THE CHRISTIAN 
 RELIGION 
 
 EDWARD F. WILLIAMS 
 
 BR 
 
 123 
 
 .W54 
 
 1918 
 
 ^m^QF RELIGIOUS THOUGHT 
 
V{AF^ 13 1918 
 
 BR 123 .W54 1918 
 Williams, Edward Franklin, 
 
 1832- 
 The Christian religion 
 
 K <r. I V- I 
 
 Wit 
 
THE CHRISTIAN 
 RELIGION V ■' 
 
 An Appeal for Its Acceptance ^ 
 
 "tr. 
 
 AR 13 1918 
 
 EDWARD F. WILLIAMS 
 
 ^. 
 
 Libr. o-{ r&iiQ^- +Houc:; 
 
 BOSTON: THE GORHAM PRESS 
 
 TORONTO: THE COPP CLARK CO., LIMITED 
 
Copyright, 1918, by Edward F. Williams 
 
 All Rights Reserved 
 
 MADE IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 
 
 The Gorham Press, Boston, U. S. A. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 The pages that follow are from the pen of a 
 man who has found comfort and strength in ac- 
 cepting Jesus Christ as his Saviour and friend. 
 He earnestly desires that others who have not had 
 an experience like his and especially that those 
 of his acquaintance who do npt look to Christ as 
 their Saviour, would without prejudice of any sort 
 read anew and study thoroughly the record of his 
 life and teachings as found in the four gospels and 
 see if his claims to be the Son of God are not fully 
 justified by what is said there. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 I The Problem of Creation 9 
 
 II The Relation of God to Man 13 
 
 III Criticisms of Christianity 15 
 
 IV Essential Truth of The Bible 20 
 
 V The Book of the Jews 23 
 
 VI Conditions In the New Testament. . . 27 
 
 VII The Church of the Middle Ages 33 
 
 VIII The Church of To-day 37 
 
 IX Judging the Gospel 43 
 
 X Our Place is the One We Occupy. ... 61 
 
 XI Agnostics and Materialists 62 
 
THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION 
 
THE 
 CHRISTIAN RELIGION 
 
 An Appeal for Its Acceptance 
 I. The Problem of Creation 
 
 A GREAT deal is said these days about effici- 
 ency. The idea of efficiency for one's self 
 and for others is prominent in sociological and in 
 most rehgious writings. No question can be more 
 important for us than how we can make the best 
 use of our faculties, and in what way they can be 
 the most harmoniously, the most completely, and 
 the most usefully developed. This is a question 
 we are compelled to answer. We cannot put it 
 aside and be true to our generation, or to our- 
 selves. 
 
 The world in which we live is full of attraction 
 for us and full of mystery also. About its real 
 constitution, about the nature and extent of its 
 forces, we know comparatively little. What we 
 do know adds to the amount we do not know. We 
 realize that our life here is very brief, hardly more 
 than a dream. The wind passeth over it and it 
 is gone, and the place thereof shall know it no 
 more. For the beginning of this life we are not 
 
 9 
 
10 THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION 
 
 responsible, only for the use we make of it. Nor 
 can we prevent its coming to an end. Whence we 
 came, we do not know. If, as some have affirmed, 
 from a pre-existent state we have no memory of it. 
 
 If this life is all, as many others affirm, then it 
 not infrequently seems as if it were hardly worth 
 the sufferings and disappointments connected with 
 it. It is very difficult for us to be content with 
 the present alone — Even in this life we are con- 
 stantly looking forward to better days, to more 
 lucrative employment, to increased honors, to a 
 happier and more satisfied state of mind. It is 
 only natural that we think of a life after this, 
 larger and better than any we have known here. 
 
 In fact, it is well nigh impossible for us to per- 
 suade ourselves that we exist for this life alone, 
 that we came into this world by chance, are in a 
 world which itself came into being by chance, is 
 without a plan and is governed by laws which are 
 the result of chance. Whatever our theological 
 or our scientific views, however indifferent to re- 
 ligion we may be, we live and act on the principle 
 that the laws of Nature are permanent, can be 
 trusted, and must be obeyed. We approve these 
 laws and treat them as if they had an intelligent 
 origin. That is, we, unconsciously perhaps, be- 
 Heve that the world and the universe to which it 
 belongs, had a beginning and are controlled by a 
 mind at once intelligent and powerful. The world 
 
THE PROBLEM OF CREATION 1 1 
 
 came Into existence, we think, because it was creat- 
 ed by a personal being who had a plan In creating 
 It, and In subjecting It to certain laws. We think 
 of ourselves, also, and of the men and women of 
 our generation, and of preceding generations, as 
 possibly subject to some higher law than that 
 which prevails In matter, as If In the Intelligence 
 we possess and which others exhibit, there are 
 hints of another kind of life than that which seems 
 to be determined by the laws of matter only. 
 
 In other words, we feel as If we were connected 
 In some way with a Creator by closer and different 
 ties than those which we perceive In either the 
 vegetable or the animal world. We do not think 
 of ourselves as material, but as Intelligent, moral, 
 spiritual beings. For as we cannot think of the 
 Creator of the world as having visible form or as 
 confined to any definite locality, so we cannot think 
 of ourselves as Identical with the body which bears 
 our name, but as having a body In which we dwell. 
 We are led logically to think of the Creator as a 
 spiritual Being, and of ourselves as beings with a 
 spiritual nature, and we ask If it be not possible 
 and desirable that we come into conscious relations 
 with this spiritual Being, so that while Hving In a 
 material realm, we may live In a spiritual realm 
 also ! Thus we think of life as coming from a 
 Creator who is Spirit, as partaking of his life, 
 as existing apart from the material things which 
 
12 THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION 
 
 surround us, as superior to the destructive forces 
 which are seeking to bring this life to an end, as 
 lasting beyond the grave. . . . The more 
 thoughtfully we consider what we are, the more 
 earnestly we ask whence we have come, why we 
 are here, whither we are going. The older we 
 grow, the wider our experience, the more anxious 
 many of us are to find satisfactory answers to 
 questions which differentiate us altogether from 
 beings with a merely material nature. In spite of 
 ourselves we are religious. We form a creed, a 
 theology of our own. We are not content till we 
 do. Why then should we not consider, carefully 
 and without prejudice, a theory which explains our 
 relations to our Creator, to the world in which we 
 are now living, to our fellow men, and which 
 gives answer to questions concerning our own na- 
 ture and our relation to the future? 
 
II. The Relation of God to Man 
 
 The aim of every religion has been to bring men 
 into right relations with their Creator. From the 
 oldest historical records we learn that the most 
 ignorant and the most superstitious races, as well 
 as the more cultivated, have sought to come into 
 harmonious relations with a Deity in whom they 
 have some degree of confidence. Through gifts, 
 sacrifices, forms of worship, vows, personal ser- 
 vice, they have sought to obtain favors from a 
 supreme being, invisible indeed, but able to bless 
 with his gifts or to injure by withholding them. 
 
 That the Christian religion should aim to create 
 right relations between man and God, is what we 
 might anticipate. We are not surprised when the 
 apostle tells us that Jesus Christ came into the 
 world to bring men back to God. They were, as 
 we are further told, servants of sin, wanderers 
 from their Father's house. Christ came to seek 
 and save the lost. Are we among the lost? We 
 may not feel that we are sinners, and yet we can- 
 not put aside a feeling that we are not quite sure 
 that we are on the right road to our Father's 
 house. Why not listen to one who has found the 
 way and is ready to point it out to us? 
 
 Jesus claims to have come into the world as 
 
 13 
 
14 THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION 
 
 a teacher sent from God. Can He make good his 
 claims? Multitudes think so. And those who 
 thus think are anxious that those of their acquaint- 
 ance, as well as others, should consider the 
 grounds on which their conclusions rest. They ask 
 that the four Gospels be read thoughtfully, that 
 the statements there made, be pondered, that the 
 conditions upon which promises are made be care- 
 fully and honestly complied with, so that, in their 
 own experience those who read may discover the 
 truth of the New Testament religion. They see 
 men of pure character, of the highest social and 
 civic standing, of rare intelligence, in their daily 
 lives in the home and in the community, exhibit- 
 ing the most noble and the most amiable traits, 
 and yet rejecting, or at least taking no apparent 
 interest in the religion of Jesus Christ. They seem 
 to be open-minded men, free from prejudice, char- 
 itable, watching oftentimes for opportunities to 
 express their sympathy with the suffering and to 
 furnish help for the needy. . . . Outwardly they 
 seem to be living as if they loved God and their 
 neighbor, as if they were not far from the king- 
 dom of God. Would that they might take the 
 step which would bring them into it! 
 
