Class 7s arD NEW YORK HOUGHTON. MIFFLIN AND COMPANY (Cbe lliterinDe pccf jtf, Cambcibse 1904 LIBRARY of CONGRESS Two Coules Received APR 7 1904 Cooyrlirht Entry ■^|^.\. . ^ ~ ^f w- CLAS3 -^ XXc. No. S 2 -^ 3 COPY B COPYRIGHT 1904 BY THEODORE T. MVNGER ALL RIGHTS RESERVED I'ttblisheJ April ig04 TO n. K. M. Grateful acknowledgment is made by the author to The Century Company for permission to use in this volume the fifth essay ; and to The Outlook Com- pany for the use of the fourth and sixth essays. CONTENTS PAOB The Church : Some Immediate Questions . . 1 The Interplay of Christianity and Literature 63 Notes on the Scarlet Letter . . 103 The Secret of Horace Bushnell . . . 155 A Layman's Reflections on Music . . . 183 A Cock to ^sculapius 215 THE CHURCH: SOME IMMEDIATE QUESTIONS " It is a blessed thing that in all times, and never more richly than in the Reformation days, there have always been other men to whom religion has not presented itself as a system of doctrine, but as an elemental life in which the soul of man came into very direct and close communion with the soul of God. It is the mys- tics of every age who have done most to blend the love of truth and the love of man within the love of God, and so to keep alive or to restore a healthy tolerance. . . . " Confused, irregular, forever turning inside out, forever going back upon itself, the history of Christianity, however superficially we glance at it, seems to bear witness to three things, — first, that every hard bigotry is always on the brink of turning into toler- ance, and every loose tolerance of hardening into bigotry ; second, that on the whole, positive belief and tolerance are struggling toward a final harmony ; and third, that true tolerance belongs with profound piety and earnest spiritual life." — Bishop Phillips Bbooks, Tolerance, pp. 35 and 37. " As soon as the pure doctrine and love of Christ are compre- hended in their true nature, and have become a vital principle, we shall feel ourselves as human beings, great and free, and not at- tach especial importance to a degree more or less in the outward forms of religion : besides, we shall all gradually advance from a Christianity of words and faith to a Christianity of feeling and action." — Gobthb. THE CHURCH: SOME IMMEDIATE QUESTIONS The last census informs us that there are in the United States one hundred and forty- seven religious denominations. Our curiosity is piqued as to the reason for this multiplicity and presumable diversity. If " nothing walks with aimless feet," may there not be some divine purpose and scientific reason in this prodigal outburst of religious energy? It shows at least in how many forms the instinct of re- ligion reveals itself, and how surely the hopes and fears and aspirations of mankind turn to religion for answer. Trivial as these sects often appear, they by no means reveal a weak side of human nature, but rather — if any criticism be made — a crude and untaught side. It is interesting also to note the central ideas out of which they spring. Yet few of them are original. All are based on Scripture read with literal exactness, and the special 4 ESSAYS FOR THE DAY points usually refer to baptism, prophecy, the form of the Church, eschatology, and not a few involve the knottiest points in metaphy- sical theology, — such as a sect in Texas that flourishes under the name, " Old Two-Seed- in-the-Spirit Predestinarian Baptists." Others are perpetuations of the controversies of the Reformation, while the will and divine sov- ereignty and election — conditioned or un- conditioned — are debated and reconciled as of yore. The proper day for the Sabbath and the millennium each represents a denomina- tion, while the speedy end of the world stands for quite an enduring church that couples with its expectation " the sleep of the dead." These stand chiefly for outspoken beliefs of what lie hidden in the creeds of the older and greater churches, — survivals of what may stiU be found in ecclesiastical libraries. This state of things had an early beginning. The New World was baptized in religion. Columbus no sooner touched the shore than he planted the cross. Church and conquest swept over the continent, — the grace of one poorly redeeming the cruelty of the other. The Church came to Jamestown with a full quota of clergy along with more vagabonds ; THE CHURCH 5 and a hard time Governor Berkeley had with them, but he thanked God that in addition to these troubles there were no schools. In Mary- land, the Church fared somewhat better. In its first decade it won the distinction of open- ing the way in London to the establishment of the first foreign missionary society in the world. There also the CathoHc Church found permanent footing, and spread an odor of toleration that stiU sweetens the air. The Friends found peaceful lodgment in Penn- sylvania, where they multiplied, — dividing at last into two bands, — but have nearly run their race, having borne clear witness to the eternal truth of the Spirit. The Dutch brought to New York the Church as set forth by the Synod of Dort, while the Scotch stood by the Westminster Confession. The Pilgrims and the Puritans brought the latter with them, and also a fuU-fledged democracy that gave the keynote to the nation and dominates it still. Or, as Lowell puts it : " Puritanism, believing itself quick with the seed of reli- gious liberty, laid, without knowing it, the egg of democracy." These were the few first sources of the Church in America, but hardly a generation 6 ESSAYS FOR THE DAY had passed before the churches began to divide and to make room for others, until there came to be the present variety and mul- tiplicity. How shall we explain this strange phenom- enon? Is it due to the fact that when the early settlers found themselves free in matters of rehgion they leaped exultingly into the privilege? Or did the break with the Old World dissolve all ties as the people came to realize that their whole life was to be here and must be suffered to shape itself in all things as it would ? Doubtless this unre- strained play of the individual mind had much to do with it, and — being without king or bishop — they found a peculiar satisfaction in cleaving a denomination in twain, or in founding one without a hierarchy. But not all the organizations named in the census are to be accounted as churches. Some do not belong to the solar system, — wander- ing stars thrown out of orbital movement by some dreamer who had a vision, or has dis- covered new meaning in a Greek particle ; their significance, though numerically large, is too slight to call for measurement. And there are churches — notably the Mormon — THE CHUKCH 7 SO monstrous and so remote from religion that one is tempted to say of them what Blake said of the tiger, " Did he who made the lamb make thee ? " And others — such as the Chris- tian Scientist — that have not sufficiently emerged from their humorous and tragical absurdities to justify their claim to be called a church. In what follows we shall speak of churches, denominations, and sects as inter- changeable terms, — only declining to use the definite article as the special property of any one organization. Nor shall we use much space in deahng with the older contentions of the churches. Earnest and intelligent men to-day do not discuss the apostolic succession, nor the forms of baptism, nor endless punish- ment, nor the verbal inspiration of Scripture. The banners that used to wave with vigor over these doctrines are still carried, but the battles do not rage around them ; indeed, there are no battles beyond slight skirmishes, — only questions as to what is best to be done. Perhaps the most immediate question now be- fore the churches pertains to this multiplicity already mentioned. If it be the evil that it is generally assumed to be, it is