this central truth of the Gospel is hard to 
 understand — for the natural man, and these Pharisees 
 had been especially blinded by their own perversions 
 and falsifications of revealed truth. 
 
 (121) 
 
122 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 The fact that the pubHcan, when he cried for 
 mercy, was accepted, must not be construed as imply- 
 ing any extenuation of his wicked courses. This par- 
 able puts no premium on sin. The man was, indeed, 
 not justified because his Hfe had been any better than 
 that of the Pharisee. It had, in all probability, been 
 much worse. The real, vital and ultimate distinction 
 between the two men did not arise from the essential 
 moral dissimilarity between their characters. There 
 was, doubtless, more for God to approve in the past life 
 of the Pharisee than in that of the publican. The real 
 contrast lay in their present attitude, as they stood 
 before the altar of the Holy and Omniscient One, and 
 it admits of a familiar illustration. Of two men, both 
 aflfected with with a dangerous malady, the one obtains 
 relief, the other does not. In the case of the former, 
 the disease develops very alarming symptoms. The 
 victim realizes his great danger. He feels the urgent 
 need of a physician. He avails himself of the proper 
 remedies, and thereby succeeds in the recovery of his 
 health. The latter, though a prey to the same terrible 
 disorder, does not become aware of his diseased con- 
 dition. He makes light of any mild symptoms that 
 reveal themselves. He feels strong, well and hardy. 
 No medicine for hiui. No physician with his Gilead 
 balm. Though his friends clearly discern the wasting 
 progress of the inward malady, he persuades himself 
 that all is well, he has need of nothing. He attends to 
 his daily avocation with a vigor that indicates perfect 
 health and soundness, and knows not that he is 
 wretched and miserable. While he dreams of health. 
 
THE ACCEPTED PUBLICAN. 1 23 
 
 the fatal malady is slowly consuming him. Appar- 
 ently in a far better condition than the other, his sur- 
 face symptoms deceive him. and he dies a victim to the 
 horrible disease, from which the other, though almost 
 in the jaws of death, was rescued by a never-failing 
 remedv. The one who seemingly suffered the lighter 
 attack perishes, the one whose case was most critical 
 escapes. The one accepted the aid of a physician, the 
 other spurned it. 
 
 In this relation to God the primary and funda- 
 mental distinction between men rests not in the varying 
 extent of their sinfulness, or in the relative grade of 
 their moral obliquity ; but a dividing line is drawn by 
 the self-consciousness of their sins and the desire to be 
 freed from them. Here alone can parallels be run 
 which are recognized by God. Not more or fewer sins 
 make any difference as to our acceptance, but the pres- 
 ence or the absence of the desire to be pardoned and 
 cleansed from all sin. 
 
 Hence the publican presents to us 
 
 A MODEL CASE OF SAVING REPENTANCE. 
 L IN HIS CONVICTION OF SIN. 
 
 He has come to the true knowledge of himself, 
 making the discovery that he is a sinner. Like the 
 Prodigal, "he has come to himself." He has gained a 
 proper estimate of his condition. He views his moral 
 state in its true light. A consciousness of guilt burns 
 within the soul. His heart is not right toward God. 
 
 This self-knowledge is the starting-point for all 
 true religion. A man must know the truth concerning 
 
124 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 himself, must realize his alienation from God, his spirit- 
 ual poverty, the enmity of his heart to the fountain of 
 all good. Illumination is the first stage in conversion 
 when the light of divine truth reveals to the sinner his 
 moral nakedness, the great length to which he has wan- 
 dered away from his heavenly Father, and the dire 
 wretchedness in which he is involved by his violation 
 of divine law, the dawn of a new life begins to glow 
 in his breast. The voice of God is becoming effectual 
 within him. 
 
 But do not all men, especially under the general 
 diffusion of the light of the Gospel, have this convic- 
 tion of sin? With conscience witnessing against him 
 continually, with all the teaching, writing and preach- 
 ing that is done in the Christian world, surely every 
 one knows that his life is not what it ought to be, that 
 he is guilty of sin, and that his sinful condition cannot 
 have the smile of God. Yet the Pharisee who stood in 
 view of the publican felt nothing of his sins. In his 
 prayer it never occurs to him to ask forgiveness. The 
 young man who came to the Master asking what he 
 should do to inherit eternal life, had no sense of guilt, 
 for when referred to the Commandments, he replied, 
 "All these have I kept from my youth up." He never, 
 in his estimation, was guilty of a single transgression. 
 Even when the more intense light of the Gospel begins 
 to penetrate the minds of men, they can draw down the 
 blinds, close the shutters and darken the room, until, 
 after all, nothing is clearly distinguished. Loving 
 darkness rather than light, they keep out the unwel- 
 come rays of truth, they shut themselves up in the 
 
THE ACCEPTED PUBLICAN. 1 25 
 
 darkness of their own understanding, they try not to 
 believe the terrible facts of their spiritual ruin and 
 strenuously resist the truth until they succeed in elud- 
 ing its piercing power. The light shineth in tl^e dark- 
 ness, but the darkness comprehendeth it not. '"Ye do 
 always resist the Holy Ghost." said the martyr Ste- 
 phen to the stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart 
 and ears. Hence, blindness happens unto them, and 
 in their self-chosen ignorance they stagger on to ir- 
 remediable ruin. 
 
 It was otherwise with the publican. A conviction 
 had been wrought in him that all was not well, that all 
 was not right between him and his God. The sacred 
 bond was broken. His soul could have no peace. He 
 saw, he knew, he felt, that he was a sinner. He may 
 not have known the magnitude of his sins, the awful 
 depths into which he had fallen, or the terrible heiu- 
 ousness of an ungodly life. He probably understood 
 but little of the philosophy of the theology of sin, of its 
 classification into original and actual, venial and mor- 
 tal, omission and commission. He simply realized that 
 he w^as lacking true righteousness, that he had been dis- 
 obedient to his Maker, a transgressor, an offender 
 against a holy God, and that he now stood condemned 
 before the Supreme Judge of all the earth. 
 
 11. IX HIS COXFESSIOX OF SIX. 
 
 It is remarkable that, even when men come to rec- 
 ognize their sins, they find it exceedingly difficult to 
 confess them. They hedge about it and avoid it as 
 long as possible. They invent some soothing pallia- 
 
126 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 tions or specious excvise which put a somewhat altered 
 aspect upon their conduct, and place it in a false light. 
 They have great fertility of apologies, comforting de- 
 fences, and crafty evasions by which, after all, their 
 sins do not look so exceedingly sinful. 
 
 Let us notice a few of the shifting attempts by 
 which men seek to cover up the iniquities of which 
 they know themselves to be guilty, and by which they 
 endeavor to shield themselves from the penalties due to 
 those who are really and undeniably wicked. 
 
 Some take refuge in the thought (a) that they 
 were born in sin. They cannot help their evil disposi- 
 tions and sinful propensities. The wrong they are 
 doing grows out of their nature. They do not con- 
 sider themselves responsible for being what they are. 
 
 With shocking blasphemy Burns could sing : 
 
 "Thou knowest that Thou hast formed me 
 With passions wild and strong. 
 And listening to their witching voice 
 Has often led me wrong." 
 
 They are sinners, no doubt, but the fault is God's, 
 not theirs ! 
 
 (b) Or they ascribe the blame of their evil-doings 
 entirely to the subtle power of temptation, to the wily 
 seductions of the devil. "The serpent beguiled me," 
 was the excuse of the first sinner. And one would 
 think to hear the plea set up by sinners ever since that 
 this excuse was accepted as altogether sufficient. If 
 angels fell under the crafty assaults of Satan, if Adam 
 and Eve, in their estate of innocence and with their 
 
THE ACCEPTED PUBLICAN. 1 27 
 
 blessed surroundings, yielded to his arts, am I to be 
 condemned for going astray? 
 
 (c) Others, again, lay the blame entirely upon 
 their fellow-men. "The woman that thou gavest to be 
 with me, she gave me of the tree and I did eat." Had 
 I been left to myself, had my own inclinations been 
 followed, this would not have happened. The fault is 
 not mine. I don't admit any guilt in this transaction. 
 What parent or teacher has not discovered, in punish- 
 ing a disobedient boy, that he is uniformly pimishing 
 the wrong one? It was always the other boy who 
 brought about the evil act. Had it not been for him, 
 the victim of your rod would have kept perfectly clear 
 from the evil course of which he is accused. He is a 
 good boy, always was and means to be, but what is 
 one to do when these bad boys, with their corrupting 
 influences, surround you? 
 
 If men could only be freed from their peculiar 
 surroundings, if their bringing up had been different, 
 if they were in some other business, or in a different 
 locality, they would not violate the principles of truth 
 and righteousness. They would strictly conform their 
 conduct to the requirements of Christian character. 
 
 I have heard men, who held high i laces in a Chris- 
 tian congregation, justify their business obliquities by 
 the claim that it was impossible these days to carry on 
 business on the basis of the Decalogue. So many 
 sharpers and rascals were engaged in trade all around, 
 that, unless one would resort to practices of a some- 
 what dubious character, he must abandon business 
 
128 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 altogether. These other bad men make dishonesty a 
 necessity to us who are at heart honest and truthful ! 
 
 No doubt, had the publican, as he humbly made 
 his confession, been so disposed, a similar excuse would 
 readily have occurred to him, for he had been employed 
 in an infamous business. The disgrace which publicly 
 attached to it. and the strong temptations that beset 
 the revenue service among the Jews, must have made it 
 extremely hard for a man to keep his conscience unde- 
 filed. Had the publican only thought of all this he 
 might have calmly raised his innocent eyes and saved 
 his innocent bosom from the self-inflicted blows of 
 his inexorable remorse. 
 
 (d) Another expedient, to which the stings of 
 conscience often drive men, is the claim that their evil- 
 doing is not deliberate. They cannot be charged with 
 intentional offending. They are, it is true, sometimes 
 overtaken in a fault, but their offences are involuntary. 
 If men could only see their good intentions, they would 
 surely justify them. When Saul disobeyed the Lord 
 in the case of the Amalekites, it was solely, he claimed, 
 with a view of rendering a better service to God. He 
 spared the best of the sheep and oxen and of the fat- 
 lings that he might oft"er a monumental sacrifice to 
 Jehovah. His course may not have been just the 
 proper thing, but he was actuated with the best inten- 
 tions. 
 
 (e) When all other excuses prove unavailing, 
 there is generally still this comfort left to a man — that 
 he is no worse than many others. I may be guilty, but 
 
THE ACCEPTED PUBLICAN. 129 
 
 look at Brown and Jones and a host of others. The 
 pubHcan felt, probably, a special provocation to offer 
 this very plea, when he overheard tlie I'harisee con- 
 trasting- himself with him. How naturally he might 
 have retorted, Sinner that I am, I am no worse than a 
 Pharisee ! I am, at all events, no hypocrite. But the 
 Spirit working within him would none of this. He 
 was not there to practice any jugglery of self-delus- 
 ions, or to mock God with any whitewashing explana- 
 tions. He stood there to confess his sins, not to deny 
 them. No apology whatever is put forward. Per- 
 fectly ingenuous, without one word of extenuation or 
 defence, his confession comes up like water gushing 
 from an irrepressible spring. Ashamed to turn his 
 guilty eyes to the face of Him against whom he had so 
 grievously offended, and smiting on his tumultuous 
 and heaving breast, he humbly prays, God be merciful 
 to me a sinner. 
 
 Oh ! that men might learn from this model the 
 grace and duty of confessing. How many deceive 
 themselves, and the truth is, accordingly, not in them, 
 by affecting good intentions, or other palliating de- 
 fences, hoping thereby to cover up the naked enormity 
 of their sins, denying essentially that they are sinners, 
 quenching thereby the accusations of conscience, and 
 forfeiting that mercy which alone saves from sin 
 through atonement and forgiveness. Oh, how vain, 
 how abortive such excuses for evil conduct ! And yet, 
 was there ever a sin so flagrant and crimson that men 
 could not devise some defense or justification for it? 
 
 9 
 
130 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 III. IN HIS IMMEDIATE APPLICATION TO GOD I^OR 
 MERCY. 
 
 He does not have recourse first to a priest, al- 
 though the priests were at that time still performing 
 their functions at the temple. Nor does he go to a 
 prophet, a religious teacher, or a pastor, and ask one of 
 these for assistance in effecting his reconciliation with 
 God, but he proceeds at once and directly to God, and 
 without any intervention or help from others he cries 
 for mercy. This course is not natural with the peni- 
 tent. Sin has so dazed the mind that men not only 
 deceive themselves as to their condition and shrink from 
 confessing it when it has been discovered to them, 
 but even, when they are brought to a confession, they 
 are so bewildered that they will apply for relief every- 
 where else rather than with the sole fountain of mercy. 
 They feel constrained to have the services of others in 
 order to get their case before God. In place of ap- 
 proaching the mercy seat themselves, some one else 
 is expected in the first instance to act for them with 
 God. He is the Holy One. How can I, who am so 
 unclean, enter into His presence? He is the righteous, 
 dreadful Judge, and I am the offender. Yea, it is 
 against the Judge that my offences have been commit- 
 ted. He is the Mighty One, I but a worm. To go 
 alone, and without some one to interpose and inter- 
 cede in my behalf, is to be crushed under His foot. 
 
 It seems to be our very nature, since our alienation 
 from God. to hide ourselves from Him, like Adam in 
 the terror t'.iat succeeded the Fall, as though our sins 
 had made His presence intolerable. When the burden 
 
THE ACCEPTED PUBLICAN. 131 
 
 of guilt becomes unbearable, and man is driven by the 
 anguish of conscience to seek mercy, he flies to the 
 priest, in heathenism ; to the Confessional, the \'irgin, 
 the Saints, if he has had his training in Romanism. 
 Even something additional to personal assistance must 
 be interposed between the contrite sinner and the awful 
 God for whose favor he is striving. This is the im- 
 port of the sacrificial altars, which in all ages have 
 sent the smoke of their sin-offerings to heaven. Hence 
 the pilgrimages, the crusades, the monastic extrava- 
 gances of the Middle Ages. Hence the horrid self- 
 mortifications of men struggling to obtain salvation. 
 Oh what interesting and tragic scenes come into view 
 as we recall those dark ages, when penitents hoped, 
 by pains and tears and blood, by hunger and cold and 
 torture, to accomi)lish something that would be so mer- 
 itorious with God as to move Him to mercy ! 
 
 Immediate approach to Him? Why, such effront- 
 ery would be smitten in the very act with the divine 
 curse. 
 
 The paramount work of the Reformation was to 
 bring sinners again into immediate access to God, to 
 teach them that just as they are they can approach 
 Him without one plea, without either saint or priest 
 as a go-between, without merit, or work, or anything 
 that could possibly present as an intervening object 
 between us and God. His love in Christ Jesus, who 
 came into the world to save sinners, has brought Him 
 so near to every sinner, that whosoever will may come 
 to the fountain and drink of the water of life freely. 
 
 And yet men are evermore inclined to imagine 
 
132 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 that the moral distance between them and God must 
 be struggled over somehow by themselves, that there 
 is something which others can effect for them, so as 
 to make their search for grace effectual, or something 
 vi^hich they can themselves render, be it bitter sorrow 
 or tears, or some act or work that will please God, and 
 thus procure mercy. They want to take their place 
 in a certain locality, kneel at a particular bench, 
 rise in meeting to ask for prayers, enter the in- 
 quiry-room, or, at all events, see the minister and 
 submit to instruction. Thousands resort to a course 
 like this, because of their faith in these agencies to 
 help them to God. Something must needs be done, they 
 reason ; and as a step like this is commonly taken, I 
 will try it, hoping that it will avail me. Each of these 
 acts may serve a good purpose to those who use them 
 intelligently, who recognize in themselves some embar- 
 rassment or difficulty which they wish to have re- 
 moved. A man under conviction is liable to be very 
 much bewildered, to get into his head very foolish and 
 erroneous notions, which an enlightened minister will 
 correct, or from instructions in the inquiry-room he 
 may derive great encouragement ; but all these avail 
 nothing to procure our pardon. There is nothing in 
 these to render us in any way acceptable. As long as 
 the soul does not go directly to God, and, without any 
 plea whatever, supplicate infinite mercy through the 
 blood of Christ, the expedients of anxious-bench, in- 
 quiry-room, pastoral conference, will not effect one 
 iota of relief. On the other hand, whenever the sinner 
 follows the publican, taking his suit directly to God, 
 
THE ACCEPTED PUBLICAN. 1 33 
 
 looking immediately to Him and to Him alone for sal- 
 vation, all such supposed aids become utterly super- 
 fluous. 
 
 Oh, if men would only believe it, salvation is of 
 the Lord. He receiveth sinners, not after they have 
 changed, but just as they are. His blood cleanseth 
 us from sin. Xot our feelings, our tears, our wrest- 
 lings, or our "coming out on the Lord's side" in any 
 form devised by man. We do not read that the Pub- 
 lican's prayer was accompanied by any of these acces- 
 sories. He solely and simply cried, "God be merciful 
 to me a sinner." Till you do this, my hearer, you are 
 not saved. When you do it sincerely salvation is 
 yours. 
 
 IV. IN HIS IXST.\NTANEOUS DEUVKRANCE FROM SIX. 
 
 How soon the prayer was answered! How 
 quickly the sinner saved ! There is nothiiig here of a 
 long penitential conflict, of weary days and nights of 
 weeping and wailing for God. It took but an instant 
 to grant this humble sinner mercy. Immediately upon 
 his confession and his prayer he was justified. "If we 
 confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us 
 our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 
 Here we have the living confirmation of this promise. 
 We read in the Scriptures of many who were crushed 
 by their sins and who sought for mercy. Vet of no 
 one is it unmistakably declared that God accepted him. 
 This man was justified, said He who knows what trans- 
 pires in Heaven and on earth, and who is Himself the 
 One Savior of sinners — justified the moment he asked 
 for mercy. It does not take God a long period to 
 
134 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 conclude upon the sinner's pardon. He is waiting to 
 be gracious. He is a very present Savior, and often 
 men have felt that even before they called He an- 
 swered. Look at the rapid transition from death to 
 life in the case of the jailer at Philippi, the thief on the 
 cross, and Saul of Tarsus. 
 
 The publican, who went to the temple to pray, 
 went down to his house justified, saved. He had, 
 while praying, a new birth into the divine kingdom, 
 and was made a child of God through the faith that 
 plead for mercy. There was no longer any condemna- 
 tion resting upon him, the sword of justice was with- 
 drawn ; his sins, though they had been as scarlet, were 
 wdiiter than snow. From the moment he called unto 
 God he was absolved from all guilt and washed from 
 every stain ; his name was written in the Lamb's Book 
 of Life and he was numbered with the heirs of glory 
 and became a fellow-citizen with the saints. 
 
 It is clear, from this parable, on what score sin- 
 ners can come acceptably before God. To come as the 
 Pharisee did is to court rejection, for it puts contempt 
 upon the divine mercy and all the gracious provisions 
 devised from eternity for our salvation. On the other 
 hand, to approach God as the Publican did, to return, 
 as the Prodigal, with the confession, "I have sinned," 
 is to fall into the saving arms of Omnipotence, 
 stretched out from heaven for our rescue. God grant 
 unto you all grace to ofifer this effectual prayer. May 
 you be blessed with a true knowledge of your sinful 
 and guilty condition. Let your mind be open to every 
 ray of light, however painful and humbling its dis- 
 
THE ACCEPTED PUBLICAN. 1 35 
 
 closures. May you have grace to make an open, hon- 
 est and hearty confession, casting aside every subter- 
 fuge and lying artifice devised to secure exemption 
 from a full, humiliating acknowledgment of your per- 
 sonal guilt. And then, O fly with your confession and 
 prayer to the footstool of Him who alone can forgive 
 sins upon earth, and your heart will be made to rejoice 
 over the promptness and freeness and fullness of a 
 Heavenly Father's pardon. 
 
VIII. SAVED FROM ETERNITY. 
 
 [From Homiletic Review.] 
 
 Who has saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not accord- 
 ing to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which 
 was given us in Christ Tesus before the world began. — 2 Tim. i. 9. 
 
 We are told that the Chinese have no conception 
 of disinterestedness. The ample vocabulary of the 
 classics has no word for love. Heathenism knows 
 nothing of a Savior. Man-made religions never rise 
 to the thought of redemption. They offer no sal- 
 vation. They know nought of a Divine sympathy or 
 a gracious interposition from on high. They leave 
 man to save himself — if he can. 
 
 Here is the broad, deep, impassable chasm between 
 Christianity and all other religions. With all his de- 
 votion, prayers, sacrifices, and self-immolations, the 
 heathen is but striving to save himself, to propitiate 
 the deity, to compensate for wrongdoing. The theme 
 of the Gospel is a Savior, salvation through another. 
 Its essence is the forgiveness of sins. This makes the 
 Gospel the Gospel ; and this beyond all comparison 
 distinguishes it from every other religious system. 
 Vain is the search through all the literature of the 
 world for a parallel to the announcement that Jesus 
 Christ came into the world to save sinners. 
 
 Here, too, is the touchstone by which the genuine- 
 ness and soundness of the various types of Christian- 
 ity may be tested. So far as men ascribe salvation 
 
 (136) 
 
SAVED FROM ETERNITY. 1 37 
 
 wholly to the grace of God they have the pure Gospel ; 
 so far as they admit any saving efficaciousness in hu- 
 man efTort, works, or merits, they corrupt the true 
 faith, they approximate heathenism. When a system, 
 while not denying grace, adds works in order to secure 
 salvation, or allows anything meritorious in human 
 striving after forgiveness, it makes man, at least in 
 part, his own savior. Salvation is the work of God 
 alone, though, of course, it is wrought in and through 
 man and not outside of his own mind ; and in order 
 to cut off by the roots all claims upon man's part, God's 
 act of salvation is placed back in eternity. It was 
 accomplished before any works or endeavors of man 
 were possible. Our salvation was a fact in the bosom 
 of God before we were born, it was "'given us in Christ 
 Jesus before the world began." 
 
 In the text he teaches us three precious and most 
 consoling truths : 
 
 I. The provision of salvation in eternity. 
 II. Its manifestation in Christ. 
 
 III. Its offer in the Gospel call. 
 
 I. In the experience of salvation we are prone 
 to think of God as the counterpart of man. Man has 
 sinned, God is offended. Man's sin and God's wrath 
 are correlative ; and as man is born a sinner, the fire 
 of God's wrath is viewed as burning against him from 
 the moment of his birth. While unrenewed he hates 
 God, and God hates him; and now if man will turn, 
 will repent, will be converted, then God will be recon- 
 ciled and forgive him. So far as the mission of Christ 
 
138 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 enters into the matter that was designed to save us 
 from the wrath of God, to move an angry Father to 
 love and pity. This is a common, a superficial, and a 
 very unscriptural way of looking at the subject, and 
 it contradicts Paul outright. Before the Son became 
 flesh, before the tragedy on Golgotha, before one drop 
 of expiatory blood was shed, or one word of media- 
 torial intercession went up in the sinner's behalf — 
 away back in the counsels of eternity, before ever the 
 foundations of the earth were laid, before a single 
 star was planted in the firmament, the decree of for- 
 giveness was emblazoned on the canopy of the eternal 
 throne. Your name was engraved on the palms of 
 God's hands, the image of your soul was embalmed 
 in His heart, your salvation was guaranteed in Christ 
 Jesus before the morning of creation dawned. And 
 in the lapse of eternal ages, and with the prospect of 
 your sinful and wayward life before Him, God has 
 never looked upon you otherwise than as His beloved 
 child, and the first kiss imprinted on your infant lips 
 was the kiss of your heavenly Father; and however 
 disobedient, wicked, and godless your life may since 
 have been, it has not in the least changed God's tender- 
 ness, love and pity for you. 
 
 "No earthly father loves like Thee, 
 No mother half so mild 
 Bears and forbears as Thou hast done 
 To me Thy sinful child." 
 
 "God is love" was not changed by sin into "God 
 is wrath." His love falls upon a world wallowing in 
 sin. His loving-kindness changes not. 
 
SAVED FROM ETERNITY. 1 39 
 
 But have we not fallen under ci )ndemnation ? Is 
 not justice inexorable? Can a righteous God pass by 
 the awful guilt of violating His laws? 
 
 To measure this guilt as heaven sees it, to show 
 God's abhorrence of our sins, to paint them in their 
 true blackness, or to portray the condemnation they 
 provoke, is beyond the power of human tongue. This 
 is awfully true. And what can you do regarding it? 
 Your sins have created a chasm between you and God 
 so deep that no plummet can sound it, so wide that no 
 measuring line can reach across the abyss : in what 
 way do you mean to pass over it? Your sins have 
 formed mountains which rise to heaven : is it in your 
 power to scale them? What will you do to be saved? 
 What expiation can you offer? What ransom or in- 
 demnity can you pay? The chasm must be bridged, 
 the mountain scaled, the ransom paid, all the results 
 of your sin must be done away, but by another arm 
 than your own. Man can no more redeem himself 
 than he can be his own creator. 
 
 God's wrath is no dream. Mark that. But, on 
 the other hand, it does not override His love, it does 
 not quench paternal pity, nor still the throbbings of 
 infinite tenderness. Love remains ever uppermost, the 
 crowning attribute of God, swaying every other attri- 
 bute. Within the Ark of the Covenant were the tables 
 of the law condemning every one who continueth not 
 in all things written there ; but above the Ark and cov- 
 ering it was the mercy-seat on which the atoning blood 
 was sprinkled, and going forth from its presence the 
 high priest could assure the people of forgiveness. 
 
140 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 That Ark is the blessed symbol of God's heart, within 
 which dwells eternal and inexorable justice, but over 
 this attribute flaming with wrath is the mercy-seat of 
 redeeming love bathed with the blood of the Lamb 
 that taketh away the sins of the world. 
 
 11. To what purpose, then, the coming of Christ? 
 Why did God become man? Why the awful sacrifice 
 on the cross? Why the descent of the God-head into 
 our earth, into hell, and back again to heaven? Vol- 
 umes upon volumes have been written on this mystery. 
 The profoundest minds have struggled with this tran- 
 scendent and adorable theme, and glorious truths have 
 been evolved, yet heights and depths of the mystery 
 remain unsolved, and more or less of error has been 
 developed in the endeavor to comprehend the incom- 
 prehensible. 
 
 The most pernicious error here is no doubt the sug- 
 gestion that the humiliation of the Son of God and 
 His death were necessary to appease the Father's 
 wrath, that the blood of the cross was required to 
 propitiate an angry God ! This, clearly understood, 
 is a horrible theory. Does your Bible read, God so 
 hated the world ? Nay ! God so loved the world 
 that He had recourse to a personal sacrifice of unutter- 
 able cost to Himself. Love gave the Son, love to sin- 
 ners, love to an ungodly world, provided the remedy 
 for its guilt before God. It was the love of the Father 
 to us which preceded and planned and consummated 
 the whole scheme of redemption. His love for us 
 was so great that He spared not His only begotten 
 Son. He who by the offering up of Himself bore 
 
SAVED FROM ETERNITY. 141 
 
 away the sin of the world was the Father's gift to 
 sinners. 
 
 But if such were God's purposes of grace even 
 before anything was wrought by Christ, if infinite 
 mercy from eternity swallowed up all sin, why, we 
 still ask. His assumption of human nature, why His 
 mediatorial work ? He came in the first instance to an- 
 nounce this free salvation. Like a flash of lightning 
 from a dark sky, His coming is the revelation of the 
 Father's love. He came to show us the Father, to 
 convey to us with pierced hands the Father's pardon. 
 The grace which was given us in Him before the 
 world began "is now made manifest by the appearing 
 of our Savior Jesus Christ." He came to give us a 
 living incarnate exhibition of our Father's love, to per- 
 suade us to be reconciled by the unmistakable proof 
 and guarantee of forgiveness. He came to bring us 
 gently and surely back to God, as the shepherd goes 
 after the sheep that is lost. He came to put salvation 
 into our hearts, to place us in full possession of its 
 gifts. 
 
 Besides its precious significance for us, the medi- 
 ation of Christ has doubtless a momentous import in 
 respect to God. The Father's purpose required the 
 execution of justice ; in other words, the bearing away 
 of the sins of the world. The awful chasm had to be 
 bridged, and Christ laid Himself down as the way 
 over which man can return to God. The mountains 
 of our sin had to be crossed, and He crossed them, 
 bearing us on His shoulders and in His arms. He 
 paid the ransom with His own life's blood, ''bearing 
 
142 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 our sins in His own body on the tree," and removing 
 absolutely every obstacle which stood in the way of 
 our conversion. 
 
 III. To the salvation brought to us by Christ, 
 and given to us in Him from eternity, we are called 
 with "a holy calling." The Gospel is a call, a loud 
 and urgent call to us to receive it, to lay hold of it 
 coming to us as a free gift. The proclamation which 
 it makes to all men is that the\- believe it, place their 
 confidence in it, by a supreme decision avail them- 
 selves of the priceless gift. 
 
 Salvation must take effect within us. While we 
 contribute nothing to God's grace, we offer the seat 
 for its realization in our bosom. Forgiveness must 
 be consummated in our personality — subjectively, Man 
 is endowed with a rational and moral nature which 
 must be called into exercise in the application of re- 
 demption, just as our physical nature must respond 
 to remedies applied by a physician. Forgiveness avails 
 nothing unless it becomes a fact to our consciousness, 
 unless its real import becomes the conviction and the 
 life of the soul. As it requires two for an offence, so 
 forgiveness requires the concurrent action of two — 
 the one to ofifer forgiveness, the other to receive it. 
 God forgave me all my sins before He laid the founda- 
 tions of the world, but until I avail myself of that for- 
 giveness, until it is fixed in my being, it profits me 
 no more than a legacy left to an ungrateful son, who 
 declines to have it. 
 
 Here salvation assumes a personal and an ex- 
 tremely practical interest. Here is disclosed the 
 
SAVED FROM ETERNITY. 1 43 
 
 momentous responsibility of all who hear the Gospel. 
 The preacher's office is to proclaim forgiveness, to 
 beseech men in Christ's stead to be reconciled to God. 
 This is their invitation, the call to repentance, "an holy 
 calling" which assures men that in God's heart all their 
 sins are forgiven, that grace is not to be sought or 
 merited, or striven for as something hard to obtain, 
 or hoped for as some future boon, but that all things 
 are ready, and that salvation has actually come to men. 
 We sometimes speak of it as yet future, as though 
 it would be the outcome of certain conditions, doings 
 or experiences of our own, as though forgiveness were 
 really the final result of a scries of reformations and 
 endeavors, when, in fact, it is the beginning and pre- 
 requisite of all genuine moral improvement. How 
 we misread the plainest lessons taught by the Master, 
 and especially those lessons which reveal the Father's 
 heart ! Study over again the parable of the prodigal, 
 with its two-fold and necessary introduction of the 
 seeking for the lost sheep and the lost coin. Doubtless 
 some of the servants would have represented to him 
 that he had an indulgent father, dwelling in a sumptu- 
 ous palace, and that he might reckon on a welcome, if 
 he should beforehand wash himself, procure a suit of 
 becoming clothes and shoes, and especially if he could 
 manage to get back the pawned signet ring, the pledge 
 of his former sonship. and show consideration for the 
 elder brother. The father, they would urge, would 
 take pity on him, if he presented himself in a suital)le 
 fashion. Some would encourage him in his purpose 
 to hire out in the old establishment, thus enabling him 
 
144 I'^E HIGHER ROCK, 
 
 to pay his way, and to make some amends and possible 
 restitution for the immeasureable wrongs and griefs 
 he had caused his father. 
 
 Paul would exclaim, "If I or an angel from heaven 
 preach such gospel let him be anathema." Tell me, was 
 the pardon of the prodigal resolved on only after his 
 return and after his promise of reform? He was not 
 out of sight at his departure from home, when the 
 father's heart yearned after him and inwardly assured 
 him 'twill all be forgiven, 'tis all forgiven now if you 
 will only return to my arms. That very night t!ie 
 door was left unlocked, and the lamps kept burning 
 in the windows, in the hope that the darkness would 
 lead him to retrace his steps. 
 
 The returning prodigal must indeed have proper 
 vesture, and shoes, and the ring containing the father's 
 seal, but all have been provided in advance by the 
 father himself, and w^hen he was yet a great way off, his 
 rags and filth still on his body, his father saw him, and 
 had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck and 
 kissed him. 
 
 A Father's love has left nothing undone respect- 
 ing the sinner's return to His bosom. Positively not 
 one element is wanting, not one thing to be supplied 
 by the helpless penitent. All things are ready, the 
 feast is waiting, your seat is there, the servants are 
 calling you to come just as you are. Is it possible 
 that any can turn a deaf ear to so gracious an invita- 
 tion ? Are men so hardened against their heavenly 
 Father that they can spurn the mercy offered unco; - 
 ditionallv to the chief of sinners? 
 
IX. THE NATURE AND POWER OF FAITH. 
 
 [From Living Words.] 
 
 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of 
 things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good report. — Heb. 
 xi. 1-2. 
 
 This is not a specific definition of saving faith, 
 but a compreliensive analysis of the essential nature 
 of faith in general. It embraces what is hcped for, 
 that is, what is future, and what is invisible. It is 
 the substance, the firm persuasion, the certitude, of 
 that which we look for hereafter ; it is the same as 
 evidence of that which the natural eye cannot perceive. 
 It seizes both the future world and the unseen world. 
 
 The Epistle to the Hebrews was addressed tj the 
 Jewish Christians at a time when they were wavering 
 in their adherence to Christianity. They had suflFered 
 frig-htful persecutions and experienced sad disappoint- 
 ments respecting the blessings they had expected to 
 enjoy in the gospel. Whatever of inward good it 
 brought them their outward lot was rendered so hard 
 and cheerless that they were tempted to return to Juda- 
 ism. They had, at all events, felt the loss of those 
 outward and splendid ceremonies in which consisted 
 the main features of the old system, and which th.y 
 had exchanged for a system which had no temple, no 
 Holy of Holies, no altar, no sacrifices, no priesthood — 
 a system whose chief contents were invisible, whose 
 highest blessings were merely hoped for. 
 
 lo (145) 
 
146 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 It was in order to keep them from apostasy, from 
 the abandonment of a rehgion whose chief contents 
 could be summed up in faith and hope, that the Apos- 
 tle plead with them in this glorious letter. He begs 
 them to hold fast the profession of their faith and not 
 to cast away their confidence. Christianity is, indeed, 
 a matter of faith, not of sight, yet is it immeasurably 
 superior to that dispensation which was made up of 
 institutions to impress the eye, of spectacles to engage 
 the senses. Faith is a principle of the highest impor- 
 tance, man's noblest faculty. At the close of the tenth 
 chapter these wavering souls are reminded from their 
 ancient Scriptures that "the just lives by his faith," 
 but that if any man draw back, God will have no pleas- 
 ure in him. We are not, it is added, of them who 
 draw back unto perdition, but of them that believe 
 to the saving of the soul. Faith is the saving of the 
 soul ; it is the synonym of salvation. Then the argu- 
 ment proceeds with the statement of our text, that in 
 faith we have already possession of treasures and 
 glories which belong to the realm of the future : by 
 faith they are substantially ours now. And so faith 
 penetrates also the curtain which hides the invisible 
 world and persuades us of unseen realities. It serves 
 as sure and reliable evidence ; it furnishes us with ade- 
 quate testimony in regard to the unseen world. Faith 
 is a persuasive and convincing power which unites 
 man with the unseen world and transfers him to the 
 future, so that while he moves among the things of 
 sense, he at the same time is a citizen of a higher king- 
 
THE NATURE AND POWER OF FAITH. 1 47 
 
 dom, which is hidden from the view of other men and 
 which is regarded as confined to a future state. 
 
 The incomparable importance, now, of that power 
 which is occupied with the unseen and the future, 
 appears wlien we consider some of these unseen and 
 future things. 
 
 Among the former we mention God. the creator 
 and governor of all things, who holds us in the hollow 
 of His hand, who is always and everywhere around 
 us, and before whom all things are naked and open. 
 No man hath seen God at any time. His providence 
 which guards our every path and supplies our daily 
 bread is invisible, and without faith men have no con- 
 ception of it. His justice is shrouded from our view 
 by clouds and darkness. The wicked seem to flourish : 
 the good are the afflicted. The judgments of God are 
 a great deep. 
 
 The Lord Jesus is an unseen Savior. Bearing 
 our sins and sorrows, cleansing us with His life's blood, 
 interceding for us at God's right hand, ever present 
 where two or three are assembled in His name, we can- 
 not share with Thomas the sight of His radiant feat- 
 ures, the touch of His wounded hands and side. 
 
 The Holy Spirit who enlightens, quickens, regen- 
 erates, and sanctifies, dwelling within us a heavenly 
 messenger and guest, an abiding guide and comforter, 
 is invisible to mortal eyes. 
 
 And so is every good of which the Christian 
 boasts. His justification is an invisible act of God on 
 the eternal throne. No man has ever s.en his pardon, 
 nor read his name in the Lamb's Book 'if life, nor 
 
148 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 has he perceived that robe of spotless rio^hteousness 
 which infinite mercy has thrown over his nakedness. 
 
 And so the most exalted and the most blessed 
 things to which believing hearts aspire lie in the future. 
 Thev are not a present possession, but a bliss hoped 
 for. To a man without faith eternal life is a pleasing 
 dream, but nothing more. The resurrection, the re- 
 habilitation of our decayed bodies, the transfiguration 
 of our corporeal organism, is not even a dream to 
 him, but to faith it is a future certainty. The man- 
 sions of glory are in the hereafter. The perfection of 
 our powers, the recompense of devotion and self-de- 
 nying service for others, the plaudits of heaven, the 
 crown of righteousness, all are future not present joys 
 and honors. They are imperceptible to our vision, 
 undiscernible by the senses, unintelligible to the natural 
 man, inaccessible in the present life. 
 
 But by faith we know them, we secure them, we 
 have them. It gives us the assurance that they are, 
 and the conviction that they are ours. God is unseen, 
 but faith exults: "Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit? 
 Or whither shall I flee from Thy presence? If I ascend 
 into heaven Thou art there ; if I make my bed in hell, 
 behold Thou art there. If I take the wings of the 
 morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, 
 even there shall Thy hand lead me and Thy right hand 
 shall hold me." And of God's providence it says, 
 "The Lord will provide." Of His justice. "Shall not 
 the Judge of all the earth do right?" Of Christ it 
 says. "I know that my Redeemer lives." Of the 
 future it declares, "We know that when the earthly 
 
THE NATURE AND POWER OF FAITH. 1 49 
 
 house of this tabernacle is dissolved, we have a build- 
 ing of God. a house not made by hands, eternal in the 
 heavens." "We know that there is laid up for us a 
 crown of righteousness which the Lord, the right- 
 eous judge, shall give to all who love His appearing." 
 
 These things are matters of knowledge, of assur- 
 ance, of absolute conviction ; no dreams or fancies of 
 the imagination, but realities and verities, the sub- 
 stance of things hoped for, the unimpeachable evi- 
 dence of things not seen. There is nothing so real, so 
 enduring as these invisible and future things, nothing" 
 that has for man half their significance and importance. 
 "For the things which are seen are temporal, but the 
 things which are not seen are eternal." 
 
 Men will object, however, that we have to live 
 in the present world, we are occupied with the things 
 which are seen, and it is these that require our imme- 
 diate attention. It is for us primarily to live right in 
 this world, to make ourselves good citizens and good 
 neighbors so as to meet our responsibilities and assure 
 right achievement in our present lot. What is needed 
 is something that acts upon the conscience and the 
 will, that will promote private and public virtue, that 
 will elevate social standards, purify homes, and diffuse 
 sweetness and light. 
 
 This is the very thing that faith is calculated and 
 able to accomplish, as we see from the second verse 
 of the text. The two words are intimately related, 
 and a proper interest in the one does not conflict with 
 our proper duties to the other. Faith is an active prin- 
 ciple, dynamic, powerful. \\'hile it guides a soul to 
 
150 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 the better world, it exerts the mightiest and the hap- 
 piest influence on a man in his engagements to the 
 present world. 
 
 By faith the elders obtained their good report, 
 the patriarchs and the prophets, whose heroic deeds 
 and illustrious victories make up this eleventh chap- 
 ter. They achieved their fame through this principle 
 within them. They believed in God, they had an im- 
 movable conviction of spiritual things, they looked for 
 a city yet to come, a city which has foundations that 
 are out of sight ; and such was the overmastering and 
 guiding power of this faith that they were able in a 
 corrupt world to lead righteous lives, to provide against 
 terrible catastrophies, to found a mighty nation, to 
 renounce thrones, to subdue kingdoms, to turn to flight 
 vast armies, to be strong amid weakness, to endure 
 mockings and scourgings and bonds and imprison- 
 ment in their sublime unswerving resolution to follow 
 the dictates of conscience and to uphold the pillars of 
 truth and virtue. 
 
 Thus faith in the unseen and the future becomes 
 the bulwark for right living in the present. Our con- 
 fidence in the invisible, our hope of the future, becomes 
 the most powerful motive for action amid things seen 
 and temporal. The consciousness of being a subject 
 of the kingdom of heaven makes a man the best citi- 
 zen of his country here. Men of the strongest faith 
 are men of the purest lives. Those most occupied 
 with future concerns afford the most splendid » xam- 
 ples of moral firmness and lofty character in their pres- 
 ■ent environment. 
 
THE NATURE AND POWER OF FAITH. I5I 
 
 Here is where statesmen as well as theologians 
 find the golden key to life's problems. If the masses 
 are to be controlled, if they are to be elevated and 
 transformed into useful citizens, they must be inspired 
 with faith in a world above, with hope in the rewards 
 to come. The mainspring of a nation's happiness is 
 its faith in an invisible Ruler, and its hope of eternal 
 life. 
 
X. THE GREAT MYSTERY. 
 
 [From Pulpit Treasury.] 
 
 And, without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. God 
 manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached 
 unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory. — 
 I. Timothy iii. 6. 
 
 This is nnquestionably one of the richest passages 
 of the Gospel. To Hmit one's self in any phase of its 
 discussion to the space allowed here requires the exer- 
 cise of severe self-restraint. The present paper will 
 be confined to a few critical and expository remarks. 
 Many eminent commentators agree in the judgment 
 that this ringing and majestic sentence is a quotation. 
 Its abrupt introduction, its short, unconnected, co-ordi- 
 nate phrases, with their antithetical parallelisms, each 
 clause in the original composed of almost the same 
 number of syllables and the whole marked by rhythm- 
 ical succession, are considerations pointing to the frag- 
 ment of an ancient hymn or creed of the Church. 
 This view is sustained by the most suitable transla- 
 tion of the first word, "homologoumetios." "Confess- 
 edly," according to the universal "confession" of the 
 Church, or, as "generally acknowledged" in the chants 
 of her devotion, this is a great mystery. This view 
 offers also the best way out of the well-known textual 
 difficulty, for the most approved manuscripts do not 
 contain the word translated "God" in the standard 
 English and German versions, but the masculine pro- 
 
 (152) 
 
THE GREAT MYSTERY. 1 53 
 
 noun which the revisers adopted. The omission of 
 a more definite word is thus accounted for. "He" 
 begins the quotation and as the proper sense was un- 
 mistakable in the original connection, the Apostle saw 
 no need of exchanging the pronoun for the designa- 
 tion "God'' or "Christ," as the incarnation of Christ is 
 obviously the subject. 
 
 This is the burden of the Church's song, the core 
 of every creed, the unfathomable mystery which god- 
 liness contemplates and which is the object of its faith 
 and the spring of its life, the flaming centre of all 
 heights and all depths, the meeting point of God and 
 man, of Heaven and earth. The most marked feature 
 of the mystery as set forth in this sentence is its mar- 
 vellous union of striking contrasts, its blending such 
 opposites as flesh and spirit, angels and men, the world 
 and glory. 
 
