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1 2 3

4 5 6

OUR KELIGION

AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

OUR RELIGIOJSr

AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

BY THE

REV. ROBERT J. LAIDLAW,

Pastor of SL Paurs Church, aamiltoii, Ontario.

• •

HUNTER, ROSE & CO., 25 WELLINGTON ST. WEST,

MDcccrxxix.

Entered according to Act of Parliament of Canada, In the year one thousand
eight hundred and seventy-nine, by Robbrt J. Laidlaw, in the Office of tlie
Minister of Agriculture.

md
the

PREFACE.

HILE pursuing a course of study in the com-
parative history of religions, several years
ago, my attention was called to the wide difference
observable between certain heathen religions as prac-
tised, and the doctrines of the sacred books on which
those religions are based. This led to the inquiry,
Is the same thing true of our religion— meaning
by Our Religion, the religion based upon the
Bible ?

The more carefully this inquiry was pondered, the
stronger became the conviction that the question was
one deserving serious consideration ; and from that
time to the present, the relation between Our Reli-

PREFACE.

gion as practised, and as revealed in Scripture, has
been made the subject of special study, the con-
densed results of which are contained in the follow-
ing chapters.

In the course of this study, the chief reliance for
information — apart from Scripture — has been upon
what is known as Evangelical literature, yet the ivrit-
ings of those who are avowedly out of sympathy
with orthodox views of the Bible and its teachings
have not been overlooked ; and the help derived
from the v\ <j tings of scholars, of whatever shade of
religious opinion, is duly acknowledged.

The small numerals affixed to quotations in the
following pages, refer to the Index to Quotations at
page 317.

Throughout this treatise, religion is viewed mainly
in its practical, not its theological aspects, which ac-
counts for the absence of the discussion of certain
fundamental doctrines upon which the chief empha-
sis is laid in all theological works. The treatise does
not claim to be in any sense exhaustive, yet under

^ /

Preface.

a deej) conviction of the importance of the subject
discussed, it is given to the public, not without the
hope that it may be of service in furthering the in-
terests of true religion.

R. J. L.

Hamilton, June 1879.

CONTENTS.

Pkeface

PAGE

. 7

CHAPTER I

Is OUR Religion of to day the Religion of the Bible i 17

CHAPTER II.
Primitive Religion — Religion before the Fall. . 35

CHAPTER III.

The Beginning of Formal Worship.

• •

CHAPTER IV.

Origin and use of " ISaored Things," and " Places
OF Worship. "...

'^^^mmm

Miiji

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER V.

The Household, The Church, and Religious
Conversation.

PAGE

CHAPTER VJ.

Decline op Early Scriptural Religion, with

attempts at Restoration. . . . . 113

CHAPTER VII.

Jesus the True Restorer.

131

CHAPTER VIII.

Christianity unfortunate in its Friends. . . 169

CHAPTER IX.
Is THE Bible adapted to all Times ? , . . .195

CHAPTER X.

Must Scripture Truth be systematized?

217

CHAPTER XI.

Sects, Systems, and the Church.

• • «

. 239

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XII.

Religion and the State.

PAGE

. 261

CHAPTER XIII.

Do WE need another Reformation ?

. 287

Index to Quotations. ...... 317

CHAPTER I.

IS OUR RELIGION OF TO-DAY THE
RELIGION OF THE BIBLE ?

!!■

'If

CUE RELIGION

AS IT WAS AJ^^D AS IT IS

CHAPTER I.

IS OUR RELIGION OF TO-DAY THE RELIGION OF

THE BIBLE?

^^OHAMMEDANISM is the Religion taught
=^^l>= in the Koran ; Pai*seeism, that taught in the
Zend-Avesta ; certain other Religions are based on
certain other books : Our Religiori is that of the
Bible.

The Bible is not our only book which treats of
religion ; thousands of religious books, as well as
books of other kinds, have grown up around it.
Those added books are not of equal authority with

20 OUR RELIGION AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

ohe Bible; they are not all in harmony with its
teaching; yet they exert so considerable an influ
ence upon the moulding of religious opinion as to
suggest the inquiry : — Is our religion of to-day the
religion of the Bible, or of the literature thjit has
grown up around the Bible ?

Everywhere, and in every age, there has been
a tendency to drift away from the teaching of a
sacred book. Unto the Jews were committed the
oracles of God, and for these oracles they cherished
the deepest reverence ; they kept them in the most
sacred place ; they gave them into the keeping of
their most learned men ; they transcribed them with
the most rigid accuracy — counting every word, syl-
lable and letter ; they had them expounded by their
wisest theologians, the doctors of the law ; any vio-
lation, or supposed violation, of their piecepts, was
met with the severest punishment. Yet, at the
very time the Jews thought they were worshipping
God according to the strict letter of His word,
Jesus declared that they were worshipping in vain,
" teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.'*^

Something similar has . befallen certain heathen
religions. Take Hinduism, for example. That re-

AS (JUli liKLIGION THAT OF THE BIBLtJr 21

li^aon is a vast system of error ; it enjoins the wor-
sliip of idols ; it teaches the doctrine of transmigra-
tion of souls ; it demands the burning of widows
with the dead bodies of their husbands ; it lends
all the weight of its authority to the caste sys-
tem of India. The Hindoos have a sacred book
upon which their religion is based, and from
which they profess to draw their religious life ; and
for this ancient bible of theirs they have the pro-
foundeat reverence. They always cpiote it as of
Divine authority, and claim to be worshipping in ac-
cordance with both its letter and spirit. Yet not one
of these erroneous rites and dogmas, for which they
contend so earnestly, is taught in that book. The
original sacred book of the Hindoos — the Rig- Veda
— is a pure book. It is not to be compared with
our Bible, yet it is on the side of virtue and opposed
to vice. It teaches that " God has established the
eternal laws of right and wrong, that He punishes
sin and rewards virtue, that He is just yet merciful
and willing to forgive, u judge and yet a father." ^
The Rig- Veda, says Max-Miiller," knows of no idols."
" There is no authority in the hymns of the Veda
for the complicated system of caste ; " "no trace of

HP^P^"W

22 OUn nEimiON ylN ir WAt^ AND AS IT IS.

ill

metempsychosis, or that transmigration of souls
from human to animal bodies, which is generally
supposed to be a distinguishing feature of Indian re-
ligion ; " " no law to sanction the blasphemous pre-
tensions of a priesthood to divine honours, or the
degradation of any human being to a state below
the animal. There is no text to countenance laws
which allow the marriage of children and prohibit
the re-marriage of child-widows ; and the unhal-
lowed rite of burning the widow with the corpse of
her husband, is against both the spirit and the
letter of the Veda."i

This want of agreement between the Hinduism of
the present day and the teaching of the book upon
which that religion is based, is to be accounted for
by the fact that the Hindoos have other religious
books — almost countless — in some of which these
doctrines are taught ; and without calling all these
added books sacred in the same sense with the
original Veda, they are drawing their religious life
more from them than from that which they regard
as their supremely authoritative sacred book.

" The age of the poets who wrote the Vedic hymns
was followed by an age of collectors and imitators ;

iili

is OUH liELIGlON THAT OF THE BIBLE f 23

that age was succeeded by an ago of theological
prose writers, and this last by an age of writers of
scientific manuals ; "^ and it is from all these later
writings the Hindu religion has derived its most
objectionable features. During the course of cen-
turies, error after error crept in so gradually, and
one obnoxious feature after another was added so
silently, that even the most learned devotees of the
system failed to notice the change.

It is true, the Hindoos have not had free access
to the Vedic hymns in written or printed form.
Their acquaintance with them has been for the
most part traditionary, and on this account errors
could the more easily find their way into their re-
ligious system. " At the present day there are but
few Brahmins who can read and understand the
Veda." 2 They learn by heart certain portions of it
which are muttered at sacrifices, and which every
priest must know. But the language and grammar
of the Veda being somewhat different from the com-
mon Sanskrit, the young priests have as much diffi-
culty in understanding those hymns, as we have in
translating old English. Yet the jealousy with
which the Hindoos have cherished the idea of the

r-A^

24 OUR RELIGION AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

divine inspiration of the Vedic hymns, should be set
over against this, as having a tendency to prevent
the introduction of error. According to the ortho-
dox views of Indian theologians, not a single line of
the Veda v;as the work of human authors. The
whole is in some way or other the work of the
Deity. And, besides, the Hindoos have guarded the
text of the Veda as carefully as the Jews ever
guarded the text of the Old Testament. As early
as about 600 B. C, in the theological schools of
India, every verse, every word, every syllable of the
ten books of the Veda had been carefully co^'^^ted.
Yet, with all this reverence and care, in the course
of centuries, through the influence of the teaching
and writings of collectors, imitators, theologians and
students of science, the character of the Hindu re-
ligion has been materially altered, and that fcr the
worse ; and the Veda is now quoted in support of
the most pernicious alterations. Of course, the
passages quoted are either unintentionally distorted,
or deliberately tampered with, to make them agree
with the new doctrine in support of which they are
cited.

Take only one example. It has been discovered

i': ",

IS OUR RELIGION THAT OF THE BIBLE ? 25

within recent years by the leading philologists of
the age, that, in the verse quoted by the Hindoos in
support of the burning of widows, the Sanskrit word
agneh, fire, has been substituted for agre, altar, ard
the verse has thus been made to teach, not that
certain women shall draw near and pour a libaHon
upon the altar, but that certain other women must
draw near and consign themselves to the fire. The
Hindu reading of the verse^ as translated by Cole-
brooke, is as follows : — " Let these women, not to be
widowed, good wives, adorned with collyrium, hold-
ing clarified butter, consign themselves to the fire !
Immortal, not childless, not husbandless, well
adorned with gems, let them pass into the fire,
whose original element is water." ^ And the verse
thus read is made to refer to the widow of the hus-
band whose body lies on the altar.

But a better acquaintance with the Sanskrit
language has disclosed the fact that, when properly
understood, the verse refers, not to the widow of
the deceased, but to other women who are present ;
and the true reading is : — " May these women, who
are not widows, but have good husbands, draw near
with oil and butter. Those that are mothers may

i! i

26 OtIR UELIGION AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS,

go up first to the altar, without tearr^ without sor-
row, but decked with fine jewels." And the verse
is followed with this address to the widow : — " Rise,
woman, come to the world of life ; thou sleepest
nigh unto him whose life is gone. Come to us.
Thou hast fulfilled the duties of a wife to the
husband who once took thy hand and made thee a
mother." ^

But this discovery will not be sufllicient to set
aside the cruel custom. When a religious rite, in-
troduced in the remote past, has been observed for
centuries as of divine appointment, it is more in
harmony with human ideas of sacredness, for the
people concerned to believe that the observance of
that rite must be taught somewhere in their Sacred
Book, though perhaps not in the most explicit
terms, than to acknowledge that it should be set
aside, because the passage which has all along been
relied on in its support has been shown to have
been misquoted and misapplied. And if the observ-
ance of the rite in question be found frequently
enjoined in later religious books which are profes-
sedly in harmony with the first, then the testimony
of those books will be appealed to and accepted ;

T tS.

TS OtJR RELIGION THAT OF THE BIBLE f 27

out SOl-
be vei-se
-" Rise,
sleepest
! to us.
to the
} thee a

to set

'ite, in-

^ed for

lore in

for the

mce of

Sacred

xplicit

be set

^ been

► have

3serv-

ently

rofes-

nony

)ted :

■^

and thus the original Bible is superseded, and later
books — not accounted sacred in an equal sense — are
made to take its place, and become the real sacred
books of the people concerned.

All this has been true of Hinduism. Is it true of
our religion ? Since the close of the Book of Reve-
lation, '-ghteen hundred years ago, have there been
those — whether collectors, imitators, theologians, or
students of science — who have dared either to *' add
unto " or " take away from the words of the book of
this prophecy " V- Has the Bible, from any cause,
ceased to be in the proper sense our Sacred Book ?
And have other books in some way taken the place
which rightfully belongs to it alone ?

Filling a book with that which represents the
highest kind of truth will not of itself make the
book, in the proper sense, sacred to a man or an
age. Neither will filling a book with that which
represents a very inferior kind of thought prevent
the book from becoming in an important sense sa-
cred. The ^ook which is most sacred to a man is
not tlie book which is laid away on the shelf as
having come from God ; but the volume which the
man reads, and whose contents exert the most pow-

t! ■

28 OUR RELIGION AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

i I

erful influence in forming his most important jii<lg-
ments, and in controlling his destiny whether for
weal or woe, — that is the man's most sacred book,
by whatever name it may be called, and on what-
soever subject written, and by whomsoever. The
Bible is entitled to be called Holy in a sense in
which no other book may lay claim to this title,
yet every book that is read may well have the word
sacred printed upon it, in that it has left its impress
upon a human heart and contributed its share to-
ward forming the 'opinions and character of a man.

If we have given the Bible a higher place than
all other books, not in name and theory simply, but
in fact ; if we have so familiarized ourselves with
its letter and spirit that all that is learned from
other writings must take p subordinate place, — then
the Bible is our Sacred Book. But if we have allowed
the sentiments that are breathed from the pages of
other literature to have the foremost place in our
thoughts and the controlling influence in the mould-
ing of our opinions, the Bible is not our most sacred
book — notwithstanding the fact that it contains the
highest and holiest kind of truth for the man who
will properly acquaint himself with its contents.

IS OUR RELIGION THAT OF THE BIBLE ? 29

Tbe Bibje is read and taught — more perhaps in
in our day than in any previous age. Portions of
it are statedly read and discoursed upon in the
Church and Sabbath-school, and occasionally in the
home. There are a few pious hearts in every Chris-
tian community who peruse the Bible with silent
delight day by day, for the comfort it brings them.
There are others who search the Scriptures more
critically and make the interpreting and expound-
ing of their contents the chief work of their lives.
But after all — How many of the representatives of
our religion have read the Bible once from beginning
to end ? Or if this question admits of a favourable
answer, How many have so perused the book that
they are better acquainted with its letter and spirit
than with any other literature and thought whatso-
ever ? Think of all the engrossing pursuits of the
present age, carried on for the most part in a
purely secular spirit; of all the intercour.b^ man
holds with man, and of the many thoughts and
opinions in constant circulation which have eman-
ated solely from the human head and heart ; of
the influence of those opinions in moulding the
tastes, fashions and whole character of society ;

11-

, it

30 OUR RELIGION AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

of the lefiex influence of society upon individual
life, and of its power to reproduce, in the in-
dividual, thoughts and opinions like unto those
by which it was itself begotten. Think of all the
literature that is produced and read — Dailies, Week-
lies, Monthlies, Quarterlies, Novels, Biographies,
Histories, Philosophies, Essays on Science, Literature
and the Arts, — not to speak of Sermons, Sacred
Songs, Theological Reviews and religious books of
every kind. For every minute many who belong
to the Christian population of the world spend in
the study of the original letter of their religion,
they spend hours in the more interested perusal of
other writings. The treatment they give the Bible
is altogether peculiar. Tliey speak of the Book in
the most complimentary and reverential terms.
They call it The Bible ! The Book of books ! The
Word of God ! They fear it, and contend for the
idea of its sacredness. They do everything in shoit
which the most zealous devotees should be expected
to do ; but the one thing which, as intelligent men,
they "should 'do above all other things, they do not,
namely, — read the Book. That they occasionally
read parts of it, cannot be denied. That the}' ima-

IS OUR RELIGION THAT OF THE BIBLE? 31

gine they have in some way acquired a correct
knowledge of what it teaches, is equally unques-
tionable. That they actually have such a know-
ledge is another matter. What a large proportion
of the representatives of our religion know about
the Bible, has been learned at second hand, and not
from independent study. Their religious knowledge
is, to all intents and purposes, traditionary. It has
come down to them mainly through oral instruc-
tion, and through the writings of those who are
supposed to have studied the Bible so thoroughly as
to be able to give the substance of it in their own
language. It has come down in part also in the
form of books and articles written for the very pur-
pose of making light of sacred things and destroying
men's confidence in the authority of Scripture. For
the whole work of interpreting and applying Scrip-
ture is not in the hands of those who might be pre-
sumed to teach wisely. Every writer or speaker
on whatever subject feels at liberty to make use
of Scripture texts.to illustrate his theory, however
false. And all these utterances of every kind have
influence with men ; — an influence which, by reason
of the constancy of its appeals, is in many instances

■tSi

32 OUM RELIGION AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS,

far more potent than that of the pure voice of the
Bible, which is heard only occasionally. And this
condition ,of things is becoming intensified as the
years roll by. Every thoughtful man recognises the
fact, that the literature of our age is working a re-
volution in the world. " To the Church itself," says
Carlyle, " all is changed, in its preaching, in its
working, by the introduction of bonks. The Church
is the working recognized union of our Priests or
Prophets, of those who, by wise teaching, guide the
souls of men. While there was no writing, even
while there was no easy-writing or printing, the
preaching of the voice was the natural sole method
of performing this. But, now with books ! He
that can write a true book to persuade England, is
he not the Bishop and Archbishop, the Primate of
England and of all England ? I many a time say,
the Vr'riters of^newspapers, pamphlets, poems, books,
these are the real working effective Church of a
modern country. A preaching Friar settles himself
in every village, and builds a pulpit which he calls
Newspaper. Therefrom he preaches what most mo-
mentous doctrine is in him for man's salvation ; and
dost thou not listen and believe ? " ^

IS OUR RELIGION THAT OF THE BIBLE ? 33

Is it not possible that in the course of this
strangely commingled process of handing down to
generation after generation, the ideas they are to
entertain of what the Scriptures principally teach,
wrong impressions may have been given, false opin-
ions may have come to be accepted, and many inac-
curacies may have crept into men's views of Bible
truth ? We are unwilling to entertain the thought
that it is possible that our religion of to-day may
be, in some respects, as far removed from the religion
taught in our Sacred Scriptures, as that of the Jews
of Our Lord's day was from the religion of the Old
Testament, or as the Hinduism of to-day is from
the religion taught in the original Vedic hymns.
Yet with our thousands upon thousands of books,
every one of which is more or less sacred ; with un-
inspired prophets without number, who are believed
at sight ; with unholy apostles everywhere who
need to work no miracles in order to have their doc-
trines accepted ; with such a driving storm of fitful
changeful thought as has been beating upon men's
heads for centuries, it would be strange if the repre-
sentatives of our religion should not have found it
almost impossible to keep within sight of the teach-

34 OUR RELIGION AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

ings of (jur Sacred Scriptures. Whether they — and
we — have really been driven away from those teach-
ings, and if so, how far ? — is a question well worthy
the attention of the present generation ; — especially
since, deep down in some earnest hearts, there has
risen up an utterance which is struggling to come
forth to the light in the plain words, — Our religion
of to-day is not the pure and simple religion of the
olden time ; show us the religion of the Bible that
we may return to it.

Yet the immediate moral of all this is, not that
other valuable literature should be read and studied
less, but that the Bible should be read independent-
ly, and studied more.

iliilM

^•^
^,^

CHAPTER II.

PRIMITIVE RELIGION— RELIGION BEFORE

THE FALL.

CHAPTER II.

PRIMITIVE RELIGION — RELIGION BEFORE THE FALL.

ELIGION is something which has passed,
and is still passing, through an historical
evolution, and all we can do is to follow it up to its
origin, and then trj^ to comprehend it in its later
historical developments." ^

Among the commonly accepted definitions of re-
ligion are the following : — " The recognition of
God as an object of worship, love, and obedience ;
right feelings toward God as rightly apprehended ;
piety : " ^ — " An acknowledgment of our obligation
to God as our Creator, with a feeling of rever-
ence and love, and consequent duty or obedience
to Him ; duty to God and to His creatures ; practi-
cal piety ; godliness ; devotion ; devoutness ; holi-
ness." ^ Religion, according to Plato, is "A likeness

38 OUB RELIGION AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

to Cod according to our ability ;" according to Kant,
" Reverence for the moral law as a divine com-
mand ; " according to Schelling, " The union of the
Finite and the Infinite;" according to Fichte,
" Faith in f»v moral government of the world ; " ac-
cording to Hegel, " Morality becoming conscious of
the free universality of its concrete essence."

True religion, as revealed in Scripture, is a just
sense of relationship to God, rightly cherished and
constantly exercised ; and the various ways in
which this sense of relationship expresses itself,
constitute true worship in the widest sense. The
word religion is used in a secondary and more limit-
ed sense, as meaning a particular system of faith
and worship, — as when we speak of the Hindu Reli-
gion, the Mohammedan Religion. In whatever as-
pect we view it, religion is not synonymous with
morality. Morality is, " The doctrine of right and
wrong ; the doctrine or practice of the duties of
human life." As defined by Coleridge, it is *' The
practice of duty ; obedience to the moral law ; vir-
tue ; goodness." But " obedience to the moral law "
is too comprehensive a definition. It includes con-
scious allegiance to God, whirh properly belongs not

PRIMITIVE RELIGION.

to morality but to religion. Morality, strictly speak-
ing, is " the practice of duty " with the idea of re-
lation to God left out. A man may be moral with-
out being religious in even the secondary sense-
that of being attached to some particular system of
faith and worship. His practice of duty may have
relation only to his fellow-men and to the present
life, and may be simply a matter of custom and ex-
pediency ; God may not be in all his thoughts. On
the other hand, a man may be very religious in the
secondary sense, and yet be an immoral man. He
may be devotedly attached to a particular system
of faith and worship, yet pay no heed to the pra^c-
tice of duty. But it is impossible for a man to be
religious in the Scriptural sense without being mo-
ral. In ti-ue Scriptural religion, love to God and
love to man are inseparably joined, and " on these
two hang all tht law and the prophets ;"^ in their
union there is implied the cordial observance of
every known duty.

With r(igard to the origin of both religion and
morality, various theories have been adopted by
those who refuse to accept the Scrij)ture doctrine
that man was originally created in a state of sinless

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40 OUR RELIGION AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

perfection. But in our present inquiry no notice
need be taken of avowedly anti-Scriptural views.
We are not now entering upon a consideration of
the respective merits of opposite religions ; we are
not about to discuss the question of the superiority
of our religion to certain philosophies which are
openly antagonistic to the teaching of the Bible ;
we are not even to consider the question of the
plenary inspiration of Scripture ; — we are entering
upon the subject included under the title, — " Our
Meligion as it was and as it is," and our main in-
quiry must be, What was our religion originally and
what is it now ? Is it to-day what it should be,
accepting as it does the doctrine of the divine In-
spiration of the Scriptures of the Old and New
Testaments, and taking those Scriptures as the ba-
sis of its life ? What is our religion ? Is it a sys-
tem of faith and worship religiously adhered to
with but indifferent regard to the question of per-
sonal piety and individual morality ? Or is it reli-
gion in the broadest and best sense, — its subjects
having a delightful regard to their relationship to
God in all that they do ? Is our religion something
jiatively foreign to this earth ? — Something which

.». I 3 ti

PRIMITIVE RELIGION.

has been introduced into the world to counteract
the disease of sin ; and which must therefore be
kept separate as far as possible from all worldly-
concerns ? And must worship be regarded as con-
sisting solely in the observance of certain so-call^
religious duties, at particular times and in places
appointed for exclusive attendance upon these du-
ties ; and at other times and in other places must
the business of life be carried on after a human and
earthly ideal ? Or is our religion something which
is inseparable from the right use of this earth by-
man as God's steward ? And is worship to be free
and all-pervading, having been modified from time
to time as to its outward form only, in order that it
might be properly adapted to man's condition whe-
ther as a sinless or a sinful being ?

In seeking answers to these questions, we begin
by inquiring into the primitive condition of man,
as revealed in Scripture. The records which relate
to man's sinless days are brief, yet they furnish
sufficient information to enable us to form a tolera-
bly definite conception of the nature of religion be-
fore the Fall. For there was religion then ; and it
was religion in the best and broadest sense, not a

42 OUR RELIGION AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

system of observances limited to particular times and
places ; but a life, in which reference was to be had
to the good-pleasure and friendship of God in all
that was done. In reading that portion of the
Book of Genesis which pertains to man's life before
the Fall, one cannot fail to note the absence of what
are now regarded as purely devotional ideas, and
the corresponding presence of natural and material
ideas. God is the chief Speaker, and His converse
is with sinless man whom He wishes to have always
remain a devout and loving son ; yet there is no
mention made of prayer and praise and similarly
appropriate spiritual exercises. There is the sancti-
fying of the Sabbath, and the pointing out of the
forbidden tree, and the divine injunction, " In the
day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." ^
But in the main the record speaks of things pertain-
incT to common life. After the account of the mak-
ing of the material world, and the fitting of it for
comfortable occupancy, comes the account of the
creation of man, — in the image of God an-d after
His likeness, it is true — yet not to have the observ-
ance of certain rites and ceremonies set before him
as the way by which he should mainly express his

PRIMITIVE RELIGION.

sense of allegiance to God ; but on the contrary, the
sinless pair were to utter forth their fealty to their
Maker by taking proper charge of the works of His
hands in the midst of whi'^h He had placed them.
Instead of being required to make use of forms
and symbols of worship, the only symbolical thing
pointed out, was a thing they were specially com-
manded not to touch.^ With regard to ad other
things, they were allowed the fullest liberty.
They were divinely commissioned to " be fruit-
ful and multiply and replenish the earth and
subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the
sea and over the fowl of the air, and over every
living thing that moveth upon the earth. And
God said, Behold I have given you every herb
bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the
earth, and every tree in the which is the fruit
of a tree yielding seed ; to you it shall be for
meat." 2

Then together with the account of the planting
of the Garden of Eden, and the watering of the gar-
den, and the providing of " an help meet" for man,
and the institution of marriage, there is an account
of the definite purpose for which man was placed in

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44 OUR RELIGION AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

the garden, namely, " to dress it and to keep it." ^
The impression left upon the mind by the reading
of the scriptural account of man's pristine con-
dition is, that it was the original design that
man's life in this world should be a busy life, —
busy in secular pursuits; a life of toil, but of toil
that would always be pleasant, because engaged in
under a sense of being in the employ of God, whose
voice might occasionally be heard walking in the
garden in the cool of the day, as man's Counsellor
and Lord ; so intimate a companionship existing
between man and his Maker, that man would be
supremely happy in the enjoyment of God's favour,
and would know nothing experimentally of the
meaning of living otherwise.

Such a picture is commonly regarded as only a
pleasing dream of the past, the dream of a single
night, — an ideal which was of necessity of very
short duration, and which could not possibly have
been realized beyond the precincts of Paradise. But
we are bound to believe that this ideal might have
been lastingly realized ; that it could have obtained
even until the human race had been in existence for
pejituries upon centuries, and had filled broad landn

PRIMITIVE RELIGION.

with teeming millions of inhabitants. If not, how
can it be claimed that man had a fair probation
in Eden ? It would have been most unreasonable
to ask the sinless pair to increase and multiply
and replenish the earth and subdue it, and have
dominion, if in the very nature of things it was im-
possible for all this to be done by sinless human
beings. But there was no such inherent impossi-
bility. We need only picture to ourselves sinless
mankind busy toiling in all the varied fields of hu-
man industry, rejoicing in the Lord and taking
counsel of Him concerning all things, and we have
a faint representation of the race as it might have
been. The theory held by some that it was neces-
sary for man to fall before he could rise to the
highest degree of virtue, is incorrect. It is not ne-
cessary that one first taste of sin before he can ap-
preciate the blessedness of being free from sin.
The finest appreciation of moral purity is obtained,
not by having the taste first vitiated by contact
with impurity, but by having the spirit becoming
ever more and more refined, by dwelling constantly
amid the purest scenes. And it is not by yielding
to temptation, but by successfully resisting and

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46 OUR RELIGION AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

finally overcoming it, that the highest degree of
moral strength is attained. The fall was a curse,
not a blessing. The world has seen One who had
the loftiest appreciation of the blessedness of being
free from sin, yet who never knew sin ; and who as
a man, grew strong for His great work, not bj?^ al-
lowing the Tempter to gain some advantage, but by

saying, " Get thee hence ; " and His words to man'
are, not to him that falleth, but, " To him that over-

cometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which
is in the midst of the Paradise of God." i " He
that overcometh shall inherit all things." ^

In the life of sinless man there would have been
opportunities enough for the highest culture of
man's moral nature, and ample scope also for the best
exercise and development of both his mental and
physical powers. Had the pristine condition of things
remained unchanged, many of the present features
of human life would have obtained as now, only
that they would have existed in their perfection
and free from all taint of sin. Business would have
been transacted as really as now, only that all busi-
ness relations and engagements would have been
the true and honest intercourse of brother with

PRIMITIVE RELIGION.

brother in the family of man. Men wonld have
needed to pray as they do now, but there are
some petitions they woukl never have required to
offer. They would have said, — " Our Father which
art in Heaven, Hallowed be Thy name;.... Thy
will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Give us
this day our daily bread ; . . . . And lead us not into
temptation, but deliver us from evil ; For Thine is
the kingdom, and the power and the glory for ev'ier.
Amen."^ They would not have said, "Th}^ king-
dom come ; " for God's kingdom would have been
here, nevf^r having been set aside. Nor would they
have said, " Forgive us our debts as we forgive our
debtors ;" for they would have had no sins to par-
don, and no transgressing neighbours for themselves
to forgive. And prayers would have differed in
certain other respects from prayers now. They
would have been uttered in a tone of loving confi-
dence such as is not now breathed from even the
holiest human heart. And requests would have
been made concerning things which men too seldom
pray for now. It would have been most natural for
mankind to pray for information regarding the
various mysteries around them in the natural worlds

48 OUR RELIGION A8 IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

or for God's help and guidance in their endeavour
to undei-stand those mysteries for themselves. And
under the consciousness of using God's world as
His stewards, they would have entered upon the
work of subduing the enrth, and having dominion
over nature in the spirit of true earnestness, and at
each fresh discovery of the marks of divine wisdom
and goodness, in any sphere of research or toil, a
new thought of adoration would have filled the
heart, and a new song of praise would have been
uttered forth from the delighted soul.

Under circumstances such as these, mankind
would have needed no set forms of worship. Their
religion would have borne to be confined within no
restricting limits. They would have obeyed both
in the letter and in the spirit the Divine injunction :
" Whether, therefore, ye eat or drink, or whatsoever
ye do, do all to the glory of God."^ We make a
distinction between man's work and the worship
and service of God, but no such distinction would
then have been made. We worship God by the
reading of His word ; then, men would have wor-
shipped Him as well by reading His great book of
Nature, studying the works of His hand and the

FUmiTIVE RELIGION.

thoughts of His Tiilnd in the heavens above and the
earth beneath, or in the wonth'ous mechanism of
their own beings. We worship (Jod by singing to
His praise and ad(b;essmg Him in prayer in places
set apart for the exchisive observance of such acts
of devotion ; they would have worshipped Him also
by communing with Him freel}'^ as they guided the
plough, Of by chanting songs to His praise as they
gathered home the sheaves. And yet the Sabbath,
the day of delightful rest, would have come round
from week to week, and would have been enjoyed
to the full, in rest and song, and sweet communion
with one another, and with the Lord.

With the human family thus employed — in the
deep mine or on the mountain height, in the quiet
vale or on the crowded street, in the house or by
the way, by land or sea, guiding the plough, or
wielding the axe, or striking with the hammer ;
fathoming the depths of heaven or exploring secret
caverns where thoughts lie deep ; manipulating the
lightning or chaining all the strong forces of nature,
— this natural world would have been one great
harp of m^'ny strings, and toiling men and women —
touching nature everywhere with their industry —

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50 OUR UELKilON AlS IT WAti AND AS IT IS.

l^M

would liave been Ood'.s (^uick-Hiigered players,
striking skilfully this heaven-strung haq), and caus-
ing it to give forth glad music continually to the
praise and glory of Him who is M and King

and Lord of all.

We are taught, both by written and unwritten
revelation, that it was that the earth might be
occupied and used in some such way as this, that it
was originally framed and furnished ; and it was
that man might thus use the earth as God's steward,
that he was created and placed upon it. Had the
world been thus properly used from 9 beginning
and onward, man would have perfecii^ fulfilled the
great end of his being, — to glorify and enjoy God.

This was the primitive ideal of religion, and all
God's appointments for the redemption of mankind,
will be seen to have a return to this pure, practical,
all-pervading religion and worship, continually in
view. It is for this we are taught to pray when
we say, " Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed
be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done
in earth as it is in heaven."

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CHAPTER III.

THE Bl WINNING OF FORMAL WORSHIP.

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CHAPTER III.

THE BEGINNING OF FORMAL WORSHIP.

HE first acts of formal worship of which we
have any intimation in Scripture, are re-
corded in the fourth chapter of Genesis, in the
words : " And in process of time it came to pass
that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an
off'erinir unto the Lord. And Abel he also brouo^ht
of the firstlings of his Hock, and of the fat thereof.
And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to ]ih- of-
fering ; but unto Cain and to his offering He had
not respect." ^ Had there been any formal worship
before the Fall, and had the Scriptures contained an
account of it, that account would have been of the
deepest interest to us. Not less interesting should
be the account of the worship of Adam's sons shortly
after the fall, — especially as the worship of one

54 OUB RELIGION AS IT- WAS AND AS ZT IS.

of the sons was approved of God, and that of the
other was not. The worship of Abel is ot even
more importance to us than the formal worship of
Adam before the Fall would have been, in that Abel's
was the worship of a sinful man, and as such was
acceptable to God ; in it we may expect to find tliat
whicli is essential to the rendering of any act of
formal worship acceptable ; and in Cain's worship
we may expect to find that which would rcnde?" any
act of formal worship valueless.

It is very comnumly supposed that the excellence
of Abel's ofi'ering consisted in the tiling ottered, one
of the firstlings of his Hock ; and that the inferiority
and worthlessness of Cain's ottering consisted also
in the thing ottered, the fruit of the ground. To
suppose this, is to mistake the meaning of worship,
and to forget that utterance which has been true
from the beginning ; — " God is a Spirit, and they
that worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and
in truth." 1

Had God given comr.;andment for the ottering of
an animal, and that alone, then it would have been
pre-eminently ri";ht for Abel to ha\'e ott'erod one of
tlie firstlings of his ttock, and wrong for Cain to

BEGINNING OF FORMAL WORSHIP.

have offered fruit. Or if there were something es-
sential to true worship, which could be represented
by offering an animal, and not by offering fruit, then
also might the unacceptableness of Cain's offering
have consisted, in part at least, in the nature of the
thing offered. But this cannot be claimed. If refer-
ence to the atoning death o^ Christ were essential
to worship in that early time, such referenc ) could
be as appropriately made by the offering of the fruit
of the ground as by the offering of an aniinal. The
fruits of the earth were among the earliest forms of
divinely appointed offerings ; and they have been
chosen by our Lord liimself as most appropriate
symbols, and most sacred emblems, both of His life
and His death. "I am the true vine.''^ "Verily,
verily, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall
into the ground and die, it abideth alone ; but if it
die it bringeth forth much fruit.'"' " I am that
bread of Life,"^ "As often as ye oat this bread and
drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till He

come. *

We must look elsewhere tlien, than to the nature
of the gifts offered, for the acceptableness or unac-
ceptal)leness of the first acts of formal worship.

56 OUR RELIGION AH IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

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We must considei- the life, the character and the mo-
tives of the worshippers. In order to do this suc-
cessfully, we must view them in the light of their
own time, and be on our guard against attributing
to Cain and Abel a familiar acquaintance with a
revelation which was not given until long after their
day. If we would understand the spirit in which
they worshipped, we must look, not away forward
to things of which they knew nothing, but back to
things with which they were perfectly familiar; —
taking into view, at the same time, as much of
the light of after-revelation as is cast back upon
that early time.