III. Criticisms of Christianity 
 
 Why are they not open followers of Christ? 
 Some of them are indifferent to the claims of any 
 religion. Their religion consists in doing what 
 they think is right and in giving no thought as to 
 a reason for their action. Some call in question 
 the historical grounds upon which the Christian 
 religion rests, look upon Christ as a man, sincere 
 perhaps, but mistaken in his estimate of his mis- 
 sion. That others should be mistaken also in 
 their estimate of him is, they say, altogether na- 
 tural. Others assert that to accept Christ and 
 deny one's self in this life for the sake of blessed- 
 ness hereafter, is to take a commercial view of 
 religion, is selfishness and ethically immoral. The 
 excuses given for refusing to look upon Christ as 
 a Saviour and to live as one of his disciples are 
 of great variety, well nigh innumerable. Is it 
 possible to overcome them? We believe it is, but 
 only if those who give them are willing to consider 
 with absolute fairness the claims which the Chris- 
 tian religion makes upon every intelligent per- 
 son. . . . 
 
 We are willing to admit that in the lives of 
 many sincere Christians, as in the lives of those 
 who call themselves Christians, there are good 
 reasons for not a few of the criticisms that reach 
 
 15 
 
1 6 THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION 
 
 our ears. Not all the representatives of Christ 
 are worthy the position they hold. Not all who 
 honestly seek to serve Him are without fault. 
 The Christian ideal is very high. Be ye perfect as 
 your Father in Heaven. Who among us dare 
 claim to have reached that ideal? Then, too, 
 statements are made, as if sanctioned by the Mas- 
 ter, as to the nature and requirements of the 
 Gospel which are without New Testament au- 
 thority. There are believers who in spite of their 
 faith in the Lord Jesus still breathe the atmos- 
 phere of the Old Testament, who in their thought 
 of the laws of Moses, and their efforts to meet the 
 demand for form and ceremony, have deprived 
 themselves of the freedom and peace which the 
 Gospel gives. Let not the nature of the Gospel 
 be judged by such lives as these, or indeed from 
 any human representation of it. 
 
 By some, the Bible is rejected because, if read 
 as a book of science which it certainly is not and 
 was not intended to be, it contradicts laws of Na- 
 ture which observation and experience prove to be 
 true. As a book of ethics, we are told its prin- 
 ciples cannot be accepted, and we are reminded of 
 commands and deeds recorded in the Old Testa- 
 ment from which our moral sense recoils. We 
 grant that the standards of duty in the Old Testa- 
 ment are not such as we always can approve, or as 
 are found in the New Testament. Is this sur- 
 
CRITICISMS OF CHRISTIANITY 17 
 
 prising? Why should the advocates of the doc- 
 trine of evolution, as most of these critics are, 
 overlook the fact that there has been an advance 
 in the domain of morals and religion, no less truly 
 than in the realm of nature, an advance which 
 Christians gratefully recognize, an advance which 
 may be traced from the days of the Decalogue to 
 those of the Sermon on the Mount? Is it fair to 
 judge the religion of Jesus and that of the apostles 
 by the opinions and conduct of patriarchs and law- 
 givers, by the beginnings of a religion rather than 
 by its aim and its latest teachings? 
 
 How is it that so many seem to forget that 
 Christianity is a living religion, a life from God 
 imparted to a human soul, which appropriates to 
 itself day by day whatever is truest and best in 
 moral conduct and philosophical thought? The 
 disciple of Christ in the twentieth century ought to 
 have a broader outlook on the moral and spiritual 
 needs of mankind than the wisest of his followers 
 in Palestine or within three hundred years of the 
 crucifixion or in the Middle Ages or in the time 
 of the Reformation or even in the last century. 
 The increase in knowledge in various fields has 
 been by leaps and bounds. The believer of to-day 
 ought to understand Christ and the nature of his 
 teachings better than the believer in any past era. 
 He ought to be more charitable and tolerant in his 
 judgments of religious thought, to have a saner 
 
1 8 THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION 
 
 and juster view of the meaning of the great events 
 in human history than those who have preceded 
 him. It is the Christian religion of the present 
 time which we wish the unbelievers of our day to 
 consider, the claims which Christ makes for him- 
 self in his Gospels, the claims which Christian ex- 
 perience reports as uplifting and purifying, the 
 claims of a faith which appreciates and accepts all 
 that Is true in science, beautiful in art, noble in ac- 
 tion or conductive to human welfare, but which 
 finds its nourishment and strength in clinging to 
 Jesus as one sent from God. 
 
 A very great deal of the criticism which 
 meets us now, and upon which so many seem to 
 base their unbelief In Christ may be set aside at 
 once as resting on inadequate and false views of 
 the nature and demands of his gospel. It Is not 
 the low standards of morals which seem to have 
 prevailed in the earlier periods of the Old Testa- 
 ment times, the peculiar or far-fetched interpreta- 
 tions of certain passages in the New Testament, 
 the opinions of men who have justified on the 
 ground of Christian fidelity the horrors and cruel- 
 ties of religious wars, which genuine believers wish 
 their fellow-men to accept. What they desire for 
 themselves and for others is that the real Christ 
 be known and trusted. It is to Him that they ask 
 their fellow-men to direct their thought. 
 
 They ask the Intelligent people of to-day to 
 
CRITICISMS OF CHRISTIANITY 19 
 
 study without prejudice the character and claims 
 of Christ as He is presented in the Gospels, to 
 consider his theory of morals, his ideals of Hfe, his 
 standards of duty, his promises for the future. 
 They make no appeal for any particular church, 
 historical or national, for any denomination or re- 
 ligious sect, for any religious leader however gift- 
 ed or devoted he may seem to be or to have been, 
 or how many followers he may have won. What 
 they ask is that the four Gospels be read in the 
 light of present day knowledge, that the genuine 
 words of Jesus be carefully studied, that the in- 
 fluence of those words upon the lives of the men 
 who heard them and upon the lives of men to 
 whom they have been repeated generation after 
 generation be considered, and that the question be 
 put to their best judgment whether a religion 
 whose influence has been for good for so long a 
 time and among so many different people can rest 
 on a fictitious foundation? Let reason as well as 
 patience have her perfect work and there need be 
 no fear for the result. It cannot be repeated too 
 often that the thoughtful believer of to-day, the 
 man who believes because his personal experience 
 bears witness to the reasonableness of his faith, is 
 anxious that others, and especially the men whose 
 esteem and friendship he prizes so highly, should 
 find for themselves a treasure he has found preci- 
 ous. 
 
IV. The Essential Truth of the Bible 
 
 Let the critics be heard In all they have to say. 
 Smile at the ignorance and stupidity with which 
 many present the claims of the gospel, reject as 
 unworthy of confidence the blindness and folly of 
 those who aver that a revelation from above has 
 been vouchsafed to them, make due allowance for 
 whatever influence the time or environment may 
 have had on the form in which the truth we are 
 asked to accept has been given to the world, criti- 
 cize freely whatever weakness or frailty or ill- 
 doing can be discovered in the character or con- 
 duct of Christians. True we look to them as ex- 
 amples of the kind of lives those who profess to 
 be disciples of Christ ought to lead. 
 
 But do not forget that what they are, is not the 
 truth we are asked to accept. The truth is Christ 
 himself. "I am the way, the truth and the life. 
 No man cometh unto the Father but by Me." His 
 teachings alone are to be taken as the foundation 
 of our religious belief. The intelligent believer of 
 our time does not ask any one to do violence to an 
 enlightened judgment, to disregard the verdicts 
 of true scholarship, to overlook and condemn the 
 good there is in the world and among unbelievers: 
 he asks for fair consideration of the claims of the 
 
 20 
 
ESSENTIAL TRUTH OF THE BIBLE 2 1 
 
 faith which rests on Jesus Christ as Its basis. 
 Scholarship, as he knows, has shown the gradual 
 growth of the Old Testament, has detected and 
 pointed out the work of different authors in books 
 that are ascribed to a single author, has given a 
 late date to books which were formerly affirmed to 
 have been written much earlier. Christian schol- 
 ars do not define Inspiration In the old terms, or 
 deny that God raises up leaders of thought and 
 action at different times and In different countries 
 for special purposes whose words may be worth 
 careful comparison with those found in the Scrip- 
 tures. They doubt if an audible voice was heard 
 with every "Thus saith the Lord" which meets 
 us in the Old Testament, nor are they willing to 
 assert that historical or scientific errors are entire- 
 ly absent from the books that compose it. 
 
 Christian scholarship looks upon these old Jew- 
 ish books, which the Council of Jamnia A. D. 90 
 accepted as sacred, as forming a book of religion 
 of exceedingly great value. They point to the fact 
 that it traces the religion of a peculiar people 
 from rude beginnings through a long period of 
 time. They emphasize the human element in its 
 formation and are not shocked by the assertion 
 that these books were written as other books are 
 written, and are to be criticized as other writings 
 of their time are criticized. But they believe that 
 if read in the light of present knowledge, these 
 
22 THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION 
 
 writings will not only prove to be fascinating as 
 literature, but illuminating and inspiring for re- 
 ligion. 
 