 I. "God manifest in the flesh." Having existed 
 before in an invisible state, having been in the begin- 
 ning with God, in essential union with Him, "He" 
 came upon the earth in the likeness of man. The In- 
 finite assumes a finite form, the Creator appears in the 
 garb of a creature, the everlasting Spirit becomes flesh, 
 the fountain of life is made obedient unto death. Here 
 truly is a phase of the mystery which confounds the 
 understanding. 
 
 n. He was justified in the Spirit. The usual 
 Pauline import of "justify" is to absolve from guilt. 
 But like the term flesh in the first clause, it is not 
 employed here in the ordinary sense. Tn that sense it 
 must be meaningless when applied to Him who was 
 
154 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 without sin. It has the same significance in our pas- 
 sage as in Matthew xi. 19, and in Luke vii. 35. It 
 has the idea of vindication, of being found, recognized, 
 proved to be that which in essence one really is. It 
 is the reverse of being mistaken, or misapprehended. 
 It is equivalent to being set right. Placed over against 
 the first clause and recognizing the principle of com- 
 parison and contrast as the key for the interpretation 
 of the whole sentence, the idea to be conveyed cannot 
 be misunderstood. By the cover of His humanity the 
 Lord Jesus was likely to be mistaken for a mere man. 
 The flesh veiled His higher nature, obscured His divine 
 glory. He had no form nor comeliness. No halo 
 radiating from His face marked His heavenly descent. 
 "We know this man," protested the Jews. "Is He 
 not the carpenter's son? Is not His mother called 
 Mary, and His brethren James, Joses, Simon and 
 Judas?" To reconcile with His familiar features and 
 well-known earthly history the overwhelming signifi- 
 cance of His superabundant wisdom and power was 
 beyond their capacity. But the spirit within Him, the 
 inward part of His being conjoined with the God- 
 head, dispelled the illusion, and corrected the estimates 
 which had been formed by men who had walked the 
 fields with Him or joined Him as He was fishing in 
 the lake. In spite of the flesh which brought Him 
 externally to the level and the limits of men. His higher 
 nature was disclosed in the realm of the spirit, His 
 divine features were reflected in the moral radiance 
 of His life, in the supremacy of His spiritual attributes. 
 His speech was beyond what man ever spake. 
 
THE GREAT MYSTERY. 1 55 
 
 His works from day to day attested that He was a 
 teacher from God. His love to men manifested His 
 divine glory. His absohite freedom from sin, while 
 showing the greatest compassion to siimers and 
 through the Eternal Spirit offering Himself wit) out 
 spot unto God; finally, His being quickened in the 
 Spirit, all declare Him, notwithstanding His flesh, to 
 be the Son of God with ix»wer according to the Spirit 
 of holiness. 
 
 HI. "Seen of angels." What element of mys- 
 tery is embraced in this fact? The angels did indeed 
 see Him at His nativity, during His temptation, in His 
 agony, and at His triumphant resurrection ; but what 
 moves the Apostles to place their sight of Him along- 
 side of the elements of the great mystery? 
 
 The original verb imports not simply being seen, 
 but making one's self seen, discovering one's self, be- 
 coming visible. Like "manifested" above, it presup- 
 poses action on the part of the person who is seen; 
 He renders Himself visible. The truth taught is, then, 
 not that angels appeared to Christ, but that He pre- 
 sented Himself to them. The reference must be to an 
 occurrence outside the domain of what is written, 
 something transpiring in the spirit world. And some 
 have inferred from this temporary departure during 
 His sojourn on earth, a heavenly counterpart of the 
 transfiguration. Some identify it with His appearance 
 among the fallen angels, the descent into Hades. Others 
 apply it to the ascension, but that is the subject of the 
 last clause. The corresponding clause, just as is the 
 case with the first and second members, and w-ith the 
 
156 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 fifth and sixth, offers doubtless the true sokition. A 
 parallel is run between angels and men, the inhabitants 
 of Heaven and those of earth. Manifested in the flesh 
 the Son of God revealed Himself alike to angels and 
 to men. To the latter He was preached, by the for- 
 mer He was seen. What mankind, fallen and afar 
 off from God, came to know by the preaching of the 
 Gospel, the angel world, ever holy and near the throne, 
 obtained by vision, by the angelic mode of apprehen- 
 sion, by intuition. The incarnation is a revelation to 
 the just spirits above as well as to sinners in this world. 
 
 The Godhead is invisible. No one hath seen God 
 at any time. This is as true of angels as of men. No 
 creature was endowed with an eye capable of gazing 
 on the open face of the Uncreated, who, unseen, is 
 worshipped and adored. It was only when the God- 
 head dwelt bodily in the flesh that the full-orbed vision 
 of His holiness, wisdom and mercy dawned upon the 
 mind of angels. With them as with men the veiling 
 of God was the unveiling of His perfections and glory. 
 What had been hidden for ages from even these supe- 
 rior intelligences broke now upon them with a measure 
 of light and power akin to that which reveals the glory 
 of God in the face of Jesus Christ through the preach- 
 ing of the Gospel among the nations. 
 
 IV. "He was preached unto the nations." The 
 last statement involves a great mystery. So does this 
 one. To the nations estranged from God by their 
 wickedness, enslaved and besotted by sin, Christ cruci- 
 fied was proclaimed as tJieir Redeemer and Savior. 
 The true disciples of the Lord are possessed of a pas- 
 
THE GRKAT MYSTERY. 1 57 
 
 sion to proclaim Him as the sinner's Friend and only 
 Hope. They go everywhere i)reaching this word. How 
 the Gospel contrasts in this respect with air other relig- 
 ions ! These consist of ceremonies, altars, temples, im- 
 ages. Christianity alone has a pulpit, and this is its sole 
 requisite. Paganism and in a measure Romanism are 
 maintained by an order of priests ; true Christianity by 
 a corps of preachers. 
 
 Y. "Believed on in the world." The preaching 
 of divine truth is not in vain. The response to it is the 
 marvel of history. Stupendous mystery confronts us 
 here again. To hold up as the Savior of the world 
 one who lived in obscurity and poverty, to demand 
 supreme faith in one who was rejected by His own 
 people and who died in disgrace, and find all men drawn 
 to Him, and the world believing in Him, this is the most 
 extraordinary phenomenon in th.e annals of mankind. 
 The wonder is not lessened wdien viewed from another 
 point. Christ is the Holy One of God, the representa- 
 tive and embodiment of perfect righteousness, justice 
 and truth. As such, one might suppose, He would be 
 held in abhorrence by a race of godless and guilty men. 
 Yet these wicked men, the very chief of sinners, have 
 come to Jesus and embraced Him as the one altogether 
 lovely. In multitudes lying under the spell of inborn 
 depravity, the enemies of God and the willing slaves 
 of Satan, the preaching of Christ has awakened faith 
 and has made of them new creatures. 
 
 VI. "Received up into glory." This describes 
 of course the ascension. As on earth, in the ungodly 
 world, a reception was given Him, and He won the 
 
158 THi: HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 faith and loyalty of men, so in Heaven there was a 
 lifting up of the mighty gates and an opening of the 
 everlasting doors to admit the King of Glory, There 
 He was received to abide forever, the Lamb standing 
 in the midst of the Throne, the mystery of the earth, 
 the wonder of the skies — there as here the Name above 
 every name. 
 
 "To Him be glory evermore!" 
 
ADDRESSES AND ARTICLES. 
 
I. THE DRAMA OF PROVIDENCE ON THE 
 EVE OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 [From Lutheran Quarterly.] 
 
 The Reformation achieved through Martin Luther 
 is the most momentous revolution of society since the 
 foundation of Christian history. The arm of Omnip- 
 otence alone could render it possible. The evangel- 
 ical character of the work traces its origin to the divine 
 mind while the appalling obstacles overcome and the 
 beneficent and far-reaching results attained stamp it 
 as the product of divine providence. Not, however, 
 with magical suddenness nor as isolated phenomena 
 do the works of providence make their appearance on 
 the stage of history, but they involve a vast sweep of 
 events converging to the same consummation. God's 
 methods in the sphere of providence are of a piece with 
 His methods in the sphere of nature. The end designed 
 is reached by the gradual action of an evolutionary 
 process. 
 
 To obtain a full and just conception of the 
 Reformation we must survey successive events ant - 
 rior to its appearance, especially the great movem- nts 
 of the period immediately preceding. We shall thus 
 discover a number of causes which not only facilitated 
 it, but which rendered such a revolution inevitable. 
 Providence is a mysterious agent and it bas at times 
 effected its work of upheaving, transforming and re- 
 II (i6i) 
 
l62 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 newing society, invisibly and inaudibly, but the age 
 immediately anterior to the outbreak of the Reforma- 
 tion was so marked with great historic events and 
 these events had such a direct and powerful bearina: on 
 the Reformation, as to indicate unmistakably h- 
 agency of superhuman wisdom and almi hty power 
 not only in the ecclesiastical reform itself but in the 
 extraordinary phenomena which combined to usher 
 it into existence. Momentous changes were taking 
 place in the realm of ideas of government, of inven- 
 tions and discoveries, at once producing and signaliz- 
 ing a general awakening of society in the latter half 
 of the fifteenth century. But what especially com- 
 mands our admiration and what shall engage our atten- 
 tion in this paper is, that all these mighty events reveal 
 a teleological character. They are all seen converting 
 to the satne consummation. They present an am- zing 
 concert of most diverse movements toward one end. 
 Whatever the forces set in motion, whatever their ac- 
 tion and reaction upon one another, whatever catas- 
 trophe may have befallen any part of society, wha' ver 
 discoveries may have been made on sea or land, in the 
 earth or in the heavens, whatever inventions affecting 
 the art of war or facilitating the spread of knowledge, 
 all are found to be not only singularly coincident but 
 most strikingly concurrent to a common result. The 
 Christian is forcibly reminded of the announcement of 
 the ascending Lord : "All power is given unto Me in 
 heaven and in earth." The great historians have rec- 
 ognized this extraordinary concurrence of great events 
 in the political and social life of Europe during the 
 
THE DRAMA OF PROVIDENCE. 1 63 
 
 period preceding the Reformation. Even the famous 
 naturahst, Baron Von Humboldt, pauses in his scien- 
 tific studies to observe : "The fifteenth century belongs 
 to those remarkable epochs in which all the eflforts of 
 the mind indicate one determined and general charac- 
 ter and one unchanging striving towards the same goal. 
 The unity of this tendency and the results by which 
 it was crowned, combined with the activity of whole 
 races, give to this age a character both of grandeur and 
 of enduring splendor." Cosmos, pp. 601, 602, 675, 676. 
 Among the principal occurrences of this mighty 
 sweep of events may be noted 
 
 I. THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE- 
 
 It was on the twenty-ninth of May, 1453, after a 
 siege of fifty-three days, that the splendid capital of the 
 East, which had proudly withstood the sieges and as- 
 saults of many centuries, surrendered to the victo- 
 rious Turk. The crescent w^as raised upon the towers 
 of St. Sophia and the Mussulman Empire was planted 
 upon the soil of Europe. 
 
 This catastrophe, considered by itself, might not 
 be deemed extraordinary or specially indicative of an 
 overruling Providence, yet it cannot but excite our 
 wonder that this strong metropolis which had defied 
 the power of Chosroes and the Caliphs, should be irre- 
 trievably conquered at this particular juncture by the 
 arms of Mahomet II. A general rally of European 
 Christendom could easily have averted this calamity. 
 Even a feeble survival of the spirit of the crusades 
 would have concentrated the chivalry of Europe for its 
 
164 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 triumphant defense, but such was the peculiar state of 
 affairs in the West, such were the mutual quarrels, sus- 
 picions and jealousies of the great i)rinces, such the 
 religious animosity between the East and the West that 
 as Gibbon remarks : '"Christenlom beheld with indif- 
 ference the fall of Constantinople. The situation of 
 the imperial city was strong against her enemies and 
 accessible to her friends; and a rational and moderate 
 armament of the maritime states might have saved 
 the relics of the Roman name, and maintained a Chris- 
 tian fortress in the heart of the Ottoman Empire." — 
 "Decline and Fall," chap. Ixviii. Desperate as was the 
 situation of the Greeks, the numbers of the Ottomans 
 being fifty, perhaps a hundred times superior to theirs, 
 Mahomet at one time meditated a retreat and the rais- 
 ing of the siege. But the feeble remnant of the Roman 
 Empire was left a prey to the conquest of the Moslem 
 and sixty thousand of its devoted population, including 
 all ranks, were reduced to servitude and sold and dis- 
 persed through the Turkish provinces. 
 
 The relation which this calamity was destined to 
 sustain to the Reformation half a century later, will be 
 treated at the proper place after we shall have consid- 
 ered some of the other notable achievements of Prov- 
 idence which combined to introduce that mighty epoch. 
 
 II. THE REVIVAL OF LEARNING. 
 
 The noblest minds of the Christian capital fell vic- 
 tims to the unholy and unfeeling power of the Turk. 
 Some of the highest officials and some of the foremost 
 scholars were chained to their slaves and together with 
 
THE DRAMA OF PROVIDENCE. 1 65 
 
 these were sold into servitude. Ma2:nificent libraries 
 were destroyed and one hundred and twenty thousand 
 manuscripts are said to have disappeared. But a num- 
 ber of the most cultured Greeks sought safety in flight 
 and bore with them their classical treasures to the 
 shores of Italy. The revival of learning kindled there 
 by the advent'of these scholars, just as the mind of the 
 West was awakening from the slumber of ages. l:ecame 
 one of the greatest intellectual revolutions ever known 
 and proved ultimately one of the most potent human 
 factors in securing the triumphs of the Reformation. 
 The arrival of these exiles was like a great burst of 
 light upon a people that had long been shrouded in 
 darkness. '^They inspired the West with their own 
 love for Greece and its immortal works of genius and 
 there arose in Italy a great number of learned men, 
 who in like manner endeavored to restore the writers 
 of ancient Rome to the honor they merited." The 
 human mind became once more conscious of its powers 
 and proceeded to assert its inalienable freedom of ex- 
 pansion, of activity, of inquiry and of criticism, thus 
 breaking the bonds of sacerdotal training by which it 
 had for ages been fettered. 
 
 The ignorance and simplicity, the incredulity and 
 infantile pupilage of Europe at that period is some- 
 thing absolutely astounding. Roman Catholicism had 
 assumed the role not only of the spiritual but also of 
 the literary guardian of the people, anrl its provision 
 for their intellectual nourishment was even more 
 meagre and baneful than its spiritual nutriment. To 
 keep them in ignorance, to repress the vital, towering 
 
l66 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 energy of the human mind, was the inevitable outcome 
 if it was not the dehberate purpose of Rome's proced- 
 ure in the domain of education. In what estimate the 
 clergy held the revival of learning may be judged from 
 their uneasiness at its progress and the conspiracy 
 which they formed against it. To save the Church it 
 was deemed necessary to arrest this movement in the 
 domain of science and literature. The study rf the 
 classics, of grammar, of rhetoric was confessedly 
 fraught with peril to the hierarchy. To learn Greek 
 was equivalent to becoming a heretic. To acquire a 
 knowledge of Hebrew was sure to make a man a Jew. 
 Religion is ruined, was the declaration of the faculty 
 of Paris to the French Parliament, if you permit the 
 study of Greek and Hebrew. Reuchlin when a youth 
 had to be sent to France by his princely patron to learn 
 Greek and Hebrew, since Germany had not then a sin- 
 gle professor of these languages. 
 
 But hierarchical opposition might as easily have 
 arrested the march of the sun in the heavens as to have 
 stopped the progress of the new literary movement 
 which was now spreading from Italy over Europe, giv- 
 ing everywhere a powerful momentum to intellectual 
 activity, kindling new aspirations, cultivating new 
 tastes, opening up new worlds in the spiritual and phys- 
 ical universe, liberalizing and broadening the views of 
 men, stimulating in them the search after truth, and 
 giving them new methods for its discovery and new 
 weapons for its defense. The movement reached all 
 classes. The foremost monarchs and statesmen of the 
 day, Henry VIII., Charles V., Frederick the Wise 
 
THE DRAMA OF PROVIDENCE. 1 67 
 
 Elector, were the patrons of humanistic culture. Eras- 
 mus and kindred spirits were invited to their splendid 
 courts that they might cultivate the fruits of science 
 and learning in the luxurious gardens of royalty. Its 
 effects reached even the common people. What the 
 learned saw with sharpened vision began in the general 
 illumination to dawn even on uncultivated eyes. A 
 popular literature appeared which affected the masses 
 in their relation to the existing order of things i.i the 
 same manner as the more enlightened few had been 
 affected. They too imbibed a taste of intellectual lib- 
 erty, which they knew how to exercise in the form of 
 private judgment when the hour came to decide be- 
 tween the old regime of spiritual bondage and the new 
 era of evangelical freedom. Learning became the 
 fashion of the day. The appetite for intellectual food 
 at once more savory and more wholesome than what 
 the old tutors brought from Rome was universal. No 
 one knew this better than Erasmus, who was himself 
 the incarnation of humanism and who directed his 
 brilliant genius to the gratification of the popular taste, 
 
 III. THE INVENTION OF PRINTING- 
 
 This event which in its boundless influence on 
 human society is the greatest of all inventions ever 
 devised by man, was brought to perfection almost in 
 the very year of the downfall of Constantinople. This 
 noble art, so simple that one would reasonably suppose 
 it might have originated in the remotest ages and that 
 even the barbarian intellect might have suggested it, 
 was in some way mysterioush^ delayed until the flight 
 
l68 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 of the Greek literati stirred up the West to the culture 
 of letters when it might at once contribute its incom- 
 parable services to the diffusion of knowledge, add its 
 own peculiar incitement to intellectual activity and in 
 conjunction with the revival of literature become a 
 prodigious element in bringing about the most gigan- 
 tic social revolution of modern times. 
 
 Verily this is a remarkable coincidence ! An amaz- 
 ing instance of the so-called fortuitous 'concourse of 
 great events ! The more so, if one remembers that after 
 having been originally suggested in connection with the 
 game of cards, this invention was not primarily 
 designed to stimulate thought or quicken mental activ- 
 ity, for it was first put to use in the representation of 
 clumsy engravings of the saints and other devices of 
 the priests. The providential feature of the invention 
 at this juncture and of its coincidence with the newly 
 awakened passion for learning will be better recog- 
 nized when we come to consider the immediate rela- 
 tion of both to Luther's work, the concurrence of both 
 events to the same consummation. It may be well, 
 however, to state here the significant fact that the first 
 book which ever issued from a printing press was an 
 edition of the Bible in the Latin tongue, published by 
 Gutenberg, at Mayence, between the years 1450 and 
 1455. Copies of this work are still extant though 
 extremely rare and valuable. 
 
 IV. THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 
 
 In the general awakening which characterized the 
 close of the fifteenth century the magnetic compass 
 
THE DRAMA OF PROVIDENCE. 1 69 
 
 came for the first time into practice and general use, 
 enabling mariners to cross the trackless oceans and to 
 explore the most remote seas. Hence this is the period 
 of great maritime enterprises and momentous geo- 
 graphical discoveries, Da Gama rounding the Cape of 
 Good Hope opening a new highway to the East Indies, 
 Magellan circumnavigating the globe, and, transcend- 
 mg all others, Christopher Columbus discovering the 
 American continent in 1492, nine years after the birth 
 of Luther. These marvelous achievements in travers- 
 ing and exploring our planet served like an electric 
 shock in causing a sudden enlargement of the mass of 
 new ideas everywhere springing up, creating the bold- 
 est aspirations, widening the horizon of thought and 
 endeavor, and aflfecting to an incalculable extent the 
 intellectual, social and moral improvement of mankind. 
 Extensive wars of conquest necessarily followed these 
 great discoveries, and these in turn were succeeded by 
 the beginnings of European colonization which peopled 
 the new world with organized states and by that expan- 
 sion of commerce which gave a new impulse to the 
 intercourse of nations, without which the Reformation 
 could never have passed the frontier of a few German 
 principalities. 
 
 V. THE DISSOLUTION OF FEUDALISM- 
 
 The introduction of gunpowder had a short time 
 anterior to this period effected a complete revolution 
 in the arts of war and had along with it overturned the 
 system of knighthood and produced the greatest 
 changes in the government of Europe. That atomic 
 
170 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 condition of society in which each feudal lord had a 
 quasi sovereignty over his tenantry and the baronial 
 castle represented the essential form and force of civil 
 government, was just the agency needed by the papacy 
 to repress both the spirit of nationality and that growth 
 of national power and grandeur to which civilized 
 society naturally tends. The sceptre of the sovereign 
 was often an empty badge and the wily policy of the 
 popes had for centuries employed the services of a por- 
 tion of the nobles to humble the crown and to hold 
 kings and nations under their feet. "The world had 
 been accustomed to but one real authority, that of the 
 pope. All political as well as religious questions were 
 referred to one tribunal, supreme and infallible, the 
 pope's. The decisions of the Holy See had to be 
 obeyed — whether they supported or overthrew the gov- 
 ernment of princes. Europe was a single political fam- 
 ily under the guardianship of Rome." 
 
 All princes and peoples of the most heterogeneous 
 character were banded together under the Church and 
 everything was moulded and controlled by the clergy 
 and made subservient to the hierarchy. But a reaction 
 of national feeling was taking place. The papal domi- 
 nation gave rise to struggles for independence and its 
 very oppressions caused that development of monarch- 
 ical power which we shall see became one of its most 
 formidable antagonists. The passion for learning had 
 taken the place of the ancient spirit of chivalry and 
 under the general intellectual quickening nations be- 
 came conscious of their rights and of their power, and 
 the popular trend was toward centralization, toward the 
 
THE DRAMA OF PROVIDENCE. 171 
 
 consolidation of civil government. "It was during the 
 fifteenth century," says Prof. Fisher, "that the Euro- 
 pean monarchies were acquiring a firm organization. " 
 The great feudatories were then subjected to the 
 crown. The dominant spirit was that of nationality. 
 Powerful leaders had arisen who directed and moulded 
 this tendency into a compact state-system, monarchs 
 that knew to defend their people from hierarchical 
 tyrants who under the guise of spiritual shepherds 
 were so many dogs and wolves turned loose upon the 
 sheep. 
 
 It proved of immense consequence to the Reforma- 
 tion that just before or simultaneous with its rise 
 princes like Ferdinand of Arragon, Maximilian of Aus- 
 tria, Frederick of Saxony, Charles V. of Germany, and 
 Henry VIII. of England, had come to the throne, 
 minds that instinctively renounced the encroachmLiU^ 
 and assumptions of the papacy, minds which though 
 they had been carefully trained by the clergy yet had 
 been sufficiently enlightened by the new learning to 
 recognize the popes' usurpations in the sphere of tem- 
 poral power and to note their proficiency in the basest 
 arts of diplomacy and dissimulation. These men had 
 wit enough to detect a scoundrel even when he was 
 wearing the papal tiara, and they had no hesitation in 
 opposing with all the rnight of secular power those 
 Holy Fathers who were prostituting their spiritual 
 functions in the pursuit of secular power for them- 
 selves or their families. What could have saved Christ- 
 endom from lying helpless under their spiritual and 
 temporal rule had not just at this juncture powerful 
 
172 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 monarchies been developed to cope with their unholy 
 schemes and, by denying the validity of their political 
 claims, to shatter the faith of the world in their spirit- 
 ual authority? 
 
 By this rise of monarchical governments, further- 
 more, the different peoples composing single nations 
 were brought into closer social and political relations 
 with each other, and each nation with its own language, 
 culture, laws and institutions animated by a national 
 spirit, developed into a separate individual organism 
 and rendered capable of standing as one body by the 
 sovereign against the pope when the great contest should 
 arise. Along with the establishment of stalwart mon- 
 archies this era witnessed also the powerful develop- 
 ment of free cities which were made up of the sturdy 
 middle classes, a body of citizens whose diversified 
 industry and extensive commerce had sharpened and 
 invigorated their practical understanding and who long 
 before the appearance of Luther had learned to defend 
 their rights aginst imperious Bishops. 
 
 Passing by other extraordinary and memorable 
 occurrences that transpired on the eve of the Reforma- 
 tion, we will now consider the relation which each of 
 those that have been noted bore to the Reformation, 
 and especially the marvelous concurrence of all to 
 bring about that sublime consummation. 
 
 As it is not material to follow either the order in 
 which they have been given here or that of their chron- 
 ological sequence, let us look, first, at that which was 
 manifestly the most direct and powerful agency of 
 providence in inaugurating the Reformation, 
 
THE DRAMA OF PROVIDENCE. 1 73 
 
 THE REVIVAL OF LETTERS. 
 
 The awakening- of the human mind from its me- 
 diaeval stupor, the incitement to intellectual freedom 
 and activity, the boldness of inquiry and of criticism 
 which attended this movement, was in the highest de- 
 gree prejudicial to the old order. The enlargement of 
 the area of human thought, the multiplication of sub- 
 jects for investigation, and the universal impulse felt to 
 freelv prosecute investigation and exercise individual 
 judgment, was everywhere tantamount to revolution and 
 reform. It was as if the light of da}- had suddenly fallen 
 upon a dark hemisphere and revealed to the gaze and 
 horror of the public, the frightful disorders and putre- 
 factions that abounded. The absurdities of the school- 
 men, the rapacity of the bishops, the ignorance and 
 impurity of the priests, the gluttony and idleness of the 
 monks were held up to the merciless ridicule in the 
 writings of the humanists. Under the glare of this 
 strong light, the papal system was brought into re- 
 proach, its hoary structure was shaken to the base, the 
 confidence of all classes in its infallible authority was 
 subverted and its leadership and spiritual supervision 
 which had for ages remained unchallenged was deemed 
 no longer necessary or adequate. Hallam says : "The 
 greater part of literature after the twelfth century may 
 be considered as artillery leveled against the clergy. 
 The literature of Germany a little before the Reforma- 
 tion was employed as the vehicle for castigating the 
 vices of priests and monks. Dante and Petrarch sig- 
 nalized the beginning of a national literature by their 
 denunciation of the vices and usurpations of the pa- 
 
174 THE HIGHER ROCK, 
 
 pacy. Chaucer in England shows the same hostility. 
 Everywhere we find bitter censure of the arrogance, 
 wealth and tyranny of the ecclesiastics." The literary 
 revival, as was stated above, affected even the lower 
 classes. Popular satires inveighing against the immor- 
 alities of the clergy, their stupid ceremonies and the 
 like, were widely circulated and produced a general 
 horror of the Roman name. 
 
 It is not claimed that the literary censors of this 
 period were always the apostles of truth, but they knew 
 how to smite error, and their ridicule of the ruling 
 spiritual powers and their caustic denunciation of prev- 
 alent evils destroyed the prestige of the Holy Mother 
 Church and broke the enchantment by which Christen- 
 dom has been held under her sway. Thus men were 
 gradually prepared to listen to other voices and to fol- 
 low other shepherds. When Luther subsequently gave 
 utterance to his fierce and terrific vituperation of the 
 papists — utterances which would once have been held 
 blasphemous — he did not shock the public ear. He 
 used invectives and pronounced maledictions with 
 which the people had long grown familiar. So gener- 
 ally and so bitterly had the old order been denounced 
 that the people hated and dreaded Rome before the 
 Reformer uttered one syllable against it. 
 
 Invaluable as were the services of these literary 
 lights in scattering the darkness and thereby spreading 
 and intensifying the conviction that a thorough reform 
 was needed, it was not only in the work of destruction 
 that they were the pioneers of the Reformation. They 
 did a positive work, the value and extent of which it is 
 
THE DRAMA OF PROVIDENCE. 1 75 
 
 impossible to overestimate. They diffused over their 
 age a love of learning, they awakened a spirit of inquiry 
 and criticism, but above all by their philological studies 
 they opened to men's minds the incomparable treasures 
 of the Scriptures, after having created a literary taste 
 which was quick to discern their measureless superior- 
 ity to the writings of the theologians and schoolmen. 
 While they kept protesting that it was not their pur- 
 pose to strike at the faith of the Church, they dealt it a 
 fatal blow by placing practically the Bible in its match- 
 less style and priceless contents above the teachings of 
 the doctors. 
 
 It was especially in Germany that the services of 
 humanism were earnestly given to the interests oi a 
 purified Christianity. Reuchlin, for instance, its fore- 
 most humanist, wrote a Greek grammar which greatly 
 facilitated the study of that language and therewith 
 of the original New Testament, and was the first to 
 publish in that country both a Hebrew grammar and 
 dictionary, thus furnishing the key to the long-sealed 
 book of life, providing men with a touchstone by which 
 they might judge of the teachings of the Church and 
 test the doctrines of the Reformers when they came to 
 be promulgated, and laying the sure foundations upon 
 which alone a radical and enduring reformation could 
 be effected. Luther acknowledging the work of Reuch- 
 lin adds : "The Lord has been at work in you that the 
 light of Holy Scripture might again shine into that 
 Germany where it had so long been extinct." 
 
 In England also the literary movement was di- 
 rectly and powerfully conducive to the Reformation. 
 
176 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 Nowhere else had this movement penetrated so far into 
 the ranks of the ruHng classes as in that kingdom. 
 Henry VIII. was himself the most learned prince of 
 that era. Vulgar and sensuous as he was, it is said of 
 him that he could not live without the learned. His 
 court was turned into rendezvous for the representa- 
 tives of classic culture. There was Thomas More, in- 
 spired by the love of knowledge and in full sympathy 
 with the advancing spirit of the age, representing in his 
 Utopia a state of religion which was certainly very far 
 removed from the practices and principles of the exist- 
 ing hierarchy. Even Wolsey could not resist the popu- 
 lar tide, but affecting humanism and intent on keeping 
 with the fashion of the day he took to confiscating 
 monasteries and founding colleges with the revenues 
 thus acquired. There was Colet, Dean of St. Paul's, 
 whose lectures at Oxford caused as great alarm to the 
 schoolmen as they gave delight to all who had come 
 under the influence of the new awakening, whose gos- 
 pel sermons held London audiences spell-bound, and 
 whose school established somewhat later exerted a 
 potent influence in favor of classical and biblical studies 
 and in behalf of true spiritual enlightenment. London 
 was a new Athens. And hitherto, towering above all 
 other literary men of the age, came Erasmus, confess- 
 edly the most influential person in Christendom, to 
 whose sojourn in England and especially to whose inti- 
 mate relations with the sovereign, the philosophic his- 
 torian must in great part ascribe the Reformation of 
 the English Church. His numerous writings in which 
 he held up to merciless ridicule the idleness, illiteracy, 
 
THE DRAMA OF PROVIDENCE. 1 77 
 
 self-indulgence and absurd practices of the monks, fell 
 like enchantment upon the public mind and "were read 
 with infinite amusement by all who sympathized with 
 the new studies and by thousands who did not calculate 
 the effect of this telling satire in abating popular rever- 
 ence for the Church." 
 
 But the hand of Erasmus put forth a volume more 
 effectual in the creation of a new spiritual life than his 
 scathing satires. The glory of achieving the English 
 reformation was reserved for the Word of God by 
 which alone the truth and the Church of Christ can be 
 maintained in the world. The crowning work of 
 humanism was the appearance of Erasmus' edition of 
 the Greek Testament, the most brilliant, the most mem- 
 orable of all his productions. No copies of the Scrip- 
 tures were then accessible save the Vulgate, known to 
 be full of errors and obscurities, and nothing could 
 have been more opportune or more important than the 
 publication of the pure and original text of the New 
 Testament at this juncture. A new- Latin translation 
 and learned annotations accompanied the volume and 
 it found its way at once among all the friends of learn- 
 ing — especially in England, where groups of students 
 at the universities were poring over its pages with rap- 
 ture in animated circles discussing its saving truths. 
 "Never had any book produced such an enthusiasm. 
 It was in every hand." Thus, independently of Luther, 
 in fact a year or so in advance of the movement at 
 Wittenberg, Erasmus inaugurated the Reformation 
 beyond the channel, without, however, having any idea 
 of the momentous results which his Greek Testament 
 12 
 
178 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 was destined to accomplish. Without ever intending it 
 he was instrumental in bringing about the same con- 
 summation for which Luther battled with all his might. 
 There can be no doubt that had Erasmus foreseen the 
 effect of what was to him only a literary exploit, he 
 would have recoiled from the storm. He builded bet- 
 ter than he knew. 
 
 The adversaries of the new learning and the new 
 life had keener eyes. Said Edward Lee: "If we do 
 not stop this leak it will sink the ship. No landing of 
 foreign enemies could be so fatal as this invasion of the 
 Greek Testament. If this book be tolerated it will be 
 the death of the papacy." 
 
 How wonderful are the successive stages in the 
 agency of divine providence ! First there is kindled in 
 the human mind a desire for learning. The study of 
 languages becomes the vehicle for gratifying this pas- 
 sion. The reading of the Scriptures follows at first 
 purely in the interests of literature. Their vivifying 
 power produces spiritual awakening among the learned 
 and these in turn by their philological attainments are 
 able to translate them into the language of the people, 
 and these again by the universal impulse which the lit- 
 erary movement had given to all classes had become 
 capable of reading them. Thus the regeneration of 
 religion was the inevitable consequence of the restora- 
 tion of letters. D'Aubigne remarks that the Reforma- 
 tion is the result of two distinct forces, the revival of 
 learning and the resurrection of God's Word. It is 
 nearer the truth to say that the Reformation followed 
 
THE DRAMA OF PROVIDKNXE. 1 79 
 
 the resurrection of God's Word and that this resurrec- 
 tion was due under God to the revival of learning. 
 
 But how could humanism have effected such a 
 wide diffusion of knowledge and produced such a uni- 
 versal awakening had it not been for 
 
 THE INVENTION OF PRINTING. 
 
 which was happily made at this time. How many edi- 
 tions of Erasmus' Greek Testament would have been 
 required, how many copies of Luther's German Bible 
 would have fallen into the hands of eager readers, had 
 there been no other means for their multiplication than 
 the slow process of deciphering manuscripts and copy- 
 ing them by hand ? Or had their multiplication even 
 been possible, of what consequence would a hundred 
 thousand copies have proved, had not this astounding 
 invention excited a universal desire to read and to gain 
 knowledge ? 
 
 On the other hand, had the art of printing been 
 discovered in the tenth or even the thirteenth century 
 it could only have served the interests of superstition 
 and advanced the schemes of an oppressive hierarchy. 
 Those days were not marked by any real scholarship 
 or generous aspirations after truth. No copy of the 
 Bible was known besides the Vulgate and few if any 
 throughout the West could have read the Greek Testa- 
 ment, even if one had been edited and published. 
 
 The greatest of all inventions was delayed until 
 this period when in the fierce struggle between truth 
 and error it might render its invaluable services to the 
 
l8o THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 triumph of the Gospel. Like that mysterious force in 
 nature which in the spring-tide opens the innumerable 
 leaves of the forest, so the printing-press entered into 
 the realm of thought just as new life was everywhere 
 bursting forth from a wintry torpor and covered the 
 earth with leaves of healing. 
 
 The advance of learning culminated, as we have 
 seen, in the Reformation — but the engine which pro- 
 pelled that advance to its ultimate victory was the new 
 art of printing. 
 
 The principal impulse to the revival of letters, it 
 has been already noted, owed its origin to 
 
 THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE- 
 
 and the consequent exodus of eastern scholars with 
 their treasures to the West. The tempest which over- 
 threw the last remnants of Greek rule scattered the 
 seeds of Greek literature over the fertile but hitherto 
 uncultivated fields of the West. 
 
 This, was, however, not the only bearing which 
 that eventful catastrophe sustained to the work of 
 Luther. It was a stroke of providence, the effects of 
 which were discernible all through the Reformation 
 era. Having effected this conquest of the Eastern 
 Capital, Mahomet H. at once made it the seat of gov- 
 ernment, and from that hour to the present day it has 
 been the centre and stronghold of the Ottoman power. 
 Securely entrenched on the shores of the Bosphorus all 
 Europe lay open to the valor and conquest of the Turk- 
 ish arms. And the distance from Constantinople to 
 the Eastern frontier of Germany is not so great but 
 
THE DRAMA OF PROVIDENCE. l8l 
 
 that the peril of a Turkish invasion kept the people and 
 the princes in constant terror. Hence the crisis of the 
 Reformation was at hand and the emperor on different 
 occasions was resolved upon its suppression by military 
 force. He found his dominions threatened by a more 
 dangerous foe than the Reformers, and instead of 
 slaughtering his Lutheran subjects he was constrained 
 to leave them in peace and to implore their aid against 
 the common danger. As long as the armies of a united 
 country were indispensable to the defense of the empire 
 from the Turk, it was impossible for the Catholic states 
 to fall upon Lutheran countries and crush out the new 
 faith by the sword. A striking illustration of this oc- 
 curred in the year 1532, when after the melancholy 
 collapse of the Swiss Reformation in the second peace 
 of Cappel, the imperial government determined to 
 inflict the fatal blow also upon the Lutherans. Their 
 condition seemed desperate. But as the Sultan's army, 
 three hundred thousand strong, was rolling over the 
 plains of Hungary towards the gates of Vienna and the 
 haughty invader spurned even the most ignoble pro- 
 posals offered by Ferdinand of Austria, the terror- 
 stricken Romanists w^ere compelled to grant the 
 Nuremberg Religious Peace, and to promise the 
 Lutherans a free General Council in which all matters 
 at issue should be decided according to the word of 
 God alone. In 
 
 THE DOWNFALL OF FEUDALISM, 
 we recognize another stroke of Providence making for 
 the Reformation. There can be no doubt that the ten- 
 
l82 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 dency toward a centralization of civil government, the 
 spirit of nationality which developed into powerful 
 monarchies, was one of the most prominent levers to 
 Aveaken the authority of the clergy and to overturn 
 "both the secular and spiritual authority of the papacy. 
 ■"As early as the fourteenth century," says a discerning 
 historian, "monarchy was the watchword of the adver- 
 saries of papal power, the symbol of the new genera- 
 tion that was preparing to break loose from the dor- 
 mant ideas of the middle ages." 
 
 Aided by the general illumination which the new 
 learning effected, jurists and theologians examined 
 into the origin of the empire and the nature of mon- 
 archy in general. They instituted historical and critical 
 inquiries regarding the foundations of civil authority 
 and the grounds on which papal interferences were 
 based — and the outcome was always the same, a denial 
 of papal supremacy. The rights of the throne were 
 maintained over against the encroachments of the 
 Church. Nor were these writers always careful to 
 draw the distinction between secular and religious 
 power. Having renounced the pope's jurisdiction in 
 the sphere of civil government they were often led by 
 stress of the same logic to question the validity of his 
 authority in matters of faith. 
 
 Having so long engaged in schemes of a purely 
 selfish and political nature, the popes came in fact to 
 he looked upon chiefly in their political character, and 
 the princes of that era dealt wnth them on that score. 
 They recognized their secular ambition. They beheld 
 the compromise of their spiritual functions for tern- 
 
THE DRAMA OF PROVIDENCE. 1 83 
 
 poral ends and were constantly alarmed at the danger 
 which their intrigues and usurpations threatened to 
 civil rule and national integrity. "Take good care of 
 Luther," wrote the Catholic emperor, Maximilian, to 
 Frederick the Wise, "we may have need of him some 
 time or other." 
 
 A monarch with the energy of Edward III. knew 
 even in the fourteenth century how to protect the re- 
 former Wyckliffe from papal violence. But it is in the 
 sixteenth century that we see preeminently the over- 
 ruling providence of God in raising up powerful mon- 
 archs to shield the Reformers of the Church from the 
 fury of Rome. Of Frederick the Wise it has been 
 truly said : "Providence claims our admiration in the 
 choice it made of such a ruler to protect its work." 
 And in England, where there was a lamentable absence 
 of decided and intrepid reformers in the Church, what 
 earthly power could have saved the Reformation from 
 being readily extinguished, had it not been for the 
 resolution and energy, not to say, the violence of King 
 Henry. It was his strong royal hand that rent in sun- 
 der the papal chain which an ignoble predecessor like 
 John Lackland in a previous age had helped to forge. 
 
 Even Charles V., hostile as he was to Luther's 
 doctrines, would have pursued a very different course 
 against him. had he been a Henry IV., who laid him- 
 self and his empire in abject humiliation at the feet of 
 his papal master, or a Sigismund, who at the instiga- 
 tion of papists consented to break faith with Huss and 
 to cancel his safe-conduct. He bore no love to the 
 Lutherans, but when the pope treacherously headed a 
 
184 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 powerful coalition against the emperor, he had a 
 Lutheran army march to Rome and administer to the 
 Holy Pontiff a well-merited and salutary chastisement. 
 Finally, 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 
 
 bore its meed of fruitage to the reformation movement. 
 Apart from the influence of this and other great dis- 
 coveries in broadening the field of human enterprise 
 and widening the horizon of human thought, it was 
 peculiarly fortunate for Lutheranism in Germany that 
 the best energies of Spain were being devoted to an- 
 other continent. The eyes of that great country, then 
 the first European power, were fixed on the western 
 domain rather than on the eastern frontier of that al- 
 most universal empire. The Spaniards were more con- 
 cerned about a new continent than about a new religion. 
 The emperor had indeed some Spanish soldiery tramp- 
 ing over the free soil of the empire, but Mexico pre- 
 vented him from hurling the vast power of that mon- 
 archy upon Lutheran Germany. The silver and gold 
 that were pouring into the treasuries of Spain from her 
 conquest beyond the Atlantic were more gratifying tO' 
 Spanish passions than the work of slaughtering here- 
 tics. The new world eclipsed the eternal world. 
 
 It is, indeed, rather noteworthy that Cortez after 
 the battle of Otumba, was advancing to the siege of 
 Mexico, the very month that Luther burnt the pope's 
 bull at Wittenberg. 
 
 We have thus outlined a series of remark ble 
 events which transpired on the eve of the Reformation^ 
 
THE DRAMA OF PROVIDENCE. 1 85 
 
 events which in the diversity of their character, in the 
 combination of their tendencies and the unity of pur- 
 pose which they reveal, constitute a drama of divine 
 Providence that challenges the admira*ion of the phil- 
 osopher, the faith of the Christian, the gratitude of the 
 Protestant. One could as readily believe the events of 
 the creative week to be but the fortuitous concour e of 
 material forces, as to regard these mighty soci 1 and 
 religious movements as but a number of isolated, casual 
 circumstances destitute of a telic character. Like those 
 creative days that preceded the appearance of mankind 
 these vast changes proved to be not merely the signs 
 of the advent of a new order but the historic founda- 
 tions on which the new order was destined to rest. 
 
 ■ Think of it! Mahomet and Columbus, Charles V. 
 and Henry VIII., Frederick the Wise and Cortez the 
 Dauntless, Gutenberg and Erasmus, Hutten and 
 Wolsey, men of the most opposite character and aim 
 all combining to bring about the same tremendous 
 result, all unconsciously moving in chorus to the same 
 consummation, overturning the prestige of the Roman 
 See, effecting intellectual and spiritual emancipation, 
 producing a profound disaffection with the existing 
 state of things and causing a universal change in so- 
 ciety, so that princes and peoples, philosophers and 
 peasants stood like sentinels on their watch towers wait- 
 ing for a mighty revolution, listening for the first blast 
 of Luther's trumpet. 
 
II. THE LUTHERAN CHURCH IN HISTORY. 
 
 With the Lutheran Church as the first army that 
 waged successful battle with Rome, modern history 
 has its birth. The papacy had been assaulted again 
 and again, only to emerge from every contest mightier 
 and prouder and wickeder than before, its foes crushed 
 beneath an iron heel, its subjects, including kings and 
 bishops, as well as the masses, prostrate and helpless 
 at its feet. There never was such a despotism as that 
 of the Romish hierarchy. There never was a power 
 so absolute, so neary omnipotent. It was the supreme 
 temporal and spiritual authority, it held in subjection 
 men's bodies and their souls, it was sovereign over rea- 
 son and over conscience, it held in subjection the most 
 powerful monarch as well as the slave stripped of every 
 vestige of freedom. From its fiat there lay no appeal 
 to any one on earth or in heaven. To question its 
 decision was to incur its inexorable sentence. To 
 resist its authority was to find no escape possible from 
 its most brutal and ruthless exercise. 
 
 How such a revolution was effected in the sixteenth 
 century, how the colossal power of Rome was broken, 
 Lutherans can never forget. A company of earnest 
 believers had experienced that salvation is a free gift, 
 that Christ atoned for all actual sins of men, that the 
 sinner is justified by faith alone. They found this to 
 be the doctrine of Scriptures, and they proceeded to 
 preach it and to teach it and to sing it and to live it 
 
 (i86) 
 
THE LUTHERAN CHURCH IN HISTORY. 187 
 
 everywhere. And the result was the vanishing of 
 spiritual darkness before the rising sun ; it was life from 
 the dead, it was a revolution dividing Christendom on 
 the line of Rome and the Reformation, a revolution 
 that contained the germs and the pledge of every ad- 
 vance that society has made in 400 years. The men 
 w'ho were God's instruments in achieving this result 
 were styled Lutherans and the Church constituted by 
 their administration of word and sacrament was called 
 in derision the Lutheran Church. 
 
