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MODERNIST STUDIES
IN THE LIFE OF JESUS

BY
RAY OAKLEY MILLER

BOSTON
SHERMAN, FRENCH & COMPANY
1917

Copyright, 1917
Sherman, French 6V Company

TO
MY MOTHER
A free and sure believer

INTRODUCTION
This little book is published only as a point
of view. But " the point of view " is to the
author's mind everything. What he does claim
is that the point of view herein put forth is the
point of view that men are more and more
likely to take with reference to any study of
the life of Jesus. Rational and scientific tests
are being applied to every domain of study;
and by the word " Modernist " the author sim
ply means a use of those tests in religious
thinking, not, he hopes, without a genuine
sympathy for, and an appreciation and ap
propriation of, the fundamental elements of
idealism and faith.
He dares even hope that such an attitude
will make of the religion of Jesus a more vital
(if radical), forward-moving, and comprehen
sive force in the advancement of humanity.
He sincerely believes that such an attitude is in
keeping with the wish of him who said, " Ye
shall know the truth, and the truth shall make
you free."
And, because he believes this, he thinks that

INTRODUCTION
the religion of Jesus offers a more tremendous
challenge and demands a more vital allegiance
than any yet given. The way-out for human
ity is to be found in maximums rather than
minimums. It lies in the direction of progress.
Its method would be as abrupt as love and
righteousness. It would, perchance, have about
it something of the pangs of being born, but
such things would be mere incidents in a life,
divine m its very essence and eternal in its "first
conscious assumptions.
Ray Oakley Miller.

PREFATORY
AN AGE OF FAITH
Perhaps never before were thinking people so
intent upon finding the basic principles of their
religion. It is not a question of some specific
dogma, or indeed of any dogma. What we are
finding out is that the Church was never so
weak ethically, socially, and spiritually as when
her dogmas were strongest — in the Middle
Ages. She was never so strong, nor so vital,
a factor in the forward-moving processes of
civilization as today, when her dogmas are
honey-combed with analysis, modernism, and
variation. This is an age of Faith. We sometimes hear
the Middle Ages referred to as " Ages of
Faith." They were not at all. They were
ages of unfaith, ages of dogma, when every
thing was fixed, static, divinely appointed. Our
age is an age of Faith. It believes things. It
believes in doing things. It tries out its faith.

CONTENTS
chapter page
I The Problem 1
The Wanderlust 3
II Transient Elements in the Life of
Jesus 4
Sins of Omission 11
III Permanent Elements in the Life of
Jesus 12
The Voluntary Basis of Religion 20
IV Jesus and Authority 21
Pitfalls 80
V Jesus as the Fulfiller 31
God Personal 40
VI Jesus and the Religion of Tomorrow 41
A Liberal Faith 52

CHAPTER I
THE PROBLEM
To some the Christian life is simply imita
tive. There were no elements of a transient
nature in Jesus, nor is any event in his life,
however insignificant, to be slurred over. The
incident of feet-washing is as permanent as
baptism; the apocalyptic visions are as valua
ble as the Sermon on the Mount ; and incidental
expressions about the cosmogony of the uni
verse are just as binding as the immortality of
the soul. If we pick up certain books on the
ology, or popular sermons, there is in them all
an evident " trekking " of the Bible and the life
of Jesus. To all such the very mention of our
subject borders on blasphemy; even the "hem
of his garment " is sacred and permanent.
There are others who find the very reality
and permanency of the religion of Jesus in the
fact that they are mixed up with other things
patently transient and even superficial. In
deed, the whole effect of Modernism has been
concerned in distinguishing between these two
elements in the life of Jesus, and in fitting these

2 MODERNIST STUDIES
permanent elements into the warp and woof of
our present age. In the main, I think, the
effort has been reverent and sincere, and the
outcome fruitful. Religion has become less
antique and more efficient, less traditional and
more ethical, less burdened with mechanical
theories and more dynamic. However, that
depends, too ! Let us begin with the transient
elements.

THE WANDERLUST
The Germans have a word for those who are
never able to be satisfied — wanderlust. And
in a real sense, of course, we should all be taken
up with the wanderlust of life. Man's is the
eternal struggle. He it is who never yet has
found the end of the rainbow.
The restlessness of life is life,
The heritage of every soul.
'Tis this that differentiates
A man from beast —
The ceaseless struggle for a goal.
But in another sense this wanderlust is both
wrong and foolish. Just to wander for the
sake of going, to imagine that all we are doing
here today is dross, and that somewhere to
morrow, in some new luxury, in some new work,
at the end of the rainbow, is to be found what
we seek, is both futile and foolish. Drop down
your buckets where you are, good friend ; drink
the refreshing waters of home and love and
work ; for the day will surely come to all of us
when that which once seemed commonplace will
be found amongst the most valued treasures of
life. 3

CHAPTER II
THE TRANSIENT ELEMENTS IN THE
LIFE OF JESUS
There are his language and his dress. Who
knows in what language Jesus spoke? Some
think it was Greek, others Aramaic. But what
does it matter? Greek has lately been abol
ished from the necessary credits of the Uni
versity of California. It was almost the last
of the great universities to take this step.
And yet it has been pointed out that at this
very moment Greek culture was never so com
mon. Our children learn the Greek myths as
nursery stories, and read large portions of the
noted Greek authors in grammar grades and
in the high schools. The spirit of Greek is
here, and nobody cares about the language as
such. It is so with the language Jesus spoke.
We can all agree upon this point — if no fur
ther. When we move on to the matter of dress, it
is not quite so evident a thing. Our ignorance
keeps us from making the language of Jesus a
permanent element in his religion, but a general
knowledge of oriental dress has permitted us to
4

MODERNIST STUDIES 5
stress this point to some extent; and there are
Christian bodies to whom the supposed sim
plicity of the dress of Jesus is important, if not
categorical. And there are great bodies of
Christians to whom a certain kind of dress is
religious and another secular.
Moving up a step farther, we come to those
notions of the physical world — what we would
call the scientific ideas of his day — presum
ably accepted by Jesus. Are we bound to
accept as an integral part of our religion the
cosmogony of the Jews — their ideas of nat
ural laws, the " four corners of the earth,"
etc. ? Of course this comes very close to things
intimately connected with the early records of
Christianity — miracles, supernatural voices,
ecstatic visions, as well as the flatness of the
earth, and the astronomical observations of
the Jews.
It is apparent, I think, that Jesus need not
be loaded too heavily with this supposed phase
of religion. Indeed, it seems necessary that if
he was to speak to his age, he must speak in its
language, through its symbols, and through its
natural knowledge, however imperfect that
knowledge was. Some advance the hypothesis
that Jesus knew everything, but did not care to
interfere with incidental things, leaving their
development to natural processes. This, how
ever, seems a little mechanical. There is noth-

