THE GOSPEL OF LIFE.
 
 THE GOSPEL OF LIFE 
 
 THOUGHTS INTRODUCTORY TO THE 
 STUDY OF CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 BROOKE FOSS WESTCOTT, D.D., D.C.L., 
 
 BISHOP OF DURHAM ; 
 FORMERLY REGIUS PROFESSOR OF DIVINITY, CAMBRIDGE. 
 
 SECOND EDITION. 
 
 Honfcon : 
 
 MACMILLAN AND CO. 
 
 AND NEW YORK. 
 
 1895 
 
 [All Rights reserved.]
 
 IMI H O&OC KAI H AAH6EIA KAI H ZOiH. 
 
 ST JOHN xiv. 6. 
 
 N AYTCp ZWM6N KAI KINOYM66A KAI 6CM6N. 
 
 ACTS xvii. 28. 
 
 First Edition 1892. Second 1895.
 
 PAGE 
 
 CONTENTS . v 
 
 PREFACE . xvii 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 THE PROBLEMS OF LIFE. 
 
 General statement of the scope of the inquiry . . 1 
 
 Three final existences assumed 2 
 
 (i) 'Self 4 
 
 (ii) The world ' 5 
 
 (iii) ' GOD ' 5 
 
 The reality of these existences cannot be es- 
 tablished by argument .... 6 
 Each brings its own difficulties ... 8 
 i. Difficulties as to the conception of ' self ' 
 
 (a) Origin 9 
 
 (b) Growth. Dependence. Influence of medium ; 
 
 of mechanical inventions ; of intellectual 
 conceptions . . . . . . 10 
 
 (c) Independence. ' Freedom ' . . . .13 
 
 (d) Complex nature of the individual man : 
 
 struggles : failure 16 
 
 (e) Sternness of ' Nature '. Yet man asserts 
 
 himself 17 
 
 (/) looking to the future in spite of difficulties 18 
 
 These are facts 19 
 
 ii. Difficulties as to the conception of 'the world' 20 
 (a) The mystery involved in our belief in the 
 external world : the relation between 
 our impressions and that which excites 
 them 20 
 
 2066624
 
 vi Contents. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 (6) The idea of a beginning : conclusions from . 21 
 
 (a) The dissipation of energy . . 22 
 (/3) The discontinuity of the formulae 
 
 for conduction of heat . . 24 
 (7) The character of molecules . . 2ft 
 The idea of law: rests on Faith . . 27 
 Laws based on assumptions : explain no- 
 thing as to force 29 
 
 We have a sense of harmony in creation . 30 
 At the same time we see a conflict in 
 
 nature and in man .... 31 
 We have a natural sympathy with the ex- 
 ternal world. This also is spiritual . 32 
 We have also a belief in progress . . 33 
 iii. Difficulties as to the conception of ' GOD ' . 34 
 (a) No proof of the being of GOD possible : 
 alleged proofs are partial illustrations 
 of the idea . . . . . 35- 
 (6) The idea of Divine 'Personality' . . . 36 
 
 (c) Prayer 36 
 
 (d) The present relation of finite being to GOD 37 
 The religious history of the world. History 
 
 of the Jews .37 
 
 History of the Gentiles .... 38 
 
 The questions which we ask in hope . . 39 
 
 The effort to answer them not vain . . 41 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE DUTY AND NECESSITY OF DEALING 
 WITH THE PROBLEMS OF LIFE. 
 
 The sense of the mysteries of life leads us to seek 
 for some solution of the problems which they 
 suggest 43 
 
 Men have in fact always sought for a solution . . 44 
 (i) The problems must be dealt with in some way 45
 
 Contents. vii 
 
 (ii) Action influenced by opinion .... 
 The moral standard of action .... 
 Conception of GOD as Moral Governor . 
 Belief in a future life .... 
 Facts of Revelation: the Incarnation 
 
 The Atonement 
 
 The view of the problems of life has in its 
 
 broad aspects a great practical importance 54 
 Further definition of the idea of GOD . . 55 
 
 of the future life 55 
 
 of the Incarnation 56 
 
 Moral influence of living dogma ... 57 
 Dogma is a necessity for us . . . 58 
 
 (iii) It may be said that action will be guided 
 
 by experience not by theory ... 59 
 Such a view is subject to serious limitations . 59 
 And yet more character is to be taken into 
 
 account 60 
 
 The power of character is real if latent . . 61 
 Moral influence of views of creation as to the 
 
 basis of morality 62 
 
 Final importance of what we think ... 64 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE CONDITIONS UNDER WHICH A SOLUTION 
 OF THE PROBLEMS OF LIFE MUST BE 
 SOUGHT. 
 
 Point reached 65 
 
 Dangers from dominant influences .... 66 
 Different kinds of truths and certainty in respect 
 of assertions regarding (i) self, (ii) the world, 
 
 (iii) GOD 68 
 
 (i) Truths dependent on the limitations of man's 
 present nature (conditions of time and 
 space) ........ 68
 
 viii Contents. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 (ii) Truths expressing the results of man's ob- 
 servation of the external world; physical 
 and vital ...... .69 
 
 Physical laws correspond with the isolation of 
 
 the action of particular forces ... 70 
 Physical truth contrasted with Mathematical 
 
 truth . . . ..*' . . . . . . 71 
 
 The phenomena of life still more complicated 71 
 Historical truth different from Physical and 
 
 Mathematical truth 72 
 
 The subject of a new Science .... 73 
 (iii) Truths relating to our knowledge of GOD . 74 
 
 We must observe that 
 
 (a) The facts belonging to each Science are in- 
 dependent 75 
 
 (6) The facts included in a complex phenomenon 
 can be severally isolated and examined 
 according to their proper laws . . 76 
 (c) The methods of different Sciences are dis- 
 tinct 77 
 
 Application of these observations to Theo- 
 logy '.77 
 
 (i) The fundamental facts must be given by GOD 78 
 This revelation must come through life . . 79 
 Such 'signs' in life are the basis of Christian 
 
 Theology 80 
 
 They establish a connexion between the seen 
 
 and the unseen 81 
 
 (ii) The verification of these signs is up to a 
 
 certain point historical .... 82 
 
 But they are confirmed also by a spiritual 
 
 judgment ....... 83 
 
 Such a power corresponds with what has been 
 
 recognised before 84 
 
 The proof primarily personal, but capable of 
 
 wider extension ...... 85 
 
 Analogous to proofs in other cases ... 85
 
 Contents. 
 
 IX 
 
 PAGE 
 
 How it gains a universal force ... 85 
 
 The final test in life 85 
 
 (iii) In dealing with the facts of Theology we must 
 
 take account of all the underlying Sciences 86 
 Hence Theology advances through the advance 
 
 of these . . . . . . . 88 
 
 No one Science has peculiar access to Truth . 89 
 The results of each Science are distinct in 
 
 kind 90 
 
 Usurpations 90 
 
 The danger greater if the method of a sub- 
 ordinate Science is applied to a higher . 91 
 The method of Physics cannot rightly deal 
 
 with Theology 92 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE WORK OF THE PRJE-CHRISTIAN NATIONS 
 TOWARDS THE SOLUTION OF THE PRO- 
 BLEMS OF LIFE. 
 
 Tentative prae-Christian solutions of the problems of 
 
 life 93 
 
 The character of the solution required ... 94 
 
 The solution must be religious 94 
 
 The idea of religion 96 
 
 This idea must be traced in the history of humanity 98 
 The history of religion parallel in part to the history 
 
 of language 100 
 
 Correspondence between groups of languages and re- 
 ligions 102 
 
 Illustrations from the use of sex-terminations in nouns 102 
 
 from Divine Names 103 
 
 from formation of words ..... 104 
 But languages reveal and do not create religious ten- 
 dencies 106
 
 x Contents. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Thus Gentile religions are a fragmentary revelation 
 
 of man's nature and needs 107 
 
 In what sense there is a historical science of religion 1081 
 
 Two groups of facts to be distinguished . . . 110 
 
 The work of Persia and Greece for Judaism . . 112 
 The religious work of the nations recognised in the 
 
 history and teaching of the Bible . . . . 114 
 
 The witness of Justin Martyr 116 
 
 of Clement of Alexandria 117 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 PR&-CHRISTIAN SOLUTIONS OF THE 
 PROBLEMS OF BEING. 
 
 The value of the prse-Christian Book-religions to the 
 
 Christian student 121 
 
 (i) THE EELIGIONS OF CHINA . . ... . 124 
 
 (a) The primitive religion ..... 125 
 Imperial worship, and worship of ancestors 127 
 
 (b) Taouism 129 
 
 Conception of Tao 130 
 
 Corruption of Taouism. . . . . 131 
 
 (c) Confucianism . 132 
 
 Basis of Confucianism . . . . 134 
 
 Filial piety 135 
 
 Relation to old religion .... 136 
 
 Eetribution on earth . . . . . 138 
 
 Strength and weakness of Confucianism . 139 
 
 Importance of the primitive religion of China 141 
 
 (ii) RELIGIONS OF INDIA 142 
 
 (a) Hinduism 143 
 
 Earliest Vedic teaching 144 
 
 Brahmanism expresses the thoughts of ema- 
 nation and dependence .... 146
 
 Contents. xi 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The conception of Caste ... . . . 148 
 
 Sacrifice : Penance 150 
 
 Transmigration 152 
 
 Different aspects of the Divine power . . 153 
 
 Multiplication of specialised Divinities. . 155 
 Krishna . . ...... .156 
 
 (b) Buddhism . . . . . . . 157 
 
 A reformed Brahmanism . . . .158 
 
 The experiences of Gautama . . . 158 
 
 Contrast of Brahmanism .... 159 
 
 and Buddhism 160 
 
 ' The four sublime truths ' of Buddhism . 162 
 
 The continuity and solidarity of being . 164 
 
 Nirvana 166 
 
 Alleged ' atheism ' of Buddhism . . . 167 
 The corruption of Buddhism . . .168 
 
 (iii) ZOBOASTBIANISM . . . ' . . . . 169 
 
 Contrasts of Brahmanism and Zoroastrianism 170 
 
 The origin of Zoroastrianism . . . 172 
 
 The conceptions of Ahura Mazda . . 174 
 
 Transition from Monotheism to Dualism . 176 
 
 Doctrine of the world and man . . . 178 
 
 Praise of agriculture 180 
 
 Doctrine of last things 181 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 PRESUPPOSITIONS OF THE CHRISTIAN 
 SOLUTION. 
 
 Three assumptions in the Bible 183 
 
 Difficulties recognised . . ... . . . 184 
 
 How the assumptions are presented . ( . 185 
 
 The fitness of the form .187 
 
 (i) The assumption as to God .... 188 
 Consequent view of creation .... 189 
 
 W. G. L. b
 
 xii Contents. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 (ii) The assumption as to man, the crown of the 
 
 visible creation, in the Divine idea . . 191 
 
 Limitations of the assumption . . . 193 
 
 (iii) The assumption as to man's Fall . . . 194 
 
 Silence as to the Fall in the later Books of 
 
 the 0. T. . . . . ... . 195 
 
 General review of the record . . . 196 
 
 The use of these postulates in the N. T. . 199 
 
 The postulates justified by experience . . 202 
 GOD unknowable in the sense in which men 
 
 and the world are unknowable . . . 204 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 "SIGNS" AS A VEHICLE OF REVELATION. 
 
 The idea of a ' sign,' a miracle 206 
 
 A miracle assumes the existence of the spiritual power 
 
 to which it is referred 208 
 
 The action of the spiritual power one of possible modes 
 
 of explanation of the phenomenon .... 208 
 The moral character of the phenomenon an element 
 
 in the interpretation 210 
 
 Testimony of the Pentateuch 212 
 
 of the Prophets ....... 213 
 
 of the Gospel . . 213 
 
 of St Paul 214 
 
 of the Apocalypse 215 
 
 The Bible recognises in man a power for discerning 
 
 moral Truth which nothing external can override . 215 
 
 Miracles correspond with Divine modes of working . 216 
 
 The omnipotence of GOD 217 
 
 Function of miracles as parts of a great scheme . 219 
 
 Miracles not primarily proofs of a Eevelation . . 222 
 They place us in GOD'S Presence and reveal more of 
 
 His will 224 
 
 The miracles of the Lord 226
 
 Contents. xiii 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 CHARACTERISTICS OF THE CHRISTIAN 
 SOLUTION: CHRISTIANITY ABSOLUTE. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Christianity absolute and historical .... 228 
 These characteristics complementary answering to in- 
 finite and finite 228 
 
 Christianity absolute 229 
 
 (a) For all men . . . . . ', . 229 
 This universality recognised from the first . 230 
 Slowly realised. St Peter at Pentecost . . 231 
 St Paul at Athens. Gal. iii. 26 ff., Col. iii. 10 f. 232 
 Eelation of the three passages . . . 233 
 The Christian idea of human brotherhood con- 
 trasted with Buddhist and Stoic ideas . 234 
 The Eedemption answers to the Creation . 235 
 We cannot see how the unity is realised . 237 
 
 (6) For the whole of man 237 
 
 This the teaching of the Eesurrection . . 239 
 
 (c) For all finite being 240 
 
 The teaching of the Apocalypse . . . 243 
 
 Relation to theories of Evolution . . . 244 
 
 Man and his kingdom 246 
 
 Scripture anticipates our latest thoughts . 246 
 
 (d) For all time 247 
 
 The claims of Christianity unique . . . 248 
 Partial views of Christianity .... 249 
 The need of keeping in mind its largest scope . 250 
 All involved in the unique fact of the Incar- 
 nation 251 
 
 In this our view of life becomes Theocentric 253
 
 xiv Contents. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRISTIANITY: 
 CHRISTIANITY HISTORICAL. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Christianity the only historical religion . . . 254 
 
 Historical in its antecedents 255 
 
 in itself 256 
 
 in its realisation . 256 
 
 (i) Christianity historical in its antecedents . 257 
 
 The fulfilment of Judaism . .- . . 258 
 
 The successive Covenants .... 260 
 
 Israel a Messianic people . . . . 261 
 
 The office of Israel for the nations . . 262 
 
 The end of Israel gained in Christianity . 264 
 
 (ii) Christianity historical in essence . . . 265 
 
 The Gospel lies in the Person of Christ . 266 
 
 No valid objection from its unique character 268 
 
 How the Gospel meets human aspirations . 270 
 
 (iii) Christianity historical in its realisation . . 272 
 
 Revelation through facts 273 
 
 Their meaning slowly gained .... 274 
 Progressive apprehension of the message of the 
 
 Gospel 276 
 
 Post-Christian history the record of the vic- 
 tories of the risen Christ . . . 278 
 Interpretation of facts contrasted with the logi- 
 cal development of doctrine . . . 281 
 Present importance of the study of Church 
 
 History \ 282
 
 Contents. xv 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE VERIFICATION OF THE CHRISTIAN 
 SOLUTION OF THE PROBLEMS OF LIFE. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Conditions of verification . . . . . 285 
 
 Man in relation to the seen and unseen . . . 286 
 
 The need of a revelation from the condition of man. 288 
 
 The Eevelation through life 290 
 
 Faith uses the new materials and interprets their larger 
 
 meaning 291 
 
 The converging testimony of History to Christ . . 294 
 In Him the human and super-human are harmoniously 
 
 united 296 
 
 and through His perfections a new revelation of 
 
 GOD is given 298 
 
 The Person of Christ satisfies the aspirations and 
 
 needs of men 299 
 
 He is the strength of every man 302 
 
 The verification of Christianity as complete as the 
 
 case admits 303 
 
 It lies in its fitness to fulfil the destiny of man . 304 
 
 Christ is the Gospel 306
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 following Chapters give the substance of 
 Lectures which I gave from time to time (to 
 small classes of students) during the twenty years 
 of my work at Cambridge. The thoughts which 
 they contain have been constantly tested in pri- 
 vate discussion, and I have found in them guidance 
 and support in looking at the spectacle of the 
 world of man and of nature full as it is of 
 sufferings and sorrows and failures. No one can 
 feel more keenly than I do how fragmentary and 
 imperfect is the expression of facts and truths 
 which I have pondered long 1 . At least I have 
 
 1 It was my intention to have added notes on the Modes 
 and Epochs of Eevelation, on the characteristics of Judaism, on 
 the sacred Books of prae-Christian religions and on the His- 
 torical Development of Christian Doctrine, for which I have 
 collected materials ; but it is now hardly likely that I shall be 
 able to bring the materials into a proper shape, and those who 
 are interested in the lines of study which I have indicated will 
 naturally seek to supply what is wanting in this respect from 
 other sources.
 
 xviii Preface. 
 
 endeavoured to weigh my words, and to try them 
 again and again by the test of fresh experience. 
 My desire has been to encourage patient reflection, 
 to suggest lines of inquiry, to indicate necessary 
 limits to knowledge, and not to convey formulas 
 or ready-made arguments. Thoughts cannot be 
 transferred: they must be appropriated. 
 
 Charged myself with the heavy responsibility 
 of teaching, I have had constantly before me the 
 trials, the dangers, the hopes, of teachers. The 
 world is not clear or intelligible. If we are to 
 deliver our message as Christians we must face 
 the riddles of life and consider how others have 
 faced them. So only shall we come to learn the 
 meaning and resources of our Faith, in which we 
 have that on which, as I believe, we can reason- 
 ably rest the whole burden of the past, the present 
 and the future. 
 
 To some I shall necessarily appear to speak 
 too doubtfully on questions of great moment, and 
 to others too confidently. The relative value of 
 different lines of thought will be variously esti- 
 mated by different minds. Nothing however has 
 been set down which does not seem to require 
 some consideration. Not by one way but by 
 many must we strive to reach the fulness of truth. 
 
 Every argument involves some assumptions ; 
 and I have pointed out distinctly what the Chris-
 
 Preface. xix 
 
 tian teacher assumes, and how far his assumptions 
 are justified by the manifold experience of life. 
 I have also ventured to use experience in confir- 
 mation of the Gospel which he proclaims. In 
 spite of the objections which are used against the 
 argument, I cannot but hold that human desire 
 includes potentially the promise of satisfaction. 
 The question is not, of course, of personal arbi- 
 trary or chance desires, but of those which 
 answer to our constitution, and which have found 
 the widest and most spontaneous expression. To 
 think otherwise is to condemn the whole course 
 of things as false. And if, as we assume, it 
 answers to the will of GOD, that cannot be. 
 
 In this respect we may justly lay stress on 
 the personal effort to grow better and on the 
 confident expectation of general progress, in spite 
 of numberless disappointments and delays. So 
 through this unconquerable persistence of effort, 
 failure becomes 'a triumph's evidence for the 
 ' fulness of the days.' 
 
 In other words we ' walk by faith ' in the face 
 of riddles which remain to the last unanswered. 
 Nor is there any ground for discontent at this 
 condition of life. It not unfrequently happens 
 that the clear perception that a difficulty is at 
 present irremovable suggests a reasonable hope 
 of fuller light hereafter. And though it may be
 
 xx Preface. 
 
 possible to put many questions aside, life is pro- 
 portionately impoverished if we do so. 
 
 If indeed we consider the nature of the con- 
 clusions which we form, it will appear that two 
 classes alone are for us absolutely valid ; the 
 deductions which are made from the fundamental 
 
 conceptions of succession and space, and the de- 
 ductions as to the operation of forces assumed to 
 be constant under conditions assumed to be per- 
 fectly known. As soon as we enter on the world 
 without and act, we enter on the unseen and the 
 unknown, and Faith is required to sustain and 
 extend thought. 
 
 But while this is so, there can be no opposi- 
 tion between Reason and Faith. If Reason is 
 the energy of the sum of man's highest powers 
 of his true self then Faith is the highest energy 
 of Reason. And it is most significant that the 
 popular antithesis of Reason and Faith finds no 
 place in Scripture. In Scripture the opposite to 
 Faith is Sight. 
 
 So it is that partial theories of life can be 
 formed which are logically unassailable. It is 
 
 [possible to maintain with the great Hindu philo- 
 sophers that there is but one existence and that 
 an existence purely spiritual, unchanged and 
 '- unchangeable, and that all else is a delusive 
 phantom. It is possible to maintain on the other
 
 Preface. xxi 
 
 hand, that all of which we can ever be cognisant 
 is purely material, subject to constant and in- 
 evitable change, and that all else is a mere 
 abstraction. Both positions are beyond successful 
 logical attack ; but both are hopelessly at vari- 
 ance with the universal instinct and conduct of 
 men. Men live as bound by their very nature to 
 recognise both the reality of the outer world on 
 the one hand, and their personal responsibility on 
 the other. Such is the ultimate issue to which 
 we are brought as living men; and Christianity 
 enters at once into the fulness of life, and deals & 
 with it as men have found it to be. 
 
 For no Christian doctrine is purely specula- 
 tive. No opinion as to facts of the world if 
 vitally apprehended can fail to influence con- 
 duct, least of all the message of the Gospel. The 
 Incarnation binds all action, all experience, all 
 creation to GOD ; and supplies at once the motive 
 and the power of service. 
 
 In this sense the final test of the truth and 
 the permanence of the Gospel is life, through the 
 power of good which the Gospel exercises in every 
 region of human thought and conduct perfectly 
 in itself, though the use of its resources is marred 
 by man's imperfection. We find in the lower in- 
 terests of life that the best results come from action 
 in conformity with the truth of things : are we to
 
 xxii Preface. 
 
 suppose that in the highest the law fails? and 
 that the best results come from the false ? 
 
 But it may be said that we have no right to 
 infer the truth of a doctrine from its utility : 
 that many beliefs have been morally useful which 
 certainly were not true. Yet here a distinction 
 must be made. They were effective because they 
 were not wholly false : they were effective in virtue 
 of the truth which they inadequately embodied. 
 And the absolute uniqueness of Christianity lies 
 ]i, L. in this that its capacity for good is universal and 
 in itself without alloy. It has been proved to avail 
 for all circumstances, for all races, for all times. 
 
 For Christianity offers in a real human life 
 the thoughts by which other religions live. 
 Nature herself does not give an answer to the 
 riddles which she proposes ; but the whole life of 
 men points to the answer which Christianity has 
 given. All earlier history leads up to the Incar- 
 nation : all later history has contributed to the 
 interpretation of it. The Divine destiny of Cre- 
 ation and the variety of outward things: the 
 conflict of good and evil : the responsibility of the 
 individual and the unity of the race : the incom- 
 prehensible majesty of GOD and His infinite love : 
 these truths, which found fragmentary expression 
 in prse-Christian religions, are set before us in the 
 Person and Work of the Lord, in His Birth and
 
 Preface. xxiii 
 
 Passion and Resurrection and Ascension, so that 
 all mysteries are brought together and reconciled 
 in one mystery. In the Lord Jesus Christ, One 
 Person, we see all things summed up, man, 
 humanity, creation, in the last issue of life, and 
 united to GOD. 
 
 Christianity is in life and through life. It is 
 not an abstract system but a vital power, active 
 through an organised body. It can never be said 
 that the interpretation of the Gospel is final. 
 For while it is absolute in its essence so that 
 nothing can be added to the revelation which it 
 includes, it is relative so far as the human appre- 
 hension of it at any time is concerned. The facts 
 are unchangeable but the interpretation of the 
 facts is progressive. Post-Christian history an- 
 swers to prae-Christian history. In the latter a 
 Divine Covenant led up little by little to a 
 Divine Presence in humility. That Divine Pre- 
 sence itself leads up through the manifold disci- 
 pline of the Church, so we believe, to a future 
 Divine Presence in glory. The Ascension was 
 the occasion of the promise of the Return. 
 
 There cannot be, I have said, any new revela- 
 tion. All that we can need or know lies in the 
 Incarnation. But the meaning of that revelation 
 which has been made once for all can itself be 
 revealed with greater completeness. In this
 
 xxiv Preface. 
 
 sense many signs seem to shew that we are 
 standing now on the verge of a great epoch of 
 revelation. But however this may be, let our 
 attitude at any rate be that of those who know 
 that every lesson of nature and of life must 
 illuminate the Truth which embraces the whole 
 fulness of existence. We dishonour our Faith by 
 anxious impatience and by jealous reservation. 
 We believe that GOD appointed Him heir of all 
 things through Whom He also made the world 
 the ages, time with all its contents (Hebr. i. 2). 
 St Paul says to us, as to the Corinthians vexed 
 and distracted by rival schools: All things are 
 yours : whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the 
 world or life or death or things present or things 
 to come ; all are yours ; and ye are Christ's ; and 
 Christ is GOD'S (1 Cor. iii. 22 f.). 
 
 B. F. D. 
 
 ROBIN HOOD'S BAY. 
 Sept. 13th, 1892.
 
 NOTICE TO SECOND EDITION. 
 
 edition is, with the exception of a few 
 verbal corrections, a reprint of the former 
 one. If other work had allowed me, I should 
 have been glad to develop some thoughts in the 
 essay more fully, but, even as they are presented, 
 they will, I believe, suggest the reflections which 
 I desired to convey, to all readers who are not (to 
 borrow a characteristic phrase of Bishop Butler's) 
 ' satisfied with seeing what is said, without going 
 'any farther.' The truths which we hold are 
 worth to us just what they cost us and no more. 
 
 B. F. D. 
 
 AUCKLAND CASTLE, 
 BISHOP AUCKLAND. 
 Jan. 22nd, 1895.
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE PROBLEMS OF LIFE. 
 
 A RELIGION can only be understood when it 
 is studied in relation to the facts, and the cir- 
 cumstances, and the experience, with which it 
 corresponds. This is true of all religions and in 
 the largest sense it is true of Christianity. Chris- 
 tianity, of which Christian Doctrine is the intel- 
 lectual expression, is, like every other religion, an 
 answer to questions which are necessarily sug- 
 gested by human life. It does not introduce fresh 
 mysteries into the world : it meets mysteries 
 which already exist. It has been however a 
 natural consequence of the fact that Christian 
 Doctrine in one form or other has permeated 
 Western civilisation and thought for many cen- 
 turies, that the mysteries which belong to exist- 
 ence, so far as it falls within our knowledge, 
 are commonly referred to the Christian view of 
 existence, as if they had no independent place 
 in human life. We first meet with them in 
 the presentation of the Christian Faith, and we 
 
 W. G. L. 1 
 
 y fa, V t*( I 
 
 v i
 
 2 Three final existences [CHAP. 
 
 conclude hastily that they belong to it in some 
 peculiar sense. In order therefore that we may 
 see clearly what Christian Doctrine really is, what 
 it brings that is novel either of darkness or of 
 light to the whole conception of being, we must 
 endeavour to gain some notion of the actual 
 circumstances in which we find ourselves, of the 
 problems which our condition inevitably proposes 
 to us, of the imperious impulses which drive us to 
 seek some solution of them, of the solutions which 
 have been formed independently during the prse- 
 Christian growth of humanity, before we can 
 rightly appreciate the characteristics of the 
 Christian solution. 
 