V. The Book of the Jews 
 
 The Bible claims to be a truthful record of the 
 religious life and belief of a small nation whose 
 God was wiser, purer, more powerful than any 
 the gods of the surrounding nations, the God 
 of a nation which looked upon itself as an object 
 of his special thought and favor. It was little that 
 the people saw at the beginning of their history. 
 Their God as they thought of Him was moved as 
 by human passions, was jealous of neglect, cruel 
 to the enemies of his people, did not seem to care 
 for the welfare of the major part of mankind. It 
 is not strange if we take facts into consideration 
 that it should have been so. How could it have 
 been otherwise? Is it surprising that prominent 
 men, priests, judges, kings should share in the 
 thought of the people, were under the Influence of 
 the spirit of the times, were selfish, cruel, and full 
 of religious bigotry, not infrequently indifferent to 
 the demands of justice or morality? 
 
 Is it surprising that the prophets should meet 
 with serious and constant opposition on the part of 
 the representatives of the national religion In their 
 efforts to teach a higher morality than had usually 
 been observed and speak of God as a God of 
 righteousness? Yet, admitting the Imperfection 
 
 23 
 
24 THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION 
 
 of the authors of the various books of the Old 
 Testament, especially of those which are called 
 historical, its careful reading will bring before 
 our minds many a noble thought, many a heroic 
 deed of self-sacrifice, many a command which if 
 obeyed will aid in forming a righteous character. 
 The reading of the story of the servitude in Egypt, 
 of the deliverance therefrom, of the life in the 
 desert, of the giving of the commandments, of the 
 history of the beginnings of the worship of a 
 spiritual Being, of the aspirations of the authors 
 of many of the Psalms, of the warnings of the 
 prophets combined with their hopefulness, can- 
 not fail to be helpful to those who read sympathe- 
 tically and are willing to put themselves back in 
 the place of those to whom the story first came. 
 The experiences which are related in the Old 
 Testament prepare us for those which meet us in 
 the New Testament. Here we are in another at- 
 mosphere, purer, more invigorating, an atmos- 
 phere which stimulates us to right thinking and 
 right doing. Here we discover that the chosen 
 people and the true seed of Abraham are those 
 who love God supremely and their neighbor as 
 themselves. That here and there even in the 
 New Testament writers, a trace of the old Jewish 
 spirit is discernable, is not denied. That its writ- 
 ers were men of their day is evident. Apart from 
 their morality and their spirituality, from the faith 
 
THE BOOK OF THE JEWS 25 
 
 they cherished in one whom they were worshipping 
 as the Son of God, from their confident expecta- 
 tion of a future life, they were in no wise unlike 
 other men of the class to which they belonged. 
 Yet their spirit is that of Him who came into the 
 world to save sinners, to meet them in their daily 
 lives and furnish them the aid and encouragement 
 they needed. . . . Did it matter if to a Gentile, a 
 Christian who had once been a Jew spake with a 
 Hebrew accent, if he insisted that in his Saviour 
 he had found the Messiah long promised to his 
 people? 
 
 So far as we know, the original disciples were 
 Jews by birth and education. They had lived 
 among Jewish people. They had known very lit- 
 tle of any other people. Whatever they did or 
 said would indicate their nationality. That they 
 clung to Jewish forms of worship, used images 
 and illustrations familiar to Jewish thought in 
 their ministry and in their writings, may be ac- 
 cepted as a matter of course. Paul was a Jew 
 prior to his conversion and he never lost his love 
 for his brethren after the flesh, or ceased to labor 
 and pray that they, like himself, might receive 
 Jesus as the Messiah of promise. That Paul was 
 a genuine man, a man to be trusted, a man who 
 preached what he believed to be true, a man who 
 had proved the truth of his teachings in his own 
 experience before presenting them to others, no 
 
26 THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION 
 
 one who peruses his letters or traces the history of 
 his hfe subsequent to his conversion can doubt. 
 Testimony from a man like this is not to be lightly 
 rejected. 
 
 What wonder if in his writings, composed often 
 in haste and under the pressure of ardent feehng, 
 words and arguments show traces of a training 
 which preceded his Christian experience? Is the 
 book of Hebrews, with its Christian spirit and 
 aim, less valuable because of the use it makes of 
 the old Jewish Scriptures? Need it surprise us 
 that doctrines current among devout Jews, 
 apocalytic and peculiar to their race, should be 
 woven into the thought of the New Testament 
 writers? These writers, like the apostles, were 
 men like ourselves. They were dull and slow of 
 hearing. They did not easily see truth in its full 
 perspective. Nor is our spiritual vision entirely 
 clear. Yet this early testimony to the ministry of 
 Jesus has produced marvelous results. 
 
VI. Conditions in the New Testament 
 
 It is difficult for us to picture to ourselves the 
 conditions of life when the apostles began their 
 ministry. The world, at any rate the Roman 
 world, was at peace. The people as a rule were 
 prosperous. The burdens which the government 
 imposed were not grievous. . . . Within certain 
 limits its subjects were free to think and act as they 
 pleased. Only in test cases were they required to 
 pay homage, as a token of loyalty, to the Emper- 
 or. But with all these outward marks of pros- 
 perity there was a vast deal of inward corruption. 
 Divorce was common. Immorality was common 
 and provoked little criticism. In the great cities 
 the poor had become slaves and their condition 
 was anything but fortunate. True there were freed 
 men who obtained great power, but they did little 
 to improve the condition of those among whom 
 they had served as slaves. The distinction be- 
 tween classes was never sharper. There were the 
 very rich and the very poor . . . those who gave 
 themselves up to every kind of pleasure and those 
 who did not know from day to day where to find 
 their bread. To prevent outbreaks among the 
 poor, corn was distributed in Rome at regular 
 times and in specified quantities. Games were 
 
 27 
 
28 THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION 
 
 established for the delight of the thousands who 
 found their sole amusement in witnessing them. 
 Quiet as everything appeared to be on the surface, 
 even provincial governors were not always free 
 from anxiety. They were well satisfied to have 
 things remain as they were. They did not wel- 
 come new thought or any change in the manner of 
 life which could suggest in the least the worth of a 
 human soul. 
 
 This was the fullness of time when Christ came, 
 when after his death and resurrection his follow- 
 ers went out into the world with a gospel of Hfe 
 and peace. They addressed men as if each one 
 of them were a child of God with an immortal 
 destiny, as if in the sight of God, the God whom 
 they trusted and were trying to serve, all were 
 equal, as if in his presence and at his judgment- 
 bar the rich and powerful would have no prefer- 
 ence over the poor and weak. For men of learn- 
 ing, for those who had won literary fame, for the 
 philosophers and scientists of that day, for men 
 high in favor with the PZmperor, or occupying an 
 important political position anywhere in the em- 
 pire, the preaching of the gospel of Jesus of Naz- 
 areth would have little interest. To its warnings 
 and promises they would turn a deaf ear. And 
 yet a Herod, listened to a John the Baptist, and 
 often sent for him that he might hear him in 
 private. Felix trembled at the reasonings of Paul, 
 
CONDITIONS IN NEW TESTAMENT 29 
 
 and Festus could find no fault in him. A cen- 
 turion summoned Peter as a herald of good news 
 for himself arid his household, and the apostle to 
 the Gentiles had no difficulty in obtaining a hear- 
 ing among the officers and soldiers of the army 
 even at Rome. 
 
 It is only necessary to read the New Testament 
 with care to see the success which everywhere at- 
 tended or followed the preaching of the gospel. 
 Recall the number of conversions which occurred 
 within a few weeks of the Resurrection. Follow 
 the results of the persecution and martyrdom of 
 Stephen when the apostles went everywhere telling 
 the story of the Saviour who had died for them 
 and had risen from the dead. Study carefully the 
 history of Paul. Mark the change in his character 
 and in his spirit and aims after his experience on 
 the way to Damascus. Accompany him on his 
 visits to Jerusalem, to his home in Tarsus, to his 
 year's service with Barnabus at Antioch, go with 
 him on his missionary journeys in Asia Minor, in 
 Europe, on his way as a prisoner to Rome. Sit 
 by his side as he writes his letters, Hsten to him as 
 he preaches, as he talks with the men whom he 
 meets casually, observe how he emphasizes the 
 fact that the Jesus whom he had persecuted is the 
 Messiah for whom the Jews had long looked, the 
 Saviour who had come into the world with the gift 
 of eternal life for those who would receive it. 
 
30 THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION 
 
 So confident was he of the truth of his message 
 that he shrank from no hardships or dangers 
 which stood in the way of dehvering it. 
 