still possible that there may be 8 ESSAYS FOR THE DAY some soul of goodness in it if we will observ- ingly distill it out. It should moderate crit- icism to remember that if it is an evil it is an inevitable one. The Church can neither keep out evils nor immediately rectify those that are in. The first point in the complaint is that the multiplicity engenders rivalry and hatred; but rivalry is not hatred. It is only the fer- ment at the root that starts the sap along its organic path to the branches. Hatred is of the devil, but rivalry is the spice of human enter- prise. Besides, it is not true that the denomi- nations hate one another, except in small towns where all bounds of reason are passed and intolerance holds full sway. The picture of a Western village with a church for every hundred people is a distressing one ; but take any city. East or West, and the picture changes. That it is over-churched is the least evil it is to be charged with. That there are two churches of different denominations side by side is a slight matter in comparison with the fact that there are parties and conflicting schools of thought in all denominations — most of all in those which make the loudest claim to unity — that test the spirit of charity far more keenly than ecclesiastical separation. THE CHURCH 9 A Calvinistic and an Arminlan church side by side keep good fellowship in comparison with churches that differ over high and low, or old and new school. Fences are no enemy to good neighborhood, but their absence often is. The fact that " France has forty soups and one religion, while England has forty rehgions and but one soup " is no sign that the former is the more godly nation. Were there in France no Holy Catholic Church, or along with it a multitude of true churches, and were there in England no Established Church, but as many as the people chose to make, both nations would be happier and better than they seem to be at present. It is the unalterable con- viction of all believers, and of all thinkers as well, that the Church is one, and that reUgion is one ; it is as fixed as the unity of God, and is because of his unity, but it is always an open question as to what consti- tutes oneness. As God is infinitely complex in form but one in spirit, so religion may wear many forms and bear many names, and yet have one spirit. Complexity is not the enemy of unity ; it is rather the cause of it, but the unity is of another kind than form or name. The multiplicity may be excessive, and then 10 ESSAYS FOR THE DAY the bramble and forest must yield to make room for better and fewer growths. But the world is slowly finding out that the less the State meddles with the Church, and the less churches meddle with one another, the better it is for all concerned. Religion is an ethereal thing, so personal and sacred that every fine soul holds it to be a matter between himself and God. No mistake can be greater than to suppose that shutting up religious truths in binding forms — either of creed or church — acts otherwise than as a fetter. Forms preserve but deaden. They provoke a return to the heresies against which they protest, and rebelhon against the authority which binds them. The general outcry against the denominational spirit, unlovely and unthrifty as it is, would, if it should prevail, shut the churches up within barriers sure to be soon broken down, or drive them into the open desert of total unbelief. There is one thing that man loves more than religion, and that is freedom : he has an instinct for each, but the latter condi- tions the former ; when it is cramped religion itself shrivels. Before we let our thoughts and plans go too THE CHURCH U far in bemoaning the long list, it would be well to assure ourselves that it is a cause for regret. " Our unhappy divisions," as they are sometimes called, might be more unhappy if they were absorbed in large unions. The ex- periment of uniting the Prussian Evangelical Church with the churches of the other Ger- man States — all holding substantially the same faith — has not proved a success. The General Superintendent, Poetter, recently said : " I am not sure it is such a good thing. We have only put on one uniform, and are not more really united in spirit and doctrine than before ; " and he adds these timely words : "Why should all the regiments be dressed alike or have one name ? Zeal is often more stimulated when each body of Christians has the greatest opportunity to develop its own individuality." It is an interesting fact that these united bodies of Lutheran churches are at variance over the question as to the best method of holding their own against the Ro- man Catholics, — a question not impossible here in the future ; in which case it is clear that the smaller the denomination that takes it up the better for all concerned, as it has all the elements of a long and bitter quarrel. 12 ESSAYS FOR THE DAY Nor should it be forgotten that a union for the sake of economy and effectiveness over- looks not only the fact that a union in belief could not thus be secured, but also if gained might develop and bring to the front once more the differences. These differences are real and do but sleep. The broadest line of cleavasre in doctrinal belief in the Protestant churches in this country is that between Cal- vinism and Arminianism. Edwards devoted his great powers to stemming the growing tide of the latter, but in vain. He is honored by scholars and historians for his greatness and his service to the State, as his centuries come round, but the multitude is insensible to him while it pours out millions of money in memory of Wesley. The majority still confess the Westminster Creed, but while Presbyterians and Methodists live peacefully side by side and work effectively in social reforms — hardly knowing any difference — if they were organ- ically related, not to say united, the mixture of oil and water would but feebly describe their condition, so fundamentally do they differ. The proverb, " Do not stir up a sleeping dog," is not invidious, but prudent. It would be equally diHicult to bring the THE CHURCH 13 Congregational churclies to a fresh assent to the Westminster Confession, to which the Pres- byterian Church has recently renewed its ad- herence with some slisfht chang-es. Fraternal in their relations even to the extent of an open path between their pulpits, the number of Congregational ministers is steadily lessening who are ready to assent to the Confession in order to fill them. But greater hindrances to union than this stand in the way. The im- mediate and pressing question in the New England Congregational churches is, — Can the schism of a century ago be healed? If there is reason for union anywhere it is here. There are signs as deep as the yearning of heart for heart, and reasons as weighty as the fact that what ought not to have happened ought not to continue, why this mutual move- ment — if it can yet be called such — should be fostered and consummated when the hour is ripe, far off though it be. Conditions should be well considered when such a question as a general union or federa- tion of denominations is proposed. If there is to be union, it should not be made on a basis of mere economy and technical effectiveness, but on congeniality of thought and feeling. 