 I assume at the outset as a clear result of 
 personal and social experience, of the main teach- 
 ing of the life of the individual and of the life of 
 humanity, that as men we are so constituted as 
 to recognise three final existences which sum up 
 for us all being, self, the world, and GOD ; or, to 
 put the thought in another form, that we are so 
 constituted as to recognise in that which is with- 
 out us, ' the not ourselves,' something which cor- 
 responds in a certain sense to the 'body' and 
 ' soul ' which we recognise in our own being, a 
 'material' order and a force controlling it. 
 
 We become first conscious of the reality of
 
 i.] assumed. 3 
 
 these existences through experience, through life. 
 And it is through experience, which we are able 
 to interpret, that we discern more of their nature. 
 The process is necessarily slow. It is only by 
 degrees that we learn to interpret severally the 
 simplest impressions of sense, the position (for 
 example) and the movements of objects in space ; 
 and it is reasonable to expect that it will be 
 more difficult to gain a general interpretation of 
 the many phenomena which tend to give pre- 
 cision and completeness to the master thoughts 
 of our whole nature. 
 
 So in fact it has been and is both with the 
 individual and with the race. We have each of us 
 in the course of our own growth, and we can see 
 that the same is true of nations, shaped gradually 
 the conceptions of self, the world, and GOD, which 
 we now have. In this there has been nothing 
 arbitrary, nothing accidental. In the largest 
 sense we have taken ' living ' as our guide in the 
 process, so far as it has been consciously pursued. 
 In part however it has been accomplished silently, 
 'naturally,' as we say, by a kind of moral growth. 
 At the same time we start on our individual 
 course from different points in the line of the 
 great inquiry. The accumulated experience of 
 the past is to a certain extent the inheritance 
 of each succeeding generation, but this wealth of 
 
 12
 
 4 Self, [CHAP. 
 
 experience on which we now enter must be 
 vitally appropriated in order that it may become 
 effective. And it cannot be too often repeated 
 that neither knowledge nor feeling is an end for 
 man ; we seek to know more truly and to feel 
 more justly that we may fulfil our part in life 
 with more perfect service. 
 
 Questioning then my own experience, and in- 
 terpreting, so far as I am able, the life of others, 
 as it falls under my observation, I hold that the 
 assumption which I have made, that as men we 
 necessarily recognise these three existences, self, 
 the world, and GOD, is fully justified. The con- 
 viction rests ultimately on my personal conscious- 
 ness ; but, as far as I can see, my fellow-men act 
 under the influence of the ideas which I dis- 
 tinguish by these names. At the same time the 
 names are used with a wide range of meaning, 
 and it is necessary to mark somewhat more 
 exactly the sense in which I take them as ex- 
 pressing for man the final elements of being. 
 
 I am conscious of ' self.' I feel I know, that 
 is, immediately with the most certain assurance 
 which I can realise that I am something more 
 than a collection of present sensations or thoughts. 
 I feel that there is a past which is individually
 
 I.] the World, GOD. 5 
 
 my own, and that there will be a future, long or 
 short, which will be mine. I feel that there is 
 an inalienable continuity in a limited series of 
 experiences which belongs to me alone. And I 
 carry on the anticipation of this essential perma- 
 nence of the ' I ' beyond the region in which 
 experience can work. All around me act, as far 
 as I can judge, under the influence of the same 
 convictions. Looking without I observe that 
 men, to speak generally, are filled with anxiety 
 for their posthumous reputation; and that they 
 are scrupulously reverent of the dead. 
 
 I am conscious also of 'the world.' I feel, 
 that is, that there is outside me something finite 
 by which I am affected in various ways. I feel, 
 however difficult it may be for me to determine 
 the relation between my perceptions of things 
 and the things themselves, that my perceptions 
 are not originated, though they are conditioned 
 by my individual 'self.' I feel that my present 
 personal life is inconceivable without the full 
 recognition of the medium in which it is passed 
 and by which it is modified. 
 
 I am conscious in the third place of GOD. ^/ 
 It is not necessary for me to inquire here into 
 the origin of the conception. I feel that the
 
 6 The reality of these existences cannot [CHAP. 
 
 conception being present corresponds with what I 
 observe within and without. I feel, that is, that 
 beside the 'self and 'the world' in which the 
 'self moves, both of which are changeable and 
 transitory, there is That which is absolutely One 
 and Eternal. Each man is for himself the centre 
 of unity from moment to moment, but I feel that 
 this fleeting image of unity must answer to a 
 reality in which all being ' is and moves.' I feel 
 moreover that all that is noblest in men, all by 
 which they are capable of striving after the good 
 and the beautiful and the true, all by which 
 they are bound one to another, must find its 
 archetype in this One Eternal. 
 
 And yet more than this, when I look without, 
 I feel that the order which we regard gives rise 
 to ideas of purpose and progress which, being 
 what we are, we refer, under the imagery of our 
 own finite experience, to the action of a wise 
 Designer. And, last of all, the analogies of life 
 constrain us to think of Him as One who may 
 be loved and who Himself loves, while He is yet 
 dwelling in light unapproachable and robed in 
 awful majesty. I cannot think of Him as other 
 than Holy and Just, however feeble human words 
 may be to express what I dimly divine. 
 
 The consciousness of these three existences
 
 i.] be established by argument. 7 
 
 quickened, intensified, extended, by personal and 
 social experience underlies, I believe, in some 
 degree all human thought. The consciousness 
 may be, and in many cases is, imperfectly de- 
 fined, but it belongs to the nature of man; and 
 perhaps it offers the truest characterisation of 
 man. The final conclusion which we reach in 
 regard to the belief to which it witnesses more 
 or less clearly is that we are so made as to live 
 under its influence so far as it is defined. If 
 an objector refuses to acknowledge the reality of 
 any one of the three existences thus presented to 
 us, he occupies a position proof against all argu- 
 ment. A man may doubt the ' truth ' of his own 
 sensations and of his own consciousness for the 
 moment or even permanently. If he does so, 
 and so far as he does so, he is secure against all 
 assaults of reasoning. But his opinions can be 
 brought to a practical test. If, for example, a 
 man apparently in the full possession of his 
 senses persistently says that he cannot see, and 
 that in fact he does not see, it is enough to 
 notice whether he acts as if he saw : whether his 
 steps are guided and his judgments formed 
 exactly as if he enjoyed the fulness of vision ; or 
 whether he actually suffers the disadvantages of 
 blindness. In the first case, we shall feel that 
 there must be some misunderstanding between
 
 8 Each existence brings [CHAP. 
 
 us as to the nature of vision : in the second case 
 that, in spite of appearances, the man is defective 
 in that which belongs to normal humanity. 
 
 We must apply the same test to those who 
 make corresponding statements in regard to the 
 fundamental facts of morals and religion. If a 
 man maintains that he and his fellow-men are 
 automata and still dispenses praise and blame, 
 strives to discipline and cultivate his own powers, 
 watches carefully over the education of his 
 children: I must conclude that in spite of his 
 words he really believes that man is ' free/ that is, 
 individually responsible, no less than I do, though 
 he does not express his belief in the same 
 language. Or again if he holds the permanence 
 of law, and holds also that there is on the whole a 
 progress in the world and in humanity towards 
 a higher and nobler type of being and living, and 
 consciously and confidently accepts his part in 
 furthering it : then even if he says that GOD is 
 beyond human knowledge, I cannot but see that 
 he has acknowledged what I hold to be of the 
 essence of the idea of GOD. And so it is that 
 many who theoretically affirm that they are 
 automata, or that the world exists only in the 
 mind of man, or that there is no GOD, yet 
 shew in action that they have a more practical 
 belief in personal responsibility, in Nature, and
 
 I.] its own difficulties. 9 
 
 in GOD than some who do not pause to question 
 the common Creed. Here as elsewhere we are 
 taught to know men as they really are not by 
 words but by experience. 
 
 We find ourselves then face to face with 
 these ultimate elements of being and thought ; 
 and as soon as we begin to reflect upon any one 
 of them, as soon as we begin to act, we are beset 
 by speculative difficulties and contradictions. 
 Each existence, as we have come to apprehend it, 
 brings its own difficulties with it; and the diffi- 
 culties of each taken by themselves are final, 
 inexplicable. Whether we admit 'self alone to 
 be the one ultimate existence which we know, 
 or recognise self and the world, or self and the 
 world and GOD, we must bear with what patience 
 or faith we can mysteries which are like in kind 
 though they may differ in number. These mys- 
 teries furnish the problems with which religions 
 deal, problems which we have now to endeavour 
 to apprehend, problems which, as I believe, Chris- 
 tianity solves so far as a solution is possible, 
 though it does not alone or primarily propose 
 them. 
 
 i. We will take the idea of 'self first. We 
 have no sooner named the word than we are
 
 10 Difficulties of Self: [CHAP. 
 
 confronted with an overwhelming mystery. What 
 can we say as to the origin of 'self ? How can 
 we adjust in thought the relation of the child to 
 the line from which he springs ? How much do 
 we derive directly from our parents, and where or 
 from what source is that communicated which 
 gives to us our individuality ? We may say, and 
 say with justice, that ' the dead rule the living,' 
 but what are the limits of their dominion ? The 
 most absolute tyrant finds bounds set to his power 
 somewhere. And the idea of 'self involves 
 separation, personality, something which is ours 
 only. How do we obtain and justify that con- 
 ception of ' our own ' ? 
 
 We go a step further. The germ of 'self 
 is given, and we watch the progress of its de- 
 velopment. The growth of this personality is 
 up to a certain point like the growth of a plant. 
 The product of any particular seed is fixed within 
 the limits of a type, while within these limits 
 there is room for the widest variation in health, 
 and vigour, and shape, and colour, and beauty, 
 and fruitfulness, from the action of external 
 influences which we can trace and measure. So 
 it is, up to a certain point, with a man. His type 
 of character is fixed at his birth : and at the same 
 time there is the possibility of endless differences
 
 I.] Origin, Growth, Dependence. 11 
 
 in the particular realisation of the type from the 
 conditions of the environment under which it 
 takes outward shape. It would be easy to 
 multiply illustrations. No one who has looked 
 patiently and reverently upon life will be in- 
 clined to underrate the influences upon a man's 
 nature which are wholly beyond his control, 
 influences of country and class and parentage 
 and education and material circumstances. It is 
 of momentous consequence for the final character 
 of any one whether he be one of many or an only 
 child in his first home ; whether he belong to a 
 class accustomed to rule, or to a class accustomed 
 to labour or to serve ; whether he be a Latin or a 
 Celt or a Teuton ; whether he be born in the 9th 
 or the 19th century. We hardly realise how even 
 a lifeless machine or a mere intellectual concep- 
 tion can stir human life to its inmost depths, 
 so that a discovery made at a particular time 
 separates by an ineffaceable partition those who 
 came before from those who come after. The 
 steam-engine, for example, not only increased 
 enormously the power of material transforma- 
 tions, but it has also modified irrevocably the 
 conditions of labour, that is, it has modified the 
 conditions of the social discipline of men. Or, 
 to take an illustration of the other class, the 
 Copernican system has changed the whole aspect
 
 12 Influence of intellectual conceptions. [CHAP. 
 
 of the universe for man, and with this the whole 
 influence which it exercises upon his character. 
 It has given the earth a new position in relation 
 to the stellar system which later investigations are 
 slowly enabling us to interpret. And the lesson 
 is one which we shall do well to take to heart. 
 For, if for a time it appeared that we had lost 
 something by the removal of our globe from its 
 central place, we are now beginning to see that the 
 final effect of the changed view is to ennoble our 
 conception alike of the world and of man's place 
 in it ; to lead us to abandon a physical standard 
 in our estimate of things ; to perceive a harmony 
 between the conditions of being realised in space 
 and the conditions of being realised in time; 
 for there is nothing irrational in supposing that 
 the earth occupies towards the material universe 
 a position corresponding to that which man 
 occupies with regard to the multitudinous forms 
 of life, which, as we observe them in geological 
 records, converge towards him as their crown. 
 The earth, that is, is brought back again to be 
 a true centre in a deeper sense than that of 
 local position. And no one probably will now 
 deny that the heliocentric view of our system, 
 passing, as it necessarily does, into some dim 
 conception of a still vaster order, when it is thus 
 considered, is more religious and, in the fullest
 
 I.] Independence. 13 
 
 sense, more Scriptural than the geocentric view 
 which it displaced. 
 
 By this signal illustration we can see how the 
 interpretation of the same conception, as well as 
 the introduction of a new conception, may pro- 
 foundly influence the commonest and the highest 
 thoughts of man. The same law holds good even 
 where at present we are less able to trace its 
 working, as in theories of creation and develop- 
 ment, of law, and the like. Man, in a word, is 
 dependent on that which lies outside himself 
 socially, materially, intellectually ; and the results 
 of this dependence reach to every part of his 
 being. He is dependent on the past, from which 
 he draws his inheritance of manifold wealth for ' 
 thought and action. He is dependent on the 
 present, in which he finds the scene, the materials, 
 and the conditions of his activity. He is depen- 
 dent even on the future, in which he finds through 
 hope the inspiration and support of effort which 
 cannot bring a return within the limits of his 
 hour of work. 
 
 Man is dependent : this is one side of the 
 Truth. But his circumstances are the materials 
 out of which he has to build his life with an in- 
 determinate personal power. He is conscious of 
 responsibility; this consciousness is indeed the
 
 14 Freedom. [CHAP. 
 
 essence of the idea of ' self.' Man, to state the 
 case shortly, ' depends upon the circumstances to 
 'which he owes his origin and under which he 
 'lives, but, in the fulness of his nature, he does 
 'not result from them.' He acknowledges that 
 he is responsible : there is the witness to the fact 
 of essential freedom; he acknowledges that he 
 fails : there is the witness to the imperfection of 
 freedom. 
 
 It is not possible here to enter in any detail 
 into the discussion of the nature of ' freedom,' but 
 it is of the utmost importance that we should 
 avoid one prevalent error about it. We must, 
 that is, carefully distinguish freedom from the 
 simple power of doing any thing under any 
 circumstances. Such a power would be potential 
 slavery. Freedom is the power to effect the one 
 right thing which presents the perfect harmony 
 of the agent and the circumstances. Freedom is 
 positive and not neutral. It is the ability to 
 fulfil the law of our being without let or hin- 
 drance, to do what we ought to do; and this 
 presupposes for its perfection and permanence the 
 absolute inability to do what is contrary to our 
 proper nature. Thus there are two distinct ele- 
 ments in freedom, self-determination and right 
 determination. Our consciousness tells us that 
 we have freedom in the sense of self-determina-
 
 I.] Complexity of man. 15 
 
 tion, but that disturbing influences interfere with 
 the fitness of our choice. For man in his essential 
 nature, no less than in his actual condition, per^ 
 feet freedom is the result of discipline through 
 which right action becomes habitual and finally 
 assured. In the last and highest form man's 
 freedom is the conscious acceptance of that which 
 he knows to be the will of Goo 1 . 
 
 The conflict between our dependence and 
 our freedom is felt in all its intensity when we 
 look within. Self is one and one indivisibly ; and 
 yet popular language which expresses the common 
 experience of men and our own personal expe- 
 rience constrains us to distinguish elements, so 
 to speak, in this unity. We say popularly, to 
 use the broadest division, that we are made up of 
 ' mind ' (soul) and ' matter ' (body). Nothing, at 
 
 1 Compare Aug. in Ps. cxv., 6. Omnis creatura subdita 
 Creatori est, et verissimo Domino verissimum debet famula- 
 tum, quern cum exhibet libera est, hanc accipiens a Domino 
 gratiam ut ei non necessitate sed voluntate deserviat. 
 
 Ep. CLVII. (col. 89), 7 f. Desinant ergo sic insanire, et ad 
 hoc se intelligant habere quantum possunt liberum arbitrium, 
 non ut superba voluntate respuant adjutorium sed ut pia 
 voluntate invocent Dominum. Hsec enim voluntas libera 
 tanto erit liberior quanto sanior: tanto autem sanior quanto 
 divinse misericordiae gratiasque subjectior. 
 
 Cypr. ad Don. c. 4. Dei est inquam, Dei est omne quod 
 possumus : inde vivimus, inde pollemus...
 
 16 Failure. [CHAP. 
 
 first seems easier than to distinguish them 
 sharply: and so it is that we all are inclined to 
 set them apart in actual existence. But if we 
 proceed far with the exact definition of the 
 difference we shall be met by difficulties analo- 
 gous to those which occur in fixing the limits of 
 'life' and of the different types of life. These 
 difficulties may and we must be prepared for 
 the result prove to be insurmountable. The last 
 word of Truth on the subject may be, and every 
 word of Truth is precious to the Christian, that 
 for man mind and matter are both abstractions 
 and not independent realities. 
 
 But however little we may be able to define 
 the limits or explain the mutual action of mind 
 and matter, of body, soul, and spirit in the fuller 
 division of Scripture, we are conscious of rival 
 impulses which stir us. Our being does not move 
 as one harmonious whole. Just as we strive to 
 overcome obstacles without, we find ourselves 
 striving to overcome obstacles within. In both 
 cases alike we feel the effort : we know that it 
 costs us something : we acknowledge that we are 
 answerable for making or neglecting to make it. 
 Our whole life is spent in aiming at something 
 which we cannot reach, but no ill success absolves 
 us from the necessity of further labour. There is 
 in those whom common consent allows to be men
 
 I.] Sternness of Nature. 17 
 
 of the noblest type, an unending endeavour to 
 attain to higher knowledge and purer virtue. But 
 as far as our eyes can reach, or the experience of 
 others can enlighten us, the best and saintliest 
 fall far short to the last of what they believe to 
 have been within their power. There is some- 
 thing in us ' a baseness in the blood ' different 
 from weakness : an evil, a perversion in our nature. 
 There is an actual shadow over life. 
 
 This sense of present personal failure is sharp- 
 ened by the inexorable sternness of 'Nature.' 
 ' Nature ' appears to be wholly regardless of the 
 individual. There may be mercy elsewhere, but 
 physical laws shew none, and offer no promise 
 that it will be found. Another rule may hold 
 good in another order, but these, as every day ( 
 teaches us with appalling emphasis, visit the sins 
 of fathers upon the children unto the third and 
 fourth generation, and claim from him who vio- 
 lates them the last farthing of the penalty. For 
 man, so far as he has and transmits a material 
 nature, there is no release from inevitable con- 
 sequences. Yet here again a mystery, the old 
 mystery of Prometheus, opens before us. Man 
 feels his powerlessness in the face of physical 
 forces, and yet he feels that he is greater than 
 they. They go on and he vanishes away, but 
 
 W. G. L. 2
 
 18 The Future. [CHAP. 
 
 his fellows after him undismayed reassert their 
 preeminence. 
 
 We carry our thoughts yet further. It is 
 true that a beginning seems to our reason to 
 imply an end, but we refuse to accept the conse- 
 quence. It is true that death closes what we can 
 see of life, but we cannot admit that it closes life. 
 The conviction that ' we ' shall survive that last 
 change remains unshaken when every argument 
 by which the conviction is supported gives way. 
 The contrast, the antagonism, between what we 
 can see and what we feel, our attainments and 
 our powers, which follows us all through our 
 present existence becomes most marked at the 
 end. 
 
 The mystery of birth is consummated in the 
 mystery of death. And, what is most amazing, 
 we cling to our belief in a life to come, while yet, 
 as far as we can see, Nature offers no hope 
 of forgiveness. The terrible law, embodied by 
 ^Eschylus, according to which evil acts propagate 
 in endless succession a progeny like themselves, 
 seems to sum up what we can learn by experience 
 of the retribution of evil doing. No repentance 
 on earth can undo the past. We cannot unmake 
 ourselves. And further than this, and yet more 
 appalling, no personal repentance or amendment
 
 L] These Mysteries are Facts. 19 
 
 can, as far as we see, undo the evil of which we 
 have been the occasion to others. Of all visions 
 none can be more terrible than that of the man 
 who looks towards a future state in which shall be 
 realised the full and due results of this life in the 
 way of natural sequence. For if we regard the 
 whole matter from the side of reason we shall see 
 that the greatest mystery of the life to come is 
 not the prospect of unending retribution, but the 
 possibility of blotting out the consequences of sin. 
 
 Now these mysteries of ' self are facts. Every 
 one knows that they are real apart from all 
 religious belief whatever. Our origin, our growth, 
 our independence and freedom, our constitution, 
 our personal dignity, our destiny, offer problems 
 which we cannot refuse to consider except at the 
 cost of abdicating our loftiest privileges. Chris- 
 tianity did not introduce these problems into life ; 
 it did not even first reveal them. They are and 
 they always will be while time is. Christianity is 
 addressed to man and to humanity as living in 
 the face of them. And as we come to see them 
 more plainly we shall come to know better what 
 Christianity is, for Christianity, as we shall see 
 hereafter, enables us to contemplate them with 
 certain hope. 
 
 22
 
 20 The mysteries of the World. [CHAP. 
 
 ii. From 'self we turn to 'the world.' This 
 sphere of being also is beset by mysteries which 
 are commonly unobserved from the fact that the 
 surface of things offers enough to occupy and 
 distract our attention. 
 
 We are, as we have seen, forced to believe 
 that there is an external world: yet how little 
 do we reflect that there is here any room for faith 
 where knowledge may seem to be immediate. 
 But no one who does pause to reflect can fail to 
 discern that no mystery can be greater than that 
 which is involved in the passage from the per- 
 ceptions of things which belong to us alone to 
 the things themselves outside us. All that we 
 can say is that just as we are constituted to believe 
 in the continuity of our own existence, so are we 
 constituted to believe in the reality of an out- 
 ward world corresponding to our perceptions. 
 We do not attempt to distinguish in any par- 
 ticular case the elements in the whole impression 
 which belong respectively to that which produces 
 the impression and to that which is conscious 
 of it. We have, so to speak, a single equation 
 and two unknown quantities. So it is generally, 
 and so it is also with regard to the several 
 impressions, which we receive in detail in con- 
 nexion with special conditions. We do not know 
 enough either of ourselves or of that which is
 
 I.] Relation of perceptions to things. 21 
 
 not ourselves to enable us to assign to that 
 which is without and that which is within their 
 shares in the whole result. But it is no less a 
 duty to acknowledge that the simplest of human 
 experiences, the perception of a green leaf or 
 of the blue sky, involves mysteries. 
 
 How, for example, can we form any notion of 
 the world as it was before the existence of man ? 
 We cannot suppose that it existed only in relation 
 to a being not yet formed. We cannot say that 
 things are always perceived by GOD as man 
 perceives them and so exist. Evidently we are 
 met by an insoluble problem ; and it is well that 
 we should feel that the problem lies before us 
 and that it is insoluble. It is at least a sign of 
 the limitation of our powers in a direction where 
 we can conceive that knowledge is possible through 
 other faculties than those which we possess. 
 
 Here then is our primal difficulty. We have 
 acknowledged it: our way is still beset by 
 another. There is the mystery of a beginning, 
 which may be taken as the type of all mysteries 
 of finiteness. It is as impossible to conceive by a 
 mere effort of thought that the world had a 
 beginning as it is to conceive that it had not a 
 beginning. We might therefore be inclined to 
 reckon this question like the last as one wholly
 
 22 The idea of a beginning. [CHAP. 
 
 insoluble by reason. But light here comes from 
 an unexpected quarter; and larger experience 
 points to a distinct decision as far as the present 
 order is concerned. If we pursue the interpreta- 
 tion of phenomena sufficiently far, we are forced 
 to conclude that the present order has existed 
 only for a finite time, or in other words that the 
 present order cannot be explained on the supposi- 
 tion of the continuous action of forces which we 
 can now observe, acting according to the laws 
 which represent to us what we can observe of the 
 characteristics of their action. 
 
 This conclusion that the world, as we know 
 it, has existed only for a measurable time is 
 one of the latest and perhaps most unlocked for 
 results of physical research. The general law 
 from which it follows is known as that of 'the 
 dissipation of energy.' This principle is the corre- 
 lative of the law of the conservation of energy 
 which is ' the most complete expression hitherto 
 'obtained of the belief that all the changes of 
 ' phenomena are but different distributions of the 
 ' same stock of energy, the total quantity of which 
 'remains invariable. This energy is conserved 
 'but it may be dissipated. It is indestructible 
 ' but it may cease to be available, when it cannot
 
 i.] Dissipation of energy. 23 
 
 ' be made to do visible work.' 1 This work may be, 
 under the conditions of our system, reduced to three 
 kinds : the production of visible motion ; the com- 
 munication of heat from a hotter to a colder body ; 
 the transference of pressure in a system of 
 constant volume from parts under great pressure 
 to parts where the pressure is less. Now in each 
 of these cases the doing of work is accompanied 
 by a diminution of available energy. If, for 
 example, visible motion is produced a certain 
 amount of energy is lost by friction ; or, in another 
 aspect of the same case, if heat is transformed into 
 motion, a part of the heat is forthwith diffused, 
 and, when so diffused, it cannot afterwards be 
 made effective to produce action. This diffusion 
 therefore and generally this diminution of avail- 
 able energy can only have been continued for a 
 limited time, for otherwise the end of a dead 
 equilibrium would have been already reached. 
 
 ' We have,' in other words, ' an irreversible 
 ' process always going on, at a greater or less rate, 
 'in the universe. If therefore there was ever 
 'an instant at which the whole energy of the 
 ' universe was available energy, that instant must 
 ' have been the very first instant at which the uni- 
 ' verse began to exist. If there ever shall come a 
 ' time at which the whole energy of the universe 
 1 Prof. Clerk Maxwell, in Nature, ix. pp. 198 ff.
 