 The effect of that gospel on many of those who 
 heard it should not be overlooked. Recall the 
 names of those who were associated with Paul in 
 his labors, men like Barnabas, Timothy, Silas, of 
 noble women not a few, of the churches called into 
 existence, through his and their agency, perhaps 
 the seven in Asia Minor, at any rate the church at 
 Philippi, one at Thessalonica, another at Corinth, 
 those at Lystra and Derbe and Iconium, churches 
 whose influence was felt for centuries and always 
 for good. From Paul men heard that they were 
 sinners, in need of forgiveness, and that the power 
 to break away from sin and lead a righteous life 
 could come from God alone. Were the apostles 
 fanatics? Had their preaching no foundation 
 upon which to rest? Was the change wrought in 
 the character and conduct of men through the 
 hearing of the Gospel and at the outcome of faith 
 in its author unreal? And yet the [Christian 
 thought and enthusiasm of centuries was the out- 
 come . . . the beginning of Institutions and so- 
 cieties from which a new civilization arose. 
 
 We know that intense earnestness sometimes 
 may be mistaken for fanaticism. A half-educated 
 Christian may proclaim doctrines, which while 
 they convey great truths to his mind, and to other 
 
CONDITIONS IN NEW TESTAMENT 31 
 
 minds like his, contain errors which a disciplined 
 mind cannot fail to perceive and to reject. The 
 gospel as it comes to us directly from the New 
 Testament is expressed in language which to some 
 minds conveys little of its true meaning. It is one 
 of the excellencies of the gospel that it comes to 
 every one in his own language, in those terms, and 
 In that grade of thought which he can appreciate. 
 So it was at the first. The people heard the Lord 
 gladly. He spake as one having authority and 
 not as the scribes, with the uncertainty and in- 
 decision of mere interpretators. 
 
 If thousands in Jerusalem very soon after the 
 resurrection believed, there were among them, we 
 are told, a great number of priests, doubtless rep- 
 resentatives of the best educated people in the 
 city. The associates and helpers of Paul were 
 evidently men and women of the best class In so- 
 ciety. The churches they founded were left in 
 the care of their members. Among these mem- 
 bers, self-governing as these churches were, there 
 must have been persons fitted to plan and direct 
 their work. A church in a heathen city like An- 
 tloch or Pisidia or Derbe or Iconlum or In Galatia, 
 a church In any Roman city, occupied a place of 
 distinction. It stood for new religious doctrines, 
 for an entirely new standard of life. Such an or- 
 ganization would be criticized severely. Of this 
 fact no one was more truly conscious than Paul. 
 
32 THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION 
 
 Hence his subsequent visits to the churches. Hence 
 the letters to them from which succeeding ages 
 have profited. That the bishops and deacons which 
 were ordained out of the converts, none of whom 
 could have been of long standing, were men of 
 ability, if not always men of wealth and culture, is 
 evident. Ignorant and weak-minded men could 
 not have filled the positions these men held. The 
 work which many of these churches accomplished 
 long after the apostle's death is testimony to the 
 wisdom with which it was conducted. 
 
VII. The Church of the Middle Ages 
 
 We are wont to think of the church of the 
 Middle Ages as corrupt and worldly, as lacking 
 almost entirely the graces of character and the 
 sympathy with the poor which we associate with 
 the churches of our time. Three things the medi- 
 aeval church did. It preserved in its monasteries 
 and among its priests and monks the learning of 
 previous generations. Greek, Roman, and to 
 some extent Oriental thought and literature were 
 kept alive in these religious centers. Out of them 
 came the impulse from which the universities of 
 Paris, Italy, and England arose. In them were 
 gathered and preserved the libraries of the time. 
 Here precious manuscripts carefully were copied 
 and treasured. 
 
 To these monasteries the poor came as to the 
 only place where relief could be found for their 
 sufferings. . . . These monasteries fed the poor, 
 clothed the naked, and sent out visitors to the sick 
 and in prison. In the nunneries were women who 
 were even more serviceable to the needy than 
 priests or monks. 
 
 Naturally enough, hospitals were connected 
 with these religious homes and men and women 
 were trained in them through experience as well 
 
 33 
 
34 THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION 
 
 as by careful study, in medicine and surgery. If 
 methods were crude and imperfect, they were the 
 best that could be followed. They prepared the 
 way for methods in our day which are prolonging 
 life by many years. But we have no right to sup- 
 pose that the nursing in the hospitals of the Mid- 
 dle Ages was less sympathetic or Christian than 
 that of our own time. In those quiet institutions, 
 notwithstanding imperfections, genuine piety was 
 found. 
 
 Neither the Roman nor the Greek Church, full 
 of faults in doctrine and life as many of their 
 members were, were without examples of true 
 Christian consecration. There were in them men 
 and women who gave up everything that they 
 might serve their fellow men. Their consecra- 
 tion assumed different forms. It was seen in the 
 zeal of the evangelist, the research of the scholar, 
 the self-denial of the missionary. Piety was kept 
 alive and nourished by the service of scores and 
 hundreds of men and women who withdrew from 
 the world, that through their withdrawal from it, 
 they might the better serve it. 
 
 Of the missionary history of the Middle Ages, 
 apart from the reports made to Rome, we have no 
 full and accurate knowledge. We know that in 
 every generation the Church of Rome has sought 
 to give the Gospel as she has understood it, to the 
 remotest parts of the world. The Crusades were 
 
THE CHURCH OF MIDDLE AGES 35 
 
 in a way missionary undertakings. The infidel was 
 to be overthrown that the believer might reign. 
 Foolish disputes there were over trivial points of 
 doctrine; men prominent in the councils of the 
 Church were notorious for their vicious lives; the 
 desire for wealth and political power was appar- 
 ent; the words of Dante in condemnation of the 
 Church are not too strong, and yet many a saint 
 lived in its atmosphere and was nourished by its 
 teachings. He who would understand the position 
 and work of the Church in either its Western or 
 its Eastern division must carry himself back in his 
 imagination to the centuries in which they were the 
 sources of the best civic and religious Hfe of the 
 time. 
 
 Prior to the Reformation, the Western Church 
 represented the best thought of the era. It was 
 the home of earnest and gifted men. It trained 
 the men who laid the foundations of the great 
 public schools of western Europe and of the uni- 
 versities of France, Italy, and England. In it 
 were educated such men as Martin Luther, 
 Zwingle, Reuchlin, Erasmus, Melanthon, and 
 scores of others, who loved and served their gen- 
 eration. Luther did not at first intend to break 
 with the Church. He sought to free it from su- 
 persitions and errors, in the hope that its life 
 would deepen and be enriched through a sincere 
 faith in Jesus Christ as the Saviour of men. It 
 
36 THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION 
 
 was a very simple gospel which he sought to 
 preach; that men were sinners and could be justi- 
 fied by faith alone. What his preaching of the 
 gospel, as he interpreted it, accomplished, appears 
 not only in the history of the reformed churches 
 and the history of protestantism throughout the 
 world, but in the new and purer life which sprang 
 up in the mother church. For the work of Luther 
 and his associates wrought a very great change in 
 the Roman Catholic Church, both in its doctrines 
 and in the spiritual life of many of its members. 
 
VIII. The Church of To-day 
 
 But objections are to the church of to-day, 
 Protestant as well as Catholic. It is granted that 
 both churches have been useful, have done not a 
 little towards making this world a better world in 
 which to live, that it has suggested and ordinarily 
 put into operation nearly all the benevolent agen- 
 cies in which we take pride. Few people, how- 
 ever, have any adequate knowledge of the char- 
 acter and extent of the missionary work of the 
 church during the past and the present genera- 
 tion. Many, while admitting, or at least not ex- 
 actly denying all this, yet speak of the church and 
 its ministers as the defenders of outworn dogmas, 
 and without sympathy with present day needs. 
 
 Few of those who make the charge undertake 
 to prove the truth of it. That might be somewhat 
 difficult. On what foundation does it rest? Where 
 is the new thought of which non-believers so often 
 speak, more carefully studied, and, if found to be 
 true, more readily received than in our Christian 
 colleges and seminaries? Where are the men 
 found who are mastering the thought of the time 
 and encouraging with their words and their money 
 those who in well nigh innumerable directions are 
 searching for the truth, if not in or closely con- 
 nected with the church? Who are the men who 
 
 37 
 
38 THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION 
 
 have been uncovering the treasures of Egypt, 
 Palestine, the ruins in Mesopotamia? 
 
 They are Christian men chiefly. The classical 
 scholars who care for nothing so much as some- 
 thing in Greece or Italy that will throw new light 
 on some favorite author, are for the most part 
 supporters of the Christian Church. The excep- 
 tions are comparatively few in number. To whom 
 are we indebted for the fresh interest in Biblical 
 study and the new thought which is following it 
 if it be not to Christian scholars? They are the 
 men who are welcoming the discoveries which are 
 adding to our knowledge of ancient times, are 
 modifying our views in many directions, and who 
 shrink from no conclusions supported by facts. 
 They are lovers of truth. That they will follow, 
 let it lead whithersoever it may. 
 