The parents of Cain and Abel had begun their
life in innocency in the Garden of Eden, and had
been on terms of most friendly intimacy with God
while there. In an evil hour they had hearkened to
the voice of the enemy, and the fellowship which
had existed between them and God, was destroyed.
They sinned and became sinful. But in that very
hour God spoke kindly to them in the midst of
much that was severe. They may not have fully
understood His words. We do not imagine that the
divine utterance, — " And I will put enmity between

BEGINNINO OF FORMAL WORSHIP.

thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her
seed ; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shal t bruise
his lieel"^ had the same definiteness of meaning to
Adam and Eve that it has to us. Yet they must
have been encouraged by that utterance to believe
that God was still on their side, and that by placing
themselves trustfully in His keeping, all would yet
be well with them ; and when the Lord God mani-
fested His kindness by making them coats of skins
and clothing them, their confidence in Him as their
Father and Friend must have been greatly increased.
The most natural interpretation of Abel's subse-
quent conduct is, that he heard from his parents the
story of their original relation to God, and the sad
story of their Fall ; that he heard at the same time
that God had spoken kindly to them, and had vir-
tually invited them to call themselves still his child-
ren, and take Him still to be their God ; and that
Abel believed all this and lived accordingly, regard-
ing himself as one of God's children, the earth as the
Lord's, and all things upon it to be used in accord-
ance v^ith His will. Abel therefore, sinful though
he wa.s, sought to obey the command given to his
parents when they were first put in possession of

58 OUR RELIGION AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

the world ; — " Replenish the earth and subdue it,
and have dominion." ^ Whether simply for the sake
of having dominion according to the will of God ;
or for the purpose of providing himself and others
with clothing, and possibly with food ; or prompted
in the kindness of his heart to care for God's de-
fenceless creatures, the sheep, even as God cared for
him, — or for what particular reason, we are not in-
formed, — but Abel was a keeper of sheep. Enter-
ing upon this work with that view of his relation to
God which his parents r.iust have taught him, and
which, in some of its features, must have found a
tenderly sad response in his own heart, it was most
natural that he should occasionally seek to express,
in some visible and tangible way, his confidence in
God as liis merciful Father, and his acknowledgment
of God's right in himself and in all that he had ;
and in what way could he do this more appropriate-
ly, than by taking of the best of his flock and offer-
ing it as a gift to the Lord ? How this gift was pre-
sented we are not told ; whether on the bare ground,
or on a rock, or upon what was afterwards called an
altar. Nor do we know deflnitely whether it was
presented alive or slain. We judge that it was

BEGINNING OF FORMAL WORSHIP

slain ; yet the Scripture narrative does not tell us
this. The words, — " of the firstlings of his flock,
and of the fat thereof," may be properly interpreted
to mean, " of the fattest of the firstlings of his
flock."* If we regard the words, "of the fat there-
of," as referring to the fatty parts of the animal as
sacrificed, we import into this early portion of Scrip-
ture, ideas which properly belong to the Book of
Leviticus, — which was not written until more than
two thousand years after the days of Abel. It is
true God may have revealed to Abel some things
which are not recorded, and among them things per-
taining to the manner of offering sacrifice, but we
are not at liberty to base any argument u|)on such
a conjecture. In our use of Scripture we are not
allowed to read between the lines. We are specially
commanded to use only the word that has been put
into our hands. Nothing must be added and noth-
ing taken away ; though this is not intended to for-
bid our reading any portion of Scriptui'c in the
light of all recorded circumstances, and in accord-
ance with the whole tenor of revelation.

It has been supposed by some, that Abel's offiMing

* This is Keil's interpretation of tlie paHsage.

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60 OUH RELIGION AS tT WAS AND AS tT tS.

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was a slain beast,froin its being called a "sacrifice" in
Hebrews xi. 4; but the word there translated sacrifice
(Ovmav, thusian), is sometimes applied to offerings
that were not slain. Moreover, Abel's ofifering and
Cain's are called by the same name in the original
Hebrew ; and the name Minchah, by which both are
designated, is used especially of bloodless ofiferings.
The Hebrew word for a bloody sacrifice is Zevah.
Too much importance, therefore, must not be at-
tached to the precise way in which Abel's gift was
offered.

Neither are we told how his gift was accepted ;
whether by the Lord appearing in visible form ; or
by an audible voice telling Abel that his gift was
approved ; or by fire coming down from heaven and
consuming the offering. We are simply told in the
Old Testament that the Lord " had respect unto Abel
and his offering" ^ ; and in the New, that Abel" ob-
tained witness that he was righteous, God testifying
of his gifts. "'2

We are uninformed also as to the opinion Abel had
of the use the Lord could make of his gift, or of the
value He would set upon it. It was possible for
him to be in error regarding this. But however

BEGINNING OF FOliMAL WORSHIP.

this may have been, it was not the fact of his pre-
senting an offering of a particular kind, nor in a
particular outward way, nor even with a perfectly
accurate conception either of its intrinsic or relative
value in God's sight, that made Abel's offering ac-
ceptable ; but it was the attitude of his heart and
soul toward God. It was not by the observance of
a certain form, but it was " by faith Abel offered
unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain." ^

But what is here meant by faith ? Must we sup-
pose that the word is to be understood in precisely
its present theological sense, and that Abel's faith
was a definite belief in the coming of One who
should die for the sins of the world ; and that ac-
cordingly, the excellence of his offering consisted in
its being definitely typical of the death of the pro-
mised " seed of the woman " ? Does Scripture war-
rant this supposition ? We know that " without
shedding of blood is no remission,"-^ and that the
pouring out of the life-blood of animals is often re-
presented in Scripture as typical of the shedding of
the precious blood of Christ. We know that Christ
is the only Redeemer of mankind ; that " there is
none other name under heaven given among men

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02 OUJi liELIGWJ^ AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

wliereby wo must l»e savecl."^ But wo are taught
also, tliat it is not an accurate knowledge of all the
facts connected witli the life and death of Jesus,
that saves ; nor is it a perfect ac(j[uaintance with the
I)lan of redemption as revealed in Christ; hut it is
that intimate relation of the heart and life to God,
which — whether man fully understands the basis of
it or not — the name of Jesus, and that alone, has
made it possible either for man to enter into, or for
God to accept. When God calls little children
away from this world to Himself, we believe they
are saved, though they never understood or even
heard the precious name ; yet we believe tlieir sal-
vation is attributable solely to the fact, that Jesus m
the " one Mediator between God and men.'"^ When a
heathen who has nevei' heard the gospel preached,
reads carefully by the light of nature until he
learns to understand something of " the invisible
things " of God, *' by the things that are made," ^
and in his consciousness of guilt in the sight of
his Maker, becomes the subject of conviction of sin,
through the power of that Spirit who worketh
even as the wind bloweth, — confesses his sin in
the sight of Heaven, seeks forgiveness of the

BEOINNINa OF FORMAL WORSHIP.

(J3

(Iroat God, reposes confidence in Him, and nianitests
his faith by vvorkinj^^ ri<^hteousness ; we are taught
to l)elieve that (Jod — iu accordance with His own
plan of redemption, whicli He perfectly understands
—can accept tliat man's fait]i,even though tlie man
himself may not properly understand the reason
wliy. We know that saving faith does not *' stand
in the wisdom of men, but in tlie power of God ; " ^
that salvation is not based upon works, whether
of the hands or of the head, but U})on Divine wisdom
and grace ; and that the essential thing on man's
part, is that " faith whicli worketh by love," '-^ —
faith, not in a plan but in a person ; confidence, not
in a creed, but in God.

That the faith by which Abel offered a more
excellent sacrifice than Cain, was simple confidence
in God, and not faith in its more technical
sense, is further evident, from the definitions and
illustrations of faith, contained in the eleventh
chapter of Hebrews. Faith is there defined to be
the substance or confidence of things hoped for, the
evidence or conviction of things not seen ; but from
the numerous and varied examples given in the
chapter, of things which may be hoped for under

i*t'

04 oun niJLiaioN as it vvAi^ and as it is.

tho dcHnition tliorc given of faith, or of " thin^^s not
seen" which may come witliiii its scope, it is mani-
fest tliat it would be most illo«,dcal to art,me tliat
Abel's faith must have had reference directly, and
consciously, to the typical significance of his offer-
ing, as symbolical of the death of the coming Sub-
stitute. In the sixth verse of the cha})ter, faith is
defined as a belief in the existence of God, and
confidence in Him as a rewarder of them that dili-
gently seek Him. To use the exact language-of the
verse : — " But without faith it is impossible to please
Him ; for he that cometh to God must believe that
He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that dili-
gently seek Him." ^ It is in the fourth verse of the
same chapter that Abel's faith is mentioned ; and
we have no direct warrant from the whole chapter
to say more than this, that Abel's faith was a firm
belief in the existence of God ; a loving confidence
in Him as One who would be his Rewarder : and a
heartfelt conviction that in some v lown to

him it might be — all he ha igl r,o hope

for from God, would yet be . uUy r alized. It was
owing to this loving confidence ana childlike trus^.
that Abel offered unto God a more excellent saci

liEdlNNINQ OF FORMAL WORSHIP.

fico than Cain. The opposite view — held by man}',
and recently put forward anew* — that " the sin of
Cain consisted in the fact that ... ho did not
possess any feeling of estrangement or fear of the
divine anger such as moved his brother,"* — we must
reject as entirely out of harmony with the whole
Scripture narrative. The Bible nowhere reveals to
us the slightest trace of any such estrangement ex-
isting in the heart of Abel. His worship was an
act, not of oppressive fear, but of the very opposite,
faith. His offering was not made for the purpose
of working any change in th(>heai-t of God toward
himself ; or ev en of working a change in his heart
toward God, — except in so far as it may have been
designed to cherish and intensify the confidence and
love, and other holy affections he already enter-
tained. Instead of his sacrifice being designed to
make his heart right toward God, it was the evidence
that his heart was right. — " By ivhich he ohtaiiied
witnesH that he was righteous, the Lord testifying of
his gifts ; and by it he being dead yet speaketh ; " '^
and what he says to us is, that whoever would wor-*

*Rev. Alfred Cave, in his work on " The Scriptural ductriue of
Sacrifice," page 41.

-4f-

66 OUli RELIGION AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

ship God acceptably, must come to Him in loving
confidence as to the Friend of sinners, and with the
earnest trust that He will prove a Re warder of them
that diligently seek Him. The recognising of sa-
ciifice as a definite symbol of atonement, belongs
to a later stage of Scripture history.

If we who live in the midst of the light of New
Testament times, can not only confide in God as did
the saints of the eailiest days, but can also explain
minutely the ground of our confidence, we should
be didy thankful for this clearer latter-day light ;
yet we are not at liberty to forget, that the essen-
tial thing is not the, explanation of the ground
of confidence, but confidence itself, that same
loving confidence which made Abel's worship ac-
ceptable of old.

Cain's worship was of a very difterent kind. He
also brought an ottering unto the Lord ; but his of-
fering was not accepted. Why ? Because it was
not a lamb or a kid ? Cain had neither lambs nor
kids ; he did not keep sheep ; he was a tiller of the
ground; the proper gift for him to bring therefore
was fruit. Had Cain's heart been right, no excep-
tion would have been taken to his ottering. " For

BEGINNING OF FORMAL trORSHtP.

if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted accord-
ding to that a man hath, and not according to that
he hath not." i

The fundamental defect in Cain's offering is to be
found in the fact, that it was not the genuine utter-
ance of a trusting heart ; it was all outward ; a mere
form. We have many ways of learning this ; and
first, Cain's bringing an ottering at all seems to have
been a sort of imitatino- of what he had seen his
brother Abel do. This does not appear in our ver-
sion of the narrative, but in the original Hebi'ew
the passage reads, — " And in process of time it came
to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground
an offering unto the Lord. And Abel he also had
brought of the firstlings of his ilock, and of the fat
thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel and
to his offering, but unto Cain and to his ottering
He had not respect." - The narrative implies, —
that Abel's ott'erino* was first brou'dit and ac-
cepted, and that Cain's ottering was In-ought moi'e
tardily and i-ejected ; — and that Cod had respect
imto Abel's ottering because He had respect unto
Abel himself, and that He rejected Cain's ottering
because He rejected Cain himself

i— »■

G8 OUR RELIGION AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

.«

We have further evidence of tlie cold, formal
spirit in which Cain worshipped, in his bringing, not
the best he had as Abel had done, — not the first-
fruits, but simply "of the fruit of the ground."
Moreover, he was a wicked man, one who re-
garded iniquity in his heart. We learn tais from
his subsequent conduct which showed plainly what
manner of spirit he was of; and this judgment of
him is confirmed by the New Testament statement,
that he " was of that wicked one."^ Cain's heart
was impious, and however correct as to time and
place and form his act of worship may have been,
it \A'^as worthless in the sight of Goil, because not
performed in spirit and in truth. It was the mere
husk and semblance of devotion, and was worse
than valueless, for in that it professed to express
heart homage where there was none, it was an hypo-
critical pretence.

But why such a difierence between two brothers
who liad the same parents, and had also, it may be
presumed, the same early training ? If having been
born so near the gates of Paradise, and so soon after
the days of his parents' innocency, and having heard
from them the story of God's mercy and grace, were

BEGIIStNING OF FORMAL WORSHIP.

the natural reason for Abel's willing confidence in
God, — should not Cain have been still more ready
to trust his Heavenly Father, seeing he was the
first-born ? We might attribute this difference di-
rectly and solely to the inscrutable sovereignty of
Divine grace, as in the case of Jacob and Esau^ ;
but God usually works in accordance with natural
laws, and the difference between the characters of
Cain and Abel may perhaps be accounted for in a
perfectly natural way. Before the birth of Cain,
his mother had met with Satan ; had her heart cor-
ru})ted with his wiles ; had passed through all the
dreadful experiences connected with the Fall ; had
heard her husband throw upon her the whole blame
of their guilt ; and had listened to the fearful curses
pronounced upon the Serpent, the earth, her hus])and
and herself in consequence ; — Little wonder that her
firp-t-born son was " of that wicked one," a man of
cruel heart and bloody hand. In a way quite as na-
tural might we perhaps account for the meeker and
more docile disposition of Abel, who was born of a
chastened spiiit and ])eneath more hopeful skies.
Beginning life with different natural temperaments,
from whatever cause, the two sons would be differ-

ip^

70 OVB RELIGION AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

ently affected by the same course of training. The
human mind, like a magnet, draws fi'om tlie heap of
tilings the metals for which it has affinity. If its
affinities are with things that are lovely and of good
report, it will choose these things from among the
mass ; if its affinities are more strongly with things
that are base, it will as certainlv draw to itself
these. Thus the good man becomes his own in-
structor in virtue, while the bad man schools
himself into deeper mysteries of vice. " For
whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he
shall have abundance ; but whosoevei* hath not,
from him shall oe taken away, even that he
hath."i From the story told him by his pa-
rents, concerning their innocency and fall, and the
mingled displeasure and kindness of God, the heart
of Abel would draw such thoughts as would tend
to cherish and increase his filial trust in God ; while
the mind of Cain would draw only that which
woidd foster and intcTisify his feeling of aversion ;
he would o -ell chiefly upon tlie curse. So that at
length, when Abel brought an offering to the Lord,
he came in faith and under the promptings of love ;
wl^ile Cain came in fear, out of a cold sense of duty,

BEGINNING OF FORMAL WORSHIP.

or still worse, because he believed God was not his
Friend, and felt that he must do something to ap-
pease His anger and merit His good -will. And so,
thus early in the history of humanity, do we find
the doctrine of faith and the doctrine of works set
over against each other, and both are manifested in
the same way, namely, through forms of worship.
And thus also are we taught from the first, that we
may expect to find hypocrisy and disguised wicked-
ness, as certainly as truth and righteousness, in
connexion with the professed worship of God.
Wherever acts of devotion are not the spontaneous
expression of reverence and love, really existing in
the heart, there is likely to be, not simply error
lurking among them, but also a germ of wicked-
ness, concealed it may be from the worshipper him-
self, yet ready to spring up and curse the world.

It has been from among acts of worship thus per-
formed, that there has sprung the bitterest enmity,
the deadliest hatred, the most cruel persecution in
the name of religion. In this, Cain has had a large
following. He has built a city and called it by a
pious name, but its inhabitants have been Cainites.

Abel's religion was a life of friendship with God,

72 OUB RELIGION AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

friendship which was not unconscious of sinfulness
and the deepest unworthiness, but which sought
ways of expressing humble confidence in God, and
of maintaining intimate fellowship with Him as the
sin-forgiving Father. The feeling in Abel's heart
has been reproduced in the prophetic utterance : — ■
" O Lord, I will praise thee : though thou wast
angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and
thou comfortedst me. Behold, God is my salva-
tion; I will trust and not be afraid: for the Lord
JjEHOVAH is my strength and my song ; he also is
become my salvation." ^

Cain's religion consisted in a sjniit of fear and
distrust, which found expression in the observance
of certain forms, prompted in part by a spiiit of
imitation, and in part by the feeling that something
must be done, and which, in so far as they had any
spiritual significance, betrayed a sinful want of con-
fidence in the Being to whom they were oft'ered.

Abel's was that delightful kind of heart worship
to which our race must vet return ; Cain's was a
sin-begotten innovation, and was the original type
after which much of the worshi}), which has been in
thfe world from that day to this, has been modelled,

CHAPTER IV.

ORIGIN AND USE OF "SACRED THINGS,"
AND "PLACES OF WORSHIP."

t '

; : i.

CHAPTER IV.

ORIGIN AND USE OF "SACKED THINGS," AND " PLACES

OF WORSHIP."

^i ]^ Y the term " sacred tilings " is commonly meant
<S?V things which are used only in connection with
the worship of God, or which have in some way been
specially set apart to His service. The word sacred
is used in a wider and less definite sense, however.
It is applied indiscriminately to things entitled to
reverence, relating to God, relating to religion in
general. It is not a Bible word ; it does not
occur once in our version of the Scriptures. Even
its synonym holy is not used in all that part of the
Bible which covers the first twenty-three centuries
of the world's history, the book of Genesis. It is
found for the first time in Exodus iii. 5: — "Put ofi*
thy shoes from oft' thy feet; for the place whereon
thou standest is holy ground."

tU' I 4

I" if

■

I',!

r ■

'.'i

■

76 017« RELIGION A8 IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

In the beffinninjx there was no need for set forms of
worsliip ; tliere were tlierefore no sacred symbols.
Work was worship and all things were alike sacred.
Holiness to the Lord was written upon everything, as
it will be yet again, upon things pertaining to every
department of human life, whether to business, plea-
sure, or what is now termed worship. " In that day
shall there be upon the bells of the horses Holiness
UNTO THK Lord ; and the pots in the Lord's house
shall be like the bowls before the altar. Yea every
pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness un-
to the Lord of Hosts." ^

In tlie garden of Eden there was a tree whose
fruit was forbidden; but there was no Holy of Holies.
And even after mankind were driven out of the gar-
den, the same thino- was true of the whole earth for
many centuries. Worship was free and all-pervad-
ing. Since God had spoken kindly to men, and en-
couraged them to believe that He was still their God,
the pious of those earlv days trusted Him as their
Friend, and held intimate communion with Him in
all manner of places, under a tree near the tent
door, or by a fountain of water in the wilderness,
or by a well at Padan Ai-am ; wherever night hap-

SACRED PLACES ANT) THINGS.

pened to overtake the traveller, there was his Bethel,
his Mahanaiiii, his Peniel. If an altar was to be
built, it must be built of rough stones, such i>s could
be gathered in any part of that stony country ; and
it might be erected anywhere, in the plain of Mamre,
or on the top of Mount Moriah, or wherever the '
worshipper chanced to be. Those were the days
when men " walked with God " and worshipped
Him beneath the open sky, believing that He was to
be found everywhere, and everywhere alike. Like
some of a later day, they saw God's smile in the sun-
light, they heard His voice in the thunder, the
lightnings that lightened the world were His light-
nings, the great rivers were rivers of God, the
mighty cedars were trees of the Lord's planting, the
cattle upon a thousand hills were His, and the heaven,
even the heavens were the Lord's. Religion was to
men as their meat and their drink. It was inwoven
with their daily life ; their worship could be restric-
ted to no particular places or forms, their plouhging
was holy as their prayers. In the Book of Genesis,
therefore, we read of no particularly sacred place or
sacred thing, no ark of the covenant, no tabernacle
no temple, no church. And even for a time after

rt ! It

('^

7«' OUR RELIGION AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

the close of the history eontaiiietl in the Book of Gen-
esis, there appears no trace of any disposition on the
part of God's people, to associate the thou<;ht of His
presence and favour exclusively with any humanly
fashiontMl symbol. It was otherwise witli the na-
tions Ivinjj: around Palestine, and even with some
of the tribes inhabiting the Holy Land. The germs
of idolatry which are to be found lurking in the
motive that had prompted the building of the tower
of Babel, took root in many soils and brought forth
abundant fruit. The gods which Rachel stole from
her father's house in Padan Aram, and brought with
her to Canaan, were part of that fruit; but it appears
to have perished when brought to the Land of
Promise ; it did not bloom in Jacob's family.

And long after Jacob's death, and in another land,
there was still one at least, who could commune
with God beneath the open sky as his fathers from
of oKl had done. The rock-ribbed hills of the de-
sert of Madian were the walls of the temple in
which the shepherd Moses worshipped ; the blue
canopy of heaven was its dome, and the burning
bush was the book from whose flaming leaves God
spake to him. And when Moses was chosen of God

SACRED PLACES AND THINGS.

to load His people fortli tVoin their bonda*,^', the
only sacred symbol he was eoininissioned to take
with him, to the accomplishment of his task, was
the staff on which he had leane<l in the di.schar^e of
his daily duties, the rod which had been of service to
him as he tended his father-in-law's Hocks.

What then was the origin of the places of wor-
ship, and the sacred things which obtained not long
afterward among the chosen people ? The origin of
these things is to be found in connection with the
residence of the children of Israel in Egypt. *' Tem-
ples first come before the eye of history in heathen,
not Hebrew records, among the monuments of Egy])t
and Assyria." *" Men who walked with Ood every-
where as did Abraham, and received manifestation
of His presence by ministry of angels, and visions of
the night, were not likely to b(» the first to conceive
of that compromise with a distant Deity, which is
the idea of the temple." ^ " An increasing sense of
being under the wrath of God, and of distance from
God ; an impression that earth and time, as connec-
ted with man, are unholy, in course of time wrought
the belief that God will not come near to listen to
the solicitations of man, except in times set apart as

Mr*

80 OUE RELIGION AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

holy, and upon consecrated ground. An area desig-
nated by some consecrating ceremonies constituted
the first temple. It was merely a sacred spot in the
field, and in the air about it. To surround that spot
with a cord or some other visible boundary, then to
erect a tent within its limits for convenience of the
person conducting the worship, were natural steps
in the history." ^ May we not follow the history a
little farther, and see in a modern church with its
tower or spire, a full grown development of the tent
erected for the convenience of the ancient worship-
per, together with the pillar or heap of stones he
was accustomed to set up to the honour of his God,
or in commemoration of some solemn oath or vow
there taken ; only that now the pillar or heap of
stones has lost :nuch of its original significance, and
instead of being erected beside the tent, is erected
upon it ? But our modern places of worship have
been modelled after more ancient Jewish temples
and synagogues ; we must therefore trace the con-
nection between these and corresponding sacred
places and things among the Egyptians.

The long sojourn of the Children of Israel in
Lgypt, among a people who regarded their gods

SACRED PLACES AND THINGS,

not as friends but as enemies whose antj^er needed
to be appeased, had in course of time the etfect of
destroying that sense of companioi ship with God
which His people hail formerly loved to cherish. The
germ of that estrangemenc from God which cast its
shadow over the whole worship of the Egyptians, is
native to the heart of fallen man, and was already
lurking in the Hebrew mind, and needed but the
light of heathen example, and the various fostering
influences of Egyptian bondage, to cause it to de-
velop into a feeling of total alienation. Accord-
ingly, under all tl ese adverse influences, the chosen
people soon began to feel that they could no longer
walk with God in spirit, and worship Him every-
where as their fathers had done, but must have cer-
tain sacred places, things, and times, by which God
might receive them to His presence and communion.
Without th<^se they felt that it would be in vain for
them to p. -ju? ' to approach Him. In pit3^ for
their weakness, therefore, God instructed Moses to
make the Tubernacle, and Table of Shewbread, and
the Ark of fch<» Covenant, and all the sacred vessels
to be used in formal worship. It seems to have
been in Egypt that they found the idea of the ark,

82 OUR RELIGION AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

and the tabernacle, and several other features of
worship, which were by Divine appointment woven
into their ritiinl — an evidence of the transcendent
compassion of God in adapting His redemptive pro-
visions to human frailty. "We need not go to heathen
records," says Dean Stanley, " for the assurance that
Moses was 'learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians.'
Whatever that wisdom was, w^e cannot doubt it was
turned to its own good purpose in the laws through
him revealed to the people of God. The very min-
uteness of the law implies a stage of existence dif-
ferent from that in which the Patriarchs had Uved.
but like to that in which we know that the Egyp-
tians lived. The forms of some of the most solemn
services-^as, for example, the Scapegoat — are al-
most identical. The white linen <lresses of the
priests, the Uriiii and Thummim on the high-priest's
breast-plate, are, to all apn-arance, derived from the
same source as the anrJofro is emblems amonfjst the
Egyptians. The sacred ark, as {»ortrayed on the
monuments, can hardly fail to have some relation
to that which was borne V»y the Levites at the head
of the host, and which was finally enshrined in the
Tei.iple. The Temple, at least in some of its most

.<AGRED PLAGES AND THINGS.

remarkable features, — its courts, its successive cham-
bers, and its adytum, or Holy of" Holies, — is more
like those of E<^ypt than any others of the ancient
world with which we are acquainted. In these and
in many other instances we may fairly trace a true
affiliation of such outward customs and forms, as in
like manner at a later period, 'he Christian Church
took from the Pagan ritual of the empire in which
it had sojourned for its four hundied years. It is
but an expansion of the one fact which has always
arrested the attention of commentators, and which
in its widest sense, is a salutary warning against
despising the greatness and the wisdom of the
heathen.

' This world of thine, by him usurped too long,

Now opens all her stores to heal thy servants' wrong.'

Rachel carried ofi" her father's teraphim from
Mesopotamia ; the wives and daughters of Israel
carried off from Egypt the sacred gems and vest-
ments, which afterwards served to adorn the priestly
services of the Tabernacle. ' When ye go ye shall
not go empty. But every woman shall borrow of
her neighbour . . . jewels of silver and jewels
of gold, and raiment, and ye shall put them upon

84 OUR RELIGION AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

your sons and upon your daughters . . . And
the Lord gave the people favour in the sight of the
Egyptians, so that they lent unto them such things
as they required, and they spoiled the Egyptians.'

Yet the contrast was always greater than the like-
ness. When we survey the vast array of ancient ideas
rej)resented to us in the Egyptian tein[)les and sepul-
chres, the thought forced upon us is rather of the
fewness than of the frequency of the illustrations
wiiich they furnish."^

But while the outward form of several of the
sacred symbols of the Jewish ritual, was closely an-
alogous to that of corresponding heathen symbols,
the whole inner life and meaning was changed and
immeasurably elevated. This is in harmony with
God's method of working every wliere. In the great
realm of nature " Fishes, reptiles, birds and mam-
mals, predecessors of man, ])resentedin tlieir frames,
anticipations of more perfect structui-es which char-
acterize him. They had arrr^ngements to protect
the eye and the organ o\' hearing, a long vault to
contain the brain, and limits for various functions
necessary to their well-being. ' It is evident,' says
Agassiz, ' that there is a manifest progress in the sue-

S A CUED PLACES AND THINGS.

cession of beings on the surface of tl»e eartli. Tliis pro-
gress consists in an increasing similarity to the living
fauna ; and among the vertehrata, especially in their
increasing resem])lance to man. But this connection
is not tlie consequence of a direct lineage between
the faunas of different ao-es. There is nothino' like
parental descent connecting them.' " ^

As in the Vei^etable and Animal Kinn:<lonis there
is a gradually ascending series of typical forms, in
which each higher order has been made to copy
something from the next lower, until man is reached ;
yet the life and spirit animating man is infinitely
higher than that of any of the lower forms :— 80
the ark, and the tabernacle, and the piiestly
vestments of the Jews, though by Divine ap-
pointment copying something from similar sym-
bols in use among the heathen, were made to
possess a spiritual significance which was infinitely
higher.

All the appointments of the early Jewish ritual,
instead of teaching the people to imitate the worship
of the Egyptians, were so arranged as to lead the
worshippers away from the false heathen notions of
Deity with which they had become too familial*, and

80 OUR RELIGION AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

back to the true view of Jehovah as the holy Gotl,
yet tlie Friend of man.

The Tahernacle — Jehovah's tent — taught them
tliat God was so mucli their Friend tliat He was
willing; to dwell amoni; them. In that it was like
their own tetits, not permanently fixed, but movable,
as was befitting their migratory life, it told them of
God's omnipresence, and of the constancy of His
kindiiess and protecting care. It was from the
Tabernacle Moses was taught to begin his most sub-
lime prayer with the words, " Lord, Thou hast been
our dwelling-place in all generations." ^

The saciifices to be offered in connection with the
Tabernacle service, kept the people in remembi-ance
of the holiness and justice of God, oi; the claim He
had upon them and all they possessed, — kept them
in mind of their own sinfulness as well, and were at
the same time suggestive types of the way by which
God could be the just God and yet their Saviour.

The ark of the Covenant, intimately associated as
it was with the Book of the Law, taught them with
what reverence they must ever regard God's word
and will —not to speak of the precious significance
of the mercy seat ; and, with its pot of manna and

SACRED PLACES AND THINGS.

its budding' rod, it taught them also how sacredly
they must evei-more cherish the remembrance of ;ill
l)ust favours received from God. The idea of associ-
ating God's presence and service exclusively with
those symbols, wa not to be for a moment enter-
tained. On the contrary, one great end whicli all
those sacred things were designed to serve was, to
lead the people out to wider views of the nature and
chai-acter of God, and to teach them again how to
walk with Him and worship Him everywhere. This
was conspicuously true at a latei* time of the Temple
and all its appointments. The idea of localizing
God's favour, and (confining His presence to a par-
ticular building, was not in the mind of Solomon when
he built the Temple, — even though at its dedication
he addressed to Jehovah the words : " I have surely
built thee an house to dwell in, a settled place for thee
to abide in for ever." ^ Read the twenty-seventh
verse of that same eighth chapter of First Kings :
" But will God indeed dwell on the earth ^. Behold !
the heaven, and heaven of heavens cannot contain
thee ; how^ much less this house that I have budded 1"
What the Iniilder of the Temjde aimed at was, not
the localizing of the presence of God, but the cen-

:| !

88 OUR RELIGION AS IT WAS AND AS IT fS

tering of tlio tliouo-hts and catfections of the people
upon Him as their God wlierever they mi<^dit be ;
and e,sj)eeially teaehing them to associate tlie thought
of God intimately and tenderly with th<'ir home,
their country and their nation, that they might thus
be kept from ever having their minds corrupted
again by the false notions of Deity pi'e vailing either
among the Egyptians or among any other heathen
people with whom they might at any time be made
to dwell. This is implied througlumt the whole of
Solomon's dedicatory prayer. " If thy people go out
to battle against their enemy whithersoever thou
shalt send them, and shall pray unto the Lord to-
ward the city which thou hast chosen, and toward
the house that I have built for thy name. Then
hear thou in heaven their prayer and their supplica-
tion, and maintain their cause. If they sin against
thee (for there is no man that sinneth not), and thou
be angry with them, and deliver them to the enemy,
so that they carry them away captives unto the land
of the enemy, far or near ; yet if they shall bethink
themselves in the land whither they were carried
captives, and repent, and make supplication unto
thee in the land of them that carried them captives,

111 m 'i

CACHED PLACES AND THINGS.

saying : Wo liavo sinned and liavo done pcrvcrsoly,
we have conniiitted wickedness; and so return unto
thee with all their heart, and with all their soul, in
the land of" their enemies which led them away
caj)tive, and pray unto thee toward their land whieh
tliou <^avest unto their fathers, the city which thou
hast chosen, and tlie house which 1 have built for
thy name : Then hear thou their prayer and their
supj)lication in heaven thy dwelling-place, and main-
tain their cause. . . . For thou didst separate
them from among all the people of the earth to be
thine inheritance, as thou spakest by the hand of
Moses thy servants wlien thou broughtest our fathei's
out of Egypt, O Lord God." ^

That this was the true idea of the Temple is indi-
cated with equal clearness in the words of blessing
with which Solomon closed his dedicatory prayer : —
" The Lord our God be with us as he ivas 'with our
fathers ; let him not leave us, nor forsake us. That
all the people of the earth may know that the Lord
is God, and that there is none else. Let your heart
therefore be perfect with the Lord our God, to walk
in his statutes, and to keep his commandment as at
this day."' "

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«0 (tun JiELTGION A.'< IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

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For confirmation oi" this view of the «>eneral
mrjining of the Temple, call to mind the ardent
attaeliment of devout Jews to the worsliip of the
true God during tlie long years of their captiv-
ity. Listen while they sing, " By the rivers of
Babylon, there we sat down, yea we wept when
we i'em(;mbered Zion. We hanged our harps upon
the willows in tlie midst thereof. For tliere they
that carried us away captive required of us a song ;
and they that wasted us requiredof us mirth, saying,
sing us one of the songs of Zion. How shall we sing
the Lord's song in a strange hind ? If 1 forget thee
Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning
If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to
the roof of my mouth ; if I prefer nut Jerusalem
above my chief joy." ^ Or join with the Jews as
they go up to the great yearly festival after their
return from exile, singing : — " I was glad when they
.said unto me: let us go into the house of the Lord.
Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem." •'
Their attachment to their saci'ed places, things, and
times, had thus, by Divine appointment, been the
means of keeping them from wandering from God
while surrounded by heathen influences.

SACJiED FLACKS AND THINGS.

!>l

We have tlniH far seen tliat the syiiihols em-
ployed hy the Jews in tlie worsliip of (lod were not
in use from the hei^innin^'. (Jod's people had wor-
shipped Ilim aceeptahly for many centuries without
tiiose synihols. We have ol)sei"ved that "sacred
thin<rs " owe their ()ri<:fin to man's sinfulness and his
increasing sense of estrangement from God ; hut
that their use as symbols of woi'ship is of Divine
appointment, and is a manifestation of that depth of
Divine pity, by reason of which God a(laj)tsthe ])ro-
visions of His grace to man's increasing need. We
have noted that the origin and outwai'd form of the
symbols themselves are matters of minor importance ;
that the thing of essential value is the inner s[)ir-
itual meaning which the outward form is made to
express.

