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THE

KINGDOM OF CHRIST ON EARTH:

TWELVE LECTURES
DELIVERED BEFORE THE
STUDENTS OP THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY,
ANDOVER. BY
SAMUEL HARRIS,
DWIQHT PROFESSOR OF SYSTEMATIC THEOLOOT IN TALE COLI.EHE
PUBLISHED BY BEQUEST O- THE STUDENTS.

______

PUBLISHED BY WARREN F. DRAPER,

MAIN STB.EET.

1888.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1874, by
WARREN F. DRAPER,
in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.

Mea.41 87 4kl>

NOTE

These Lectures were delivered to the Students of An
dover Theological Seminary in December, 1870. All
except one of them have since appeared in the Bibliotheca
Sacra. They are now published in a volume in accordance
with the desire expressed to the Author by persons in
whose judgment he has confidence, and in the form in
which they were originally delivered. s. H.

Yale Theological Seminary,
October, 24, 1874.

CONTENTS.

LECTURE I.

THE IDEA OF CHRIST'S KINGDOM ON EARTH, IN ITSELF AND IN
ITS HISTORY, PROOF THAT IT IS FROM GOD. PAGE
The Idea of Christ's Kingdom an existing Power in human thought and
Action; and in itself a Proof of its Divine Origin. Christ's Preaching of
the Kingdom Proof that it is from God. Christ's Doctrine of the King
dom in contrast with the History of Human Thought in Heathen Nations
before his Coming. Force of the Argument further enhanced by the
Relation of Christ's Teaching to the previous Literature of the Jews.
Christ's Doctrine of the Kingdom in its Relation to the History of the
World after his Coming,  1
LECTURE II.
THE ANTAGONISM OF CHRIST'S KINGDOM TO THE WORLD OR THE
KINGDOM OF SATAN.
It assumes the Existence of Sin aa the Essential Evil. Love, whether in God
or Man, must be in irreconcilable Antagonism and Warfare against Sin,
and cannot consent that any Being should be blessed in it. Love must
carry with it and express in Redemption the Element of Righteousness
and its Essential Antagonism to Sin. The Antagonism of Christ's
Kingdom to the World is, as to its Quality, the Antagonism of Love, and
not of Hate. The greater the Energy with which Christian Love acts,
the more energetic will be the Antagonism against it. Every Christian
life is a Battle against the Powers of Darkness,  22
LECTURE III.
THE PECULIARITY OF CHRISTIAN VIRTUE INVOLVED IN THE FACT
THAT IT IS THE RESULT OF REDEMPTION.
Christian Virtue springs from the Consciousness of Sin through Conscious
ness of Justification or of Reconciliation with God. Christian Virtue
springs from Faith in God. The Christian Law of Love is distinguished
by superior Clearness and Comprehensiveness in the Enunciation both
of the Principle and its Applications. A Distinctive peculiarity of Chris
tian Virtue is Spiritual Freedom,  47

VI CONTENTS.

LECTURE IV.
THE DIVINE AGENCY IN THE ESTABLISHMENT, ADMINISTRATION,
AND TRIUMPH OF CHRIST'S KINGDOM.
PAGE
The Divine Agency is Historical. God's Action in Redemption involves the
Miraculous. God's Action in Redemption constitutes a Revelation. The
Knowledge of God revealed through his Action in Redemption is a Moral
Power in the Establishment and Administration of his Kingdom. God's
Agency continued through all Generations in the Holy Spirit, . . .65

LECTURE V.
THE CHURCH THE ORGANIC OUTGROWTH OF THE LIFE-GIVING AND
REDEEMING GRACE OF CHRIST PENETRATING HUMAN HISTORY
IN THE HOLY SPIRIT.
The Spirit acts primarily on Individuals, and the Life manifests itself pri
marily in them. A Church is an Organized Association of Persons
renewed by the Holy Spirit. The Church as an Organization is subor
dinate to the Life. The Unity of the Churches is the Unity'or Fellow
ship of the Spirit. The Continuity of Christ's Kingdom in History is
the Continuity of the Spirit and Life, rather than of the Organization, . 86

LECTURE VI.
THE NECESSITY AND CHARACTERISTICS OF THE HUMAN AGENCY
IN ADVANCING CHRIST'S KINGDOM.
The Necessity of Human Agency. Characteristics of the Human Agency in
advancing Christ's Kingdom,  110

LECTURE VII.
THE SACRIFICIAL LOVE OF CHRIST THE TYPE AND MEASURE OF
CHRISTIAN LOVE.
The Descent of the Son of God in the Incarnation to save Men from Sin is a
Type or Exponent of a Constituent Principle of the Universe. Love is in
its Essential Character Sacrificial, like the Love of Christ. Self-sacrifice
for others is the Reverse Side of Love. The Sinfulness which renders
Redemption necessary is Essentially the Absence of Sacrificial Love and
the Presence of the opposite Character. The Doctrine that Christ's Sac
rificial Love is the Type and Measure of all Christian Love is of the
Essence of Christianity, whether as History, Doctrine, or Life. Sacri
ficial Love like Christ's is explicitly enjoined. The same Principle is
recognized in the Administration of Christ's Kingdom. This Principle is
recognized more obscurely in the Constitution of Society and symbolized
even in Nature,  129

CONTENTS. VU
LECTURE VIII.
THE CHRISTIAN LAW OF SERVICE.
PAGE
The Significance of the Law. Reasons for the Christian Law of Service.
The Dividing Line between Selfishness and Christian Benevolence
determined,  149
LECTURE IX.
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GROWTH OF CHRIST'S KINGDOM.
It is Spiritual. The Progress of the Kingdom is by the Instrumentality of
the Gospel; not to be promoted by Force; is without Observation; is
Providential; is by Epochs; is Cumulative,  178
LECTURE X.
THE PROGRESS OF CHRIST'S KINGDOM IN ITS RELATION TO
CIVILIZATION.
Civilization is not a Product of Christianity, but has an Independent exist
ence. Christianity imparts to Civilization and makes effective in it the
Spiritual Forces necessary to its Purity, Completeness, and Perpetuity.
Christianity, by the Spiritual Forces which it introduces and makes effec
tive, gradually creates a Christian Civilization. The Progress of Christ's
Kingdom in Successive Ages will be modified by the Existing Civiliza
tion. Christianity, even while subject to Modification by the Civilization
and Spirit of the Age, creates a Higher Civilization and a Purer and more
Christian Spirit. In the Progress of Christ's Kingdom the present is
always the Outgrowth of the Past; tends to produce a Homogeneous
Civilization throughout the World. Applications of these Principles in
determining what is the Duty of the Modern Missionary in respect to
teaching Civilization,  199

LECTURE XI.
THE SCRIPTURAL DOCTRINE OF THE TRIUMPH OF CHRIST'S
KINGDOM DISTINGUISHED FROM MILLENARIANISM.
The Literalism insisted on by Millenarians is a False and Impossible System
of Interpretation. Millenarianism is Inconsistent with the Doctrine of
the Bible as to the Time, Object, and Concomitants of Christ's Second
Coming; with the Scriptural Doctrine of the Nature and Growth of
Christ's Kingdom. Millenarianism gives no satisfactory Theodicy, or
Vindication of the Ways of God with Man. The Practical Influence of
Millenarianism is Evil,  220

VU1 CONTENTS.

LECTURE XII.
THE PROGRESS OF CHRIST'S KINGDOM IN ITS RELATION TO THE
SPIRIT OF THE PRESENT AGE. - ii"?» PAGE
The Alleged Deficiency of this Age in Religious Susceptibility. This Age is
characterized by the Spirit of Free Inquiry, and by Love of the Truth, as
distinguished from Religious Faith; by Positiveness and Vastness of
Scientific Knowledge. The Age is Realistic and Practical, as opposed
both to Philosophical Inquiry and to Sentiment and Enthusiasm. The
Industrial and Social Condition of Christendom in its Relations to the
Progress of Christ's Kingdom,  238

THE

KINGDOM OF CHRIST ON EARTH.

LECTURE I.
THE IDEA OF CHRIST'S KINGDOM ON EARTH, IN ITSELF AND IN ITS
HISTORY, PROOF THAT IT IS FROM GOD.
The theme of the present lecture is this : " The idea of
Christ's kingdom, in itself and in its historical origin, devel
opment, and prevalence, is proof that it is from God and
that it will be realized on earth." In unfolding this proof
the following points are to be considered :
I. The Idea of Christ's Kingdom is an Existing Power in
Human Thought and Action.
The thinking of Christendom is now earnestly directed
upon the person and work of Jesus, the Messianic King.
The number of treatises recently published on the signifi
cance of his life and work, the extent to which they are
circulated, and the interest with which they are discussed,
are remarkable. More than one of them have been trans
lated into different languages of Christendom and have had
a sale that is extraordinary in the history of bookselling.
This power over the thinking of our day of one who lived
in an age and country so remote, is a pregnant fact. If, as
careless observers say, this is a superficial age given to novel-
reading, it is significant that such an age is interested in a
personage of antiquity who addresses himself only to that
which is most profoundly spiritual in man. If, as is more
correctly said, the age is unsurpassed in earnestness, this
power of Jesus is equally significant in view of the direction
of that earnestness — the political and social questions urgent
l

2 THE IDEA OF CHRIST'S KINGDOM
in every Christian nation, involving in some instances the
constitution and even the existence of the 'nation ; the indus
trial interests absorbing human enterprise ; the philosophy
and science apparently leading away from religion.
In the generation preceding this, other questions pertain
ing to the life and work of Jesus were the subjects of excited
controversy. This is another fact of similar significance.
So in every age of intellectual or moral earnestness since
Christ came, his person and kingdom have been powerful in
human thought and action.
No other personage of antiquity has power over the age
sufficient to awaken general interest in any discussion or
controversy respecting him. Homer is one of the greatest
of the ancients. His authorship of the Iliad and Odyssey,
and even his existence, are denied. Yet the public is utterly
indifferent to the question, and it would be impossible to
awaken any general interest in its discussion.
This interest in Jesus is not speculative, but practical,
pertaining to him as the world's Redeemer and King. The
idea of his kingdom on earth, and the expectation of its
progress and triumph in fulfilment of the prophecy and
promise of the gospel, have become familiar elements of
human though^ and determinant forces in human action.
The sublime idea of the conversion of the world to Christ
has become so common as to cease to awaken wonder. Its
realization is the object throughout Christendom of syste
matic, persistent, and energetic action, and elicits every year
heroic consecration and self-sacrifice. The prayer, " Thy
kingdom come," is perpetually offered.
Besides this direct interest in the conversion of the world,
modern civilization is characterized by ideas derived from
the gospel of the kingdom ; the brotherhood of man and the
fatherhood of God; philanthropy; the promise of human
progress ; the rights of man ; the removal of oppression ; the
reign of justice and love displacing the reign of force.
These facts must be accounted for. This idea and expec
tation of Christ's reign over men in righteousness, an idea

PROOF THAT IT IS FROM GOD. 3
and expectation never associated with any other personage,
have so penetrated human history that they demand expla
nation. The only rational explanation is, that the idea and
the promise are from God, and will be realized on earth.
II. The Idea of the Kingdom is in itself a Proof of its Divine
Origin.
The consummation which it proposes to realize on earth is
the universal reign of justice and love.
This consummation is not the reign of abstract truth and
right, but the reign of Christ, the Messianic King, who is the
truth and the life impersonated.
It is to be realized not by the spontaneous fermentation
of human thought, nor by a natural law of progress, nor by
the propagation of philosophical or ethical truth, or' scientific
discovery and inventions, but by the divine grace in Christ
coming down upon humanity from above, and establishing
itself in humanity as a power of redemption. The doctrine
of the kingdom presupposes the knowledge of God, of sin, of
condemnation, and of all that pertains to natural religion.
Its distinctive and essential characteristic is redemption as
an historical action of God in humanity. It emphasizes the
person and the propitiatory work, as well as the reign and
administration of the King. God in Christ, the divine in the
human, enters human history as Redeemer, and makes pro
pitiation for the sins of the world. The love, which God is,
and which became incarnate in Christ, comes in the Holy
Spirit and establishes itself in humanity as an energy of
saving grace, and abides through all human history, working
redemption for man. Through him the redeeming love
of God in Christ is perpetually penetrating humanity and
becoming the life of the world. Thus Christ reigns and
administers his government on earth. Christ, the King
anointed on the holy hill of Zion, seated at the right hand
of Majesty on high, all power given to him in heaven and
on earth, reigns over his kingdom on earth, administering
his government through the Holy Spirit, through whom the

4 THE IDEA OF CHRIST'S KINGDOM
life that is in Christ is perpetually penetrating and vitalizing
humanity, evolving from the kingdom of darkness his king
dom of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.
In this the doctrine of the kingdom is distinguished from
philosophy, ethics, politics, and sociology. These emphasize
speculative truth, law, and institutions. Christianity, on
the contrary, is not dogmatic, but historical ; not speculation,
but action ; not command and condemnation, but invitation
and promise ; not organization, but spiritual life. Accord
ingly, the abstract word Christianity is not in the Bible ; but
Jesus, the Christ, the Redeemer who ever liveth, the incar
nate energy of God's love always active in redemption, is on
every page of the New Testament, and his Messianic reign
is the theme of the whole Bible.
The citizens of the kingdom are all who, renewed by the
Holy Spirit, are converted from the life of selfishness to the
life of faith and love, " delivered from the power of darkness,
and translated into the kingdom of God's dear Son." These
become a brotherhood, united in fellowship by their common
faith in Christ, and are workers together with God to extend
his kingdom through the world. The kingdom, growing
from generation to generation on earth, extends also to
heaven, where Christ reigns in person, and where the re
deemed at death become a brotherhood of glorified and
immortal saints, still honoring the same King, of whom the
whole family in heaven and on earth is named, and serving
him in the interest of his kingdom.
The law of the kingdom is the law of love. The life of
every citizen is a life of service. Every one acknowledges
his obligation or debt to all men everywhere, as m_ch as in
him lies, to bring them into the kingdom. The service and
the love are sacrificial, like Christ's. His sacrificial love is
the type and measure of all Christian love.
The prophecy and promise of growth and ultimate triumph
are inherent in the idea of the kingdom. The idea and ex
pectation of the conversion of the world, of human progress
to the universal reign of justice and love, are essential to

PROOF THAT IT IS FROM GOD. 5
Christianity and inseparable from it. They are a gift to
mankind from Christ.
The promise, in its extent, reaches to all mankind. So
ciety over all the world is to be transfigured into the kingdom
of God. As to its depth, it reaches the greatest sinner. In
its indirect, but necessary results, it promises the purification
of society, the Christianizing of civilization and of all insti
tutions, the carrying out into the details of spcial life of the
principles of Christian love.
For the realization of the promise the kingdom depends
not on force, but on the moral power of Christ's life and
love, on the preaching of the truth as it is in Christ, and on
the power of love in the hearts and lives of Christians, made
effectual by God's redeeming grace, always active in the
Holy Spirit.
Such is the biblical doctrine of the kingdom of Christ. It
presents a complete philosophy of human history. It leaves
still incomprehensible the mysteries which transcend the
limits of a finite mind ; it even thrusts them on our notice
in startling antinomies, as if to emphasize the infinitude of
God, and awe us into reverence. But within the sphere of
human intelligence it meets and answers the great questions
which have occupied the human mind concerning the rela
tions of man to God, the significance of his history, the law,
end, and blessedness of his being. If it were fully realized,
the perfection and blessedness both of the individual and of
society would be attained. As such, it is a conception com
plete, satisfactory, and sublime. Were it only a creation
of a poet's genius, it would, as a conception, surpass every
creation of genius. What epic, what drama, can be com
pared with the drama — if it is a drama — of man's fall and
his redemption? Were it only a theory which some phi
losopher had elaborated in his study, it would surpass all
the products of the profoundest human thought — as a
philosophy of human history so perfect that no mind can
add to it or detract from it or alter it, without impairing its
completeness

6 THE IDEA OF CHRIST'S KINGDOM
The existence of this conception is to be accounted for.
Its completeness as a conception, its grandeur as it presents
itself to the imagination, its profoundness, comprehensive
ness, and satisfactoriness, as it is taken up by thought, and
applied to the complicated problem of man's life and destiny,
indicate that it is from God.
We proceed to seek tlie historical origin of this wonderful
idea. We trace it to the teaching of Jesus, by whom, if it
was not originated, it was introduced as a power into the
thinking and civilization of the world. This brings us to
the third step in the argument.
III. Christ's Preaching of the Kingdom, and of Himself as
the Messianic King, demands for its consistent Explana
tion the Admission that the Kingdom is from God, and
that Jesus is its divinely anointed King.
Jesus preached the kingdom of God as coming on earth,
and himself as its Messiah or divinely anointed King, and
all the germinant truths involved therein, which have been
the seeds of Christian civilization. This doctrine was essen
tial and determinant in his idea of his own mission, and was
the central topic of his preaching. This remains true, if we
accept only what the severest historical criticism is obliged
to acknowledge.
John the Baptist had preached that the kingdom of
heaven was at hand, and had warned the people to repent
in preparation for its coming. To the people repeatedly,
and once, at least, to an official deputation from the San
hedrim, he had declared that the prophesied Messianic King-
had come. Jesus began his own ministry by preaching:
"The kingdom of heaven is at hand." Throughout his
public ministry his preaching consisted in presenting himself
to the people as the divinely anointed and predicted King,
in explaining the nature of the kingdom, his own redemp
tive work in setting it up, and the conditions of entering
it, and in insisting on its spiritual character and growth, in
refutation of the persistent error that it was to be a political

PROOF THAT IT IS FROM GOD. 7
kingdom, established and advanced by force. At his bap
tism he was proclaimed " the Son of God," which was a
well-known prophetic title of the Messiah. The temptation
in the wilderness turned on the question what sort of a
kingdom he should set up, and by what sort of agency ; and
he rejects every satanic proposal to establish an outward
kingdom by force, even by his own miraculous power.
When, at the first passover after his baptism, he presented
himself at Jerusalem and purified the temple- it was a
formal and official presentation of himself as the Messianic
King to the nation as such, in the person of their rulers, in
the seat of the government, and the temple of the religion.
The Sermon on the Mount is an elaborate exposition of the
spiritual nature of the kingdom, declaring in what it makes
man's supreme blessedness to consist ; what is the character
of its citizens, and their relation to the world as bringing to
it light and salvation ; what the relation of the kingdom to
the law of God, and the positive and spiritual significance
of its requirements ; what the simplicity and godly sincerity
of its members, the nature of worship, the law of beneficence,
the necessity of entire consecration, the beauty and safety
of faith in God, and the completeness of the new life, begin
ning in faith, and vitalizing and • rectifying the conduct to
the remotest and minutest action. In his parables and his
conversations with his disciples he is continually explaining
what the kingdom is, and correcting current mistakes respect
ing it. At last, it is for this persistent preaching of himself
as the divinely anointed King that he is arrested, condemned,
and crucified. At his trial he declares before Pilate that he
is the King, but explains : " My kingdom is not of this
world." Over his cross was written the reason of his con
demnation : " Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the Jews."
This doctrine of the kingdom is the key to our Saviour's
ministry, without which it is impossible rightly to under
stand it. This doctrine gives the point, significance, and
consistency of his particular discourses and conversations.
It gives, also, the point, significance, and consistency of his

8 THE IDEA OF CHRIST'S KINGDOM
ministry as a whole, as consisting not so much in what he
teaches as in what he personally is and does as the Redeemer
of men, anointed to set up and administer God's kingdom
of grace. If Jesus had been simply a teacher and an ex
ample, and so is to be studied as on the same plane with
philosophers, lawgivers, and reformers, it would be impos
sible to explain why his public ministry was so short ; why
his teaching, considered as a system either of sociology,
ethics, philosophy, or theology, was so fragmentary and in
complete ; why his teaching centred on himself, presenting
himself as the way, the truth, and the life, and urging
regard to himself personally, " for my sake," as the motive
to draw men from sin to the heroism of love ; and, finally,
why he suffered an ignominious death, and why that death,
both in his own teaching and in that of the apostles, was
exalted to supreme significance. But all this becomes sig
nificant and consistent when we know that he is not merely
our teacher and example, but our Redeemer, expressing in
the incarnation and under human limitations God's justice
and mercy ; being, in his humiliation, suffering, and death,
the propitiation for the sins of the world ; rising from the
grave the Conqueror of sin and death ; ever living to infuse
his own life into humanity, and quickening in the world the
kingdom of righteousness over which he reigns. Then his
own preaching, while on earth, must culminate not in phi
losophy, nor ethics, nor sociology, nor even in theology, but
in the gospel of Christ : " Come unto me, all ye that labor
and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest." Then the
leading motive to the life of love must be regard to and
trust in him personally ; the love must spring from faith in
Christ. Then his name must be above every name. And
the gospel is necessarily exclusive, and declares : " Neither
is there salvation in any other ; for there is none other name
under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved."
Observe, also, that Jesus taught this doctrine not as an
interesting speculation, but as a gospel, a prophecy and a
promise certain to be realized. His own confidence in its

PROOF THAT IT IS FROM GOD. 9
realization, serene amid the opposition which stormed about
him, is sublime. Suppose that you had been one of his
hearers. You see a young man, with the coarse garb, the
hard hands, the limited education, the habits and demeanor
of a laboring man. Listening, from time to time, to his
teachings, his conception of his kingdom gradually forms
itself in its grandeur before your mind. You become in
tensely interested ; you admire the grand conception ; but
you think it a vision too beautiful to be realized, and that it
would be fanatical and visionary to attempt or expect it.
Especially you wonder that one so uninfluential should offer
himself as the king to realize this beautiful conception, and
to make his name potent to rule all hearts. But Jesus
preaches the prophecy and promise of the kingdom with
unwavering assurance that the kingdom is about to come,
and will extend till it fills the world. It becomes evident,
however, that the people of his day cannot receive his doc
trine. Whenever he goes to Jerusalem he is contemptuously
rejected by those in authority, who early begin to plot
against his life. He is obliged for safety to retire to Galilee,
and prosecute his ministry in country places. Even there
few receive him, and those from the humbler walks of life.
Even his own family think he is quite gone crazy, and come
to take him and confine him. At last it becomes evident
that he must either abandon his pretensions or suffer an
ignominious death. Yet his confidence in his kingdom
remains unshaken.
On one occasion, near the close of his life, Jesus asked
his disciples : " Who do men say that I am ? " They replied
that some acknowledged him to be a prophet, some ac
knowledged him as Elijah, the expected harbinger of the
Christ ; but, even at that late period in his ministry, they
could make no favorable report of any increasing readiness
to receive him as the Christ. He then asked : " Who say
ye that I am?" Peter said: " Thou art the Christ." Jesus
pronounced a blessing on him for recognizing him as the
Christ, and immediately uttered that sublime prophecy of

10 THE IDEA OF CHRIST'S KINGDOM
the irresistible prevalence of his kingdom : " Upon this rock
I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not pre
vail against it." On another occasion, foreseeing that the
malignity of the rulers would soon bring him to the cross,
he declares that the cross itself shall be the means of his
triumph: " I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all
men unto me." Afterwards, in Bethany, just before his
arrest, a woman anointed him with a costly perfume. Jesus,
while saying that she had anointed him for his burial, yet
declares the certain triumph of his kingdom : " Wheresoever
this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole
world, there shall also this that this woman hath done be
told for a memorial of her." This faith in his great idea,
declared more confidently when all outward circumstances
seemed to demonstrate its futility, and worldly wisdom
could only pronounce it proof that he was visionary or
insane, is sublime.
It appears, therefore, that the doctrine of his kingdom
and the claim for himself to be the Messianic King were
central, essential, and persistent in Christ's own conception
and preaching of himself and his mission. If this doctrine
and claim were not true, then he was either an impostor or
a visionary. But in the light of historical criticism, it is
conceded that he was not au impostor. Then the only theory
which remains possible is that of Renan, that he was a
visionary, and his claims for himself the result of illusion.
We have, now, a complete alternative. Either Jesus was
the Messiah, as he claimed to be, or else he was a visionary,
and in all his public life the victim of his own illusions.
But the hypothesis that he was a visionary is impossible, for
two reasons. First, it is an hypothesis on which a consistent,
rational, and satisfactory explanation of the teaching, work,
and life of Jesus as an historical personage is impossible.
Secondly, because the world owes to him the doctrine of the
kingdom of God on earth, with all the truths germinant in
it, which from his day till now have been vital forces of
human progress; and it is impossible that this grandest,

PROOF THAT IT IS FROM GOD. 11
mightiest, and most beneficent idea which ever was a power
in human thought and life, originated in the illusions of a
visionary. If this is visionary illusion, then visionary illusion
is the grandest, mightiest, and most beneficent reality in
human history.
Our position, therefore, is established. The teaching,
work, and life of Jesus admit no rational and consistent
explanation, except on the supposition that he is the di
vinely anointed Redeemer of the world, and that his kingdom
is from God, and is destined to prevail.
IV. Consider Christ's Doctrine of the Kingdom in Contrast
with the History of Human Thought in Heathen Na
tions before his Coming.
This is necessary to the full force of the preceding argu
ments. The truths of Christianity have so become the
common property of the human mind, the elements of all
thinking, the law of all action, the maxims of human rights,
the principles of progress, the germinant forces of civilization,
that we fail to appreciate the indebtedness of the world to
Jesus as their author. We must go back into the darkness,
and witness the rising of that Sun. I sometimes think if
we did not know Jesus so well, we should know him better.
This, however, is only what is true of all luminaries ; the
greater the luminary, the more it is lost in the light which
it creates. When a candle is lighted, we notice the candle,
rather than its light. We admire the brilliancy of the stars ;
they have light enough to reveal themselves, not to dispel
the darkness. When the moon, " sweet regent of the sky,"
comes up and throws "her, silver mantle" over the dark;
when the still concave of the firmament seems full of solid
effulgence ; when every object, silvered on one side, seems
to start out of the darkness, and, as you move, shifting the
light and shade, to take on fantastic forms, the moon itself
is seen, if at all, only as one bright object in the brilliant
scene. But when the sun rises, and brings the day, we use
the light, but do not look at the sun. So Jesus, the Sun

12 THE IDEA pF CHRIST'S KINGDOM
of Righteousness, is lost in the light which he creates.
Modern rationalism uses the very light which Christ has
given as an argument against Christianity. It asks : " What
need of a supernatural revelation in the midst of all this
light ? " As if one should ask : " What need of the sun in
the daytime, when it is so light ? " Heathen philosophers at
tract admiration to themselves. Like the stars, they have light
enough to reveal themselves, not enough to dispel the night.
The point here to be made is that before Christ heathen
literature and civilization were destitute of the idea and
promise of a kingdom of God on earth, and of the germinant
and life-giving thoughts involved in it.
The heathen had not the idea of God as being essentially
love ; nor of that love as a divine energy in human history,
redeeming men from sin ; nor of a kingdom of those re
deemed from selfishness to faith and love, growing in power
and extent, and destined to fill the world ; nor of the obli
gation of men to consecrate themselves in self-devoting love
to the service of mankind in seeking first the establish
ment of this kingdom ; nor of the sacredness and worth of
the individual man — a soul worth more than the world — a
man so priceless that Christ " tasted death for every man " ;
nor of the consequent doctrines of the equality of men before
God, the sacredness of human rights, and the foundation of
society and government on justice and right, instead of force.
They had not the idea of a universal religion. Polytheism
is essentially divisive. National gods are embittered with
the national enmities. The gods of the hills fight against
the gods of the valleys. The religion gives no common
ground of unity, no common and supreme god, no common
divine law, no common standard of appeal, no fellowship of
common faith or hope. The cleavage between the nations
cuts through the deepest foundations of thought, feeling,
and interest, and leaves them more hopelessly dissevered
than ships driven asunder on the ocean ; for it cleaves the
ocean itself, and leaves them no common element in which
to separate.

PROOF THAT IT IS FROM GOD. 13
They had not the idea of the brotherhood of man, nor of
universal philanthropy, definitely proposing the blessedness
of mankind as an end. Even Plato teaches that foreigners
are natural enemies, and may be conquered and spoiled, if
the state has power to do it. Everywhere is the law of
might, not the law of love.
Finally, the heathen had not the prophecy nor the promise
of a better future for man in the establishment of a universal
reign of justice and love. The idea of human progress was
not a power in their civilization. Their golden age was in
the past.
When we search the history and literature of the heathen
world, listening for some word of hope for man, we seem to
stand on the shore of the ocean in a stormy night. We hear
the sound of a vast activity, but only an activity that is bale
ful — the roar and tumult of the storm, the moaning and
hissing of the waves as they break in vain on the relentless
rocks, the groaning of an everlasting unrest beneath the
impenetrable night.
How, then, is it to be explained that Jesus, this young
man who has never learned, comes from his carpenter's
shop, and announces at once this grand doctrine of the
kingdom of God on earth — a conception which answers the
questions that had tasked the profoundest minds of the race
without result, which comprises a consistent philosophy of
human history and destiny — a conception missed by the
greatest geniuses of heathen civilization, yet grasped by
Jesus at the outset in its simplicity and grandeur, and pro
claimed, without emendation or change, without doubt or
vacillation, through his entire ministry ? The only rational
explanation is that he was what he claimed to be — the
Messianic King.
V. The Force of the Argument is further enhanced by the
Relation of Christ's Teachings to the Previous Litera
ture of the Jews.
Here it is objected, by those who put Jesus on the same

14 THE IDEA OF CHRIST'S KINGDOM
plane with the philosophers, that his idea of the kingdom
was not original — that he derived it from the Hebrew
literature. But this only leads to a new line of argument.
In the first place, this literature itself cannot well be
accounted for without admitting its supernatural origin.
The Book of Genesis, one of the oldest of writings, declares,
in its first sentence, the doctrine of one God, the Creator of
all things, and therein solves the great problem of God's
relation to his works, on which human thought for centuries
afterwards, where that writing was not known, expended its
most powerful efforts in vain. This of itself is evidence
that it is from God to every one who is familiar with these
fruitless efforts, and who has noted how in the Oriental
nations these efforts issued in pantheism, confounding God
with his works ; and in the Western nations in the deification
of human heroes, retaining God's personality at the expense
of his unity and his deity.
Then, on the same page, another great truth which the
wisdom of the heathen has missed — the unity and brother
hood of man.
Immediately, as we turn the page, we strike the great
facts of sin and redemption — man a sinner and condemned,
God's promise of redemption. Here this ancient writing
strikes the key-note of that wonderful series of documents,
the Jewish scriptures — the great idea which, through all
these varied writings, in every style of composition, by
authors of the most different conditions, writing without
concert and at long intervals, through more than a thousand
years, is never lost ; is by each new writer taken up and
further developed — this promise of redemption, no glimpse
of which is found in the literature of Greece and Rome —
the key-note, not of the Old Testament only, but also of
that divine harmony in many parts which sweeps through
all human history, and swells triumphant in the music of
heaven. At first, we have only the promise of redemption
to come from God in some way through the human race
itself — the seed of the woman. To Abraham the promise

PROOF THAT IT IS FROM GOD. IE
is renewed, with the more explicit definition that blessedness
is to come to all mankind through his seed. Afterwards
it is successively defined still further in the line of Isaac, of
Jacob, of David. In the time of Moses we first have explicit
intimation that the deliverer shall be an individual person.
In the time of Samuel, and more clearly in the time of
David, we find the idea of a kingdom and a king. In the
Psalms and prophecies the kingdom and its king are de
lineated with ever-increasing clearness. We wonder, as we
read, at the characteristics ascribed to them : " He shall
judge the poor with righteousness ; protection for the
widow, the fatherless, and the weak ; he shall break every
yoke, and let the oppressed go free ; he fihall bind up the
broken-hearted ; in his days shall the righteous flourish, and
abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth." Such
a conception of a kingdom of universal justice, peace, and
love, presented not as a poetic fancy, but as a prophecy and
a promise, reiterated century after century in those old days
of national exclusiveness, hate, oppression, and violence ;
pervading the literature of a people pre-eminently bigoted
and intolerant, whose literature is in exact contrariety to
the national character, and therefore cannot have been the
natural outgrowth and expression of the national life ; per
vading that literature while totally wanting in the literature
of every contemporary people — such a conception cannot be
explained, except as that literature itself explains it, that
that people had been chosen by God to receive and per
petuate his promise of the Christ.
In the next place, we have the fact that Jesus came at
the appointed time, claiming to be the predicted king. The
expectation of the prophesied Messiah had saturated the
thinking of the Jewish people. The critics who insist that
there are no clear predictions of Christ in the Old Testament
must reconcile their criticism with this fact. This expecta
tion the Jews carried with them through all the Eastern
nations in their dispersion. When the luminary is broken,
all the scattered fragments shine. How came it to pass that

16 THE IDEA OF CHRIST'S KINGDOM
just at the time when the Christ was generally expected Jesus
should appear and fulfil the prophecy ? It can be explained
only on the supposition that he was the long-predicted king.
It is often urged that history is the necessary development
of the primordial forces in human nature ; that each age is
the necessary outgrowth from its predecessors, and literature
and great men are the necessary product of the spirit of their
age. But Jesus could not have been the product of his age.
Before his coming the Jewish expectation of the Messiah had
hardened into the expectation of a temporal king, conquering
and ruling by force. The age in which he appeared was of
all ages the most barren of spiritual life. Polytheism had
given place to philosophical scepticism. Judaism had decayed
into the formalism of the Pharisee and the unbelief of the
Sadducee. Jesus was in all respects the opposite of his age,
and could not have been its natural product. That the life
of such a people culminated in such a personage is proof that
he was from God. If the Hebrew literature of the Old Tes
tament demands a divine intervention to account for it, the
argument is strengthened and made unanswerable by the fact
that the literature of that same people culminated in that later
and more wonderful series of documents, the New Testament.
Thus, whether we study pagan literature and civilization,
or Jewish, the courses of human history antecedent to
Christ's coming converge on him. In him is revealed the
truth which the thinking of the heathen world had been
groping to discover : in him are met the wants which the
sin-conscious heart of the heathen world had been yearning
to satisfy ; in him are fulfilled the promise and the prophecy
revealed by God through the Jewish prophets. In this sense
he is the Desire of all nations. Not Ethiopa alone, but all the
nations of antiquity, stretched forth their hands unto him.
VI. It remains to consider Christ's Doctrine of the King
dom in its Relation to the History of the World after
his Coming.
If you had been one of his hearers when he was on earth,

PROOF THAT IT IS FROM GOD. 17
you might have said : " This man's conception of his kingdom
surpasses all human conceptions in sublimity. In depth,
compass, and completeness of thought, in grandeur of imagi
nation and loftiness of genius, in purity of heart and power
of love, he is in advance of all the great minds of antiquity
— so in advance that comparison ceases, and contrast alone
is possible. But if he expects this conception to be realized,
he must be a visionary. Has he forgotten how infinitesimal
in the rush of the world's affairs is the influence of one
man ; and does he expect to transform the world ? Has he
forgotten how powerless the greatest are after they die, how
shadowy the great names and systems of the past ; and does
he expect to lift his crumbling arm out from the grave, and
sway with it the living world ? Especially, has he forgotten
how feeble is the greatest man to command the love of men ;
and does this provincial, this poor man, this man without
office or honorable position or influence with the great, this
unlettered man, this outcast among his own people — does
this man expect to rule the world by men's love to him ?
Does he expect to set up his power, where power is hardest
to win, in the hearts of men, so that faith in and love to
him will in all generations turn the energies of human hearts
into a mighty enthusiasm to deliver mankind from sin ?
And does he expect that this power of his personal influence,
this motive which he continually urges, ' for my sake,' will
at last touch all hearts, and transform society everywhere
into his kingdom ? "
Still more would you think him a visionary, could you
then know that his public ministry is to continue less
than four years ; that he is to suffer the most ignominious
of deaths as a leader of sedition ; that he is anticipating
that death as the consummation of his work, into which the
motive power of his name is to be concentrated ; that,
making but few converts himself, he is depending for the
establishment of his kingdom after his death on the preaching
of those few converts, with the story of his short life and
ignominious death as the subject of their preaching, and thus

18 THE IDEA OF CHRIST'S KINGDOM
sending them out, a few sheep among many wolves, he is
expecting the sheep to conquer the wolves.
And your belief that he is a visionary would be still more
strengthened could you then look forward through the ages
and foresee the coming changes. The Roman empire, then
co-extensive with Occidental civilization, will be destroyed.
The imperial throne of the Caesars, at whose base then
rippled the peaceful and sunlit waves of a world-wide obe
dience, will sink when the fountains of that great deep shall
be broken up. Barbarians, whose very existence was then
unknown, will overwhelm the abodes of civilization. From
the consequent confusion, desolation, and darkness the king
doms of modern Europe will slowly and painfully emerge ;
new discoveries and inventions will change the courses of
human thought and action ; a new civilization will arise, so
different from the ancient as to make that difficult of com
prehension to the moderns ; a new continent will be dis
covered ; new philosophy and science, new arts and agencies,
new institutions and laws will possess the earth. And this
man expects his personal influence to live through all these
changes ; and not to live only, but to vitalize, energize, and
guide them ; to establish itself in the seats of the ancient
and decaying civilization ; to meet the barbarians and to
make them Christians ; in the ages of darkness attending
and following the overthrow of the Roman empire to cause
all men to bow in outward homage to the name of Jesus,
and to quicken faithful ones truly to love him, and to seek
for his sake to save men from sin ; to kindle revival and
reformation from age to age ; to follow the star of empire in
its westward way ; to preside over the birth and growth of
nations ; to live in the latest progress of art, science, phi
losophy, and civil polity ; in advance of all spiritual thought,
the law of all human action, the ideal of human perfection,
the source of the hope of pardon, of purification from sin,
and of peace with God ; at once the source, the motive, the
strength, and the goal of all moral and spiritual progress.
And if Jesus was only a man, and on the same plane with

PROOF THAT IT IS FROM GOD. 19
philosophers, then he was a visionary, the greatest of all
history. But, from the day when he began to preach " The
kingdom of heaven is at hand," until now, his name has
been a power in human thought and life ; the kingdom has
been in the world gathering individuals into itself, and vital
izing civilization with its divine ideas, a central force in the
history of all enlightened and progressive nations. Therefore
he was not a visionary.
But if Jesus was not a visionary, then he is man's Re
deemer and Lord. Then, with more than the wonder of
those who cried : " What manner of man is this, that even
the winds and the sea obey him?" we exclaim: "What
manner of man is this, who rules amid the tumult of the
ages, and the courses of human thought obey him, and the
farthest progress of man is confessedly towards the realization
of his idea ? " He is man's Redeemer and Lord ; his idea
of his kingdom, by its existence on the earth, and by its per
petuation and power through the ages, is proof that it is
from God and is destined to prevail.
The argument is now complete. The idea of a kingdom
of God on earth and the prophecy of its realization are
present in modern thought and among the forces that deter
mine modern progress and civilization. The idea is so com
plete as a solution of the problem of man's history and
destiny, so sufficient, if realized, to constitute the perfection
and blessedness of society, and as a conception of the ways
of God with man so comprehensive and sublime, that in
itself it demonstrates that it is from God. We then trace
this grand conception back to the teaching of Jesus ; we con
sider his preaching of it in its relation to the age in which
he lived, in its relation to the antecedent history of human
thought, both among the heathen and the Jews, and in its
power in all subsequent human history. The conclusion is
irresistible that the idea and prophecy of the kingdom of
God existing as a power in the world's progress and civiliza
tion can be rationally accounted for only on the ground that
it is from God and is destined to prevail.

20 THE IDEA OF CHRIST'S KINGDOM
In the nineteenth Psalm the law of God is compared to
the sun and the stars. As these by shining declare their
divine origin and the glory of God, so does God's law by its
own perfection declare its divine origin and God's glory.
Similar is the argument which has now been unfolded.
God's kingdom, like the sun, must reveal itself and its divine
glory by its own shining, by enlightening and vivifying the
world. No one doubts that the modern astronomy will pre
vail through the world. Its principles and laws do but ex
press the actual realities of the starry and solar systems. The
more thoroughly the heavens are explored, the more com
plete must be the evidence that astronomy is true. So the
doctrine of Christ's kingdom expresses the divine idea of
redemption, which God in his administration of human affairs
is constantly carrying out to its realization.
Human history, then, must contain and express the idea,
and the study of human history must give proof of God's
redeeming love, working in it to establish his kingdom of
grace. His kingdom is progressive, like the growth of a
mustard-seed. Therefore the argument is as yet incomplete.
But every new generation, and especially every epoch in
human progress, adds to its force. Already it is possible
from the study of human history to construct an argument
that history itself demands for its rational explanation the
presence and power of God in it as a Redeemer establishing
his kingdom. When in the future the kingdom shall possess
the earth, then history itself will have proved the truth of
Christ's claims, and God's redeeming grace and his king
dom will be as demonstrable from the facts of human history
as the laws of astronomy are from the facts of the starry
heavens. We, then, on this new continent and in this distant age,
acknowledge Jesus as the Christ, our Redeemer and Lord.
With the thousand times ten thousand and thousands of
thousands who in the ages past have loved him, and now
praise him in heaven, with all the living of every kindred
and people and tongue who now trust and serve him, we

PROOF THAT IT IS FROM GOD. 21
bow before him, and join the great confession : " Thou art
the Christ, the Son of the living God."
Him we behold a sorrowful man in the dimness of a far-
off age and laud, burdened and smitten by the power of sin,
suffering for us, the just for the unjust, to bring us to God.
Him, we behold above the convulsions of the ages, the halo
about his majestic head shining as the sun down all the tract
of time, his voice speaking promise and peace amid the con
fusion of human affairs. Him, we behold seated on the right
hand of majesty on high, all power given unto him in heaven
and on earth, and on his head are many crowns. Him, we
joyfully confess "King of kings and Lord of lords"; we
offer the prayer which he has taught us : " Thy kingdom
come " ; we accept the command and the promise which he
has given us : " Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his
righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto
you" ; and, in the expectation that his kingdom shall ~ fill
the earth, we consecrate our lives to his service. And, en
tering into the joy of all the redeemed, with all who have
tasted and seen that the Lord is gracious, we offer him our
homage : " Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive
power and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and
blessing; for thou hast redeemed us to God out of every
'kindred and tongue and people and nation. Unto him that
loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and
hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father,
unto him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen."

LECTURE II.
THE ANTAGONISM OF CHRIST'S KINGDOM TO THE WORLD OR THE
KINGDOM OF SATAN.
Christ's kingdom is created out of the world by God's
action redeeming men from sin. It exists and grows by
God's redeeming grace delivering sinful men from the power
of darkness and translating them into the kingdom of his
Son. It implies a perpetual process of transforming the
world into itself.
The first thought which flows from this fundamental
conception, and is now to be our subject, is this : Christ's
kingdom is in antagonism to the world or the kingdom of
Satan. God's redeeming grace and the kingdom which it
calls into being are in perpetual conflict with the power and
kingdom of evil for the deliverance of man.
This kingdom of evil is called in the Bible the power of
darkness, as opposed to the kingdom of God's dear Son ;
the kingdom of Satan, as opposed to the kingdom of Christ ;
the world, as opposed to the kingdom of heaven. The last
is the most frequent designation, not because the world is
conterminous with the reign of evil, but because it is subject
to it, and the part of it immediately in contact with the king
dom of righteousness. It is only as we understand this use
of " the world," as representing the kingdom and power of
darkness in its direct antagonism to Christ's kingdom, that
we get the full significance of many of the sayings of Christ
and his apostles. We miss their power if we suppose " the
world," as they often use it, means only earthly goods.1
1 " If yo were of the world, the world would love his own ; but because ye
are not of the world but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world
22

THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST 23
This antagonism appears in the opening of Genesis.
Man sinless in Eden is encircled and protected by the law
which prohibits him from evil. When by transgression he
hac overleaped the law, which encircled and protected him,
into the midst of circumjacent evil, the law becomes a sword
of fire shutting him out from good, himself a victim of the
power of evil, and henceforth a part of it. Nor was the
antagonism that of the law only, but deliverance from the
curse of the law is itself to come through conflict and suffer
ing : " it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his
heel." Men are not represented here as each in an isolated
individuality, but as related to powers of good and of evil
which existed before man existed, and the scope of whose
action outreaches the sphere of human life. This is in
analogy with nature. A man's health does not depend
altogether on his personal care of it. There are cosmic
agencies under which the earth itself sickens and belches
out pestilential miasmata ; and the black death, the cholera,
and plagues of whatever name move around the globe. And
there are always invigorating cosmic influences from the
sun, the air, the ocean, and the land, without which no
human forethought could sustain life. So the Bible, from
its very opening, represents the spiritual relations of man.
The writer of Genesis knew not the earth's relation to other
worlds and systems ; but he knew that man's relations
extended beyond the earth. The power of darkness has put
its blight on man. God is seeking the lost man to bring
him back to righteousness and peace. The earth is a battle
field for the soul of man between the powers of heaven and
of hell.
hateth you." " The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me."
" Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, accords
ing to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the
children of disobedience." " For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but
against  the rulers of the darkness of this world." " Love not the world,
neither the things which are in the world. If any man love the world, the love
of the Father is not in him." " Whosoever is born of God overcometh the
world ; and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith." John
xv. 10 ; xiv. 30 ; Eph. ii. 2; vi. 12 ; 1 John i. 15 ; v. 4.

24 THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST
This conflict appears throughout the Old Testament.
The history of the Jews brings it vividly before the mind,
and, as it were, incorporates it into human consciousness.
In their history this conflict appears, first, in the separation
of this people by a divine call, the promise of blessedness to
all mankind through the Messiah to spring from them, and
the conditioning of the continuance of God's favor to them
on their fidelity to him, involving throughout their history
the recognition of Paul's principle, " He is not a Jew who is
one outwardly, but only he who exercises faith like Abra
ham's." It appears, secondly, within the chosen people in
the continual preaching of the prophets against dependence
on birth and outward service, and their testimony to the
spirituality of God's requirements and the universality of
his promise ; and in the faithfulness of the few, like the seven
thousand in Elijah's day, and like Simeon and Anna, who
stood with the prophets in every generation in antagonism
to the national Pharisaism and corruption. It appears,
thirdly, in the outlook of the prophecies into the future,
revealing the kingdom of the Messiah in its conquest of the
world. When Christ came he not only declared this conflict, but
his own life set it forth. From the temptation in the wilder
ness until his death he was assailed by the powers of dark
ness ; but before he died he saw Satan as lightning fall from
heaven, — the token of victory.
It is remarkable that at the beginning of each dispensa
tion we have this conflict set forth between chosen champions,
and open to the gaze of all generations. In the beginning,
Adam, type of unaided man, meets the adversary and falls.
In the opening of the gospel dispensation, Jesus, the Re
deemer, type of man quickened by God's grace, meets the
adversary and conquers.
The conflict of Christ's, kingdom against the kingdom
of Satan is constantly insisted on by the apostles, and in
the Apocalypse is pictured, as in a panorama, until its final
triumph.

IN ANTAGONISM TO THE WORLD. 25
Thus the scriptures, from beginning to end, set forth this
conflict in didactic expositions, in prophecy, and in history.
The history of redemption is the history of this conflict.
The history of this conflict is essentially the history of
man. It remains to consider some of the truths involved in this
scriptural conception.
I. It assumes the Existence of Sin as the Essential Evil.
The theory, which is gaining currency, that sin is a nec
essary process in the development of a finite spirit, annihi
lates the significance of both sin and evil. A process necessary
to the development of the being cannot be sin, because it
is constitutionally necessary for the perfection of the being ;
it cannot be essentially evil, since it is the necessary means
of the highest good. According to this theory the soul is
invigorated by sin as the body is said to be sometimes by a
fever. Children are born with a constitutional liability to
certain diseases, which can be removed only by having them ;
and the parent rejoices when his child has taken one of
these diseases and is well through it. So the Infinite Father
rejoices as his children take and go through the disease of
sin. Some have it more lightly than others, but all come
out at last freed from the liability to have it again ; all alike,
even by way of the brothel or the gallows, are passing on
through the necessary stages of growth to their full perfec
tion. On this theory, there is neither sin nor evil in the
universe, and there can be no antagonism to them. Rather
God and man will desire every one to pass through the
necessary amount of sin as rapidly as possible. This theory,
in annihilating the significance of sin and evil, annihilates
the significance of Christianity, which is redemption from
sin. Nor is the theory tenable on any consistent doctrine
of rationalism. It belongs to sheer naturalism, and is ten
able only on the supposition that man is merely a germ
or force of nature necessarily developed under the action
of cosmic agencies. i

26 THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST
II. Love, whether in God or Man, must be in irreconcilable
Antagonism and Warfare against Sin, and cannot con
sent that any Being should be Blessed in it.
1. This is evident from the nature qf sin as transgression
of law.
Law is not the fiat of will, not even of God's will ; but is
the truth of reason. Reason necessarily knows itself as
authoritative and law-giving ; and every rational being knows
himself under obligation to obey reason, that is, to act in
harmony with rationality. Will, as the power of choice and
volition, will as the basis of character, is subject to law, and
incapable of creating law. Even when enforcing law in
government, it is only as authorized and required so to do
by the superior law of reason to which it is subject. Any
other enforcement by will of its own behests is not the reign
of law, but of caprice. It is subjugation by force to a des
potic will. It is the reign of force : " might makes right."
God's will originates no law, but obeys the eternal principles
of the divine reason, and in obedience to them enforces them
as law throughout the universe. That which is highest in
the universe is not power nor will ; it is reason.
When Positivism argues that the order of nature proves
the absence of will, the argument is irrelevant ; for law is not
of will, but of reason. Every conception of the universe as
a cosmos, an orderly and beautiful whole, implies that
reason is supreme in it, that it is pervaded by rationality, is
expressive of rational principles, and subject to them as laws.
This is implied in the arrangement of all individuals in
scientific classes and systems, and the reduction of all forces
under scientific laws. It is the basis of induction ; it is the
fundamental postulate, inadequately expressed in the prin
ciple of the uniformity of nature, on which all induction
rests. Without it induction reaches no conclusion, observa
tion only accumulates facts signifying nothing, the difference
between the rational and the absurd is annihilated, rationality
is extruded from the universe, and science itself becomes
impossible.