 It is the Church itself, the protestant branch of 
 it, that sustains and rejoices in the new learning. 
 It cares for the truth and the truth alone. But 
 it cannot be asked to give up the old for the new, 
 simply because it is new. If it accepts the new it 
 must be because the new is true. If this undermines 
 some old doctrine very dear to us, we let It go 
 without a moment's hesitation. A religion without 
 a basis of fact on which to rest Is worthless. The 
 Christian Church of our day was never more con- 
 fident than now that Its foundations are secure and 
 immovable. Hence its promotion of research, 
 
THE CHURCH OF TO-DAY 39 % 
 
 the encouragement It gives to criticism, the readi- 
 ness with which whatever seems to be true is ac- 
 cepted and made a part of its behef. But it in- 
 sists that the new be proved to be true before it is 
 wiUing to put it in place of former belief. This 
 is the attitude of the Church. Its members desire 
 their friends to unite with them in its service for 
 mankind because they find in it the truth which 
 satisfies the intellect, purifies the heart, stimulates 
 to self-denial, forms moral character, creates sym- 
 pathy with suffering and need the world over, and 
 because they find in it the men whose greatest 
 happiness consists in striving to diminish pain, 
 mental, or physical, and by gifts of money or per- 
 sonal service to supply every form of human need. 
 It is to Christian men and women that the world 
 is indebted for whatever is best in its thought or 
 its life. And yet some intelligent people among 
 us are rejecting the gospel as untrue or as un- 
 necessary, as making no appeal to them, inasmuch 
 as neither in its teachings nor in its aims does it 
 interest them. They turn away from it as having 
 no value in itself, as something which appeals 
 neither to their physical nor to their moral needs. 
 A large number are indifferent to the gospel, who 
 in reality know very little about it. To them the 
 Bible is a sealed book — they do not read it. They 
 know that there are Christian churches. Christian 
 schools and colleges, that many hospitals have 
 
i 40 THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION 
 
 rather an intimate relation with Christian people, 
 that these same people have established hospitals 
 in foreign lands as a part of their Christian work, 
 but precisely what this foreign work is, or how 
 far it extends or what it has accomplished, they 
 do not know and are taking no pains to ascertain. 
 How can intelligent people excuse themselves 
 for this Ignorance, or for the attitude which ac- 
 companies it? Churches are found In nearly every 
 village In the United States and western Europe. 
 Persons connected with these churches have In 
 general taken the lead in support of institutions of 
 benevolence, the circulation of good literature, the 
 framing, passage, and execution of good laws. 
 That there are exceptions we do not deny. As a 
 rule the churches of a community are its best asset. 
 This means that most people look upon religion 
 as something desirable. Communities without 
 churches and unwilling to sustain them are not at- 
 tractive communities In which to live. Unbe- 
 lievers, however firmly fixed in their convictions 
 that the gospel has no historic ground upon which 
 to rest, do not seem to be eager to settle In these 
 communities or to have their children brought up 
 within their limits. Indirectly, unconsciously per- 
 haps, they testify thus to the value of Christianity 
 by establishing their homes among those who look 
 upon the gospel as true, and who try to live In ac- 
 cordance with its precepts. In communities which 
 
THE CHURCH OF TO-DAY 41 
 
 have been long established there will of course be 
 a considerable number of people who, If not out- 
 right opposers of the church, still are Indifferent 
 to It. Let them have credit for the blameless lives 
 which they seem to be living, but let them ask 
 themselves If they honestly have Investigated for 
 themselves the grounds upon which the gospel 
 bases Its claims. If In fact for what they are them- 
 selves, the Ideals they cherish, the upright life they 
 are leading, they are not Indebted to the Christian 
 religion? 
 
 What we ask Is that Christianity be so fairly 
 studied as to be understood. Let the faults of 
 those who represent It be fully exposed. Let Its 
 failure to accomplish all, or even a small part of 
 what had been expected of It, be admitted. Give 
 due credit to critical scholarship, recognize the 
 errors which have been taught as truth In the name 
 of religion, select the worst speclmer||the church 
 of any era has to present, a fair consideration of 
 all that the church has been and has sought to do 
 In any given period of time will show that her In- 
 fluence has been good and not bad, that she has 
 favored learning, benevolence, pure living, kindly 
 treatment of others. In short has favored the best 
 and most self-sacrificing life known. This we be- 
 lieve to be true of the church of to-day. 
 
 We must not forget that Christianity has been 
 doing Its work for nearly two thousand years, that 
 
42 THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION 
 
 It has effected changes In our thinking, In our 
 standards of morals, In our sense of duty to oth- 
 ers, of which ordinarily no account Is taken. 
 
 To the extent to which people are affected by 
 universal Christian thought, or by what Is often 
 called natural humanity, we are not Insensible. 
 Modern society owes a large debt to the many who 
 give and labor not as Christians, but as men and 
 women who sincerely desire and seek the welfare 
 of others. Some of them, we think, are not far 
 from the Kingdom of Heaven. We would they 
 were in it, would take the step which would bring 
 them into it, would study the gospel long enough 
 and thoroughly enough to see that Its claims do 
 not Interfere with enjoyment of the best this life 
 affords, or with their doing the best of which they 
 are capable for the uplift of the present and future 
 generations. There is nothing good which the 
 gospel does^ot seek to give : the best in educa- 
 tion, the best In physical development, the best In 
 character-building, the best in society, the best of 
 which a perfectly developed man is capable. With 
 all this and all that it Implies, the gospel Is in full 
 sympathy. It seeks to give life, and that more 
 abundantly. Life here in this world and not alone 
 in another. For the gospel, as the apostle saw, 
 has the promise of the life that now is as well as 
 of that which is to come. 
 
IX. Judging the Gospel 
 
 Is it too much to ask that the common way of 
 judging the character of the gospel be reversed? 
 We criticize the error which has attached itself to 
 it, but do not take the trouble to detach the error 
 from the truth; we judge of the influence of the 
 church upon the world by studying its influence in 
 its corrupt and least spiritual eras rather than in 
 its best eras. So of its men. We take its worst 
 specimens, its most corrupt popes or cardinals, its 
 worldly-minded bishops and priests, and condemn 
 Christianity because some of its representatives 
 are what a lack of Christianity has made them to 
 be. Of such men as Paul, Francis Assisi, the early 
 messengers of Christ to England and the north of 
 Europe, the pioneer missionaries of the late eigh- 
 teenth and the early nineteenth century, we have 
 little to say. We do not stop to consider the fact 
 that in his effort to heal the open sore of the world, 
 David Livingstone revealed Africa in its true light 
 and in so doing rendered it possible to sweep away 
 forever the last vestige of heathen darkness from 
 the minds of men living in the Dark Continent. 
 
 Have such men as the late William Booth made 
 no contribution to the world? Is there another 
 man of his time who has contributed more? There 
 
 43 
 
44 THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION 
 
 have been great men in science, great explorers, 
 great warriors, great statesmen, but what man In 
 the nineteenth century did more to uplift and help 
 the lower strata of his race than William Booth 
 In the foundation of the Salvation Army? He saw 
 human need In Its worst forms. He saw vice In 
 that section of society where It Is most completely 
 at home, among people who had no other comfort 
 than what came to them In evil doing. In that 
 section of London where he began his ministry, 
 those who needed the help he sought to give were 
 more numerous than those who counted them- 
 selves righteous. To them he went with the 
 gospel. If he carried it to them In a way which 
 they who received it never had known, it was yet 
 the gospel which wrought a change In their lives, 
 which opened their eyes to a new world, a world 
 of whose existence they had not even dreamed. 
 That gospel, he and his followers, many of them 
 among the lowest of the low, have carried round 
 the world to find that everywhere Its power with 
 men has been the same. It has freed them from 
 the fetters of sin. It has made new people of 
 them. It has dragged them out of the strongholds 
 of vice and temptation, set them on their feet, 
 made them heralds of Him who sought and saved 
 them. 
 
 The message they have delivered has been very 
 simple. It has been without form or ornament. 
 
JUDGING THE GOSPEL 45 
 
 It has been a message from man to man, testimony 
 alone, the testimony of experience, a man In moral 
 health telling one who Is sick how he was cured. 
 Believe. That Is all. Believe Jesus Christ, friend, 
 brother, helper, healer, unseen yet truly present. 
 One Is sinking In deep water. Seize the outstretch- 
 ed hand and be saved. Simple indeed is the first 
 step. Explanations neither are given nor sought. 
 Make trial. That is enough. Observe the change 
 in that man's life. See what he is to-day. All 
 know what he was not long ago. Look Into his 
 home. See how comfortable it Is. Ask his wife 
 and children about him. How unlike all Is from 
 what It was a few months since. What has brought 
 about the change? Acquaintance with the Salva- 
 tion Army. A lad, a lassie perhaps, brought news 
 of an Invisible yet powerful helper. The message 
 was not understood at first. The needy man was 
 persuaded to ask help. It came. How? Is there 
 need to know? It came. And the messenger who 
 brought it kept in constant touch with the person 
 to whom it came, and with tact and untiring pa- 
 tience unfolded more and more of the gospel till at 
 last, with clear vision the one saved was ready to 
 go out with his message to others. 
 