It has been indicated also that " sacred things "
and " places of worship " are not things of eternal
necessity, but are only temporary expedients em-
ployed to lead men back to a condition from which
they have lapsed, and that their use will cease when
they have served their day. Had men been able to
maintain and exercise a. proper sense of the holi-
ness, justice and love of God, without the use of

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92 OUH HFAAGION AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

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symbols, the use of symbols would never have
been Divinely appointed. Could the chosen people
have continued to worship in spirit and in truth
in connection with their daily use of the things of
this life, there would have been no need for the
appointment of specified ])laces and foims. And
when the forms of worship now in use, shall have
fully accomplished their true end, worship will
thereafter consist not so much in the occasional use
of set times and things, as in holding communion
with God everywhere, and in living unto Him in
purity of heait and uprightness of life in the midst
of the proper use of the present world.

CHAPTER Y.

THE HOUSEHOLD, THE CHURCH, AND
RELIGIOUS CONVERSATION,

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CHAPTER V.

THE HOUSEHOLD, THE CHURCH, AND RELIGIOUS

CONVERSATION.

j5TLN reading that portion of the Bible which covers
var> the first twenty-throe centuries of the world's
history, we find no mention of the gathering of
people together to listen to preaching, or to engage
in prayer and praise and similar devotional exer-
cises, as people gather now. Noah was commissioned
to warn men of the coming of the flood, and in this
capacity he is called a "Preacher of righteousness;" ^
and it is possible that Noah erected a pulpit, and
that people gathered about him in great numbers
to hear his message of warning, and that he
argued long and earnestly from week to week in
support of his message, deducing illustrations
from the fearful corruption of the age, and the
judgments that were even then overtaking many

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96 OUM RELIGION AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

on account of their iniquities. It is more probable,
however, that Noah's cry of warning was uttei-ed
as at a later day Jonah's was — the preacher going
up and down the streets and crying, Yet so many
days and the flood shall come. But however this may
be, the preaching of Noah was entirely exceptional ;
it was an extraordinary necessity, arising out of the
abuse of the family relation. " And it came to pass,
when men began to multiply on the face of the
earth, and daughters were born unto them, that the
sons of God saw the daughters of men that they
were fair ; and they took them wives of all which
they chose. And the Lord said. My Spirit shall
not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh,
yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty
years."^ Had the family relation been maintained
in its purity, the preaching of Noah would never
have been called for.

But though there was no regular public preach-
ing in those early times, there was a regularly
ordered way of imparting religious instruction.
Owing to the frele and all-pervading nature of reli-
gion, no distinction was made between religious
instruction and useful information of any kind.

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THE EOUSEHOLI) AND THE CHURCH. 9?

Instruction pertaining to all departments of human
conouct was given as occasion required, in connec-
tion with the ordinary duties of lifs. Directions
concerning the tenure of property, and the offering
of sacrifice, and the tilling of the fields, and the
observance of the rite of circumcision, were inter-
blended and woven together as being alike import-
ant in the serving of the Lord. And there was
provision made for having wise instruction regard-
ing all these things properly transmitted as the years
rolled by. The home was the school ; the father
was the teacher. The household was also the church,
and the father was the minister. It was through
home training a nation was to become great ; it was
through household religion that all families of the
earth were to be blessed. The sum of what the
Bible of the first two thousand years teaches upon
this subject is contained in the words, " Abraham
shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and
all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him ;
For I know him that he will command his children
and his household after him, and the}^ shall keep
the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment ;

that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which
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08 OUB HELiaiON AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

He liath spoken of him."^ In harmony with this
idea we find it recorded in the next to the last chap-
ter of Genesis, that the dying Jacob gathered his
sons around his bedside, and addressed them one by
one in the language and spirit of prophecy, and
gave them his parting blessing. And in the follow-
ing chapter we read that " Joseph dwelt in Eg^^pt,
he and his father's house. And Joseph lived an
hundred and ten years. And Joseph saw Ephraim's
children of the third generation ; the children also
of Machir the son of Manasseh were brought up
upon Joseph's knees." ^

What then was the origin of what is now termed
the Congregation ? The origin of the Church in
this collective and personal sense, is to be found
where we have already found the origin o" the
Church in the individual and local sense, namely,
in the bondage in Egypt. During the sojourn of the
children of Israel in Egypt, the rights of parents
were so sadly interfered with that the family ceased
to be the centre of religious influence. Through con-
tact with the heathen, and through the degradati
of slavery, the parents themselves lost the true idei*
of religion, and needed to be re-instructed before

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TJfJ^J HOV8EH0LD AND THE CHURCH.

they could become the teachers of their houseliolds.
Hence the need of the institution of the Church in
'' e sense of the congregation. It whs necessary
that men such as Moses and Aaron, Nahab and
Abihu, Caleb and Joshua, and the priests and elders
in general, should be raised up hy God to be public
teachers. As teachers were few it was n€!cessary
that the people should often be gathered in great
numbers to listen to the teaching of one man.
But it was not the intention that this should be the
sole method of imparting religious instruction, or
even the chief method. It was rather an expedient,
designed to restore the original influence of the
household. While the public teacher imparted
knowledge in its varying forms, he was careful to
add the exhortation : — " Thou shalt teach these
things diligently unto thy children." ^ 1 he house-
hold, and not the Church — the family circle, and
not the public assemblage — was still to be the
chief scene and centre of religious training and
instruction.

But together with the household and the Church
— binding them both in one, and rendering the
instruction imparted by both more practical, there

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100 OUR RELIGION AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

was another divinely appointed means of cultivat-
ing religious life and knowledge — religious conver-
sation.

The nature of true religious conversation depends
upon the nature of true religion. And true religion
is not a mere system of doctrines, nor a bundle of
impulses and emotions ; nor does it consist in the
sum of all the religious services a man attends, and
all the prayers he offers, and all the hymns he sings,
and all the chapters of the Bible he reads, — though
all these are important adjuncts of religion. Religion
is a life. It consists in the giving of the heart's best
love to God, and then living unto God every day and
hour under the secret promptings of this love. Not
that a man is to carry about with him any emotions
which are unnatural, or any manner of speech or of
general deportment which savours of the affected and
the unreal ; but that he is to be a good and true
man, having a sincere regard to the presence and
honour of God, as the foundation of his whole life ;
and having an inw^ard consciousness of being re-
stored to terms of such intimate fellowship with
God as to lead him, without effort, and even with-
out premeditation, to delight in the thought of God

IS.

THE HOUSEHOLD AND THE VHURCH. 101

and of his relationship to Him. Such a manner of
living, producing appropiiate results both in the
moulding of the inner character, and the shaping
of the outward conduct, is what we understand
by a religious life. Such a life will have its
set times for observing what are known as strictly-
religious duties. It will have its hours for prayer
and song, and the reading of the Word of God ; and
it will attend upon these exercises diligently and
with delight. But these are only its meal times'
and its pastimes. The staple of such a life is to he
found elsewhere, — ami-1 the cares of the household,
the workshop or the street, — where prayer will still
be offered, but offered for the most part in the se-
crecy of the heart j where songs may still be sung,
but sung chiefly with the silent melody of the soul ;
where God's word and will can still be read, not
from the pages of His written revelation, but from
the pages of the Old Testament of nature, and the
New Testament of His daily providence ; and where
other forms of worship may be delightfully ob-
served — every relation of life becoming suggestive
of some higher truth, — every object which the eye
can look upon or the hand can handle, becoming a

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102 OUR RELIGION AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

symbol of worship containing for the truly religious
heart some precious thought of God.

If this is religion, what is religious conversation,
and where is it to be found ? It is not to be found
in the services of the Church. As a rule the wor-
shippers do not converse together in those services.
Of necessity such services must be orderly and
formal. The idea of freedom and familiarity and
the absence of constraint, is a prominent feature of
conversation in the common acceptation of the term.
We shall best understand where and how religious
conversation may be engaged in, by considering its
character and general scope. There is a kind of
religious conversation which cannot be commended.
It is hypocritical, and unnatural, and unsavoury to
common sense. But because certain ways of speak-
ing familiarly about religious concerns are false, it
is not to be argued that therefore all ways are false.
On the contrary, the false proves the existence of
the true.

True religious conversation will have a great
breadth of range. It will not be confined exclu-
sively to the gospel, nor to the respective merits of
conflicting doctrines, nor to the subject of missions.

THE HOUSEHOLD AND THE CHUIWH. 103

nor to church work in geneml, nor even to the all-
important question of the eternal destiny of the
iuiniortal spirit, and the importance of every man
attending without delay to the matter of the safet}^
of his own soul. All these are questions of the
utmost moment, yet they j)ertain chiefly to only
one side of religious life. For religion has two
sides, a heavenward side and an earthward side; a
side which deals chiefly with spiritual things, and a
side which deals mainly with natural things. As
to its earthward side, it is a life that is lived in
accordance with the divine injunction, " Whether
therefore ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do
all to the glory of God." ^ And by doing things
to the glory of God is not to be understood doing
them with some mystic accompaniment of thought
and emotion. It is doing them in accordance with
the Divine intent ; — abusing nothing, but using all
things and all relations in conformity with the
Divine law and wull, and form a devout regard
to that will — not through feai but in loving con-
fldence — so that all that is done shall tend to
manifest forth the Divine perfections.

If we would know the full scope of religious

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104 OUR RELIGION AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

conversation, we have only to turn to the moral
law, and measure its breadth as we find it indi-
cated in the words : " Thou shalt love the Lord
thy God vdth all thy heart, and with all th}^
soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy
mind, and thy neighbour as thyself." ^ If we examine
the Ten Comr^.andments to know what is included
within this great field which has the Life of God
for its boundarv on one side, and the life of man for
its boundary on the opposite side, and the two-fold
lines of love as the connecting boundaries betw^een
we find that these commandments relate to every-
thing which can come within the sphere of man's
life, both here and hereafter ; to our allegiance to
God ; to our methods of worshipping ; to proprieties
of speech ; to the Sabbath in all its breadth ; to
every feature of man's relation to his fellowman, —
including business, pleasure, political life, — every-
thing.

Li this great field we find the proper topics
for religious conversation. This is no mere con-
jecture. We have it on the direct authority of
God. Immediately after delivering the law He
added the command : — " And these words which

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THE HOUSEHOLD AI^D THE CHURCH. 105

I command thee this day, shall be in thine
heart ; And thou shalt teach them diligently unto
thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou
sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by
the way, and when thou liest down, a,nd when thou
risest up." ^ To obey this command means, to have
genuine religious conversation form an important
part of all our conversation ; or rather, it is to con-
verse about all matters in the spirit of true religion.
It is difficult for us in these late days, and in this
western world to see how this can be done. Yet it
can be done, otherwise no such command would
have been given in connection with that law which
is universally binding. God's people seem to have
found little difficulty in regulating their conversa-
tion in accordance with this command in early
Scripture times. In the thirty -first chapter of Gene-
sis we hear Laban and Jacob talking together over
business matters. Laban is displeased, but the
thought of God's presence tempers his anger, and he
says to Jacob : " It is in the power of my hand to
do you hurt, but the God of your father spake unto
me yesternight, saying, Take thou heed that thou
speak not to Jacob either good or bad," ^ Jacob

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106 (yUE RELIGION AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

replies sharply, even bitterly, closing his reply with
the words : " Except the God of my father, the God
of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac had been with
me, surely thou hadst sent me away empty. God
hath seen mine affliction and the labour of my hands,
and rebuked thee yesternight."^

It may perhaps seem as though the men were
only quarrelling in the name of the Lord, as men
sometimes do still. Yet it was not so. The sense
of the relation they sustained to (me another in
God's sight tamed their wayward hearts, and
brought them to most tender reconciliation. "Laban
answered and said unto Jacob, These daughters are
my daughters, and these children are my children,
and these cattle are my cattle, and all that thou
seest is mine : And what can I do this day unto
these my daughters, or unto their children which
they have born ? Now therefore come thou, let us
make a covenant, I and thou."- So Jacob took a
stone and set it up for a pillar, and they gathered
stones and made an heap. "And Laban said to
Jacob, Behold this heap, and behold this pillar,
which I have cast betwixt me and thee. This heap
be witness and this pillar be witness, that I will not

THE HOUSEHOLD AND THE CHURCH. 107

pass over this heap to thee, and that thou shalt not
pass over this heap and this pillar unto me for harm.
The God of Abraham, and the God of Nahor, the
God of their father judge betwixt us. And Jacob
sware by the fear of his father Isaac." ^

Or if we turn to the Book of Ruth which is full
of the conversation of men and women of a later
time, we cannot fail to observe how naturally and
pleasantly the thought of the presence of God is
interwoven with all that is said and done. If
Naomi speaks to her daughters-in-law, she says :
" Go return each to her mother's house ; the Lord
deal kindly with you as ye have dealt with the
dead and with me. The Lord grant you that ye
may find rest each of you in the house of her hus-
band." 2 Or if Boaz comes out from Bethlehem to
see his reapers, his salutation to them is: "The
Lord be with you; "^ and their response is, " The
Lord bless thee." * Or if Boaz commends Ruth for
the kind and vdse course she has taken, it is in the
words : " The Lord recompense thy work, and a full
reward be given thee of the Lord God of Israel,
under whose wings thou art come to truat." ^ It is
not enough to say that this characteristic of oriental

108 OUR BELIGION AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

speech is owing simply to the highly poetic charac-
ter of the oriental mind, and that little account need
be taken of it, inasmuch as a similar style of speech
is to be found even among some of the wandering
Arabs to-day. It is manifest that this habit of
thought and speech owed its existence originally to
that constant sense of the overshadowing presence
of God, which is so marked a feature of the earliest
Scripture times.

It is not claimed that the devout weaving of
Divine titles and other sacred words into human
speech, will have the eftect of making men what
they should be. It is possible for a man to take
oath in the name of God with seemingly the deep-
est reverence, and at the same time act as basely as
ever Jacob did in the days of his meanness and
duplicity. But let the heart first be right, and
right to such an extent that the spirit of worship is
infused into the whole life, and the man whose life
is thus pervaded by the truly religious spirit will
be likely, in his ordinary speech, to make an honest,
natural, manly reference to the Great God and
Father whose world he is using, and to the will and
word ^nd law of Hiui from whose constant kindness

THE HOUSEHOLD AND THE CHURCH. 109

he receives all that he enjoys, — which is living in
accordance with the Scripture rule.

Is it said that the speech of such a man would
savour of weakness ? In the speech of the good
men whose conversation is recorded in scripture
tnere is nothing weak. The men who in conversing
upon the affairs of state, or of ordinary business,
prefixed their utterances with a " Thus saith the
Lord," were men of strong characters and wills of
iron. We need them back again. There are good
and true men in the world to-day, whose conduct
and conversation is a marked approximation toward
the Scriptural standard. But it seems likely to be
long before any considerable proportion of mankind
shall have attained to this Divine ideal of religion,
and this Scriptural standard of conversation. The
spirit of the age in every country is, as yet, worldly
— iiot godly: Practically the thought of God's
presence and oversight has been banished from the
scenes of busy life. Work is work, and not in any
proper sense worship. The precept which requires
that all shall be done to the glory of God, is scarcely
recognised even as a theory. The thought of God
is utterly foreign to secular scenes. When intro-

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110 OUR RELIGION A,S IT H^'AS AND AS IT IS.

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duced into ordinary conversation it seems out of
place because out of its element, away from its
proper surroundings — new cloth on an old garment.
This is a state of things which the Church with
its present appointments seems powerless to remedy.
In fact, the idea commonly entertained of the ex-
clusive sanctity of the Church and it.« services, is
more likely to widen the breach between work and
worship, than to heal it. And if the public services
of the sanctuary are not faithfully supplemented
by this third divinely appointed means of spiritual
culture, religious conversation, this must inevitably
be the result. In certain respects the instruction
publicly imparted in the Church, is of value as the
locture from the professor s chair is of value. But
no student ever became skilled in his profession by
simply listening to lectures. There must afterwards
be the asking and answering of questions ; there
must be the applying of abstract principles to actual
cases, there must be the closest personal intercourse.
If ever religion is to be so learned that it will
become real religion — practical religion — they that
fear the Lord must speak often one to another. It
is of the first importance, therefore, that men learn

MOM

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THE HOUSEHOLD ANU THE CHURCH. Ill

how to talk freely and naturally in the name of the
Lord. God has provided a school in which at least
the rudiments of this highest of all arts may be
acquired. That school is the home — the original
centre of religious life and influence. There, and
there alone, can business and devotion be properly
made to begin to blend. They can meet in the
home from day to day as they can meet nowhere
else. While the members of the family converse
together upon the vp.rious scenes and incidents of
life, the goodness of God can be freely and hap-
pily acknowledged. His guidance can be sought,
and His blessing asked upon all the business and all
the pleasures in which the members of the house-
hold have any part. The names of the Father, Son,
and Spirit can become the sweetest of household
words.

And while God has provided this best of all
schools, He has at the same time set apart for
man one day in seven for the special culture of
this true practical religion. The family and the
sabbath are sister institutions ; they were born to-
gether in Eden; they went hand in hand in the
days of man's innocency. They were both given to

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112 OUB RELIGION AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

man at the first to be of special benefit to him in the
use he was commanded to make of this world, and
they should be similarly helpful still. The Scrip-
tures teach us that to this end the public services
of the day must be faithfully and joyfully waited
upon ; but at the same time the sabbath must be
made the most delightful of iiome days. Its rest
nmst be sweetened by the fragi*ance of home love
and home joy : and at some hour during the day,
the household should all assemble for the interested
reading of the word, and for communion together
upon the relation of the household and all its inter-
ests to God ; not with an eye to business, which
would be work ; but for the purpose of bringing the
hearts and Jives of all into more intimate companion-
ship with God, — which is the truest worship. And
if only the spirit of fellowship with God be
maintained, there is no department of man's work as
God's steward in this world, which may not be made
the topic of conversation during this most sweet
and sacred" hour. And if the conversation be inter-
spersed with prayer and song, deep and heartfelt,
yet unconstrained and free as the speech of child-
iiood, Eden and Heaven will not be far away.

l a i naiimpi ii wM i *

CHAPTER VI.

DECLINE OF EARLY SCRIPTURAL RELIGION,
WITH ATTEMPTS AT RESTORATION.

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TWilTWiit

CHAPTER VI.

DECLINE OF EARLY SCRIPTURAL RELIGION, WITH
ATTEMPTS AT RESTORATION.

HEN the children of Israel had their ideas
of religion and worship corrupted in Egypt,
and God became their Teacher, in the instruction
given them three ends were kept in view : — the ban-
ishing of error and wickedness from among them ;
the begetting of confidence and love in their hearts
toward God ; and the instituting of such observ-
ances as would, if properly used, be the means of
securing these ends, and be at the same time the
means of keeping them from ever wandering from
God again, whether through contact with sur-
rounding nations or otherwise. The appointments
of the Jewish ritual, so skilfully designed to accom-
plish these ends, were of value only in as far as they
did so. They .were of no value in themselves. They

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116 OUR RELIGION AS IT iVAS AND AS IT IS.

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were not instituted to be attended to as outward
observances which might be regarded as well-pleas-
ing to God. " I spake not unto your fathers nor
commanded them in the day that I brought them
out of the Land of Egypt, concerning burnt offer-
ings or sacrifices."^ These were but pictures and
shadows. " Obey my voice, and I will be your
God, and ye shall be my people." That was the
real thing all these appointments were designed to
teach.

But " thev hearkened not nor inclined their ear,
but walked in the counsels and in the imagination
of their evil heart, and went backward and not for-
ward." 2 They wandered farther and farther from
the primitive ideal of religion, and from the simpli-
city of the worship of the earliest times ; and in their
treatment of God and His methods of worship they
acted the part of foolish children. Failing to under-
stand that which was of chief value in the book
God placed before them, they were for a while
pleased with the pictures, — the types, the symbols
and forms ; but soon they grew we« ry of even these
and began to deface and destroy the book. They
overlooked the printed matter, the commandments,

DECLINE OF EARLY liELWION.

117

the statutes and judgments, and in course of time
abused and degraded their whole ritual.

The ways of abusing sacred things are mainly
three : First, making use of them in such a way as
to cause them to blot out of the mind the idea of
the omnipresence of God. This was one of the ear-
liest mistakes made by the Jews. They be-
gan to associate the thought of God's presence
and favour exclusively with their sacred places,
symbols, and times. They came to think that
God was near them when they worshipped Him in
connection with the ark, and the tabernacle, and the
holy day, and distant when they were not so em-
ployed. Or, at a later time, they felt that because
the Lord was in His holy Temple He was nowhere
else. They must, therefore, be devoutly circumspect
while engaged in His formal worship, but at other
times they might live as they pleased. This was the
germ out of which grew much of that inconsistency
which characterized the most religious among the
Jews in Old Testament times, as well as their succes-
sors the Scribes and Pharisees of Our Lord's Day. It
made them men who were most punctilious in their
observance of the forms of worship, yet who could

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go direct from the altar and rob the widow and op-
press the fatherless, and be guilty of all manner of
dishonest practices.

The second way of abusing sacred things is, — re-
garding them as possessing some peculiar virtue or
charm in themselves, by reason of which they may be
relied upon for salvation by the man who makes any
use of them whatever. The Jews had certain things
which they fancied were so sacred in themselves, that
their simple presence would be a safeguard against
evil. Theysometimes were so bold as to put to a prac-
tical test the virtue they believed resided in those
sacred things, and the result was uniformly disas-
trous. One of the most pointed instances of this is
to be found recorded in the fourth chapter of the
First Book of Samuel. The Israelites went out
against the Philistines to battle, and were smitten,
with the loss of about four thousand men. " And
when the people were come into the camp, the elders
of Israel said. Wherefore hath the Lord smitten us
to-day before the Philistines ? Let us fetch the ark
of the covenant of the Lord out of Shiloh unto us
that when it cometh among us, it may save us out
of the hand of our enemies. So the people sent to

Fi i

DECLINE OF EARLY RELIGION.

119

Shiloh, that they might bring from thence the ark
of the covenant of the Lord of Hosts, which dwelleth
between the Cherubims. And the two sons of Eli,
Hophni and Phinehas were there with the ark of
the covenant of God. And when the ark of the
covenant of the Lord came into the camp, all Israel
shouted with a great shout, so that the earth rang

atrain And the Philistines were afraid, for

they said, God is come into the camp. And they said,
Woe unto us ! for there hath not been such a thing

heretofore Be strong and quit yourselves

like men, ye Philistines, that ye be not servants
unto the Hebrews, as they have been to you ; quit
yourselves like men and fight. And the Philistines
fought, and Israel was smitten, and they fled every
man into his tent ; and there was a very great
slaughter ; for there fell of Israel thidiy thousand
footmen. And the ark of God was taken ; and the
two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas were slain." ^
This was what came of their regarding one of their
holiest things as possessed of saving virtue.

But the Jews were slow to learn that God meant
them to understand that the only place there could
be any holiness, which could profit them, was in

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120 OUB RELIGION AS IT IVAS AND AS IT 18.

their own hearts, and in that which their sacred
things represented. And failing to learn this, they
went on with their religious folly which they digni-
fied by the name of worship. They regarded sacri-
fices as things of great value in themselves, and
believed that the offering of them would be accept-
able to God, whatever might be the character of the
oflferer, or the disposition of heart in which they
were presented ; and the more of them that were
offered, the better pleased God would be.

In like manner also they regarded prayers as
possessed of a certain God-pleasing virtue, simply
as performances, and the value of them might be
measured by their number and their length. It is
these vain imaginations God rebukes so severely in
the first chapter of the Book of Isaiah : " To what
purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto
me ? saith the Lord ; I am full of the burnt-
offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts ; and I
delight not in the blood of bullocks or of lambs, or
of he-goats. When ye come to appear before me,
who hath required this at your hand, to tread my
courts ? Bring no more vain oblations ; incense is
an abomination unto me ; the new moons and

DECLINE OV EAHLY UELIGION.

121

sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away
with ; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Your
new moons and your appointed feasts my soul
hateth ; they are a trouble unto me ; I am weary
to bear them. And when ye spread forth your
hands^ I will hide mine eyes from you ; yea when
ye make many prayers I will not hear ; your hands
are full of blood. Wash you, make you clean ; put
away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes;
cease to do evil ; learn to do well ; seek judgement,
relieve the oppressed ; judge the fatherless ; plead
for the widow." '

God taught the Jews that forms of worship were
not instituted in order to please Him, in such a way
as to work some change within Him, by which He
would become better disposed toward mankind ;
but they were instituted to be helpful to man, both
as a means by which he might express his homage
to God, and as a means of cultivating in his heart
right dispositions toward God, and of elevating
man to a higher plane of moral and spiritual life ;
and if, through man's folly and pride of heart, those
forms were complacently observed, without any
regard to their true end — as if it were God and not

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122 QUE RELIGION AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS

mail that needed to be changed — they became
abominable in the sight of God.

The third way of abusing sacred things is, using
them as stepping-stones to conduct the worshipper
over to idolatry.

Man, as an immortal being, has an inherent
disposition to worship, which can be satisfied
only with spiritual things. And if the attempt
be made to satisfy this disposition by the use
of sensuous things, it will demand more and
more of such things, never crying enough. Leave
out the truly spiritual element of worship, and
bring in a gorgeous ritual, and soon the ritual must
be made still more elaborate. In proportion as
spirituality is low, forms must be high. It is with
religion and worship as with matters of ordinary
taste. In proportion as the taste is defective, the
objects which appeal to it mu."t be loud and showy.
High colours and the blare of the trumpet, for
the untutored eye and ear ; but for the man of
refined tastes and sensibilities, nothing can be too
subdued and chaste. The heart in which the spirit
of true religion dwells, needs no showy forms by
means of which to worship ; but if the spirit of true

DECLINE OF EARLY RELIGION.

123

religion be awanting, no limit can be placed upon
the use of forms ; — idolatry in one form or another
becomes inevitable. And the Jews were no ex-
ception to this rule. They first became so formal
in the offering of their multiplied sacrifices, that
they seem to have begun to wonder themselves
what it all meant, or at least what use God could
make of their offerings ; and in seeking an answer,
they drifted into the heathen notion, that sacrifices
were of some material value to the Being to whom
they were offered, either as food or otherwise.
This idea prevailed at a very early time among
the Hindoos. In the Vedas we read : — " By
sacrifices the gods are nourished." ^ The Hindoo
worshipper " was thoroughly persuaded that the
gods were capable of receiving benefit from
his sacrifices ; that they were fed by the abun-
dant products of his field or gai'den, were ex-
hilarated by the juices of the holy soma-plant,
were nerved by his impassioned prayers, were
solaced by the music of his hymns, and that in re-
compense for all such acts of piety the gods became
propitious to him." '^

The Jews, in the formality and sensuousness of

124 OUR RELIGION AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

their worship, fell into the same error, and in the
fiftieth Psalm God thus rebukes their folly : " I
will take no bullock out of thy house, nor he-
goat out of thy folds. For every beast of the forest
is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. I
know all the fowls of the mountain ; and the wild
beasts of the field are mine. If I were hungry
I would not tell thee ; for the world is mine, and
the fulness thereof Will I eat the flesh of bulls,
or drink the blood of goats ? Offer unto God
thanksgiving ; and pay thy vows unto the most
High." 1

But not content with associating heathen notions
with the appointments of their ritual, they threw
aside their ritual, and imported into their worship
the idolatry of the nations that lay round about
them. " They built the high places of Baal, which
are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause
their sons and their daughters to pass through the
fire unto Moloch." '^ " They also built them high
places, and images and groves on every high hill and
under every green tree." *

It was by steps such as these, that the simple,
heaven-born religion and worship of primitive times.

DECLINE OF EARLY RELIGION.

126

gradually declined, until it was degraded to the
level of abject heathenism.

But during all those centuries of gradual decline,
many efforts had been put forth toward having prim-
itive religion restored. This was the great end of
the life of Moses ; he led the people out of Egypt
and back toward their own land, where it was
hoped they would live in undisputed possession of
the soil, free from contaminating heathen influences,
and would walk with God in spirit and in truth and
worship Him everywhere, as the holiest of the ear-
lier time had done. It was with a view to the
better securing of this end, that the people were
caused to pass through the long discipline of law,
and of faith, to which they were subjected in the
wilderness. It was with the same end in view, that
Joshua was bidden go up and possess the land, driv-
ing the heaihen inhabitants out from before him.
In like manner, the Judges were successively raised
up to deliver the people from becoming again the
slaves of their heathen neighbours, as they had been
in Egypt. And even when, contrary to the Divine
approval, the people demanded a king to reign over
them that they might be like the nations around

J. iii

11 (\

III

120 OUM MELIQWN AS IT ^^AS AND AS IT IS.

them, it was so ordered of God that there were
among their kings some who had the true idea of
religion and worship. David was found a man after
God's own heart in this respect ; and the people
were never so near to becoming the people God
wished them to be, as in David's reign. Their ene-
mies were all subdued round about them, and their
king had the same idea of the free and all-pervading
nature of religion and worship, which holy men of
the early time had cherished. He had been brought
up as a shepherd lad in the wilderness, and while
fighting off the lion and the bear, had found God's
presence near. And at a later time, banished far
from the tabernacle and all its sacred appointments,
yet cherishing in his heart a deep love for them all,
and a still deeper love for Him whose constant
presence and loving favour they symbolized, he was
hunted among the rocks of the wild goats, and was
compelled to call upon God amid the fastnesses of
nature, with only the blue canopy abov^e him, teach-
ing him to sing : " When I consider the heavens, the
work of thy fingers ; the moon and the stars which
thou hast ordained ; what is man that thou art
mindful of him, or the son of man that thou visitest

DECLINE OF EARLY RELIGION.

127

him ?" ^ " The heavens declare the glory of God, and
the firmament sheweth his handy work." - Many of
the Psalms of the sweet singer of Israel are pervaded
throughout with the idea which was the governing
thought of the lives of the men who at an earlier time
had " walked with God." It cannot be claimed that
David never abused the Jewish ritual, yet his idea
of religion was broader and purer than that of any
other man since the days of Moses. He came short
in many things, yet he was a true theocratic king.
In his lofty statesmanship, coupled with his de-
vout recognition of the hand of God in all things,
he had at heart a deep sense of his own "last words,"
" The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spake
to me, he that ruleth over men must be just, ruling
in the fear of God." ^

After the days of David, and after the building of
the Temple, prophets were successively raised up to
endeavour to stem the tide of formalism and wicked-
ness, and call the people back to give heed to the
voice of God, — but all to no purpose. At one time
the prophet reminded them of all the way by which
God in His kindness and faithfulness had led them,
and of His grief 'of heart over their wanton apos-

Ill

128 OUR RELIGION AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

tacy. At another time he painted for them in the
must vivid colours the ruin which would assuredly
overtake them, if they refused to turn from their
folly ; or he appealed again to every noble impulse
which might yet be awakened within them, by tak-
ing the pencil from the hand of God, and at His dic-
tation portraying the glorious destiny that awaited
them if they would forsake their own counsels, and
turn from imitating the conduct of their foolish
fellow-men, and be the true people of the Lord.
But after all, God was compelled to cry against them :
" Since the day that your fathers came forth out of
the land of Egypt unto this day, I have even sent
unto you all my servants the prophets, daily rising
up early and sending them ; yet they hearkened not
unto me, nor inclined their ear, but hardened their
neck ; they did worse than their fathers."^ The
people had sunk to a depth of wickedness on the one
hand, and a would-be-pious formalism on the other,
from which it was not in the power of man to raise
them. In the midst of this gradual apostasy, and
of the fruitless efforts put forth to check its down-
ward course, God had given frequent intimations of
the coming of One stronger than man. And at

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DECLINE OF EARLY RELIGION.

121)

length, by the mouth of His servant Malachi, in the
plainest terms and for the last time, He told the few
who had remained faithful amid all the degeneracy of
their time, of the speedy coming of that One who
would in due time fully accomplish the work of re-
storation which Moses and all the prophets had
failed to effect — " Behold I will send my messenger,
and he shall prepare the way before me : and the
Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to His
temple, even the messenger of the covenant whom
ye delight in : behold he shall come, saith the Lord
of hosts. But who may abide the day of his com-
ing ? and who shall stand when he appeareth ? for
he is like a refiner's fire, and like fuller's soap : And
he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver ; and
he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge
them as gold and silver, that they may oflfer unto
the Lord an offering in righteousness. Then shall
the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant
unto the Lord, as in tits d'li/s of old, <ind as in for-

mer years

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CHAPTER VII.

JESUS THE TRUE RESTORER.

CHAPTER VII.

JESUS THE TRUE REST(3RER.

vv^/^HEN the fulness of the time was come,*

Jesus appeared on the earth to undertake
the work which the law and the prophets had failed
to accomplish. But the work Jesus found to
be done was far greater than that which the pro-
phets had attempted. Centuries had passed away
since the prophets had uttered their last notes of
warning, and in the meantime the nation had found
other reformers, chief among whom were the Scribes
an^ Pharisees; and they were in earnest in
the matter of reform. It is a common mistake to
suppose that the Scribes and Pharisees were all
hypocrites in the sense of being insincere. Many of
them were hypocrites unwittingly. The man who
professes to be wiiat he is not is a hypociite. Many
a man honestly professes to be a Christian — a fol-

I I

134 OUB RELIGION A^ IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

lower of Christ — while a single glance at his conduct
reveals the fact that he haseither no proper conception
of what being a follower of Christ means, or else has
no conception of the wide difference there is between
his conduct and his creed. He is a keen man of
the world, with Christ's name named upon him ;
and though his heart be wholly given to covetous-
ness, he moves along as gravely as if he were al-
ready a saint ; and would be grossly offended were
you to tell him he is a hypocrite. It was to this
class of hypocrites most of the Scribes and Pharisees
belonged. They meant well ; they wished to be
truly religious, and thought they were so ; and they
sincerely intended to reform their nation's religion.
But they mistook the reform that was needed. They
saw that something was wrong, but in their en-
deavour to set it right they led the people farther
and farther into error. They imagined that the
fault was, that the people were not religious enough
in the outward sense ; that what was needed
was a more rigid attention to all the forms of
worship. They accordingly taught the people to
give new attention to tithes and offerings. And not
content with the ritual of their fathers, they made

JESUS THE TRUE RESTORER,

135

extensive additions to it. The old law was not suf-
ficiently minute. In their added traditions they
attended to the minutiae of religion. They defined
the precise lent^th of a Sabbath day's journey ; they
determined the very half-second at which the Sab-
bath itself must be regarded as beginning and end-
ing ; they instituted countless minute regulations
and foolish customs, all looking in the one direction
of compelling men to live and worship, not in ac-
cordance with an inward principle, but an external
law. Under their regime a man's righteousness
might be computed by the rules of common arith-
metic, and so did not attain to the level of ordiuT
ary virtue or morality.