IN ANTAGONISM TO THE WORLD. 27
As the thoughts or principles of the supreme reason, the
law of nature and the moral law are alike. When in the
action both of molecules and of masses we discover mathe
matical laws, when we discover that natural objects are all
arranged in scientific classes and systems, we do but discover
the principles of the divine reason expressed in the works of
God, and may adopt as literal truth the exclamation of the
rapt Kepler, " 0 God, I think thy thoughts after thee." In
like manner moral law is the eternal thoughts of God, the
principles of reason, the constituent elements of rationality
respecting the conduct and character of rational beings,
which every such being by virtue of his rationality must
recognize as a law to himself.
The laws of nature, so far as now known, are many.
The law of rational agents is one ; its real principle is ex
pressed in the one word — Love. Love, then must present
itself first as law. This law must be absolute, supreme,
unchangeable. If law were the fiat of will, a beginning, a
change, an abrogation would be conceivable. But law, as
the truth of reason, is necessarily eternal and unchangeable ;
for to change it would be to change rationality itself, to
annihilate the difference between the rational and the absurd,
to make reason itself irrational. !
It follows that sin is an attempt on the part of a rational
being to realize an absurdity. It is a fight against reason.
And in this, the transgression of the law of love is analagous
to the trangression of the laws of nature. The will may
refuse submission to the reason, and work in antagonism to
it, but it cannot exalt itself so as to nullify or abrogate the
law. Thus in the sphere of nature a man may spend his
life in trying to produce in mechanism perpetual motion ;
but in spending his life thus, he expends, wastes, loses it ;
the effort to realize an absurdity must be in vain. So a
sinner spends, wastes, loses himself in a vain effort to realize
an absurdity. The divine law is : " Love God and man."
The principle which sin aims to realize is that self is supreme,
and God and all creatures should serve it ; more monstrous

28 THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST
than the old astronomy, that the earth is the centre around
which all planets and suns revolve daily. The result must
be the waste and perdition of the soul. In the Bible, there
fore, the sinner is called indiscriminately a sinner or a fool.
It is impossible for any man to miss losing himself or being
a castaway when he consumes his energies in antagonism to
eternal reason, and to all the laws which rule the universe,
and to the cosmic agencies which act in harmony therewith,
and thus takes the essential evil into his own character and
constitutes of it his own life.
Observe, here, that the selfish character is itself the essen
tial evil. When you put your finger in the fire, the evil is
not the pain suffered, but the destruction of the finger. The
pain is a good ; it evinces the continuance of life in the
finger resisting the fire that destroys it and warning you to
withdraw it. The evil is complete when the calcined bone lies
insensible, consuming in the fire. So the evil of sin is not
the suffering which it causes, but the bosom pleasure which
it gives. The suffering is a good, evincing the continuance
of moral sensibility and warning of the evil. The evil is the
heart's joy in sin, when the soul is happy in sin, insensible in
the fire that consumes it ; when the soul chooses the evil,
prefers it to the good, accepts it with joy as the good. The
full significance of this preference is given in the words of
Milton's Satan : " All good to me is lost ;
Evil, be thou my good."
Sin, as the transgression of law, being essential evil, love
cannot consent that any rational being be blessed in it;
love itself must "sisit it with penalty. Therefore reason, as
supreme law, demands love on pain of perdition. Thus is
declared the absolute antagonism of love, as supreme, in
exorable, eternal law, to sin as the essential evil. The eter
nal perdition of the ungodly signifies that, under the law of
supreme and universal reason, which is the law of love, sin
has no tolerance now or hereafter, here or in any place;
that in all places in his boundless domain, in all ages of his

IN ANTAGONISM TO THE WORLD. 29
reign forever, God meets sin only with antagonism. If this
is not so, sin is not essential, but only incidental evil ; no
conceivable doctrine of immutable right is possible ; reason
ceases to be contrary to the irrational, and rationality itself
ceases to have significance ; the powers of the universe, no
longer expressing the perfect law of love, are in truce with
absurdity and wrong; and evil extinguishes itself by an
apotheosis into good. "If this fail,
The pillared firmament is rottenness,
And earth's base built on stubble."
2. The same is evident from the, nature qf love, as the real
•principle qf law.
As we have seen, the law which reason imposes on rational
beings is the law of love. Love, in itself considered, is the
choice of universal being as the supreme end in preference
to self. In other words, it is universal good-will. But be
cause universal goodwill is required of every rational being
by reason, it is the real principle of a law. Thus the exer
cise of love is also obedience to law, and involves the harmony
of the will with the reason, and its consent and allegiance to
the law which reason imposes. Therefore there is neces
sarily a duality in love ; it contains two elements ; or rather
presents itself 'in two aspects. Considered in itself, as uni
versal good-will, we call it good-will or benevolence. Con
sidered as the harmony of the will with the reason, the
consent or allegiance of the will to law, we call it righteous
ness. If we had corresponding words of Latin derivation, we
should call the former bene-volence, the latter rect&wolence ;
the former having regard to universal well-being, the latter
to universal right, or to the supremacy and universal reign
of law.
The duality of reason and will is inherent in the conception
of a rational being. The duality of love, as the abiding
preference of the will choosing universal well-being as the
supreme end, and its harmony therein with reason and obe
dience to its law, is a necessary consequent. We are thus

30 THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST
able to supply a defect in Edwards's doctrine of virtue, finding
for righteousness not merely a place by tolerance, but a
necessity for it in the philosophical exposition of the facts.
But, as the duality of reason and will is in unity, they
being names of the mind itself in different aspects, the duality
of love is also in unity. Since universal good-will is what
reason commands as law, the exercise of it is in itself the
harmony of the will with the reason, the consent or alle
giance of the will to law. It is thus the harmony of the mind
with itself in its two inseparable aspects of rationality and
freedom. In God is the same duality in unity — a will that is
almighty in eternal harmony with a reason that is absolute ;
so that the word which is the life-giving gospel, " God is love,"
is also the true and deepest philosophy of his being. In the
love which the gospel requires, the human mind not only
comes into harmony with itself, but also with God and with
the laws of the entire universe. Ethical philosophers con
tinually omit from their systems one or the other of these two
aspects of love ; they make virtue to consist either in uni
versal good-will with no recognition of law, or else in obedi
ence to law with no recognition of its real principle of
universal love. In the, former case, the universe is resolved
into a joint-stock company, in which each person has weight
according to his number of shares ; God himself is of more
account than man only because he is greater in quantity ;
and the idea of a supreme law is lost. Then the appropriate
prayer would be that which the Maid of Orleans is said to
have extorted from Lahyre : " 0 Jehovah, I pray thee do
as much for Lahyre in this time of his distress, as he would
do for thee, if he were Jehovah and thou wert Lahyre " ;
or that attributed to Richard Coeur de Lion, in the chronicles
of his crusade : " How unwilling should I be to forsake thee
in so forlorn and dreadful a condition if I were thy Lord and
Advocate as thou art mine." This is the appropriate liturgy
of the Benthamites. In the latter case, the theory of virtue
comes round into itself in a circle; virtue is choosing the
right for its own sake ; il is obedience to duty ; it is a regard

IN ANTAGONISM TO THE WORLD. 31
to worthiness, without defining what is worthy. Thus the
law has no real principle, but consists only of the empty
requirement of obedience to itself.
Love is thus duplex and yet one ; like the sun's ray of
light and of heat ; like electricity acting at opposite poles
with seemingly antagonistic phenomena, yet one force ; like
all the bipolar forces of nature, two and yet one — two in
order to be one.
As such, love must react in antagonism to sin ; and the
intensity of the reaction must be proportioned to the inten
sity of the love. The love, which in its essential nature is
consent and allegiance to the law, must be as essentially
antagonism to transgression. It is as impossible to conceive
of love without reaction against sin, as to conceive of light
which casts no shadow when obstructed, or of mechanical
action without reaction. That comfortable tolerance of
wrong, which is mistaken for Christian charity, is proof of
the sluggishness of the moral life — sluggishness such that
the vitals of virtue may be stabbed and the soul not wince,
as the jelly-fish may be torn in pieces and give no sign of
pain or offence.
3. The same is evident from the nature qf love considered
as to the object loved.
We are to love God and our neighbor ; that is, all beings,
or " universal being." But all rational beings are subjects
both of character and happiness. No chemistry of thought
can identify these two. Love, therefore, must have respect
both to the character and the happiness of the being that is
loved. Here appears again the duality in unity of love. As
love insists on a right character it is righteousness ; as it
seeks the blessedness of its object in a right character, it is
benevolence. We may present the same thought in another light. Love
seeks universal well-being. But the universal well-being or
summum bonum, which love seeks, is not happiness or enjoy
ment. It is primarily right character, the perfection and
harmony of the being, and secondarily, the happiness or joy

32 THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST
incidental to it. This is blessedness. The only blessedness
is the blessedness of the righteous. Happiness or joy is an
incident of ill-being as really as of well-being. A drunken
man is very happy, but we pity and despise him for his
maudlin joy. The very wretchedness of the sinner is his joy
in his sin ; joy that is unworthy of him ; joy in that in which
a right-hearted man is capable only of shame and sorrow ;
joy whicli makes the subject of it incapable of the blessedness
of the righteous ; joy which is the heat of the fire that is
consuming him. Reason rejects as absurd the doctrine of
Bentham, that virtue is the art of maximising happiness — all
happiness the same in kind to be measured only by quan
tity — the happiness of Paul glorying in tribulation and
heroic sacrifice and toil for the salvation of men the same in
kind with the joy of the sensualist, to be measured by the
pailful, like the swill which satisfies a swinish appetite. The
joys incident to gratified desires are inseparable from sensi
tivity, and therefore remain to the sinner. But these joys
intensify the eagerness and increase the swiftness with which
he rushes to ruin. By them his steps take hold on hell ; in
them he reaches out his eager hands to perdition, stooping
downwards as he runs. And while with progress in sin the
desires and passions grow more powerful to stimulate, the
attendant joys become less satisfying, and are transformed
into ghastliness ; like the greed which rusts and consumes
the miser's soul, and the reeking heats in which the soul
of the sensualist ferments and rots.
Well-being comprising the two elements of character and
happiness, we find again the two elements of righteousness
and benevolence in the love which seeks universal well-being.
And since the only worthy happiness is incidental to a right
character, benevolence desires for men no otlier happiness,
and thus is in unity with righteousness, seeking universal
well-being only in harmony with the supreme law, only in
the blessedness of the righteous.
Therefore without righteousness benevolence cannot realize
its own ends ; it deteriorates into a maudlin fondness, and

IN ANTAGONISM TO THE WORLD. 66
rejoices in evil as good, until, transformed into the very
opposite of itself, all its sweetness is fermented into acidity
and corruption. Take away from love the element of right
eousness, and you take away its self-consistency, its authority,
its god-like majesty, and its power to bless. The benevolence
which is left is a mere amiableness, a desire to please every
body, a jelly of good nature yielding to every pressure. The
wicked man comes trampling into the presence of this amia
ble person, defrauding the ignorant, grinding the poor,
crushing the weak, rising to office by intrigue, bribery, or
oppression, and this amiable man only desires that this
Nimrod be very happy, would have him indulged, humored,
satisfied. Oh fond amiableness ! oh vain benevolence ! — benevo
lence defeating itself, desiring to make everybody happy, and
thereby helping to make the ungodly more wicked and his
wickedness more destructive.
What is thus obvious in the case of an individual is true
of the universe at large. The universe being the expression
of the law of reason, the summum bonum can be found only
in conformity with that law. To attempt to realize the
greatest good without righteousness would be an attempt to
subvert the supreme reason, to break down the eternal laws
of the universe, the " flammantia moenia mundi," which
protect the rights and enforce the obligations of all rational
beings, and make peace and blessedness possible throughout
the worlds.
Therefore love cannot prompt even a desire that a sinner
should be happy in his sin. On the contrary it meets him
with indignant antagonism ; an indignant antagonism, the
absence of which is the absence of moral strength and gran
deur of character, and marks the man as a sneak ; an in
dignant antagonism justified by all that justifies the supremacy
of reason, and the absence of which is the weak consent of
the soul to unreason and misrule.
And this antagonism is essential in the very nature of
love. Love is righteousness because it is love. It fills the
world with blessing ; yet it does so by virtue of its persist-
5

34 THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST
ence in maintaining its own authority as law in antagonism
to sin ; does so, therefore, because in the last resort it utters
itself in judgment and condemnation. Electricity commonly
works quietly, diffusing blessings through all nature ; but
when its equilibrium is disturbed, and its silent and life-
giving flow interrupted, then it is a thunder-bolt. And its
power to bless arises from this very quality of its nature,
which makes it, when disturbed, a thunder-bolt. If it could
not smite in the red lightning it would be also powerless for
good. The sun's light ministers to all life and growth, and
sustains the forces of nature. But it could not do so were
it not in its nature to burn ; were it not, when disturbed in
its diffusion, obstructed, accumulated, a consuming fire.
So it is with love. The Scripture says, " God is a consum
ing fire." It does not mean that God consumes in his wrath
all who approach him. He diffuses his love through all the
universe to bless it, as the sun diffuses his light. But when
that love is concentrated on a transgressor, the love itself is
found to be a consuming fire. If this were not so, love
would be unable to diffuse its benign influence, quickening
life and joy throughout the universe.
4. This antagonism is accordant with the common moral
sentiment of mankind.
Dr. Channing says : " We must not mistake Christian
benevolence as if it had but one voice, that of soft entreaty.
It can speak in piercing and awful tones. There is constantly
going on in our world a conflict between good and evil 
That deep feeling of evils which is necessary to effectual
conflict with them and which marks God's most powerful
messengers to mankind, cannot breathe itself in soft and
tender accents. The deeply-moved soul will speak strongly,
and ought to speak so as to move and shake the nations." 1
Nor should we wonder that faithful men, working and
suffering for the kingdom of righteousness and seeing its
progress opposed and hindered by the wicked, should pray
sometimes for the intervention of eternal justice which
1 Works, Vol. i. pp. 24, 25.

IN ANTAGONISM TO THE WORLD. 35
guards the world from crime, and pray with language so
impassioned as to startle us in our peaceful time and our
unsacrificing and genteel efforts to advance Christ's kingdom.
Such prayers are wrung from the hearts of Christians when
they see wickedness armed and in power, violating truth and
justice, destitute of mercy, resisting human progress, crush
ing the defenders of righteousness, undoing the work of
generations in behalf of truth, and thrusting society back
into the darkness of the past. However in times of peace
and indifference, men may think themselves more charitable
than the participators in the conflict and suffering of former
ages, whose piercing outcry against the powers of wickedness
they commiserate as the illiberality and hardness of an un-
christianized age, yet, when a similar conflict comes on them,
in their anguish they find the need of similar expressions.
In this the sentiments of mankind concur. Children
always rejoice at the overthrow of Pharaoh and the punish
ment of Haman. The savages at Melita believed that the
viper on Paul's hand was God's messenger to punish murder.
Epics, lyrics, and tragedy, philosophy and religion in all
ages teach the punishment of sin. The source of perplexity
and scepticism in all ages has been the fact that in the
actual courses of human life God apparently does not punish
sin ; the wicked prosper and the good are depressed. From
the days of Job until now the anxious question has been,
" Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty
in power ? " And always relief has been found in the same
answer, " God will award them just retribution." What a
grand chorus of the ages is here, the voices of children and
savages, of poets and philosophers, of prophets aud apostles,
— all generations standing with hands uplifted to God, cry
ing that wickedness may not go on with impunity : " For the
crying of the needy, for the oppression of the poor, for the
sighing of the prisoner arise, 0 Lord, and render into the
bosom of the wicked the reproach wherewith they have
reproached thee." And from the holy and blessed heaven
opened to John issues the voice of the martyrs slain by

36 THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST
triumphant wickedness : " How long, 0 Lord, holy and true,
dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that
dwell on the earth " ? How grand a chorus ! How august
a company ! But here comes a solitary form, pale offspring
of modern sentimentality, its consumptive frame nursed on
what John Randolph called the ass's milk of human kindness,
and lifts alone her contrary hands and voice : " To me the
perplexity is that God does punish the wicked. Oh for a
God that never smites the transgressor ! Oh for a God of
exceeding amiableness, who leaves wickedness unscathed in
its triumph, and gives it without discrimination equal reward
with the righteous."
III. Love must carry with it and express in Redemption the
Element of Righteousness and its Essential Antagonism
to Sin.
Otherwise love in redemption would cease to be love ; for
whenever righteousness is eliminated from love, love loses
its essential nature and ceases to be love.
Otherwise sin would be not essential but only incidental
evil, which under certain conditions love may approach with
no expression of antagonism. Redemption is redemption
from sin ; thus the very act of redemption is the recognition
of sin itself as the essential evil, from which the whole action
of redemption seeks to deliver the sinner, and to which the
essential antagonism of love must be exercised and expressed
in the very act of redemption.
Hence in redemption the divine love must make atone
ment for sin. In redeeming the sinner the divine love
cannot divest itself of its character as law. It must secure
the sinner's redemption in such way as to maintain the
authority of law, and to exercise, express, and satisfy the
eternal righteousness of God ; so that the essential antago
nism of love to sin and the nature of sin as essential evil
appear even in the act of redeeming the sinner. This law
of love being a constituent element of rationality, being
eternal in the divine reason and the constituting principle

IN ANTAGONISM TO THE WORLD. 37
of the universe, must be equally a law in redemption ; and
the righteousness, which is the consent of the will to the law
and without which love ceases to be love, must be exercised,
expressed, and satisfied in redemption. And since redemp
tion is wrought by God for the sinner, and not -v the sinner
for himself, this exercise, expression, and satisfaction of
righteousness in redemption is made by God for the sinner,
and not by the sinner for himself. It is therefore vicarious.
And since this exercise, expression, and satisfaction have
been historically made through the incarnation, in the hu
miliation, suffering, and death of Christ, it follows that these
are historically the vicarious and atoning action of God for
the sinner, wherein in redeeming the sinner God both is
righteous and declares his righteousness.1
A vicarious atonement is, therefore, inherent in the idea
of redemption from sin. Without it the history of the in
carnation and the humiliation, sufferings, and death of Christ
loses its distinctive significance. Without it, in the redemp
tion of men from sin, love loses the element of righteousness
and ceases to be love ; law loses its supremacy ; and any
doctrine of eternal and immutable right becomes impossible;
It must be added that iii all action, subsequent to Christ's
atoning sacrifice, to extend the benefits of redemption through
the world, love must show the same antagonism to sin.
Redemption, as it is carried onwards to its consummation, is
always a conflict. The love, which carries the glad tidings
of redemption through the world, can never divest itself of
its authority and severity as law. The hand which it extends
to the lost is a holy and a sovereign hand, the blessing which
it offers is pardoning mercy, its invitation to the sinner is to
faith in the Redeemer, to repentance, humiliation, and self-
surrender, and its approach to the sinner to save him is
always with a commanding majesty, revealing " how awful
goodness is."
The historical character of redemption makes it necessary
that the conflict between Christ's kingdom and Satan's turn
1 Rom. iii. 25, 26.

38 THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST
on the acceptance or rejection of Christ as Redeemer and
King. Religious truths and moral precepts are a common
heritage of man, and under various forms are to be traced
in all history. If Christianity consisted essentially of doc
trines or precepts, it would be one of the religions of the
world, and on the same plane with them, and would lose all
its distinctive characteristics. But Christianity is not pri
marily doctrine and precept, but history ; God in Christ
reconciling the world unto himself. Hence it must be ex
clusive. It must proclaim : " Neither is there salvation in
any other." Therefore the conflict between Christ's kingdom
and the world turns on the acceptance or rejection of Christ
as Redeemer and Lord. So it is represented in the New
Testament: " Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath
not the Father ; but he that aeknowledgeth the Son hath
the Father also. Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus
Christ is come in the flesh, is of God ; and every spirit that
confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in -the flesh, is not
of God. And this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye
have heard that it should come, and even now already is it
in the world. Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the
world ; and this is the victory that overcometh the world,
even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but
he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God ?"
The thought which we have now been considering is the
one thought of the wonderful epistle from which these
quotations have been made. That epistle is not an argu
ment ; it makes no progress. It is rather a lyric, reiterating
in varied forms the thought that redeeming love and all that
grows out of it are in warfare against sin. In Christ the
word of God, the eternal life entered into humanity as a life-
giving power, and was manifested among men. All who
participate in it come into union with the Father, who is its
source, and with the Son, who has made it a saving energy
in humanity. Every one who thus is brought into fellowship
with the Father and the Son is light, for God is light, and
cannot participate in darkness ; he is love, for God is love,

IN ANTAGONISM TO THE WORLD. 39
and cannot participate in selfishness or hate ; he is God's
offspring and cannot sin ; he is of God's kingdom and there
fore in conflict with the world and overcoming it. Herein
are the children of God distinguished from the children of
the devil ; for this very purpose Christ came, to destroy the
works of the devil.
IV. The Antagonism of Christ's Kingdom to the World is,
as to its Quality, the Antagonism of Love and not of
Hate.
God loves the world, and in redemption his love goes out
to save the lost. Sin cannot stop its efflux nor change its
nature, though it may exclude its life-giving efficacy from
the sinner's heart. But God's love still rolls on, filling every
creature according to its capacity and disposition with the
fulness of God, and flooding with its glory even the heart
that shuts itself against it. God's love, converging on the
sinner, must act like the sunshine on the seed, and, failing to
quicken it, hastens its corruption. But the love remains pure
love. All the sin in the universe is powerless to check its out
flow, to lessen its fulness and extent, to vitiate its divine purity
and sweetness, or to infect it with any taint of malignity or
ill-will. When the Bible speaks of God's hatred of sinners,
it only declares in popular language the righteousness which
is essential in love as the real principle of law, and which is
in unchangeable antagonism to selfishness and sin. When
President Edwards says of lost sinners, " God never loved
them,  out he hates them, and they will be forever
hated of God ; you will see nothing in God, and receive
nothing from him but perfect hatred," 1 he uses language
seemingly denying that God loves the world, and dropping
out from love its essential element of good-will. Christ
weeping over Jerusalem expresses, under human limitations,
tlie heart of God in condemning the wicked ; the tears declar-
' ing his inextinguishable good-will, while the declaration of
the inevitable doom declares his righteousness. His whole
1 The End of the Wicked Contemplated.

40 THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST
action in redemption is action in antagonism to sin ; this
redemption itself implies ; but his whole action is the ex
pression of love : " God so loved the world."
The same must be true of all human antagonism to sin.
It is necessary to the possibility of antagonism that there be
some similarity of nature in the antagonists. A cannon-ball
cannot be turned aside by argument or an appeal to com
passion ; an argument cannot be shattered by a bomb-shell,
nor a conclusion overturned with a lever. The only possible
antagonist of error is truth, and the only possible antagonist
of selfishness is love. Love, then, is in Christ's kingdom the
only fighting principle against sin. No other is legitimate
or effective. The law of the kingdom is : " Overcome evil
with good."
In the Christian character opposition to sin is not primary,
but secondary. It is not the action, but the reaction of
the love. Religion does not consist primarily in hating the
devil, but in loving God and man. The opposition to sin,
being a reaction of love, must be in its essence love. And
love in every manifestation, whether by God or man, must
absolutely exclude selfishness, ill-will, and hate, as light ex
cludes darkness. While in approaching sinners it can never
divest itself of its majesty as the real principle of God's law,
it is still love.
And love in its conflict with sin, and seeking to save
sinners is the highest and most truly divine love. Love to
sinners is love in its furthest reach and greatest power ; love
which even vileness and defiant malignity cannot repel ;
love embracing sinners as the sunshine cherishes the reeking
mould, in its own absolute purity incapable of defilement by
the contact, and quickening life in the corruption. Love to
sinners is the highest type of love ; it is the love of Christ
submerged in humanity and bearing the sins of men to save
them, yet revealing the indefectible purity of love ; declaring
the majesty of the law, yet dying to redeem sinners from its
curse. Love to sinners is love most distinctively imperish
able and unconquerable ; the vilest unable by his greatest

IN ANTAGONISM TO THE WORLD. 41
sins to restrain the forthcoming of that love, or to check it as
it goes on in its divine course of suffering and sorrow, or to
prevent its opening wide to the sinner the golden gates of
mercy, and proclaiming with infinite tenderness, " Whosoever
will, let him come." Like Christ's is every Christian's love.
It is love to sinners. However wicked a sinner may become,
he has no power to quench Christian love to him, or to sup
press it as, imperishable, like the love of Christ, it breathes in
prayer, it prompts to efforts, to suffering, and sacrifice, to
save the sinner from his sins.
Love is spiritual life. Its processes in its antagonism to
sin are analagous to those of life. Life subdues foreign
matter by transforming it into its own organization. When
an acorn falls into the ground it may be said to enter into
conflict with all around it. Yet the conflict is not the
primary idea, but secondary, and incident to the life. And
the living seed is continually conquering in the conflict, not
by destroying its opponents, but by transforming them into
its own organization. Thus the slender germ shoots into
the upper air, and lifts itself in victory over gravitation, and
builds its great trunk and boughs, and crowns itself with
leaves, transforming the soil, the air, and the rain into
organic strength and beauty. Such is the kingdom of God ;
a mustard-seed growing into a tree, a vital power from God
transforming the world into a kingdom of righteousness.
And in this its strength lies. The earth which lies heavy
on a seed cannot suppress its pale and tender shoot rising
with the force of life into the air. So it is with the growth
of the kingdom of God. However ancient and solid any in
stitution of evil, it cannot suppress the vital force of love
quickening any seed of truth. Any reformation, which is
thus the bursting into growth of this vital force, will prove
itself irresistible.
When a vital organ is invaded by a foreign substance
which it cannot transform or expel, its resistance is uncom
promising and persistent unto death. When a speck of dust
enters the eye, the eye resists and expels it with weeping ;

42 THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST
and will itself perish, resisting and weeping, if it cannot expel
the intruder. So prompt, uncompromising, and persistent is
the resistance of love to sin, resistance with weeping and
suffering, and, if it does not prevail, persistent unto death.
V. The greater the Energy with whicli Christian Love acts,
the more energetic will be the Antagonism against it.
Christ's word is always a fan winnowing the wheat from
the chaff. The power of redemption is necessarily a power
of separation. It must separate that which it renews and
vitalizes from that which it cannot assimilate. The Saviour's
voice calls out into a separate flock the sheep that know it
and follow him. The mustard-seed separates from the soil the
matter which it transforms into itself and by which it grows.
The kingdom of heaven is a net gathering of every kind, the
good preserved, the bad cast away. It is the wheat mixed
with the tares, distinct already in nature, and to be separated
in the harvest. Jesus said : " God sent not his Son into the
world to condemn the world, but that the world through
him might be saved." He also said : " For judgment I am
come into this world." There is no contradiction here.
Christ's work is primarily redemption ; but because it is re
demption, it must be judgment (/cpt'o-«) , primarily, separation,
— the separation of all that come to him from all who reject
him — ultimately, judgment, the condemnation of those who
reject him. Therefore Jesus declares that the work of the
Holy Spirit, renewing human hearts and transforming the
world into the kingdom of Christ, is a perpetual judgment of
the prince of this world. The final Kpl<n<s, separation, or
judgment, will only declare the separation of which redemp
tion had already been the occasion ; the sentence, " Depart,"
will only declare as irrevocable that departure from Christ
and his salvation which the sinner has already made a fact
by refusing him.
This separation being incidental to redemption, the more
energetic the action of Christian love the more rapid must
be the process of separation, and the more marked the

IN ANTAGONISM TO THE WORLD. 43
antagonism of the kingdom of light and the kingdom of
darkness. In times of indifference truth and error may slumber side
by side. But Christianity has always the power of revival ;
God breathes into the slumbering community a new power ;
men become sensitive to the difference between sin and
holiness ; truth is spoken with explicitness ; God's law is
proclaimed in its breadth, its purity, and its particularity.
Thereby evil is both discerned and aroused. Thus the more
vigorous the action of Christian love, the more marked the
antagonism to it of sin. The great epochs of history are
said to be times that try men's souls. Every period when
Christian love acts with energy is a time that tries men's
souls ; it puts men to the test ; it discerns between the
righteous and the wicked ; it compels an answer to the
question : " Who is on the Lord's side ? "
Hence the great epochs of human progress are often
epochs of great darkness. They often seem for the time to
be epochs of the triumph of evil. When Christ was on
earth demons thronged the scene of action in numbers never
seen before or since. When he was about to offer the great
sacrifice of redemption, he exclaimed, " This is your hour
and the power of darkness." The hour of the world's
redemption was emphatically the hour of the power of dark
ness. So that it may be considered as a law in the progress
of Christ's kingdom that every epoch of its advancement
is also an epoch of Satanic achievement. Of every such
epoch we may say, not only, " Rejoice, ye heavens, and ye
that dwell in them," but also, " Wo to the inhabiters of the
earth i for the devil is come down unto you having great
wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time."
VI. Every Christian life is a Battle against the Powers of
Darkness.
In the long course of education preparatory to the Chris
tian ministry, a young man is in danger of forgetting this
aspfot of life. Living for years in a literary atmosphere and

44 THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST
occupied in intellectual pursuits, he may come to regard
intellectual attainments as the great object of life and the
ministry as a profession subordinate to this end. In pre
paring sermons his chief aim may be to produce a finished
and able oration, and his highest ambition may be satisfied
with the admiration of the more cultivated of his hearers ;
thus he makes his sermon an end not a means, and his
ministry degenerates into a contemptible dilettanteism.
This is not the warfare against Satan's kingdom.
Nor is the battle merely against inward corruption, the
ghastly conflicts of the cloister and the desert. Religion is
not a dream, but an action. It is not meditation, nor excite
ment, nor emotion, nor worship terminating in itself. It is
a fight with the falsehoods and sins of human life. Every
Christian is a Hercules slaying monsters.
As Jesus put himself into actual contact with humanity,
entered into it, so as to be in quick sympathy with its life
and " touched with the feeling of our infirmities," as he
bore its sorrows and its sins, and virtue was always going
out of him to save, so every Christian, and especially every
Christian minister, with whatever knowledge, culture, spirit
ual power, lives in immediate contact with humanity,
touched with the feeling of its infirmities, in sympathy with
its sorrows and its joys, meeting its wants, its errors and
its sins, and constantly with virtue going out of him to help
and save.
The battle is against the kingdom of darkness, not in the
abstract, but in the actual sophistries, temptations, and sins,
the actual evil opinions, customs, and institutions, by which
the powers of darkness are deceiving and destroying men.
It is important to be sure that our warfare is in reality,
and not in name only, against the kingdom of darkness. In
addressing an assembly of students for the ministry it may
not be amiss to say that ministers have usually been suf
ficiently given to controversy and warfare; but it is often
internecine, for differences in philosophy and forms, against
faithful servants of Christ ; so that there needs to be a moral

IN ANTAGONISM TO THE WORLD. 45
parallelogram of forces to determine what small resultant
bears on the object to be moved. It has even been urged, to
their discredit, that exhausting their strength in these feuds
they have exerted no earnest and effectual influences against
the rapacity, dishonesty, and oppression, which are corrupting
society. It must be added that in the present unsettling of
thought and confusion and conflict of opinion respecting
reform and progress, when the advocacy of the pope's infal
libility and temporal power goes on side by side with the
advocacy of woman's suffrage and of agrarian rights for
working-men, it demands spiritual discernment to know the
truth and to escape being found fighting against God. The
security is, that the soul be in fresh and living sympathy
with the living Saviour rather than with the hortus siccus of
creeds and systems, and in living sympathy with humanity
in its actual life. The Saviour says : " My sheep hear my
voice." It is only as we are in sympathy with him, receiving
through the Spirit his thought and life into our own, and
in sympathy like him with man, that we shall know his voice
amid the babel of voices in this age : " I understand more
than the ancients because I keep thy precepts." Spiritual
discernment and far-sightedness come from keeping God's
precepts. When statesmen, having no affinity for the law
of God and the spiritual life of love, recommend measures
for the welfare of the state which assume that selfishness is
the only power to be considered in human affairs, and so
fatally mistake the drift and movement of human thought
and miss the measures needed for the welfare of society, the
spiritual mind- discerns the spiritual forces which the carnal
mind knows not, and proclaims with prophetic far-sightedness
the principles of justice in which alone safety can be found.
This is the " poor wise man " who delivers the city.
The fact that life is a battle demands of every Christian
the spirit of martyrdom. There cannot be a Christian life
without it. He who has not learned to value duty, fidelity,
the kingdom of Christ, more than property, reputation, or
life, has not learned the first lesson of Christian living. He

46 THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST
whose end in life is only to attain ease, comfort, fame, culture,
the gratification of taste ; he who does not accept life as a
warfare, demanding the endurance of hardness for Christ,
has not yet accepted the Christian idea of life. But if any
Christian sacrifices his ease, or suffers persecution or reproach
for Christ, Christ with his own hand writes his name in the
glorious catalogue of the martyrs, saying of him : " So per
secuted they the prophets." Thus the most common-place
soul becomes luminous with heavenly glory, as a lump of
coal at the touch of fire bursts into flame, and is glorified
with brightness while it is consumed.
Paul animates the suffering Christians of his day by point
ing to those who had been faithful to God in preceding ages,
who now, a great cloud of witnesses, look down as in an
amphitheatre on them in their conflicts. In that assembly
of spectators Paul himself and the apostles and innumerable
faithful ones in the ages since, have already taken their
places. They have transmitted the great conflict to us to
hold and extend their victories. In their presence we are
fighting the good fight of faith. Their plaudits do not break
the silence of eternity and fall on mortal ears ; but " there
is joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth." In times
of declension when Christ's kingdom is overborne by the
world, the ear of faith can hear the cry of the martyrs wailing
the triumph of wickedness : " How long, 0 Lord, faithful
and true " ? And the great cloud of witnesses exult in the
grand and solemn joy of eternity for every instance of fidelity,
for every heroic achievement of love, and send to the com
batant their words of cheer : " Be thou faithful unto death,
and thou shalt receive the crown of life."

LECTURE III.

THE PECULIARITY OF CHRISTIAN VIRTUE INVOLVED IN THE FACT
THAT IT IS THE RESCJLT OF REDEMPTION.
At the banquet in Boston to the Chinese embassy, a dis
tinguished literary man quoted the maxim of Confucius :
" Do not to others what you would not that they should do
to you." On that remarkable occasion when heathenism and
Christianity were confronted before the world, he evidently
intended to intimate that the morality taught by heathen
philosophy is the same with that taught by Christ. This
represents a type of thought which has acquired currency as
an argument against Christianity. The argument is, that all
the more profound philosophies and religions of the world
recognize with more or less distinctness the same principles
of morality ; that therefore Christianity is merely one of the
religions of the world and has no pre-eminent claim to a
divine origin.
The first reply is that the New Testament explicitly teaches
that conscience gives all men a knowledge of moral law, so
that they are without excuse for sin.1 Without this, Chris
tianity would have no basis ; a universal religion, and even
a universal community of moral sentiment, would be impos
sible. The defenders of Christianity have been earnest to
vindicate this against sceptics, who have endeavored to
establish atheism by denying man's moral nature and the
universality of moral principles. Christian apologists have
cited the common moral sentiments of different literatures ;
and have met the objection, founded on the conflicting judg
ments of different peoples respecting the moral character of
outward actions, by sHbwing that they all appeal to the same
1 Rom. i. 18-32 ; ii. 12-16. 47

48 PECULIARITY OF CHRISTIAN VIRTUE
principles in justification of these diverse actions. The
heathen woman who religiously throws her child into the
Ganges, the slaveholder, the despot, if they attempt to justify
their actions, appeal to the same principles to which we
appeal in condemning them. We welcome the concession
of this point by Comte, Buckle, and writers of their school,
and rejoice in the research which has established the Chris
tian doctrine beyond further controversy.
A second reply is, that Jesus was not distinctively a
teacher of philosophy or of ethics, nor even a lawgiver ; but
he was the Redeemer of the world. He assumes that God's
law is already known and already transgressed. He comes
to redeem men from sin and guilt of which they are already
conscious. He presupposes and takes up into his teaching
the religious and moral truths acknowledged in the religions
and philosophies of the world ; but he himself is the Re
deemer, bringing God's love into human history as an
energy of redeeming grace, making propitiation for sin, and
quickening sinners into the life of faith and love. He speaks
the word of promise and of hope to man, quickens in sinful
humanity the germinant forces of a new and spiritual life,
establishes his kingdom of righteousness, and sets humanity
forth in a progress to realize the ideals of moral and spiritual
perfection both in the life of the individual and the civiliza
tion of society. To whatever extent it may be possible con
sistently with historical facts to demonstrate an agreement
between Christianity and the religions and philosophies of
the world, the demonstration has no forte against the dis
tinctive claim of Christianity to divine origin and authority.
The English writers of the last century on the Evidences
of Christianity, in urging the superior morality of the New
Testament, sometimes wrote as if they regarded Christianity
as simply a system of ethics. They thus unwittingly ad
mitted rationalism into the very defences of Christianity,
and betrayed their position to their adversaries; they invited
the objection under consideration and others of a similar
character, which have no force against Christianity as an
historical redemption.

AS A RESULT OF REDEMPTION. 49
But, for the very reason that Christianity is distinctively
redemption, Christian virtue must have certain distinctive
peculiarities ; the Christian conception of virtue must be dis
tinct from and superior to the conception of virtue in the
mind of one who is ignorant of redemption, and knows only
the moral law. This is our present subject : The Peculiarity
and Superiority of Christian Virtue involved in the fact that
it originates in Redemption from Sin.
I. Christian Virtue springs from the Consciousness of Sin
through Consciousness of Justification or of Recon
ciliation with God.
Christianity does not create the sense of sin and guilt. It
has been powerful in all religions. We look with awe on
the human race, bound and writhing through all history in
the sense of guilt, like the Laocoon in the embrace of the
serpents, the marble anguish unchanging through all the
ages. The consciousness of guilt is not ennobling, but the con
trary. It involves a certain abjectness. In its nature it is
the consciousness of failure, of unworthiness, of ill-desert.
It compels the substitution of self-loathing and self-con
demnation for self-respect. It is the consciousness of having
no claim to the approval of either God or man. It depresses
with fear ; it overshadows with superstition ; it crushes in
despair. It makes life a dread of the future, a despair of
the present, a lament for the past. The whole consciousness
becomes concentrated in the one daily and' doleful cry :
" We are all poor creatures."
Both the ethnic religions and the ethnic philosophies fail
in the presence of this terrific fact — the consciousness of sin.
Neither can evoke a life of virtue from it. Their failures,
however, are in opposite directions.
All religions necessarily intensify the sense of sin. They
quicken the, moral nature ; they bring God and the unseen
world and retribution close to the soul. The first effect is
depressing. The greatness of God overpowers, and his

50 PECULIARITY OF CHRISTIAN VIRTUE
holiness terrifies. The presence of an unseen, mysterious,
everywhere-present Being, whom no cunning can deceive,
no art elude, no speed evade, and no power resist, paralyzes
the soul ; his burning inquisition for sin scorches it. It is
only as God is known in his redeeming love that his presence
inspires and quickens. The defect of all ethnic religions is,
that while they bring God near to the soul, they bring only
the depressing influences of his presence ; while intensifying
the sense of guilt, they leave the soul scorching in its fiery
heat. The service to which they impel is sacrifice and
penance to appease the divine wrath, not the life of love
which ennobles the man. The service itself is a superstition
which abases. We cannot respect the man whose life is a
prolonged abjectness and terror in the sense of guilt, a con
tinued suppression of the joyousness and freedom of the
spirit, whose loftiest meditations are on a skull and cross-
bones, and whose greatest deeds are the infliction of torture
on himself or compelling his sons to go through the fire to
Moloch. Hence in heathen civilization the highest, nobleness
of character has not ordinarily been the outgrowth of the
popular religion.
Philosophy, on the contrary, turning away from religion,
refuses to take notice of sin. It develops virtue from self-
respect. It develops a right character, not from the sense
of sin, but from the pride of virtue. Such was stoicism, the
best type of Greek philosophy. At the first glance heathen
philosophy seems to have taken the better side of human
nature, and to have realized a higher result than the heathen
religions. But philosophy reaches only a few. Even with
the few whom it reaches, it is as one-sided as the religions.
It gets rid of the sense of sin only by ignoring it. But it
can ignore sin only by ignoring God. Man cannot know
God without the consciousness of sin. But when the con
sciousness of sin is awakened, self-respect ceases and a
virtue founded on self-respect is no longer possible. Heathen
philosophy, therefore, leads away from God ; or, if the idea
of God is retained, it is so abstract, so difficult to be grasped,

AS A RESULT OF REDEMPTION. 51
so impersonal, as to be divested of moral power. Thus
excluding God and the sense of sin, self-respect, which
philosophy presents as the essence of virtue, becomes pride
or self-sufficiency, which is the essence of sin. Philosophy
preaches the very gospel whicli the serpent preached in
paradise : " Ye shall be as gods " ; it inculcates the very
sell-sufficiency which was the original germ of human sin
fulness, and which is declared by Paul to be also its culmina
tion in the anti-Christ, " who, as God, sitteth in the temple
of God, showing himself that he is God." Besides, the sense
of sin springs from the facts of human history and character ;
philosophy ignores it, but does not remove nor heal it.
Therefore, in spite of philosophy, it perpetually re-asserts
itse'f. Christianity, more than any other religion, by its clearer
revelation of God and of his law, declares his holiness and
jusPice, and intensifies the sense of sin and guilt. At the
same time, by its revelation in Christ of God's redeeming
love to sinners, it takes from the divine presence its power
to terrify and paralyze, and makes it the source of inspiration
and hope ; the sinner looks in God's face and sees a Father
hastening to the returning prodigal to fall on his neck and
kiss him. It takes from the sense of sin its power to depress
and abase, frees from the abjectness of self-contempt, terror,
and despair ; and creating instead the consciousness of
justification and of sonship with God, quickens a new life of
free, joyous, and loving service. Thus quenching .the con
suming fire of conscious guilt, and transforming the sense
of sin into dewy and refreshing penitence, it calls forth
virtue from the consciousness of sin, life out from death.
The religious life is no longer a life of penance and sacrifice
to appease God's wrath, but it is the budding and blossoming
and fruiting of the soul in faith and love beneath the out
pouring of God's love, like the opening life of spring beneath
the returning sun. Christianity thus combines the otherwise
separate and incompatible ideas of religion and philosophy ;
and in a Christian excellence distinctively religious and

52 PECULIARITY OF CHRISTIAN VIRTUE
growing out of the sense of sin, realizes the nobleness of
character which philosophy abortively attempts to develop
from the pride of virtue.
This origin of Christian virtue gives it the followiug pecu
liarities. The sense of sin is deepened by the thought that
the sin is against God's love. Thus is brought into it an
element of tenderness and penitence, as if God's love had
melted the sense of sin and guilt into its own nature as love.
Hence is also developed in Christian virtue a peculiar deli
cacy of spiritual sensibility to the difference between right
and wrong ; the soul is sensitive to sin, as the eye to a speck
of dust. Another characteristic is aspiration. The sense of
sin, healed through God's redeeming grace, issues in the
most intense aspiration to be free from sin and to be like
God. The aspiration is lofty as well as intense. God in
Christ is not only the Redeemer of man, but his ideal. He
dares to aspire both to live in intimacy with him and to be
like him. His whole life becomes an aspiration, a prayer to
be morally perfect as God is ; to live and love like Christ.
Here the Christian character takes up into itself all the vir
tues which cluster around self-respect and constitute noble
ness, no longer as philosophy presented them, as pride and
self-sufficiency, but transfigured by the knowledge of redemp
tion, of intimacy and sonship with God, and of the promise of
being like him. The incitement to a noble life now is, " See
that ye walk worthy of your high calling, that ye walk worthy
of God." 1 Also the Christian's belief that the Holy Spirit
dwells in him — so much above the inspiration by which
Socrates thought himself restrained from evil — gives courage
to attempt great things and joyous confidence in the realiza
tion of the highest ends. And, further, on account of his
own deep sense of sin, a Christian, in doing good, will seek
first, and as indispensable to blessedness, the deliverance of
men from sin by bringing them, through the consciousness
cf sin, into reconciliation with God by faith in his redeeming
1 J. S. Mill is singularly at fault when he suggests the perfecting of ethical
science by the recognition of Nobleness as a new constituent.

AS A RESULT OF REDEMPTION. 5b
love. He stands, therefore, in uncompromising antagonism
to sin. No fondness for the sinner can beguile him into
consent to the sinner's transgression. A Christian must
indeed be meek and forgiving. But a man can forgive only
perconal offences. Sin is not a personal offence against the
Christian ; it is an offence against reason, against the uni
verse, against God. " Who is this that forgiveth sins also ?
Who can forgive sins but God only ? " At the same time
his own consciousness of sin takes away from hir uncom
promising antagonism to sin, all ill-will, arrogance, aud self-
righteousness, and creates the tenderest compassion for sin
ners and Christ-like earnestness to save them from their sins.
Since Christianity, more than any other religion, intensifies
the sense of sin, while bringing with it justification and de
liverance through God's redeeming grace, it is not surprising
that the Christian experience often moves the soul to its
depths, passing from profound sorrow and darkness, through
many fears and struggles, to the joy of forgiveness and the
euthusiasm of faith and love. Such was the experience of
Paul. Augustine. Luther, Wesley, Edwards. Such an experi
ence has been familiar in all ages. This type of experience,
and the sense of sin out of which it grows, are less noticeable
now than in some former ages. This does not necessarily
prove a decay of religion. One may grow up with faith in
God's redeeming grace healing the sense of sin. and so the
whole life may pass peacefully beneath the sunshine of God's
love. This type of the Christian life has never been wanting.
As Christianity shall prevail this will be more and more the
prevalent type. On the other hand, the infrequency of this
type of experience may indicate the decay of religion. The
placidity may not be the peacefulness of faith and hope
joined with earnestness and energy of love ; it may be the
placidity of indifference. If your soul has never been moved
to its depths in an experience like that of Paul and Augustine,
you have no reason to look down on them as from the.
superior heights of a serenity above the storms. Your
placidity may indicate the superficialness of your life. You

54 PECULIARITY OF CHRISTIAN VIRTUE
may never have sounded the depths of your own being, nor
known the grandeur of its relations, obligations, and pos
sibilities. It is a fatal exchange to escape the consciousness
of sin by losing the consciousness of God.
We ought to look with suspicion on speculations which
tend to destroy the consciousness of sin and to stigmatize as
fanaticism and superstition the deeper emotions, the more
severe inward struggles and the more extatic joys of religious
experience. Such is the rationalism, now gaining some
currency, which regards Christianity as one of the religious
of the world, in the same plane with the heathen religions,
and, like them, partial, imperfect, and destined to pass away,
and which offers itself as containing the essential truths of
all religions and worthy to supersede them all. This ration
alism starts from the pride of virtue, and ignores the sense
of sin. It is a philosophy, not a religion. We see in it,
what has been often seen in former ages, philosophy striving
to thrust out religion and to usurp its place.
For the antagonism of the ancient philosophers to religion
an ppology is possible. Even in that antagonism the phi
losophy commands respect as a legitimate outgrowth of
human thought. When religion intensified the sense of sin
only to abase the soul in terror, when the religious service
was itself a superstition, it is not wonderful that the best
minds should reclaim the nobler elements of humanity,
even at the expense of religion. But now that Christ has
come, reconciling man to God, and quickening the noblest
growth of humanity out of the sense of sin, there is no longer
an apology for philosophy in maintaining its antagonistic
po:ition. And this modern rationalism has no right to dis
own xps own parentage and family, and to baptize itself as a
religion. It has no right to teach as its own the love of God
to man, seeking to bring man into friendly relations to
himself, the right of man to loving intimacy with God, the
divine promise of the progress and renovation of society, and
the human hope of its realization through the energy of
God's love acting as a life-giving and renovating power in

AS A RESULT OF REDEMPTION. 55
human history, nor the privilege and duty of man to be a
worker with God for this end, as Jesus was, and with love
as all-embracing and as self-sacrificing as his. For these
are truths for which the world is indebted distinctively to
Christ. It is a historical fact that, aside from Christ, re
ligion has been too great for sinful man, and has crushed
him by its greatness ; the approach of God to the sinful soul
has terrified and paralyzed it. Christ alone has brought
God in his majesty, the law in its purity and supremacy,
eternity in its grandeur and glories close to the human soul
as a power of inspiration and of life. When modern ration
alism appropriates to itself Christian ideas, christens itself
religion, and offers itself to supersede Christianity, it is still
only a philosophy disguised in what it has appropriated from
Christianity.
II. Christian Virtue springs from Faith in God.
Philosophy fails to recognize this, or positively denies it.
Thus Cicero makes Cotta urge, as an indisputable maxim,
that men do not look to God for help in leading a virtuous
life : " All men regard outward advantages, fruitful harvests,
and the comforts of a prosperous life as received from the
gods ; but no man ever referred his own virtue to God as a
divine gift. And this is right ; for we ourselves are justly
praised for our own virtue, and properly glory in it ; which
could not be, if virtue were a gift from God. But when we
obtain honor or wealth, or escape calamity, then we give
thanks to the gods, and take no credit to ourselves. Who
ever gave thanks to the gods for being a good man ? We
give thanks only that we are rich, honored, in health ; and
for these things we pray to Jupiter optimus maximus, but
never that he would make us just, temperate, or wise." 1
The ethical philosophy of the stoics involved in its funda
mental principle the sufficiency of man for himself in a life
of virtue.
Since, as has been already said, the heathen religions
1 De Natura Dcorum, Lib. iii. cap. 36.

56 PECULIARITY OF CHRISTIAN VIRTUE
present God as a power to menace and alarm, since the
sentiment which they awaken is superstitious fear, and the
service to which they impel is sacrifice and penance to
appease the divine wrath, they neither present God as the
object of faith, nor make that faith an inspiration to a life of
virtue. Christianity teaches, on the contrary, that virtue springs
from faith in God. The doctrine of justification by faith
does not mean, as it is often misrepresented, and sometimes
by Christians themselves misunderstood, that God is induced
to pardon a sinner on account of an act of faith which the
sinner performed one day. This misconception makes faith
an isolated act, and not the inspiration of a life ; and implies
that its efficacy consists in its persuasiveness with God, not
in quickening and inspiring the man. Even the sense of
pardon thus viewed is not ennobling ; for it is only the
criminal's gladness that he has escaped penalty, not the
consciousness of sonship towards God. Religion thus be
comes a hope of heaven, instead of a divine life on earth,
and the religious life is sundered from the secular. The
gospel is distinctively God in Christ reconciling the world
unto himself. God loves the sinner, and seeks him in his
sins to bring him back to himself, as the shepherd seeks the
lost sheep. He encompasses the sinner with his love, as
the sunshine encompasses every earthly thing with its qvick-
ening and invigorating beams, grace sufficient for bin:, in
every need and every emergency of his life. Faith is the
sinner's trust in God as thus revealed in Christ, the Re
deemer of men from sin. Faith does not make God a
Redeemer, nor induce him thus to love and seek the sinner ;
it simply trusts God as being thus the Redeemer of sinners,
and revealed as such in Christ. Christian faith is dis
tinctively faith in Christ, because, while without Christ God
is known as a holy God, as a Lawgiver, a Judge, a God who
inflicts just retribution on sin, it is only in Christ that God
is clearly known as loving even sinners, and extending to
them grace always freely offered and always sufficient for

AS A RESULT OF REDEMPTION. 57
them. Faith is the sinner's confidence in this divine love.
The life of faith in God is, therefore, a life of filial trust, of
loving service, of confidential intimacy. Faith thus becomes
an inspiration, at every moment quickening to a life of love.
This origin of Christian virtue causes in it certain pe
culiarities. It brings into virtue the element of personal love to God.
Christian faith is not primarily the intellect's belief of a
truth ; but it is the heart's trust in a person. Trench says :
" There is a natural gravitation of souls, which attracts
them to mighty personalities — an instinct in man which
tells him that he is never so great as when looking up to
one greater than himself, that he is made for this looking
upward, to find, and finding to rejoice and to be ennobled
in, a nobler than himself." In the emergencies of life men
feel the need of a wisdom, a goodness,- a power superior to
their own. When they find, or think they find, the pos
sessor of these superior endowments, they trust him ; and
him whom they trust they follow. In a village, a college,
a political party, in every association of men are leaders
who thus draw to themselves a following. The man who
thus trusts a leader surrenders himself to him, thinks his
thoughts, adopts his policy, is his man. When, in addition
to superior endowments the follower sees in his leader intense
love to him, attested by disinterested and self-sacrificing
services, and when he has thus received from him the most
signal benefits, the self-surrender of the follower glows with
enthusiastic loyalty to the leader. Such is the nature of
Christian faith. When we feel our ignorance, weakness,
and sin, and then discover both God's greatness and his love
in Christ, we are drawn to him, we trust him, we surrender
ourselves to him, we think his thoughts, we do his bidding,
we are his men. Thus there enters into Christian virtue
the element of personal trust, affection, and loyalty. We
respond to the call of Jesus : " Do it for my sake." For his
sake Christians attempt the great things of Christan heroism,
and patiently do the little things of a righteous and loving

58 PECULIARITY OF CHRISTIAN VIRTUE
life. Thus a Christian life is lifted up, not merely to obey
an abstract command, but to please the loving God, the
Redeemer. This personal element inspires Christian virtue with a
peculiar enthusiasm. Christianity goes even beyond phi
losophy in teaching the eternity and immutability of right,
the supremacy of law, and the sternness of duty. Even
more than philosophy it clarifies and quickens the conscience
and makes its voice terrible. But in quickening trust in
God's redeeming grace, it warms and vitalizes duty with
the enthusiasm of personal affection and loyalty. It tints
the cold precepts of reason with the glow of sentiment.
Thus it combines the two mightiest principles of human
aation, the clear truths of reason, and the inflexible com
mands of conscience with the glow, enthusiasm, and passion
of personal confidence and love.
Thus the moral element acquires a prominence and power
in the life of the individual and the civilization of Christian
nations which neither philosophy nor any heathen religion
has been able to give. The life of the individual becomes
an aspiration and a prayer for moral perfection ; and society
concentrates its thought and aGtion on the removal of moral
wrongs and the realization of moral ideals.
Since virtue originates in faith, the converse is also true,
that faith unfolds into virtue. " Faith worketh by love."
Thus morality and religion are brought into unity. Virtue
grows out of religion, and religion unfolds into virtue.
Thus the secular life is no longer separated from the religious,
but is lifted into the religious, and ennobled as being itself
a service of God. So long as religion is conceived of only
as an action of man to propitiate the offended God, men
offer their sacrifices, perform their penances, and commit
their crimes. It is only when Christianity reveals God in
Christ reconciling the world unto himself, and proclaims :
" There remaineth no more sacrifice for sin," that religious
service ceases to be sacrifice and penance, and becomes a
service of universal love. Then its very garment is light. "

AS A RESULT OF REDEMPTION. 59
It is a remarkable fact in history that wherever Christianity
has not come in its purity, an impassable gulf has separated
the secular thought and life from the religious. In the
sphere of thought philosophy and religion remain irrecon
cilable. Philosophy either turns away from religion, as a
sphere with which it has no concern, and constructs some
fine theory of virtue without God ; or it turns against it in
avowed scepticism. Religion either turns away from phi
losophy as a sphere of thought so alien that its truths
cannot be antagonistic to religious doctrine, as two bodies
moving on different parallels cannot meet, as the university
of Paris is said to have decided that a certain proposition
was true in philosophy but false in theology ; or religion
assails philosophy as infidel and usurps the whole domain
of thought.
The same antagonism appears in practical life. Religion
either abandons the secular life as essentially worldliness,
and withdraws to the desert or the cloister ; or it attempts
to crush the native instincts, and to occupy life with a saint-
liness which is ascetic, dehumanizing, and ghastly ; or else
taking up both spheres into one life, it gives us the Pharisee,
making long prayers in his religious life and devouring
widows' houses in his secular life, tithing mint and anise to
the Lord but driving hard bargains with men, lengthening
his own face in sanctimoniousness while grinding the faces
of the poor.
But when the gospel of salvation by faith in God is re
ceived, this antagonism disappears. Philosophy acknowledges
God ; morality finds its root and vitality in faith ; the whole
action of life goes on religiously in filial trust and loving
service towards God and confidential intimacy with him.
Thus while scope is given to the loftiest enthusiasm and
heroism of Christian love in the service of man, tbe humblest
life and the most petty duties are ennobled as a service of
God — lifted and luminous in the divine love, like a speck
of dust floating and shining in the sunshine.

60 PECULIARITY OF CHRISTIAN VIRTUE
III. The Christian Law of Love is distinguished by superior
Clearness and Comprehensiveness in the Enunciation
both of the Principle and its Applications.
In comparing the moral teachings of heathen philosophy
with those of Christ, it is necessary to suggest the caution
that some recent writers overstate the merits of the former,
and depreciate, and sometimes even misrepresent, the latter.
In their obvious partiality to heathenism they become its
eulogists rather than its critics. If they find a fine mo-"al
sentiment they expand and display it, as the optician expands
a ray of light in all the colors of the rainbow. From their
own knowledge of Christianity they interpret into an isolated
sentence of a heathen author a meaning which the connection
does not warrant, and which the author did not design to
express. They gather fragmentary truths scattered through
the heathen literature of all ages to obtain material to com
pare with the teachings of Christ. They give niggardly
recognition of the beauty and completeness of his teachings.
One recent writer has even put forth the gross misrepresen
tation that the morality of the New Testament is entirely
negative or prohibitory, and disparages it as such in contrast
with the positive requirements of heathen ethics. Others
misrepresent it as in its tendencies wholly antimundane and
ascetic. Therefore, while admitting a universal moral law
cognizable by human reason, truth still requires the assertion
that the law of love, as declared and applied in the New
Testament, is superior to any heathen exposition of that law
and its applications. To exemplify this thought the following
distinctive peculiarities of Christian love may be mentioned.
The enunciation of the law is more clear and comprehen
sive. Especially is this apparent when we know that the
sacrificial love of Christ in his humiliation, sufferings, and
death to redeem man from sin, is itself the expression of the
true nature of love in God, and the type and measure of all
love in man.
Since Christian love grows out of faith, it involves tho
unity of religion and virtue. Christianity implies communion

AS A RESULT OF REDEMPTION. 61
with God not less than service to man. The communion
with God gives quickening, guidance, purity, and efficacy to
the service of man. Worship does not terminate on itself;
is not a self-friction to induce a glow of emotion ; it is the
soul coming to God for his help in doing the work of a
Christian life. In this particular, also, Christian love has a
superior comprehensiveness and completeness. While it
manifests itself in the two opposite poles of faith and love,
it completes the electric circuit of the Christian character.
In its applications it becomes philanthropy. It manifests
itself in reverence for man, a sacred regard to his rights, a
zeal for his highest welfare. And this love to man becomes
universal, as opposed to all clannishness and all enmities
of ^race.
It also inspires hope for the future of society and quickens
the progress of man.
It is not necessary, however, to delay on the question
whether, in the enunciation of moral principles, Jesus declared
anything absolutely new. The grand distinction of Christian
ity is that it has made its ethical principles powers of life and
of civilization. When we pass from heathen literature to
Christian, the change in the tone of thought and feeling is
like a change of climate. And a similar change affects us
in the transition from the study of heathen life and civiliza
tion. The Christian church in the outset conquered the
world by Christ-like love. When in the Decian persecution
the plague desolated Alexandria, and the heathen in terror
abandoned their sick and dead, the Christians formed them
selves into classes, and devoted their personal services and
contributed of their property to the care of the sick and the
burial of the dead of their persecutors. The same was their
action in the plague at Antioch and elsewhere. And in the
progress of Christ's kingdom the law of love is slowly but
irresistibly gaining for itself assertion and realization, not
only in the enthusiasm and heroism of individuals, but in
the constitutions and laws of states, and the customs and
civilization of society. Lecky, alluding to the reconstruction

62 PECULIARITY OF CHRISTIAN VIRTUE
of society after the dissolution of the Roman Empire, says :
that after making the fullest allowance for other influences,
it remains " an undoubted fact that the reconstruction of
society was mainly the work of Christianity  It did
this in three ways ; it abolished slavery, it created charity,
it inculcated self-sacrifice."1 The reverence for man, the
regard to his rights and welfare, the broad philanthropy
characterizing modern civilization, are the outgrowth of
Christianity, of the life and love of Christ penetrating the
life of humanity.
IV. A Distinctive peculiarity of Christian Virtue is Spiritual
Freedom.
From the ancient Pythagoreans, who defined virtue as
" a habit of duty," to Reid, who defines it as consisting " in
a fixed purpose or resolution to act according to our sense
of duty," ethical philosophy has recognized no principle
of virtue higher or more effective than the sense of duty.
This is, indeed, a grand principle ; and its presentation by
some philosophers rises to the sublime.2 Christianity does
not reject it. Christianity broadens and spiritualizes the
1 History of Rationalism, Vol. ii. pp. 227-229.
2 " Duty ! thou great, sublime name ! thou dost not insinuate thyself by offer
ing the pleasing and the popular, but thou requirest obedience ; although to
move the will thou dost not threaten and terrify, but simply settest forth a law,
which of itself finds entrance to the mind, which, even though against the will,
wins approval and reverence, if not obedience, before which the passions ara
silent, even though they work secretly against it. What origin is worthy of
thee, and where is the root of thy noble pedigree; which proudly disowns all re
lationship with the passions, and descent from which is the indispensable con
dition of that worth which alone man can of himself confer on himself t It
can be nothing less than that which lifts man above himself as part of the world
of sense, which unites him to an order of things which the understanding can
only think, and which subjects to itself the entire world of sense, and the em
pirically determined existence of man in time. It is nothing less than person
ality ; that is, freedom from and independence of all the mechanism of nature,
which implies the subjection of the person considered as belonging to the world
of sense, to his own personality so far as he belongs to the world of intelligence.
No wonder, then, that man, belonging to both worlds, in regard to his highest
destiny, must regard his own being with reverence and its laws with the highest
veneration." — Kant, Kritik der Praktischen Vernunft, p. 214.