14 ESSAYS FOR THE DAY on like ethical and spiritual conceptions, on sympathy with humanity in its highest and most pressing needs, and — not a slight matter — on historic affiliations. It may be roughly said that if you prick the skin of a Congrega- tionalist — orthodox or liberal — you will find a Puritan. There is need enough of him to- day, and he is still here, — ready for action if the needless schism were overcome. If there is reason for union anywhere in the wide world of denominations, it is where the disjecta membra of ancient Congregationalism are scattered in New England ; but if it implies also union with denominations that still cher- ish the dogmas against which the Unitarians long ago justly protested, it would defeat the most desirable movement in the churches now in sight. The era of division or separation seems to be drawing to an end. It is doubtful if we soon shall see another denomination of im- portance that can be called Christian. There is great activity in the theological world, but it does not move in the direction of creedal organization. There is no less theology, — for theology will never go out of fashion, — but it looks toward explanation if not toward extinc- THE CHURCH 15 tion of existing creeds, and to other changes that drop out or reinterpret old meanings and bring in new. Careful distinctions and defini- tions that determine the exact amount of free- dom or necessity in the will are disregarded, because Christian faith is not now approached on that side of our nature. Emphasis is trans- ferred from the field of speculation, where chiefly the denominations originated, to the field of action, to psychology and human so- ciety. The pressure of the past is less felt, or is felt as reverence rather than as authority. The fact of change — whatever its cause — can no longer be resisted, and the chief ques- tion that burdens thoughtful minds in the Church is, at what speed and by what road will it move into the region where it must go ; also, what shall be left behind and what car- ried forward? The main question of all is, how to retain steadiness of mind in the con- fusion and rush that fill the air. Serious minds tremble before the changfes that come thundering down upon them. Not less perplexing is a sudden apparent dying out of interest in the churches, with corresponding indifference to religion in those classes where one would expect it to abide. 16 ESSAYS FOR THE DAY Reasons of widest variety are given to account for this strange lapse and confusion which we take to be the chief feature of the reHgious condition of the Church at present. The causes of tenest alleged are evolution in science and the higher criticism. The vast majority of those who compose our one hundred and forty-seven denominations fail to comprehend their import beyond that they stand for change, which is always the signal for fear and outcry among the ignorant. But the more intelligent class, who perceive how thoroughly evolution modifies all thought and theories, and at the same time find it hardly recognized, or named only to be denounced in the pulpits, stay away, — not because evolution is not preached, but because the whole order of thought pertaining to it is passed by, and they find themselves in a dead world and out of gear with all that is said and with most of what is done. In the long run the man of thought will worship in the world in which he thinks ; and the more thoughtful he is, the more difficult he finds it to cooperate with a chiu-ch that denies the ruling ideas and ac- cepted facts that he encounters every day and receives as bis own. THE CHURCH 17 The same thiDg happens in connection with the higher criticism. It calls for reconsidera- tion of cherished ideas of the inspiration of Scripture, — a truth so inwoven with the thoughts of religion in the mind of the aver- age man that he is thrown into confusion whenever it seems to be questioned, and is ready to lapse into whatever gulf of doubt is best suited to his disposition. In any case, he becomes doubtful of the Church, and grows languid in his faith, or takes up some mild form of charity to fill its place in his con- science. The Church denounces or pities him, or makes some halfway concessions to the new thought and interpretation intended to break the force of their meaning; but instead it only awakens his resentment, for he has learned that evolution is no more partial than gravitation, and that the higher criticism deals simply with facts. The Rev. Mr. Campbell of London, recently speaking at Northfield, was asked from the audience, " how he got along with truth and evolution." He replied, " Truth and evolu- tion ? Evolution is truth." The question and answer indicate the relative positions of the churches in this country and in Great Britain. 18 ESSAYS FOR THE DAY They are a generation in advance of us in their management of most theological ques- tions. The contrast is due to the fact that preaching which involves evolution, eschato- logy, and biblical interpretation no longer dis- turbs the people ; these subjects are not tech- nically preached but implied in the sermons, while here it is felt that the pulpit keeps something back. This is both true and not true. Few preachers in New England decry evolution and the higher criticism, and many wisely consider them as not proper topics for the pulpit if treated as pure science. The trouble lies in the preacher's failure to come fully under these ruhng ideas, and of course the people doubt either his sincerity or his ability to grasp them. The old saying, " like people, like priest," is now only half true. When people and priest do not sympathize they part company. The preacher must con- quer the people if he would keep them ; but he must be converted through and through to what he believes. When he fully submits him- self to modern thought, and follows where it leads, he finds himself at the very heart of the revelations of God in nature and in Scripture. Such preachers are heard without disturbing THE CHURCH 19 the faith of simple beHevers or repelling those who think in the modern way. The pulpit has no more immediate task before it than to break into this open secret of effective preach- ing, — that is, preaching which the intelligent as well as the simple will hear gladly. The difficulty is great because of the different points of development at which the churches stand. The point of approach is, of couise, or should be, the Theological Seminaries ; but their relation to the churches and the tenure of their existence are such that while modern thought in science and exegesis is quietly ac- cepted and even taught in nearly all, it is not pushed to its full meaning and real conclu- sions as to doctrine. Hence they fail to lodge in the students that commanding belief that should inspire and color their life and words. Young men go to the churches with esoteric notions instead of burning convictions, not wholly sorry to escape the reproach of being infected with " new ideas." Probably no more delusive word ever crept into popular nomen- clature in theology than that of " the good old Gospel." Those who most use it to-day hold a theology that was once scouted as new, while those who are striving to bring it into 20 ESSAYS FOR THE DAY accord with the words and spirit and ruHng ideas of the Christ are denounced as brinsfers in of a new Gospel. The Theological Seminary — as a part of the University — is the determining factor of the theological belief of the churches ; it ex- ists chiefly for that end. It is not a gymna- sium for teaching a certain amount of easily attained knowledge and a drill in sermonic composition. Instead, its function is to teach students to see and feel the full force of a few eternal laws that govern the world and uphold society, and through them lead men to realize and achieve their destiny as the children of God. The Theological Seminary finds no data for a scientific, not to say practical, theism — the question of questions — until it searches it out and teaches it from evolution. Thus it finds ground for the truth that man has al- ways sought for, and in higher moments as- serted — the divine immanence in all things, and the Hke nature of God and man. If there is to be a theology in the future, it will be found in this region, in connection with the University which is to play a large part in its