 Other communions in opposition to Rome came 
 into being, and with largely the same ideas, but not 
 simultaneously. No other Evangelical Church can 
 claim to be a twin sister of the Lutheran. Zwingle 
 was indeed at work, as early as Luther, denouncing 
 some crying corruptions, but the historian can easily 
 premise what would have become of his religio-polit- 
 ical reforms had it not been for the impulse which 
 came from Wittenberg, and for the later conservatism 
 and sacramental modifications which the more powerful 
 Calvin superinduced upon the radical movement of the 
 Swiss patriot. 
 
 It was two years after the presentation of the 
 Augsburg Confession when Calvin espoused the prin- 
 ciples of the Reformation, fifteen years, therefore, after 
 the posting of the ninety-five theses. 
 
 It is undisputed that Luther's writings set Eng- 
 land aflame with the reformatory agitations, and that 
 the new birth of the English Church was witnessed 
 long after the Church of Germany had cast oflF the 
 papal rule, that it was in fact brought about by English 
 
1 88 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 divines like Cranmer who had sat at the feet of Luth- 
 eran theologians, and by Lutheran divines like Bucer 
 who held professional chairs in English universities. 
 
 The circumstance that the earliest reforms in every 
 country were called Lutherans shows the relation which 
 they bore to the great Reformer, and reveals the gen- 
 etic relation of the Evangelical Lutheran to their 
 churches. The Lutheran Church did not only precede 
 these other communions ; she gave birth to them. She 
 is the parent Evangelical Church, the mother of 
 Protestantism. At the time of the immortal Protest at 
 Spires in 1526, evangelical doctrines had not taken 
 form nor shape outside of Germany except in a few 
 small Swiss cantons, which, by the way, illustrates the 
 measure of intelligence possessed by men who ques- 
 tion the Protestantism of the Lutheran Church. 
 
 All the other great historic churches have sprung 
 from the Lutheran. To her repudiation of papal as- 
 sumptions, to her translation of the Scriptures, and to 
 the saving doctrines preached by her leaders at the peril 
 of their lives they ow-e their existence. "Her Confes- 
 sion," says Dr. Schaff, "struck the keynote to the other 
 Evangelical Confessions." And no church can prop- 
 erly claim to be a church until it rests on a confession. 
 
 The Lutheran Church is the great mediating power 
 between ancient and modern Christianity. She struck 
 her roots deep into the past and enriched her strength 
 from the soil of the church in every age between 
 Luther's and that of the Apostles. She is the Conserv- 
 ative Church. The reformation effected by her is known 
 as the Conservative Reformation. Others were deter- 
 
THE LUTHERAN CHURCH IN HISTORY. 1 89 
 
 mined to break with the past, to cut loose from the 
 historic stream, to start anew the development of Chris- 
 tian institutions. The Lutherans planted themselves 
 on an unbroken continuity of development, they took 
 their position on a historic basis, they believed that 
 Christ had never abdicated His place at the head of 
 the Church, nor the Spirit withdrawn from its bosom. 
 
 What was needed was purification and not destruc- 
 tion. Hands were laid sparing-ly on existing institu- 
 tions. Whatever is good and true and precious must 
 be conserved. Whatever is not in opposition to the 
 word of God must stand as a healthful and useful devel- 
 opment. Thus the Lutheran Church fell heir to the 
 inheritance of the ages, while others disdainfully cast 
 aside their spiritual patrimony, and starting de novo 
 entered upon their career with a poverty of institutions 
 in striking contrast with the treasures which the Luth- 
 erans preserved and purified and adapted to the needs 
 of the age. 
 
 The scholastic dev^elopment of doctrine so far as 
 it did not turn away from the Gospel, the incompar- 
 able store of chants and creeds and prayers and hymns 
 which the faith and piety of centuries had accumulated, 
 eliminating only what was impure, even the polity which 
 had served the church so well for more than a thousand 
 years ; all these the Lutheran Church sought to pre- 
 serve and retain as far as practicable. And what she 
 preserved she has transmitted and mediated to others. 
 A noble and unselfish elder brother, the Lutheran 
 Church faithfully guarded the patrimonial estate, which 
 other children prodigally despised, and in course of 
 
190 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 time each of these by turns were glad to receive the 
 inheritance which had been so faithfully and sacredly 
 preserved for them. 
 
 Of their Confession the Lutherans maintained that 
 it was simply the faith of the Scriptures and of "the 
 universal Christian Church," and that Confession it is 
 well known became the keynote of all the other evan- 
 gelical confessions. That of the Church of England 
 is in large part almost a literal transcript of it. 
 
 Of their Liturgy they could say this is substan- 
 tially nothing more than "the outline and structure of 
 the Service of the Western Church for a thousand 
 years." The whole series of Introits, Collects, Epistles 
 and Gospels, which constitute the Lutheran Service, 
 "was finally completed after some centuries of growth, 
 in the reign and domain of Charlemagne," and con- 
 tinued in force in Germany until the Reformation. Let 
 any one turn to the first reformation liturgy of the 
 Church of England and he will find an almost perfect 
 agreement between that and the service rescued and 
 revised from the ancient church by the Reformers of 
 Germany, a service which the latter had used in many 
 states and cities continuously for more than twenty 
 years, before the Anglican Church with Lutheran 
 assistance proceeded with the revision of its forms of 
 worship and issued the First Prayer Book of Edward 
 VL 
 
 The religious teaching and life cannot be severed 
 from civil government and civic life. The Gospel 
 leavens the whole social mass. The Lutherans have 
 been censured for their failure to attack monarchy and 
 
THE LUTHERAN CnVRCII IN HISTORY. 19I 
 
 subvert despotism in the state when overthrowing it 
 in the church. But nowhere is the saving conserva- 
 tism of Lutheranism brought into clearer Hght. Luther 
 and his colaborers fearlessly announced principles 
 which shook absolutism to its inmost centre. They 
 pit)claimed the freedom and the dignity of the individ- 
 ual and asserted the inalienable rights of man, but 
 instead of resorting to brute force or invoking the 
 slaughter of rulers for the triumph of principles, they 
 showed their transcendent faith in the power of ideas, 
 and having enunciated the eternal truths which under- 
 lie all civil liberty, they were content to leave their 
 development to their own inherent and persistent 
 energy. 
 
 In this way they contributed immeasurably more 
 to the permanent establishment of free government than 
 if by impatience they had overturned the existing order, 
 and by a sweeping but temporary revolution had started 
 the wheels of reaction and arrested the normal prog- 
 ress of civilization. The substance of freedom is of 
 greater worth than its forms. We have an example of 
 the contrast between England and France. The for- 
 mer still retaining monarchy, enjoys a larger measure 
 of political liberty than any other country of Europe, 
 the latter, having again and again abolished monarchy, 
 still fails to breathe the air of a true democracy. 
 
 Her Conservatism has made the Lutheran Church 
 the bulwark of civil liberty. She liberated thought, 
 she broke the spell of Rome, she wrought on the con- 
 science of rulers in behalf of the rights and the needs 
 of their subjects, she established popular education, she 
 
192 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 inculcated individual responsibility, she taught men 
 that they were God's children, she inspired them to 
 appeal from the earthly oppressor to the heavenly 
 avenger, and in this manner she so mightily armed 
 their subjects that sovereigns, however absolute their 
 forms of power, knew the power of their people and 
 realized that they had to reckon not only with them 
 but with One whose authority was feared more than 
 their own. The Lutheran Church thus stands in his- 
 tory as the upholder and guardian of civil order, and 
 at the same time as the inspirer and generator of those 
 political ideas which secure human rights under every 
 form of civil polity. 
 
 Our theme is so vast that a full exploration of it 
 is impracticable within the limits allowed. Time per- 
 mits only the sketching of a few outlines. 
 
 The Lutheran Church took the lead in heathen 
 missions. Though the principal Lutheran countries 
 were not given to maritime pursuits and had no colo- 
 nies, yet through the intervention of the Danish gov- 
 ernment two Lutheran missionaries, Ziegenbalg and 
 Pliitschau, proceeded to India in the year 1704, ante- 
 dating by one hundred years the missionary movements 
 of other Protestant communions, excepting only the 
 Moravians. It was from Lutheran Halle that "mis- 
 sionary zeal spread over other countries and other de- 
 nominations." 
 
 She was the first to colonize this country in the 
 interests of missions. While others came hither in 
 quest of refuge from oppression and persecution, or 
 in pursuit of wealth, or with ambitious projects of 
 
THE LUTHERAN CHURCH IX HISTORY. I93 
 
 founding great empires, the primary consideration 
 which impelled the great Lutheran king of Sweden, 
 Gustavus Adolphus, to establish a colony beyond the 
 seas was the planting of the Christian religion among 
 the wild inhabitants of the country. It was primarily 
 a missionary movement. 
 
 And in connection with this let it be added that 
 these same Lutherans were the first to bring to this 
 western wilderness those ideas and principles of relig- 
 ious tolerance which are at the foundation of our col- 
 ossal national expansion and power. The instructions 
 given to the Swedish Governor, bearing date Stock- 
 holm, August 15, 1642, declare: "So far as relates to 
 the Holland colonists that live and settle under the 
 government of her Royal Majesty and the Swedish 
 crown, the governor shall not disturb them in the indul- 
 gence granted them as to the exercise of the Reformed 
 religion." As these instructions were faithfully car- 
 ried out we see on the banks of the Delaware a some- 
 what different picture from that which meets us on 
 the Hudson, where the Dutch Calvinists were fining 
 and imprisoning Lutherans who desired to worship 
 God according to their own faith, or that other one, 
 in Massachusetts, so much better known, where the 
 Puritan Fathers were engaged in hanging and whip- 
 ping Quakers and banishing Baptists from the colony. 
 
 The first to proclaim and enact religious tolerance, 
 the Lutherans have at the same time the singular honor 
 of being the first Protestants in America, as well as in 
 Europe, to suffer religious persecution. Not only were 
 cruel penalties inflicted upon them on Manhattan Island 
 
 13 
 
194 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 because their consciences refused to confess Calvin- 
 istic tenets in connection with the baptism of iheir 
 infants, but the first Christian blood which sta'ned this 
 virgin soil was Lutheran blood, for a century before, 
 on the coast of Florida, a French colony was ma.ss .cred 
 because of the Lutheran faith attributed by the inhu- 
 man Spaniards. 
 
 We point with just pride to the Lutheran Church 
 as the church of culture. She is called the church of 
 theologians by writers in other communions, which do 
 not pretend to rival her incomparable theological lit- 
 erature. Her great doctrinal systems setting forth in 
 articulate structures the fullness and clearness of Scrip- 
 tural doctrine is paralleled only by the vastness of her 
 devotional literature, her myriads of hymns and chorals, 
 and her manuals of piety, showing that a richness of 
 spiritual life is the counterpart of the richness of doc- 
 trinal development. Take away the hymns of Watts 
 and Wesley from the English anthology and the sacred 
 poets of England and America number barely a score, 
 whereas Germany alone has a hymnology worthy of 
 the sanctuary which would fill many shelves of a 
 library. 
 
 Popular education was referred to above. Ever 
 since the famous declaration of Luther, "If we must 
 annually expend large sums on muskets, roads, bridges, 
 dams, and the like, in order that the city may have 
 temporal peace and comfort, why should we not apply 
 as much to our poor neglected youth, in order that they 
 may have a skillful schoolmaster or two," the Lutheran 
 Church has on this great subject held the lead. The 
 
THE LUTHERAN CHURCH IN HISTORY. 1 95 
 
 school systems of Germany have no equal, and it is 
 well known that Lutheran lands have no illiterates. 
 If was a surprising and a severe lesson for Americans 
 to learn that so far from needing the compulsion of 
 police force to give their children an education, the 
 Lutherans who have come hither have a system of 
 their own so thorough and withal so comprehensive 
 that under no circumstances will they surrender it for 
 an educational system which lacks the first element of 
 a true education, instruction in truth and righteousness. 
 Their coming to these shores may yield among other 
 things some happy results if Americans are willing 
 to copy from a system which approaches perfection 
 more nearly than their own. 
 
 No picture of Lutheranism is complete which over- 
 looks the type of its piety and the strength of its moral- 
 ity. Let a paragraph from Kurtz suffice : 
 
 "The Christian life of the people in the Lutheran 
 Church combined deep, penitential earnestness and a 
 joyfully confident consciousness of justification by faith 
 with the most nobly steadfast cheerfulness and hearti- 
 ness natural to the German citizen. Faithful atten- 
 tion to the spiritual interests of their people, vigorous 
 ethical preaching, and zealous efforts to promote the 
 instruction of the young on the part of their pastors, 
 created among them a healthy and hearty fear of God, 
 * * * a thorough and genuine attachment to the 
 church, strict morality in domestic life, and loyal sub- 
 mission to civil authority." 
 
 Finally the Lutheran Church has demonstrated her 
 indestructible character. She has had to battle in turn 
 
196 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 with every foe. She has found the most powerful 
 enemies of her Hfe arising within her own bosom, as 
 well as sustained the most terrible assaults from 
 without, but she stands like a rock in the sea against 
 which have beaten the waves and storms of unnum- 
 bered ages. 
 
 When but emerging from the chaos and darkness 
 in which was born her distinctive life the Lutheran 
 Church was confronted with the most specious form 
 of fanaticism. Co-workers with Luther like Carlstadt 
 not only plunged into revolutionary methods and em- 
 ployed carnal weapons, but claimed such immediate 
 communion with God and such direct access to super- 
 human resources as rendered unnecessary the divinely 
 appointed means of grace and poured contempt even 
 upon the written word of God. 
 
 But tlie Church survived the desperate struggle. 
 Desolated by a war which continued its ravages during 
 the life of a generation, the Church in Germany sunk 
 into a formalism which history represents as a dreary 
 winter succeeding to the Pentecostal springtime of 
 the Reformers, but from this, too, she emerged with a 
 fullness and potency of life that not only sent its warm 
 currents through every artery of its own organism, but 
 became the means of England's regeneration and gave 
 the impulse to the founding of Methodism. 
 
 Fettered by the authority of the state, the poison 
 of rationalism was allowed to enter her universities 
 and passed thence into her pulpits and threatened to 
 consume her people, but such was the vitality of their 
 faith and such was the power of the antidote provided 
 
THE LUTHERAN CHURCH IN HISTORY. 1 97 
 
 in her hymns and other forms of worship, that she was 
 able to come forth triumphant also from this onslaught. 
 The Lutheran Church of history is a church sing- 
 ing 
 
 "Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott." 
 
 She is founded upon God's w^ord. God is in the midst 
 of her. She cannot be moved. She abides forever. 
 
III. THE EARLIEST LUTHERAN CHURCHES. 
 
 When Martin Luther witnessed his noble confes- 
 sion at Worms, there was present in that city a ver- 
 itable American Indian, a mute man of Macedonia, 
 signaling the opening of a new continent for the home 
 of the new religion. 
 
 It was a wonderful coincidence : the exploration of 
 a new world and the recovery of a pure faith which 
 was waiting to spread like the rays of the sun over the 
 habitable globe. Neither the continent nor the doc- 
 trine of Luther was really new, but the one like the 
 other was a fresh discovery, a new revelation of what 
 had existed ages before. 
 
 But Providence has its cross-purposes, and so it 
 happened that the very nation which made the discov- 
 ery of America and founded its first settlements, was 
 the power most hostile to the rediscovered gospel in 
 Europe, and therefore least inclined to allow to it a 
 foothold on these shores. Consequently the very first 
 appearance of Protestants on this continent was the sig- 
 nal for a horrible massacre, and the first European 
 blood which stained the virgin soil of what is now our 
 country was the blood of a colony suspected of Luther- 
 anism. 
 
 More than half a century before the landing of 
 the Mayflower, and more than a generation before the 
 founding of Jamestown by Captain John Smith, a 
 
 (198) 
 
THE EARLIEST LUTHERAN CHURCHES. 1 99 
 
 colony of French Hug-ueiiots in 1565 settled at Fort 
 Carolina, near Matanzas Inlet, in Florida, hoping to 
 enjoy there undisturbed the solace and joy of their 
 faith. Lured into fatal security by the perfidious Span- 
 ish officers, who promised them protection, 142 men, 
 women and children were horril)ly butchered and the 
 entire colony was wiped out. I know of the claim that 
 these French Protestants were Calvinists, not Luther- 
 ans, but no one questions that they were massacred 
 because they were taken for Lutherans, for their mur- 
 derers posted a placard declaring that their victims 
 were slaughtered not because they were Frenchmen 
 but because they were Lutherans. 
 
 But the God of Luther did not intend that America 
 should become a continental Cuba. Providence did 
 not allot this grand domain to Roman Catholic Spain 
 — although the Pope did make such a disposal of it. 
 If anything in the divine ordering of terrestrial affairs 
 is clear, it is that this part of the globe was designed 
 as a refuge for those who were resolved on freedom 
 from religious and political tyranny. And under the 
 guidance of an unseen Hand those who suffered most 
 from Spanish oppression were goaded to the organ- 
 ization of trading companies and the founding of col- 
 onies destined to forestall the dominion of Spain in 
 her own discoveries. 
 
 It was the intolerable cruelty of Philip II. and his 
 minions which converted the Dutch into a mighty 
 republic and an unrivaled sea power, supplied with the 
 means of transporting their enterprising colonists to 
 the very lands once claimed as exclusive Spanish pos- 
 
200 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 sessions. And so it came about that the very first 
 Lutheran congregation in America was a company of 
 Swedes who had been guided hither under influences 
 which the Spaniards themselves had developed. The 
 Spaniards stirred up the Dutch, and the Dutch incited 
 the Swedes to enter upon American colonization. 
 
 At the confluence of the Brandywine with Chris- 
 tiana creek, two miles from the Delaware, on a spot 
 comprised in the limits of Wilmington, within the 
 walls of a military fort, was founded in 1638 the first 
 Evangelical Lutheran church of this country. The 
 congregation was not large, since the whole colony 
 consisted of but twenty-five, but their pastor, Reorus 
 Torkillus, had accompanied them from Sweden over 
 the sea, and in a few years successive expeditions 
 greatly increased their numbers. Still, after the havoc 
 of a deadly contagion, the whole settlement numbered 
 in 1644 less than three hundred souls. Since many of 
 these were bachelors, a petition was sent to the home 
 country for a supply of maidens to be their companions 
 and helpmeets. 
 
 A second Swedish church was erected — and of 
 course a second congregation founded — under Liei ten- 
 ant Colonel Printz near Tinicum Island, fifteen miles 
 further up the Delaware, and about nine miles south- 
 west of Philadelphia. This was a wooden frame struc- 
 ture, dedicated by Campanius in 1646, and was used 
 for half a century as a place of worship. 
 
 While there was a frequent change of pastors 
 because of the recall of the ministers by the State 
 Church of Sweden, and while thev were sometimes left 
 
THE EARLIEST LUTHERAN CHURCHES. 20I 
 
 as sheep without a shepherd, we read of one man, Rev. 
 Lars Lock, who served both these congregations for a 
 period of twenty-two years. In the midst of his labors 
 and hardships a rascally fellow-countryman stole from 
 him his wife. The deserted pastor soon felt the need 
 of another spouse, and having obtained a legal divorce, 
 he was not long in finding one. But as there was no 
 other clergyman within one hundred miles (in 1662) 
 he performed the marriage ceremony himself, and for 
 this the government proceeded against him, suspended 
 him from office, declared his marriage invalid, and 
 threatened him with further penalties. But as he pro- 
 tested that he intended no violation of law, and prom- 
 ised never to do so again, he was not further disturbed. 
 
 While the Swedes were the first to have organized 
 congregations, there were Dutch Lutherans in America 
 for ten or more years before the Swedes. They came 
 intermingled with the earliest settlers on Manhattan 
 Island. Although the Lutherans were allowed their 
 own worship in Holland, the Reformed Church was the 
 State Church ; and when the West India Company pro- 
 vided in their charter for the Christian religion and 
 pious preachers in their colonies, they understood by 
 these terms the decrees of the Synod of Dort and the 
 champions of extreme Calvinism. In the governor's 
 oath was included a promise to promote the Reformed 
 religion, and when it came to Stuyvesmt's turn to be 
 director-general he was minded to be as good as his 
 oath. 
 
 As long as the Lutherans were content to attend 
 Reformed worship, and to have only their household 
 
202 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 devotions according to their own faith, they were un- 
 molested and looked upon as good citizens, but when 
 their increasing numbers enabled them to form a con- 
 gregation, as early as 1649, and when in 1653 they 
 preferred a request to have their own pastor, this was 
 promptly and peremptorily refused. 
 
 Here a long, exasperating chapter could be given : 
 The undaunted, indefatigable determination of the 
 Lutherans to have their own worship, their appeal to 
 the mother country, their recourse to the intercession 
 of their Lutheran friends at home, the fierce opposition 
 of the local Calvinistic "dominies," who warned the 
 government of the dangers of having a Lutheran 
 church and Lutheran preachers in this country ! How 
 the home authorities and West India Company sus- 
 tained Stuyvesant, and warned him never again to en- 
 tertain or to transmit such a request, but to use gentle 
 and moderate methods to lure the Lutherans into the 
 Reformed fold ! How by public posters over the town 
 Lutheran worship, even reading and singing, was 
 strictly prohibited on pain of imprisonment ! How the 
 Directors in Amsterdam had a spasm of liberality and 
 agreed that the Lutherans might have free worship in 
 their homes ! How they shifted and shuffled, promised 
 and prevaricated, now practicing intolerance that would 
 have shamed the papacy, now concerned about the 
 serious detriment this wrought in the colony ! 
 
 The years went, and the years came, but the help- 
 less Lutherans were not permitted to have a pastor 
 who would preach their precious doctrines, conduct 
 
THE EARLIEST LUTHERAN CHURCHES. 203 
 
 worship according to their order, and administer the 
 Sacraments agreeably to their conscience. 
 
 The Directors were at one time in(hiced to prom- 
 ise that Lutheranism should l>e tolerated in the New 
 Netherlands, and our suffering people were rejoiced 
 at the prospect of soon having a duly qualified shep- 
 herd and teacher, but Stuyvesant and his parsons were 
 sure that this must be a mistake ; they refused to rec- 
 ognize the reported action until they had received a 
 more specific interpretation of it, and the edicts against 
 Lutheran conventicles continued in force. When the 
 official interpretation came, it was to the effect that 
 Lutheran family worship was not to be molested. At 
 one time this had been forbidden. 
 
 The Lutherans in Amsterdam had, however, given 
 a more liberal interpretation to the decision of the Di- 
 rectory, and had actually sent over in 1657 a pastor 
 by the name of Goetwater, whose arrival at Manhattan 
 filled the faithful Lutheran flock with joy but the gov- 
 ernor and his parsons with consternation ard dismay. 
 Before he could present himself to the church he came 
 to serve, Goetwater was dragged before the authorities 
 like an escaped convict. The letter which contained 
 his credentials to the congregation he was forbidden to 
 deliver until he received further orders, and a public 
 placard prohibited him from every exercise of his office 
 In fact, there was an ordinance in force which imposed 
 a fine of 100 Flemish pounds on anyone holding an 
 assembly for worship, and engaging in prayer, praise 
 or reading, and the crime for attending such a service 
 was fixed at twenty-five pounds. 
 
204 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 The parsons demanded Goetwater's return by the 
 same ship that brought him. They recognized now 
 that their fellow Christians, "with a hard Lutheran 
 pate," were bent upon founding a Lutheran church in 
 spite of the official prohibition. They promptly sent 
 their protest to the home government, "the snake was 
 already in their bosom," how shall they get rid of it? 
 It is a satisfaction to know that they had a deal of 
 trouble in getting rid of this Lutheran "snake." Again 
 and again the doughty governor ordered Goetwater to 
 quit the country, to embark in the first ship, and threat- 
 ened him with punishment if he were found in the 
 town or province after the departure of the next ves- 
 sel, and yet he managed not to get away, and always 
 had an excuse by which he escaped Stuyvesant's ven- 
 geance for at least a year and a half, although ship 
 sailed after ship. A few years later, 1662, all preach- 
 ing except that of the Reformed, was once more pro- 
 hibited, "in houses, barns, ships, forests or fields, under 
 penalty of fifty florins for the first ofifense for every 
 man, woman or child participating," the penalty to be 
 doubled for the second offense, and quadrupled for 
 the third offense, with whatever severity seemed good 
 to the governor. And yet the Lutherans, like the 
 Israelites in Egypt, were not exterminated, they did 
 not surrender their faith, they did not give up their 
 worship, though we are not informed whether the pre- 
 scribed fines were collected. 
 
 A second congregation of Dutch Lutherans is met 
 with in Albany in 1656, perhaps as early as 1650, but 
 there also the presence of Lutherans was regarded as 
 
THE EARLIEST LUTHERAN CHURCHES. 205 
 
 an encroachment of heretical spirits, and placards were 
 posted by the \'ice-Director. "against certain persons 
 of the Lutheran sect/' 
 
 The right to have Lutheran worship was accord- 
 ingly denied by the powers until those powers them- 
 selves were overthrown, and all that region of America 
 passed under the flag of England, which is everxwhere 
 the symbol of liberty, of justice, and of equal rights. 
 Scarcely had Colonel XicoUs. the first English gov- 
 ernor, entered upon his office, when the Lutherans 
 presented their petition for freedom of worship and 
 permission to have a pastor, a petition which was 
 promptly guaranteed. 
 
 Alas ! the first pastor to come proved a disap- 
 pointment and a disgrace. The g-overnment was soon 
 constrained to inhibit his ministrations at Albany, where 
 on his first visit, 1669. he attempted to impose a fine 
 of one thousand dollars for a member who failed to 
 employ him to perform his marriage ceremony. In 
 New York the congregation proceeded under his pas- 
 torate to erect a church, seeking financial assistance 
 from their Swedish brethren on the Delaware, but here, 
 too, the government had to interfere, and the congre- 
 gation was as much relieved by the departure of their 
 pastor, as they had been rejoiced over his arrival. But 
 before he finally withdrew, 1670, he installed as pastor 
 one who had unexpectedly arrived on the scene, who 
 appears in every way to have been adapted to the work 
 of caring for the sheep in the wilderness, a winning, 
 kindly, considerate man, a most excellent preacher and 
 pastor. I refer to Arenzius, who for a period of twenty 
 
206 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 years served the congregations at New York and 
 Albany, spending his summers at the former place, his 
 winters at the latter, receiving a fixed salary besides 
 house rent and firewood. 
 
 Harmony and prosperity appear to have attended 
 his ministrations, excepting that at Albany the Re- 
 formed grave-digger, or undertaker, considered himself 
 the grave-digger of the town, with the exclusive right 
 to all dead bodies and the resultant fees, and he con- 
 sequently objected to the Lutherans having one of their 
 own number for this purpose, as an intrusion on his 
 rights and his receipts. 
 
 The German Lutherans from whom we have 
 sprung directly were the last to arrive on our shores, 
 and we have no trace of a German organization before 
 the eighteenth century. When our ancestors first came 
 they came in poverty, for the most part fugitives and 
 exiles from the Palatinate, which the French had turned 
 into a desert. 
 
 In the latter part of the seventeenth century, ad 
 in the early years of the eighteenth, Lutherans were 
 scattered over the province of Pennsylvania, and 
 Lutheran services were held at Germantown and cse- 
 where, but we have no trace of an organization earlier 
 than that at Falckner's Swamp, (New Hannover), 
 where Daniel Falckner, the agent of a land company, 
 founded a congregation probably as early as the year 
 1703. We have no records of the congregation prior 
 to the pastorate of Gerhard Henkle, who served there 
 from 1717. Under his ministry the congregation in- 
 creased and flourished, and in 17 19 a wealthy land- 
 
THE EARLIEST LUTHERAN CHURCHES. 207 
 
 owner donated for the uses of the congregation fifty 
 acres of land. Taking possession of this property, the 
 congregation built a new and larger church and along- 
 side of it a school-house, the first German Lutheran 
 church in this country setting thus an example to all 
 its descendants for the promotion of education side by 
 side with godliness. 
 
 Early in that century German Lutherans fleeing 
 from the devastated Palatinate, streamed in large num- 
 bers into the province of New York. One colony 
 came across the Atlantic in the immediate charge of a 
 pastor, Joshua Von Kockerthal, and under the kindly 
 protection of the English government, landing New 
 Year's day 1709. The governor, Lord Lovelace, cared 
 for them during the winter and then located them in 
 the spring on the right bank of the Hudson close to 
 Newburg. Queen Anna had allotted to every man. 
 woman and child fifty acres of land and donated five 
 hundred acres for a perpetual glebe, a bounty of which 
 they were cruelly robbed, after they had brought it 
 under cultivation and erected on it a church building. 
 
 In the following year (1710) 3,cxx) more of the 
 Palatine exiles reached New York and were settled 
 up the Hudson, in the neighborhood of East Camp 
 and West Camp. The exact location of the first church 
 they erected is not known, but before the winter was 
 on them both a church and a school-house had been 
 provided. 
 
 These Lutheran pioneers possessed characteristics 
 which commend them strongly for imitation to their 
 ecclesiastical descendants : 
 
208 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 1st. They were models of true piety. 
 
 To be allowed by law worship at their own fire- 
 side, was to them no meaningless concession. The ob- 
 servance of family devotions they claimed as an inalien- 
 able privilege, a right which nothing could move them 
 to surrender. Think of settlers in the wilderness hav- 
 ing like the Swedes, public worship and a sermon not 
 only on all Sundays, Festivals and Apostles' Days, but 
 also on every Wednesday and Friday, and even hold- 
 ing a meeting for prayer morning and evening every 
 day of the week ! Where a pastor could not be pres- 
 ent the governor appointed lay-readers. Church dis- 
 cipline and the training of the young were embraced 
 in their original instructions. 
 
 2d. Their piety was reflected in their morals. 
 
 They were a peaceful, industrious, orderly, law- 
 abiding people. They recognized the Indians as broth- 
 ers and purchased the soil from them as its true own- 
 ers. William Penn on his arrival was delighted with 
 the Swedes, and formally commended them as a 
 "proper people," with "fine children," and young men 
 exceptionally "sober and industrious," having withal 
 an unassailable reputation for honesty. 
 
 3d. They were devoted to their church. 
 
 Pious people usually are. Their enjoyment of the 
 grace of God endears to them the fountains whence 
 they derive it. How easily those in the New Nether- 
 lands could have escaped persecution and avoided all 
 their troubles, if their conscience could have accommo- 
 dated itself to the Calvinistic form of Baptism, if their 
 spiritual hunger could have been satisfied with the 
 
THE EARLIEST LUTHERAN CHURCHES. 209 
 
 Avorship of the sermons of their Reformed brethren ! 
 Such a form of Baptism, however, compromised their 
 faith, and Calvinistic worship did not meet their spirit- 
 ual wants. The authorities were charged to use mild 
 measures to woo them over. But a Lutheran heart 
 and a Lutheran conscience craved the doctrines and 
 rites in which they had been reared. And the Swedes 
 when they had to surrender to the Dutch authorities 
 and lost all their civil rights in 1655, managed to have 
 inserted in their capitulation the right to retain the 
 Augsburg Confession, and to have a pastor to instruct 
 them in its doctrines. This was in accordance with 
 the original instructions given to Lieutenant Colonel 
 Printz in 1642, and repeated in 1646, which directed 
 that the colony should faithfully maintain the church 
 life of the Fatherland, should guard against Calvinistic 
 leaven, and that divine services be held in conformity 
 with the unaltered Augsburg Confession. 
 
 Read the first Lutheran book published in Amer- 
 ica, by Pastor Justus Falckner. What a clear Luth- 
 eran ring it has, the author in the preface confessing 
 the Symbols of the Lutheran Church, the confession of 
 his fathers, "which confession and faith by the grace 
 •of God and conviction wrought by His word and Spirit 
 also dwell in me and shall dwell to my blessed end." 
 
 4th. They had an extended Liturgy. 
 
 The Swedes were instructed to hold to the usages 
 •of the Swedish Church. Their calendar is always that 
 of the Church year. Events occurred on Trinity Sun- 
 day, Second Advent, Rogate, etc. The first Dutch 
 preacher brought over the Liturgy in use by the Luth- 
 
 14 
 
2IO THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 erans of Holland. The Dutch Lutherans had so much 
 ceremony, especially in connection with their funerals, 
 that the Reformed were unwilling to have them bury 
 their dead in the public cemetery. They could not tol- 
 erate the extensive ritual which the Lutherans observed. 
 And when the Albany undertaker lodged his complaint 
 with the governor against the Lutheran undertaker, the 
 governor expressed his surprise that a Reformed fune- 
 ral director could with a good conscience officiate at 
 a Lutheran funeral, seeing that the Lutherans had so 
 many more ceremonies than the Reformed, and that 
 these ceremonies were so offensive to a Reformd con- 
 science. The pastors always wore the clerical robe. 
 
 5th. They co-operated with one another. 
 
 Although of different nationalities, these pioneer 
 Lutherans went to each other's assistance. When the 
 Dutch undertook to build a house of worship they re- 
 paired to their Swedish brethren on the Delaware with 
 a subscription list. When they could get no pastor 
 from Amsterdam, Rudman of Wicaco on the Delaware 
 went to their relief. And to anyone acquainted with 
 the trials and hardships of our German ancestors in 
 Pennsylvania, it must be manifest that the immense 
 numbers of our church in that Commonwealth to-day 
 must be ascribed in large measure to the cordial sym- 
 pathy and fraternal co-operation which marked the 
 relations of the Swedes and the Germans, and finally 
 united them in one ecclesiastical body, the Ministerium 
 of Pennsylvania. 
 
 6th. They were animated by the missionary spirit. 
 
 The Swedes received special directions from the 
 
THE EARLIEST LUTHERAN CHURCHES. 211 
 
 home government to deal kindly with "the poor wild 
 men," to convert them to Christianity, and bring them 
 under civilization and good government. They were 
 the first emigrants to settle here with this task as their 
 object. Pastor Campanius so mastered their language 
 as to be able to teach them the C.ospel, and to translate 
 for them Luther's Small Catechism as early as 165 1. 
 the first book to be translated into an Indian tongue. 
 And such an impression was made upon the natives 
 by these evangelistic endeavors, that they confessed 
 that the God of the Swedes was as far superior to their 
 God as the cannon and guns of the Christians exceeded 
 their own bows and arrows. The facility with which 
 Penn was able to enter into friendly relations with the 
 Indians was due in large measure to the Christian treat- 
 ment they had enjoyed from the Swedes for a gen- 
 eration. 
 
IV. THE LUTHERANS. 
 
 It was a notable coincidence that just as Columbus 
 %vas crossing the Atlantic in quest of a new world, 
 Martin Luther was receiving instruction in the Ten 
 Commandments, the Lord's Prayer, and the Apostles' 
 Creed. And when the humble monk struck the death 
 knell to ecclesiastical and political tyranny in the never- 
 to-be-forgotten scene at Worms, the presence of an 
 embassy from the lately-discovered continent, wearing 
 costly silks and "vailed about the head like a gypsy 
 woman," was a mute but distinct prophecy of the rela- 
 tion which this new domain was to bear to the new 
 ideas. It would have been in accordance with the 
 eternal fitness had the Columbian Exposition been held 
 on the fourth centenary of Luther's birth. 
 
 The first European settlers on our shores belonged, 
 indeed, to the old faith, but they were not permitted 
 to lay the foundations of this free Republic. It was 
 ordained that a people brought forth in the pangs of 
 the great religious revolution of the sixteenth century, 
 whose religious convictions embraced the equality and 
 the brotherhood of all men, should establish here a 
 Republic destined to be the bulwark of liberty to all 
 nations. 
 
 The earliest Protestant colonies did not bear the 
 Lutheran name, yet they are directly traceable to the 
 impulse of the new ideas heralded by the Lutheran 
 reformers. The governments of Lutheran nations pos- 
 
 (212) 
 
THE LUTHERANS. 213 
 
 sessed at that time meagre commercial equipments, and 
 were, besides, so prostrated by the Thirty Years' War 
 that it was impossible for them to undertake any col- 
 onial projects. 
 
 Still, the first appearance of Lutherans in America 
 is almost coincident with its first settlement. There 
 was a considerable sprinkling of them with the Dutch 
 colony which, in 1623, occupied Manhattan Island, the 
 territory now comprised in the city of New York. 
 
 A body of Swedish Lutherans founded in 1638 a 
 New Sweden on the banks of the Delaware, below the 
 site of Philadelphia, purchasing lands from the Indians, 
 teaching them the Gospel, and living on terms of amity 
 with them for nearly fifty years prior to the famous 
 treaty of Willliam Penn under the Shackamaxon Elm. 
 
 To the Swedes belongs the double honor of being 
 the first Protestants to plant a colony for the establish- 
 ment of the Church of God among the heathen, as well 
 as the first to advance and practice here the principle 
 of religious tolerance. The Governor received instruc- 
 tions, dated Stockholm, August 15, 1642, not to dis- 
 turb the Holland colonists "as to the exercise of the 
 reformed religion." 
 
 The trunk from which has properly sprung the 
 American Lutheran Church is the large body of Ger- 
 mans who poured into this country in the first quarter 
 of the eighteenth century. Those along the Hudson 
 and Schoharie suffered indescribable hardships, and, 
 like their co-religionists in Pennsylvania, who fared 
 
214 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 somewhat better in temporal things, were for many 
 years almost totally destitute of the ministrations of 
 the sanctuary. 
 
 The founding and the preservation of the Church 
 amid their terrible trials is an instance of the marvel- 
 ous, if not of the miraculous. There were in 1735 but 
 eight regular ministers to care for a Lutheran popula- 
 tion scattered over the country from the Mohawk to 
 the Savannah, these clergymen being separated from 
 each other by intervals of hundreds of miles, with no 
 roads or possible means of travel except on horseback 
 through trackless forests, and with no protection against 
 the beasts of prey or prowling savages. Long before 
 this the New England Congregationalists had an aver- 
 age of more than two ministers to a congregation, with 
 the advantage of settled communities. 
 
 The proper organization of these dispersed com- 
 munities and their association into one body did not 
 take place until after the arrival of Muhlenberg, who 
 is honored as the patriarch of the American Lutheran 
 Church, a man who left upon it the indelible impress 
 of his apostolic devotion and his administrative 
 efficiency, and who was the progenitor of a succession 
 of statesmen, soldiers and scholars that rank his family 
 among the most famous of the country. 
 
 The extraordinary bloom which the Church at- 
 tained under his guidance was blighted by the War for 
 Independence. This struggle, following the devasta- 
 tions of nine years' conflict between the French and 
 English, and succeeded by the dissensions and general 
 distress into which the country was plunged on the con- 
 
THE I.UTHERANS. 215 
 
 elusion of peace with England, almost annihilated the 
 Lutheran Church. 
 
 After these trials, which she shared with other and 
 stronger communities, came another and a sharper 
 ordeal, one altogether her own. which tested to the 
 last degree her vitality and powers of endurance. This 
 was the surrender of the mother tongue. 
 
 English services had been maintained, yet the 
 ruling language continued to be German, and the con- 
 flict provoked by the necessity for English in public 
 worship, which to the Germans implied the surrender 
 of the most sacred treasures and traditions of their 
 race, was attended by the most disastrous consequences. 
 
 Victory remained with the language which destiny 
 has made our national tongue, but the obstinate and 
 fierce resistance to it became the most serious obstruc- 
 tion in the Church's path, lost multitudes to her fold, 
 paralyzed her energies, limited her sphere, cramped 
 her spirit, and placed her altogether at such disadvan- 
 tage to the other Churches that even to this day, after 
 bleeding and suffering from it for a hundred years, 
 she has not recovered from this suicidal opposition to 
 the inevitable. 
 
 This is peculiarly true of her interests in the cities 
 of New York and Philadelphia, where, had a different 
 policy prevailed in former generations, she would 
 doubtless this day be the leading denomination. But 
 the most far-reaching and deplorable result of the con- 
 flict was the insurmountable barrier it raised to the 
 establishment of schools for higher learning and for 
 the training of candidates for the sacred office. 
 
2l6 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 Co-operation in such work between the antago- 
 nistic parties was out of the question. Thus, for half 
 a century, all educational movements were frustrated, 
 and that Church which is the parent of modern cul- 
 ture as surely as she is the mother of Protestantism, 
 was for a long period left without an educational insti- 
 tution above the grade of her parish schools. In spite 
 of overwhelming odds some advance was witnessed. 
 Worthy and distinguished men presided over the 
 Church in different States. Their number presented,, 
 indeed, a lamentable disproportion to the extent of 
 the field ; but it is doubtful whether any other denomi- 
 nation could at the time boast of a ministry that sur- 
 passed them in intellectual attainments, in pastoral apt- 
 itude, in self-sacrificing devotion, and in the highest 
 qualities of pulpit eloquence. 
 
 The estimated strength of the body in 1820 was 
 42,000 communicants, 575 congregations, and 160 min- 
 isters, distributed in five different organizations, whose 
 boundaries coincided pretty nearly with the States of 
 New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia and North 
 Carolina. Their union into one General Synod, though 
 but partially successful, forms an epoch from which 
 date the permanent prosperity and steady expansion 
 of the Church. 
 
 Educational institutions were established, mission- 
 ary activity assumed a measure of system, harmony 
 of teaching and co-operation in religious effort were 
 promoted, the standard of spiritual life was raised, a 
 church consciousness was begotten and a degree of 
 vitality developed which, notwithstanding the irre- 
 
THE LUTHERANS. 217 
 
 trievable losses that had thrown the Church far behind 
 her sister churches, has given her an uninterrupted 
 and a prodigious growth. 
 
 In 73 years the figures given above have swelled 
 to a grand total of 5,468 ministers, 9,213 congregations 
 and 1,305,319 communicants. 
 
 Intelligent men who have not specially watched 
 the progress of different denominations have been star- 
 tled by the sudden emergence of a powerful community 
 whose presence had scarcely been noticed, and it is hard 
 even for enthusiastic and wide-awake Lutherans to 
 realize the enormous increase of their Church and the 
 change which has taken place in her relative position. 
 
 It is not so very long ago since the general relig- 
 ious statistics barely recognized this communion, and 
 assigned it a place among the smaller sects ; but it has 
 overtaken one after the other of the evangelical b dies 
 until it holds the fourth or possibly the third rank, being 
 outnumbered only by the Baptists, Methodists, and, 
 may be, the Presbyterians. 
 
 This advance has been made in the face of over- 
 whelming odds. Her long adherence to a foreign 
 tongue, and her relative confinement to rural districts, 
 had kept the Church in comparative obscurity and 
 dimmed her prestige. Her career in this country had 
 been a struggle for existence. 
 
 The Lutherans found among the earliest colonial 
 settlements were sporadic communities, incapable of 
 a blended life and growth, and their Church did not 
 come to organic form or reach the conditions of nor- 
 mal development and aggressive movement until the 
 
2l8 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 second quarter of this century, when it was not only a 
 feeble body in every sense of the word, Imt deprived 
 by its congregational polity of that efficiency of organ- 
 ization for which there is ordinarily required the cen- 
 tralization of power. 
 
 The Church's progress was, besides, still fettered 
 not only by the paralysis of inherited discouragements, 
 by gross and persistent misrepresentations and invete- 
 rate prejudices, but also by the almost total loss of her 
 individuality. 
 
 Her church life had become so much influenced 
 by the practices and teachings of her more prosperous 
 neighbors that her distinctive features seemed almost 
 effaced, and she was apparently near the point of being 
 merged with churches of greater prominence. 
 
 But she has steadily overcome these hindrances 
 to her progress, and within the brief period of seventy- 
 three years she has made a change of language, devel- 
 oped an aggressive organization of resources, recov- 
 ered her distinctive features, and five times doubled 
 her membership, once every thirteen years. Her growth 
 in the last forty years has hardly a parallel in our relig- 
 ious history. 
 
 This hasty survey shows unmistakably not only 
 that the Lutheran Church has a vitality which is inde- 
 structible, but that she holds life-forces which are des- 
 tined to exert an incalculable influence in the moulding 
 of our national life. 
 
 Possessed of a strong individuality, standing in 
 many respects midway between Romanism and ultra 
 Protestantism, the Evangelical Lutheran Church has 
 
THE LUTHERANS. 219 
 
 been the subject of grievous misrepresentations from 
 those on her right as well as those on her left. 
 
 The logic of history gives her pre-eminence of 
 being the parent Evangelical Church, and the platform 
 on which she has stood from the beginning declares 
 "that in doctrines and ceremonials among us there is 
 nothing received contrary to Scripture or to the Cath- 
 olic (Universal) Church." 
 