 Has the gospel power? Visit London. Is it a 
 dream? Visit London. Enough can be seen there 
 to satisfy any one that some power beyond what 
 is commonly exerted by man has made itself felt 
 
46 THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION 
 
 in the lives of thousands of degraded men and 
 women. 
 
 Soldiers in this same Army, making use of the 
 same kinds of weapons, following similar methods 
 of attack, have won similar victories in every 
 large city into which they have gone. Nor has 
 their advance been limited to nations in which the 
 English language is spoken. Victories hardly less 
 marvelous have been won wherever they have 
 gone. They are winning them now day by day. 
 During these efforts to win followers of Christ, 
 men have been shown how to live in comfort here 
 in this world, how to make use of the capacities 
 with which they have been endowed. These effects 
 cannot be explained as the effects of personal mag- 
 netism, however prominent that at times may have 
 been. It is not the influence of mind upon mind, 
 although that has not been without effect. It is 
 due to a new nature, a nature which has taken the 
 place of the nature which was all powerful before. 
 Old things have passed away. Behold all things 
 are become new. Hundreds of thousands of wit- 
 nesses there are, speaking in almost all the lang- 
 uages of the civilized world, and not a few in the 
 heathen world, who ascribe the change in them of 
 which they are conscious and for which they are 
 grateful, to an invisible power which has come to 
 their aid and which remains with them to help 
 them as they have need. Even the most skeptical 
 
JUDGING THE GOSPEL 47 
 
 will not deny that good has been wrought. Why 
 not admit that for these people, and such as these, 
 the gospel has a message, and a message which 
 they do well to heed? 
 
 Is there no call for others than among those to 
 whom the Salvation Army usually ministers to 
 heed this message? Everywhere there is a middle 
 class who need the gospel. The members of this 
 class are not remarkable for learning, for ability 
 to appreciate sharp distinctions in criticism, fine 
 points in literature, arguments for or against the 
 existence of God. They are for the most part 
 sane in their thought, distinguished for good judg- 
 ment, or what is called common sense, people who 
 know a good thing when they see it, and are not 
 unwilling to use the means necessary to secure it. 
 Among the men and women of this class, the 
 changes which take place in character are often 
 very striking, are not less remarkable and effective 
 than in those who belong to the class below them. 
 From this middle class come the larger number of 
 those who devote themselves to the work of 
 spreading the knowledge of the gospel throughout 
 the world. They do not labor for the conversion 
 of men alone, but for their development as mem- 
 bers of a race to whose mental and moral prog- 
 ress, so far as we can see, no limit has been set. 
 Hence their interest in schools, in hospitals, in 
 every form of benevolence that can reach and aid 
 
48 THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION 
 
 mankind. Hence gifts increasingly large as the 
 years go by and the belief on the part of the giver 
 that they are serving a Master who has chosen 
 them to be his stewards, and who are looking for 
 a steady and permanent betterment in the world 
 in which we are now living. True they believe in 
 a world to come. But to prepare themselves for 
 enjoyment in it they think they should live and 
 act as if this world were the only world in which 
 they are to live. 
 
 On the ground of this faith we have our 
 churches, our Christian education, our mission ser- 
 vice at home and abroad, our standards of duty, 
 our codes of law, whatever is high and inspiring 
 in our civilization. . . . No claim is put forth for 
 the rare intellectual ability of those to whom we 
 owe these priceless gifts. We recognize the debt 
 which we owe them, and we try to pay it by pass- 
 ing on the treasure which has come to us to an- 
 other generation. Everywhere we go we have 
 examples of strangely complete and beautiful self- 
 denying lives. And with it, yes as part of it, and 
 the most prominent part of it, contentment, a 
 peace and satisfaction in life which make them- 
 selves felt in every word and act. 
 
 There is no need to name examples. Memory 
 is full of them. They are among the choicest of 
 our friends. They are the persons to whom we 
 go in trouble, on whom we rely for counsel, after 
 
JUDGING THE GOSPEL 49 
 
 whose conduct we fashion, to a considerable de- 
 gree, our own. Out of this class come not a few 
 of our most prominent men of wealth, our most 
 eloquent and effective orators, our statesmen, the 
 men who fill the professions, our artists, authors, 
 and scholars. If of the very rich, the very noble, 
 the very learned, the wise of this world, not many 
 are called, some are called, have responded to the 
 call, and are bearing the message which they have 
 heard to those about them, to those with whom 
 they associate daily. The changes observable in 
 them are quite as real as in those who are not in 
 their social rank. With every opportunity for 
 research, with leisure for study, with minds en- 
 larged by wide reading, extensive travel, constant 
 association with members of the most cultivated 
 society, they too cherish a sincere faith in one who 
 declared that He came into the world to seek 
 and save the lost. The example their Master has 
 left them they do not hesitate to follow. 
 
 Whatever some of those who pass for the clear- 
 est thinkers of our time may say, to whatever ex- 
 tent in view of the discoveries and the finds of 
 scholarship, the mere letter of the gospel may be 
 modified, the gospel itself is untouched. Its mes- 
 sage is the same from age to age and to all alike. 
 It is a message from a heavenly Father to chil- 
 dren who for a time are living in this world and 
 who have wandered far from Him. He asks them 
 
so THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION 
 
 to come home, and as they heed the voice and turn 
 their faces toward Him, He goes out to meet 
 them. Distinguished names there are, many of 
 them of those who in intellect, in discipline of 
 mind, rank among the first, whose faith in Christ 
 is that of a little child. It is useless to deny facts. 
 If there are many who do not believe, there are 
 multitudes who do believe. If there are some who 
 doubt and criticise and reject, there are multi- 
 tudes equally gifted and equally well disciplined 
 who accept the gospel and rejoice in it. Not a 
 few eminent scientists, many who are prominent 
 in philosophical thought, men who have led na- 
 tions as their prime ministers, men who have ex- 
 hibited the highest bravery in battle, have enrolled 
 themselves among the servants of Christ. Men 
 born to the enjoyment of every advantage that 
 family and wealth could furnish have willingly left 
 all to witness the more effectively to the blessing 
 which the gospel brings to the world. 
 
 This is something for which fanaticism cannot 
 account. Nor can any one deny that in countries 
 which are called Christian, life is richer, property 
 safer, morals higher, knowledge more eagerly 
 sought, more highly prized, made more useful, 
 than in other countries; that in these countries, 
 from the first Christian century to the present, the 
 world has been becoming better. . . . Consider 
 for a moment what Christianity has brought to 
 
JUDGING THE GOSPEL 51 
 
 these countries. Not alone in change of thought, 
 in different and purer standards of moral charac- 
 ter, In juster and more beneficent laws, in institu- 
 tions of benevolence where misfortune, sickness, 
 poverty, suffering of every kind, is alleviated, but 
 in its effect upon literature and upon the estimates 
 men form one of another. 
 
 Take out of any generation since Christ came, 
 the effect the preaching of his gospel has had upon 
 men, how great would be the loss ! Almost be- 
 yond the power of calculation ! Take its influence 
 away from any community with which we are ac- 
 quainted, out of all the books we have read, or 
 are reading, out of the lives of those around us, 
 banish Christianity from among us — What would 
 there be left? Could we be content to remain 
 among people with no faith In God, or In moral 
 obligations, or in anything beyond that which we 
 can see and feel? Were we to determine to live 
 with people like these, would it not be that we 
 might bear witness to a higher and richer life than 
 the one they were leading? 
 