6 MODERNIST STUDIES
ing in the words of Jesus to show that he knew
any better, nor was it necessary. Spiritual
truth does not depend upon any set of develop
ing human ideas ; it does depend for its propa
gation in each age upon the knowledge of that
age. And while Jesus spoke in that age ac
cording to the cosmogony of the Jews, with its
imperfect perceptions, if he were here today, he
would speak according to evolution and intui
tion. Almost any one of the miraculous stories
would illustrate our point. There is the out
standing one of Jesus eating fish with his disci
ples after the resurrection. The absolute
physical demonstration seemed necessary to the
Jews, and, being weak in psychology, they
somehow came into the conception that it was
so. It is not often we ministers preach on this
incident, I think, nor does it form any part of
our usual consciousness. The feeding of the
five thousand is usually interpreted spiritually,
with a gloss for the miracle itself. And it is
with a great deal of relief that most of us be
lieve the Jewish cosmogony to be transient in
the life of Jesus.
Then there were in Jesus ideas peculiar to
Jewish thought. Here we run into difficult
matters — the very heart of things — where it
is imperative that we discern carefully. " My
words, they are spirit and they are life," said

IN THE LIFE OF JESUS 7
Jesus in many different ways. And we all be
lieve that, only we are anxious to know what
are his own words first, and then what he
meant by words — the shell and symbol of his
thought, or his ideas, essential and imperative.
A good deal of modern criticism has been en
gaged in showing that the records have been
edited (which is probably true) and that cer
tain ideas attributed to Jesus were not really
held by him. That is a world of study in it
self. A great part of this, it seems to me, has
been pursued upon an a priori basis — to do
away with some of these very Jewish ideas.
We are always fearful of such methods as go
ing too far and being too arbitrary.
There seems to be no reasonable doubt that
Jesus used these Jewish ideas, as he used the
Jewish cosmogony, as indigenous and neces
sary in speaking an understandable message.
That, however, is quite another thing from
binding them upon all succeeding ages.
The apocalyptic passages have been espe
cially trying. Whenever a great war has
come, literalistic Christians have seen in it the
presaged end of the world. There are men in
nearly every city of the world who have been
devoting weeks to this very proposition, get
ting people ready quickly for the approaching
end of the world ! Even Cardinal Gibbons uses
this historic passage to edify his flock! And

8 MODERNIST STUDIES
he has good precedents : St. Paul thought the
same thing, and in the canonical scriptures
from him we are told that the end of the world
would come while some then living were still
upon the earth. St. Paul's rabbinical training
prepared his mind for apocalyptic receptivity,
but for the rest of us that ground of excuse
is not tenable.
The idea of judgment with the Jew was in-
eradicably wrapped up with the apocalyptic
idea. Any message that would come to him
with force must come in that direction. Judg
ment is testified to in many ways in different
times. The fact itself is not less stressed to
day, but comes along more reasonable and evo
lutionary lines. The solution lies in that direc
tion, and we may regard Jesus with no less
reverence because he did what was the only sen
sible thing to do — used the prevailing apoca
lyptic notions for his own purposes.
A little lower in the scale come the less de
veloped Jewish ideas, such as belief in devils.
The Gadarene pigs are a good example of this.
The psychological devils which came out of this
man had, according to popular notions, to go
somewhere else! And what more happy than
this wild herd of pigs running pellmell into the
water !
The same thing proves true even of messian-

IN THE LIFE OF JESUS 9
ism, though we have not time to go into that.
In each case we are helped immensely by the
fact that, while using these popular theologies,
Jesus himself modified them with an exceedingly
free hand, hewing them to spiritual ends.
Nor are his uses of canonical Scriptures less
traditional on the one hand and less drastic on
the other. His application of prophecy to
himself is the most eclectic thing imaginable.
It was so transformed that its originators, the
Jews, did not recognize it, or recognize it as
anything more than duplicity.
I want to mention just one other transient
phase of the life of Jesus — his partisan ap
peal. His whole message in its original form
is to the Jews. " Give not that which is holy
unto the dogs." Or again, " Go ye not into
the way of the ¦ Gentiles, and into any city of
the Samaritans enter ye not. But go rather
to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." " Go
ye into all the world " is bounded thus, " Je
rusalem, Judea, and the uttermost parts of the
world" (a provincial view at most). This
partisan spirit holds over in St. Peter, and is
broken only by the essential spirit of Chris
tianity in St. Paul, against the traditional con
ceptions of both St. Peter and St. James in the
First Council at Jerusalem.
There can be no doubt that Jesus adapted

10 MODERNIST STUDIES
his message, as his life, to the Jews, leaving
the leaven itself to break forth into the univer-
salism of a world-religion.
There are other transient elements in the life
of Jesus, of course, but these represent the
leading principle.

SINS OF OMISSION
It is comparatively easy to see the effect of
things we do ; it is far more difficult to discern
the influence of the things we fail to do. Yet
the latter perhaps have more to do with the
making or unmaking of our lives than the for
mer. It is quite natural to worry over, and
repent of, actual sins committed; it is much
harder to make up for the things we have sim
ply left undone. Yet the latter are often more
accursed sources of pain than the former. It
is natural to say, " I hope I shall do no great
sin tomorrow " ; it is far worthier to say, " I
hope I shall leave no worthy thing undone to-

" Count that day lost, whose low descending sun
Sees from thy hand no worthy action done."

11

CHAPTER III
THE PERMANENT ELEMENTS IN THE
LIFE OF JESUS
We turn now to the permanent elements.
They are evident, strategic, and inspiring,
scarcely needing any great amount of elucida
tion. He whose life has caught up to himself
the great heart of the world has an intrinsic
appeal like the morning light, which needs only
to be seen to be appreciated.
First of all is his plan of placing the intui
tive principle above the rationalistic. He is
almost Bergsonian in this. That is his posi
tion about God. There is no single argument
in all his life to prove that there is a God. It
was to him an intuition and a manifestation.
All we needed to do was to " lift up our eyes
unto the hills." " He that hath ears to hear,
let him hear," and similar expressions were
ever upon his lips as a final thrust. He would
not even use his miracles to prove the existence
of God, answering a request for proof by say
ing that an " evil and adulterous generation
seeketh after a sign." In other words, if the
sign was not already here in the instinctive,
intuitive processes of life, no miracle could ever
12

MODERNIST STUDIES 18
impress the fact. This is intuition versus
rationalism. That was his position, also, about himself.
When pushed for the source of his claims, he
always fell back upon intrinsic things in him
self and the ability of others to see and under
stand. At the cleansing of the Temple, when
the priests asked by what authority he did
these things, he answered by testing their
power to sense divine things : " The baptism
of John, was it of men or of God? " If they
said of men, then the people would be against
them, for all men knew (instinctively) that
John was a prophet of God. If they said of
God, then Jesus would say, " Why did ye not
believe him? " And they answered Jesus and
said, " We cannot tell." And he answered and
said unto them, " Neither tell I you by what
authority I do these things." Here we find the
intuitive process, based upon moral insight, as
over against legalized rationalism.
Upon another occasion they ask him,
" Where is thy Father? " and Jesus replies in
the same spirit, " If ye had known me, ye
would have known my Father also." Or
again, " My sheep hear my voice, and I know
them, and they will follow me " ; " If any man
will (or will to do) do his will, he shall know
of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or
whether I speak of myself."