But those reformers found favour with the people,
and were regarded as being holier than other men ;
and they themselves believed they were holier thar^
other men. To say a word against such zealous
men was to speak against God's most devoted serr
vants — men who were better than the priests themr
selves, for they were the reformers of the priests,
teaching them to attend to the washing of their

id to the washiner

eatmg,

pots

cups and vessels, and to many other suoh like cere-

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136 OUR RELIGION AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

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monies. And the priests did their bidding; for
neither the priests, nor the Scribes — even though
they were the Bible-students and diligent theolo-
gians of that day- — nor the Pharisees, with all their
zeal, nor the people themselves, seem to have observed
that the real seat of the nation's disease had never
been touched, and that the whole body was becoming
more and more unspiritual and corrupt. It may be
thought strange that no such discovery was made.
It may be supposed that for a man to give the Lord
tithes of the smallest products, such as mint, anise
and cummin, with one hand, and with the other
to oppress the poor and rob the widow and the father-
less, were a religious absurdity which the man him-
self could not fail to take note of. Yet such is human
nature. It cheats itself by the simple use of words.
It calls paying tithes ^vorship, and making a sharp
bargain business, and rests satisfied that all is right.
The Scribes and Pharisees believed that the change
they had wrought upon their nation's religion was
the very change that had been needed. They ac-
cordingly went on giving the most scrupulous atten-
tion to the forms of worship, Jaut overlooking the
inconsistencies in their own lives. And though they

JESUS THE TRUE RESTORER,

137

thus laid themselves open to the charge of being
only whited sepulchres, their inability to see them-
selves in their true character, made it natural and
easy for them to conduct themselves with that air
of dignified self-assurance, which belongs to those
who feel confident that they are right, and all the
world besides wrong. So perfectly satisfied were
they that their course was the only right course,
and that their religious views were the only reli-
gious views which should be enteitained, that they
were utterly intolerant of any one who would ven-
ture to suggest a change or propose a new idea.
They were ready to regard such an one as the enemy
of their holy religion, and could believe him to be
animated by no other spirit than tliat of the wicked
one. To them had been committed the oracles of
God; they had guarded those oracles most sacredly;
they had handled them most carefully, counting
every word, syllable and letter ; and in expounding
their meaning they had availed themselves of all the
traditions of the fathers ; and would any man dare
to say that they had not found the truth !

It was this state of things Jesus came to reform,
ft was with men of this zealous stamp Jesus had to

138 OUR RELIGION AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

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to deal. It was to a nation deluded by deluded
teachers Jesus had to preach. It was a people twice
dead Jesus was commissioned to revive. To con-
vince a people thus spiritually dead, — yet who
thought they had already received new life — that
they were more dead than ever, was labour in-
deed. To show the earnest reformers of that people's
religion, that notwithstanding all their good inten-
tions and their punctilious reverence for their
forms of worship, they were still hypocrites of
the worst kind, was a task which called for the most
consummate wisdom and skill on the part of him
who had courage enough to undertake it.

But Jesus brought to this task just such wisdom
and skill as were needed.

What manner of man was Jesus ? He is repre-
sented in Scripture as possessing two opposite fea-
tures of character. He is " The Lamb of God,"^ and
" The Lion of the tribe of Judah,"- — infinitely gentle,
yet infinitely bold ; ready to deal most tenderly, yet
ready to deal most heroically ; womanlike in His
sympathy, yet virile in His rugged fearlessness ; — -
possessing in the highest degree all that can be pro-
perly included under the dual term Gentle Man^

JESUS THE TRUE RESTORER.

130

The severe aspect of Christ's character is often
overlooked. Wu are apt to think of the loving Sa-
viour as a kind of Sleeping Beauty, — a passive self-
sacrificing Redeemer, who came into the world to be
caressed by those who loved Him, and abused by
those who hated Him ; — an indulgent man, all pa-
tience, and " sweet reasonableness," and patronizing
blandishments, who came to tell mankind that they
were doing very well as far as they had gone, but need-
ed a little more of the savour of love and the balm of
peace, and that He was come to give them these.
In painting the portrait of Jesus from Scripture we
colour it with our own wishes. We make the
Bible describe Him as we would like to see Him
rather than as He really is. Human nature
is weak and childish. It loves to be petted
and indulged. Its ideal Saviour is One who will
handle it delicately and treat it to sweetmeats and
dainties. In reading the gospels men pass hastily
over Christ's severe. utterances and dwell upon His
tender words. Their Saviour is the Saviour who says,
" Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy
laden, and I will give you rest,"^ and not the Re-
deemer who says, " Think not that I am come tQ

140 OVH RELiaWN AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

i^i

send peace on the earth ; I came not to send peace
but a sword. For [ am come to set a man at vari-
ance against his father, and the daughter? gainst her
mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-
in-law. And a man's foes shall be they of his own
household."^ " I am come to send, fire on the
earth." 2 This is the language of an unsparing revo-
lutionist ; — not one who is in favour of present peace
upon any terms, but one who is willing to create the
most painful disturbance in the meantime, if only
the basis of real and lasting peace may be secured.
Jesus was infinitely gentle, but His gentleness
was not of that indulgent sentimental type so often
attributed to Him. He was tender where tender-
ness was needed, cautious where caution was de-
manded ; but He was at the same time the boldest
and most severe of men. For plainness of speech
He had no equal. For faithful handling of the
naked sword of truth, thrusting it home to the heart
of error, regardless of its effect either upon men's
feelings or His own rei)utation, — He was matchless.
He laid the axe to the root of the tree. His fan
was in His hand and the chaff of error must be win-
nowed from the pure grain of truth at whatever cost.

JESUS THE TRUE RESTORER.

141

this IS the character in wliich Jesus is represented
from the beginning to the end of Scripture. In the
very first intimation we have of His coming, He is
set forth as One who is strong to save because also
strong to smite. " And I will put enmity between
thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her
seed ; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise
his heel." ^ Do the Psalmists sing of Him ? Then
loudest among the strains we hear the notes, " Kiss
ye the Son lest he be angry and ye perish from the
way when his wrath is kindled but a little."^ "Gird
thy sword upon thy thigh most mighty, with thy
glory and thy majesty, and in thy majesty ride
prosperously because of truth and meei^ness and
righteousness ; and thy right hand shall teach thee
terrible things. Thine arrows are sharp in the heart
of the king's enemies ; whereby the people fall under
thee."^ Do the Prophets speak of Hir: coming ? Then
above their tender utterances we hear the words,
"But who may abide the day of His coming ? And
who shall stand when he appeareth ? " ^ And in the
opening of the New Testament Scriptures we hear
His forerunner crying, " Repent ye, for the kingdom
of heaven is at hand "^: as if to say, " Forsake your

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142 OUR RELIGION AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

follies and your sins, for there is one at hand wha
will search you thoroughly and will not spare you."
It is the opinion of some that John the Baptist and
Jesus were directly opposite in disposition; — that
John was a severe man, out upon all forms of ini-
quity, while Jesus was a mild man ready to tolerate
evils which John would have rebuked. But this is
a mistake. Jesus was a more searching and thor-
ough Reformer than John. Hear John's own testi-
mony, — ** I indeed baptize you with water unto
repentance ; but he that cometh after me is might-
ier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear ;
he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with
fire. Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly
purge his floor and gather his wheat into the gar-
ner, but he will burn up the chaff with unquench-
able fire." ^ This is the Restorer who had courag . to
say to the religious teachers and leaders of His day,
"Woe unto you. Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! " *
" Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye
escape the damnation of hell ? " ^ What could be more
terribly sublime than the description given us of
this same Jesus in the latter part of the Book of
Revelation : " And I saw heaven opened, and behold

JESUS THE TRUE RESTORER.

143

a white horse ; and he that sat upon liiin was called
Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth
judge and jnake war. His eyes were as a Hanie of
fire, and on his head were many crowns ; and he
had a name written that no man knew but he him-
self. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in
blood; and his name is called the Word of God.
And the armies which were in heaven followed
him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen white
and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp
sword, that with it he should smite the nations , and
he shall rule them with a rod of iron ; and he
treadeth the wine-press of the fierceness and wrath
of Almighty God. And He hath on his vesture and
on his thigh a name written, King of Kings, and
Lord of Lords." ^ This is he to whom was com-
mitted the great work of ridding early scriptural
religion of all the formalism and wickedness with
which man had wrapped it about, and of restoring it
to its pristine purity and all-pervading spirituality.
But bold and fearless and intolerant of wrong
though Jesus was, He did not begin by making an
onslaught upon the religious leaders of His day. He
was too wise to defeat his end by adopting any such

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144 OUH JlELTGlnN AS IT WAS AND AS IT fS.

course. He began by seeking in the best and pur-
est way to win the contidenee and good-will of all.
And first, He left nothing undone which it was law-
ful and right for Hii do, to assure the Jewish
people that He was botli at heart and by birth one
of themselves, and most loyal to every Jewish insti-
tution. By the observance of the rite of circumci-
sion, by giving attention in His boyhood to the
teaching of the doctors of the law ; by conforming
to all proper Jewish customs ; by identifying Him-
self with the people, both in their religious assem-
blies and their daily p 3ations ; by mingling freely
with them in their vc -ous social gatherings; He
proved Himself to be most thoroughly one of them.
And Jesus did all this, not as a matter of form, but
with His whole heart. Christ was not a man of
forms. It was His intense love for the Jews and
their ancient social and religious customs, that led
Him to conduct Himself as He did.

Then Jesus, in His love for the peo})le, sought to
gain the ear of all classes by adapting His mode of
address to thei^- varying circumstances ; and He
succeeded in this. Taking for His themes the most
interesting and practical scenes and objects, as the

JESUS THE TRITE RESTORER.

lily, the sower, the .shepherd, the vine-dresser, the
king, the householder, the judge, the traveller, the
prodigal, He discoursed with such wisdom, and in
strains so fascinating, as to captivate every heart.
His very enemies exclaimed : " The world is gone
after him,"^ and those who were sent to silence Him
returned saying: "Never man spake like this

man.

But Jesus did more than all this to prepare the
hearts of the people for receiving His message. He
showed the people that He was their Friend, and
gave them evidence of His kindness and His heart-
felt sympathy with all classes, in deeds such as had
ne^'er been witnessed among them. He endeared
Himself to the multitudes that thronged about Him,
by feeding them with bread from His own hand.
In the hours of their sorest bodily distress He was
present to heal them. When grief stricken friends
stood sorrowing in the cliamber of death, or around
the bier, or by the closed grave, there did Jesus
prove Himself the " Friend in need." Whether it
was the high-born or the humble that called in His
-'d. He was always ready to perform the kind office,
'ilie ruler's daughter and the widow's son will stand

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146 OUR RELTGTON AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

up together at the last to bear testimony to His im-
partial kindness.

It is true Jesus often found it necessary to speak
severely, but He n" /er spoke unkindly. All the
Lion-like strength of His character was rooted and
grounded in love, so that every word he uttered in
exposing falseness and bearing witness to the truth,
was uttered in faithfulness, and from the midst of a
life that was spent in going about doing good.

But Jesus claimed the attention of the people
most powerfully by giving them abundant evidence
that He was no mere man, but was in truth the Son
of God. Whether He touched the fevered hand, or
rebuked the midnight winds, or cried through His
tears, " Lazarus, come forth,"^ or turned and looked
upon Peter, or said upon the cross, " Father for-
give them, for they know not what they do,'"^ He
commended Himself to the world as the loveliest of
human characters possessed of all the purity and
strength of Deity. Whether we consider His loyalty
as a Jew — the Son of David and the Son of Abra-
ham — or His generous and unseltish nature as a
kind and loving brother ; or the wisdom which
marked all His utterances ; or the evidences He gave

JESUS THE TRUE RESTOIEH.

147

of His intimate rela-tion to the Father ; or in what-
ever aspect we view Him, we can see no excuse for
the opposition He met with from the religious lea-
ders of His day. They should have seen that He
was a wise Teacher, and that all His utterances
were entitled to the most profound respect. And
wherein He differed from them and rebuked them,
they should have been ready to entertain a doubt
concerning the correctness of their view of religion,
and should have been willing to suspect that, after
all their reverence for their forms and ceremonies,
they were wrong and Jesus was right. But they were
guilty of that peculiar form of self-righteousness
which regards the unpardonable sin as consisting in
the loss of confidence in one's own religious belief,
and in the various human appointments connected
therewith.

Jesus taught the religionists of His day that with
all their professed zeal for the law, they were ignor-
ant of what was meant by keeping the law ; they
kept the law in the outward, formal sense mei'ely,
overlooking the fact that no moral law can be pro-
perly observed as a matter of form. He taught that
it is the spirit of the law that must be kept, and

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148 OUR RELIGION AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

kept with the spirit ; for law is a spiritual thing,
the letter is only its visible reflection. And He
showed the Scribes and Pharisees that by paying
rigid attention to religious forms, wliile overlook-
ing the fact that God is appropriately worship-
ped only when He is worshipped with the heart,
they had succeeded in making both themselves and
their followers accomplished hypocrites, who imag-
ined they were keeping every commandment in the
decalogue, while they were in reality breaking every
commandment. They knew that the Fourth Com-
mandment said, " Remember the Sabbath day to
keep it holy,"^ and they accordingly measured with
careful precision the duration of the day, and speci-
fied minutely just how far a man might walk on
that day, and what kind of work he might perform,
and they were shocked that Jesus should heal on
the Sabbath day, or allow his disciples to pluck the
ears of corn, and to eat, rubbing them in their hands ;
but Jesus taught them that no man could keep the
Sabbath by merely regulating his conduct according
to an outward rule ; that it is with the heart and
nut by mechanical contrivances the day must be
kept holy unto the Lord.

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JESUS THE TRUE RESTORER.

149

They know that the Fifth Commandment said>
" Honour thy father and thy raother/'^ and the Jews
— of all people — placed stronf]f emphasis upon this
command ; but Jesus called their attention to certain
usages among them, by which they relieved them-
selves of the responsibility of providing an adequate
support for their aged parents, showing that however
they might satisfy themselves as to the outward
form, with their heart they did not keep the com-
mandment.

They knew that the Sixth Commandment said,
" Thou shalt not kill,"^ and they accordingly did not
commit murder ; but Jesus showed them that they
broke the commandment as often as any one among
them was angry with his brother without cause.

They knew that from of old, feasts had been ap-
pointed to be kept at Jerusalem, and they accord-
ingly imagined that by going up to Jerusalem at the
appointed times, and performing thei'o the appointed
ceremonies, they were really worshii)ping God ; but
Jesus said, " God is a Spirit and they that worship
him must worship him in spirit and in truth." ^
Jesus taught the zealous religionists of His day
that a complete revolution must take place ii^

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150 OVR RELIGION AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

their ideas of religion and worship ; that the things
they regarded as essential were comparatively unim-
portant, while the very things they overlooked were
the only things that were absolutely essential. Iti
the li<'ht of Christ's teachinoj we see that times and
places and forms may change with changing seasons
and centuries, but that there is one thing connected
with true worship which can never change, the
spirit in which it is offered. If the heart be per-
vaded by the spirit of truth and of devout allegiance
to God, Adam may worship in the garden without
any set form, or Abel without the gate may give
utterance to the spirit of his mind by presenting, in
some equally becoming way, one of the firstlings of
his flock as an ofiering to the Lord ; or Abraham
may worship by offering a ram upon an altar ; or ail
the patriarchs before the days of Moses may wor-
ship without a church ; or from Moses to Solomon
they may worship in connexion with the Tabernacle ;
or from Solomon to John they may worship in cout
nexion with the Temple ; even as since the days of
the apostles men n^ay worship acceptably in the
house, or by the way, or in the place set apart" for
*' the public worship of Uod."

JUS us THE TRUE RESTORER

151

That which stands out most prominently in tho
teaching of Jesus, is, that while the whole attention
of the people had been turned to the importance of
keeping laws and observing rules, Jesus brought the
whole weight of His teaching to bear upon the im-
portance of having the heart right, and living under
the control of indwelling principles. Humility, peni-
tence, meekness, purity, peaceableness, a forgiving
temper, aspiration heavenward, love to God and
man, these must be the spring and source of all out-
ward {'cts. Men must learn to be so perfectly in
sympathy with truth and righteousness, that they
will need no external rule to keep them in the path
of duty. They must become so much superior to
forms and outward regulations, that where the
human regulation would ask them to go only a mile,
they are already prepared to go twain. The heart
must be so in accord with all that is right, as to be
always ready to make twice as great a sacrifice in
the interests of peace and truth, as any human
standard would ever think of demanding. Truth
in its fulnesf., truth in its perfection, truth in
the inward part, and not the mere representa-
tion of truth without, was constantly set forth as

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152 OUE RELTOION AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

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the ideal to which fallen mankind must seek to
return.

Jesus found it necessary to warn men against be-
ing misled by forms and appearances of every kind.
The distinction between Jew and Gentile in matters
of religion must be blotted out. It was by their
real character and their fruits, and not by their
names or lineage, men were to be judged. To those
who thought they were entitled to special consider-
ation owing to their being of Jewish stock, Jesus
said : " Think not to say within yourselves, we have
Abraham to our father, for verily I say unto you
that God is able of these stones to raise up children
unto Abraham. And now also the axe is laid unto
the root of the trees, therefore every tree which
bringeth not forth good fruit, is hewn down and
cast into the fire." ^

This was an important part of Christ's restoring
work. He aimed at having mankind made one
family again, as they liad been at the beginning.
To this end He showed Himself the Brother of all.
When He met the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well,
He preached the Gospel to her. When a woman of
Syro-Phenicia came pleading with Him on behalf

JESUS THE TRUE RESTOliEIi.

153

of hei* daughter, He granted her re(|uest as truly as
if she had belonged to His own nation. When a
Roman Centurion came asking Him to heal his
servant, Jesus most gladly complied with his re-
quest. And when certain Greeks approached one
of His disciples, saying, " Sir, we would see Jesus,"
Jesus exclaimed, " And I, if I be lifted up from the
earth, will draw all men unto me." ^

But the religious teachers of Christ's day — "blind
leaders of the blind " ^ — could not see that He was
presenting the truth. Their minds were darkened
by their forms and observances being hung between
them and the light. Thej^ looked upon Jesus as a
fanatical rival who took delight in saying things
that exasperated them ; and this ignoring of the
distinction between Jew and Gentile was most ex-
asperating of all. It was even blasphemous in their
eyes. It was to disregard the whole teaching of
their sacred Scriptures. It was to allow things,
which were evermore to be kept holy unto the Lord,
and to the use of His chosen i)eople, to be profaned
by the heathen. They could not grasp the doctrine,
soon afterwards preached by one of Christ's disci[)les,
that " God is no respecter of persons : but in every

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154 QUE RELIGION AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

nation he that feareth him and worketh righteous-
ness, is accepted with him," ^ a doctrine which
one of their own most learned men, a little later was
gladly constrained to emphasize in the words : —
" And hav3 put on the new man, which is renewed
in knowledge after the image of him that created
him ; where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circum-
cision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond
nor free ; but Christ is all and in all." ^

But while Jesus taught that the distinction be-
tween Jew and Gentile should be ignored in matters
of religion. He did not aim at overthrowing the
Jewish nation, or even the ancient religion of the
Jews. The nation had already lost its independence,
and was tributary to the Roman Empire. But had
it still been independent, Jesus would have been
far from wishing its downfall. And as for the idea
of His making war upon the Jewish religion — as
well might it be said that Martin Luther came to
make war against the Christian religion. No man
could love the religion of Jesus Christ more sincerely
than Luther did. It was his love for this religion
and his zeal for its honour that led him to engage so
eagerly in the work of making havoc of those false

JESUS THE TRUE RESTORER.

155

institutions, which — built up around it and called by
its name — professed to be part and parcel of its life.
No man could love the Jewish religion and the
Jewish nation so ardently as Jesus did. It was
His love for His brethren of mankind at large, and
his immediate love for His brethren the Jews, and
for all that was Divine in their ancient religion, that
made Him the unsparing Reformer He was. For it
must never be forgotten that Jesus as a man, was
not only a Jew, but was one who could trace His
liieage back to the very founder of the nation; and
He always spoke of His ancestors and their religion
in terms of the truest respect and affection. It is
true He made havoc of many things which had the
name of the religion of Moses and the Prophets
stamped upon them, and in doing this He was mis-
understood and regarded as seeking to destroy that
religion itself. He found it necessary to endeavour
to assure the people to the contrary : " Think not
that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets ;
I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil."^ Or, when
He healed a leper, He said to him, " Go thy way,
show thyself to the priest, and offer for thy cleans^
ing those things which Moses coiiimandod," ^

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156 OUn UKLmiON AH IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

There wore some who declared that He ridiculed
the Teiiii)le, but they were false witnesses. No Jew
ever loved Jerusalem and the Temple as Jesus did.
It was no mere att'eetation of zeal that led Him to
drive from the Temple with a scourge of small cords
those who polluted its sacrei courts. It was genuine
love such as could swell no other heart. Did the
Jews in the time of their captivity hang their harps
upon the willows and weep when they remembered
Zion — each one plaintively singing : " If I forget
thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her
cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue
cleave to the roof of my mouth ; if I prefer not Jeru-
salem above my chief joy ?"^ Even more tenderly did
Jesus exclaim, " Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that
killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent
unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy
children together as a hen doth gather her brood
under her wings, and ye would not.' ^ " And when
he was come near he beheld the city and wept over
it, saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least
in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy
peace ! but now they arc hid from thine eyes. For
the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies

JESUS THE TRUE RESTORE H.

1B7

sliall cast a trench about thee and compass thee round,
and keep thee in on every side. And shall lay thee
even with the ground, and thy children within tliee;
because thou knewest not the time of thy visita
tion."^

Yet much as Jesus loved the Jewish nation, He
did not advocate throwing off the Roman yoke, or
refusing allegiance to the Romans in any way. He
Himself paid tribute to the Roman government.
Jesus was not a political revolutionist, and for the
best of reasons ; He came to bear witness not to
forms, but to the truth. The spirit of His vhole
teaching w^as, — the letter, the form, the outward
appearance, is only secondary ; the heai't, the
spirit, tlie essence, the soul, that which will endure
eternally, is the thing of infinite importance. Let
all the citizens be right at heart, and in all the
essentials of true character, and the country may be
an independent commonwealth, or limited monarchy
may be the form of government, or the people may
be ruled over by an autocrat ; and their ecclesiastical
arrangements may shape themselves accordingly ; —
for we judge the spirit of Christ's teaching in this
re.ipect to be, that if men's hearts be right toward

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158 OUJi RELIGION AS IT H'AS AND AS IT IS.

God, the order in winch they inay be grouped to-
getlier for religious ])iirposeH, may vary with vary-
ing eircunistances.

It is sometimes hazardous, even in our enlightened
age, for a man to advocate the broad principles of

religious life laid down by Jesus. He is in danger
of being put out of the synagogue. Is it any wonder
that Jesus was put to death ? Men who have been
in advance of their age have always been misunder-
stood, and have suffered in consequence. Jesus was
as far in advance of His day as God is in advance of
man. It was not altogether unnatural therefore that
the zealous but blinded religionists whom He sought
to enlighten, should have called Him a blasphemer ;
and when they could account for His wondrous
power in no other way, should have said that He
was possessed of the Devil. It nmst have been
surprising to them, however, that, — wicked, sacrile-
gious man as they took Him to be — they could never
entangle Him in Hi and Him guilty of any

breach of ev( a i . But failing in this,

they fell back pon t general impression they had
of Him, and said thuo, in any case, He must be put
out of the way. And according! by means of

JESUS Tills TRUK liESTOliKli.

150

bribery, and false witnesHe.s, ami a mock tiial, tliey
" by vvioktHl hands " condenniod Him to death,
flattering themselves all the while, that the end they
had in view — ridding the country of a dangerous
man — would fully justify any irregularity in the
means by which that end might be attained.

But Jesus swerved not from His purpose. He
came to bear witness unto the truth, and He sealed
His testimony with His blood, conscious however,
that the little leaven of saving truth He had brought
to the world, would yet leaven the whole lump ; — ■
that the corn of wheat which seemed to drop into
the earth only to die, VH)uld yet bring forth much
fruit, which would wave in glory on the mountain
tops ; and He would see of the travail of His soul
and be satisfied.

The great work, then, which Jesus came to <lo, so
far as the historic and earthward side of His mission
was concerned, was — First, to divest men's minds of
the idea that religious forms and observances could
be of any value, apart from the spirit of true wor-
ship, which those forms and observances had been
originally instituted to express, where that spirit al-
ready existed, to cherish where it was in danger of

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languishing, and to restors where it had already been
lost. It was further Christ's mission to show, that if
religious rites and ceremonies failed to accomplish
these ends, they must no longer be relied upon. It was
still further His mission to declare, that owing to
the inherent depravity of the human heart, and the
native estrangement of the human soul from God,
even divinely appointed observances had not suc-
ceeded in restoring to the world that religion of
pure and all-i)crvading spirituality which had been
introduced to the earth at the first ; yet that true
religion nmst not be allowed to die out of the world;
man must be saved at whatever cost; something
better than sacrifices and offerings must do the work
which, through man's misuse of these, they had
failed to do. In one word, it was the mission of
Jesus to do for the Jewish nation what all the ap-
pointments of their ritual had failed to do ; and to
do for the whole world what they as a nation had
proved themselves utterly incompetent to do. That
nation had been chosen and specially favoured of
heaven, for the very purpose of imparting to the
world a knowledge of heaven-born religion in its
purity, and seeing that it had failed to do this, not*

JESUS THE TRUE RESTORER.

161

withsfcanding its law and all its divinely appointed
enactments, it became necessary for God's true Israel,
Servant, Elect — the true Seed of Abraham — to place
Himself in the i^reach, and be the One in whom all
families of the earth should be blessed. " iPov I be-^
held and there ^vas no man ; even among them, and
there was no counsellor, that, when I asked of them
could answer a word. Behold, they are all vanity ;
their works are nothing ; their molten images are
wind and confusion. Behold my servant whom I
uphold ; mine elect in whom my soul delighteth. I
have put my spirit upon him ; he shall bring forth
judgment to the Gentiles. . . . He shall not fail
nor be discouraged, till He have set judgment in
the earth ; and the isles shall wait for his law."^
■ And so far as agoncies for accomplishing the work
of restoring true religion, were concerned, it behoved
Jesus to saVj — Inasmuch as sacrifices and offerings,
and all other appointments, have failed, and would
evermore fail, I must undertake this part of the
work also, and by my doctrine, example, life, death,
must restore true religion to the world. " Wherefore
when he cometh into the world he saith. Sacrifice
and ofFering-thou wouldest not, but a bo<l3^ hast tl.ou

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162 OUR RELIGION AS IT WAS AND AS TT IS.

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prepared me : In burnt offerings and sacrifices for
sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo ! I
come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,)
to do thy will, O God." ^ The whole religious history
of the most favoured people under heaven, had shown
most conclusively that, by reason of the curse of sin,
the constant tendency of mankind was to depart
farther and farther from God, and that, without the
direct interposition of Divine Power, mankind must
be utterly lost. Therefore, " What the law could not
do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God send-
ing his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and
for sin, condemned sin in the flesh. That the right-
eousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who
walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit." ^

Such is, in part at least, and in outline, the restor-
ing work of Jesus as we view it, mainly from the
historic and earthward side. But we know that it
has also a heavenward side. If there was a human
necessity for Christ's advent to this world, there was
also a divine necessity ; while His death can be
shown to have been the result of the most natural
combination of earthly causes, it is none the less true
that He was "Christ our passover sacrificed

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J£SUS THE TRUE RESTORER.

168

for us."^ " The Lamb slain from the foundation of
the world."- Wo catch glimpses of both the earth-
ward and the heavenward side of Chri' t's mission in
such passages as the following: — "Therefore, by the
deeds of the law shall no flesh be justiticd in His
sight ; for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But
now the righteousness of God without the law is
manifested, being witnessed by the law and the
prophets ; even the righteousness of God which is by
faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that
believe : for there is no difference : for -ill have
sinned and come short of the glory of God ; being jus-
tified freely by his grace through the redemption that
is in Christ Jesus ; whom God hath set forth to be a
propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare
his rio:hteousness for the remission of sins that are
past, through the forbearance of God ; to declare, I
say, at this time his righteousness, that he might
be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in
Jesus."^

And now what security have we that this restor-
ing work which Jesus undcitook, will go on to its
completion ? We have seen that in all past times
mankind have gone backward and not forward, after

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104 OUR RELIGION AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

each successive effort at restoration. It was gradual
degeneracy that necessitated the choosing of Noah
and his family out of the wicked world. And after
the restoration effected by the deluge, it was gradual
degeneracy that necessitated the calling of Abraham.
It was a third downward movement that led to the
call of Moses to the great work assigned him. And
soon after the days of Moses the decline set in once
more, and with such precipitancy that it was beyond
man's power to effect the slightest restoration. And
it must be manifest to all, that the past eighteen
Christian centuries have not been without their
symptoms of spiritual declension. What assurance
have we that the work of restoration which Jesus
undertook, will not result in a still more fearful apos-
tasy from God ? Just this as sufficient ; — Jesus has
secured to us for ever, not the divine favour alone,
but the gift of the Holy Ghost. The great weak-
ness of all past times was, that a merely human
spirit was dominant in the world. The great lack
was the lack of the presence of the Spirit of God in
the hearts of men. But all the prophets — to whom
the Spirit was given — declared that with the advent
of the Messiah there would come the outpouring of

JESUS THE TRUE liESTOh'ER.

105

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tlie Spirit. And before His departure Jesus pro-
mised to send the Spirit, and promised also that
when He, the Spirit of truth, was come, He would
guide men into all truth. ^ We already see this pro-
mise moving forward in its gradual fulfilment. We
hope, in the strength of God's word, to see it still
more and more fulfilled as the years roll by, until
eventually the Spirit will be poured out upon all
Hesh, and the earth shall be full of the knowledge of
the Lord ; and men will walk with God and worship
Him everywhere, not in pristine innocency indeed,
but in what shall be infinitely better, the assured
confidence of being the ransomed of the Lord, eter-
nally restored to the divine favour, in terms of the
covenant which the Lord Almighty hath made with
His Chosen.

The religion Jesus came to restore was the true,
personal, practical religion introduced into the world
at the first; the worship He came to re-establish
was that all-pervading, spiritual worship, which had
been the spontaneous utterance of the soul of sinless
man in Paradise.

To this Jesus bore testimony by every act and
utterance of His life. When asked what particular

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im OUR RELIGION AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

place was the proper place for worship, His reply
was : " Believe me, the hour coiiieth when ye shall
neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jeiusalein, wor-
ship the Father. . . But the hour cometh, and
now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the
Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh
such to worship him." ^ He drove the traders from
the Temple and taught that His Father's house
should be known among all nations as an house of
prayer ; but He taught at the spme time, that God's
presence and service could not be confined to tem-
ples made with hands ; that alike in the temple and
on the tossing vessel, in the synagogue and on the
street, in the house of sorrow and the house of
mirth, in the workshop and in the field, God nmst
be honoured and worshipped with the heart. In
exemplification of these truths Jesus " went about
doing good," and invited all classes to come to Him,
and to come at all times and in all manner of
places. In the vaiious features of Christ's min-
istry, and in His character in general, we see the
perfect realization of all that was b^st and holiest
in the lives of those who aspired God-ward from
the earliest times. By choosing the mountain side

JESUS THE TRUE UESTOliEIi,

167

for His pulpit, and preacliing beneatli the ojien sky.
He point? us back to the days of Moses. By con-
tinuing all night in prayer to God on the lonely
mountain-top, He proves Himself the true Son of
David and of Jacob and of Abraham. By the agony
in the garden, and the death upon the cross, He in-
finitely more than reproduces to us the days of Abel.
By His rising from the dead, His subsequent sojourn
on the earth, and His final ascension to glory. He
commends to our imitation Enoch's holy walk with
God ; and by His whole life, death, and finished
work, devoted to the removal of the curse, and the
restoring of mankind to the favour and filendship
of God, He carries us back to the days of man's sin-
lessness in Eden. Jesus is the ^""lu. Restorer.

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CHAPTER VIII.

CHRISTIANITY UNFORTUNATE IN ITS

FRIENDS.

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CHAPTER VTIT.

CHRISTIANITY UNFOllTUNATK IN ITS FRIENDS.

HEN Jesus brought back true religion to the
world, the world was full of religions, and
of religious pride and zeal. Greece had long had,
together with her great learning and profound phil-
osophy, a system of religion to which she was de-
votedly attached. Rome had succeeded to the em-
pire of the world, with a religious system to which
she was also strongly wedded. In Palestine, the
Jews were clinging to their caricature of their an-
cient religion, with a love strong as death. These
rel'gions were great in the eyes of those who em-
braced them, chiefly because of the histoiic interest
that gathered about them, and the imposing cere-
monies by which their acts of public worship were
observed. They were buttressed by magnificent

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172 OVn ItKlJGTON AS IT WAS AND AS IT TS.

tcuiiploH and the iiio.st gorf.;eous litualiHin, not to
speak of tho fact that tlioy were all believed to be
divine in tlieir orijjjln.

Wliile the devotees of those systems were in-
toxicated with religious pride, they revelled in
the love of sin ; and it behoved the truth as it
was in Jesus to undertake the work of restoring
this deranged world to its right mind. But the
foolish world, instead of accepting the treatment
of the Physician, and submitting itself to Him
as its Restorer, took Him and His remedies under
its charge, as if He had been in need of care,
and His remedies had themselves required re-ad-
justing ; and — as the result — the truth to which
Jesus bore witness, has been so diluted and other-
wise abused, that it has become necessary for
men to spend years of study, in order to discover
what that truth was in its original })urity. To such
a degree has the character of Jesus been misrepre-
sented, by those wdio for several centuries took the
records of His life in charge, that earnest scholars in
our day, find it necessary to devote their whole en-
ergies to the endeavour to reproduce to men a faith-
ful description of the life of our Lord, in the form

CnnrSTTANITY and TTS FliTh:NI>S.

\7'^

in whiclj it stood forth before the work of inis-
representation began. And through tlie misguided
zeal of those who should have been tlie true friends
of Christ, and the wise custodians of His trutli, the
life and doctrines of Jesus, which were originally as
clear as the sunlight, have become so b«tiin\med
that the Christian world finds itself dixidci up
amongst jarring sectaries, who are utterly unable to
agree upon what the Gospel is, or upon the nature
and meaning of the person and work ot its (jJreat
Author.

Christ's kingdom, though for this world, was not
of this world. It was neither an external organiza-
tion, nor a philosophical system. It was the king-
dom of the truth — truth in the heart, and consecjuent
uprightness and purity in the life. Instead of being
antagonistic to man's proper use of the present
world, it was specially designed to enable man to
cause all God's works to praise Him. But the peo-
ple who first embraced Christ's I'eligion, turned it
aside from its true purpose in every one of these re-
spects. They changed it into an external oi'ganiza-
tion, similar to that the falseness of which it had
come to expose. They made use of its doctrines as

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174 OUJi RELIGION AS IT W'AS AND AS IT IS.

a cloak to covei' them in the habitual juactice of
sin. By weaving those doctrines and their own
false philosophies together, they converted the Gos-
pel into a system of metaphysics, which professed to
be able to api)ly the principles of or<linary mental
philosophy, to all the phenomena of Deity. And
they set up this caiicature of the religion of Jesus
Christ, in opposition to the advance of secular pro-
gress.

To indicate the fuller illustration of these state-
ments, we need only glance at the history of a few
of the past Christian centuries.

But first, it should be ol)served that the leligion
taught by the Apostles, and other immediate fol-
lowers of Christ, was the simple, practical religion
of Jesus. Every reader of the Acts of the Apostles,
and the Epistles which follow, must have noted the
intensely practical cliaracter of those parts of the
Inspired Word, and the little account they take of
attention to religious forms. They illustrate the
Saviour's words — " My yoke is easy and my burden
is light.''^ With the exception of the ordinances of
baptism and the Lord's Suppcj', they inculcate the
observance of no religious ceremonies as being at all

CHRISTIANITY AND ITS FRIENDS.