reconstruction ; that is, theology will spring from the whole circle of human knowledge. THE CHURCH 21 Only in this way can it bring the divine and the human into conscious relationship. To cut out of ancient creeds intolerable parts, leav- ing a mangled remainder to live on, is a weak expedient which, if persisted in, results in a degenerate church and ministry ; for strong men shrink from feeble measures. If it is true that the pulpit is degenerating, it is in no small degree due to the fact that clear-eyed candidates will not put new wine into old bottles, and are equally unwilling to enter a ministry where there are neither wine nor bot- tles. A brief chapter in the history of the Church on this matter is not to be expected, for the reason that the mass of the people must be brought up to the point where they will listen to the University. The ancient and the later churches there took shape and gained their permanent form. As they drop their outworn cast they must go again to the University for renewal. Stated otherwise, the man of to-day will turn to the highest and widest sources for the grounds of his belief. A universal religion must have as broad a basis. But slow as the change will be, the first fruits of such study are already a marked feature of the Church. 22 ESSAYS FOR THE DAY They are to be found more and more in those pulpits trained to drop the phraseology and atmosphere of the University, but wise enough to keep its method of thought. They preserve a just balance between the opportunism that is so clamorous yet often so useful, and the idealism in which is hid the real meaning and power of religion. They have the confidence bred by wide studies in many fields ; the hu- mility taught by the fact that no studies can compass the whole of any truth ; the earnest- ness and cheer that spring from the sense of having found their way out of a theology of negation and blind authority into a world where all knowledge utters one voice, and all life has but one law and one end. The enthu- siasm of these preachers does not cry in the street nor fly to retreats. They may go to Northfield, or they may stay away. It chooses its own method, but wherever it leads, there is a man whose life is fed from within his own soul, who believes that to bring man into the consciousness of God is his supreme duty — felt with such passion as only a clear-seeing soul feels before unquestioned and eternal truth. A man thus trained is quick to realize the THE CHURCH 23 confusion into which the churches have come in regard to creeds. He will sympathize with Mr. Brierley's view as stated in the London " Christian World " (of July 2, 1903), who sup- plements his own insight with quotations from great names, which we give at length : — " There is to-day a feeling, not only amongst doubters, but in the most reHgious minds, a feeling so widespread that it may almost be called universal, that the creeds which in the orthodox liistoric churches stand for Chris- tianity are, in their present form, the survival of a thought-world which has been outgrown, and that they are consequently a hindrance to faith rather than its bulwark. " The feehng crops up in the most unex- pected places. Here, for instance, is Westcott, who, speaking of the Thirty-Nine Articles, says : ^ It is that I object to them altogether, and not to any particular doctrines. I have at times fancied it was presumption in us to attempt to define and determine what Scrip- ture has not defined. . . . The whole tenor of Scripture seems to me opposed to all dogma- tism and full of all application.' From another side John Wesley, after one of the fullest ex- periences ever given to mortal of the action of 24 ESSAYS FOR THE DAY religion in human life, declares in his old age : * I am sick of opinions. I am weary to bear them ; my soul loathes the frothy food. Give me solid, substantial religion ; give me a hum- ble, gentle lover of God and man, a man full of mercy and good faith, a man laying him- self out in the work of faith ; the patience of hope, the labor of love. Let my soul be with those Christians wheresoever they be and whatsoever opinions they are of.' " The citation may be fittingly closed with these remarkable words from John Henry Newman : * Freedom from symbols and arti- cles is abstractedly the highest state of the Christian communion and the peculiar privi- lege of the primitive Church. . . . Techni- cality and formalism are in their degree inevi- table results of public confessions of faith. . . . When confessions do not exist, the mysteries of Divine truth, instead of being exposed to the gaze of the profane and uninstructed, are kept hidden in the bosom of the Church far more fruitfully than is otherwise possible.' " These witnesses had all signed creeds ; they belonged to churches which bristled with dogmatic propositions. Yet what is evident is that at the back of their minds lay a conscious- THE CHURCH 25 ness, not formulated, and therefore all the more powerful, that the strength and vitality of the Church lay quite otherwhere than in its tables of doctrine. And as we look through the history of the Christian centuries we find everywhere confirmation of this truth. The creeds arose out of the speculative, not the religious spirit. The ^ heretics ' speculated first, and the Church met them with counter speculations of its own. To wade through the literature of those early centuries, the litera- ture which Hes back of the creeds, is a disci- pline of incredible tediousness, but it helps one greatly to an estimate of the value of these products." Mr. Brierley goes on to say : — " This kind of inquiry wherever pursued gives the same results, and they are not favor- able. But while theology and the Church, in the matter before us, yield only a negative outcome, another experience, in a different field, has meantime been accumulating its treasures, and, at an opportune moment, is able to offer them for the elucidation of our problem. That half -expressed feeling of the unsatisfactoriness of the Church formulas, as either a ground or a statement of the faith, 26 ESSAYS FOR THE DAY which we found in a Westcott, a Wesley, and a Newman is, when we turn in another direc- tion, suddenly illuminated, and shown as by a flash in its true logical relations, by the light which comes from another sphere. " While the Church has been busy with its propositions, another power has been quietly rising by its side, and influencing with an ever-increasing potency the sphere of human affairs. This power is science, in its applica- tion to the arts of life. We talk of creeds. What are the creeds of science and how does it express them ? When we have understood the bearings of that question, and of its an- swer, we shall possess, if not the solution of our theological problem, at least a substantial help towards it." The solution will not be complete, how- ever, unless by science is meant the whole en- cyclopaedic view of the world, especially as it embraces human experience. If we do not find the illustration and vindication of the Faith in the heart and life of humanity, we shall find them nowhere. If we can interpret the human heart as it feels and hopes and strives in the natural relations of life ; if we can measure the play of the human mind in THE CHURCH 27 the family, in society, and in the nation, — we shall find both the field of the Gospel and the materials for a creed if we care for one. The thing to be done at present is not to crowd upon men a system conceived in some way to be true, nor to bind them down to a hard, literal, undiscerning reception of texts, but to set forth the identity of the Faith with the action of man's nature in the natural relations of life ; to show that the truth of God is also the truth of man. Truth is not actually truth until it gets past dogma, and