14 MODERNIST STUDIES
By placing the intuitive above the rational,
Jesus does not thereby ignore the rational.
Again and again he disconcerts the leaders
with his apt replies, his careful knowledge of
detail, and his overwhelming processes of mind.
" Never man spake like this man," or " Whence
hath this man knowledge, never having learned
his letters?" were the astonished rejoinders of
worsted antagonists. What he does do is to
plant his feet firmly upon the eternal verities,
which may be discerned only spiritually, and
from this vantage ground, supported by reason
and love, walk the earth, the victor over death
and the grave, to whose soul the transient was
lost in the permanent, and even vicissitudes
were only incidental and could be made to con
tribute to glory and victory.
Closely linked with these fundamental tenets
was his doctrine of the fatherhood and conse
quent personality of God. With Jesus this
was pivotal. Personality was to him, not
the maximum, but the minimum. Breaking
through his words many times are concepts of
God in terms of cosmos, but always gathering
into itself the valued attributes of self-con
sciousness and self-determination, the hopes
and loves and realities of many years. The
thin ice of immanence and pantheism are every
where skirted with a dexterity which is the soul
of truth and simplicity.

IN THE LIFE OF JESUS 15
It is never the Great-soul or Over-soul. It
is always God is love, but never Love is God.
God is a spirit, the last word about God, yet
a spirit endowed with love — active, knowing,
personal. He and the Father are one; yet he
is still the Son, and God the Father — both
personal. The Holy Ghost is raised out of
the pantheism of olden times, and is sent, a
personal representative of the Son and the
Father, into the hearts of men. With Jesus,
the fatherhood is fatherhood, lost in neither
immanence, pantheism, nor transcendentalism ;
rather comprehending them all in its own satis
fying personal relationships. So much for
this well-known phase of the life of Jesus.
Standing on the same fundamental ground
is the doctrine and fact of atoning love. In
the older prophets, from Amos on down, there
was plenty of justice. Righteousness was de
manded of the people. Jesus demanded justice
for himself only on the basis of affection and
intrinsic things. He drew others to secure
justice for themselves according to the same
great principle, until at last the great appeal
was, " The love of Christ constraineth us."
The greatest good was to be secured by deny
ing one's self and taking up his cross. Not a
denial of large expression of life and personal
ity, but a holding in abeyance of one's rights
in order to secure them through service and

16 MODERNIST STUDIES
love. Self-immolation, unknown in inanimate
life, repugnant when exercised without pur
poses of a lofty nature, and seldom appearing
in early reflective humanity, rises to its height
in Jesus. In a moment of fanaticism the sol
dier or martyr gives his life, perchance for an
imaginary good. Erasmus was perhaps wise
when he said, " I have no vocation for martyr
dom." Martyrdom has its glories, but its
pages are ofttimes pitiful. It is almost incon
ceivable how men could have died for some of
the things for which they gave their lives.
The death of Jesus was more than martyr
dom. It was an atonement, an at-one-ment.
Clear and definite were the purposes which ac
tuated his whole life. It was not difficult for
him to see the cross looming up before him.
His ideals were as inexorable as life, and God
must give his expression of vicarious love.
The world must be anchored. It must be over
whelmed by the great goodness and love of God,
as well as by his righteousness and justice.
Self-immolation, so repulsive in most instances,
becomes in Jesus the atonement — moral, just,
personal. It is said that Mr. Lincoln had great trouble
with the atonement until he stood on the battle
field of Gettysburg. The men there had given
themselves for others with a moral purview.
Their sacrifice does give a glimpse of the vi-

IN THE LIFE OF JESUS 17
carious sufferings of Jesus, but only a glimpse.
Most of these men were mere youths, who had
gone to war for many reasons, with little
thought of sure death. A portion of them
were drafted. Jesus went forth to die — clear
sighted, definitely purposeful, alone, meeting the
whole matter with full consciousness and de
termination. He gave himself a ransom for
many. Modern life and modern scholarship
understand with fuller import the meaning of
the atonement, with love first and justice after
ward. It is a sure and abiding element in the
life of Jesus, as it must always be in the life
of the world.
Definitely related to this is the message of
the brotherhood of man. The worth of human
life is exalted, and individualism pushed for
ward by relationships based on personality,
affection, hope, justice, righteousness: "If
God so clothe the grass, which today is in the
field and tomorrow is cast into the oven, will
he not much more clothe you, O ye of little
faith ! " " Greater love hath no man than
this, that he will lay down his life for another."
Like every other great consumer of energy,
brotherhood needs a dynamo. In this great
day of social effort, of institutionalism, the
natural store of human kindness is quickly ex
hausted. The need is felt for a great supply
for new effort glimpsed ahead. Human kind-

18 MODERNIST STUDIES
ness has its limitations, and we need what is to
be found in the exhaustless life of Jesus. " If
any man say that he love God and hate his
brother, he is a liar," is the incontrovertible
dictum of Jesus.
Mention must also be made of the immortal
ity of the soul. With Jesus it is based upon
the very necessities of life — the life of the
Father and the life of the individual. Like the
idea of God, it, too, is intuitive and instinctive,
needing no argument or logical demonstration.
It is as natural as breathing air, or approp
riating sunlight. " This is eternal life, to
know thee, the only true God." It is shrouded
in no mystery, nor even in the half-knowledge
of St. Paul (" Now we know in part.") It is
a definite, self-conscious, forward-moving en
tity : " In my Father's house are many man
sions " — a Father indeed, and a son indeed.
" We are the sons of God, and it does not yet
appear what we shall be," says St. John.
These are the things that make immortality
worth while — a robust, confident, personal
immortality. And growing out of these comes the message
of responsibility and judgment. Jesus says
that he does not come to judge; and he does
not, primarily. But close knit with the whole
structure of his redemption is the awfulness of
sin, the terrible consequence of spurning the

IN THE LIFE OF JESUS 19
love of God, redeeming in its very essence.
Individualism, personality, entity — all imply
responsibility. Fatalism vanishes from the
Christian consciousness as night before the
sun. The Christian is neither stoic nor epi
curean, but a responsive, participating, respon
sible, rational being, rooted in the life of the
universe and God.
Last of all, as well as greatest of all, is the
personality of Jesus himself. Back of all his
humanity, and shining through all his tran
sient modes of expression, is his own
unique, enchanting, overwhelming individual
ity. Renan was right when he said, " If the
life and death of Socrates was that of a phil
osopher, the life and death of Jesus of
Nazareth was that of a God." His own assur
ance, linked with the rest of his life, is the
world's greatest source of hope. His witness
of himself is true. In him humanity and divin
ity meet and we reverently say, " Ecce Homo!
Ecce Dew! "