AS A RESULT OF REDEMPTION. 63
law, and emphasizes its authority, its immutability, and its
sanctions. It quickens the conscience, and adds to the
delicacy of its discernment and the authority of its com
mands. It makes the voice of duty to be nothing less than
the voice of God. But the voice of duty is the voice of God
proclaiming his law,; it is in its nature regulative, not im
pulsive ; it carries in it the constraint and restraint of
authority, not inspiration ; it is like the balance-wheel in
machinery, regulating, but not originating, the motion.
Christianity makes virtue consist in love inspired by faith in
God's redeeming grace. Love outstrips the sense of duty ;
it moves with the quickness of the lightning, which the
thunder of the law follows, but cannot overtake. Before
conscience can utter its " categoric imperative," the willing
work of love is done. A virtue driven only by the sense of
duty, and never quickened by love, is imperfect. " Though
I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give
my body to be burned, and have not love, it profiteth me
nothing." In ethical philosophy moral power is presented
as regulative and restrictive ; in Christianity, as motive, in
spiration, life. The former gives us only law and govern
ment ; the latter gives us also gospel and redemption.
Therefore freedom, spontaneousness, joyousness, are distinc
tively and pre-eminently characteristic of Christian virtue.
It is a new life — faith working by love, and spontaneously
unfolding in all the beauty and fruitfulness of a Christian
life. It is an entire misapprehension and misrepresentation
of Christianity to say that it restrains the freedom and de
velopment of humanity, and suppresses the spontaneousness
and joyousness of life. There may be a propriety in bring
ing this charge against ethical philosophy whicli presents
nothing higher than the restraints and constraints of the
sense of duty; and still more against the ethnic religions,
which make the fear of the divine wrath for past transgres
sions more urgent than the sense of duty commanding to
obedience. But the contrary is true of Christianity. It
reveals to the sinner God's redeeming love in Christ ; and

64 PECULIARITY OF CHRISTIAN VIRTUE.
faith in God the Redeemer becomes the inspiration of a new
life. It is precisely this Christian faith which creates in
man the true consciousness of his own greatness and worth,
quickens irrepressible aspirations to realize the highest pos
sibilities of his being, delivers him from the bondage of
passion and desire, quickens him to obey the lofty com
mands of reason, and to aim to realize the ideals of truth,
right, and perfection, makes his obedience spontaneous, and
gives him in obedience the consciousness of freedom. This
is the service of filial love, as distinguished from the servile
spirit of bondage. It is the freedom wherewith Christ
maketh free.

LECTUEE IV.
THE DIVINE AGENCY IN THE ESTABLISHMENT, ADMINISTRATION,
AND TRIUMPH OF CHRIST'S KINGDOM.
The kingdom of Christ is not originated and advanced by
the spontaneous development of humanity ; but a redeeming
power comes down upon humanity from God, and enters
into human history as an always-working energy, quickening
men to spiritual life and transforming society into the
kingdom of God. This thought is repugnant to the ration
alism and naturalism of this age ; but it is distinctive and
essential in Christianity, and must be recognized in any
truly rational philosophy of human history. It is the subject
which is now to be considered : The Divine Agency in
the Establishment, Administration, and Triumph of Christ's
Kingdom. The historical course of the divine action in redemption,
as set forth in the scriptures, is familiar, and needs only to be
indicated. The divine energy of redemption enters human
history at its very beginning and declares itself in promise.
It appears in the call of Abraham and the promise to all the
world through his seed, giving a distinct organization to
God's kingdom in the call of a chosen people, to be his, as
the prophets continually insist, not by outward descent, but
by his covenant and promise, and their faith and obedience ;
a kingdom, as Paul explicitly demonstrates, differing in form,
but the same in essence with the same kingdom as it after
wards appeared in the Christian church. Centuries after
the call of Abraham the Jewish state appears, itself a The
ocracy, within which the germinant kingdom is secluded and
protected, as a chestnut in its prickly bur, until it is ready
9 65

66 THE DIVINE AGENCY IN THE ESTABLISHMENT,
to drop and become the germ of a great tree. Then God
is in Christ, makes propitiation for the sins of the world,
subdues the power of darkness and death, and makes world
wide the power of attraction by which, from the Saviour's
cross, he draws all men to himself. This saving power is
perpetuated in the Holy Spirit " poured out on all flesh."
Christ at the right hand of the majesty on high, administers
his kingdom by the invisible agency of the life-giving Spirit.
By this the energy of redeeming grace widens its scope,
intensifies its action, multiplies its agencies, and makes itself
more and more manifest as a spiritual power established in
human history, quickening a spiritual church, directing
human thought and action, guiding the forces of civilization,
and transforming society into Christ's kingdom. Finally,
Christ will come a second time to judgment and will present
his kingdom, completed and glorious, to the Father.
Here is a divine action running through human history,
working the redemption of man from sin. We will confine
our attention to some of the general characteristics of the
divine agency in the establishment, administration, and
triumph of Christ's kingdom.
I. The Divine Agency is Historical.
Here is the starting-point of the difference between
Christianity and Rationalism.
Christianity, being essentially redemption, is necessarily
historical. It is the promised Christ of the Old Testament,
the living Christ of the New Testament, the Christ reigning
and life-giving in the dispensation of the Spirit. Christianity,
therefore, is not primarily doctrine, but history ; not phi
losophy or ethics, but the historical action of divine love
redeeming man from sin. It is history in the past, life-
giving energy in the present, promise for the future.
Rationalism, on the contrary, is the doctrine that human
reason, without supernatural intervention, is sufficient for
all man's spiritual needs. God moves above and before man
in the undeviating and majestic movement of nature. Man

ADMINISTRATION AND TRIUMPH OF CHRIST'S KINGDOM. 67
stands beneath, gazes on the grand panorama, and learns all
respecting God that is needful for his spiritural welfare.
Rationalism is in agreement with Christianity in acknowl
edging the spirituality and personality of man, the endow
ment of man with reason, by which philosophy is possible,
the existence of a personal God and of his moral government.
In the same particulars rationalism is in antagonism to the
naturalism which resolves mind into physiological phenomena,
and thought and volition into forms of mechanical force,
which confines the sphere of inquiry to phenomena and their
uniform sequences, which denies that man is " the interpreter
of nature," able to explain its phenomena by their rational
principles, laws, and ends, and which acknowledges no personal
God. Christianity presupposes theism and all the moral
and religious truths which reason discovers. In respect to
these truths it is not antagonistic to rationalism, but takes
them up into itself. Christianity is itself the true ration
alism, because it presupposes all the religious and moral
truths which reason discovers, and because it claims to be
itself the rational explanation of the facts of man's nature
and history. Christianity has no conflict with reason ; it is
in itself the highest rationality, and it always appeals to
reason as the arbiter of its own claims.
Notwithstanding this agreement, rationalism is in sharp
contrast with Christianity. It teaches that the knowledge
of God gained by human reason from the divine action in
nature is sufficient for man's welfare. The difficulty with
man is, therefore, his ignorance, not his sin. He needs
instruction, not redemption. He is himself the originator
of his own progress and perfection ; and intellectual ac
quisition and culture make the only factor in human progress.
Man is to think himself into the kingdom of God. Ration
alism, therefore, is abstract and speculative, not historical.
It is a philosophy. It coincides with dogmatism in insisting
on intellectual belief of doctrine rather than on spiritual life ;
its gospel, its glad tidings of great joy, will be found some
where in metaphysical speculation. Hence it rejects Chris-

68 THE DIVINE AGENCY IN THE ESTABLISHMENT,,
tianity, and becomes antagonistic to it. It values Christianity
only as Christianity enunciates ethical and philosophical
truths, not as the historical action of God's redeeming grace.
The permanent in it is the abstract truths, common to the
religions and philosophies of the world. The historical facts
are transient and unimportant. Jesus sinks to the level of
Socrates and Confucius. When we have extracted from his
story the truths which he taught, the history may be thrown
away, as a merchant throws away the broken boxes after the
goods are taken out, or as a chemist destroys a plant in
distilling from it a drop of essential oil.
The chief priests and elders had the effrontery to say
before the crucified Jesus : " Let him now come down from
the cross, and we will believe him." Let him leave the
sacrifice of redemption unfinished, and conform to our ideas
of the Messiah, and we will receive him. The same is the
challenge of the rationalist to-day : " Come down from the
cross ; cease to offer thyself as the world's Redeemer and
Lord ; accept our ideas, and present thyself as one of the
philosophers, — as one of us, for we also are philosophers, —
and we will receive thee. Humanity is wiser than any indi
vidual ; and we have the light of nineteen centuries which
thou hadst not, and have surveyed all the philosophies and
religions of the world, of which thou wast ignorant. Abandon
the pretence that thou art the Redeemer of the world, and
we will receive thee among the enlightened minds of human
history, such as we are." There is a spice of self-appreciation
here analogous to that which Goethe hits in his epigram on
the pantheist : " What is the use of your jeers about the AH
and the One ? The professor is a person ; God is not." 1
Rationalism, allying itself with Christianity in opposition
to naturalism, aims to establish intermediate between the
two a rest for the intellect and the heart. But, denying
historical redemption, by the necessity of its own principles
it gravitates steadily towards naturalism ; it builds its half
way house within the line of perpetual frost, and the glacior
1 Werke i. p. 198. Spruche in Reimen.

ADMINISTRATION AND TRIUMPH OF CHRIST'S KINGDOM. 69
»_ which the structure rests bears it steadily downwards,
and buries its fragments in the fields of eternal ice. It
needs but a slight scrutiny to demonstrate this tendency ;
for rationalism involves irreconcilable inconsistencies, and
does not admit a logically complete and systematic statement.
1. In rejecting miracles on the ground of their impossi
bility, it is precluded from admitting the existence of a
personal God.
A miracle is always possible, if there is a personal God.
This J. S. Mill affirms : " A miracle is no contradiction to
the law of cause and effect ; it is a new effect, supposed to
be produced by the introduction of a new cause. Of the
adequacy of that cause, if it exists, there can be no doubt ;
and the only antecedent improbability which can be ascribed
to the miracle is the improbability that any such cause had
existence in the case." a The argument against miracles
founded on their impossibility has force only as part of a
naturalism which rejects God. Trench compares it to the
giant Antaeus, " unconquerable so long as permitted to rest
on the earth out of which it sprung, but easily destroyed
when once it is lifted into a higher world." 2 Rationalism,
assuming as an axiom the impossibility of a miracle, suddenly
drops into naturalism.
2. The same tendency is inherent in the rationalistic
doctrine of the sufficiency of human reason. God acts in
nature. Man, observing God's action in nature, attains
knowledge of him, and that knowledge is sufficient for man's
spiritual welfare.
But here is a God submerged in nature, imprisoned in its
uniform and necessary sequences, incapable of acting outside
of nature to quicken by his grace the heart of man. God is
shut out from man, and cannot communicate his grace. Man
is shut out from God, and cannot commune with him. Prayer
becomes impossible ; for it cannot alter the fixed courses of
nature, in which alone God can act. The familiar illustra
tion is, as a man in a boat by pulling on a line may draw
1 Logic, p. 376. 2 Miracles, p. 62.

70 THE DIVINE AGENCY IN THE ESTABLISHMENT,
himself towards the wharf, but cannot draw the wharf
towards him, so prayer may lift the soul towards God, but
cannot draw God to the soul. But, if so, an honest man
will cease to pray. He will not practise on himself by
offering petitions which he knows God cannot answer,
merely by these spiritual gymnastics to gain strength to his
own soul. It will be replied that the worshipper will con
form his worship to his belief, and omit all petition. What,
then, is left ? Thanksgiving? But he has received no grace
from God ; his own reason is sufficient for his spiritual
needs. Confession ? But God gives neither pardon for the
past nor grace for the future. What, then, is the worship ?
An empty rhapsody, a pale meditation. But this conception
of God takes from meditation itself its warmth and power.
If he heeds not your prayers, he equally heeds not your
meditation. You pour your confessions and praises into
empty space, not into the heart of God. You have funda
mentally changed the Christian conception of God. He is
no longer a Father and Redeemer, with heart warm to help
his supplicating creatures, but a stone colossus, moving no
finger in sympathy for his wretched creatures, who cling
with their tears and entreaties to his stony feet. Nature is
above God ; and wretched men cry in vain to insensate forces
that cannot hear, to unknowing laws that cannot answer, to
a universal mechanism that rolls blindly and inevitably by
the necessity of its own being.
These are legitimate inferences. For if God, transcending
the courses of nature, acts in the hearts of individuals and
in the courses of human history, communicating his sufficient
grace to quicken and to sanctify, to help men in their igno
rance, their sorrows, and their work, then man's reason is no
longer regarded as sufficient for his spiritual needs ; but
God's gracious action, coming down upon humanity and
superadded to the action of human reason, is admitted.
This divine action, transcending the courses of nature, is
supernatural, and thus is open to the objections which are
urged against the possibility of miracles. Lastly, this gracious

ADMINISTRATION AND TRIUMPH OF CHRIST'S KINGDOM. 71
action of God is necessarily historical. Rationalism is no
longer a mere philosophy, a mere knowing ; it admits the
historical element as really as Christianity, and must pro
ceed to tell us what and when and where this supernatural
action is, and what are its historical results.
Rationalism, in some of its forms, admits the gracious
action of God on the hearts of individuals and in human
history. It even claims a certain superiority ; it expresses
impatience with Christianity, as needlessly bringing the
revelation of prophets and apostles and the mediation of
Christ between man and God, and exalts its own superiority
as teaching the immediate communion of every man with
God. It is impatient with the narrowness which limits
inspiration to prophets and apostles, and vaunts its superi
ority in admitting that all genius is inspired. It is impatient
with the exclusiveness of Christianity, and boasts its breadth
in accepting the truths of all religions. All these claims, if
clearly scrutinized, may be found to resolve themselves into
naturalism. If not, rationalism, in making these claims, is
inconsistent with itself.
3. The fundamental principle of rationalism necessitates
not only the denial of redemption, but also the ignoring of
sin. Since reason is sufficient, and man's spiritual welfare
is attained by knowledge, the evil under which he suffers is
not sin, but ignorance, and what he needs is not redemption,
but instruction. Rationalism is now claiming to be the
universal religion, dropping the historical and transitory,
and gathering into itself the truths common to all religions.
But all religions begin in the sense of sin and the conscious
need of reconciliation to God. Rationalism excludes these.
Therefore, instead of being the universal religion, it is not a
religion, but only a philosophy. It will eventually appear
that as a philosophy it is a philosophy falsely so called.
Finding no place for the ideas and sentiments essential in
all religions, it fails to declare the full-orbed truth of reason,
and usurps the title of rationalism. It is, therefore, inca
pacitated to give a permanent resting-place either to the
intellect or the heart.

72 THE DIVINE AGENCY IN THE ESTABLISHMENT,
We come back, then, to our starting-point, that God's
action in establishing his kingdom is historical. Any divine
action which is to be a power of renovation must be per
formed in contact with man and in the courses of human
history. Otherwise it would be powerless on man as a revo
lution among a people in the stars. It is not possible to say
a priori that the divine action must have been just wha»t it
is recorded in the Bible to have been. But, if God is to
redeem men from sin, the redemptive action must enter
human history at some point, and go on in some definite
line of events to its consummation. Otherwise the facts of
redemption and of sin must be rejected ; and for the his
torical redemption must be substituted the bald rationalistic
idea of religion as a knowledge of God and a consciousness
of virtue, and of man's sufficiency for himself to realize the
highest possibilities of his being.
Therefore objections against the scriptural history of God's
action in redemption are equally pertinent against any other
line of history in which the redemptive action may be con
ceived to have proceeded. If they have any force, it reaches
to the extent of subverting the idea of redemption as con
trary to reason, and impossible. All must admit that, if the
Christian history of redemption is false, no other redemption
has been or will be in human history, and the very idea of
redemption must be abandoned. Accordingly Strauss and
other rationalists start with the assumption that a super
natural and historical action in redemption is impossible.
Their historical criticism of the Gospels is not for the purpose
of ascertaining whether the narrative of redemption is true ;
but, assuming its falsity, the criticism aims only to explain
how the wonderful history came into being and obtained
credence, and what residuum of merely natural events may
underlie it. It is a point gained to know that the historico-
critical questions are secondary. The main question between
the rationalist and the Christian pertains to the possibility
of redemption. If the very conception of redemption in any
form is not absurd, the historico-critical objections to Chris-

ADMINISTRATION AND TRIUMPH OF CHRIST'S KINGDOM. 73
tianity lose their force. In fact, historical criticism then
supports Christianity. For the unresolvable difficulty to
the rationalist has always been, that both the external and
the internal supports of the credibility of the gospel are so
strong that it is impossible to explain the existence of these
narratives, and their acceptance and power, on the supposition
that the fundamental fact of the narrative is impossible.
It must be added that since God's action in redemption is
in human history, it must not only be consonant with the
constitution of the human mind, but also be at every time
and place consonant with the existing condition of the minds
on which it acts. If God acts on a child or a savage, the
action can be effective only so far as it is adapted to their
capacity. A human element, therefore, enters everywhere
into God's action in redemption, limiting its action and mod
ifying its results. It is sufficient for our present purpose
distinctly to state this principle.
II. God's Action in Redemption involves the Miraculous.
The incarnation, resurrection, and ascension of the Son
of God are miraculous. These are essential in redemption.
The whole conception of the Messiah and his kingdom im
plies the miraculous. The denial of miracles is the denial
of that which is essential in Christianity. The attempt to
retain Christianity after eliminating all that is miraculous
is futile. If the residuum of speculative and ethical truth
may be called a system of religion, it certainly has no claim
to be called Christianity, and those who receive that system
have no claim to be called Christians.
A single thought on this great subject is all that our space
permits. It is involved in the very fact of sin that if God acts
to redeem the sinner, the action must be special, varying from
the action which would normally have expressed the divine
perfections, if no creature had ever sinned, and varying also
from the normal expression of the divine perfections in the
punishment of sin. This speciality of the divine action
seems to involve all that is essential in the miraculous.
10

74 THE DIVINE AGENCY IN THE ESTABLISHMENT,
The idea of atonement, as averting the punishment, which
would normally express the divine perfection, by a divine
action which equally expresses the same divine perfection in
pardoning, seems to include within itself a specialty of divine
action which is essentially miraculous.
The same specialty of the divine action in redemption
appears to be involved in the very idea of sin. Jesus says :
" If any man will do his will he shall know of the doctrine."
He here teaches that light and influence sufficient for him
whose heart is right are insufficient for him whose heart is
wrong. If the sinner is to be saved from sin, the redeeming
energy must transcend all that is necessary for those who do
not sin. The abnormal action of the sinner must be met by
extraordinary action of God. He cannot be reclaimed by
the same action of God's love which he has already resisted
in his transgression.
The great revelation of nature is open to the sinner not
less than to those who have not sinned. " He maketh his
sun to rise on the evil and on the good." God reveals
himself to sinners as really as to the righteous in their own
reason, and conscience, and spiritual wants. On the one as
really as the other shines the light which " lighteth every
man that cometh into the world." To sinless ones the
external revelation becomes an inward light. The spiritual
mind discerns that which the carnal mind knoweth not.
But the same revelation to a sinner is inadequate, not
through a defect of the revelation, but through the blinding
and hardening caused by sin. The light, so far as it en
lightens him, is a lurid illumination of his guilt, driving
him to superstition. His degeneracy is not through the
want of light, but through the power of sin perverting it.
So Paul explicitly teaches in the opening of his Epistle to
the Romans.
Evidently, then, if sinners are to be saved, the action of
God in saving them must transcend all his action in the
uniform sequences of nature, and through the human reason
and conscience. The abnormal condition of the sinner

ADMINISTRATION AND TRIUMPH OF CHRIST'S KINGDOM. 75
requires special action of God for his redemption — action
which would itself be abnormal if there were no sin ; and is
in that sense a suspension of uniform law ; but which is the
normal action to meet abnormal conditions. And this is
action which is miraculous. Miracle, then, is involved in
the very idea of redemption. And the abnormal condition
of the sinner is the occasion and antecedent probability of
the special and therefore miraculous intervention of God ir.
redemption. Miracles are reasonable because sin is unrea
sonable. Miracles are normal because sin is abnormal.
And since redemption is essentially miraculous, it is im
possible- to determine a priori how far or in what ways the
redemptive energy entering into human history may trans
cend the ordinary sequences of nature, and no objection
against any miracle recorded in the Bible is valid on the
ground of the impossibility or antecedent improbability of
miracles. The argument against miracles is, therefore, an argument
against redemption, and finally against the existence of sin,
which is the occasion of redemption. Precisely accordant
has been the history of, rationalism, beginning in the denial
of miracles, proceeding to the denial of redemption, and
issuing in the denial of sin.
III. God's Action in Redemption constitutes a Revelation.
1. God's revelation of himself is primarily by his action,
and especially by his action in redemption. God reveals
himself by his action in nature. Suns and planets and cos
mic forces are the words in which his thoughts are written,
and the secret of his being revealed. So in redemption he
reveals himself by his actions. He makes known what he is
to sinners by what he does to sinners. The expulsion from
Eden, the call of Abraham, the preservation and education
of the Jews, the incarnation, the life, death, resurrection,
and ascension of the Christ, the outpouring of the Spirit, the
rise of Christ's kingdom on earth under the ministry of the
apostles, and the continued intercession and reign of Christ

76 THE DIVINE AGENCY IN THE ESTABLISHMENT,
in the dispensation of the Spirit constitute God's revelation
of himself to men.
2. The revelation by words, oral or written, is secondary
and subordinate to the revelation by actions. Thought and
character must be expressed in action before they can be
symbolized by words. A mother cannot reveal her love to
her child simply by taking it on her knee and saying : " I
am your mother." The word is a mere articulate sound ;
it has no meaning. It is only by the service of motherly
love, caring for the child and encompassing it through all its
life, that she can reveal herself to her child. So revealing
herself she makes the word mother, a life-long power to her
child. So it is impossible for God to reveal himself primarily
by words. Were it written across the sky, with letters made
of stars, " God is Love," it would be a meaningless emblaz
onry, unless God by his action had first given meaning to
the words. This he does in redemption, revealing his majesty,
his holiness, his authority, his patience, his immeasurable
love, as pure as it is tender. So he puts meaning into words.
The revelation, " God is Love," is written not in letters on
the sky, but in^ redeeming grace acting in the history of man.
Thus the name of the Redeemer is above every name, a
power to subdue, to quicken, and to inspire the sinner's heart.
It may be objected that after we have acquired the mean
ing of words, God may reveal himself through them. True.
But the very point we are making is that thought and char
acter must be expressed in deeds before they can be sym
bolized in words. In the revelation, " God is love," the
word God, would have no meaning if God had not first
manifested himself in his works ; men would never have
had occasion for the word if they had not first found the
Infinite Being through his works ; and the word "love " would
have no meaning except such as is derived from the action
of selfish men. In theology we are always at this dis
advantage, that the thought and character of God must be
expressed by words which primarily derive their meaning
from the actions of men. But the words which declare the

administration and triumph of Christ's kingdom. 77
mind and heart of God must be interpreted through the
action of God, and not through the action of men. Thus
God's action in redemption gives significance to the words
of revelation which are to be interpreted by God's action
rather than by man's. It is God's action in redemption in
Christ and in the Holy Spirit by which we are to learn the
meaning of God's love.
Hence Christ is emphatically the Word of God. In him
is spoken the great Word of revelation. His person, his life,
death, resurrection, ascension, intercession, and continued
reign are the true revelation of God. The revelation by
words is secondary and subordinate.
3. When God has revealed himself by actions, a revelation
by words is possible, supplementing the revelation by action.
A mother, revealed already to her child through acts of love,
can take the child on her knee and explain its filial duties ;
and every word is now powerful with the power of a mother's
love. So God, entering into human history with the energy
of redeeming grace, may inspire individuals with knowledge
to be communicated to others. But these private revelations
must always be dependent on and subordinate to the public
acts of his redeeming love. A general reveals the plan of
his campaign by his acts in prosecuting it. But, as incidental
to it, he gives sealed orders to this general and that, sends
despatches to this one and that, takes some into his counsels^
and declares, explains, and vindicates his plans. These private
communications are afterwards of great use in throwing light
on his plans. But they are incidental and subordinate to
the grand revelation which he makes in the action of the
campaign. So we have inspired communications from
prophets and apostles, but all incidental and subordinate to
the grand revelation in the divine action in redemption, and
pre-eminently in Christ, the Living Word.
4. Revelation, therefore, is not an end in itself, but an
incident to the divine action in redemption. A mother in
her care of her child, a general in the conduct of a campaign,
a statesman in the administration of government, reveal

78 the divine agency in the establishment,
themselves; but the revelation is incidental to their main
purpose, and is not itself the end for which they act. So
God's action in redemption is incidentally a revelation ; but
the revelation is not the end for which he acts.
All God's action must be sincere and hearty. It must be
the expression of what God is. He cannot act merely for
show or for effect. His action is the expression of what he
is ; it carries in it all the earnestness and energy of God.
So the blessed sunlight, which reveals the sun and illumines
all things, is the outpouring of the light and heat which
burn with energy inconceivable in the sun, raging in cyclones
of fire, bursting in volcanic eruptions which might throw up
the earth as a stone into the air, streaming in cones of flame
eighty thousand miles into space, and in a few minutes
falling back into the burning mass. So God's love, glowing
with the infinite energies of the Godhead, and pouring
through all space with blessing, will certainly reveal itself ;
but the revelation is not the end for which he acts.
If the revelation were the end of the action, the action
itself would cease to be the action of love ; the revelation
would cease to be a revelation of love ; and the whole mani
festation would cease to be a moral power quickening love
iu man. Any theory which represents the incarnation or
any divine action as designed only to show God, and so to
produce a moral impression on his creatures, is void of
meaning; for God's action can reveal God and become a
moral power upon man only as his action is the sincere and
hearty expression and outshining of what God is. The sup
position that revelation is an end in itself drives us into this
erroneous theory — a conception derogatory to God, and
making his action not real and hearty, but scenic and
sensational. It also leads legitimately to the fundamental
error of rationalism — that the _vil into which man has
fallen is not sin, but ignorance, or at the worst error, and
therefore that he needs not redemption, but instruction.
Writers on the Evidences of Christianity often argue as
if the grand design of God in all the divine action recorded

administration and triumph of Christ's kingdom. 79
in the Old Testament and the New was to prepare the Bible
as an authoritative revelation of his will, and leave the Bible
in the world to effect its renovation. But it is not the
written word, but the living Word; not the Bible, but God's
grace in Christ and in the Holy Spirit, which is the power
of salvation to men.
5. It follows that miracles are not to be regarded simply
as seals of the truth of revelation, as credentials of inspired
messengers, certifying their authority to reveal God's will,
but as a part of the divine action in human history redeeming
men from sin. As the divine love worked its way into
human history, its divine energy could not always be con
tained in the ordinary courses of the divine action, but
leaped from its overcharged conductors, and scintillated and
flashed and electrified in miracles. It sometimes encountered
obstacles which could not be removed by ordinary action,
and which were miraculously swept away. Especially, in
entering humanity in Jesus Christ, and offering the oblation
of sacrificial love in the redemption of man, the action was
necessarily and in its very essence miraculous. Therefore
we no longer point to miracles as simply the external evi
dences of the divine authority of a book ; we no longer draw
the internal evidences of the divine authority of that book
from its superior morality alone, thus sinking Christianity ta
the level of rationalism ; but we regard Christianity as the
action of God redeeming man from sin — an action which is
primarily redemption, necessarily historical and supernatural,
and incidentally a revelation. And we claim that Chris
tianity is true on the grounds that it is the only rational and
satisfactory exposition of the condition, history, and destiny
of man in his relation to God, and the only manifestation
of God which in every age meets man's spiritual necessities.
6. The objection of F. W. Newman and others, that a
book-revelation is impossible, is now seen to be without force.
It is founded on the supposition, itself rationalistic, though
apparently accepted by some writers on the Evidences, that
the Bible is simply a revelation of moral truth and duty.

80 THE DIVINE AGENCY IN THE ESTABLISHMENT,
and that the end of all God's supernatural action was to
make and authenticate this revelation. To this it is objected
that moral truth and law must always be judged by man's
moral or practical reason, and therefore cannot be sub
stantiated by outward authority, not even by miracles. Cer
tainly, a miracle cannot prove that it is right to hate one's
neighbor. But the objection is of no force against God's
supernatural action in redeeming men from sin, and the
revelation of his love incident thereto.
IV. The Knowledge of God revealed through his Action in
Redemption is a Moral Power in the Establishment and
Administration of his Kingdom.
Every action spreads its influence beyond the time and
place in which the power is exerted, as a candle shines far
beyond itself into the darkness ; as the cholera, once when
it swept around the world, originated in the filthiness and
other unwholesome conditions of certain crowds of pilgrims
in the East. This is true of all action, but especially notice
able in respect to memorable acts. A mother's love con
tinues to be a moral power on the son, though he dwells in
another hemisphere ; and after her death it is purified and
intensified into a heavenly power. The memory of the
martyrs is an inspiration in every age. At the stake Latimer
said to his companion : " Fear not, Master Ridley ; we shall
this day light such a candle by God's grace in England as,
I trust, shall never be put out." The young men praying
near the haystack in Williamstown are still missionaries to
the heathen. Howard still inspires to benevolence. The
great name of Washington still overshadows and protects his
country. " Stat magna nominis umbra." Every heroic life
is a power so long as its history is read.
These are analogous to the moral influence of God's his
torical action in redemption. Of his propitiatory sacrifice Christ
said : " It is finished," and died. His earthly life ended, and
became a part of the history of the past. But in that life
and death he made propitiation for our sins, and opened tlie

ADMINISTRATION AND TRIUMPH OF CHRIST'S KINGDOM. 81
way of deliverance from their power ; he triumphed over
death ; he disclosed the infinite love of God our Redeemer ;
and in all the ages his name is above every name ; and his
appeal : " Do this for my sake," finds a willing response.
The same moral power, though less marked, is inherent in
the action of God in the history of the Jews. It is a study
and a guide to all generations. Thus God's past action in
history is a moral power in all subsequent generations ; and
this must not be overlooked in considering the divine agency
in the establishment, administration, and triumph of Christ's
kingdom. Here, however, it must be observed that the moral power
of God's past historical action is an incidental result of that
action, not its primary end. An action of which the primary
end is to make itself a moral power is an action from which
the essence of the moral power is left out. It is a revelation
that reveals nothing. The very conception breaks down,
like the conception of motion in which nothing moves.
There would be no moral power in a martyrdom suffered for
the purpose of creating moral power. The martyr would be
a witness testifying nothing. The moral power is not in the
dying, but in the character manifested in the dying, and
which, under the circumstances, would equally have neces
sitated the dying if it were to be forever secret.
So Christ did not come into the world and die primarily
to create a moral power. The supposition eviscerates itself.
It has been already said that all God's action is the sincere
and hearty expression of what God is. Its moral power does
not lie in the action, but in the divine thought and character
expressed in the action. If we leave out of Christ's work
the idea of atonement, — if he did not suffer for us, the just
for the unjust, to bring us to God, and was not the propitia
tion for the sins of the whole world, — then we leave out the
essence of his moral power. God in redemption reveals his
entire character in harmony. God is not a nature having
instincts and wants seeking gratification. His action is not
the development of a nature according to necessary impulses.
11

82 THE DIVINE AGENCY IN THE ESTABLISHMENT,
His action is the expression of reason. His love itself is the
expression of reason in acts of will. Redemption, then, does
not merely express a divine compassion for sinners, but also
the supremacy and majesty of the eternal reason, the un-
changeableness of its truth, the authority and inexorableness
of its law, the grandeur of its ideals, the blessedness of con
formity to it, and the impossibility of blessedness without
that conformity to it. If it expressed only the fond impulses
and cravings of a nature seeking its own happiness or that
of others, it could not be a spiritual power potent to lead
men to God.
In this line of thought we see the moral power of tbe Bible.
It is the inspired record of God's supernatural and provi
dential action in redeeming the world in Christ and founding
his kingdom under the dispensation of the Spirit. It con
tains the private revelations of his will to prophets and
apostles incident to his redeeming action. It reveals God as
tlie providential and moral Ruler of the world and as the
Redeemer of men from sin. It necessarily carries in it the
highest moral power ; it must always be the instrument in
advancing Christ's kingdom ; and intimacy with it and
reverence for it must always be the condition of a pure,
strong Christian character in individuals and in nations.
V. God's Action in the Establishment and Administration
of his Kingdom is continued through all Generations in
the Holy Spirit.
The energy of God's redeeming grace did not cease to act
with the events recorded in the Bible. Redemption is
present, not less than past.
The divine agency now is not merely the moral power of
the revelation already made, but it is also the present, per
sonal influence of God through the Holy Spirit. The analogy
here is not to the memory of a departed mother, but to the
mother present with her child, always ready to counsel and
help, impressing her influence on it every day, and thus
accumulating her moral power. The Christian life is not

ADMINISTRATION AND TRIUMPH OF CHRIST'S KINGDOM. 83
\
sustained merely by knowledge of the truth and meditation
on God's action in the past, but by the present action of God
upon thg soul through the Holy Spirit.
This doctrine is opposed to the doctrine of Romanism,
that divine grace comes to men through the opus operatum
of the church. It recognizes every Christian as in immediate
communion with God, a recipient of God's grace. It is
opposed to a certain rationalistic element which has shown
itself even in the best forms of Protestantism ; the impression
that truth and meditation on the truth are the sole agencies
in spiritual life and growth ; the Lord's supper, for example,
is profitable as an occasion for meditating on the love of
Christ, not as an ordinance appointed to convey the influence
of the Spirit to him who receives it in faith. This type of
thought gives whatever ground there has ever been for the
charge of Bibliolatry — a charge brought by rationalism
against the churches, the only ground for which is the ad
mission by the churches of a rationalistic type of thought.
The doctrine of the Spirit is opposed to the rationalistic
tendency alleged to be inherent in Protestantism. If the
allegation is true, it is only because Protestantism is a protest
against errors and abuses ; the tendency is not inherent in
Christianity, nor in the affirmation of spiritual and historical
Christianity which Protestantism makes. Finally, the true
doctrine of the Spirit is distinguished from the fanatical by
the facts, that the work of the Spirit is the continuance and
world-wide extension of God's work of redemption ; that it
avails itself of the moral power accumulated by God's ante
cedent redemptive action and the revelation which he has
made of himself in the same ; that, as the progress and ex
tension of that same redemptive action, it must be in harmony
with all the work of redemption which has preceded and
with the revelation of the same in the word of God. So
Christ explicitly teaches : " He shall glorify me ; for he
shall receive of mine and shall show it unto you."
In the action of God recorded in the Bible he makes an
entrance into human history ; educates the race for the

84 THE DIVINE AGENCY IN THE ESTABLISHMENT,
coming Christ and the establishment of his kingdom ; makes
atonement; creates the moral power of the name that is
above every name. In the Holy Spirit the redemptive energy
becomes a world-power, and the life of Christ flows out into
humanity as a life-giving and sanctifying power.
Thus the Spirit brings us into immediate connection with
Christ. His presence on earth is a token that Christ lives
and reigns, administering and extending his kingdom. If a
friend, going to a distant country, promises to send you on
his arrival some curious product of the country, and if, in
due time, the promised present is brought to you, you have
in hand a pledge and token that he has safely accomplished
his journey, and in that distant land remembers you and has
kept his promise. So the descent of the Spirit on the day
of Pentecost was the present token and pledge to the disciples
that Jesus, according to his word before his death, had as
cended to the right hand of the majesty on high, that all power
was given him in heaven and on earth, that in his exaltation
he remembered his disciples and kept his promise. And
wherever the Spirit touches any human heart, it is in all
ages the present token of the same. The Spirit, also, con
tinues the work of redemption. He proceeds from Christ.
In him Christ acts, administering his kingdom and advancing
it to its triumph. In him the life and redeeming power of
Christ, confined while he was on earth to his bodily presence,
diffuses itself through the world and courses through human
history, more effective than his bodily presence could be:
" It is expedient for you that I go away ; for if I go not away
the Comforter will not come to you."
Thus in the action of the Spirit the redeeming energy of
the Son of God is brought immediately upon us. We are
brought into immediate contact with the Son of God, and
thereby into contact witli the Father, in whose love to the
world redemption originates ; whose love in redemption
through Christ and the Spirit floods the earth with its glory
and pours through the history of man. It is just as by the
sunbeams we are brought into immediate contact with thp

ADMINISTRATION AND TRIUMPH OF CHRIST'S KINGDOM. 85
sun. So the Spirit touching human hearts with light and
quickening, brings us into immediate connection with the
Son of God, who is " the outshining of the Father's glory,"
and who reveals the otherwise unknown Father, and reveals
him by flooding us with his love. Thus through the Spirit
" God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness
hath sinned in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." Thus
redemption, with all its glory, comes upon us — redemption
from the Father, through the Son, and by the Holy Ghost.
Thus redemption is the channel in which all the fulness
of the Godhead has been poured through human history,
widening and brightening from the first promise to Adam
until now. So Ezekiel represents it, a fountain bursting
forth from beneath the threshold of the sanctuary, at first
only up to the ancles, farther on to the knees, then to the
loins, and afterwards a river too great to be crossed. We
cannot originate that river of life ; but we can embark on it
as it flows by our doors, and be borne by its shining waves
on into the ocean-fulness of God's eternal love.

LECTURE V.
THE CHURCH THE ORGANIC OUTGROWTH OF THE LIFE-GIVING AND
REDEEMING, GRACE OF CHRIST PENETRATING HUMAN HISTORY IN
THE HOLT SPIRIT.
John in his first epistle, presents Christ's life as penetrat
ing humanity and manifesting itself therein by a growth
vitalized by that life and having its character ; as the vital
force of a seed penetrates inorganic nature and creates a
growth " after its kind." The eternal life which was with
the Father is in his Son ; by him, the Word of Life, it is
manifested to men. He that hath the Son hath the life,
and participating in his life, is like him. The life penetrat
ing human history, creates a growth after its kind. That
life in God is light, and as it unfolds in man it is light, and
in it is no darkness at all ; in God it is love, and unfolding in
humanity it is love, excluding all selfishness and hate ; in
God it is absolute purity, and among men whosoever hath
this hope in him 1 purifieth himself even as he is pure ; this
life entering the human heart effects a new birth, and
" whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin, for his seed
remaineth in him, and he cannot sin because he is born of
God." The " fellowship " on which the apostle insists is
more than communion in meditation and worship ; it is par
ticipation in the life that was in Christ, as a plant participates
in the life of the seed. The apostle proceeds to teach that it
is by the Holy Spirit that Christ abides in us. The criterion
by which we discern the Spirit of God is that he is the Spirit
1 In him. Him refers to God : whosoever hath this hope in God purifieth
himself. 86

THE CHURCH THE ORGANIC OUTGROWTH OF CHRIST'S GRACE. 87
of Christ, confesses him as the life of the world, and creates
an outgrowth of the life that is in him.
Since the life that was in Christ is thus penetrating and
vitalizing humanity, it must manifest itself in effects which
can be historically traced. In some form the kingdom of
heaven must reveal itself in human history rising from the
ruins of humanity and shaping itself in its divine beauty.
Somewhere must appear the living tree into which the mus
tard-seed is growing. Goethe calls nature the living gar
ment which is always weaving for Deity in the whizzing loom
of time, and by which we see him. So the kingdom of heaven,
forming itself in human history, is the garment which God
is weaving by which we see him as the Redeemer and the
life of men.
- The more spiritual and profound historians of the church
recognize it as the manifestation of this divine life flowing
into human history. But this is true of the organized church
only with important qualifications. The life must manifest
itself in an organization ; but the organization is neither the
only nor the complete exponent of the life. The kingdom
of heaven is organizing rather than organized. It creates
for itself an organization, yet the kingdom of heaven is not
the organization, but rather the life which produces it. The
life which creates the organization, penetrates and purifies
also the family and the state, renovates individuals, and
blooms and fructifies in Christian civilizations ; and these
also are its historical manifestations. Always the kingdom
of heaven is within you. In the variously organized churches
of history, without doubt, the life has been revealed and or
ganized. But no one has been the only and complete out
growth and manifestation of the life. The kingdom of Christ
is neither identical nor co-extensive with them.
These qualifications must be kept in mind as we proceed
to consider the church as the organic outgrowth in human
history of the life that is in Christ.
There are two maxims which express what is essential in
the two conflicting theories of the church. The first is .

88 THE CHURCH THE ORGANIC OUTGROWTH
" Where the Spirit of God is, there is the church." The
second is : " Where the church is, there is the Spirit of God."
All organizations of the church fall into two classes, accord
ing as they express the one or the other of these principles.
According to the first of these principles, the Spirit of God
is always originating and sustaining the new spiritual life,
and the church is the constant and spontaneous development
of this spiritual life into outward organization. The Spirit
and life are primary and originant; the organization secon
dary and dependent. The church is not perpetuated by the
cohesiveness of the organization, but by the indwelling
Spirit. If Christianity is introduced into a heathen country,
those whom the Spirit renews become a church through
their fellowship one with another in that new life. If in any
country the church becomes corrupt, any «whom God's
Spirit renews, withdraw from the corrupt organization and
originate the visible church anew. The organization, for
saken by the Spirit, is no longer a church, but a carcass
needing to be buried. The organization developed from the
pre-existing life and perpetuated by the vitalizing and ever-
present Spirit is subordinate to the life, and exists to pro
mote the edification of its members and to facilitate the
performance of their Christian work.
According to the second principle, the church came forth
as an organization from Christ's hand to stand unchanged to
the end of time. The organization is the vehicle through
which God's grace and Spirit are conveyed to men. The
organization' is primary and originant, the Spirit and life
secondary and dependent. The organization perpetuates
itself by its own strength and cohesiveness. If Christianity
is introduced to a heathen land, the church must be im
ported. If the church becomes corrupt, true believers may
try to reform it ; but to withdraw from it is schism. The
life is subordinate to the Drganization. The church stands
between the individual and Christ, to convey God's grace to
him by its action in his behalf. And the church, speaking
officially, is infallible, and its dicta binding, as the voice of
God, on every individual's conscience.

of Christ's grace working by the spirit. 89-
The first of these conceptions of the church is from Christ.
The' second is historically from heathenism. The Christian
church, first constituted as Christ willed, gradually took up
into itself the principle of Roman imperialism and was cor
rupted into a hierarchy. Romanism is the logical result.
Protestantism acknowledges the first principle. Yet Congre
gationalism is the only polity which carries out the principle,
" Where the Spirit of God is there is the church," to its
legitimate results.
In the light of this maxim, consider, next, in some details,
what is the true idea of the church as the outgrowth in hu
man history of the life which was in Christ and is manifested
among men.
I. The Spirit acts primarily on Individuals, and the Life
manifests itself primarily in them.
The divine action in redemption is directed primarily upon
individuals, and not upon organizations and institutions. It
is not a diffused daylight, an all-pervading electricity, acting
equally and indefinitely on society as such, through institu
tions, public sentiment, and the spirit of the age, and lifting
society in mass to a higher level. Its aim is not primarily
the promotion of general culture, and refinement, and the
advancement of civilization. It is the direct action of God
on individuals to bring them into reconciliation with him
self. Redemption aims to save souls. It is becoming fash
ionable in some circles to ridicule this phrase. A writer in
a leading Review has even said that the idea of missions " to
save souls " is becoming obsolete. The phrase, like any
other, may degenerate into cant. But rightly understood it
is the doctrine of Christianity, that redeeming grace is acting
in human history to save souls. Christ came " to save the
lost." The " faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation "
is, that Christ came " to save sinners." They who are offen
ded at this are offended at Christianity itself.
This individualism attaches to the redemptive agency in
all its forms. Christ tasted death for every man — the sin-
12

9G THE CHURCH THE ORGANIC OUTGROWTH
gular number, the distributive pronoun. The attraction of
the cross fastens immediately on every soul, as the attraction
of the sun fastens with undivided power on every planet.
Every one is invited to equal intimacy with God, each in the
secrecy of his own closet. Every Christian, born of the
Spirit, is the child of God and not removed by any interven
ing agency to a remoter relationship. Justification by faith
gives to every sinner free access to God without priestly
mediation. Accordingly the Spirit is represented in the Bible as dwel
ling in the individual, not in the church. The temple of
God, which Paul admonishes the Corinthians not to defile,
is not the organic church, but the body of the individual.
Thus Christianity is characterized by intense individualism.
This has originated- the individualism which characterizes
modern political institutions. But all experience confirms,
what reason teaches, that political welfare is not attainable
by that one-sided individualism which prompts every one to
regard only his own liberty and rights. This is an individu
alism which is identical with selfishness. It must be supple
mented by a regard to society. And it is remarkable that,
while Christianity teaches an intense individualism, it insists
on individual responsibility, duty, and love, rather than in
dividual liberty and rights. Thus, while vitalizing the grand
movement of society against oppression and slavery, and
in favor of equal rights, it supplies the needed check to sel
fishness and the needed impetus to live for others and to
guard and promote the interests of society.
II. A Church is an Organized Association of Persons Re
newed by the Holy Spirit.
This follows directly from the principle, " Where the
Spirit is, there is the church." When Christ's sheep hear
his voice and follow him, they are thereby separated from
others and united to Christ ; and in their union with Christ
and following of him, united also to each other. Thus the
church comes into being. It is an association of persons

OF CHRIST'S GRACE WORKING BY THE SPIRIT. 91
effectually called to Christ by his voice speaking through the
Holy Spirit. They are united not by force or external au
thority, nor by the tie of birth ; but by their own free act
and covenant in the fellowship of their common faith in
Christ, and the common character, ideas, and aims of then
new spiritual life. Yet the church is not merely a voluntary
association, dependent for its existence on the will of man.
It is of divine origin, because it is the spontaneous outgrowth
of the "life " that is in Christ, penetrating human history
through the Holy Spirit ; it exists by divine authority, be
cause it has the reason of its existence in God's redeeming
energy working always among men ; it is lifted above the
creations of human will, and is perpetuated and imperisha
ble in the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and his continued
life-giving and renovating agency in the world.
The church, as an organization thus constituted, neces
sarily made its appearance so soon as Christianity began to
prevail. And the principles thus organized in the churches
necessarily tended to pass over into the constitution of the
state. Allusion has been already made to the intense individualism
of Christianity. This is embodied in the church. The indi
vidual is the unit of the organization. This was contrary to
the conception of society universally prevalent when the
first Christian churches were established. The heathen
conception of society emphasizes the race, rather than the
individual. It begins with the race, and proceeds down
wards to the individual ; it begins with institutions, and
proceeds downwards to the men who live under and for
them. In heathen society the individual is lost in the mass ;
the individuals exist as the planets did when dissolved and
lost in the nebulous matter diffused through space ; not, as
now, in the solar system, moving in their individuality har
moniously under law. It was an epoch when, in society
thus constituted, the apostolic church appeared, an insti
tution embodying the Christian idea of the worth and rights

92 THE CHURCH THE ORGANIC OUTGROWTH .
of man — an association of individuals of every caste, rank,
and race, " born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh,
nor of the will of man, but of God." In the church the
king and his subject, the master and his slave, the nobleman
and the peasant, stand on a level, having equal rights in its
privileges, equal vote in the management of its affairs, and
equal eligibility to its offices. Such an institution could not
flourish, retaining its purity, in such a state of society,
without coming into conflict with it, diffusing new ideas,
and gradually infusing its own principles into the consti
tution of the state and the usages of society.
Such has been the historical fact. In the very beginning
of the propagation of Christianity we find Peter and John
arraigned before the Sanhedrim declaring the rights of
conscience, and announcing the principle which has ever
since underlain the martyrdoms and conflicts for liberty of
conscience and the rights of man against oppression. Even
amid Roman imperialism, the churches retained their primi
tive constitution for a time. After being corrupted and
consolidated by taking into itself the imperial idea, the
church long retained features of its original constitution in
the election of bishops, in holding its offices open to men of
every degree, in its steady and successful opposition to
slavery, in affording through all the reign of violence an
asylum for the oppressed, in its action through the Middle
Ages in the interest of human rights against the tyranny
of the secular rulers, and in its attitude as an adjudicator
of wrongs by an appeal to justice and law in antagonism to
the brute force and bloody lawlessness of the feudal barons.
People willingly appealed to tribunals that recognized law
and the authority of God against lords who decided every
thing by the sword ; and in this way the growing hierarchy
was encouraged in its usurpations of authority. Even in
the theological writings of the Middle Ages are found distinct
traces of the modern doctrine of the rights of the people
against oppressive rulers.1
1 "A man is bound to obey secular rulers only so far as justice requires.

of Christ's grace working by the spirit. 93
After the Reformation, the same principle reasserted itself.
The church was organized as an association of persons, and
with the recognition of personal rights. The principle passed
from the church into the state. Geneva became " the seed-
plot of liberty." Subsequently. the Puritan churches more
completely transferred the principle of their own organization
into the Puritan state.
Thus the principle of the organization of the church, as
an association of persons united in the fellowship of a
common life, common interests and ends, and a common
law, went out into human thinking, and became a power in
civilization, loosing the bond of race and force with which
society had been bound .by Satan, bowed down and nowise
able to lift up itself during all the centuries. The state is
no longer a race united by common descent, and holding-
down subject races by force ; but it is a people, of whatever
locality, united by common interests under law ; and the
jurisprudence of Christendom assumes that government,
whatever its form, rests ultimately on the consent of the
people. Even the doctrine of the " social contract," elabo
rated by the Jesuit Suarez, taught by Locke, Sidney, and
Rousseau, and terribly declared in the first French Revo
lution, is a recognition and distorted expression of this truth.
Perhaps it may not be going too far to say that the con
stitution of the church as an association of regenerate
persons has furnished an important principle of political
and social progress. It is in antagonism to the heathen
conception, which regards the man as subordinate to his
institutions, and which looks primarily to a change of insti
tutions for the improvement of the man. The same is the
error of modern " socialism." In opposition to this error,
the church embodies the principle, which all experience veri-
i
Therefore, if the rulers have not the right to rule, but are usurpers, or if rulers
require what is unjust, their subjects are not bound to obey them, unless per
haps, in exceptional cases to avoid scandal or danger.'' In confirmation h<-
quotes Augustine (De Ciuitate Dei, Lib. iv. Cap. 4). " Aside from justice, what
are kingly governments but great robberies." — Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theo-
logiae, Second Division of Part ii. Quest. 104, Art. 6.

94 the church the organic outgrowth
fies, that the only real progress of society consists in the
actual improvement of the individuals composing society. A
strong and virtuous people insure a strong and just govern >
ment. The second maxim : " Where the church is, there is the
Spirit," gives the contrary conclusions. The child is re-
regenerated in baptism by the opus operatum of the church
in its behalf. It is thus born into the church, and thence
forward governed by enforced authority. If afterwards the
baptized person deviates from the faith, or disobeys the
commands of the church, he is subject to inquisitorial tor
ments and death. Thus the old principle of despotism
becomes the principle of the church itself ; and the power
which was working to redeem the world becomes imprisoned
in an iron arm that smites and kills.
III. The Church as an Organization is Subordinate to the
Life.
1. The organization is the outgrowth of the life.
Man, by virtue of his rationality, is an organizer. As
God expresses his thoughts in worlds and systems, man
expresses his thoughts in cities, states, institutions. It is
man who forms his institutions, not the institutions which
form the man. So Christian faith and love create Christian
institutions. The new Christian life displaces the old, and
creates all things new. The church, as an organization, is
the outgrowth of the life. It may be said to be the organiza
tion of the life, as the mustard-plant is the organization of
the life of the mustard-seed.
2. The organization exists for the ends or purposes of
the life.
The conception is of spiritual persons united in fellowship
by their oneness with Christ for the purpose of mutual edifi
cation and helpfulness in Christian life and work. This
principle is determinant of the constitution of a church. It
ii? incompatible with the conception of a church that it should

OF CHRIST'S GRACE WORKING BY THE SPIRIT. 95
absorb the individual in the society, or by its organization
come down on him to suppress or crush his personality.
The conception of a church requires that its organization
and its organic action emphasize and develop the individual
personality. It exists for the very purpose of subserving
the spiritual life, growth, and power of its members. It
must not be, therefore, an organization so massive as to
oppress the life, but so consonant with the life as to help it,
as a trellis sustains and helps the vine.
Accordingly the growth, power, and prosperity of a church
are proportional to the degree in which it calls out its indi
vidual members to spiritual life and activity. If it becomes
only a receptacle, taking in and holding its members as
dead things, it is thenceforth only a whited sepulchre, full
of dead men's bones.
3. The church is not mediatorial. It does not stand
between man and God, to bring the divine blessing from
heaven by its sacraments and the opus operatum of its
service. The subordination of the organization to the life neces
sarily involves the three characteristics just mentioned, and
is a necessary inference from the principle : " Where the
Spirit is, there is the church."
From the church this idea of the subordination of organ
ization to the life has penetrated human thought respecting
political and social institutions. When Christ came, the
iniquity of the world was full. As at that time religious
faith was withered, and scepticism had attained its greatest
power and widest dominion, so the principle of government
by force had reached in the Roman empire its consumma
tion. The Western nations were ruled under military
despotism by the will of one man, and held in his hand for
his own personal use and enjoyment. The people, educated
through many generations under the reign of force, had lost
the capacity of refinement of feeling and the enjoyment of
the gentle and kindly emotions, which were displaced by

96 THE CHURCH THE ORGANIC OUTGROWTH
ferocity and blood-thirstiness, so that even theatrical spec
tacles were insipid if not spectacles of blood.
In the midst of this civilization the Christian church
appears, like a dewdrop, distilling silent and unseen from
the air. It makes no direct assault on existing institutions.
Not claiming the sword, which rightfully belongs to the civil
ruler, it can only stand in the presence of the great organiza
tions embodying the power of the strongest, and let its
presence do its work, educating the world to understand
that institutions are the outgrowth of human thought and
life, and that they can never be right and salutary till they
embody truth, justice, and love, and not selfishness grasping
and ruling by force. It introduced Christian charity as a
power in civilization. It taught men self-sacrifice in service.
The Roman slavery passed away before it. At last the con
ception embodied in the Christian church when it first stood
in the civilization of the Roman empire, like a dewdrop
trembling on a leaf, has created a new conception of political
and social institutions and a new civilization. Man is no
longer regarded as existing for institutions forced upon him ;
but institutions exist for man, and are the creation of his
thought and life. In like manner, the church has educated
man to the true method of securing the progress of man and
the reorganization of society. It is not by immediately
assailing institutions, as if a change of institutions would
recreate the man ; but by new creating the man, that he may
cast away institutions no longer fitting him, and create new.
It has been the great mistake in the education of the race
to believe that there is no safety for man except as by ex
ternal and superior power he is restrained and constrained,
and institutions and rules are framed and put on him, into
conformity with which his thought and life must grow.
But the words of Milton are always true :
" Who overcomes
By force, hath overcome but half his foe."
There is no real progress, except as men accept truth on
conviction, conform their lives to it in Christian love, and

OF CHRIST'S GRACE WORKING BY THE SPIRIT. 97
freely embody their Christian thought and love in insti
tutions. This is the truth evermore embodied and expressed
in the Christian church. Fearful forebodings agitate some
minds, whether republican government will not prove a
failure, and men are discussing what will be the political
constitution of the future. But all experience is teaching
and emphasizing the doctrine of Christianity, that the true
order of human advancement is from the individual to the
organic, and not the reverse ; and that the grand requisite
is to educate the people in knowledge and true piety. An
ignorant, selfish, irreligious people will fail under any gov
ernment. An intelligent and Christian people cannot miss
a wise and beneficent government.
All this is reversed by the other maxim : " Where the
church is, there is the Spirit." It gives us the organization
first, the life created by and flowing from it ; the organiza
tion externally and authoritatively established, and exter
nally and authoritatively imposed on men, cramping, con
fining, crushing them to its own rigid form ; the individual
existing for tlie organization, and to be used for its purposes.
It makes the church as an organization the mediator between
God and man. The Spirit of God and his redeeming grace
are communicated only through it. The sinner cannot come
to God, nor God to the sinner, except through it. Thus the
church takes up into itself the principles of heathen civilization,
which exalts the organization above individuals, and loses
+hem in the homogeneous pulp into which it grinds them.
The church becomes a spiritual despotism, which suppresses
the liberty wherewith Christ maketh free, dries up the springs
of spiritual life, whence the freedom of man must flow, and
perverts the authority of God and the sanctions of the world
unseen to uphold oppression.
It is a curious fact in the history of the hierarchy that the
inextinguishable truths of Christianity find utterance in it,
but in perverted and monstrous forms. For example, the
hierarchical church denied the doctrine of the divine right
13

98 THE CHURCH THE ORGANIC OUTGROWTH
of kings and taught that civil rulers derive their right to
rule not immediately from God; but mediately. But it did
not teach that doctrine in its true and Christian form, that
the civil ruler derives his power from God mediately
through the people, for whose good he is God's minister ;
but through the church, which* derives its authority imme
diately from God. For another example, the church insisted
on its own independence of the civil ruler ; it denied that
the spiritual power is subject to the civil, or can rightfully
be coerced by the sword ; it taught the separation of the
church from the state. The world owes the union of church
and state, not to the papacy, but to Henry VIII. and the
English Reformation. The pope, it is true, became a tem
poral sovereign. But the function of civil ruler was distinct
from the function of the papal supremacy; and in theory
his temporal sovereignty was always for the very purpose
that the head of the church might be independent of all
civil rulers, and the church be always separate from the
state and independent of it. At the same time the church
asserted its supremacy over the state, and compelled the use
of the sword of the magistrate to suppress heresy ; it repudi
ated liberty of conscience, and subjected not the actions only,
but the very thoughts of men to spiritual inquisition and
despotism. For another example, the church taught that
the subjects of a king who was a usurper, or of a legitimate
monarch who issued unjust commands, were not bound to
obey him ; but in such cases it alone, by its divine suprem
acy, could absolve the subjects from their allegiance. Again,
the church opened an asylum for the oppressed, and took
their part against the violence of the red-handed baron or
ring; but it subjected them to itself in a worse tyranny.
Thus the imperishable principles of Christianity were asserted
in the darkest ages, but in perverted and monstrous forms.
The pure milk of the word was changed into the gall of
bitterness. The church, the legitimate mother and nurse
of human liberty, became the harlot-mother and nurse of
monsters. This world-wide organization claimed to be the

of Christ's grace working by the spirit. 99
mediator, not only between God and the individual sinner,
but between God and society itself, determining all political
and social action and organization.
IV. The Unity of the Churches is the Unity or Fellowship
of the Spirit.
1. The church is local or congregational, not national or
ecumenical. It is an association of Christians by their own
covenant in fellowship in Christ for their mutual edification
in the Christian life and co-operation in the Christian work.
If the maxim with which I started and the principles already
evolved from it are correct, every such association is a
Christian church. Whatever larger associations, national or
ecumenial, may be formed, they cannot take away the church-
character of these local churches.
2. A church has no authority to govern. Government
implies authority to enact laws and to enforce obedience to
them. In the proper sense of the word, there is no such
thing as church-government. Tae authority of the church
is exhausted in giving or withholding fellowship. A church
must determine whether it will give fellowship to any person
as a Christian or to any association as a church.1 Beyond
this it has no governmental power whatever, neither legisla
tive, judicial, nor executive. It cannot make laws nor en
force obedience.
Accordingly our Saviour gives to the church the power of
the keys, but withholds the power of the sword. But the
power of the keys, the power of opening aiid shutting, is
simply the power of giving or withholding fellowship. On
the other hand, the New Testament explicitly gives to the
state the power of the sword, but withholds from it the
1 Some insist that the determination of fellowship must be left to the con
science of the individual claiming it ; and that every person who claims to be a
Christian and every association claiming to be a church, must be received to
fellowship as such. But the teaching of the New Testament that the responsi
bility of determining who shall be received to fellowship is imposed on the
church, is explicit. See Matt, xviii. 15-18 ; 1 Cor. v. 4-13 ; 2 Thess. iii. 6, 14,
15 ; Titus iii. 10; Rom. xiv. 1-3; xv. 7.