 24 Formulce for [CHAP. 
 
 'has become unavailable, the history of the uni- 
 ' verse will then have reached its close. During 
 ' the whole intervening period the available energy 
 'has been diminishing and the unavailable in- 
 ' creasing by a process as irresistible and as irre- 
 'versible as Time itself. The duration of the 
 'universe according to the present order of 
 ' things is therefore essentially finite both a parte 
 1 ante and a parte post.' 1 
 
 In other words the assumed permanence of 
 the existing laws of matter involves the conse- 
 quence that the universe had a beginning within 
 a measurable time ; and if it be said that we have 
 no right to assume the uniform action in the past 
 of the laws which hold good now, that is to con- 
 cede at once what is for us equivalent to a 
 creative act. 
 
 The general law, which points to a his- 
 torical beginning of the present order, finds 
 expression in a particular case which is of great 
 interest. The formulae which represent the ob- 
 served laws of the conduction of heat force us to 
 take account at some point in the past of a 
 creative act, that is of a discontinuity in the 
 present order of phenomena. According to these 
 formulas it is possible to foresee the thermal 
 1 Prof. Clerk Maxwell, in Nature, ix. p. 200.
 
 I.] conduction of heat. 25 
 
 condition of any number of bodies at any future 
 time so long as thermal action only takes place 
 between them. If we go back, the same process 
 may be reversed for a certain distance and the 
 condition of the bodies may be referred to an 
 earlier and continuous action of the same kind. 
 But at last a limit is reached at which the 
 condition of the bodies can no longer be explained 
 in the same way. At this point then some change 
 must have taken place in the relation of the 
 bodies which marked essentially a fresh beginning. 
 
 Again I will use the words of a master to 
 describe the fact : 
 
 'The irreversible character of this process 
 ' [the dissipation of energy] is strikingly embodied 
 'in Fourier's theory of the conduction of heat, 
 ' where the formula themselves indicate a possi- 
 'ble solution of all positive values of the time 
 ' which continually tends to a uniform diffusion of 
 ' heat. But if we attempt to ascend the stream 
 'of time by giving to its symbol continually 
 ' diminishing values, we are led up to a state of 
 ' things in which the formula has what is called a 
 ' critical value ; and if we inquire into the state of 
 'things the instant before, we find that the 
 'formula becomes absurd. We thus arrive at 
 ' the conception of a state of things which cannot 
 ' be conceived as the physical result of a previous
 
 26 The character [CHAP. 
 
 'state of things, and we find that this critical 
 ' condition actually existed at an epoch not in the 
 ' utmost depths of a past eternity but separated 
 ' from the present time by a finite interval.' 1 
 
 Thus the principle of the dissipation of 
 energy suggests distinctly both a beginning and 
 an end of the present order. It suggests also 
 some creative action, so far at least as to make it 
 clear that the laws which we can trace now will 
 not allow us to suppose that the order which 
 they express has existed for ever. Physicists 
 have gone yet farther. If matter is pursued 
 to its ultimate form, we find at last, according 
 to the most competent judgment, molecules in- 
 capable of subdivision without change of sub- 
 stance, which are absolutely similar for each 
 substance. A molecule of hydrogen, for example, 
 has exactly the same weight, the same period of 
 vibration, the same properties in every respect, 
 whether it be found in the Earth or in the Sun 
 or in Sinus. The relations of the parts and 
 movements of the planetary systems may and do 
 change, but these molecules 'the foundation 
 stones of the material universe remain unbroken 
 and unworn.' 'No theory of evolution can be 
 
 1 Clerk Maxwell, Address at Brit. Assoc., Liverpool, Sept. 
 1870. (Nature, n. pp. 421 f.)
 
 i.] of molecules. 27 
 
 'formed to account for the similarity of mole- 
 ' cules, for evolution necessarily implies continuous 
 ' change, and the molecule is incapable of growth 
 ' or decay, of generation or destruction. None of 
 'the processes of Nature, since the time when 
 ' Nature began, have produced the slightest dif- 
 'ference in the properties of any molecule. We 
 'are therefore unable to ascribe either the exist- 
 'ence of the molecules or the identity of their 
 ' properties to the operation of any of the causes 
 
 'which we call natural The exact quality of 
 
 'each molecule... precludes the idea of its being 
 ' eternal and self-existent.' 1 We cannot, in other 
 words, represent to ourselves the ground of this 
 final and immutable similarity in any other way 
 than as a result of a definite creative will. 
 
 So much at least is clear, that the mystery of 
 creation is not introduced by religion. It is 
 forced upon us by the world itself, if we look 
 steadily upon the world. And no mystery can 
 be greater than this inevitable mystery. 
 
 Again : if we turn from the conception of be- 
 coming to that of being, from creation to orderly 
 existence, we find ourselves confronted with- new 
 
 1 Nature, vm. p. 441. (Molecules, a Lecture delivered at 
 Bradford, 1873, by J. Clerk Maxwell. Compare Introductory 
 Lecture on Experimental Physics, pp. 21 ff.)
 
 28 Conception of Law. [CHAP. 
 
 difficulties. The idea of law as applied to the suc- 
 cession of external phenomena rests simply upon 
 faith. We extend to the world, with necessary 
 modifications, the idea of persistence which under- 
 lies the consciousness of 'self.' The conception 
 of uniform repetition, of the permanence of that 
 which is, is supplied by us from within to the 
 results of observation. We are so constituted as 
 to conclude with more or less confidence from a 
 certain number of uninterrupted repetitions, that 
 the series will continue. We are so constituted 
 as to extend this form of conclusion boldly even 
 where the result depends upon the combination 
 of many conditions which may severally fail of 
 fulfilment. And in affirming that the succession 
 in any case will be uniform, we do not simply 
 affirm that the same antecedents will produce 
 the same consequents the opposite of which is 
 inconceivable but, which is a very different 
 thing, that like antecedents will produce like 
 consequents, and that in any particular case, we 
 know all the antecedents, and know them fully, 
 of which we cannot possibly be sure. Absolute 
 accuracy in concrete things is unattainable. In 
 the present order of things no antecedent can 
 be the same in two cases. Nothing can actually 
 recur. Every phenomenon is in its completeness 
 unique. We may indeed be sure that if the
 
 I.] Laws of Nature based on assumption. 29 
 
 force of gravitation continues to act ten days 
 hence as it has acted during all past experience, 
 and if our formulae express adequately all the 
 conditions of its action, and if no other force, 
 acting, it may be, periodically, shall interfere, 
 then the sun will rise at the time to which we 
 look forward. But each one of these suppositions 
 is justified by belief and not by knowledge. The 
 belief becomes confirmed day by day as that 
 which was future becomes past. But the past 
 in itself can give us no knowledge of the future. 
 With regard to that we can to the end only 
 have a belief; so that Faith lies at the basis of 
 our confidence in natural law. 
 
 As we reflect, difficulties still thicken round 
 us. What we call 'a law' describes in its sim- 
 plest form the general relation of phenomena 
 so far as we have observed them. Practically, 
 from the very nature of the case, we are able only 
 to see a little, and that little for a little time; 
 but for purposes of reasoning we assume that 
 what we observe will be permanent, and inasmuch 
 as the conditions and the field of our observation 
 do not vary greatly, experience may justify the 
 assumption as far as it goes, though still the 
 assumption may be false; just as it is easy to 
 imagine a circle so large that a small arc might
 
 30 Signs of harmony in Nature [CHAP. 
 
 not be distinguishable from a straight line by 
 any measurements which we could "make. And 
 further if we are at liberty to assume that what 
 we call ' laws ' are uniform for us and for the whole 
 range of our possible experience, still they finally 
 explain nothing. A ' law ' has no virtue to shew 
 its own constitution or beginning. A law can 
 reveal nothing of the absolute nature of that 
 which works according to it. So far from doing 
 this, laws constrain us to ask more importunately, 
 as we grow more sensible of their simplicity, how 
 we can conceive of their origin ? how we can 
 conceive of that however we call it which they 
 present to us in action ? A law does not dispense 
 with these questions but sharpens and reiterates 
 them. If we follow out intently the movements 
 of bodies and their vital transformations we shall 
 look more intently than other men to that which 
 binds phenomena together and guides present 
 human life. 
 
 The idea of law leads directly to that of 
 harmony. And at all times men have been 
 profoundly impressed by the signs of a magni- 
 ficent unity in the world. They have seemed 
 to themselves to see these in every wide view of 
 the material universe and of the general course 
 and conditions of life. From age to age, as
 
 I.] and present conflict. 31 
 
 knowledge has widened, it has appeared to great 
 teachers to be more and more clear that there has 
 been a progress in the physical world and in the 
 moral world. The rapidity and confidence, for 
 example, with which the theory of 'development' 
 has been welcomed within our own time, a theory 
 which has found acceptance out of all proportion 
 to the direct value of the evidence by which it is 
 supported, witness to the power of this tendency 
 in man's interpretation of the phenomena of life. 
 We do not at present inquire whether these signs 
 of progress find their fulfilment. It is enough 
 that they should commonly be held to be legible. 
 The mystery of an end, far-off as it may be, 
 towards which the universe is moving, crowns 
 the mystery of creation and the mystery of law. 
 
 But side by side with the signs of an under- 
 lying or unattained unity in the world, out of 
 which it appears to rise or towards which it 
 appears to move, when it is regarded in its broad 
 extent, there are also countless losses, interrup- 
 tions, conflicts in the visible condition of things. 
 To one observer the present spectacle of the races 
 of men becomes a vision of despair, to another a 
 preparation for a natural millennium. But whether 
 our eyes are fixed on the present or on the future 
 the actual discord is often enough to banish the
 
 32 The 'pathetic fallacy.' [CHAP. 
 
 thought of the promised harmony. It is not 
 necessary to discuss in detail the character of 
 these conflicting indications of truth and false- 
 hood, of beauty and ugliness, goodness and cruelty, 
 or how far the failure or sacrifice of fragments 
 may be made to subserve to the well-being 
 of the whole. Storms, earthquakes, eruptions on 
 the one side, wars and passions on the other, pro- 
 claim the broad lesson of suffering and imperfection 
 in the world, so far as our observation reaches, 
 with alarming vividness. The very fact that 
 some speculators in all ages have affirmed that 
 the only adequate explanation of the origin of the 
 present state of things is to be found in the 
 antagonism of two rival powers wrought out on 
 earth, is sufficient to shew the reality of this 
 struggle between good and evil. However we 
 may account for the beginning or for the con- 
 tinuance of it, the struggle is going on. This 
 mystery again is one from which there is no 
 escape. 
 
 The struggle is going on without us and 
 within us, in the world and in ourselves, and we 
 partake in the whole struggle. This consideration 
 brings into light a new mystery. That which has 
 been called 'the pathetic fallacy' reveals, as I 
 believe, one of the profoundest truths of being.
 
 I.] Progress. 33 
 
 There is a life running through all creation in 
 which we share. We severally think with a mind 
 which is more or less in harmony with a universal 
 mind. It is more than a mere metaphor to say 
 that we have sympathy with Nature and Nature 
 with us. And if we are startled to find that the 
 action of the rnind is connected with certain defi- 
 nite changes of matter as physiologists have esta- 
 blished, we must remember that the reasonable 
 conclusion from this fact is not that the mind is 
 material, in the sense of being corruptible and 
 transitory, but that matter is spiritual. For it 
 shews that the one force exerted through matter 
 of which we are conscious is such. 
 
 And what must be said of the future ? 
 What indications are there of the issue of this 
 conflict which reaches through all being and all 
 life ? Must we suppose that things move on in a 
 uniform course ? or that they revolve in cycles ? 
 There is at least no ground in the being of things 
 themselves to expect a progress, an advance from 
 good to better, in nature or in history. The 
 ' survival of the fittest ' through conflict, in respect 
 of the conditions of present physical existence, by 
 no means assures us of the survival of the fittest 
 absolutely, in respect of the highest capacities of 
 human nature. If we find that we cling to the 
 W. G. L. 3
 
 34 The idea of GOD. [CHAP. 
 
 belief that the world does so advance, then this 
 persistency of faith can only be due to the con- 
 viction that there is a true moral government 
 of the universe : that the evil is something which 
 does not belong to the essence of creation and is 
 therefore separable from it : that the contest here 
 is not a war between rival powers, but a rebellion 
 of a subject against his lord. 
 
 iii. In this way the world adds its mys- 
 teries to the sum of the dark problems of life, 
 the mysteries of man's perception of the world, 
 of creation, of law, of that which acts by law, 
 of conflict, of unity, of sympathy, of progress. 
 They lie before us, whether we regard them or 
 not ; and consciously or unconsciously we all deal 
 with them. Nor is this all. They lead us up at 
 last to other mysteries, the last mysteries of being 
 on which I propose to touch, the mysteries which 
 are involved in the idea of GOD. This idea is, I 
 have assumed, natural to man, and necessarily 
 called out into some form of distinctness just as 
 the other ideas of 'self and 'the world.' But 
 difficulties begin as soon as we attempt to set 
 our thoughts upon it in order. 
 
 If we try to establish by argument the 
 existence of a Being Whom we may reverence
 
 i.] No 'proof of the existence of GOD. 35 
 
 and love, our intellectual proofs break down. 
 The ' proofs ' which are derived from the supposed 
 necessity that something must remain fixed in the 
 midst of change, or that a real being must corre- 
 spond to the highest thought of man, if they are 
 pressed to their last consequences, issue in pan- 
 theism. The 'proofs' again which are derived 
 from the observation of design, of the adaptation I 
 of means to an end, or from the dictates of 
 conscience, make man and man's ways of thinking 
 measures of all being in a manner which cannot 
 be justified. Nor would they lead to an adequate 
 conclusion. The Being to which they guide us is 
 less than the Being for Whom we look and in 
 Whom we trust. Such arguments are fitted to 
 bring into greater distinctness that knowledge 
 ojMjrOD, which man is born to pursue, to quicken 
 and to illustrate his search for it, to shew the 
 correspondence of the higher idea of GOD which 
 he shapes with the suggestions and signs of nature 
 and action and thought. But they have no final 
 or absolute validity. We can know that only 
 which falls within the range of our minds. 
 
 We abandon then, it may be, all attempts 
 to prove by reason what we find to be true in 
 experience, and simply strive to give reality to 
 the idea which we have. As we do so, we are at 
 
 32
 
 36 The Personality of GOD. Prayer. [CHAP. 
 
 once baffled by the conception of the ' personality' 
 of GOD. For us ' personality ' is expressed by and 
 is the expression of limitation. How can we 
 extend this notion to an Infinite Being? and, if 
 this is impossible, how then can we supply in any 
 other way that which shall give to the idea the 
 definiteness which we long for ? 
 
 Or we may approach the difficulty from an- 
 other side. Just as ' personality ' corresponds 
 with our human notion of the Being of GOD ; so 
 prayer corresponds with our notion of the action 
 of GOD. Prayer is a universal instinct. But when 
 we come to analyse what we suppose to be the 
 action of prayer addressed to GOD, it seems to 
 involve the movement of the infinite by the finite. 
 The instinct remains but we cannot reconcile the 
 contradiction which it brings out. It represents 
 to us in the most impressive shape the mystery 
 which lies in the coexistence of the finite and the 
 infinite. 
 
 The question of prayer carries us on to con- 
 sider the relation of GOD not only to ourselves but 
 also to the world. Does the observed uniformity 
 of law embody the present will of GOD acting so 
 to speak from moment to moment ? or must we 
 suppose that 'all creation was one act at once,'
 
 I.] The relation of GOD to phenomena. 37 
 
 and that the succession of phenomena in our 
 experience is a consequence of the weakness of 
 our powers as we decipher the Divine thought ? 
 The mere effort to ponder the questions is 
 sufficient to shew the irrelevance of much of the 
 popular reasoning about ' miracles. ' The ' law ' 
 under which we arrange our observations has no 
 independent force. Ordinary and exceptional 
 phenomena equally reveal the action of GOD, and 
 we can have no certain assurance that we have 
 at any time learnt all the ways of His working. 
 
 Such considerations disclose the undiscover- 
 able vastness of the order in which we are set; 
 and through, or at least according to, which we 
 must learn whatever the imperfection of our 
 powers allows us to learn of GOD. The immediate 
 contemplation of nature is overwhelming ; and 
 the actual history of human opinion brings no 
 assistance towards the solution of the mystery of 
 the relation of GOD to the world and to ourselves. 
 If we fix our thoughts on the prse-Christian period 
 it will be seen that the religious history of men, 
 whether Jews or Heathen, is the history of the 
 gradual withdrawal of GOD from the world. In 
 the first ages, as in the childhood of the race or 
 in our own childhood, GOD seemed to be very near 
 to men and easily to be approached. So it is
 
 38 Tlie religious history of the world. [CHAP. 
 
 written in the history of the Old Testament. 
 The Patriarchs communed with GOD and made 
 covenants with Him. Little by little He was 
 withdrawn and shrouded in more awful majesty. 
 His voice alone was heard through the Prophets. 
 At last His name was left unspoken. An elabo- 
 rate and splendid ritual, while it brought to some 
 intelligible signs of spiritual promises, satisfied 
 the desires of others ; and the hope of a further 
 revelation of His will became the mark of a sect 
 in the chosen people. 
 
 The same kind of change passed over the 
 creeds of the Gentile nations. At the dawn of 
 history traditions that the gods had walked 
 among men were still current. Afterwards local 
 and limited deities kept alive the familiar sense 
 of a divine presence. Then came the dissolving 
 power of speculation. The old faith was degraded 
 in each case into a lifeless superstition : the new 
 faith vainly aspired to deify a mere phantom of 
 thought. At the best the abstract notion of a 
 Providence was suggested to those who had 
 thirsted for a living GOD ; or some form of Pan- 
 theism offered to the believer union with the 
 object of his belief, while it took from him every 
 thing to which he could direct his affections. 
 
 Apart from revelation apart from the final
 
 I.] Questions asked in hope. 39 
 
 revelation in Christ this must, as it appears, be 
 the tragic course of human experience both in the 
 society and in the individual life. As we come 
 to apprehend more clearly what we are and what 
 GOD in Himself must be, the interval between 
 the creature and the Creator opens out in its 
 infinite depth. Reason fails and then feeling. 
 But the craving for GOD remains unsatisfied and 
 unextinguished. This craving is as much a fact 
 of nature as any other fact ; and, even when the 
 reality seems to be farthest off, man still longs for 
 One Who is Eternal, and One Whom he can love. 
 
 We can now see some of the mysteries which 
 life necessarily carries with it. If we have ad- 
 vanced so far in our education as to look calmly 
 upon the conditions of our being we shall find 
 that such questions as these are irresistibly borne 
 in upon us: How do we regard 'self in relation 
 to its origin and to its development ? What 
 account do we take in our estimate of humanity 
 of the necessary dependence of man upon circum- 
 stances ? How do we reconcile this dependence 
 with the sense of responsibility ? What explana- 
 tion can we give of our restless striving after an 
 unattainable ideal? of our invincible self-assertion 
 in the face of the material forces of nature ? of 
 our confident anticipations of life beyond death ?
 
 40 Questions asked in hope. [CHAP. 
 
 Or again : what is the beginning, and support 
 and end of the world ? How can we harmonise 
 the magnificent promises of order and unity with 
 the existence of conflict and waste ? How do we 
 explain that 
 
 sense sublime 
 
 Of something far more deeply interfused, 
 Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns 
 And the round ocean, and the living air 
 And the blue sky, and in the mind of man. 
 
 With what hope or aspiration do we look for- 
 ward to a consummation of things wherein their 
 original destiny shall be reconciled with their 
 abiding condition ? 
 
 Or yet again : How do we adjust our idea of 
 GOD to the conditions of our own existence and 
 to the phenomena of the world ? How do we 
 retain it in all its intensity in spite of the age- 
 long experience which seems to remove GOD 
 farther from us ? 
 
 How, in a word, can we gain permanence for 
 the foundation of religious faith ? How can 
 our Creed be invested with that vitality of form 
 which shall grow with all the growth of men and 
 mankind ? Truth, if it is to affect our whole life 
 which is one and indivisible, must be expressed 
 for us in a Fact. Theology based upon external 
 or internal Nature, upon observation or con-
 
 I.] The effort to answer them not vain. 41 
 
 sciousness, is unstable and inadequate to our 
 wants. It brings no decisive interpretation to 
 conflicting phenomena. Theology based upon 
 isolated communications of the Divine will must 
 be relative to special circumstances. We reach 
 out therefore to a real and abiding union of GOD 
 and man, as real as that which Pantheism esta- 
 blishes between the fragment and the whole: as 
 personal as that which the simplest faith has 
 believed to exist between the worshipper and 
 the object of his adoration. And we do so with 
 confidence because we trust that the system of 
 the world answers to Truth, and that the desire 
 of the race is, in its highest form as in each 
 partial form, a promise of fulfilment. 
 
 To ask such questions is to propose pro- 
 blems of the greatest difficulty. It requires a 
 serious effort even to seize their scope. Some 
 indeed may feel impatient that they should be 
 raised for discussion. And I gladly acknowledge 
 that the power of the Christian life is for the most 
 part independent of speculative inquiries. Yet 
 there is an office of the thinker and the teacher. 
 Each age offers its characteristic riddles; and it 
 is by man's endeavour to solve these as they 
 come that that fuller apprehension of the Truth 
 is reached through which nobler action becomes
 
 42 To face difficulties a blessing. [CHAP. i. 
 
 more widely possible. If then we approach the 
 spiritual problems of our own age, not in any 
 conceit of intellectual superiority, but as accept- 
 ing a grave duty and using an opportunity of 
 service, we may reasonably look for some new 
 blessing. To face them, to ponder them rever- 
 ently, is to feel the glory which belongs to the 
 nature of man unfallen : to have the assurance of ' 
 solving them, so far as a solution is required for 
 the guidance and inspiration of life, is to know 
 the gift of GOD which is brought to us by the 
 Gospel of the Resurrection.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE DUTY AND NECESSITY OF SEEKING A 
 SOLUTION OF THE PROBLEMS OF LIFE. 
 
 FROM what has been already said it must be 
 sufficiently clear that life is beset by mysteries 
 and to strive to banish these mysteries from 
 thought is to impoverish our whole existence. 
 They form the solemn background of all experi- 
 ence ; and the exclusion of every religious theory 
 from our view of life will not in fact make life 
 plain and intelligible. On the contrary the fuller 
 apprehension of the character of the mysteries 
 which necessarily attend our being, impels us 
 more forcibly to seek for some solution of the 
 practical problems which they present, for such a 
 solution as religion claims to bring. What shall 
 we say of the complex and disordered constitution 
 of man, of the issues of sin, of the confident expec- 
 tation with which we look forward to a life after
 
 44 Men seek to solve the problems of life. [CHAP. 
 
 death ? What shall we say of the relation of the 
 individual to the race and to the world in which 
 he is placed ? What shall we say of the possi- 
 bility of a knowledge of GOD ? 
 
 No questions can be asked which have a 
 more momentous significance than these, and all 
 experience shews the importunate eagerness with 
 which men, in proportion as they have grown in 
 knowledge, have sought answers to them. The 
 history of metaphysics is a continuous witness to 
 the irresistible attraction which they have exer- 
 cised upon the most profound thinkers; and 
 whatever opinion may be entertained as to the 
 purely metaphysical answers which have been 
 rendered to them, the fact that such answers have 
 found a welcome in all ages indicates the direction 
 of human desire. This desire embodies itself in 
 some shape or other by what appears to be a 
 necessity of our nature ; and even those students 
 who have endeavoured to confine themselves to 
 physical research who have sought to obtain an 
 understanding of the world from without and not 
 from within have unconsciously extended their 
 theories beyond their assumed limits. It cannot 
 be otherwise. For these final problems, which lie 
 at the root of Christian Doctrine, meet us in 
 whichever direction we turn. They stand in the
 
 II.] The problems are unavoidable. 45 
 
 closest relation to life. They must be dealt with 
 in some way or other. The kind of treatment 
 which they receive cannot but have an important 
 bearing upon conduct. They correspond with the 
 development of one side of man's multiform nature. 
 The problems, in other words, are unavoidable : 
 they are practical : they are educational. The 
 consideration of them enters into all thought : it 
 has a power to direct and stimulate action : it is 
 effective in moulding character. 
 
 i. The problems are unavoidable. We can- 
 not, that is, escape from the necessity of dealing 
 with the questions suggested by a consideration 
 of these final existences, self, the world, GOD ; 
 and, this being so, the duty of investigating 
 them is laid upon those for whom it is possible, 
 because, with or without reflection, we must 
 accept and act upon some decision concerning 
 them. This is unquestionable. Every action on 
 our part involves a judgment of some kind or 
 other upon controversies which have been main- 
 tained and are still maintained as to our responsi- 
 bility, our powers, our destiny. 
 