THE VOLUNTARY BASIS OF RELIGION
The only things that count for much are
the things we love. The only thing that can
sanctify marriage is love — an abiding love.
The only thing that can make a man success
ful in his profession is to be consumed by an
affectionate interest in it. Business men are
successful only when they love their business as
they love their meals. And what is true about
everything else in the world is true about re
ligion. It has its reality in the voluntary
basis of life, where affection simply bubbles
over, and faith, like laughter, fills the air.
Early Christianity was an almost voluptuous
overflowing of pure and unadulterated human
affection. It is something in which there can
be no thought of barter, of penalty, of cus
tom; it is in every sense its own justification,
and comes very near what M. Aurelius called
" pure cussedness " in the early martyrs who
refused to recant, going joyously to death.

20

CHAPTER IV
JESUS AND AUTHORITY
" God, who at sundry times and in divers manners
spake in times past unto the fathers by the prophets,
hath in these latter days spoken unto us by his son."
In one sense every good doctrine is neces
sary in the religion of Jesus ; in another sense
his religion has few vital and necessary doc
trines. In one way it challenges man's largest
and endless study ; in another way the simplest
mind may learn its lessons. The life of Jesus,
predominantly realistic, perhaps just because
of that, reaches over in a multitude of impli
cations into the larger or divine life. I, for
one, like to think of Jesus in this paradoxical
sense — on the one hand having the simplest
message for children and peasant minds to un
derstand, and on the other reaching far out
into life's greatest mysteries, challenging the
loftiest minds and noblest hearts. It is per
haps because our own personalities are con
structed that way ; we have a sense of the
natural and also a sense of the supernatural.
We have a sense of transient values and a
sense of permanent values. 21

m MODERNIST STUDIES
The supernatural implications in the life of
Jesus, which constrain us to venerate him, are
perhaps best made known through the teach
ings of the incarnation. Having accepted the
moral grandeur of the life of Jesus, it is diffi
cult to see how one could steer clear of some
such summary of his life, answering, as it
does, at the same time an instinctive need of
the human heart.
Once, indeed, Jesus seemed to disparage his
own place : " Call not me good, for there is
none good save God." But in all other places
we run into words of surprising authority.
One of the first observations was that he spoke
not as the Scribes, but as one having author
ity. The ego in Jesus either militates against
his moral grandeur, or it becomes at once an
implication of unique authority, and fascinat
ing hope — that after all God has been in our
midst. There is an interesting phase of this prob
lem in the possibility of such a revelation. Of
course the man who upon a priori grounds does
not believe it possible for God to reveal him
self in this distinct and unique way, is not pre
pared to believe it — even though it be true.
However, he who knows what God can and
cannot do must be very wise.
Here we are in the midst of life's problems.
We are full of questions and doubts and —

IN THE LIFE OF JESUS 23
premonitions. There are many things we
would like to know; there are some things we
feel we must know or die. And we ask our
selves : " Is it possible for God to reveal him
self to us in and through personality? He
who does not believe it must almost surely do
two things : First, he must dogmatize a great
deal about the power of God; in a way he
must arrogate to himself the ability to mark
the limits of the Infinite according to his own
limited or arbitrary vision. Second, he must
accept life as a fragment, with its morning, its
afternoon, its night. He must see conscious
ness dawn, grow into intelligence and — per
ish. He must place his friends and loved ones
in the grave, and know them ever afterward
only in memory, perhaps in the flowers, the
grass, and the air. Is it possible that God
should reveal more than this?
Does God reveal himself in the grass and the
flowers? Yes. But no revelation in the grass
and the flowers can ever satisfy the human
consciousness and intelligence. Does God re
veal himself in the stars? We think of the in
scription on the tomb of Mrs. John A.
Brashear, written by her astronomer hus
band, " We have loved the stars too much to
be afraid of the night, " and we reverently
answer, " Yes. " But even that far-away reve
lation could hardly be expected to satisfy a

24 MODERNIST STUDIES
human soul unless complemented by other ele
ments. Does God reveal himself in brute life?
Yes. But such can never complement man's
spiritual needs, the great outreachings and in
sistent aspirations. The Chrisitian religion,
therefore, following the manifest needs of
human life, accepts the assumption of Jesus
and insists that what is everywhere else true
must also be true in the highest realm of God's
expressed life — that of personality.
In what, then, shall the revelation consist?
How shall God reveal himself that we may
most easily comprehend his message? We
answer — through a person; through one who
was tempted in all points like as we are, who
was anhungered, who wept, who laughed, who
was strong while yet tempted. If God should
ask me today how best he could make himself
known to me, I would say — through a per
son who, coming into my actual environment,
would show me the way to live. The possibility
thus transforms itself into a probability.
Nor am I unaware of the other side of the
problem. Men carried away with the really fine
idea of Divine Immanence — that God is in
everything — men who sense a cosmic super-
naturalism, cannot understand how a true
revelation should come through a man limited
and tempted as we are. Of course God is in
everything. His purposes are eternal and

IN THE LIFE OF JESUS 25
through all. There is a reason even for the ex
istence of evil, without the postulate of a per
sonal devil. But mark this: man's need of a
revelation has nothing to do with Divine Im
manence. His revelation must come to him
through his own nature, and answer to his
own need here and now. So we must not ex
pect Jesus to be a tree, a cloud, a planet, a
sparrow, just to show us that he is immanent in
everything. We know God is in everything
without a revelation. Power is one of the first
aspects we glimpse in the life of God. So the
revelation of God in Jesus has no direct bear
ing on many things — science, philosophy, in
vention, farming. True, he has inspired and
led these studies in an incidental way. But
those things we are to learn for ourselves.
Jesus concerned himself with the deeper needs
and question of man's eternal progress and
life. Nor did Jesus come to tell us every
thing. He would not tell his disciples all he
knew. He gave the vital tendencies, the eter
nal principles, the moral energies, which are
so simple. With Newman, Jesus would have
every follower of his say:
" I do not ask to see the distant scene ;
One step enough for me."
The final test, however, is rational and
moral. As challenging as the possibility is,