beyond author- ity for an external revelation, and awakens an intelligent and responsive consciousness of its reality; it does not actually reach the man until then, and all previous action is unreal or merely disciplinary, useful indeed, but partial and without spiritual power. Here lies the vocation of the preacher to- day, yet his appeal to life must not consist in vague generahzation and moralizing, nor in psychic analysis, unless the subject itself is weighty and lies close to the duty or the ques- tion of the hour. It is a very strenuous order of preaching demanded in this transition from the old to the new, and it is often met by giving up great themes half true for trivial 28 ESSAYS FOR THE DAY ones wholly true, — a dash of poetry, an in- definite ethic, a fastidious culture, a string of anecdotes that hide the truth they would make plain, an avoidance of phrases that have been the watchwords of all holy living and high achievement since the world began, often without a church, or ritual, or discipline that goes to the bottom of character, — all seem- ing to show with how little religion we can get on, or how slight a thing it is when we have it ; — better a century more of decadent Calvinism than such substitutes as these. The creed of life, if we may so term it, will be definite, searching, severe in its pen- alties and as relentless as they are in life it- self, urgent both on the restrictions and the possibihties of life, and never forgetful of those ulspirations that always come when the full meaning and import of life are revealed. Its sacrifice will be more real than that of a vicarious oblation, for it will be of self and on the cross of obedience to truth and duty. There will be no original sin to confuse the mind, but enough of one's own to be kept down and turned to moral uses. Its heaven will not be so clear and golden as that of old, but it will take on such color and form as THE CHURCH 29 overcoming life may give it, and become as real and present as life itself. The confusion of to-day will not be ended by blowing it away into thin mist, nor by explosions of crit- icism, but only by clear vision now opened by real life in a real world. But the immediate question is not so much what the Church shall beHeve, as what it shall do. We find here the same confusion, which, however, is not wholly a bad sign. So long as the field of its faith lay in another world and its end was the salvation of the soul, its duties were few if great, and its thought sub- jective rather than social. All this is changing — slowly but in the right direction. With- out set purpose of its own, and without know- ing why, the churches are becoming aggres- sive in objective ways. There is thus coming about what has been called a " Priesthood of the People," who are returning to the primi- tive idea of reHgion, and are taking the work of the Church into their own hands, and — for the most part — are dealing with it in wise ways ; certainly in the way of their own humanity. By their own thoughts and through their own selves they are determining what the Church shall be. It is thus that humanity so ESSAYS FOR THE DAY is fulfilling itself and bringing out the divine image. Remote as the cause may seem, this change is largely due to the democratic spirit that pervades the nation. A new conception of society and of human relations has led men to feel that their duties to others are equal if not paramount to those due to themselves. This impregnating idea is reinforced in no small degree by the pulpit, so far as it has come under the influence of modern thought and learned the real meaning of the New Testament. But the people have outrun the preacher and the church. Strong spiritual movements lay hold of the masses sooner than upon those who live and think among established theories. The Spirit is a wind and blows freest in the open. Consequently there are to-day movements going on in the churches of which they are only half aware or treat but slightingly. One must think twice before one speaks lightly of such lay bodies as the Young Men's Christian Association, the Chris- tian Union, the Christian Endeavor Society, the Brotherhood of St. Andrew, the Epworth League, the Baptist Union, the Student Vol- unteer Movement, the Brotherhood of Andrew THE CHURCH 31 and Philip, the Girls' Friendly Society, the King's Daughters, and others of like nature. These societies stand for an idea and a move- ment. No matter how crude or trifling they may appear, nor what mistakes they make, they cannot make more or worse than the churches from which they spring yet do not desert. If they are too enthusiastic, and too gregarious, they are still unconscious protests against the frequent meagreness and dullness of the churches. With the instinct of young life, they look to life for a field of action. Their philosophy is all the truer because it is so unconscious. They organize and discipline themselves into service, and learn how to bring things to pass. They are persistent and cath- olic and free. They insist on work, and are eager for results. They demonstrate the value of the ecclesia and its naturalness, and so avoid the barrenness of extreme individualism. It is a part of the confusion and blindness in the Church-world that these movements have not been more closely examined and measured both pro and con. It might be expected that the churches would welcome such possible re- cruits in the desperate conflict that lies before them. They have undertaken to do the one 32 ESSAYS FOR THE DAY safe and most necessary thing to be done in this world ; and that is to do good. Almost everything else is questioned, or soon will be. The only refuge of the churches is in plant- ing themselves on this eternal thing which cannot be shaken. If these simple and spon- taneous efforts to meet this prime duty shall prove failures because ill conceived or over- laden with the faults of youth, they will at least have shown the churches where they are, and what they are to do when they are routed out of their strongholds of dogma by the critics — as they are sure to be. To wait, de- pending on what may be left, is blindness ; to betake them to what the critics have made doubly clear, and the unperverted spirit of the young has unconsciously attempted, is the only salvation. But however it be, the churches should look well to their charities as a hiding-place against the coming storm. If men or churches are doing good, they can carry a heavy load of heresy or dead orthodoxy and still live. These charities consist in most churches of missions wherever they are needed, — next door or in the antipodes, education as the vehicle and prop of religion, deeds of humanity, and all THE CHURCH 33 works for promoting personal and civic right- eousness. The conditions will shape the works. There is a spiritual thrift by which the Church lives, and to which it is as distinctly bound as the individual. And here we are brought to consider, by way of comparison, one of the most immedi- ate questions before us, that of the Roman Catholic Church. Professor Roswell Hitch- cock of Union Theological Seminary, not long before his death, said : " We should be very careful how we treat the Catholic Church : it has already been of great service to us and we shall need it ao^ain. It is defending^ the family, and is a stronghold of law and order." The need which he did not name has been met by its position on the labor question. President Carroll D. Wright has recently said : " I consider that the Encyclical of Leo XIII. on the labor question has given the foundation for the proper study of social sci- ence in this country. It is a vade mecum with me, and I know that it has had an immense influence in steadying the public mind." The Family ; Obedience to Law ; Labor : — these are the problems with which the nation