 The theory which sways our conduct, whether 
 we know it or not, has taken shape with our own 
 growth and become in a true sense part of 
 ourselves. It may be simply the result of the
 
 46 Necessity of providing for [CHAP. 
 
 moral atmosphere which we breathe: it may be 
 the fruit of sustained and arduous effort. But in 
 either case the influence of the theory of life 
 which we hold implicitly or avowedly is real and 
 it is effective. However indifferent we may be to 
 independent speculation, the average opinion, if 
 the phrase may be used, which we share repre- 
 sents the issues of long and vehement controversies. 
 It expresses fairly, if on a low level, what has been 
 ascertained in the past from the interpretation of 
 consciousness in the light of history including all 
 that is contained in the Bible as to our freedom, 
 and as to our relation to the finite and the infinite. 
 And this popular Creed is never stationary. The 
 inner and outer boundaries of knowledge are 
 ever advanced without cessation or break. It is 
 as true in metaphysics as it is in physics that the 
 goal of yesterday is the starting-post of to-day, 
 though the repetition of identical terms in the 
 former case may suggest the simple recurrence of 
 ideas. But no such literal recurrence is possible. 
 Each fresh discovery as to the relations of the com- 
 plex elements which go to form our personality; or 
 as to the limits of variation to which our powers 
 and faculties are open under given circumstances ; 
 or as to the dependence of thought upon external 
 conditions ; or as to the most general formulae 
 under which the phenomena of being can be
 
 II.] growth of new opinions. 47 
 
 grouped ; or as to the ultimate connexion and 
 unity of life : must sooner or later pass into the 
 universal heritage of men ; and when the results of 
 science thus become, as they do become, with more 
 or less delay, an element in the circumstances under 
 which men think and move, they are continuously 
 effective as moral forces. The incorporation of 
 such physical and historical and moral discoveries 
 or revelations, as we may prefer to call them, 
 into the common Creed, must take place, but it 
 may take place in different ways, silently so that 
 indifferent spectators are unaware of the change 
 which is going on about them, or by a sharp crisis 
 of conflict which shakes faith to its foundations. 
 The true Theologian therefore will look with 
 vigilant sympathy in every direction for each 
 fragment which can be added to his treasure. 
 Those who are called upon to teach the study of 
 Theology will acknowledge that it is their office 
 to prepare the way for the admission of new 
 aspects of Truth into the current estimate of life, 
 and to provide against the misconceptions of 
 impatient controversy, and the waste of secta- 
 rianism. And those students of Theology who 
 have the opportunity will strive from the first and 
 with glad willingness to assimilate the acquisitions 
 of inquiry. In some way or other both teacher 
 and student must acknowledge in time the power
 
 48 Action influenced [CHAP. 
 
 of the new influences. It is only left for them 
 to choose whether they will do so with ready fore- 
 sight, or simply under that blind pressure which is 
 disastrous in proportion as it is alarming. 
 
 ii. This is the choice which lies before us ; 
 and the importance of the choice is at once appre- 
 hended in its true extent, if we observe that these 
 ultimate problems of being, both in their most 
 general form and in their details, carry with them 
 direct practical consequences. All experience goes 
 to shew that conduct in the long run corresponds 
 with belief. The public opinion which prevails in 
 a nation or a class is more powerful to repress and 
 to urge than legal sanctions of punishment and 
 reward. The coercion of law is effective only so 
 far as the law embodies a dominant opinion ; and, 
 as a natural corollary, law is actually a little 
 behind popular opinion. But a dominant opinion 
 sooner or later finds expression in law by the 
 enactment of restrictions or by the removal of 
 them. 
 
 This unquestionable principle carries with it- 
 momentous consequences. If it could be esta- 
 blished that man's actions are the necessary result 
 of his individual constitution and his circum- 
 stances, in such a sense that he has no real control 
 over them, morality would be at an end. If it
 
 II.] by opinion. 49 
 
 could be shewn that such a crisis as death makes 
 it inconceivable that our personal consciousness 
 should survive the change, then it would inevit- 
 ably follow that the aim of life would be repre- 
 sented by that which is individually attainable 
 within the sensible limits of life. The significance 
 of moral education as the preparation of characters 
 and powers for use in another order would cease 
 to exist. If it could be shewn that the idea of a 
 supreme righteous Governor is against reason and 
 this conviction were to become current, the per- 
 sonal notion of pleasure would be the one standard 
 of appeal. Hitherto such theories as necessity, 
 or absolute mortality, or atheism, have been main- 
 tained only by a few who have been at once dis- 
 ciplined and restrained by the influence of opposite 
 beliefs, but even so the issues to which they lead 
 have been not obscurely indicated. 
 
 The splendid visions, in which some modern 
 speculators have indulged, of a religion of humanity 
 capable of moving men to self-sacrifice and to 
 enthusiasm for issues indefinitely remote, seem to 
 be nothing but reflections of Christianity : let the 
 light of the Incarnation be quenched, and they 
 will at once vanish. At any rate there is not the 
 least evidence in favour of their intrinsic and 
 independent efficacy over conduct. 
 
 w. G. L. 4
 
 50 The moral standard of action. [CHAP. 
 
 One or two simple considerations will set this 
 conclusion in a clearer light. How, for example, 
 do we gain a moral standard of action ? If we put 
 out of account the belief in GOD and a future life 
 it does not appear what relation can be established 
 between different kinds of present desires and 
 pleasures. It may be quite true that certain gene- 
 ral results of a character desirable for mankind 
 at large follow from certain lines of individual 
 action, but that simple fact is no adequate reason 
 why an individual should not, if he is able, dis- 
 regard these for the sake of an immediate pleasure 
 to himself. Why is he to sacrifice himself for 
 others ? Is he not, as far as he knows, the centre 
 and measure of things ? There is at least no 
 sufficient evidence that the common happiness is 
 what any particular man is bound to prefer ; and 
 he may fairly say that he is the sole judge of 
 what gives happiness to himself. 
 
 But if we introduce the idea of GOD as a 
 moral Governor into our view of the world, we are 
 constrained to believe that He will in some way 
 manifest Himself, and, if so, we cannot doubt that 
 the 'purpose' which runs through the sum of 
 life, though it is frequently obscured in the 
 individual life, is part of this manifestation. We 
 can then reasonably urge that the intuitions of
 
 ii.] Conception of GOD as a Moral Governor. 51 
 
 our own minds and the general tendencies which 
 we observe in life are indications of His will, and 
 thus there is at once a sufficient ground for ren- 
 dering obedience to them at all cost. We cannot 
 act as if we severally were measures of all things. 
 The whole creation claims our regard and our 
 service. Virtue, that is, the fulfilment of the 
 will of GOD as it is made known to us, is a duty 
 and not an open question. 
 
 If we pause here, the spectacle of the world 
 is still clouded with sadness though we are no 
 longer disturbed by uncertainty as to our duty. 
 We go farther therefore, and take account of the 
 idea of a future life. If this be held firmly per- 
 plexities of life at least cease to be inexplicable. 
 It is a sufficient support in perplexity to feel that 
 we see only a fragment of a vast scheme; for if 
 there are signs of advance towards a harmony of 
 creation now, there is nothing arbitrary in the 
 supposition that hereafter the great end will be 
 reached. We are enabled to regard the course of 
 things, so to speak, from the side of GOD and not 
 only from the side of man. Scope is given for the 
 exercise of an infinite power commensurate with 
 infinite love. Man's aspirations and failures are 
 met by divine wisdom. Hope comes to the sup- 
 port of duty. There is indeed no promise of an 
 
 42
 
 52 A future life. [CHAP. 
 
 immediate and universal victory of good. Things 
 may continue in the new order to represent a 
 progress through conflict; but, even if we are 
 justified in extending to another sphere the con- 
 ditions of our earthly discipline, nothing need be 
 lost of that which has been gained here, and the 
 conflict will to this extent be continued under 
 more favourable conditions. 
 
 In this way we can see how a belief in the 
 moral government of GOD and in a future life 
 partial and preliminary solutions of the problems 
 of humanity influence action, and give stability 
 and a certain grandeur to the ideas by which 
 modern society is ruled ; but so far we obtain no 
 light upon our connexion one with another, or 
 upon the conflict between the elements of our 
 own nature and the disorders without us and 
 within us. For this we must look to revelation. 
 And here the light which we need flows, and, as I 
 believe, flows only from the fact of the Incarnation. 
 If then we pass from the intuitional to the 
 historical elements of religion, in order to realise 
 the practical effect of belief upon conduct, it 
 becomes evident that if we hold that the Son of 
 GOD took man's nature upon Him, we recognise a 
 new and ineffaceable relation between man and 
 man. We are assured by that fact that what
 
 II.] The Incarnation and Atonement 53 
 
 binds us together is stronger than all that tends 
 to separate us : that there is in all men a poten- 
 tiality of blessedness beyond our imagination : 
 that the unity of the race is something more than 
 an abstraction. Love comes to quicken hope. 
 
 And, still more than this, the same fact 
 presents the disorders of life as intrusive and 
 remediable, as being the violation of our nature 
 and not belonging to its essence. The Incarna- 
 tion exhibits to us the purpose of Creation con- 
 summated in a glory won through voluntary 
 humiliation and suffering. This belief carries 
 with it momentous consequences. It shews evil 
 in its final character as sin, lawlessness, selfish- 
 ness, so conquered for us that we can appropriate 
 the fruits of the conquest. In the Passion and 
 in the Resurrection we see the last issues of 
 life, as it were, from man's side and from the 
 side of GOD ; and we welcome the assurance that 
 human self-assertion is powerless before Divine 
 love. Faith comes to crown life. 
 
 These simple illustrations will shew how our 
 view of the solution of the problems of life in 
 its broadest aspect must have a deep practical 
 significance for each one who accepts any particu- 
 lar solution of them and so far as he accepts it.
 
 54- Effect of personal belief. [CHAP. 
 
 But the effect of the solution does not stop with 
 the man who has appropriated it. It extends 
 through him to a wider circle. Personal belief 
 alone can leaven society. Popular opinion de- 
 pends for its vitality upon the intensity of indi- 
 vidual opinion. And though an opinion which 
 has once found acceptance commonly retains its 
 form for a time when its real supports have been 
 removed; yet, if it be so, the collapse when it 
 comes, will be more startling and complete. The 
 reflection needs to be laid to heart at the present 
 time, because there is a growing inclination on 
 the part of many influential teachers to represent 
 the morality of Christianity as independent of the 
 theology of Christianity. No judgment can be 
 more at variance with the teaching of history. 
 Our civilisation both in its gentleness and in its 
 strength is due to the Christian faith and has 
 been supported by Christian institutions. What- 
 ever we owe to non-Christian sources comes to us 
 through a Christian atmosphere and is steeped in 
 Christian thought. The form must soon pass into 
 corruption if the spirit be withdrawn. We may 
 then be reasonably stirred to self-questioning 
 when we observe everywhere a general vagueness 
 in religious thought, an unconscious appropria- 
 tion of results apart from their conditions. The 
 necessity of analysing our convictions and of test-
 
 II.] Further definition of the idea of GOD. 55 
 
 ing the application of them is forced upon us. 
 Our Creed may be but a mere vesture cast over 
 a dead figure and not an inspiring power: it 
 may be only the ghost of a faith which we have 
 killed. 
 
 This being so it may be worth while to carry 
 the illustrations which I have taken one degree 
 farther in definition. The same law which holds 
 good of the effect of the ideas of GOD, and of a 
 future life and of the Incarnation in their most 
 general form, holds good also of the details of the 
 view under which they are realised. Let the idea 
 of GOD be extended so as to include not only the 
 notion of a righteous government but also that 
 of a present and personal relationship with man. 
 We shall see at once that the aspect of the 
 world will be changed. The conviction of the 
 possibility of obtaining help in the arduous work 
 of life will be added to the conviction of the 
 paramount claims of virtue. Prayer will become 
 a reality. 
 
 Substitute again the Christian doctrine of 
 the Resurrection of the Body for the heathen 
 guess of the Immortality of the Soul, and the 
 effect upon life will be only limited by our power 
 of realising the truth. The future will in a true
 
 56 The Resurrection and Incarnation. [CHAP. 
 
 sense be made present. The conviction of con- 
 tinuity will be extended to all the elements of 
 our being without being confined to any special 
 organisation in which they are united. Actions 
 and words will be guided and disciplined at every 
 moment by a living consciousness of their in- 
 evitable endurance with us as parts of ourselves. 
 
 Or again : if we pass from the general state- 
 ment of the fact of the Incarnation to the more 
 precise apprehension of the conditions under 
 which it is presented to us, we shall see that 
 each typical mode of expressing the truth must 
 carry with it corollaries of far-reaching import- 
 ance. It is not an indifferent detail of scholas- 
 ticism whether we place the Lord's Personality 
 in His human or in His Divine nature. Our 
 view of the Atonement and our conception of 
 our own relation to the Father will depend upon 
 it. Nothing at first sight could appear more 
 remote from practice than the question whether 
 the Lord's human nature is individually personal 
 or not. Yet more careful reflection shews that 
 our true sense of our own relation to Him as our 
 Head depends upon the fact that He is not one 
 man among many men, but the One in whom all 
 find their fragmentary being made capable of 
 reconciliation in a higher Personality.
 
 ii.] Moral influence of dogma. 57 
 
 It would be easy to pursue these considera- 
 tions into still minuter details. Patient investi- 
 gation will shew that no doctrine can be without 
 a bearing upon action. It is of course possible 
 to petrify a doctrine into an outward formula: 
 to change that into a mere cloke which ought to 
 be an informing force : but this degradation of a 
 Creed springs from the inability or unwillingness 
 of men to treat it as a thing of life and not from 
 the inherent character of the Creed itself. The 
 influence of a dogma may be good or bad that 
 is an important criterion of dogma with which we 
 are not now concerned but if the dogma be truly 
 maintained it will have a moral value of some 
 kind. Every religion, and every sect of every 
 religion, has its characteristic form of life, and if 
 the peculiarities of these forms are smoothed 
 away by time it is only because the type of 
 belief to which they correspond has ceased to 
 retain its integrity and sharpness. Or to go back 
 to the point from which we started. As long 
 as an opinion on any of the great mysteries of 
 self, the world and GOD is a reality for those 
 who entertain it, and not a conventional phrase, 
 it will be a moral power. 
 
 And, as we have seen, we are so made that 
 we must inquire into these mysteries or receive
 
 58 Dogma a necessity for us. [CHAP. 
 
 opinions on them from others. We cannot as a 
 matter of fact avoid speculating or acting upon 
 judgments as to the questions Whence? What? 
 Whither? We cannot, without a forcible effort, 
 acquiesce in the conclusion that the questions are 
 insoluble enigmas. If we do acquiesce in it, our 
 whole life will be modified by the confession of 
 blank negation. On the other hand, it is at our 
 peril that we rest in false or imperfect answers. 
 Error and imperfection in such a case must issue 
 in lives which are faulty or maimed where they 
 might have been nobler and more complete. The 
 opinions which a man holds are important posi- 
 tively and negatively: positively, if the opinions 
 find their corresponding expression in action, nega- 
 tively, if they be retained as a mere fashion of 
 thought, and so be emptied of their natural power. 
 Right Doctrine is an inexhaustible spring of 
 strength if it be translated into deed : it is a 
 paralysis if it be held as an intellectual notion. 
 Nor can we conceive any impediment to the 
 fulfilment of duty more fatal than the outward 
 retention of a formal Creed under such conditions 
 that each article in it is maintained deliberately 
 in theory without regard to its moral realisation. 
 
 iii. It is, I repeat, a necessity of our nature 
 and of our circumstances that we should deal in
 
 II.] Action not independent of opinion. 59 
 
 some way with the great mysteries of being ; and 
 yet further it cannot but be that if we deal with 
 them honestly and thoroughly our theories will 
 influence our conduct. 
 
 It may however be said that whatever theory 
 we hold, observation and experience will impose 
 upon us the same general rules of action : that 
 even if we maintain speculatively the extremest 
 doctrine of necessity, we shall be treated by others, 
 and ourselves treat others, as free in the sense of 
 responsible : that if we regard the external world 
 as being nothing but the shadow of our own 
 minds, we shall still heed as carefully as other 
 men every ' law ' of nature : that whether we refer 
 the order of the universe to a Supreme Lord or 
 not, we shall give ourselves loyally to the fulfil- 
 ment of those offices which appear to be marked 
 out for us when we take a large view of the 
 general course of things. 
 
 I have already touched upon some of these 
 assertions; and I would again urge as a general 
 reply to this form of argument that the average 
 belief which modifies the application of specula- 
 tive views to conduct is due to the presence or 
 to the traditional influence of personal conviction ; 
 and that if there were any energetic and wide- 
 spread denial of our freedom or of the uniformity
 
 60 Character moulded by belief. [CHAP. 
 
 of natural laws or of the Being of GOD, it is by 
 no means clear that our actual conduct would be 
 what it is. 
 
 But I do not wish to attempt now to point 
 out the limitations to which such statements as 
 I have supposed are subject. I am willing to 
 let them for the moment pass without challenge 
 as without acceptance. Yet even so, if they hold 
 true in the widest possible sense, the results 
 obtained do not cover the ground which belief 
 occupies. Such practical rules touch only upon 
 outward acts as subject to outward control. 
 They leave out of consideration some of the 
 most important elements which go to the for- 
 mation of character. And our actions personally 
 are of importance only in relation to character. 
 It is indeed needless to insist at length upon 
 the momentous consequences of character. The 
 constitution of society is such that under every 
 form of government the moving power will be 
 in the hands of few. For these few the final 
 spring of power is conviction ; and conviction is 
 the practical realisation of belief. In other words 
 the control of men the capacity for guiding, and, 
 if need be, for coercing the ignorant, the weak and 
 the indifferent, for guiding that is at present the 
 mass of men, will depend upon opinion which cor-
 
 II.] Power of character real if latent 61 
 
 responds with a definite theory of things. And 
 such opinion extends far beyond appreciable action. 
 To take the first case supposed. A necessitarian 
 and his adversary will do on the supposition exactly 
 the same actions, and yet they will be wholly 
 different men. Legislation again, to touch another 
 point, cannot distinguish between the obedience of 
 resignation and the obedience of enthusiasm ; but 
 it is obvious that there is an immeasurable differ- 
 ence between the citizen who accepts a burden 
 from which he cannot escape and the citizen 
 who believes that he is contributing of his own 
 to the furtherance of a great cause. 
 
 The characters of two such men are practically 
 incommensurable. Their power and their ten- 
 dency to influence others are wholly different. 
 In any great crisis they would be revealed, as 
 being in fact what they are, whether the time of 
 shewing them openly comes or not. Thus their 
 potential difference with regard to society and to 
 the future is enormous. Their actual difference 
 in themselves with regard to the past is equally 
 great. For the one repentance, remorse, thank- 
 fulness, devotion will be delusions to be extirpated, 
 for the other they will be precious instruments of 
 discipline and encouragement.
 
 62 Influence of our view of the world [CHAP. 
 
 Again : it may be quite true that we shall 
 follow observed laws, as far as we have appre- 
 hended them, with a care proportioned to our 
 knowledge, whatever may be our theory of the 
 universe without us. But the effect of the world 
 upon our imagination, and through imagination 
 upon our character, will depend upon the view 
 which we take of its relation to ourselves and 
 to GOD. If we regard it as inextricably bound 
 up with man, as waiting, in some sense, for the 
 true fulfilment of his destiny, as suffering from 
 his failures, as contributing to the fulness of one 
 life, it is evident that our attitude towards it will 
 be different from that of students who acknowledge 
 no present moral relationship and no permanent 
 connexion between man and the rest of creation, 
 who regard the region of finite being open to us 
 as a field simply for intellectual research. To him 
 who believes that all creation is a living revelation 
 of GOD, that which phenomena serve to indicate 
 will be far more precious than that which we can 
 define in them by isolating parts of the moving 
 whole and treating them as fixed. Such a faith 
 in the divine life of things, which can become 
 most real, is capable of producing in him who 
 holds it habits of reverence and tenderness and 
 sympathy which profoundly affect his whole tone 
 of thought and temper and conduct. Whether
 
 II.] through imagination. 63 
 
 for good or for evil there is an almost infinite 
 difference of character between the pedlar for 
 whom the primrose 'a yellow primrose is and 
 nothing more ' and the poet to whom 
 
 the meanest flower that blows can give 
 Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears. 
 
 Again : nothing, I believe, can be more clear 
 than that the conclusion as to rules of action, 
 apart from all considerations of effective motive 
 and sanction, will be the same whether we follow 
 the method of a wide utilitarianism or base our 
 system of morality on intuitional ideas of right. 
 But though it may be, as I am ready to grant, of 
 no moment as to laying down rules of action what 
 abstract theory we hold as to the basis of morality ; 
 it is of the greatest moment as to character 
 whether we regard our rules as determined by 
 reference to ourselves and by what we can see 
 of their working, or by their relation to some 
 infinitely larger order in which we are a part : 
 whether, that is, we call a- thing good because it is 
 seen to be useful within the present sphere of 
 our experience or because we hold that it is in 
 conformity with an absolute law of the working 
 of which we see as yet but little. 
 
 Reflections of the same kind apply to all
 
 64 Importance of what we think. [CHAP. 
 
 other articles of belief, even the most abstract. 
 These have not only an effect upon outward 
 action, but also upon those inward processes of 
 thought and feeling which fashion our permanent 
 constitution. In this respect what we think of 
 things is at least as important as what we do. 
 We are called upon in a word to pursue truth in 
 opinion not less than truth in action : to discipline 
 and elevate the imagination : to purify and ennoble 
 the affections : to reach forward in every direction 
 to a fuller and more perfect knowledge of the 
 ways of GOD within us and without us. If then 
 we turn aside from a reverent contemplation of 
 the mysteries of life, if we refuse to throw upon 
 them the light which we can gather, if we make 
 no effort to realise their ennobling magnificence 
 because we suppose, for the most part falsely, that 
 their grandeur has no practical significance ; we 
 leave undone that which, according to our oppor- 
 tunities, we are bound to do. We take to ourselves 
 a mutilated character. We suffer one great part 
 of ourselves to remain undisciplined, unstrength- 
 ened, unused, which (as we may reasonably believe) 
 if not on earth yet in some larger field of being, 
 will require for the fulfilment of its office, the 
 results of that exercise which our present con- 
 ditions are fitted to supply.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE CONDITIONS UNDER WHICH A SOLUTION 
 OF THE PROBLEMS MUST BE SOUGHT. 
 
 OUR inquiries hitherto have established two 
 important conclusions, (1) that we are placed 
 in the midst of mysteries, and that we carry 
 within ourselves mysteries, from which escape is 
 impossible ; and (2) that we are so made and so 
 placed that we are constrained to look upon them, 
 to seek and to shape some solution of them, to 
 live according as we interpret them. The problems 
 of life, in a word, are inevitable ; and the answers 
 which they receive are of the most direct practical 
 importance to those who render them. 
 
 We have now to consider the conditions 
 under which the answer to these problems must 
 be sought. And I do not think that I can 
 better introduce what I have to say upon the 
 subject in relation to present difficulties than by 
 W. G. L.
 
 66 Dangers from dominant influences. [CHAP. 
 
 a reference to the famous passage of the Novum 
 Organum in which Bacon sums up the prolific 
 sources of 'the phantoms of the cave.' 
 
 These false and misleading spectres, which 
 simulate the form of Truth, spring, he tells us, for 
 the most part from certain prevailing views, from 
 an excessive passion for synthesis or analysis, from 
 a preference for some particular period in the 
 history of the world, from " a telescopic or micro- 
 scopic character" of mind. Now I am by no 
 means prepared to maintain that we are not 
 haunted still by spectres of the tribe, of the 
 market and of the theatre : that we do not 
 suffer from the preponderating influence of the 
 objects of sense, from the misunderstanding of 
 current terms, from the attractiveness of brilliant 
 theories ; but the spectres of the cave seem to 
 crowd about us just now in greater numbers than 
 all these and to disturb our judgment more 
 deeply, partly by their fictitious terrors and 
 partly by their unsubstantial beauty. Or to drop 
 the image and speak plainly, there seems to be a 
 growing danger lest all facts should be forced into 
 one category, lest one method of investigation 
 should be armed with an absolute despotism, lest 
 one verifying test should be transformed into a 
 universal necessity.
 
 in.] Different kinds of Truth. 67 
 
 It is then of primary importance to guard 
 ourselves against this danger when we enter upon 
 the study of Religion or Theology. And that we 
 may learn to do so the more completely we must 
 still keep our attention fixed upon the broadest 
 aspects of things. By the help of this discipline 
 we shall be enabled at once to see that we are 
 constrained in our speculations to distinguish 
 several distinct groups of phenomena which rest 
 on separate bases, which lead to results differing 
 essentially in kind, which must be verified by 
 characteristic proofs : to see that there are various 
 classes of Truths which are marked not by different 
 degrees of certainty, but by different kinds of 
 certainty : that the word ' science ' has a manifold 
 application : that Theology is most really a posi- 
 tive science based upon its own special facts, and 
 pursued according to its own proper method. 
 The reflections which I desire to suggest will 
 group themselves, as before, round the three final 
 elements of being self, the world, and GOD ; and 
 it will be my general object to shew that the type 
 of science which belongs to each of these ultimate 
 divisions of the objects of thought is absolutely 
 distinct ; and that each more complex science 
 presupposes and rests upon that which is simpler 
 and more general. 
 
 52
 
 68 Mathematical truth. [CHAP. 
 
 i. In the first place then a man may regard 
 himself alone, and isolate the laws of limitation 
 under which his impressions are received from 
 the objects which stimulate his senses. The ideas 
 of time and space, of succession and extension, 
 when once apprehended in their most simple and 
 absolute form become the sufficient foundation 
 for wide and complicated conclusions. When the 
 ideas have once been called into play, there is no 
 longer any need that the inquirer should turn a 
 single thought to phenomena. An experiment 
 may illustrate one of his results, but it is impos- 
 sible to conceive any experiment which could 
 either confirm his legitimate deductions or shake 
 them. The utmost developments of the relations 
 of number and figure are absolute for man. The 
 facts with which he deals in them are not only 
 assumed to be constant : for him they are constant. 
 Nothing, as long as he is what he is, can interfere 
 with the certainty of his deductions. But we 
 must observe that we are not justified in extending 
 the limitations of our perceptions to any other 
 order of beings. Obviously we cannot extend them 
 to an Infinite Being. They may be shadows or 
 fragments of something larger, grander, immeasur- 
 ably more comprehensive, into which they are 
 capable of being taken up and resolved. But 
 however this may be, we cannot give definiteness
 
 ill.] Physical truth. 69 
 
 f 
 
 to such thoughts ; and we come back to the marks 
 
 *-* 
 
 of our primary group of sciences. The sphere is 
 man himself. The subject is the characteristic /^ 0J> 
 limitations of his perceptions. The method is /^ 
 deductive. The verification of the results lies in 
 
 ^ 
 
 the possibility of their resolution into elements - 
 of which the opposite is unthinkable. 
 
 ii. But man cannot rest here. He is con- 
 strained to look continuously without. He regards 
 self, and he regards the world. And however 
 much he may be tempted to mould the phenomena 
 of the world into some preconceived shape, he is 
 soon compelled to abandon the attempt. Prior to 
 observation he is utterly unable to predict the 
 laws which represent the action of the various 
 forces about him. To the last he has no complete 
 assurance that he has detected all the forces 
 which are at work and ready to reveal themselves. 
 But by the accumulation of experience he can do 
 much in grouping vast series of phenomena 
 under adequate formulas; and just as he isolates /I,/K />.- 
 the abstract conditions of observation (conditions f,^//" 
 of time and space) from the concrete facts through , 
 which they are made known to men, he can isolate 
 also in imagination the operation of each force; 
 and when he has done so, but not till then, the 
 method of deduction can be applied to data which
 
 70 Assumptions involved [CHAP. 
 
 are treated separately as absolute. The assumed 
 conditions are, of course, in this case imaginary ; 
 but where the actual phenomena are resolvable 
 into the resultants of few elements the recurrence 
 of the phenomena can be predicted with an assur- 
 ance proportioned to their simplicity. But the 
 certainty obtainable in this region is separated 
 by an impassable chasm from the certainty which 
 belongs to the former group of facts. 
 