175

iinportaiit. Even the forms of government and dis-
cipline, to be observed in the orj^anizing of Christian
communities and rehgious assemblies, are placed be-
fore us, not so much by definite precept, as by the
example which tlie Apostles found it expedient and
wise to set, in the orijanizincf of churches in their
day. Where definite precepts are given, they are
mostly of a general kind : — " Let all things be done
unto edifying;"^ " Let all things be d(me decently
and in order."^ As to the preaching of the Apos-
tles, whether orally or by letter, it was niarked i»y
two prominent characteristics, direct practicalncjss
and perfect adaptation to the circumstances of those
addressed. Tliere was no set form in which the
truth could be always preached. The teaching of
the New Testament preachers was as variiid as were
the wants of their hearers — only that, first or hisf,
tl^e accepting of Christ and His religion, was set
f ■Q\ as the one thing needful. If Peter j>reached
in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, to a multitude
gathered fi-om all countries, yet more or less ac-
quainted with the facts concerning Christ's life,
death, and resurrection, he presented the truth that
Jesus had come to fulfil the Old Testament prophe-

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170 OUK BELJGION AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

cies, and be the Saviour of the woiOd, — adding the
pointed exhortation, which was not without its re-
ference to the Scribes and Pliarisees, who were pro-
bably standing by : — " Repent and be baptized
every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the
remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the
Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you and to
your children, and to all that are afar otf, even as
many as the Lord our God shall call. And with
many other words did he testify and exhort, saying,
Save yourselves from this untoward generation." ^
If Paul preached to Jews at Antioch, »?• Iconium,
or elsciwhere, he invariably reasoned with them out
of the Old Testament Scriptures, which they pro-
fessed to believe. But if he preached to the heathen
at Lystra, or Athens, or elsewhere, he as uniformly
reasoned with them out of tlie ofreat book of nature,
which was the only sacred book they and he had in
common. So, also, if Paul wrote to peopi Mvihg at
Rome or Ephesus, where philosojihising tendencies
were to be met and satisfied, he presented the doc-
trine of the purpose of God in sending His Son
Jesus Christ into the world, as not only the loftiest
of all themes, but as fai transcending all man's

CHRISTIANITY AND ITS FRIENDS.

powers of understanding. But if he wrote to the
Churches at Corinth or Thessalonica, where there
was less of philosophical speculation, but an abound-
ing of wrong-doing and wickedness, then he brought
all the weight of tlie truth as it was in Jesus to bear
upon practical life. And even in those Epistles in
which the more philosophical a&pects of Christ's
mission are discussed, the philosophy of the Gospel
is introduced for the purpose of preparing the
w,?y for presenting the practical truths, which Jesus
Himself so constantly inculcated.

The religion of those early teachers themselves
was of the free and all-pervading type. It was the
religion of the tent maker and the traveller. It was
the religion of the ^rst day of the week and of the
seventh. Its Gospel could be preached in a Jewish
synagogue at Thessalonica, or in Herod's temple at
Jerusalem, or in the midst of heathen Mars' Hill at
Athens. Its representatives were nevei" at a loss for
a place of worship. They could go out of the city by
a river-side, where prayer was wont to be made, and
sit down and speak to the women that resorted
thither ; ^ or they could kneel down on the shore and
pray ; or, at midnight in prison, with their feet fast

178 OUR RELIGION AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

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in the stocks, they could pray and sing praises to
God, so that the prisoners heard them. ^

For two or three centuries after the deatli of the
last of the Apostles, the religion of many who had
received the gospel at their hands, was of the same
broad, pure, practical type ; and amid the fiercest
persecution, and untold hardships, they adhered
firmly to the principles of truth which had been
laid down both by the Apostles and by the Master
Himself. But in the fourth century the people of
the great Roman Empire took Christianity under
their care, and embraced it as their religion. In-
stead, however, of accepting the religion of Jesus in
its simplicity, and making its broad and pure prin-
ciples thebasisof the nation's life, they brought about
an amalgamation of certain outward features of
Christianity, with their own Pagan rites and super-
stitions, so that the simple Christian religion of the
previous centuries, was gradually " transmuted into
one more fashionable and debased." " It was incor-
porated with the old Greek mythology. Olympus
was restored, but the divinities pcissed under other
names. The more powerful provinces insisted on the
adoption of their time-honoured conceptions Views

CHRISTIANITY AND ITS FRIENDS. l7l)

of the Trinity, in accoidance with Egyptian tradi-
tions, were established Not only was the adoration
of Isis under a new name restored, but even her
image, standing on the crescent moon, re-appeared.
The well known e^^y of that goddess with the
infant Horus in her arms, has descended to our days
in the beautiful artistic creations of the Madonna
and Child." 1 Thus "heathen rites w ere adopted ; a
pompous and splendid ritual, gorgeous robes, mitres,
tiaras, wax-tapers, processional services, lustrations,
gold and silver vases, were introduced. The Roman
lituus, the chief ensign of the Augurs, became the
crozier. Churches were built on the tombs of mar-
tyrs, and ( < )nsecrated with rites borrowed from the
laws of the Roman pontiffs. Festivals and commem-
orations of martyrs multiplied with the numberless
fictitious discoveries of their remains. Fasting be-
came the grand means of re|»elling the Devil and
appeasing God ; celibacy the greatest of the virtues.
Pilgrimages were made to Palestine and the tombs
of the martyrs. Quantities of dust and earth were
brought from the Holy Land and sold at enormous
prices, as antidotes against devils. The virtues of
consecrated water were upheld. Images and relics

180 ova kELiaioN as it was and as it is.

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were introduced into the churches, and worshipped
after the fashion of the heathen gods. It was given
out that prodigies and miracles were to be seen in
certain places, as in heathen times. The happy souls
of departed Christians were invoked ; it was believed
that they were wandering about the world, or haunt-
ing their graves. There was a multiplication of
temples, altars and penitential garments. The fes-
tival of the purification of the Virgin was invented
to remove the uneasiness of heathen converts on ac-
count of the loss of their Lupercalia, or feasts of Pan.
The worship of images, of fragments of the cross,
or bones, nails and other relics, a true fetich wor-
ship, was cultivated. Two arguments were relied
on for the authenticity of these objects — the au-
thority of the Church and the working of mira-
cles. Even the worn-out clothing of the saints,
and the earth of their graves, were venerated.
From Palestine were brought what were affirmed to
be the skeletons of St. Mark and St. James, and
other ancient worthies. The apotheosis of the old
Roman times was replaced by canonization ; tute-
lary saints succeeded to local mythological divini-
ties. Then came the mystery of transubstant iation,

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181

or the conversion of bread and wine by the priest
into the flesh and blood of Christ. As centuries
passed, the Paganization became more and more
complete. Festivals sacred to the memoiy of the
i.ince with which the Saviour's side was i)ierced, thie
nails that fastened Him to the cross, and the crown
of thorns, were instituted. Though there were sev-
eral abbeys tiiat possessed this last peerless relic, no
one dared to say that it was inipossible they could
all be authentic." ^

While the people of the Roman Empire thus
blended the semblance of Chiistianity with their
Paganism, they remained the same workers of
iniquity as before, and even found something in
Christianity to encourage them in a life of sin.
One favourite dogma which, by a process of dexter-
ous philoso})hizing, they made the Christian religion
teach, was — in the words of Cajetau to Luther : —
" Thou must believe that one single drop of Christ's
blood is sutticient to redeem the whole human race,
and the remaining quantity v/hich was shed in the
garden and on the cross, was left as a legacy to
the pope, from which indulgences were to be drawn."
In this way, Christianity was made use of by its

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182 OUR RELIGION AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

avowed friends, as a cloak beneath which the most
abominable iniquities were perpetrated. The heart
sickens at the thoiiixht of the vices that were revel-
led ill under the system of papal indulgences, and
the crimes that were committed in the name of our
religion, through its being changed into a great
external organization, bolstered by the most subtle
forms of false human philosophy. One who has any
proper conception of the true nature of Christ's
work, as represented by Himself and His apostles,
needs no sadder reading, than the history of what is
termed the theology of the middle ages, — a history
largely of speculations, discussions, disputes, and
even bloodshed, over secret things which belong
unto the Lord our God, while the things which were
clearly revealed for the salvation of the people of
that age, and for their children, were either entirely
ignored or rudely trampled under foot.

But the unfortunate feature of Christianity, that
is attracting chief attention at the present day, is,
that in some cases, it appears to be the enemy of
science, opposed to the advance of secular progress,
and tlierefore, an unfit religion for man as placed in
this world to use it and develop its resources,

CHRISTIANITY AND ITS FRIENDS.

183

that

I is,
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fess,
n in
i-ces,

'There are critics who are not slow to cull attention
*j this state of things, — and for this we should bo
duly thankful. "The wise and truly religious thing
to do is not to get angry at such criticisms, and
give them bad names, but to be candid, and listen
to those who tell us of our short-comings, — try to
see what justice there may be in them, and to turn
whatever truth they may contain to good account." ^
It has been pointed out by Dr. Draper,- that
though it is common to hear men glorying in the
wondrous secular achievements of the present age,
as an evidence of what Christianity has done for
the world, in point of fact, it is not to Christianity
that the world is indebted for all this progress ;
— that the true origin of modern science is not to
be found in Christian times, but in the establish-
ment of the mathematical and practical schools of
Alexandria by the Ptolemies, before the dawn of
the Christian era. And not only did the sciences,
which form so essential an element of our present
civilization, originate then, but exact learning also
had made very considerable advances before the
birth of Christ. Some of the most intricate problems
in Astronomy had been solved. Eclipses had beer^

184 OUJi RELIGION AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

calcuiiitfcd extending over a period of hundreds of
years. Tlie length of a tropical year had been fixed
within twenty-five seconds of the truth. Euclid
liad given to the world his great work which has
challenged contradiction from the whole human
race ever since. Archimedes had also given to
the world a work on mathematics which remained
for more than two thousand years unsurpassed.
The Alexandrian museum had been founded, — for
the i)urpose, 1st, of perpetuating such knowledge as
was then in existance, 2nd, for its increase, and 3rd,
for its diffusion. In the library of that museum
there were gathered 400,000 volumes, or, with the
300,000 in the Serapion, in all seven hundred
thousand. In that museum Ctesibius invented the
first fire-engine. There also the first steam-engine
was invented, by Hero the mathematician, nearly
two thousand years before James Watt was born.

The introduction of the world's form of Chiisti-
anity placed a check upon all this progress. When
the Roman empire embraced Christianity and formed
itself into a great hierarchy, claiming the Gos-
pel of Christ as its underlying principle, a/nd the
teaching of Jesus, and the writings and sayings of

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CHIilSTIANITY AND ITS FRIENDS,

185

Prophets, Apostles and Fathers, as its standards of
truth, it made the fatal mistake of sii])posing that
infallibility resided, not in the truth itself, but in the
organization which had the truth in its kee})ing. It
made the additional mistake of imagining that its
standards of truth contained all that men should
know upon any subject whatsoever. It committed
the further fatal error of framing an interpretation
of its standards, which all were bound to accept as
the only correct interpretation — from wliieh there
should be neither dissent nor appeal.

Thus those zealous custodians of the Christian
faith, instead of encouraging advancement in know-
ledge, interdicted the spread of intelligence, de-
prived men of liberty of speech, of liberty nf thought,
and even of liberty of conscience. If a man was sus-
pected of holding opinions differing fram those of the
Church, he was subjected to the tortures of the In-
quisition, and made to confess. Had that Church
had its way, this American continent might never
have been discovered. It was one of its favourite
dogmas that, according to the teaching of Scripture
and of the Fathers, this earth is a ])lain superficies
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18<J OUR RELIGION AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

and stars circling all around ; and it resisted unto
the death every thing that threatened to disprove
this dogma. Accordingly, when Columbus embraced
the theory that the earth is round, and proposed at-
ti^mpting to reach Asia by sailing westwards from
Spain, the irreligious tendency of his proposal was
pointed out l)y the Spanish ecclesiastics, and con-
demned by the council of Salamanca ; and it was
in the face of such opposition as this, that Columbus
finally succeeded in discovering America, and finding
a home for the enjoyment of a degree of religious
liberty, such as had not been enjoyed in the Old
World.

So also in tlie early part of the sixteenth century,
when Copernicus completed his work " On the revo-
lutions of the heavenly bodies," the Inquisition con-
demned his book cis heretical, and the Congregation
of the Index denounced his system as " that false
Pythagorean doctrine utterly contrary to Holy Scrip-
tui'e." Every reader is familiar with the persecution
suffered by Galileo at the hands of misguided re-
presentatives of Christianity, after the publication
of his work entitled, " The System of the World,"
in support of tlie (Joperiiican doctrine. If it were

CHRISTIANITY AND ITS FRIENDS.

187

not so pitiable it would be ainusin^^ to read, that
when Halley's comet appeared in 1450, so terrible
was its apparition that it was necessary for the Pope
Iiiniself to interfere. To use the language of Draper,
" he exorcised and expelled it from the skies. It
slunk away into the abysses of space, terror-stricken
by the maledictions of Calixtus ill., and did not
venture back for seventy-five 3^ef<>"«." VVt read also
of the Faculty of Theology in Fa '^ exclaiming,.
" What will become of religion if the study of Greek
and Hebrew be permitted ? "

Yet in the face of all this, and much more, the
Pope in our own times has had the boldness to say,
in the hearing of the world : — " Let the German
people understand that no other Chui'ch but that of
Rome, is the church of freedom and progress," And
among the canons of the late " Oecumenical Council "
we find the following : — " Let him be anathema, who
sliall say that it may at any time come to pass, in
the progress of science, that the doctrines set forth
by the Church nmst be taken in another sense than
that in wluch the Church has ever received, and yet
receives tliem." Truly, if the Jews of old were

188 OUR RELIGION AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

blind, crtain religionists of the present day are un-
able to see.

It is an indisputable fact that the Cluneh which
was for over ten centuries the main custodian and
cxjionent t)f the Christian religion, ha.4 always been
the opponent of secular progress. How is it with
Protestantism ? No one who is not blinded by pre-
judice, can fail to rejoice over the efforts made by
Luther, Calvin, Knox and their fellow-Reformers,
toward having the religion of Jesus Christ restored
to its biiginal simplicity and purity. But while we
abate nothing from the glory of tha great religious
Reformation, which gave birth to Protestantism, and
put the word of God in the hands of the people,
and bade them read it for themselves, and have full
liberty of conscience to live in accordance with its
teaching, — we cannot forget" that the Protestant
Church has not yet attained, neither is already
perfect. It has many of the things that are behind
still to forget, and has the great prize of the high
calling of God yet before it. The Protestant Church
is the founder of the Common School, and the friend
of learning, yet it has all along been more or less
jealous of certain branches of knowlclge, and

GtlRISTIANITY AND TTS Fill EN W. ]8n

especially of man's disposition to pry into the
secrets of nature. Those reviewers who live on
the border-land of religions, between us and our
outside neighbours, do not ftiil to remind us from
time to time, that when the Royal Society of London
was founded, it was attacked by the clergy as a
dangerous instituti(m ; that when the discovery of
inoculation was l)roufrht to En<,dand from Constan-
tinople, in the early pai-t of the eighteenth century,
it was so strongly opposed by the clergy, that only
its adoption by the Royal family brouglit it into
general use ; that a like opposition was ofi'ered when
Jenner introduced his great implement, vaccina-
tion ; that fire and life insurance, and certain other
features of our civilization, were long resisted also.
We cordially recognise the fact that the Protestant
Church has kept a watchful eye upon the researches
of inventors, students of science, and secular scholars
in general. But this is to be accounted for by the
fact that secular students are in some instances the
avowed enemies of the religion of Christ ; by the
fact also that they make ma!iy mistakes in their re-
searches, and are in danger of prejudicing men
against the truth of God, by representing His works

UH) OUR liELiaiON AS IT WAS AND AS IT tS.

as boin«^ at varijince witli His word. It is to be ac-
counted for in ))art also, i)y the fact that the Protes-
tniit Cliurch lias not yet gotten wholly rid of the pre-
judices in wliicli she was schooled, before she
abandoned the home beneath whose roof she spent
so many centuries. Would tliat this watchfulness
over the researches of students of science, were the
greatest sin of which the Protestant (lunch is guilty,
and the chief fault to be found with the Christi-
anity of our day !

Let men tell us that the Christian religion is in any
sense standing in the way of the proper develo[)ment
and use of this world, and we must ask what they
mean by the Christian religion ; for unfortunately
the religion of Jesus Christ is one thing, and what
is called the Christian religion, is in many cases a
very ditierent thing. Christ's religion has suffered
much at the hand^ of its friends. No man has ever had
as bitter experience as Jesus has had, of the meaning
of the words, — " A man's foes shall be they of his
own household." ^ His gospel has been so often em-
braced by men adopting its letter but not its spirit,
— its fair name has been so often written on the out-
side while within there was nothing but supersti-

(^HIUSTIANITY ANL ITS FRIENDS.

11)1

tion and inijnirity, — that the Clnirch itsejf has al-
most forjrotten what the religion of Jesus is. Let
men tell us there has always been a conflict between
the religion of ('hrist and true science, and our reply
must be, that there has been no such conflict in the
past and can be none in the future. The thing is
impossible. The religion of Christ is the religion
of Hii)i who made the earth, and who in placing
man upon it said, — " Replenish the earth and subdue
it and have dominion." ^ It is the reliirion of Him
whose word is, " Son go work to-day in my vine-
yard ; " - " Whatsoever thine hand findeth to do, do it
with thy might ; " ^ " Go to the ant thou sluggard,
consider her ways and be wise ; " * " Consider tlie
lilies of the field ; " ^ " Consider the fowls of the
air. ^

It is the religion of Him whose advent to this
world was signalized by the coming of wise w.en
from the east to Jerusalem, and was intimately asso-
ciated with the world's best researches in the sub-
limest of the natural sciences. It is the religion of
Him who came to lift the curse from the whole
earth, so that now the whole creation groaneth and
travaileth in pain, waiting for the ado[)tion. Scrip-

■ J L

-Wi-i

192 OUR RELIGION AS IT JVA8 AND AS IT IS.

ture reveals to us that through Christ, every gift
which God has stored up in nature, is calling upon
man to draw it foi'th that it may speak out to the
Creator's praise, and hlend its testimony with that of
Him who is God's greatest gift, the First-horn of
every creature.

It is impossil)le to review carefully the life of
Jesus of Nazareth, as set forth in Scripture, without
finding evidence of the fact, that He was the most
progressive Teacher the world has ever known. Not
only did He never, either by word or act, discover the
slightest disposition to oppose the advance of secu-
lar knowledge, but on the contrary, both by direct
precept and by drawing so many of His parables and
illustrations from the arts of daily life, and from the
recondite jirocesses of nature, He encouraged men to
pursue the search after truth in all manner of fields.
And He did all this at the time when He knew, and
taught, that seculai- progress in itself is oiily an out-
ward covering, the mere husk and shell of life ; and
that if a man gain it without possessing himself of
the kernel of truth that lies within, it will profit him
nothinu'. If, therefore, those who eml)race the Gos-
pel, stand in the way of secular progress, or if the

CHRISTIANITY AND ITS FRIENDS.

193

friends of secular progress ""band in the way of the
Gospel, they do Jesus wrong, and themselves wiong,
and the world wrong, hy opposing both the better
and the spirit of the teaching of the world's best
Friend. That there arc still some who do th's, can-
not be denied ; yet there are many in whose hearts
better counsels prevail — who see the present rjitagon-
ism, and know that all is not right as yet on either
side, but who take for their motto the sentiment
" Believe in God, and bid all knowledge speed.
Sooner or later the full harmony will reveal itself,
the discords and contradictions disappear'." ^

CJIAl'TEli IX.

IS THE BIBLE ADAPTED TO ALL TIMES?

CHAPTER IX.

IS THE BTBTiK ADAPTED TO ALL riMKS ?

§MONG the thousands of 'books whicli have
been published within the past century alone,
few, if any, are quite abreast of the piogress of the
ajje. At the i>resent time a new work is needed to
embody the results of the latest research. And among
V)ooks which have been published recently, we make
choice of the latest editions ; earlier editions are al-
ready out of date. Have our sacred Scriptures
irrown similarly eld ? Do we need, not a revised
translation merely, but a new and enlai'ged edition ?
Or, as the historian Froude suggests, " Does human-
ity re(|uire a new revelation ( "

The Bible consists of three separate volumes, The
first volume is the book of Genesis, the second is all
that part of the Old Testament extending from the

]<>8 OUli IlKLUUoN AH IT WAH AND AS IT IS.

beginning of Exodus to tlie end of Mnlaclii, and the
third is the New Testament. The first vohnne con-
tains the liistory of over twenty-three humh'ed years,
the second contains the history of less than lialt*
that time, and the tliird contains tlie liistory of less
than a century. The history contained in the first
volume is separated from that containetl in the
second by a gap of about a hundred years, the liis-
tory contained in the second is sepanited from that
contained in the third by a gap of over four hundred
years, and from tlie close of the third volume down
to the present time is nearly eighteen hundred
years. The fii'st volume covers the period extending
from the creation to the death of Joseph, the second
comprises the history which begins with Moses arid
ends with Malachi, and the third covers the period
extending from about the bii'th of Christ to the
death of the Apostle John.

The history contained in any one of these volumes
is different in character from that contained in
either of the other two. The first volume contains
a succession of pictures of the most primitive condi-
tions of human society, pictures of pastoral and no-
madic life, of separate tril)al relations, of delightful

IS THE niBLE ADAPTED TO ALL TIMES f lOJ)

famil}^ scenes, and of interesting^ neigbourliood asso-
ciations. In the second volume we have a succes-
sion of pictures of national life, illustrating all var-
ieties of national existance, from the gradual form-
ing of the nation, the gathering of its constituent
parts under the most adverse circumstances, the mi-
gration of the colonists to their new home, the draft-
ing of their first code of laws, tho institution of their
forms of worship ; up through the various stages of
government ; first a species of republic, struggling
with the aborigines for the complete possession and
proper occupancy of the soil ; next a monarchy with
a king upon the throne, reigning in triumph, with all
his enemies subdued round about him ; a prosperous
kingdom building temples and palaces, and construct-
ing other great public works ; then a kingdom
troubled by internal dissension, resulting in national
division with perpetual hostility existing between
the two parts ; next a kingdom harassed by foreign
invasion, with all those phases of national life which
are developed by the allying of neighbouring powers
against a nation wdiich they nuitually dislike; then
th^ decline and overthrow of the nation, its ca))ti-
vity, and at last the return of its shattered renmant

20() CUR RELIGHtN AS IT W AH AND /l»S' IT IS.

■I

to re-inliabit the country from which it ])a<l been
carried captive, though to occupy it, not as an inde-
pendent nation, but as the tributary of a more power-
ful people.

The thiid volume, the New Testament, contains
the history, not of fanjilics and connnunities with
their various ])hases of social life; nor of a nation,
with its varied political history ; but mainly the his-
tory of the origin of the Church of modern times,
with the life of its Great Foun<ler, and some account
also of those wdio were more immediately associa-
ted with Him in the work. But as the nMUieC^hurch
has come to have an ambiguous meaning, the third
volume may be spoken of as containing the history of
the spread of the truth, not with s))ecial reference to
its bearing upon either national or family life, but
with reference to its bearing upon the best welfare
of mankind generally. The history contained in the
New Testament is the history of the sprea<l of lea-
ven. Little account is taken of the temporal cir-
cumstances of those from wliom this leaven eman-
ates, nor of those into whose lives it makes its way.
The leaven makes no distinctions. In its presence
the ruler and the ruled are all one. It suits alike

IS THE lilllLK AhAl'TKh TO ALL TIMES! 'JOl

the beggar by the wayside aiul them that are of
CV'sar's household. Tt is for the Jew as well as the
Gentile, and for the Gentile as well as the Jew. This
third volume of Scripture contains the very essence
of all truth. It presents in a new foim those eter-
nal principles which nuist mulerlie human life whe-
ther in the individual, the family, the community or
the nation. It contains the same truth indeed
which was taught in the two preceding volumes,
but it presents its applicati(m on sobroad and gran«l
a scale, as to assure us, that however nu^n's out-
ward circumstances may change, and whatever ad-
vances man may make in general knowledge, the
essential truths taught by Jesus and His ApostUis
can never be set aside, nor in any way improved
upon.

The Bible is the most comprehensively natural of
all bo(jks. Other books are artificial ; they are con-
structed u})on a human plan. The liible is con-
structed upon a plan, not a hu; iai\ plan however,
but the same general plan upon which the whole
system of nature is constructed, — the combining of
endless variety with the most minute adaptation to
the ten thousand wants of man. In the system (jf

T^wi>.irim>

'.'i:«3H«(&'£l^;'

202 OUR HE Lid I ON AS IT WAS AND AS IT 18.

nature we have sun, moon and stars ; the eartli and
the air ; the land and the sea; a wondrous variety
of beasts, birds and fishes ; trees, plants and Howers ;
rooks, metals and soils : chemical elements and me-
chanical combinations ; and to the casual observer
all these may seem to be scattered about in glori;
ous confusion. Yet they all form one system, and
all the parts of that system have reference to the
well-being of this world's chief occupant. We ob-
serve in the Bible a similar diversity, atid a similar
adaptation to human wants.

The Bible is a growth, but it is a growth from a
divine germ — a germ which contained within it
eternal possil)ilities. If an ordinary book may be
com])ared to a ti'ee, the Bible may be compared to a
forest. In it are trees of all kinds, and the leaves of
every one of them are for the healing of the nations.
In it are all kinds of fragrant flowers, so that the
smell thereof is as Lebanon. In it also are rocky
steeps and even waste and solitary places which
have their use.

Certain familar features of the diversity connected
with the Bible are often referred to, and may l)e
r -^tioned here for the fuller illustration of the

IS THE IllHLE ADAl'TEl) To ALL TIMES? 2();i

1.i

comprehensive naturalness of the Book. Take for
example the circumstances under which the Bible
was written ; — not by one man, nor by ten, nor by
any number of joint authors ayieeing to write the
Book in such a way that it would contain one fjen-
eral thoufjht and theme ; but bv at least forty dif-
erent wiiters, not living in the same country and
age, but widely scattered over the east, and cover-
ing a period of more than fifteen hundred years.
One in the world's gieat capital, with powerful em-
pires built up round about him, another on the sands
of Aral)ia, back at the time when empires were only
beginning to be founded ; one in a palace at Baby-
lon, another on the banks of the C'hebar, another in
a prison at Rome ; — men not speaking the same
language, nor resembling each othei- in natural dis-
jtosition, nor occupying the same sphere in life ;
but one a king, another a shepheid ; one a warri<:)r,
another a man of peace ; one writing in Hebrew,
another in Greek. Nor did they write upon the
same subject, or with the same object in view ; but
one wrote history to transmit the doings of men to
posterity, another wrote songs to comfort his own
heart in a time of trouble ; one framed laws, anothei'

204 01) H RELIGION AH IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

uttered proverbs, a third wrote biograpliy ; one gave
an account of the incidents of travel, another wi-ote
familiar letters to his friends, a third related the
visions of his head upon his bed.

Another thine: to be noted in connection with this
comprehensive naturalness of the Bible, is, the unit}'
which pervades it from first to last. If there is
unity amid all the diversity in external nature, there
is similar unity amid all the diversity of the Book
of Revelation. If there is one all-eud>racing law of
gravity in the material world, thei'e is also an all-
eud)racinjj: law of ii'ravitv in the world of Scriuture.
God is the centre, and all the truth the Scriptures
contain tends uniforndy toward Him, drawing man-
kind with it, as with a })Ower wluch emanates from
God alorie. And if there are typical forms in crea-
tion, indicating that all creatures, from the lowest
plant to the highest animal, have been fashioned ac-
cording to one governing idea, which has found its
highest realizfition in man ; so also is there a suc-
cession of typical forms in Revelation, indicating that
the Book has been constructed ujion one ruling plan,
in accordance with which everything, from the first
faint promi.se to the last clear voice, has pointed for-

18 THE BIHLK ADAPTED TO ALL TIMES t 205

r
o

ward, until it has found its complete realization in
the person of the God-nian.

There is even a correspondence in this respect be-
tween the three kingdoms of nature, the mineral,
the vegetable and the animal, and the three vol-
umes of Scripture. But there is nothing pertaining
to the general form and structure of the Bible that
shows more strikingly, both its comprehensive natu-
ralness and its marked completeness, than the gradu-
ally ascending progress of doctrine in each of its
three parts, and in the Book as a whole. In the
early portion of each of these three parts of Scrip-
ture, there is contained a law which is to be the
rule of life for the age to which it belongs, and the
essence of which is to be carried forward to form
the basis of the law of each succeeding part. In
the middle portion of each volume there is the ap-
plication of this law to human life in its various re-
lations, and at tlie close of each there is a prophetic
preparation for the immediate future. In the early
part of Genesis, for example, we find the law laid
down in such words as — " Be fruitful, and multiply
and replenish the earth and subdue it, and have
dominion ; "^ " Therefore shall a man leave his father

i I

20G OUR UELIGIO^ AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

and his motlier, and shall cleave unto Ids wife;
and thuy shall be one Hesh ; "^ " Of every tree of the
garden thou mayest freely eat : But of the tree of
the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat
of it ; for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou
shalt surely die;"- " In the sweat of thy face shalt
thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground ;
for out of it wast thou taken ; for dust thou art,
and unto dust shalt thou return; "^ " But flesh with
the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye
not eat. And surely your blood of your lives will
I rei[uire ; at the hand of every beast will I re-
(juire it, and at the hand of man ; at the hand of
every man's brother will I re(|uire the life of man,
Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood
be shed, for in the image of God made he man ; " ^
" And I, behokl I establish my covenant with you,
and with your seed after you ; "^ "I do set my bow
in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a cove-
nant between me and the earth." ^

Then in the middle portion of Genesis, in the lives
of the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and their
households, we have an illustration of the weaving
of this law into the life both of the individual and

IS THE BUiLE AD A IT ED TO ALL TIMES i 207

tlio family. And in the closing portion oi. the Book
we have an account of Jacob's i;atherin<r his sons
around his bedside and addressinj; to them that
prophecy which forms so fitting a preparation for
the history which was to follow.

In the opening of the second part of tlie Bible,
we Hnd the law laid down in the form of the Ten
(Jonynandments, and other enactments contained in
the Books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deu-
teronomy. From the beginning of the Book of
Joshua to the end of the Book of P]sther, we have
an illustration of the weavincj of this law into
national life. In the poetical books from Job to the
Song of Solomon, there is the interweaving of this
law with the individual and heart-life of the people.
Then follow the prophetical books, from Isaiah to
Malacln, forming a most fitting preparation for the
history which was to follow in the New Testament
dispensation.

In the thinl part of Scripture, the New Testament,
we find the highest of all laws in the life and teach-
ing of Jesus as recorded in the first four books. In
the Acts of the Apostles, and several of the Epistles
there is the weavinjr of this law into the Church's

208 OUM RELIGION AS IT i^AS AND AS IT IS.

I i

life, and also — especially in the later Epistles —
into indivitlual life. And in tiie last Book, the
Apocalypse, that sublimest of all propliecies, there
is the preparatiijn for the history still to follow,
not here alone, l>nt hereafter.

As external nature reached, in man, a culmination
beyond which it is impossible for nature to pass; so
in the closing book of the Bible, Revelation reached
its perfect close. The [)ro2)hecy which closed the
first volume had reference to earthly scenes ; tlie
prophecies which closed the second volume had still
reference mainly to things to be done on earth ; but
the prophecies which close the third and last volume
mount above the earth and speak of things pertain-
ing to the Great Hereafter, — thus indicating that
nothing can be added until the present order of
things shall have passed away, and all things shall
have become new.

The comprehensive naturalness of the Bible is
further observable in the perfect adjustment of Di-
vine Revelation to human conditions. The book
which is to suit all ages, must [lossess this character-
istic, that while it furnishes to the earliest and most
illiterate ages the truth they need, it must furnish

IS THE lilBLE ADAPT Eh To ALL TIMKHl 200

that truth to tliem in sucli laiiijua^v as will convov
to thoiM only as nincli tiutli as th«>v ar(> capalile of

(I at th(

til

•li 1?

receiving,

will admit of a constantly ex|»an<ling interpretation
to suit the •'•radual advance of li-eneial Unowlcdi^e.
It must be perfectly adapted to the circumstances
of those for whom it is inunediately written, yet must
as perfectly meet the recpiirements of all who shall
come after them, — never telling to any people more
than they can bear, yet never falling behind the pro-
gress of the ages, nor proving inadeipiate to meet
the condition in which mankind in any future period
of the world's history may be found. Why are wo
not told in the opening words of Genesis how long
it is since the beofinninii- mentioned there ; and how
the various strata of the earth's crust were formed ;
and how the earth was made spherical in shape,
hung upon nothing and sent circling round the sun?
Manifestly because this knowledge was not needed
then, and had it been imparted, would have so far
transcended all man's i)0wers of observation and re-
search, that man would have been unable to receive
it, and would have been in danger of rejecting the
whole record. It was necessary that the light should

210 OUn UKIAdlON AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

dawn upon tlio world in^indually, lest it shoidd Mind
men Ity its sudden ('rt'ulgonco, and defeat tlu; end for
wldcli it was sent. Accoi"din<^ly, tlie Ureat Kevealer
stood back at tlie ije<xinninH- of oni' woild's history,
lioldin^^idl trutli in His liand, hut lettinj^' out oidya
single ray at a. time; yet tliat tirst ray was so ad-
niiraldy adjusted that it furnislies li«;]»t enougli for
us to read by, yet was not so bri<^dit originally as to
da/zle those upon whom it directly beamed. The
account of the six days' Creation recorded in tlie
first chapter of Genesis, commends itself to the
learne<l and unh^arned alike. The; modern (liristian
Lieoloiiist sees it to be in accordance with his latest
researclies, while the early Fathers who had made
no such researches, saw nothing- in it which they
couM not receive as true. An<l wdierever there has
been conHict between popular opinion and true
science, the Bilde has always been found to be on
the winning side.

What is true of this natural elasticity of Bible
language regarding matters of science, is equally
true of the form in which it has revealed higher
truth. By examining the gradually unfolding pro-
mises of a coming Messiali, as these promises are

IS THE lilliLH ADAPTED TO ALL TIMES;' 211

recorded throULjliout the Oltl Tt^stament, we tin<l
that they coiitaiii tlie very truth that was iiiiiuedi-
ately in (U)mand; tliey always contain the (Jospel —
;j^()od news — a clieerinj^ word, spoken at a time wlien
it was iinich neeih-d, ami the very word that was
neetled to meet the existing form of despondency.
To our first parents, humbled to the (hist V)ecause
of having ignominiously fallen under tlu; power of
an enemy sti'onger tlian themselv<'s, the promise
was of the comini^ of One who should bruise that
enemy under foot. To Abram, dejected over the
prospect of his going down to the grave childless,
the promise was that he should yet become a great
nation, and that in his seed all families of the earth
should be blessed. To Jacob, dying in Kgypt, witli
no good prospect that his family would evei* be
• lathered back to their own land to l)ocome an inde-

)en(

lent

peop

le th

ere,

])r()|

•hot'

s vision broue

dit

the cheering words : " The sceptre sliall not (,'cpart
from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet
until Shiloh come ; and unto him shall the gatlier-
ing of the people be."^

To the children of Israel wandering in the wil-
derness, and ready to faint at the thought that

. — . »i..*.*-.-»*«iii«iosa.>

212 OUI{ RELIGION AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

Moses in wlioni tiiey trusted cxnild not he always
with tlieni, and was liable t) l)e removed at any
time, the promise came, through the lips of the very
man in whom they confided most, uttei'ing the
woi'ds : " A pi'ophet shall the Lord your (Jod raise
up unto 3'ou of your brethren, like unto me." ^ To
the Jewish people at a later time, when they saw
that their condition as a nation was becoming
worse and worse from year to year, and that
the true Davidic stock was almost clean perished
tVom among them, so that there was no prospect of
the coming of their deliverer, the })romise was sent
in the words : " There shall come forth a rod out of
the stem ot Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of
his roots." - And to the pious Jews of a still later
time, who saw that notwithstanding all the faithful
aduionitions of the pro[)hets, the nation had gone
wholly over to idolatry, and without the direct in-
terposition of God, all must be lost, — the form of
the promise was: "Behold, I will send My Mes-
senger."