and the churches are struggling, but no church 34 ESSAYS FOR THE DAY is doing more to safeguard these vital interests than the Roman Catholic. The question how it happens to have this influence may go hy ; that it has it is sufficient at present. It would he idle to prophesy that the church which first set foot on the continent will stay longest. It is enough that it will stay and is already a power. It may retain a formal and harmless allegiance to the Pope, and thus even draw from him something of use, — like the last Encyclical of Leo XIII. ; but if the Pro- paganda should urge the temporal power, King John's answer to the Pope's Legate would be repeated here in no uncertain tones : " No Italian priest shall tithe or toll in our domin- ions." It would be worse than idle, it would be calamitous, to oppose the Catholic Church in the present juncture of our affairs. Pro- testantism has not only nothing to fear, but much to learn from it, as to organization, worship, and fundamental ethics. It contains what George Eliot called " the ardent and massive experience of man." It is enough that it is a Christian Church. Its theology is substantially Augustinian orthodoxy, which it shares with large Protestant bodies. Ec- clesiastically, it is at variance with Protestant- THE CHURCH 35 ism, but that question will take care of itself. It is full of superstitions, most of them harm- less, while some hide a truth. It stands for sound ethics, for humanity, for learning, and also for science and progress and modern thought, but in a somewhat hampered sense, — encyclically denied, but practically recog- nized. It is specially needed so long as the growing majority of our immigration is Catholic and largely Latin. The country could not safely contain these hordes nor govern them without Catholic influence. Our hope is that they will be Americanized. We cannot in the future see a day when the Catholic Church will not be of measureless value to the nation ; nor can a day be foreseen when the nation wiU not be Protestant. In this sure diversity lies its safety and also its strength. What of wisdom and Christian faith twenty centuries have wrought out should not fail of use in this New World ; what is not of truth and wisdom may be left to its own self-eviction.^ 1 " American Romanists do not, as a rule, care so very much about the Papal Supremacy. They submit to it, but they do not especially love it." — The Rev. William R. Huntington, D. D. 3G ESSAYS FOR THE DAY The churches of the country, regarded as a whole, have been from the first of mimediate and permanent vahie. Over and over again they have saved and are still saving the na- tion. To forget it is folly ; to undo it is disaster. All lovers of their country, and all who have skill in detecting the play of cause and ell'ect, are watching closely the course of things, to see if they are still fulfilling the high vocation to which they gave themselves at the beginning. There are those who take a closer view of the situation, and ask if religion itself is to die out of the hearts of the people. These questions do not spring from a pessi- mistic temper, but from the apprehensions of thoughtful minds as they watch certain ten- dencies that are steadily gaining ground. The most noticeable is the lessening hold of the Church upon the people at large. The indus- trial classes in great numbers are deserting it, with the result that those who still remain are forced into becoming a class, and are no longer the people ; and as the note of universality is growing less distinct, the pulpit is a waning influence. While the great preachers, like Beecher and Bushnell and Brooks, are rare, there never was a time when the average of THE CHURCH 37 ability in the pulpit was so high as it is to-day. Nevertheless it is heard by lessening congre- gations, and certainly with diminished influ- ence. The industrial classes might be won back if the Church should brino; itself into profounder sympathy with the eternal laws of justice and humanity and equality that are its foundation. A plainer word and a far differ- ent administration are needed before Labor returns to the Church. Graver apprehension is felt on account of the note of question and uncertainty that per- vades the Church. Everything is doubted, or is vehemently defended because it is doubted. The result is perplexity and languid interest ; the ties are easily dissolved ; the great real- ities — or what have been regarded as such — fade out ; so much is gone, why not all ? It would be useless to call attention to these things if they were signs of fatal decay, or anything but signs of a temporary condi- tion due largely to confusion of thought in matters of faith. The Sunday newspaper, the secularization of Sunday, the absorption in business and social folly are effects, not causes. The Church will hold its own against such things when it has attained — not returned — 38 ESSAYS KOll TIIK DAY to ilio Ijiiili that Jiw.'iits it. lUit tins is tho cnuMal j)()iii<. Vaui tho (Miurch ciuluro the slr.iiii <>r tli(^ tninHition from faith in what have been r(»<»ar(hMl as tho foundations of roli«;ion, to thos(i that lie h(vfor(^ it and Avill not h(i put aHi(h^? " Kaitli I'ollovv.s opinion," as Aristothi \o\\fr n^o said, hut it often foUows alar olV. Tlie Heiontili(^ liahit ol' thou<»ht is rccoo'nizod «j^(MUMalIy hnt not sj^'cilicallv. Ex- ception is iua(h» ol' rehj^ion wliere it laces the old (piestions of miracle, ins})iration, and (^s- ehatolof^y ; and as tluvse (puvstions are thou<;ht to turn on ihe inlallihiliiy of tlu^ Bible, the stream of criticism is now falhn*];; heavily upon its students, with correspondini^ confusion amonji^ tho people. If they eould be led — by thc! ])nlpit and the relii^ious ])ress — to accept Tillotson's debnition of infallibility as " the liighest perfHtof the religions meant." — CAKLYiiK. From " Inaugural Address at Edinburgh," Critical and Mis- cellaneous Essays, iv. p. 472. THE INTERPLAY OF CHRISTIANITY AND LITERATURE When Christianity appeared in the world it mij^ht have been regarded in two ways : as a force requiring embodiment, — something through which it could work ; or as a spirit seeking to inform everything with which it should come in contact. It was both, — a force and a spirit, the ob- jective and subjective of one energy whose end was to subdue all things to its own like- ness. It was inevitable that Christianity as a conquering energy should lay hold of the strong things in the world and use them for itself. It was inevitable, also, that as a spirit it should work spirit-like from within, secretly penetrating into all things open to it, trans- forming them by its mysterious alchemy into forces like itself, drawing under and within itself governments, art, learning, philosophy, science, literature, and whatever else enters into society as shaping and directing energy. Our theme is the interplay of Christianity 66 ESSAYS FOR THE DAY and literature, or, more accurately, the way in which Christianity has infused itself into lit- erature, and used it for itself, making it a me- diiun by which it conveys itself to the world. We should not lose sight of the fact that Christianity had its roots in a full and varied literature, which was rich and profound in all departments except philosophy. The Jew was too primitive and simple-minded as a thinker to analyze his thought or his nature ; but in history, in ethics, in imaginative fiction, and in certain forms of poetry his literature well en- dures comparison with any that can be named. Its power and value have been greatly weak- ened by a dogma of inspiration, — a dogma unknown and unnecessary either to Judaism or to essential Christianity, antagonistic to the nature of faith, a limitation and a hindrance. Truth is absolute, and inspiration, though it were sevenfold