26 MODERNIST STUDIES
and as instinctive as the need seems to be
— the natural complement of all that we
are — a choice must be made, and the choice
is left to us. To whom shall we go? Where
shall we find this man, God's man — yea, in a
vital sense Deity himself? That is a moment
ous choice. You perhaps remember the
story of the French atheist who, knowing the
vital place of this question, asked the Car
dinal : " If you ever found another man as
good as Jesus, what would you do ? " And the
Cardinal replied, " I would worship him. "
The choice takes in moral grandeur as a final
test. There was the discerning doubter who
was asked : " Provided there is a God, and an
other life, if a man should live according to the
spirit and precepts of Jesus, do you think he
would inherit eternal life?" and who promptly
answered in the affirmative. It is doubtful if
a more fundamental question was ever asked,
or a more satisfactory answer given. In this
direction lies the quest and the decision.
The incarnation is not, as some suppose, an
abstract dogma, or theory of life; nor does it
assume to solve all difficulties. The incarna
tion has almost infinite ramifications, but pri
marily it is God revealing himself through a
babe, a young boy, and a man. It is God in
humanity speaking to humanity. And that is

IN THE LIFE OF JESUS 27
not so strange a tiling after all. There are
some who are afraid of what they call an " an
thropomorphic " God — that is, a God who is
no more than a man. That is the scare that
dogmatists on the one hand, and free thinkers
on the other, throw into the arena of dis
cussion. The dogmatist says you must have a
Deity above and separated (holy) from hu
manity ; and so he constructs a God away off
yonder who only reveals himself through some
special heirarchy or body of doctrines. The
free-thinker frankly says that he will never
worship a man, that if he ever worships any
thing it will be God, pure and simple. And,
very naturally, since there can be no such God,
nor would he be understandable if he did exist,
the free-thinker finds himself where perhaps
philosophically he wants to be, i. e. without
any practical demands from religion.
In the light of such alternatives, historic
Christianity is frankly anthropomorphic. It
says that man is God's best gift to man, and
that in all ages, through prophets and priests
and now in a special gift of himself, he still
through man reveals man to himself. The
creed does not hesitate to say, " He was born
of the Virgin Mary," " He was made man,"
" He was crucified under Pontius Pilate, "
" He was dead and buried. " It says much

28 MODERNIST STUDIES
more than this, of course, and reaches over in
to the very essence of the divine life, but the
revelation is human after all.
And from what I am able to learn it is a
position that can be upheld along the most ap
proved lines of reasoning. For instance,
there is a narrow sphere which sets man off
from everything else in the world — and that
is the sphere of his own personality : his ability
to know himself and others, with affection,
faith, loyalty, and other well known functions.
It is what your little child has, and your sew
ing machine and automobile do not have. It
is that which in her you love here, and wish to
see persist after the frail body goes back to
ashes. Everything else clusters around that
functioning. It is the divine element in hu
manity, and so far as we know exists alone in
mankind. Now the approach to this personality is also
narrow. It is limited on two sides. First,
nature can teach it little or nothing, because
nature is of a lower order. If Robinson Cru
soe heid lived long enough on the island, he
perchance would have gone mad. All the
beautiful nature about him would have meant
little or nothing to him without humanity
about him. And those who talk a lot about
the " inspiration of nature " as taking the
place of religious inspiration ought to have to

IN THE LIFE OF JESUS 29
live like Crusoe, on a beautiful island — alone.
I feel sure that when they came back after a
few months it would be with a rearranged the
ology! The inspiration of nature is aesthetic
rather than religious. The lessons are all on
a distinctly lower plane.
Then the approach is limited on the super
natural side, just as on the natural side.
Miracles as such have very little value for the
satisfaction of personality. It is often harder
to understand the miracle than the lesson it is
supposed to teach. Jesus himself places them
on a distinctly lower plane : " They have Moses
and the prophets, and if they will not believe
them, they will not believe even though one
rose from the dead. "
The avenue of approach to our highest na
tures is, after all, through humanity. And
that is exactly what we find in the religion of
Jesus. When God wished to reveal himself in
an adequate way to his children he humbled
himself, was born of a virgin, and became a
man, and dwelt among us, and was tempted in
all points like as we are. There is, then,
nothing strange, but something infinitely re
freshing, in the idea of the Incarnation.

PITFALLS
As a free-will carries with it attendant dan
gers, so the very possibility of living the larg
est kind of a life, in the religion of Jesus, in
a liberal faith, has accompanying pitfalls.
Those dangers are that it may mistake liberty
for license ; that it may be too tolerant ; that
it is apt to be hesitant and afraid. There is
a liberty that leadeth unto life, and there is
a liberty that leadeth unto death.
But there are so many things to be believed,
there are so many things for which we may
stand positively, there are so many restraints
that lead to dynamic power, that the man who
pities himself either for lack of truth in the
world or for something to strive for, has only
himself to blame. He who can live in a world
of light and joy with only blackness in his
heart has somehow lost his way.

30

CHAPTER V
JESUS AS THE FULFILLER
" I am come not to destroy the law, but to fulfill the
law." — Jesus.
Thus Jesus put himself in contact with the
conditions of his own times. He brought no
cataclysmic cure-all. He was radical — as
radical as love; he was constantly surprising;
he sometimes seemed to his own people blas
phemous. Yet he must be judged largely by
his own estimate of his aims, and that estimate
was one of the Fulfiller. He went himself, and
advised his followers to attend the Synagogue.
He sent some to the priest. He was not an
iconoclast. He created no new religion, either
in an institutional or doctrinal sense. He
wrote no sacred book, like Mohammed or Joseph
Smith or Mrs. Eddy. He did not even com
mit to writing his own sayings, like Con
fucius. He completed no hierarchy. To
plant his feet upon he took the historical back
ground, such as it was ; it inight conceivably
have been something very different.
The interesting point for us of this day is
31

32 MODERNIST STUDIES
that his principle was one of fulfillment. His
face was always toward the future. His work
was always the work of today. He then found
the point of contact. And may that not mark
the new way for us? Long since any arbi
trary schemes we may have had have failed.
Any titles we may have conferred on Jesus are
but temporary, and in time they are apt to
give more trouble than help, even that one
which was added earliest of all (Jesus "Christ"
— Jewish Messiah) . Jesus hesitated to take
this title. Different titles have served in dif
ferent ages, even as it is. What Jesus has
meant to various ages may give us a glimpse
of what he may mean to us and to the future.
Let us see.
The highest thought of Judaism was Mes
sianism. It was a variable quantity, but al
ways embracing the hope that God would in
carnate himself and dwell with men. With the
Jews it was always more or less anthropomor
phic, always more or less nationalistic. Jesus
was more, of course, than the Messiah of the
Jews, and he did not pretend to identify him
self in every particular with their Messianism.
He replied to them once when they asked him:
"Thou hast said." And anyone may discern
how he magnified the Messianism they held, and
spiritualized it. But his Jewish disciples (for
all the early disciples were Jews) at once iden-