 It reposes on a twofold assumption, which 
 from the nature of the case can never cease to be 
 an assumption. It is assumed that the observed 
 law is constant, and it is assumed that no force 
 hitherto unperceived will hereafter interfere with 
 the observed manifestation of the law. Now even 
 as things are, late physical researches as we have 
 already seen suggest grounds for believing that 
 the present state of the world could not have come 
 about from the uniform action of the forces which 
 we can now observe ; and the fact that energy is 
 being constantly dissipated, that is, I imagine, 
 stored up though not used, seems to indicate that 
 provision is being made for some hitherto unknown 
 revelation of being. Perhaps indeed, if I may 
 venture on a conjecture, the phenomena of physics 
 may be conceived of best as falling under some 
 vast progressive periodic cycles, an ascending
 
 in.] in Physical law. 71 
 
 spiral as it were, though for the infinitesimal 
 fragments of their course during which we can 
 observe them, no appreciable error is made by 
 assuming the constancy of the laws which express 
 their general form. 
 
 However I have no right to enter further 
 on this field, and all that I desire to indicate is 
 that we have within it a new kind of phenomena, 
 subject to new conditions only partially discover- 
 able in their relations to ourselves, a new method 
 of inquiry, a new test of verification. The sphere 
 is external nature : the method is inductive : the 
 verification is experiment and prediction : while 
 at the same time the former sphere, the former 
 method, the former test underlie these, and is 
 unmodifiable by them. Physical Truth, in a word, 
 is not homogeneous with mathematical Truth, 
 but all physical results involve a mathematical 
 foundation. They rest, that is, in their expression 
 upon the limitations of succession. 
 
 But we must go further. Hitherto we 
 have considered only the manifestation of inor- 
 ganic being. All investigation tends to confirm 
 the instinct which separates physical force from 
 life. Omne vivum ex vivo is a principle which 
 brings us face to face with a new series of
 
 72 Historical truth constrasted with [CHAP. 
 
 phenomena. And even if future researches should 
 shew that there is, or make it probable that there 
 has been, an evolution of life from matter, the 
 region of life will still remain clearly distinct. We 
 have here to deal with the fullest development of 
 phenomena and not with their inchoate stage. In 
 the case of living bodies then all the observed laws 
 of inorganic being hold good so far as these bodies 
 can be considered simply as inorganic, but no 
 further. All the laws which limit our observation 
 hold good in the deductions which can be drawn 
 from them. But life itself is an element wholly 
 different in order from those with which we have 
 dealt hitherto. The variety, the complexity, the 
 cumulative transmission of its manifestations, 
 render experiment and prediction for the most 
 part nugatory. This is true both of the single 
 life and of the sum of being. We cannot here, 
 except in the broadest generalizations, assume 
 permanence in the conditions of the problem : we 
 cannot assume permanence in the mysterious 
 energy of life itself: we cannot affect to leave out 
 of consideration the interference of individual 
 influences, which, from whatever source they 
 spring, are at least incalculable. We find our- 
 selves in the presence of a movement due to an 
 immeasurable combination of concurrent or con- 
 flicting powers. It is a grand truth that ' the
 
 III.] Mathematical and Physical truth. 73 
 
 dead rule the living,' but they rule them and 
 they do no more. No despot however absolute 
 could destroy the personality of his subjects. 
 
 The Truth of life then, Historical Truth, must 
 be generically different in kind from Mathematical 
 or Physical Truth. Historical Truth is con- 
 cerned primarily with the reality of specific facts. 
 Physical Truth is concerned primarily with the 
 coordination of groups of facts. The basis of the 
 one is testimony which is unique, the basis of the 
 other is experiment which can be repeated. The 
 particular incident is in the first case a fragment 
 of a continuous growth, in the second it is an 
 example of that which is for us an unchanging 
 law. No doubt our conviction of Physical Truth 
 and of Historical Truth agrees in this that in both 
 cases the conviction admits of degrees of certainty, 
 but the degrees depend upon wholly different 
 conditions. The adequacy of the testimony is 
 the measure of historical certainty : the adequacy 
 of the experiments is the measure of physical 
 certainty. 
 
 Here then we have a new science. The sphere 
 is human life, the method is the investigation of 
 the records of the past and present : the verifies- 
 
 tion rests on testimony taken in connexion with 
 
 *
 
 74 Truths relating to [CHAP. 
 
 the analogy of experience. I am not concerned 
 to inquire why we are so constituted as to believe 
 testimony any more than why we are so constituted 
 as to accept a universal statement based upon a 
 limited induction. What seems to be of chief 
 importance is, that being what we are, we do and 
 must accept as true facts which we cannot bring to 
 the test of experiment, facts which by their very 
 nature are incapable of repetition. It is simply 
 impossible to apply to history the method or the 
 test of physics : but certainty is equally attainable 
 in both cases for the uses of human life, though it 
 represents the result of different processes. 
 
 iii. I have touched upon what appear to 
 be the characteristics of the different kinds of 
 certainty corresponding respectively with the 
 conclusions which flow from the limitations of our 
 own nature, from our direct observation, according 
 to these limitations of the inorganic world, and 
 from the indirect record of the past experience of 
 life. But there is yet another sphere of know- 
 ledge. The existence of the personal ' I ' and of 
 ^ the external world are two self-luminous truths. 
 And there is also a third, which rests, as we have 
 seen, on the same foundation of consciousness, 
 that is, the Being of GOD. In other words man 
 stands in a present and abiding relationship with
 
 in.] our knowledge of GOD. 75 
 
 an unseen and eternal as well as with a seen and 
 temporal order. His individual life is directly 
 connected with a vaster life which is its source, 
 and the world on which he looks is part of a 
 universe of being which is made known through it 
 only partially, if really. Here then there is room 
 for another type of Truth, for another method of 
 inquiry, for another kind of certainty. We are 
 brought to the threshold of a new science, the 
 positive science of Theology, which like the 
 other sciences must have its own appropriate 
 facts. How then can we obtain these facts ? How 
 can we be assured that they are facts ? How can 
 we use them as the basis of further deductions 
 and generalisations ? 
 
 Before I attempt to answer these questions 
 I must mark three laws which we have ob- 
 served in our consideration of the mathematical, 
 physical, and vital sciences. The first is, that the 
 fundamental facts of each science and of each 
 type of science are in themselves respectively 
 independent of every other science and of every 
 other type of science. We cannot, for instance, 
 predict by the help of any deductions from the 
 conceptions of time and space what will be the 
 character of the solar system. The law of gravi- 
 tation again cannot form the sufficient basis of
 
 76 General laws applicable to [CHAP. 
 
 the law of chemical combination or of laws of 
 action. There may be an undiscovered unity, as 
 there is certainly a marvellous harmony, between 
 the different laws when they are approximately 
 understood, but it is impossible to pass directly 
 from one science to another. The attempt to do 
 so would be an attempt on a greater or less scale 
 to construct a world a priori. 
 
 The second law is, that in any complex phe- 
 nomenon we can isolate by abstraction those 
 elements which belong to the domain of a parti- 
 cular science, and then the law and method of the 
 particular science will so far find a right and 
 complete application to the phenomenon in ques- 
 tion. For example, if the hand describes a curve 
 under definite conditions, we may consider the 
 figure only : or the action of gravity upon the 
 limb while describing it, both in vacuo and in a 
 resisting medium of an assumed or of a deter- 
 mined character : or the internal changes in the 
 living frame attendant upon the action : or the 
 record of the movement given by a spectator. 
 The problems which are thus raised are perfectly 
 distinct and must be treated independently if we 
 are to obtain a true conception of the whole 
 action. Physiology is unable to fix the properties
 
 in.] different Sciences. 77 
 
 of the curve, and conversely geometry throws no 
 light on the processes of life. 
 
 The third law is, that the method which is 
 followed in the pursuit of Truth is essentially 
 different in the groups of sciences which belong to 
 self and to the world. The method which deals 
 with the problems involved in the universal / ^^ - i 
 
 limitations of human observation is intuitive 
 
 v-txf 13^ 
 
 as to the fundamental facts and deductive in 
 the application of them : the method which deals 
 with the problems of the world whether physical 
 or vital is inductive, and depends for its fun- 
 damental facts upon observation and testimony, 
 confirmed in the one case by direct experiment 
 and prediction, and in the other, in the largest 
 sense, by general experience. The facts can be 
 used as the certain basis of a deductive process 
 only so far as it is assumed in a particular case 
 that the phenomena with which they correspond 
 are perfectly known and constant. 
 
 If now we apply these laws to the science 
 of Theology we shall have advanced some way 
 towards the answer to the questions which have 
 been proposed. We shall expect that the facts 
 which belong to Theology as a special science will 
 be derived from some other source than the 
 analysis of the conditions of thought or the
 
 78 Knowledge of GOD must come [CHAP. 
 
 observation of the uniformities of the world : that 
 there will be some ultimate faculty in man 
 capable of deciding with certainty upon the ques- 
 tions with which it deals : that different elements 
 in these complex facts through which a revelation 
 is given may be isolated and dealt with separately, 
 but no partial investigation of the facts, so far as 
 they fall within the domain of the inferior sciences 
 can determine their theological value. 
 
 i. Such conclusions are justified by reflec- 
 tion and experience. For while we feel no less 
 surely that GOD is than that we are and that the 
 world is, and are conscious of an affinity to Him, 
 we cannot come to a knowledge of Him from 
 the interrogation of ourselves or of nature. We 
 cannot deduce from an examination of our own 
 constitution what He must be. This would be 
 impossible in any case for an imperfect and finite 
 creature ; and if the creature be also fallen and 
 sinful the impossibility is intensified. We must 
 then look without ourselves for the knowledge 
 of GOD. But here again we cannot command 
 at our pleasure adequate sources of information. 
 Experiment is capable only of rare application 
 to the complicated phenomena of life and it can 
 have no place in regard to the will of an Infinite 
 Being. If then we are to know GOD, He must
 
 in.] to man from GOD. 79 
 
 in His own way make Himself known to us, and 
 we on our part must be able to recognise and to 
 give a personal welcome to the revelation. 
 
 It does not appear to be necessary to discuss 
 the question whether GOD can reveal Himself 
 to man, or rather whether man continuing to be 
 what he is can receive a revelation of GOD. 
 The possibility of a revelation is included in the 
 idea which we have of GOD ; and finds a charac- 
 teristic expression in the belief that man was 
 made " in the image of GOD." This original idea 
 belongs, as we have assumed, to the fulness of the 
 individual life ; and it is realised more and more 
 fully through life. It does not obtain its mature 
 form at once either for the individual or for the 
 race. It follows therefore that if a revelation be 
 given to man it must also come to him through 
 life. It will be addressed, that is, to the whole 
 man and not to a part of man, as (for example) to 
 the intellect or to the affections. It will, in other 
 words, be presented in facts and not in words 
 only. Man will learn to know more and more 
 of GOD and this is the teaching of history and 
 experience not by purely intellectual processes, 
 but by intercourse with Him, by listening to His 
 voice and interpreting the signs which He gives 
 of His presence and His will.
 
 80 The Revelation is given [CHAP. 
 
 These facts of revelation then, these 'signs' 
 (crr)fj,eia) in the language of the New Testament, 
 are the fundamental facts of Theology. Either in 
 themselves or from the circumstances of their 
 occurrence they are such as to suggest the imme- 
 diate presence or action of GOD, of a personal 
 power producing results not explicable by what 
 we observe in the ordinary course of nature. 
 They are not properly proofs of a teaching from 
 which they are dissociated, but the teaching itself 
 in a limited form which appeals to men through 
 human experience. They have a spiritual power, 
 and, so far, they are ' spiritually discerned ' while 
 the intellect prepares the way for this discern- 
 ment. They indicate in all cases something of 
 the connexion between the seen and the unseen. 
 Theology, even in its simplest form, claims to 
 set forth this connexion ; and Christian Theology, 
 ( to take the completest example, of which every 
 other Theology is in some measure a prepara- 
 tion or a reflex, offers to us this connexion 
 definitely established for ever in a historical 
 manifestation of GOD in the Incarnation and 
 Passion and Resurrection of the Lord which as 
 it extends to the whole of life opens also an 
 inexhaustible fountain of wisdom as our know- 
 ledge of life becomes deeper and wider.
 
 in.] through life. 81 
 
 Thus the historical facts through which the 
 Christian Revelation is given, are the spiritual 
 facts of Christian Theology, which are added to 
 what we know or can know of GOD from other 
 sources. The events which are proclaimed as 
 human contain also an emphatic declaration of 
 something transcendental, of an atonement, a 
 restored union of man and of humanity and of 
 the world with GOD in Christ. 
 
 On one side these signs the special mani- 
 festations of the action of GOD and consequently 
 of His character and purposes are facts. So 
 far they fall within the domain of history, and 
 are subject to the ordinary laws of historical 
 investigation. But they are more than facts 
 which belong to the visible order. As facts which 
 belong to the visible order they can be investi- 
 gated by the ordinary methods of criticism, but 
 something will still remain to be apprehended 
 by a spiritual faculty. They have a historic side 
 inasmuch as they are events in human life, but 
 no simply historic process can lay open their 
 inner significance. They are capable again of a 
 logical interpretation, but no system of deductive 
 exposition can supersede the vital apprehension 
 of the facts themselves. The facts which are the 
 foundation of Theology are suggested by but 
 W. G. L. 6
 
 82 The signs interpreted by [CHAP. 
 
 are not identical with the external phenomena 
 through which we are made acquainted with 
 them. They are, as is obvious in the case of the 
 Resurrection, an interpretation of the phenomena. 
 The outward facts become facts in this higher 
 sense, truths without ceasing to be facts. 
 
 ii. How then can we be assured that these 
 facts are facts not only in their historical but also 
 in their spiritual aspect ? The law of testimony 
 will carry us to a conclusion as to the outward 
 phenomenon. How can we be sure of its divine 
 import ? I do not hesitate to reply that we are 
 by nature made capable of judging on this point 
 also. 
 
 Nor is the assumption of the existence of 
 such a power of recognition, of apprehension, of 
 interpretation of the divine, at variance with 
 what we have noticed hitherto. So far from this 
 being so, the assumption corresponds with what 
 we have actually seen in the case of induction and 
 testimony, which serve as the foundations of 
 physical and historical certainty. It is in no way 
 more surprising that I should say when a moral 
 principle is presented to me, I acknowledge this 
 as of absolute obligation, or when a unique occur- 
 rence is related to me, I acknowledge this as a
 
 in.] spiritual judgment. 83 
 
 divine message, than that I should say such an 
 event has happened so many times, and therefore 
 it will happen again, or so and so told me and 
 therefore I believe him. The conclusion in each 
 case seems to answer to our ultimate constitution. 
 And though the term Faith is properly applied to 
 the power by which we gain data as to the unseen 
 and eternal order, there is something directly 
 corresponding to Faith in the power by which we 
 accept general conclusions as to what we call 
 'laws' of Nature and special conviction as to 
 events of history which are equally removed from 
 the test of sense (comp. p. 28). 
 
 The proof of Revelation is then primarily \ 
 ^personal. It springs from a realised fellowship 
 with the unseen which we are enabled to gain. 
 The two complementary statements credo ut in- 
 telligam (fides prcecedit intellectum) and intelligo 
 ut credam are both true at different points in the 
 divine life. The one applies to the groundwork ; 
 the other to the superstructure : the one describes 
 the apprehension of the fundamental facts ; the 
 other describes the expression of doctrines. Faith \ 
 obtains the new data for reasoning, but when I ?u, 
 the data are firmly held, then the old methods i fl 
 become applicable. Historical facts convey new 
 lessons when regarded in the light of the revealed 
 
 62
 
 84> The personal proof [CHAP. 
 
 relation of GOD to the world ; and, within certain 
 limits, we can express conclusions in human lan- 
 guage which present the truth adequately for us. 
 The data do not modify these methods, but in- 
 crease the materials to which they are applicable. 
 
 Revelation, in a word, which gives us the 
 characteristic data of Theology in a history, 
 inasmuch as it comes from without us, and our 
 being is one, presupposes and rests upon the 
 deductive laws which express the limitation 
 of our thoughts, and the inductive laws which 
 express our apprehension of the phenomena of 
 life and nature, and the laws of historical criti- 
 cism by which we investigate the records of the 
 past, though it has also its own peculiar method 
 of proof. Nor is the additional process, if we may 
 so call it, by which we gain assurance in this 
 region of knowledge through faith more different 
 from the inductive process by which we gain 
 moral certainty in regard to the outward world of 
 sense, or the process of historical criticism by 
 which we gain moral certainty as to fresh events, 
 than the latter processes themselves are different 
 from the deductive process which establishes de- 
 monstratively the consequences of the constitution 
 of our own minds. The four or (three) processes 
 correspond to four (or three) different orders of
 
 in.] receives wider confirmation. 85 
 
 existences ; and that which extends farthest in- 
 cludes the results of those which deal with more 
 limited ranges of thought. 
 
 And though the proof of revelation is finally / u 
 personal, the correspondence of the character of 
 the revelation with the general instincts and 
 
 
 
 tendencies of humanity, with what the experience 
 of life on a large scale teaches us as to the 
 constitution of the individual and of the race, pi 
 gives a certain universality to the proof. At the 
 same time the ' signs ' of revelation do not stand 
 as isolated events in the history of the world. 
 They also are above all things interpretative 
 events. They illustrate what was before dark, 
 and combine what was before scattered. They 
 let in light to our order in such a way as to 
 convey the conviction that there is an order of 
 perfect light which is not inaccessible by us. 
 
 These considerations meet the difficulty which rp 
 comes from the variety of the interpretations of , ^ 
 the subject-matter of revelation. The conviction 
 which is primarily personal is brought to a social 
 trial. We cannot reduce the propositions in which 1 
 it is expressed to elements of which the opposite j u j 
 is unthinkable. We cannot bring them to a 
 definite experiment. We must try them finally
 
 86 Each higher Science [CHAP. 
 
 by the test of life. And that may be justly 
 accepted as the highest truth for man, which 
 is shewn to be capable of calling out, disciplining, 
 sustaining, animating with the noblest activity all 
 the powers of man in regard to self, the world and 
 GOD, under the greatest variety of circumstances. 
 ' If anything human lies without the scope of a 
 revelation to man, that revelation cannot be final. 
 
 iii. We have seen that while the characteristic 
 element in the facts which form the basis of 
 Theology does not fall within the range of histo- 
 rical investigation, the same law holds good in 
 the case of Theology which we have observed 
 before. The higher science includes all that 
 precede, as being at once subordinate and pre- 
 paratory to it. The science for example which 
 deals with the action of bodies one upon another 
 assumed to be unchanged in themselves, is in- 
 cluded in that which deals with the action of body 
 upon body when both are supposed to be under- 
 going change. The science of life, to rise upwards, 
 which takes account of phenomena peculiar to 
 itself, treats of them in accordance with all the 
 laws observed in inorganic bodies. When again 
 we pass to that more complex form of human 
 existence which for the want of a proper word 
 we call the life of nations, and at last the life
 
 in.] rests on those below. 87 
 
 of humanity, this, which proceeds according to 
 its own laws, is subject no less in due measure to 
 all the laws which regulate individual existence. 
 So too it is with the science of morality which 
 deals with the highest problems of social and 
 personal life as they are conditioned by the 
 circumstances of our present existence. So too 
 it is at last with Theology. This carries us 
 indeed into a higher order. It has facts and laws 
 of its own ; but these are underlaid by all the 
 other laws which determine our powers of observa- 
 tion and our relation to one another and to the 
 order in which we live. 
 
 In this universal principle we have the 
 answer to our third question. Theology has 
 Truths of which no other science can judge: , 
 but though the fulness of these truths belongs 
 exclusively to Theology, still Theology does not 
 deal with them as supramundane from their j 
 divine side, but so far as they are appreciable 
 under the conditions of our present existence, 
 so far as they are operative in the many phases 
 of our actual experience. They are in all respects 
 relative to the order which is opened to our inquiry 
 and observation, and connect this with an order 
 into which we cannot ourselves penetrate. They 
 treat of the infinite reconciled to the finite and
 
 88 All sciences in due measure [CHAP. 
 
 not of the infinite in the abstract, of GOD united 
 with man, and not of GOD in Himself. It is 
 therefore evident that the apprehension of the 
 Christian revelation, as a revelation, presupposes 
 an evergrowing acquaintance with that form of 
 being in and through which it is given. The facts 
 of revelation do not in themselves and cannot con- 
 stitute a theory of the external world, so far as 
 it is offered to us for investigation by our present 
 powers, but they connect such a theory, which is 
 the final goal of all intellectual effort, with that 
 which is unseen and eternal. Step by step we 
 come to know better the constitution of man, the 
 laws of society, the interdependence of the parts of 
 the material universe ; and exactly as we advance 
 in this knowledge, we can understand with surer 
 confidence and deeper insight the import of the 
 revelation made known to us in the Life of Christ, 
 and in the mission of the Holy Spirit, whereby 
 man and society and the universe are placed in a 
 living union with GOD. And thus all the know- 
 ledge which we can gain of the finite, all the 
 knowledge which we can gain of man, extends 
 and illuminates our knowledge of GOD, Who has 
 been made known to us through the finite and 
 in the Person of Him Who was perfect Man. 
 Nothing therefore which enlarges our acquaint- 
 ance with creation in its widest sense can be
 
 in.] minister to Theology. 89 
 
 indifferent to the Theologian : to him every access 
 of truth is, io a secondary sense, a revelation ; or to 
 the Christian, more exactly, a comment on the one 
 absolute revelation. So it is that Theology becomes 
 the soul of Religion. Theology is a science and 
 Religion is the fulness of life. Theology is the 
 crown of all the sciences, and Religion is the 
 synthesis of all. 
 
 But, as I have already said, the method of 
 each subsidiary science must be used only so far 
 as it is applicable. Physics will lead us to a 
 certain point : physiology will carry us yet further : 
 history will carry us still onwards : revelation will 
 add that element of infinity to knowledge which 
 gives characteristic permanence to every work and 
 thought. Each science is supreme within its own 
 domain. But no science can arrogate to itself the ^ 
 exclusive possession of certainty or Truth. Nor 
 does it appear that there is any virtue in the 
 power of vivid illustration which belongs to 
 Physics, for example, such as to distinguish 
 physical conclusions as certain, when compared 
 with the conclusions of ethics or theology. It 
 is rather narrowness than precision of thought 
 which confines the word knowledge to the facts 
 which we reach in a particular way; and the 
 student seems to wilfully abridge his heritage who
 
 90 Usurpation of alien ground [CHAP. 
 
 \ pronounces all that 'unknowable' which is not 
 accessible by one kind of machinery. 
 
 Each science, I repeat, is supreme within its 
 own domain; but it has no sovereign authority 
 beyond it. The certainty which man can obtain 
 and by which he lives is manifold in kind and 
 corresponds with each separate region of phe- 
 nomena. There is no one method of obtaining 
 Truth : there is no one universal test of Truth. 
 No process can lead to a complete result in a 
 different order from that to which it properly 
 belongs. No conclusion from the science of 
 matter or of life can (as far as I can see) establish 
 any conclusion as to a point in morals or theology 
 and conversely. A physical law will help us to 
 present to our minds more distinctly a spiritual 
 fact : a spiritual fact will illuminate the relations 
 of a physical law to the moral order of the 
 universe; but the two are absolutely distinct 
 in their nature and in their sphere. 
 
 At the same time from the inherent con- 
 stitution of the hierarchy of Truths there is 
 always a serious danger lest a method which 
 happens to be eminently clear and dominant 
 should come to be regarded as absolute and 
 universal. The danger is the greater if the
 
 in.] by scientific methods. 91 
 
 method is openly successful in dealing with 
 the phenomena to which it is peculiarly appro- 
 priate. In the early and middle ages the popular 
 method of Theology usurped authority over 
 Physics; and now the established methods of 
 Physics or of Biology usurp authority over Theo- 
 logy. As we look back we can see plainly the 
 fatal errors of the past : it is more difficult to see 
 the equally fatal errors which are active about us 
 now. 
 
 And yet in one important respect the present 
 confusion of methods is more perilous than that 
 old confusion which we can at length unhesitat- 
 ingly condemn. There is more likelihood that 
 a method which is truly applicable in part 
 should be regarded as decisively adequate than 
 that a method wholly inapplicable should continue 
 to be used. And each successive zone of phe- 
 nomena (so to speak) of greater complexity admits 
 of being treated up to a certain point by the 
 method appropriate to the zone immediately 
 below, because it includes those phenomena as 
 the foundation upon which new data are super- 
 added. In such a case therefore the imperfect 
 treatment is, as far as it goes, sound and 
 attractive, but it is essentially incomplete. The 
 results are defective exactly in that which is
 
 92 Theology has its own method. [CHAP. in. 
 
 characteristic of the true results, while they are 
 otherwise true in themselves. But on the other 
 hand if the methods appropriate to a higher zone 
 are applied to a lower, then the results are wholly 
 fictitious. 
 
 Both these faulty methods of procedure have, 
 as has been already noticed, been actually carried 
 into effect. The method of Theology has been 
 applied to Physics, and the issue was mere 
 dreams ; and now the method of Physics is applied 
 to Theology, and the result must be of necessity 
 the denial of all that is peculiar to Theology. 
 