100 THE CHURCH THE ORGANIC OUTGROWTH
power of the keys. The magistrate " beareth not the sword
in vain." The civil government exists to maintain the
peace and order of society, to protect the people in their
rights, and to enforce justice by penalty. For these ends it
is intrusted with the sword. But it is not intrusted with
the keys. It has not authority to determine who are entitled
to fellowship as Christians, or to enact any law which pre
supposes that the state has determined that question, or
which in its execution necessitates an official discrimination
between Christians and unbelievers.
Here, through the Christian church, comes into human
history a principle which has become a power in civilization :
the separation of church and state. This principle was un
known in heathen civilization, in which was no religious
organization analogous to the church, and the civil and re
ligious functions were not entirely separate. In its applica
tion it does not mean that in making, adjudicating, and exe
cuting laws, government is exempt from obeying the law of
God. Government has no ri|fht to shut out the light of Chris
tianity, and to go back and take up heathen morality. It
means that the sphere of government's action is secular.
Whatever the laws or institutions through which it accom
plishes its ends, it is absolutely precluded from deciding who
are entitled to fellowship as Christians.
On the other hand, the authority of the church is limited
to the determination of fellowship, with no power to inflict
any penalty on those from whom it withholds its fellowship.
The purity of the church is perpetuated from generation to
generation by the spiritual life and the indwelling Spirit.
Spiritual things are spiritually discerned. Christ trusts to
the spiritual mind always in his church to discern that whicli
is spiritual, to unite by its own spiritual affinities with all
which is spiritual, and to repel all that is " earthly, sensual,
devilish." It is the only possible preservation of spiritual
purity. The difference between the spiritual and its opposite
can only be spiritually discerned. When the preservation of
the purity of the church is intrusted to the sword suppressing

OF CHRIST'S GRACE WORKING BY THE SPIRIT. 101
heresy, or to the weight of massive organization, or to ecu
menical councils and standards of faith by them authoritatively
decreed, these coarse and hard agencies do not discriminate
between spiritual truth and life and the opposite, but only
between outward organizations. If the Spirit always sus
tains the spiritual life, and the church is the outgrowth of
the life, the spiritual church may be trusted in every genera
tion to discern for itself that which is spiritual. It is because
the church is spiritual that it is intrusted with the keys, and
authorized to open and shut. Christ alone openeth and no
man shutteth, and shutteth and no man openeth. The act
of the church in opening and shutting is Christ's act, only
as Christ is in the church quickening its spiritual discern
ment. The power of the keys is not given to the church of
a particular generation, but to the church in all generations.
We must confide in God's indwelling Spirit, and not imagine
that we must see to everything, and bind everything fast for
all coming time. The church of a former age had not power
to settle all questions of fellowship so as to deprive the
church of to-day of the power of the keys. The Comforter,
" even the Spirit of Truth," is to " abide with you forever."
Because the unity of the church is the unity of the Spirit,
and the authority of the church is limited to determining
fellowship, the action expended in sustaining the organization
and its machinery is reduced to a minimum, and the com
bined energies of the church have free course in beneficent
service. 3. The national or ecumenical unity of the churches is
the unity of the Spirit. It has been already said that Chris
tians are spontaneously drawn into fellowship. It is also
true that Christ requires them to be in fellowship. This
fellowship is to extend through the world, that all Christian
churches may work together in saving the world from sin.
But this ecumenical union cannot be by an ecumenical
organization, but only by fellowship in the Spirit. Any
union by an ecumenical organization is incompatible with
the fundamental principle of church organization. The

102 THE CHURCH THE ORGANIC OUTGROWTH
Romish church is constituted as an ecumenical organization.
Its entire history has demonstrated that the differences
among men are so great that an organization can never
become ecumenical. It has also demonstrated that such
an organization, so far as it does extend, is necessarily a
hierarchy. The same conclusions are necessary, from the
nature of the case.
4. The method by which the fellowship of the churches
shall be determined is not definitely and authoritatively
prescribed in the New Testament.
The primitive churches seem to have determined their
fellowship in the natural method by mutual acquaintance in
Christian work. This knowledge was extended to remoter
regions by apostles and messengers of the churches sent
abroad on various errands of Christian work, or by Christians
scattered by persecution. This must always be the primitive
method, and it is always valid. If a church is not at its
organization regularly brought into fellowship with other
churches by a council, and yet, subsequently, by its faith and
works, demonstrates its Christian character, it gradually ac
quires the confidence of the churches, and is recognized as a
church. All determination of church-fellowship rests ulti
mately on this grouud — the knowledge of the Christian
faith and practice of a church by the Christian churches in
its neighborhood.
The next method is that of the Congregational council,
growing immediately out of the primitive and natural
method, giving formal and official declaration, after investi
gation, of the fellowship of the churches, and sometimes, also,
rendering to a church in circumstances of embarrassment
the advice and aid of sister churches. This is supplemented
by the Congregational conference, which, assuming the
question of fellowship to be already settled, and excluding
all investigation of it, is a union of churches, already in
acknowledged fellowship with each other, solely for mutual
help and co-operation in the Christian life and work. This
is a method of determining fellowship capable of uniting all

OF CHRIST'S GRACE WORKING BY THE SPIRIT. 103
Christian churches throughout the world in the unity of the
Spirit, without impinging on their Christian freedom.
Other methods, more complicated and imposing, may be
adopted without contravening the fundamental principle of
the ecclesiastical constitution. The Presbyterian church,
for example, may be conceived of in this way. Its pres
byteries, synods, and general assembly may be conceived of
as agencies for ascertaining and declaring the fellowship,
and for making effective the union and co-operation <^f the
local churches. But this method is too complicated and
cumbersome to become ecumenical ; it issues in a continual
cleavage into sections, even when it aims only to be national.
And the very weight of the machinery perpetually tends to
a unity of organization in which the local churches lose
their distinct existence.1
The Congregational method is to be preferred, because it
is most accordant with the primitive simplicity of the com
munion of the apostolic churches ; because it is most con
sonant with the scriptural idea that the church in every
generation is the creation of the living Spirit, and is to pre
serve its purity by the sensitiveness and discernment of
spiritual life ; and because it alone is adequate to secure an
ecumenical unity of churches, without extinguishing the
local church, or repressing individual life and liberty.
5. The Christian church is necessarily catholic. It is in
fellowship with all churches in which is the spiritual life.
It acknowledges as a Christian church every association of
regenerate persons who are united by their own free covenant
in Christian fellowship for the purpose of edification and
co-operation in the Christian life and work, whatever be the
1 Accordingly, while the text of the Presbyterian "Form of Government"
acknowledges the local church, a note authoritatively explains that " the several
congregations of believers taken collectively constitute one church of Christ,
called emphatically the church " ; and that the government of that one church is
by the majority of its representatives in Presbytery, Synod, and General Assem
bly (Chap. xii. and note). And the Confession of Faith (Chap, xxx.), declares
that the government of the church is " in the hand of church-ofiicers," to whom,
and not to tho church, " the keys of the kingdom of heaven are committed."

104 THE CHURCH THE ORGANIC OUTGROWTH
particular form of their union, and however encumbered
with human accretions. As in a crystal, however peculiar
its shape, we find by cleavage the primitive form, and by
that determine its kind, so into whatever form the church,
modified by peculiar circumstances, has grown, if under
neath we find the primitive, apostolic church, by that we
recognize it as a true church. Thus the Congregational
church is essentially and necessarily undenominational,
catholic, and Christian. It cannot acknowledge as a church
a national or ecumenical organization, the synod, assem
bly, convention, or whatever may be the complicated ma
chinery by which local churches seek concentration and
more imposing union. It cannot acknowledge its own
council or conference as a church. But in any organization,
national or ecumenical, in any association of churches, how
ever confederated, it acknowledges the local churches which
are thus united. The Congregational is the primitive, apos
tolical church. It takes into its constitution only the essen
tial elements of the church. Christ did not institute this
apostolic church as a denomination, but as the Christian
church, to be in fellowship with Christian churches every
where. It is in its very constitution catholic. All who
insist that human accretions on this simple form are essential
to the church — who set up their national or ecumenical
organization as the church, and refuse fellowship to the
church in its simple and primitive form — are guilty of
schism. V. The Continuity of Christ's Kingdom in History is the
Continuity of the Spirit and Life, rather than of the
Organization.
The tendency in investigating religion is now to the his
toric method. The rationalism which develops religion from
the personal consciousness, and resolves Christianity into
philosophy and ethics, is congenial to an age of metaphysical
speculation, and belongs to a period and type of thinking
which is now passing away. The profoundest thought and

OF CHRIST'S GRACE WORKING BY THE SPIRIT. 105
scholarship of the day investigate religion historically. But
the history of Christianity did not end with the events
recorded in the New Testament. The redeeming grace,
working in humanity, creates for itself a continuous history.
The apologists for Christianity are not to confine themselves
to the evidences of the credibility and genuineness of the
Bible used by the apologists of the last century. The argu
ment now must take a wider range. It must show Chris
tianity as a power in human history, evolving a system of
truth the most satisfactory to human reason as an exposition
of the relations of God and man, and effecting a process of
renovation of individuals and of society, and a Christianizing
of civilization, which, if completed, will realize the highest
well-being of man. Christianity, in what it has accomplished,
tends to accomplish, and promises to perfect, proves itself
divine. When, in some future age, the Christian idea of
the kingdom of God shall be realized in society, and it shall
be seen, in tracing the history of Christianity, that from the
beginning it bad promised this result, and tended towards
it, then Christianity will have wrought into history a demon
stration of its divine origin.
What I now say is, that the continuity of this historical
manifestation, so far as it has yet proceeded, is found in the
spirit and the life, rather than in the outward organization.
I. The organization is itself an expression of the life.
The church, as an organization distinct from the family and
the state, is a peculiarity of Christianity. The Greeks,
Romans, and Egyptians, the Mahometans, Boodhists, and
Brahmins, have a religion, but not a church. The very
existence of a church, separated from the world by fellow
ship in a new and spiritual life, and distinct from the state,
is a peculiar and remarkable manifestation of the divine life
in humanity. Recall the characteristics of this organization,
the new principles embodied in it, the revolution in human
institutions wrought by it, and you will see that the or
ganization itself is a wonderful exponent of the divine and
renovating life of the Spirit working in humanity.
13

106 THE CHURCH THE ORGANIC OUTGROWTH
2. The organization itself has a continuity that is historical.
Man organizes his thought and life in institutions. He is
liable, therefore, to take up into the church the ideas and
spirit of the age in which he lives, and thus to encumber it
with accretions of human origin. But the overlaying of the
church with these accretions, does not destroy it. The
Lord, who knoweth them who are his, has owned every
association of devout and spiritual worshippers as a church.
Thus the church, even as an organization, has had historical
continuity. It was, indeed, at times, a hidden church, —
the real churches not even knowing themselves as such, —
yet not the less real. When the Romanist asks : " Where
was your church before the Reformation ? " the answer is
ready : " It was wherever those whom the Spirit had re
newed were associated in spiritual fellowship ; according to
the words of Jesus : ' Where two or three are gathered to
gether in my name, there am I in the midst of them.' "
3. But this continuity is through the Spirit, more than
through the organization. If the church is constituted
according to the maxim, " Where the church is, there is the
Spirit," then the divine action in redemption culminated in
setting up a massive organization, in which the Spirit is
imprisoned, like a bird in a cage, and which is to stand
unchanged through all generations; salvation is only in it,
and all that is done in it is Christ's doing. Then the history
of Christianity is the history of this organization ; Chris
tianity is responsible for its corruptions ; the history of
Christianity becomes the history of intolerance, persecution,
corruption, oppression, and opposition to human progress ;
and history becomes a perpetual refutation of the claim of
Christianity to be from God.
We cannot accept this fatal doctrine. The church of to
day is not one with the apostolic churches by the line of apos
tolical succession, stretching without a break through the
dark ages, like the electric wire beneath the ocean, and
transmitting the life of Christ only by the completeness of
the tactual connection. The historical continuity of the

of Christ's grace working by the spirit. 107
church, even as an organization, is the continuity of the life,
always quickened by the Spirit and organizing itself in the
church. The institution is not perpetuated by the tenacity
of the organization, cohering as it stretches through the
centuries, but by the organizing force of the inward life ; as
an animal body is not perpetuated by the coherence of its
material, which is always passing away, but by the indwelling
and ever-organizing vital force.
Therefore Christianity is not responsible for the abuses which
have dishonored the history of ecclesiastical organizations.
4. While the church, in its historical continuity as an
organization, manifests in history the continuous presence
of God's redeeming grace and of his kingdom, that mani
festation extends beyond the church in purifying and trans
forming society. This is like the diffused daylight, filling
the atmosphere, which more than the sun's direct rays
manifests his light. This manifestation is in the clearer and
more complete system of doctrine evolved by the thought
and life of the advancing ages ; in the broader, clearer, and
more spiritual ethics ; in the higher tone of the moral life ;
in political institutions founded on justice and human rights ;
in the pre-eminence of philanthropy ; in the creation of a
Christian civilization.
5. The- historical continuity is such that the present is
always evolved from the past. While the Christian church
does not, by an organization taking precedence of the Spirit,
impose the past as an unchangeable mould on the present,
yet it does not cut the present adrift from the past. While
the unity is of the Spirit, yet it is the same Spirit, advancing
always the same truth and life, meeting with the same re
deeming grace the corruptions and perversions of humanity
iu the diverse forms in which in different ages they appear,
and setting up the same kingdom of righteousness on earth.
As in the individual " the child is father of the man," so in
the life of the church the present is the offspring of the past.
This may be illustrated in the Romish and the Protestant
doctrines of tradition. Tradition, in its primitive form, was

108 THE CHURCH THE ORGANIC OUTGROWTH
held tb be the unwritten teachings of Christ and the apostles,
preserved from generation to generation, and promulgated
by the church. But tradition as the Council of Trent ex
plains it, includes also interpretations of scripture which
had been unanimously accepted by the Fathers, And dogmas
and rules which had received the sanction of the church ;
and the whole rests ultimately on the authority of the
church. This crude mass the Romish church imposes on
the thought and life of the ages, as the gods put Aetna on
Enceladus; and every turning and motion of human thought
beneath its load produces volcanic disturbance. The Prot
estant believes in tradition ; but it is tradition which ac
knowledges the written word as its source, and appeals to
it as the sufficient rule of faith and practice ; which is itself
the meaning of the Bible, as it flows down through the ages
iu the Christian consciousness of the church, as it finds, ex
pression in the writings of theologians, in the creeds of
councils and churches, in the teachings of parents and
pastors, in the renovated Christian life, usages, and insti
tutions of society, and the growth of Christian civilization.
Protestantism puts tlie Bible into every man's hand to read
and interpret for himself ; but it comes with surer evidence,
with richer meaning, with more diversified and far-reaching
applications won from the thought and experience of suc
cessive generations. If " the meaning of the Bible is the
Bible," the Bible itself comes down through the ageL „_e a
river of life, purifying, deepening, and broadening its waters
as it flows.
6. While the church has historical continuity, it is in
every generation as immediately connected with Christ and
his Spirit, as was the first church ever planted. So every
generation receives the immediate light of the sun. Chris
tianity has to be received by each generation anew. It
comes as new to this generation as to that of Christ. Chris
tianity is never consolidated. Like light, heat, electricity,
and vital force, it is perpetuated only as it acts, it continues
only as it is perpetually renewed, it must be received afresh

OF CHRIST'S GRACE WORKING BY THE SPIRIT. 109
by every one who feels its power. It is old, and yet forever
new. It can never be antiquated. It is the same to every
generation, as the sun climbs the sky every day, and the
stars every night, fresh and vigorous as in the earliest days.
7. Hence the church in its very organization is adapted
to human progress ; it is receptive of it, and it quickens it.
It is not a cast-iron organization, refusing all change and
crushing all growth, but capable of existing in any condition
of society and under any human institutions. It insists on
the free circulation of the scriptures, the right of private
judgment, liberty of conscience, the equal privilege of all
men to have access to God, justification by faith. Hence
it trains its members to alertness to discover and receive
whatever light may break forth from God's word, to sensi
bility to whatever influences may come from the Spirit, to
keen spiritual discernment, and to a lively sense of personal
responsibility to bring their own lives into conformity with
God's will, and as much as in them lies to establish his
kingdom on the earth. Hence it always has in it the power
of revival and reformation, as fire always has in it the power
of kindling. And whatever the intellectual and social
progress of man, the church is able both to adapt itself to it
and to guide and quicken it. Thus it stands in contrast
with a hierarchical organization, which becomes by its mas-
siven^ss incapable of adapting itself to new conditions antag
onistic to human progress, and obliged to perpetuate the
unchanged past in order to perpetuate its own existence.

LECTURE VI.
THE NECESSITY AND CHARACTERISTICS OF THE HUMAN AGENCY IN
ADVANCING CHRIST'S KINGDOM.
God's agency in advancing his kingdom is not extra-
human. Even his miraculous revelation was made in and
through human history. The Eternal Word becomes the
Redeemer of men only as he was made flesh and dwelt
among us, under human limitations and in the courses of
human history, working redemption. The redemptive energy
of God, in each dispensation and in all its manifestations,
works in and by humanity. Accordingly, in the dispensation
of the Spirit, he works in and by humanity, and intrusts the
advancement of his kingdom to his people. On them he im
poses the responsibility of carrying the gospel to all mankind.
I. The Necessity of Human Agency.
Why is redemption dependent on human effort ? Why
does not God's love sweep over all human conditions, and
extend his kingdom at once through the world ? ,
1. This is only one form of the general question per
taining to the manifestation of the infinite in the finite. As
such it transcends the limits of human knowledge. So far
as we can conceive, God can manifest or reveal himself only
by limiting or circumscribing himself. Every manifestation
of the divine perfections, being through the finite, must be
limited, incomplete, and progressive. At any given point
of time in the manifestation, it must always be conceivable
that a more complete manifestation might be made. This
is as necessarily true of the manifestation of his infinite
love in the redemption of sinners, as of the manifestation
of his infinite power in the works of nature. The delay of
no

THE HUMAN AGENCY IN ADVANCING CHRIST'S KINGDOM. Ill
Christ's coming is no more an objection against the per
fection of God's love, than the delay in the creation of man
is an objection against the infinitude of his power. The
existence of heathen on the earth to-day is no more an
objection against the reality of Christ's reign of grace than
it is an objection against God's government of the world
that there have been immeasurable periods when the earth
was occupied by animals of a low organization, of which an
eminent professor used to say, that he did not believe the
time ever was when the Almighty reigned over nothing but
bull-frogs. The great cosmic agencies act slowly.
Nor is any force added to the objection by the degree of
limitation or incompleteness. Wherever the limitation is
drawn around the works by which God reveals his glory, it
is still a limitation, and the question recurs: "Why not
more ? " The worm, were it intelligent, would have no
right to complain that it is not a quadruped, nor the quad
ruped that it is not a man, nor the man that he is not an
angel, nor the angel that he is not a thousand times greater.
Because the divine bounty is inexhaustible, every divine
gift suggests the question : " Why not more ? "
If this objection is valid, it proves that God cannot reveal
himself in finite effects, that is, that God cannot act ; in
other words, that there is no God. It arises from attempting
to scrutinize with the logical understanding the measureless
grandeurs which are revealed to faith. Analogous objections
would be met by one who should study the starry heavens
with a microscope.
2. Dependence on human agency is involved in the his
torical character of redemption. God's redeeming grace
can manifest itself only in human history. But, since it
must be in human history, it must advance by human
agency, and its advance must be subject to the processes
and changes of human history.
3. The same is evident from the nature of redemption.
If, indeed, God converts and sanctifies men by sheer al-
mightiness, accumulating souls in his kingdom as one scoops

112 THE HUMAN AGENCY
up sand in a shovel and throws it over a wall, it might
reasonably be supposed that he would at once convert and
sanctify all. But God's action on man is in harmony with
man's mental constitution. " I drew them with cords of a
man, with bands of love." Therefore human faithfulness
or negligence, human willingness or opposition, are to be
taken into the account in determining the progress of Christ's
kingdom. 4. This intrusting of the interests of the Redeemer's king
dom to human hearts and hands is itself the most beneficent
and effective discipline in training Christians to love like
Christ. There would be no training of men to the purity,
the strength, and the helpfulness of Christlike love, if God
by his miraculous energy should establish his kingdom, and
leave his redeemed with folded hands to gaze indolently on
his work.
We may draw from this fact a lesson for our own guidance
as Christian ministers. Since God reveals himself and car
ries on his work of redemption in human history, laying hold
of humanity and working through its thoughts, processes, and
development, the same law governs our action in preaching
his truth. It is not enough for a preacher to express his
own thought and life. If his thoughts and his methods are
foreign to the thought and life of the people, he cannot
carry them with him, nor advance them in the divine life.
The seed must take root in the hearer's heart. He alone
preaches with power who grafts his thought on the thought
and life of his hearers, and from and by these advances
them to higher thought and life.
II. Characteristics of the Human Agency in advancing
Christ's Kingdom.
The general principle is that already presented as fun
damental in the constitution of the church : " Where the
Spirit of God is, there is the church." In all our thinking
respecting the human agency in the conversion of the world,
we must conceive of the agency of God's Spirit as going

IN ADVANCING CHRIST'S KINGDOM. 113
before it and quickening it. " We are laborers together
with God." Man's Christian work, in every part and aspect
of it, is accordant with the truth which the whole work of
redemption expresses : " We love him, because he first loved
us." 1. The first characteristic is spontaneity. Paul was thus
actuated : " Whereunto I labor, striving according to his
working, which worketh in me mightily." Here is a won
derful accumulation of the strongest Greek words, expressing
the intensity of the apostle's action, and the intensity of the
Spirit's energy in him quickening the apostle's action :
" Whereunto I labor to exhaustion, agonizing, according to
his energy energizing in me with might." As if driven by
a resistless impulse, he says : " The love of Christ con-
straineth us " ; " Necessity is laid upon me ; yea, woe is
unto me, if I preach not the gospel."
This zeal is a fire kindled fresh from heaven, enveloping
the soul, like the burning bush, ever burning, never con
sumed. It does not lead its subjects to announce the mar
vellous work which they are about to do — as if a reformation
could be manufactured to order. They do their great deeds
in unconsciousness, because their zeal for truth and right,
their love to God and man compel. The greatest works in
the kingdom of grace, like the majestic movements of the
heavens, are marked by stillness, and reveal themselves by
their effects. They come up, like the sun, and reveal them
selves by their own light.
Luther did not set out to work the Protestant Reformation.
In the outset he did not even see the reformation needed.
He simply followed the leadings of the Spirit ; and before
he was aware, behold, the Reformation.
The first settlers of New England exemplify the same
truth. It was no expectation of founding an empire, of
being enrolled among the benefactors of mankind, " all of
them princes to look to," which brought them hither. With
hearts yearning for dear old England they came, impelled
by the fear of God and the purpose to worship him according
15

114 THE HUMAN AGENCY
to the dictates of their own consciences. When we see
the pilgrims hunting, fishing, digging, suffering, we cannot
separate their acts from the glory which has followed ; we
think of them as acting consciously in the presence of pos
terity and the foresight of the glorious future. But, in fact,
they were buried in a wilderness at the ends of the earth ;
and as to their future, their concern was, that it should not
be to perish by savages or by starvation. Theirs was the
stern and suffering toil of poverty, disease, and hardship in
every form ; and the glory which shone into their unglazed
cabins was the glory of Calvary and of heaven. And had it
been otherwise, — if, instead of this simple and sublime
obedience to the Spirit, they had lived in the foresight of
their fame, boasting of the greatness of their mission, — they
would not have been the Christian heroes that they were,
and the pigmies of this self-conscious age would point at
them, and cry : " Art thou, also, become weak as we ? Art
thou become like unto us ? "
Thus history teaches that the power of God, working
mightily in the human heart, is the spring of all abiding
spiritual power ; that it is only as men are constrained by
the energy of the inward spiritual life that they do great
things for God. It is the spirit of Gordon Hall, who was
determined to work his passage to Asia, if he could not go
otherwise. It is the spirit which impelled Newell and
Judson to create an organization to send them out, when no
organization had existed. It is the spirit which moved the
Macedonian Christians, who, not waiting to be solicited,
sought out an agency through which to expend their gifts,
" praying us with much entreaty that we would receive the
gift, and take upon us the fellowship of the ministering to
the saints."
It is remarkable, in Christ's conception of his kingdom,
that he expects the abiding presence of God's Spirit, quick
ening men to spiritual life ; he expects that the enthusiasm
of devotedness to God and self-sacrificing love to man, and
of fidelity to truth and duty, will be undying powers in

IN ADVANCING CHRIST'S KINGDOM. 115
human history, overpowering selfishness and inspiring men
to toil and self-denial for others. On these abiding spiritual
forces he throws himself without reserve.
This enthusiasm has shown itself a power in the world in
all the progress of Christianity. They miserably mistake
who calculate the courses and issues of human action with
the recognition only of the forces of selfishness, and over
looking the power of the Spirit and the forces of the spiritual
life. 2. A second characteristic is the prominence given to the
individual as distinguished from the organization. This
follows from what has already been said of the prominence
of the individual in the constitution of the church.
Isaac Taylor says : " The influence of individual men
seems to have ceased almost to make itself felt. The
course of events and the progress of opinion is the tide-wave
of a mighty ocean, in relation to which the very mention of
individual agency would sound like a mockery." This
opinion grows out of naturalism — the doctrine that man is
but a necessary development of nature. It can never har
monize with Christianity, which always depends on the faith,
love, and enterprise of individuals whose hearts God has
touched. And it is not a fact. Let a Paul arise to-day,
and he will wield Paul's power. It is as true to-day as it
was in Paul's day, as true in America as it was in Palestine,
that a soul filled with God's Spirit will be mighty through
him. The contrary opinion, born of naturalism, is the
antagonist of faith and the destroyer of courage and enter
prise. We talk sorrowfully of the Elijahs, who once moved
the world. Where are the Elishas, who call on the Lord
God of Elijah, and divide the waters ? Oh for the power of
God's Spirit to turn the hearts of his people from looking fear
fully one to another for help, from trusting to outward ma
chinery, — " sacrificing to their net and burning incense to
their drag," — and to inspire them with personal zeal and
enterprise in Christ's work. Great periods and great men
have the imprint of the divine seal, and prove God present on

116 THE HUMAN AGENCY
the earth. If we despair of their reappearance, we despair
of Christianity. If we suppose that organization and associa
tion alone are left us in their place, we suppose that God has
abandoned us to our own devices, and that life and growth
have given place to mechanism.
It may be objected that we cannot expect every year to
be an epoch, and the whole of life to glow with enthusiasm.
This is true; yet Christianity accomplishes something like
this. It inspires every soul with the faith and love which
are the springs of heroism, and ennobles the most common
place life with consecration, aspiration, and loving service
like Christ's.
It may be objected that the office of a settled pastor is
widely different from that of a prophet. This is true. God
has in every age prophetic spirits — quickened by the Holy
Ghost to declare God's wrath against specific sins, and to
.call his churches to new thoughts and new duties — who
cannot be expected to confine themselves to any professional
routine. Yet every minister and every Christian is a witness
for God, called and qualified to testify for God's truth and
righteousness, and to stand against the world, the flesh, and
the devil.
Every Christian, therefore, is to act in his individuality.
He must " attempt great things, and expect great things."
One secret of the success of the apostolic church was this
spirit of individual love and responsibility. When scattered
by persecution, they went everywhere preaching the word.
..Like Michael's angels, fighting against Satan,
" Each on himself relied,
As only in his arm the moment lay
Of victory."
Such a spirit is essential to success. Pervaded by it, " how
should one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to
flight." Then the hosts of God's people, in their organized
and associated assaults on the kingdom of Satan, would be
like the angelic army,

IN ADVANCING CHRIST'S KINGDOM. 117
" Though numbered such
As each divided legion might have seemed
A numerous host ; in strength each armed hand
A legion."
Without this fire of heaven in individual hearts, associations
will be powerless as burning-glasses which concentrate
moonbeams. 3. Christianity opens spheres of action adapted to the
peculiar proclivity and capacity of every Christian.
Carlyle exclaims : " Blessed is the man who has found
his work." And, since man's blessedness is realized not in
receiving, so much as in giving ; not in indulgence, but in
work, blessed indeed is the man who has found a work in
which he is conscious that all his faculties are putting them
selves forth in their full activity, and all his tastes and
aptitudes are fully met.
Every situation, indeed, will bring its chagrins which
must be swallowed in silence, and its drudgery which must
be toiled through with patience. The world has no patience
with the weakling who fills the air with complaints . of the
hardness and disagreeableness of his work, and especially no
patience with complaining and disconsolate ministers. Learn
to burn your own smoke, and not pour it forth to make the
atmosphere sooty and choking to all around you.
Man is greater than his profession. He is many-sided,
many-handed. If one pursuit is not open to him, he can
adapt himself to another. Yet the most effective work is
that in which the man can most joyfully engage, and in
which is consciously satisfied the radical and irrepressible
impulse tu put forth all his powers in action, and to push
forth on every side to the utmost compass of his being.
This adaptation of the individual to his work Christianity
permits. Since the Christian work is so broad, since every
sphere of human life is to be purified and consecrated to
God, there is scope for the highest Christian service to every
variety of talent and in every sphere of life. Christianity
has great breadth, compass, and flexibility. Its spirit is one

118 THE HUMAN AGENCY
— the spirit of faith and love ; its service is as diversified as
human life.
In this respect, the Romish church has shown itself wiser
than the Protestant. It has provided a sphere for every
kind of talent and for every type of Christian life. When
Loyola arose, with his fiery zeal, setting forth new ideas and
new measures, the church did not drive him into opposition
by suspicion and antagonism, but allowed him to work in
his own way ; and the society which he formed became the
ally of the church. When Wesley, with his purer, but not
less fiery zeal, arose in the church of England, he was driven
out. A certain narrowness and rigidity, a certain inability
to recognize Christianity except in a specific type and fashion,
has been a weakness of Protestantism from the beginning,
and has broken it into sects, until the right of private judg
ment seems almost to mean the right of each Christian to
impose his own private judgment on the whole church of
Christ. Here we may properly glance at the Christian work of
woman. In the lives both of Jesus and of the apostles,
woman is presented as specially susceptible of spiritual im
pressions and capable of giving forth Christian influence.
This has become proverbial : " Last at the cross, and first at
the sepulchre."
Dante's Beatrice may be taken as a type of woman's po
sition and influence according to the Christian conception —
the quickener, guide, and exemplar of man in the spiritual
life. In her pure presence, in conscious shame at his own
impurity, he says : " Down fell mine eyes
On the clear fount ; but, there myself espying,
Recoiled and sought the greensward, such a weight
Of shame was on my forehead. With a mein
Of that stern majesty which doth surround
A mother's presence to her awe-struck child
She looked.

IN ADVANCING CHRIST'S KINGDOM. 119
And again, at her appearance
" Suddenly, upon the day appeared
A day new-risen ; as he who had the power
Had with another sun bedecked the sky.
Her eyes fast fixed on the eternal spheres,
Beatrice stood, unmoved ; and I, with ken
Fixed upon her, from upward gaze removed,
At her aspect such inwardly became
As Glaucus, when he tasted of the herb
That made him peer among the ocean gods.
Words may not tell of that transhuman change."
The Christian desire of purity early deteriorated into the
doctrine of the meritoriousness of celibacy and monasticism.
This was natural in an age utterly corrupted by heathenism.
It may be doubted whether the licentiousness which from
the heathen temples began to show itself even in the apos
tolic churches could have been successfully resisted except
by an antagonism as concentrated and one-sided as monasti
cism. It is not strange, therefore, that in the Christian
Fathers we sometimes find expressions of passionate horror
at the fascinations of the fair sex.
But the true Christian conception of woman gradually as
serted itself. Not to mention the influence of the more
directly spiritual teachings of the gospel, the story of Mary
the mother of Jesus, the reverence which it created for her,
the expression of that reverence in art, taught reverence for
woman and for maternity. The truth inherent in the story
of Jesus penetrated society even through perversions and
errors ; as light is light, through whatever medium it may -
shine. The principal spheres of action for the majority of women
must always be the domestic and the social. In these realms
she reigns — "incedit regina." Those whose lives are in
these spheres may give personal aid in specific efforts to
advance Christ's kingdom. Others may devote themselves
entirely to missionary work. Labors of both kinds are
commemorated in the New Testament. Joanna, the wife
of a high officer under Herod, ministered to Jesus ; Dorcas

120 THE HUMAN AGENCY
made clothing for the poor; Lydia opened her house to
entertain Paul; Priscilla, Phoebe, and other women were
laborers with Paul in the gospel. In modern missions have
been women who, by the exaltation of their spiritual lives,
by beauty and completeness of character, and by activity in
the missionary work, have made their names illustrious,
Nothing, during this century, has more than the missionary
work exemplified the power of woman, the variety of lines in
which she can act effectively, the purity, intensity, and com
pass of her influence, and thus has illustrated and enlarged
the sphere of her activity, and ennobled her in the estimation
of man.
4. The human agency in advancing Christ's kingdom
demands wise forethought in planning the enterprises to be
undertaken, and in judiciously adapting means to ends, and
in organizing the agencies to be employed. The doctrine
that action must be spontaneous uuder the inspiration of
faith and love, does not mean the disuse of human faculties,
but the inspiring of them to intense action. Wisdom and
inspiration go togetiier ; " The spirits of the prophets are
subject to the prophets." Forethought is no substitute for
zeal ; but zeal is misdirected without forethought. It has
been said that the piety of theological seminaries is all kept
packed ready for exportation. This would be forethought
shutting out the inspiration of faith and love — the fire going
out, while year after year you heap the wood-pile ; the wood
itself meantime becoming dozy and slow to burn. On the
other hand, zeal is not to bring you to a premature begin
ning of activity, to the exclusion of diligent preparation.
You must not grind and bake your seed-wheat. So it is in
all Christian life. Christian spontaneity is not quietism,
which excludes the vigorous use of the faculties, and waits,
inactive, for the heavenly breeze; nor fanaticism, which,
because the breeze is fresh, neglects to plan and direct the
voyage. Christianity lays hold of all the faculties, and its
inspiration quickens them to keener discernment, more far-
reaching sight, and more vigorous exertion.

IN ADVANCING CHRIST'S KINGDOM. 121
I shall apply this thought principally to the choice of a
profession. The remark used to be common, that every
pious young man should assume that he ought to be a
minister, unless he could show special reasons to the con
trary. The same remark is sometimes made respecting the
missionary work. But this is a drag-net, which gathers of
every kind. No pursuit is absolutely the most useful. We
can only say that a particular individual may be most useful
in a particular pursuit. Providence, indeed, shuts us up
closely, and gives to each but a limited range of selection.
But, so far as a man has range of selection, he ought to be
able to give some positive reason for his choice — some
special adaptation, some inward proclivity, some leading of
God's Spirit and providence, something to kindle enthusiasm,
and make every man believe that for him his own life-work
is the highest and best. This cannot be less true of the
choice of the missionary work than of ordinary pursuits. A
man must not drift into the missionary work merely because
he cannot show any reason to the contrary, but must choose
it with a positive conviction of duty and earnestness of pur
pose which shall concentrate all his energies on his work. It
is the last work to enter with a divided heart.
The object of enthusiasm is not generic, but specific. We
are taught that Christians must live to do good. Yet I
suspect no enthusiasm was ever kindled by any object so
indefinite as doing good. The most you can get out of it is
a mild and diffused daylight of goodness, — very mild and
diffused, — never the direct sunbeams, much less the burning
focus of his rays. It is analogous to teaching children :
" You must be good, because it is good to be good." En
thusiasm is always about something in particular — specific
persons, specific truths and errors, specific virtues and vices,
specific ends to be attained.
It is a distinctively Christian idea that a man's work is a
calling. In determining what is your calling, your subjective
state, your inward conviction, drawing, and interest are
important considerations. He must be comparatively ineffi-
16

122 THE HUMAN AGENCY
cient who is obliged to grope his way by the dim light of
prudence, with no inward impulse impelling and guiding
him. His whole life must be a groping and a stumbling,
advancing slowly, pausing often to consider what is the road,
mistaking his way, and losing time in retracing his steps.
Happy is the man who runs the way of God's command
ments, because God has enlarged his heart — his energies
concentrated in running towards the goal, not wasted in
groping for the way-
Fenelon, giving directions for attaining a higher Christian
life, says : " The essential point is only to follow, step by
step, the divine grace^ with an infinite patience, carefulness,
and delicacy. We must limit ourselves to letting God act,
and never lay hold of the pure love, except as God by his
inward anointing begins to open the heart to that word
which is so hard to souls still clinging to self, and so liable
to offend them and plunge them into sin  The genuine
simplicity of pure love confines itself to following the divine
grace, without ever undertaking to anticipate it." 1
This is the wisdom of God, though it is foolishness with
men. Christianity safely trusts and follows the grace of
God, without undertaking to anticipate it. It will be fatal
if, in the management of our missions, this fundamental
principle is left out. Missions can succeed only as God
calls, qualifies, and impels into the work men and women
" whose hearts God has touched." The perfunctory services
of the ablest and most scholarly persons will be an inefficient
substitute. But this special anointing or call is not miraculous. It
connects itself with, and manifests itself through, the special
natural endowments, the circumstances and events of the
life, the specialties of training, of acquisitions, and of spiritual
experience which have turned the attention to the work,
forced the question of duty on the mind, given preparation
for the work, or awakened interest in it. God's Spirit al
ways acts iu harmony with his providence. The call to the
1 Explication des Maximes des Saints, Art. iii.

IN ADVANCING CHRIST'S KINGDOM. 123
missionary work differs from the call to any other only as it
is a greater work. In determining whether one is called te
this work, the Christian is not to wait for a resistless afflatus;
but he is carefully to study the leadings of God's Spirit and
providence, and by the use of his reason determine his
calling. And here love itself is the light by which the Christian
sees. " He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and
there is no occasion of stumbling in him." Self-devoting
love is the safeguard against mistake in deciding questions
of duty. If the pure light of love is clouded by the ming
ling of selfish desires ; if the motive of action is interest
in literature and intellectual culture, or ambition to shine
as an orator, or desire to be established in an elegant and
refined home, these desires obscure the mind and vitiate its
decisions. Hence the duty of entering a missionary life usually
appears less clear at the outset, to one called to it, than
afterwards. A young man must decide the question before
his entrance to the ministry, before he has attained that
stronger and purer faith and love which afterwards shine
like a cloudless day upon his life. We can hardly expect,
therefore, that the inward call will present itself in the most
pronounced form, constraining him beyond all doubt. But
the true missionary after entering his field sees more and
more clearly that it is the work to which God had called
him. Hence that remarkable characteristic of missionaries,
their joy in their work, their reluctance to leave it, their
eagernesss to return to it, and the rounded fulness of life
which they seem to realize. Every one, therefore, who is
called to the missionary work, has reason, with Paul, to
thank God, who counted him faithful, putting him into the
ministry. If that call comes in connection with the man's
natural endowments, his education, all the providential cir
cumstances and shaping of his life, and the peculiar leading
of the Spirit, then evidently the man and his life have been
shaped for the work, and the only possibility for that man

124 THE HUMAN AGENCY
of realizing the harmony, fulness, and blessedness of life, is
to follow the Spirit, accept the calling, and do the work. It
is idle to let the fear of difficulties and privation bias the
decision ; for the work to which he is called is the only work
in which, for him, blessedness is possible. Here is the sig
nificance of the saying : " It is better to be out of the world
than out of the path of duty."
The same train of thought applies to the prosecution of
missionary work. It cannot be carried on by the impulse
of enthusiasm. It demands the highest practical wisdom in
planning and .administering, the most thoughtful and per
sistent action in organizing, concentrating and directing the
energies of the church.
5. The work of Christian missions and of social renovation,
outreaching the scope of the local church, is properly per
formed through associations of churches or of individuals,
such as the spiritual wisdom of Christ's people, taught by
the Spirit and providence of God, shall find most effective
to meet the exigency of the time and place.
(1.) This is necessary to enable the churches to meet effect
ively the changes of time and the peculiarities of place. The
church is a permanent organization, the same for all countries
and for all time. But as Christ's kingdom advances through
successive ages and different countries peculiar exigencies
arise, demanding work peculiar to the age or people. For
this work special and temporary associations are properly
organized. (2.) This is necessary to Christian liberty. It has already
been shown that Christianity opens a sphere of action for
every Christian to which, by a peculiarity of natural capacity
and proclivity, and by the training of God's Spirit and provi
dence, he is specially adapted. On account of these diversi
ties, every Christian cannot be expected to be active in every
Christian enterprise. And in the progress of Christ's king-
dom Christian action must be directed from time to time
into new enterprises, to meet new exigencies as they arise,
the importance of which many Chistians will not at once

IN ADVANCING CHRIST'S KINGDOM. 125
appreciate. If every enterprise to carry the gospel abroad
or to accomplish the renovation of society at home must be
carried on by the church as such, this establishes new crite-
nons of fellowship, infringes on the liberty of Christians, and
" causes divisions and offences " in the church of Christ.
(3.) Voluntary associations for specific Christian enter
prises are accordant with the apostolical constitution of the
church as a local or congregational church. If missions and
all Christian work must be done by the church in its organic
capacity, the local church must be lost in an ecumenical
organization. On the contrary, missionary associations are
accordant with the constitution, the genius, and spirit of the
local church. They are agencies which come into being for
a specific purpose. When the work is done, when churches
are established no longer needing aid, the missionary asso
ciation disappears, and the new churches go on with the
work. (4.) The voluntary association accords with the promi
nence given to the individual in the constitution of the
church, and with the spontaneity characteristic of Christian
action. It implies, always present in the church, the spir
itual wisdom and life, which will discern what Christian
work the existing time demands, and will plan the agencies
and measures best fitted to accomplish it. The other sup
position implies that the church in its organic capacity is to
devise, plan, and execute all Christian work, and that the
agencies exist organized in it, permanent and unchanged
through all time. This necessarily implies that Christian
work is not individual and spontaneous, but is given out to
be done under orders. The result must be not only the
absorption of local churches in an ecumenical church, but
also, somewhere, a central permanent power through which
the church utters its commands, and in obedience to which
all Christians act. An ecumenical church cannot be self-
governing. In its very conception it implies a hierarchy.
The supposition that the church in its organic capacity is
to plan, direct, and execute all the Christian enterprises

126 THE HUMAN AGENCY
incident to the conversion of the world and the renovation
of society is incompatible with the local constitution of the
church, and log'cally involves both an ecumenical church
and a hierarchical government.
(5.) The voluntary association is in accordance with the
methods of the apostolic missions. They were' pre-eminently
spontaneous and individual, committing the continued prose
cution of the work to the local church so soon as one was
gathered on missionary ground.
(6.) It is in accordance with the common practice of the
church ever since the apostles' day. Even the Catholic
church never assumed to itself as an organization all Chris
tian enterprises. Its missions and other religious work gave
birth to innumerable orders and associations called into
being for special work to meet the peculiarities of particular
ages — orders of monks and nuns, the Sisters of Charity, the
Society of Jesus, the Society for the Propagation of the Faith,
and many others, through which the diversified energies of
the church found scope for action. It is in accordance with
the universal usage of the church that there be Missionary
Boards, Bible and Tract Societies, Young Men's Christian
Associations, Temperance Societies, and others, giving scope
to the diversified energies and interests of Christians, ex
pressing the ideas and meeting the wants of particular local
ities and times, and disappearing when the specialty which
called them forth has passed away.
(7.) This method of administration is recommended by its
superior efficiency. This is an inference from what has
already been said.
It may be added that the contrary principle, limiting.
Christian enterprise to what is done through, the church as
an organization, deprives Christianity of the credit of its
indirect influences on society. The church is separated from
the state, and ill-adapted to carry on social reform. Enter
prises for political and social progress necessarily fall to in
dividuals and voluntary associations, carrying out Christian
principles to their remoter applications. But these, not being

IN ADVANCING CHRIST'S KINGDOM. 127
recognized as legitimate agencies for Christian action, are
thrown into antagonism to the churches, practical morality
comes to be separated from religion, and the very influences
of political and social renovation which Christianity origi
nated are used as weapons of assault on the churches. This
antagonism would be in a great degree avoided, and Chris
tianity have the credit of the indirect influence on society
which it actually exerts, if it was understood as accordant
with the true conception of the church, that, while it remains
from age to age the same, Christian enterprise is always to
outreach the organic agency of the church, and enterprises
and agencies are in every age to spring up around it, carry
ing out Christian principles to special applications and by
special methods adapted to the exigency of the time.
On the contrary, if the church as an organization attempts
this work, it insures a civilization, types of which have re
peatedly appeared in history, in which the priestly element
is dominant, and the civilization lacks the stimulus, the pro-
gressiveness, and the varied development which Christianity
gives, and becomes stagnant and monotonous.
Further, the freedom and flexibility and individuality in
volved in this method are elements of power. " A system
which raises the individual to the primary place of religious
importance, places him nearest to the supernatural energy
of God  naturally draws to it minds of marked vigor
and trains men in self-subsisting habits." It develops the
individual. It inspires him. It works towards the realiza
tion of the wish " that all the Lord's people were prophets."
It shows its power, not in producing a perfect mechanism
directed by one engineer, but in multiplying strong and
earnest Christians. And it produces unity of action, not by
the mechanical unity of organization, but creating a type of
man — men and women acting individually, spontaneously,
and earnestly, yet by the formative power of common convic
tions, and common faith and love, made of one type, so that
spontaneous working is working in a spontaneous harmony for
one result. Puritanism and Methodism each creates its type

128 HUMAN AGENCY IN ADVANCING CHRIST'S KINGDOM.
of man. The religion and education of New England have
produced a type of man. Plant New Englanders anywhere
on the face of the earth and they spontaneously reproduce
New England institutions. Such is the action of Chris
tianity. It creates a type of man. Christians of whatever
age or country understand each other, and sympathize in
the deepest experience and most cherished aim of life. Their
real unity is here, and not in the unity of organization.
Thus the church is efficient, because it is alive in every
part, and " Vital in every part,
Cannot but by- annihilating die."
When any organization passes away, this deathless and all-
pervading energy embodies itself anew and works out its
great result. Such was the ancient prophecy : " The Lord
will create upon every dwelling-place of Mount Zion and
upon her assemblies a cloud and smoke by day and the
shining of a flaming fire by night."

LECTURE VII.

THE SACRIFICIAL LOVE OF CHRIST THE TYPE AND MEASURE OF
CHRISTIAN LOVE.
In nature God does not reveal the natural sciences ; but
he makes the worlds, and leaves us to observe and interpret
his works as we can. So in redemption God does not reveal
systems of theology, creeds, and catechisms ; but he works
redemption, and leaves us to study his action, and interpret
the truth which it expresses. Theology results from inter
preting the divine action, and systematically expressing to
the intellect the divine thought or truth which the divinev
action reveals. Something necessarily escapes us in this
process. Astronomy is the science of the stellar and plan
etary systems, expressing exactly the facts and their laws ;
but the glory of the heavens is lost from its formulas and
demonstrations. So theological systems lose something of
the grandeur and life of redemption. The glory of God in
the face of Jesus Christ cannot be transferred to the cate
chism or creed. Schleiermacher called doctrine, " cooled
lava." It is infelicitous to compare the gospel to so desiruc-
tive an agent ; but the illustration is pertinent, inasmuch as
lava in cooling remains the same in substance, yet loses its
power. A better illustration would be water in the form of
ice, cut in regular forms and packed in the ice-house. In
the Bible theological truth is always presented in its historical
manifestations and practical applications ; it is always living
water, running in the river of life, and nourishing the trees
whose leaves do not wither and which shall not cease from
yielding fruit. So it presents even the greatest mysteries
of Christian faith. It brings us before the great mysteries
of eternity, towering, like mountains so high that the foot of
17 129

130 THE SACRIFICIAL LOVE OF CHRIST
man never trod their summits, shining inaccessible in the
sunlight, or hiding their heads in the clouds; but solid,
real, massive, with springs gushing from their bosoms, and
sending down streams to gladden the earth, and on their
sides sunny nooks and sheltered vales, where nestle the
loves and hopes of men.
Thus Paul brings us before the mystery of the incarnation :
<' Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,
who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be
equal with God ; but made himself of no reputation, and
took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the
likeness of men ; and, being found in fashion as a man, he
humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even tha.,
death of the cross." This thought of the apostle is the theme
of this lecture. I express it thus : The Sacrificial Love of
Christ in his Humiliation, Suffering, and Death for Sinners
is the Type and Measure of all Christian Love.
I. The Descent of the Son of God in the Incarnation to save
Men from Sin is a Type or Exponent of a Constituent
Principle of the Universe.
The descent of the Son of God in the incarnation sets forth
a principle of all God's action. It is an exponent of the
Christian conception of the universe — always the higher
descending to the lower to lift it up.
Contrary to this is the theory of development, which con
ceives of the universe as always the lower unfolding and
expanding into the higher. The words of Topsy, " I 'specks
I growed," are exalted into a cosmogony, and become the
first principle of all science. But development can only
unfold that which already is. If man is developed from the
brute, he is only a brute developed. If the universe is the
development of nature, there is nothing in it that is above
nature. The development of the lower is only the elevation
and expansion of the lower, not a change of its inferior
nature, nor an origination of anything higher in kind. It is
the lower, with its necessity, its destitution of intelligence,

TFE TYPE AND MEASURE OF CHRISTIAN LOVE. 131
its soggy materialism, pulsating higher and higher, circling
wider and wider, till it fills and characterizes all. It is the
Titans piling up the mountains to scale the heavens and
dethrone the gods ; but, however high they climb and wide
they rule, they are still only Titans, earth-born giants.
Christianity presents the contrary conception : " In the
beginning God." At one vault the thought reaches the
All-Perfect and the Highest. The action of the universe is
no longer the lower, lifting and expanding itself with all its
imperfection and blind necessity ; but always the higher,
descending to the lower to lift it up. The development of
nature through measureless eras is the result of the presence
of mind, expressing its thought, and steadily advancing to
realize its ideals.
The same conception is carried out in the relations of
man to nature. He is not a part and product of nature
merely — an animated sod, but the lord of nature, placed on
the earth to subdue and dress and keep it. As God expresses
his thoughts in nature in creating and perpetuating it, man
expresses his thoughts in nature in using it, and in dressing
and keeping the earth. Nature is civilized as man is. When
the mind of man takes a step, the earth takes a step with it.
Alike in the relations of God and of man to nature, it is
never the lower developing into the higher, lifting and
broadening its own imperfections and incapacities ; it is
always the higher descending to the lower, the perfect going
down to the imperfect, the richly endowed to the poorly
endowed, to lift up the lower and to endow it with new
perfections. Inorganic matter is never transformed into living vege
tation without the agency of a living plant ; and vegetable
matter is not transformed into the substance of the living
animal without the agency of a living animal. The higher
raises the lower, and endows it with a new perfection.
Organic matter not under the action of a living body at once
becomes subject to a process of degradation, and deteriorates
into the inorganic. Thus Owen very beautifully represents

132 THE SACRIFICIAL LOVE OF CHRIST
the microscopic rotifer as a sentry stationed on the outposts
of animal life to arrest the organic matter which is slipping
down into the inorganic, and to turn it back on an upward
course into the higher forms of life.
The same thoughts are applicable in sociology. The right
constitution of society is always on the principle of the
higher descending to elevate the lower, not on the principle
of the lower expanding and exalting itself by development.
But if the constituent principle of the universe is the
principle of the constant expansion and exaltation of the
lower by development, then nature penetrates and possesses
the sphere of the mind, as mineral matter penetrates a dead
body and transforms it into a fossil. Mind itself becomes
but transformed force, without freedom. Individual freedom,
responsibility, and enthusiasm are fossilized in a stony realism.
In the conception of society the race must take precedence
of the individual. The individual is the necessary develop
ment of the race, is lost in it, and exists for it. There is no
longer a place for individual freedom and rights. It is
worthy of notice that the hypothesis of development, sug
gested, but not proved, by modern science, if it excludes the
idea of God,1 necessarily leads back to the ancient heathenish
conception of society, founded in the domination of the race
and the subjugation of the individual. On the contrary, the
Christian conception is, that the legitimate organization of
society is from and for the individuals composing it, not the
individuals from and for the organization.
The same is the conception of the kingdom of God. God
is Love, pouring out ever of his fulness : God in Christ seek
ing and saving men ; God in the Holy Spirit touching and
renewing their hearts ; men richly endowed going down to
those in sin to impart spiritual gifts. Always it is more
blessed to give than to receive.
1 If the idea of God is admitted, there may be a theory of development con
sistent with the Christian conception. For, on that supposition, through what
ever stages nature may have advanced, the conception is always of the higher
elevating the lower, the wisdom and love of God advancing towards the reali
zation of their ideals.