 Others went out from her, not she from them. 
 The earliest Reformers in all countries were called 
 Lutherans. And the responsibility for subsequent divi- 
 sions rests with those who put forth, tenets distinctive 
 from and antagonistic to the Mother Church of the 
 Reformation. 
 
 The distinctions which separate Protestant bodies 
 have been created mainly under the plea that the work 
 of the Lutherans was not sufficiently radical ; and one 
 still hears the insinuation that Lutheranism, holding 
 the golden mean, is essentially nearer to Romanism 
 than are the other forms of Protestantism. 
 
 This is the case in which the distance between the 
 extremes is less than that which intervenes between 
 either extreme and the centre. But apart from this, 
 two undeniable facts dispose of the above charq-c. The 
 first is that the uncompromising attitude of Romanists 
 toward Evangelical communions has been singularly 
 pronounced and bitter toward the T.utherans; the sec- 
 ond is that, in proportion to her vast numbers in 
 Europe, the Lutheran Church furnishes fewer recruits 
 to the Church of Rome than any other denomination. 
 
 With her marked and self-conscious individuality, 
 
220 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 the Lutheran Church claims at the same time to be the 
 most catholic and comprehensive of Protestant bodies. 
 She neither denies the legitimacy of the ministry of 
 others nor questions the validity of their Sacraments. 
 She is hindered by no ecclesiastical considerations and 
 by no syllogisms concerning unrevealed decrees, from 
 teaching the freest grace. 
 
 Wherever a sinner trusts in the mercy of God, she 
 holds that he has met all the conditions of salvation. 
 And, while denying that faith can exist without works, 
 her cardinal doctrine is that faith alone is the saving 
 factor. Her view of the authority and sufficiency of 
 the Scriptures, of the solar position of Christ in the 
 Christian system, and of the efficacy of the Sacraments, 
 all revolve around this pivotal truth. Subjectively, this 
 is the heart of Lutheranism. Objectively, its heart is 
 Jesus Christ, the God-man, comprising two natures 
 indissolubly and forever united in one person, in whom 
 the human and the Divine attributes combine in every 
 act and manifestation. 
 
 The most conspicuous distinction of Lutheran the- 
 ology is the place which Christ holds in it. Other sys- 
 tems begin with the Bible, with the decrees, with the 
 Church. Lutheranism is Christo-centric. In its creed, 
 its worship, and its life, Christ is the all in all. 
 
 Starting from this centre, the Lutheran Church 
 has developed, beyond any other, a fullness and a rich- 
 ness of Christological thought, which is the glory of 
 her creed and the key to her other distinctive features. 
 
 These distinctive features are generally embraced 
 in the term comprehensiveness. As she comprehends 
 
THE LUTHERANS. 221 
 
 both natures in the one forever indissoluble person of 
 Christ, so she comprehends the presence of the Spirit 
 in the written and preached word and in the Holy Sac- 
 raments. 
 
 Her charge against others is that they have more 
 or less divorced what God has joined together in Christ, 
 in the Church, in the Scriptures, and in the Sacraments, 
 and that they thus abridge the import of Divine institu- 
 tions and lower the efficacy of the means of grace. 
 
 The Sacraments, which in common with others 
 they hold to be signs and memorials, Lutherans regard 
 also as vehicles and bearers of invisible energy, through 
 which the ascended Redeemer touches the individual 
 soul, enduing it in Baptism with the beginning of a 
 new life, and nourishing it in the Supper by the com- 
 munion of His body and blood. 
 
 The doctrine of the Real Presence has exposed 
 the Lutherans to great misapprehension and unwar- 
 ranted reproach. They teach that in the Holy Supper 
 there are present with the elements, and received sacra- 
 mentally and supernaturally, the body and blood of the 
 glorified God-man, a unique and mysterious reality 
 alike to believers and to the unworthy, serving the for- 
 mer unto spiritual invigoration, the latter unto condem- 
 nation. 
 
 This has been persistently stigmatized as consub- 
 stantiation, although not a single Lutheran teacher has 
 ever advocated that theory, and the Church's defenders 
 have with one voice repudiated the term and the idea 
 which it conveys. 
 
 Such a charge associates the Lutheran doctrine 
 
222 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 with the Roman Catholic dogma of transubstantiation, 
 reducing the distinction to the difference between 
 "trans" and "con," the former prefix indicating an abso- 
 lute change of the elements into another substance, the 
 latter the commingling of the elements with the body 
 and blood of the Lord, forming one substance. 
 
 Lutherans hold that the bread remains bread, the 
 wine remains wine, but in the sacramental reception of 
 these there is a unique reception of the Lord Jesus 
 Christ, a communion of His body and His blood. 
 
 The genius of Lutheran worship is a moderate use 
 of prescribed forms, those mainly which the Church 
 has employed in its devotion from the earliest ages of 
 Christendom. Historically the Lutheran is always 
 classed with the liturgical churches, and she boasts an 
 extraordinary wealth of liturgical treasures, the Ger- 
 man mind having a strong predilection for the subject 
 of worship. 
 
 Uniformity is not enforced, and provision is always 
 made not only for extempore prayer, but also at vari- 
 ous points for an alternate form or desirable modifica- 
 tion. 
 
 The liberty of the congregation is guaranteed at 
 the same time that the value of essential uniformity is 
 emphasized. The tendency for more ritual which is 
 found to-day in all churches has shown itself also 
 among the Lutherans. By the co-operation of all the 
 English Lutheran bodies a Common Order of Service 
 has been prepared and issued, which proved so generally 
 acceptable as to command the unanimous approval of 
 the three Bodies, and which elicited from one of the 
 
THE LUTHERANS. 223 
 
 most distinr;:uished Presbyterians the encomium of 
 being "the most fitting, judicious, and edifying form of 
 worship in which he had ever joined ; a credit to the 
 Lutheran Church and a model to other churches." 
 
 The Christian Year is generally observed, and its 
 three principal festivals are celebrated with great eclat 
 and with crowded congregations. To the striking ob- 
 servance of these festivals by the Lutherans, and espe- 
 cially to their joyous Christmas customs, may be cred- 
 ited in large measure their general recognition in 
 American churches. The Christmas tree was first seen 
 in this country in Lutheran churches and in Lutheran 
 homes. 
 
 The bright and triumphal character of the Chris- 
 tian festivals, celebrating as they do those cardinal 
 events in the history of redemption, which have secured 
 its blessed results and glorious hopes, are peculiarly 
 consonant with the Lutheran type of Christianity. The 
 living experience of their doctrine of justification by 
 faith opens in the heart the deepest fountain of joy, and 
 sheds over the entire life a glow of peace that passeth 
 understanding. 
 
 To such an experience the glad tidings of the 
 angelic anthem become a profound reality. The assur- 
 ance of being the children of God, through faith in 
 Jesus Christ, is a signal and a pledge of perpetual re- 
 joicing, as it is the only basis of holy living. 
 
 To call the Lutheran a singing Church, as has often 
 been done, is a just recognition of her cheerful, buoy- 
 ant spirit, which voices itself in her songs of salvation. 
 Her walls inclose neither the ascetic gloom of monastic 
 
224 '^HE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 penance nor the long-visaged and chilling austerity oi 
 Puritanism. She recognizes as much as any other com- 
 munion the terrible sinfulness of sin, but the import of 
 her teaching seems to impress upon her people, beyond 
 what others do, the absolute victory that has been won 
 over sin, and the certainty of deliverance alike from its 
 guilt and power. Her understanding of the Gospel 
 makes it a feast and not a fast. 
 
 Tlie large Lutheran community is not marshaled 
 in a corporate and homogeneous union. It has prop- 
 erly started from three centres, and has developed into 
 three grand divisions. Nearly all the English congre- 
 gations are the outcome of Muhlenberg's organizing 
 genius and his Apostolic activity in Philadelphia and 
 the surrounding regions. 
 
 Having survived the dogged resistance to the Eng- 
 lish language, they began with the founding of the 
 General Synod in 1820 to co-operate in the establish- 
 ment of educational institutions, candidates for the 
 sacred office were trained and multiplied, missionary 
 agencies were set in motion, and strong churches were 
 built up in Eastern cities. 
 
 Although for a long time struggling under every 
 imaginable disadvantage, this branch of the Church 
 has spread over the country from New York to the 
 Golden Gate, having its main strength in the Middle 
 States, especially in Pennsylvania and Maryland, where 
 it is, in many districts, the dominant religious body. 
 
 In Pennsylvania alone it maintains three prosper- 
 ous colleges, and as many theological seminaries. This 
 
THE LUTHERANS. 225 
 
 branch has never penetrated Xew England, and it has 
 not to a great extent impressed itself upon the South. 
 
 Unfortunately it has itself experienced divisions, 
 which have doubtless retarded the general progress. 
 The outbreak of the civil war severed the organic rela- 
 tions of Southern Lutherans from their brethren north 
 of the Potomac, and the force of circumstances, not 
 sectionalism, has prevented their reunion with the Gen- 
 eral Synod. 
 
 They have colleges at Salem, \a., Mount Pleasant 
 and Concord, N. C, and Newberry, S. C. 
 
 The General Synod, which at one time embraced 
 almost the entire American or English-speaking ele- 
 ment, experienced another rupture in 1866, The im- 
 mediate occasion for this was a parliamentary ruling 
 at the Convention in Fort Wayne, but a deeper cause 
 was doubtless instrumental in hastening the dissolu- 
 tion. 
 
 During the era of their weakness and isolation, 
 and especially in the course of their transition to an- 
 other language and their amalgamation with a new 
 nation, the scattered Lutheran churches had in doctrine 
 and usage become closely assimilated to the stronger 
 churches around them. The broad line of distinction 
 in teaching and church life had almost disappeared 
 before the intrusion of radicalism and rationalism. 
 
 A conservative reaction set in during the 40's. 
 "The good old ways of the fathers" were once more 
 sought ; the old doctrines were studied with fresh 
 ardor ; the devotional and liturgical treasures of 
 
 15 
 
226 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 Lutheranism were recovered and put into the national 
 tongue, and a revival of historic Lutheranism was wit- 
 nessed in many quarters. In the language of Dr. C. P. 
 Krauth, St., "the Church was disposed to renew her 
 connection with the past, and in her future progress 
 to walk under the guidance of the light which it has 
 furnished." 
 
 This movement met with powerful resistance, and 
 was the signal for protracted and violent controversy. 
 Such champions as Dr. S. S. Schmucker, the head of 
 the Gettysburg Seminary, long the most conspicuous 
 and influential Lutheran in America ; Dr. B. Kurtz, 
 whose editorial pen in the Lutheran Observer wielded 
 an immense power ; and Dr. S. Sprecher, President of 
 Wittenberg College, the brilliant leader of the Western 
 churches, contended with might and main against the 
 revival of what was termed "the Old Lutheran The- 
 ology." 
 
 The representatives of "the New School" carried 
 their measures so far as to bring out the "American 
 Recension of the Augsburg Confession," the so-called 
 "Definite Platform," which eliminated from the funda- 
 mental Creed of the Lutheran Church those doctrines 
 which distinguish her from other Churches. 
 
 This bold attempt at reconstructing the Confession 
 so as to efiface the Lutheran type of Christianity raised 
 a storm throughout the Church which overwhelmed 
 its authors, and added a powerful impetus to the move- 
 ment it was meant to counteract. It was indirectly 
 repudiated by the unanimous vote of the General 
 Synod of York, in 1864. But sharp contentions were 
 
THE LUTHERANS. 227 
 
 kept up, especially over the admission of the Franckean 
 Synod into the General Synod, and over the establish- 
 ment of the Theological Seminary at Philadelphia. 
 Doctrinal divergencies, undeniably, contributed to both 
 actions, yet the lines were not drawn clearly between 
 those representing the stricter and those championing 
 the laxer doctrinal views. The conflict issued in the 
 withdrawal of the venerable and powerful Ministerium 
 of Pennsylvania from the General Synod, followed by 
 a number of other District Synods, and the organiza- 
 tion of the General Council on an unequivocal and pro- 
 nounced Lutheran basis. 
 
 This new body, it was hoped, might become the 
 rallying centre for the union of all Lutherans, native 
 and immigrant, who received unqualifiedly the Augs- 
 burg Confession. A large number of such continued 
 to adhere to the General Synod, which at the same time 
 pledged itself more avowedly and fully to the Confes- 
 sion, and which, while tolerating a considerable diver- 
 gence of opinion and practice, cherishes, nevertheless, 
 also an ardent devotion to the peculiar features of the 
 Church. 
 
 The second grand division of Lutherans is known 
 as the Missourians, whose development started at St. 
 Louis. In that vicinity a colony of Saxons, which 
 embraced clerg\'men, teachers, physicians, lawyers and 
 artisans, who had left the Fatherland because of their 
 dissatisfaction with the State Church, founded a settle- 
 ment in the Spring of 1839. Struggling with deep 
 poverty and other unspeakable hardships, they at once 
 organized a school, in which religion, Latin, Greek,, 
 
225 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 Hebrew, German, French and English, history, geogra- 
 phy, mathematics, natural philosophy, natural history, 
 mental philosophy and music were to be taught. 
 
 Their standard of culture and their religious ear- 
 nestness may be inferred from the establishment of 
 such a school in a log cabin on the prairie immediately 
 upon their arrival. Harvard College was not founded 
 until eighteen years after the landing of the Mayflower. 
 Their attachment to the Lutheran faith had been inten- 
 sified by persecution and strengthened by experience, 
 and in this new world, freed from the stifling hand of 
 the State, and too conscious of the soundness of their 
 convictions to be disturbed by the religious teachings 
 and practices which prevailed around them, they gave 
 themselves with marvelous wisdom and self-sacrifice 
 to the development of their Church. 
 
 Their leader for almost half a century was Dr. 
 C, F. W. Walther, whose extraordinary genius, char- 
 acter and influence entitle him to rank with the great- 
 est men of the century. They number to-day 1,607 
 pastors, 2,274 congregations, and over 440,489 com- 
 municants. Their theological seminaries have over 400 
 candidates for the ministry, and besides these they sup- 
 port eight colleges and 1,200 parochial schools, with 
 numerous orphanages and hospitals, and an immense 
 publication house. 
 
 A third grand division of the Lutheran Church is 
 that sprung from the Scandinavian immigration, 
 which, beginning with small streams in 1838 and 1845, 
 rose to vast dimensions after the war. The larger part 
 of this element is found in the West and the new North- 
 
THE LUTHERANS. 229 
 
 west, the total number of Norwegians and Swedes, 
 including the generation born here, being estimated at 
 2,500,000. 
 
 All that have crossed the ocean were baptized in 
 the Lutheran National Churches of those countries, but 
 not all have been enrolled as communicants in this 
 country. A total of over 250,000 have been thus en- 
 rolled, and their progressive spirit, missionary zeal, and 
 rapid adaptation to American ideas have already made 
 them a power in the religious and political develop- 
 ment of the Northwest. 
 
 The Swedish Lutherans have their headquarters 
 at Rock Island, where their most successful literary 
 institution is located. The Norwegians centre around 
 Minneapolis, where they have flourishing schools. In 
 some of the newer States the Scandinavians constitute 
 half the population, and the character and extent of 
 their influence may be judged from the inflexible op- 
 position of their legislators, which saved North Dakota 
 from the infamous toils of the Louisiana Lottery. 
 
 The numerical strength of the Lutheran commun- 
 ion, which has always stood in the lead of the European 
 Protestant bodies, and which, by its 44,000,000 adher- 
 ents, still outnumbers them all, its prestige as a grand 
 historic Church, and its possession of a clearly-defined, 
 comprehensive and rock-ribbed creed, which has borne 
 the brunt of many centuries and which strikes its roots 
 deep into Apostolic Christianity — these place it among 
 our great National Churches. 
 
 What will be its future growth and what its con- 
 tribution to the development of this mighty Nation, are 
 
230 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 questions of momentous interest not only to Lutherans, 
 but to all American patriots and all American Chris- 
 tians. The situation is full of hope. The prospect is 
 inspiring. 
 
 That this Church has elements of weakness, that 
 the extension of her influence will be at the price of 
 struggles and trials, is not to be denied. It is not the 
 law of Christian forces to achieve triumphs without 
 conflicts. Via Crucis, via Lucis! 
 
 Yet the discouragements besetting the Lutheran 
 body are less serious than those of some others. It 
 lacks, indeed, the vigorous organization of the Metho- 
 dists, the outward unity of the Episcopalians, the prop- 
 agandist zeal of the Baptists, and the social promi- 
 nence and wealth of the Presbyterians ; yet, in compari- 
 son with these, it holds a vantage ground which has led 
 well-informed men outside the body to speak of "the 
 Lutheran backbone of this country." 
 
 Its future prosperity might be argued from its 
 rapid conquests in the recent past. No other church 
 has had to confront such obstacles, and }et no other 
 has in the last forty years shown such a ratio of prog- 
 ress. In many districts, both in the East and in the far 
 West, it has gained more within a quarter of a century 
 than all the other Evangelical churches combined. A 
 net increase of 2,400 congregations in ten years is evi- 
 dence of a powerful vitality. 
 
 If, notwithstanding storms of adversity unknown 
 to other Churches, she has steadily progressed; if in 
 her poverty of outward resources and equipments she 
 has startled the public mind by her prosperity and 
 
THE LUTHERANS. 231 
 
 power ; what may ihe not be expected to accomplish, 
 since the most favorable change has come over her out- 
 ward condition, and a corresponding improvement has 
 taken place in her self-consciousness, her esprit du 
 corps, and her realization of the opportunities and the 
 mission which confront her in this country? 
 
 The Lutheran Church has an infallible guarantee 
 of success in the fact that she is rooted and grounded 
 in the Faith ; that she rests firmly on a body of Evan- 
 gelical doctrine covering the whole sphere of Christian 
 thought and life. 
 
 Ideas rule the world. Moral forces must ulti- 
 mately gain sway over mankind. Truth is the only 
 invincible power on earth. The word of the Lord en- 
 dureth forever. And a system which is nothing less 
 than a scientific exhibition and definition of scriptural 
 truth may be counted on as mighty spiritual force. 
 The consciousness of the possession of truth begets a 
 confidence, an enthusiasm, and an energy which make 
 the onward march of a religious body irresistible and 
 illimitable. 
 
 The doctrines which the Lutheran Church teaches 
 have stood the test of every conceivable form of oppo- 
 sition. And they are the same to-day as when they 
 changed the face of Europe in the sixteenth century ; 
 the same, substantially, as when they conquered the 
 Roman Empire from the Euphrates to the wall of 
 Hadrian. 
 
 While recognizing that the expressions and adap- 
 tations of the Gospel vary with the progress of culture 
 and civilization, the Lutherans have no idea that the 
 
232 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 truth itself ever changes, and they cast no such impu- 
 tations upon inspired teachings as are impHed in the 
 claim that only after eighteen centuries is the human 
 mind able to reach its correct interpretation. 
 
 The Lutherans know what they believe. And 
 whatever remains for them to do in order to attain the 
 highest efficiency in church work, they have not first 
 to settle the principles or limits of their creed. Not a 
 voice or a whisper is heard for creed revision. Neither 
 have they any place for a "new theology." A new the- 
 ology they consider a demand for a new Bible. 
 
 But ideas must be promulgated. The seed-corns 
 of truth must be scattered over broad acres, and not 
 husbanded in ancient and imposing garners. Harvests 
 grow from industry and toil. The conservatism of the 
 Lutheran body is so marked that its movements often 
 seem tardy, and its aggressions, compared with others, 
 seem behindhand. It may be because of their race 
 characteristics that Lutherans have not generally been 
 classed with the most progressive. 
 
 They are not always at the front. It falls some- 
 times to their lot faithfully to tarry by the stuff, while 
 their more bustling brethren go down to the battle. 
 Their conservatism is, however, the conservatism of 
 stability, not of stagnation. They are not character- 
 ized by progress without permanence, neither by per- 
 manance without progress ; but combining the two 
 principles, their first concern is to have a solid, im- 
 movable foundation, and then they build on it, slowly 
 it may be, but surely and forever. They may not plant 
 missions as rapidly as some others, but once firmly 
 
THE LUTHERANS. 233 
 
 planted their missions are wont to have a steady and 
 fixed growth. 
 
 The Year-Books of some prominent denomina- 
 tions contain a cohimn for extinct congregations, one 
 of them reporting annually one-third as many churches 
 expired as were newly organized ; another one-half as 
 many. Lutherans have no such statistics. 
 
 Along with obstinacy of conviction the Lutherans 
 are generally endowed with a staying genius, a per- 
 sistence of purpose, and a power of endurance that is 
 sure to bring them in due time to the foremost rank. 
 
 It may have taken a little while for these steady- 
 going people to become fully alive to the rapidity and 
 the immensity of our country's expansion, and to real- 
 ize the openings and the responsibilities for Christian 
 evangelization ; but they have undoubtedly been 
 aroused, and it is by no means granted that they are 
 less active than most others in missionary labors, al- 
 though their operations are no doubt less demonstra- 
 tive and less conspicuous. 
 
 In the amount of funds expended, and the number 
 of missionaries and churches generously supported by 
 wealthy Boards, there is no comparison with Metho- 
 dists or Presbyterians ; but when it comes to results, 
 the margin is with the Lutheran to an extent that is 
 credited only by well-informed Missionary Superin- 
 tendents. 
 
 It is not difficult to account for this. Apart from 
 the acceptability of the Lutheran form of Christianity 
 to the general public, the relations of the Lutheran 
 body to the best elements of our foreign-born popula- 
 
234 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 tion give it a matchless advantage over other bodies. 
 All over the land Lutherans are organizing congrega- 
 tions by the hundred and by the thousand, composed 
 of the best blood of Europe. 
 
 Undoubtedly immigration brings to our shores 
 some undesirable elements, and this fact has strength- 
 ened the nativistic and political antipathy to foreigners 
 in general ; but impartial and discriminating minds will 
 not care to compromise their claims to intelligence by 
 denying that a large proportion of the immigration of 
 the past forty years is intellectually and morally up to 
 the American standard. 
 
 The stream which has poured in from the German 
 and the Scandinavian States represents as high and 
 pure a civilization as is to be found on the planet. 
 These people have had their training in the best educa- 
 tional systems of the world, and they have had a course 
 of the soundest religious instruction ; such, indeed, as 
 finds no parallel in our public schools. 
 
 It is the rankest sort of ignorance that indulges in 
 the wholesale denunciation of our foreign-born fellow- 
 citizens. Let a man read the signs of our commercial 
 and banking houses, study the Congressional Directory, 
 ascertain the personnel of the foremost American jour- 
 nals and universities, and inquire into the nativity of 
 such names as Ericsson, Lieber, Damrosch, Agassiz, 
 Schurz, and Schaff, and it may dawn upon him that the 
 foreigner is not intrinsically inferior to the American. 
 
 Some discrimination is observed where the for- 
 eigners are either Englishmen or Scotchmen. Com- 
 munities or churches made up of these are at once 
 
THE LUTHERANS. 235 
 
 recognized as being about as good as Americans ; but 
 when communities or churches speak German or 
 Swedish, then, forsooth, they are nothing but for- 
 eigners ! 
 
 The value of these foreigners as ecclesiastical ma- 
 terial is, however, keenly appreciated by the Mission- 
 ary Agents and Bishops of other denominations, who 
 are vying with each other to appropriate it. Finding 
 them wedded to the Lutheran Church, in which they 
 were reared, and in which alone they feel themselves 
 properly at home, they testify with one voice that these 
 multitudes offer to the Lutheran body a field for 
 Church Extension such as opens to no other church. 
 
 A Presbyterian journal in Cincinnati recently said : 
 "Undoubtedly we are getting, by immigration, much 
 of the best blood of Germany. These immigrants are 
 mostly Protestants, and by their intelligence, thrift, and 
 numbers, are becoming a great power in our land. The 
 Lutheran Church, being the Church of their fathers, 
 stands nearest to them, and can reach and fold them 
 best." Similar testimony to the sterling virtues of 
 Germans and Scandinavians is continually given in the 
 denominational and independent religious press. 
 
 It has been charged that they are not Prohibition- 
 ists, yet the document most widely circulated in the 
 Iowa Prohibition campaign was a German sermon of 
 the late Dr. Sihler on the "Sauf-Teufel," and it is well 
 known that but for the support of the solid Scandi- 
 navian Lutheran vote, Prohibition would not have tri- 
 umphed in Kansas and the Dakotas. 
 
 Along with the extraordinary advantage of having 
 
236 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 this great mass predisposed to their Church, the Luth- 
 erans have also the singular advantage of being able 
 to furnish religious services to each nationality in its 
 own tongue, having a ministry capable of ofificiating in 
 English, German, French, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, 
 Bohemian, Polish, Hungarian, or whatever may be the 
 nationality. There are also periodical publications in 
 some ten different languages. 
 
 Thus the weakness arising from the diversity of 
 language and nationality is more than counterbalanced 
 by the Pentecostal endowment of tongues, which en- 
 ables this Church alone to offer the Gospel in his ver- 
 nacular to every European that wanders to our shores. 
 The current for English is at the same time so strong 
 that the lapse of a generation may suffice to Anglicize 
 the whole body. 
 
 An impression prevails that these citizens of for- 
 eign extraction offer strenuous opposition to our lan- 
 guage and institutions ; that they form an un-American 
 element, whose adherence to the ideas and traditions 
 of the Fatherland renders them incapable of sustaining 
 any marked share in our national development. 
 
 This imputation rests on no foundation of fact. It 
 assumes, too, that these people are too obtuse to rec- 
 ognize the conditions of progress and prominence for 
 their own posterity. The attitude of the Lutherans on 
 the Bennett law has been interpreted as hostility to the 
 English language, and confounded with the opposition 
 of the Roman Catholics to our system of public schools. 
 Both are unwarranted assumptions. 
 
 The Lutherans in Wisconsin, who always cheer- 
 
THE LUTHERANS. 237 
 
 fully pay their part of the public school fund, and who, 
 even where they constitute a large majority, have 
 never asked for a dollar in support of their private 
 schools, raised this simple issue : Whether the State 
 was justified in thrusting its iron hand into schools sus- 
 tained exclusively by private means? And not only a 
 majority of Wisconsin voters, but the most enlightened 
 public opinion throughout the country sustained the 
 Lutheran position. 
 
 The maintenance of these parish schools, in which 
 some 200,000 children receive annually a course of re- 
 ligious as well as secular instruction, is a feature of 
 phenomenal strength to the Lutherans. 
 
 Sunday-schools are kept up, and they are gener- 
 ally large and efficient ; but the dribble of religious in- 
 struction doled out in these once a week, often by 
 incompetent teachers, does not satisfy the German and 
 Scandinavian idea of thoroughness. And with the 
 popular doctrinal laxity and the prevalence of skeptical 
 thought, it becomes a serious question whether the 
 multitude can be held to Christianity without a more 
 thorough indoctrination of the young than now obtains 
 in our American churches. 
 
 The Lutherans have everything to gain and noth- 
 ing to lose from the erection of the school-house along- 
 side of the church. Their secular instruction, even, is 
 not inferior to that of the common schools. The fact 
 that their pupils, as a rule, master two languages, while 
 other children speak but one. ought alone to silence the 
 cavils of prejudice. 
 
 Systematic religious training is a universal charac- 
 
238 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 teristic of Lutheranism. The inculcation of right doc- 
 trine is regarded as of the highest importance. Cate- 
 chisation, so largely discarded elsewhere, is not only 
 retained but practiced with increasing fidelity by all 
 Lutheran pastors. 
 
 The attendance is not limited to the young, though 
 the classes are mostly constituted of these. Accepting 
 the orthodox view of total depravity, this Church 
 nevertheless holds that divine love broods over the 
 infant at its birth, and it takes it from the mother's 
 breast and seeks through baptism the initiation of a 
 spiritual life, which is thenceforward to receive the 
 constant fostering care alike of the natural and the spir- 
 itual mother. 
 
 Not only are the young by this method kept to a 
 large extent within the hallowing precincts of the 
 Church, which is not the case where they are left to 
 wait for the period of conversion, but the piety devel- 
 oped under the law of growth is likely to have a solidity 
 and a stability which no number of special or spasmodic 
 efforts is able to produce. The Lutheran standard of 
 religious life and practical morality is not excelled by 
 any other. 
 
 A Church that lays so much stress on heart culture 
 is not likely to neglect the interests of general culture, 
 as may be seen by the fact that besides the twenty-four 
 theological seminaries there are twenty-five colleges, 
 thirty-seven academies and eleven female seminaries. 
 Prosperous publishing houses are issuing an immense 
 amount of popular literature, including 128 periodicals, 
 forty-five of which are English and forty-two German. 
 
THE LUTHERANS. 239 
 
 Authorship in the broader sense has been com- 
 paratively hniited, yet the contributions to the periodi- 
 cal press and the publication of standard volumes from 
 the pen of such men as Schmucker, Krauth, Walther, 
 Jacobs. Weidner, \'alentine, Schodde and others, have 
 attracted national attention. Eminent Lutheran names 
 are found in scientific circles. And while the genius of 
 the Church does not encourage that pulpit oratory 
 which courts and commands notoriety, such preachers 
 as Demme, Stork, and Seiss have had few superiors 
 among our clergy. 
 
 Possessed of the essentials for effecting expansion 
 co-extensive with the limits of the country, and for 
 commanding an influence commensurate with such 
 growth, there is no reason why the Lutheran Chuch 
 should not at an early day become the most powerful 
 Evangelical body in the land, if she is correspondingly 
 in earnest, astir and aggressive. 
 
 And evidence of vigorous life and enthusiastic ac- 
 tivity abounds. Not less than 1,500 ministerial candi- 
 dates are now in various stages of preparation and 
 more than 1,200 missionaries, most of them without de- 
 pendence upon financial assistance, missionary work 
 being joined to their regular parochial duties, are plant- 
 ing new churches in almost every city and town 
 between the Atlantic and Pacific. An average of 550 
 new churches are erected annually, and it is a question 
 whether the Lutherans do not even now reach with the 
 ministrations of the Gospel more people than does any 
 other denomination. The number of their adherents in 
 this country has been placed as high as 7,000,000 souls. 
 
240 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 There are drawbacks and elements of weakness 
 clouding this encouraging outlook, but the surest 
 pledge of overcoming them is the general conscious- 
 ness of their existence. Nor let it be thought that the 
 activity spoken of is directed exclusively toward sec- 
 tarian propagandism. The hearty appreciation of the 
 humanity inculcated by the Gospel has developed a 
 zealous interest in the care of the fatherless and a gen- 
 erous provision for the afflicted. Though by no means 
 the wealthiest denomination, the support of some thirty 
 orphanages by the Lutheran Church gives her the palm 
 in this noblest form of Christian charity. 
 
 Here, then, is a community of vast numbers, pos- 
 sessed of a clear and a complete faith, characterized by 
 obstinate convictions, by conservative habits, by intelli- 
 gence in religious truth, by strict care for the young, 
 glorifying in the consciousness of a divine redemption, 
 equipped with the panoply of an army, which while it 
 contends for institutions and principles which have 
 come from heaven, contends with weapons adapted to 
 our people and our age ; and if there is less noise and 
 less demonstration in its battle than in that of some 
 others, it is because of its assured conviction of having 
 the truth, and its reliance upon the "feste Burg," the 
 eternal God, who has fore-ordained the victory to those 
 who are faithful to the trust. 
 
V. THE SOCIAL CONSCIENCE. 
 
 The battle is on. We are facing a grave social 
 crisis. Never before was witnessed so widespread an 
 awakening in regard to the moral needs and perils of 
 society. Never before did the daily life and the daily 
 lot of men give concern to so many benevolent hearts. 
 Never before were people in great numbers so willing 
 to devote themselves to the betterment of their kind. 
 Never before was there so much sympathy between 
 man and man, such consideration for the weak, such 
 indignation against the unjust, such a resolve to beat 
 down evil, to raise to higher levels our social life and 
 to effect a social regeneration. 
 
 This awakening, this widely diffused fellow-feel- 
 ing, this high resolve, is in itself a stage of improve- 
 ment — a testimony that we are not content with mater- 
 ial comforts or with general financial prosperity, but 
 that there is abroad a demand for higher ideals of the 
 commonweal, for nobler standards of public virtue, a 
 demand which in turn, like the prophet's voice of the 
 desert, is the forerunner of our redemption. Notable 
 movements towards this goal are already in evidence, 
 in the form of remedial institutions and legislative en- 
 actments. But institutions have a limited scope, and 
 there are things which the law cannot do, because it is 
 weak. A feeble outward check, it does not touch the 
 
 i6 (241) 
 
242 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 roots of depravity, and it cannot make men either hon- 
 est, or truthful, or pure, or sober. When the Sunday 
 newspaper protrudes from the deacon's coat pocket, as 
 he lifts the offerings, when the railroad director par- 
 takes of the Holy Communion, the very hour that hun- 
 dreds of his employees are running excursion trains, 
 our Sunday laws avail about as much as the Pope's 
 Bull against the Comet. Our patron has the legal bar- 
 riers of forty-four States restraining divorce, yet who- 
 ever desires to put away his wife and marry another 
 uniformly succeeds. 
 
 Verily, unless we can use a more effective weapon, 
 unless we can reach the springs of moral action, un- 
 less we can summon to our aid an inner spiritual 
 force which makes for righteousness, all institutional 
 and governmental measures for social betterment will 
 prove but a mockery. Human nature must be held 
 and impelled from within. The reform of the indi- 
 vidual depends on the awakening of his conscience, 
 on the excitement of a high purpose within him, on 
 his realization of responsibility. And men are reached 
 collectively by the same spiritual process. Man is a 
 social being. His life is united with the life of others, 
 his interests coalesce with those of his fellows. By a 
 law of our being men are associated in closest organic 
 relation of independence with each other, forming one 
 family, one community, one body, all sharing in a 
 measure a common condition, of honor or dishonor, 
 of happiness or misery, of innocence or guilt. We 
 are so inextricably bound together in communities, 
 that if one is touched, all are touched, if one suffers, 
 
THE SOCIAL CONSCIENCE. 243 
 
 all suffer, and as a rule all deserve to suffer. Carlyle, 
 in his execration of English royalty in the eighteenth 
 century, so far from sympathizing with their unfor- 
 tunate subjects, growls: "What business had the Eng- 
 lish people to have such rulers !'' 
 
 If public things go wrong we all share the respon- 
 sibility. If we have corrupt politicians we have pro- 
 duced them. If we have depraved journalism it is 
 because we patronize it. If we have Sunday profana- 
 tion it is because we, the people, wink at it. Every 
 festering sore is symptomatic of the general disorder. 
 
 It is pre-eminently in the moral sphere that our 
 solidarity appears. We are as to conscience members 
 one of another, vitally interrelated, each contributing 
 moral strength or weakness to the body, and con- 
 versely the body shedding moral strength or weakness 
 on the individual, making all the higher interests of 
 society contingent upon its corporate moral vigor. 
 Therefore, as we speak of the will of the people, the 
 mind of the people, the prejudice of the people, so 
 there is a conscience of the people acting with the 
 same majesty and might as the individual conscience, 
 restraining, coercing, impelling, smiting. This is a 
 basic truth underlying all social order, the universal 
 consciousness of right and wrong, the touch of nature 
 which makes the whole world kin. 
 
 Every movement for social reform must there- 
 fore primarily make its appeal to the moral manhood 
 of society, to the common categorical imperative. 
 With this power aroused and arrayed against the forces 
 of evil, we have enlisted a giant whose voice is thun- 
 
244 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 der, whose hand is omnipotence, whose tread is a more 
 dire deterrent to evil doers than all laws and prisons 
 and penalties. 
 
 The will of the people is the supreme power of 
 any community, and when that will is inspired by the 
 popular conscience, it is irresistible. The general 
 standard of morality accordingly rises or falls with 
 the demands of popular sentiment. Even the indi- 
 vidual who is not hampered by his own conscience is 
 held in check by that of the public. He dreads the 
 lash of popular indignation, where he would not hes- 
 itate to defy or outwit the law. 
 
 In the community where my childhood was passed 
 there was such reprobation of cards that those fond 
 of the game had to resort to the fields by moonlight 
 to escape detection. So also was dancing prohibited 
 by the social ban. The law prohibited neither. Fifty 
 years ago the bottle was as necessary as the sickle for 
 reaping the harvest, social drinking was universal, and 
 even the ordination of a minister, at least in New 
 England, required a bar adjacent to the church for 
 all comers. Such customs were stamped out not by 
 the enactment of laws, but by the fiat of the social 
 conscience, by the moral revulsion of the people, whose 
 judgment is final to all men courting public favor. 
 
 "We must pander somewhat to the moral ele- 
 ment," was the advice given in a New York political 
 convention by one of New York's greatest lawyers. 
 Dr. Little, speaking of legislators of every type, bad 
 and good, stupid and wily, says, "I have seen them 
 all with one accord bow before a serene, fearless, intel- 
 
THE SOCIAL CONSCIENCE. 245 
 
 ligent righteousness, seeking no aims but those of 
 God." 
 
 Here is an authority before whose mandates cower 
 the high and the mighty, as well as the humble and 
 the weak, a power which hedges society with thorns, 
 which copes with temptation, which is the shield of 
 woman's chastity and the only safeguard of man's, an 
 influence which smooths the path of virtue and makes 
 the way of transgressors hard, a sovereign specific for 
 social regeneration. 
 
 Why is it so dumb? Why is this beneficent power 
 so inactive, so inert? Why does it fail to smite the 
 monsters which prey on the public vitals? 
 
 From want of use like rusty armor it is not in 
 working order. Present conditions are most unfavor- 
 able to the healthy, vigorous action of the social con- 
 science. The din of modern life, the fierce rush and 
 excitement of business, the prevalent migration and 
 change of association, our desultory thinking, our ill- 
 assorted, ill-digested reading, combine to blunt its edge 
 and to block its action. All the energies of brain and 
 nerve are used up in material pursuits. 
 
 The collective conscience, like the individual con- 
 science, may be seized by lethargy or torpor. It may 
 fall into a state of suspended animation, as in the case 
 of Napoleon, who after he had dyed with blood every 
 stream of Europe and made a continent to resound with 
 the groans of the dying and of widows and orphans, 
 had the effrontery to assert "that in all his career he 
 had never done anything wrong." 
 
 Whatever the cause, the moral tone of a people 
 
246 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 may get very low, the moral vitality very sluggish. And 
 beyond question the most formidable obstruction in 
 the way of social amendment is not the opposition en- 
 countered, nor the undisguised devil, but popular 
 indif^^erence. 
 
 From this indifiference, from the benumbing, stu- 
 pefying influences of modern conditions, the public 
 needs to be aroused, to have powerful stimulants ad- 
 ministered to its moral sense. As public intelligence 
 can be promoted, public sympathy excited, public opin- 
 ion moulded, so can the public conscience be stirred 
 and the heart of the people swayed for the right as 
 by a rushing, mighty wind. And it has been well 
 said, the greatest need of our times is the quickening 
 of the popular conscience. 
 
 This organ is, indeed, so susceptible of excite- 
 ment and development as to give rise to the theory 
 that it is altogether an affair of education. And yet 
 just here yawns the chasm in our educational system. 
 
 All the higher interests of society are contingent 
 upon its corporate moral sense. Hence as we speak 
 of the will of the people, of the heart of the people, of 
 the judgment of the people, so there is a conscience 
 of the people acting with the same majesty and might 
 as the individual conscience, restraining, coercing, 
 smiting the multitude as a man's conscience smites 
 his personal self. This is an elemental basic truth 
 underlying all social order, a universal principle of 
 right and wrong, a general moral consciousness, which 
 all men share in common, a touch of nature which 
 makes all kin. 
 
THE SOCIAL CONSCIENCE. 247 
 
 Social betterment must reckon, therefore, first of 
 all with the social conscience. It must appeal to the 
 normal sense of mankind, to those elemental moral dis- 
 tinctions recognized by all human beings. It must 
 challenge the elemental conscience of nature which 
 makes the whole world kin. With this power aroused 
 and arrayed against the forces of evil we have enlisted 
 a giant whose voice is the voice of thunder, whose 
 hand is the hand of omnipotence, whose action grinds 
 to powder whatever opposes it, a power more dreaded 
 than all laws and prisons and penalties. 
 
 Moral training has for the most part been cast 
 out from our public schools. Every faculty except 
 the highest and the noblest is roused and exercised, 
 evolved and invigorated. The crowning faculty, that 
 which God designed to animate and govern all others, 
 is contemptuously ignored, and unless its education 
 can be secured elsewhere, our youth will be graduated 
 from our schools as moral imbeciles. Granted that 
 the primary purpose of schools maintained by the 
 state is to rear good citizens, how is good citizenship 
 possible without the cultivation of the moral faculty? 
 
 Conscience is not an automatic machine. It is 
 neither self-acting, nor self-illuminating, and the first 
 requisite for its development is intelligence. As the 
 judge of moral conduct it requires accurate and full 
 information to make a sound verdict. The right must 
 be made apparent to the people's eye if men are to 
 be rescued from the wrong side, and constrained to 
 right action. It is never dead but it may be sleeping, 
 and it has to be awakened by letting in the light. The 
 
248 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 facts must be furnished, the principles expounded and 
 the logic be demonstrated to the people. Then the 
 popular conscience will muster its latent energies and 
 strike with a momentum that will make titanic evil 
 writhe in mortal agony. 
 
 Conscience must be taught not only to act, but 
 to act rightly. It is not an infallible monitor, and if 
 uninformed or misinformed it is liable to make terrible 
 havoc. The engine without a headlight may wreck 
 the human freight which it was designed to bear safely 
 to its destination. Some of the direst wrongs ever 
 inflicted on mankind resulted from a misguided con- 
 science. 
 
 The moral sense may be perverted by an uncer- 
 tain sound from the pulpit, by either false teaching or 
 by an undue stress on certain doctrines sound in them- 
 selves. There has been such a one-sided presentation 
 of the divine fatherhood, the people have been taught 
 so much of the kindness of God and of the redeeming 
 qualities of man, that many have concluded : God is 
 too good to damn a man and man is too good to be 
 damned — a theory of the divine government which 
 reduces it to a vast scheme of senility, securing immun- 
 ity to evil-doers. Such a theory deflects the popular 
 conscience from its normal function as a power which 
 makes for righteousness — a function which unites with 
 nature and revelation in making judgment and justice 
 the habitation of God's throne and proclaiming that 
 though hand join in hand the wicked shall not go un- 
 punished. 
 
 Misguided by a false theology, conscience is mis- 
 
THE SOCIAL CONSCIENCE. 249 
 
 led into false sympathy and casts the mantle of charity 
 over bad men whose punishment justice demands. An 
 overwrought humanitarianism has developed quite a 
 capacity for discovering the extenuating circumstances 
 of a crime, apologizing for all sorts of scoundrelism, 
 making pets of double-dyed criminals, breaking the 
 force of justice and relieving the offender of those 
 compunctions of remorse which are the only hope of 
 his reformation. 
 
 The pulpit is much at fault in not aiming, as it 
 once did, directly at the conscience, in not emphasizing 
 its paramount place in the religious life. We have 
 vast aggregates of emotional religion and of formal 
 religion without an element of conscience in either of 
 them. After preaching humanitarianism for a gen- 
 eration let it once more preach righteousness. 
 
 The Gospel is not all charity, humanity, altruism, 
 giving to everyone that asks, turning the other cheek 
 also for a blow. From foundation to dome, from 
 centre to periphery it is righteousness, inexorable 
 moral principle. It teaches not only love but hatred 
 as well, the abhorrence of wrong, impurity, treachery, 
 untruth, lust. It invents no mild designations for ras- 
 cally conduct, no oily palliations for atrocious wrongs, 
 no soothing opiates for inward qualms. 
 
 There is no better stimulus for the popular con- 
 science than a sound religious faith. Revelation in- 
 spires moral convictions. Faith begets moral obliga- 
 tion and moral responsibility. It was by their per- 
 suasion of the invisible and their assurance of a future 
 that the Elders of Israel achieved a good report for 
 
250 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 moral heroism. The vision of the unseen is a mighty 
 spur in the struggle with what is seen. It is the undis- 
 puted testimony of history that the decline of popular 
 integrity and public morality go hand in hand with the 
 decadence of a sturdy religious faith. 
 
 To bring forth the most effective action the col- 
 lective conscience we should give it our fullest confi- 
 dence. A majority of the people are at heart not 
 immoral or corrupt. They prefer truth to lying, hon- 
 esty to fraud, decency to impurity. Let them have 
 credit for this. They can be taught to know the devil 
 when they see him. They can be made to understand 
 that not the zeal of missionaries, but the greed of 
 merchants was responsible for the Chinese horror. 
 