 What have we to-day In our land that we do not 
 owe to the Christian religion? Our love of liberty 
 and our enjoyment of it. The Red Men who were 
 here before us had more freedom than we have 
 ever enjoyed. Did this mean liberty or did this 
 liberty mean for them what it means for us? 
 What use did they make of it, apart from self- 
 
52 THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION 
 
 gratification? What contributions through it did 
 they make to the well-being of their tribes? Of 
 what value was this part of the world to the 
 rest of it while in their possession? Their liberty 
 was the liberty of nature. Force in others was 
 the only power that could restrain it. For this 
 kind of liberty civilized men cherish no desire. 
 Why not? Perhaps because it has no other 
 recognized limits than those of force and sel- 
 fishness, because it has not felt the leavening in- 
 fluence of the message of good will, of brotherly 
 love, of Christian self-denial. At any rate on 
 all grades of common life we most readily admit 
 that the gospel has exercised a power for good. 
 That in our communities which makes life worth 
 living is due to Christianity. Why then should 
 we not all accept it? Why not the most in- 
 telligent as well as those who are looked upon 
 as the least intelligent? Is intelligence justified 
 in rejecting it because it condemns the gratifica- 
 tion of those passions in us which we have in 
 common with the brutes? Because it sets be- 
 fore us standards of attainment which require a 
 life time even approximately to realize, because 
 it purifies and mellows, and renders attractive, 
 disagreeable, well-nigh ungovernable characters, 
 because it stimulates even the best of men to press 
 forward toward the realization of ideals which the 
 word perfection only can fitly describe? Thought- 
 
JUDGING THE GOSPEL 53 
 
 ful people, some of them, very probably will say, 
 "For the ordinary person undoubtedly religon is 
 a good thing. Even if its teachings do not rest 
 on facts, so long as faith in them produces good 
 results their acceptance should be advocated. But 
 for those who think, who are unwilling to accept 
 any religious belief which has in it even the least 
 suspicion of untruth, Christianity is impossible. 
 For the lower classes we approve it just as we ap- 
 prove of policemen for the unruly." But only for 
 people who feel the need of a religion, who want 
 to have some sort of assurance about the future, 
 or lean on authority, is Christianity desirable. Few 
 people are able to detect errors in the biblical 
 records, fewer still care for them when detected, 
 but for those who do care it is not possible to have 
 confidence in them. 
 
 This intellectual objection to religion is not 
 based upon unwillingness to be subject to a severe 
 standard of morals or to a demand so to regulate 
 life as to make it contributory in the highest degree 
 to the welfare of others, or to make it fruitful to 
 the last extent for one's self. Many who turn 
 away from the Christian religion because they 
 have discovered, as they are persuaded, mistakes 
 in some or all of its documents, are leading lives 
 of singular beauty and are saying to themselves 
 and to others that the reward which accompanies 
 well-doing here is all the reward they look for or 
 
54 THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION 
 
 wish. To a future life, they give no thought. For 
 it they have no care. Should there be a future life, 
 it is a life which concerns them as little as that 
 which their souls may have had in the ages which 
 preceded its beginning here. They live for the 
 day with no expectation or care for a to-morrow. 
 They shut out of their lives whatever comfort or 
 help might be brought into them by a belief in the 
 actual presence of God in the world. 
 
 To reject Christianity for the reason that its 
 books were not written, as scholarship now as- 
 serts, by men as the amanuenses of Deity, that 
 they contain statements which are inconsistent with 
 facts which science and history carefully studied, 
 the progress of thought and morals contradict and 
 condemn, is no sufficient reason for overlooking 
 the good which they contain. Read in the light of 
 human experience it will be discovered that these 
 books are on a level with the most advanced 
 thought of the time of their composition. Read as 
 marking the progress of religious men from low 
 and primitive ideas of religion, up to the time of 
 Christ, the books are of great value. They en- 
 courage us to believe that even Christian ideas 
 oftentimes may reveal themselves more clearly 
 bye and bye than now. The Bible is a book of 
 progress. Its later standards of duty condemn 
 many that were current in early times. The Bible is 
 to be judged by its aims, by its later standards, not 
 
JUDGING THE GOSPEL 55 
 
 by those which were held in the twilight of religi- 
 ous history. It is to be judged by what its heroes 
 sought to be and do rather than by what they 
 actually were as compared with men of character 
 living to-day. 
 
 If we are not far better than the best Old Testa- 
 ment saint or prophet, it is our fault. We have 
 no right to live below the requirements of the 
 Sermon on the Mount, or to imitate the example 
 of any other man who ever has lived, save that of 
 Christ. Can a really thoughtful person, one who 
 means to be consistent in his thinking, logical in 
 his conduct, find any intellectual reason for not 
 being a follower of the Lord Jesus? No matter 
 what he thinks about his person, his pre-existence, 
 the two natures, or one nature, the virgin birth or 
 a natural birth, relation to God or to men, he 
 lived such a life on earth as no one before him had 
 lived, taught principles, which, where followed, 
 produce the purest and noblest characters of which 
 we have any knowledge. ... Is not a religion 
 which connects itself with such a person, worthy 
 the most conscientious examination, and if one is 
 really anxious to obtain for himself and others the 
 best this life contains, should not an effort be made 
 to meet the conditions upon which its promises and 
 its results depend? 
 
 For most people who reject the Christian re- 
 ligion, an intellectual difficulty has little weight. 
 
56 THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION 
 
 They do not want to submit themselves to the 
 standards of Christianity. They are unwiUing to 
 deny themselves the pleasures they desire. They 
 want to live and act as if whatever they do, or 
 think, or wish is right; as if living for others, for 
 the good of the whole, for the building up of a 
 moral system or an economic system of righteous- 
 ness which shall be operative in the future, were no 
 concern of theirs. Their life is a life of complete 
 religious indifference. Of the contents of the 
 biblical books they have neither knowledge nor 
 care. Even the gospels remain unread. The pres- 
 ent alone interests them. For what others have 
 done, or for what others may do, they have no 
 care. The multitudes are indifferent, thoughtless- 
 ly indifferent. They are hostile to religious re- 
 straints. Reason cannot reach them. They care 
 only for the spectacular, the unusual, the horrible, 
 and for this for no long time, l^hey do not think. 
 We must not overlook the needs of persons like 
 these. 
 
 Is it asked what do we mean by religion, more 
 especially by the religion of Christ as presented in 
 the gospels and in the letters of Paul? It is the 
 recognition on the part of man of his relation to 
 his Creator. It is a willing, grateful, trustful, 
 loving recognition of God. It is a recognition of 
 the place each of us occupies in the world, the 
 cherishing of a purpose to fill that place to the best 
 
JUDGING THE GOSPEL 57 
 
 of our ability. We are permitted to scan with 
 utmost care the history of the human race, of that 
 portion of the universe and its relation to every 
 other part of it where we find ourselves, to follow 
 through countless ages the gradual preparation of 
 our world for the support of life, and its slow 
 development from that period on, till man came 
 anci grew to be conscious of duty and of a power 
 to think of other worlds than this, of other beings 
 than those like himself, of causes and effects, and 
 of the cause of what we ourselves are, and to ask 
 why we are here, from whom we have come, and 
 to whom we are to return. 
 
 These questions and others like them, religion 
 and more especially the religion of Christ an- 
 swers. ... It tells us of God, of His love for us, 
 of our need of Him, of the revelation He has 
 made to us of His nature and His wishes for us 
 in Plis Son. We are asked to hear this Son as He 
 speaks to us, to weigh His words, to heed His 
 warnings, to accept His promises, to follow His 
 guidance. We are not asked to place confidence in 
 a Book, to cherish any particular opinion as to the 
 way into which it came into being, to hold any 
 special theory as to the person of Christ, any be- 
 lief in a particular church or in any particular body 
 of men, only to believe in Christ, to believe that 
 He came from His Father and our Father, and 
 came with words of good will. 
 
58 THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION 
 
 From what has been said, It is clear that the 
 only satisfactory way to prove the truth of the 
 gospel is to listen to it and then make personal 
 test of its claims. In order to do this, no great 
 amount of learning is necessary. A very ignorant 
 person may be brought to Christ, and recognizing 
 Him may put faith in Him, live as He directs, 
 and enjoy the peace He promises. For most of 
 us Christianity is nothing more than a personal 
 relation w^ith Christ. We read His words, we re- 
 call the conditions in which He lived, we dwell 
 upon His deeds of mercy, upon the help He gave 
 to those who sought Him, we think of Him as liv- 
 ing still, we do not know where, we do not try to 
 locate Him, only to believe Him and make sure 
 in our experience that He is with us and helping 
 us every day. We have only to look around us 
 to find examples of those who have cast their care 
 upon Him, and (in consequence) are living happy, 
 useful lives, whose peace of mind is not disturbed 
 by burdens of sickness and poverty and failure of 
 their plans, who feel and act as if they knew 
 that all things are working together for their 
 good. 
 
 Why is not a practical proof like this as good 
 as any that can be given? Why are not the evi- 
 dences which are brought before us in the lives 
 of those reached by the Salvation Army, by many 
 of our evangelists, by missionaries in foreign 
 
JUDGING THE GOSPEL 59 
 
 lands, as satisfactory as any that rest on theory or 
 on conclusions which ought to follow logically 
 from assumed premises? Are not many of that 
 very Intelligent class who are turning away from 
 the gospel, failing to see what the gospel Is, and 
 what it requires? Are they not setting up stand- 
 ards of thought in reference to it, to which it 
 makes no claims? Did not Christianity exist be- 
 fore any account of it was written? Was there 
 not a time when Christ and His disciples made up 
 the entire Christian church? Was their associat- 
 ing together called a church? Was not the re- 
 lationship between Master and disciple then as 
 real and close as ever existed between any be- 
 liever and his Lord. 
 