We may wish that these promises had been more
clear — so clear that they would have preached the
Gospel in eai'ly times in such a way that men would

J^ THE BinLE ADAl'TEU To ALL TIMESf '213

es-

hre

lid

have un<loist()()d it tlien jjiocisely as we undt-'istand it
now ; Imt it is a vain wisli. It cuuM not be. To liave
revealed the fact of the death of the Messiah in the
way in which it actually occuiied, would have been
to have cut the ground of faith from beneath all
Jewisli feet, as well as otherwise defeat the end for
which the Messiah came. It is enough if the ])ro-
niises of His coming were always Gorl's cheering news
to those to whom they were addi-essed, and the very
news they needed. If we can see in the unfolding
of those promises what they of old time could not
see, we need only remember with becoming gratitude
the Saviour's words : " Blessed are j-our eyes, for
they see ; and your ears for they heai". For verily
I say unto you, that many pnjphets and righteous
men have desired to see those things which ye see,
and have not seen them ; and to hear those things
which ye hear, and have not heard them." ^

The whole plan upon which the Scriptures have
been written is indicated in the words, " With many
such parables spake he the word unto them as they
were able to hear it." - The Oreat Teacher, when in
the world in person, often found it necessary to
speak in parables, and even then many went back

214 OUIl liFJJGlON AS IT M'/LS AND AH IT IS.

and walked no more witli Hiin. He could have told
His own disciples much moi-e than He did, or than
even we would yet be al)le to receive, " I have
many things to say unto you, hut ye cannot bear
them now." ^ God is the revealer of mysteries, yet
" it is the ^lory of God to conceal a thing." - " He
holdeth back the face of his throne and spreadeth
his cloud upon it."'^

There are other ways in which Divine Revelation
is adjusted to human conditions, as, for example, by
furnishing' all the counsel and comfort needed to
meet man's daily wants. It has l)een the testimon}^
of human experience in the })ast, that a man can be
placed in no circumstances, whethei'of prosperity or
adversity, joy or sorrow, in which the Bible cannot
furnish him the very truth he requires. It abounds
in entertaining and instructive lessons for the young,
and it contains the most giatifying news for the old.
It rejoices with them that rejoice, and wee[>s with
them that weep. It has a message alike for hus-
band and wife, for parent and child, for master and
serv ant, for the captive in the dungeon and for the
freeman in the exercise of the privileges of his citi-
zenship. In whatever direction we turn, we see new

/« rilK IMIJI.E AUAI'TED To ALL TI.ME^: -If,

'vi-gi..,„.nts risin,,. up to co>,Hr,„ „„r belief, that tl.e
B.ble is humanity's one great Book, not to he ap-
proached by any other, never to be superceded nor
'" anywise set asi.le. A Book as nioelv adapted to
man's social and spiritual wants, as the provisions
of external nature are adapte.l to his natural and
materia! wants. Truly the san.e Infinite Mind who
planne,l ,„an's being, and planne,! at the same time
the whole system of nature aroun.l bin,, must have
presided over the writing of our Sacred Scriptures,
with all man's higher wants in view, saying as He'
looked on, " Man shall not live by bread alone, but
by every word that proeeedeth out of the mouth
of God."»

CHAPTER X.

MUST SCRIPTURE TRUTH BE SYSTEM-

ATIZED.

-^i

CHAPTER X.

MUST SCRIPTURE TRUTH BK SYSTEMATIZED ?

^^E come now to enc,uiro how the Bible must
^ bo used. Shall we use it as we find it in all
the glory of its diversity ? Or shall we reduce its
truth, as far as we understand it, to a system, and
feed mainly upon that ? Or shall we adopt and com-
bine both methods ?

The Christian world has reduced the teachino- of
the Bible to a threefold system. It has made "the
Scriptures furnish the church of modern times with
a liturgy, a polity and a theology; or rather, with
liturgies, polities and theologies, for the forms of
worship deduced from Scripture are numerous, the
forms of government are equally so, and the systems
of doctrine are not less vaiied.

Mud Scripture truth be systematized ?

We nowhere find it laid down in Scripture tliat

220 OUIl URLKilON AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

w<' are even to afctenipt to reduce the word of revel-
ation to a logical system. Certain portions of the
Bible itself are elaborately fornuilized, for j)urposes
both of public worship and ecclesiastical government;
the Jewish ritual, for example. Other porticms con-
sist of extend(!d argument, so skilfully wrought as
to furnish, in the opinion of some at least, an elab-
orate system of doctrine, as in Paul's (!})istle to the
Romans, hut it would})e unsafe toariiuethat becau.se
the writers of the Sacred Scriptures did such things,
therefore we are to do the same. What men under
the special guidance of Divine inspiration may do in
preparing a complete Bible for humanity, is one
thing; but what ordinary men must do with that
revelation after they have received it, may be a very
different thing. Paul in writing even to Timothy
said, "Hold fast the form of sound words which thou
hast heard of me."^ The principle just indicated has
been recognised by the framers of the leading Scrip-
tural Creeds and Confessions. T.:ke the Westmin-
ster Standards for example. It is not once claimed
that the framing of the system of doctrine contained
in the Westminster Confession and Catechisms, has
been demanded by the Word of God. It is claimed

MUST SGRIFTUHE TRUTH BE SYSTKMIZKD f 221

has
ii'ip-
niii-
iiied
ined
has
lined

that every article of those Standards is founded upon
the Woid of God, and a<^a-eeable thereto, hut the
franiin<r of those Standards is chiinied to be a mat-
ter, not of Divine injunction, ))ut of Iiuinan expe-
diency. Tlie Westminster Assemljly did nut even
receive its powers and prerogatives from thi; (luirch.
It was the ci'eature of the State. It met " at West-
minster in the chapel called King Henry the Se-
venth's Chapel, on tlie first day of July, one thou-
sand six hun(h'ed and forty-three," not at the call of
an ecclesiastical tril)unal, but upon the order of
" both Houses of Parliament." Its work was map-
])ed out for it by Parliament, Its P)olocutor, Dr.
William Twisse, was appointed by Parliament. Its
members were [)aid l)y the State, in accordance with
the following enactment; " And be it further or-
dained by the authority aforesaid, that for the charges
and expenses of the said Divines, and everyone of
them, in attending the said service, there shall be
allowed everyone of them that shall so attend, during
the time for their said attendance, and for ten days
before and ten days after, the sum of foui" shillings
for every day, at the charges of the Commonwealth,
at such time and in such manner as l>y both Houses

222 OUR RELIGION AS IT IV AS AND AS IT IS.

of Parliainoiit sliall be appointed." And in case of
any difference of o|)ini()n arising" among the mem-
bers of the Assembly touching any of tlie matters
proposed for their consideration, the appeal was to
the Parliament. The Assembly was not allowed to
divulge the results of its deliberations, either " by
printing, writing or otherwise witliout the consent
of both or either Houses of Parliament." And the
Confesi^ion and Catechisms were finally issued by the
supreme authority of the State. To us who believe
we live in an age of peculiar civil and religious pro-
gress, it should perhaps be somewhat humiliating to
find that one of the Acts of the Parliament which
met at Edinburgh in the year l(j¥d, is entitled " An
Act anent the Catechisms, Confession of Faith, and
ratification thereof," providing as follows : — " The
Estates of Parliament, now presently convened in
this second session of the second triennial Parlia-
ment, by virtue of an Act of the Committee of Estates,
who had power and authority from the last Parlia-
ment for convening the Parliament, having seriously
considered the Catechisms, viz. the Larger and
Shorter ones, with the Confession of Faith, with
three Acts of Approbation thereof by the Commis-

MUST SORIFTUEE TRUTH BE SYSTEMIZEI) 'i 22.']

sioiiers of the General Assembly, presented untcj
them by the Commissioners of the said (Jeneral
Assembly; do ratify and ajiprove the said Cate-
chisms, Confession of Faith, and Acts of Ap|)roba-
tion of the same, ])rodiicedas it is ; and ordain them
to be recorded, published and practised." These
Standards therefore were originally a sta^^e docu-
ment, or, to speak more definitely, a Church and
State document. A fact, however, which does nijt
in any way affect their intrinsic worth. The sen-
tence, " Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to en-
joy Him for ever," is equally true, whether given to
the world by authority of the State, or by authority
of the Church, or with the authority of both, or
witliout the authority of either. Its lustre is of it-
self too bright to be at all intensified by the author-
ity of any earthly organization whatsoever, but
contrariwise, the fact that it was first given to the
world, in its present form, under State authority,
reflects great honour upon. the Commonwealth from
beneath whose throne it issued. But what is chiefly
before us now, is, that the framing of these venei-ablc
Standards has been a matter of human, and not of
Divine enactment : and that neithei- these Standards

• '"^ ^^

224 OUJi HELIGION AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

nor the' Sacred Scriptures tliem.sclveis, do anywhere
teach, that Sci'iptnre truth must of necessity l)e sys-
tematized. So tlioroiighly does tlic Westminster
Confession of Faith reco^niise that wlieii even the
wisest Assemblies of Divines undertake to systema-
tize the teaching of Scripture, tlioy do so upon their
own responsibility, and at no small risk of both
going astray themselves and misleading others, that
it specially provides, that wliile Synods and Councils
have their place and value, their decrees and deter-
minations are to be brought to the test of Scripture,
and received with the utmost caution ; and are
never to be regarded as of equal authority with Scrip-
ture itself. "All synods or councils since the
Apostles' times," says the Westminster Confession,
chapter xxxi, section iv, " whether general or parti-
cular, may err, and many have erred ; therefore they
are not to be made the rule of faith or practice, but
to be used as an help in both."

But is there not something in the nature of Scrip-
ture truth, or in its adaptation to human need, which
demands that it be formulized in order to accomplish
its true end ? In other words. Can the Word of God
not exert a saving influence upon man's heart and

1),:WM»u-»

r 41

MUK'iT SCIiirTUllE TRUTH HE SYSTEMIZEh ( 225

life, 'intil it is received into tlie iiiiiid in the form of
a pliilosophical system ?

On one occasion Jesus said in His teachinir, — " So
is the Kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed
into the ground ; and shoukl sleep and rise night
and day, iind the seed should spi'ing and grow up
he knovveth not how. For the earth bringeth forth
fruit of herself ; first the bhide, then the ear, after
tliat the full corn in the ear."^ The good seed of the
Kingdom is so fine as to be impalpable. It can
neither be seen by the naked eye, nor made visible
by the strongest magnifier, — nor analysed by the
subtlest processes of the intellect. It is not in the
power of human reason to detect the method of its
growth. No man has ever been able to compre-
hend the relation between the receiving of a truth
into the mind, and the effect which that truth pro-
duces upon the character, — even as no one has ever
understood the mystery of the growth of a plant
from an invisible germ. Nor would understanding
the matter make any change upon the result in
either case. It is neither understanding the analy-
sis of the seed and its manner of growth, nor is it
casting it into the ground according to the latest a^)-

•226 OUR RELIGION AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

proved method, that secr.Tcs fruitage ; it is the condi-
tion of the earth into which the seed is dropped ; let
the soil be right and whether the seed be sown
in the field of the woll-skilled botanist, or the most
illiterate peasant, it will gi'ow. " The earth bringeth
forth fruit of herself." Tt is not with the head, but
'' with the heart manbelieveth unto righteousness/' ^
" Those root-truths on which the foundations of be-
ing rest are apprehended not logically at all, but
mystically." ^ " When once awakened, the spiritual
faculty far outgoes all systems, scientific, philosophic,
or theological, and apprehends and lives by truths
which these cannot reduce to system." ^ It is by
" something that may dwell upon the heart though
it be not named upon the tongue," that human life
is often most powerfully influenced. It is through
Christ alone that man can be saved ; yet " it is not
the critic's eye, but the child's heart, that most truly
discerns the countenance that looks out from the
pages of the gospels." * " Again and again," said
Neander, — quoting from Niebuhr, " have I said that
I know net what to do with a metaphysical God;
and that 1 will have no other but the God of the
Bible, who is heart to heart."

MUST SCRTPTVRE TRUTH RE SYSTEMIZED? 227

The experiences of every day should be sufficient
to teach us that it is not so much through the purely
intellectual, as through the emotionul parts of our
nature, that our characters are chiefly moulded. The
most ])otent influences are those which can be em-
bodied in no set form. Take home love for example,
— that mysterious b(md which knits the mend)ers
of the family together and makes the home a type
of heaven. Who can analyse and understand that
influence ? Who can define it in such terms as will
make it a thing to be learned by rote and acquired
at will by the intellect ? Or who has not had his
heart touched and thrilled by the strains of sweet
music, — music which uttei-ed no word, but came in
upon the soul and spread its mellow voice over the
whole being like a balm of peace, producing an im-
pression upon the heart and Lfe, such as no sharply
defined thought could have produced ? Or on the
morning of a peaceful Sabbath, who, on entering the
house of God, has not had his heart lifted heaven-
ward by the devout appearance of tlie worshippers
and the solemn air of the sanctuaiy. even before a
word was uttered? And when the service was
opened with prayer and the singing of a spiritual

228 OUR RELIGION AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

song, and the Word was devoutly read, — it was not
alone the sweet meaning of the Word of God that
was so comforting and sanctifying ; it was the breath
of Divinity which it breathed. The Bible is not
limited to any particular method of appeal to the
human heart. It is wondi-ously varied as to its con-
tents, to suit varying human circumstances; and
the methods by which tiie Spirit applies its truths
are equally varied. "There are diversities of oper-
ations." ^ At one time the truth is stated in a philo-
sophical form which makes the strongest demands
upon the intellect, as if man were challenged to a
reasoning contest with the Almighty, in which if
the Kingdom would be taken at all it must be taken
by force. At another time the truth is seemingly
obscured by being wrapped about with the mists of
distant ages, or is but faintly discernible amid the
flames of the prophet's fiery chariot ; or again it
seeks to lure man God-ward, as with quaint simpli-
city it leads him back to the beginning of things
and invites him to meditate upon a plain and truth-
ful narrative of events pertaining to a dispensation
that has passed away, or upon bold predictions that
reach far on into the future. And not the least

MUST SCRIPTURE TRUTH BE SYSTEMIZED ? 220

powerful of the features of Sacred Scripture, is the
beautiful dress in which its ti'uth is clothed, —
whether the highly poetic and richly figurative
speech of the Ancient Hebrew, or the more philoso-
phical language of the Greek, or the simple, heart-
touching, homelike Saxon of our English Bible.

The various figures under which saving truth is
represented in Scripture, also indicate that a scien-
tific acquaintance with that truth, is not essential in
ordev to our being savingly influenced by it. Divine
truth is called bread. Is a scientific acquaintance
with the properties of wheat and flour, or even a
knowledge of the art of bread-making essential in
order to our being nourished by bread ^. Divine
truth is called water. Is it necessary that we under-
stand the chemical analysis of water before it will
quench our thirst ? Divine truth is called light.
Must we know all the properties and laws of light
before it will bless us with its beams ?

" Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak ; and
hear, earth the words of my mouth. My doctrine
shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the
<lew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as
the showers upon the grass." ^ Wlio will say that

1 i

230 OUE RELIGION AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

the rain and the dew must be analysed and system-
atized by man, before they will bless the earth ?
Why should it be thought essential that we reduce
to one ail-embraeing human system, that truth
which is as varied, and as minutely adapted to man's
wants, as external nature itself ? Or that we accur-
ately formulize that pure word of revelation, which
wraps the heart about like the sunlight or the air
we breathe, and flows in upon the soul through
ten thousand secret avenues 1 Had not the truths
which it is all hnportant for man to know, been re-
vealed in the simplest forms, we might reason other-
wise, but with the ten connnandments written by
the finger of God in words so plain that the most
illiterate age can read and understand them ; with
the sermon on the mount recorded for man's use m
lano-uaf^e as clear and pure as the speech of chdd-
hood ; with the great gift of God's love, for the re-
demption of the world, offered in terms so simple,
that even little children do actually understand the
terms, and accept the gift ; with all needed precepts
and promises sparkling like the dew-drops of hea-
ven over the whole face of revelation; we see nothing
that imperatively demands that Scripture truth be

Slll-

luce
liith

Ill's

;ui'-

lich

air

MUST SCRIPTURE TRUTH BE SYSTEMIZED ? 231

reduced to a humanly devised philosophical system.
But we must go further than this, and say that it is
not in man's power to reduce revelation to a perfect
system. The inability of the Bible students of this
age, or of all ages, to agree upon any one system of
Divine truth, should of itself be enough to convince
us of this. Man's premises are not complete to be-
gin with. The Bible contains truth concerning God,
all the truth man needs in the present life, yet not
all that is to be known concerning God, and con-
cerning many subjects which have been adverted to
in Scripture in connection with the revelation of
God's will, and therefore not all the truth that
is necessary to form the basis of a perfect system,
even if man had succeeded in interpreting correct-
ly and fully ail that has been revealed. Many of
God's dealings may seem unreasonable to man, and
yet be perfectly reasonable to one who can sit
where God sits, and take into view circumstances
which cannot possibly be seen from man's pomt
of vision, and with man's limited powers. But
even had God })oured all knowledge around man-
had this been possible— man would still have been
unable to systematize that knowledge. Man is an

iUl r

.Mi ■

'• ' i '

iii

232 OUM RELIGION AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

infant of days, and God is the eternal Fatliei- ; {iiid
. shall the child he expected to comprehend all the
father's hiisiness ? "He who, in religious things,
desires to think truly, not to say reverently, cannot
too soon learn that he must he content to see in part
and to know in part, to find a true link here, and
another there, hut must not expect in this life to con-
nect them into one completed chain." ^ " the deptli
of the riches hoth of the wisdom and knowledge of
God 1 how unsearchahle are his judgments and his
ways past finding out ? For who hath known the
mind of the Lord ? or who hath hcen his counsellor ?
Oi- who hath first given to him, and it shall he
recompensed unto him again ? For of him, and
through him and to him are all things ; to whom
he glory for ever, amen." ^

But does not the liuman mind demand a system
of truth ? It does ; yet not necessarily an elahorate
or perfect system. The mind demands definite
knowledge, and must have it. Without such know-
ledge there can he no helief, and nothing worthy of
the name of faith. But the Bihle supplies an ahun-
dance of definite knowledge ; and the heart that

takes the jilain precepts of Scripture as tl

le auK

leof

MUST SCRIPTURE TRUTH BE SYSTEMIZED ? 233

its life, finds it easy to frame a satisfactory creed.
For by doing God's will the heart soon learns to
know of the doctrine: "Unto the upright there
ariseth light in the dari<:ness." ^

The theological system which the many humble
cliildren of God scattered up and down the earth, live
by, is a very simple system. Those pious hearts
take a few of the great truths contained in the Bible,
and fit them together as if by intuition, so that they
foini the few links of the golden chain of love and
faith, which binds them to their God, who to them is
not far away. This is true of the learned and the
unlearned alike among God's children. Perplexing
mysteries, and subtle theological distinctions, are not
the things by which men live, and in which is the
life of their spirit. It is only in their studies that
good men are great theologians, or great in natural
science. In their closets before God they are the
humblest children, and in their daily life before men
they are the gentlest companions.

But must not the religious teacher be well skilled
in the science of religion, and in the truths of Scrip-
ture ui)on which that science is leased ? As well
skilled as it is possible for him to be. He must

if i'

234 OUR RELIGION A^ IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

have a definitely framed Scriptural creed for him-
self, and to teach to those who are unable to frame
a creed for themselves, by reason of their beginning
to frame their creed before attending to the doing of
the will. For, unfortunately, there are many who
set to work in this way, " adjourning the doing of
the doctrine, hastening to busy themselves with the
theory of it." The religious teacher must be acquain-
ted with the whole field of systematic and historical
theology, that he may be able to guard men against
traversing ground which has been fruitlessly tra-
versed by men of various shades of religious belief,
since the earliest centuries. He must be well versed
in exegetical theology also, that he may learn what
is the mind of the Spirit, and be able rightly to divide
the Word of Truth. And of these departments of
theology the last must be first and chief For " the
man who would think truly on spiritual things must
first be spiritually-minded." It is easy to bo a good
logician, not easy to be a good theologian. " Clear
and trained intellect is one thing, spiritual discern-
ment quite another." Humility and true devotion
are the fiist pie-requisites, in order to the successful
study of the little real theology any man can learq

!;*^?S'te;»f^^

MUST SCRIPTURE TRUTH BE SYSTEMIZED ? 235

liim-

lame

hinir

•of
ho
of

l(r

1 the

on earth. In the hinguage of the German theolo-
gian Rothe : — " It is only the pious subject that can
speculate theologically. And why ? Because it is
he alone who has the original datum, in virtue of
communion with God, on which the dialectic lays
hold. So soon as the original datum is there, every-
thing else becomes simply a mattei' of logic." Theo-
logical " speculations " may be of little value, but a
comparison of the lives of eminent theologians, with
the theological treatises they have brought out, will
be found to justify Rothe's sentiment. The now
sainted father who recently bequeathed to the world
an invaluable legacy,in the form of his three volumes
of " Systematic Theology," ^ which ai-e by very gen-
eral consent regarded as unrivalled in theological
literature, was the broad and deep religious thinker
that he was, not so much because of his rare erudi-
tion — rare indeed though that was — as because of
his genuine Christ-likeness of spirit. " The meek
will He guide in judgment, and the meek will He
teach His way." - " Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they shall see God." ^

Mcuj Scripture truth be arranged by man in sumo
systematic order then? Assuredly it may; and

•SMy OUR RELIGION At^ IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

when wisely engaged in and properly pursued, no-
thing can be more worshipful to God, more lionour-
mgto human intelligence, and more heneficial to the
human heart, than this critical searching of the
Scriptures. " The works of God are great, sought
out of all them that have pleasure therein," ^
and the same thinji; nuist be true of His Word. If
tlie study of the natural sciences l)e honourable and
profitable, the study of the science of religion, within
proper limits, and with becoming humility, is surely
not less so.

The answer we find to be given to the ([uostion,
" Must scripture truth be systematized ? " is, — That
the honour of God, and the best well-being of man,
alike require that the Bible be diligently studied, but
the extent to which its truth shall be systematized,
whetlKn- for purposes of doctrine, worship, or govern-
ment, is purely a matter of expediency ; and in no
case must any humanly devised system be placed
between man and his Bible, so as to become the rule
of faith and practice, and thus supersede the Word
of God.

The Bible nmst be regarded as of supreme author-
ity. Its teaching nmst never be brouL-ht to the

Vs.

MUST SCniFTURE TRUTH HE SYSTEMI/.ED? 287

I, no-
liour-
H) the
the
)ii<''ht
'1m"i

test of what is taught in any other hook, Vmt on
the contrary, tlie Bible must })e made the touch-
stone to the test of which every other hook, and
every creed and confession must be brought. Then
the Bible must be read often, read independently,
read in its own light, and in the light of the times
in which it was written, read humbly and prayer-
fully with the light of nature and human experience
shining upon it, and read as a whole. Even those
portions of Scripture which seem to Ije uninterest-
ing, and almost meaningless, can have a truly health-
ful influence u}>on human life. The reader who
passes by these portions, misses the full benefit the
Scriptures are designed to convey. The man who
confines his study to particular parts of the Bible,
or to a few doctrines which he regards as the essence
of what the whole book contains, will become narrow
in his religious views, and will be in danger of starv-
ing his soul for lack of a sufficient quantity of
spiritual food. For in spiritual as in natural sus-
tenance, the quantity must be taken into account
as well as the quality In the food that is eaten at
every meal, the purely nutritious part might be con-
densed into very little bulk, yet the substance that

238 OUR RELIGION JN IT WAS \Nl> AS IT IS.

is not directly nutritious, must be taken along witli
the nutriment, if tlie man wouM enjoy viooror -
health. And if a man would receive the full benel.
to be deiived from the essential elements of truth
which the Bible contains, he must take these ele-
ments, not ahme, but together with the whole mass
of matter with which by Divine a})i)ointment they
have been so skilfully commingled. The bread of
heaven relishes best when partaken of together
with the apples of Sodom. The rose of Sharon is
never so attractive as when seen growing on its (
thorny tree, and amid the foliage which naturally
belongs to it. " Jesus Christ and Him crucified," the
Saviour and the Cross — these are the truths which
must mysteriously operate upon the heart to bless
it ; but they do not stand alone. There are Roman
soldiers, and a jeering nmltitude, and weeping wo-
men, and timid disciples standing around, and dark-
ness coveis the whole land, so that we can but dindy
see the cross and Him who hangs upon it ; but it is
only by taking all the circumstances together, that
the scene will properly influence the heart with its
savmg power. " All Scripture is given by inspira-
tion of Qodr

CHAPTER XI.

SECTS, SYSTEMS, \.ND THE CHURCH.

-T^i-'^wSftt..

"^i

'^■1: I

CHAPTER XI.

SECTS, SYSTEMS, AND THE CHUliCH.

7^ HE RE are inquiring natures in the world, who
i^). see mysteries everywhere, yet cannot endure
to dwell in the midst of mystery. They must know
and understand things. They dislike the darkness,
and must grope their way through it in search of
light. And if they fail ^,o find light by searching,
they must invent it, or something they will regard
as a substitute. Like Peter on the mouiit,^ they
wish to have the mysterious feature of even the
most sacred sone dissipated, and the scene itself
utilized, by being brought down to the level of
every day life, or at least to the level of their own
comprehension. This disposition is shared more or
less by everyone, and serves many important ends.
In early times it led to the study of Astrology an<l

242 QUE RELIGION AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

Astronomy. By night men beheld the fashion of
the countenance of the sky changed, and as they
watched tlie trembling and glistering of its garments,
they said, " Let us make a tabernacle ;" not simply
let us worship, but let us have all the phenomena
of the heavens brought within the compass of our
knowledge. And when they looked upon the earth
and saw trees, plants and flowers array themselves
before them in beautiful and fantastic forms, they
resolved to have them also included within a tab-
ernacle of knowledge. When they saw all the
tribes of animated nature spread out before them in
gorgeous variety, they at once proceeded to construct
a system of knowledge to inclu.le them all. Even
the strange forms which lie })edded in the crust of
the earth they could not allow to lie neglected and
unknown. And when they looked upon man, tlie
transfigured and glorified perfection of all tliey had
previously observed, they said, Let us make three
tabernacles, one for the body, another for the mind
and a third for the soul.

It was out of the materials thus furnished them
by nature, that men constructed tlieir first sj'-stems
of theology, in regions where ^the word of Ood was

SECTS, SYSTEMS, AND THE CHURCH. 243

y
1| •

not in spoken or written form. And those to whom
tlie Sacred Scriptures have been given, cannot be
content to walk through this vast forest of truth,
plucking a liower here, eating the fruit there, and
admiring the beauty and sublimity everywhere ;
they must have the sum of all that the Bible con-
tains, compressed within the compass of a few well
arranged sentences, that they may believe they
know the essence of it all.

But the origin of religious systems is to be found
in other things besides man's natural disposition to
inquire and investigate. There is a certain vague
fear coupled with this native disposition. Man feels
that all is not right between himself and his Maker.
He regards himself as a fugitive from justice, and
he looks about him anxiously lest a detective be on
his track. He is suspicious of all the dark corners
of nature where power may be supposed to hiik. He
is startled by every unfamiliar sight and sound.
Place before him anything that is strangely compli-
cated, as the franK'work of nature, or the tangled
half-woven web of human history, or the collected
writings of inspired men, and he will instantly sus-
pect that what is before him has some reference to

■f.te

¥f

J&l

244 OUli RELIGION AS IT WAS AND AS IT AS.

liiinself, and to the ordering of his destiny. There
steals over iiim a feeling of saered awe, and his wish
is that light were thrown upon the siibjeet. And the
deeper and darker the subject, the more anxious is
he to have it illuminated. The greater his own
ignorance, the more despei'ate will be his ettbrts to
strike a light by which he may see to choose his
steps. He brings to his aid the feeble light of his
natural leastm. By means of this he examines the
matter and constructs a tlieorv in accordance with
such facts as may be dindy visible. He examines
his theory with care, and tests it by such rules of
judgment as are known to him. He finds it more or
less consistent throughout and is happy. This lamp
which he has thus trimmed and liixhted at the toich
of his own reason, is henceforv/ard to be his guide.
It is sacred to him. His eternal welfare is associated
with it. If at any time it is in danger of being blown
out by a wind of doctrine coming from some con-
trary direction, how carefully w411 he guard it ! It
nmst not be even fanned by the gentlest breatli
of outside knowledge. And the feebler and more
precarious a man's system of truth is, the more o'lr-
nestly will he defend it. He strives to make up ))}'

SECTS, SYSTEMS, AND THE CJlUIiCIL 245

zeal what he lacks in knowledije. lu tlie leliiiious
2onflicts of the ages, the fiercest struggles have not
been over the importance of obeying laws which
have been plainly revealed for man's practical guid-
ance ; but over liui^an theories concerning secret
things which belong unto God, and which have been
only incidentall}' referred to in Scripture ; or even
over things which have had no existence save in the
minds of those who have fought for them.

but the framing of systems, and the dividing of
the world into religious sects, has had yet another, a
moi-e pleasing cause, man's sense of responsibility for
the enjoyment of peculiar privileges. No good man
has ever enjoyed any new heavenly experience, with-
out wishing that the vision could be made to tarry,
that others might enjoy it along with him. Many
of the fjreat reliirious svstems of the world, as well
as many of the minor beliefs, are simply tents erec-
ted over the peculiar religious exj)eriences of certain
men. This is to some extent true of each of the
great pagan religions which has had its origin in a
single individual. It is true in a happier sense of
the various divisions of the Protestanc Church, and
especially of the Protestant Church as a whole.

240 OUTi RELKUON AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

When Luther heurd the words, " the just shall live
l)V faith," sounded in his ears, he felt that God was
speaking to him, and that the moment was one of
solemn privilege ; and in his heart of hearts he wished
that all could hear the truth as it had then broken in
upon his soul. And, finding those who afterwards
became his companions in the Great Reformation
work, he said to them, let us build a tabernacle for
this truth, " the just shall live by f^rlth "; and accor-
dingly the Protestant Church v^as established, and
the one truth which has shone gloriously through-
out it from the beginning, has been justification,
not by works or penances or prayers, but by faith in
the finished work of thx. only begotten Son of God*
It would be easy to show by numerous illustra-
tions, how ditterent sects within the pale of the Pro-
testant Church have arisen in a similar way. One
man, inspired by his view of one aspect of God's
character, has built a tabernacle in honour of the
heavenly visitor whose transfigured presence he has
been privileged to behold, and the world has called
his well-wrought structure Calvinism. Another man,
taken up to the third heaven in his contemplation of
another aspect of the Divine nature, has constructed a

SMCTS, SYSTEMS, AND THE CBUIWH. 247

taljornacle in honour of the heavenly visitor whose
transfigui-ed presence he has beliekl, and tlie world
has called his skilfully contrived system Arininian-
isni. And so numerous have systems and sects now
become, that there is scarcely a known feature in the
chai-acter of God, or in the teachings of his Word,
which has not a separate tent erected over it, in
which some delight to worship.

The aggregate of all these sects and systems is
popularly known as the Church, and the Church is
acknowledged to be of Divine institution: "The
Lord hath founded Zion." ^ Some claim that only
their own sect is of Divine appointment, but this
claim now meets with little general favour. The
disposition on the part of any particular branch of
the Church to lay claim to being the veritable Zion
the Lord hath founded, arises from a misconception
of what is meant by Zion, and a misunderstanding
. of the purpose for which the Church has been esta-
blished. They imagine that by Zion is meant, not a
a kingdom whose throne hath been "prepared" in the
heavens, and all whose appointments are adjusted
with reference to the circumstances and wants of
the subjects, but an artificially contrived earthly sys-

248 OUll RELIGION A» IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

teiii, haviiio- certain parts and functions, arranued
upon an arV)itrary plan, and founded for its own
sake, or at best, foi" the purpose of gloryfyini;' (lod
through its beauty and perfection as a system. Those
who hohl to this view gh^ry in their Churcli as a
visible institution, having, as they believe, exclusive
Divine authority for every article in their system of
Church government, and for each particular feature
in their forms of worship, and for every clause in
their Church's Creed. They contend for the Church
as an outward organization. It must stand fortli as
a sacred structure, v^^hatever becomes of those who
refuse to bow down and worship. Its appoint-
ments must mo^•e along from age to age in stately
and monotonous procession, even thougli they should
crush the erring and the helpless beneath their
sacred tread.

But the Chui-ch was not instituted for its own
glory, or for its own sake in any sense. The Church
was made for man, as everything else pertaining to
this earth was. The earth itself was made for
man. The garden of Eden was planted for man.
" The Sabbath was made for man." The ark was
built for man. The Jewish Church was established

SECTS, SYSTJmS, AND THE CHURCH. 240

for in.an, Tlie Bible was written for man. Jesus
Chi'ist was given up to death for man. The Chuicli
of modern times must be for man, for his salvation
and sanctification, that by it he may be built up into
perfect manhood unto the glory of God. Thei'e is
nothing on this earth that has not been made for
man, save man himself ; he has been made for God ;
his chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Hun
for evei', and all the appointments of this earth and
all the agencies of the Church are designed to
enable man to fulfil this grand end. It is not
the salvation of the Church as an earthly institu-
tution that is to be man's chief concern, but the
salvation of men by the Church. For in reality it
is only by saving men that the Church can be saved.
The Church of the living God is not a thing of rules
and by-laws, and other outward regulations. It is
a spiritual house. The stones which compose it are
lively stones, the redeemed from among men. It is
not the fold that constitutes the Church ; it is the
flock. And it matters comparatively little what the
structure of the fold be, if only it is such as to
])rovide for the proper shelter and nourishment of
the sheep. If the sheep be adequately cared foi",

250 OVU liEUGTON AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

the walls of the fold may be of rough stones, gath-
ered from nature's tieMs ; or they may be of hewn
stone cut out of the mountain, ard polished after
the similitude of a palace. And there may be many
compartments in the fol;l, one constructed on one
plan, another on another; or there may be many
folds, and the architecture of no two of them pre-
cisely alike. It is the flock that is to be " one," not
the fold.*

Not only may there be great diversity in the
structure and appointments of the folds, but there
must be. This is a necessity arising both from the
the nature of m.an and the nature of the work the
Church has to do. The Clmrch's work is twofold-
gathering the truth for mankind, and gathering
mankind to the truth ; and each of these under-
takings calls for many workers, and for the greatest
diversity among the workers and their methods.
There is an important sense in which the Church
need not pray for unity of sentiment and opinion as

*The proper translation of John, tenth chapter, sixteenth verse,
is, — " And other sheep I have v^rhich are not of this fold (avXr/S,
aules) ; them also I must brhig, and they shall hear my voice ; And
there shall be one Jloc.k (Ttoi/iivr/, poimnC) and one shepherd."