 The apathetic mass can be stirred. The unthink- 
 ing can be made to think, to see things with a true 
 perspective, to choose right standards. They must not 
 be left undisturbed in their devotion to material gains, 
 in their absorption in pursuits, whose intrinsic value 
 is paltry indeed. The supreme importance of the right 
 has to be inculcated, and along with it its irreconcil- 
 able antagonism to the wrong. The superiority of the 
 spiritual over the material needs to be kept constantly 
 before the public eye. Honor, justice, purity, charity, 
 truth must have precedence in life. Man's dignity and 
 man's destiny must be emphasized and the pledge of 
 both is his moral outfit. Right living is better than 
 rich living. Giving is more blessed than receiving, 
 and kind hearts are more than coronets. 
 
 The public mind must be brought to an intelligent 
 apprehension of the specific evils from which society 
 
THE SOCIAL CONSCIENCE. 25I 
 
 needs redemption. The pest and plague of the com- 
 munity, the real monsters to be overthrown, under 
 whatever giiise they appear, are lust and greed, which 
 form an infernal partnership for a vast business and 
 colossal gains from the ruin of the morals and the 
 happiness of the people. .And as long as the public 
 conscience is not sufficiently instructed to direct its 
 artillery against this combined enemy, it may as well 
 fire into the air. The solidarity of mankind must come 
 to be better apjireciated. the sense of fellowship must 
 be fostered, and the reciprocal obligations which it 
 imposes acknowledged, the debt which every man owes 
 to every man. "My" and "mine" must give way to 
 "our" and "ours," and a man's service to society must 
 be shown to be as sacred and as imperative as his duty 
 to himself and family. The health, the education, the 
 morals of the public make a demand on his time and 
 means second to no other demand. 
 
 The employer is under bonds to his employees, 
 which are not discharged by the payment of proper 
 wages. He owes to them before God an enlightened 
 and disinterested consideration which enjoins upon him 
 the expenditure of a proportion of his profits on their 
 mental and moral improvement, and this obligation 
 the public conscience is able to enforce. In a question 
 of common interests or private advantage, of the gen- 
 eral good or personal convenience, selfishness becomes 
 a crime against society, and the man who barters or 
 wrecks the common weal for personal gain must be 
 branded with infamy by the moral rebuke of his 
 neighbors. 
 
252 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 Let US once have large bodies of men who indi- 
 vidually and collectively will accept and insist upon the 
 principle that we are members one of another, and the 
 most selfish and sordid creature must bow to the pub- 
 lic sentiment which they create. 
 
 There is no getting away from it. You are your 
 brother's keeper, the keeper of your neighbor, of your 
 neighborhood. You are responsible for its rnoral con- 
 dition. You have a reprehensible complicity in much 
 of the vice and crime which surround you. And this 
 responsibility rises with men's position, wealth or cul- 
 ture, so that public men, magistrates, judges, employ- 
 ers, publishers and editors have a tremendous account 
 to render. 
 
 Greatest of all is the responsibility of Christians 
 who by every principle of their profession must shed 
 a purifying influence on the moral atmosphere. On 
 them, above all others, it is incumbent to have a sense 
 of oneness, a public spirit, to be the servants of their 
 fellows, to live out of themselves, to minister rather 
 than to be ministered to, to exemplify human brother- 
 hood, to be a universal priesthood, offering continually 
 sacrifices for another. Even as our Master spared 
 not Himself, so is it laid upon us to be servants of all, 
 to live for the public, for society, for the church and 
 for the state, to stimulate and to safeguard the public 
 virtue especially by the firmness and incorruptibility 
 of our own. 
 
 It is not enough for us to exert ourselves individ- 
 ually for social betterment. Individual efiforts at reform 
 are all but helpless and hopeless. This war requires 
 
THE SOCIAL CONSCIENCE. 253 
 
 the joining of forces. We must find a way of uniting 
 the virtuous element in a sentiment of self-devotion 
 to the general good. As the entire people are to be 
 kept in mind, so they must be acted on by the full 
 weight of the body. The enlightened public conscience 
 must be organized into a popular movement. A social 
 trust must be formed capitalizing all voluntary obliga- 
 tions and sacrifices in behalf of all the moral interests 
 of the community. 
 
 The most conspicuous trend of the day is the com- 
 bination of industrial and commercial interests, the 
 joint control of vast properties. And we are con- 
 fronted with yet bolder theories looking to municipal 
 and state ownership of all properties and interests — 
 a system of universal co-operation, vesting every inter- 
 est in one colossal corporation. What may come of 
 this daring communistic ideal no one knows, but were 
 this stupendous scheme realized, and could it at the 
 same time be informed by a corporate conscience, were 
 this huge public administration to be permeated and 
 dominated by righteousness, safeguarding tlie inherent 
 and inalienable dignity of man, breathing the spirit 
 of kindness, of sympathy, of human brotherhood, such 
 a scheme might be welcomed as the dawn of the mil- 
 lennium. Whether such a consolidation is practicable 
 or not in the material sphere, it is practicable in the 
 spiritual sphere, and every consideration calls upon 
 us to consolidate moral power, to marshal under one 
 banner all the forces which make higher standards of 
 social life. 
 
 The popular conscience fails often to act eflfec- 
 
254 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 tively because its service is not appreciated, its help 
 is not invoked. It is not trusted with the task of 
 moral reform. We show more confidence in arm of 
 flesh, we betake ourselves to the state, to the sword, 
 as if society were a physical machine acted on by brute 
 force, and not a spiritual organism responding to spir- 
 itual influence. Moral victories are won only by moral 
 forces and moral processes. We seem to forget that 
 the moral law is a vital part of the universe and that 
 conscience is its executive, the heaven-ordained instru- 
 ment for its enforcement. In this province carnal 
 weapons do not answer, they are unavailing, out of 
 place. Human nature resents and defies physical com- 
 pulsion, making it often but an incitement to evil. For 
 moral agents must be wrought upon by moral suasion, 
 by moral ideas which touch the springs of action. The 
 appeal must be to the conscience, which is the mouth- 
 piece of God. Its action may be slower than police 
 machinery, but it is surer, more drastic, more power- 
 ful and more abiding than all outward compulsion. 
 
 For conscience is allied to the eternal throne. It 
 makes us co-workers with God. It joins us with un- 
 seen spiritual agencies, and no coalition of evil can 
 withstand the combined moral forces of heaven and 
 earth. What we need to-day is confidence in truth as 
 the conservative and regenerative force of society, truth 
 indissolubly linked with conscience and the Holy Ghost. 
 Such confidence begets the hope of victory so inspiring 
 to a struggle, it kindles enthusiasm for the right with- 
 out which every onset wavers, it arms men with the con- 
 
THE SOCIAL CONSCIENCE. 255 
 
 sciousness of power, it inspires them with the courage 
 and the conquering temper which bears clown all oppo- 
 sition. It delivers us from the attitude of an apologetic 
 and a cowardly defensive, and puts us on the aggres- 
 sive, with the unswerving, indomitable resolve that 
 whatever is vile in business, in politics, in amusements, 
 in literature, in art, in social life, shall perish from the 
 earth. The hosts of evil have no such support, no 
 such confidence. They are fighting a losing battle, and 
 with the public conscience in arms against them they 
 are made to realize it. 
 
 For right is right, as God is God, 
 
 And right the day must win; 
 To doubt, would be disloyalty, 
 
 To falter, would be sin. 
 
 What is it, my friends, that saved the Union? 
 Was it our superior generals, our larger armies, our 
 inexhaustible resources? What in the darkest days 
 of the awful conflict saved the President from despair 
 and held his great commander to a continuance of the 
 frightful slaughter? 
 
 General Grant, in his "Memoirs," testifies : "I 
 believe there was never a day when the President did 
 not think that, in some w'ay or other, a cause so just 
 as ours would come out triumphant." 
 
 And Air. Lincoln in this, as in so many other 
 things, represented and shared the heart of the people. 
 They had come to the conviction that to them was 
 committed the wisest and most beneficent form of gov- 
 ernment ever vouchsafed to mankind, and with this 
 
256 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 conviction all aflame they were resolved that the last 
 drop of the nation's blood must flow sooner than let 
 the Republic fall. Behind our magnificent armies it 
 was the enlightened and aroused conscience of the 
 nation that saved the Union. 
 
VI. THE VALUE OF ECCLESIASTICAL 
 HISTORY TO THE EVANGELICAL LU- 
 THERAN CHURCH. 
 
 SEMINARY INAUGURAL, 1 874. 
 [From Quarterly Review.] 
 
 The Church has clone wisely in giving a course of 
 Ecclesiastical history to those who are to become her 
 future preachers. Christianity is founded on historical 
 events and the living facts of history are the best prac- 
 tical illustrations of its nature, character and aims. 
 
 Next to Revelation, no realm of truth has richer 
 instruction than the department of History. It is 
 largely necessary to a full understanding of Revela- 
 tion. It is the best commentary on Revelation. It is 
 the human side of Revelation. It is the strongest proof 
 and confirmation of Revelation. It is even capable, 
 like Revelation, of casting light upon the future with 
 a voice as truly prophetic as any that ever fell from 
 the lips of inspired seer. 
 
 ******** 
 
 To the Evangelical Lutheran, Ecclesiastical His- 
 tory is of especial and peculiar interest. Identified 
 with a Church that effected the greatest and most ben- 
 eficent revolution of modern times ; a Church that has 
 ever stood in the van of the great Protestant host; a 
 
 17 (257) 
 
258 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 Church which undeniably holds its place in history as 
 the largest in numbers, the most scriptural in doctrine,, 
 most evangelical in life, he may find himself amid 
 surroundings and teachings, which, if he be ignorant 
 of her true historic position, will lead him to very hum- 
 ble and very false views of that great body of Chris- 
 tendom of which he forms a part. Our preachers and; 
 our people need at this day nothing so much as a thor- 
 ough acquaintance with the Church of their fathers. 
 It would immeasurably heighten their appreciation of 
 her and stimulate in their hearts that sacred reverence 
 for parentage and worth, which is one of the broadest 
 requirements of the Ten Commandments. 
 
 To surrender a birth-right for a mess of pottage, 
 is not a transaction so unheard of as to awaken much^ 
 surprise. The stupid and sacrilegious bargain of Esau 
 who despised the inestimable honors to which he was 
 born, and exchanged them for a low, momentary grat- 
 ification, has been repeated again and again by poor- 
 human frailty, ever more intent on present gain than, 
 on future good. And if here and there in some prom- 
 inent localities, the tempting pottage has come in the 
 shape of large numbers, greater wealth, or more fash- 
 ionable associations, and a few Lutherans hungering 
 for these things have ignobly bartered away their birth- 
 right, it ought to excite no astonishment and possibly 
 no regret. But it may be safely stated, that rarely has^ 
 such an unworthy exchange been made by men, wha- 
 had any considerable knowledge of the true char- 
 acter of their church, or of her honored place in his- 
 tory. Even Esau would have held on to his birth- 
 
THE VALUE OF ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 259 
 
 right, in spite of his hunger, liad he known its full 
 value and significance. 
 
 We propose to consider: 
 
 THE VALUE OF ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY TO THE 
 LUTHERAN CHURCH. 
 
 It teaches, 
 
 I. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF HER EXISTENCE. 
 
 There exists an organization, with all the equip- 
 ments of a magnificent hierarchy, with the prestige of 
 a hoary antiquity, with an unbroketL undisputed, out- 
 ward connection with the men who established Chris- 
 tianity throughout the world. This organization has 
 always claimed to be the Church of Christ, not a frac- 
 tion or a component part merely of the Catholic 
 Church, but the Church itself, the alone universal 
 Christian Church, outside of which there is no salva- 
 tion. Her right to this title was never called in ques- 
 tion before the Lutheran Church sprang into existence 
 and wrested from her control the best part of Chris- 
 tendom. 
 
 What authority was there for such a procedure? 
 What warrant for this revolt from the Catholic body? 
 What ground have Luther and his followers for any 
 claims to be a true Church ? What confidence do her 
 pretensions deserve? Men have renounced her pale 
 and cast themselves into the arms of the Romish 
 Church under the persuasion that she alone possessed 
 authority ; yielding to the assumptions that by virtue 
 of a true historical succession she was essentially and 
 alone the Church of God. 
 
26o THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 Without the Hght of History, these questions 
 might be perplexing enough. It would, perhaps, even 
 be difficult to prove the answer of an illiterate Lutheran 
 layman who, when asked by a Catholic priest, "Where 
 was your church before the Reformation?" replied, 
 ■"Where your hands were before you washed them." 
 
 The services of Ecclesiastical History are here in- 
 valuable. From it we learn, in the first instance, what 
 was the primitive Church founded by Jesus Christ, out 
 of what elements and by what agencies she was brought 
 into being, what constituted her charter, and what were 
 her characteristics. It shows us, in the second place, 
 how at a later period the constitution of the Church 
 was gradually subverted, her vital elements, one by 
 one, displaced, her charter violated, and her whole 
 character changed. The faithful, impartial pen of his- 
 tory tells us how, when the sacred vessel to which the 
 Redeemer had entrusted the precious cargo of salva- 
 tion had been loaded down with a vast heap of foreign 
 freight, her compass disjointed, her instructions ig- 
 nored, her course altered, and her whole interior from 
 stem to stern and from keel to cabin polluted, there 
 arose, along with Luther, a body of men who had taken 
 passage, and who, having long contemplated, with 
 alarm and sorrow, the inevitable wreck to which they 
 were drifting, determined to rescue the grand old 
 craft, to steer by the positive instructions of the Mas- 
 ter, to cast overboard the weight of debris that was 
 sinking the vessel, to cleanse out the foul matter that 
 was rotting her timbers, and bring back the vessel into 
 her heavenward course. 
 
THE VALUE OF ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 261 
 
 At her outset, for instance, the Church had Jesus 
 Christ for her sole, abiding and unchangeable Head, 
 and the highest authority ever assumed by those who 
 held their commission immediately from Him, was 
 that of servants charged with the oversight of the flock, 
 but disclaiming all lordship over God's heritage. Be- 
 fore the Reformation, however, things had come to 
 such a pass, that the Bishop of Rome claimed to be the 
 absolute head of the Church, from whose authority 
 there was no appeal, and who dispensed the rewards 
 and penalties of eternity after his own pleasure. 
 
 Again, in the beginning, God had provided "one 
 Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus," 
 to whom access was so free and immediate that the 
 chief of sinners might unreservedly approach Him. 
 Now, men were denied all access to this very Mediator, 
 except through the Priest, the Church, and the Virgin, 
 
 The Church had been entrusted with the Holy 
 Scriptures as the fountain of light for the soul, as the 
 charter for her government, the armor for her tri- 
 umphs, and the infallible guide for doctrine and prac- 
 tice to the individual believer. But this light had been 
 entirely removed from the people, and in the darkness 
 which ensued the blind had none but the blind to lead 
 them. 
 
 Among the clearest teachings of the Gospel is the 
 principle, that prayer is to be offered to God alone, and 
 the promise of salvation is given to every one that calls 
 upon the name of the Lord. But, for a prayer-hearing 
 God, Rome had substituted a prayer-hearing Virgin 
 
262 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 and a number of prayer-hearing Saints, who were ex- 
 pected to bring relief to needy and weary souls. 
 
 The office of priestly intercession for others had 
 been devolved upon the whole body of believers, Christ 
 having constituted His people "a Kingdom of Priests," 
 but this chartered privilege, inherent in all saving faith, 
 was wrested from individual believers and restricted 
 to a special order of men who used it mostly for the 
 ends of filthy lucre. 
 
 The offer of forgiveness had, by specific instruc- 
 tion, been made universal, on condition of heart repent- 
 ance and faith in Christ, but this method of salvation 
 had been largely abolished, and the policy of indul- 
 gences which made sin and salvation marketable com- 
 modities, had taken its place. 
 
 The Redeemer had most positively inculcated the 
 truth that His Kingdom was not of this world, but 
 under the Papacy it had become so completely identi- 
 fied with the world, and so thoroughly penetrated witli 
 its spirit, that it exercised a grinding tyranny over all 
 the civilized governments in Christendom. 
 
 So completely had the Church, in all its vital ele- 
 ments, receded from her primitive and divinely or- 
 dained character, that, externally she could no longer 
 be recognized as the Church which Jesus Christ had 
 founded, the Church of the first centuries of the Chris- 
 tian era, while inwardly "the whole head was sick, and 
 the whole heart faint." 
 
 Every history of that age. Catholic as well as 
 Protestant, admits the fearful degeneracy into which 
 
THE VALUE OF ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 263 
 
 the whole ecclesiastical organism, pope, prelates and 
 priests, had sunk. "The evil could not become 
 greater." The Church had ceased to command any 
 respect or exert any moral influence over the masses. 
 The enlightened mind of the age turned away from her 
 with disgust, and her noblest representatives had, for 
 centuries, felt the crying need of a thorough reforma- 
 tion in head and members. Three consecutive coun- 
 -cils, at Pisa, at Constance, and Basle, had been called 
 •expressly with a view of doing something to arrest the 
 growing corruption and the rapid decay of the Church ; 
 .and, though led by such able spirits as Gerson, Nicho- 
 las of Cusa, Lx)uis D'AUemand, Gregory of Heimburg, 
 and .tineas Sylvius Picollomini, their efforts proved 
 uniformly and utterly abortive. Luther, therefore, 
 without a thought of withdrawing from the existing 
 hierarchical organization, without the remotest idea of 
 establishing an independent denomination or sect, and 
 without any hostility to the Pope, or any purpose to 
 disturb the Church, simply entered upon the work, 
 wdiich many brave and able minds had openly at- 
 tempted before him, but which by reason of the appall- 
 ing obstacles, and the terrific opposition to be encoun- 
 tered, they had abandoned in despair. Where others 
 -had failed, he succeeded, comprehending more clearly 
 than they the depth of the disorder, understanding 
 better, through personal experience, the nature of the 
 remedy, possessing the indomitable courage to defy 
 opposition, and the faith of an Apostle to make God 
 his helper. The triumph of his effort was not a de- 
 parture from the Church, but a return to her shining 
 
264 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 paths — a rebuilding upon her original foundation — a 
 reafhmiation of her true principles, a restoration of her 
 primitive purity, a reformation of her doctrine and 
 life. Jesus Christ was once more enthroned in the 
 Church as her sole Head and Sovereign Lord, and His 
 word replaced as the supreme authority for faith and 
 conduct. The old Gospel was again preached to the 
 world, calling men to repentance for their sins, pro- 
 claiming Christ as the one Mediator with God, guar- 
 anteeing justification through faith alone, abolishing all 
 worship except that offered to God in spirit and in 
 truth, rescuing from a usurping Order the privileges 
 of the universal priesthood of believers, and breaking 
 all the shackles which superstition had forged and 
 fastened around the necks of God's free-born children. 
 It was in the successful endeavor to effect these 
 changes, the general features of which had been long 
 and almost universally felt to be necessary, that the 
 Lutheran Church came into distinctive being. It was 
 the inexorable hostility to such a movement, on the 
 part of the Romish Hierarchy, which had for ages 
 controlled and enslaved the Church, that led to a sep- 
 aration of the two elements, the former contending for 
 the authority of Christ and His Gospel in His own 
 Church, and the inalienable liberty of all true members 
 of the Church, the other fighting for hierarchical as- 
 sumptions, for a corrupt and effete system of mechan- 
 ical religion and for the various infernal institutions 
 which oppress the conscience and hold captive the im- 
 mortal mind ; the former coming to bear the name of 
 
THE VALUE OF ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 265 
 
 the Evai\2:elical Lutheran Church, the latter the desig- 
 nation of Roman CathoHc. 
 
 A reformed Christianity owes to the Lutheran 
 Church its emancipation from papal bondage and me- 
 diaeval darkness. The free countries of the civilized 
 world recognized in Luther the champion of modem 
 liberty, and cannot deny, if they wished to, that it was 
 the principles maintained by the Evangelical Lutheran 
 Church, w'hich raised a continent from deep degradation 
 to a high pedestal of enlightenment and progress. She 
 has not only a sacred claim upon the esteem, the hon- 
 est pride and devotion to her children, but has won for 
 herself an immortal title to the gratitude and respect 
 of her sister denominations and to the praises of 
 mankind. 
 
 n. ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY SETTLES THE QUESTION OF 
 LUTHERAN IDENTITY. 
 
 Serious effects are likely to be produced upon all 
 social institutions by the lapse of years. The name 
 may be retained long after the substance has been lost. 
 Of this the Catholic Church affords a striking illustra- 
 tion. She had given up so many purely Christian ele- 
 ments, she had admitted so many foreign ingredients, 
 she had substituted so many human inventions for 
 divine ordinances, that the Hierarchy which still bore 
 her honored name in the thirteenth and fourteenth cen- 
 turies had but little to identify her with the Church of 
 the first ages of Christianity. It is doubtful whether 
 Paul and Peter, could they have seen the Papacy of that 
 age, would have recognized in it the Church which they 
 
266 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 took SO large a part in founding. The Romish Church, 
 at all events, would hardly have recognized them. 
 
 All churches not willing to follow blindly the as- 
 sumptions of self-constituted leaders, or to submit to 
 the arrogance of particular sections or fractions, are 
 forced from time to time to inquire into their ecclesias- 
 tical identity, to establish by historic facts the constitu- 
 ent elements that distinguish them from other eccle- 
 siastical communions, and to define the limits within 
 which men have liberty of thought and action without 
 forfeiting their title. 
 
 With the Lutherans, this question is one of present 
 and intensely practical importance. The general pub- 
 lic seems to have considerable difficulty in finding out 
 what is Lutheranism, and who the Lutherans really are. 
 It is still a common impression that their one charac- 
 teristic is Consubstantiation. This error and slander 
 we usually attribute to the supreme ignorance of 
 Church History, which prevails in spite of all the The- 
 ological Seminaries. But the slowness of those who 
 are not of us, to ascertain the characteristics of the 
 Lutheran Church, may be borne with charitably, in the 
 face of existing diversities of view upon the subject 
 among ourselves. We have, for instance, in this 
 country the spectacle of a party claiming to contain 
 all the Lutheranism upon earth — assuming to be alone 
 the identical Church in which Luther, Melanchthon, 
 the Gerhardts, Arndt and Spener were shining lights ; 
 and withal so confident in their assumption, that they 
 have closed their altars and their pulpits against all 
 access to those who are merely "so-called" Lutherans. 
 
THE VALUK OK ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 267 
 
 This is the attitude of an infinitesimal fraction over 
 against the vast body of the Church — a few thousands 
 against many miUions. 
 
 Others again projxjse a platform for genuine 
 Lutheran identity, not only the whole of the Symbolical 
 Books, but their acceptance in "every statement of 
 doctrine in their own true, native, original and only 
 sense.'' i. e., the sense which these give to them. This 
 platform men set up as a synonym for Lutheranism. 
 Whoever does not stand on it with them is not in the 
 Lutheran Church. To differ from them, is to differ 
 from the Church. They who oppose them oppose the 
 Church. They who revolt from their yoke revolt 
 against the Church. 
 
 What court, then, is to decide the relative right of 
 any of these to he identified with the Lutheran Church? 
 There is but one tribunal to which this question can 
 be appealed. The judgment of history is alone capable 
 of deciding the merits of these assumptions and claims, 
 and it doubtless does render invaluable services on this 
 very subject. 
 
 History knows such an institution as the Evangel- 
 ical Lutheran Church, and she ought to be able to 
 answer such questions as these : How compact has been 
 her organism, how diverse her elements, how uniform 
 her principles, how varied her statements of doctrine? 
 What liberty has been allowed her teachers and preach- 
 ers, and at what point did they cease to be acknowl- 
 edged as constituent members? Has her platform 
 been always so narrow as to have, age after age. room 
 for such only as could agree in the detailed definitions 
 
268 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 of every doctrine — aye, agree so fully that they were 
 capable of exhausting the illimitable store-house of 
 truth, and yet find terms and unite in using them, in 
 but one "true, native, original, and only sense?" 
 
 Whatever be the pretensions, at present, of any 
 particular class in considering itself alone the pure 
 Evangelical Lutheran Church, it remains for History 
 to establish what has constituted the unity and identity 
 of that Church from the days of the Reformers. There 
 certainly has been somewhere, ever suice the Reform- 
 ation, a true Lutheran Church, an unbroken, historical 
 succession of Christian people, professing to be, and 
 known to the world as being, the Evangelical Lutheran 
 Church. In what did their Lutheranism necessarily 
 consist? What made and kept them a proper, constit- 
 uent part of the Church ? What light do the clear and 
 sober facts of History throw upon the subject of Luth- 
 eran identity? 
 
 The collation of historic proofs — for the sake of 
 brevity — is limited to a period of two hundred years, 
 commencing with the Reformation — that extent of His- 
 tory being amply sufficient to bring out and establish 
 the constituent and distinctive character of a Church. 
 From the records of this period, it becomes manifest, 
 with the clearness of sunlight, that the Church, even 
 through her very infancy, and all along up to the vigor 
 and maturity of her greatest strength and highest devel- 
 opment, has been subject, like all great bodies of think- 
 ing men, to two tendencies ; that it has always consisted 
 of at least two parties, the one rigid and extreme, the 
 other moderate and liberal, and that in consequence 
 
THE VALUE OF ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 269 
 
 extensive and often violent controversies have, from 
 time to time, raged within her pale. 
 
 These two divergent tendencies first appear simul- 
 taneously with the Reformation. There was a party, 
 then, who considered Melanchthon too lax and un- 
 sound, who made severe and bitter assaults upon his 
 orthodoxy, who abhorred his concessions to Rome on 
 the one side, and the Reformed on the other, and who 
 did their utmost to turn Luther against him and have 
 him repudiated. But Luther was neither so narrow 
 nor so stupid as to perpetrate such a blunder. He 
 knew Melanchthon better than they did. He knew him 
 to be sound at heart. He knew him to be right in the 
 main, and in the stomis which raged around the imper- 
 illed Church, he considered his services too indispens- 
 able to think of dropping him overboard. He would 
 rather bear with much that he himself disapproved 
 than lose the invaluable help of this man in the cause 
 he was leading. 
 
 The points of dilTerence w^ere not on subjects 
 which Lutherans could regard as non-essential or on 
 mere scholastic subtleties, but they were questions of 
 the highest practical importance. Between the liberal 
 party of Melanchthon and the others, there was a vast 
 difference. "From the very commencement, there ap- 
 peared (in Melanchthon and his school) a party tend- 
 ing towards Calvinism." But great as was the dif- 
 ference between the opposing parties, Luther's heart 
 was large enough to take in all of them, and while he 
 could not take in the Zwinglians, persuaded that "they 
 had another spirit," yet he continued up to the end to 
 
270 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 love a Melanchthon, who had dared to alter the great 
 Confession on the darHng doctrine of the Lutherans, 
 who was all the time working for a reunion of all par- 
 ties, now Calvinizing, now Romanizing, who was the 
 great Unionist of the Reformation, and who subse- 
 quently prepared and subscribed the Leipsic Interim. 
 
 ^ >1; >}- ;'j; ;|< ;|: ;;< ;!; 
 
 It would indeed be a bold, but hardly a sane man, 
 that would deny Melanchthon a deserved place in the 
 Lutheran Church. 
 
 Again, John Agricola made a violent attack upon 
 Melanchthon's Articles of \'isitation for the Saxon 
 Churches, because they contained instructions to the 
 clergy to preach the law to the masses. This position 
 he denounced as inculcating a legal morality, and in- 
 compatible with the doctrine of justification by faith. 
 The Reformers, however, did not withdraw their fel- 
 lowship from one who differed so radically from them. 
 Luther easily adjusted the quarrel. The assailant of 
 Lutheran teachings became a Professor at Wittenberg! 
 Here he proceeded by word and pen most zealously to 
 degrade the authority of the law, insisting upon its 
 entire abrogation, denying it a place in the pulpit, and 
 styling it the way to the devil, in direct opposition to 
 Luther's customary teachings and emphatic expres- 
 sions on the subject, he having always attached the 
 highest importance to the law as a means of leading 
 sinners to Christ, mortifying the flesh and producing 
 good works. 
 
 Here are two prominent Reformers in conflict with 
 
THE VALUE OF ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 27 1 
 
 each other on so grave a question as the moral law, 
 teaching in the same University, preaching from the 
 same pulpit, and communing at the same altar. 
 
 An Osiander could teach that justification was a 
 subjective, therapeutic transition, the impartation of 
 an internal righteousness, contending against those 
 who maintained the imputation of Christ's righteous- 
 ness. He thus, in point of language at least, differed 
 in toto from the Lutlieran Church on her central doc- 
 trine, yet had no idea of renouncing the Church, and 
 remained in her communion, unmolested, except in the 
 matter of controversial attacks, to the day of his death. 
 Instead of casting him out, efforts were made from 
 every quarter, by Morlin, iSIelanchthon, Brenz and 
 others who differed from him, to point out the nature 
 of his error, to adjust the difficulty, to harmonize di- 
 vergent views and to come to an understanding. 
 
 While Luther lived, his powerful genius and influ- 
 ence could hold all parties together,— and no one ever 
 understood better than he how to estimate and treat 
 germs of error and how to allay the storm of opposing 
 parties— but after he was gone the rigid party, con- 
 cerned quite as much for the form in which Luther had 
 taught his doctrines as for the doctrines themselves, 
 made unrelenting war upon the more liberal Melanch- 
 thonian School. And from the clash of these two doc- 
 trinal tendencies, extending through the whole Church, 
 and which Guericke admits had for a long time existed 
 side by side with all "diversity of form, yet in beautiful 
 unitv of the spirit," there arose a succession of con- 
 
272 THE HIGHER ROCK, 
 
 troversies which continued in one shape or other up to 
 the Form of Concord. 
 
 In the dispute on the Adiaphora, Melanchthon, 
 Bugenhagen, Paul Eber and Pfefifinger, could take the 
 ground that various things in the Romish doctrine and 
 practices, which the majority of Lutheran theologians 
 abhorred, as subversive of the Gospel, were indiffer- 
 ent and immaterial. So decided was the antagonism 
 between the two, and so jealous was the rigid party of 
 the Melanchthonian School, regarding every expres- 
 sion not tallying" with Luther's system as a departure 
 from the pure doctrine, that they required a new Uni- 
 versity at Jena, from which to assail the errorists. Yet 
 History designates neither party as a new sect going 
 out from, or rising up against the Lutheran Church. 
 
 When George Major taught that ''good works are 
 necessary to salvation," and Amsdorf, in strong lan- 
 guage, denounced this position as overthrowing the 
 doctrine of justification through grace alone, the strife 
 which became almost universal, and lasted for ten 
 years, was all within the Lutheran Church, i. e., al- 
 though differing so widely, both parties were Luther- 
 ans. And truly the Majorists' title to the Lutheran 
 name was quite as good as that of the ultra party, 
 whose leader maintained that "good works are detri- 
 mental to salvation." 
 
 A doctrinal conflict of still greater importance 
 arose subsequently between the two tendencies, involv- 
 ing such questions as human depravity, divine grace, 
 the Lord's Supper, and the person of Christ. The 
 one party accorded to the will some active participa- 
 
THE VALUE OF ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 273 
 
 tion in the work of conversion, tended towards senii- 
 Pelagianisni on the doctrine of total depravity, main- 
 tained that in the Encharist it was sufficient to hold 
 fast the presence of Christ, without defining whether 
 it be a corporeal presence or not, hoping that this con- 
 cession would be sufficient to unite all the elements of 
 the Reformation, Calvin's agency having brought the 
 Swiss doctrine very much nearer to the Lutheran. The 
 broaching of such doctrines of course called out the 
 other side, who, to save the Church from being led 
 astray by these views, prepared a new Confession of 
 Faith for Ducal Saxony. The views of the latter, it 
 is true, finally prevailed everywhere, and became the 
 doctrine of the entire Church, yet the men who had 
 led the opposition, have ever been esteemed as pil- 
 lars in the Church, quite as much so as Wigand, 
 Amsdorf, Heshusius. and Flacius, the latter of whom 
 had gone to such lengths as to teach that Original Sin 
 was an essence of human nature and not an accident. 
 
 The conception of the Form of Concord arose from 
 the desire to unite the two parties, to harmonize ex- 
 tremes, and the superior minds of both sides joined in 
 the efifort. For, although largely directed against the 
 Melanchthonian and Calvinistic deflections from rigid 
 Lutheranism, yet at the same time it was aimed at 
 that hyper-Lutheranism which was building up a sys- 
 tem, to a great extent, in opposition to oecumenical 
 Christianity, a tendency whose champions formed a 
 stronger antagonism to the Form of Concord, than the 
 lax views of the other party. This eflFort at "Con- 
 cord" brought out, in a measure, what universal experi- 
 18 
 
274 I'HE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 ence teaches of such autagonisms, that each of the con- 
 tending parties had one side of the truth, as, for in- 
 stance, on good works, the Law and the Adiaphora. 
 
 Others again were too much attached to Melanch- 
 thon to be satisfied with the Form of Concord. Some 
 countries could not adopt it for a long while, and some 
 never did, yet all these have alike been classified as 
 Lutheran countries, and some of the latter are to this 
 day decidedly more Lutheran than others which with- 
 out hesitation adopted it. The pursuit and supposed 
 attainment of perfect agreement in doctrine did not 
 yield such fruit as entitled it to be prized above all 
 things. Lutheran Theology became a synonym for 
 dialectic Scholasticism. The warm life of the doctrines 
 of the Reformation was transformed into an ossified 
 system, which had, to a great extent, been established 
 by the Form of Concord. The free and energetic de- 
 velopment of Theology out of the Holy Scriptures, was 
 repressed, and as a substitute for the living Faith main- 
 tained by the Reformers, there was with many Lutheran 
 teachers from this period onward, a palsied and dead 
 orthodoxy, a show of faith without the fruit of the 
 Spirit. To them it was enough to hold rigidly to mere 
 outward, theoretical, established forms of faith, with 
 little concern for the renewal of mind and spirit. 
 
 "In this crisis of the Lutheran Church," says our 
 great historian, "pious, learned and essentially ortho- 
 dox theologians arose, who knew how to provide for 
 
THE VALUE OF ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 275 
 
 the general religious wants in a practical and truly 
 evangelical manner, opposing dead orthodoxy with the 
 divine armor of a pure and practical Christianity. At 
 the head of this worthy list stood the Fenelon of the 
 Lutheran Church, the eminent John Arndt.'' His 
 whole work, however, was in direct opposition to the 
 assumption of hyper-Lutheranism, and he was shame- 
 fully assailed by many of the rigid orthodox, whose 
 scent for heresy had become so acute that they could 
 discover false doctrine and the most dangerous errors 
 where the most holy and thoroughly enlightened men 
 were proclaiming the pure doctrines, without, however, 
 using the traditional and worn-out terminology of the 
 schools, or "binding themselves strictly to the expres- 
 sions of the Form of Concord." The Church was 
 warned against the poison of Arndt, his writings were 
 said to overflow with Romanism, Calvinism, Flaccian- 
 ism, Schwenkfeldtianism, &c. — all this too, when he 
 had been a martyr to the Lutheran faith. Even a John 
 Gerhardt, whose Lutheranism did not deter him from 
 defending certain persons charged with grave errors, 
 escaped not the suspicion and attacks of this rigid 
 school who alone had the true Lutheran doctrine. 
 
 There might be added an array of illustrious 
 names, all of whom fell more or less under the ban of 
 the strict Lutherans, and sometimes too with good 
 ground, yet were all these parties, in common, recog- 
 nized as being in the Lutheran fold. In spite of their 
 divergence from the rigid formulas of orthodoxy, and 
 their condemnation by the so-called orthodox, even a 
 Guericke prizes them as "individual beams of the pure 
 
276 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 evangelical light and life that was rising ever more 
 and more in the Lutheran Church," — heavenly rays 
 which preceded the glorious, living light which came 
 to the Church under Spener. 
 
 This great divine stood in such antagonism to the 
 existing state of things, that although the Church held 
 rigidly to her Confessions, he regarded a new refor- 
 mation as imperatively called for. He charged that 
 the practical and biblical course of the Reformers had 
 been abandoned, that theology had become a matter 
 of mere scholastic speculation, that justification by 
 faith, as then taught, was bald Antinomianism, and 
 showed that, with all the loud ado for Lutheran Or- 
 thodoxy, the fundamental idea of primitive Christianity 
 and of primitive Lutheranism, the universal priesthood 
 of believers, had sunk into oblivion. His clear concep- 
 tion of the great want of the Church, which existed in 
 spite of her boasted pure faith, his efforts for a revival 
 of the living godliness which had characterized the 
 Lutheranism of the Reformation, his contending for 
 exegetical studies which had been crowded out of the 
 Universities, brought down upon him the ridicule and 
 the rage of the High-Church party. And thus broke 
 out the Pietistic Controversy. So fierce was the oppo- 
 sition to the teachings of Spener and his co-ad jutors. 
 that a new University — at Halle — had to be founded 
 for the defence of their evangelical and liberal views. 
 
 The Pietists were confessedly not solicitous for 
 purity of doctrine, not indeed directly opposing it, but 
 laying aside, as needless for edification, many indi- 
 vidual dogmas and dogmatic definitions, which led 
 
THE VALUE OF ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 277 
 
 them to be accused of a pernicious theological and 
 religious indifferentisni. "This, however, was almost 
 everywhere nothing more than a freer, evangelical ac- 
 tivity of the theological spirit, which possessed of a 
 vital agreement in all essentials, was ready to forego 
 an exact uniformity in all matters less essential for 
 practical life.'' They were concerned primarily not for 
 purity of doctrine, but for purity of life, while the 
 others in their triumph over the possession of pure doc- 
 trine, often forgot the life altogether and completely 
 separated theolog}' from Christian living and morality. 
 Such orthodoxy would of course brand Pietism as a 
 "newly-risen heresy." And the Faculty of Wittenberg 
 put forth a work, in which they proclaimed Spener 
 guilty of two hundred and sixty-four errors, although 
 the latter at the same time made good his claim of 
 heartily according with the Augsburg Confession. 
 
 Was Spener, then, a Lutheran ? And were his 
 antagonists Lutherans, too? And yet Lutherans must 
 all have literally the same faith "in every statement of 
 doctrine?" "Soon," says Guericke, "the whole 
 Lutheran Church was again divided into two parties, 
 each claiming to hold fast pure Lutheran Orthodoxy," 
 divided on such questions as justification, regeneration, 
 sanctification, the spiritual priesthood, devotional as- 
 semblies, Christian liberty, the need of confessions, &c., 
 &c. So far from expunging the eminent names of the 
 Pietists from the bright roll of Lutheran heroes, his- 
 torians of undoubted confessional loyalty, have ac- 
 corded them the highest praises for their services tO' 
 the truth anfl to the Church. Thev candidlv admit that 
 
278 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 their positions were misunderstood and misrepresented, 
 that amid the calm light which succeeded the storm, 
 right and wrong, truth and error, were found to be 
 pretty equally divided between the two opposing par- 
 ties, the one having its eye chiefly on internal, spiritual, 
 practical interests, the other on external, literal, me- 
 chanical conformity to symbolic definitions. "The 
 future good of the Church could have been secured 
 and promoted only by the reconciliation of the two 
 one-sided extremes — a golden mean true to the entire 
 evangelical truth." 
 
 So bitter had been the hostility to Spener, that his 
 enemies could not think of him after death as being 
 saved, yet he left in the example of his career, as well 
 as in the treasures of his writings, a legacy to his 
 Church, from which in all subsequent ages she has con- 
 tinued to derive the richest aid on the most diverse sub- 
 jects of doctrine and life. "His work cannot be over- 
 estimated." His principles and his party, which his 
 enemies for a long time could not think of tolerating, 
 triumphed completely. With their triumph there arose 
 a new life in the Church, which, upon the testimony 
 of even a strict Lutheran like Guericke, compares with 
 the results which followed the complete triumph of the 
 rigid party, after the Form of Concord, as the day com- 
 pares with the night. Then, if ever, did the Church 
 shine in her true beauty and glory. "In the course of 
 a few decades, the six thousand students which had 
 in that time gone forth from Halle, bore with them the 
 seeds of a newly wakened practical Christianity, and 
 Germany began to have a number of truly pious and, 
 
THE VALUE OF ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 279 
 
 at the same time, orthodox j^rcachers, and active, doc- 
 trinally enhghtened laymen to an extent she had not 
 possessed for many years before." 
 
 Here, then, we have historic Lutheranisni, ever 
 moving forward between its two natural and normal 
 poles, ever subject to two tendencies which were recip- 
 rocally of the greatest benefit to each other and whose 
 mutual counteractions have been of infinite value to the 
 purity and progress of the Church. What would 
 Lutheranism have come to without either of these ele- 
 ments ? 
 
 Yet numerous and great as the differences often 
 were, the unity of the Church was never broken. No 
 sect ever went out from her pale. Her identity as rep- 
 resented by any party or section, was never questioned 
 by the sober historian. The theologians waged their 
 controversies, but they never divided the Churches. 
 This fact Lutheran historians have regarded as a pow- 
 erful testimony to the divine foundation and evangeli- 
 cal structure of our Church, which presents a strong 
 contrast to the innumerable divisions and sects of the 
 Reformed Churches. Her catholicity has been among 
 her chief glories. With an ardent and unexampled de- 
 votion to purity of doctrine, and therefore jealous of 
 error in its incipient germs, she has yet been so tolerant 
 to independent investigation and private conviction, as 
 to embrace within her pale men of the most diverse 
 views — parties that could be arrayed against each other 
 in violent conflict, yet without either of them attacking 
 the body of the faith. Hence we have the extraordi- 
 nary spectacle of a Church tolerating widely different 
 
a8o THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 views, yet never giving birth to any actual heresy ; her 
 heart's blood so pure that no serious deviation from, 
 the truth ever had a following within her borders ; pos- 
 sessing in her general soundness of doctrines such a 
 fullness of strength as to be able to cast off what was 
 actually diseased or incurably unsound, without remov- 
 ing elements that at first gave her pain, but in the end 
 proved wholesome. With all the diversity between the 
 rigid and liberal schools in the bosom of the Church, 
 whenever men were carried by any tendencies beyond 
 the proper boundaries of the Lutheran system, or de- 
 spised essentially Lutheran doctrines, they naturally and 
 necessarily were separated from her communion, being 
 either removed by the ecclesiastical authorities, or else 
 going of their own accord where they belonged. Thus 
 she wisely maintained the evangelical position of liberty 
 between papal tyranny and rationalistic license, and 
 became pre-eminently, and without a rival, the Church 
 of pure doctrine, and at the same time the most tolerant 
 communion of Christendom. 
 
 How abnormal, then, the present condition of the 
 Lutheran Church, with her numerous divisions, each 
 more or less hostile to all the others, while during the 
 first two centuries of her existence, with all the bitter 
 contentions of her teachers, the Church remained a 
 unit ! 
 
 How antagonistic to History is that attitude of 
 exclusiveness which bars from the Lord's Table, and 
 from the pulpit, all who will not submit to every par- 
 ticular of doctrinal interpretation, when the Church of 
 our fathers did not withhold the sacrament from even a. 
 
THE VALUE OF ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 28 1 
 
 fanatic like Jacob Bohme, and suffered an Agricola to 
 preach to her congregations up to the time of his 
 death ! 
 
 What a burlesque upon the past of our Church is 
 the position which demands, as the first requisite for 
 fraternal recognition and organic unity, perfect agree- 
 ment in doctrine ! Such agreement was never known 
 in all the glorious ages of our history. In spite of the 
 frequent and persistent efforts towards such an ideal, 
 the life and liberty begotten of a living faith were 
 always too strong to admit of its realization. 
 
 These historic lights are of the utmost consequence 
 to the Evangelical Lutheran Church of to-day. Her 
 present condition cannot continue. This prophecy is 
 based upon a universal conviction which bears the im- 
 press of inspiration. Her progress cannot be a healthy 
 one, her true interests cannot be successfully promoted 
 as long as the house is divided against itself. Let her 
 vast forces be united, let her great work be carried for- 
 ward through one general organization, under the im- 
 pulse of a common faith and the inspiration of a com- 
 mon history ; and. with a system of doctrine the purest 
 in Christenflom, with treasures of theological science 
 and literature the richest in the world, with a field at 
 once the largest and the most promising given to any 
 body of Christians, with the most solid and substantial 
 material upon which to operate, there is no other de- 
 nomination in the land which can do a work for the 
 Master and for the country, such as that which every 
 indication of Providence assigns to the Lutheran 
 Church. Let her but stand forth as the Evangelical 
 
282 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 Lutheran Church of history — sound in the faith, yet 
 combining such healthy diversities as are necessary 
 both for a complete system of truth and an efficient 
 living organization, and she has the pledge of a future 
 even brighter than the glory of the past. 
 