 True Theologians therefore will strive to 
 guard themselves alike against the temptation to 
 refuse to other sciences the fullest scope as far as 
 they reach, and against the temptation to acknow- 
 ledge that they are finally authoritative over that 
 which does not come within their range. They 
 will not withdraw one document which helps 
 to define their faith from the operation of any 
 established law of criticism, but they will refuse 
 to admit that any historical inquiry can decide 
 that there is no revelation. They will refuse 
 to accept as an axiom (or a postulate) that every 
 record which attests a revelation must be false.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE WORK OF THE PRE-CHRISTIAN NATIONS TO- 
 WARDS THE SOLUTION OF THE PROBLEMS 
 OF LIFE. 
 
 WE have already seen in a rapid survey what 
 are the typical mysteries which underlie human 
 life, what are the forces which constrain us to 
 consider them, what are the conditions under 
 which we must seek for their solution. Christi- 
 anity the Gospel of the Resurrection is as I 
 have already said the complete answer to all our 
 questionings, so far as we can receive an answer 
 at present, an answer which we are slowly spelling 
 out through the growing experience of the life of 
 the Church. But before this complete answer 
 was given other answers were made, partial and 
 tentative, which offer for our study the most 
 solemn aspect of ancient history. Some of these 
 answers I propose now to examine summarily. If 
 we can in any way apprehend them clearly, we
 
 94 We require a religious solution [CHAP. 
 
 shall understand better than by any other method 
 both the wants of man, and the resources which 
 he has himself for supplying them, and the extent 
 to which his natural endowments are able to 
 satisfy his wants. 
 
 But before we endeavour to characterise the 
 chief solutions which have been proposed for the 
 riddle of life apart from Christianity, it is neces- 
 sary to define again the character of the solution 
 which we require, and to determine the general 
 principles on which we may treat the religions of 
 the world as ancillary to and illustrative of the 
 gospel. 
 
 We require then briefly a religious solution : 
 a solution which shall deal with the great ques- 
 tions of our being and our destiny in relation to 
 thought and action and feeling. The Truth at 
 which we aim must take account of the conditions 
 of existence and define the way of conduct. It 
 is not for speculation only: so far Truth is the 
 subject of philosophy. It is not for discipline 
 only: so far it is the subject of ethics. It is not 
 for embodiment only : so far it is the subject of 
 art. Religion in its completeness is the harmony 
 of the three, philosophy, ethics, and art, blended 
 into one by a spiritual power, by a consecration 
 at once personal and absolute. The direction of
 
 iv.] of the problems of life. 95 
 
 philosophy, to express the thought somewhat 
 differently is theoretic and its end is the True, 
 as the word is applied to knowledge : the direction -.Wf /3 
 of Ethics is practical, and its end is the Good : the /j 
 
 la 
 
 direction of Art is representative, and its end is 
 the Beautiful. Religion includes these three ends * 
 but adds to them that in which they find their 
 consecration, the Holy. The Holy brings an 
 infinite sanction and meaning to that which is 
 otherwise finite and relative. It expresses not 
 only a complete inward peace but also an essen- 
 tial fellowship with GOD. 
 
 The perfect religion, the perfect solution of 
 the mysteries of life, will offer these elements and 
 aims in absolute adjustment and efficacy ; and each 
 element and aim will exist, at least in a rudi- 
 mentary form, in every religion. But from our 
 inherent incompleteness and faultiness now one 
 element and now another will be unduly promi- 
 nent. It may be thought or will or feeling which 
 is in excess, and then there will follow the dangers 
 of dogmatism or moralism or mysticism. Every 
 religion and every age offers illustrations of such 
 one-sided developments ; and it is easy to see 
 through these very exaggerations that if religion 
 is to correspond with the fulness of life the three 
 constituents are essential to its complete activity ;
 
 96 The idea of religion. [CHAP. 
 
 and that each one severally needs the other two 
 for its own proper realisation. 
 
 Such considerations serve also to indicate a 
 comprehensive definition of religion. It has 
 been defined as the consciousness of dependence : 
 as right action; and as knowledge. In these 
 several conceptions there is some confusion from 
 the fundamental differences in the point of sight 
 from which religion may be regarded. Religion 
 may be regarded as a tendency, a potential 
 energy or faculty in man, or as a system, a 
 view, of life corresponding to some stage of the 
 development of this tendency, or as the external 
 expression which it finds in personal conduct. 
 Thus all the definitions given above contain a 
 fragment of truth though they deal severally with 
 one side of the truth only. All point to a harmony 
 of being as the final aim towards which man 
 reaches out as born for religion, and which re- 
 ligions seek to represent in some partial and yet 
 intelligible form. Even the rudest demon- worship 
 contains the germ of this feeling by which the 
 worshipper seeks to be at one with some power 
 which is adverse to him. It is a witness to some- 
 thing in man by which he is naturally constituted 
 to feel after a harmonious fellowship with all that 
 of which he is conscious, with the unseen, and
 
 iv.] The end of religion. 97 
 
 with the infinite, no less than with the seen and 
 the material. 
 
 From one side then religion may be defined 
 to be the active expression of that element in 
 man, or rather perhaps of his whole being more 
 or less concordantly united, by which he strives 
 to realise a harmony in all things : and, from 
 the other side, a religion is that view of all things 
 which corresponds under particular circumstances 
 with his nature as constituted to seek after this 
 harmony. 
 
 Starting then from the idea of a gerfect 
 harmony as the final aim of religion, we see that 
 its immediate purpose is to bind together that 
 which is scattered, as things are, or discordant, and 
 to reunite that which has been disarranged or 
 severed. This being so it is evident that in order 
 to reach to the full breadth of the conception of 
 religion we must go beyond man himself. Not 
 only is there a division and discord in self: there 
 is also a division and discord between self and 
 the world, and between self and GOD. Religion 
 claims to deal with these external discords no less 
 than with the discord within us. Religion must 
 be capable of bringing reconciliation and order to 
 those elements and relations of our being which 
 give rise to the widest and most enduring conflicts. 
 It must take account of the continuity of life by /"*, 
 
 W. G. L. 7
 
 98 The idea of religion [CHAP. 
 
 which we are united with the past and with the 
 future. It must take account of the solidarity of 
 life by which at any one time we are united in 
 one real whole. It must take account of the 
 totality of life by which all the parts of creation 
 are united in a mutual, though dimly seen, inter- 
 dependence. And thus we come at last to a 
 general notion of its office to reconcile, to co- 
 ordinate, to discipline, to hallow: to reconcile 
 man and GOD, to coordinate man and the world, 
 to discipline the individual, to hallow all life by 
 the recognition of a divine presence and a divine 
 will. 
 
 This then is our first point : we require for the 
 satisfaction of wants which belong to our constitu- 
 tion a religious solution of the mysteries by which 
 we are surrounded: a solution which shall bring into 
 a harmonious relation the past, the present, and the 
 future, the seen and the unseen, the conflicting 
 elements of our personal nature. The facts of 
 personal and social life lead us to expect that the 
 end which we are made to seek will not be reached 
 without long and painful efforts, without failures, 
 partial attainments, relapses. They encourage us 
 to believe that nothing will be lost in which the 
 spirit of man has answered however imperfectly 
 to the Spirit of GOD. They move us to read as
 
 IV.] to be traced in history. 99 
 
 we can the lessons of human experience in the 
 slow unfolding of religious ideas, for the widening 
 and strengthening of our divine convictions. 
 
 We turn therefore to the long records of the 
 past to learn how men have solved or rather have 
 tried to solve the problems which, as we have seen, 
 must meet them more or less distinctly in the 
 course of life. The past is in this respect the 
 portraiture of humanity. It shews what man is 
 and what he strives to gain. We could not have 
 determined a priori what form these final ques- 
 tions of being would take, and still less what 
 answers would be rendered to them. Each man 
 is only able to realise a small fragment of the 
 wants, the feelings, the aspirations of the race. 
 But in the accumulated experience of ages we see 
 legibly written the fuller tendencies, the more 
 varied strivings, the manifold failures and vic- 
 tories of our common nature. The religious 
 character of man no less than his social or his 
 intellectual character is to be sought, not in 
 speculation first, but in the actual observation of 
 the facts of his continuous development. 
 
 This consideration alone must be sufficient to 
 impress upon the student of Christian Theology 
 the necessity of striving, as opportunity may be 
 given, to understand the essential ideas of faiths, 
 however strange or even repulsive, in which his 
 
 72
 
 100 The history of religion parallel [CHAP. 
 
 fellow-men have lived and died. These faiths all 
 shew something of what man is, and of what man 
 has made of man, though GOD be not far from each 
 one. The religious history of the world is the very 
 soul of history; and it speaks to the soul. It speaks 
 perhaps with eloquent pathos through some iso- 
 lated monument which is the sole record of a race 
 that has passed away, as, for example, through 
 those figures from Easter Island in front of which 
 we pass to the treasures of our British Museum. 
 That epitome of a ' Natural Theology ' wrought in 
 stone is a fitting preface to the records of human 
 achievement throughout the ages. 
 
 Such a search for the religious characteristics 
 of man in the past history of religion is in many 
 respects parallel to the search for the intellectual 
 characteristics of man in the history of the many 
 languages through which the divided nations have 
 expressed their thoughts. A religion and a lan- 
 guage even in their simplest forms are witnesses 
 to necessities of man's constitution, and in some 
 sense they are also prophecies of the fuller satis- 
 faction which the wants out of which they spring 
 will obtain in due time. No one language exhausts 
 man's capacity for defining, combining, subordi- 
 nating objects of thought, but all languages 
 together give a lively and rich picture of his
 
 iv.] to the history of language. 101 
 
 certain and yet gradual advance in innumerable 
 different paths towards the fulness of intellectual 
 development. So too it is with the many faiths 
 and observances which men have spontaneously 
 adopted. These in due measure reveal something 
 of his religious powers and needs. 
 
 Each race bears actual historical witness to the 
 reality of some particular phase of religious opinion: 
 of noble endeavour as it may be, or of disastrous 
 delusion, or of sad defeat, or of advancing conquest. 
 And if this be so we shall in a certain degree 
 approximate towards a true conception of the 
 religion which corresponds with man's nature by 
 a review of the religious strivings of the many 
 nations. In their experience lies a witness which 
 cannot be gainsaid. 
 
 This relation between the history of languages 
 and the history of religion is more than a simple 
 parallel. Religion and language have points of 
 close connexion. This connexion has sometimes 
 been rated too highly and sometimes misinter- 
 preted but it cannot be overlooked with impunity. 
 Natural groups of religions and natural groups of 
 languages are generally coincident. Nor is it 
 strange that it should be so. The same intellec- 
 tual peculiarities which fix the formation of a 
 language, will fix also the formation of the re-
 
 102 Relations of languages [CHAP. 
 
 ligious belief, so far as it is an object of thought. 
 The prevalent mode of viewing the world will 
 make itself felt both in language and in religion. 
 It is, for example, to take the simplest of all 
 instances, a point of vast moment in the construc- 
 tion of a popular religious faith whether in the 
 language of the people persons and things are 
 alike distinguished by sex-termination, or are 
 separated from the first into distinct classes. In 
 the one case there is the possibility of the per- 
 sonification of natural powers from which flow 
 almost necessarily the rich imaginations of my- 
 thology. In the other case the possibility is 
 excluded. 
 
 The effect of the absence or presence of this 
 capacity and tendency to personify external objects 
 is seen both in the general form of religious belief, 
 and specially in the names given to the unseen 
 powers. Two great types of the worship of the 
 African races are determined by this difference. 
 The worship of the Kafirs, Negroes and Poly- 
 nesians, who have no distinction of sex in nouns, is 
 a worship of ancestors, the personal beings whom 
 they can realise through memory ; the worship of 
 the Hottentots and North African races is based 
 on the personification of the heavenly bodies sug-
 
 iv.] and religions. 103 
 
 gested by their sex-denoting languages 1 . So again 
 in Chinese there are no genders and there is no 
 indigenous mythology. 
 
 Again, when men give names to the unseen 
 forms by which they believe that they are sur- 
 ronnded they may seek them either from what 
 they observe in human action or from the 
 phenomena of the outer world. The Shemitic 
 and Aryan religions are distinguished by this 
 fundamental difference of view. The Divine 
 names which are proper to the Shemitic languages 
 are predicative and moral, drawn from the relations 
 of human society : the names which are proper to the 
 Aryan languages are physical and concrete 2 . But 
 here it is evident that the language does not mould 
 the fashion of the thought but simply reveals it. 
 The idea of the Divine power is realised in the one 
 case under the image of a moral relation and in 
 the other under a physical image. We can say no 
 more than that both modes of representing the 
 
 1 Dr Bleek, Comparative Grammar of the South African 
 Languages, Preface, quoted by Max Miiller, Introduction to the 
 Science of Religion, pp. 40 f. ; and compare for the whole sub- 
 ject Max Miiller's Essay hi his ' Chips, 1 ii. pp. 1 146. 
 
 2 The Chinese represent both conceptions. Of the two 
 names which they apply to the highest spiritual powers the 
 one expresses the thought of physical vastness with an un- 
 alterable simplicity and (it may be said) incompleteness (Tien), 
 and the other that of supreme sovereignty (TI, Shang Ti.)
 
 Connexion of forms of language [CHAP. 
 
 ultimate fact are essentially human, and necessary 
 for its complete expression. An absolute religion 
 will in some way recognise both. 
 
 If we go a step further in the development of 
 language, and proceed from the mere giving of 
 names to the formation of words we shall find that 
 the structural differences of languages which 
 answer to specialities of national character exert 
 a direct influence upon the growth of religious 
 beliefs. Our example shall be taken again from 
 a comparison of the Shemitic and Aryan languages. 
 
 In the Shemitic languages the root, the funda- 
 mental element of the word, stands out with 
 ineffaceable distinctness : in the Aryan languages 
 the root is often covered up in formative elements. 
 This great law extends even to a secondary stage. 
 In Hebrew, for example, with one or two doubt- 
 ful exceptions, there are absolutely no compound 
 words : in Greek and German, to take the most 
 familiar examples, the power and richness of the 
 language depends in a great measure upon the 
 limitless variety of compounds. In the former 
 case therefore the original meaning of the root so 
 to speak shines through the dress in which it is 
 clothed, and the resultant word always points back 
 to its source. In the latter case, the derivatives 
 often become names which have lost their signi-
 
 iv.] with types of religious belief. 105 
 
 ficance, and which call up none of their first 
 associations. In the Shemitic dialects the terms 
 for the heaven or the dawn could not put off their 
 direct physical meaning. The personal interpre- 
 tation of the phenomena of nature was thus 
 impossible. With the Aryan languages it was 
 otherwise. The meaning of Eos or Hecate, of 
 Jupiter or Mars was forgotten ; and the manifes- 
 tations of one unknown Power were made separate 
 personalities. The general conclusion from these 
 facts has been well summed up in a single 
 sentence : " The language of the Shemitic races 
 was theological : the language of the Aryan races 
 was mythological " (Max Miiller). 
 
 This difference carried with it far-reaching 
 consequences. In the one case there was, if not 
 the tendency, at least the power to concentrate 
 the different ideas of majesty and lordship on 
 One Sovereign : in the other case there was the 
 tendency to define and isolate the separate repre- 
 sentations of forces regarded in their outward 
 manifestations. 
 
 But while we recognise the part which lan- 
 guage has played and still plays in giving form 
 to popular religious notions, we must be careful 
 not to exaggerate this influence. The language 
 does not itself create or finally explain the religion.
 
 106 Languages reveal and do not [CHAP. 
 
 It simply illustrates the impulses and tendencies 
 which found expression in the religion under the 
 intellectual form ; but the impulses and tendencies 
 themselves underlie religion and language alike. 
 We have not reached the end when we can see 
 that particular languages offered facilities for the 
 formation and propagation of special religious 
 ideas. The original question still remains : How 
 came the languages to have these peculiar de- 
 velopments ? And the answer remains hidden in 
 the ultimate mystery of life. Language reveals 
 the deepest springs of thought, and of religious 
 thought as of all other thought, but it does not 
 create them. Each particular language reveals, or 
 has the tendency to reveal, just so much of the 
 Truth as the race is endowed with as a constituent 
 of humanity. Man is born to worship j ust as he 
 is born to speak : he is born religious just as he is 
 born social. In the ordering of outward life he 
 finds expression for the one part of his nature : in 
 the embodiment of faith he finds expression for 
 the other. The consciousness of the three funda- 
 mental existences self, the world, GOD carries 
 with it necessarily the desire to reconcile them. 
 That this is so is an ultimate fact of experience. 
 
 To go back then to the point from which we 
 digressed, we are justified in looking to history
 
 IV.] create religious tendencies. 107 
 
 for a manifestation of man's nature, originally 
 religious, shewn in many fragments and under 
 many disguises. A belief in GOD constrains us 
 to hold that the office of working out different 
 parts of the total inheritance of mankind was 
 committed in the order of Providence to different 
 races. And in every part, in every fragmentary 
 realisation of man's endowments and powers, re- 
 ligion has a share. Religion is necessary for the 
 full expression of human life. In the course of 
 time, under isolating influences, systems of philo- 
 sophy or morals or art may usurp the place of 
 religion, but even so they render a silent homage 
 to its sovereignty. They shew something of the 
 depths of the soul over which religion broods ; 
 and stir thoughts, efforts, feelings, which they 
 cannot satisfy. They treat, if only partially, of 
 mysteries of GOD, the world, and self, which lie in 
 the innermost consciousness of men. Their divi- 
 sion is a witness to the developed vastness of the 
 thoughts which they cannot keep together. But 
 at first men strive after a religious interpretation 
 of phenomena dimly seen. Little by little the re- 
 ligious idea takes shape, often falsely and always 
 imperfectly. The embodiment grows and decays 
 with the society to which it corresponds ; but 
 each stage of growth and decay of growth, may 
 we say, through decay is full of abiding interest.
 
 108 In what sense there is [CHAP. 
 
 We know through the facts of our own individual 
 experience something of the process of change. 
 Our personal experience of the formation of our 
 own religious conceptions helps us to understand 
 the progress in natural sequence from the childly 
 to the maturer faith, from the undefined belief in 
 GOD, which is part of man's original equipment, 
 to the belief in many gods of partial and different 
 powers and then to the belief in One GOD. We 
 have ourselves known corresponding stages in the 
 realisation of our own Faith. And this progress, 
 achieved at least in thought on a large scale by 
 the noblest among Gentile teachers, is part of the 
 'testimony of the soul naturally Christian': the 
 revelation of the soul's wants which the absolute 
 religion must meet. This is one side of the great 
 lessons of the Gentile religions ; and on the other 
 hand the popular corruptions of simple religions are 
 no less instructive. In a different sense these also 
 are witnessings of the soul to Christ, so far as they 
 shew that man cannot live in the thin atmosphere 
 of abstractions, but must make for himself objects 
 to which he can approach and which, in a sense 
 which he can realise, may go before him. 
 
 There is then we believe, to gather up what 
 
 njU has been said, a certain original correspondence 
 
 between national religions and national charac-
 
 iv.] a science of religion. 109 
 
 teristics. As each nation contributes something 
 to the fulness of the life of humanity, and some- 
 thing also to our knowledge of man's powers; even 
 so it is with the manifestation of their religious 
 beliefs and aspirations. In the earliest stage of 
 society perhaps the religion is the interpreter no 
 less than the bond of the nation. And even after- 
 wards, in the later stages of natural progress or 
 degeneration, there are further lessons to be 
 learnt. There is also a law which connects the 
 successive phases of each popular religion in its 
 process of development or disintegration. In a 
 certain sense therefore we may speak of a his- 
 torical science of religion as we speak of a 
 historical science of language. But the parallel 
 must not be pressed too far. Man contains within 
 himself all the springs from which speech flows. 
 Nothing is added which is not the consequence of 
 what precedes. The development of language 
 will consequently be continuous and everywhere 
 like in kind, if not like in form or in degree. 
 But in the case of religion it is not so. Our 
 knowledge of GOD depends, as we have seen, 
 upon the revelation which He is pleased to make 
 of Himself. And the natural voice of humanity 
 proclaims with no uncertain sound that He has 
 in fact made Himself known in various ways and 
 at various times. There is, no doubt, a close
 
 110 Two groups of facts [CHAP. 
 
 relation between all alleged revelations and the 
 state of things in which they were brought for- 
 ward. In the case of fictitious revelations it is 
 possible to find an explanation of their origin and 
 acceptance in the circumstances under which they 
 were received. In the revelations of which the 
 Bible is the record we maintain that such an 
 explanation is impossible. In this case there is 
 indeed a divine fitness which connects every 
 revelation of GOD with the circumstances under 
 which it is given; but the circumstances do not 
 produce, nor have they even a tendency to 
 produce, the revelation of which they are the 
 condition. The medium does not create the life. 
 
 It follows therefore that in the historical study 
 of religion we shall have two groups of facts to 
 coordinate and interpret, those which present the 
 evolution of the religious idea of man from within 
 according to the working of his own proper 
 powers; and those which represent the ap- 
 propriation of super-added truths communicated 
 directly by GOD, not to all at once, but to a 
 representative people and to representative men. 
 We have to observe the history of religious ideas 
 in ' the nations ' and in ' the people.' The two 
 streams perpetually intermix. The human often 
 opens the way for the divine, and provides the
 
 iv.] to be recognised. Ill 
 
 channel in which "it can best flow : the divine 
 adds to the human that towards which it tended 
 and which it could not supply. 
 
 A single illustration will bring out clearly 
 the distinction which I desire to draw. There 
 was, as has been already noticed, a preparedness, 
 so to speak, for the reception of the doctrine of 
 the unity of GOD among the Shemitic races. 
 The structure of their language and the tendency 
 of thought which it represented, qualified them 
 both to apprehend and to retain the truth. No- 
 where else in the world can we find the same 
 ruling idea of symmetry, the same simplicity, the 
 same stationariness. Thus there was, it is true, a 
 divine congruity in the fact that Abraham a 
 Shemite became the Father of the faithful ; 
 but as he stands out among idolatrous polytheists 
 of the same race we feel also that the possession 
 of the truth whereby he was a source of blessing 
 to all nations came from a Divine gift and not from 
 a natural 'instinct 'shared by him with his fellow- 
 Shemites. The call of Abraham and his obedience 
 of faith is a fresh beginning in the religious life 
 of mankind, a true new creation. The later 
 history of the East is a signal commentary on this 
 central revelation to the world. The ' One GOD ' 
 of Judaism, of Christianity, and of Mohammedan- 
 ism is proclaimed to be 'the GOD of Abraham.'
 
 112 The work of Persia. [CHAP. 
 
 There is, as has been often pointed out, no 
 historic monotheism which does not start from 
 this definite covenant which GOD made with him 
 who still after nearly four thousand years is 
 called in the land of his pilgrimage, the land 
 of faith, 'the friend of God.' 
 
 But even when we have thus distinguished 
 two streams of religious ideas, and claimed for 
 special revelation, symbolised in the call of Abra- 
 ham, its proper place in the religious history of 
 the world, the part fulfilled by heathendom in 
 the training of humanity for Christ the broken 
 imperfect representation of the normal discipline 
 and development (so to speak) of the religious 
 power in man as he was created does not lose its 
 importance. Two arguments will be sufficient to 
 establish the point. The first is derived from the 
 office which the two great types of the religious 
 thought of the Aryan race actually discharged in 
 the development of Judaism : the second lies in 
 the direct words of the inspired writers. 
 
 No student of the history of Judaism can fail 
 to recognise the lasting effects which Cyrus and 
 Alexander the representatives of the Eastern 
 and Western Aryan civilizations wrought upon 
 the Jewish Church. The services which Persia
 
 iv.] The work of Greece. 113 
 
 rendered to the education of the world have 
 descended to us through the influences of the 
 later organisation of the people of Israel. The 
 work of Greece, on the other hand, lives for the 
 simplest Christian in the New Testament. It' can 
 hardly be presumptuous to say that without the 
 discipline of the Persian supremacy and the 
 quickening impulse of Greek thought, a medium 
 could not have been prepared to receive and 
 record the revelation of the Gospel. The chosen 
 people gathered to itself in due time the treasures 
 which other races had won. 
 
 Not to pursue this subject in detail, it will 
 be enough for the student to compare the Jewish 
 people before and after the Captivity to under- 
 stand what they owed to Persian influence. 
 Idolatry, which had been their besetting sin in 
 earlier ages, disappeared. At the same time fuller 
 views of the unseen world were opened before 
 them. The kingdom became a church : an ec- 
 clesiastical system was consolidated : teachers 
 stood by the side of priests : prayer assumed a 
 new importance in worship : the bond of the 
 society was felt more and more to be spiritual 
 and not only local. 
 
 The conquests of Alexander and the consequent 
 increase and wider extension of the Jews of ' the 
 Dispersion' served to deepen this feeling of the 
 W. G. L. 8
 
 114 The work of the Nations. [CHAP. 
 
 potential universality of the Jewish revelation in 
 its final completeness. Alexandria was added as 
 a third centre of the faith to Jerusalem and 
 Babylon. Greek thoughts were brought under 
 the light of the concentrated belief in the unity 
 of GOD and in His Personal sovereignty over 
 creation. The Greek language was slowly adapted 
 to the more exact and complete expression of the 
 conceptions which Hebrew could only convey in 
 a colossal outline. Let any one, to say all at once, 
 compare the Greek Testament with the LXX. and 
 with the Hebrew original, and he will be able to 
 estimate the value of those instruments of precise 
 analysis and exposition which the unconscious 
 labours of the whole Greek race prepared for 
 Christians from the first. 
 
 There are distinct, if scanty, acknowledgments 
 of this world- wide fulfilment of the one counsel of 
 GOD even in the Old Testament. In the pa- 
 triarchal age Melchizedek is the symbol of the 
 truth. And in two most remarkable passages of 
 the book of Deuteronomy even alien and false 
 worships are presented as part of the divine 
 ordering of humanity. The Lord the GOD of 
 Israel had 'divided all the host of heaven unto 
 all the peoples under the whole heaven' (iv. 19). 
 He had 'given them' to the nations but not to
 
 iv.] recognised in the Bible. 115 
 
 His own people (xxix. 20). Even these idolatries 
 had a work to do for Him, an office in the 
 disciplining of men, however little we .may be 
 able to understand the scope of its fulfilment. 
 The description which Isaiah gives of the work 
 of Cyrus 'the Lord's Shepherd' (xliv. 28), 'the 
 Lord's Anointed' (xlv. 1), is more familiar. 
 