.S'iiVTN, SYSTJiJMS, AND THE (JllURCll. 251

yet. Tlu! world is not ready for it. There will be
unity in heaven whoj-e all have learned to think
and act in accordance with truth. But that condi-
tion has not yet been reached by any on this earth.
Men ai'e only seeking and gathering the truth ; and
it is to be gathered ))article by particle, here a little
and there a little ; one portion by a man of one
temperament, another portion by a man of an oppo-
site temperament; one fact by a man in one posi-
tion, another fact by a man in a different position.
It is by the comparison of views the whole truth is
reached. It is not always desirable that the mem-
bers of a religious assembly be all of one mind in
the intellectual sense. It mifjht indicate that there
was only one opinion among them all, and probably
that opinion wrong. " He that is first in his own
cause seemeth just ; but his neighbour coiueth and
searcheth him."i He that is first in any cause may
seem to be right, but his neighbour may come and
show him wherein he is wrong; and even that
neighbour may not be wholly right, another coming
in may search him— and it will be by a process of
diligently searching and sifting of ideas that an
approximation to the truth will finally be gained

i i

252 (JLHi liELUiloN .IN IT WAii AND .IN IT IS.

This is true of tlie ctlbrts tluit are made to uiider-
stand the ineanin<-- of the words of revelation. To
say n()tl»in<,^ of varyin*^ dej^nees of literary attain-
riient,- personal experience is often the best inter-
preter of Seiiptiire ; and the interpretation of a hook
so varied in its contents as the Bible, calls for all the
diversity that is to be fonnd among hnman beings
livinii' under all manner of circrnnstances, and in all
parts of the world. Not until the Orientals to
whose ancestors the Word was given, have been
converted to God, and have brought to the inter-
pretation of Scripture their personal acquaintance
with Oriental habits and modes of thought, and not
until the people of all [)arts of the globe, for whose
use the Word of Ins})iration has been given, come
together to compare their views of Scripture truth,
need any man hope to " be able to comprehend tuith
all Saints, what is the breadth, and length, and
depth, and he'ght," ^ of its meaning. Many mis' ^
must be made meanwhile. But it is ma 41k

to be thankful for nustakes. Men " rise o stepp ig-
stones of their dead selves to hiirher thinti's ; and
quite as often do they rise on stepping-stones of
their dead neighbours to higher things. Where

ShJGTS, SYSTEMS, AND THE CHURCH. 253

would the civilization of to-day have boon but for
the experiments of the past, which proved failures ?
Tlie world i)raises the men who succeed. Let the
Church honour the memory of those who tried and
failed. We owe a debt of gratitude to the men
who were sincerely, and honestly, and earnestly on
the wrong track as they fought the battle of life in
the search for truth. " When can their glory fade ?"
— even though the charge they made was wild !

And if diversity is thus needed in the i>'atheri!i(r
of the truth for mankind, it is quite as mani-
festly requisite in order to the successful gather-
ing of mankind to the truth. Paul can reach a
class whom Apollos cannot reach, and Apollos can
reach a class whom Paul cannot reach. And what
is true of men is equally true of methods. It is
unwise then to rail afjainst the existence of sects
and systems. " For the body is not one member,
but many." 1 "And if they were all one member,
where were the body ? "-^ Let the spirit of brotherly
kindness prevail ; let systems be regarded not as an
end, but simply as means to be used in seeking the
one great end, and while men hold firmly to their
personal convictions, let them cease to regard their

254 OUR RELIGION AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

peculiar convictions as so divinely inspired, that
they cannot be kept in abeyance while they work
together with others for the attainment of this com-
mon end, — and diversity will be found an help, not a
hindrance. Let a different course be pursued ; let
every man say of the system of every other — "I have
no need of thee ; " let each individual thus set to
work to build a tabernacle for his own opinion, as if
it were the only opinion that had the inspiration of
the Almighty within it ; and even then, let men
have more regard for the structure of the tabernacle
than for either the comfort of its occupant, or for
any other purpose it is designed to serve, — and it
vnll be long before the Church will be able to re-
produce to the world, that delightful kind of primi-
tive religion, which four d men walking with God
and worshipping Him everywhere, without the aid
of any tabernacle.

It is most gratifying to observe tliat we have come
upon an era in the world's history, in which sectarian
jealousies are beginning to disappear. As the Church
IS awaking to a sense of her true nussion, and is
going out over the whole earth in search of perish-
ing men, she is beginning to forget herself— her per-

SECTS, SYSTEMS, A ND THE CHURCH. 255

sontil appearance, her carria^i^e, her dress — and is com-
ing to tliink mainly about how best to do her work.
Representatives of all Chnrches who hold Christ as
the Head, take connsel together concei'ning the
translating and interpreting of Scriptnre, and the
building up of the Kingdom of their common Master;
and from Sabbath to Sabbath their children study
the Word of God in concert. Chiistian Churches of
every name have begun to strive together in prayer
to God for the conversion of the world. Eccle-
siastical bodies are beginning to look narrowly into
the history and creeds of other ecclesiastical bodies,
not for the purpose of detecting heresy, nor for tlie
sake of ascei-taining more accurately the nature and
magnitude of existing differences, with a view to a
more i-igid adjustment of boundary lines ; but in the
hope of discovering now features of resemblance,
and new traces of hereditaiy affiiuity, by which they
shall be able to declare that they all belong to one
family ; and in some instances the circle has grown
so large under this process of investigation, that when
the family reunion takes place, it must be held m
one of the world's gi-eat centres, every nation under
heaven being re})resente.l in the hapi)y gathering.

25(1 OVE. RELIGION AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

And thiougout the Mission Held and at home, in the
great city and the little viUage, different denomina-
tions are ben-inninoj to consider, not how eaeh com-
munity shall have every sect represented in it, but
how they shall so divide the territory as to economize
both men and means, and still have Christ and His
cause faithfully represented. Do we not liear in
this the sound of a going in the tops of the mul-
berry trees, which shall soon prove itself the harbin-
ger of a still better and brighter day ?

And now what place should sects and systems
occnpy in our esteem ? A very high place. Umler
existing circumstances they are a necessity ; and
if only less importance shall be attached to the ont-
ward form of ecclesiastical organizations, and more
to the rearing of the iinier s[)iritual temple of which
they are but the scaflblding, those organizations
will prove in future a still greater })lessing to the
world than in the past.

When Peter and his companions were concern-
ing themselves about the building of tabernacles,
there came a cloud and overshadowed tliem, liid-
ing out of view the glorified ones before tlicm—
Moses, the representative of the law ; Elias, the

SECTS, SYSTJ£MS, AND THE CHURCH. 257

representative of true piety and heart devotion ;
and Jesus, the representative of salvation. If
men are now cfivinc: undue attention to the out-
ward organization, we may expect that the cloud
is already over them, and that in the midst of it
they are losing sight of the importance of keeping
the moral law, losing sight of the importance of
having genuine piety in the heart, and losing sight
of Jesus through whom alone they can be saved.

From the midst of the cloud a voice was heard
saying, " This is my beloved Son, hear him." And
when the cloud had passed they saw no man save
Jesus only. Mosos, the representative of the com-
plicated ritual was gone ; Elias, who had been very
jealous for the Lord God of Hosts, because the
children of Israel had thrown down the altars, and
had slain the prophets with the sword, and he alone
was left,— even he, with all his righteous zeal for
altars and ministries, was gone, and Jesus alone re-
mained. So will it yet be with the world. " I'lie hour
Cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain,
nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father."^ Men
will yet cease contending with unwise zeal for
their respective ecclesiastical Mystems, and will

258 OUR RELIGION AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

worsliip in spirit and in truth. They will cease
to attach undue importance to their own opin-
ions and utterances and will listen to Christ alone.
Meanwhile it is the privilege of every man to
love his church with true devotion. " Bless ye
God in the conureuations ; even the Lord from the
fountain of Israel. There is little Benjamin with
their ruler, the Princes of Judah and their coun-
cil, the Princes of Zebulun, and the Princes of
Naphtali."! And in all the tribes from little Ben-
jamin to mighty Judah, chere are princes, and
praying Haimahs, and devout Simeons, and seven
thousand saints of humble name, who delight to
walk with (lod, and who reverently bow before
Him in His temple, so that every tribe is dear to
Him.

No man may account his Church as having an
exclusive claim upon the presence of the Lord. It
is not the palace of the King. It is only a little
lodge in the wilderness, to be superseded by some-
thing grander and more enduring. Yet it is justly
dear to the man who calls it his. His ftithers built
it as they could, and sheltering them and sheltering
him, it is his spiritual home. Dearer to him than

SECTS, SYSTEMS, AND THE CHURCH. 259

all because Jesns has often made it His home. It
has not been the tabernacle on the mountain top,
visited by Him only on great occasions, it has been
the cottage by the wayside, into which He has come
at all hours of the day, and even in the darkness of
the night. Men will yet pray that God may come
down, and by His presence and power fill all chur-
ches of every name, and make them true homes ;
homes full of peace and brotherly love; homes plant-
ed together in true neighbourly kindness; homes con-
stituting one city, the city of God, the New Jeni-
salem let down from God out of heaven. And they
shall change the language of prophecy to that of
present history, and cry, "Behold! the tabernacle
of God is with men, and He dwellcth with them,
and they are His people, and God Himself is with
them and is their God."

When that day shall come, however many folds
there may be, there will be but one tiock, even as
now^ there is but one Shepherd.

j#^

CHAPTER XII.

RELIGION AND THE STATE,

CHAPTER XII.

EELIGION AND THE STATE.

■( t

*HE relation between Religion and the State is
an old subject. It occupies about one-half
of the Bible, the half extending from Exodus to
Malachi, with the exception of the poetical books,
and even in them and throughout the New Testa-
ment the question is not overlooked. In every cen-
tury of modern times, certain phases of the subject
have been earnestly discussed, and in no country
has the relation which should exist between religion
and the civil government been so accurately defined
as to put the question for ever at rest. As genera'
intelligence becomes more widely diffused however,
the question is discussed on broader grounds, and in
a less dogmatic and sectarian spirit. The conten-
tion has for the most pai-t ceased to be, whether

2(14 OUn RELIGION AS IT W^AS AND AS IT IS.

shall the State control the Church, or the (*lmvch
control the State ? It is ceasing to be which sect
shall the State recognise, and which religious de-
nominations shall it ignore ? The question is com-
ing to be one as to the State's relation, not to any
particulai' form of worship, but to the Bible, the
common storehouse from which our religion, in all
its varying forms, professes to draw its life. And in
this we discover a great advance ; we see evidence of
the prospect of a retu n to the Scriptural idea of the
relation between relitrion and the State.

By referring to those early Scripture times from
which we receive the fundamental elements of all
good government, we find that, in the ideal State,
religion must be inwoven with the whole texture of
national life. From the all-pervading nature of
primitive religion, it was impossible to keep it sepa-
rate from the State. The thought of man's rela-
tionship to God had a reality about it in those early
times, which it has not in our day. In the house or
by the way, in society or in solitude, sleeping or
waking, working or worshipping, in war or in peace,
the thought of accountability to God, and of being
under his care, was always at hand. If nien

RELIGION ANT) THE STATE.

265

dreamed, their dreams were devout ; if they went
out to battle against their enemies, tliey t'ouglit
in the name of the Lord. With this impression of
relationsliip to God, it would have been impossible,
in organizing a nation, to leave out the idea of God
and appointments whereby He might be publicly
acknowledged. Accordingly, when the Hel)rew com-
monwealth was founded, it was a Church and State
in one ; and tliroughout the whole history of the
Jewish people as an independent nation, even
thouirh, throuirh contact with heathen nations, they
lost the true idea of religion and worship, this
blending of civil and religious life continued ; and it
ceased when the religion of Christ was introduced,
not because of any Divine enactment requiring it to
cease, but from the force of circumstances. The
religion of Christ was rejected by the nation to
whom it was offered. Had the Jews accepted the
risen Christ as their King, not in the vain sense in
which they expected the Messiah to reign over
them, but in the spiritual sense, religion and civil
government might still have been harmoniously
blended. But since the religion of Jesus Christ was
rejected by the only naticm that could be expectp.d,

2(50 OUR RELIGION AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

from its previous training, to receive it, it was com-
pelled to begin with individuals gathered from dif-
ferent nations. It was not in the power of those
early Christians to found a separate nationality ;
and even had they been permitted to do so, the
world was not tlien prepared for the successful
blending of religion and religious observances with
civil government. Nor would it have been in ac-
cordance with the Divine plan, as revealed in Scrip-
ture, to have attempted the founding of a separate
nation to be known as God's nation. Jesus came to
reveal the truth that God loves the world ; that his
regards are not limited to a favoured few, but that
" He will have all men to be saved and to come unto
the knowledge of the truth." ^ The Redeemer of
mankind did not seek to 1»e king of only one nation.
He does not ask to be proclaimed the head of only
one nation even now. He does not teach us to
accoimt him the head of only one visible organiza-
tion of any kind. He has never called Himself the
head of only one branch of His Church on the
earth. The Church of which (Jhrist is the Head is
a body whose members are gathered fi'om among all
nations, and kindreds, and peoples, and tongues.

RELIGION AND THE STATE.

2(>7

There are indications in Scripture thjit Jesus will
not come to reign in any country, even in the sense
of the successful blending of religious observances
with civil enactments, until his gospel has been
preached among all nations. When He who under-
took tl^e redemption of the world shall take to
Himself His great power, and shall reign by having
His will fully done on earth, and His name stamped
upon Jill departments of civil government. He will bo
satisfied with nothing less than the whole human
family for His subjects. " His dominion shall be
from sea to sea, and from the river even to the ends
of the earth." ^ When that day shall dawn, religion
and civil government will be harmoniously blended.
Toward this univei-sal sway the religion of Jesus
has looked from the beginning, and all the direct-
ions given with reference to the spreading of the
gospel, have had this end constantly in view. Jesus
sent forth His truth to act as leaven among men, and
taught His disciples that in whatever station in life
they might be called u[)on to serve, they must carry
the spirit of His religion with them; and that thia
must iro on until the whole shall be leavened. When
the whole mass of society in any country shall have

^Bi

2G8 OUR RELIGION AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

thus been leavened, all the appointments of civil gov-
ernment will naturally be ordered in harmony with
the spirit of Christ's religion, because ordered by
those in whose hearts the spirit of Christ is. Toward
this ideal it is the duty of every nation to be
tending.

By what means shall the nation as a nation be
made to move onward toward the realization of this
ideal? And what shall be the present relation
between religion and the state 1

There are some who contend that whatever pro-
QTess the state makes in a relij^ious direction, must
be I he result of influences which are brought to bear
upon the citizens through the channels of the house-
hold and the church, and b^^ no effort whatever
on the part of the civil power. Within recent
years a book has been pub)ishe<l bearing the title
" Religion and the State," ^ and written by a Christ-
ian minister occupying a position of considerable
prominciice. In that volume, originally published in
the columns of a religion's journal," it is contended
that the state, as a state, should be entirely secular ;
that, in theory, and as far as possible in practice, it
should, in all its appointments, ignore tho idea of the

RELIGION AND THE STATE.

269

existence of a God and a future life ; — not that it
should wage any warfare against those ideas, hut
that in all its administration it should treat its
citizens as if no such ideas existed. The bible must
not be read in schools supported by the state ; the
recognising of the first day of the week as the one
day of rest in seven must be regarded as an acci-
dent; anv other day might as well have been
chosen, but the first was found the most convenient ;
and all Sabbath legislation must proceed upon this
theory ; religious assemblies must be protected from
disturbance, not because they are religious, but
because they are gatherings of people for a harm-
less purpose; Thanksgiving and Fast day procla-
mations must be regarded as emanating from
national rulers as private individuals, and not in
their ca|)acity as representatives of the nation;
blasphemy and other fo^. is '^f profanity must be
punished not as having any } oierence to a Supreme
Beinfr, but because these things are offensive to
many, and when carried to an extreme are of the
nature of a disturbance of the public peace; the
appointment of army and navy chaplains, an<l of
chaplains in prisons and such like places, should be

^&sammsm

270 OUJi RELIGION AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

either vvlioUy abandoned, or tolerated only as the
one exception proving the general rule. In short,
to use the author's own words,—" The State is no
more Christian than it is Jewish or Mohammedan.
It is simply a political body, and as such it has no
relioion to teach or sustain or compel the people to
sustain," ^ and the kind of education for the state is,
" a secular education and that only— an education
that would l>e needful and useful in this life, if there
were no God and no future for the human soul."
How utterly at variance all this is, with the idea we
have found running throughout the whole of Scrip-
ture, that religion was at the first— and must be
again — all-pervading !

The author of the work now under review has

made one fundamental mistake, which has betrayed

him into all manner of false conclusions— the

simple mistake of failing to observe that the word

religion has two meanings, a broad Bible meaning,

and a narrow ecclesiastical sense. In the narrow

sense, religion consists in creeds, confessions, forms

of worship, ecclesiastical appointments in general ;

and against associating this kind of religion \sith

the State, very weighty arguments can be adduced.

RELIGION AND THE STATE-

271

p
1.
o

In tlie brond .scriptur<al sense, religion is the cherish-
ing of a proper sense of relationsliip to (.j!o<1, and to
one another, and acting in our daily lives accord-
ingly ; and any argument that will dissever this
kind of religion from the State, will at the same time
take away the fundamental principles i^^ all good
government, and saj) the whole life of the nation.
"History teaches us that all great and fruitful
}>erioas have been periods in which religion has
flourished, and that a declension of religion always
entailed the decline of a nation. It is as though the
su[)ply of vital power were cut otf from the forms of
earthly life, when the dew of heaven and the warmth
and lioht of the sun are withdraw^n from them with
religion. We have the most instructive example of
this fact in the Israelitish nation and its history in
the Old Testament. . . . And the histoiy of
German V also furnishes the most indubitable proof
of this piinciple." ^ Shall a nation, in our enlightened
times, with all the history of the i)ust as its teachei',
utterly neglect and ignore that which is the very
essence of its life ?

For the maintenance and furthering of its reli-
mous well-beino— its best well-being— every nation,

272 QUE RELIGION AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

havino; its laws based upon the Divine code, rrust
give its authoritative sanction to the ordinance of
marriage, to the sacredness of the family relation,
to the observance of the Sabbath, to public and pri-
vate worship, and to the public and private reading
of the Scriptures ; and nuist give the fullest liberty
to its citizens to avail themselves of one and all of
these privileges, and shall i^rotect them in the exer-
cise of the same, so long as their mode of observing
them is not such as to do violence to any of the laws
of the realm. P]very State thus constituted should
prohibit idolatry, profanity, Sabbath desecration,
disobedience to parents, murder, adultery, thef t> false
witness, and other open sins which come under the
Divine code, and are injurious to the best welfare of
the nation. The State should also require, under
certain circumstances, the reading of the Book upon
whose broad principles all the laws of the State are
based. The State should surely ask its citizens to
read the Book by which it intends to ask them to
swear. The Bible should have a place in the com-
mon school before it finds a phice in the court of
justice.

But it is objected tliat the reading of the Bibie

RELIGION AND THE STATE.

273

under sanction of the State is virtually to establish
an unsafe connection between Church and State,
and thus pave the way for religious intolerance and
sectarian jealousies. To entertain such an opinion, is
to mistake the character of the Bible. The Bible
i« not a religious book in the sectarian sense. It is
not an ecclesiastical book. It lays down no system
of Church government, departure from which shall
be accounted heresy. It contains no elaborately
formulated creed to which it asks the world to sub-
scribe. Nor is the Bible a book of speculative
philosophies concerning a future life. It is the most
practical and catholic of all books without excep-
tion. In the main its contents refer to iuatters of
every day importance, and of universal interest. It
has been given as a guide to a future life, it is true,
but it has been given also as a guide through the
present life; and as it regards man's future destiny
as determined here, it speaks far more of the here
than the hereafter. It says, Take care of the pre-
sent and the future will take care of itself. " Be-
hold now is the accepted time 1 Behold now is the
<lay of salvation ! "^ The Bible teaches tha'. unswerv-
ing allegiance to God is the basis of all right-living,

271 OUli RELIGION AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

and it eiiipluisizes the infinite importance of faith in
Jesus Christ ; but it never teaches anything that rc-
(piires a man to be either a disloyal subject, or an
uncharitable and troublesome fellow-citizen. It
demands neither that men shall overthrow any ex-
isting Olnirch, nor establish any new hierarchy. It
calls for neither the pulling down of existing forms of
civilgovernment,northebuildingupof somenewform.

It is always on man's side in the sense of providing
for his true ha])piness and best well-being even here.
It is the most liberal of all books. There is only
one thing it is utterly intolerant of — sin, wrong-
doing in every form, whether with the heart or with
the hand ; and in this it studies the comfort and
happiness both of the individual and the nation. It
is a book of great general principles, so broad and
true that an empire, covering the whole world, and
embracing all its inhabitants, might be built u})on
its teaching. The particular precepts it utters, as
universally binding, are just such as are needed to
give etticacy to the wisest human legislation. Then
the Bible compels nothing. It teaches and enjoins
the right, but leaves the conscience free to choose
or reject ; it positively forbids the use of coercive

RELIGION AND THE STATE.

275

measures in the inculcation of its doctrines. To
say that for the State to sanction the reading of
such a hook, were to establish such a connection be-
tween rehgion and the State as tw pave the way for
reUgious intolerance and sectarian jealousies, is a
mistake. With far better reason might it be said,
that to require the reading of such a Book, were to
give tlie death-blow to sectional bigotry, religious
intolerance, and tyranny in every form.

Is it said that this may be true in theory, but that
in practice it is otherwise ; that the testimony of
history proves that the Bible is really a sectarian
book, as may be seen from che great number of sects
that come to it for authority? But the great num-
ber of sects that come to the Bible for support, or that
profess to have their or .gin in its teachings, proves,
on the contraiy, that the Bible is not a sectarian
book. Those sects have not their origin in the
Bible, but in human nature. Sects and sectaries
exist in all countries— countries in which the Bible
is not, as well as countries in wliicli it is ; and the
testimony of history uniforudy decla,r(^s, that in
proportion as the plain teaching of the Bil)le is un-
derstood and accepted, sectarian jealousies and ani-

270 OUR liELIGIO^ AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

luosities disappear. One of the most gratifying
facts history has ever emblazoned before the eyes of
the world is, that it is to the open Bible in the hands
of the people, tlie world is indebted for those civil
and religious liberties, which have made our Protes-
tant civilization superior to the civilization of all
other countries, and of all past times.

But do nations base their laws u[)on the Divine
Code ? Some nations do. The (Jonnnon Law of
England is based, not only upon the Moral Law, but
upon the distinctive principles of the Christian reli-
ligion. Every country in which the Common Law
of England is adopted, is entitled to be called a
Christian country. In this sense, the Empire of
Great Britain — including her colonies — is a Chris-
tian empire ; and t^e American Republic is a Chris-
tian commonwealth. The genius of the iiovern-
ments of these countries, is such as to forbid their
running counter to the Christian religion, in any
of their enactments. Government can forbid noth-
ing that Christianity enjoins, and can enjoin noth-
ing that Christianity foilnds. And this s( If-im-
posod limitation of the government, applies to
no other religion save that of the Bible. The govern

RELIGION AND THE STATE.

277

nients of these countries may forbid certain tilings
wliich Buddlnsni, or any otlicr licathcn religion,
enjoins, oi- enjoin certain tliinos wliich these reli-
cjions forbid. If Brahnianism forbids carinix lor the
sick and dying, the British Government nuist en-
join these things all the same ; or if Brahnianism
enjoins the murder of infants, and the burning of
widows, the British Government must forbid these
thinfifs all the same.

" But some citizens have conscientio is scruples
against reading the Bible, and rights of conscience are
sacred and must be respected." There is force in this
objection. In her methods of asking her citizens to
read the Bible, the State must not violate rights of
conscience. Yet undue importance must not be
attached to this argument. A distinction must
be made b(3tween a man's conscience, nnd his
superstitions, and other prejudices. Had nations
been restrained from educating, out of regard for
everything bearing the name of conscience, the
world might have been in the midnight of the
dark ages yet. It is not long since the consciences
of many were shocked by the teaching of the doctrine
that the earth i^^oes round the sun. And even in en-

ft'

278 OUR UKLIQION AS IT WAS AND AS TT IS.

lightened countries, there are still .iJjoocl men whose
cmiseienccs are ottende.l by the teaching of the
revelations of the science of geology, in regard to the
length of the six days of creation. There are correct
scirntific theories taught in nmny State endowed
schools, which are far more repugnant to the con-
sciences of some who are taxed for the support of
those schools, than anything taught in the Bible could
be. But shall the State not sanction the teaching
of science, on this account ? Shall it be argued, that
it is unfair to tax those citizens for the support of a
school in which something is taught which they con-
scientiously dislike ? Shall not the State rather say,
we have faith in education, we believe it is a good
thing, we must give it our authoritative sanction, in
the conviction that as it becomes more generally dif-
fused, it will enlighten men's consciences and banish
their prejudices ?

History has taught us that the light of the Bible
is_to sny the least— as truly a good thing as scien-
tific knowledge ; and that all that is needed is, that
the world receive more of it, in order that its teaching
may become welcome to all. And in tliis we see an
urgent reason also, why those who enjoy the Bible's

IIELIGION AND THE STATE.

270

light Hhould seok by all propor means in thcii- power,
through the channels of the home and the Ciuirpli,
and (haily personal example, as well as through the
school, to commend the pure light oi" Sei-iptiire
truth to all that are about them.

" But suppose that in a given country those enjoy-
ing the light of the JJiblc were in the minority ; and
that infidels, or atheists, or heathen were in the
majority, and should insist upon having the writings
of Paine or Mohammed or Confucius read under
State sanction and su))port, would the minority not
feel this to be a hardship ? And does not this show
liow unsound the princi[)le is ?" We hope that, so
far as any nation now nominally C'lu-istian is con-
cerned, this will be for ever an impossibility. We
trust that mankind have at length begun their final
onward march, and that Christian nations arc lead-
ing the van, and need not think for a moment of ever
retreating. We believe that the leaders of the pro-
gress of the age, may cut the bridges Ijehind them
as they go, not allowing so nuich as one to remain
even for the sake of argument. We have too nnich
faith in what Scripture truth and general knowledge,
widely diffused, and sealed by the breath of tlie pro-

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280 OVli IlELIGION AH IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

mised Spirit, will do for mankind, to entertain the
supposition that any of the Christian nations of the
earth will ever again be given over to the heathen.
But were such a state of things as has been supposed
actually in existence — were Paine's Age of Reason
the book upon whose principles the law of the land
was based, and wej*e that book publicly read under
sanction and support of the government, much to
the offence of the Scripture-loving minority — then
the chief thing for that minority to do would be, not
to argue the question on any hypothetical basis, nor
on purely religious grounds, but to make a direct
attack upon the book, and show it to be, both in itself
and through tlie effects of its use in the State, an
evil so great as to demand removal. And now, see-
ing that the Bible has the right of possession, in cer-
tain countries, and that its worth has been emphati-
cally endorsed, by its principles being made the basis
of the common law, the only honest way for any to
attempt to have the Bible torn from its place among
the institutions of these countries, and flung aside,
is, by attacking the book itself, and showing that its
use is a hindrance, and not a help, to the good govern-
ment and highest advancement of the nation. The

RELIGION AND THE STATE.

'281

aro-uing of the question on purely hypothetical
grounds is unfair. The Bible has a right to use the
lano-uage of its Lord and say, " If I have spoken
evil, bear witness of the evil , but if well, why
smitest thou me? "i

" But which Bible shall be used ? The version in
general use among Protestanw, ,,.- Uie Douay vei-sion
of the Church of Rome ? " If, in t. >w country, the
former of these versions has the right of pf>ssession,
and if there are those who wish to have it set aside,
and the Do nay version take its place, they must
make it aj)pear that the Douay version is a better
version, and so much better as to warrant the change.
If they wish to have it introduced on the ground of
its being tlie Bible of a particular Church, tlieii-
claim must at once be dismissed.

Ill the light of the whole teaching, both of Scrip-
tui'e and of the histoiy of modein times, we judge it
to be in harmony with the spiiit of Scriptui'al reli-
gion, and with the genius of the goveinnieiits of
Christian countries, that these govermuents should
sanction the reading of the Bible in public schools,
so long as they do no violence to the conscientious
convictions of those thus asked to rea<l.

282 OUR RELIGION AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

But a last reason commonly uroed against this
use of the Bible is, that the thing is impracticable,
the Bible cannot be read proi)erly ; " if it should be
read at all, it should be expounded and read thor-
oughly, and ordinary teachers are not competent to
do this, noi- could any teacher do it without incul-
cating his peculiar religious views." But a similar
objection might be brought against the teaching of
many things that are taught in pnblic schools. No
teacher is competent to teach all that is to be known
upon any subject. And it s not always expedient
to teach even all that miaht be tauo-ht. But this is
no rep.son why a knowledge of the rudiments of
those branches may not be imparted ; nor does it
furnish any valid argument against the reading of
the simple text of Scripture. It is a gratifying fact
that it is not necessary to systematize and expound
the doctrines of the Bible, before they can exert a
proper influence upon the life and character ; and
equally gratifying to observe, that the portions of
Scripture which are specially valuable in order to
the best citizenship, are so plain that a child can un-
derstand them. But the argumeiit implied in this
last stateuient is offensive to some who oppose our

I'l

Pi^-

HE LI a TON AN J) THE STATE.

283

view of this (jiiostioii. To speak of having tlie Bible
read for the purpose of making good citizens is, in
their view, to treat the l)ook irreverently. We, on
the contrary, see irreverence, not in this, but in their
earnest effort to have tlie Bible utterly baiiished
from its i)roper and rightful place in the heart and
life of the nation.

An}^ argument by which men seek to banish the
Bible from State use, is an argument whicli j^roves
too much. If followed to its legitimate conclusion,
it would become at no irreat distance, a revolution-
ary measure, and aim at unchristianizing every
Christian nation. Let men banish the Bible from
State sanction and use, on the ground of its being a
religious book, and they are upon the 'ine of argu-
ment which leads directly to the annulling of all
Sabbath legislation, and finally to the excluding of
all church members from holding office under the
government. There is only a short logical step be-
tween the first of these three changes, and the last.
We have no fear that the last will be reached, but
we would feel more secui-e if it were made manifest
that the first cannot be taken. It is being taken-
practicaily it has been taken in some quarters. This

284 OUR RELIGION AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

is a time for watelifulness. In every Christian
countiy where the i)eople of any coinnuinity liave
autliority from the government to demand tliat the
Bible be read in their school, much will depend upon
the promptness with which this privilege is exercised.
Let the matter go by default, — let the Bible quietly
cease to be used under sanction of the State — and
soon the idea that the State should utterly ignoie
the Bible, will have the right of possession, and a
coming generation will find it a hard idea to dislodge.
Yet it will be dislodged. For coming generations
w ill, we trust, be wiser and better than we, and will
reverse some of the customs we have allowed to be-
come fashionable. We love to glory in the advance-
ment of the century in which we live. We help
to swell " that most wearisome chorus of self-lauda-
tion wliicii is evermore rising up about this most
wonderful and enlightened age." The present /« an
age of enlightenment and progress. Yet in its im-
pulsive haste in one direction, and its apathetic in-
difi'erence in another, it is capable of committing
fearful blunders ; so much so indeed, that we are
often comforted only by the thought, that we are
not the people with whom wisdoju shall die, but

RELIGION AND THE ST A TE.

285

that a more enlightened and a wiser race shall come
after us, to rectify our errors and profit by our
failures, while the}^ build upon the old foundation,
upon which we and our fathers have been building,
and carry still further toward the realization of the
scripture ideal, that Heaven-designed structure,—
social, civil and religious — upon which they and we
and our fathers alike, must be regarded as only
humble labourers by the day.

But it is for the pi'esent generation now to see
that it follows out the original God-given design, and
in all respects does its work faithfully and well. It
cannot do this, if it idly sleeps while the sun of its
progress is going backward in the heavens, by the
Bible ceasino- to be used in the common school.

CHArTEIl xiir.

DO WE NEED ANOTHER REFORMATION?

CHAPTER XIII.

no WE NEED ANOTHER REFORMATION?

^j LL Iniinan designs and inventions ar^ at first
defective, and nnist be imj^roved from time
to time if ever tliey are to become perfect. Only
Divine things are perfect from the beginning-. No
improvement could be made u])on tlie macJiinery by
which the earth is h'glited, and heated, and watered,
and sent circling round the sun. Even when God's
works are in their embryo state, they are perfectly
adapted to the purpose they are designed to serve
at that stage of tlieir existence. There are systems
of religion and worship in the world, which are
manifestly human, being defective at their very
origin. Some contrivances, man has power to im-
prove ; but where spiritual changes are to be made,
this power is gone. And hence the religion which

2'K) ocn: uFjUGIon as it h^as and as it is.

is at first ini[)orfect, becomes only more and more so
as man works changes upon it. Even divine tilings
fare ill at man's hands. The religion (Jod inti-odneed
into the world was perfect at the first. But as man
has handled that religion, and sought to make it his,
it has been marred by his touch. Eighteen hundred
yeai's ago, there was a purer religion on the earth
than there is to-day. And in Old Testament times,
we find relio-ion the more divine the fartlier back
we go. Not to the age of the pro})hets, or kings, or
lawgivers, but back to the days of faithful Abraham
and godly Knoch — nay, to the innocency of Eden
must we look, if we would see man living as he
should.

The tendency to deteriorate is observable in all
departments of human life. Let the society of any
country or age be organized upon the truest princi-
ples, and started on its journey down the centuries
with the fairest prospects, and it will not be long
until it will need a thorough purification and re-ad-
justment. It will collect dust upon its white rai-
ment, and earth upon its chariot wheels, and will
gather to itself so much dross, and filth, and useless
luggage, that its movements will become fitful and

unstable, and unless attendodto, it will perish by the
way, crushed by its very weakness and beneath that
with which it hath cumbered itself.

One of the jieculiar features of the jj^radual spoil-
ing of society is, that the society itself is not aware
at the time, that it is being- spoiled. It is too close
to itself to see itself. Gray hairs are here and there
upon it, yet it knoweth it not. The manners and
customs of a people may become foolish and ludi-
crous in the extreme, and yet rhe change take place
«o gradually that no one will see either the foolish
or the ludicrous feature of a single fashion ; all will
move along as gravely as if living in accordance
with sound reason, and not in the midst of the
vainest show. So also may the religion and wor-
ship of a people degenerate into the heartless obser-
vance of empty formalities, and yet that people navQY
once suspect that their religion is not as pure as it
was from the beginning. Men can have eyes and
see not, ears and hear not, and hearts that do not
understand.