VII. OUR DEBT AND DUTY TO THE IMMI- 
 GRANT POPULATION. 
 
 [Delivered before the Second General Conference of the Evangelical 
 Alliance, Boston, Mass., December 6th, 1889.] 
 
 Contempt of foreign nationalities is the mark of 
 paganism. Christianity gives honor to all men. It 
 teaches that all are made of one blood. It recognizes 
 in every man a divine image. He who is in need is 
 my neighbor. He that is baptized is my brother. Those 
 whom nationality, language, usages, have placed afar 
 off, are brought nigh by the blood of Christ. Under the 
 reign of the gospel there is neither Greek, nor Jew, bar- 
 barian nor Scythian, American nor European, Anglo- 
 Saxon nor Mongolian. 
 
 Certainly, in proportion as the mind of our Lord 
 is in us, race antipathies disappear. Yet the foreigner 
 still finds himself at a great disadvantage in Christian 
 lands, and encounters cruel prejudice even from 
 Christian churches. 
 
 American birth is no patent of nobility, the native 
 is born to no moral nor intellectual purple. Yet not 
 to have enjoyed this privilege is often viewed as a 
 mark of inferiority. People in a peculiar garb, with 
 a peculiar brogue, having peculiar manners and possi- 
 bly slight peculiarities of culture, betray a foreign 
 nativity, and though these several characteristics are 
 intrinsically not beneath our standard, yet the foreign 
 
 (283) 
 
284 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 stamp on them raises a barrier of coldness, of distrust, 
 of estrangement — unless the spirit of Christ in us dis- 
 cerns under the uncommon exterior, fellow citizens with 
 the saints and of the household of God. The American 
 people have weighty considerations to take a large 
 Christian view of the immigration problem. The 
 noblest principles that underlie our boasted political 
 structure, call on us to extend the hand of welcome 
 to the stranger, and the mixed blood in our veins must 
 warm our hearts toward his approach, unless with 
 ignoble irreverence the interval of a generation or two 
 has made men oblivious of their European ancestry. 
 The very multitude of these new-comers commands 
 our respect. The mere majesty of their numbers shields 
 them from contempt. We witness once more on an 
 immense scale the immigration of nations. Once more 
 the Goth and the Norman, the Hun and the Slav are 
 invading and overrunning a continent. A single year 
 has registered the arrival of almost 800,000 aliens, and 
 confronted by the fact that the total number now here 
 is not less than 10,000,000, we dare not, to say the 
 least, speak contemptuously of the immigrants. Count- 
 ing their children, our country contains to-day not less 
 than 16,000,000 foreigners and half foreigners, nearly 
 one fourth of our entire population. In the cities of 
 San Fransisco, St. Louis, Cleveland, Detroit, Milwau- 
 kee, New York, and Chicago, they form from 75 to 
 90 per cent, of the inhabitants, so that four persons 
 out of five in those cities count with this class. An 
 eminent authority forecasts the foreign element to 
 reach, by the year 1900, a total of 19,000,000, and the 
 
OUR DEBT AND DUTY TO THE IMMIGRANT. 285 
 
 foreign and semi-foreign population an aggregate of 
 43,000,000, a half, or possibly a majority, of the nation. 
 
 Startling and overwhelming as is this spectacle, 
 what a testimony it offers to the regenerating power of 
 Christianity ! Descended from the races whose inun- 
 dation engulfed the civilization of imperial Rome, these 
 people do not invade the land by dint of force and 
 brutal conquest, nor strike dow'n our institutions with 
 violent and vandal hands. They come not to ravage 
 the country, but to make it blossom as the rose ; not 
 to pillage our cities, but to enlarge and enrich them ; 
 not to overturn the republic, but on every battle-field 
 consecrated to its defense, mingling their blood with 
 the blood of the native, and counting it worthy of 
 every sacrifice to secure its blessings for themselves 
 and their children. 
 
 Truth and justice demand intelligent, careful and 
 conscientious discrimination in the consideration of 
 our debt to the immigrant element. It embraces all 
 sorts and conditions of men. It varies just as the native 
 element varies, in the grade of intelligence, industrial 
 skill, A'irtue and religion. It fills the highest stations, 
 it sinks to the lowest slums. Everywhere the immi- 
 grant meets us, among our masters and teachers and 
 leaders, as well as among our servants and menials ; 
 among the barons of capital and the knights of labor ; 
 among the merchant princes and the street beggars ; 
 among the railroad kings as well as building the road- 
 beds ; among the artists and the artisans, in the Senate 
 and Cabinet as well as in the mines and mills ; in the 
 Universitv chairs, and in the saloons : in the metro- 
 
286 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 politan pulpit, preaching righteousness, as well as in 
 the socialistic hall proclaiming anarchy ; in the Evan- 
 gelical Alliance and the Catholic Congress ; in the 
 noblest reform movements, as well as in dangerous 
 combinations ; on the roll of renowned benefactors as 
 well as swelling the volume of the criminal classes. 
 There is but one exalted position the foreigner never 
 reaches, and from that he is debarred by the National 
 Constitution. 
 
 In every other station and calling we are con- 
 strained to accord him a prominence that entitles him 
 to honorable consideration. We cannot take a look 
 into our agricultural, industrial, engineering, mercan- 
 tile, financial, journalistic, educational, artistical, scien- 
 tific and professional spheres, without recognizing an 
 array of eminent names of foreign birth. 
 
 Certainly, in the strictly material realm, in the 
 impetus they have given to our industries, the bound- 
 less domain they have brought under cultivation, the 
 immense cities which through their impulse have risen 
 as by magic, the measureless increase they have given 
 to our productive power, and the untold millions they 
 have added to our national wealth, they have placed 
 us under obligations that beggar calculation. And it 
 has yet to be demonstrated that they have perceptibly 
 deteriorated the character of that prosperity to which 
 they have contributed so much. 
 
 There have been, indeed, vile importations, but 
 the good have vastly overbalanced the evil. One Roe- 
 bling, one Ericsson, one Fink, one Lieber, one Dam- 
 rosch, one Agassiz. one Schurz, one SchafT, one Wal- 
 
OUR DEBT AND DUTY TO THE IMMIGRANT. 287 
 
 ther, more than compensates for a pack of raving anar- 
 chists. 
 
 Admitting that in the vast influx of foreigners 
 there are pestiferous and dangerous elements, and 
 leaving to my successors the consideration of some 
 other races, I confine myself to the German and Scan- 
 dinavian population, an element which has been by 
 general consent a most acceptable and invaluable acqui- 
 sition, an element whose industry and thrift, whose 
 honesty and peaceableness, whose stability and pro- 
 gressiveness are the praise of all Americans. As patri- 
 ots we can never forget that one of our German states- 
 men was the first in the campaign of i860 to revive the 
 early traditions of the republic, and to show their in- 
 compatibility with the institution of slavery, striking, 
 on this subject, "a deeper vein of thought in every man 
 and woman capable of thinking" ; and also that but 
 for the solid support of the Germans in the West, 
 Abraham Lincoln could never have been elected Presi- 
 dent. 
 
 Clearly there are lights and shadows in the immi- 
 gration problem. We may sometimes recoil from the 
 cost, yet we cannot deny the immense profit, which the 
 country derives from this source. Possibly the greatest 
 gain is that which comes from the intermixture of 
 blood, the interblending of race distinctions and na- 
 tional characteristics. 
 
 In union there is strength. It is the fusion of 
 diverse races and elements that has given to this coun- 
 try its phenomenal and splendid development, and in 
 this transfusion of blood lies the condition and the 
 
a88 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 guarantee of the future. The amalgamation of Celtic, 
 Saxon and Norman blood created the Anglo-Saxon 
 race. The continued fusion of the Norman and Saxon 
 with our native stock is making a nation on the like of 
 which God's sun has never shone. Not weakness, there- 
 fore, not infection, not deterioration can result from 
 this commingling, for in energy, in intelligence, in 
 self-respect and love of freedom, in virtue and in reli- 
 gion, these people stand in the front of the species. 
 Their union with us makes America the heir of the 
 ages, the master of the future. Quoting one of our 
 most distinguished Americans : "When in the near 
 future the United States will have 100,000,000 inhabi- 
 tants, their national peculiarities will be German 
 thoroughness, solidity, and fidelity, Anglo-Saxon en- 
 ergy and positiveness, and Celtic imagination." 
 
 Our debt to the immigrants extends into the reli- 
 gious sphere. The same gentleman just quoted ob- 
 serves : "The greatest and most wealthy churches sup- 
 ply their pulpits from foreign countries." However 
 this may be, thousands of more obscure congregations 
 are served by faithful shepherds born beyond the 
 waters. The measure of religious influence which they 
 diffuse is not to be gauged as easily and as accurately 
 as contributions to material or civic progress. The 
 kingdom of God cometh not with observation. Yet 
 the fact that multitudes of foreigners are our brethren 
 in the common faith, that they are evangelical to the 
 core, that in thoroughness of Christian instruction, and 
 in love for God's word and church, they are not sur- 
 passed by any religious community in America, and 
 
OUR DKHT AND DUTY TO THK IMMIGRANT. 289 
 
 that if any one peculiarity is of all others most deeply 
 ing'raiiiecl in their character, it is their simple faith in 
 the Lord Jesus Christ, ought at least to rebuke the 
 spirit which lumps all foreigners, Protestant as well as 
 Catholic, in one mass of ignorance, formalism, and 
 superstition, little better than so much concrete pagan- 
 ism dumped at our doors. 
 
 It is the intensity and incorruptibility of their reli- 
 gious convictions that has landed thousands of these 
 aliens on our shores. It is to escape from the stifling 
 oppression of state churches, and the soul-poisoning 
 fellowship with rationalism, that they have cast their 
 lot in this republic, where their faith, unfettered and 
 uncorrupted, may have the freest and fullest exercise. 
 And a more intelligent, evangelical, and self-sacrific- 
 ing body of Christians than these, is nowhere to be 
 found. 
 
 While we all know that multitudes of Germans 
 and Scandinavians are irreligious, may I call your 
 attention to several large and growing communities 
 which are profoundly spiritual, and are zealously occu- 
 pied in the evangelization of their countrymen. And 
 first, a body of German evangelical Lutherans embrac- 
 ing at least 400,000 communicants, and leavening with 
 the gospel an immigrant population of not less than 
 1.000,000. Their feeble beginnings are found in the 
 state of Missouri, fifty years ago, several colonies hav- 
 ing left Saxony and other German states purely for the 
 purpose of enjoying and maintaining scriptural and 
 experimental godliness. They hold fervently and firm- 
 ly, undiluted and unobscured, the fundamental doc- 
 
 19 
 
290 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 trines of sin and grace which achieved the Reformation. 
 A pvire and a full gospel resounds from the pulpit, and 
 re-echoes from the hearth-stone, every house being 
 as a rule a house of prayer, and the entire life of the 
 people bearing the impress of a genuine and devout 
 piety. Six days of every week their children receive 
 religious instruction. Here I again plead for discrimi- 
 nation, confident that if the motive for their parochial 
 schools and their quality were understood, hardly a 
 voice in this Christian assembly could fail to commend 
 them. I can assure you that there is nothing un-Amer- 
 ican about them ; nothing that smacks of foreign alle- 
 giance, either spiritual or political. With no hostility 
 to the common school system, and repelling with scorn 
 the proposal of others to have them unite in demanding 
 a portion of the school fund, — in cities where this 
 demand could be enforced, habitually sending the more 
 advanced pupils to the higher grades of the public 
 schools where their proficiency proves the thorough- 
 ness of their primary training — they yet feel it to be a 
 Christian obligation to retain the early education of 
 youth in the hands of Christian teachers. Hence they 
 maintain, in their poverty, alongside of every church, 
 the parochial school, in which the first hour of every 
 day, one fifth of all the school time, is spent in worship 
 and religious instruction. Besides this instruction of 
 childhood in the daily school, every pastor devotes at 
 least one hundred hours each year to special catechet- 
 ical instruction, so rooting the young in the faith, that 
 the great majority are retained in the church when they 
 reach adult years. 
 
OUR DEBT AND DUTY TO THE IMMIGRANT. 29I 
 
 Accustomed in the Fatherland to the most perfect 
 educational system in the world, the educational zeal 
 of these Germans keeps pace with their religious earn- 
 estness. Though made up largely of plain people, they 
 have established in different parts of the country a 
 number of colleges with a curriculum of classical study 
 on a grade with the German gymnasium, extending 
 over six years, including among other things for each 
 class two hours a week of religious teaching, and 
 giving such proficiency in the classics that their alumni 
 receive in Latin all the lectures on dogmatics and ex- 
 egesis in their principal theological seminary. Over a 
 thousand students are pursuing liberal culture, a large 
 proportion of them contemplating the ministry. While 
 it is for the present a matter of necessity that instruc- 
 tion as well as worship be conducted in the vernacular, 
 there is neither prejudice nor antagonism to the lan- 
 guage of the country. More English is taught than 
 German. English is in all their schools co-ordinate 
 with the German, is continually spoken by the young ; 
 the rudimentary branches and United States history are 
 taught in English, and most of the graduates of the 
 principal divinity school are able to preach in the lan- 
 guage of the country, and many speak it better than 
 they do the German. The young are gathered into the 
 English churches, the sentiment of their sainted leader 
 being loyally carried out "to build golden bridges for 
 the English churches." 
 
 Besides their evangelical faith and solid educa- 
 tional work, these Germans are one with us in depre- 
 cating the growing desecration of the Lord's day, and 
 
292 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 insist upon its observance by public worship and atten- 
 tion to the Word of God as strenuously as the strictest 
 Puritan. To a man they condemn the saloon and 
 suffer none engaged in this traffic to defile the altar. 
 
 Passing over kindred German bodies which, in 
 organization, progress and influence, may fall behind 
 the "Missourians" (though not in soundness of faith, 
 depth of religious principle, or strictness of morality), 
 admitting, too, that not all German religious bodies 
 have like precious faith with these, let us turn to 
 several communities of Norwegians and Swedes, num- 
 bering jointly 200,000 communicants, and reaching 
 with spiritual ministrations a foreign-born population 
 aggregating half a million, a most active and progres- 
 sive element, maintaining the same scriptural doctrines 
 as the German body I have described, and marked by a 
 similar pietistic fervor. 
 
 Their homes have the Christian characteristics of 
 worship and parental discipline. Their laity take an 
 active part in the conduct of religious services. They 
 strictly observe the Lord's day and to a man support 
 rigorous temperance legislation. It was their votes 
 that made prohibition possible in Kansas and Iowa, and 
 their enthusiastic canvass which was the chief factor 
 in carrying it for North and South Dakota. They 
 acquire our language with singular alacrity and take a 
 patriotic interest in politics. They are already estab- 
 lishing English churches for the young, and while 
 gratefully patronizing the public schools, they maintain 
 in the interval of their close, so far as possible, con- 
 gregational schools, so as to impart religious instruc- 
 
OUR DEBT AND DUTY TO THE IMMIGRANT. 293 
 
 tion in addition to what they receive from the never- 
 faihng catechisation of the pastor and in their over- 
 flowing- Sunday-schools. With astounding liberaHty 
 and self-sacrifice, these new-comers have also out of 
 their poverty founded numerous colleges of the regular 
 grade, providing for each class three hours a week in 
 the study of Christianity. They sustain a high standard 
 of theological training, and annually send forth hun- 
 dreds of missionaries, clerical and lay. to the remotest 
 Northwest and to the farthest corner of the Northeast, 
 wherever a few Norsemen can be found. 
 
 Among these immigrants, then, we behold an 
 organized church-life, with the gospel, with education, 
 morality, temperance, home-piety and missionary zeal, 
 preaching Christ in their own tongue and in ours to im- 
 mense aggregations of our population. They are as 
 yet only laying foundations. They have had barely 
 sufficient time to make beginnings, but with the institu- 
 tions they have established and the rate of progression 
 they have already attained, these communities are des- 
 tined soon to .become an immense power in the evangel- 
 ization of our country. What they have in their weak- 
 ness and poverty already accomplished seems like a 
 superhuman work, and they are rapidly attaining a 
 stage of efficiency that will enable them to reach out to 
 every locality in which are found families of their kins- 
 men. Such bodies must be an inestimable accession to 
 our moral forces. They do not repress, they elevate 
 our spiritual level. They do not pollute or poison, but 
 they help to purify the current of our national life. 
 They contribute energy and stability to our evangel- 
 
294 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 ical Christianity, just as they have already made im- 
 mense contributions to our national greatness and 
 wealth. Their ireligious system may possibly have 
 features which you would fain see modified. On the 
 other hand, an infusion of some of its characteristics 
 into our own would be an improvement. Their simple 
 trust in God, their unobtrusive, quiet, cheerful spirit, 
 their reverence, and their thorough religious nurture 
 would make a happy setting in our American Chris- 
 tianity. 
 
 Verily in the ever-thickening conflict between 
 truth and error, the ranks of orthodoxy should welcome 
 this well-equipped phalanx which stands like adamant 
 for the faith revealed from heaven and held by tlie 
 church in all ages. Such a reinforcement will not be 
 underestimated by those who perceive the strength and 
 purpose of the foe, and who appreciate the gravity of 
 the crisis in the camp of the saints. Wise men, who 
 know the hour in Christ's kingdom, may descry the 
 interposition of Providence in the presence of these 
 powerful allies, who have witnessed in the Fatherland 
 the struggle between faith and doubt, who have learned 
 by experience the character of rationalism, and whose 
 coming to us is largely due to their uncompromising 
 antagonism to it. 
 
 Had we a better appreciation of our debt to this 
 class of immigrants, our duty would be obvious. But, 
 it is to be feared that we look at these earnest Christian 
 brethren and at their holy service with a distorted 
 vision. We do not know this foreign Joseph and we 
 are not over-credulous about his contribution to the 
 
OUR DEBT AND DUTY TO THE IMMIGRANT. 295 
 
 spiritual rei^cncration of our couutry. It must be left 
 to time to teach us in some measure what these bodies 
 are doings for the education of conscience, the diffusion 
 of Christian conviction, and the conservation of 
 society. Certainly their heart's desire and prayer to 
 God for their kinsmen according- to the flesh is that they 
 may be saved. 
 
 A considerate realization of their sound Christian 
 character and apostolical activity would make it our 
 first duty to let them alone. It may surprise some to 
 hear such a suggestion from this platform. There is 
 occasion for it. The home missionary activity of our 
 respective churches is the incarnation of zeal, but it is 
 not always a zeal according to knowledge, nor is it 
 uniformly zeal for Christ. In spirit and aim and 
 methods it becomes easily the counterpart of secular 
 business, and sometimes but another name for sectarian 
 competition. We compass sea and land to make one 
 proselyte, and it often gives greater joy to secure him 
 from another fold than to convert him from the world. 
 We are happy over the additions to our church, though 
 nothing is added to Christ's church. To take sheep 
 from one pen to another is no increase whatever to the 
 flock of the Chief Shepherd. 
 
 Nay, the building of our own means sometimes 
 the subversion of the work of others, who are building 
 quite as wisely. It is robbing them of the material 
 with which they are erecting God's house. It but 
 makes their burden heavier, their task more difBcult. 
 
 If these our brethren from foreign lands are not 
 doing God's work among their kindred, then there is 
 
296 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 no God's work upon earth, and zealots might pause to 
 interfere with it lest haply they be found fighting 
 against God. Yet from their own testimony and from 
 home mission report, in general, it is evident that a 
 large amount of denominational zeal and money is ex- 
 pended in hindering, retarding and thwarting the 
 earnest Christian activity of these devoted people. A 
 chapter of church history is making, which our chil- 
 dren will not care to read and which in some aspects 
 has a parallel only in the annals of Jesuit propagand- 
 ism. Striving, in a land of strangers, with extraordinary 
 self-devotion, and a world-overcoming faith, to bring 
 back the sheep of the wilderness into their own folds, 
 building churches, founding schools, establishing col- 
 leges, sending out missionaries, erecting orphanages 
 and hospitals, and finding to a cheering degree an at- 
 tentive ear from their respective countrymen, often the 
 greatest discouragements with which these brethren 
 have to contend are the endeavors of American shep- 
 herds to discredit their work, to disturb their flocks, to 
 entice away their simple sheep ; now holding out 
 worldly inducements, now plying them with sectarian 
 fanaticism, impugning the soundness of their faith, or 
 claiming for themselves a monopoly of God's grace, 
 endeavoring by this means, by all means, to build up 
 their own organizations from the membership of Ger- 
 man and Swedish churches. They seem not to realize 
 that the hurt done to these struggling foreigners is a 
 blow to the common cause ; that whenever these strug- 
 gling organizations are thus crippled, or injured, 
 Christ's church is injured, Christ's people are wounded, 
 
OUR DEBT AND DUTY TO THK IMMIGRANT. 297 
 
 no matter how many cong^regations under American 
 auspices you may organize from the fragments. 
 
 It will not do at this day to make the pretext of 
 offering these people a better religion. We have had 
 enough of that cant. The times of this ignorance are 
 happily past. With millions of our native population 
 in ignorance of the gospel and outside of the church, 
 you cannot convince the world that you are sacrificing 
 yourself for humanity when you are manifestly block- 
 ing the path of others whose self-sacrificing devotion 
 is not questioned. 
 
 One would hardly ofifer, by way of justification, 
 the plea of greater adaptability to the foreign element 
 or superior attractions. We can indeed send to them 
 and support missionaries with little difficulty. We can 
 easily build for them commodious and costly churches ; 
 we can hold out inducements of social and worldly posi- 
 tion ; w-e can offer individuals and families financial 
 assistance, just as the politicians do in the exigencies 
 of an election, but it is the vuiiform confession of mis- 
 sion secretaries and bishops, confirmed by every argu- 
 ment of reason and experience, that the unchurched 
 Germans and Scandinavians are won far more readily 
 by their clerical kinsmen than by strangers to their 
 blood and faith. A fellow-feeling attracts them to their 
 countrymen and their minds are receptive for what they 
 have been wonted to. Confronted by the teachings, the 
 traditions, the usages of the Fatherland, they recognize 
 what is in a sense their own, what belongs to tlieir his- 
 tory, a part of their education, a reminiscence of home. 
 To everv wanderer in forcicrn lands there is a homelike 
 
298 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 attraction in the sanctuary which resounds with the 
 holy songs of one's mother-church, which rings out the 
 famiHar gospel in the mother-tongue, whose worship 
 and environment awaken memories of happier days, of 
 hallowed impressions, of solemn vows. 
 
 This is no pagan element. These people have had 
 a religious training, as scriptural and as thorough as 
 that enjoyed by the most favored youths of our land. 
 And it argues a marvelous ignorance for us to assume 
 that they come, in this country, for the first time, in con- 
 tact with pure religion. 
 
 The only plausible pretext for the avowed and 
 deliberate attempt to transfer the evangelical immi- 
 grants into other churches than their own is the alleged 
 importance of their immediate Americanization. Our 
 cherished institutions, it is claimed, are in danger from 
 these large foreign communities if they be not promptly 
 incorporated with our religious organizations and fused 
 into the more distinctly American form of Protestant- 
 ism. The health of the body politic requires that all 
 new-comers become as speedily as possible homogen- 
 eous with us in language, customs and religion. Politi- 
 cal advantages are thus made a cover for sectarian 
 proselytism. Religious diversities must be sacrificed to 
 national consolidation. The interests of the church are 
 subordinate to those of the state. This, rightly inter- 
 preted, makes the country the end, the church the 
 means, and the amalgamation of foreigners into our 
 American life is the foremost task of the church. 
 
 It is enough here to remind those who entertain 
 this plea that the Lord Jesus did not die to Americanize 
 
OUR DEBT AND DUTY TO THK IMMIGRANT. 299 
 
 men, but to save them from their sins, and the supreme 
 concern of the Christian church is to have sinners 
 washed in the blood of the Lamb, and renewed by the 
 incorruptible seed of God's Word. If they are thus 
 redeemed they will surely make good citizens. The 
 republic is safe if the church penneates its heart with 
 the leavening and saving power of the gospel. The 
 perpetuity of our institutions depends on the education 
 and evangelization of individuals. This done, the re- 
 sponsibility of the church is discharged. 
 
 Let us not forget the golden words addressed to us 
 tW'O years ago by the Secretar)- of this Association : 
 "The only way to elevate our civilization is to elevate 
 our citizens. The only way to save institutions is to 
 save men. But we shall not save men if we seek them 
 for the sake of our institutions and our civilization. 
 They were made for man, not man for them. And we 
 shall fail of the lower unless we aim at the higher. 
 . . . Our government, our civilization, our cher- 
 ished American institutions, are only a part of the 
 scaffolding of that temple which God is rearing in the 
 earth, built of living stones, fashioned after the simili- 
 tude of the headstone of the corner. And that shall 
 abide." 
 
 It has yet to be demonstrated that the teachings, 
 the worship, or the customs of these people are in any 
 degree out of harmony with our best American life, or 
 in conflict with the highest type of American citizen- 
 ship. In the civic sphere they are not inferior to our 
 native product. A more industrious, intelligent, pro- 
 gressive and peaceable class is nowhere to be found. 
 
300 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 They are Americans of Americans. And as the chief 
 aim of their churches and schools is to make good 
 Christians, they can certainly be depended on to make 
 good citizens. 
 
 Possibly, too, the greatest evils and perils of our 
 country are not chargeable to foreigners. Our native 
 Adam may have the seeds of deterioration, should he 
 not even be contaminated by foreign blood. The germs 
 of disease in the national life are not all importations. 
 
 The plea of zealots for a hasty Americanization of 
 Christian foreigners appears to betray a weak faith in 
 the intrinsic strength of American institutions. The 
 immediate Russianization of a few million peaceful 
 Germans on the frontier may be indispensable to the 
 continued rule of a despot ; a military empire may feel 
 the necessity of promptly crushing out French institu- 
 tions and the French language from its conquered an- 
 nexations, but surely American liberty is in no such 
 straits. Our temple of freedom is not likely to totter 
 if some of our adopted fellow-citizens should for a gen- 
 eration worship God in their own tongue, and receive 
 the care of ministers whose devotion to a pure Chris- 
 tianity and to religious freedom brought them to our 
 shores. 
 
 Nor should we view those whom the glorious at- 
 tractions of our country have brought into our midst 
 as pent up in a stifling and pestilential atmosphere, so 
 that extraordinary efforts must be put forth to pump 
 into them the pure American oxygen. Our very air is 
 instinct with freedom. Every inhalation on American 
 soil is fraught with American ideas. It is impossible 
 
OUR DEBT AND DUTY TO THE IMMIGRANT. 30I 
 
 for sane people to live in this country and not become 
 Americans. Whatever prejudices or antipathies some 
 may bring- with them, they unconsciously imbibe the 
 American spirit, and a few years suffice to win tliem 
 irresistibly to our institutions. 
 
 The rapid Americanization of almost every nation- 
 ality that comes, is one of the marvels of history, and 
 this is particularly true of the Teutonic elements. They 
 have hardly time to settle down and get acquainted until 
 they are of us, in love with the best element of our 
 national characteristics, and soon undistinguishable 
 from the native American, except by a slight brogue, 
 and possibly greater thrift and thoroughness. 
 
 The country has more to fear from a too rapid 
 Americanization than from a slower process, a consid- 
 eration which refuses the claim that we must infuse a 
 new type of religion into foreigners so as to accelerate 
 the transition. The young stranger who is quite ready 
 to cast ofif the influences and associations of home is not 
 the most desirable acquisition to a commercial house, 
 vi^hich requires the strictest integrity. And foreigners 
 who are in great haste to renounce, with their native 
 land, the noblest and best possessions it gave to them, 
 in whom religious and moral principles are so super- 
 ficially rooted, that they can throw them aside on land- 
 ing here, must be prima facie an ignoble class. A self- 
 respecting people who cherish their sacred traditions, 
 in w-hom truth and righteousness have become in- 
 grained, whose faith is identified with their very being, 
 and who are set against religious innovations, is an ele- 
 ment worth having. 
 
302 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 The most serious moral strain to which the indi- 
 vidual or a community can be subjected is a sudden 
 transition to new conditions and new surroundings. It 
 is a matter of infinite detriment to our own religious 
 life, that our native population has become so largely 
 migratory ; that we have so much breaking up of house- 
 holds, scattering the young to distant localities, and 
 removing them from accustomed associations and re- 
 straints. When the strain is heightened by removal to 
 a foreign land, when, sundered from all the protection 
 and powerful bonds of country, church and home, they 
 are cast among strangers, exposed to the temptations 
 of a new world, and cut oflF from all the hallowed influ- 
 ences that keep men in right paths, the only cord that is 
 likely to hold them is the faith of their childhood. Snap 
 this asunder, persuade them that in this country their 
 prayer-book and their old religion are not in fashion, 
 and that they must hastily adopt a new pattern of piety, 
 and you snap the cord which anchors them within the 
 veil. Do not subject the moral fibre of the stranger to 
 such a shock. x'Mlow his faith to remain undisturbed, 
 to keep its hold upon his conscience and conduct, to 
 strengthen and solace him in the bitter trials which he 
 is sure to experience. Let the transition be gradual. Let 
 time do the work of modifying. Let Americanization 
 proceed not by mechanical force, but according to the 
 law of growth, — the law of all healthy life. Hasten 
 not to extinguish the remains of home influence ; rather 
 strengthen it, and keep alive the memory of the good 
 and happy days of old. Granted that there is an Ameri- 
 can type of Christianity, as there is an Oriental, an 
 
OUR DEBT AND DUTY TO THE IMMIGRANT. 303 
 
 Occidental, a German, and an Anglican, our American 
 religions life lias hardly so reached its limits of devel- 
 opment, or become so stereotyped, as to render (lerman 
 reverence and pietism and Scandinavian devotion inad- 
 missible. 
 
 We owe them a hearty welcome as fellow Chris- 
 tians, and an honest, practical recognition as co-laborers 
 in the kingdom of Jesus. We are at home here ; we 
 claim this great country as our country. They are 
 strangers and sojourners with us, but having with us 
 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, they are entitled to 
 the sympathy, confidence and affection of Christian 
 hospitality. They should be made to feel that they are 
 esteemed as brethren, of the household of faith. 
 
 Yet the reception accorded them generally by our 
 churches falls short, incomparably, of the welcome the}- 
 receive from the government. By the state they are 
 viewed as an invaluable accession ; by the churches as 
 rather a doubtful acquisition. They are not looked 
 upon as adding ought to the Christian forces of the 
 country, as contributing any evangelizing power. Thev 
 are not hailed as a corps of reinforcements in the army 
 of the Lord, joining us shoulder to shoulder in the bat- 
 tle with sin, sensualism and superstition. Either, my 
 brethren, there is wanting to us the spirit of brother- 
 hood inherent in Christianity, or we lack that faith in 
 the intrinsic unity of the Christian church which we 
 pronounce in the Creed, or else we must more than 
 suspect that under the unwonted garb of their worship 
 and the foreign tongue in which it is necessarily con- 
 ducted, there lurks some dreadful heresy, some laxity 
 
304 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 of principle or some soul-destroying formalism, which 
 justifies missionary superintendents and mission boards 
 in classifying these Christian people with the irreligious 
 population. Agents are appointed and funds are appro- 
 priated for work among the Chinese, the Mormons, the 
 Indians, the Freedmen, the Germans, the Swedes, and 
 at last the "Pennsylvania Dutch," — the most completely 
 churched element in this country. 
 
 Here are large bodies of earnest Christians, who 
 rival the most zealous of us in honoring Christ, with 
 their churches, Sunday schools, and higher institutions 
 of learning, and their presence and their work are ut- 
 terly ignored by our aggressive denominational parti- 
 sanism. 
 
 What though the richness and fullness of the gos- 
 pel as preached by them is nowhere surpassed ; what 
 though the people unite in the worship of the sanctuary 
 as they do nowhere else ; what though the religious 
 instruction and godliness of their home life may with 
 profit be imitated by Americans ; what though their 
 piety radiates in a lofty morality and makes a stable 
 and progressive population, the sectarian propagandist 
 can see them only in the light of admirable material lo 
 build up denominational missions. 
 
 Brethren, I should be derelict to the truth, I should 
 , not be faithful to my Master and my people, if I did not 
 on this occasion record my humble protest against this 
 treatment of a large body of excellent Christians, whose 
 only delinquency is their not having been born in this 
 country. And this protest is called forth, not only by 
 the wrong which this proselytism inflicts upon these 
 
OUR DEBT AND DUTY TO THE IMMIGRANT. 305 
 
 brethren of foreign birth, but by the wrong which it 
 does at the same time to our American Christianity, the 
 wretched exhil)it it makes of the spirit, aims and meth- 
 ods which have gained currency among us. Simple- 
 minded and confiding, coming from lands where they 
 enjoyed what we seem to desire so much, — a united 
 Christian church, these strangers behold here the 
 church divided into a number of rival sects, competing 
 for ascendency, shrewdly and strategically eyeing the 
 foreign Protestant element, and contending for it as a 
 means of swelling, respectively, their denominational 
 strength. What impression does this make upon these 
 newly-arrived disciples of Christ? What estimate does 
 it give them of our form of Christianity? What confi- 
 dence does it inspire in the dominant types of American 
 church life? 
 
 They have an enlightened faith. They know the 
 way of salvation. They know the rock whence they are 
 hewn. They are quite sure of the ground underneath 
 them, and with open eyes and devoted hearts they are 
 making incomparable sacrifices to bring their unbeliev- 
 ing countrymen under the power of the gospel, and 
 yet they find very frequently not only no sympathy, no 
 recognition from their American brethren, but really 
 their chief obstacle in the interference of American 
 zealots, who with questionable devices are seeking to 
 draw away from them the very souls whom they are 
 striving to save. They find their influence undermined, 
 their teachings and religious character slanderously as- 
 sailed, — although any sciolist knows the doctrines of a 
 20 
 
3o6 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 great historic church, and the noble Christian virtues 
 by which its people are distinguished. 
 
 We owe them substantial co-operation, — a co-oper- 
 ation most effective in bringing about results which we 
 all most earnestly desire. Co-operation in the salvation 
 of all classes is the watch-word of the new turn which 
 this Alliance has taken. The mighty task of giving 
 Christ to this land, and this land to Christ, is what we 
 have set our hearts upon. What is now pre-eminently 
 needed is the wisdom which will so divide and deploy 
 the multitudinous hosts of the church as to give to every 
 one its specific work, — work which by the obvious indi- 
 cations and preparations of providence, it is best fitted 
 to accomplish. There is no doubt as to the power of 
 our leader ; there is no doubt as to the ample resources 
 and diversified aptitudes of His people ; there is little 
 doubt as to their real readiness and heartiness for the 
 work ; what is lacking is so wise a coalition of the dif- 
 ferent instrumentalities, such a distribution of the sev- 
 eral gifts as will assure the greatest advance for the 
 cause as a whole. For each corps to map out its own 
 plan, and order its march, and choose its positions re- 
 gardless and oblivious of those who have already occu- 
 pied the same positions, means simply to fire upon our 
 friends, and to court disaster and irretrievable disgrace. 
 
 If we have Christ's cause at heart, and not, to a 
 greater degree, the Presbyterian cause, the Methodist 
 cause, the Lutheran cause, we will so dispose all the 
 confederated troops, so divide all resources, so distrib- 
 ute the advantages as to make all converge to the tri- 
 
OUR DEBT AND DUTY TO THE IMMIGRANT. 307 
 
 nniph of one glorious result. Instead of making an>- 
 move, covert or open, through enlightened or mis- 
 guided zeal, that may embarrass or cripple and weaken 
 a friendly force, we will move conjointly upon the ene- 
 mies' works, and make sure of a common victory. 
 
 Recognizing amid the diversity of gifts and callings 
 the same spirit, acknowledging that in God's providence 
 some have manifestly peculiar qualifications for one 
 sphere, while others find themselves most effective in 
 another, let us invoke the law of adaptation; let us 
 make a rational division of labor ; let us combine and 
 thereby make sure of the greatest benefit to the whole. 
 Each body has advantages, and each, disadvantages. In 
 the work among the immigrants, the American is rich, 
 where the German or Scandinavian is poor; but the 
 latter are often strong wdiere the former is w^eak. Be- 
 tween the foreign-born pastor and his countr>nnen there 
 exists in advance a bond of sympathy and confidence. 
 He is of their own blood. He understands their pecu- 
 liarities, their prejudices, their temperament and their 
 training, their susceptibilities and their singular trials. 
 They in turn are familiar with the faith, the usages and 
 forms which he represents. Every Scandinavian and 
 nearly every German Protestant holds in his memory, 
 if not in his heart, the elements of Christian doctrine. 
 What he needs is to have these germs nurtured, these 
 smoldering embers rekindled, these feeble beginnings 
 or remains strengthened and vitalized. This can in 
 every way be best effected by one of his own, one who 
 stands near him, a kinsman. For such a one, so to 
 
308 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 speak, everything is ready, while a stranger is Hkely to 
 confuse the faith of childhood, or to stifle it with novel- 
 ties of thought or application. 
 
 It is God's plan that from among themselves 
 prophets are to arise to teach a people. It is from a 
 native ministry that we expect ultimately the evangeli- 
 zation of the heathen. And this principle applies to the 
 immigrants. They do not know the voice of strangers. 
 They distrust it. They misapprehend it. American 
 clerg^'men are just as much strangers to them as they 
 are strangers to America, and the American's religion 
 with its divisions, its rivalries, its baldness of worship, 
 its emotionalism and demonstrative piety, strikes them 
 as something very strange. Their knowledge of its 
 true character is limited. The reports of it in their 
 European home are unfavorable and disparaging, and 
 on settling here they think as poorly of our type of 
 Christianity as we do of theirs — and from the same 
 causes, ignorance and prejudice. Thus our evangelistic 
 efforts among them encounter a wall of prejudice, and 
 even when that is broken down, there remain verj' for- 
 midable difficulties and disadvantages. Circumstances 
 being equal, one of their own number can accomplish 
 more than ten of our denominational representatives. 
 One thousand dollars expended through these natural 
 channels will do more evangelistic work than ten times 
 that sum expended in efforts to draw them into other 
 folds. 
 
 Such are the advantages possessed by their own 
 clergy. On the other hand, the material resources of 
 these communities are utterlv incommensurate with 
 
OUR DEBT AND DUTY TO THE IMMIGRANT. 309 
 
 their opportunities and necessities. They carry for- 
 ward, indeed, their work with an economy of outlay 
 that is incomprehensible to the wealthy .\merican 
 churches. There is a humbleness about their under- 
 takings, a modesty, and withal, a self-sacrifice which 
 we are unable properly to appreciate, much less to imi- 
 tate. A year's salary of one of their pastors is scarcely 
 equivalent to what the average American receives per 
 montli, and in numberless cases, along with his proper 
 pastoral charge, the minister serves a number of mis- 
 sion points. Yet even though done at such a moderate 
 cost, their financial resources are altogether inadequate 
 to the demands of the work. 
 
 An organized congregation is the norm of Chris- 
 tianity. The conditions of a congregation are a house 
 of worship and a settled pastor. To prepare, in addi- 
 tion, a corps of ministerial recruits, there must be 
 higher institutions of learning. To compass all the nec- 
 essar)' expenditures involved in these essentials, so that 
 the vast opportunities may be seized, is beyond the 
 power of these people, who have not been here long 
 enough to amass American wealth. Where their work 
 is most needed, in our large cities, which contain many 
 thousands of their godless countrymen, there they find 
 themselves in the greatest straits. The price of ground 
 on which to erect church buildings is appalling, and 
 yet without these, organized and enduring Christian 
 work is out of the question. Furnish them with places 
 of worship, and New York alone will in a few years 
 return a score of new evangelical congregations com- 
 posed of its immigrant population. 
 
3IO THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 A cause like this, properly understood, must com- 
 mend itself to our laymen of large means and larger 
 hearts. It is a cause that implies nothing less than the 
 spread of orthodox Christianity among the immigrant 
 masses, the maintenance of Christian education, and the 
 strengthening of all the foundations on which the re- 
 public is resting. 
 
 What opportunities open here, and what harvests 
 they promise is illustrated by the generosity of Christ 
 Episcopal Church, St. Louis. Fifty years ago it took 
 compassion on a colony of pious Saxons, and for three 
 years allowed them at a nominal rent the use of the 
 basement. From that little Saxon congregation, whose 
 very life was conditioned by this friendly consideration 
 of a sister church, there has developed in half a century 
 a body of Christians now aggregating over one thou- 
 sand ministers, fifteen hundred churches and three hun- 
 dred thousand communicants, and their influence in 
 saving our German population cannot be overestimated. 
 
 Again, a few years ago, the Hon. R. S. Cable 
 donated $25,000 to a Swedish college at Rock Island, 
 an institution that now maintains fifteen professors, en- 
 rolls two hundred and fifty students, and sends forth, 
 annually, waves of Christian influence that must have 
 the most salutary efifect on our Swedish fellow-citizens. 
 
 Such examples of recognition, sympathy, and sub- 
 stantial co-operation do more for the evangelization of 
 a large class of immigrants, than all the machinery and 
 special work that ever has been or ever can be devised. 
 
 It is no Utopian scheme that is here presented. It 
 is not even something new. The first distinctively Ger- 
 
OUR DEBT AND DUTY TO THE IMMIGRANT. 3II 
 
 man colonies in this country received aid for the sup- 
 port of pastors and the erection of churches from the 
 "Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge," 
 and that with no thought of making Episcopalians of 
 thom. The theological institution in which I have the 
 honor to teach, and which was for years the chief 
 source of ministerial supply for my denomination, owes 
 a large measure of its prosperity and ever-widening 
 influence to the generous sympathy of Xew England 
 Congregationalists, who fifty years ago donated the 
 funds for a second professorship. 
 
 If it be objected that this means simply that Chris- 
 tians from other denominations shall contribute to the 
 building up of one in particular, I reply that a ix>licy 
 which will build up an evangelical church is in every 
 way preferable to a policy that obstructs and weakens 
 it. There can be no successful Christian activity that 
 is not attended by the increase of one or more denomi- 
 nations, unless we propose to found a new one. The 
 spirit of Christ desires to see all prosper, multiply and 
 advance. Why not, then, so distribute resources, apti- 
 tudes, gifts, and talents as to throw eflfectual support 
 where it promises to reach vast multitudes of immi- 
 grants who are estranged from religion and who may 
 prove dangerous elements of society. 
 
 We want these masses won, whoever may be most 
 directly active in winning them. We want the gospel 
 to have the supremacy over our great country, which- 
 ever of the denominations may be particularly advan- 
 taged by its universal diffusion. Our social order rests 
 on Christianity. The simple application of the gospel 
 
312 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 is the solution of the problems of our time. Its con- 
 servative and uplifting power is the hope of our future. 
 Wherever, then, we see men earnestly engaged in pro- 
 mulgating its teachings, let us do what lieth in us to 
 promote their efficiency. The s'.ronger their hands, the 
 sooner will the work be accomplished. 
 
 Problems and complications may be involved in 
 this proposal. We distinguish between the desirable, 
 the ideal, and the practicable, but it is our duty to aim 
 at the best the circumstances admit; and I am per- 
 suaded that the plan suggested is enforced by weighty 
 and scriptural considerations. 
 
 1. It implies an economy of means. Why shall 
 denominational zeal make its enormous expenditures 
 to reach an element which the providence of God has 
 made far more accessible to others, who with the frac- 
 tion of such outlay can have a more thorough, and, 
 perchance, a more enduring success ? Why not conduct 
 the Lord's business on business principles? Let there 
 be no waste. 
 
 2. It coincides with the plan already developed 
 and practiced by the Alliance — a whole-souled denom- 
 inational co-operation. The days of sectarian jealousy, 
 factional Christianity, are numbered. The age, the 
 situation, demands that we combine on a comprehen- 
 sive scale, the zeal, the resources, the beneficence of 
 the Christian church, "so as to reach our entire popula- 
 tion with the Gospel." The course here advocated is 
 simply emphasizing and applying this new departure, 
 "a. movement accepted in the spirit of dvity, providen- 
 tially laid upon it, and having the unanimous and hearty 
 
OUR DEBT AND DUTY TO THE IMMIGRANT. 313 
 
 indorsement of leading clergymen and laymen of all 
 evangelical denominations." We want to strengthen 
 one another's hands ; to svipply reciprocally our mutual 
 lack; to bid a substantial God-speed to all who love 
 the Lord Jesus in sincerity. 
 