itself, could not make truth truer than it is. No sympathetic reader will deny that the Hebrew scriptures are full of inspiration, but he resents putting that inspi- ration into a rule or form, and refuses to read them under a notion of authority that bars up the avenues to the mind, and turns every mental faculty into a nullity. Inspiration is CHRISTIANITY AND LITERATURE 67 its own witness and makes its own way. To formulate it into a dogma, and to lay that dogma as a requirement upon faith, is to smother the divineness of its breath. It is sometimes said that Christ left no book, and that he did not contemplate one ; and so men go searching around for the seat of authority, locating it now in an infallible Church, and now in Christian consciousness, and now in traditions and institutions ; and, not finding any or all of these sufficient, they turn on the bookless Christ, and, as it were in defiance of him, put together some biographi- cal sketches and sundry epistles, and formally declare them to be the divinely constituted seat of authority. The religious world is in the full tide of contention over this authoritative inspiration, — with book and bell, with courts and bans and such fagots as this later age permits, — fagots past burning, and only capable of send- ing up a smoke that wreathes itself into sar- donic forms, blinding the witnesses and pro- voking laughter in the spirits of the wise as they sit in the clouds and look down upon ancient tragedy turned to modern farce. Meanwhile the man of letters, the poet, the 58 ESSAYS FOR THE DAY student of human nature, the religious soul reads the Bible and says : Why all this ado ? I read and believe and am satisfied ; these scriptures find me — in Coleridge's phrase — and because they find me I believe them to be true : how can the truth be made more than itself? Christ indeed left no book, but he was not therefore a bookless Christ. His revelation was not so absolute as to cut him off from the Hterature of the past as something upon which he stood, nor from that of the future as something which might embody him. It is often made an object of study to find Christ in the Old Testament ; it were a more profit- able study to find the Old Testament in Christ. His first discourse begins with a quotation from it, and he dies with its words upon his lips. It is not necessary and it would not be wholly true to say that the Hebrew scriptures gave shape and direction to Christ ; he was too unique, too original, too full of direct inspiration and vision to justify such an as- sertion, but he stood upon them not as an authoritative guide in religion, but as illustra- tive of truth, as valuable for their inspiring quahty, and as prophetic of more truth and CHRISTIANITY AND LITERATURE 69 fuller grace. His relation to them — using modern phrases — was literary and critical ; he emphasized ; he selected and passed over, taking what he liked and leaving what did not suit his purpose. They served to develop his consciousness as the Messiah, but they did not govern or determine that consciousness. We cannot think of Christ apart from this litera- ture. It is not more true to say that it was full of him than that he was full of it. Such being the case, we have a right to expect that Christ will go on investing him- self in hterature ; that Christianity will robe itself in great poems and masterpieces of com- position as varied at least as those of Juda- ism. Judea had but small culture and not much genius for it, but it was full of inspira- tion ; it had, in some way, caught sight of the face of God and seen his glory. Hence its Hterature, — without form or proportion, but having something better than art, — namely, reality in the highest field of thought, — passion for righteousness. It was impossi- ble that Christianity, which was itself inspi- ration and reality and righteousness, should not produce even a greater literature filled with these quahties and as wide and varied as 60 ESSAYS Foil Til 10 DAY itself. As inspiration it donmnds expression, and the expression will take on the lornis of (he art It enconnters and nse It as Its medium. Hut, of itself, insj)iration ealls for the rhyth- mic How and measured cadence, even as the worlds are dlvnu^ly built nj»on harmony and move in orbits that '' still sin«;- to the youn«;- eyed cherubim." It was inevitable that a system so full of dlvliu> passion should call out a full stream of lyric poetry ; that a sys- tem involvinj;' the mysteries of the nnlverso and p^roat cosmic processes should clothe them in subtle dramas and majestic epics; that a system so profoundly lnvolvln«;* the nature of man should j)ro sliould call out the various forms of literaiure that discuss aiul de])ict life. The a[)p(\d which Christianity makes to mind, the discii)lino it puts upon all the fac- ulties, and, above all, the fact that it calls into harmonious and Intense action the whole nature, — intellect, heart, will, conscience, — all this becomes a very school for the j)ro- duction of poets and phlloso[)hers and artists. That is, (/hristianity is correlated to litera- CHRISTIANITY AND LITERATUKIO Gl ture, and calls for it as spirit calls for its proper form. Jt is not amiss to say that Christ liiiuself uttered nuicli that is in tiie truest sense litera- ture. It is not necessary to literature that it shall spring- from the literary motive. It do(!S not matter how it eounis a])out, if it is tlie genuine thing. Christ was witliout the liter- ary purpose, hut that does not forhid us from counting the para})le ol' tluj Lost Son as a consummate! and powtirl'ul piece of' literature. The great masterpieces do not S[)rlng pri- marily from the literary sense or pur[K)S(i, hut from human de[)th8 of feeling and duty. Tlie absence of the lit(M*ary motivii leaves the in- spiration freer. Enough of (Jhrist's words are recorded to admit of classifying him in respect to literature. He is to be put among the poets, — not the singers of rhymes nor the buihhjrs of epics, but those who see into the heart of things and feel the breath of the Spirit. It matters not in what form Clirist spoke, he was yet a poet. Every sentence will b(;ar the test. Put the microscope over them and see how perfect they are in stru(!ture. Lay your ear to them and hear how faultless is their note. Catch their spirit and feel how true 62 ESSAYS FOR THE DAY they are to the inner meaniii«; of life, how full of God, how keyed to eternity and its eternal hymn of truth and love. The first literary products of Christianity in due form were the Epistles of St. Paul. It is diflicult at present so to separate them from the veneration in which they are held as to look at them in a free and critical way. A prevailinf^ doj^ma of inspiration shuts us out both from their meaning and their excellence as compositions. They are not treatises but letters, — one mind pouring- itself out to others in a most human way for high ends. What freedom ; the current flowing here and there as the mood SAvays the main purpose, now pressing steadily on between the banks, now overflowing them, going off and coming back, sometimes forgetting to return ; careless but always noble ; delicate but always firm and massive, imaginative but always natural ; ori- ginal, full of resource, giving off the overflow of his thought and still leaving the fountain full, often prosaic and homely, but as often eloquent and overwhelming in power ; a rough, hearty, and careless writer, but who ever wrote better, or to better purpose ? I pass by the Apocalypse, that marvel of CHRISTIANITY AND LITERATURE 63 sublimity and pathos and prophetic outlook and moral insight, — the sphinx of literature. Nor will I venture upon the Fourth Gospel, the latter part of which is so wholly the out- pouring of the divinest Soul in his divinest hours that criticism and literary estimate