 In the New Testament the conception of a 
 growth of humanity underlies in one sense the 
 whole picture of the age. The Gospel came at 
 ' the fulness of time ' (Gal. iv. 4 ; comp. Eph. i. 
 10 ; Tit. i. 3 ; Rom. v. 6), which answered alike to 
 the set period of the will of the Father, and to 
 the preparation of the many ' sons.' Such a view 
 of the absolute correspondence between the one 
 divine fact and the circumstances under which it 
 was wrought follows directly from the doctrine 
 of the age-long revelation of the Word, who was in 
 the world and (in another sense) was ever coming 
 into the world which He had made (John i. 9 ff.). 
 And the few notices which occur in the apostolic 
 writings of the position of the heathen towards 
 the Christian revelation take account equally of 
 what they had been able to do and of what they 
 had failed to do (Acts xiv. 1 7 ; xvii. 24 ff. ; Rom. 
 i. 19 ff.). The words of the Lord are heard from 
 the beginning to the end Other sheep I have which 
 are not of this fold (John x. 16) sheep who were 
 
 89 

 
 116 Justin Martyr on the divine [CHAP. 
 
 not the less sheep because they had not yet re- 
 cognised their shepherd. 
 
 The truth which was thus realised in the 
 history of the Jews and recognised in the teach- 
 ing of the New Testament found a partial exposi- 
 tion among some of the early Greek Fathers, of 
 whom Justin Martyr and Clement of Alexandria 
 are the best examples. These fathers and others, 
 particularly men of the Alexandrine School, 
 though they did not rise to the apprehension of 
 the special office of Gentile nations in the divine 
 economy, which a larger view of the relations of 
 the parts of our vast human life enables us to 
 gain, yet saw clearly that there was a work for and 
 of GOD going on during the apparent isolation of 
 the heathen from the region in which the Spirit 
 revealed Him. The teaching of Justin is sin- 
 gularly full of interest, and in some respects 
 unique. The truths in the utterances of heathen 
 philosophy and poetry are due, he says, to the 
 fact that 'a seed of the Word is implanted' (or 
 rather 'inborn/ epfyvrov) 'in every race of men.' 
 Those who grasped the truth lived ' according to 
 a part of the seminal Word' even as Christians 
 live 'according to the knowledge and contem- 
 plation of the whole Word, that is Christ.' They 
 'nobly uttered what they saw akin to the part
 
 iv.] element in Gentile teachers. 117 
 
 'of the divine seminal Word which they had 
 ' received.' The opponents of Christianity pleaded 
 that it was of recent date, and that men who lived 
 before its promulgation were irresponsible. Justin 
 replies: 'he has been taught... that Christ is the 
 ' first born (TTPWTOTOKOV rov @eoO) of GOD, as being 
 ' the Logos (Word, Reason), in which all the race 
 ' of men partook. And those who lived with the 
 ' Word (with Reason) are Christians even if they 
 ' were accounted atheists, as, among Greeks, Socrates 
 ' and Heraclitus and those like them, and among 
 ' non-Greeks Abraham, and Ananias, Azarias and 
 'Misael, and Elias, and many others....' 
 
 But while Justin acknowledges in this way 
 that there were, in one sense, Christians before 
 Christ among the heathen and an actual working 
 of the Word through the reason of man, he in- 
 clines to the popular but untenable belief, which 
 had been long current at Alexandria, that the 
 Gentile teaching on ' the immortality of the soul, 
 'and punishments after death and the like' were 
 borrowed from the Jewish prophets 1 . 
 
 Clement is equally undecided in his view of 
 the origin of the truths of heathendom. On the 
 whole he regards them as partly borrowed from 
 
 1 Just. M. Apol. ii. 8 (p. 188 Otto) ; ii. 13 (p. 200) ; Apol. i. 
 46 (p. 110); i. 44 (p. 106). Comp. Apol. i. 5; ii. 10.
 
 118 Clement of Alexandria on [CHAP. 
 
 Jewish revelation and partly derived from reason 
 illuminated by the Word the final source of 
 reason. There was, he says, in philosophy a little 
 fire, stolen as it were by a Prometheus, fit to give 
 light, if duly fanned : faint traces of wisdom and 
 an impulse from GOD. And so Greek philosophers 
 were in this sense thieves and robbers, who before 
 the Lord's coming took from the Hebrew prophets 
 fragments of truth. They did not possess the 
 deeper knowledge of its import (ov /car' entry vwo-iv) 
 but appropriated what they took as their own doc- 
 trines. Some truths they disfigured : others they 
 overlaid with restless and foolish speculations: 
 others they discovered, for perhaps they also had 
 he concludes ' a spirit of wisdom.' 
 
 Yet whatever might be the connexion between 
 Jewish and Gentile doctrines, both systems were 
 related to the Gospel as parts to the whole, and 
 parts mutilated by the perverseness of men. The 
 various schools of philosophy, Jewish and heathen 
 alike, are described by Clement under a memor- 
 able image as rending in pieces the one Truth, 
 as the Bacchanals rent the body of Pentheus and 
 bore about the fragments in triumph. Each one, 
 he says, boasts that the morsel which has fallen 
 to it is all the Truth... Yet by the rising of the 
 Light all things are brightened. . .and he continues, 
 ' he that again combines the divided parts and
 
 iv.] Greek Philosophy. 119 
 
 ' unites the Word, the revelation, of GOD (\6yo<i) in 
 ' a perfect whole, will, we may be assured, look 
 'upon the Truth without peril.' 
 
 But though Clement writes undecidedly as to 
 the final source of the truths in Greek philosophy 
 he expresses a definite judgment as to the office 
 which philosophy fulfilled for the Greeks, and 
 still in his time continued to fulfil, as a guide to 
 righteousness a work of divine providence 1 . 
 
 At the same time he limits the preparatory 
 work of heathendom to the teaching of philo- 
 sophers and poets. It was natural that he should 
 do so. The classical religions of the Greeks and 
 Romans had no sacred books. The last word of 
 Greek religious thought was philosophy: the 
 last word of Roman religious thought was law. 
 Clement indeed was acquainted, at least by hear- 
 say, with the writings and speculations of the 
 Brahmans and of Zoroaster and of the Buddhists, 
 but they appeared to him simply as the works of 
 philosophers and not as the authoritative sources 
 of wide-spread religious belief 2 . The idea of a 
 heathen book-religion was wholly strange to him. 
 
 1 Clem. Al. Strom, i. 87, p. 369 ; i. 57, p. 349. Comp. 
 Strom, i. 18; 28; vi. 159; 42; 167; i. 99; vi. 44, 
 47ft. 
 
 2 Strom, i. 68, p. 355; 72, p. 360. Comp. iii. 60, p. 538. 
 Strom, i. 69, p. 357; 133, p. 399 ; v. 104, p. 711. 
 Strom, i. 71, p. 359. Lightfoot, Colossians, p. 155 note.
 
 120 TJie old Book-religions opened to us. [CHAP. iv. 
 
 But for our purpose it will be best to confine our 
 attention to the old 'Book-religions.' There is 
 much of the deepest interest in the religious 
 beliefs of savages: much also in the religious 
 beliefs which are preserved in works of art ; but 
 the actual records from which men drew and still 
 draw their faith are both more accessible and, 
 with every allowance for their obscurity, more 
 certain in their interpretation. A century ago 
 such an inquiry as is now open to the theological 
 student would have been impossible. As it is the 
 original writings of Confucianism, Brahmanism, 
 Buddhism, Zoroastrianism are rapidly being placed 
 before us in intelligible forms ; and it can hardly 
 be an accident that each of the three great 
 families of speech offers collections of sacred books 
 which present in a form capable of a direct analysis 
 the faiths which correspond with them.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 PILE-CHRISTIAN GENTILE SOLUTIONS OF 
 THE PROBLEMS OF BEING. 
 
 WHAT then, we have now to ask, are the 
 characteristic thoughts which underlie the prse- 
 Christian Book-religions ? and what lessons can 
 we learn from them ? These lessons, as we have 
 already seen, will be twofold, according as they 
 are drawn from the original conceptions to which 
 the several religions bear witness, and from the 
 subsequent embodiments of them. The original 
 conceptions will serve at once to enlarge and to 
 define our view of man's religious nature ; and if 
 so, to illuminate oar own faith ; for if Christianity 
 be, as we believe, universal, then every genuine L&-^~t 
 expression of human religious thought will enable 
 us to see in the Gospel some corresponding truth 
 which answers to it. If we can understand what 
 whole races of men were feeling after, we shall 
 have a clue to the discovery of mysteries for which
 
 122 The value of the old Book-religions [CHAP. 
 
 we, with our limited religious instincts, should 
 not otherwise have sought. And in the growing 
 assurance that the Gospel meets each real need 
 of humanity, we shall find the highest conceivable 
 proof of its final and absolute truth. 
 
 This then is one end of our inquiry ; and the 
 other is to apprehend the fatal course of the 
 actual history of primitive Gentile religions. For 
 so much will be clear that in each case the cen- 
 tral idea from which they all start, the need of a 
 harmony between man and the world and GOD, 
 after it had at first found a popular expression 
 through the voice of great teachers, became as 
 time went on, more and more overlaid on the 
 one side by speculation and on the other side by 
 ceremonialism. That which originally found 
 spontaneous acceptance among different races as 
 a religion became universally a philosophy or 
 a ritual. 
 
 Something of the same twofold degeneration 
 can be seen in the history of the Christian Faith, 
 but the preservation in the Church of the original 
 records of the historic revelation provides in this 
 case an adequate outward test of all later de- 
 velopments and an effectual source of reformation. 
 
 All that will be said will necessarily require 
 to be carefully verified, and completed by more
 
 v.] to the Christian student. 123 
 
 detailed inquiries. I can only hope that some 
 who have the leisure will follow out lines of 
 thought which seem to me to promise to this age ~ 
 
 a manifestation of Truth fuller in its assurance 
 
 
 
 and more glorious in its promises than men have 
 yet received. We are placed in a position in 
 which it is first becoming possible to see that the 
 Gospel is the answer to every religious aspiration 
 and need of man and men. We must then, if we 
 are to comprehend its scope, strive to hear and to 
 understand every voice of those who have sought 
 GOD, even if they be only voices of 'children 
 crying in the dark.' 
 
 To this end we must endeavour to keep in 
 view the ruling thoughts of different systems ; 
 and at the very outset of our inquiry we may, I 
 think, characterise by three words the three 
 groups of prae- Christian Book-religions the Tu- 
 ranian, the Aryan, the Shemitic and such a 
 characterisation will serve as a general clue to 
 guide us as we go farther. We may say with jus- 
 tice, speaking broadly, that the Chinese (Turanian) 
 religions are impressed with the stamp of order, 
 the Aryan with that of nature, the Shemitic with 
 that of history. So it is that the resemblances 
 between these three groups of religions are great- 
 est in their earliest stages. Then the peculiar 
 influences of race begin to work ; and their
 
 124 The religions of China. [CHAP. 
 
 original correspondences are slowly obliterated 
 by developments in these three directions. 
 
 (i) THE RELIGIONS OF CHINA. 
 
 The indigenous religious systems of China 
 and here we must use the term religious in its 
 widest sense are, I have said, impressed by the 
 conception of a supreme order. The two great 
 contemporary teachers, Lao-tzu and Confucius, 
 who lived in the sixth century B.C., took this 
 conception and gave it shape in converse and 
 complementary forms. Lao-tzu embodied it in a 
 system of mysticism, and Confucius in a system 
 of materialistic realism, or, in modern language, 
 of positivism. 
 
 With Lao-tzu the order the 'way' (Tao) 
 pointed to absolute repose, so that the end of the 
 wise man was to strip off every personal thought 
 and want and joy and sorrow and yield himself to 
 the invisible law of his being. With Confucius 
 the visible order was the one sufficient sphere of 
 the citizen's activity. Man could, he taught, 
 find in himself the power to fulfil the perfect law, 
 and also find in the past the unchanging and 
 sufficient models for his action. In both cases 
 the order which the teacher aimed at realising 
 was something sovereign over the mutability of
 
 V.] The primitive religion. 125 
 
 physical nature and life. Both teachers again 
 regarded the earth as the one scene of human 
 interest. Both wished for a return to the old 
 paths. Both found their golden age in the past. 
 Evil without and within was treated by them as 
 something transitory and removable. Neither 
 looked to any future existence as an occasion for 
 just retribution; nor do they ofler any direct 
 doctrine on another state. 
 
 But both Lao-tzu and Confucius seem to have 
 used many earlier thoughts, and there are striking 
 correspondences in their physical views which 
 probably represent the traditional opinions of 
 their time. And even more than this : Confucius 
 in spite of his practical bent, expresses now and 
 then thoughts which answer to the quietism of 
 Lao-tzu (Analects xv. 4 ; $M King v. 3). 
 
 (a) Traces of the primitive religion. 
 
 It is still more important that Confucius 
 and Lao-tzu alike left much in the popular 
 beliefs and practices of their age unchanged and 
 untouched. All that is properly speaking theo- 
 logical in the national Chinese religion is older 
 than their teaching ; and this primitive, prae- 
 Taouist, prae-Confucian religion, which survives
 
 126 The primitive religion [CHAP. 
 
 to the present time in great national ceremonies 
 and in domestic worship, offers many points of the 
 greatest interest. It has no priesthood, no my- 
 thology. The sacrifices which are offered represent 
 dependence on the power to which they are made 
 and gratitude for protection, but they include 
 no thought of expiation or propitiation ; and no 
 essentially evil powers whose malevolence needs 
 to be averted are recognised in this earliest 
 faith. A fellowship between heaven and earth 
 is established through the spirits of the departed 
 which are placed in close connexion with the 
 celestial hosts in the most solemn acts of worship. 
 
 The Shu- King, in which the chief traces of the 
 primitive religion are preserved, gives a picture of 
 patriarchal faith and worship which is singularly 
 simple and reverent, nor is there any reason to 
 doubt that it represents what were commonly held 
 in the time of Confucius to have been the customs 
 and opinions in the days of the early kings. 
 
 The first account of sacrifice seems to carry 
 us beyond the limits of China. In this we are 
 brought into the presence of a majestic spiritual 
 hierarchy. The conception is essentially mono- 
 theistic and not polytheistic. Next to the Su- 
 preme Lord stands his foremost counsellors, to 
 whom is committed the care of elements or
 
 v.] of China. 127 
 
 provinces of life. At a greater distance are 
 ranged vasts hosts of subordinate spirits to whom 
 various ministries are assigned; and with these 
 are associated spirits of the dead who in some 
 cases are raised to be ' assessors of heaven.' 
 
 But while the conception of spiritual powers 
 is pure and noble, the approach to them was not 
 supposed to be open to all. The worship of the 
 Supreme Lord (Shang-ti) has been confined in 
 historic times to the Emperor, who appears before 
 Him as the representative of the whole nation ; 
 and there is no evidence in the old books that He 
 was ever worshipped directly by the people at 
 large. Moreover a change in expression tended 
 to obscure the distinctness of the early thought 
 of the one Supreme Lord. Under the Chow 
 dynasty the title ' Heaven and Earth ' came to ' 
 be used for the simple ' Heaven/ and the imperial 
 sacrifices were said to be offered to 'Heaven 
 and Earth.' Such language might easily give 
 occasion for losing both the unity and the spiri- 
 tuality of the primitive faith ; and this seems to 
 have been in fact the case. 
 
 At the same time there are significant traces 
 in the books of the Shu-Bang of a fuller expres- 
 sion of the religious consciousness than Confucius 
 himself acknowledged. They recognise heavenly 
 powers which freely sway the affairs of men by
 
 128 Imperial worship and [CHAP. 
 
 laws of right : the influence of the departed upon 
 the affairs of earth : the action of what we can 
 only regard as a personal Providence, whose 
 counsel is executed by the earthly king. 
 
 The ceremonial institutions which were based 
 upon these early beliefs have been continued to 
 the present time, even if the beliefs themselves 
 have lost much of their power. Two of these, 
 the imperial worship of Shang-ti, and the general 
 worship of ancestors, present most impressively, 
 and as it were under the form of a primaeval 
 tradition, two conceptions which as yet we have 
 not mastered in their Christian fulfilment, the 
 solidarity and the continuity of the race. The 
 Chinese are commonly held to be a prosaic 
 people. They have at least preserved in these 
 national customs a vivid expression of the most 
 far-reaching fellowship of men in the present 
 and through all time. In the one the nation is 
 gathered up and finds unity in its head, and so 
 appears before its unseen Lord : in the other the 
 family is realised as one through all the stages of 
 succession; and few thoughts are grander than 
 that which holds that the achievements of a 
 great man extend the privileges of his nobility to 
 his ancestors (cornp. Luke i. 72). It is no doubt 
 true that the practical effects of these venerable
 
 v.] worship of Ancestors. 129 
 
 observances fall far below their true conception. 
 The text of the imperial prayers is not accessible. 
 The solemnities of ancestral worship degenerate 
 into forms. Still the institutions themselves 
 have a meaning for us. They come to us as a 
 message from a patriarchal age, declaring what 
 man reaches out to and what by himself he can- 
 not obtain. As we look on them with true 
 human sympathy we seem to see a dim shadow 
 of Melchizedek moving among his people. 
 
 These primitive religious conceptions form the 
 background to the characteristic teaching of Lao- 
 tzu and Confucius in which as we have seen the 
 religious tendency of China towards order finds 
 characteristic and complementary expression. 
 
 (6) Taouism. 
 
 The Tao-tih King the Book of Tao and Vir- 
 tue represents an independent and character- 
 istic form of speculation which constantly recurs 
 in the spiritual history of men (Buddhism, Gnos- 
 ticism, Quietism). There is no reason to think 
 that the teaching was derived from any foreign 
 source. The book which is about twice as long 
 as the Sermon on the Mount recognises the old 
 faith and specially the worship of ancestors ; but 
 it gives a philosophic view of being and not a 
 w. G. L. 9
 
 130 Conception of Tdo. [CHAP. 
 
 religious system. The interpretation of the key- 
 word Tao is difficult and complex. Literally it 
 means 'way,' and suggests that there is an 
 archetypal idea of the whole sum of things and 
 of each part ( 39). It has no name ( 25, 32, 
 41). In itself it represents the indeterminate, 
 the absolute, the unconditioned ; in relation to 
 things observed it is the law of being ; in relation 
 to action it is as conceived, the right way, and as 
 realised, virtue. It has no beauty to look at but 
 in use it is inexhaustible ( 35). 
 
 The thought of Tao defines the sense of unity 
 in things which we feel directly and do not reach 
 by reasoning ( 62) ; and our business is to dis- 
 cern the relation of the world, life, conduct to 
 Tao, for the true order of things in space any 
 time is through, according to, unto Tao. Such a 
 conception admits no reference to will or design : 
 will implies resistance and design implies succes- 
 sion ; but Tao is. 
 
 We can see the fulfilment of Tao in ' Nature.' 
 The elements and forces of ' Nature ' fulfil their 
 parts spontaneously, yielding themselves to an 
 inspiring power ( 64, 29, 32, 37, 62). So for 
 men and each man there is a true ruling idea to 
 which perfect submission is due (comp. Hebr. vi. 
 1 fapwfjieda) ; but we are always substituting for 
 this our own self-chosen aims and ways. The
 
 v.] Corruption of Taouism. 131 
 
 wise man however has no private aim ( 13, 51, 
 77). He is empty ( 11, 15): he knows his 
 ignorance ( 20) : he does nothing ( 2, 29, 43, 
 56-7, 63): he is free in the sense that (as the 
 
 stone falls) he fulfils the law of his being. Perfect 
 
 : 
 freedom is, he knows, identical with perfect obedi- Q. 
 
 ence. He will not strive ( 66, 68, 73). His < 
 strength is in humility ( 8, 9, 22). He becomes 
 a little child ( 10, 28). But while the effects 
 of all violence (as war, conquest, capital punish- 
 ment) are transitory ( 23), there is strength in 
 weakness ( 76, 78). Hence it follows that the 
 results of artificial progress material and intel- 
 lectualare full of peril ( 3, 12, 80 ; 48, 65, 71) ; 
 and through this comes at last the fall of states 
 (i 17, 18). 
 
 Such a system contained no Gospel for the 
 poor. It appealed to the self-reliance of the 
 solitary thinker. At the same time its insistence 
 on the existence of one essence in all things ( 28), 
 and on the permanence and safety of the sage 
 ( 50) gave occasion to the acceptance and develop- 
 ment of gross superstitions in regard to charms 
 and divinations, so that at present Taouism is in 
 China the most debased type of religion, though 
 
 it is said to have retained more of its original ' 
 
 
 
 form in Corea. It is difficult to trace the history 
 of its decline, which offers striking resemblances 
 
 92
 
 132 Confucianism the typical [CHAP. 
 
 to that of Neo-Platonism. This was largely 
 influenced by the permanent introduction of 
 Buddhism into China in the first century (A.D. 65). 
 Lao-tzu was assimilated to Buddha. Images were 
 made of three Taouist Holy Ones. The doctrine 
 of future punishment became a powerful engine 
 in the hands of the priests. Ancestral worship 
 was no longer a fellowship of the family, but a 
 service of fear for the averting of evil. Subordi- 
 nate Gods were multiplied as representatives of 
 the powers of nature and charged with the 
 interests of human life. Even within the last 
 half century the God of war (Kwan-ti) has been 
 made equal to Confucius. And though these are 
 not properly Taouist deities their temples are in 
 charge of Taouist priests. 
 
 While this practical degeneration of Taouism 
 as a religious system proceeded, the moral teaching 
 of Taouism still retained wide influence ; and ' The 
 book of rewards and punishments,' a collection of 
 moral aphorisms of great beauty, is said to be at 
 present the most popular religious book in China. 
 
 (c) Confucianism. 
 
 The system of Lao-tzu, though it was a 
 necessary philosophical embodiment of the funda- 
 mental Chinese conception of an absolute order of
 
 V.] faith of China. 133 
 
 things, was alien from the practical character of 
 the people. So far as it obtained acceptance, it 
 was with select thinkers as a speculative system 
 or with the mass of people as a system of 
 magical powers. The latter aspect is, as we have 
 seen, that which has been most permanent. It 
 was supposed that the wise man obtained com- 
 mand over the spirits of earth and heaven by 
 which he was surrounded, and in virtue of this 
 imaginary power of its priests Taouism still 
 maintains its hold on China. The system of 
 Confucius however is the most complete expres- 
 sion of the national character. Confucius is 
 the only statesman who has fashioned a 're- 
 ligion ' ; and he sought it in the establishment 
 of an earthly order. He declined to entertain 
 the questions, Whence ? Whither ? The life of 
 this world was, he held, sufficient to occupy men. 
 ' Ke Loo asked about serving the spirits of the 
 ' dead. The Master said : While you are not able 
 ' to serve men, how can you serve their spirits ? 
 'Ke Loo added: I venture to ask about Death. 
 'He was answered: While you do not know life, 
 ' how can you know about death ? ' (Analects xi. 11). v ' 
 So ' there were four things which the Master ' 
 ' taught, letters, ethics, devotion of soul, truthful- 
 ' ness ' (id. 24). Through these he endeavoured ., 
 to shape an external order which should at once
 
 134 Man born good [CHAP. 
 
 develop and restrain human powers ; and he held 
 that perfect virtue consists in the manifestation 
 of ' gravity, generosity of soul, sincerity, earnest- 
 ' ness and kindness ' (Analects xvii. 6). 
 
 The foundation of the system of Confucius lay 
 in the assumption, of which there were traces in 
 the older writings, that man is born good, ' bora 
 'for righteousness' (Analects vi. 17; cf. Mencius 
 vii. 1, 15 ; vi. (1), 2, 1 f.). ' The great man,' said 
 Mencius, who was the victorious apostle of Con- 
 fucianism, 'is he who does not lose his childs- 
 ' heart' (iv. 2, 13); and while he recognised the 
 complexity of the constitution of man, he affirmed 
 that man was capable of recognising a sovereign 
 law within. To follow this and not some chance 
 impulse is, he shews with a vigour and decision 
 not unworthy of Butler, to follow Nature (vii. 
 
 1, 17). In this sense 'benevolence is man' (vii. 
 
 2, 16) ; and the highest is within the reach of 
 all. 
 
 At the same time both Confucius and Mencius 
 recognised that men are liable to go astray under 
 the influence of circumstances. They have need 
 therefore of learning the lesson of past experience 
 (Analects xv. 30), and of submitting to discipline 
 and government. Hence followed the paramount
 
 V.] but needs discipline. 135 
 
 importance attached by Confucianists to education 
 and the ceremonial of life ; and it would be ^^ 
 difficult to find anywhere a more harmonious / 
 view of the whole ordering of conduct in the 
 state and in the family and in personal inter- 
 course than that which is given in the Li Ki 
 ('A collection of the Rules of Propriety or 
 Ceremonial Usages'). It is easy to disparage 
 the observances as simply formal and external, 
 but they witness to the intimate relation of the 
 outward to the inward, and foreshadow in some 
 sense the sacramental aspects of the world and 
 life which Christianity has revealed. In a most 
 pregnant saying, Confucius shewed that he looked 
 beyond the impressions of sense. ' The Master 
 ' said : " It is according to the rules of propriety " 
 ' they say ; " It is according to the rules of 
 ' propriety " they say. Are gems and silk all that 
 ' is meant by propriety ? " It is Music " they say ; 
 ' " It is Music " they say. Are bells and drums all 
 ' that is meant by Music ? ' (Analects xvii. 11.) 
 