 Whoever then is most efficient in any particular 
 sphere, whoever is best adapted to win a certain class, 
 cheer him, encourage him, reinforce him, whether his 
 shibboleth is yours or his. Let these foreign fellow- 
 laborers in the Kingdom feel themselves strengthened 
 and upheld by your attitude toward them, their diffi- 
 culties diminished, their success multiplied by your 
 co-operation. 
 
 The local alliance can be of great service in arous- 
 ing public interest, in directing the beneficence of 
 wealthy laymen, in bringing the unshepherded for- 
 eigners to their proper flocks, and to pastors best fitted 
 to take care of them. When your visitors find a Ger- 
 man or a Scandinavian send him to the church of his 
 fathers, the church in which he was baptized and reared, 
 the church of his vows. Send him to his spiritual 
 mother, remembering there is no place like home. Let 
 the wanderer be brought once more into scenes that 
 will recall the most solemn hours of his life, and you 
 have secured the best condition for bringing him under 
 the power of grace. It was an approved policy in the 
 conduct of the late war to officer Irish brigades with 
 Irish commanders, and the Germans were wisely 
 allowed to "fight mit Sigel." 
 
 If we were not restrained by sectarian bias and 
 jealousy, if we were more imbued with the wisdom and 
 
314 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 spirit of the Gospel, we should long ago have effected 
 organizations to aid these Christian immigrants in 
 their evangelization of their countrymen, along the line 
 of their own usages and traditions. If the hour has 
 not yet struck for associate measures, surely it com- 
 mends itself to individual effort and generosity. 
 
 3. A co-operation like this would repress the ram- 
 pant denominationalism, which is the reproach and the 
 weakness of our American Christianity. It may not be 
 the antichrist, as some have thought, yet it doubtless 
 is the demon of our American system which by common 
 consent must be cast out. It has seriously blocked the 
 path of the Gospel both among natives and immigrants, 
 and has been the theme of endless derision. To check 
 this zealotry and at the same time convince the stranger 
 that your foremost concern is his moral and spiritual 
 welfare, would be a vantage ground of immense im- 
 portance in the effort to convert men to Christ. 
 
 4. It would cultivate the love which is the badge 
 of Christianity. It would once more make the world 
 say, "How these Christians love one another!" They 
 are all brothers, divided by no selfish or partisan lines. 
 We have hardly reached a dizzy height of Christian 
 perfection so long as the measure of our zeal and activ- 
 ity coincides with the advancement of our party, and 
 our purses open or close with the prospect of denomi- 
 national aggrandizement. In war, the officer who de- 
 clines to serve where special glory may accrue to a 
 rival is usually dismissed from the service as one lack- 
 ing in patriotism. 
 
 5. Such co-operation would be an incalculable 
 
OUR DEBT AND DUTY TO THE IMMIGRANT. 315 
 
 triumph to the church as a demonstration of its essen- 
 tial unity under divergent forms. It would show us to 
 be one united host, animated by one spirit, looking 
 towards a common aim, each rejoicing in the respective 
 triumphs of the other, each determined to know nothing 
 but Christ and him crucified. And in our yearning for 
 a fuller realization of this unity, the more comprehen- 
 sive the co-operation the more powerful and convinc- 
 ing the demonstration. 
 
 6. It would enrich the individual with spiritual 
 blessings. It would open the gates to the pent-up 
 graces. It would deepen the soil under the culture of 
 the spirit. It would bring the inheritance promised 
 to those who give, hoping for nothing again. It would 
 represent the highest form of Christian liberality, the 
 most beautiful expression of that charity "which seek- 
 eth not her own." 
 
VIII. THE HISTORIC EPISCOPATE THE 
 CORNER-STONE OF A REUNITED 
 CHURCH. 
 
 [From The Interior.] 
 
 The declaration on Christian unity communicated 
 by the bishops of the Protestant Episcopal church "to 
 the organized Christian bodies of our country." names 
 "the historic episcopate" as one of the four essentials 
 for the restoration of unity. This is in fact the only 
 condition which has evoked general attention, and is 
 the only one likely to call forth strenuous opposition on 
 the part of those churches which are favorably inclined 
 toward proposals for an organic union of Christendom. 
 
 There has been considerable discussion as to the 
 sense in which the terms "historic episcopate" are to 
 be understood. The religious press has teemed with 
 articles stoutly maintaining that scholars generally, and 
 among them eminent representatives of the Anglican 
 communion, agree in holding that the polity of the 
 Episcopal church is not an apostolic or New Testament 
 institution. The Presbytery of New York, in its over- 
 ture to the General Assembly, gave on the one hand a 
 Presbyterian interpretation of "the historic episcopate" 
 continuing "in all ages of the church in unbroken suc- 
 cession until the present day," and on the other hand 
 earnestly testified "against any claim of the diocesan 
 episcopate to the exclusive right of ordination as 
 
 (316) 
 
THE HISTORIC EPISCOPATE. 317 
 
 without warrant from the Word of God." The General 
 Assembly at Omaha, in its cordial but guarded response 
 to the bishop's invitation, pointedly emphasized "mu- 
 tual recognition" and "ministerial reciprocity" as 
 among the foremost objects to be sought in the pro- 
 posed conference. And the General Synod of the 
 Lutheran Church, speaking from the same city a few 
 days later, made official declaration that it entertained 
 no objections to "the historic episcopate" as it obtained 
 in the apostolic church and as it was understood by 
 the great body of the Reformers, botli German and 
 Anglican. 
 
 It must be obvious to all interested parties that 
 the first step to be taken in this matter, if anything 
 whatever is to come out of the bishop's proposal, is to 
 secure a general understanding of the sense which we 
 are to apply to "the historic episcopate" agreement in 
 the use of terms is the first prerequisite in a discussion. 
 As the House of Bishops proposed this condition as 
 essential to the restoration of Christian unity, that body 
 must of course be regarded as the proper authority to 
 give a plain, uiiambiguous definition of its own terms. 
 So far it has not given any, although one of its ablest 
 members, while occupying the broad platform of the 
 evangelical alliance, took occasion the other day to oflFer 
 most graciously to all of us the unspeakable treasures 
 which are supposed to inhere in "the historic episco- 
 pate." and that, too, in a manner which left no doubt 
 in anybody's mind of the bishop's meaning. But if the 
 bishops themselves have not, up to date, defined this 
 equivocal phrase, some of those who through the 
 
3l8 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 imposition of their hands were invested with the gift of 
 the Holy Ghost and the authority to teach the truth, 
 have interpreted it with most laudable clearness and 
 positiveness. 
 
 In the late church congress at Louisville, this topic 
 was assigned a conspicuous place on the program and 
 clearly with reference to the action of the bishops in 
 setting it forth as one of the necessary bases of unity. 
 It came up for discussion on the third day. Three 
 papers were read by eminent divines and a number of 
 volunteer speeches followed. Now, these utterances, 
 we well understand, are not to be regarded as oracular. 
 They are not intended to voice the authoritative judg- 
 ment of the bishops, yet, as they were put forth by a 
 number of the ablest and foremost divines in the Epis- 
 copal Church, they must, in great measure, represent 
 the sentiments of that body, and they prove most inter- 
 esting and significant as an index of the sense in which 
 the Episcopalians themselves understand "the historic 
 episcopate." 
 
 The first paper, by the Rev. Dr. Harwood, of New 
 Haven, maintained that at the great break of the 
 Reformation, the Church of England "continued the 
 episcopate chiefly because it had always been one of the 
 indicia of the Church of Christ." "The ancient mode of 
 the government of the church was preserved, an ecclesi- 
 astical, not a divine institution." 
 
 The second paper, that of the Rev. W. R. Mackay, 
 of Pittsburg, followed the same pitch. "Now that the 
 spirit of God has brought men and churches more 
 closely together, and a desire for unity is manifest 
 
THE HISTORIC EPISCOPATE. 3 19 
 
 everywhere, the theory, not the fact, of the apostoHc 
 episcopate is the chief obstacle to this consummation. 
 That theory is that all ministerial power was transmitted 
 by Christ to the bishops ; =5= * * and that, when the union 
 comes, all ministers uniting- with us nmst be episcopally 
 ordained, humbly acknowledging^ that they and their 
 fathers were not of the ministry of the church of God. 
 Like the doctrine of the divine right of kings, this 
 theory, happily, is exploded. While government is 
 divine, the form is human, and this is as true of the 
 church as of a nation. We have a right to alter existing 
 forms, even to annihilate them. "^ * * The office is 
 only the tool in the Master- Workman's hands, and he 
 cannot transfer the powers of the office, for he does not 
 own them. The whole theory is a fiction. * * * Let 
 us throw the apostolic fiction overboard, and let us ask 
 our brethren to accept the apostolic reality in its plainest 
 form. Measured by the New Testament, the leading 
 Protestant churches have already the apostolic succes- 
 sion of the New Testament in all its reality and power." 
 The third paper was read by the Rev. Dr. Vibbert, 
 of Chicago, and had a somewhat different sound. "So 
 clear and comprehensive are the utterances of Holy 
 Scripture and of the fathers, doctors, councils, canons, 
 and formularies of the church on this great subject, 
 that nothing new that is true is left to be said. * * * 
 The historic episcopate is necessary to the being and 
 essence of the church, an essential link in the process 
 of bringing about a real union of believers with our 
 adorable Lord, and maintaining the corporate life of 
 that body of which he is the head. We hold that Epis- 
 
320 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 copal orders are a necessary condition for the valid 
 celebration of the sacrament of the altar, e. g., by 
 which grace is given to human souls, and by means of 
 which they are united to the incarnate Lord without 
 whom there is no spiritual life. * * * The grace of 
 orders is and can be transmitted by those only who 
 have in succession received that grace and the authority 
 to hand it down from its original source, the great 
 Shepherd and Bishop of our souls. The historic episco- 
 pate is the actual succession of such bishops as have in 
 turn revived this power and authority from age to age, 
 till we reach the Apostles themselves, etc. * * * 
 This doctrine of the apostolic succession is the doctrine 
 of the Anglican branch of the church, and so the doc- 
 trine of our own Church. * * * por the sake of 
 unity we are ready to give up anything that we can give 
 up. But these things it is impossible for us to surrender 
 without proving faithless to our trust. * * * We 
 hold it as a necessary and essential part of the frame- 
 work of Christ's kingdom, because of its vital import- 
 ance to each believer, because it is one of the divinely 
 instituted channels of the supernatural gifts of God 
 to the soul of the individual." The first speaker after 
 the reading of the paper was the Rev. Dr. Donald, of 
 New York, who contended that it was "just as difficult 
 with the authenticity of the Epistles of Ignatius almost 
 certified, to prove the nature of the government insti- 
 tuted by the Apostles. We have neither evidence that 
 the episcopate was of divine appointment nor assur- 
 ance that it was primitive, intended to be eternal." He 
 combated the idea that only those are ordained upon 
 
THE HISTORIC EPISCOPATE. 32 1 
 
 whom the hands of the bishop have been laid. If that 
 were so. then the absence of such ordination meant no 
 ministry, no sacraments, no union with Christ, and it 
 would seem very easy to go only a Httle step further 
 and say that the members of these vast communions 
 about us can have no salvation for the lack of ejjisco- 
 pally ordained ministers. 
 
 The Rev. Dr. Holland, of St. Louis, said per con- 
 tra, that in the light of history, the doctrine of episco- 
 pacy is perfectly established, "We must not expect to 
 find all things in the New Testament (evidently Dr. 
 H. does not find episcopacy there). The maxim which 
 makes the Bible alone a standard of belief is a curiosity. 
 * * * Will you tell me that the Apostles had inspir- 
 ation for speech only, and not for action ?" 
 
 Another speaker, the Rev. Dr. Babcock, of Colum- 
 bus, claimed "the episcopate to be a fact, the apostolic 
 succession a theory, a fancy, a relic of Judaism, and as 
 unchristian as unhistoric. It did not exist in New 
 Testament times, and it is of divine origin merely be- 
 cause God bestowed the gift of government upon man, 
 to be shaped by human agency according to the exi- 
 gencies of the times." 
 
 What Bishop Seymour and Drs. Riley and Mc- 
 Vickar added is not reported in The Churchman, from 
 which these extracts are taken. But they, of course, 
 joined in the responsive service, following the one strain 
 or the other according to the altitude of their church- 
 manship. 
 
 Which of these two parties, now maintaining theo- 
 ries diametrically opposed to each other, represents the 
 21 
 
322 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 view of the House of Bishops on "the historic episco- 
 pate?" The pubHc has an eager and profound interest 
 in the answer to this question. And with all becoming- 
 deference to that reverent and imposing body of pre- 
 lates, it seems to us that a supreme obligation to the 
 churches addressed in their declaration and the cause 
 of Christian unity and the cause of truth, imposes upon 
 them an authoritative and unmistakable deliverance on 
 this subject. The denominations which have received 
 in good faith their overture on the restoration of church 
 unity, and which are earnestly striving for some solid 
 and scriptural basis for new relations of harmony and 
 co-operation among the Christian bodies of the land, 
 have a sacred and indefeasible right, before proceeding 
 any further, to ask from the bishops this simple solu- 
 tion of a question which they themselves have brought 
 forward. 
 
 An unmistakable authoritative answer may indeed 
 develop a dilemma. If the bishops hold the view that 
 "the historic episcopate" is "an ecclesiastical, not a 
 divine institution," if they admit that the theory of a 
 divine right attaching to the episcopate is "exploded," 
 that it is but "a fancy, as unchristian as unhistoric,'^ 
 and "an apostolic fiction," it becomes a serious question 
 why they should block the way of Christian union by 
 thrusting forward as essential to it, a device so unim- 
 portant and adiaphoristic. 
 
 If, on the other hand, they take the position that 
 the episcopate "is one of the divinely instituted chan- 
 nels of supernatural gifts to the individual soul," and 
 that "without it there can be no ministry, no sacraments. 
 
THE HISTORIC EPISCOPATE. 323 
 
 no union with Christ," the Christian public will want 
 to know why, in all good conscience, the bishops of 
 the Episcopal Church should solemnly propose to other 
 churches, as a condition of fellowship with them, a 
 theory of the ministry against which these have suc- 
 cessfully contended for nearly four centuries, and 
 which the scholarship of the day by a singular unanim- 
 ity pronounces to be both unscriptural and unhistoric? 
 
IX. THE PRAYERS OF THE SELFISH. 
 
 [From The Christian At Work.] 
 
 The recent study of Cain and Abel in the Sunday 
 schools was hardly so exhaustive as to render any 
 further reflections on that subject out of season. In 
 fact, the most practical, the most needed, and the most 
 momentous lesson of that ghastly tragedy, which fit- 
 tingly opens the world's record of fraternal strife, per- 
 secution and blood, was larg-ely overlooked in the nu- 
 merous expositions published. These "notes" dilated 
 pretty generally on the awful guilt of murder, a reflec- 
 tion not specially called for among our Christian chil- 
 dren, and on the monstrous depravity which Cain 
 exhibited in bringing an offering without blood — as if 
 a fully developed theological system had been extant 
 in the infancy of the race and Cain's greatest offence 
 consisted in his heresy on the atonement. 
 
 To us who are accustomed to engage in Divine 
 worship, undoubtedly the most serious question that 
 here presents itself is the rejection of this man's offer- 
 ing. Finding nothing in the Scriptures or elsewhere 
 indicating that the offering was in itself inappropriate, 
 and knowing that the gift is accepted according to the 
 state of the worshipper and not conversely the worship- 
 per according to the quality of his gift, we ought to 
 seek in the man's personal character for the secret which 
 
 (324) 
 
THE PRAYERS OF THE SELFISH. 325 
 
 converted his sacrifice on the altar into a curse. This 
 secret is not difificult to discover. His defiant retort, 
 "Am I my brother's keeper?" betrays the true inward- 
 ness of the man and demonstrates his absolute incapac- 
 ity for acceptable worship. He had no interest in 
 others. His own affairs absorbed his attention. He 
 looked out for "number one." He lived for himself. 
 Why should he be burdened with care and responsibil- 
 ity for another? True, there were natural ties of sym- 
 pathy, and these would of themselves create a strong 
 claim upon a brother's consideration, but these he coldly 
 repudiated. Cain was the keeper of himself, not of his 
 dependent brother. And this rendered his admittance 
 into the Divine presence impossible. Selfishness dis- 
 qualifies for approach to the throne of grace. Heaven 
 is closed against the offerings of those who bear no 
 love to others. The prayers of the selfish are answered 
 with curses. 
 
 This sounds harsh, and you say, perhaps, it is too 
 sweeping. But you can only argue thus by shutting 
 your eyes to the downright wicked and devilish nature 
 of selfishness. We are wont to treat with indulgence 
 this horrible crime against man and God, probably be- 
 cause of its general prevalence, as if this did not in itself 
 betray its revolting character. But surely the Holy 
 Scriptures have no palliation for this monstrous evil. 
 "Whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, 
 neither he that loveth not his brother." God has so 
 closely identified himself with man that he who has 
 wrong feelings toward his fellows cannot have right 
 feelings toward their Father in heaven. The love of 
 
326 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 God and the love of man are made our supreme duty 
 and these two commands are made parallel by the high- 
 est authority and interpreted as equal in import and 
 inseparable in binding force. "He that loveth not his 
 brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom 
 he hath not seen?" The human is invested with the 
 image of the Divine. The traces of Divinity reveal 
 themselves in man. The shadow of the Almighty may 
 be recognized in the human spirit by the eye that is 
 not wilfully blind and unfriendly to both God and man, 
 Contempt for the image means accordingly, contempt 
 for the original. He, therefore, that despiseth, despiseth 
 not man but God. 
 
 The want of right feelings toward others being 
 thus made the proof that a man has no proper feelings 
 toward God, he may as well spare himself the effort to 
 worship Him. He can present no acceptable sacrifies 
 or prayers at the altar of the All-seeing. "Therefore, 
 if thou bringest thy gift to the altar, and there remem- 
 berest that thy brother hath aught against thee, leave 
 there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way ; first be 
 reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy 
 gift." Right relations and right feelings toward others, 
 the relations and feelings of brotherhood, sympathy, 
 charity, are indispensable conditions in coming to right 
 relations and entertaining proper feelings toward the 
 Most High. Abandon your gift at the altar. It is 
 unavailing. You are in no state of mind for communion 
 with God, as long as a loving communion does not exist 
 between you and your neighbor. The Samaritan who 
 showed mercy was accepted of God. The priest and 
 
THE PRAYERS OF THE SELFISH. 327 
 
 tlie Levite who hurried by their unfortunate neighbor 
 to present their offerings in the temple, had nothing 
 for their pains but the frown of heaven. 
 
 To be covetous is but another term for being sel- 
 fish. He who is intent upon his own interests and 
 therefore indifferent to another's is guilty of covetous- 
 ness. He wants the good things of life for himself, 
 and as there are not enough to go around he means to 
 appropriate the earth to himself and his family. The 
 rest may have what is left. Now, the covetous man 
 St. Paul designates point-blank an idolater. Greed is 
 idolatry. The best affections which God claims for 
 himself and for our neighbor are alienated to gross and 
 degrading idols. And can one worship idols and at 
 the same time the Supreme Jehovah? drink the cup 
 of the Lord and the cup of devils ? offer sacrifies both 
 to Mammon and to Christ? Ye cannot serve two mas- 
 ters. You cannot with a selfish heart seek your own 
 and then come before the face of God with prayer for 
 his blessing. 
 
 Selfishness, furthermore, behaves towards God just 
 the same as towards man. It has no more regard for 
 the Father than for the brother. In attempted com- 
 munion with Him, just as in the intercourse with men, 
 the needle points directly and fixedly toward self. 
 Cain's sacrifice is will-worship. It is determined by his 
 own caprice. It is ruled by his own taste and pleasure. 
 It cost him nothing. He makes no selection of the first 
 and the fattest for the Lord. He recognizes no claims 
 from that quarter any more than from another. He 
 goes through the form of outward service without any 
 
328 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 feeling of humility or of thanksgiving and without any 
 exercise of faith. Every requisite to genuine prayer is 
 necessarily absent from the selfish heart. No prayer 
 can be heard without faith and faith casts out self. If 
 I have a child's confidence in my Heavenly Father I 
 cannot aim at appropriating what my brother needs. 
 My very faith makes me content with what is given 
 me. The selfish soul is in the nature of things without 
 faith and therefore cannot pray acceptably. 
 
 And once more, the very essence of worship is self- 
 abasement, to bow the will, to surrender, to immolate 
 self upon God's altar. The unfailing temper of all true 
 prayer, as taught and exemplified by the Master, is 
 "Thy will be done, not mine." The selfish man says in 
 his heart, no matter what his lips utter, "My will be 
 done, not Thine." The only will he acknowledges is his 
 own will, the only homage he really pays is to himself. 
 His worship is in fact self-worship. It cannot rise 
 above himself, neither can the prayer that accompanies 
 it. You may like one of old wrestle all the night to 
 obtain a coveted good, but until you abandon your self- 
 will and give up the eflfort to storm the very heavens 
 with selfishness, and surrender yourself to the will of 
 the Lord your prayer will be as ineffectual as was 
 Jacob's. God cannot be successfully sought by a will 
 at variance with His own. 
 
 Who then can pray eflfectually? Are we not all 
 selfish? Not in the sense of being ruled by this base 
 passion. No more slanderous aspersion of human na- 
 ture can be made than to charge it with universal sel- 
 fishness. God's infinite love has opened the fountains 
 
THE PRAYERS OF THE SELFISH. 329 
 
 of human sympathy. It has awakened a charity that is 
 kind, that envieth not, that seeketh not her own, that 
 beareth all things for the sake of others. Selfishness 
 may cleave to the best of men. but it does not reigii 
 over them. Some time ago France was troubled with 
 the presence of a number of royal princes, claimants 
 to the crown, but they were not allowed to seize the 
 throne, they were held in subjection and thus kept com- 
 paratively harmless. We must distinguish between the 
 presence of selfishness and its sway of our afifections, 
 aims and actions. If it reigns in our mortal bodies, 
 then if we endeavor to pray "we ask and receive not, 
 because we ask amiss that we may consume it on our 
 lusts." "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord 
 will not hear me." 
 
X. EATING AND DRINKING UNWORTHILY. 
 
 [From The Sunday School Times.] 
 
 Ask one hundred Christian people the meaning of 
 the phrase "he that eateth and drinketh unworthily," 
 and ninety-nine will go astray, and reply that it refers 
 to the moral fitness of the communicant. Ask one hun- 
 dred preachers how they interpret the passage, and 
 nine-tenths of them will repeat the same error, putting 
 upon these words a sense which was not in the Apostle's 
 mind, and using them for a purpose for which they 
 were not originally designed. It is commendable that 
 pastors generally recognize the need of a suitable frame 
 of mind in order that communicants may experience 
 the benefits of the Holy Communion ; but it is not com- 
 mendable that so large a proportion wrest the Scrip- 
 tures by a false interpretation. 
 
 Here, as elsewhere, the simplest exegetical canon 
 ofi^ers the key for correct exposition. The context 
 leaves no doubt of the writer's aim. The immediate 
 subject under discussion admits of no question. The 
 Corinthians had such a misconception of this divine 
 institution that the observance of it in their assemblies 
 was a flagrant profanation. They prostituted it into 
 a sensual feast, and they made it the means of main- 
 taining social distinctions. Its spiritual character was 
 destroyed by degrading it to an ordinary meal to ap- 
 
 (330) 
 
EATING AND DRINKING UNWORTHILY. 33I 
 
 pease hunger, and for the brotherly unity and intimate 
 fellowship of believers which the supper was designed 
 to promote, their practice subsituted social indifference 
 and contempt. Rich meml)ers who had brought a 
 plenteous supply of food consumed their own contri- 
 bution with greed and indecent haste, while the poor 
 who could bring little or little had to go hungry. 
 
 Such a celebration was a horrible travesty of the 
 rite, and a procedure utterly unbecoming to its true 
 character. It was a most indecorous and indecent per- 
 formance, wholly unworthy of its sacramental import. 
 It was eating and drinking unworthily, without any es- 
 timate of or regard for the religious solemnity, which 
 is its infomiing essence. It was impossible under such 
 circumstances, as the revisers have it correctly (v. 20), 
 to celebrate the Lord's Supper. The feast of the flesh 
 had effaced the feast of the spirit. 
 
 The Apostle then argues the holy heavenly signif- 
 icance of the rite from the immediate revelation he had 
 received concerning it, giving the history of its insti- 
 tution, showing its vital relation to the body of Christ, 
 and its absolute distinction from ordinary meals ; and 
 he points out the awful guilt they were incurring by 
 their carnal perversion of it. Here for the first time 
 occurs the adverb "unworthily." Their failure to con- 
 nect this eating in any wise with the death of our Lord, 
 for whose "remembrance" (v. 29), their degradation 
 and desecration of a divine mystery by making it noth- 
 ing more than a satisfaction of natural appetite, "in- 
 volves the crime of having violated the body and blood 
 of the Lord." He that thus "eateth and drinketh un- 
 
332 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 worthily eateth and drinketh judgment unto himself." 
 The Head of the Church will not suffer its rites to be 
 profaned. 
 
 Here it is not, mark you, a question of the per- 
 sonal worthiness of the guests, like the case of the man 
 who had not the wedding garment, but a question of 
 the employment of the rite to an unworthy end. 
 
 "But let a man examine [prove] himself." This 
 admonition certainly looks toward inquiring into one's 
 fitness, preparing one's self in heart for the ordinance, 
 qualifying one's self for a worthy appearance. Cer- 
 tainly it is commonly so interpreted, but at the expense 
 of interrupting Paul's course of thought and disturb- 
 ing the natural connection. In harmony with this, the 
 sense is that communicants are to examine themselves 
 with respect to the character of this ordinance, consider 
 what they are doing, guard against the ofifense he is 
 rebuking, against eating and drinking unworthily, in- 
 quire of themselves whether or not, in the Holy Com- 
 munion, they discern the Lord's body. When they 
 come together, is it to satisfy natural or spiritual hun- 
 ger, — is it to sustain physical life or to show the Lord's 
 death? Let them prove themselves on this point 
 whether they be in the faith, whether they have a right 
 estimate of the Lord's Supper. And so let them eat; 
 that is, in confonnity to the right conception of the 
 nature and purport of the sacrament. That this is 
 the primary object of the examination is explained in 
 logical form by the following verse : "For he that eateth 
 and drinketh unworthily," etc. The Apostle clinches 
 the argument by recurring once more to their unwor- 
 
EATING AND DRINKING UNWORTHILY. 333 
 
 thy conception of the supper which eliminated from it 
 the Lord's body. "He partakes unworthily," says 
 Neander, "who does not keep in view the holy purport 
 and aim of the solemnity, but treats it as an ordinary 
 meal, which in its observance does not show forth the 
 death of the Lord." 
 
 This does of course not hinder a man from looking 
 into his own heart. The right conception of the nature 
 and purpose of the ordinance is, in fact, likely to lead 
 up to rei>entance and faith, which are the essential per- 
 sonal requisites. Kling observes : "At all events, the 
 unworthiness lies in a lack of living, active faith in the 
 atonement which has been achieved by the death of 
 Christ; and this is the source of the various moral dis- 
 qualifications by which the celebration of the supper 
 may be dishonored." 
 
 At the same time, it must be admitted, people in- 
 dulge in morbid self-introspection to their own harm 
 quite as much as to their benefit. And they require 
 caution lest they fall into the snare of the devil, by 
 making such an estimate of their personal fitness or 
 unfitness as will determine them to participate or to 
 abstain. He who after self-examination judges him- 
 self worthy to eat this bread and drink this cup, by 
 that very act shows himself most unworthy of it. He 
 is not fit for the Communion. And a more aggravated 
 case of eating unworthily cannot be conceived. No 
 man living, no saint or angel in heaven, is worthy to 
 sit down at the table of the Lord. 
 
 Not the unworthy guest, but the unworthy eating, 
 is the subject in this lesson. Not a quality of the 
 
334 ''^HE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 guest is condemned, but a misuse of the institution, — a 
 practice not in keeping with the purpose of its Founder. 
 We have to do here with the objective, not with the 
 subjective. Our business is not self-contemplation, but 
 the remembrance of the Lord Jesus, the proclamation 
 of His death, the prophecy of His coming. Dr. Hodge 
 puts it with his usual clearness when he says : "All that 
 is necessary here to observe is that the warning is 
 directed against the careless and orofane, and not 
 against the timid and the doubting. It is not the con- 
 sciousness of unworthiness that makes a person un- 
 worthy, nor yet is it any misgiving in regard to a suit- 
 able preparation ; for, although this may be an evidence 
 of weak faith, it certainly indicates a better state of 
 mind than indifferenoe or false security." And Dr. 
 Pentecost states a precious truth in these golden words : 
 "It is an utter perversion of the Supper's use to spend 
 the time before and during the service upon ourselves." 
 "Do this," said the Lord, "in remembrance of Me." 
 
XI. TWO FACTS AS TO INERRANCY. 
 
 [From The Lutheran Quarterly.] 
 
 The burning question of the hour in the theolog- 
 ical world is the inerrancy of the Holy Scriptures. By 
 some it is contended that Revelation itself must fall 
 with the surrender of the theory that the form in which 
 it originally came to us was in every particular fault- 
 less and infallible. On the other hand, the possibility 
 of inerrable compositions has been boldly denied. What- 
 ever comes through human hands, men tell us, must 
 share the defects and the limitations of the human mind, 
 and traces are to be found in the Scriptures which be- 
 tray their authors' consciousness of the imperfection of 
 their productions. Dr. Wolf simply offers some unde- 
 niable facts for consideration which, though familiar 
 to Biblical students, are too often put in the back- 
 ground. 
 
 I. The Church is not in possession of the auto- 
 graph manuscripts. The original documents are no- 
 where to be found ; no eye of man has seen them for 
 thousands of years. The controversy concerning 
 their exemption from the possibility of error can have 
 no practical value. Whatever Biblical criticism may 
 be able to accomplish by way of restoring the original 
 text, this science is yet in its infancy. The oldest 
 Hebrew manuscripts existing date from the sixth to 
 
 (335) 
 
336 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 the twelfth centuries : the Greek Septuagint is twelve 
 centuries older than the oldest extant Hebrew manu- 
 script, and it was evidently made from a text that dif- 
 fered widely from the received Hebrew original. As 
 the deviations from the original consist, not merely of 
 faulty renderings, but of differences of matter, it is 
 obvious that either the LXX. followed a corrupted text, 
 or our present Hebrew is corrupted. Probably neither 
 of them is strictly faithful to the original, the manu- 
 script of the Pentateuch, for instance. The writings 
 of the New Testament offer the same difficulties : the 
 autographs may not have contained a single mistake, 
 but they are not at our command. The nearest to the 
 original are several Greek manuscripts copied during 
 the age of Constantine, and some versions which in 
 their present shape date from the same period. As the 
 variations even in these oldest copies are considerable, 
 some of them, at least, were presumably made from a 
 corrupted text. None of the versions made after the 
 first Christian centuries — the Gothic, the Anglo-Saxon, 
 the Lutlieran, the King James, or any other — rest upon 
 anything better than defective transcripts of the orig- 
 inal documents, at first, second, or third hand. The 
 most that could be said at any time for the last 1600 
 years was, "Here is an imperfect copy of what the Holy 
 Ghost witnessed to men." 
 
 2. The Church does not need inerrant documents. 
 They are not indispensable to the authority or to the 
 efficient power of Divine truth. The loss of the orig- 
 inal autographs, and the inevitable appearance of mis- 
 
TWO FACTS AS TO INERRANXY. 337 
 
 takes in the codex, did not detract one iota from the 
 significance of the Holy Scriptures to the pious Jews, 
 who, indeed, are chargeable with bibliolatry far more 
 justly than any Christian. And Jesus cited as author- 
 itative the Septuagint version of the Scripture, for 
 which no scholar claims inerrancy ; but this neither 
 compromises His own character, nor weakens the 
 claims of revelation as the power of God. The ancient 
 creeds were not drawn from the autographs, nor were 
 the early councils guided by them ; yet some of their 
 decisions have ever since been recognized as Divine 
 truth. The Evangelical creeds of Protestantism can- 
 not claim to be derived from the Scriptures as origin- 
 ally written. The story of the Cross, whether received 
 by tradition or taken from the Scriptures as we have 
 them, has proved itself the mightiest force in human 
 history. "Proceeding persistently and irresistibly on 
 its mission, it is being translated into every language 
 under heaven, each translation of necessity varying 
 from all others — since it is impossible to express the 
 same thought with precisely the same force in different 
 tongues— each version having confessedly errors. 
 Every issue of the Scriptures is a greater or lesser cor- 
 ruption of the original, yet who thinks of the Gospel 
 suffering a material loss, or privation, or deterioration 
 from this multiplication of mistakes? Who, but a 
 critic, troubles himself about the differences which must 
 inevitably obtain between all these editions and the 
 original documents?" 
 
 There are variations of reading in the manuscripts, 
 22 
 
338 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 and they involve defects and errors, but none of them 
 aflPect any really vital matter. Of what account, then, 
 is the contention about the inerrancy of the original 
 documents, when the documents that we have answer 
 every purpose? Has the Church, with its defective 
 text, either in knowledge, or in orthodoxy, or in spir- 
 itual power, fallen one step behind the body which was 
 possessed of the inerrant autographs, if they were iner- 
 rant? Is there any theological system, or any evan- 
 gelical doctrine, which, in order to support itself, is 
 driven to appeal to the original documents, with the 
 assurance that they would effectually settle every dis- 
 puted point? 
 
 We have fallen into conceptions of the Word of 
 God which are entirely too mechanical and too arti- 
 ficial. We forget the living and self-authenticating 
 power of Divine truth. We talk as if it were impos- 
 sible for God to put His word. His quick and omnipo- 
 tent word, into an imperfect book. We speak of the 
 authoritative character of revealed truth as though it 
 were contingent on the vessel through which it is borne 
 to us. God, in His wisdom, may have given to His 
 people, in early ages, an absolutely inerrant book, but 
 this His providence has failed to preserve. But what- 
 ever the translation a man may follow, he has an abso- 
 lute guarantee for the soundness of his creed, the for- 
 giveness of his sins, the correctness of his conduct, and 
 the inheritance of eternal life. The Scriptures belong 
 to the realm of truth. They open up their treasures 
 to the believing heart ; and he to whom they communi- 
 
TWO FACTS AS TO INERRANCY. 339 
 
 cate their unspeakable blessings has little concern in 
 the question whether it can be demonstrated that the 
 original vessel could not possibly have had a flaw or 
 blemish. 
 
XII. THE SAVIOUR'S PRAYER. 
 
 [From The Treasury.] 
 
 It is a nice distinction that popular usage makes 
 between "the Lord's Prayer" and "the Saviour's 
 prayer." Let a leader of any devotional meeting ask 
 the audience to join him in the Lord's Prayer and all 
 lips begin at once to repeat "Our Father who art in 
 Heaven." When your readers on the other hand ob- 
 serve the heading given above, their minds will in- 
 stantly recur to that most solemn and pathetic interces- 
 sion, which our Lord and Mediator, just as He was en- 
 tering Gethsemane, offered in behalf of the unity of His 
 Church. The former pravc r He formulated as a model 
 for our approach to the Mercy-seat. The latter is a 
 cry from the depths of His own heart appealing to the 
 Father for those whom He was about to leave as 
 orphans in the world. 
 
 In the present universal yearning for closer rela- 
 tions among the different bodies of Christians frequent 
 reference is made to this "prayer of the Saviour," and 
 it is constantly cited by way of enforcing our duty to 
 promote the unity of the Church of Christ. Many are, 
 indeed, so absorbed in this subject as to overlook the 
 fact that this is but one of the petitions of the great 
 sacerdotal prayer. And it may with truth be granted 
 that it forms manifestly the central thought, the gist 
 
 (340) 
 
THE saviour's PRAYER. 341 
 
 of that whole scries of petitions recorded in the seven- 
 teenth chapter of John's Gospel. The melancholy pros- 
 pect of distraction among His followers, that loomed 
 before His all-seeing vision, was evidently the chief bur- 
 den which at that moment weighed down the Redeemer's 
 heart, the black, portentous cloud which overshadowed 
 the future joy for the sake of which He was about to 
 endure the cross. And the thrice-repeated cry for its 
 removal, like the three-fold prayer of the agony, is cer- 
 tainly suggestive of the supreme solicitude which this 
 prospect excited in the mind of the sin-atoning Re- 
 deemer. "Holy Father, keep through Thine own name 
 those whom Thou hast given Me, that they may be 
 one as we are." (v. 11). "'That they all may be one; 
 as Thou, Father art in Me, and I in Thee" (v. 21). 
 "That they may be one, even as we are one" (v. 22). 
 If nothing else can avail to arouse the Christian con- 
 science on the subject of unity, surely the emphasis of 
 these repetitions in the prayer of Him who "hath pur- 
 chased the Church with His own blood." should con- 
 vince all His followers of the guilt of promoting or 
 perpetuating division and discord within her pale. 
 
 However, let it be distinctly understood, that these 
 words of our Lord are addressed to His Father and 
 not to His followers. They are spoken to Heaven, not 
 to Earth. The\- are specifically a prayer, not a com- 
 mandment. The momentous work of uniting the re- 
 deemed, is committed to the pleading Saviour and 
 Advocate to the heart and to the hands of the infinite 
 God, whose power and wisdom alone are capable of 
 bringing about such a consummation. The creation of 
 
342 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 a united Church is the work of omnipotence and not 
 the work of men's hands. Here God must interpose. 
 
 This is essentially the first lesson which we ought 
 to derive from this memorable prayer, but somehow 
 we have apparently failed to learn it, failed to be im- 
 pressed with its profound significance. The persistent 
 and well-nigh universal agitation of Christian union 
 has produced a general conviction that this is a work 
 of human achievement, that it is responsibility resting 
 upon the various Churches, that especially their teach- 
 ers and leaders are under solemn obligations to insti- 
 tute measures and devise expedients by which the dis- 
 ruptions in Christ's body may be healed and the scat- 
 tered fragments of His host united in a Communion 
 of Saints. 
 
 The "Saviour's prayer" is constantly quoted as if 
 it were the bounden duty of the different denomina- 
 tions to answer it. It is practically viewed as a prayer 
 offered by Christ to His Church or at all events as an 
 injunction given to it, the Master having adopted a 
 device, not unknown to some of His servants, of inter- 
 jecting now and then a sharp admonition in the body 
 of a prayer, delivering a moral lecture while ostensibly 
 addressing the throne of grace. No one assuredly 
 could deliberately charge Him with such confusion or 
 adroitness, yet in effect we do it, and the Church is 
 charged with flagrant disloyalty to her head if she fails 
 to regard His prayer and put an end to her divisions. 
 
 Men accordingly feel constrained from time to 
 time to put themselves in the place of God, to take 
 into their own hands what their Lord committed to 
 
THE saviour's PRAYER. 343 
 
 the hands of His Father, to meddle presumptuously 
 with what God has reserved to His own season and His 
 own power. And what a work they made of it ! What 
 Utopian expedients ! What laborious trifling with a 
 momentous issue! What diplomatic negotiations! 
 What visionary alliances that will not ally ! Wise and 
 good men erecting invincible barriers to union in hi^ 
 very attempt to remove them, opening with one hand 
 the gate to a united flock, and holding in the other a 
 club to beat away all the dear sheep that are not marked 
 ■with their sectarian brand. 
 
 And this is the melancholy truth not only with re- 
 gard to recent movements still fresh in memory, but 
 also with reference to others more remote. 
 
 Alas ! for the work of men's hands ! Especially 
 when they encroach upon God's providence or attempt 
 achievements which have been notably reserved to 
 Divine Providence and to the peculiar ofiice of the Holy 
 Ghost. 
 
 It seems to require a long experience and many 
 bitter disappointments for us to learn that the unifying 
 of the Church of God requires something more than 
 the energy and enterprise which organize vast systems 
 of industry and of commerce, which build great com- 
 monwealths and conserve the peace of nations. Only 
 as we shall come to measure the stupendous difficulties 
 which obstruct this work and trace those difficulties to 
 their mighty roots in the pride and prejudice and pas- 
 sion of human nature, will we be driven to the confes- 
 sion, "with man this is impossible, but with God all 
 things are possible." 
 
344 I'HE HIGHER ROCK, 
 
 Our only hope for the unity of the Church Hes 
 there where the Lord Himself looked for it — in the 
 Father's great heart. And we joyfully look for the day 
 when Christ's people shall be one, not because we have 
 faith in what is devised or proposed for this end in any 
 quarter, but because the only-begotten Son prayed to 
 His Father for this result, and we know that the Father 
 always heareth Him. 
 
 It becomes us, indeed, to be in accord with our 
 Master's prayer, to have in this as in all things the same 
 mind which dwelt in Him. It devolves upon us, too, 
 to pray ourselves as He prayed, to keep on repeating 
 His prayer. What else is meant by praying in His 
 name? And our conduct, to be consistent, must of 
 course move in line with our prayers, "endeavoring to 
 keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace," but 
 we must distinguish between what is God's province 
 and what is ours, and the warrant, the incentive, the 
 purpose and the faith of our praying and our actions 
 must all be based upon and determined by the prayer 
 of the mediating Son to the Almighty Father. 
 
 "By strength of ours can naught be done." Super- 
 human power and superhuman wisdom are here requi- 
 site as much as they were in reducing the chaos of mat- 
 ter into the majestic unity of this universal frame. 
 
 And it will greatly help the cause for all to bear this 
 reverently in mind. There is nothing gained by men 
 attempting to run ahead of God's leading or by giving 
 a push to the slow wheels of the divine chariot. We 
 must bide the King's time and hold ourselves in instant 
 readiness for the first notice of His approach. 
 
THE saviour's PRAYER. 345 
 
 No very marked improvement in the relation of 
 the different denominations need be expected until a 
 sigTial is noted as it were in the sky, and in conjunction 
 with it a mighty moving of the Holy Ghost upon the 
 minds and hearts of men. 
 
 Jehovah found a way of re-uniting the twelve 
 tribes of ancient Israel — through the terrible ordeals of 
 exile and a long captivity. The same Lord put an end 
 to the monstrous strife which in the first century of the 
 Church raged between Jewish and Gentile Christians, 
 by reducing to ashes the splendid and holy temple 
 whose continuing worship had blinded the Jewish be- 
 lievers to the essentials of salvation. The fires of over- 
 whelming catastrophe have in the past proved the all- 
 potent agency for fusing together the diverse elements 
 of God's kingdom. And all the indications of revela- 
 tion and all the lessons of history induce the belief that 
 in God's own time the flames of His furnaces will con- 
 sume our sectarian idols, extinguish the dissensions and 
 contentions of His people, and melt them into a unity 
 which has its ideal and prototype in the union of the 
 Son with the Father. 
 
XIII. THE GOLDEN CENSER IN THE HOLY 
 OF HOLIES. 
 
 [From Pulpit Treasury.] 
 
 The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews in enu- 
 merating the sacred furniture of the tabernacle, speaks, 
 in chapter ix. 3, of the Holy of Holies "having a golden 
 censer." That is, he says this according to both the ac- 
 cepted and revised versions. That this translation is 
 ordinarily a proper rendering of the original term 
 (thumiaterion) is beyond dispute. And besides our 
 English translations, such authorities may be quoted 
 for it as Luther, the Douay version, the Vulgate, 
 Peschito and others. That this translation is, however, 
 inadmissible here follows from three insuperable diffi- 
 culties. 
 
 I. Nowhere in the Old Testament is there any 
 mention of a particular censer, specially designed for 
 the services on the great day of Atonement and laid 
 away permanently for that purpose in the Holy of 
 Holies. Had there been such a censer the fact must 
 have been well known to the readers of this Epistle, 
 for their familiarity with the Levitical ritual is every- 
 where presupposed. It is spoken of here in connection 
 with the ark of the covenant, therefore of like impor- 
 tance with it — an essential feature of the most holv 
 
 (346) 
 
GOLDEN CENSER IN THE HOLY OF HOLIES. 347 
 
 place, yet not a reference to any such censer was con- 
 tained in their Hterature. 
 