 The accounts of the life in Palestine, full of 
 interest and important as they are, are accounts 
 which have a human origin, even if of divine sug- 
 gestion. They are to be treated as we treat other 
 accounts written by men, save that they relate to 
 more Important matters and are of deeper concern 
 to us. Suppose It were true that In certain minor 
 points, the so-called gospels do not exactly agree, 
 that the epistles of Paul are rather more philo- 
 sophical than we wish they were, rather more dif- 
 ficult to explain than we could desire? Does this 
 render untrue the evidence of the good that comes 
 to us from the association of the apostles with the 
 Saviour, or that comes to us in the experience of 
 
6o THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION 
 
 countless millions who since their time have found 
 comfort and peace through their faith in Christ? 
 Surely what has proved itself to be of value in this 
 life for multitudes of men of all conditions and of 
 all races, is not unworthy the attention of gifted 
 men now living. Their faith is not to be set aside 
 as a fancy, the hopes they cherished as nothing 
 better than a dream. 
 
 If the facts of the change produced by the ac- 
 ceptance of the gospel cannot be denied, if the 
 change wrought in character is always for the 
 better, if we see pure characters emerge from 
 among the most vicious, if what is low and de- 
 graded is rejected because of love for Christ and 
 the desire to serve Him, if, instead of seeking to 
 injure others, there is a desire to help them, reason 
 demands that the causes of these changes be 
 sought for and when found be carefully consider- 
 ed. This is what the most thoughtful people in 
 our churches are eager that the many outside 
 them should do. . . . They are confident that if 
 this were done, faithfully and conscientiously, 
 nearly all of those who are now taking no part 
 with them in the work of extending the gospel, 
 would join in their efforts and by their suggestions 
 and their personal assistance add to its power and 
 hasten the coming of the kingdom of God. 
 
X. Our Place is the One We Occupy 
 
 Our place in the world. What Is it? Not a 
 place which has come to us by chance. The uni- 
 verse is full of thought. All that is material in 
 it is under the control of law. Many of these 
 laws have been discovered. Others are coming 
 to light as research continues. Some that had 
 been taken to be final and universal are superseded 
 or modified, and others of broader application 
 put into their place. We find, indeed, that we 
 can go nowhere in the universe with our investiga- 
 tions, without finding indications of thought. And 
 this thought as its creations show is not so unlike 
 our thought as to render our relation to its author 
 unnatural or impossible. If He by whom it is 
 exercised is not like ourselves, we are like Him, 
 at least in those qualities which constitute per- 
 sonality, in reason, character and purpose. If 
 there are no words which we can employ to de- 
 scribe Him, yet we can see that He is, and ob- 
 servation and experience teach us that He is a 
 rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. 
 
 Our place in the universe, then, is the place we 
 are now occupying. Our work in it is to do the 
 best that can be done for ourselves and for others, 
 to make the best possible use of our inheritance 
 
 6t 
 
62 THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION 
 
 and pass It on to those who come after us. In 
 in some way we are very near to a Supreme Be- 
 ing, that He Is speaking to us through conscience, 
 and through our longing for a larger and better 
 life than we now lead. We discover that it is 
 the great things in life that interest us most, that 
 as our outlook widens, we feel more keenly our 
 relation to the invisible and the more fully con- 
 vinced that our destiny Is not realized In this 
 world or In the few years that make up our stay 
 in it. Christ seeks to establish such relations be- 
 tween ourselves and Him whom He calls His 
 Father, that we also shall call Him Father, and 
 at all times be conscious of His care and love. 
 
XL Agnostics and Materialists 
 
 Are we agnos-tlcs? Are we willing to take 
 refuge in ignorance? There have been many the- 
 ories of man and of the world, and of thbir rela- 
 tion to each other. There are those who look 
 upon the world as a machine, wonderfully com- 
 plex, yet running accurately because constructed 
 according to a law which perfectly serves its needs. 
 What mind is behind this law, or who is responsi- 
 ble for its execution; we are not told. We only 
 know that this law is universal in its action, and> 
 so far as we can see, is to be permanent in its ap- 
 plication. But so far as knowing what, or whence, 
 or why, this law is, we confess we do not know. 
 We are content to look upon ourselves as agnos- 
 tics, as beings who have come from the earth it- 
 self, in accordance with a well-defined law which 
 at present we do not understand, but which patient 
 study may yet reveal. 
 
 But the operation of law in the world, me- 
 chanical though it be, is suggestive of life. The 
 world is not a dead world. Though forms of life 
 change and pass away, life itself does not necessar- 
 ily perish. That of which life made use remains 
 with us. The organic feeds upon the inorganic, 
 each higher form of life in the organic world upon 
 
 63 
 
64 THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION 
 
 that which is below It. Man who seems to be the 
 climax of development feeds upon all that Is below 
 or around him. Yet for all this no higher cause is 
 sought by many than the mechanical. If this does 
 not quite satisfy or answer our questions about 
 man and his exact relation to this world or to the 
 universe, there are those who shake their heads 
 and say, **We do not know, We never can know, 
 We must be content to remain what we are, agnos- 
 tics." 
 
 Not all believers In this mechanical theory of 
 the world, however, are willing to be known as 
 agnostics. Some go farther than this. They are 
 confident that this world and everything pertaining 
 to It Is material and perishable, that man Is ma- 
 terial also, and will live his life here and cease to 
 be. This life Is all. Generations come and go. 
 Although later generations owe something to 
 those which have preceded the one to which they 
 belong, even if there be no end to this movement, 
 there is no other immortality than that which Is 
 cherished in memory. Our future life is In what 
 the few who have known us, or heard of us, may 
 think of us. With such theories no real explana- 
 tion of what man Is can be given. Nor Is any 
 explanation necessary. We are as a flower of the 
 field. The wind passeth over it, and it is gone. 
 
 But notwithstanding our difficulties and the ease 
 with which we drift Into agnosticism or strive to 
 
AGNOSTICS AND MATERIALISTS 65 
 
 content ourselves with a mechanical and material 
 philosophy of the world and of life, we are not 
 satisfied. The question, "What is man?" con- 
 stantly rises up and demands an answer. We con- 
 tinue to ask. What is our relation to this world? 
 Why is life here so brief? Is there nothing more 
 for us than what comes to us between the cradle 
 and the grave? Are we not more than beasts of 
 the field, or the fowls of the air? Does our sense 
 of duty, our feeling that there is in us something 
 besides matter, mean nothing? Is there no such 
 thing as spirit in distinction from matter? Has 
 all the development which has taken place in the 
 world, which is now our home, been without a pur- 
 pose, without any suggestion or direction from a 
 creative mind? It cannot be. We fall back, there- 
 fore, on the thought and the belief in the existence 
 of an intelligent, powerful, first cause, personal 
 because possessing intelligence and will (not neces- 
 sarily having form and location), but capable of 
 thought, able to bring the universe into being, and 
 put it under law, even if we cannot discover for 
 what purpose that law exists. 
 
 We believe there is a purpose. What that 
 purpose is, science does not inform us: history 
 does not inform us : philosophy gives us no certain 
 knowledge. Our own conjectures we do not like 
 to trust. Where, then, shall we go to ascertain? 
 Where but to the gospel, led thither by that re- 
 
.66 THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION 
 
 ligious sense with which every one who comes 
 into the world is endowed. The gospel gives a 
 satisfactory answer, and to a philosophical mind 
 only when it reduces the gospel to its lowest terms 
 as a message which coming through Ghrist estab- 
 lishes a close and loving relation between the 
 Father and. His child. 
 
 Is it asking too much of men whom we honor, 
 whose intellectual ability we recognize, with whose 
 moral Hves we find no fault, who seem to be in 
 ,harmQny with that moral order which we believe 
 governs the world, but who appear to us to be 
 depriving themselves of, the chiefest privilege in 
 living, consciousness of the presence of God, that 
 they test the power of the gospel for themselves 
 and in their daily lives? They that do the will of 
 God, we are told, shall know of the doctrine. We 
 discover truth by experimenting with it, by making 
 trial of it in our own experience. Why not do the 
 same with the gospel of Christ? We are living in 
 times which test manhood. Even so-called Chris- 
 tian nations accept principles and approve conduct 
 which savages might condemn. We are asked to 
 sacrifice! that which we deem best and most preci- 
 ous. Our young men and our young women are 
 serving their country on battle fields, as soldiers 
 and as nurses. Our homes are full of sorrow, for 
 youth has been taken and the hopes which con- 
 fidently rested on it have been dashed to the 
 
AGNOSTICS AND MATERIALISTS 67 
 
 ground. The nation is in peril. All that is noblest 
 and most desirable in civilization is threatened 
 with destruction. Wisdom, courage, endurance, 
 confidence, are needed by us all. Where shall we 
 find these great qualities if not by recognizing our 
 relation to God and receiving from Him the 
 strength and comfort which faith in Him and His 
 government of world can give? We need God. 
 Why not seek to find Him and in a way which 
 many witnesses tell us does not fail? 
 
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