IN THE LIFE OF JESUS 33
tilled him with the highest message of Jewish
life and philosophy. And he, at last, per
mitted it. Was he justified? Certainly. He
fulfilled it, spiritualized it, galvanized it into
life. This is evident when we remember that
since his day Jewish Messianism has never
meant anything except as it has persisted in
him - — an exceptional tribute and leadership.
But the permanent message of Messianism may
not mean much to us ; it may, indeed, be a
stumbling block unless understood in historic
perspective. Jesus is the Messiah of the Jew
— and very much more.
The noblest doctrine of the Greeks was the
Logos, or eternal wisdom. The effort of
Greek culture was to make a man so wise that
he would live accordingly. It was and is a
really great doctrine. The finest moral in
sight in all ancient philosophy is to be found
in the Greeks such as Socrates, Plato, and
Zeno. St. John at once identifies Jesus with
this Logos : " In the beginning was the word
(the Logos) and the word was with God, and
the word was God — and the word became
FLESH AND DWELT AMONG US." JeSUS Was
more than the Logos of the Greeks ; he was
its fulfiller also, enriching it with his own
unique personality. St. Paul makes- contact
with their god whom unknowingly they wor
shipped, complementing it with the Christian

34 MODERNIST STUDIES
message. It is worthy of note that it never
meant anything to the world as a separate
philosophy after Jesus came into contact with
it. It was literally swallowed up in the beau
tiful spirit of his empiricism.
The next great effort of humanity was mon-
asticism. It is unfortunate that we only know
the latter end of monasticism, when it was
aenemic, if not actually sluggish and vile. In
its first efforts it was dynamic with the spirit
of re-invigoration. Whatever of the old civ
ilization there was had largely gone to pieces,
and the impact of the new barbarians from the
north made a pitiful thing to call civilization.
It was rather a job-lot or a pot-pourri.
There were two great needs — education and
the spread of goodness. The brutality of the
north, with its great, unused energies, needed
to be soothed and made human and merciful.
The ignorance everywhere needed to be scat
tered. Charlemagne could not read nor write.
The monks banded themselves together, and
took up the prodigious tasks of humanity.
They preserved old manuscripts and made
new ones. They taught the children, such as
they could gather about the schools. They
preached righteousness and tamed the fol
lowers of Attila and Genseric. We may say
what we will about later monasticism; in its
early efforts it was perhaps the only kind of

IN THE LIFE OF JESUS 35
method which could have faced so overmaster
ing a problem. And who, pray you, was the
central figure in that effort? Where did it
find its inspiration? Around what pagan
philosopher did it gather its formulae? There
is only one figure in monasticism — the suffer
ing Saviour of mankind. Jesus was to them
neither the Messiah nor the Logos primarily,
but the suffering Saviour, acquainted with
grief and merciful. In this period of regen
eration he was the Big Brother.
Justin Martyr retains a high estimate of his
Greek friends after his conversion, by persuad
ing himself that Heraclitus, Socrates, and
many Stoics were virtually Christians since
they had been enlightened by the Logos, later
to be more perfectly revealed in the person of
Jesus. So Dante places Virgil and many
other pagans in Purgatory, some of them with
higher places than popes and prelates. St.
Paul dares to place Jesus in unison not only
with Messianism, but with the highest and best
things and persons : " For all things are yours,
whether . . . the world, or life, or death,
or things present or things to come: all are
yours, and ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's."
And in this these leaders of early Chris
tianity were entirely correct : Jesus is more
than a deified man, more than the Messiah of
the Jews, or the Logos of the Greeks, or the

36 MODERNIST STUDIES
dogmas of the Church; he is the eternal
struggle for good. Once Lanfranc related to
Anselm, Abbot of Bee, the story of the death
of St. Alphege, an English Archbishop of Can
terbury, who was killed by the Danes. They
had offered to spare his life if they were paid
a ransom. He rejected the offer because he
knew he would have to take the money from
the poor of his diocese. Lanfranc said that
Alphege ought not to be called a saint and a
martyr, for he had not died for Christ.
" But, " replied Anselm, " to die for righteous
ness is to die for Christ. "
This understanding of Jesus opens up tre
mendously interesting questions. Are we jus
tified in exercising the wonderful eclecticism
that Jesus himself lived by? For many cen
turies his message has been wrapped up with
such terms as Messiah (Christ), Lord, King,
Saviour, Logos, Son of God — all of which
are, after all, local and historical expressions,
growing out of the soil of language and ex
perience. If Socialism should mould into the
language of the world the word " comrade, "
would it be possible for us to say " Jesus, the
Comrade, " as we now say Jesus, the Christ ?
Why not?
The word " comrade " has implications never
dreamed of in Messianism? It is universal,
personal, compassionate, loving, constructive.

IN THE LIFE OF JESUS 37
It seems, indeed, to be in line with the thought
of Jesus : " Thou shalt love thy neighbor as
thyself. " " Go and sell that thou hast, and
give to the poor. " It fits in with the message
as understood by the early disciples, when they
brought all that they had and laid it at the
apostles' feet. And while Jesus hesitatingly
accepted the Messianic role, and all other doc
trines are clearly deductions, he never hesi
tated to be the " comrade " ; "A new com
mandment I give unto you, that ye love one an
other, even as I have loved you." Shall Jesus
still be wrapped in the swaddling clothes of the
ages? We hear of him now only under terms
ancient, medieval, and feudalistic. Shall we
thus think of him only, or as the Fulfiller?
The first seems to put him in line with the other
merely human founders of historic religions ;
the latter to give him his rightful place in the
Divine Order of Life.
Thus fascinating implications arise around
the person of Jesus. He himself becomes
more than the deification of a man; he is the
synthesis of all God's works. He is more than
Dionysius, who theoretically rises from the
dead; he is the resurrection and the life. His
name is no mere talisman ; " to die for right
eousness " is, as St. Anselm says, " to die for
Christ. " He is more than any theory of wis
dom either Jew or Greek; he is the Way, the

38 MODERNIST STUDIES
Truth, and the Life. Thus he manifests him
self today in mind and medicine, in tree and
herb, in intellect and affection; in him all
things become ours ; whether the world, or life,
or death, or things to come, all are ours and
we through him are God's.
And for our destiny the implications are no
less suggestive. All things become ours. We
theocratize the world. It becomes our
Father's house. Nature is his and wisdom is
his ; the projection of personality is his ; the
movements of virtue and affection are his, as
they are God's. As God is back of all, so
Jesus is in unison with and the inspiration of
the great advances. Nor are we a thing
apart. The world cannot be estimated with
out every individual — apart from you and
me. The secret shortcoming which we thought
our own, is not our own ; it is against God,
against the world, against the cosmic order.
The humble virtue of the peasant is an asset
of all time and all things. So the true ad
vancements of science and agriculture and
domesticity, as well as of morality and belief,
are things through which we may glorify God
and find our place in the Eternal Order.
Jesus is the radical of all the ages. He is
the iconoclast of love. There is nothing more
radical than love. It pursues its way without
fear, and one could almost say without favor.