THE TYPE AND MEASURE OF CHRISTIAN LOVE. 133
Thus the action of Christ in the incarnation, going down
to save the lost, sets forth the constituent principle of the
universe. The movement is not of the lower expanding its
sphere and diversifying its manifestations and increasing its
power; but it is always of the higher going down to the
lower to impart to it new gifts, endow it with new per
fections, and to extend the reign and diversify the mani
festations of wisdom and love.
II. Love is in its Essential Character Sacrificial, like the
Love of Christ. Self-sacrifice for others is the Reverse
Side of Love.
The word " love " is popularly used to denote widely
dissimilar mental states — a sensuous appetite, a selfish
covetousness, the supreme affection of a holy heart : " I love
an apple," " I love money," " I love God." This confusion
arises from confounding love with desire. But love and
desire are widely different. Desire is not even a distinctive
characteristic of love. Holy love does not extinguish the
natural desires ; it develops also spiritual desires ; but the
desire is not the love, nor the distinctive characteristic of
love. Love is distinctively characterized by self-devotement
to its object, not by desire for its object. A character which
consists distinctively and essentially of desire must be a
selfish character. Desire lays hold of its object to get pos
session of it for the use and enjoyment of self; Love takes
of the resources of self, and imparts them to the loved object.
Desire devotes its object to self; Love devotes self to the
object loved. The movement of Desire returns on self as
the centre, like a whirlpool circling abroad only to return on
itself, and suck everything into its own vortex ; and because
this is its movement itself is always empty and restless.
The movement of Love is like that of a fountain pouring
out its own fulness to bless all that is around it; and because
that is its movement itself is always full and peaceful. Love
enthrones its object, and makes us serve it ; Desire seizes its
object, and makes it serve us. Love admires, reveres, and,

134 THE SACRIFICIAL LOVE OF CHRIST
in its highest form, adores its object ; Desire uses it. Wedded
Love, devoting to its object the homage of the heart and the
service of the hand, is the inspired emblem of holy love ;
scortatory Desire, ruining the victim it so hotly seeks, is the
inspired emblem of sin. We love persons, who may be hon
ored and served, but cannot be owned and used ; we desire
things, which may be owned and used, but cannot be honored
and served. If Desire, uncontrolled by Love, fixes on a per
son, it makes the person a toy, a tool, a slave, or a victim.
It is not only in popular language that these dissimilar
mental states are confounded. An American philosophical
writer defines love as identical with desire : " That which
we love we desire to have present, to possess and to enjoy
it  The loving an object and the desiring its enjoyment
are identical."1 What monstrous systems of Christian ethics
must result when the teachers degrade that which is the
noblest possibility of humanity, the love which is the essence
of God's moral perfection, and which is the godlike in
human character, into a desire, the definition of whicli is
equally the definition of an epicure's appetite or a miser's
greed. It is such love as a wolf has for a lamb — the desire
to have it present, to possess and to enjoy it. It is such love
as the gambler has for his victim — the desire to have him
present, to possess and enjoy him. It is not love ; it is self
ishness, limbed with its myriad desires, like a rapacious giant
with a hundred ravening arms. If your love to God is no
more than this, it is selfishness, audacious to seize on God
himself, and use him as a familiar to fetch and carry in your
service. Since love is the fulfilling of the law, the law requires
sacrificial love, like that of Christ in his humiliation, suffering,
and death for men.
III. The Sinfulness which renders Redemption necessary
is Essentially the Absence of Sacrificial Love and the
Presence of the opposite Character.
Sin is the opposite of love. But the opposite of love is
1 H. P. Tappan's Review of Edwards on the Will, p. 18.

THE TYPE AND MEASURE OF CHRISTIAN LOVE. 135
not hatred. That is comparatively a rare manifestation of
sin. The opposite of love is selfishness. Since love is
essentially sacrificial, sin is essentially self-asserting. It has
four principal phases. It is self-sufficiency, the opposite of
Christian faith — a practical affirmation of the absurdity
that a created being is sufficient for himself, therefore a
repudiation by the sinner of his condition as a creature, and
an arrogating to self of the Creator's place. It is self-will,
the opposite of Christian submission and obedience ; putting
the will of self, instead of the will of God, as the supreme
law and the supreme providence of the world. It is self-
seeking, the opposite of Christian benevolence ; substituting
desire for love ; putting self in God's place, as the end of all
endeavor and the recipient of all service. It is self-righteous
ness, the opposite of Christian humility and reverence, the
reflex act of sin ; putting self in God's place as the object
of praise and homage. The redemption of man from sin
must break down this spiritual primacy of self. The man is
to be redeemed from his selfishness into the spirit of sacri
ficial love.
IV. The Doctrine that Christ's Sacrificial Love is the Type
and Measure of all Christian Love is of the Essence of
Christianity, whether as History, Doctrine, or Life.
The substance of Christianity is redemption. Its central
fact is the historical sacrifice of the incarnation and the
cross. The ground-thought which it expresses is the eternal
and immutable excellence of sacrificial love as the divine
character, its eternal and immutable supremacy as the divine
law. The ideal which it proposes to realize in the redeemed
is the same sacrificial love. Christianity, therefore, as a fact,
a doctrine, and a life, is a sacrificial religion. The law of
self-renunciation is grounded in the essential character of
Christianity. 1. Christianity as an historical fact is sacrificial. Chris
tianity is not, primarily, a divine doctrine, but a divine
action ; it is not a philosophy, but a redemption ; not a

136 THE SACRIFICIAL LOVE OF CHRIST
proclamation of divinely-authenticated dogmas, but a divine
energy supernaturally flowing into the history of man to
redeem him from sin. Of this redemptive action the his
torical sacrifice of the incarnate Word is the central fact.
The redemptive energy working in the world all flows in
this sacrifice from God's riven side.
Here is the point of divergence of two opposite and
irreconcilable conceptions of Christianity — the one, with
whatever truths, fundamentally wrong ; the other, with
whatever errors, fundamentally right. If, according to one
system, Christ is a teacher only, Christianity is a philosophy,
distinguished from other philosophies only by greater clear
ness and comprehensiveness. When the deist says that
Jesus borrowed the two great commandments from Moses,
that Plato inculcated forgiveness of enemies, that Isocrates
taught the golden rule, that Confucius and Zoroaster enun
ciated pure moral precepts, no defence is left but to show
that Jesus was a greater philosopher than they ; we are
compelled to acknowledge that Tindal rightly entitled his
sceptical book, " Christianity as Old as the Creation." But
if, according to the other system, Jesus is the God-Man,
working redemption by sacrifice, then Christianity is not a
system of philosophy or ethics, but a divine action, a re
demption by God producing a divine life in men. It is made
up not of dogmas, but of facts. It is worthy of remark that
the principle of the former of these systems logically exalts
doctrines and precepts to pre-eminence, insisting chiefly on
" the words of the Master," while the contrasted principle
of redemption gives pre-eminence to the divine action and
the life which it originates.
Christianity being historical, the central fact is the sacri
ficial love of the incarnate Word, in his humiliation, suffering,
and death for man.
2. Christianity as a doctrine is sacrificial. The ground-
thought which the historical fact of redemption by sacrifice
expresses is the divine excellence of sacrificial love as a
character, and its divine authority as a law.

THE TYPE AND MEASURE OF CHRISTIAN LOVE. 137
In the first place, it discloses to us that God's character —
the supreme moral perfection of the universe — is sacrificial
love. How it is. so is a mystery. God's love never ascends ;
it cannot be a faith ; and in descending love he cannot lite
rally deny himself. But in God's love, even as it acts
serene and blessed amid the grandeurs of eternity, the ele
ment of self-devotement appears in this — that God always
gives ; he never receives. God is not an infinite sensitivity,
seeking gratification, nor a nature unfolding, according to
its own necessary lawj under a stimulus from without. God
is a person, self-moved to act ; by the energy of his own will
freely expressing the ideas of his own wisdom in the action
of his love. As, in the mystery of his infinitude, the per
fection of moral freedom co-exists with the impossibility of
sinning, so his love is an activity eternally self-moved and
eternally blessed, at once absolute self-devotement and abso
lute self-satisfaction ; and the blessedness of the Godhead is
not received from without, but like the brightness of the sun
is the shining of his love as it pours forth from within.
But amid the glories of his eternal love our finite intellects
are blinded by excess of light. What his love is we know
from the incarnation. It is the sacrificial love of Christ. It
is a mystery indeed ; but every revelation of God, like the
veil before the mercy-seat, hides while it reveals him. The
incarnation, pre-eminently the revelation of God, is pre
eminently the mystery which hides him — the mystery of
infinite love which brings him near, the Redeemer on the
mercy-seat in the midst of men, yet makes us awfully aware
of the depths of his incomprehensibleness and the inscrutable
solitude of the infinity and eternity which he inhabits.
It would be incompatible with the divine perfection to
admit that God suffers. But even in men we find the
suffering incident to self-sacrifice absorbed in the " comfort
of love," so that Christians glory in tribulation, and take
joyfully the spoiling of their goods. If we follow the direc
tion of this thought, we may suppose that in the Perfect One
all that is essential in self-sacrifice may exist in the highest
18

138 THE SACRIFICIAL LOVE OF CHRIST
degree, and the sorrow incident thereto be absorbed and lost
in the fulness and blessedness of the love.
In the second place, the sacrifice of redemption, as ex
piatory, presents to us sacrificial love as the supreme law
of the universe, and asserts and vindicates its authority.
God in this sacrifice expresses the eternal authority, the
universal application, and the inexorable demand of this
law, and the impossibility of ever offering pardon except in
its full satisfaction.
In the third place, it is involved in redemption that the
sinner is renewed by the Spirit and justified by faith, re
ceiving in his low and sinful condition help from above.
Thus even in the remotest application of redemption to the
individual, it is always God going down to man to seek the
lost, the higher always descending to the lower to lift him
up ; it is always salvation by grace through faith, and that
not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.
3. Christianity as a life is sacrificial. The ideal which it
proposes to realize in the character of the redeemed is sacri
ficial love.
Love has two phases : the receptive and the imparting —
tlie ascending and the descending. These are popularly
designated as faith and love ; but, using the word " love "
in the comprehensive sense in which Christ used it, as the
general name of all holiness, these must be considered as
two phases of love, corresponding to the apostolic distinction
of faith and works.
Love in each of these phases is self-devoting, like that of
Christ. This is true of faith. Faith is in its nature an act of
self-surrender and self-devotement. In it the soul accepts
its Redeemer and Lord, yielding its whole being to the
plastic hand of the Perfect One, to receive the- impress of his
thought and will. It is trust in him as Saviour; it is com
placency in his character, adoration of his perfections, aspira
tion to be with him and like him, loyalty to his person ; but
in every manifestation it is an act of self-surrender to the

THE TYPE AND MEASURE OF CHRISTIAN LOVE. 139
mighty and gracious One who draws the trusting sinner to
himself. The same is the characteristic of love in its other phase —
love active in works of beneficence and justice. It is love
prompting to self-sacrifice in allegiance to and vindication
of truth and right, and in bringing men to allegiance to the
same, and saving them from sin through Christ. Christ's
sacrificial love is the type of all Christian love ; all love is
the same in kind : " He laid down his life for us ; we ought
to lay down our lives for the brethren." It is the measure
of all Christian love. As Christ, being divine, stripped
himself of the regal splendors of the divine form, and in the
abasement of humanity humbled himself to death on the
cross ; so Christians, being human, must devote — little,
indeed, compared with his sacrifice, yet — all that a human
heart and life can give. The cross, central in redemption,
exerts a twofold influence, centripetal and centrifugal. It
draws the sinner to itself to look on the sufferer " made a
curse for us." Then it impels him out into the world,
moved by the same sacrificial love, to toil and suffer to save
others ; never escaping the attraction of the cross, but moving
around it, like a planet around the sun, bearing its light
and warmth through the outer darkness of sin.
The sacrificial character of Christianity is sometimes urged
as a reproach ; it is even objected that the doctrine of re
demption by Christ's sacrifice encourages sin by leading to
trust to the righteousness of another. But we have seen
that this characteristic is essential in Christianity, whether
considered as an historical fact, as a doctrine, or as a life.
We accept it as an honor. Instead of encouraging sin, the
sacrificial character of Christianity makes the ideal of moral
perfection higher, the authority of the law requiring it more
sacred, the motive to obedience stronger — I had almost
said, infinitely higher, more sacred, and stronger — than is
possible when the sacrificial character of Christ's work is
denied. In this we see God's love in its most wondrous
condescension, and man's love in its most godlike capability,

140 THE SACRIFICIAL LOVE OF CHRIST
V. Sacrificial Love like Christ's is explicitly enjoined.
I can only glance at the fulness and earnestness with
which it is required. In the Old Testament, while the sac
rifices as such prefigured Christ's vicarious death, as offerings,
required to be the best of the flocks, the finest of the wheat,
they taught that the spirit of sacrifice must animate the
worshipper. In the New Testament, the doctrine is omni
present as daylight in the atmosphere. It is proclaimed as
law. It is propounded as the inexorable condition of dis-
cipleship. Here it beams in the examples of saints suffering
the loss of all things for Christ; there it glares in the rejec
tion of the rich ruler, who loved wealth more than Jesus, or
of Demas, who forsook Christ for filthy lucre. Here it
smiles in promise : " Your Father, which seeth in secret,
shall reward you openly " ; there it frowns in denunciation :
" Your riches are corrupted, your garments are moth-eaten,
your gold and silver are cankered, and the rust of them
shall eat your flesh as it were fire." All, in varied language,
proclaim the law of sacrificial love : " Bear ye one another's
burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ " — the law which
Christ exemplified and vindicated on the cross.
VI. The same Principle is recognized in the Administration
of Christ's Kingdom.
He does not establish it by his visible coming, supernatu
rally destroying his enemies and giving his church a toilless
victory. That dream is contrary to the fundamental idea
of Christianity and to the entire method of its administration.
He commits his kingdom to the fidelity of a toiling and
suffering church, under the guidance of the Spirit, and
permits it slowly to evolve through conflict and self-denial,
through alternations of defeat and triumph. Says Isaac
Taylor : " To touch the substantial miseries of degenerate
man is to come within the infection of an infinite sorrow."
Jesus was subject to that infection ; so are all who labor
with him. Even the miracle-workers had no permission to
work miracles to save themselves from suffering. Able tc

THE TYPE AND MEASURE OF CHRISTIAN LOVE. 141
raise the dead and to control demons for the advancement
of Christ's kingdom, their very handkerchiefs conveying
healing to others, they themselves were left under the law
of doing good by sacrifice, and, as if no miracle-working
power slept within them, were obliged to say : " Even unto
this present hour we both hunger and thirst, and are naked,
and are buffeted, and have no certain dwelling-place."
Parents suffer through their love for the wayward son whom
they would reclaim. Whoever would save a sinner must
love him ; and whoever loves a sinner, and would save him,
must suffer anguish in his behalf. The love that saves
sinners must bear their sins.
VII. This Principle is recognized more obscurely in the
Constitution of Society and symbolized even in Nature.
Society is constituted on the principle that no man lives
for himself. Even positivism recognizes altruism, or living
for others, as the fundamental principle of sociology.
We find symbols of the same law in nature ; though we
are too ignorant, as yet, to verify it fully there. But, as a
child will recognize the father's voice and the tones of his
love, even when he speaks in an unknown tongue, we can
recognize in nature the tones of our Father's voice, though
we cannot fully interpret the words. The dew-drop which
sparkles on a summer's morning exhales its whole being
while refreshing the leaf on which it hangs. When, in the
early spring, the crocus lifts its pure whiteness from beneath
the reeking mould, when the iris puts on its sapphire crown,
when the rose unfolds its queenly beauty, it is as if each
graceful form said : " This is all I have and all I am — this
fragile grace and sweetness — I unfold it all for you." The
wild berries nestle blushing in the grass, or droop inviting
on the vine, as if saying : " This lusciousness is all my
wealth; it is for you." The apples, golden and red, glowing
amid the green leaves, seem to be thoughtfully whispering
God's own words : " A good tree bringeth forth good fruit."
The field submits to be sheared of its yearly harvest, mutely

142 THE SACRIFICIAL LOVE OF CHRIST
waiting the return of blessing at the good pleasure of him
that dresseth it, symbolizing the patient faith of him who does
good hoping for nothing again, except from the good-pleasure
of God, who is not forgetful to reward the patience of faith
and the labor of love. On the contrary, the land which
bears thorns and thistles, keeping its own harvest to enrich
itself, is rejected and nigh unto cursing. The sun walks
regally through the heavens, pouring abroad day, and the
stars shine all night, seemingly saying : " We are suns ; yet
even our opulence of glory we give to others ; our very
nature is to shine."
Do not say that this is fanciful. The creation was cast in
the mould of God's love, and each thing bears some impress
of the same. Before the solid earth and the ocean were
made, before sun or star shone, before chaos formless and
waste, God's eternal wisdom and love filled the void. And
when he spake and it was done, the creative fiat only spoke
into finite form some eternal thought of his wisdom, only
crystallized into finite realization some definite purpose of
his love. Hence everywhere, on land and sea, on the earth
and in the star-thronged skies, are traces of that law of sac
rifice which expresses the essential character of love.
It remains to answer an objection, that if Christianity is
sacrificial it takes on the gloom of asceticism, and suppresses
and mortifies the soul, instead of developing it. The answer
is indicated in the experience of Paul, that love to Christ
had transformed what had been his gain into loss, and what
had been his loss into gain. Love changes the objects of
interest and the sources from which the soul can draw
happiness. Love to Christ absorbs the element of sorrow
from self-renunciation, and transforms it into joy. It effects
the transfiguration of the cross.
The principle underlying this is that a man's affections
determine the sources of his enjoyment. Happiness is not
bottled up in objects — so much happiness in a house and
grounds, so much in a horse and equipage, and whoever gets

THE TYPE AND MEASURE OF CHRISTIAN LOVE. 143
the object gets that definite quantity of enjoyment. Whether
one obtains any happiness from an object depends on the
state of the heart in reference to it. A man who has no
appetite for food can have no enjoyment in eating. The
heart must be upon an object before enjoyment can be de
rived from it. The happiness is an incident to the love, as
a smile is the spontaneous expression of the joy that diffuses
itself through the soul. For example, a young man has at
present no higher interest than to get his earnings and spend
them for his own enjoyment. Afterwards we see him, anr1
the love of wife and of children is in his heart ; and this
new affection has created new objects of interest and sources
of joy. And if, afterwards, he acquires a taste for literature
or art, or an interest in some moral reformation, or in a polit
ical principle, each opens to him a new sphere of enjoyment,
desire, and action. Every new and pure affection opens in
his life, like a fountain in a desert, creating a new area of
beauty and fertility. It is like opening to him a new world
in which to expatiate.
A man is shut up by his affections to the objects of those
affections as the sources of his happiness. A brute is shut
up by its nature to a limited line of enjoyment ; a lamb
must crop the grass, a tiger raven in blood. A man is not
thus shut up by nature. He may find his happiness in
sensual enjoyment, as do the brutes, or in the service of
love, as do the angels. But when once his heart is fixed on
its objects, he is by his affection shut up to those objects for
his enjoyment as rigidly as a brute by its nature. If his
heart is on the world, he is shut up to that for his enjoyment,
as a caterpillar is confined by the threads issuing from its
own body to the perishing leaf on which it feeds ; as a shell
fish is bound by the fibres issuing from its own being to a
rock under the sea, capable of no other action than to stretch
its slimy feelers, and bring what it reaches into its own shell,
and digest it into its own cold and sluggish life. Herodias
had the offer of half the kingdom ; but, bound by her re
venge, there was nothing in it for her to enjoy but the bloody

144 THE SACRIFICIAL LOVE OF CHRIST
head of the prophet who had rebuked her. Nero had the
world in his hand, as one holds an orange, to suck all its
sweetness into his own lips ; but all the happiness which all
the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them could give
him was the horrid joy of sensuality and cruelty.
If one affection is incompatible with another, the enjoy
ment of the objects of the second affection is impossible until
it displace the first. A miser cannot enjoy a benevolent use
of money, till his miserliness has been displaced by love.
Then he will wonder at himself that ever he could have
found enjoyment in the squalidness of his hoarding.
These are illustrations of the principle on which Paul says
that his gain had become loss through the love of Christ.
Religion is not merely prudence, shrewdly, but reluctantly,
sacrificing present joy for future gain, toiling through the
gymnastics of so much Bible-reading and prayer every day,
getting down nauseous doses of religion — carefully counting
the drops, lest you take too much — to avert impending
death. It is love, displacing the selfish affections which
have ruled the heart, opening a new world of interest in
which to act and enjoy, wide as the welfare of man and great
and glorious as the kingdom of Christ. Religion is no
longer an outward law, under whose lash the soul creeps
reluctant through its daily stint of service, but an inward
affection, drawing the Christian in the way in which he
rejoices to go : "I delight to do thy will, 0 God." His gain
has become loss, and his loss gain. His hold on the objects
of sinful desire is loosened, and he leaves them as filth,
while he turns to new and nobler objects. The energies of
his being are no longer cramped and crooked in impotence
for good ; but he presses on the life of faith and love, walking
and leaping and praising God.
It appears, then, that Christian self-renunciation is pri
marily and essentially the self-surrender to Christ in coming
to him and accepting him. It is only the reverse side of
love. It is a mistake to suppose that it is only relinquishing
certain pleasures, giving some money in charity, or drudging

THE TYPE AND MEASURE OF CHRISTIAN LOVE. 145
through certain repulsive duties. It is immeasurably more
than this ; it is giving your heart ; it is giving yourself.
Love is the essence of self-denial : " Though I bestow all my
goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be
burned, and have not love, it profiteth me nothing."
Also, as to the method of self-denial, it is accomplished,
not by a dead lift, but by the spontaneous and vital energy
of love ; as a man drops the plays of childhood, not by a
conscious and painful struggle, but because he has outgrown
them. There is, then, no force in the objection that Christianity
by the severity of its self-denial extinguishes the joyousness
of life, and suppresses and crushes the soul, instead of de
veloping it. It incapacitates the soul for the enjoyments of
sin, but capacitates it for the blessedness of love. It enlarges
and ennobles it to realize in the life of love its highest possi
bilities. As one who has been a drunkard sacrifices the
pleasures of intemperance, but gains the higher and nobler
joys of temperance ; as one who has been a slave loses the
capacity of being contented in slavery, but gains the higher
happiness of freedom, the love of Christ sacrifices the joys
of sin, but gains the blessedness of the righteous. The
snow-birds of winter are gone ; but the summer songsters
are tuneful on every spray as it bursts into leaf and blossom
beneath the returning sun. All religious services, once
repulsive, prayer and praise, formerly frozen words rattling
like hail around the wintry heart, works of beneficence, once
chafing to the selfish soul, — all are transfigured into joy.
It will be objected, however, that after love to Christ has
made religious duty pleasant, we must still forego, in Christ's
service, the gratification of innocent desires, and give up
comforts, property, or even life, and that these sacrifices
must be painful. Certainly, suffering in these cases is in
separable from human nature ; yet even this suffering seems
capable of being absorbed in love, lost in the superior
blessedness of the Christian life. Missionaries seem usually
happier in their work than men ordinarily are. None, ap-
19

146 THE SACRIFICIAL LOVE OF CHRIST
parently, make more of life, or get more solid blessedness
out of it. Paul gloried in tribulation. His contemporaries
took joyfully the spoiling of their goods. No books were
ever written under trials more appalling than -those which
attended the writing of the Epistles in the New Testament ;
yet no literature breathes a more joyous spirit than these.
Martyrs have been joyful at the stake. Love to a person
makes it easy to toil for him. Enthusiasm in a cause makes
it easy to suffer for the cause. So love to Christ and enthu
siasm for his kingdom make toil easy and burdens light.
Self-denial of this kind is, however, no peculiarity of the
service of Christ. Whatever a man would achieve, he must
concentrate his energies on his work, and that concentration
involves self-denial. If a man would succeed as a merchant,
a farmer, or a scholar, he must forego ease, deny himself
many gratifications, and concentrate his powers on his work.
Self-denial is a condition of achievement and success in
every human action, as well as in the religious life. Sin
itself requires it. Burglars in prosecuting their business
practise more self-denial than honest men. The ancient
Romans regarded as the essence of virtue this manliness
which concentrates the energies on an object, scorns luxury
and indulgence, braves difficulty and danger, and endures
self-denial in attaining it. Jesus presents the old Roman
virtus as a condition of religious action, but not as the
essence of a religious life. He requires a more profound
self-renunciation, involved essentially in love, and blessed in
the blessedness of love.
It follows that they who enter deepest into the spirit of
Christian self-renunciation are least aware of sacrificing
anything for Christ. The more intense the love, the less
account they make of the service rendered to the beloved.
The reason why men of business are not aware that they
deny themselves is, that they are so intent on their object
that they make no account of toil and privation to attain it.
The raging of appetite makes unheeded the sacrifice of
reputation, property, and health in gratifying it ; the fierce-

THE TYPE AND MEASURE OF CHRISTIAN LOVE. 147
ness of revenge makes it sweet to risk life to satisfy it ; the
greed of avarice makes the miser glory in his rags. Love to
Christ and enthusiasm for his kingdom produce the same
oblivion of sacrifices made for him. Great deeds of Christian
love are done in unconsciousness. This is what our Saviour
requires in the command : " Let not thy left hand know
what thy right hand doeth." It does not require you to keep
your good deeds secret from others, but from yourselves.
Be so full of love that you will take no note of the sacrifices
to which love inspires you.
Here we see the difference between asceticism and Chris
tian self-renunciation. Asceticism is a suppression of the
soul's affection ; Christian self-renunciation is the introduc
tion of a new affection displacing the old. The former is a
negation of the soul's life ; the latter, the development of a
new and higher life. The former produces a constrained
performance of duties, a restraint of desires which do not
cease to burn, a sad resignation to necessary evils ; the latter
produces a new affection which makes duty coincide with the
heart's love, quenches contrary desires, and quickens to posi
tive joy in the accomplishment of God's will. The former by
perpetual constraint makes a free life impossible ; the latter
ultimately insures real freedom, in which obedience to God
is unhindered by opposition from within the soul, the im
pulses of the heart are in harmony with the principles of the
reason, and law loses itself in the quicker and coincident
impulses of love. The former by its self-mortification, makes
a full life impossible, and goodness becomes a mere holding
back from sin ; the latter, opening a new love, develops life
in its utmost fulness, gushing in inexhaustible springs of
thought, energy, and joy. The former is founded on the
error that suffering and self-mortification are in themselves
acceptable to God ; the latter, on the truth that God is served
in the full development of his creatures in life, energy, and
joy. The former, therefore, inflicting suffering on self to
gain the favor of God, is, in reality, a self-righteousness, a
form of self-sufficiency, and not self-renunciation.

148 THE SACRIFICIAL LOVE OF CHRIST.
In the divine words sadness and joy are mingled : " He
that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall
doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves,"
Why, with this promise of sheaves gathered with joy, the
vision of tears watering the seed sown ? Are deeds of
beneficence fecundated only when steeped in tears ? To
explain it, we need not resort to the hypothesis that no
God governs the world, or, if any, the God of the iron foot,
who crushes loving souls beneath his bloody tread as reck
lessly as he splits the oaks with his thunder-bolts, or scatters
the rose-leaves with his winds. Our doctrine discloses a
more profound philosophy. God exercises his children in
self-denial that they may become strong in Christian love.
He is educating them by sacrificial toil to possess a Christ
like character and glory, and to be capable of Christlike
achievements. The law which calls you to self-sacrifice is
severe, not exempting life if its sacrifice is needed ; it is
inexorable, but it is not arbitrary. Only in it can the es
sential character of Christianity find expression ; only by it
can you realize the highest possibilities of your being.
Have your souls faltered before the mystery that under
the government of God it costs sorrow and sacrifice to do
good ? Do you complain of the hard requirement ? But
were it abated, it would only be so much abated from the
divine excellence of Christianity, so much abated from the
godlike character to which you are called, and from the
divine beauty and power of love. It would unsettle the two
great commandments, detract from the meaning of the great
words of revelation : " God is Love," eviscerate redemption
of its significance, change the character of Christ's kingdom,
dim the glory and vitiate the blessedness of heaven, and let
darkness in on the eternal day.

LECTURE VIII.
THE CHRISTIAN LAW OF SERVICE.
The Christian law of service is proclaimed by the Saviour ;
" Whosoever will be great among you, let him be your
minister ; and whosoever will be chief among you, let him
be your servant ; even as the Son of Man came not to be
ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ran
som for many." To the ambitious request of the mother
of James and John for the highest places in his kingdom
for her sons, he had replied by propounding the Christian
law of service, and enforcing it with these most touching
words, in which he presents his own life of sacrifice and
service as the type of all Christian life. This law presents
itself in two aspects : Greatness for Service ; Greatness by
Service. Greatness for service. — Greatness does not entitle its pos
sessor to compel the service of others, while he lives in
idleness, sustained by their compelled ministrations ; but it
binds its possessor to render service to others. Greatness
in wealth, learning, talent, position, or power of any kind,
is bound to a commensurate greatness of service.
Greatness by service. — Service, always degrading from the
selfish and heathen point of view, is itself the true greatness,
and is ennobled as such by Christianity. The most complete
development of the individual and his greatest consideration
in society to be attained by service ; no artificial ranks in
Christ's kingdom, exalting men merely by position — no
pygmies on Alps ; but greatness by service — an aristocracy
of merit. The man who best serves society is to be the man
of most weight in society — a king of men by divine right.
149

150 THE CHRISTIAN LAW OF SERVICE.
In considering this principle as the Christian law of service,
we are primarily concerned with its first aspect : Greatness
for Service.
I. The Significance of the Law.
1. The principle involved : Greatness carries in it the
obligation to service.
Jesus refers to the contrary principle of heathen civiliza
tion : " Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise
dominion over them, and they that are great exercise au
thority upon them." This principle is, that superior power
of any kind is to be used in compelling the services of in
feriors ; the weak must serve the strong. The position of
honor is found in living idly and luxuriously on the enforced
service of others. Hence despotism, wars of conquest, race
hatred and domination, slavery, the degradation of woman,
characterize heathen civilization. Jesus says : " It shall
not be so among you." The contrary principle must char
acterize the kingdom of Christ. Thus he calls our attention
to the fact that in this declaration he not only propounds the
Christian law of service as a law for the individual, but in it
propounds the germinant principle of a new civilization. In
Christian civilization the strong are to serve the weak ; the
nobility and blessedness of life are to be found in energetic and
self-sacrificing work in rendering that service. Christianity
recognizes superiority as imposing obligation to serve, and
emblazons for every Christian the motto of nobility : " No
blesse oblige."
This principle is set forth in the humiliation and sacrifice
of Christ, the type and measure of all Christian love. It is
the great law, which he exemplified, of the higher descending
to the lower to lift it up ; of the perfect seeking the imperfect,
the richly-endowed seeking the poorly-endowed, bearing to
them the gifts which they lack. It is always the shepherd
going to the mountains to seek the lost sheep.
2. The measure of the service required is the ability to
render it.

THE CHRISTIAN LAW OF SERVICE. 151
In transactions between parties having equal ability to
render service, the services must be reciprocal, and the
service rendered must be an equivalent for the service re
ceived. This may be called the law of reciprocity. This
is the law of business exchanges. Every honest transaction
in business secures an equivalent advantage to each of the
parties. This implies, also, that so far as any one has the
power of self-help he has no claim on the unrequited service
of others.
But the world abounds in wretchedness which can neither
help itself nor make compensation for the help of others,
and which appeals for relief to those who are able to render
it. Here we have the law of unrequited or gratuitous
service — the strong must serve the weak. Human need
creates a lien on the ability to relieve it : "I am debtor both
to the Greeks and to the barbarians, both to the wise and to
the unwise ; so, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach
the gospel to you that are at Rome also." Every man is
debtor, as much as in him is, to use his superior power, of
whatever kind, in uncompensated service to those who need.
And the greater the power to serve, the greater the pro
portion of this kind of service that is due — pre-eminent
ability, pre-eminent service ; greatness, great service. Here
we reach the Christian principle of stewardship — that men
hold property and all means of influence not for selfish ends,
but in trust for the advancement of Christ's kingdom and
the promotion of the best interests of man.
3. The applications of the law are both to the choice and
prosecution of business and to the use of its gains.
I shall consider first, and chiefly, the application of the
law to the choice and prosecution of business. A man's
business ought to be such that the whole action of his life
in its prosecution be doing good, even when he is so absorbed
in its cares and processes that he does not think of doing
good. The law of Christian benevolence is ordinarily treated as
if it were applicable only to the use of the gains of. business

152 THE CHRISTIAN LAW OF SERVICE.
But, if so, then we do good only occasionally and with
deliberate purpose ; the only scope for Christian beneficence
is outside of the business, while within it all is necessarily
worldly and selfish ; and it is only so far as one can give
away something that he can be benevolent. If a mechanic
spends nine tenths of his earnings in supporting his family,
and gives away one tenth, then of every ten strokes of his
hammer nine are for self, and only one for God — but a
dribbling of his life for doing good. But a man's business
is the main work of his life. When his life ends, the great
bulk of what he has done for God and man is what he has
done in his business, not what he has done outside of it. If
that business in its prosecution affords no scope for Christian
largeness of heart, if it is essentially a mephitic swamp in
which every breath inhales miasma, we may well cry in
despair : " Who, then, can be saved ? " Then it is not sur
prising that men should reproach God for requiring them
to serve him, while compelling them to spend life in business
which consists essentially in serving themselves. Business
must itself be such that every stroke in its prosecution shall
be a Christian serviee to man — so much business done, so
much service to humanity rendered. Business, therefore,
should be chosen and prosecuted reverently and in Christian
consecration ; for it is the life-work. If chosen and prose
cuted only for gain, it is chosen and prosecuted in covetous
ness, and not in Christian love.
And yet the common opinion is, that business is to be
chosen and prosecuted only to make money. This opinion
has so firm a hold that the majority of men would probably
be surprised at the suggestion that a man should engage in
business for any other end. Even good men think that
Christian benevolence is to be exercised only in the giving
of their gains, not in the prosecution of their business. The
only exception is the business of a Christian minister, which
all admit should be prosecuted not to get gain, but to render
service. It is necessary, therefore, to show that every legiti
mate business is in its very prosecution a service to humanity,

THE CHRISTIAN LAW OF SERVICE. 153
and ought to be chosen and prosecuted in Christian love for
the purpose of rendering the service, not in covetousness for
the purpose of gain. This principle is as applicable to every
business as it is to that of the Christian minister.
, (1) Exchanges under the law of reciprocity give scope to
Christian service. You say : " If I have any of my time or
earnings to spare from my business, I am willing to show
Christian charity to the needy. But business is business,
and must be conducted on business principles, and with it
Christian charity has nothing to do." But what are business
principles ? The fundamental one is the law of reciprocity :
" The service rendered must be equivalent to the service re
ceived." The fact that, in a business transaction, for the
service rendered an equivalent is received does not take away
its character as a service, nor preclude Christian love as a
motive in the transaction. Every Christian is bound in love
to see that in every transaction of business he renders a ser
vice equivalent to that received. When in any exchange it
is the aim of one party to secure all the advantage to him
self, that intent is of the essence of all oppression ; for it is
using a superiority of some kind to compel the service of
another without rendering an equivalent. It is of the essence
of all dishonesty ; for it is getting possession of another's
property without rendering an equivalent. The highwayman
does the same, with only the difference that he is rougher in
his method of making the transfer. Thus the law of reci
procity exalts every business transaction into a Christian
service, and requires every man in every transaction to be
as intent on the service which he renders to another as on
the equivalent service which he receives. In every transac
tion is scope for Christian greatness of soul ; and the man
of business is entitled to adopt the princely motto : " Ich
dien," " I serve."
Political economy, the science of business exchanges,
which is founded solely on enlightened self-interest, coincides
with Christian ethics in this respect. Its fundamental prin
ciple is, that every legitimate exchange is the exchange of
20

154 THE CHRISTIAN LAW OF SERVICE.
equivalent services ; it is coming to accept the word " service "
as best expressing whatever is exchanged.
(2) Legitimate business is in its prosecution a service,
because it is productive, and supplies human wants. The
farmer raises food for man and beast, and ¦ material for
clothing. The mechanic and manufacturer fit the raw
material for use. The merchant transports products, and
makes them accessible to those who want them. The peoples
of the world serve each other by their productive labor — the
Asiatic serves the European, and the European serves the
Asiatic. Over all the world men are industriously serving
each other, producing what meets human wants. Thus
viewed, the creation and circulation of products through the
world, beneficent as the circulation of air and water, rises to
the sublime. The circulation of the products of all countries,
passing in white-sailed ships over the ocean, millions of
wealth always in motion from mart to mart, a circulation so
noiseless that the products of the other hemisphere flow
daily through the streets unnoticed as the wind, and so
equable and complete that you have only to step across the
street and the product of any country is stored ready for
your hand, and the table is daily spread with the products
of every quarter of the globe — this circulation, all-pervading
as the flow of blood in the body, binds all nations in the
unity of a common interest and life.
Here, again, political economy concurs with Christianity.
Whatever advantages in productive industry any person
may have over others, it is for his interest that others should
have corresponding advantages over him, and should be
prospered in their industry ; for thereby both the demand
for his own products and the supplies for his own wants are
increased. For the same reason, every nation is interested
in the industrial and commercial prosperity of other nations.
The old doctrine that a nation is benefited by crippling other
nations is seen to be fallacious.
Thus political economy coincides with the gospel in teaching
that wo are members one of another, and if one member

THE CHRISTIAN LAW OF SERVICE. 155
suffers all the members suffer with it. It coincides with
Christian ethics in the law that business should be prosecuted
as a service to others, and not merely to get gain for self.
An inference is, that the only legitimate business for a
Christian man is one which by its very prosecution renders
service to society. Dramsellers, gamblers, lottery-dealers,
counterfeiters, adulterators of food and medicine work every
day, and the product of every day's work and of the diligence
of the life-time is the multiplication of human woes. Persons
engaged in business serviceable to society are entitled to
gains accruing from a rise of prices, because this is inci
dental to a legitimate business and a compensation for inci
dental losses from a similar cause. But speculators, who
by combination force an advance, produce no value, and
render no equivalent service for their gains. They only
force money from the possession of others into their own.
This, therefore, is analogous to gambling, and is not a
legitimate business according to the Christian law of service.
(3) A man renders service in the prosecution of his
business so far as he is able to improve its methods and
results. The farmer who " manures his land with brains "
not o»ly increases his own gains, but improves the art of
farming, increases the productiveness of the earth, multiplies
and cheapens products, and puts an addition to the comforts
of life within the reach of a larger number of human beings.
Every mechanical invention produces similar results.
The result is, that industry, subduing nature, developing
its resources, and using its powers, and multiplying and
cheapening its products, is steadily advancing human wel
fare ; the purchasing power of labor, measured not by' its
money-wages, but by its power to purchase the comforts of
life, increases ; and, in like manner, the value of raw ma
terial, measured by its power to purchase manufactured
products, increases. Thus cottagers have now comforts and
luxuries which two hundred years ago the wealthiest could
not buy.
The industrial movement of modern times is a distinctive

156 THE CHRISTIAN LAW OF SERVICE.
characteristic of Christian civilization. Human thought
and energy is directed to the study of nature, the mastery
and use of its powers, and the development of its resources
for the service of man. Industrial enterprise opens a sphere
for the largest knowledge, the highest talent, and the greatest
energy. Thus it gives scope in this peaceful service of man
to the power which in ancient times found scope only in
war and selfish ambition.
(4) Every man serves society in his business so far as he
ennobles it by strict integrity and a high sense of honor, by
a large benevolence, and all the beauty of a Christian char
acter. What honor, for example, has been given to manu
facturing by Lawrence and Williston, to mechanical pursuits
by Safford and Washburn, and to mercantile life by Budgett
and Thornton. Thus the man of business is to silence the
sneer that a mercantile people are necessarily mercenary ;
that mechanics and meanness are inseparable ; that earning
a living deadens noble sentiments ; that men must live at
leisure on the labors of others in order to realize the nobility
of life.
(5) Every man's general influence in society, outside of
his ousiness, is affected by his character in his business.
Light must be embodied in some sun or star or candle or
burning coal, or it cannot shine. A man's business is the
body of his light. If he is not a Christian in his business,
he can shed no light beyond it ; there is not even a candle
or glowing coal to radiate it.
The second application of the Christian law of service is
to the use of the gains of business.
It is unnecessary to dwell on this application ; because it
is the one usually urged, and urged so exclusively that the
churches have fallen into the one-sided opinion that Christian
benevolence consists principally iii giving money. It is
necessary only to say that in the use of his gains a Christian
will be governed by the law of service. If he would escape
covetousness, he must give habitually, in proportion to his
income, and with a willing heart. The same principle

THE CHRISTIAN LAW OF SERVICE. 157
applies to the use of power and influence of every kind ac
quired in business.
II. Reasons for the Christian Law of Service.
1. The first is that urged by our Saviour himself: " The
Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister,
and to give his life a ransom for many." I sometimes think
these the most touching and eloquent of our Saviour's words.
As the brightness of the Father's glory, he discloses the love
of God appearing under human limitations in service and
sacrifice. As the ideal man, he reveals in service and sac
rifice the image of God perfected in human character.
2. The best instincts and the moral intuitions of the
human soul accord with this law.
If any accident happens, and the better impulses of the
heart are roused, men run to help the weak and the suffering.
The strong man who calls for help is thrust aside with scorn.
It is not greatness and strength which establish a claim for
service ; it is weakness, helplessness, suffering.
The babe comes into the house, and by its very helpless
ness commands the service of all. It rules the heart by its
weakness. See it waking from its day-nap, the coverlid just
drawn off, described as only one who was at once a mother
and a poet could describe it :
" There he lies upon his back,
The yearling creature ; warm and moist with life
To the bottom of his dimples, to the ends
Of the lovely tumbled curls about his face.
 Both his cheeks
Were hot and scarlet as the first live rose ;
 The pretty baby mouth
Shut close, as if for dreaming that it sucked ;
The little naked feet drawn up, the way
Of nestled birdlings. Everything so soft
And tender — to the little holdfast hands,
Which, closing on a finger into sleep,
Had kept the mould of it 
The light upon his eyelids pricked them wide,
And, staring out at us with all their blue.

158 THE CHRISTIAN LAW OF SERVICE.
As half perplexed between the angelhood
He had been away to visit in his sleep
And our most mortal presence, gradually
He saw his mother's face, accepting it,
In change for heaven itself, with such a 6mile
As might have well been learnt there ; never moved,
But smiled on, in aMrowse of ecstasy ;
So happy (half with her and half with heaven)
He could not have the trouble to be stirred,
But smiled and lay there. Like a rose, I said.
As red and still, indeed, as any rose,
That blows in all the silence of its leaves,
Content, in blowing, to fulfil its life." '
Infantile beauty, with power to command willing and loving
service. But when the yearling has grown to be a great,
strong boy, then, if he demands the service rendered to the
babe, he is only laughed at. Thus the unperverted instincts
and moral sentiments of human nature assent to the prin
ciple that the weak are entitled to the service of the strong.
Whoever is growing rich and great with the belief that he
is entitled to use his strength to compel the service of-others,
and to live only to be ministered unto, is in the family of
God a sort of overgrown baby, like a stout, selfish boy, who
uses the strength of youth to compel from all the family the
service due only to the babe.
3. The third reason is found in the second aspect of the
law — Greatness by Service.
By service a man attains his own highest intrinsic great
ness ; by service he also attains the greatest weight and
influence in society.
It is commonly objected that the argument from Christian
love is an appeal to sentimentality, which cannot be expected
to have much influence on practical men. This very ob
jection is an expression of the hard and cold realism of the
age, which measures value, only by its power to satisfy ma
terial wants, which reckons success to be the acquisition of
wealth by whatever means, and which makes the crowd
stare in admiration at the diamonds, the equipage, and al]
1 Mrs. Browning's Aurora Leigh, Book vi.

THE CHRISTIAN LAW OF SERVICE. 159
the gaudy ostentation of swindlers, thieves, and whore
mongers, and calls that success in life.
Certainly, enlightened self-interest accords with the Chris
tian law. But I do not appeal to it here. For what is
needed is not merely a more enlightened self-interest, but
the spirit of Christian love — the spirit which animated the
life of Jesus our Lord — a spirit not of the world, but
above it. What is needed is a new and Christian ideal of
what constitutes success in life, displacing the low ideal of
success by getting rich. And this our Saviour sets before
us in this thought, greatness by service.
The giver is always the superior of the receiver. He that
confers a favor is, so far as that particular is concerned, the
superior of him who receives it. He that renders a service
is, in that particular, superior to him to whom the service is
rendered. The common opinion, that he who serves is the
inferior, belongs to the civilization attending the reign of
force, when service was rendered on compulsion. Christianity
reverses this doctrine. He who needs and receives service is,
in that particular, the inferior and the dependent. The
condition of modern society is forcing this obvious, but for
gotten fact on the attention.
The character expressed and developed in loving service
is the highest and noblest type of character. Jesus reveals
the divine in the human, and the human in its ideal per
fection. That ideal is found in his life of service ; he came
not to be ministered unto, but to minister. This Man of
Sorrows, in "the form of a servant," is the perfect Man,
in whom humanity, long smitten with spiritual death,
and producing only degenerate beings, at last, touched by
the divine, comes forth in absolute perfection. The first
tempter promised : " Ye shall be as gods," and the promise
was to be realized through self-indulgence and gratification :
" She took, and did eat." It has been the mistake of the
world, from that day until now, to expect to become as gods
by getting and being ministered unto. The gospel gives us
the same promise : " Ye shall be partakers of the divine

160 THE CHRISTIAN LAW OF SERVICE.
nature " ; but it is by being, like Christ, a servant. The
conception of the highest blessedness by being ministered unto
is the conception of an everlasting babyhood, an everlasting
need and enjoyment of the pap-spoon. The conception of
greatness by ministering is the conception of manly strength
and power to serve, of resources given without impoverish
ment. So we assent to the words of Jesus, seeing therein
our highest dignity : " It is enough for the disciple that he
be as his Master, and the servant as his Lord."
Christian service brings out all the energies into action,
and is constantly developing the man to greatness. It is
often said that among missionaries is an extraordinary
number of distinguished persons. The reason cannot be
that they are of a higher order of natural ability, but is
rather that their work trains them to greatness. Also, by
identifying them with the greatest of human enterprises, it
lifts them to notice, and concentres on them the interest of
all Christians. No men so act beneath the gaze of all the
world. When Mr. Snow went to Micronesia, it seemed like
burying him in the obscurest corner of the world. But this
faithful missionary to that handful of savages has created
an interest and extended an influence throughout Christen
dom. He is a greater and nobler man, more widely known
and influential than he could have been in any parish at
home. If Paul had remained a Pharisee, he would have
been a prominent man of his city, and at his death would
have been forgotten. But Paul the Christian becomes the
most influential man in the Roman empire, and perpetuates
his influence through all ages. If Luther had remained a
monk, he would have been a student, inclined to despon
dency, having no aim higher than to keep his own conscience
in peace. But Luther the Christian is a man of burning
enthusiasm, dauntless courage, heroic enterprise, broad,
hearty humor — the reformer of Europe. William of Orange,
at the age of twenty-seven, was a Romanist, a favorite at the
court, spending his immense revenues in magnificence and
luxury. But William became a Protestant, and spent his

THE CHRISTIAN LAW OF SERVICE. 161
subsequent life, with almost superhuman energy, and against
innumerable difficulties, in establishing the liberty of his
country and defending the faith against the powerful and
bigoted monarch of Spain. All history demonstrates that
greatness is by service.
Great responsibilities develop greatness. A sea-captain
may be ordinarily a commonplace man ; but when his ship
is in danger his responsibility ennobles him ; his form seems
to swell to grander proportions ; his attitude becomes majestic ;
his eye kindles ; his voice deepens ; his mind acts with pre
ternatural energy. Analogous to this transitory influence
of a great crisis is the constant influence of Christianity,
quickening and ennobling the whole life with the conscious
ness of a great trust, a grand responsibility, and an urgent
service. The greatest energy in the service of self fails to develop
a character so noble, a power so grand, and an influence so
wide and lasting. Contrast Paul and Napoleon — both con
querors ; the one by force, the other by truth and love ; the
one for self-aggrandizement, the other for the welfare of man.
Contrast them in the imprisonment in which their lives were
ended, when, isolated from all factitious splendor and support,
you see the men themselves ; Napoleon, though surrounded
by the comforts of life, querulous, morose, weak, not self-
poised and self-sustained — like a rank vine grovelling on the
ground when its prop is gone ; Paul, imprisoned rigorously,
yet how grand his bearing, how self-poised and self-sustained,
how peaceful and triumphant.
It is a condition of abiding influence that the life be iden
tified with truth, which lives forever. The life expended on
selfish ends is transient as the selfish objects it seeks, and
narrow in its scope as the interest of self. Contrast the in
fluence of Paul and Nero, of Luther and Charles V. — when
they lived, the Christian seemingly so insignificant in com
parison with the emperor ; but in the subsequent ages the
emperor fading into insignificance, the Christian brightening
with increasing glory. 21

162 THE CHRISTIAN LAW OF SERVICE.
Thus, whether we consider intrinsic nobleness, or the
duration and scope of influence, it appears that greatness is
by service. The man of greatness in the church is the man
who greatly serves the church. These are bishops by divine
right, pre-eminent by pre-eminent service, pre-eminent as
Paul was, " in labors more abundant, in stripes above
measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft." Such
are the men by God's own anointing great in the kingdom
of heaven. Such is the true aval; aphpav, whom no revolu
tion can dethrone.
The same thought is true of society. Society can attain
its best condition only as it is governed by the law of love.
The ambition which by force compels the service of inferiors
which characterized ancient civilization, the greed of gain
which characterizes modern civilization, must give place to
the law of service before a Christian civilization can pervade
the world. Obedience to this law is indispensable to produce
the popular virtue and national character essential to self-
government and Christian civilization.
Consider the different characters which the greed of gain
and obedience to the Christian law of service respectively
indicate and develop. If industry is merely for gain, it will
be accepted as a drudgery, and shirked when practicable.
The brightest dream of success will be realized in the acqui
sition of means to live luxuriously with exemption from
work. But if industry is regarded as Christian service, the
true man will covet the opportunity to work. Idleness will
be counted a disgrace. No one's education is complete till
he learns not to shrink from work as a drudgery, but to
rejoice in it as a service.
If business is regarded as a service, the aim of the work
man will be to do all work thoroughly, as for God. The
mechanic will congratulate himself, when his day's work
is done, not merely that he has received his earnings, but
also that his work has been well done, and will render
good service. The manufacturer will congratulate himself,
not merely that he has made a profit on his contract, but

THE CHRISTIAN LAW OF SERVICE. 163
also that he has given employment to many hands, and paid
them the full worth of their labor, and has turned out an
article well made, which will do good service. The merchant
will congratulate himself, not merely that he has made large
and profitable sales, but that he has given his customers a
full equivalent for their money, taking advantage of no
man's ignorance, carelessness, or necessity. Thus work in
every department develops a noble and generous char
acter, inflexible in. integrity, intent on rendering service to
men. But if work is only for gain, the only joy in the work
done is in the gain acquired. The day-laborer works un
faithfully, and is idle, if hot watched. The mechanic slights
his work, and turns out articles that will not wear. The
manufacturer grinds his operatives to the lowest wages
which their necessity or his opportunity permits, and pro
duces articles of inferior material and make. The trader
adulterates or misrepresents his goods. The man no longer
regards his employer, his workman, or his customer as a
fellow-man to be served, but as a victim to be plundered, a
goose to be plucked ; and he plucks him as near to the life
as he dares. Then he boasts how much he has made out of
him — of the sharpness with which he cut his neighbor's
property out of him without rendering an equivalent.
Work thus prosecuted strengthens the greed of gain.
The man becomes rapacious. His life is a Sahara, sucking
into burning sand the sunshine and the rain, but returning
no green thing. He becomes unscrupulous, reckless of
justice and honor. As Dr. South says, he retails heaven
and salvation for pence and half-pence, and seldom sells a
commodity but he sells his soul with it, like brown paper,
into the bargain. He becomes mean in getting and nig
gardly in spending. He becomes hard, reckless of the
rights and interests of others, incapable of compassion, heed
ing no appeal to help the wretched ; diligent and energetic
as an iron steam-engine at work, and as hard and heartless
as it. He lives not to benefit society, but to prey upon

164 THE CHRISTIAN LAW OF SERVICE.
it — a pirate seizing prizes — a devil seeking whom he may
devour. If such a character pervades society, society is corrupt
and its civilization decaying. Society becomes impotent to
produce great men ; its consummate flower is the smart
man, keen, shrewd, and knowing; it does not produce great
men, men of broad views and large hearts, whose names
will be powers of beneficence forever.
In ancient civilization, families and races which had won
power by the sword compelled the service of the inferiors
subjected. It has been the struggle of modern times to
break political tyranny, and to secure to individuals their
rights. The motto of modern civilization is : "A career
open to talents" — every man free to make the most of
himself and for himself. But this is demonstrating itself to
be but a half-truth. Society constituted on individualism
perverts individual liberty into self-assertion — every one
grasping all he can for himself, without care for the rights
of others. Society says to the individual : " We open to
you a career. Make of yourself and for yourself all that
you can. But look out for yourself; for every member of
society will make everything out of you that he can. But
then we are Christian ; if you cannot run this gauntlet, —
if you break down into utter destitution, — we will send you
to the poorhouse, and keep you from starving at the least
possible expense to ourselves."
It has become plain to the thoughtful that this principle
of individual liberty is inadequate. Under it the old prin
ciple of the domination of the strongest still creeps in ; the
tyranny wrested from government reappears in the social
sphere ; tlie purse is as forceful as the sword. When com
petition does not pay, the competitors combine to force
prices above the natural level ; the rich grow richer, and the
poor poorer. Inequalities not only increase, but stiffen into
castes ; it becomes more and more difficult for the inferiors
to rise by honest industry to independence. The whole
tone of society becomes more and more vulgar and coarse-

THE CHRISTIAN LAW OF SERVICE. 165
grained ; bent on sordid ends, and seeking them by sordid
means. The masses that have been the less successful in this selfish
competition are becoming uneasily conscious of their in
feriority. But they fall back into the old error that the
strong may compel the service of the weak. They have
discovered that ten are stronger than one, and that by
combination the many can compel the action of the few.
They are lifting their solid mass to take from the individual
the open career which by the conflicts of centuries he has
won, and to enslave him again to society. They proclaim
that rights belong to society, to the individual only duties —
that he is the creature and tool of society. They proclaim
the old error (exposed by Jesus) that man exists for his
institutions. But however excellent the sentiments embodied
in institutions, if they are constituted on the error that man
exists for his institutions, they only bring back the old op
pression in a new form. The re-organization thus proposed
by the socialists among the labor-reformers is the old tyranny
in a new form, and the worst form in which it has ever
appeared. It is the organization of mediocrity, the lifting
of inferiority to rule by the power of mere mass ; it restrains
genius, ability, and industry from gaining more than imbe
cility, mediocrity, and indolence ; it closes the career to
talent ; it makes human progress impossible.
The evil itself, and the greater evil of these methods of
attempting to right it, can be met only by Christianity.
Under the Christian law of service individual liberty and
rights are respected ; a career is open to talent ; the strongest
stimulus to individual enterprise and development exists ;
all that has been won by the struggles of modern times is
retained. Yet every right is acknowledged to have its cor
relative duty ; the individual is followed in his acquisition
by the Christian law of service ; he accepts the obligation to
choose and prosecute his business, and to use all that he
attains by it, to render service to man. Higher ideals of
life are created ; men live for higher ends, and seek better

166 THE CHRISTIAN LAW OF SERVICE.
things. The coarse and vulgarizing influence of the greed
of gain abates, and, instead, " sweetness and light " pervade
society. The tendency to inequality is arrested, and society
advances towards equality, because all are engaged in pro
ductive, and therefore legitimate, business, and prosecute it
as stewards of God's grace and for the service of man ; and
equality is ultimately realized, so far as the diversities of
talent, and of diligence and skill in the use of talent and
opportunity, permit. The evils growing in our civilization
can be removed only by obedience to the Christian law of
service. The progress of society is possible only so far as
the individual members of society become freely conformed
to the spirit and law of Christ.1
III. It remains to Determine the Dividing Line between
Selfishness and Christian Benevolence.
1. Worldly business is not necessarily worldliness. Money
is not an evil, but a good, indispensable in every enterprise,
Christian or unchristian; and it is every man's duty to
strive to acquire it. It is not money, but the love of money,
which Paul says is a root of all evil. It is not proof of
covetousness that a man is diligent in business, rising early
and working late and working hard ; nor that he is frugal,
and eats the bread of carefulness ; nor that his business
absorbs his thoughts, his interest, and his energy ; nor that
he rejoices in success and is grieved at failure ; nor that he
is successful, and rapidly accumulating property. Because
forecast, diligence, concentration, and energy are essential
to success in all undertakings. Thoughtlessness, negligence,
indolence cannot succeed ; and on them Christianity pro
nounces no blessing. Besides, a man's business is his life-
work ; and if it is worthy to be his life-work, it is worthy
of the concentration on it of his thoughts, his interest, and
1 The terrible history of Communism in Paris confirms the views here pre
sented. Dr. Maudsley advances the opinion, and maintains it at considerable
lengtli, that the existing greed of gain is a cause of insanity, and also is causing a
physical degeneracy of the race. — Physiology and Pathology of the Mind,
pp. 205, 206.