But in the merciful providence of Ilim who never
leaves Himself without witness, there is provision
made for counteracting this tendency. " God of His

iit<imiiimiTH»igmii-i~-

202 OUR RELIGION A.'^ IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

wisdom raises up ine»i of religious genius, heaven-
sent prophets ; born fully armed and fitted for their
fearful work. They have an eye to see through the
reverend hulls of falsity ; to detect the truth a long
way off*. They send their eagle gaze far down iiito
the heart ; far on into the future, thinking for ages
not yet born. The word comes from God with
blessed radiance upon their mind. They must speak
the tidings from on high, and shed its beamy light
on men around, till the heavy lids are opened and
the sleepy eye beholds." ^ In Old Testament times
such men were called Seers, in modern times they
have been called Reformers ; the new name is good,
but " tlie old is better." In whatever age they live,
they are men who see what others do not see. The
See'i is the exception to che general rule among men.
In spite of the disadvantage of having been born,
like those around him, into the midst of scenes whose
early and sacred associations tend to make him blind
to their real nature, he has power given him to keep
his eyes open and his judgment clear. Where others
see foolishness as if it were sense, he sees it to be
foolishness. Where others see form and emptiness
as if it were sober reality, he sees it to be form and

DO WE NEED ANOTHER REFORMATION? 293

emptiness. It has been said of John Knox that
" with a singnhir instinct he held to the trntli and
fact ; the truth alone was there for him, the rest a
mere shadow and deceptive nonentity." i It is re-
lated that " while Knox and some of his companions
were galley slaves on the river Loire, some officer or
priest one day presented them an image of the
Vivfi'm Mother, requiring that they, the blasphem-
ous heretics, should do it reverence. ' Mother !
Mother of God ? ' said Knox when the turn came to
him ; ' this is no mother of God ; this is a i)iece of
wood, I tell you, with paint on it. She is titter for
swimming, I think, than for being worshipped/
added Knox, and flung the thing into the river." -'
It may be thought that it re(|uired no great power
of penetration to see the sham in this case, that
Knox would have been blind had ho not seen it ;
but there are painted shams in the world now,
the folly of which sliould be seen (juite as clearly,
and yet intelligent men cling to them and revere
them as if they were the most substantial of reali-
ties.

To detect and expose the falseness tliat may liave
gathered about the religion of one's day, letjuires

294 OUR BELIGION AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

more than penetrntion, it demands extraordinary
couraoe. No better illustration of this is needed
than is to be found in the life of the great German
Reformer. In Luther's day, the German people be-
lieved as hrmly in many of the degrading supei-sti-
tions, which had found their way into their religious
system, as we believe in our ordinary religious ap-
pointments. And in addition to this, the Church
and State were so allied in Germany, that it war
dau<^erous for a man to breathe a word against any
existing religious custom or observance. To speak
lightly of anything that had the stamp of religion
upon it, was to speak evil of dignities ; it was to de-
ride things dear to the consciences of all men ; it
was to turn one's back upon one's own early train-
in<i-, and ridicule things one had been solenmly
taudit to venerate. It was to revolutionize one's
very conscience. This calls for courage such as is
seldom demanded. It is easy to go forward to face
physical danger, lighting in a cause of which the
whole comnmnity approves. A man can march
rio-ht onward then, knowing that the worst the
enemy can do is to kill the body. But when, for
the love of Christ, a man takes issue with his L'cst

DO WE NEED ANOTHER REFORMATION? 295

friends, and despises the opinions of the whole
world, and tells his own conscience that it has been
mistaken — asking him to believe in things that are
false ; when to go forward is not only to go alone,
but to go making rude war upon what men call
sacred things, tearing them down, not knowing what
structure shall be reared in their stead ; to go when
the enemy seems to have power to kill the soul —
this is what demands courage worthy of the name.
" You shall find men thick as acorns in autumn,
who will wade neck-deep in blood, and charge up
to the cannon's mouth when it rains shot as snow-
flakes at Christmas. Such men may be had for red
coats, and dollars, and ' fame.' It requires only
vulgar bravery for that, and men who are 'food for
powder.' But to oppose the institution which your
fathers loved in centuries gone by; to sweep off
the altars, forms and usages that ministered to your
mother's piety, helped her bear the bitter ills and
cross of life, and gave her w-inged tranquilHty in the
hour of death ; to sunder your ties of social sympa-
thy ; destroy the rites associated with the aspiring
di-eam of childliood, and its earliest prayer, and the
sunny days of youth— to disturb tliese because they

29G QUE KELIGION AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

weave chains, invisible but despotic, which bind the
arm, and fetter the foot, and confine the heart ; to
hew down the hoary tree under whose shadow the
nations played their game of life, and found in death
the clod of the valley sweet to their weary bosom-
to destroy all this because it poisons the air and
stifles the bi'cath of the world— it is a sad and a
bitter thintr ; it makes the heart throb, and the face
that is hard as iron all over in public, weeps in pri-
vate weak woman's tears it may be. Such trials
are not for vulgar souls ; they feel not the riddle of
the world." ^

This is what it was to be a religious reformer in
Martin Luther's day. And a single incident from
the life of Luther will serve to illustrate what work-
ino' a religious reformation means. We choose the
incident of Luther's appearance at the Diet of Worms,
an incident which the author of Heroes and Hero--
worsltip, in his description of it, has called " the
greatest scene in modern European history, the ))oint
indeed from which the whole subsequent history of
civilization takes its rise. . . . After multiplie<l
negotiations, disputations, it had come to this. The
young Emperor, Charles V., with all the Piinces of

DO WE NEED ANOTHER REFORMATIONS 297

Germany, Papal Nuncios, dignitaries, spiritual and
temporal, are assembled there. Luther is to appear
and answer for himself, whether he will recant or
not. The world's pomp and power sits there on
this hand ; on that, stands up for God's trutli, one
man, the poor miner Hans Luther's son. Friends
had reminded him of Huss, advised him not to go;
ne could not be advised. A large company of friends
rode out to meet him, with still more earnest warn-
ings ; he answered, ' Were there as many devils in
Worms as roof -tiles, I would on.' "^ Luther went to
the Diet, and in a speech of two hours, answered for
himself; and so nobly did he answer that all his
adversaries were ashamed. And in answering for
himself, ho answered for us, and for the whole world.
" That," adds Carlyle, " was the greatest moment in
the modern history of men. English Puritanism,
England and its Parliament, America and vast work
there these two centuries. French Revohition,
Europe and its work every wh.-re at present; the
germ of it all lay there ; had Lutlier in that moment
done otlier, it had been otherwise ! Tin- European
world was asking him; am I to sink ever lower hito
falsehood, stagnant putrescence, loathsome accursed

298 OUIi BELIGION AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

death ; or, with whatever paroxysm, to cast the
falsehoods out of me and be cured and live ? " ^

In that hour Luther became, in an important sense,
a redeemer of men. He rescued a large part of the
Church from the dominion of falsehood, and put into
its hand again the truth, and in the name of God,
bade it receive new life. He laid hold upon religion,
and, stripping it of the filthy covering of earthiness
that was clogging it, sent it — with the glittering car
of progress linked to it — rolling down the centuries
anew. But — shall we say — Only to become clogged
again in course of time, by the peculiar kind of mud
which belongs to the centuries through which it
rolls ? And, Have ive noiv come upon a time ivhen ive
need a neiv race of Reformers, and another Refor-
mation t

How shall we answer this question ? How shall
we see ourselves as a Seer would see us ? How shall
we irlance throusfh and through our relio;ion and de-
tect all its earthiness, as the Heaven-born Prophet
would ? We have this to encourajxe us — that ours
is a religion that courts investigation ; not a religion
which surrounds itself with a wall of defence against
those who are disposed to searcli for weaknesess; but

I>0 WE NEED ANOTHER REFORMATION? 299

a religion whicli tlirows open all its gates, and bids
friend and foe alike come in and search every nook
and corner, and examine the very foundation on
which its being rests ; a religion Avhich says : "Search

theScriptures;"iaveligionwhichgivesfullpei'mission
to burn the cliatt'and keep only the wheat ; to con-
sume the wood, hay, stubble, and everything besides
that will not shine all the more brightly because of the
tlanies; a religion which bids the investigator throw
aside earth and sand and never cease liis undermin-
ing work until lie comes upon a solid rock which all
his powers of exploration shall be unable to disturb ;
a religion which boldly says, "Prove all things; hold
fast that which is good ; " - a religion whose voice to
all who profess to embrace it, is—" Examine your-
selves whether ye be in the faith ; prove youi- own
selves." 3 If our religion is the religion of Jesus Christ,
we may go forward fearlessly in the work of inspect-
ing and assaying it, assured that the lire with which
we try it may fail, but not one tittle of Christ's law
shall fail. " The truth of the Lord endureth for-
ever." *

How shall we successfully engage in this work
to wliich we are challenged :* The best we (;an do,

*
i

?00 OUR liELIGION AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

is ^0 exaiiiiuo ourselves and our religion as faiths
fully as we may, in the light of the history of the
past, and especially in the light of the teaching of
Jesus in His treatment of the religionists of His day.
At the very outset we Come upon a fundamental
need for reformation. We hnd the same stumbling-
block before us, over which the Scribes and Pharisees
fell and were broken— self-righteousness. We can-
not entertain the thought of questioning -the correct-
ness of our religious l)eliefs, or the validity of any of
those opinions we have all our lives held dear. The
religious views and opinions ive have entertained
are of course unquestionable. To speak of examin-
ino- our relifrious convictions, were to betray doubt
concerning a matter which is so sacred, that it must
evermore be lifted above the reach of doubt ; for
doubt is scepticism ! and scepticism is heresy ! and
heresy is heinous sin !

So long as a man is thus solennily prohibited from
enquiring into the correctness of his religious views,
how is he ever to examine himself as to whether he
is in the faith ! If he is a Hindoo, he must remain
a Hindoo, for fear of losing his soul l»y doubting
any of the articles of what he has been taught is the

BO WE NEED ANOTHER REFORMATIONS 301

true Religion. If he is a Jew, he must remain a
Jew, for fear of committing the unpaidonaljle sin by
calling in question any of the religious beliefs in
which he has been trained. If he belongs to one or
anothei- of the branches of the Christian Chuich, he
must 1)0 true to his Creed, and on no account pre-
sume to examine his "Confession," or allow anything
to shake his faith in a single rite in his "rubric," or a
single doctrine taught in his "formulary." Every
other man should carefully examine his religion ;
but it would be most dangerous for us to think of
examining to see whether our faith is the true faith.
— ^^If this is not self-righteousness, by what name
should it be called ? It is the same old Pharisaic
spirit which rejected Christ, when He came asking
the men of His day to turn their backs u})on certain
beliefs they had long held sacred.

We are taught in Scripture, that one of the hrst
conditions necessary to the acquiring of wisdom is,
that the mind be kept open to conviction ; that the
moment a man begins to profess that he of all men
is wise, that moment he begins to be in tlie worst
sense a fool ; that it is the man of humble child-like
spirit, the man that is always ready to accuse him-

<mmm

302 (^UH UK LI a [ON AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

self of folly, who is rually in tlio wjiy of acciuiriug-
true knowledge. "If any man among you scemeth
to be wise in this world, let him become a fool that
he may be wisc."^ Whatever a man's religions opin-
ions may be, and however sincerely those opinions are
entertained, if the man finds sin in his heart, or
the evidence of it in his outward life, he must be
willing to suspect liimself of hypocrisy, and say, — I
must examine myself in the presence of Christ, and
in the light of His Word, that I may know.

But we have come u[)on another demand for re-
formation. Who thinks of examining his heart and
conduct in the light of Scripture ? or of comparing
his daily life with the life of the "Great Exemplar"?
The Bible is not taken as " the rule of practice,"
whatever may be said of it as a "rule of faith." The
Bible lies on the shelf, and man's conduct is ordered,
ac^iording to another rule. It is three hundred and
fifty years since Martin Luther found the Bible in the
library at Erfurt and read it, and in reading it dis-
covered that the professing Christians of his day
were not living in accordarice with its plain teach-
ings ; and it was for the sake of having the Bible
become the guide of men's lives, that he bravely be-

DO H^^: NEED ANOTHEU HliFOHMATlON^ \m

gaii, and nobly foiin-lit out to tlio bitter end, tlie Re-
Ibnuation battle. If nenlect of the Bible or. tlie
part of professing Cliristians be cause enough, who
will say that the world is not now fully ripe for
another Reformation ?

Yet men have a certain reverence for the Bil)le.
And here we come u])on a third demand for refor-
mation. The errors and aljuses in our religion^ date
further back than either the age of Lutliei-, or the
time of the Pharisees. They arc essentially the
same with those that cursed tlie Jewish Chuich, in
the days when the Old Testament Prophets at-
tempted in vain the work of restoration. Did the
Jews commit the blunder of regarding their sacred
symbols, and other religious appointments, as of sav-
ing value in themselves ? And did they accordingly
deceive themselves and mock God, by the use they
made of holy things ? The representatives of our
relio-ion do the same. Men who would be shocked
at the thought of living from year to year without
a Bible in their home, will live contentedly from the
beo-inninff to the end of their whole lifetime, with-
out ever reading the Bible once throughout. The
book is sacred in their eyes in an outward and ma-

m OUll UELIOION AS IT U'AS AND AS IT tS.

terial scmso, and is of value to tlicin as a fetich is
of value to a heathen. It is expected to banish sin
as a piece of cedar wood will banish moths. It is
relied on for salvation, as the ark of the Covenant of
the Lord was relied upon, in the disastrous fioht
with the Philistines.

And the same thing is true of " places of worship."
If a building be mo.lelled after a religious style of
architecture, and called a church, and set apart to
the public worship of God by certain consecrating
ceremonies, the very material of which it is com-
posed is accounted subjectively holy, and the church
is expected to bless the man whose name is written
upon the pew, even though he utterly neglects the
proper use of the house of God.

The same thing is true also of the Sabbath. For-
getting that naturally, all days are alike, and that
the first day of the week is holy or unholy accord-
infr to the use man makes ol its hours, men look
upon the Sabbath as being in itself a holy portion
of time, of whose saving power they will receive
the full benefit, if they will simply rest, and
conduct themselves with an outwardly grave de-
meanour, and give the day a chance to do its work.

1>0 WE NEED ANOTHER UEFOUMATWX? r,05
These are the relio-ious ideas Mri the midst of which
men are still dreaming their troubled religious dream
Nor <lo we .stop at this point in our imitatim- of
the follies of the aneient Jews. They learned to
associate the thoug-ht of God exclusively with their
sacred places, symbols, and times, and thus eontrive.l
to blot out of their minds the idea of the omnipre-
sence of God:~So have we. We must be devoutly
circumspect while using the Bible, the Church, 'md
the Sabbath, but at all other times we are free. And
so it has come to pass, that work and worship are
as widely dissevered as if God had given command-
ment to this effect, instead of having given a special
command to the contrary. While on the one hand
a voice comes from God telling us to trust in Him
and bless Him " at all times," and to give Him glory
by all that we do ; on the other hand a rude voice
comes from among men, telling the fitter truth that
" with us Religion is a nun ; she sits behind her
black veil in the meeting-house. All the week, no-
body thinks of that joyless vestal. Meantime strono--
handed cupidity, with his legion of devils, goes up
and down the earth, and presses Weakness, Ignoiance

and Want into his service."
S

306 OUTi RELIGION AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

But the demand for reformation does not cease
with these features of resemblance to the apostate
Jews. Fundamental errors have been borrowed
from a much earlier time. Men have gone back to
the beginning of formal worship, and looked on
while the first sacred acts were being performed, but
instead of readino- the meaninof of those acts in the
light of tlieir own day brightened by the reflected
light of later revelation, they have taken a volume
of mediaeval theology and other traditions of the
Fathers along with them, and have interpreted the
worship of Cain and Abel in the light of those ; and,
attributing to Cain what belonged to Abel, and to
Abel what was peculiar to Cain, have reversed the
teaching of the word of God. They have said that
the first thing essential to true worship is, that a
man have a painful sense of estrangement from God
— their books of reference declarino: that this was
Abel's feeling, — though in the light of Scripture we
find it to have been Cain's, while in Abel's heart,
on the contrary, there was faith, filial confidence —
the only proper feeling for any penitent child to en-
tertain, in drawing near to tlie oflendcd Father who
bids it come to Him that He may forgive and bless it.

Do WE NEED ANOTHER REFORMATION '^ 307

As men have gone forward in the framing of tlieir
religious opinions, still perusing their books of re-
ference, they have next said, that acts of worship
are to be performed either for the purpose of making
some change upon the mind of God, by reason of
which He will condescend to love and forgive us ;
or for the purpose of woi'king some change upon
ourselves by reason of which we shall have a just
claim upon God for His forgiveness and love — ideas
which may be peculiar to Cain's woi'ship, but cer-
tainly not to Abel's ; and which may be found
taught in added literature, but never in the word of
God.

As men have still stood in presence of the first
acts of woi'ship, with their books of reference in
their hands, they have deliberately declared that the
excellence of Abel's offering is to be found in its out-
ward form. Assuming that Abel's offering was a dis-
tinctive sj^mbol of atonement^ and that Abel must
have seen it to be such, and must have understood
its fiir-reaching meaning, and that it was mainly
because he did so that his offering was uccei)ted,
men have declared, that the thing essential to salva-
tion, is, the rUjht imderdandin(j of the method by

.%8 OVR religion as If WAS ANT) AS IT tS.

luhich God can save us. And their manner of
studying all later revelation has been such as to
strengthen and confirm this opinion. And under
this conviction, the Church has, for centuries past,
given itself up to the study of the plans and pur-
poses of God, and to the framing of systems of
Divinity ; the pulpit has preached a metaphysical
gospel, and the hearers have bent their chief ener-
gies upon the importance of believing, to the con-
sequent neglect of the importance of living.

In this we have taken a step in advance of the
Jews ; they were able to see only the outward form,
the actual symbol, and accordingly they bent their
chief energies upon outward observances. Their
worship consisted in the skilful manipulating of
certain material things, and could be performed
with the hands alone, even though the heart were
dead. In the light of New Testament times, we
are able to look beneath, and discover something
of the spiritual significance which underlies all
divinely ordained visible appointments ; and thus
we have been enabled to carry our worship up into
the region of the intellect ; and we have done so,
and that to such an extent that our relio-ion has

DO WE NEED ANOTHER REFORMATION?

309

come to consist largely in the skilful manipulating
of immaterial things-doctrinal statements, logicll
sequences— which can be attended to by the ordi-
nary powers of the intellect, though the heart may
still be dead. As the Jews abused their ritual, so
have we abused our theology.

And this undue importance men have learned to
attach to metaphysical forms in matters of doctrine,
has intimately associated with it, the attaching of
undue importance to forms in all matters. But why
speak of how our several Churches of various
names, magnify questions of simple expediency into
questions of eternal moment ?— or of the danoer
that in some (Quarters the prominence the Church is
giving to the outward form, shall become the snare
that shall entice men over to idolatry as in the
earlier time ? — or of methods of praise, postures in
prayer; unseemly differences, unnecessary debates
— all conducted with as intense eagerness as if Jesus
had never come to bear witness to the unimportance
of outward forms, and the all-importance of the
inner truth ; or as if the voice of Inspinition liad
never declared, " that we should servo in new-
ness of spirit and not in the oldness of the letter." ^

310 OUn EELIGION AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

"For the letter killcth, but the Spirit giveth
life?"i

But the (leinand for reformation which inchides
all others is, that mankind have need to be taught
what true religion is,— that it does not now prevail
in any country in the world ; that men are mistaken
when they suppose that the religion we call ours,
and which is truly ours, is the religion of the Bible.
We have not copied from the Bible. We have
copied from our fellow-men. Men who were only
awaking from the dreadful nightmare of heathen
superstition, have been our models ;--Men whose
voices were the first to be heard as the dreary win-
ter of Romish tyranny was passing away — blessed
voices they were, yet hoarse as that of the first
raven in spring, which only tells us that the tune of
the singing of birds is near. Yet we who oome
after them, and should be the birds of sonir, have
been content to copy their notes, instead of ii-oinff
still farther back to learn the sweet notes of the
turtle-(1ove of the foi'mer Sprinti-.

Some noble examples have been left us, yet some
that have not been so noble. Scared by the many
ills they saw arise out of the Church's unhappy

DO WE NEED ANOTHER REFORMATION? 311

union with the world, the fathers have taught us
that the Church and the world should be kept
wholly separate ; that religion and worship should
be kept aloof from the concerns of common life.
And accordingly men tie their religion to the Sab-
bath, and to the Bible as a material thing, and tie
the Bible to the pew-desk in the Church, that it
may not be desecrated by being read in schools, or
by its precepts being freely referred to as a guide in
ordinary business affairs. As if the Bible were
some narrow, ecclesiastical, pietistic book, and not
the Book whose precepts are so broad as to include
within their compass, business, education, every-
thing; or as if the Bible's doctrine were, that religion
should be a thing by itself in the world, and not an
all-pervading principle and presence ; or as if the
Bible taught that worship is a thing to be observed
only at particular times, and in particular moods,
and not a thing which should be as natural to man
as loving — as natural as life itself — a man's plough-
ing being holy as his prayers.

We do need another Reformation; yet not ano-
ther man as a Keformcr. We have had enough of
men, We have had enough of external metliods of

312 OUR RELIGION AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

every kind. We cannot bo redeemed by appliances
that are only human and earthly. It is unsafe to
ply us with these. We fall down and worship them.
We place them between ourselves and God. Moses
must be buried out of sight, and where no man shall
know of his sepulchre. Even Jesus must not remain
long on the earth, lest men take to worshipping His
manhood alone. And even so, men have exalted a
frail man to be His representative, and have called
him "Father" contrary to the Saviour's word, and
have bowed down and kissed his feet. And those
who refuse this homage, are still unable to lose siffht
of men. They too have their Pope — one who
never needs a successor, seeing he never dies, but is
ah-eady dead and sainted ; yet who rules the Church,
and whose word is law to the utmost corner of the
world. With some his name is Luthei-, with others
Calvin, with others Wesley, with others other Saints,
who would weep even now did they know how men
have deified them and taken their word a.s the word
of God. We have had enough of men-and ,nen have
had enough of us ! However the world n>ay treat
Its samts ufter they are gone, it treats them cruelly
enough while here. " Which of the prophets have

DO WE NEED ANOTHER REFOHMATION ? 313

not your fathers persecuted ?"i " He that departeth
from evil iiiaketh himself a prey."^ To lift up the
voice against wrongs that are done in the name of
the Lord, is to forfeit the love of the nearest of kin,
and encountei- the hatred of all men. Shall we ask
another man to come and undertake to reform the
world, but succeed in only adding to the number
of opposing sects — crying the while : " Alas for me !
Would God my mother had died or ever I was
born to bear all the burthens of the world, and right
its wrongs ? " We cannot even ask Jesus back to earth
as yet, much as we would love to hear His voice, and
see His face, and grasp His hand, and kneel to clasp
and kiss His feet. And shall we call for a Restorer
who is only man ? " Thus saith the Lord ; cursed
be the man who trusteth in man, and makcth flesh
his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord."^
We hope " the coming man " will never come. Our
next Reformer nnist be one wliom Ave cannot stone,
nor saw asunder, nor nail to any cross ; One whom
we can worship, but worsliip only with the heart,
"in spirit and in truth." Hark ' It is the Saviour's
voice ! "It is expedient for you that I go away ; for
if I fro not away, the Comforter will not come unto

314 OUR RELIGION AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

you ; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you." i
And as Jesus speaks, all the voices that have been
slumbering for ages among- the hoary Old Testament
hills, awake and proclaim anew the coming of the
ivorld's complete Restorer, the Holy Ghost, the Sjnrit
of the Father and the Son. And with Him there
come men ! and connnunities ! and nations " born in
a day!" Another Man ? Another Reformer ? An-
other Prophet? "Would God that all the Lord's
people were prophets, and that the Lord would put
His spiiit upon them !" 2 When He, the Spirit of
Truth, is come. He will guide men into all truth, and
will shew them things to come. He will take of
the things of Christ, and shew them unto the world.
He will reprove the world concerning the commis-
sion of sin, concerning the neglect of righteousness,
and concerning the want of common sense. How
long have we to wait ? ! tell us that these are
"the last days," for ''it shall come to pass in the
last days, saith God, I will pour out my spirit upon
all flesh ; and your sons and your daughters shall
prophesy, and your young men shall see visions,
and your old men shall dream dreams: And on my
servants and on my handmaidens will I pour out

-'1

DO WE NEED ANOTHER REFORMATION? 315

in those clays of my Spirit, and they shall prophesy." ^
Would that that day were now ; that the hearts of
all mankind were filled with the Spirit of the Lord
—that all had the mind of Christ, to think His
thoiiohts, and do His works, and walk in sweet com-
panionship with Cod, thinking of Him as Father in
Heaven bending over the chiklren of men in forgiv-
ing love ; thinkincr of this earth as His, with man
His son and stewanl, using it for Him ; looking
to Him as He appears in Jesus, " who was delivered
for our ofl'ences, and was raised again for our justifi-
cation," and is man's living Brother still— bone of
our bone and flesh of our flesh, having an heart that
is touched with the feeling of our infinnities-stiU
calling down to man, " Come unto me." Let the
seven thousand in Israel who have not bowed the
knee to Baal, reply : " Gome Thou to us. !
Spirit of Christ, eomc down to enlighten our minds
and renew our wills, and persuade and enable all to
embrace Thine own religion ! " Let the great listen-
ing world take up the cry. " 0, Spirit of Jesus,
come!" For already His answer is written
" Surely I come Huiekly;" When the Spirit ..id
the Bride do thus say " Come." and he that heareth

31G OXJP RELIGION AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS.

shall echo " Come ! "—then will the Spirit of the
Lord come down, to apply the purchased blessings,
and to close the Redemptive work. " Amen. Even
so come Lord Jesus. The grace of our Lord Jesus
Christ be with you all. Amen." ^

INDEX TO QUOTATIONS.

INDKX TO QUOTATIONS.

PAOE.
20 1 Matthew XV. 0.

21. I Max Mllller, Clupx from a Oer-

ninn Workshiip^ vol. I. p ;{.s.

22. 1 ChipH. Vols. 1. 37, 44; 11. 305,

:J()7.

23. 1 Chips, \. 16.
" •-' " 11. 300.

25. 1 " 11. 34.

20. 1 " II. 3.').

27 I HcvelatioM xxii., 18, 19.

32. 1 Carlyle, Heroes and Hero Wor-
sliip, Chapman and Hall's edi-
tion, p. 150; Sartor JiesartKn,
174.

37. 1 Max MUller, Origin and Growth

of Jielijjion, p. -'O.
" 2 Wkhstkk.

" 3 worckstkr.

30 1 Matthew xxii. 40.

42 1 Genesis ii. 17.

43 1 " iii. 4.

" - " i. 28. 29.

44 1 " ii. 15.

40 1 Ilevelation ii. 7.

_ ^ XXI. 7.

47 1 Matthew vii. 9-13.

4^ 1 Fir.st Corinthians x. 31.

00 1 Genesis iv. 3, 4.

54 1 John iv. 24.

66 1 " XV. 1.

" a " xii. 24.

" 3 " vi. 48.

._ * First Corinthians, xi. 26.

67 1 Genesis iii. 15.

6S 1 " i. 28.

60 1 " iv. 4.

'' - Hebrews, xi. 4.

61 1 «« ' .• •

Vi " jx, 22.

62 1 Acts iv. 12.

II 2 First Timothy, ii. 6.

y Romans i. 20.

PAOK.
03 1 First Corintiiians ii. h

" 2 Galatians v. 0.

04 I Hfhrews xi (!.

05. I Kev. Alfred Cave, The Seriptural
Doctrine of Sacriftee, p. 41.

" - HehrewH xi. 4.

C7 ; 1 Sei'ond Corintiiians viii. 12.

" - Genesis iv. .S, 4.

08 I First John iii. 12.

69 1 Romans ix. 13.

70 1 Matthew xiii. 12.

72 1 Isaiah xii. 2, 3.

70 1 Zeehariah xiv. 20, 21.

79. 1 James C. Moffatt, D.D., A Coin-

pa ratioc lliHtory of ReliaionK,
vol. 2, p. 69.

80. 1 " " " 68.

84. 1 DeimSUiulayJIistorif of the Jew-

ixh Church, vol. 1. p. 100.

85. 1 Mc'C\)sh, Typical Forms in Crea-

tion, ]^. 3;U.

80 1 Psalm, xc. 1.

87 1 First Kings, viii. 13, 27.

89 1 " " 44-49,53.

" ••; " " 57,61.

90 1 Psalm cxxxvii. 1-0.

" 2 " cxxii. 1-2.

95 1 Second Peter ii. 5.

90 1 Genesis vi. 1-4.

98 1 " xviii. 18, 19.

" 2 " 1.22,23.

99 1 Deuteronomy vi. 7.

103 1 First Corinthians x. 31.

104 1 Luke X. 27.

105 1 Deuteronomy vi. 6, 7.

" 2 Gene3i8 xxxi. 29.

100 I " "42

" 2 " .< 43" 44.

107 1 " «• 51-53.

" 2 Ruth i. 8.

" a •' ii. 4.

" . . . . 4 " "

INhEX TO QUOTATIONS.

319

'■

I'AOK.

107 r, Ruth ii. 12.

11« Meremiah vii. 22.

11» I First Siiimiel iv. 3-11.

121 I Isiiiah i. 11 17.

123. 1 yhhim I'urana, 44.

*' - llardwick, Chrid and other Man-
tern, p. 220.
124 1 I'snlin 1. 9-14.

" 'J: Joruniiah xx.\ii. 35.

" ;i First Kinf,'8 xiv. 23.

127 1 Psalm viii. ;{, 4.

" 2 " xix. 1.

" ;! Second Sainiiol xxiii. 3.

129 1 Maladii iii. 1-4.

133 1 (ialatiaiis iv. 4.

138 I First John i. 29.

" 'i Ilovelatiou v. 5.

139 1 Matthew xi. 28.

140 1 Mattliew x. 34-30. ,

140 -' Lulie xii. 49.

141 ' Genesis iii. 15.

" •-' Psalm ii. 12.

" 3 " xlv. 3-5.

" 4 Malaehi iii. 2.

" T) Matthew iii. 2.

142 1 " iii. 11,12.

" y " xxiii. 13.

" o " " 33.

143 1 Revelation xix. 11 10.

145 I John xii. 19.

•' •-' " vii. 40.

140 1 " xi. 43.

" J Lul<e xxiii. 34.

148 1 Exodus XX. 8.

149 1 " "12.

" ') " " 13

*" ...... .^ John xii. 21-32.

152 1 Mattliew iii. 10.

153 1 John xii. 'Al, 32.

*' •_' Matthew xv. 14.

154 1 Acts X. 34-35.

" - Colossians iii. 10, 11.

155 1 Matthew v. 17.

*' -'Mark i. 44.

150 I P.salm exxxvii, 5, 0.

" -J Luke xiii. 34.

157 1 " xix. 41-44.

161 1 Isaiah xii. 28 xlii. 4.

162 1 Hebrews x. 5-7.

" - Romans viii. 3-4.

163 } First Corinthians v. S.

" -' Revelation iii. 8.

" ^Romans iii. 20-26.

165 1 John xvi. 13.

166 1 " iv. 21-23.

174 1 Matthew xi. 30.

176 1 First Corinthians xiv. 26.

" .^ « •• 40.

I'AOK.

176 I Actsii. 38-40.

178 I " xvi. -M.

179. I Dr. Draper, Conjlict Between lie-

liijiitn and Science, p. 47.
181. " " " 48.

183. I Priiiiipal Shalrp, Culture anil
lletijliiin, p. 88.
' -Conjlict Ijvtiveen lleliijian and
Science, p. 12ff.

190 1 Matthew X. 30.

191 1 Genesis i, 28.

•' '.' Matthew xxi. 28.

*' I! Kcclesiastes, ix. 10.

•' » l'roverl)s vi. 0.

" r, Matthew vi. 28.

«' c, " " 20 (Fur "Con-
sider," read "IJehold").
193. 1 Culture and Ueliijion, \). 108.

205 1 Gene.sis i. 28.

200 1 " ii. 24.

" •.' " " 10. 17.

" ;! " iii. 19.

" 4 " ix. 4-0.

" .') " '* 9.

" '.'.'.. '.'.'n " " 13.

211 1 " xlix. 10.

212 1 Acts iii. 22.

' '.! Isaiah xi. 1.

213 1 Matthew xiii, 10, 17.

' 'J Mark iv. 33.

214 1 John xvi. 12.

'* ■-' Proverlis xxv. 2.

" ;!Jobxxvi. 9.

215 1 Matthew iv. 4.

220 ' Second Timothy i. 13.

225 1 Markiv'. 20-28.

226 1 Romans x. 10.

' 2 Culture and Religion, 115.
' ;! " " 119.

' 4 '< " 143.

228 1 First Corinthians xii. 0.

229 1 Ueutcroiumiy xxxii. 1, 2.

232. 1 Culture and Reli(jiov, /i.

" ■.' Itomans xi. 33 30.

233 I Psalm cxii. 4.

235. 1 Charles Hodge, D. D., Syntematic
Theoloiju.

' 2 Psalm xxv. 9.

' s Matthew v. 8.

236 1 Psalm cxi. 2.

241 1 Matthew xvii. 4.

247 1 Isaiah xiv. 32.

251 1 Proverbs xviii. 17.

252 1 Ki)hesians iii. 8.

253 ... 1 First Oorinthiana xii. 14.
. •.. •• " " 19.

257. 1 John iv. 21.

258 1 Psalm Ixviii. 20, 27.

266 1 First Timothy ii. 4.

320

INDEX TO QUOTATIONS.

PAGK

267. .
2(58.

269.
270.

271.

273.

281.
292,

1 Zechariah ix. 10. . '

1 Samuel T. Spear, D.D., Religion

and the State.
1 The Independent.
1 Religion aiid the State, pp. 51,

53
1 LiithanU, Fundamental Truths
oj'Chri!itia7iity,lii9. .
... 1 Second Corinlhianr vi. 2

■ ijohn xviii. 23.

1 T. Parker, Dincoiirse on Reli-
gion, p. 100.
1 Heroes and Ileroworship, 130.
1 " " 136.

1 Discourse on Religion, p. 414.
1 Heroes and Hero irorskip, 124.
1 Heroes and Hero-worship, lib.
... ijohn V. 29.
.. '2 Second Thcssalonians v

21. ... ^

'< 3 Second Corinthians xm. 5,

" i Psahn cxvii. 2.

302. ...... 1 First oorinthians iii. 18.

PAGK.

305..

293,
294.

29t'>.
297.
298,
299

1 309.
1310.
313.

314.

315.
l316.

, . . 1 Genesis ii. 2-3 ; Exodus
XX. 8. (NOTK. —Only an intelli-
Ijrent beinsf can be inherently
and personally -in other words
,>mbjectii)ely—ho\y. A day can
no more be holy in this sense,
than a house, or a bool<, or any
other purely material thin^r.
God blessed the Sabiiath day
and sanctified it, not by nial<-
\ng any chani^e upon its atmos-
phere "or its sunlisjht, but by
ordaining that man's use of the
day should be peculiarly holy.)

... I llomans vii. 6.

, . . . 1 Second Corinthians lii. 6.

1 Acts vii. 52.

" Isaiah lix. 15.

. . .. "> Jeremiah xvii. 5.

1 John xvi. 7.

2 Numbers xi. 29.

1 Acts ii. 17.

.... 1 Revelation xxii. 20, 21.

THE END.

>,D

Exodus
intelli-
erently
r words
lay can
i sense,
, or any

thinjr.
th day
ly niak-

atnios-
but by
tc o/ the.
y holy.)

iii. C.

21.