IN THE LIFE OF JESUS 39
It is the new wine which many times demands
new bottles. Love is like the instinct of being
born — pain and travail are its incidents ; life
is its ultimate. Jesus is as radical as love and
life.

GOD PERSONAL
Religion and life hinge upon a belief in a
personal God. Divine Immanence, Pantheism,
and Nirvana are all good, but they are only
partial aspects of the life of God, and the lesser
ones at that. The one tremendous and mo
mentous fact in the world is personality — the
personality of man. Anything less than this,
therefore, in any concept of God is unphiloso-
phic, and eventually degrading to the human
spirit. I know people who say that they do
not worry over the future life. But they
usually say that in the heyday and springtime
of life, full to overflowing with the exuber
ance of the very personality whose value they
so belittle after a few short years.
What would you take for the personality of
your little girl? Give her good health, the
power of locomotion, everlasting existence,
everything, except her knowledge of you and
your knowledge of her? What would you
take, and have that be the case? Nothing in
all the world. If you believe in God, then,
what is the least attribute in that picture? Is
it not personality? 40

CHAPTER VI
JESUS AND THE RELIGION OF
TOMORROW
" I am the door: by me, if any man enter in, he shall
be saved, and shall go in and out, and shall find pas
ture. ... I am come that ye might have life, and that
ye might have it more abundantly." — Jesus.
When Henry Van Dyke delivered the
Beecher Lectures on Preaching at Yale in
eighteen hundred and ninety-five, he entitled
them " The Gospel for an Age of Doubt. "
It is a very difficult thing, admitted by all, to
discern and describe adequately the spirit of
any generation. Dr. Van Dyke was perhaps
correct in the use of the term " An Age of
Doubt " as describing a certain transient phase
of our development. At any rate there has
been a perceptible change since eighteen hundred
and ninety-five, and our age might be more
properly described as " An Age of Belief."
Not that men have come to accept dogma in
its medieval or even eighteenth century sense.
But men today, while keenly inquisitive, are
reverent and constructive thinkers. Many
things, indeed, which have continued to exist
41

42 MODERNIST STUDIES
apparently only because they were old, are be
ing discarded, but the outlook everywhere is
constructive, intelligent, and consonant with
the highest abilities of men and the noblest
processes of the divine Life. It is indeed an
outlook that is a Vision.
Presented with a dilemma of Rationalism or
Vision we must, of course, choose the Vision.
Vision has within itself all those divine instincts
that have brought Reason into play in our
lives, and the Vision can never be lost except
at the price of a weakened Rationality itself.
But the present age does not see any dilemma
at all. Reason must ever be led by Vision, and
Vision in turn must be buttressed in the sure
things of increasing knowledge.
The heart of our present attitude is to be
found in an ancient formula yvUBe aeavrov (know
thyself) — a vision which the Greek glimpsed,
but never came into himself. It was Pope, I
think, who said, " the proper study of mankind
is man." When Jesus said, " Ye shall know
the truth, and the truth shall make you free,"
he was forced to modify it and make it prac
tical and personal by saying, " I am the Way,
the Truth, and the Life." Real knowledge is
personal, intimate, inquisitive, casting the beam
from its own eye before it can see clearly to
take the moat out its brother's eye. This is
an age, I do not think it too much to say, that

IN THE LIFE OF JESUS 43
is coming to know itself. This is an age, we
cannot say, that has found, but is finding itself.
Jesus is bound to mean more to this age in
which we are living than in any other preceding
age. I hope I may say that without any sense
of self-complacency. The nexus is this new
knowledge and attitude that we have gathered
up in ourselves. Jesus is reported to have
come into the world in the " fullness of time."
It is a pragmatic fact that he does not now
come into the world until in some sort of
fashion we are prepared to receive him. The
corollary is also true — that every age sees
Jesus with its own " specs." Truth is an ever-
existant and complete entity, but our appre
hension of truth is a variant, depending on our
culture, using culture in its widest sense. So
Jesus stands, the Ideal, the Vision, the Dream
of all who love and hope, but our apprehension
of him is measured by the " thing we are."
Lest I be misunderstood, let me say that I
do not think our age has reached millennial per
fection. I am not one of those who join in
deifying the Crowd. I want to register what
we are, and look at Jesus as we may be privi
leged to see him in that new light. Neverthe
less I do stand sponsor for this age as the best
age, this year as the best year, and this hour
as the best hour of all the ages and years and
hours that have passed.

44 MODERNIST STUDIES
In view of this I want to say that the religion
which is ours today, and which is more and
more to be the religion of the coming years, is
a religion which may be described as an up
standing religion. It was foreshadowed in
these words of our text and many others of
Jesus, especially in his later life. The thought
behind it and through it was that of the abund
ant life — natural and abundant : " If any man
shall enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in
and out, and shall find pasture .
I am come that ye might have life and that
ye might have it more abundantly."
I know that there is a cheap sort of piety,
a sort of self-disclosure and self-humiliation,
which is abhorent to all of us. But it does
seem to me that we should hold our religious
faith with at least as much vigor and frankness
as we do, for instance, our political faith.
Here are a man and his wife celebrating their
golden wedding anniversary. When you go
into their home, though age is coming on, they
beam with joy. They show you the old pic
tures — the farm where they were born, their
first modest house; they get down the photo
graphs of their children, and tell the accom
plishments of each. They are not ashamed of
what they have done ; the abundant nature of
their lives is written in their faces. And what
we know is that back of it all there was work,

IN THE LIFE OF JESUS 45
and care, and doubt, and ambition, and culture,
and enlightenment. Nor should it be other
wise with religion. Religion is what we are —
more even than the measure of a golden wed
ding anniversary. It is worthy of ambitious
and clear-sighted effort. Patience and humil
ity are absolutely evil unless linked with vigor
and knowledge and direction. It was Jesus
who said, " The Kingdom of Heaven is like unto
a man seeking goodly pearls (the good life is a
pearl) and having found one of great price, he
went and sold all that he had and bought it."
It was so good that a man would be justified
in seeking it with all the zest of a merchant of
gems ; it was as fascinating not only as a trade
or profession, but as the romance of priceless
jewels. It was a worthy and justifiable and
manly thing.
It is a pity that there are a good many men
in the Church today who, if Jesus were on
earth, would counsel him to go a little more
slowly ! Jesus himself was the most upstand
ing of men. You cannot imagine him as being
afraid of anybody or anything. Kind and con
siderate? Yes. But unafraid. His step was
almost — gay. His touch was as light as a
child's caress. His spirit was rich and whole
some and forward-looking. In a word, and
this is an interesting fact when you come to
think about it, Jesus acknowledged no sense of