seem profane when applied to it. I can but name the Church Fathers, — Justin who ingrafted philosophy upon Christianity, and inaugurated the study of comparative religions ; Clement of Alexandria, — Plato come again in Christian robes, a man of this century as well as his own, a writer who touched the centre of Chris- tian theology in his doctrine of the Divine Immanence and of man as the divine image, too keen to be deceived by Adamic analogies and Jewish notions of expiation, a writer so rational and lofty in his thought that he can be classed in any of the higher orders of gpreatness ; Origen his pupil, — greater than his master, the first constructive theologian, the most brilliant of the Christian Platonists ; and Athanasius who stood up contra mundum and won in the conflict, fixing in the mind of the world a phrase of more worth than all literatures, — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Literature also may claim the Latin Fathers 64 ESSAYS FOR THE DAY ■who displaced the Greek conception of Chris- tianity and put in its place one of local origin which dominated the Church for more than a thousand years, but never won the conquest over it that the Greek Fathers had achieved through their greater openness to the ancient Greek authors, — the chief original fountain of thought and art. The Latin Fathers fell under the moulding influence of Rome, a people without an original and thoughtful literature, and keyed to power rather than to philosophy. The Greek Fathers made a full alHance with Greek literature, and drew into their writings whatever was most spiritual and rational and human in the ancients ; they baptized philosophy into Christianity ; but the Latin Fathers, however familiar they may have been with the Greeks, and however much use they made of their writings, turned their backs on the Eastern theology as weak and unfitted to sustain a Church, and found in the Roman Forum and State a theological framework of a sort and on a level with the world around it. The Greek was a thinker and so created a literature ; the Roman was an organizer and framed a social order. The Greek produced philosophies, the Roman sys- CHRISTIANITY AND LITERATURE 65 terns. The Greek thought freely, the Romaii within limits. These distinctions were mir- rored in their literatures and in the form which they gave to Christianity. That which cramped the literature of Rome produced the same effect on its Christianity, making it a rigorous order of administration instead of a system of thought such as it had been under Greek influence. Both may have been necessary or inevitable in the evolution of Christianity, but the Roman form was fatal to Hterature. It is on this account that so long as the Augus- tinian theology held sway over the minds of men, Hterature held itself aloof from theology, or rather theology failed to produce litera- ture. Hence there grew up a feeling that they are not good friends, — as Matthew Arnold indicates in his title " Literature and Dogma," — setting one over against the other. There is little affinity between them ; they belong to different guilds ; they speak in different dia- lects; they are not at home in each other's houses. The Latin theology was formal, arbi- trary, external, and worldly in its working though not in its terms, — qualities that htera- ture disdains. The poets, the men of genius, passed it by. Bereft of their humanizing in- 66 ESSAYS FOR THE DAY fluence, it grew harsh and narrow and hard, even as it is now seen to be in some quarters, — changing in the direction of its weakness and fault, and losing what of original divineness was in it. What the result would have been if the Greek theology, with its friendly relations to Greek literature and philosophy, had not been supplanted by the Latin theology — de- void of a literary background, and antagoniz- ing the spirit of literature — cannot be told. Heresy might have overwhelmed the Church, and Christianity might have been refined into a beautiful mysticism or a forceless philoso- phy unfit to cope with the rough world. The hard, strong setting of a theology of power and externalism — exponent and product of the Roman State — may have been necessary to guard the jewel of faith till the world should become softer and wiser. Meanwhile, however, it must go without the aid of its strongest ally, literature. Hence for centuries they went their separate ways. The Church sang its hymns of faith, often most sweet and melodious ; the theologians and the schoolmen spun their systems, drawing upon all known sources of knowledge save the human heart. CHRISTIANITY AND LITERATURE 07 all-wise concerning God and heedless of man, but no great spirit spoke aloud for human nature. I hasten to name the exception, — Dante, "the spokesman of ten silent centuries," as Carlyle called him, — the first if not the greatest name in Christian literature. The " Divina Commedia," regarded super- ficially, is mediaeval, but at bottom it is of all ages. It has for an apparent motive the order of the Roman Church, but by a law of inspi- ration — transcendence of purpose — Dante condemned as a poet what he would have built up as a son of the Church. He meant to be constructive; he was revolutionary. By portraying the ideal, he revealed the hopeless- ness of the actual Church. He was full of error, — political, ecclesiastical, theological, — all easily separable from the poet and the poem, but at bottom he was thoroughly true and profoundly Christian. The Church had filled its cup of perversion to the full ; theo- logy was full of magical and magisterial con- ceptions; society was buried under tyranny, and man had almost forgotten that he was free. Dante comes forward, and while hold- ing to the Church in his external purpose. 68 ESSAYS FOR THE DAY breaks witli it wlion ho bo<»Ins to sing. Re- voislng Haluani, lio curstHl when ho uioant to bloss. Dante's inspiration consists largely in the absoluteness of his ethical and spiritual per- ceptions, and as such they are essentially Christian. Greek in his lornial treatment of penalty, he goes beyond the Greek, and is distinctly Christian in his conception of God and of sin. In the Pnrgatorio and Panuliso he enters a world unknown outside of Chris- tian thought. In tlie Greek tragedies mistake is equivalent to sin or crime, and led to the same doom, but the Inferno, with a few ex- ceptions made in the interest of the Church, contains only sinners. In the tragedies, de- feat is final oven though struggle must never end ; there is no freedom, no repentance and luuloing ; but Dante builds liis poem npon the living free will, the struggling and over- coming sonl. The mount of Pnrgatory rises high out of the sea and is not far off from Paradise. All speaks of will and moral choice and escape from evil and return to God. The entire play of thought is between sin and holiness, self and God, and the wlu)le atnu)s- phere is charged with freedom. It brought CHRISTIANITY AND LITERATURK G9 to judo-ment the fatalism of the East and of the older literatures, and was prophetic of the new spirit that was risinoets have mostly been, like Wordsworth and Tennyson, children of the CHRISTIANITY AND UTERATUKK 89 Establinlied Church, their poeiu.s Jiro devoid oi' all Prelacy and even ol' j)relatical reference. The Christian epics, the j^reat reflective poinnH, and even tlie hest hymns an; the ])r()du('ts of Protestantism, but in its lar<»est and freest form. It is noticeable that wlnsnever any Christian lit(U"itnn! appears in non-l*r()t(\stant (rountries it is ^(uierally reactionary and ovc^nh-awn, or ■weakly uncpiestionin^ in its conformity to the Church ; it is not critical, nor broad, nor free. IMie contrast reaches to (lurrent literature. Scarcely any "■ books that are books " a])pear in En<»lish tyj)e but they are either heavily charerin