THE CHRISTIAN LAW OF SERVICE. 167
his energy. A man's business is like a warfare ; and he
feels an interest like that of a general in planning his cam
paigns and marshalling his forces, and similar joy in victory
and sorrow in defeat. All these are characteristics of effi
ciency in business, not of covetousness.
Covetousness is not merely, as commonly defined, an
excessive desire of acquisition. The difference between
covetousness and Christian justice and benevolence is not of
degree, but of kind.
Covetousness is the desire of gain for selfish ends, and not
for its uses in the service of man. If a man is doing business
simply to make money, he is covetous.
When Jesus says : " Take heed and beware of covetous
ness," he uses a Greek word, which literally means, a
grasping for more. And this is a peculiarity of covetous
ness ; it is a desire for more, rather than a desire for much ;
a desire to be richer, rather than a desire to be rich. A
rich man who has riches already and a poor man who
never expects to be rich may be equally covetous, grasping
for more. This is the wolf in the breast, always ravening
and always hungry ; the fire in the soul, to whicli every
acquisition is fuel, making it burn more fiercely.
The philosophy of it is this. In the nature of man is a
radical and indestructible impulse to put forth his energies
in action, to push out in every direction to his utmost
capacity. A man's business is the work which he has chosen
for life, in which this radical impulse must find sphere and
scope. The success of any enterprise gives him joy, because
it is a triumph of his skill and energy, and not necessarily
because it is an acquisition of gain. But the very acquisition
furnishes means for further and larger enterprise, and thus
stimulates the impulse to further risk and larger undertakings.
So that, however large the acquisitions, the man is still driven
to strive for more, with the same forecast, frugality, and
energy which have hitherto insured success ; and to this the
power of habit is added, impelling to continued action in
the same direction.

168 THE CHRISTIAN LAW OF SERVICE.
The blame here does not rest on the impulse to enterprise ;
for that lies at the very root of our natures. Nor does the
blame attach to the indestructibleness and insatiableness of
the impulse ; for these are inherent in it as a radical impulse
of nature. The impulse to action, the same grasping for
more, appears in Christian beneficence. Success in one
Christian work stimulates to effort in another. The soul is
insatiable in its zeal to do good. It is driven to new toils
and new achievements. Xavier, thinking he served God by
his own sufferings, when enduring severe privations and
suffering, cried : " More, Lord, more." Paul counted it all
joy to take the spoiling of his goods, or whatever suffering
was incidental to his missionary enterprises, and was planning
a mission to Spain, ever pressing on to enlarge the sphere
of his Christian enterprise. A man who in the work of his
life does not find his nature crying out for more, and driving
him to new work, and does not find in that " fresh fields and
pastures new," is enervated ; so far his manhood Ls spent
out of him. So profoundly is it true that a man is not to
be ministered unto, but to minister ; his blessedness is no t
by being indulged and receiving, but by achievement.
So far as eagerness and insatiableness in the enterprises
of business are the result of the natural impulse to action
they are not blameworthy. The blameworthiness is that the
covetous man spends his energies for himself. He may
hoard his gains, or invest them in larger enterprises, or use
them to gain office or power, or spend them in ostentation
and luxury. But in every case it is for self, using his
superiority to insure being ministered unto, not to minister
to others. Thus, working only for himself, he is like a
steam-engine of a thousand horse power, driven night and
day to manufacture fuel to feed its own fires.
2. The law of service is not fulfilled merely by consecrating
to benevolence a part, however large, of the income. The
business itself and its whole income are consecrated. Chris
tianity teaches stewardship ; we are not our own, but bought
with a price ; we are stewards of the manifold grace of Gor-.

THE CHRISTIAN LAW OF SERVICE. 169
In every action, investment, and expenditure we are to
determine how we can best use the powers and possessions
whicli God has intrusted to us for the establishment of his
kingdom on earth.
3. The line between benevolence and selfishness is not to
be drawn between what one expends on himself and his
family and what he gives away. This line is not marked by
outward acts. What you expend on yourself a.nd your
family need not be expended selfishly. It ought to be ex
pended in Christian consecration and benevolence as really
as what is given away.
It may be, and probably is, the use of money by which you
most effectively benefit mankind. To take the lowest view
possible, it is relieving society from the support of so many
persons. The division of society into families is the best
possible constitution of society, and insures the most rapid
and abundant creation of wealth. It also is the best possible
arrangement for the promotion of intelligence, culture, and
piety. To create a happy home — one of the many happy
homes which make a happy people, to create a well-ordered
Christian home — one of the many which make a Christian
people, is to render the greatest and best service to society.
On the other hand, if in expenditure on yourself and your
family you are seeking only your own gratification, only
ostentation and display, only to have everything pleasant
about you, only to be ministered unto, however lavish you
may be, the very lavishness is but the outshining of selfish
ness. 4. Is a Christian justified in expending money on himself
and his family beyond procuring the necessaries of life ?
And if so, how far may he incur expense for enjoyment and
luxury, or for developing and satisfying the taste for beauty
and the desires which belong to culture and refinement ?
The mass of human misery is so great as to overtop all
individual resources. When one thinks of himself as a
debtor to all mankind, as much as in him lies, to render
them service, the first impression may naturally be that ha
22

170 THE CHRISTIAN LAW OF SERVICE.
must literally divest himself of all his goods, and reduce hia
personal expenses to the measure of bare necessity. This
train of thought is met at once by another equally sweeping
and obvious — that, if carried out, it puts a stop to civiliza
tion, and reduces us to the wigwam and the blanket. In
this line of thought, different persons stop at different points.
A common stopping-place has been that a Christian ought
not to wear jewelry. But the same line of argument would
forbid expenditures for pictures or other ornaments in the
house, for a flower-garden which might be more lucrative ins
potatoes, for any dress more costly than the cheapest which
is sufficient for warmth and decency. On this principle a
parishioner of mine reached a correct conclusion, who, being
informed that a savage tribe at a mission-station were be
ginning to wear shirts, expressed his regret that they should
be subjected to the needless expense and trouble. In seeking
a principle by which to answer our question, some light may
be obtained. by considering two marked types of civilization,
expressing respectively the life' of indulgence and the life Of
service. The highest form in which the former of these two types
can appear is the civilization of aesthetic culture and luxu
rious refinement — a luxuriousness that delights apprecia
tively in wit, literature, and art ; a civilization like that of
which Burke says " that vice lost half its evil by losing
all its grossness " — words more epigrammatic than true.
Aesthetic culture is the highest possible form of this type of
civilization. The emotion of beauty is non-moral, that is, it
precludes selfish desire and the consideration of uses, ends,
and duty. It is never didactic, but regards the expression"
of things. A feast tastefully arranged is beautiful ; we say
it is too beautiful to be eaten. When appetite comes in, the
veil of beauty drops off, and there remains only a mass of
victuals. It is this non-ethical character of aesthetic emotion
which makes it compatible with a life of indulgence, and
aesthetic culture the highest form of that type of civilization.

THE CHRISTIAN LAW OF SERVICE. 171
The best example is the civilization of ancient Greece.
" Athenian life was a sunny, unanxious, careless, pagan life ;
unguided by any high code of duties, unvexed by the dread
of the future which should demand the discipline of self-
denial ; without a thought, or even a comprehension, of that
purity to which the Hebrew legislation pointed with unfailing
finger, and which made the central mandate in the ethics of
Israel. Greek life was a life of the exchange, the academy,
the circus, the bath. It was a breezy, open-air life, which
guarded the body from disease and the mind from morbidity,
which habituated the intelligence to delight in the subtilty
of the Socratic dialectics, and which hourly placed before
the sculptor consummate models of human beauty. Undis
turbed by the fierce promptings of religious zeal, the mind
naturally turned with sunny complacency to the worship of
that beauty which was written everywhere on sky, on sea,
on hillside, and the forms of men and women." To such a
civilization the moral earnestness of the Hebrew scriptures
would be simply incomprehensible. When preached in the
gospel of Christ, it was to the Greek foolishness. The
aesthetic mind of the Greek could not receive, much less
originate, the idea of a kingdom of heaven on earth, of
missions for the conversion of the world, or even for the
propagation of moral ideas and reformations, of the indebted
ness of every man to render service to mankind, and the
consecration of life and all its powers and possessions to
that service. All these conceptions were totally foreign to
his thought ; they could be received only by quickening a
new life, which would unfold into a new type of civilization.
The religion possible in such a civilization must be a
religion of beauty — either a pagan religion, like that of the
Greeks, peopling the heavens and the earth with gods full
of passionate, roystering life, and giving to every mountain,
tree, and spring its nymph ; or else pantheism, concerned
with God only as the infinite expressing itself in all that is ;
never as a Lawgiver, forbidding sin and enjoining duty;
much less as a Redeemer, saving men from sin and quicken-

172 THE CHRISTIAN LAW OF SERVICE.
ing them to work with him in establishing his reign of
righteousness on the earth.
The most striking example of this type of character in
modern times is Goethe, intent on personal culture, but
hard and cold as polished marble ; more interested in a
controversy of the French Academy than in the French
Revolution and the wars incident to it which were changing
the political ideas and destiny of Europe ; paying court to
the conqueror of his own country so as to awaken the con
queror's contempt — a striking contrast to Fichte, who, when
his course of instruction was interrupted by the invasion,
dismissed his class with the inspiriting words : " Gentlemen,
these lectures will be resumed in a free country."
The doctrine that the highest end of man is personal
culture is a form of the error that man's blessedness is found
in receiving, and not in giving, in being ministered unto,
and not in ministering. It is the highest and most refined
form in whicli the error can appear, and the civilization
resulting may have great refinement and elegance ; but it is
incompatible with the Christian law of service ; the civiliza
tion whicli it develops is essentially the development of
selfishness, and will inevitably disclose the defects and
wrongs which are inseparable from the error of which it is
the development.
The other type of civilization is that in which the moral
element predominates. Everything is considered in reference
to its ends or uses ; duty occupies the thoughts ; everything
is under law and subject to retribution ; life is a life of
service, not of indulgence. The Hebrew and tho Puritan
are examples.
According to this type of civilization, blessedness is pos
sible only in the realization of moral ideas. Whoever misses
this is a lost man. It considers all human interests only in
relation to right and wrong ; it enforces duty ; it demands
rights ; it resists injustice and oppression ; it seeks to bring
the whole world into conformity with moral law ; it expects

THE CHRISTIAN LAW OF SERVICE. 173
progress ; it looks on history as a panorama in which truth
and right are contending with error and wrong, and ad
vancing with brightening glory to control the world. There
fore it generates intense earnestness of purpose, contempt
for ease, indulgence, and luxury, the consecration of life to
the realization of moral ends.
Such a civilization is necessarily propagandist. Missions
to establish moral and religious ideas are inconceivable in a
civilization of indulgence, whatever its culture and aesthetic
refinement ; they are essential and inevitable in a civilization
in which the moral element predominates. Miiller says that
Boodhism teaches a purer and more complete morality than
any outside of the New Testament ; and it is they onl form
of heathenism which has been a missionary religion. Mo-
hammedism, borrowing from Christianity a moral element,
and especially proclaiming the unity and spirituality of God
in antagonism to the idolatry of corrupt Christian churches,
was intensely propagandist, though by the sword, rather
than by truth and love. The moral element predominated
in the earlier history of the Roman republic; and, though
the Roman virtus is hardly worthy to be called virtue in the
light of Christ's teaching, yet, as distinguishing the Roman
civilization from the aesthetic refinement of Greece, it made
Rome a conqueror, carrying over the Western world the
Roman law. Christianity is essentially moral ; and it alone
commissions preachers to go into all the world and preach
the gospel to every creature.
In history this type of civilization has often been one-sided
and defective. It spreads a certain gloom over society.
Law supreme, universal, inexorable, broken by all ; penalty
terrible and inevitable, hang glooming and threatening over
the world. Beneath its shadow pleasure is an impertinence,
tho interests of earthly life trivial, secular business an intru
sion ; worldliness is driven out by " other-worldliness " ; the
sunny cheerfulness of life fades before the intensity of the
sense of duty and responsibility ; weariness of life falls on
the soul ; and asceticism drives men to deserts ancl monas'

174 THE CHRISTIAN LAW OF SERVICE.
teries for the mortification of the flesh. The very absolute
ness of the truth demands an acceptance complete and
unhesitating , the very supremacy of the law demands un
compromising obedience. But the unlimited faith and
uncompromiisng obedience of the believer pass into im-
periousness in enforcing a like faith and obedience on others.
The gay indifference of the aesthetic Greek to the opinions
and religions of others gives place to an intense solicitude
in the presence of a religion claiming to be the only and
universal religion, and of a law of right which is the only
and universal law. That solicitude passes into intolerance.
Heresy is hun.ted by inquisitions, conformity is enforced by
persecution, and the true faith propagated by crusades.
When the progress of Christianity puts an end to these, still
zeal for doctrine eats out love to persons ; intolerance usurps
the place of fidelity ; and, in forgetfulness that persons are
the proper objects of love, theological hatred, calumny, and
proscription in the interest of truth are accepted as expressions
of Christian zeal.
Thus this moral type of civilization puts on both a certain
moroseness and a certain fierceness. Its iconoelasm comes
to be directed against the joyous and beautiful because they
are such, and by being such prove themselves earthly and
idolatrous. And its missionary zeal becomes intolerance
and cruelty.
Christian civilization belongs to that type in which the
moral forces predominate. But it brings these moral forces
into action in a manner peculiar to itself. It does not put
foremost truth and law, but God, the Redeemer of the lost
sinner ; it does not put foremost zeal for truth and the sense
of duty as the inspiration of the new life, but faith in God,
the Redeemer of sinners, and love to God who redeems, and
to man for whom Christ died. Here, then, in Christianity,
is that which saves the moral type of civilization from the
gloom, intolerance, and severity which so often have charac
terized it. The moral life, vitalized by faith and acting in

THE CHRISTIAN LAW OF SERVICE. 175
love, is no longer one-sided and defective, but complete,
comprehending all that belongs to the blessedness of man.
The Christian life springs from the sense of sin and con
demnation. From this the sinner is delivered when he sees
God's redeeming love in Christ. In that faith the gloom of
the law and of condemnation passes away ; the life becomes
trustful, hopeful, and joyous ; the old Greek jovousness re
appears, intensified and made spiritual — not now the joy
of forgetfulness of God and his law, but joy which springs
up, through faith in God's redeeming love, after acquaintance
with God and the law has awakened the moral nature and
the sense of sin. The moral type now appears, not in the
inquisitor or the crusader or the ascetic, but in the Christ
like man, with all the earnestness of the inquisitor and the
crusader and the ascetic, but also like a little child, living a
life of simplicity, trustfulness, and joy, and, like Jesus
himself, full of tender compassion and self-sacrificing love to
sinners. Inspired by this faith and love, the man in whom
the moral element predominates is no longer indifferent to
secular interests and weary of life, no longer stern and
intolerant in the consciousness only of law ; but, like Christ,
is sensitive to every human interest, taking children in his
arms and blessing them, ministering to the sick, comforting
the bereaved, helping the fallen in their efforts to rise,
joyous at a wedding, teaching the principles of Christian
civilization, alive to every interest of man.
The advancement of Christ's kingdom is not linear only,
in the conversion of souls, but also diffusive, advancing in
completeness and power. Civilization is said to multiply
human wants. This is only another way of saying that it
multiplies the powers and capacities of the man. To with
hold satisfaction to these wants is to undo the development
of the man, and to reduce him to his original infantile and
savage state. Christianity must show itself the religion of
civilization, competent by its vital force in a savage com
munity to quicken progress to civilization, competent iu
civilization to stimulate, purify, guide, and ennoble it,

176 THE CHRISTIAN LAW OF SERVICE.
Christianity, then, is not to repress the culture, the refine
ment, the activity, and manifold development of man, but
to vitalize and Christianize it. And thus it reacts, and
accelerates its linear advancement. Christian interest in
the progress of humanity, in the highest human culture, in
all that pertains to human welfare, is itself a powerful
recommendation of Christianity and an importaqt influence
in quickening men to a new spiritual life.
With this train of thought the true idea of the beautiful
accords. Beauty is perfection — an ideal of the mind, ex
pressed in the concrete. Goodness and truth, therefore, when
manifested in finite things, are beautiful. When the expres
sion is of that which transcends our power of conception,
the emotion of the beautiful passes into the sublime. Hence
the close affinity between the admiration of beauty and the
awe of the sublime, and adoration. A moral movement
which excludes the beautiful is defective and self-destructive ;
as if a tree in an effort to multiply its fruit should shake off
the glory of leaf and blossom and the golden and blushing
beauty of the fruit. Beauty is the bloom of truth and good
ness ; it is their radiance, their glow, their smile.
Therefore, within the scope of Christianity there i,s room
for expending money, time, and talent on any work essential
to the culture, development, and well-being of man. Civili
zation of the most intensely moral type does not exclude
aesthetic culture. Its defectiveness in the Hebrew and the
Puritan was the result of the incompleteness, rather than
the completeness, of the moral life. It was because morality
came in the awfulness of law, rather than in the freedom of
Christian faith and love, and even as love, in the Puritan,
concentrating attention on the conflict with wrongs and
oppressions immediately urgent, so as to leave no time for
the completeness of human culture.
But Christian love, when completely manifested, must
bloom in beauty. When the gospel has free course, it must
be glorified. The limping god of work is the one who wins
and marries the goddess of beauty. The moral force which

THE CHRISTIAN LAW OF SERVICE. 177
Christianity has made a power in civilization is essentially
an energy of reform and progress. As love to man, it is
diffusive, and not restrictive, concerned with the interests of
man, not conservative of the privileges of a class. There
is, necessarily, a certain severity about it in some of its
conditions. Sweeping away the tyranny and debauchery
of courts and aristocracies, it cannot well avoid sweeping
away with them their elegance, refinement, and aesthetic
culture. But as its purifying and renovating force works
out its legitimate results, it gradually diffuses through the
whole people the refinement and culture once limited to a
few. And this accords with prophecy : " The wilderness
and the solitary place shall be glad for them, and the desert
shall rejoice and blossom as the rose. Instead of the thorn
shall come up the fir-tree, and instead of the brier shall
come up the myrtle-tree. And I will make the place of my
feet glorious."
But, while Christian civilization is to beautify itself with
aesthetic culture, no man has a right to live in luxury and
self-indulgence, using his powers only for his own enjoyment.
Whatever he does, he must do it in Christian service. It is
right to break the alabaster box of precious ointment ; but
it must be broken on the Saviour's feet ; and it must be the
spontaneous outpouring of Christian love, not a substitute
for that love, nor for Christian toil in saving men from sin.
Peter, John, and Paul would not have converted the world
by breaking alabaster boxes of perfume.
23

LECTURE IX.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GROWTH OF CHRIST'S KINGDOM.
The progress of Christ's kingdom is extensive, so far as it
gains new converts and Christianizes new peoples ; it is
intensive, so far as it advances the sanctification of its
converts, and develops a higher type of piety and a more
Christian civilization. Some characteristics of this progress
will now be considered.
I. It is Spiritual.
It is spiritual in the sense that it is the work of God's
Spirit. God's redeeming love is not merely a bland acces-
sibleness if any choose to seek him — a mild rainbow over
his throne, encouraging any who venture to brave the dark
ness and clouds that are round about him. It is an energy
of redeeming grace, the Spirit of holiness, working in human
history, enlightening, striving, life-giving, reproving, com
forting. The progress of the kingdom is the constant product
and manifestation of the ever-present and prevailing energy
of the Holy Spirit.
It is spiritual, also, in the sense that it is the progress of
spiritual life in men — the life of faith and love that centres
on Christ and his cross.
Hence, so far as man's agency is concerned, the progress
of tlie kingdom is by action in faith ; and the life of faith is a
life of inspiration and enthusiasm, rather than of prudence
and calculation. The believer has courage to attempt what
ever God has had grace to promise. In the words of Bishop
Hall : " Faith is never so glorious as when she hath most
opposition, and will not see it. Reason looks ever to the
1T8

GROWTH OF CHRIST'S KINGDOM. 179
means ; faith, to the end ; and, instead of consulting how to
effect, resolves what shall be effected." The very obstacles
become a stimulus to effort : " I will tarry at Ephesus ; for
a great door and effectual is opened unto me, and there are
many adversaries."
II. The Progress of the Kingdom is by the Instrumentality
of the Gospel.
It is the historical gospel of redemption through Christ
and the Holy Spirit, as distinguished from abstract truth.
" I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus
Christ and him crucified." Rationalism treats Christianity,
whicli is a divine action redeeming men from sin, as if it
were only a process of thought ; as if its whole aim were the
analysis and systemization of truth to the intellect. It
regards historical Christianity as the lantern, not as the
light, and breaks the lantern that the light may shine more
clearly. The result is that the light is blown out. The
gospel must indeed be apprehended by the intellect. It pre
supposes the truths of religion and morals which men may
know without revelation. Man, as a rational being, must
interpret the facts of the gospel, and define their significance
to his intellect ; must harmonize them with the truths of
natural religion, with the principles of reason, and with all
knowledge. This produces theology, which is the gospel
interpreted, analyzed, and systemized by and for the intel
lect. But the gospel does not terminate in the intellect, nor
exiot only as a process of thought. It is addressed to the
heart. It is thought transformed into life. And it is only
in. its historical origin and influence that it is rightly under
stood. Christianity is like the sun, whose warmth and light
are dependent on being held in the earth's atmosphere and
reflected from its surface. To rise above the earth's atmos
phere in order to get nearer to the sun is to lose his warmth
and light. So philosophy, rising above the historical and
human to come nearer to God, finds, in the dizzy heights
of speculation, darkness and cold.

180 CHARACTERISTICS OF THE
While, then, it is necessary to man, as a rational being, to
define and interpret the gospel to the intellect and translate
it into systematic theology, there is inherent in so doing the
danger of falling into a rationalistic habit, and regarding
Christianity as a philosophy. Especially should there be
caution against this danger in theological seminaries, in
which the student is necessarily occupied in defining, inter
preting, vindicating, and systemizing the gospel to the intel
lect. There is danger that he come to be interested in the
mere intellectual investigation of truth, rather than in Chris
tianity as the power of life to sinners ; that a dilettanteism
of interest in philosophy and literature displace the earnest
ness of Christian interest in men and Christian zeal to bring
sinners to Christ ; or, in a different direction, that the spirit
of controversy and the eagerness of theological discussion
displace Christian love to men and interest in the minister's
appropriate work of saving men from sin. There is danger,
also, that the student be entangled and held powerless in
his own speculations ; so many are the questions suggested
in defining, interpreting, and systemizing the facts of Chris
tianity, and so severe and protracted the intellectual effort
in the process, that they become associated in the student's
mind with the facts of the gospel ; and the life-giving truths
come to his mind not in the freshness, simplicity, and power
of the gospel, but as the nucleus of questions and difficulties,
of metaphysical distinctions and nice adjustments of thought ;
and he is entangled and held fast in the bristling chevaux-
de-frise which his thinking has constructed around every
truth of the gospel. There is danger that he be rationalistic,
regarding Christianity only as a process of thought, and
finding its whole significance in the definition of truth to
the intellect. So, also, the history of Christianity must be
studied as a history of doctrine. But there is danger in so
studying it that the student come to regard the determination
of doctrine as the great work which Christianity has accom
plished in the past, as the entire significance of its history.
In one age it determined the doctrine of the Trinity; in

growth of Christ's kingdom. 181
others, successively, the doctrines of sin, of atonement, of
justification by faith, until, as an eminent living divine has
said, there remains nothing to be determined by the church
of the future but the Christian doctrine of the church itself.
But the history of the church is not found merely in the
history of doctrine, but also in ideals which in Christ have
become powers in the world, in confessions and martyrdoms,
in missions and charities, in self-denial and heroism, in Chris
tian experience of penitence, faith, and love, in triumphs
over death, in the progress of justice, and of Christian cus
toms, laws, and institutions, in reformations and the growth
of Christian civilization.
Accordingly, the gospel does not address itself merely to
the intellect, and especially not to the observing, analyzing,
and classifying faculties, which positive science exclusively
addresses. It addresses itself to the faith, to the moral
nature, to the spiritual necessities, aspirations, and intuitions.
This Paul recognizes in his preaching: " Commending our
selves to every man's conscience in the sight of God."
Jesus recognizes it : " If any man will do his will, he shall
know of the doctrine." And the intimations of the moral
and spiritual nature are as trustworthy as those of our ob
serving and comparing faculties ; for they are of the very
core of our being ; and if they are false, the whole being is
vitiated with falsehood. There is, then, a philosophical basis
for the answer of an unlettered candidate for the ministry,
who, when asked at his examination for ordination : " What
proof have you that Christ is divine? " answered, with tears :
" Why, bless you, he has saved my soul." And if the keen
definition and proof of truth by and to the intellect is
separated from the knowledge and evidence of spiritual ex
perience, and we are obliged to choose which of the two is
the safer preparation for preaching the gospel, I should not
hesitate to choose the latter : " Blessed are they that have
not seen, and yet _ave believed."
It follows that the effectual preaching of the gospel is
more than the clear presentation of the truth from the intel

182 characteristics of the
lect to th>3 intellect. Education is not only the impartation
cf knowledge and of intellectual discipline ; it is also inspi
ration. And the effective preaching of the gospel is an
inspiration to the hearer. But he who inspires another must
live e.nd breathe himself. All inspiration is vital. It is
from the heart to the heart. The soul itself is the only
vehicle which will convey spiritual truth from man to man.
Even God, making his love a power in human history, brings
it in a human soul. Preaching is not a mere intellectual
process; it is not a mere thinking; it is an action — the ac
tion of the whole man on his fellowmen. Lecky notices " the
extremely small influence of definite argument in deter
mining the opinions either of an individual or of a nation."
It is faith, love, service, life, rather than argument, which
convey the truth as a power of life to human hearts. Lord
Bacon says : " Truth prints goodness." One cannot easily
read lead types ; an imprint must be taken off. Goodness
is the imprint by which truth is read. The power of the
primitive church was not merely the power of convincing
argument and eloquent speaking ; it was rather the power
of the Christian life of faith and love.
III. The Progress of Christ's Kingdom is not to be promoted
by Force.
Our Saviour says: "All they that take the sword shall
perish with the sword." Institutions founded on force shall
be overthrown by force. Institutions that are to be per
manent must be founded on truth and right. Institutions
resting on force must fall before superior force. If Christ's
kingdom rested on force, it would be subject to the same
law, and in some great convulsion of society would be sure
to pass away. But it is founded on truth and love. Force
moves in a different sphere from these, and cannot destroy
them. Therefore it is a kingdom which cannot be moved.
It can decay only when Christ's redeeming love falters, and
justice and love die out of the heart of man. The history
of the world has been a continuous demonstration of the

growth of Christ's kingdom. 183
truth of our Saviour's words down to the overthrow of
American slavery. There is no real progress except so far
as truth establishes itself in men's convictions, and love rules
in their hearts.
The state itself may not use force for the propagation of
religion and good morals. Admit in any instance the duty
or even the right of government to propagate religious aud
moral ideas by the sword, and you admit all that is terrible
in persecutions and crusades.
IV. The Progress of Christ's Kingdom is without Observation.
The growth of the kingdom is not manifested merely
in the organization. Statistical tables of the number of
churches, of communicants, and of ministers are but im
perfect indications of the extent and power of Christ's
kingdom. Its growth is in the inward experience of the
soul. Whenever any human soul is quickened to penitence
for sin and faith in Christ, it is a growth of the kingdom
of God. And in society, every Christian truth which estab
lishes itself in human thought and begins to control the life,
every removal of an unchristian custom, every elevation of
human sentiment, every transformation of an institution
into accordance with Christianity is an advance of Christ's
kingdom. Thus the progress is in its nature without ob
servation. Souls are born into the new life ; Christian ideas
take their place in human thought ; and men, intent on
their worldly schemes, take no note of them ; ju:t as the
workman, plodding homewards his weary way, takes no note
of the stars which come out, one by one, and take their
place in the evening sky. The kingdom is in the world,
transforming the world into itself, as the mustard-seed is in
the soil, transforming it into its own substance, and organ
izing it into the silently growing life and beauty of the
plant. Thus pass years, of the results of which the statis
tician can make but a meagre report; but when they are
gone we are surprised at the extent and power of the
advance of Christian thought.

184 characteristics of the
V. The Progress' of the Kingdom is Providential.
God does not leave his truth to go out alone to its conflict
with error ; he goes before it in his providence. Indeed, it
is not merely that his providential working in history is
parallel with his work of redemption ; it is rather that his
work of redemption is his work in human history, and what
we call his providential action in history is only incidental
thereto. God goes before and with Christian workers now, in his
providence, as he used to go before and with his people in
miracles. The Christian may work in obscurity ; but God
notes his work with loving interest. He may be opposed by
men ; but he is a laborer together with God. A providence
silent and unseen works with him while he works, and for
him while he sleeps ; corrects what he does imperfectly, and
completes what he leaves unfinished, and so gives to feeble
beginnings a strange success, to obscure endeavors a world
wide emblazoning, and on counsels of faith and love which
had seemed foolish and rash brings out at last the stamp of
a wisdom beyond the age ; and schemes at which contem
poraries had sneered, posterity honors as evincing insight
and inspiration from on high. It is common for Christian
workers to find the way strangely prepared before them
through obstacles seemingly insurmountable, as to the Is
raelites through the Red Sea. Even the beast of whom it
was said : " The Lord hath need of him," had its way strewn
with garments and palm-leaves. Where there is God's work
to be done, there is God to do it. A little church in Scot
land, harassed by persecution and ready to despair, wrote to
Rutherford for advice whether they should give up. He
answered : " So long as there is any of the Lord's lost money
in your town, he won't put out the candle."
God's providential action is a perpetual proof of his con
tinued redemptive action. Even miracles are scarcely so
decisive proofs of his presence, or so lasting in their influence.
Elijah brought fire from heaven, and consumed the priests
of Baal ; but the fire had scarcely ceased to burn when the

growth of Christ's kingdom. 185
idolatry was resumed, and Elijah fled in despair to Horeb.
Luther did not bring fire from heaven ; but the Protestant
Reformation as really demonstrated the divine presence, and
its influence has continued to this day. Moses opened the
Red Sea to the Israelites. No miracle-working rod was
stretched over the ocean when the Pilgrims came to Plymouth ;
but the presence of God with them working in the interest
of his kingdom is scarcely less evident than at the Red Sea.
Equally significant God's providence in removing seem
ingly immovable obstacles. American slavery vanished like
a cloud in the presence of the very generation who were
declaring its removal impracticable. The temporal power
of the Pope scarcely arrested attention when it passed away.
The great men of the world do still, as a prophet declared
of an Assyrian king, accomplish God's plans, though they
intend it not : " He meaneth not so, neither doth his heart
think so ; but it is in his heart to destroy and cut off nations
not a few " ; but he is " the rod of mine anger and the staff
in the hand of my indignation."
God's hand is revealed not merely in great epochs, but
also in the quiet advancement of his kingdom. This is
exemplified in the growth of what is called the spirit of the
age ; so that the leaders in any great historical movement
seem not so much the authors of the movement, as the
mouth-piece to utter the common thought, and the hand to
execute the common purpose of the age. All history shows
that the great epochs of history are not instantaneous in
their origin. Though their coming is sudden and startling,
yet it is the result of growth — the opening of a flower
whicli for a century has been maturing — the bursting from
its chrysalis of the winged Psyche which in all its trans
formations has been silently preparing its birth of beauty.
Every great change attempted for which God's providence
has not wrought a preparation will be but a new patch on
an old garment. The silent preparation for the great epochs
whicli burst on the astonished world is as decisive a proof
of God's presence in history as the epoch itself; as the
24

186 characteristics of the
growth of the bud reveals God's power not less than its
opening into blossom.
Another example is the growth of interests, customs, and
institutions incidentally favorable to the growth of the king
dom. When the first American missionaries went to India,
the British power seemed the greatest obstacle. But it has
exerted influences essential to the missionary work which it
was entirely impossible for the missionaries to exert. It is
said that Constantine embraced Christianity for reasons of
state polity ; but how had it come to pass that it was politic
for him so to do ? It is said that Luther could not have
succeeded without the aid of the German princes ; but how
came it to pass that the German princes found it expedient
to aid him ? As the lictors with axes and staves went before
the Roman consul to open a way for him, and to enforce
his commands, God in his providence compels princes and
all secular agencies to open the way for Christian truth. It
has been said that the Puritans came to New England not
for religious interests, but to engage in fisheries. Suppose
the allegation to be true, what then ? Then God in his
providence disclosed valuable fisheries in the interest of his
kingdom to bring to New England a Christian, Protestant,
and republican civilization ; "the earth helped the woman " ;
providence worked with redemption. Then these Puritans,
while intent in all simplicity on getting an honest livelihood
by fishing, were so full of Christian truth and life as to send
out incidentally, as sparks fly from hot iron simply because
it is hot, the education, political liberty, and religion of New
England. It would enhance our estimate of their piety and
intelligence, if they were so full of spiritual light and life
that these were but the unpremeditated and spontaneous
results of their living and working for secular ends, and so
the salvation of the world was a second time connected with
fishing ; just as it would enhance our estimate of the fulness
of miraculous power in Peter to know that his shadow would
heal the sick on whom it fell, when he without thought of
exerting that power was going to the baker's to buy his

growth of Christ's kingdom. 187
daily bread, as really as when he purposely determined to
work a miracle.
It has been said that modern progress is due to the fact
that science, since Bacon, has been directed to practical
ends, and thus has multiplied inventions ; that the sentiment
of brotherhood and opposition to war is due to commerce,
steamships, and telegraphs ; that the opposition to slavery
and the honor given to labor are due to the industrial move
ment which is so remarkable a characteristic of modern
civilization. But the question recurs : How has it come to
pass that Christian civilization has produced a Bacon, stimu
lated invention, created an industrial movement, and in
every line of action concentrated thought on human welfare ;
while heathen civilization has never produced such results,
or shown any tendency to produce them ? Was it not the
fresh figs which commerce brought from Carthage which
fired the Romans to destroy that city ? Why does commerce
in Christian civilization create the sentiment of brotherhood,
and discourage war, when it had no such influence, and
even a contrary influence, in ancient times ? The answer
must acknowledge Christianity as the cause, and not the
effect. These facts disclose God's providence working with
redemption, and bringing secular interests, customs, institu
tions, and agencies to aid in the advancement of his kingdom.
The fact of God's providential action in subserviency
to redemption teaches two practical lessons. One is that
when God's Spirit rouses a people to any Christian work,
it is a reasonable presumption that in his providence he
will open the way for them to do it. When his Spirit
say : " Go forwards," his providence will divide the sea.
The history of any signal enterprise of the church is found
to be full of signal interpositions of providence. The history
of missions, of God's church in America, of Christianity
everywhere, is a continued verification of God's providential
action in the interest of his kingdom. The same is remark
able in the lives of individuals eminent in piety. The
attempt has been made to explain the frequency of provi-

188 characteristics of the
dential interpositions in the lives of such men by saying that
they who look for providences will not fail to find them. A
sufficient explanation is found in the harmony between God's
Spirit and his providence. When God by his Spirit rouses a
man to work, by his providence he opens the way for him.
He that will work for God will be permitted to work with God.
The other practical lesson is, to concentrate missionary
labor on fields where God is providentially preparing the
way for it. We must not waste our energies toiling all the
night and taking nothing, but must let down the net on the
right side of the ship. He that believeth will not make
haste to outrun the providence of God, nor will he dare to
lag behind it.
VI. The progress of Christ's Kingdom is by epochs.
There is a certain rhythmical movement attendant on the
exertion of physical force. When force is at its greatest
tension, the quivering or vibration is apparent to the sense.
Something analogous appears in the exertion of spiritual
power, pulsating in waves through the life of humanity.
Even revelation has its epochs. There are epochs of miracles
— one more, at least, yet to appear in connection with the
second coming of the Lord. There are epochs of prophetic
inspiration. The same is true of all spiritual life. The
Christian reverts to memorable epochs in his own experience
— conversion ; subsequent to conversion, epochs when he
has risen to higher planes of thought and action. A church
grows by revivals. The advance of Christ's kingdom in the
world and the progress of Christian civilization is by epochs
memorable in history.
This accords with the Saviour's analogy — first the blade,
then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear. The growth
of grain is continuous ; but it is also by epochs — the blade,
the ear, the full corn. In maize, for example, is first the
blade, then the stalk marked by its successive joints, the
tasselling and silking, the setting of the corn, its ripening,
and the opening of the husk from the full ear.

_

growth of Christ's kingdom 189
1. The epochs are not themselves the growth of the king
dom, but are the results of the growth by which it is signalized
The grain grows continuously. The successive epochs of
the blade, the ear, the full corn, are not the growth, but the
result and manifestation of growth. They are the new
forms in which the advancing life must manifest itself.
They are the crises which mark the growth. So the con
tinuous vital growth of a Christian or a church will manifest
itself in new and higher forms of Christian life, and thus
will create epochs. Epochs, therefore, are crises incidental
to growth ; but they are not the growth, nor is the growth
confined to them.
2. An epoch is not necessarily by violence. When an
apple-tree bursts into blossom, and covers itself with sweetness
and beauty, that is an epoch in its growth. When this beauty
passes away, and the fruit sets, that is an epoch ; in this
case attended with the falling of the blossom, cast off because
its work is done. But these epochs are peaceful, because
all the organic forces in the tree are subject to its life and
in harmony with each other, and the crises of its growth
come peacefully, as the natural expression of the life. So
in the kingdom of God, if the spiritual life is full and unob
structed, its epochs come quietly, as the blooming and
fruiting of a tree. The old falls away because its work is
done, and peacefully gives place to the new. The change
is not less, the epoch not less glorious, because it is peaceful.
Revolutions and convulsions are not essential, nor desirable,
in the great epochs of human progress. And in the indi
vidual, the spiritual life may blossom into the glory of a
higher Christian experience, or, dropping the blossom, may
concentrate itself on perfecting the fruit, without an attendant
spiritual convulsion driving to the verge of despair. In
general, the more completely the spiritual life possesses the
soul, the more peaceful will be its successive epochs of
growth ; and the more completely Christian ideas rule society,
the more peaceful will be the successive epochs of advancing
Christian civilization.

190 characteristics of the
3. Christ's kingdom is not responsible for the violence
and revolution which are incidental to the epochs in its
progress, and are occasioned by the opposition of the kingdom
of darkness.
The kingdom of darkness is always in antagonism to the
kingdom of light. It is founded and perpetuated in selfish
ness, and therefore powerful interests become enlisted in
perpetuating its abuses, and in resisting the progress of the
truth. Hence any epoch in the progress of Christ's kingdom
is liable to encounter violent and bloody opposition, and the
advancement of Christ's kingdom may be in the midst of
revolution and convulsion. In reference to this our Saviour
said : " I came not to send peace, but a sword." But the
responsibility for the evil rests not on the progress of Christ's
kingdom, but on the opposition to its progress and the selfish
endeavor forcibly to perpetuate error and wr6ng. Vigorous
maintenance of Christian truth and right, and opposition to
prevailing error and wickedness provoke opposition ; and
the opposition is intensified, for the time being, as the vigor
of Christian action increases ; but truth and righteousness
and love are not responsible for the opposition which they
occasion. It must be added, however, that if Christian fidelity is
constant and uniform, as well as vigorous, there will be less
danger that the opposition culminate in violence ; for it will
not have opportunity to gain strength and enlist the inter
ests of society in its behalf. Negro slavery, for example,
might easily have been excluded from the American colonies
in the outset, if Christians had been clear-sighted to discern
its evil, and decided in opposing it. Lack of spiritual
discernment, unfaithfulness, and spiritual declension make
Christians remiss in exposing and resisting evil, and thus
the liability to violence and convulsion in the epochs of
Christian progress is increased. The wicked are God's
sword to punish the community which connives at their
wickedness, or is negligent of Christianizing the people.
Every ignorant person whom the community has neglected

growth of Christ's kingdom. 191
to educate, every drunkard who poisons the air with his
breath, every debauchee who corrupts the young, is a sword
in the hand of the Almighty to punish the remissness which
has taken no pains to train them aright. Every blasphemer
who hardens the young in irreverence, every worldling who
stupefies men's nobler sentiments and accustoms them to
honor successful sordidness, every knave who blurs the sharp
Ijne between right and wrong and makes fraud familiar and
respectable, every oppressor who gilds tyranny with prosperity
and deadens the sensibility to human rights, every pretender
who reconciles men to shams and weakens the sturdiness of
sincerity and truthfulness, is a sword in the hands of God to
punish men for remissness in Christian duty. The iniquity
by toleration acquires strength, enlists powerful interests in
its perpetuation, and renders certain and terrible the con
vulsion and violence attendant on putting it away.
The charge is often made that the Protestant Reformation
carried the revolution in its bosom, and is responsible for
the revolutionary and disorganizing tendencies of recent
times ; while it is claimed that the Romish church is the
steadfast conservator of government, order, and tranquility.
It may be admitted that Protestantism, coming necessarily
in the form of a protest against error and wrong, assumed
an antagonistic attitude, and has been the occasion of revo
lution and convulsion. Yet the responsibility does not
attach to Protestantism, but, according to the principle just
now explained, to the Romish church, which allowed error,
superstition, and oppression to usurp the place of truth,
piety, and justice. " It must needs be that offences come ;
but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh." The
woe is not on the truth, nor on its preachers, but on him who
by his alliance with error and wrong makes the preaching
of the truth an offence. It is not Elijah, but Ahab, who
" troubleth Israel." In fact, since the Protestant Reforma
tion, it is the most distinctively Catholic countries which
have been characterized by political discontent, by abortive
revolutions, and by the insurrection of socialists and the

192 CHARACTERISTICS of the
enemies of social organization and order, while the people
have made little progress toward well-ordered liberty ; and
it is the most distinctively Protestant nations which have
been characterized by steady progress and comparative free
dom from domestic revolution and disturbance.
4. The violence incident to an epoch in the growth of
Christ's kingdom is an evil. Because our own government
was founded in a revolution, we are in danger of associating
a revolution with glory, of thinking that the overturn of
what has been established is in itself progress to something
better, and so of falling into that insatiableness of reform
which, like Saturn, perpetually devours its own children ;
or, as Izaak Walton puts it, whets the knife till there is no
steel left in it. But the American Revolution scarcely was
a revolution in the proper sense of the term. It perpetuated
the principles and, with little change, the form of government
to which the colonies had been accustomed ; it only separated
them from a distant nation ; it only accelerated an epoch
which was coming as the inevitable result of growth ; only
shaking the tree to hasten the fall of the ripened fruit. The
benefits accruing are not the result of the revolution, but
come, in spite of the evils of revolutionary violence, because
the change effected was the natural result of healthy growth.
The immense majority of revolutions attempted by violence
have been failures, and have hindered, rather than helped,
the progress of society.
5. The epochs in the growth of Christ's kingdom are often
not recognized as such at the time of their coming.
They who are not in sympathy with Christ fail to recog
nize them, because they have not spiritual discernment, and
" cannot see the kingdom of God." So the Jews did not
know the Messiah for whom they were eagerly looking, and
their fathers before them did not know God's prophets.
And even good men may fail to recognize such an epoch,
because it is attended with confusion, conflict, and distress.
Hence, in such an epoch, the noblest sentiments will be
ridiculed as fanaticism ; the principles of justice, when pro-

growth of Christ's kingdom. 193
pounded as the principles of constitutional law and social
organization and order, will be flouted, and they who are
the prophets of righteousness abused as disturbers of the
peace and order of society. In every such epoch are persons
of the type of those who said of the apostles : " These men
are full of new wine."
For the same reason such epochs are attended with dis
couragement and reaction.- The Israelites, amid the hard
ships of their journey to the promised land, clamored to be
led back to Egypt. It is a type of the reaction attending
the epochs of human progress. Men see only the difficulties
of the crisis, and long for the ease and quiet of the former
life. The glory of such a period is fully seen only after it
is past. It does not shine till the observer is far enough
removed to see it in its wholeness. Then it shines like the
moon, full-orbed in silver light, with only the dimmest inti
mation of its dismal ravines and horrid mountains. We
then think all the actors in it to be heroes, and wish we
could have shared in a work so great, and witnessed events
so glorious.
6. In the epochs of the growth of Christ's kingdom the
progress is usually further than the agents in them had
originally intended. This is true of epochs in political and
social progress. The American Revolution began with no
intention of achieving independence ; our civil war began
with no intention of freeing the slaves ; the Italian war
began with no intention of giving unity to Italy. The same
is true of the progress of Christ's kingdom. The Protestant
Reformation began with no intention of separating from
Rome ; Wesley began with no wish to leave the church of
England ; American missions began with no expectation of
becoming so extensive as they now are ; even the apostles
began to preach Christ with no very clearly defined purpose
of separating from Judaism. God is bolder than man. His
grace and providence are at work in human progress.
Therefore the people find themselves borne on by a power
beyond man's will, a wisdom outreaching man's counsel, a
25

194 CHARACTERISTICS OF THE
boldness beyond man's daring. It is wonderful to see how,
in such a time, the mere progress of events solves problems
which had seemed insoluble, removes difficulties which had
seemed insuperable, and makes safe and easy measures which
had seemed perilous or impracticable.
7. Epochs necessitate new ideas and a new policy. The
gospel is always the same ; but what is wise in policy and
practicable in statesmanship changes with the changing
time. " The wisdom of winter is the folly of spring." It is
not strange that in great epochs the old lingers after the
new has come, like blocks of ice lingering on the river's
bank after it has been broken up in the spring, and melting
but slowly into the running stream. Sympathy with Christ
and his kingdom is necessary in order to understand an
epoch, to know the ideas, and wisely to determine the policy
fitted to the changed conditions.
Here is the difference between the preacher of righteous
ness, the reformer or prophet, and the statesman. The
former is a prophet rebuking sin, holding up the ideal of
moral perfection, and warning against the displeasure of
God. He preaches Christ's kingdom and righteousness to
elevate the people and to prepare them for institutions em
bodying the highest moral purity. But the maxim of the
statesman is always the words of Hesiod, with a new appli
cation : " Fools, who do not know how much better half is
than the whole." 1 The statesman does not attempt to carry
through measures and laws, and to create institutions realizing
an ideal perfection. He seeks the practicable, rather than
the ideal, approximating to the ideal as rapidly as the actual
advancement of society admits. He knows that the attempt
to embody in institutions an ideal of perfection far in advance
of the actual character of the people would probably result
in a reaction, undoing much of the progress already at
tained. The half is better than the whole. God himself has
1 N^lrioi • ovSh Xaao-iv S(rij> Tr\4ov fifuav Travris,
'Ou8' iirov 4v fiaAdxy Te Kal a<r^>o8e'A.<j> fiey' tivciap.
"Zpya /red 'Hfiepai, 40, 41.

growth of Christ's kingdom. 195
sanctioned the principle that political institutions and laws
are to be modified on account of the hardness of men's
hearts. Hence it is the Christian, in sympathy with God's truth,
who sees tho kingdom of God, and understands the epochs
of its growth when they come. In the quiet times before
the epoch comes, the Christian may be at fault. Intent on
his moral ideals, and impatient of the seeming slowness of
God's movements, he may unwisely insist on the immediate
expression of all truth in institutions and laws, putting new
wine into old bottles, and sewing a new patch on au old
garment. But when the epoch has come, possessing the
hearts of men with its new ideas, and demanding a new
policy, then it is the Christian who sees clearly ; while the
man accustomed to the statesman's habit of thought is con
founded, and, unable to see the significance of the new as it
penetrates the old, babbles.
VII. The Progress of the Kingdom is Cumulative.
So our Saviour predicted : " He will show him greater
works than these, that ye may marvel." Christianity has
always undeveloped resources ; its progress is a perpetual
surprisal. Examples in our own day are the inception and
growth of foreign missions, the results of home missionary
work at the West, the termination of American slavery, and
of the temporal power of the Pope. Every great advance
of Christian truth is a surprisal even to those who had
labored for it. It reveals undeveloped resources. Men
marvel at the presence and energy of a power whose existence
had been unknown or forgotten. The same is true of local
revivals. Men acknowledge the presence and work of God ;
they marvel at the divine power in the Christian life.
The divine grace which advances Christ's kingdom is an
inexhaustible fulness of power, which while old is always
new, and every manifestation appears in the freshness of its
divine nature. And the energy of faith and love which it
calls forth in men is an energy which has never been put

196 characteristics of the
fully to the test, and continually surprises by its charactei
and results. Thus Christianity never grows old. It is like
fire, always the same, if it exists at all. It comes to every
generation as fresh and young as at the beginning, as the
sun and the stars go up the sky as bright and glorious as in
the day of their creation. It is this undecaying freshness of
divine grace and human faith and love which gives to Chris
tianity in every generation the power of astonishing the
world by its new developments. And there is to-day a
power in faith and love which Christians as yet imperfectly
appreciate, whicli, if fully exercised, would do greater things
in advancing Christ's kingdom than the world has ever wit
nessed. The greatest earthly power is the power of a human
being thoroughly in earnest. And when that earnestness is
sustained by faith and love, its power is immeasurable. The
work accomplished by every Christian thoroughly in earnest,
from Paul's day until now, has been a perpetual surprisal ;
before him and his achievements all men marvel.
This power is therefore cumulative ; it is always able to
produce greater and better effects.
The progress of the kingdom is cumulative, also, from the
increase of numbers. Every convert becomes a new spiritual
power for the world's conversion.
It is cumulative, also, from the Christian growth of indi
viduals. The power of each one grows in intensity, is freed
from conflicting elements, and reaches out in new directions,
and finds wider scope for itself in resisting evil and bringing
men to Christ.
Christian ideas, also, become incorporated into society, form
public sentiment, determine customs, laws, and institutions,
and thus create for themselves an organic force. Then the
customary ongoings of life and civilization help the progress
of Christ's kingdom. The currents of popular thought,
political agitations, inventions, manufactures, commerce, con
tribute to its advance. Influences are incorporated into
society which work with the Christian while he works, and
work for him while he sleeps.

growth of Christ's kingdom. 197
By this cumulative progress Christianity is working out in
human history a demonstration of its divine origin and
power. And when it shall have prevailed through the
world, the demonstration will be complete. Humanity
itself will have become a living epistle, known and read of
all men — a word of God, declaring Christ the living Word
— a second incarnation of the divine in humanity, demon
strating the reality of the incarnation in Jesus Christ.
Precisely here is the great want of this age — a demonstra
tion of Christianity by its life-giving power. The Tartars
worshipped their own scimetars — the mightiest and best
helpers they knew. Civilized men will worship the steam-
engine, if it prove itself mightiest and best. They must see
a power, proving itself divine by its superior beneficence,
using the steam-engine itself for high and beneficent ends.
Infidelity itself now unwittingly testifies to the power and
truth of Christianity. It has become pious and philanthropic,
and claims acceptance on the ground that it does more
Christian work than Christianity itself. " The magicians
of Egypt did so with their enchantments." When the
apostles cast out devils, Simon Magus insists on doing the
same. The gospel must silence modern infidelity, not merely
by proving that the philanthropy which characterizes modern
civilization is the gift of Christianity, but also by showing
a benevolence purer, more self-sacrificing, and universal ;
motives to beneficence more energizing and persistent ; phi
lanthropy more wise, comprehensive, and efficient ; a character
more complete, and a power more divine in the renovation
of men. It stands before modern infidelity, as Paul did
before the seven sons of Sceva, and must prove its power to
cast out devils by doing it, leaving to the pretenders the
shame of hearing the devils answer : " Jesus I know, and
Paul I know; but who are ye?" Its challenge must always
be, like that of Jesus himself: "The works that I do bear
witness of me; though ye believe not me, believe the works."
The world accepts the challenge : " What dost thou work ?
Show us the desert blooming beneath thy tread, the dead in

198 characteristics of the growth of Christ's kingdom.
sin living at thy touch, the powers of hell fleeing before thy
voice." Faithful Christian workers, mighty in faith and
love, are the best evidences of Christianity. We are not to
prove that it is from God merely by its great works in the
past. We are not to be obliged to point to the primitive
church as the most beautiful exhibition and the sufficient
proof of the power of the gospel, but to create now an age
of Christian purity and power. " The fathers did eat manna
in the wilderness " ; we thank God for that. " But they are
dead " ; God now is giving us the living bread, that we may
eat thereof, and not die.

LECTURE X.

THE PROGRESS OF CHRIST'S KINGDOM IN ITS RELATION TO
CIVILIZATION.
We are now to consider the progress of Christ's kingdom
in its relation to civilization. While it modifies civilization
and makes it Christian, it is itself modified by civilization.
I. Civilization is not a Product of Christianity, but has an
Independent Existence.
What is civilization ? Man is endowed with a radical
impulse to put forth every power in action. This appears
in the child as the play-impulse ; in the man, it is trained to
work. Play is action for the pleasure of the action itself ;
work is action, not for the pleasure of action, but for an
ulterior end. The child lives in the present, with scarcely
a reference to the future, following its impulses with little
reference to consequences, and acting for the present pleasure
of the action. His action is play. In maturity the man acts
with reference to the future, foregoing present pleasure for
future interests, and concentrating his energies in work, not
for the present pleasure of the work, but for the value of the
end to be attained. A great part of education consists in
training the pupil to concentrate his energies on the attain
ment of ulterior ends ; it is subjecting impulse to reason,
transforming play into work. The difference between the
savage and the civilized is analogous to that between the
child and the well-trained man. The savage acts from
impulse, for tlie pleasure of the action, or, otherwise, only
to satisfy some imperative instinct or craving; he lives in
the present; his action is the impulsive, unpersevering,
199

200 the progress of Christ's kingdom
changeful action of a child. Civilization begins in forecast.
It is distinguished from barbarism by the habit of acting
with reference to ulterior interests as distinguished from
present impulse ; by the subjection of impulse to reason ; by
concentration in planned and forecasting work, instead of
dissipation in play, or impulsive exertion under the urgency
of a present want. This is the source of the strengthening
and development of man's power, the enlargement of his
acquisitions, and of his control over the resources and
powers of nature, the multiplication of his wants, and therein
the development of the man himself, making him many-
sided and capable of more varied activities, and of more
varied and more refined enjoyment. The twaddle of the
new education, that because a child acts joyfully from the
play-impulse, therefore education must give to all study the
zest of play, would emasculate education, taking out of it
that which constitutes its essence as education, and out of
civilization that which is its essential distinction from the
savage state. Civilization is a thing of degrees ; it begins
whenever forecast begins to get the supremacy over impera
tive impulse, and play gives place to persistent work for
ulterior ends.
Christianity is not necessary to create civilization. If
preached to a barbarous people, it finds the capacity of
civilization, and develops it; but other agencies, without
Christianity, might have developed it. Usually some form
of civilization has existed before Christianity is brought to a
people. Christianity at the outset found itself confronted
with the Hebrew, the Greek, and the Roman civilization.
It is remarkable that the apostles instituted no missions to
barbarians. The first and prominent fields of their missions
were the cities, whence Christianity spread more slowly into
the country. The word "pagan," or " villager," gradually
came to denote an idolater. So, usually, Christianity comes
to nations already civilized. It finds society already con
stituted, with opinions, usages, government, civilization,
religion.