46 MODERNIST STUDIES
sm in himself. We may even accept the tradi
tional explanation that Jesus was different, but
it nevertheless follows that one of the best ways
to ruin the efficiency of the religious life is to
dwell on the sinfulness of our human nature, or
to affect a theological humiliation which is me- .
chanical in the very nature of the occasion and
the life we are living. May it not be that the
thing for us to do is not to worry over our sins,
but to pray for some of the confidence of Jesus.
In line with this, the religion of our age will
be inclusive and comprehensive. Edwin Mark-
ham has a fine figure which symbolizes what I
have in mind:
" He drew a circle that left me out —
Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.
But love and I had the wit to win ;
We drew a circle that took him in."
Every circle is imaginary except the circle
that includes all humanity and total reality.
Thus the ancients used a circle to denote God.
This is shown by the wholesomeness of some of
our practical efforts. We are beginning to see
this in our prison work. We used to think it
enough if we put men behind the bars. We
cut their hair, put a striped suit on them, and
humiliated them by locksteps and other in
genious indignities — only to find that, in the
end, when they got out, they were a thousand

IN THE LIFE OF JESUS 47
times more the children of darkness than when
we put them in; and the community suffered.
What we are finding out is that we must include
them in a very vital way in the total scheme of
redemption, and that the long, long way of lov
ing purpose only can win. We agree with Her
bert Spencer when he says, " No one can be per
fectly free till all are free. No one can be per
fectly moral till all are moral. No one can
be perfectly happy till all are happy."
I think that you may have guessed that the
kind of inclusiveness of which I speak is not re
lated to a mere spirit of toleration. In fact I
think it would be intolerant of many tilings.
You may have heard of the man who spread
himself out so much that he was pretty thin
everywhere ! It isn't that kind of inclusive
ness. It is a matter only for constructive work
and loyal men.
There are in fact just two approaches to
every problem : one is partial, immediate, short
sighted, authoritative ; the other is long-drawn-
out, cooperative, entailing much consideration,
demanding faith in its highest sense. Under
the former, master and slave is a good arrange
ment of human society rather than long drawn-
out labor and capital contests ; paternalism in
government is better than the everlasting
struggles of democracy ; war is better than di
plomacy and arbitration. It makes great use

48 MODERNIST STUDIES
of fear, and asks for immediate results. It
lacks faith in human nature, and is superficial
in its thinking. It has about it all the ear
marks of the self-sufficient, comfort-loving, dog-
in-the-manger attitude of some fathers we re
member with instinctive affection, but from
whose roof-trees we were mighty glad to escape.
It regards humanity as a perpetual child. It
gilds itself with a good many platitudes, while
stifling the free spirit and self-development of
the individual. It tells the master to be
" good " to the slave, and tells the child that
the whipping hurts the father a good deal
more than the child, which we perhaps all have
heard and had our doubts about ! It is full of
all casuistry and pious dissimulation, side
stepping the real issue, which is the free and
full-rounded development of the individual
spirit in cooperation with all other free spirits.
The second approach is only for brave men
and men of faith. Nearly all the sins we know
have grown out of the great sin — lack of
faith; faith in ourselves, faith in our fellows,
and, ultimately, faith in God. There are no
short cuts to character, and Christianity is
character plus — character in the light of the
long, patient, inclusive purposes of God.
Even at that, the second approach is more
satisfactory in the end. The swimmer jumps
off into the cold water, and at first he feels the

IN THE LIFE OF JESUS 49
chill, and all the good things he has ever heard
about swimming drop to zero. But after a few
healthy strokes his body reacts, a warm glow
suffuses his body, and off he moves in an ecstacy
of delight. What we need most of all in our
religion is the will to jump off, to trust our
selves, that we have the power to re-act — what
someone has called " the will to believe." Any
one can learn the strokes.
And just because we have had so little faith in
ourselves, we have little faith in each other;
and then, to paraphrase the words of Jesus, if
we do not believe in ourselves and each other,
whom we have seen, how shall we believe in God,
whom we have not seen? Jesus believed this
and taught it as no other man ever did. He
saw in every man the germ divine:
" For why should I pronounce his doom,
When in my brother's heart may bloom
The eternal flower ? "
And, finally, our religion will be forward-
moving, instinct with the finest sensibilities.
The genuineness of Jesus is to be found
just here, in its leading processes. There are
three standards of life — and perhaps not an
other. First, law. It is the minimum. It is
the swaddling clothes in which cooperative soci
ety begins its walk together. It deals only

50 MODERNIST STUDIES
with outstanding crudities and criminalities.
It is negative and provides penalties.
Then there is morality. The word morality
comes from mos, meaning custom, the plural of
which is mores. It consists of the little nice
ties that people do over and above the law.
But it always remains largely a matter of
courtesy or nicety; it has in it no grand pas
sion. Whatever is customary is right. If it
were customary for every second father to cut
off the toe of every male child, in obeying that
habit a man would be moral. Where polygamy
is the custom, a plurality of wives would be en
tirely moral. It is to be said, however, that the
general rule of morality is something higher
and better than law.
Above this, of course, is the realm of re
ligion. It comprehends our ideal and aspira
tions. It is filial in symbol, the picture in
Christianity being that of a good father and
a good son. It assumes that there is " one
divine event toward which the whole creation
moves," and it believes in the capacity of men
to achieve goodness, and that the proper in
stincts are naturally resident within us. It has
no penalties except the long penalties of life
and character. Religion, in a word, is made
up of the directing forces of life, and its place
is never at the tag-end of the procession. It is
clearly not enough that the product of religion

IN THE LIFE OF JESUS 51
should be the same from year to year, genera
tion to generation, century to century. Re
ligion has to do with the everlasting evolution
and development of human life. Nothing less
than real progress will suffice.
In the best sense in which religion is known,
Jesus is its epitome. His moral grandeur, his
beautiful spirituality, his dauntless courage, his
forward moving step, his sure apprehension of
life in its underlying realities, his love of life,
all are unmistakable signs of his leadership.
And unto himself he calls us.

A LIBERAL FAITH
A liberal faith is a great faith ; it constantly,
like the chick, breaks the old shell, and walks
into new life. But, mind you, it takes the es
sence of the old life with it, leaving only the
shell. A truly liberal faith leaves nothing of
any value behind. It is not some mere tangent,
a starting point, a divergence that means an
other sect. " These things you ought to have
done," said Jesus, " and not to have left the
other undone." A man who calls himself a
liberal and slinks back out of sight in the face
of some crisis, is not a liberal ; he is only a
coward. A man who calls himself a liberal and
lives an openly bad life, is not a liberal; he is
only a libertine. If a man calls himself a lib
eral and you can only tell that he is by the
number of things he does not believe, he is not
a liberal ; he is only a doubter. A liberal is one
whose blood is growing warmer, whose charity
is growing broader, whose vision is growing
clearer; who, in the last analysis, is deeply in
love with life.

52

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