 2. Had the censer required by the high-priest on 
 tiie day of Atonement been kept within the Holy of 
 HoHes, we cannot see how it could possibly have served 
 its purpose on that day. Admission to that part of the 
 sanctuary was forbidden on pain of death to all but the 
 high-priest, and to him it was accorded only on that 
 great day and then only on condition of his holding a 
 smoking censer before him that the ascending cloud 
 might protect the mercy-seat from his gaze "so that he 
 die not." If "censer" be accepted as the proper term 
 here, then the first act of the high-priest on that great 
 day must have been a dreadful profanation of the sanc- 
 tuary. For without any screen before his eyes he must 
 go within the veil to bring out the censer, before he 
 can have this vessel in which to place the burning coals 
 from the altar before the Lord and the beaten incense 
 with which to approach the Shekinah on the mercy-seat. 
 To get the censer, without which he dare not enter the 
 most holy place, he must first enter it in order to get 
 the censer ! 
 
 3. Grant that the term censer is here the proper 
 equivalent of the original and we are confronted with 
 the amazing and inconceivable alternative that the 
 Apostle, while undertaking to enumerate the sacred 
 furniture of the two divisions of the sanctuary, fails to 
 mention the golden altar incense — in some respects 
 the most important article within the sacred enclosure ; 
 for besides its daily use in the ofTering of the morning 
 and evening incense, the blood of the higher grades of 
 
348 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 sacrifice was always put upon the horns of the altar of 
 incense, and once a year, the very day the high-priest 
 entered the most holy place, the blood of the Atonement, 
 part of which had been sprinkled toward the mercy- 
 seat, was also applied to the horns of this altar 
 and sprinkled seven times at its base, the ritual in 
 connection with the altar of incense corresponding 
 with the procedure within the veil. What took 
 place at the mercy-seat is virtually repeated at 
 the altar of incense. So nearly of the same rank 
 are these two constituents of the sanctuary. Surely 
 we must have a satisfactory explanation for the absence 
 of this altar from the Apostle's inventory of the taber- 
 nacle, before we can consent to translate "thumiater- 
 ion" by censer — if it admits of any other translation. 
 
 This it does admit of. This very term is the com- 
 mon designation with both Philo and Josephus for the 
 altar of incense, and the style of the author of this 
 epistle bears, at all events, in many respects a close 
 resemblance to that of those Jewish writers. Instead, 
 then, of using here the word censer, a vessel of incense, 
 let us employ the term altar of incense, and all the 
 difficulties named will vanish. 
 
 But this only confronts us with a new difficulty, 
 more formidable and perplexing at first sight than 
 those involved in the censer. The "thumiaterion," says 
 the text, is contained in the Holy of Holies, whereas 
 the altar of incense stood in the holy place in front of 
 the inner curtain. Surely the writer could not have 
 been ignorant of this fact. And for us to translate this 
 
GOLDEN CENSER IN THE HOLY OF HOLIES. 349 
 
 word "altar of incense" seems to be a square contra- 
 diction of his statement. But we have here pos- 
 sibly a case where the letter must not be strained at 
 the expense of the spirit. There is no greater perver- 
 sion of the Scriptures than a method of exegesis which 
 sacrifices to the letter the obvious sense and intent of 
 the author. Although its local position was in front of 
 the curtain, the Apostle has good grounds for connect- 
 ing this altar with the apparatus of the Holy of Holies. 
 We have already seen what an important relation is 
 sustained to the innermost part of the sanctuary on the 
 greatest and most solemn festival of the year, the only 
 day on which even the high-priest could pass within 
 the veil. The incense, under the rising cloud of which 
 alone he dared to approach the Shekinah, must be 
 taken from this altar, and the atoning blood of the sac- 
 rificial victims which was sprinkled before the mercy- 
 seat was also applied to it. 
 
 The altar of incense really belonged to the one Ser- 
 vice which was annually conducted in the Holy of 
 Holies. On that day of days it was to all intents a 
 part of the most holy place — was indispensable to it. 
 For this very reason, probably, it was put directly in 
 front of the ark of the covenant, "before the veil that 
 is by the ark of the testimony," "before the mercy-seat 
 that is over the testimony" — placed in such close prox- 
 imity to the latter that it might be most conveniently 
 used in conjunction with it in the supreme act of expia- 
 tion made for the people on the day of Atonement. 
 This view is confirmed by I. Kings vi. 22, where just 
 
350 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 as here the altar oi incense is connected with the Holy 
 of Holies. It is there designated "the altar that was 
 by" — "that belonged to" (Rev.) "the oracle." Like 
 our text this passage regards the altar as properly be- 
 longing to the Holy of Holies, although it was neces- 
 sarily stationed in the holy place that the priests might 
 have it for the daily offering of incense and for the 
 application of blood in connection with some of the 
 individual sacrifices. 
 
 It must be remembered, too, that the chief aim of 
 this epistle is the elucidation of the types and symbol- 
 ism of the Old Testament so as to fortify the wavering 
 faith of the Hebrew Christians. The Holy of Holies 
 with its divine presence is the symbol of Heaven, and 
 incense is the standard symbol of prayer. The heavenly 
 scene disclosed in Rev. viii. 3, 4, shows a golden altar 
 before the throne and the smoke of the incense with 
 the prayers of the saints ascending up before God. This 
 is in striking harmony with the position maintained in 
 this paper. And this confirmation becomes yet stronger 
 when we notice the Old Testament as well as the New 
 speal<ing of an altar in Heaven. (Is. vi. 6.) 
 
 Following now the inspired analysis of the sacred 
 symbolism, recognizing the golden altar in Heaven as 
 the antitype of that in the sanctuary of this world (the 
 pattern was given to Moses on the Mount) and remem- 
 bering, too, that the eternal High-Priest in entering the 
 true Holy of Holies rent asunder forever the separ- 
 ating veil, we may readily understand how the Apostle 
 conceived the idea of connecting the typical altar of 
 
GOLDEN CENSER IN THE HOLY OF HOLIES. 35 1 
 
 incense with the typical Holy of Holies upon earth. 
 The latter had, accordingly, not the censer, but the altar 
 of incense. It is indeed very surprising that the revisers 
 did not revise this passage. 
 
XIV. " HE BEING DEAD YET SPEAKETH." 
 
 [From Homiletic Review.] 
 
 Here is a passage frequently used as the text of a 
 sermon, and we believe, in most instances according to 
 a false interpretation. It occurs in that brilliant catalog" 
 of the ancient heroes of faith and their glorious ex- 
 ploits which is furnished by chapter xi. of the Epistle 
 to the Hebrews, Abel holding historically the first place 
 among those who on account of faith "had witness 
 borne to them," or better (the authorized version), 
 "who by faith obtained a good report." 
 
 "By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent 
 sacrifice than Cain, through which he had witness borne 
 to him that he was righteous, God bearing witness in re- 
 spect of his gifts; and through it [i. e., through faith] 
 he being dead yet speaketh." The popular interpreta- 
 tion takes "yet," ert , as temporal and puts the empha- 
 sis on it. Although for ages numbered with the dead, 
 the first of mankind to die, this martyr still speaks to 
 us, his faith still serves as an example, his conviction 
 of the invisible and future world which prompted him 
 to bring unto God the "firstlings of the flock and of the 
 fat thereof," while Cain simply "brought of tlie fruit 
 of the ground an offering to the Lord," still preaches 
 to us as a sermon challenging our imitation. The long 
 lapse of centuries can not break the force of that lesson. 
 
 (352) 
 
" HE BEING DEAD YET SPEAKETH." 353 
 
 Tliis will, in all probability, be g-iven by nine out of 
 every ten ministers as their understanding of the pass- 
 age, if asked for an impromptu interpretation. 
 
 The wonder is that the non scquitur of such a ren- 
 dering does not more readily occur to them. Look at 
 the logic it involves. The writer aims to enforce the 
 importance and the power of faith. For this purpose 
 he holds up before the staggering Hebrew-Christians 
 tlie marvelous exhibition of faith presented by the patri- 
 archs and the ancient worthies of Israel, and reminds 
 them at the same time of the mighty results accom- 
 plished by their faith. In the magnificent summary of 
 verses 33-35, he reaches the climax, when, having 
 named Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Sam- 
 uel, and the prophets, he credits them with having 
 through faith "subdued kingdoms, wrought righteous- 
 ness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, 
 quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the 
 sword, from weakness were made strong, waxed mighty 
 in war, turned to flight armies of aliens, women re- 
 ceived their dead by a resurrection," etc. 
 
 What now was the gain, the achievement, the deliv- 
 erance, vouchsafed to Abel, which will serve as an 
 incitement to faith with the readers of this epistle, who, 
 being hard pressed by the fiery trials of their faith, 
 were in danger of apostatizing? He succeeded indeed 
 through faith in offering to God a more excellent sacri- 
 fice than Cain. God bore testimony to its greater ac- 
 ceptability, but what did that, after all, amount to? 
 What good came to Abel from it? What reward for 
 being faithful?" What was the crown awarded his 
 
 23 
 
354 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 faith? According to the common rendering, he has 
 been made an example to us. Tho' dead he continues 
 to speak to us. Of what? Of the rewards of faith? 
 The only reward we know of is that "Cain rose up 
 against his brother and slew him." "And wherefore 
 slew he him? Because his own works were evil and 
 his brother's righteous" (i John iii. 12). Would this 
 be a powerful argument to men whose faith had been 
 badly shaken by the disappointments of the Christian 
 life? Would they derive from such an example rich- 
 ness of encouragement to hold on to the confession of 
 their hope that it waver not (x. 23), the admonition 
 which chapter xi. is designed to enforce? Abel had 
 faith, and the final result of his faith was to suffer 
 murder at the hands of his brother. His example, there- 
 fore, even to this day, appeals to us to follow him, to 
 maintain our faith. "Cast not away, therefore, your 
 confidence, which hath great recompense of reward" 
 
 (x. 35)- 
 
 The true rendering is brought out, we think, by 
 taking "yet," ert, as not temporal but logical. It 
 serves them to bring out the contrast between Abel's 
 "being dead" and his speaking: although dead "he 
 speaketh." This is the rendering of Liinemann, 
 Delitzsch, von Soden, Ebrard, Holtzheuer, and others. 
 
 "The true interpretation," says Delitzsch, "is at 
 oiice suggested by a reference to the original text. Gen. 
 iv. 10, 'Hark, thy brother's blood crieth unto me from 
 the ground ;' and to chapter xii. 24 of our Epistle, when 
 the blood of Jesus that cries for mercy is contrasted 
 with that of Abel which cries for vengeance (cf. Rev. 
 
'' HE BEING DEAD YET SPEAKETH." 355 
 
 vi. 9-1 1 ) and for a divine testimony on his behalf." 
 Remembering that, according to the Old Testament, the 
 soul is in the blood, the warm, fresh, still-pulsating 
 blood ; the cry of Abel's blood which comes into the 
 ears of God is proof that the righteous, even after 
 death, remains a living personality, that he is neither 
 destroyed nor forgotten before God, but remains an 
 object of His care. Only a living man has the power 
 of speech, yet Abel after he was slain speaks unto God, 
 and God acts in his behalf as if he were still living. He 
 avenges his blood upon Cain, but dead men can not be 
 avenged, and God is not a God of the dead but of the 
 living. 
 
 The key to this rendering is furnished in x. 38, 
 in that passage which is the proper introduction 10 
 chapter xi. : "But My righteous one shall live by faith." 
 The promise assured to faith is life, eternal life, that 
 life to which death is but the portal, the transition. 
 Faith saves the soul intact (x. 39) whatever may hap- 
 pen to the body. 
 
 And for the confirmation of it one need but study 
 the context. Take Enoch, the next example of faith. 
 As Abel through faith lives on in communion with 
 God, so by faith also Enoch escaf)ed altogether the 
 pains of death. Miraculously exempted from dissolu- 
 tion he passed out of this world alive. He was lifted 
 above the power of death as a reward of his faith in 
 the living God. Faith brings us into union and fellow- 
 ship with God, and those united to the living God can 
 never be really dead, for fellowship with God is man's 
 true destiny. 
 
356 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 Noah's case is another illustration of the death- 
 conquering power of faith. It enabled him to rescue 
 himself and his house from a judgment of universal 
 death. 
 
 And so the thought of immortality dominates the 
 entire chapter. Faith is the guarantee and the condi- 
 tion of eternal life. When Abraham reached the land 
 of promise, he, along with Isaac and Jacob, continued 
 to dwell in tents, for he looked for the city which hath 
 the foundations. They sojourned in Canaan as aliens, 
 the instincts of their faith aspiring to a higher and 
 heavenly possession, the true home of the soul. "Their 
 desires reached on and upwards to the eternal city." 
 
 With God death does not count. From Abraham, 
 who was "as good as dead," sprang so many as the 
 stars of heaven in multitude, and as the sand which is 
 by the seashore, innumerable. And afterward being 
 tried he "offered up Isaac" as the one hope of the ful- 
 filment of the promise, "accounting that God is able to 
 raise up, even from the dead." And it was tliis same 
 prospect of life and death, "the recompense of reward," 
 which inspired and sustained Moses in declining royal 
 honors, in preferring evil treatment with God's people 
 rather than the temporary pleasures of sin, in appro- 
 priating the reproach of Christ rather than the treas- 
 ures of Egypt. Faith triumphs over death. The right- 
 eous — and none are righteous but by faith — live for- 
 ever. Abel, though dead, retains the power of speech, 
 a voice which resounds in the ear of Jehovah. 
 
XV. THE EASTER FACT. 
 
 [From The Independent.] 
 
 "I believe the Easter announcement and I accept 
 its deductions." With this protestation Delitzsch begins 
 the preface to the last edition of his Genesis, in which 
 he acknowledges his surrender to the general results of 
 the Higher Criticism. Those acquainted with the con- 
 ditions under which these words were spoken cannot 
 mistake their pathos, neither can they misunderstand 
 their note of defiance. 
 
 Standing on the summit of fame as a Hebraist, 
 seeing his life-work overwhelmed by the avalanche of 
 criticism, and sadly contemplating the wreck of the Old 
 Testament made by the destructive school, he recalls 
 the Easter message, he retreats to the open sepulchre, 
 he plants his foot upon that impregnable rock and de- 
 fies the critics. They cannot annihilate the Easter vic- 
 tory, they cannot dispossess him of this buttress and 
 fortress of Christianity, they cannot rob him of the 
 priceless deductions secured by that triumph. 
 
 What a slogan this offers for the battle in behalf of 
 the faith ! The Church is in the throes of a conflict 
 raging around those sacred oracles which for ages have 
 been the source and norm of her teachings. Tenets 
 firmly held since the first promulgation of the Gospel 
 and deemed fundamental are hotly contested, and insti- 
 
 (357) 
 
358 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 tutions long revered as indispensable marks and ve- 
 hicles of spiritual life are profanely undermined. But 
 challenging criticism as baffling science stands the 
 empty sepulchre ; which makes every intelligent Chris- 
 tian certain of his creed. The one event established 
 beyond question, the most august and the most momen- 
 tous event in human history, is the bodily resurrection 
 of Jesus. In the teeth of natural law, in the teeth of 
 experience, despite a military patrol, and a more vigi- 
 lant ecclesiastical guard whose power hinged on the 
 eventuality. He abandoned the grave on the third day, 
 and with the identical body in which He had expired 
 on the cross, showed Himself alive to His disciples by 
 many infallible proofs. 
 
 This consummation, irrefutable, incontestable, su]:)- 
 plies the superhuman certificate to the supernatural 
 claims of Jesus, God having given assurance unto all 
 men in that He raised Him from the dead. 
 
 What if the Pentateuch is not the work of Moses ? 
 What if the several Hebrew writings are for the most 
 part composite? What if the Psalms are not the 
 poetry of David? What if another Isaiah is con- 
 founded with the evangelical prophet? Nay more! 
 Let the destructive wave surge against the Magna 
 Charta of the Church, let the Fourth Gospel be referred 
 to "some great Unknown," and the others be made out 
 a patchwork of sources ; let the authority of the Apos- 
 tolic letters be gainsaid, one bulwark of Christianity 
 remains, one fact cannot be wiped out, one truth under- 
 lies the Church like the rock of Gibraltar — the Easter 
 announcement cannot be impugned. 
 
 \ 
 
THE EASTER FACT. 359 
 
 Is this scouted as extravag^ancc. as ignoring the 
 reign of natural law? Is it objected that the tests of 
 physical science apply to all data in the physical realm, 
 and that their adamantine conclusions contradict point- 
 blank the possibility of a resurrection? 
 
 One thing science will not contradict, viz., that the 
 disciples of Jesus believed it. Physicists may read His 
 resurrection out of the category' of possibilities ; but no 
 man of intelligence will deny that His immediate fol- 
 lowers believed it to have actually occurred ; that when 
 they manifested obstinate doubt, the Risen ( )ne was at 
 pains to give them ocular and tangible demonstrations 
 of it ; and that, having been through the practically 
 certain test of personal experience convinced, they were 
 so overpowered by the sense of its reality, and of its im- 
 port that they made it the business of their life at every 
 hazard to testify of it. Within a few weeks of the 
 occurrence, and in the midst of a population passion- 
 ately interested in denying their affirmation — to (|Uote 
 Liddon — they took every opportunity of saying virtu- 
 ally : "Christianity is true. It is true because Christ has 
 risen from death." "On every occasion, with almost 
 every opponent, in almost every sermon, they put forth 
 the resurrection as their reason for being what they 
 were, and for saying what they did." They felt that 
 the truth of Christianity and its claims upon the minds 
 and hearts of men depend upon the literal truth of the 
 resurrection of Jesus Christ, and they staked every- 
 thing on its promulgation. 
 
 Twelve men of most varied temperament, of unim- 
 peachable veracity, some of them endowed with trans- 
 
360 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 cendent intellects, facing odium, violence and a felon's 
 death, traversed the civilized world bearing the Easter 
 tidings and by means of it wrought the most beneficent 
 and far-reaching social revolution known to history. 
 Baur's admission that without the belief in the resur- 
 rection Christianity could not have entered on its world- 
 conquering career, is the consensus of historians. 
 
 What, now% has science to say concerning this 
 belief? How are we to account for its origin? The 
 fitful faith of the disciples in the Messiahship of their 
 Master having been crushed on Calvary, what occurred 
 that not only revived their faith but developed it into a 
 firm conviction that He had risen from the dead ? What 
 was it if not the miracle itself, which absolutely changed 
 the blackest night into the brightest day? 
 
 Here is a historic phenomenon, positively uncon- 
 tested, a real experience demanding explanation. What 
 instrumentality, what process brought it about? 
 
 Science does not disdain the challenge. It has 
 strenuously endeavored to trace this belief to natural 
 causes. Intellectual Titans have wrestled with the prob- 
 lem and have set up bold and ingenious hypotheses ac- 
 counting for the belief, while scouting the miracle. 
 
 It was inspired, some claim, by the recovery of 
 Jesus from a swoon on the cross. The gradual resusci- 
 tation of His lacerated form, the re-animation of His 
 ghastly face, flashed upon the minds of His recreant 
 devotees the idea of a resurrection, and this quickly 
 transformed into the purpose of rallying the race to His 
 standard. 
 
 Or, their passionate faith in His Messiahship had 
 
 I 
 
THE EASTER FACT. 361 
 
 reached such a pitch that tliere appeared to them vividly 
 projected into space images which were simph- the 
 phantasms of the brain — a theory that reverses tiie his- 
 toric sequence, which ascribes their final faith in His 
 Messiahship to their persuasion of His resurrection. 
 
 Or, critics who recognize that after their expecta- 
 tions had been annihilated by the denouement of Good 
 Friday such visions are unthinkable, would have us be- 
 lieve that Jesus from the spirit world kept Himself in 
 communication with His orphaned followers, and that 
 these reassuring manifestations were mistaken for ob- 
 jective bodily appearances— a theory which savors of 
 modern spiritualism. 
 
 Or, when the Apostles used language which Jews 
 and Gentiles alike understood of a reincorporated life, 
 perceptible to the senses, they meant nothing more than 
 their vivid realization of unbroken spiritual fellowship 
 with their Master. Though He had departed this life 
 they could still, as it were, repose upon His bosom. 
 
 But why so many theories? Why so manv wea- 
 pons to strike down a fanciful misconception when any 
 of them is deemed fatal? Would not one suffice? 
 Which one? Which theory have the critics united on 
 as a satisfactory explanation of the origin of the belief 
 in the resurrection of Jesus? 
 
 The soundness of these several hypotheses which 
 palpably create more difficulties than they solve, and 
 get rid of the supernatural only by recourse to a bas- 
 tard supernaturalism, needs not to be tested here. They 
 have each in turn been pronounced absurd, unreason- 
 able, impossible— not by apologists, but by scholars 
 
362 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 who disbelieve the resurrection. The hypothesis of each 
 doubter is shattered by his successor, and the greatest 
 of them all, Ferdinand C. Baur, assuming that faith in 
 the fact was not to be disputed, perceiving the unsatis- 
 factory character of all naturalistic explanations, and 
 regarding this faith as a mystery which defies solution 
 apart from actual occurrence, discreetly saved his repU" 
 tation by not venturing on any explanation. 
 
 The present situation is that of a beleaguered fort- 
 ress, which when its defenders come to the rescue, is 
 found without a breach and with no foe in sight, the 
 assailants having fallen on each other and by mutual 
 slaughter cleared the field. The task of believers has 
 been accomplished by unbelievers. 
 
 Naturalism has met a Waterloo in the Easter an- 
 nouncement. Its belief by the primitive missionaries 
 who by means of it overturned the world cannot be 
 accounted for apart from the veritable occurrence, and 
 it is therefore a proof of the existence of its correlate. 
 Science is dumb, reason staggers, but faith resting on 
 the unseen, and deeming it not incredible that God 
 should raise the dead, apprehends the truth that the 
 Lord of life has conquered death. 
 
 That triumph assured, unimpugned, incontrovert- 
 ible, its deductions are irresistible. Quite in the line of 
 Delitzsch's testimony is the admission of Strauss that 
 everything turns upon the reality of the resurrection. 
 That being granted, he confesses the failure of every 
 naturalistic view of the life of Jesus, and his obligation 
 to retract all that he had written. Had this prince of 
 critics lived to see what a wreck his successors have 
 
THE EASTER FACT. 363 
 
 made of his own theory. German fidehty would have 
 held him to his pledge. 
 
 The resurrection assured, the Risen One is de- 
 clared to be the Son of God with power. He is con- 
 firmed in His superhuman claims. He personates the 
 will of the Eternal. His answers to the profoundest 
 inquiries of the human heart are final. His acceptance 
 and interpretation of Old Testament Scriptures stamp 
 them as authentic and authoritative. It is His preroga- 
 tive, also, to reveal and develop truth through chosen 
 men, and to whatever reductions their writings may 
 be subjected by critics, the sun will pass from the heav- 
 ens before His word shall pass away. The reconstruc- 
 tion of the documents containing the Gospel will no 
 more arrest its progress than a revision of astronomy 
 will stop the revolution of the earth. 
 
 Christianity is prepared to-day, as it was in its 
 infancy, to stake its all on the resurrection. In this 
 proof- fact it has an adequate, unassailable support, and 
 in it is comprehended the sum and substance of its 
 creed. His resurrection invests Jesus with a sovereign 
 claim on the faith, the allegiance, and the love of men. 
 It proves Him to be our Lord and our God. 
 
XVI. AN ADDRESS OF WELCOME. 
 
 [From Report of Proceedings, Society of the Army of the Potomac] 
 
 Comrades of the Society of the Army of the Poto- 
 mac: The citizens of this community have delegated 
 to me the honor of voicing their cordial greetings to 
 you on this happy occasion. A more grateful office 
 could not have been assigned me, although I feel that 
 language cannot adequately express our appreciation 
 of your presence, neither can it properly describe the 
 significance of your visit. 
 
 Of all the tens and hundreds of thousands that 
 annually flock to this Mecca, who could thrill the emo- 
 tion of our hearts like the survivors of that grand army 
 which made our town immortal ! This is too much for 
 utterance. I frankly confess that the attempt to convey 
 to you a suitable welcome staggers my mental powers. 
 I feel overwhelmed by this audience. The orator who 
 will do full justice to your army on this field and on 
 scores of other fields has yet to appear on the stage. 
 The volume that will record your services to the coun- 
 try in terms commensurate with your deserts, that will 
 fitly and faithfully tell the story of your magnificent 
 organization, your marches, your battles, your endur- 
 ance, your heroism, your triumphs and your trophies, 
 has yet to be written, and it will demand, and some day 
 
 (364) 
 
AN ADDRESS OF WELCOME. 365 
 
 employ, the hij^hest attributes of historiographical 
 genius. 
 
 But why should we, the transient tenants of this 
 historic spot, offer you a welcome to its gates and its 
 hearth? The magnet which draws you here is not the 
 body of our citizens, honorable as they are, not our 
 natural scenery, picturesque as that is known to be, nor 
 our educational institutions, whatever their fame. 
 These things w'hich we call our own, and of which we 
 are justly proud, do not constitute Gettysburg in the 
 eye of the world. Gettysburg, the seat of terrific bat- 
 tles ; Gettysburg, the synonym of heroism, valor and 
 glory ; Gettysburg, the cynosure of civilized mankind, 
 does not belong to us. It belongs in the first place to 
 the Army of the Potomac, it belongs to all who here 
 saved the life of the Republic, it belongs to the nation, 
 it belongs to the world, it belongs to the ages. Gettys- 
 burg is the heritage of humanity. 
 
 For, comrades, the conflict here crowned with vic- 
 tory was not waged for territorial dominion, it was not 
 inspired by lust for power, it was not aimed at national 
 aggrandizement. The stupendous sacrifice was made, 
 our best blood was poured out like water, in defense of 
 the wisest and most beneficent government ever vouch- 
 safed to mankind, a government securing the largest 
 liberty to the individual consistent with the best inter- 
 ests of the public, the sovereignty of the people limited 
 and enforced by the majesty of law. Gettysburg means 
 the irrevocable resolve and pledge that this government 
 shall live, shall be perpetuated, shall eventuate in the 
 federation of the world. 
 
366 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 It is not pre-eminently our wars and our victories, 
 our armies, our navies, our colossal expansion and our 
 prodigious wealth, that have lifted us to the pinnacle of 
 power, but our institutions, our political principles, our 
 ideals of freedom, our national standard of virtue. 
 These are the vital forces from which has risen our 
 splendid military and naval prowess ; these are the vital 
 factors which have made possible the "appalling pros- 
 perity" and unexampled happiness of our people. To 
 these we owe our industrial, commercial and financial 
 supremacy. 
 
 Our institutions breed men, "Men who their duties 
 know. But know their rights, and knowing dare main- 
 tain." The vital fructifying energy of our civic ideas, 
 the genius of our civilization, our practical recognition 
 of manhood and brotherhood, are productive of cour- 
 age and confidence, independence, intelligence, initia- 
 tive, integrity, self-restraint, and it is these virtues that 
 have pushed us to the forefront in the march of the 
 nations. 
 
 The behavior of our soldier}- at the fall of Pekin, 
 in marked contrast with the barbarism of European 
 armies, and our straightforward, high-minded and 
 equitable diplomacy on the same theatre in contrast 
 with the greed and the loot of the other powers, have 
 shed a brighter and a more enduring lustre on the 
 American name than the annihilation of the Spanish 
 Navy or the charge on San Juan Hill. 
 
 Our constitutional democracy, our civic virtues, 
 our American spirit, our public schools, our free Chris- 
 tianity, have won for us the hegemony of the planet, 
 
AN ADDRESS OF WELCOME. 367 
 
 and these monumental ridges and valleys ran red witli 
 patriotic blood in order that the institutions which safe- 
 guard such beneficent forces might be preserved for 
 unborn generations. (Applause.) 
 
XVII. JOHN BURNS AT GETTYSBURG. 
 
 [From The Star and Sentinel.] 
 
 John Burns is no myth. The mediocre critics who 
 make a reputation for themselves by destroying the 
 reaHty of their superiors have not had a sufficient lapse 
 of time to extinguish the personality of the hero of 
 Gettysburg. They may have annihilated the historic 
 substance of Wilhelm Tell, and reduced to creatures of 
 the imagination others illustrious in story and song, but 
 the sepulchre of John Burns is with us to this day, and 
 the ground which witnessed his devotion and valor is 
 still trodden by his contemporaries and fellow-towns- 
 men, some of whom are envious and some proud of his 
 singular distinction. 
 
 The sceptical historian intent on extinguishing the 
 glory of John Burns will doubtless rival the exploit of 
 the notable phrenologist, who without knowing his sub- 
 ject, was asked on the occasion of a visit to Gettysburg 
 to examine the cranium of one of our oldest and plain- 
 est citizen. Having made a very deliberate explora- 
 tion of the various bumps on his head and looking very 
 wise, he announced the result : a born coward ! It was 
 the hero of Gettysburg on whom the canting humbug 
 pronounced this verdict. John Burns was a sheer 
 reality of flesh and blood, for many years a citizen of 
 Gettysburg, well known for certain eccentricities and 
 
 (368) 
 
JOHN BURNS AT GETTYSBURG. 369 
 
 possessed of a mind somewhat enriched and invig-o- 
 rated by extensive reading-. And John Burns was no 
 fraud as a soldier. 
 
 It may be that on that July morning-, when the 
 cannon were roaring in our immediate front, and a 
 storm of leaden rain and iron hail was sweeping over 
 these fields, the old man came out here to hunt his cows, 
 though 10 o'clock P. M.. is not the usual time for hunt- 
 ing stray cattle. It may be that Gettysburg cows have 
 a way of wandering- over these parts. I have a vivid 
 recollection of having at one time myself spent some 
 hours out here looking for a lost bovine, but on that 
 particular moming there was not a large contingent of 
 Gcttyshurgers looking for cows around this particular 
 neck of the woods. Either old Burns was the only man 
 who then owned a cow in Gettysburg or he was the only 
 man who valued the source of his milk and butter suffi- 
 ciently to go searching for it into the midst of the fire 
 of two great armies. Hunting for cows was not a 
 fashionable pastime hereabouts on July i, 1863. It 
 was a good deal more fashionable to hunt for a sub- 
 terraneous region where strong men preferred their 
 coffee without cream. 
 
 It may l^e that this sturdy tee-totaller took his 
 medicine that morning from the wrong bottle, and that 
 landing accidentally among the troops of two armies he 
 was so drunk that he could not tell a Union soldier from 
 a Confederate, but this charge reminds one of the 
 famous retort of Lincoln when some one complained to 
 him of General Grant's drinking habits : "I wish I knew 
 where he gets his whiskey, I should like to buy a lot 
 24A 
 
370 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 of it for some of the other generals.'' (If there ever 
 was any good whiskey John Bums must have drunk 
 the last of it on that eventful morning.) 
 
 The fire that glowed in John Burns was not set 
 aflame by ardent spirits. It was burning there in 1812 
 when he fought for his adopted country against the 
 British. It was glowing in his breast when at the age 
 of almost three-score and ten he immediately on the 
 outbreak of the Civil War, sought to enlist in the regi- 
 ment commanded by his townsman, Col. C. H. Buehler. 
 Rejected here, because beyond the regulation fighting 
 years, the same patriotic ardor made him apply later for 
 a place in Capt. E. B. McPherson's company, which 
 became connected with the Pennsylvania Reserves, and 
 when finally he despaired of a place in the ranks he 
 proceeded to Washington to secure any position in 
 which an old man might render service to his country, 
 and there he was at last put in charge of a team bearing 
 the daily rations of the boys in camp. 
 
 This martial ardor was burning and flaming in 
 the heart of the old man whenever he heard of South- 
 ern raids being made on Northern soil ; for he was 
 wont, with the utmost fervor, to urge his fellow citizens 
 to accompany him to the mountain fastnesses, where, 
 like Leonidas with his 300 Spartans, they might in 
 some narrow defile stem the progress of the invader. 
 
 If there is some diversity of opinion as to the exact 
 
 part he bore in the bloody engagement which took place 
 
 on the field before our eyes, this circumstance brings 
 
 him into the good company of the chief actors in the 
 
 battle of Gettysburg. I am not aware that historians, 
 
JOHN BURNS AT GETTYSBURG. 37 1 
 
 even those who were on the ground, and were partici- 
 pants in the struggle, are unanimous in their descrip- 
 tions of the part taken by Meade, or Sickles, or Han- 
 cock, or Howard, or Lee, or Longstreet. If these illus- 
 trious captains are subjected to various criticisms, and 
 the lustre of their soldiership is not dimmed by the 
 detractions of unfriendly writers, surely the fame of 
 John Burns can endure it, if divers opinions about his 
 deeds of valor have found their way into local gossip 
 or public print. 
 
 It has not diminished the glory of Homer nor de- 
 preciated the value of his immortal contribution to lit- 
 erature, that seven Greek cities contended respectively 
 for the honor of his nativity, neither have any laurels 
 been torn from the brow of Burns by the fact that two 
 regiments connected with different brigades claim the 
 honor of his having fought in their ranks. 
 
 The sober, unadorned historic feat which suddenly 
 raised John Burns to indelible renown is this : When 
 the enemies of his country on that fateful forenoon 
 were about to encounter the army of the Union, and 
 when the cave-dwellers of this ancient borough — many 
 of them his juniors by thirty or forty years — were 
 making themselves secure w^ith their wives and children, 
 this old man seized his flint-lock, replenished his pow- 
 der horn, filled his pockets with bullets, and after vainly 
 urging his neighbors to accompany him, sallied forth 
 alone out to the firing line. Twice his application to 
 enlist had been denied, but now that the enemies' guns 
 are heard at his hearthstone and he sees the Union 
 army marching out to give battle, all military regula- 
 
372 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 tions are flung to the winds. The time to fight has 
 come, and no conventional restrictions can longer hold 
 back the lion-hearted and fiery patriot. For such a 
 spirit once aroused only one thing was left to do — ^to 
 destroy those who were seeking the destruction of the 
 republic. And nobly he hurried to the spot where the 
 fire was hottest, "towards where the noise of battle 
 smote the air the loudest, with set teeth and furrowed 
 brow," while the missiles of death were whizzing and 
 striking all around him, through throngs of wounded 
 and dying men, he pushed his way to the forefront, 
 intent on sharing the danger of sturdy veterans. 
 
 He first reached the 150th Pennsylvania Volun- 
 teers, and requested that he might join the fighting, but 
 Col. Wister, not caring to be responsible for a civilian 
 found with arms, discouraged him and advised him to 
 find a tree in the woods with our troops, for there was 
 more prospects of safety ; the intrepid fighter had, how- 
 ever, not come out to look for a place of safety. He 
 was looking for an enemy to hit. He had gone into 
 the thick of the fray to offer his life, not to save it. 
 What he wanted was the best place to fight, and he was 
 not long in making his way forward to the skirmishing 
 line — the most exposed position. 
 
 He now fell in with the Seventh Wisconsin regi- 
 ment, a part of the Iron Brigade, just going into action. 
 Having received the first infantry fire of the battle and 
 charged and captured the firing force, this regiment 
 was being thrown to the front where continuous firing 
 was kept up with shot and shell whistling and bursting 
 around the main line. "At this time." says Col. Callis, 
 
JOHN BURNS AT GETTYSBURG. 373 
 
 from whom tliese particulars have been secured, "I saw 
 an object approaching from the rear, and I think the 
 oddest looking person I saw during the war. He wore 
 a bell-crowned hat, a swallow-tailed coat with rolling 
 collar and brass buttons and a buff vest. He had on his 
 shoulder an old rifle with which he came to a present 
 arms and then said: 'Colonel, is this your regiment?' 
 
 " 'Yes,' " I said. 
 
 "Then he brought his rifle to an order and said : 
 'Can I fight in your regiment?' 
 
 "I answered : 'Old man, you had better go to the 
 rear or you'll get hurt.' 
 
 "And he replied just as a shell burst near him: 
 'Tut! tut! tut! I've heard this sort of thing before!' 
 
 "These words were spoken in a tremulous voice. 
 1 again ordered him to the rear, when he replied, 'No, 
 sir, if you won't let me fight in your regiment I will 
 fight alone.' I asked him where his cartridge box was, 
 he patted his trousers pocket and said : 'Here's my bul- 
 lets,' and taking an old-fashioned powder horn from 
 his pocket, 'Here's my powder, and I know how to use 
 them. There are three hundred cowards back in that 
 town who ought to come out of their cellars and fight, 
 and I will show you that there is one man in Gettys- 
 burg who is not afraid.' 
 
 "The boys made merry over his swallow-tailed 
 coat and yellow vest and broad-rimmed hat — an incar- 
 nate fac-simile of Uncle Sam — but Sergeant Eustis 
 plead with the Colonel 'to fix him up, he'll soon get 
 tired of it and go home.' " 
 
 The Colonel at last relented and the old flintlock 
 24B 
 
374 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 was exchanged for a rifle just captured from Archer's 
 sharpshooters. "He was given a cartridge box and 
 belt, but declined to use these new fangled things and 
 instead filled his pockets with fixed ammimition, after 
 which he went into the ranks. He soon grew restless 
 as the general engagement had not begun, and advanced 
 to the front towards our skirmishers before he could 
 see a rebel to shoot at. Pretty soon I saw a Confeder- 
 ate officer riding towards their advance line, mounted 
 on a white horse. Burns drew on him and the horse 
 galloped through our lines without a rider. Whether 
 the officer was killed or not I do not know. The old 
 man loaded and fired away until I called in my skir- 
 mishers and ordered my men back to the Seminary." 
 
 Sergeant Eustis, of the same regiment, corrobo- 
 rates Col. Callis' testimony. He says : "We boys com- 
 menced to poke fun at him, thinking him a fool to come 
 up where there was such danger. He surprised us all 
 when the rebs advanced, by not taking a double quick 
 to the rear, but he was just as cool as any veteran 
 among us. We soon had orders to move a hundred 
 yards to the right, and were shortly engaged in one of 
 the hottest fights I ever was in." It was doubtless in 
 this engagement that Burns received his wounds, one 
 in the arm, one in the leg, and several minor wounds 
 in the breast, and in this disabled condition he was left 
 on the field when our troops were driven past his hum- 
 ble homestead up to Cemetery Hill. 
 
 Abandoned by those in whose ranks he had fought 
 he realized his peril at being caught as a "bush- 
 whacker" when the enemy was approaching, and he 
 
JOHN lU'RNS AT GETTYSBURG. 375 
 
 managed to crawl away from his gun and to bury his 
 ammunition. Questioned by an officer whether he had 
 not been in tlie ranks he stoutly denied having been a 
 combatant, and insisted that he had gone out seeking 
 some help for his invalid wife. The officer gave credit 
 to this piteous story and ordered the wounded non- 
 combatant to be cared for. A rel>cl surgeon dressed his 
 wounds, by night-fall he dragged himself to the cellar 
 door of the nearest house, whence he was conveyed to 
 his home in a rickety bone-wagon by a horse too de- 
 crepit to be wanted by the enemy, and there, with bul- 
 lets still crashing over his head, he received medical 
 care from the late Dr. Charles Horner, whose widow 
 and daughters are still with us. 
 
 Nothing that others may say in behalf of the sub- 
 ject of this monument can have the weight of the testi- 
 mony borne by the general in command of the Army 
 Corps which fought the battle on Seminary Ridge. 
 "My thanks," says General Doubleday in his official 
 report, "are especially due to a citizen of Gettysburg, 
 named John Burns, who although over seventy years 
 of age, shouldered his musket and offered his services 
 to Col. Wister of the 150th Pennsylvania Volunteers. 
 Col. Wister advised him to fight in the woods, as there 
 was more shelter there, but he preferred our line of 
 skirmishers in the open fields. When the troops retired 
 he fought with the Iron Brigade." 
 
 John Burns was of course not the only hero of the 
 battle. There were some 80,000 of the same heroic 
 mettle, meeting and overwhelming an army which for 
 discipline, courage and valor has never been surpassed. 
 
376 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 Neither was he the only citizen of Gettysburg who 
 went forth to encounter the invader. Not waiting for 
 the Southern legions to reach our very doors, one hun- 
 dred men and boys started for the front as soon as they 
 heard of the enemy crossing the Potomac. They hast- 
 ened to Harrisburg, proud to be the first company 
 of the panic-stricken Commonwealth to enlist in that 
 crisis. 
 
 They were soon joined by other organizations and 
 formed into a regiment which was honored by having 
 in its ranks a brave boy destined to liecome the distin- 
 guished Governor of Pennsylvania, Samuel W. Penny- 
 packer, and that very regiment was on the field of 
 Gettysburg in advance of all other troops, ready to give 
 battle to the foe. 
 
 The fact is that at the time of this great battle 
 there was not left in town a considerable number of 
 men capable of braving arms. This county furnished 
 as large a proportion of soldiers as any other common- 
 wealth and the county-seat contributed its full share of 
 these. 
 
 But Burns stands out singular and above all others 
 in several respects. He was at least twenty years past 
 the age for bearing arms. He had twice been rejected 
 as too old for enlistment. 
 
 He knew full well what it meant for an ununi- 
 fonned civilian to be captured in the military ranks, and 
 knew, too, that if wounded he could claim no pension, 
 if slain, his family was entitled to no benefit from the 
 government. So, too, he lacked the incentive which 
 inspires and impels the officer, who faces wounds and 
 
JOHN BURNS AT GETTYSBURG. ^j']'] 
 
 death, conscious that glory awaits the brave. 1 le took 
 an obscure position, laughed at and jeered by the boys 
 in blue, intent only on this one thing, smite the insolent 
 foe of his country. That his devotion and daring were 
 most extraordinary and unique is put beyond question 
 by the fact that in all the raids and invasions made 
 north of the Potomac and the Ohio, there is not another 
 instance recorded of a civilian leaving his home and 
 without uniform or ceremony joining the troops in 
 repelling the invader. The only parallel found in our 
 annals is that of Mollie Pitcher, who when her husband 
 fell on the memorable day at Monmouth took his place 
 at the cannon, an act of singular daring, which brought 
 her ilic thanks of Washington and a commission as 
 sergeant in the Continental Army. 
 
 As Washington recognized the extraordinary valor 
 of the heroine of Monmouth, so did Lincoln show honor 
 to the hero of Gettysburg, when on the occasion of the 
 dedication of the National Cemetery, November 19, 
 1863, he visited this field and delivered that immortal 
 address, Burns along with thousands of others was in- 
 troduced to him at night-fall just before he started to 
 an assemblage in the Presbyterian church. The day 
 had been one of splendid pagentry, though to the Presi- 
 dent, moving over the scenes of a sickening carnage, it 
 must have been a day of unspeakable sorrow, but he 
 seems to have forgotten every other consideration in his 
 resolve to do honor to the aged civilian, who defying 
 every peril, had thrown himself upon the altar of his 
 country. 
 
 Surrounded and followed by cheering crowds the 
 
378 THE HIGHER ROCK. 
 
 great-hearted and noble President linked arms with the 
 plain and fearless citizen, and together they walked 
 around Centre Square and up Baltimore street, a pic- 
 turesque contrast, the President towering head and 
 shoulder above the crowd, Burns, a fleshy little body, 
 vainly attempting to keep step with him, the former 
 having on that morning delivered a speech that will 
 survive until liberty dies, the latter just recovering 
 from wounds, received in a patriotic feat, which has 
 scarcely a parallel, the Chief Magistrate of the Republic 
 and an obscure representation of the common people. 
 And so our national Congress honored him, placing his 
 name by a special act upon the pension roll of the coun- 
 try — that, too, at the very time when the State of 
 Pennsylvania bore him on a similar roll, for his ser- 
 vices in the war of 1812, and now this grand old Com- 
 monwealth, proud of her son, adds to her own laurels 
 by the erection of this monument in commemoration 
 of his superlative heroism. 
 
 And we do well, fellow citizens, in rendering here, 
 on the anniversary of his daring feat, this final tribute 
 to the memory of our townsman, who so surprisingly 
 and justly so, became one of the most famous char- 
 acters of the war of the Union. Who can estimate 
 the debt which our nation owes to such a spirit of self- 
 sacrifice and unmeasured devotion, what strength it 
 derives from this species of moral fibre, what independ- 
 ence and security, what majestic and glory accrue to the 
 Republic from a citizenship which in any crisis and at 
 any cost springs to its defense. 
 
 Such men, high-minded, self-sacrificing men, "Men 
 
JOHN BURNS AT GETTYSBURG. 379 
 
 who know their rights and knowing dare maintain," 
 constitute the hfe-blood of the State. The poet sings: 
 
 "111 fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, 
 Where wealth accumulates and men decay." 
 
 Wealth is accumulating among us at an appalling 
 rate. Let us see to it that men do not decay — for the 
 increase of wealth has seldom failed to result in moral 
 and national decadence. Let us see to it by the spirit 
 of eternal vigilance that America continue to produce 
 a race of men like John Burns, and our place in the 
 forefront of the great world Powers will be held as 
 long as the granite and bronze of this monument, here 
 dedicated to personal heroism and valor.