IN ITS RELATION TO CIVILIZATION. 201
II. Christianity imparts to Civilization and makes effective
in it the Spiritual Forces necessary to its Purity, Com
pleteness, and Perpetuity.
Comte and Buckle teach that human progress arises wholly
from material conditions and intellectual development. This
is not true, even if human progress is used as meaning only
the progress of civilization, which is but a part of human
progress. For prudence itself, or acting with reference to
ends, which is the essential characteristic of civilization,
belongs to the sphere of moral action. There is, however,
some truth in the position, so far as mere civilization is
concerned, if civilization is regarded as consisting merely in
the development of power and of intellectual keenness and
strength ; for this development is possible under the direction
of selfishness, as really as under the direction of love.
But civilization does not of itself constitute man's highest
welfare. Developed under the impulse and guidance of
selfishness, it contains the leaven of its own fermentation
and corruption. As the development of power, it establishes
the dominion of force, and civilization carries with it wars
of conquest, tyranny, caste, and slavery. If, as it was in
Greece, it is more distinctively the development of intellect,
culminating in literary and aesthetic culture, still it carries
in it the same principle of __e right of the strongest, and
presently decays into luxury and effeminacy ; as the refine
ment of Greece degenerated into Corinthian debauchery.
Or, if the civilization turns to industrial enterprise, wealth
accumulates with the few, and the many are in hopeless
poverty. Or, if such a civilization, partially Christianized,
begins to open a career for all, the greed of gain takes
possession of the community ; worldliness creeps like a
glacier over society ; meanness, venality, and rapacity char
acterize the people ; and " wealth accumulates, aud men
decay." To secure man's highest well-being in a healthy and per
manent civilization, something more is needed than the
increase of power and intelligence. There must be also
26

202 the progress of Christ's kingdom
moral and spiritual quickening and development. " Man
shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that pro-
ceedeth out of the mouth of God." Otherwise civilization
is materialistic in its tendencies, and brings to man only
what is possible to him as the highest of the brutes, nothing
of what is possible to him as the child of God.
Natural religion never supplies this defect. In every
condition of society will be found religions, all of them cap
sules containing some seeds of truth. But natural religion
has not been able to supply the defect in civilization, and its
force has usually been weakened by civilization. The ethnic
religions have usually their greatest purity and power in the
earlier periods of the national life. The earlier Romans were
religious, and their religiousness was an important influence
in the growth of the republic. The religiousness decayed as
the national greatness advanced.
Christianity introduces into existing civilization, and in it
makes effective and permanent, the moral aud spiritual
influences which lift man from the earthly, the sensual, and
the devilish, and quicken him to act in reference to the
moral and spiritual realities and possibilities of his being.
Human nature realizes its perfection only through Chris
tianity. Though Christianity is supernatural, it is not
foreign to humanity, and doe" not aim to superadd to hu
manity any accretion foreign or contrary to it. It is just
".hat divine action which is necessary to bring man out from
an abnormal condition, and to effect the complete develop
ment and perfection of humanity. Man in his normal con
dition, if he had never fallen, would realize his perfection
only by faith in God and in communion with him. De
pendence and faith are inseparable from man's condition as
a created being, and their necessity is not a result merely
of his abnormal condition as a sinner. The union with God
by the indwelling Spirit belongs to man's normal condition.
Man was made to be a worker with God, and to act under
divine influences. Redemption restores him, through Christ
and the Holy Spirit, to this normal union with God, so that

IN ITS RELATION TO CIVILIZATION. 203
the divine life unfolds its character in him, as the life of the
vine unfolds its character in the branches and their fruit
The real freedom of man is the freedom wherewith Christ
maketh free. Christianity, therefore, is necessary to the
development and perfection of humanity, and the establish
ment of Christ's kingdom is essential to the development
and perfection of human society.
Therefore, in every unchristianized condition, humanity
must show its consciousness of incompleteness, and a yearning'
and striving, or at least a groping and fumbling, after the
divine life and redemption which Christ alone brings. This
is so marked in history as to give speciousness to the doctrine
that Christianity is merely the more complete development
of natural religion.
Christianity, therefore, is not only a power of spiritual
regeneration to the individual, but, because it is so, is also
the power which restores human nature to its completeness
and society to its best condition. The transformation of
human society into the kingdom of God creates the highest
and best civilization.
This influence of Christianity in civilization makes it
possible to realize a civilization which shall be permanent.
Unchristian civilizations have either perished by their own
corruption, or, as the Chinese, have become stationary, capable
only, like Swift's Struldbrugs, of mumbling from generation
to generation the ideas of a remote past. It is often said, as
if it were an indisputable maxim, that states must have their
youth, manhood, old age, and dissolution. Says a brilliant
writer: " Each civilization rests on an idea or group of ideas.
But these ideas are forms of thought, and thought by its
own nature is constant change. Universal principles de
velop themselves to fresh and special results, and facts fa
miliar or strange give rise to new general principles. Thus
ideas change no less than outward relations ; and a civiliza
tion which has grouped itself about an idea is but the shell
of a germinant seed. The seed will germinate, and the
shell must be broken and destroyed. The task of the his-

204 THE PROGRESS OF CHRIST'S KINGDOM
torian, often a sad one, is to show how in each civilization
lies the sentence of its own death." 1
If, indeed, there are no unchanging principles, laws, and
ideals, — if principles themselves are but forms, changing
with the changing exigencies of thought, — then principles
are as transitory as their outward manifestations ; and a
civilization which shall be permanent is in the nature of
things impossible. But there are principles of truth, laws
of character and action, and ideals of perfection whicli are
unchanging and eternal. If these can be realized in civiliza
tion, there is no reason in the nature of things why the
civilization should not be lasting.
Civilization in itself does not contain the elements neces
sary to perpetuity. If no supernatural influence comes
down on humanity, we may expect that what has been will
be, and that the principles of truth, justice, and love will
never find complete expression in any civilization. But just
this supernatural and redemptive agency comes into humanity
through Christ. Christianity, therefore, has the word of
promise inherent in it ; it is no longer to be admitted that
what always lifts been will be, but always the promise : " I
will show you greater things." Christ makes effective in
civilization the principles of truth, the law of love, the ideals
of perfection which are unchanging and eternal. He conse
crates all growth of physical and intellectual power, all
discoveries and inventions, all philosophy and statesmanship,
all poetry, painting, sculpture, and music, all thinking and
acting, to God in the service of man for the realization of
truth, love, and beauty in human life. Such a civilization
has in it the elements of perpetuity. Such a state is not
destined to decrepitude and death. There will still be new
discoveries and inventions ; the modes and fashions of life,
customs, laws, and institutions may change ; yet they are
all but the exuberant outgrowth of the same life ; the essential
character and power of the civilization will abide unchanged.
It is sometimes objected that if Jesus were at once so
1 Prof. C. C. Everett, Science of Thought, p. 44.

IN ITS RELATION TO CIVILIZATION. 205
good and so great as Christianity represents, he would have
revealed modern discoveries and inventions, and thus have
spared mankind the dreariness of the dark ages, and given
at once to the world the blessings of modern civilization.
But by the very act of doing so he would have taught that
these are the essentials to the redemption of the world and
the highest well-being of man — that the Son of God came
into the world to give to man "all the modern conveniences."
Thus he would have intensified worldliness, and sanctioned
a materialistic civilization. On the contrary, Christ asserted
the pre-eminence of the spiritual, and brought into humanity
that divine grace which in every civilization rouses man to
the spiritual realities, relations, and possibilities of his being,
and makes effectual those spiritual principles, laws, and ideals
without which the most advanced civilization is selfish and
self-destroying.III. Christianity, by the Spiritual Forces which it intro
duces and makes effective, gradually creates a Christian
Civilization.
It has been said that genius does not establish a school,
but kindles an influence. The method of Christianity in
Christianizing civilization is the same. It kindles an in
fluence which creates the new beneath the old, and so pushes
the old off. Its method is not the mechanical change of
organization, but the inward process of life. Christ and the
apostles made no direct assault on the existing forms of
government, nor on slavery. But they taught principles,
and required of individuals a life of faith and love, which, as
they prevailed in society, would necessarily overthrow those
institutions. By this leavening action, by this development
of life, Christianity gradually removed the ancient Roman
slavery ; afterwards removed the mediaeval or feudal serf
dom ; and now is causing negro slavery to pass away.
IV. The Progress of Christ's Kingdom in Successive Ages
will be modified by the Existing Civilization.
The truths of Christianity and the redeeming grace of

206 THE PROGRESS OF CHRIST'S KINGDOM
God are always the same. But they must work iu and
through humanity, and the results by which they declare
themselves must be realized in and through humanity.
Therefore the manifestations of the effects of God's grace
acting in any age or nation, the forms in which Christian
truth and life appear, the opinions, customs, laws, and insti
tutions in which they embody themselves, must be deter
mined by the existing condition of society and state of
civilization. The type is the same, but its forms of mani
festation vary ; as the vertebrate type is the same through
successive geological eras, but its forms diversified. We
need not be surprised, therefore, if in the progress of Chris
tianity, as of animal life, the type should appear in defective
or even seemingly monstrous forms, or should be found in
temporary alliance with weakness, error, or wrong.
1. Christianity, being the religion for all time, and the
power that is to act through all ages in renovating and per
fecting society through redemption, necessarily has meanings
and applications which can be disclosed only by the progress
of Christ's kingdom through the ages.
An objection is urged against the Bible that the advance
of science and civilization necessitates new interpretations
and evokes new meanings. But this must be so, if it is the
revelation of God. Christ compares his words to seeds ;
they are germinating words. We must see more in them
when grown than we saw in them as seeds. The acorn
contains the oak ; but we cannot understand what the acorn
contains until we see the oak. The oak is the only adequate
exposition of the acorn ; and it takes as long to make the
exposition as it takes the oak to grow. The kingdom of
God, as it grows silently through the ages, is the only ade
quate exposition of Christ's germinating words. Its growth
necessitates new interpretations, and reveals new meanings.
From the nature of things, so long as humanity is imperfect,
and civilization imperfectly Christian, there must be an
inadequate apprehension of the meaning and application of
Christian truth ; and so long as Christ's kingdom is ad-

IN ITS RELATION TO CIVILIZATION. 207
vancing, new meanings and applications of the truth must
be disclosed.
Therefore the significance of Christian grace and truth in
its application to society cannot be immediately understood.
No uninspired thinker of the apostolical churches could have
delineated the peculiarities of civilization which Christianity
has already produced. Such a civilization, even if described
to him, would have been comparatively unintelligible. It
was only by the actual experience of Christian life and the
actual conflict with the kingdom of darkness that the full
significance of the principles hidden in the gospel, the varied
applications which they require, and the consequent changes
in the social condition, could be learned. Living in a
civilization saturated with the vices of heathenism, the Chris
tian must soon have become aware of a sharp antagonism to
the world, and to its opinions, laws, and institutions. Thus,
at the very outset, we find the apostles before the council
exclaiming : " We ought to obey God rather than men " —
a declaration containing the principles of individual rights,
and liberty of conscience, and the supremacy of God's law
above man's, which are the seed-thoughts of modern political
progress. At every step the Christian was thus applying
Christian truth and gaining the knowledge of its far-reaching
and profound significance. And only by the progress of the
church through the ages, the actual experience of the Chris
tian life in removing the old and creating the new, could
its meaning and application be discovered.
2. Man is prepared to appreciate and receive new meanings
and applications of Christianity only when, in the progress
of Christ's kingdom, the exigency to which they are pertinent
lias arisen, and man has been brought, in the providence of
God, to a position in which he can see their necessity and
value, and has been educated to a capacity to appreciate
them. No age can appreciate new meanings and applications
of trutn, however clearly declared, much in advance of that
stage of culture which, under God's education of the race,
it has already attained. The first prophets of a coming

208 THE PROGRESS OF CHRIST'S KINGDOM
epoch are always rejected. A child must understand the
fundamental rules of arithmetic before the more advanced
rules are intelligible ; and there must be an analogous pro-
gressiveness in the education of the race.
Even discoveries in science and inventions in art are re
jected when communicated to a generation not sufficiently
advanced to need, nor sufficiently educated to understand
them. They perish like seeds which rot because sown too
early in the spring. History is full of instances. It is
common, after a great discovery or invention has been made,
for some curious explorer of history to find the same an
nounced in some forgotten writing of a former generation.
Here we strike that remarkable fact known as " the spirit
of the age." Before a great epoch all minds seem moved
simultaneously with the same thought, as the leaves of the
forest rustle together at the first breath of the coming
wind. The man who speaks the effective word seems rather
to express than to create the thought of the time. This
" spirit of the age" seems to outreach and control individual
influence, as an ocean current bears onward a ship, however
the crew may trim her sails or hold her helm. It is not a
blind process of nature in which the personality of individuals
is lost. But in the progress of Christ's kingdom a people
are in contact with the same truths and subject to the same
influences ; they receive in God's providence the same edu
cation, and reach the consciousness of a common want, and,
as a class under the same teaching, are all simultaneously
prepared for the next lesson. The agency of individuals is
not excluded. Even the teachings of rejected prophets, the
persecution and martyrdom of " reformers before the refor
mation " have been important influences in educating men
to receive those once rejected truths.
So long as humanity is imperfect, and God in redemption
is advancing his kingdom, there must be an inadequate
apprehension and application of Christian truth, and a pro
gressive discovery of new meanings and applications.
In addition, then, to the reason already given why Jesus

IN ITS RELATION TO CIVILIZATION. 209
should not have taught the modern discoveries, we now see
another — that if he had revealed them, they would not have
been appreciated or received. For the wonders wrought by
his science and inventions he would have been likely to be
pronounced a magician, while his discoveries and inventions
would have been forgotten. Or, if he had at once set
himself to abolish slavery and tyranny, and to reorganize
the state, he would have been put to death as a disturber
of the peace, and his doctrines forgotten as the dreams of a
fanatic. It is one of the remarkable characteristics of Jesus,
by which he is raised above all other men, that he was im
measurably in advance of his age, and yet infused his thought
and life into it ; that he was in advance of all ages, yet his
thought enters as a power of life into every age, and every
age finds in him its ideal and its inspiration. His teaching
is never without significance and power because it will be
pertinent to the future, nor antiquated because it was per
tinent to the past.
3. In every age and people the Christian life will be
modified in its manifestations by the existing civilization.
God's grace in Christ and by the Holy Spirit will not
immediately impart a knowledge of chemistry and astronomy,
nor of the power-loom, steam-engine, and telegraph. No
more will it immediately change existing laws and insti
tutions, nor even all opinions and customs into conformity
with itself. The redeeming grace will be accepted in faith
and penitence, and faith will work by love, and purify the
heart, and overcome the world ; but the manifestations of
the new life will be modified by the civilization of the time.
The Jew will still be a Jew, and the Greek a Greek, after
they have become one in Christ; and their respective culture
and type of character and usages, and even many of their
prejudices, will long survive. The Hawaiian becomes a
Christian, but not an Anglo-Saxon ; the Greenlander be
comes a Christian, but he cannot escape the influences of
his Arctic climate. Not yet are the narrowness, jealousy,
and antagonism of race extinguished, though in the begin-
27

210 THE PROGRESS OF CHRIST'S KINGDOM
ning Paul proclaimed the unchanging principle : " There is
neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision,
barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free ; but Christ is all and in
all." The modern industrial movement is an outgrowth of
Christianity in civilization ; but it gives scope to the selfish
ness and greed of gain of an imperfectly christianized
people. Christianity is the same; but Christians, though
one in Christ, are as various as the varying nations and
conditions of men.
This law holds through the times of God's supernatural
revelation, not less than now. Supernatural revelation and
the power of miracles did not lift a man out of his own age
and country. It is distinctive of Jesus, that, though he was
an ancient, an Asiatic, and a Jew, his life and words never
suggest an outlandish man — a man of another age or time,
— but only a man, in sympathy in all things with ourselves ;
and that this has been the same to persons of every generation,
country, and condition. In every other scriptural character
the peculiarities of race, country, and time are prominent.
Samson would not pass for a very good Christian now ; but
in his day he was signalized as a man who acted from faith
in God. The type was in him, appearing in what is to us a
strange and monstrous form, like a megatherium of a geo
logical period, a paleontological manifestation of the very
type which now appears in man. David was an oriental
despot ; and some of what we call the crimes, but what were
then regarded as the rights, of a monarch appear in his
history. Yet in the essence of his character he was a man
of faith in God and obedience to him ; maintaining the
knowledge and worship of the true God against idolatry,
and profoundly penitent for his sin, when by the teaching
of a prophet he was made to see as a crime what, according
to the current sentiment of the day, he at first had not
thought of as other than the exercise of a monarch's right.
The same principle is exemplified in Christ's disciples, ex
pecting that Jesus would be a temporal king, planning
almost to the hour of his death ambitious schemes of pre-

IN ITS RELATION TO CIVILIZATION. 211
eminence under his reign, and receiving Christ's own rebuke ;
" 0 fools, and slow of heart to believe." In God's education
of the race each lesson must be learned by protracted
discipline ; and each must be learned before the next can
be understood and mastered.
4. Hence Christianity sometimes comes temporarily into
alliance with imperfection and error, and gives to them a
life and perpetuity which otherwise they could not have had.
There is an important truth in the common remark, that
error and wrong perpetuate themselves by the truth, or
partial truth, which they contain. Aspects aud sides of
truth find their affirmation temporarily in connection with
error and wrong ; and false theories and wrong practices
are made current by the truth or half-truth which they
emphasize, rather than by the error which accompanies.
The Christian church gradually absorbed the idea of
government belonging to imperial Rome, and became a
hierarchy. In the dark ages attending and following the
dissolution of the empire and the barbarian invasions, when
lawless and unlettered barons plundered at will, when in
the secular government club law was supreme, and violence
filled the earth, the people turned gladly to ecclesiastical
tribunals and priestly protection, where the appeal was always
to law and justice, rather than to the sword ; they welcomed
the growing power of the church appealing to the unseen
and eternal, as a refuge from the violence and lawlessness
of the secular powers. The ancient Catholic church was
the advocate and helper of the people against the tyranny
of secular rulers ; the vindicator of the reign of law and
justice deriving authority from God, against the reign of
force ; the refuge and helper of the oppressed against the
oppressor. In the greatest power of the hierarchy, it asserted
and vindicated the truth that the church is not dependent
on the state, and asserted the reign of justice and law against
the reign of arbitrary will and superior force. Its claim to
depose kings and to absolve subjects from their allegiance
was the assertion that kings are subject to a law above their

212 THE PROGRESS OF CHRIST'S KINGDOM
own wills ; that their authority rests not on might, but on
right; and that, if they abuse their power by injustice and
oppression, they forfeit their right to the obedience of their
subjects. These truths were carried in the bosom of the
Catholic church, though manifested in perverted forms, as
they must have been to accord with the idea of the church
as a hierarchy. Thus they temporarily aided in building up
that spiritual despotism which became the wonder of the world.
Asceticism, as it appears in crowds of filthy and begging
friars, is disgusting ; yet at first it was probably a very
natural reaction of the Christian mind against the corruption
tainting all heathen society. The vestiges of Roman life
preserved in the museums of Italy and remaining in Pompeii
reveal how powerfully a pure-minded Christian must have
been impelled to separate himself from society so corrupted
from the core to the rind. Asceticism would be a natural
result of that antagonism to the world and to all that was in
the world which was necessary in such a state of society. As
civilization becomes penetrated with Christian ideas, and the
customs and institutions of the world come into accordance
with Christian purity, truthfulness, justice, and mercy, antag
onism to the outward manners and customs of the world
becomes less sharp and defined. In our civilization, there
fore, it is difficult to appreciate the state of society which,
in the earlier centuries of the Christian era, made asceticism
a natural, though a perverted, expression of genuine Christian
feeling. So, also, the Crusades were an abnormal manifestation of
the missionary spirit, accordant with the spirit and institu
tions of the times.
Even intolerance and persecution were a one-sided and
perverse manifestation of zeal for truth. And the gloom
which overhung the Middle Ages, the fear of devils and
witches, the terror awakened even by Christ as the Judge
of sinners, were results of truth contemplated only on its
terrible side.
5. Christian truth is often suffocated in the perverted form

IN ITS RELATION TO CIVILIZATION. 213
in which it is temporarily manifested, and utterly over
whelmed by the error with which it is associated, so that
the whole manifestation becomes a corruption, needing to be
put away.
V. Christianity, even while subject to Modification by the
Civilization and Spirit of the Age, Creates a Higher
Civilization and a Purer and more Christian Spirit.
By the very action of Christian truth and life through the
forms of an existing civilization, the old becomes inadequate,
and new customs, sentiments, laws, and institutions are
demanded. Christianity, by acting in the old medium,
makes it useless. It has worn the garment out, and, patching
it no longer, throws it away for a new one. By working in
the old form, it has created the necessity for a new ; then,
the fulness of time having come, it comes out of the old,
turns against it, and thrusts it away.
But men, mistaking the form for the life that had worked
in it, insist on the form after it is no longer needed ; and
continue to patch the garment after it has become too rotten
to be worn. This is the source of corruption. It is not
that Christianity is corrupted ; but the old forms, through
which in an earlier period Christianity had naturally mani
fested itself, are perpetuated as essential after Christianity
can no longer act through them. Christianity, in whatever
form of civilization circumscribed, is a power of life, like the
germ within the seed, bursting the seed-envelop and leaving
it to decay. Hence Christianity in one age may be found
protesting against the very forms and institutions through
which, when civilization was less advanced, it had exerted
its life-giving energy. Christianity is not subject to the
civilization and spirit of an age ; but, while temporarily
acting through them, it creates a new civilization and spirit
of the age, before which the old must pass away.
It is the error of Rome that it adheres to the form, instead
of to the life ; that it adheres to the form after the life is
gone ; that it opposes the life itself in the new and higher

214 THE PROGRESS OF CHRIST'S KINGDOM
forms in which it appears. The true Christianity, on the
contrary, protests against the form after the life is gone, and
adheres to the life in its new manifestations. This is the
true and Christian Protestantism. Rome is as really prot-
estant ; but the protest is against the old truth and life when
the form is new. The protestantism of Rome is the loudest
protestantism now extant; but it is protestant against Christ's
truth. Romanism sits patching the old garment ; and the
last patch put on was the dogma of infallibility, which
declares that the garment never was patched, and never
needed it. Hence Rome sits in impotent and scolding protest
against all Christian progress.
I may remark, in passing, that it is not necessary to deter
mine precisely how far new thoughts, methods, and agencies
are the direct result of Christian influences, and how far the
result of civilization only. The revival of letters may have
been, and probably was, the result of Christian influences
quickening the human mind; or it may have been the
natural outgrowth of the progress of human thought. But
the essential point is that Christianity was in the civilization
of that day, laid hold of the new powers and influences
developed in the revival of letters, and made the revival of
letters issue in the Protestant Reformation. The hierarchy
pretested against the study of Greek as endangering the
church ; but Christianity gladly laid hold of it, and conse
crated it to Christ.
Christianity is not only in general a power of progress ; it
is also a power of revival and reformation. If it is ever
hidden, it is fire beneath the ashes, with all its power of
burning when it is raked out. No other religion carries in
it this power. Other religions manifest themselves in con
nection with the civilization of their times ; but they have
no power to quicken and advance the civilization ; the
civilization remains stationary, and the religion moulders in
its old forms. Let any higher civilization from without
come in contact with it, it crumbles and passes away. Once
decayed, it is impossible to revive it. No power could revive

IN ITS RELATION TO CIVILIZATION. 215
the worship of Jupiter and Venus. The divine origin and
power of Christianity, the presence in it evermore of God's
grace are declared by the contrast, — always quickening
progress in civilization ; always outgrowing the forms of
the civilization into which it enters ; always a power of
renovation and revival when its forms have become effete
and are ready to pass away.
VI. In the Progress of Christ's Kingdom the Present is
always the Outgrowth of the Past.
The new is not a new creation, but is a development of
the old. The progress has the continuity of a vital growth.
We have seen that Christianity is perfect, and cannot be
transcended ; not so the measure of its apprehension on the
part of mankind, nor of its appropriation in the conscious
ness of the church. This has the character of a growth.
Hence the new has a unity with the old ; the truth, spirit,
and life pass out from one temporary form of manifestation
into another. And the change, when it comes, is the natural
result of the growth: first, the blade, then the ear, after
that the full corn in the ear.
It is often objected against Protestantism that it is unhis-
torical. But the objection is of no force, since Protestantism
drops only the old forms, which, having lived their time,
were already waxing old and ready to pass away, or even
were already corrupted, and accepts the new manifestations
of the truth and life. In fact, Protestantism is the true
historical development of the church. It is in it that the
spirit and life have found their genuine outgrowth. All the
wealth of piety and thought of the ancient Catholic church
belongs also to Protestantism, which is the genuine out
growth of that piety and thought, and the legitimate offspring
of that Catholic church.
On the other hand, the Romish church is, in reality, un-
historical, since it has retained the effete forms, and allowed
the unfolding and growing life to pass away from it.
The right of private judgment does not imply that every

216 THE PROGRESS OF CHRIST'S KINGDOM
man is to cut adrift from the past, and by his own meager
intellect think out a system of truth for himself. That
would be as absurd as if in secular life each man should
strip himself of the knowledge and civilization acquired in
the past, and begin, in puris naturalibus, as a barbarian, to
study nature and acquire the arts of civilization. The right
of private judgment is the right of judging in the light of
the past. Some truths we may assume as settled by the
thought and life of the past. Man is not always learning,
and never coming to the knowledge of the truth. We rightly
reject the Romish doctrine of tradition. The tradition of
that church is not merely the clearer and fuller unfolding
of the meaning of the Bible by the Christian experience and
thought of the church, resting ultimately for its authority
on God's word ; but it includes the dicta of the church,
resting on the infallibility of the church, and superadded to
the Bible as of co-ordinate authority with it. Protestantism
has its tradition ; but it is simply the fuller exposition of
the Bible, gained by the experience and thought of successive
generations, and the application of the Bible to the new and
changing conditions of man. Protestant tradition is the
truth which flows from the fountain of God's word, and rolls
down through the centuries, widening and deepening as it
rolls — the stream which Ezekiel saw issuing as a little rill
from the threshold of the sanctuary, and swelling as it flows
into a great river. Protestant tradition is the Bible itself as
it has flowed into human thought and life.
Because the kingdom of Christ is perpetually unfolding
out of the past, the unchanging grace of God ever manifested
under new conditions, the old truth and life appearing in
new manifestations, the history of redemption is necessarily
typical, that is, an epoch is the type of a succeeding epoch.
A prominent actor in one epoch will be the type of a promi
nent actor in another epoch. In every epoch there is seen
" The baby figure of the giant mass
Of things to come at large."
Thus we have a philosophical basis for the theological doc-

IN ITS RELATION TO CIVILIZATION. 217
trine that events and persons in the Old Testament are
typical of events and persons in the New Testament.
VII. The Progress of Christ's Kingdom tends to produce a
Homogeneous Civilization throughout the World.
The broad differences of civilizations must gradually dis
appear ; the insignia of an outlandish man become less
marked ; thought and products be more fully and rapidly
interchanged ; interests will become more identified, and
wars impossible; and the world will become a family of
fraternal states.
It remains to apply these principles to determine what is
the duty of the modern missionary in respect to teaching
civilization. If Christianity is taught to a people by preachers having
the same civilization with themselves, then the full signifi
cance and scope of its principles will be gradually discovered,
and Christianity will manifest itself in varying forms, and
sometimes in alliance with error. But it is different when
the missionary goes from a people having a superior and
Christian civilization to a people of inferior and unchristian
civilization, or still barbarous. In the civilization with
which the missionary is familiar, the principles of Christianity
have been carried out to many of their remote applications,
and the results of ages of thinking and acting under the
light of Christianity are embodied. Thus a new element is
introduced into the problem. Shall he preach only the
grand facts and broad principles of the gospel, leaving the
people slowly to discover for themselves their remoter appli
cations ? Or, shall he also teach the detailed applications
of Christian truth to the customs and institutions of society
as already known to him, and teach therewith the industrial
arts of the higher civilization ?
1. He must not preach civilization antecedent to the
gospel, and as a preparation for it. The preceding course
of thought has demonstrated that a people is incapable of
28

218 THE PROGRESS OF CHRIST'S KINGDOM
having new institutions and a new civilization fitted upon it
as a tailor fits a coat. It is the people who must be fitted
to the civilization. Give to a savage a sewing-machine, or
a power-loom, and the gift is useless. The man must be
educated up to the machine, or he cannot use it, nor, indeed,
have any occasion to use it. The same is true of political
institutions. They do not create or mould the life, but are
the outgrowth of the life. It is as useless to force free insti
tutions on a people not educated for them as to tie artificial
flowers on a rose-bush in the winter. The right of self-
government in the hands of Paris communists is a curse to
them and the world. Christianity is itself the most effective
agency in awakening the savage to progress towards civiliza
tion, by stimulating the habit of acting for ulterior ends, and
subjecting impulse to the control of reason ; and in purifying
and renovating heathen civilization by introducing and mak
ing effective spiritual truth and a regard to spiritual reality.
Besides, all that is distinctively Christian in civilization is
the result of Christianity. To insist that the apostles ought
to have taught the civilization of modern Christendom in
Jerusalem, Greece, and Rome, before teaching Christianity,
or that modern missionaries ought to teach American civiliza
tion in China before teaching Christianity, is to put the effect
before the cause. Christian civilization can be produced
only by Christianity. Christianity must first be preached,
in order that Christian civilization may be possible. The
only real progress of society is the progress of the men and
women who compose society. Society advances only as the
men and women composing it advance in knowledge and
culture, in wisdom, in self-control, in purity, truthfulness,
and justice, in Christian faith and love.
This position is confirmed by the fact, constantly recurring
in history, that the contact of civilization with barbarism or
an inferior civilization, unaccompanied by Christianizing
influences, is injurious to the inferior.
2. In reference to the personal character and duty of
converts, the missionary is not to withhold Christian truth

IN ITS RELATION TO CIVILIZATION. 219
and its application out of deference to the errors inherent in
the civilization of those to whom he preaches. It is one thing
to admit that Christian truth taught to a people, by teachers
participating in their civilization, will be slowly and gradually
apprehended and applied ; and quite another thing to say
that Christian teachers, having the clear knowledge of Chris
tianity belonging to the highest civilization, are to accom
modate their teachings to the prejudices and customs of
heathenism ; for example, to admit members to the church
while practising polygamy and observing the rules of caste.
This is of the type of pious frauds, and of the adoption by
Christians of heathen usages and festivals under Christian
names, which early corrupted Christianity in the attempt to
propagate it. The justification of it involves a false inter
pretation of the parables of the new patch and the new wine ;
as if they meant that a patch must be found for the old
garment as rotten as it, and for the worn-out bottles wine as
weak as they. They mean the life must be invigorated, or
a new life created capable of receiving the new institution,
It is the statesman's business to adapt laws and institutions
to the existing condition of society, just as the physician
adapts medicine and food to the weakness of the patient.
But the missionary is in the position of a prophet ; it is his
business to proclaim the truth which will create a new life.
He is not to attempt the immediate subversion of existing
institutions ;,but he is to declare Christian truth as the law
of personal Christian action. Otherwise, the people cannot
be educated in Christian truth, and prepared for Christian
civilization. The missionary and his disciples may suffer
persecution, and even martyrdom, for their fidelity ; but
these, if they must come, are themselves powerful agencies
in educating the world in Christian ideas.
3. The missionary will introduce the arts of civilization
incidentally, as he has opportunity and the people are pre
pared for them. These are educating influences which will
help him in his Christian work. And in this respect he will
be aided by the intercommunication of thought and of com
mercial products among the nations.

LECTURE XI.

THE SCRIPTURAL DOCTRINE OF THE TRIUMPH OF CHRIST'S KINGDOM
DISTINGUISHED FROM MILLENARIANISH.
The kingdom of Christ is destined to triumph. It will be
universal in extent : " The earth shall be full of the knowledge
of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." A higher type
of Christian life will be common : " The light of the moon
shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall
be sevenfold." Civilization will be Christian, and society
transfigured into a kingdom of" righteousness and peace and
joy in the Holy Ghost," under the spiritual reign of Christ :
" In his days shall the righteous flourish, and abundance of
peace so long as the moon endureth." The entire con
ception of the kingdom is nugatory, if it does not include its
triumph. I propose to consider the Scriptural Doctrine of the Tri
umph of Christ's Kingdom, in Contrast with Millenarianism.
There is no disagreement on the following points: The
final triumph of the kingdom ; Christ's second advent ; the
completion of redemption and the delivery of the kingdom
to the Father ; the resurrection and general judgment ; the
eternal, heavenly blessedness of the redeemed going on in
ways and methods not revealed to human comprehension.
The millenarian error is essentially this : The dispensa
tion of the Spirit under which we live is not intended to
secure the gradual extension and ultimate triumph of the
kingdom ; the preaching of the gospel to every creature is
not intended to convert the world, but to be a witness to all
nations ; the dispensation of the Spirit, therefore, will fail to
effect the triumph of the kingdom, but is intended only as a
220

THE TRIUMPH OF CHRIST'S KINGDOM. 221
preparation for it; the kingdom is to come hereafter and
suddenly, at Christ's second advent. When the gospel shall
have been preached as a witness to all nations, and the
failure of the dispensation of the Spirit shall have become
apparent, Christ will come in the clouds, will destroy by
natural and supernatural judgments the anti-Christian powers,
" except a residue certain, but indefinite"; " will raise from
the dead the elect of past ages," " take to a place of security
all the elect then living," and change or transfigure them in
a moment, in the twinkling of an eye ; will miraculously
subvert and transform the present state of things, purify the
earth by the fires of his judgments, deliver it from the curse
of sin, and restore it to a paradisiacal state — new heavens
and a new earth. " On the restored and purified earth a
new social, civil, and ecclesiastical organization shall be set
up among the generations of men then ensuing, who will be
all converted by the continual presence and power of the
Holy Ghost, so as was unknown in the preceding ages."
Over this renovated society Christ will reign in person, and
" sit as king upon his holy hill of Zion," assisted by the risen
saints, who shall preside with him over " the successive
generations and inhabitants of the repeopled earth." " After
this millennial age — the great theme of prophecy — the
seventh decade — the Sabbath of time" — Satan will be
loosed for a season to deceive the nations ; will gather the
nations which are in the four quarters of the earth to battle ;
God will then send fire out of heaven to devour the hostile
forces that shall compass the camp of the saints and the be
loved city ; will raise the rest of the dead, and award the
sentence of the final judgment.1
In opposition to this, the scriptural doctrine is: Christ sets
up his kingdom at his first coming. After his ascension, he
reigns in heaven over his kingdom on earth, and administers
its government, and advances it to its triumph through the
Holy Spirit; the dispensation of the Spirit is the last ; in it,
by the efforts of Christ's redeemed going into all the world
1 President Nathan Lord's Essay on the Millennium, p. 35-39.

222 THE SCRIPTURAL DOCTRINE OF THE
and preaching the gospel to every creature, the kingdom of
heaven — being spiritual and coming not with observation —
will gradually grow like a seed, and extend like leaven, till
at last it will pervade the world with its life, and " the earth
shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord." This happy
condition will be of long continuance. Whether this period
will be followed or not by an apostasy, in the fulness of time
Christ will come in the clouds ; the dead will be raised, and
the living changed ; the earthly work of redemption will be
completed, and the kingdom presented to the Father ; the
final judgment will be pronounced, and the righteous shall
go away into everlasting life. In connection with this will
be a grand epoch in the physical world, represented by the
earth being burned up and the elements melting in fervent
heat, preparatory to a new cycle of the divine manifestations,
which the glorified in heaven will see, but which it is not
permitted us to understand.
Among millenarians there are many differences as to de
tails, and not a few extravagances.1 But the more judicious
millenarians are not to be held responsible for peculiarities
and extravagances of opinion which they do not accept.
I. The Literalism insisted on by Millenarians is a False
and Impossible System of Interpretation.
The argument is, that prophecies so explicit as that of the
first resurrection (Rev. xx.), the establishment and exaltation
of the mountain of the house of the Lord (Micah iv. 1, 2),
the standing of the Lord's feet on the Mount of Olives, and
the cleavage of the mount, and its removal, half to the north
and half to the south (Zech. xiv. 4), must be literal; and
that, if they are interpreted as figurative, or as symbolical
of events in the progress of Christ's kingdom under the dis
pensation of the Spirit, every prophecy and promise of the
1 " The king is a perfect human being, the Son of man and the Son of God ;
now possessed of flesh and bones, but not of blood, because that he shed for the
race of Adam." — Prophetic Expositions, by Josiah Litch, Vol. i. pp. 17, 18.
Mr. Litch wus a follower of Win. Miller, whose millenarianism differed in
several particulars from that which is described above.

triumph of Christ's kingdom. 223
Bible may be explained away and divested of its literal and
obvious meaning.
This is a plausible way of putting it, and probably is more
effective with tbe popular mind than any other argument ;
especially when accompanied by an appeal to the importance
of adhering to the literal historical sense of the Bible, in
opposition to rationalistic interpretations. My limits forbid
a complete answer to this argument, which would require
an extended exposition of the principles regulating the inter
pretation of figurative language and of symbols, and of their
application to the figures and symbols of the Bible. I will
confine myself to two remarks.
In the first place, this reasoning leads to conclusions so
extravagant as to prove that there is a fallacy in it. David
N. Lord, lately editor of the " Theological and Literary
Journal," and a most able advocate of millenarianism, in
sists that the eighteenth Psalm describes a literal deliverance
of David, not elswhere historically recorded, and wrought
with all the sublime visible and miraculous manifestations
there set forth. The argument would be, if these are not
literal, how can we prove from any words of scripture that
God ever made any visible manifestation of himself to men ?]
The same reasoning would require us to interpret as literal
history the familiar hymn beginning :
" Once on the raging seas I rode ;
The storm was loud, the night was dark."
By similar reasoning Mr. Lord is driven to the conclusion
that the carnivorous animals mentioned in Isaiah (xi. 6-9)
will be transformed into graminivorous animals and continue
to exist in the millennial period.2 Some millenarians are
led by similar reasoning to maintain that the prophecies teach
not only the literal restoration of the Jews to Palestine, but
also the revival of circumcision, sacrifices, and the temple-
worship.8 The same principles of interpretation must carry
1 Treatise on Figurative Language, by D. N. Lord, pp. 191, 192.
2 Theological and Literary Journal, Vol. i. pp. 386-390, and Vol. iii. p. 601.
3 Theological and Literary Journal, Vol. ii. pp. 262, 266, 457, 472.

224 THE SCRIPTURAL doctrine of the
us still further. Ezekiel prophecies that in the future
triumph of Israel, David shall be their king forever.1 Liter
alism requires that it shall be David in his own person who
is to reign over the renovated earth forever. In truth this
method of interpretation is precisely that of the Jews iu
interpreting the prophecies of the Messiah's first coming.
If it is the right method, the Jews were right in expecting
Elijah to come in his own person, and not merely one coming
in Elijah's spirit and power ; and in expecting the Messiah
to set up a temporal kingdom and be a mighty conqueror,
according to the predictions in Psalms ii. and ex. Since
events have proved that this is a wrong method of interpret
ing the prophecies of Christ's first coming, it must be equally
wrong in interpreting the prophecies of his second advent.
President Lord insists that the millenarian doctrine is
necessary from the historical character of redemption ; that
to deny it is to abandon this simple historical character and
to substitute for it speculation and rationalism.2 But this
position is not well taken. The doctrine that Christ's second
advent will follow the millennial triumph of the church empha
sizes the historical character of Christianity and distinguishes
it from rationalism as really as does the doctrine of his pre-
millennial advent. The difference pertains to the question :
What are the future events predicted and the order of their
occurrence ; not at all to the question whether Christianity is
a philosophy or an historical redemption. President Lord
here uses an argument ad invidiam which his character and
standing would not have led us to expect.
My second remark, respecting the principles of interpreta
tion which we are considering, is, that their incorrectness is
exposed by reducing them to a precise and definite statement.
This Mr. D. N. Lord has attempted to do. The third prin
ciple of figurative language which he lays down is : " The
figurative terms are always predicates, or are employed in
affirming something of some other agent or object." 3 It is
1 Ezek. xxxiv. 23, 24, and xxxvii. 23, 24. " Essay, p. 42.
8 Theological and Literary Journal, Vol. i. p. 354.

TRIUMPH OF CHRIST'S KINGDOM. 225
not easy to apply this principle to such expressions as these :
" When the cat is away the mice play " ; " Ho, every one
that thirsteth, come ye to the waters." Mr. Lord calls a
figure of this kind a Hypocatastasis ; although he insists that
" in that figure, as well as in the metaphor, the trope lies
wholly in the predicate, not in the subject to which it is
applied." 1 But though he does call this figure a Hypocatas
tasis, and insist that the trope is in the predicate, yet it is
true that such a figure may run through an entire sentence
or series of sentences, and, so far as the sentence or sentences
are concerned, with all the appearance of literalness. And
the admission that such figures abound in the Bible is the
admission of all that is demanded to justify the interpretation
of figurative language in the Bible in harmony with the
doctrine, that Christ's kingdom is to be extended through the
world under the dispensation of the Spirit and before the
second coming of our Lord.
Mr. Lord enumerates four hundred and fifteen symbols,
which, he says, is the whole number in the scriptures. From
an examination of these and their interpretations, he educes
" the laws of symbolic representation." The first is, " that
the symbol and that whicli it symbolizes are of different
species or orders, and that the relation of the representative
to that which it represents is *he relation of analogy." Yet
he is obliged to admit this sweeping exception : " When the
symbol is of such a nature, or is used in such a condition
or relation that there is no analogical agent or object which
can represent it, it is then used as its own representative, or
the representative of one or more of its own kind." Among
the many symbols belonging under this exception, he includes
the souls of the martyrs, in Rev. xx., and acknowledges that
this vision itself is symbolical.2
It is evident, then, that the argument which we have been
considering is a popular appeal, rather than an argument.
It legitimately leads to conclusions that are extravagant ;
1 Theological and Literary Journal, Vol. iii. p. 601 .
2 Ibid. Vol. i. pp. 182, 214, 237, aud Vol. iii. pp. 669, 670.
29

226 THE SCRIPTURAL DOCTRINE OF THE
and when we attempt to give it definite statement, and to
educe the law or principle of interpretation which it involves,
it breaks down entirely. Therefore, the doctrine that Christ
reigns in heaven over his kingdom on earth, that he admin
isters and advances it through the Holy Spirit, that its
triumph will be completed under the dispensation of the
Spirit and antecedent to Christ's second advent, is a doctrine
which violates no valid law of interpretation. In advocating
it, we cannot be stopped at the outset by the objection that
we are forsaking the literal, historical meaning of the Bible
for abstractions and fancies. The Bible abounds in imagery
and symbols. We approach it recognizing this fact. We
determine whether any passage is literal, figurative, or sym
bolical from the passage itself and its connection, and in like
manner we interpret the figures and symbols which we find.
II. Millenarianism is Inconsistent with the Doctrine of the
Bible as to the Time, Object, and Concomitants of
Christ's Second Coming.
1. Christ's second advent is at the completion of his king
dom on earth, and not at its beginning or establishment.
The dispensation of the Spirit is habitually spoken of as
the last, the last time, the completion of the ages (<rvvre\eia
t&v duovcov, Heb. ix. 26). These texts cannot be explained
as denoting the end of a dispensation ; for they were applied
to the dispensation of the Spirit at its beginning in Christ's
first coming. Joel, in the passage quoted by Peter on the
day of Pentecost, was comparing one dispensation with
another ; and so Peter applies it.
The kingdom is to be complete at Christ's second coming,
and as such to be delivered to the Father (1 Cor. xv. 24).
Whatever difficulties attend this text, it certainly means
that the mediatorial work on earth is finished, the number
of the redeemed completed and presented to the Father.
And it is certain, from the context, that this delivery of the
completed kingdom to the Father is connected with Christ's
second advent and the resurrection of the righteous.

triumph of Christ's kingdom. 227
Christ's second coming is habitually called the end, and
presented as the terminus of all gospel invitation and all
Christian endeavor to save men from sin (1 Cor. xv. 24 ;
Matt. xiii. 37-49 ; xxiv. 31 ; xxv. 1-13 ; Luke xix. 13).
2. Christ's second coming is declared to be to judgment,
in marked contrast with his first coming, which is declared
to be to salvation (John iii. 16, 17 ; xii. 47, contrasted with
Matt. xxv. 31 ; 2 Thess. i. 6-10).
3. Millenarianism is irreconcilable with the assertions of
the Bible as to the events which will accompany Christ's
second coming.
Christ's second coming is to be attended with the resur
rection of all the saints who have previously died, and the
change of the living saints from corruptible to incorruptible
and from mortal to immortality.
It is accompanied, also, by the resurrection of the wicked.
The prediction of Daniel (xii. 2) is interpreted by mille
narians as a prediction of Christ's second advent ; yet it
expressly foretells the resurrection both of the righteous and
the wicked. Our Saviour predicts the resurrection of the
righteous and the wicked (John v. 28, 29). Their resur
rection is evidently simultaneous, hearing together the voice
of the Son of Man ; and the dead hearing the voice of the
son of Man and raised thereby is a form of expression which
elsewhere indicates the second coming of Christ.
The second advent is accompanied by the conflagration
of the earth, and the saints are caught up away from the
earth to meet the Lord in the air. This is entirely incom
patible with the continued occupation of the earth by the
human race, and the personal reign of Christ at Jerusalem
(2 Pet. iii. 7-13 ; 1 Thess. iv. 16, 17). Millenarians resort
to various expedients of interpretation to evade this insuper
able difficulty, in which they depart very far from the
literalism on which they insist in other cases.
Another concomitant of Christ's second coming is the
general judgment and the separation of the righteous and
the wicked to their final and eternal state (Matt. xvi. 27 ;

228 the scriptural doctrine of the
xiii. 37-43; xxv. 31-45; 2 Thess. i. 6-10; 2 Tim. iv. 1),
The assertion is explicit that the judgment here mentioned
is to be at the second coming of the Lord. Millenarians
are obliged to interpret these and similar passages as refer
ring to the destruction of the wicked who will be alive on
the earth at Christ's second coming. These sublime pre
dictions of the judgment of the wicked mean, therefore, only
that a part of the ungodly in the generation living when
Christ shall come will be put to a violent death. Uni-
versalists do not more violently wrest passages of this sort
from their obvious meaning. While thus interpreting pas
sages inconsistent with their own theory, millenarians cannot
consistently enforce their literalism on their opponents.
Millenarians assert the continued existence and propa
gation of the human race under Christ's millennial reign.
The Theological and Literary Review asserts that there will be
three classes of men — the risen and glorified saints, who will
reign with Christ ; the saints living at Christ's coming, who
by their change will be made immortal, but will not receive
the spiritual and glorified body ; and the remnant of the
wicked who escape destruction at the second coming, and
who, being converted, will continue the human race in its
natural life from generation to generation. This class
President Lord calls " a residue certain but indefinite," who
will repeople the earth. All of the foregoing biblical repre
sentations are utterly incompatible with the continued exist
ence and propagation of the human race in its natural life
after the second advent.
It remains to glance at Rev. xx., which is claimed as
teaching a first resurrection and a pre-millennial coming of
Christ. The vision here described is a vision of the souls of certain
martyrs, who lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years,
Observe what this vision is not. It is not of a resurrection,
but distinctively of the souls of martyrs. This is subse
quently called the first resurrection. It is not of all the
saints, but only of those martyrs who had been beheaded,

triumph of Christ's kingdom. 229
or, if the several verbs each has a different subject, only of
those who had been beheaded and those who had been faith
ful to Christ under the persecutions and deceitful arts of
the beast — whatever particular period that may denote. It
is not a vision of Christ's second advent, which is not men
tioned, and which necessarily connects itself with the events
subsequent to the thousand years, and represented at the
close of this chapter and in the next. It is not a vision of
Christ's personal reign on earth. It is not said that the
thrones seen and the martyrs reigning were on earth ; but
consistency with the antecedent and subsequent representa
tions of the book requires that the scene of the vision be in
heaven. It is not a vision of the destruction of the wicked
living on earth ; but it is preceded by a vision of the binding
of Satan, and the consequent deliverance of the nations from
his temptations and deceits, which indicates their conversion
rather than their destruction. In view of the use made of
this vision as putting millenarianism beyond all question,
it is remarkable to notice what is not in it. It is extraor
dinary reasoning that, because John saw the souls of some
of the martyrs living and reigning with Christ in heaven,
therefore Christ's advent will be pre-millennial, he will at
his coming put the majority of the wicked to a violent death,
raise the dead saints and transfigure the living, and reign in
person in Jerusalem for a thousand years.
If, therefore, you are constrained to admit that the vision
implies a literal resurrection of some of the martyrs in con
nection with the coming triumph of Christ's kingdom, that
carries with it no necessity of admitting millenarianism.
Such a resurrection would be analogous to the resurrection
of some of the saints when Christ rose, and would be con
sistent with the triumph of Christ's kingdom before his
coming and under the dispensation of the Spirit. This ad
mission, however, the right interpretation of the vision does
not require.
The vision presents a symbol of the final triumph of Christ's
kingdom and the long continuance of its universal sway.

230 the scriptural doctrine of the
This interpretation is necessary to harmonize this with the
whole Apocalypse. To suppose this vision to be of literal
historical events would be to give it an entirely exceptional
interpretation. Especially this interpretation harmonizes
with the vision of the souls of the martyrs in chap. vi. 9-11.
There they are seen under the altar, crying : " How long, 0
Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our
blood on them that dwell on the earth " ? And they are
comforted, and bidden to wait a season. There are presented
to us the depression and conflict of Christ's church. In
chap. xx. the souls of the martyrs are seen again, not beneath
the altar, but reigning with Christ. As the former vision
symbolized the church under oppression and persecution,
this necessarily symbolizes the church in its prosperity and
triumph ; and there is nothing whatever in it which intimates
that its triumph is to be realized any otherwise than under
the dispensation of the Spirit, through the faithful efforts of
Christians carrying the gospel to all mankind, and applying
its principles to the conduct, usages, laws, and institutions
of human life.
III. Millenarianism is Inconsistent with the Scriptural Doc
trine of the Nature and Growth of Christ's Kingdom.
1. Christ, at his first coming, came as a King, set up his
kingdom, and began his mediatorial reign.
The Jewish prophets predicted the Messiah as a King,
coming to establish a kingdom of righteousness and peace,
and to extend his reign throughout the world. These are
uniformly prophecies of his first coming, the prophecies which
created the Jewish expectation of the Messiah, and which
Christians believe to have been fulfilled in Jesus. If the Mes
siah was foretold at all, he was foretold as a King who was to
set up a kingdom to endure as long as the sun and moon endure.
Jesus began his preaching by declaring: "The kingdom
of heaven is at hand." He announced himself as Messianic
King; his kingdom was the constant subject of his preaching.
He expressly teaches that his kingdom is not of this world,

triumph of Christ's kingdom. 231
but is spiritual ; that at his ascension all power is to be
given him in heaven and on earth ; that he is to sit at the
right hand of the Majesty on high, and reign there as Mes
sianic King, continuing his agency on earth through the
Spirit whom he should send. He avowed himself a King to
Pilate, and as claiming to be such he was crucified. He is
acknowledged as King in the Acts and the Epistles. His
common appellation is Kvpta, or " Lord," a name applied at
the time to the Roman emperor. Peter says explicitly:
" Let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath
made that same Jesus whom ye have crucified both Lord
and Christ  Him hath God exalted to be a Prince and
a Saviour." In the Epistle to the Hebrews we have this
explicit declaration : " This man, after he had offered one
sacrifice for sins, forever sat down on the right hand of God,
from henceforth expecting until his enemies be made his foot
stool." This certainly intimates that there is to be no other
mediatorial reign, and that under his reign in heaven he
expects the triumph of his kingdom.
Both the Old Testament and the New teach that the
mediatorial reign begins in connection with Christ's first
coming, and particularly his ascension and the outpouring
of the Spirit, and not with his second. So Jesus says :
" There be some of them that stand here who shall not
taste of death till they have seen tho kingdom of God come
with power."
2. The New Testament, in treating of the growth of
Christ's kingdom, emphasizes his humiliation and death, his
ascension and intercession, and his sending the Spirit : " I,
if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto
me " ; " Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the
world." Jesus also bids his disciples rejoice that he goes
away, because it is the appointed condition of the descent
of the Holy Spirit ; thus implying that his administering his
kingdom by the Holy Spirit is better than his personal
presence on earth.
3. The kingdom is not of this world, is within the soul, is

232 the scriptural doctrine of the
spiritual and invisible ; its progress is gradual, and its coming
is without observation. It is " righteousness and peace and
joy in the Holy Ghost." It is the leaven working unseen
within the flour. It is the mustard-seed growing into a tree.
Even Daniel's prophecy of the stone smiting the image on
the feet, though cited by millenarians to prove that the com
ing of the kingdom is sudden, miraculous, and public, proves
the contrary. It is explicitly said : " In the days of these
kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall
never be destroyed." An event yet future cannot be said to
happen in the days of these kings. And the stone, which
represents Christ's kingdom, was at first so small that it
could smite the image on the feet, and after the image had
fallen the stone grew into a mountain and filled the whole
earth. It should be added that iii the very discourse in which
Jesus declares that his kingdom cometh nut with observation,
but is invisible and internal, he distinguishes it from his
second coming, which, he declares, shall be sudden, public,
and startling as the lightning.
4. The triumph of the kingdom is dependent on human
agency. The whole scriptural representation is that redemption
goes on in human history, and the advance of Christ's
kingdom is by human agency. Millenarianism makes the
human element and agency to be only docetic, not a reality.
The kingdom is not established by man working together
with God, but miraculously, by the Son of God himself.
After thousands of years seemingly working in and through
and by humanity, he at last breaks free from all human
relations and from all the continuity of history, and estab
lishes the kingdom by a miraculous stroke of Almightiness.
5. The kingdom depends for its advancement, under
God's Spirit, on truth and love, and not on force.
The genius and spirit of Christianity take men off from
the reign of force, and establish the reign of ideas, of truth,
and love. But millenarianism strips Christianity of this

TRIUMPH OF CHRIST'S KINGDOM. 233
its essential glory, confesses that the world cannot be saved
by truth and love under the dispensation of the Spirit, and
falls back on force as that by which alone the kingdom of
God can triumph, and on which it ultimately rests. When
millenarians are charged with teaching that Christianity is
a failure, they reply that, while they do not expect the
conversion of the world under the dispensation of the Spirit,
they do expect the triumph of Christ's kingdom at his
second coming. But I charge them with teaching the failure
of Christianity in a sense far more profound. They ac
knowledge the failure of truth and love by the power of the
Spirit to save the world from sin. They acknowledge that
the triumph of Christ's kingdom must depend at last on
force. Faith in the triumph of ideas and the reign of truth
and love by the convincing of men's intellects and the reno
vation of their wills through the Holy Spirit passes away.
The world will be subdued by Almighty power, never con
verted by redeeming love.
6. The kingdom, as supposed to be realized under Christ's
personal reign, would not be a realization of the highest
ideal of Christianity.
On the one hand, it presents a semi-sensuous paradise.
It does not concentrate the Christian's efforts on attaining
an overcoming faith, a divine love and purity, as constituting
blessedness or true well-being under whatever circumstances ;
it rather leads to waiting and longing for an adjustment of
outward circumstances to make life blessed. It does not set
the Christian's heart on toiling and, if necessary, suffering
to deliver men from error and sin, as constituting their
misery ; it rather leads them to wait supinely for the coming
of the Saviour to rid them of their enemies by his destroying
sword. It tends, therefore, to ascetic disgust with life, and
separation from the world, instead of a compassionate and
Christlike interest in the world to save men from misery and
sin. Thus it unconsciously runs into that false philosophy
which places blessedness in indulgence and gratification, to
the abandonment of the Christian and only true philosophy
80

234 THE SCRIPTURAL DOCTRINE OF THE
that man's blessedness consists in his character and action,
rather than in his circumstances and possessions ; in what
he is, rather than in what he has ; in working and serving
and achieving, rather than in receiving and being indulged.
" All that is in the world  passeth away ; but he that
doelh the will of God abideth forever."
On the other hand, the conception of the personal reign
supposes the introduction into the natural life of men of the
elements of the heavenly state, and a consequent state of
things in which the interests and affairs of man's natural life
seem insignificant and out of place.
Thus the personal reign, anticipated as the issue of all
Christian endeavor, vitiates the Christian character and life
in the present dispensation.
IV. Millenarianism gives no satisfactory Theodicy, or Vin
dication of the Ways of God with Man.
It affords no tolerable explanation of the delay in the
coming and triumph of Christ's kingdom, nor of all the
processes and agencies during the long ages preceding it.
The true doctrine is, that redemption must of necessity enter
into humanity, act through human agencies, and realize its
results through the courses and the continuity of human
history. It follows that God's redeeming love may fail of
bringing man at once to him ; that the growth of his kingdom
must be modified by the human element connected with it ; and
thus that only in the fulness of time and through innumera
ble trials and difficulties can the kingdom possess the earth.
But if, after all, the kingdom is not to be established in
this way, if all God's working in and by humanity and in
the courses of history is to be a failure, and the Messiah is
at last to throw himself clear from all the human elements
and historical courses through whicli he has worked so long,
and to set up his kingdom by sheer Almightiness, no reason
can be given why that might not have been accomplished
four thousand years ago as well as now. Redemption ceases
to be a true and satisfactory philosophy of human history ;

triumph of Christ's kingdom. 235
it becomes something outside of it and above it, and is con
summated at last in a violent disruption of all the continuity
of that history. Aud every explanation of the slow progress
of Christ's kingdom founded on the fact that it is advanced
in humanity and by human agency ceases to be available.
V. The Practical Influence of Millenarianism is Evil.
It takes away the most powerful motives to Christian
endeavor, and tends to an incomplete type of Christian life.
It is the glory of Christianity that it first and alone has
spoken the word of promise and of hope to man, and pre
dicted for mankind in the progress, of Christ's kingdom a
future on the earth ever better than the past. Under the
stimulus of this promise civilization has become progressive,
and progressive in justice and love to man. Under this
stimulus Christians have learned to have faith in truth and
right and love, and in God's present and redeeming grace.
In this faith and hope they are valiant for the truth ; believ
ing that, however opposed, it will through the influence of
God's Spirit establish itself, and find expression in the lives of
individuals and in the customs, laws, and institutions of society.
Millenarianism " keeps the word of promise to our ear,
and breaks it to our hope." It dissociates the triumph of
Christ's kingdom in the future from its antecedent progress
and- from the endeavors of Christians to advance it. The
triumph comes at last miraculously, magically, by the stroke
of almightiness, with no dependence on previous fidelity to
truth and right and God ; by occasion, indeed, of the per
sistence and prevalence of sin, not of the persistence and
prevailing power of Christ's saints.
Modern progress is humanitarian. Christian civilization
is characterized by regard for man, by the recognition of his
individual personality, which can never be absorbed and lost
either in race or organization ; of his greatness and the
sacredness of his rights ; of the principle that institutions
exist for man, not man for his institutions ; of the brother
hood of all nations; of the obligation to turn human en-

236 the scriptural doctrine of the
deavor in every line of thought and action to the promotion
of human welfare. It will be characterized by the recognition
of the Christian law of service restraining the self-assertion
and rapacious self-seeking of individualism, and leading men
to live not for themselves, but for others. In our modern
apologetics we insist that the world owes these ideas to
Christ. But the millenarian system has no place for these
ideas. Christianity, as that system presents it, does not aim
to renovate society by truth and love. It aims in the present
dispensation only to save a few elected ones from the pains
of eternal death, while it looks to the total overthrow of the
existing state of society and the re-creation of the earth itself
preparatory to the miraculous establishment of a preter
natural kingdom, having no dependence whatever on the
present progress of Christian civilization or the Christian
culture of men. It therefore repudiates the promise and
hope of human progress, aud declares them delusions of
philosophy and rationalism, and no part or incident of Chris
tianity. It therefore must regard Christianity, in its very
conception, alien from all efforts to put an end to slavery
and tyranny and to reform social abuses, and thus it gives
its support to an argument which is at this day prolific of
scepticism, that Christianity is not in sympathy with human
progress. It must insist that the one business of Christianity
is to convert souls — to save a few, if possible, from eternal
death amid the hopeless errors, sins, and sufferings of the
present state. President Lord, for example, declares that
one of " the appalling practical consequences " of the current
belief is that " Christian men and ministers of the gospel
 are wasting much of their energies upon delusive schemes
of educating, reforming and reorganizing society, with a
view to its supposed development into a perfect state." :
The Christian, it is indeed admitted, is required to work
for Christ; for the command is : " Occupy till I come." But
he is to work with the deadening consciousness that his
efforts will fail to make the world better. President Lord
1 Essay, pp. 46, 47,

triumph of Christ's kingdom. 237
says : "It is historically and certainly evident that hitherto
every tribe, nation and race of men on the earth — a few
righteous men alone excepted, — have successively declined
into greater wickedness, and that at this present time Chris
tianity is spreading in the world in no proportion to the
increase of the wicked population of the globe and the spread
of atheistic, pantheistic, or polytheistic belief.  The
rapid development of our present worldly civilization is more
and more alienating society from God, and making it more
difficult for his servants to preserve themselves in the sim
plicity of their faith." 1 So it is to be until Christ shall
come. Under the dead weight of this certainty Christians
are to fulfil the command : " Occupy till I come." They are
to toil and suffer, knowing that all their efforts avail nothing
to establish the kingdom of righteousness and peace on earth.
In the light of the Christian promise rightly understood,
we accept Christian work as a privilege, because in it we are
workers together with God to save sinners from their sins,
to multiply the number of Christian workers, to hasten the
deliverance of the world from its sin and misery, and to
advance the Christianizing of civilization and the progress
and universal prevalence of Christ's kingdom. Work thus
becomes a part of the Christian's education. It trains him
to love all men as Christ did, to be valiant for the truth, and
to be strong in faith and hope ; it develops a broad and intense
interest in humanity and in all that affects human welfare, and
creates a large-hearted, genial, and healthful Christian man
hood. Millenarianism, teaching the inevitable failure of all
efforts to reform and renovate society, deadens the interest in
human affairs, trains the Christian to disgust with life and a
desire to flee from the world in order to save himself from its
dangers, and to nurse his own spiritual emotions in retirement
rather than to interest in toil for the world's renovation. It
trains him to a longing to die in order to escape from the toil
and conflicts of the Christian — a saintliness which is ungenial,
ghastly, and remote from all the interests of human life.
1 Essay, p. 27.

LECTURE XII.

THE PROGRESS OF CHRIST'S KINGDOM IN ITS RELATION TO THE
SPIRIT OF THE PRESENT AGE.
The present age is scientific, and disinclined to acknowledge
the supernatural. It is rationalistic, rather than believing ;
self-sufficient in the pride of virtue, rather than humble in
the sense of sin ; philanthropic, rather than spiritual ; utili
tarian and realistic, rather than sensitive to sentiment and
enthusiasm. I propose to consider the progress of Christ's
kingdom in relation to the characteristics of this age.
I premise that Christianity comes to every generation as
new as to the first generation to which it came. When the
mother tells the story of Jesus to her child, the wondrous
story is as new to that child as to those to whom it was told
in the days of Paul. It comes anew to every generation and
to every man, a message fresh from heaven, and every one
must consider it and receive or reject it for himself.
I premise, also, that Christianity remains unchanged. It
is always God's love redeeming men from sin through the
humiliation, death, resurrection, ascension, and continued
reign and intercession of Christ, and the abiding presence
and work of the Holy Spirit. As such, by the lapse of ages
it never grows old. It rises on generation after generation,
as day after day the morning rises in dewy freshness on the
awakening world, and as night after night the evening re
veals the unchanging glory of the starry sky. In these
respects, one generation has no advantage over another.
Each generation has peculiarities which present peculiar
obstacles to the gospel. We have no reason to believe that
the peculiarities of this age are more formidable obstacles
288

THE PROGRESS OF CHRIST'S KINGDOM. 239
than those of other ages. A careful study of the age of
Luther or of Paul would exemplify this.
The general principle underlying the discussion is this :
Christianity can prevail in any age, only as it meets the
thought and life of that age. It must meet and satisfy the
thinking of men respecting the problems of human life and
destiny, and give repose to their intellects. It must meet
the life of men, and give light, peace, wisdom, and strength
for the work, the suffering, and the wants of the time. To
have met and satisfied the thought and life of a previous
age avails nothing to meeting and satisfying the thought and
life of this generation. The manna which came down from
heaven yesterday will nourish no soul to-day. Christianity
must meet, help, and save men in the conditions and neces
sities of the age in which they are.
Two thoughts are involved in this general principle. The
first is : It is Christianity which is to meet the thought and
life of the age, not something substituted for Christianity.
The second is : Christianity must meet the thought and life
of the age. In the first, we have that which is permanent
in Christianity ; in the second, that which is transient.
The first of these thoughts is important, as meeting an
existing danger. Whatever the thought and life of the age
which Christianity is to meet, it is not by preaching progress,
reform, and civilization that the work is to be done, but by
preaching Christianity in its application to these. The " New
Timothy" is not a sensationalist preaching to the times, but
also preaching the times ; he is a Christian preaching to the
times, but preaching Christ and him crucified. This is the
permanent in Christianity — "Jesus Christ, the same yes
terday, to-day, and forever." Through the confusion of
the time, and all its diversified action and interest, always
resounds the grand message of sin and redemption, as at
the sea-side, through all the coming and going, the clatter
and confusion of frivolity, passion, and business, resounds
always the solemn roar of the ocean.
If this thought is allowed to lose its prominence, and the

240 THE PROGRESS OF CHRIST'S KINGDOM
permanent in Christianity is forgotten, the very attempt to
apply Christianity to the times becomes fruitful in error
and corruption. Men, in their eagerness to preach to the
times, present what is of man and his conditions to save
men, till they substitute the ethics and wit of the popular
lecture for the gospel of Christ. Or they mistake the
transient for the permanent, and insist that the peculiar
prominence necessarily given to a particular Christian truth
in one age, must be maintained in the next ; that the peculiar
application of Christianity needed in one age, and perhaps
the very errors which incidentally accompanied it, must be
carried over to another age when no- such application is
needed ; and that the philosophies and speculations of one
age be inculcated as permanent truth in the next ; and so
the church is compelled to stand dozing and ruminant on
the thought and life of the past.
Reform and progress are always by going back to Christ,
taking the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden in
him, and applying them fresh to the existing life. So he
commands : " Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me."
We study the preceding ages only as helps to a better
knowledge of Christ, and to a wiser and fuller application of
his gospel to the exigencies of our time.
The second thought involved in the principle is as really
important. Christianity must meet the thinking and life of
each age. Christianity must be known experimentally. We
must take Christ's yoke, in order to learn of him. We must
be willing to do his will, in order to know the doctrine.
Every one must both receive the truth as it is in Jesus, and
not as it has been in other men, and receive it in his own
experience and its adaptation to his own wants, and not in
the experience of others and its adaptation to their wants.
The food which one has eaten is necessarily excrementitious
to another.^ The conditions and wants of different indi
viduals and successive generations are varying and transient,
and the applications of Christian truths to varying and
transient conditions are varying and transient, though the

IN RELATION TO THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE. 241
truth remains unchanged. In order to preserve the doctrinal
purity of Christianity in the thinking of any age, and its
power in the life, it must meet the thinking and life of that
age. Christianity must bring the same unchanging Christian
truth ; but it must bring it not as Athanasius thought it for
his day, nor as Augustine thought it for his day, nor as
Thomas a Kempis, Calvin, and Edwards thought it respec
tively for theirs, but in the channels and methods of modern
thought, and touching the topics on which modern thought
is occupied. The Christian life produced is not the life of
the ancient hermits and monks, nor of Calvin at Geneva, nor
of the Puritans of the seventeenth century, nor of the
Methodists of the eighteenth. It is the life of this age trans
figured by Christian faith and love.
I proceed to consider the application of this principle to
the thinking and life of this age. Time will permit, how
ever, to consider only some of the characteristics of the age,
and how Christianity is to meet them.
I. The Alleged Deficiency of this Age in Religious Suscepti
bility.
1. There are two types of thought on religious subjects.
Paul selects the Jew and the Greek as their respective
representatives : " The Jews require a sign, and the Greeks
seek after wisdom."
In the type of mind of which the Jew is the representative,
the intuitive or faith faculty predominates over the logical,
and the mind is awed in the presence of the unseen, the
incomprehensible, and the infinite ; the moral predominates
over the speculative and scientific, and the man is awed
before the divine law, crushed with the sense of guilt and
the expectation of punishment, terrified before the inexorable
Judge to whom he must give account of every secret of his
life. From these impressions with which his soul trembles,
he passes to believe the reality of the infinite and the unseen,
as easily as from impressions on the eye and ear he passes to
believe the reality of the outward world. The world unseen
31

242' THE PROGRESS OF CHRIST'S .KINGDOM
is real to him ; he expects it to manifest itself supernaturally ;
he is prepared to hear voices from heaven, to see spirits and
visions; miracles occasion no difficulty of belief; he regards
them as the legitimate evidences of communications from
the world unseen, and demands more. Nature itself he re
gards as a constant manifestation of the supernatural. It
is God who thunders, who sends the wind and the rain.
The Jewish literature in the Old Testament contains little
argument or speculative philosophy. It is mainly historical
and prophetical pictures of God's action in history, with the
legislation for a theocracy, with moral law, an order of wor
ship, and devotional poetry.
In the Greek type of mind, on the contrary, tbe senses,
the faculties of observation, and the logical powers predomi
nate. Nature was so near to the Greek as to exclude the
supernatural. His gods were the powers of nature per
sonified. To the Jewish mind man is divine, and nature is
for his use. The Hebrew literature opens with the sublime
proclamation that man is above nature, appointed to possess
and use its resources and powers. The thinking of the
Greek scarcely rises to this grand conception. To him
nature is divine, and man is its servant and worshipper.
His thinking is a philosophy, elaborating by logical processes
a system of the universe- — starting, sometimes, with fire or
water or some material principle. In this type of mind the
aesthetic element predominates over the moral ; the sense
of beauty displaces the sense of obligation ; and joy in the
present displaces the sense of what ought to be, the conscious
ness of sin, and the foreboding of judgment. To this type of
mind nature is all-sufficient. Miracles, instead of being helps
to faith, are themselves its greatest difficulties. Accordingly,
in the education of the race, the Greek has contributed philo
sophical inquiry and scepticism, logic, art, and, if not physical
science, the type of thought from which science comes.
2. Christianity is to meet both of these types of thought,
and to develop a higher type, in which both co-exist in com
pleteness and harmony.

IN RELATION TO THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE. 243
The characteristics of each type are found in all minds.
The type is characterized not by the exclusion of either, but
by the predominance of one. Complete culture must take
up and develop both in the same age and the same mind.
It is not true that the Jewish type belongs to the earlier
stages of progress, and the Greek type to the later. The
Jewish type is as high an order of mental culture as the
Greek. Comte's hypothesis, that it is an infantile condition
which the race necessarily outgrows, is contrary both to
philosophy and to fact. The characteristics of the Jewish
type are in all ages necessary to the highest development of
mind, and to the completeness and harmony of human
thought. They rest intellectually on those faculties of in
tuition and faith which are involved in and underlie all
intellectual action, without which thought withers into words
and reality fades into phenomenality ; without which nothing
can be explained in its rational ground, law, and end ; the
questions which reason necessarily asks it is unscientific to
propound ; the deepest wants of the human soul remain
forever unsatisfied, and their existence without significance
or explanation. Christianity offers a culture whicli takes
up and develops both of these types. This is the explicit
assertion of Paul — not that Christianity sets aside the
demand of the Jew for signs, nor the quest of the Greek for
wisdom, but that it meets and satisfies both. We preach
Christ crucified, to the Jew a stumbling-block and to the
Greek foolishness, so long as they reject him ; but to all who
receive him, whether Jew or Greek, Christ, the power of
God satisfying the Jewish type of thought, and the wisdom
of God satisfying the Greek.
3. In this age, which is commonly characterized as ration
alistic and scientific, and supposed to belong exclusively to
the Greek type of thought, the Jewish type survives, and
the power of the world to come is felt. We multiply the
evidences of Christianity, as if its continuance depended on
logical proof. But it is a significant fact that the other
religions of the world have been originated and sustained

244 THE PROGRESS OF CHRIST'S KINGDOM
without any discussion of their evidences. They address
the spiritual capacity and wants of the soul, and they are
received, and are believed, till they degenerate, and are
superseded by some otlier religion more completely satisfying
the spiritual intuitions and sentiments. As the strings of a
viol respond with music to the touch of the bow, the spiritual
in man responds to the presentation of spiritual realities.
The basis of religious faith is in the constitution of man.
When atheism sweeps away religious belief, as in the French
Revolution, presently it re-appears, as verdure springs up
spontaneously on burnt land.
This susceptibility exists in the nineteenth century, as
really as in the first ; for it is inseparable from the human
soul. To this, in preaching, we safely address ourselves.
Mere argument cannot bring men to Christ. By its very
processes, dissecting the living body of spiritual truth, it
deprives it of its power. It is the presentation of spiritual
reality to the soul which moves it. The law of God burning
on the conscience, God's redeeming love in Christ, the beauty
of Christ's character — these and the like realities constitute
the power of the world unseen, which every human soul
must feel, if clearly before the mental vision.
In this so-called rationalistic and sceptical age, we find
even the very error of the Jewish type of thought, the in
satiable demand for sensible manifestations of the spiritual
world. The belief in spiritual rappings is proof; meriting
the indignant words of Professor Ferrier : " Oh ye miserable
mystics, when will ye know that all God's truths and all
man's blessings lie in the broad health, in the trodden ways,
and in the laughing sunshine of the universe ; and that all
intellect, all genius is merely the power of seeing wonders
in common things." 1
Thus, even in this age, there is occasion for our Saviour's
rebuke of those who sought of him a sign : There shall no
sign be given them, but the great facts which Jonah typified
— the death, the resurrection, and ascension of our Lord.
1 Institutes of Metaphysics, p. 225.

IN RELATION TO THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE. 245
If this age be compared with the first centuries of the
Christian era, — with their Epicureanism, Gnosticism, and
New Platonism, — it will be apparent that its rationalism
aud scepticism are at least not more formidable hinderances
to faith than the rationalism of those centuries of Christian
triumph.
II. This Age is characterized by the Spirit of Free Inquiry,
and by Love of the Truth, as distinguished from Re
ligious Faith.
1. In the outset, I must point out the inadequacy of this
spirit of free inquiry to realize the highest results. Freedom
of inquiry and love of the truth are conditions of thought,
not principles of action. The attitude of inquiry is an atti
tude of weakness. It implies uncertainty, doubt, therefore
irresolution, inaction, inefficiency. The action of the soul
must be internal to resolve its own doubts and answer its own
questions. It wears itself out in inward friction. Such were
Sterling and James Blanco White, passing from one belief to
another, unable to rest in any ; the whole action of life like
that of a man lost in a dismal swamp, leaping from one shaking
tussock to another, unable to stay his foot on any, and sinking
at last in the smothering quagmire. So Paul describes the
Greek as seeking wisdom, rather than finding it — "ever
learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the
truth." On the contrary, action, energy, power come from
faith. Men do not go into all the world and preach the gospel
to every creature, they do not rebuke wickedness nor demand
the reform of abuses and the removal of oppression, merely
as inquirers after truth. A missionary does not go to the
heathen as an inquirer, as ready to receive Brahma as Jesus,
and the Vedas as the Bible. The very idea of prophet and
apostle, of missionary and reformer, implies intense, over
mastering faith. When Lecky and writers of his school
exalt the spirit of inquiry above faith, they take a position
whicli would make scepticism universal, as the highest con
dition of human thought, would make missionaries, reformers,

246 THE PROGRESS OF CHRIST'S KINGDOM
martyrs, and prophets impossible, and condemn mankind
always to inquire and never to believe.
But it is not possible for man to remain a mere inquirer.
Scepticism in its primitive and philosophical sense, as the
spirit of inquiry and investigation, must either lead to estab
lished belief, or else pass over into scepticism in its bad sense,
as the spirit of denial. It begins to dogmatize. And when
it begins to dogmatize, it ceases to be scepticism in the
philosophical sense ; it becomes dogmatic and arrogant ; it
demands that its negations be received as knowledge ; it
transforms its questions into negations, and then its nega
tions into affirmations, and propounds as positive knowledge
the proposition that knowledge is impossible. One of the
French Encyclopaedists said : " I am as sure that there is
no God in heaven as I am that Homer is a foot." Of such
Jacobi said : " They believe that their opinion is reason,
and that reason is their opinion."
In its further development, the spirit of inquiry becomes
irreverent, revolutionary, and destructive. The anatomist
cannot reverence the body which he dissects. The inquirer
gradually comes to regard, everything as only an object of
inquiry, therefore to be questioned, analyzed, dissected.
Hence the spirit of inquiry becomes revolutionary and
destructive. It accepts nothing as established. It doubts
if the old can be true. It becomes arrogant, coarse, and
terrible ; saying, as did the French Revolutionists : " With
the guts of the last priest we will strangle the last king."
2. Free inquiry and the love of the truth presuppose the
reality of truth and the possibility of knowing it. They are,
therefore, consistent with faith, not destructive of it. It is
only when inquiry, which is a condition of the enlargement
of knowledge, is exalted into the essence of knowledge, and
scepticism becomes dogmatic, that it is in antagonism to
faith. After the investigations of ages, it may be assumed
that some truths are established, and are no longer open to
doubt. The human mind, being in its nature knowing, may
be assumed to know something beyond the possibility of

IN RELATION TO THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE. 247
question. It is a total misconception of free inquiry to sup
pose that it implies an abiding indifference to opinion and
an equal readiness to believe every proposition. On the
contrary, free inquiry presupposes the possibility of knowledge,
and is compatible with belief of a truth so strong as to make
the believer willing to die for it.
3. Christianity does not acknowledge the love of the truth
as the ruling principle of action. Life does not culminate
in thought, but in action. Man's business is not to seek
after wisdom, but to do the work of love. The love of truth
is a ruling principle of investigation, not the supreme law
of action. Christianity presents as the supreme law, love to
persons, — to God and man, — not love to truth.
Bacon consecrated scientific investigation to the uses of
man. From this consecration naturally followed the adop
tion of the right methods of investigation and the largest
scientific discoveries. This is in accordance with Christianity.
The love of truth is subordinate to the love of God and man ;
and this subordination is essential to insure the right methods
of investigation, the largest knowledge of truth, and its most^
effective application.
Rationalism presents the love of the truth as the pre-emi
nent and ruling principle of all action. The evils resulting
have been indicated. Candor, exalted to independence and
supremacy, becomes an equal indifference to all doctrines,
degenerates into persiflage, and at last into dogmatic denial.
If a Christian exalts the love of truth to supremacy, the
results, though analogous, are different. By his exaltation
of the love of the truth, he accepts the principle of the
rationalist ; but, since he is a confirmed believer of the
truth, his zeal for the truth is exalted above his love to
God and man ; and his danger is of bigotry and intolerance
— of becoming even an inquisitor and a persecutor — of
sacrificing the man needing salvation in zeal for the truth,
instead of using the truth in the supremacy of love to save
the man. There is danger, also, that he gradually substi
tute zeal for opinion instead of zeal for truth; and thus,

248 THE PROGRESS OF CHRIST'S KINGDOM
while the exaltation of the love of the truth degenerates
in the rationalist into destructive denial, it degenerates in
the Christian into persecuting and destructive intolerance.
The subordination of the love of truth to the love of Christ
and of all for whom Christ died is the security at once
against tire belief of error and intolerance in zeal for truth.
He who most loves like Christ will most think like him.
4. Free inquiry and love of the truth, when acknowledged
as conditions of investigation which imply the reality of
knowledge and faith, and which are subordinate to love, are
accepted by Christianity, and are auxiliary to its progress.
The mind is delivered from the enforcement of opinion and
the oppression of authority, and aroused to its most vigorous
action. Opportunity is given for the detection and removal
of errors and abuses, and the ground is prepared to receive
new seed and to bear new harvests of Christian truth.
Candor and docility prepare for a consideration and ac
ceptance of the claims of the gospel. The critical scrutiny
of all arguments demonstrates anew all Christian truth that
abides it. The Christian believer himself receives truth not
blindly and traditionally, but on conviction ; he is better
able to defend it ; he is more in sympathy with others who
find difficulty in believing ; he does not denounce doubt as
a sin, nor quench the smoking flax. The very process of
argument and rationalistic speculation brings the church
back to the simplicity that is in Christ, brings anew into
prominence the spiritual part of our nature on which Chris
tian faith rests, and enables us to appreciate the meaning
of the Saviour's blessing on those who have not seen, and
yet have believed.
5. The quest after wisdom which characterizes this age
will ultimate in the recognition of the true rationalism which
Christianity carries in it. In otlier words, this type of mind
will find its complete satisfaction and rest in Christianity
itself. Christianity teaches that, whatever may be known by
reason, that is not sufficient to save man from sin, but that

IN RELATION TO THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE. 249
he also needs tho redemption wrought by God through
Christ and the Holy Spirit. It finds this fact of redemption
to be accordant with reason. It finds in it the rational
solution of man's condition and destiny, which without this
fact is impossible. It finds in it the only complete and satis
factory philosophy of history. The unbelieving rationalism
is irrational in assuming the sufficiency of human reason to
save man from sin. It therefore necessarily ceases to be a
religion, and degenerates into an unbelieving philosophy.
But I affirm that the facts of Christianity are the data for
interpreting and vindicating to the reason the phenomena
of man's moral and spiritual life. Ultimately this inter
pretation and vindication will be complete. Ultimately, it
may be after long struggles, Christ will become the Saviour
from intellectual perplexity and doubt, not less than from
sin. He is the rest for the intellect, not less than for the
heart. Christianity, therefore, is to meet the quest for wisdom by
satisfying it. Because man is rational, he must interpret
and vindicate to his reason the facts of his moral and spiritual
being. Rationalism cannot be put out of the way by being
suppressed. To suppress inquiries of this sort would be to
suppress reason itself. We can meet the rationalistic spirit
of the day only as we show that " in Christ are hid all the
treasures of wisdom and knowledge" — that "he is made
unto us wisdom," as well as righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption.
This process is far from complete ; but it has advanced
far enough to exemplify its nature. Science, by its specu
lations on force, admits what necessitates the admission of a
First Cause of force ; and thus the last word of science is
the first word of theology. Christianity, in the doctrine of
a personal God whose will is the source of all power, gives
the complete reality which science obscurely intimates. Sci
ence insists on law, and tends to establish a uniformity of
necessity. But Christianity recognizes a moral order, a uni
formity of perfect reason and perfect love, as complete as

250 THE PROGRESS OF CHRIST'S KINGDOM
the uniformity and order of necessity. The action of nature
is the power of will expressing evermore the thoughts of
reason and the purposes of love. And this alone meets the
true scientific idea of order and law ; for blind necessity is
but another name for chance, and gives no rational principle
of order nor basis for either its universality or perpetuity.
The doctrine of the Trinity is acknowledged by some who do
not accept it as an article of religious faith, as satisfying as no
other doctrine does the necessities of the most profound philo
sophical thought respecting the being and personality of God.
In the atonement we find the fact which alone can har
monize immutable morality with divine mercy, and set forth
as elements of one all-embracing love the mercy that pardons
and the justice that condemns.
In the incarnation we have an entrance of God into human
history and relations — a union of God and man which all
religious thought of the East and of the West has known as
necessary to the realization of religion, and in different di
rections has groped to find.1
In the fact of Christ's kingdom on the earth, we have the
principles which underlie all human progress and the realiza
tion of the social well-being and complete civilization of
man. Christianity, lovingly studied, reveals within itself
the true philosophy on which modern thought must rest,
and by which modern civilization must advance.
Thus philosophy itself, rightly understood, becomes the
ally of Christianity. In the words of Lord Bacon : " Philo-
sophia obiter libata abducit a Deo, penitus hausta reducit ad
eundem." Thus Christianity is at last received as satisfying
the reason, as well as renewing the heart, both by philosophy
and by faith, as Augustine enthusiastically exclaims : " Cer-
tissima scientia et clamante conscientia."
III. This Age is characterized by Positiveness and Vastness
of Scientific Knowledge.
There is no antagonism of science to religion, so long as
1 See Dorner's Doctrine of the Person of Christ ; the Introduction.

IN RELATION TO THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE. 251
science defines its sphere to be the observation of phenomena,
their classification by common characteristics, and the deter
mination of their uniform sequences, and does not dog
matically deny the reality of other knowledge. Philosophy
is then distinguished from science, as the interpretation and
justification of phenomena to the reason by showing their
rational grounds, principles, laws, and ends ; and philosophy
and theology are both acknowledged as legitimate spheres
of thought. But when science denies that any knowledge is
possible, except of phenomena of nature and their common
characteristics and uniform sequences, it becomes dogmatic
unbelief, and stands in direct antagonism to Christianity. It
must then be opposed as error, and exposed as, in the name
of science, denying and repudiating reason itself. In this
attitude science is opposed to the Greek quest for wisdom, not
less than to the Jewish demand for signs.
It is thought that the vastness of human knowledge over
powers faith. But, in reality, the greatness of the universe
is not so much its bigness as its varied manifestations of
mind. The three-storied or seven-storied heaven of the Jew,
with the throne of God above it and the love of God filling
it, and redemption wrought in it, and earth beneath it open
ing out into the grandeurs of immortality, is a grander
universe than the immeasurable masses and spaces of As
tronomy, in which no God is, no love reigns, and only
unconscious force acts under blind necessity evermore.
And, so long as science remains within its distinct sphere,
the enlargement of scientific knowledge does not hinder
"faith. It was a great enlargement of knowledge when the
Copernican system of Astronomy was received ; yet it neither
magnified nor lessened the creations of mind. The works
of Homer and Virgil remained the same. The ideas of God,
,of sin, of redemption, remained unchanged. The increase
of scientific knowledge may even be a help to faith. Faith
feeds itself on all knowledge, manifesting in new aspects the
wisdom and love of God. It expatiates through the vast
distances of the universe in wondor and adoration. At the

252 THE PROGRESS OF CHRIST'S KINGDOM
same time, innumerable puerilities, which once crept into
the place of the true objects of faith, and degraded the soul,
instead of elevating it, are swept away. The wonder of
knowledge is greater than the wonder of ignorance, and a
greater help to faith.
IV. The Age is Realistic and practical, as opposed both to
Philosophical Inquiry and to Sentiment and Enthusiasm.
Even this presents advantages to Christianity. Thought
for the sole end of seeking truth, with no reference to its
uses, is liable to degenerate into verbiage or frivolousness or
intolerance. Zeal for truth is never safe, except when
vitalized and controlled by love to God and man.
The great objection to the practical character of modern
thought is that it concerns itself mainly with material in
terests. But, even so, it is better than merely speculative
inquiry, with no reference to the welfare of man.
It is not true, however, that the age is occupied exclu
sively with material interests. The great questions which
agitate modern society are largely moral and religious.
And, however realistic the age may be, it is certain that this
century has witnessed as marked instances of the uprising
of whole peoples in enthusiasm for ideas as were ever wit
nessed in the " ages of faith."
We differ, to our advantage, from the primitive churches
in this, that they had Christian ideas to create in the midst
of heathenish corruption, in which the very ideas of Christian
purity, of philanthropy, of human rights and brotherhood
were wanting. But now many of the great principles of
Christianity are generally accepted and practically applied ;
they are axioms of reform and of social progress, and powers
in civilization. Especially all thinking and all great move
ments which lay hold of the heart of the people, take on a
philanthropic character.
In such an age Christianity has an eminent advantage in
its' beneficent character, as the redemption of the world from
sin. And so far as the age is realistic and practical, it

IN RELATION TO THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE. 253
meets its thinking and its wants by the manifestation of its
quickening and saving power. And if each successive age
of the Christian era has had some specific doctrine of Chris
tianity to develop, that which is given to this generation to
study and unfold is the Christian doctrine of Christ's kingdom
as the reign of righteousness and love over all the earth in
the life and civilization of men.
V. It remains to consider the Industrial and Social Condition
of Christendom in its Relations to the Progress of
Christ's Kingdom.
Time permits, however, but a glance at this great subject.
Through the art of printing each age has all the ages past
in its presence, and is instructed both by their failures and
their successes. The progress of Christ's kingdom, therefore,
need no longer be lineal, partial, and one-sided, but rounded
and complete. Christianity, instructed by the life of the
past, may be expected to become broader and more complete
in doctrine, character, and life.
Through commerce and the facilities of intercommunication
the existing nations live in the presence of each other, and
by travel and emigration the peoples are interfused. The
time is past when the nations were in ignorance of each
other; when their natural relations were those of enmity;
when the thought and life of one nation had no influence on
another ; and progress in one locality was without effect
elsewhere. The earth is practically smaller, its countries
nearer together, its nations in constant communication,
serving each other by their industry. Whatever effects a
change at one point extends its influence to all. For these
reasons and by the necessities of industry and commerce, the
nations are coming to recognize that they are members of
one family. The idea of nations confederated to preserve
universal peace and to secure the common welfare has ceased
to be chimerical ; has become already a possibility, the
realization of which, not the enthusiasm of Christian love
only, but the wisdom of sound statesmanship predicts. And

254 THE PROGRESS OF CHRIST'S KINGDOM
the settlement of the great questions which divide the
nations is more and more sought and attained by peaceful
methods, and made in the interest of the peoples and not of
the dynasties.
The Christian nations are characterized by energy, pro-
gressiveness, and expansiveness. The close connection of
the nations brings this superiority home to the heathen and
Mohammedan nations and makes it a constant influence
upon them. Idolatry cannot live by the side of steam-engines
and telegraphs.
These characteristics also distinguish Protestant nations
from Catholic. They seem always to be most marked where
Christianity is purest and most effective. The most chris
tianized nations are those which are gaining the prepon
derating influence in Christendom. . Particularly noticeable
is the spread of the English speaking race, and the immense
extent of the world's surface in which that language is
spoken. De Tocqueville, speaking of the spread of the
English-speaking people in America, says : " This gradual
and continued progress of the race towards the Rocky
Mountains has the solemnity of a providential event ; it is
like a deluge of men rising unabatedly and driven by the
hand of God  This is a fact new to the world, a fact
fraught with such portentous consequences as to baffle the
efforts even of the imagination." To this must now be
added other immense regions in which the English language
is spoken. A wonderful contrast this to the anticipations
cherished not very long ago. Lord Bacon published his
great works in Latin, saying that " English would bankrupt
all our books." And Alexander Pope in his preface to an
edition of his poems, contrasts the limited use of English
with the universal use of Greek and Latin : " They writ in
languages that became universal and everlasting, while ours
are exceedingly limited both in extent and duration. A
mighty foundation for our pride ! when the utmost we can
hope is to be read in one island, and to be thrown aside al
the end of one age."

IN RELATION TO THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE. 255
God has always acted by chosen peoples. To the English-
speaking people more than to any other the world is now
indebted for the propagation of Christian ideas and Christian
civilization. It is a remarkable fact in this day that the think
ing of the world is done by the Christian nations ; that the
enterprise and energy of the world are mainly theirs. They
alone are colonizing, and by their commerce and enterprise
pushing their influence throughout the world. So also the
political condition of the Protestant nations is that of con
stitutional government, popular education, and a growing
regard for the rights and welfare of the people.
These are conditions more favorable to the advancement
of Christ's kingdom than have ever before existed. And in
view of both the thinking and the practical life and character
of the age, I believe that no preceding age has presented
conditions so favorable to the advancement of Christ's
kingdom and so encouraging to faithful Christian effort.

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mggestion and deserves general reading among the ministry."— Congregationalist.

Books Published by W. F. Draper.
THE NEW BIRTH (Phelps) i
or, The Work of the Holy Spirit. By Austin Phelps, Professor in Andover
Theological Seminary, Author of " The Still Hour." 16mo. pp.253. 51.00
Contents. — Conversion — its Nature. — Regeneration the Work of God.— Truth
the Instrument of Regeneration. — Responsibility as related to Sovereignty in
the New Birth. — The Indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
FIVE DISCOUESES ON ST. PAUL (Monod).
To which is added a Discourse on Fatalism. By Adolphe Monod. Translated
from the French by Rev. J. H. Myers, D.D. 12mo. 90 cents.
"A book unsurpassed in its department, in any language, for manly eloquence,
thorough research, profound reflection, a most earnest, glowing, winning Christian
spirit, united with an exact appreciation of the great Apostle's character and
work, and a wise, cautious, but bold and unflinching, application of his teachings
to the times in which we live." — The Translator.
" This French preacher is one of the best models of a Christian orator, even for
the Englishman." — Bibliotheca Sacra.
" One of the choicest little books to be found in any language, to let one into a
real acquaintance with the great Apostle." — The Advance.
THE THEOLOGY OF THE GEEEK POETS (Tyler).
By W. S. Tyler, Williston Professor of Greek in Amherst College. 12mo
pp.365. Cloth, bevelled. $1.50.
" The aim of the author is to detect the analogies between the myths of the Greek
drama and epic, and the truths of revelation. The care of the scholar and the
enthusiasm of the poet have been given to the work." — Independent.
THE PEESON OF CHEIST (Gess).
The Scripture Doctrine of the Person of Christ. By J. A. Reubelt, D.D.,
Professor in Indiana University, Bloomington, Ind., based on the German of
W. F. Gess. 12mo. pp. 456. Cloth, $1.50.
" This treatise may be briefly characterized as an earnest and able effort to pre
sent the true and consistent doctrine of the Scriptures respecting the person of
Christ, and to reconcile the varying confessional statements and views of different
denominations, by carefully comparing them with the language of the Scriptures
themselves. The investigation is conducted in a devout, candid, and truth-loving
spirit, combined with accurate scholarship and thorough study of the subject." —
Lutheran Observer.
WEITINGS OF ARCHBISHOP WHATELY.
Essays on some of the Difficulties in the Writings of St. Paul.
12mo. $1.50.
" Dr. Whately's writings are characterized by sound thought and solid judgment
Clear and solid sense is his peculiar characteristic. He is often ingenious, generally
candid, almost always plain and transparent." — Bibliotheca Sacra.
" The Archbishop's writings are a part of the sterling theological letters of the
age, and ought to be possessed by all the studious and thoughtful." — Journal ana

" One of those volumes which make sound learning and thorough biblical scholar
ship so honorable in the sight of all men. A man of exact and extensive learning,
a patient and devoted student of the Scriptures, clear as crystal in his thought, and
as clear in his language and methods of expressing it ; a lover of truth, and not
afraid to utter it." — Universalist Quarterly.
Essays on some of the Peculiarities of the Christian Religion,
and Historic Doubts concerning Napoleon. 12mo. pp. 264 and 48. Bound
' in 1 vol. $1.50.
Historic Doubts concerning Napoleon. 12mo. Paper covers, 25 cents ;
cloth, 40 cents.
This Essay was designed as an answer to Hume's objections to the credibility
ir the Christian mirac'es. 1-2

Books Published by W. F. Draper.
SPECULATIVE PHILOSOPHY (Ohalybaeus).
Historical Survey of Speculative Philosophy from Kant to Hegel; designed as
an Introduction to the Opinions of the Recent Schools. By Heinrich Msritz
Chalybaeus, Professor of Philosophy in the University of Kiel. Translated
from the Fourth Edition of the German by Alfred Tulk. 12mo. pp. xvi and
397. $1.50.
The several systems which are here exhibited, are those of Kant, Jacobi, Herbert,
Fichte, Schleiermacher, Schelling, and Hegel.
" One of the best of the many Introductions which have been prepared to lead
the inquirer to a knowledge of the recent speculative philosophy." — Bib. Sacra.
"A careful, thorough, and perspicuous analysis." — Princeton Review.
STUDIES IN PHILOSOPHY AND THEOLOGY (Haven).
By Joseph Haven, D.D., Professor in Chicago Theological Seminary. 12mo.
pp. 502. $1.50.
" The first part contains Essays having the following titles : Philosophy of Sir
William Hamilton ; Mill versus Hamilton ; the Moral Faculty ; Province of Imag
ination in Sacred Oratory; the Ideal and the Actual. The second part contains
Essays on Natural Theology ; the Doctrine of the Trinity ; Theology as a Science
— its dignity and value; Place and Value of Miracles in the Christian System;
Sin as related to Human Nature and the Divine Mind ; Arianism, the Natural
Development of the Views held by the Early Church Fathers. Dr. Haven has
exhibited much ability and a good spirit in discussing various controverted ques
tions in philosophy and theology." — Bibliotheca Sacra.
"Prof. Haven is a clear and vigorous thinker, and he here grapples with some
of the profoundest themes of human thought, and discusses them with marked
ability, and generally in a satisfactory manner." — American Presbyterian Review.
" The topics treated are of the first importance, and some of them are handled
with great ability." — Princeton Review.
THE CHURCH AND SCIENCE (Lewis).
The Debate between the Church and Science : or the Ancient Hebraic Idea
of the Six Days of Creation. With an Essay on the Literary Character of
Tayler Lewis. 12mo. pp.437. $1.25.
THE SHADOW OF CHRISTIANITY (Marsh),
or Genesis of the Christian State. A Treatise for the Times. [By Prof.
Leonard Marsh, of Burlington, Vt., Author of " Apocatastasis."] 12mo.
pp. 167. $1.00.
" What the religion of Jesus Christ has already done in shaping governments
and moulding the politics of the world, and what it is yet destined to do, on a far
larger scale, are here very clearly pointed out." — Congregationalist.
THE FUNCTION OF THOUGHT (Sullivan).
By Henrietta Sullivan. 16mo. pp. 213. $1.00.
" It is extraordinary for the extensive reading, the close observation, and the
careful discrimination of which it is the ripened fruit ; for the command which it
takes, at once, of the attention of the thoughtful reader, and for its suggestive-
ness. Its doctrine is pure, earnest, and devout." — The Lutheran and Missionary.
6.UGUSTINISM AND PELAGIANISM (Wiggers).
An Historical Presentation of Augustinism and Pelagianism, from the Original
Sources. By G. F. Wiggers, D.D., Professor of Theology in the University
of Rostock, etc. Translated from the German, with Notes and Additions, by
Rev. Ralph Emerson, Professor of Ecclesiastical History in the Theological
Seminary, Andover, Mass. 8vo. pp.383. $1.25.
*' The two theories of these distinguished men are thoroughly presented in this
work, and are valuable to the theologian." — Religious Union.
1-3

Books Published by W. F. Drape?.
HERMENEUTICS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT.
By Dr. A. Immer, Professor of Theology in the University of Berne. Trans
lated from the German, by Rev. Albert H. Newman. With additional Notes
and full Indexes. Crown 8vo. pp.413. $1.50.
" This is an admirable treatise, representing the latest conclusions in exegetical
science.' It abounds with learning and acuteness. The review of the history of
exegesis is a specimen of masterly condensation." — The New York Observer.
" We heartily commend it to our young ministers in particular, in the belief that
in mastering it they will greatly enrich their teachings of the sacred word." —
Methodist Quarterly Review.
PE00FS OF CHRIST'S RESURRECTION (Revised Edition)
From a Lawyer's Stand-point. By Charles R. Morrison. 12mo. pp.155. $1.25
" A highly satisfactory attempt to weigh the evidence for the event by which the
church is to stand or fall. It displays scholarship, and is evidently the work of a
clear, candid, and judicial mind. It is a lawyer's argument before a jury for ihe
truth of Christ." — The Christian Advocate.
" It is a modest but masterly performance, deserves to be carefully studied." —
Christian Standard.
SUGGESTED EMENDATIONS (Old Testament)
of the Authorized English Version of the Old Testament. By Elias Riggs,
D.D. , LL.D., Missionary of the A.B.C.F.M., at Constantinople. 12mo. pp. 130
$1.00.
" Without any parade of learning, for the benefit of all readers of the Bible, he
gives in one column the passages of the Common Version which need revision, and
in the opposite column his ' suggested emendations.' .... To the student of the
Bible, whether in the original languages or in the English Version, to all who
gladly accept any aid to a clearer understanding of the words of God, this modest
volume will prove of the utmost value." — Baptist Quarterly.
SUGGESTED MODIFICATIONS (New Testament)
of the Revised Version of the New Testament. By Elias Riggs, D.D., LL.D.,
Missionary of the A. B.C. F.M., at Constantinople. 12mo. pp.94. 75 cents.
" The reading of the Revised Version and the suggestions are placed in parallel
columns, with explanation.- in copious foot-notes. The fruit of many years' study
in here given." — Christian Union.
" He shows beyond controversy that some of the principles laid down by the
revisers are utterly untenable, and proves that many of the changes were not im
provements." — The Churchman.
THE BOOK OF ENOCH i
Translated from the Ethiopic, with Introduction and Notes. By Rev. Gporge
H. Schodde, Ph.D., Professor in Capital University, Columbus, Ohio. 12mo.
pp. 278. $1.75.
" This is the latest and best presentation to the English-speaking world of one
of the most mysterious portions of sacred literature." — The Examiner (New York).
THE HEBREWS AND THE EED SEA.
By Alexander W. Thayer. [With a Map]. 16mo. pp.140. 80 cents.
" The reader will find in this book an intelligent discussion of the various
theories of the Exodus. He also furnishes one of his own, which he stoutly and
ably maintains. It is a valuable contribution to the subject." — Christian Advocate.
The author's views have been confirmed by the very recent discoveries of M.
Naville, who is in charge of the Egyptian Exploration Fund. He has found at
Tell-el-Maschuta two inscriptions which fully identify the place with Pithom, one
Df the storehouses built by the Israelites. He finds there an enclosure of rude brick,
which he believes to be an old storehouse. It is also the Succoth which was their
first halting-place after leaving Raarnsus. These inscriptions also prove the placa
to be the same city which later bore the name of Heroopolis.
1-16

DISOOUESES
ON SOME
THEOLOGICAL DOCTRINES
AS RELATED TO THE EELIGIOUS CHARACTER.
By EDWARDS A. PARK, D.D.
8vo. pp.400. Price, $2.50.
..." So s.olid are a11 tnese discussions with thought, so replete with apt and various
illustration, so lofty in aim and so uniformly fervid in spirit and solmen in impres
sion, that it is hard to single either out for special mention  We do not see
how any sermon-maker can study even one such discourse without both being
helped by it to conceive how better to shape his every appeal, and stimulated to
attempt and to expect greater things of himself in the pulpit  'His style is a
model of compactness with crystalline clearness. His reasoning reminds one of
the method of the great jurists. And whether one accept the theology or not, he
must revere his transcendent intellectual ability.' " — Conqregationalist.
" The introductions of these discourses are often unique, and always appropriate
and interesting; the subjects are set forth in accurate, clear, and terse forms of ex
pression ; and the plans and developments are worthy of most careful study. In
them we clearly see the work of a master both in homiletics and in theology 
Indeed, each of the fourteen discourses contain so many fine qualities, both of
thought and of expression, that it is difficult to decide to which of them special
attention should be called  The volume is one that no intelligent mind can
peruse without being greatly interested and instructed. To the preacher it fur
nishes a practical illustration of the happy blending of the theological and homi-
letical elements in sacred discourse, and of the great power that the proper combi
nation of them in their higher forms are able to impart to it." — The Advance.
" To have had the opportunity to hear discourses like those on the ' Eternity of
God,' and ' I shall be satisfied when I awake in thy likeness,' was a most memor
able event in some lives." — Missionary Heiald.
" They are clear and scholarly in style, and instinct with life and vigor of thought.
. . . After reading these admirable discourses, one has fresh evidence that, of all ser
mons, doctrinal sermons are the most powerful and interesting, and that the cardinal
principles of evangelical teaching bear directly upon religious character." — Interior.
" His topics are grasped with the sure hold of one who knows what and why he
believes, are stated with an accurate perception of their nature and relations, but
are declared and enforced with the energy of spiritual passion, and are illustrated
with an imagination which turns abstractions into embodied realities, pictures of
memory into immediate vision. His style has the harmony, the vivid force, and
the rhetorical swing which belongs to truly effective oratory  The volume is
one of solid value, from the preface to the last note, and has, as every good book
should have, a good index." — The Watchman.
" A volume of sermons which will be sure of a wide reading  They form a
book of four hundred pages, and will task and arouse the mind as few books can."
— The Go/den Rule.
" Dr. Park, tho Nestor of the Andover professors, and now relieved from active
Bervice in the Seminary, is a preacher of rare excellence and power. Occasions
on which some of these and other sermons of the distinguished professor were
delivered, have been made memorable by the service rendered. They are referred
to as manced epochs and events." — Christian Secretary.
" This is a volume that our ministerial readers will deem a necessary addition to
Iheir libraries, and any intelligent layman will be sure to find ample interest and
profit in its careful reading." — Zion's Herald.
" It is a noble volume, and is worthy of the widest circulation. In these dis
courses the eloquent professor is at his best." — Zion's Advocate.
" They are strong and fine examples of the most intellectual, the most ' evan
gelical,' the most oratorical of American sermons. Pure doctrine in brilliant
forms, — this is the essence of pulpit discourse with Professor Park  The
American religious public, whether holding Professor Park's points of view or not,
cannot be too thankful for this volume." — The Literary World.
"As an exposition by one of the ablest theologians of the age, and one who baa
the power of expressing his views in clear and forcible language, they will be read
with deep interest throughout the church " — The Observer.
K-I6

ANDOVER PUBLICATIONS.

Any book in this list will he sent hy mail or express, prepaid, and its safe transmission
guaranteed, on receipt of the price affixed. A discount of one fifth given Ministers except on'
those marked hy a *. Send for a full descriptive catalogue.

TEXT BOOKS.
Bagoom's Political Economy  $1.50
Bateman's Questions on Kiihner's
Greek Grammar  40
Buttm ann. Grammar of the New Tes
tament Greek. Thayer's Translation. 2.75
Cary. Introduction to the Greek of the
New Testament. For Beginners  75
Doederlein's Latin Synonymes  1.25
Gardiner, Prof. F. Harmony of the
Gospels in Greek  3.00
 Harmony in English  2.00
 The Life of Our Lord. The four
Gospel narratives harmonized in one . . 1.00
 Principles of Textual Criticism  75
The Hebrew and English Psalter. Ar
ranged in Parallelism  3.00
Immer. Hermeneutics of the N. T.... 1.50
Jones. Elementary Hebrew Grammar 1.50
Shedd. Translations by Wm. G. T.
Shedd, formerly Prof, in Andover The
ological Seminary.
 Theremin's Rhetoric (Eloquence a
Virtue)  1-00
 Guericke's Ancient Church History 2.75
 Guericke's Mediaeval " •' 1.25
-Vibbert. Guide to Beading Hebrew. . . 1.00
Winer. Grammar of the Idiom of the
N.T. Prof. Thayer's Translation  4.00
Wright's Logic of Christian Evidences 1.50
MISCELLANEOUS.
*Abbott Academy, History of  $2.00
Illustrated  3.00
Angel over the Bight Shoulder.. . .40
Appleton, Jesse, Works of, 2 vols, in
one  3.00
 Lectures and Occasional Sermons.
Boards ...  1.00
Augustinism and Pelaginnism  1.25
Bascom's Political Economy  1.50
Carlyle'B Latter-Day Pamphlets  1.00
Chalybeeus. Speculative Philosophy,. 1.50
Ellicott, Bp. C. J. Life of Christ  1.50
Edwards, B. B., Writings of, with
Memoirs, hy Prof. Park, 2 vols  3.00
Erskine's Internal Evidence  60
_ eating's 4>w_AtSov Uoiitiia. NoufleTucov.
Paper  30
 Same, translated by D. H. Goodwin.
Paper  30
Goodrich. Bible History of Prayer... 1.25
Haley. Discrepancies of tbe Bible.... 1.25
 The Hereafter of Sin  75
Harris. Kingdom of Christ on Earth.. 1.50
Haven. Studies in Philosophy and
Theology  1.50
Hebrew and English Psalter, arranged
in parallelism  1.00
Hill. The Natural Sources of Theology .80
Homer, W. B. Writings of (with Me
moir by Prof. Park)  1.25

Howe's The Eedeemer's Tears, etc  $1.00
Historical Manual of the South Church,
Andover.  1.50
Hymns and ChoirB. By Park, Phelps,
and Fnrber  1.25
Kelly's Proverbs of all Nations  1.25
Kennedy's Life of Christ (Messianic
Prophecv)  1-25
Lewis. The Debate between the
Church and Science, etc  1.25
Marsh. The Shadow of Christianity. . 1.00
McCurdy. Aryo-Semitic Speech. 8vo. 1.50
Monod. Five Discourses on St. Paul.. .90
Morrison. The Proofs of Christ's
Resurrection, from a Lawyer's stand
point  1-26
New Testament. The Polymicrian.. .45
Park, Prof. E. A. Discourses on some
Theological Doctrines as related to
Religious Character. 8vo. 400 pp  2.50
Plutarchus de Sera Numinis Vin-
dicta  60
Pond, Pr. if. E. Pastoral Theology  1.25
Phelps, Prof. A. The New Birth  1.00
 Ministerial Culture. Paper  10
Punchard's Congregationalism. 2d ed., .60
Beubelt. The Person of Christ  1.50
Biggs, Dr El'as. Suggested Emenda
tions of the Old Testament  75
 Suggested Modifications of the Re
vised Version of the New Testament. . .60
Both Works in one vol  1 25
Bussell. Pulpit of Elocution  1.25
Schodde. Tbe Book of Enoch  1.75
Shedd, Prof. W. G. T. Discourses and
Essays  1.25
 Theremin's Rhetoric  1.00
 Guericke's Ancient Church History 2.75
 Guericke's Medieval " " 1.25
 Augustine's Confessions  1.25
Smith, Worthington, D. I\ Sermons,
with Memoirs by Prof. Torrey  1.25
Stuart. History of the O. T. Canon ... 1.50
 Miscellanies. Letters to Channing. 1.25
Sullivan. The Function of Thought. . 1.00
Swain. God's Ownership of the Sea.
A very interesting Essay. Paper  25
Taylor. Classical Study : Its value  1.50
 A Memorial of Samuel H. Taylor. . 1.75
Thayer. The Hebrews and the Red
Sea. (WithaMap)  80
Theologia Germanica  1.25
Tyler. Theology of the Greek Poets. . . 1.50
Venema's Institutes of Theology  2.50
Whately. Essays on the Difficulties in
the Writings of St. Paul  1.50
 Peculiarities of the Christian Relig
ion, and Historic Doubts, lvol  1.50
 Historic Doubts  40
Wright. Logic of Christian Evidences 1.50
 Studies in Science and Religion.... 1.50
?Wonder Working Providence of Sion's
Saviour in New England. Paper... 10.00

W. F, DRAPER, Publisher, Andover, Mass.

9002 08866 3068

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