 The regulation of life was indeed designed 
 to express justly ' the five relations,' between 
 parent and child, ruler and ruled, brethren, 
 husband and wife, friends, which, as they underlie 
 all society, must be duly regarded for the main- 
 tenance of the well-being of a state. ' The classic
 
 136 Filial piety. [CHAP. 
 
 ' of Filial piety ' (Hsiao King : S. B. E. iii. 465-488) 
 describes in a short compass and in a most 
 impressive form the foundation of Chinese life. 
 ' The services of love and reverence to parents 
 'when alive, and those of grief and sorrow to 
 ' them when dead : these completely discharge 
 ' the fundamental duty of living men ' (c. xviii.). 
 In a wider sense ' Filial piety commences with 
 ' the service of parents ; it proceeds to the service 
 ' of the ruler ; it is completed by the establishment 
 ' of the character' (c. i.). For in spirit Filial piety 
 was held to extend to all the duties of life ; and, 
 more than this, it is in essence 'the constant 
 ' method of Heaven, the righteousness of Earth and 
 ' the practical duty of Man,' the comprehensive law 
 of all being. Thus Chinese Society was organised 
 on a principle of absolute dependence. Since the 
 child, the citizen, owes everything to the past, he 
 renders to the past in acknowledgement of the 
 debt, and to the elder as representing it, complete 
 obedience. ' The Master said : I am not one 
 ' who was born in the possession of knowledge : I 
 ' am one who is fond of antiquity and earnest in 
 'seeking it there' (Analects vii. 19). The result 
 has been stability and stationariness. 
 
 Confucius, like Lao-tzu, left the old religion 
 undisturbed. He himself carefully observed the
 
 v.] The old faith kept but not pursued. 137 
 
 customary rites with devout reverence. 'He 
 'sacrificed to the dead, as if they were present. 
 'He sacrificed to the spirits as if they were 
 'present' (Analects iii. 12). But life in harmony 
 with the order of the world seemed to him to be 
 the highest worship. 'The Master being very 
 'sick, Tsze-loo asked leave to pray for him... The 
 'Master said "My praying has been for a long 
 ' time " ' (Analects vii. 34). So it naturally followed 
 that the observances of worship under Confu- 
 cianism came to be official and representative, a 
 part of the life of the state and not the satis- 
 faction of personal wants. There was no appointed 
 ministry : the head of each section of society 
 performed the services by an inherent right. The 
 old was left, but Confucius when pressed by his 
 disciples to deal with spiritual subjects, justified 
 his silence by the silence above. 'Tsze-kung 
 ' said : If you, Master, do not speak, what shall we 
 ' your disciples have to record ? The Master said : 
 ' Does Heaven speak ? The four seasons pursue 
 ' their courses, and all things are being continually 
 ' produced, but does Heaven say anything ? ' 
 (Analects xvii. 19 ; contrast Ps. xix.). But in the 
 older books there is a recognition of providential 
 government. The course of the seasons is sup- 
 posed to shew God (Yih King, App. v. 8, 9 : S. B. E. 
 xvi.). And though the ' Heaven ' of the primitive
 
 138 Retribution on earth. [CHAP. 
 
 belief became in the teaching of Confucius the 
 symbol of a stern, inexorable law, an order not 
 made by man but recognised by him, yet in one 
 passage of the Analects there is a pathetic appeal 
 to ' Heaven ' as having feeling with men. ' The 
 'Master said: Alas, there is no one that knows 
 'me... I do not murmur against Heaven. I do 
 'not grumble against men. My studies lie low, 
 'and my penetration rises high. But there is 
 ' Heaven : that knows me ' (Analects xiv. 37). 
 
 It follows from what has been said that 
 Confucianism offered no definite teaching on a 
 future life. The opinions on this subject which 
 have found currency in China have been due 
 either to the original faith or to Buddhism. 
 There was from early times a vague belief in the 
 separation of two ' souls ' at death : the animal 
 soul descended to the earth and perished, while 
 the ' spirit ' was ' displayed on high in a condition 
 * of glorious brightness ' (Li Ki, xxi. 2). The great 
 and the noble were supposed to enjoy heavenly 
 felicity, and an early king is represented as 
 speaking of his ancestors as ' spiritual sovereigns ' 
 (Shd King, vii. 2). But there is no evidence that 
 this hope of happiness was for all. On the other 
 hand there is no doctrine of punishment after 
 death. It was held that retribution was exacted
 
 v.] Strength and weakness of Confucianism. 139 
 
 in the life of earth either from the offender 
 himself, or from his descendants afterwards. 
 ' The family that accumulates goodness is sure to 
 'have superabundant happiness; and the family 
 'that accumulates evil is sure to have super- 
 ' abundant misery. The murder of a ruler by his 
 'minister, or of a father by his son, is not the 
 'result of the events of one morning, or one 
 ' evening ' ( Yih King, App. iv. ii. 5 : S. B. E. xvi 
 pp. 419 f.). 
 
 The history of China is the best comment on 
 the strength and on the weakness of this most 
 wonderful system of secularism leavened by the 
 remains of a patriarchal faith. The Empire has 
 been at once the most lasting in the world, and 
 the most unprogressive. It has been lasting 
 because it was the resolute expression of faith in 
 a supreme and beneficent order, as against the 
 pessimism ot Hinduism and Buddhism which sees 
 in the world of sense illusion and evil, and the 
 endless conflict of popular Zoroastrianism. It 
 has been unprogressive because Confucianism 
 obscured the fact of sin, and substituted a 
 morality for a theology, rules for a divine fellow- 
 ship, obedience to a code for devotion to a living 
 Lord, teaching for a Teacher as many at the 
 present day seem to believe that the Sermon on 
 the Mount can take the place of the Risen Christ
 
 140 Importance of the [CHAP. 
 
 and adopted a type of order which was earthly 
 and human, of the world and not above it. In 
 China we see realised the effects of an absolute 
 law, obeyed apart from reference to an absolute 
 Lawgiver, of a personal moral discipline ruled by 
 the motive of self-regarding culture and not of 
 self-sacrifice. China has been able to conquer its 
 conquerors but not to inspire them ; to make 
 them like itself but not to call out the fulness of 
 their life. The Chinese became what we may 
 suppose the Jews would have become if the 
 covenant with Abraham had not underlain the 
 Law. 
 
 Man's own nature was held to be the one 
 revelation of heaven (Menc. vii. (1), i.). This had 
 been perfectly embodied in a kingdom of earth in 
 the past, and the past became at once the rule 
 and the type for all time. There was therefore 
 no infinite ideal offered for the inspiration of 
 men, growing with their growth : no living con- 
 nexion with GOD making Himself known accord- 
 ing to the development of human powers. All 
 that could be had already been, so that hope 
 was limited to the expectation of a limited 
 cycle of change. 
 
 But, not to close with the sad side of the 
 picture, we may remember, as has been already
 
 v.] indigenous faith of China. 141 
 
 pointed out, that Confucius acknowledged the 
 relation of Fatherhood as the basis of human life. 
 So far he was on the way to hear the fulness of 
 the Divine message to humanity. He saw that 
 the father was the living lord of the family: 
 that the Emperor was the father of the nation. 
 His facts carried him no farther, and he shrank 
 from adventurous if splendid guesses. Yet we 
 can see that the revelation of a true Divine 
 Father in the Mission of Christ completes what 
 he began, and that his view of society illustrates 
 the doctrine of the Fatherhood of GOD, and the 
 brotherhood of men. 
 
 Under this aspect the indigenous faiths of 
 China deserve far more careful study than they 
 have received. They express to us with a voice 
 clear independent and impressive some of the 
 earliest beliefs of men. We can see in them as 
 a power still living that which can be recognised 
 in other religions in a distorted and exaggerated 
 shape. Above all they present with unique 
 force thoughts which at the present time seem 
 to be essential for the interpretation of the 
 Gospel to our own age, the solidarity of peoples 
 and, in the end, of mankind, and the continuity of 
 personal life in the family. These thoughts, as 
 we have already seen, are embodied in the Im-
 
 142 Lesson of Chinese religions. [CHAP. 
 
 perial Sacrifices and in the worship of ancestors. 
 And as a primitive witness to the instincts or 
 aspirations of the human soul they turn our 
 attention to Christian teachings which have been 
 overlooked. For there is nothing which gave 
 strength to China which does not find a fitting 
 place in the Apostolic doctrine, while the Chris- 
 tian Faith guards against the evils which weak- 
 ened the Empire. The thought of continuity 
 finds complete expression in the promise 'to 
 'Abraham and his seed,' 'of whom was Christ as 
 ' concerning the flesh.' The thought of solidarity 
 is hallowed in the conception of the Body of 
 Christ, in which Christians are 'members one 
 ' of another.' The thought of totality is confirmed 
 in the fact that He is heir of all things through 
 Whom all things were made, and in Whom they 
 are destined to reach their consummation. The 
 thoughts are given to us in the Gospel and they 
 are all quickened by a continuous movement as 
 the revelation of GOD in men in humanity and in 
 the world is read more intelligently. Thus the 
 characteristic conceptions of China become a great 
 prophecy, and bear witness to a hope which will 
 not for ever be unsatisfied. 
 
 (ii) KELIGIONS OF INDIA. 
 The transition from China to India is the
 
 V.] Contrasts of India and China. 143 
 
 transition from a region of prose to a region of 
 poetry, from common sense to imagination : from 
 life regarded as the expression of a fixed law to 
 life regarded as the manifestation of innumerable 
 separate forces, separate at least for man. 
 
 (a) Hinduism. 
 
 The simplest form of Indian belief, arid prob- 
 ably the simplest form of Aryan belief, that which 
 is reflected in the oldest Vedic Hymns, is widely 
 different from the Brahmanic and popular beliefs 
 of India. It must not however be supposed 
 that these Hymns represent a wide-spread, ^, 
 popular faith. They are rather the expression 
 of personal, and in some respects, of conflicting 
 opinions. The ideas of incarnation and transmi- / 
 gration and caste find no place in them. But 
 they present in a vivid form the great truth that 
 man stands in a close relation to nature in all its 
 varying forms, as the expression of some unseen 
 power. He is, in a certain sense, dependent on 
 the sun and sky and storms and dawn. He may 
 acknowledge an ever-present, immutable law : 
 but he acknowledges also vital relationships 
 existing between outward things one to another 
 and to himself which admit of infinite modifica- 
 tions. The conception of the Chinese Heaven
 
 144 Earliest Vedic teaching [CHAP. 
 
 (Tien) as a constant order, and the conception of 
 the Vedic Heaven (Varuna) as an approachable 
 GOD, lie deep in human nature. In their simplest 
 forms they are complementary and not contradic- 
 tory aspects of being. We can set over against 
 one another the confession of Lao-tzu and the 
 great Hymn to Varuna, and feel that there is a 
 partial truth in both : perhaps we can feel the 
 partial truths more keenly when they are thus 
 presented to us separately. 
 
 This then appears to be the characteristic of 
 the Vedic Theology, that the .great forces of nature 
 Indra (the watery atmosphere), Surya (the sun), 
 Agni (fire) and Ushas (the dawn) and the like 
 represent personal action, though they are not 
 personified. They are not Gods severally, but 
 manifestations of GOD. There is no individua- 
 lity, no subordination among them, and there 
 is no trace of idolatry in the service through 
 which they are approached. The worshipper 
 turns from one title to another without de- 
 fining in any way the great Being which 
 lies behind and beyond all titles. He asks for 
 specific, and in most cases, for material blessings. 
 At the same time there are not unfrequent ac- 
 knowledgments of sin, though sin is not appre- 
 hended in its depth, and prayers for forgiveness ;
 
 v.] afterwards embodied in ritual. 145 
 
 and over all stands the belief in immortality and 
 retribution. There are no temples, no priests, no 
 ritual. We listen to profound childlike utterances 
 of an awakened consciousness. The ' seers ' who 
 clothe the truths to which their eyes are opened 
 write spontaneously. They must sing, even as the 
 bird must sing. They give witness to a feeling 
 which has not been confined in any specific form 
 of service. 
 
 The weakness of such a system if indeed it 
 can be called a system is obvious. Indeed, as 
 has been already said, there is no reason to 
 think that the Hymns answer to any general 
 or widespread or popular belief. A belief of this 
 kind is in a perpetual flux. It takes its impress 
 from the emotions of individual teachers, and is 
 for a time capable of moulding small groups of 
 men ; but, when it has once passed out of its 
 first stage, it is unfitted for a national faith. 
 The Vedic belief consequently was humanised, so 
 to speak, defined, embodied in a ritual ; and this 
 new belief, Brahmanism, was interpreted in a 
 philosophic theory and made the basis of a social 
 organisation. Priests, warriors, citizens had their 
 functions distinguished as the original Aryan race 
 advanced in India by conquest. 
 
 w. G. L. 10
 
 146 Brahmanism expresses the [CHAP. 
 
 In order to understand how this came to pass 
 we must go back to the earliest Vedic Hymns. 
 
 It has been already noticed that in these 
 Hymns the Divine names are names and do not 
 answer to individualised deities. Each name re- 
 presents for the time the whole Being of GOD 
 so far as He is apprehended by the poet or the 
 worshipper. This mysterious Being however is 
 wholly undefined, and does not, except in the 
 exertion of power, form an object of thought in 
 the typical Vedic Theology. 
 
 But after a time the idea of an infinite, 
 impersonal, ineffable existence, the source of all 
 things and the support of all things, the neuter 
 Brahma, was shaped, which thenceforward was 
 taken as the basis of the Brahmanic faith. The 
 origin of the word seems to be at present un- 
 certain; the conception, however, is clear and 
 consistent, and it is summed up in the statement 
 that of Brahma and of Brahma alone this can be 
 said, and this only, 'It is.' 
 
 Two deductions follow at once from such a 
 conception of the absolute foundation of religious 
 belief. All things have come into being from 
 Brahma, and there is in Brahma a unity of all 
 things. That which distracts us in the appear- 
 ance of things is Maya illusion. We gain in
 
 v.] thoughts of emanation and dependence. 147 
 
 other words in Brahmanism the notions of a 
 beginning of finite existence and of the coherence 
 of things, seen and unseen, which were wanting in 
 the Chinese conception of an eternal order and 
 undeveloped in Vedic theology. Out of these 
 two notions, which may be generally characterised 
 by the terms emanation and dependence, most 
 variously realised, later Indian systems have been 
 constructed. So far as they were embodied in 
 the proper Hindu beliefs, they present three chief 
 topics for our consideration, the doctrine of the 
 Deity, the doctrine of society, and the doctrine of 
 the final issue of things, on which we must touch 
 in succession. 
 
 The first step in the development of the 
 doctrine of Absolute Being, of Deity, was the 
 passage from the neuter Brahma to the masculine 
 Brahma, from the conception of a source of being 
 to that of a personal creator. But this word 
 ' creator' must not mislead us. Creation is not 
 in the Indian belief an act of sovereign will, but, 
 so to speak, a necessity of the desire of Brahma. 
 The world is regarded on this theory as the 
 thought of Brahma veiled in material and illusory 
 forms. So far as it is it is coessential with him, 
 and will in the end be reabsorbed into him. 
 
 102
 
 148 The conception [CHAP. 
 
 From the doctrine of the Deity we pass on 
 to the doctrine of society. Here again we 
 must go back to the elementary thought of 
 Brahmanism. All finite being proceeds from 
 (the neuter) Brahma. This was the general 
 principle which the religious statesman had to 
 embody in a practical shape. How could he 
 reconcile it with the manifest differences in 
 spiritual and moral and material capacities in 
 men, even if he went no farther? How could 
 he maintain the divine affinity of mankind and 
 yet recognise the degradation of individual men ? 
 The answer to these questions was given in the 
 theoretical organisation of the institution of caste. 
 By that institution it was affirmed that all men, 
 or rather all Hindus, for the Brahmanic horizon 
 extends no further, are indeed sprung from 
 Brahma (Brahma), but that they are differently 
 related to him. If he be represented as a man 
 the Brahmans sprang from his face : the Kshat- 
 triyas from his shoulders, the Vaisyas from his 
 thighs, the Sudras from his feet. The meaning 
 of the myth is obvious : divine energy whether 
 in thought, or in courageous self-sacrificing ser- 
 vice, or in commercial enterprise, or in menial 
 duty, alike draws its strength directly from the 
 Supreme Being, but it is by the highest energy
 
 v.] of Caste. 149 
 
 alone, by thought, that the connexion of man 
 with GOD is fully realised. 
 
 There cannot, I think, be any doubt that this 
 is the true moral conception of the theory of 
 caste. It is the enunciation of a divine unity in 
 an actual subordination. It presents an order 
 based upon the interpretation of the facts of life, 
 and not an order, like the Chinese, sovereign over 
 them. It does not concern us to inquire how the 
 actual institution of caste came into being in the 
 first instance : how far the distinction of the first 
 three castes, marked by the sacred thread, as 
 twice-born, represents the relation of conquerors 
 to the Sudras, the conquered : how far Hindu 
 society was ever divided into the ' four horizontal 
 strata ' indicated by the traditional division : how 
 the ' warriors ' and even the ' traders ' were practi- 
 cally destroyed: how the theory of caste came 
 to be worked out in detail : how the separations 
 of caste were indefinitely multiplied and deepened. 
 The two great religious intuitions to which caste J 
 bears witness, even in its last degradation, are^ 
 these, that there is on the one hand a Divine 
 element in humanity, and that this is realised , 
 by a spiritual fellowship; and on the other that 
 society is based upon an organisation of unequal 
 
 and distinct functions. These principles have 
 
 1 i 
 
 been distorted and petrified by political and 
 
 v**-
 
 150 Caste. [CHAP. 
 
 priestly tyranny; but still they have given per- 
 manence to Indian life, and they have maintained 
 an independent spiritual power in the face of 
 dominant tyranny. 
 
 At first sight the idea of caste appears to fix 
 a definite limit to the range of Hinduism. But 
 taken in connexion with the popular development 
 of the conception of the Divine manifestation it 
 became a powerful aid to its propagation. Caste 
 is the outward expression of the belief that every 
 detail of life is religious. All that is characteristic 
 of an occupation is in a certain sense of Divine 
 appointment and under Divine sanction, and 
 therefore in its nature unchangeable. When, then, 
 the belief in transitory incarnations of the Divine 
 gained currency, it only became necessary to 
 recognise in a local deity an incarnation (in some 
 practical degree) of a Hindu deity, and to accept 
 the service of a Brahman for his worship, in order 
 to obtain in turn the elevation of the local 
 customs to the dignity of marks of a new caste 
 within the pale of the old religion. 
 
 The historical existence and prevalence of 
 caste has exerted in India a profound reflex 
 action upon the popular views of the conduct 
 of life generally which caste itself partially
 
 v.] Sacrifice, Penance. 151 
 
 defined. If outward circumstances were admit- 
 ted to influence almost indefinitely the present 
 spiritual character of a man, it was natural that 
 an absolute value should be given to outward 
 religious observances. The act in each case 
 might be supposed to carry with it necessary 
 and unchangeable consequences. The whole 
 system of Hindu worship and Hindu asceticism 
 is based upon this theory. As a consequence, for 
 example, sacrifices in the later Hindu theory are / 
 invested with a fixed and graduated value wholly 
 independent of the moral intention and character 
 of the offerer. Penances again are supposed to L<, 
 bring a direct equivalent of divine reward. Wor- 
 ship in a word in all its forms is reduced to a 
 series of external performances essentially distinct 
 from morality. It is unnecessary to dwell on the 
 inevitable consequences of this corruption of the 
 duty of religious service. Yet two indirect results 
 of the popular belief deserve to be noticed. In 
 the first place the belief has served in part to 
 mitigate the evils of caste, and left open for all a 
 way, however narrow, to heaven. Thus in the 
 orders of Hindu devotees, or at least in some orders, 
 as in early Buddhism on a large scale, the distinc- 
 tions of caste are done away. On the other hand 
 the same belief has extinguished gratitude. He 
 who receives an act of kindness is reckoned to
 
 152 Transmigration. [CHAP. 
 
 confer a benefit upon the doer, because he has 
 given him an opportunity of establishing a claim 
 on heaven. 
 
 The theory of caste, which gives in some sense 
 a Divine significance to the present order in which 
 we live, raises questions at the same time as to 
 the past and the future. How can we account 
 for the startling differences which we recognise, 
 and what will be their final issue ? The answers 
 to these questions were found by a recurrence to 
 the fundamental doctrine of being and appearance. 
 All that truly is, is in the theoretic Hindu faith, 
 divine : all transitory appearances of things, all 
 that falls under the senses, is a mere illusion, due 
 to the selfwill of finite creatures. The happy end 
 of the world will therefore be gained when each 
 existence has cast off the cloak of vanity in 
 which it has become enveloped. To this end 
 souls are invested, from life to life, with material 
 forms, as with prison-houses, in which they may 
 be cleansed from the effects of the dimly-conceived 
 declension from their original purity. The out- 
 ward difference between man and brute and 
 - reptile image J;o the Hindu the inward differences 
 of the souls which animate them. Hence all 
 living creatures are looked upon as shewing 
 stages in the purification of finite being. Ac- 
 cording to the nature of each life spent on earth
 
 v.] Different aspects of Divine power. 153 
 
 the soul is supposed to receive after death an 
 appropriate body for its next stage of existence. 
 
 The myths of Plato will shew us how great an / 
 
 attraction this doctrine of transmigration exerts 
 upon the imagination of men. At present I wish 
 only to notice its general significance as an ex- 
 pression of an elementary religious consciousness. 
 So far it seems to bear testimony to two great v r atn ^ 4 
 beliefs. It affirms the vital connexion of all the 
 forms of animated being. It affirms a possible, 
 if indefinitely distant, reunion of every isolated 
 existence with the one absolute existence. 
 
 While these thoughts were taking shape, the 
 popular theology was modified by corresponding 
 changes. The Brahmanic conception of the 
 Divine Being has risen before the minds of men 
 in every age, but it cannot provide a resting-place 
 for practical belief. We necessarily consider not 
 only the origin of things, but also the actual con- 
 stitution of things, the manifestations of Divine 
 power. Hence the Indian mind found no rest in 
 the abstract idea of the unity of Brahma. The 
 various divine workings were gathered up by the 
 Brahmanic teachers under their contrasted aspects 
 of preservation and destruction; and these were 
 assigned to distinct persons. Vishnu was the OJ 
 representative of the Divine Being as a Preserver,
 
 154 Multiplication of [CHAP. 
 
 Siva the representative of the Divine Being as a 
 Destroyer. And these three, Brahma, Vishnu and 
 / Siva, were regarded in the age of the epic poems 
 as constituting a Trinity, Trimurti, three forms. 
 As such however they were considered to be not 
 three distinct beings, but three manifestations of 
 one Being. Now one name and now the other 
 was taken as the name of the One. ' Some 
 ' worship Brahma,' it is said in one of the Puranas, 
 ' others Vishnu, others Siva, but Vishnu, one yet 
 ' threefold, creates, preserves, destroys ; therefore 
 ' let the pious make no difference between them.' 
 Elsewhere each of the three is represented as 
 .subordinate to and even created by the One 
 ineffable Supreme Being, the Great Soul, lest the 
 conception of the Divine unity should be injured. 
 So great thinkers argued : meanwhile Brahma, the 
 Creator, the absolute God, almost passed out of 
 the mind of the people. ' It is doubtful if he was 
 ' ever worshipped, though the Brahma Purana 
 'speaks of his being adored at Pushkara near 
 ' Ajmer, and it is said that he still receives 
 ' some worship there.' The thoughts of struggling, 
 suffering men were concentrated upon the deities 
 of preservation and destruction, or Vishnu and 
 Siva. And even these broad aspects of divine 
 working failed to meet the actual wants of 
 worshippers. These generalised deities were again
 
 V.] special Divinities, 155 
 
 broken up into countless fragmentary powers, to 
 whom some one portion or other of good or evil 
 activity was assigned, and the Hindu pantheon 
 was peopled as the old faith spread southward 
 into the plains of Bengal, and came into contact 
 with aboriginal creeds. 
 
 This multiplication of deities, or divine mani- 
 festations, springs out of and perpetuates one of 
 the original characteristics of the earliest belief. 
 In some regions of India, it has been said, ' every 
 'brook, every grove, every jutting rock has its 
 ' divinity ; ' ' every institution, every pursuit, every 
 ' power beneficent or maleficent is consecrated by 
 ' a supernatural influence or presidency.' With 
 these subordinate gods and popular beliefs of 
 the ' Puranic ' age, we have at present no 
 concern, except so far as they witness to the 
 impulse which drives men at all times to the 
 specialities of saint-worship, to characterise the 
 impulse by its noblest type ; but there is one 
 feature of the greatest interest in the general 
 mode of representing the beneficent action of 
 Vishnu which cannot be passed over. Vishnu, 
 the Preserver, is described as coming among his 
 creatures in Avataras Descents or Incarnations, 
 both for purposes of judgement and redemption. 
 These Avataras are variously reckoned, but most 
 commonly they are said to be ten, of which the
 
 156 Krishna. [CHAP. 
 
 tenth is yet future. In each of the nine past 
 Avataras Vishnu is said to have descended ' in a 
 ' small portion of his essence,' taking the form of a 
 fish, or a tortoise, or a boar, or a man-lion, or a 
 dwarf, or a man, as the case might be. But most 
 conspicuous among them is the Krishna- Avatara, 
 in which Vishnu is said to have appeared in the 
 form of a popular hero, Krishna. This legend of 
 Krishna appears to have taken full shape first in 
 the Bhagavad-Gita, an episode of the Mahabha- 
 rata, and that possibly under Christian influences. 
 None of its characteristic elements can be shewn 
 to be earlier than the Christian era, and it has 
 been argued from minute coincidences in detail 
 that the framers of the story were not unacquainted 
 with the Gospels. This is, however, very uncertain, 
 and it must be enough to say that the idea of the 
 Krishna- Avatara, in its most complete form, when 
 divested of every unholy accessory, is essentially 
 distinct from the Christian idea of the Incarnation. 
 The assumption of humanity by Vishnu is in ap- 
 pearance only, and the human nature is wholly 
 laid aside when Krishna, slain by a random shot 
 of the hunter Jara (that is decay, old age), returns 
 to the Great Being. Yet even so Krishnaism has 
 been the strength of Hinduism. Again and again 
 the belief in the most human manifestation of the 
 Deity among his creatures which Hinduism ever
 
 V.] Indian philosophies. 157 
 
 fashioned has restored life and energy to the 
 exhausted faith of the people. 
 
 Simultaneously with the growth of the popular 
 faith, which naturally centred more and more in 
 the fulfilment of ritual, two great philosophical 
 schools arose, one of which professed to express 
 the true end of the Vedas (Vedanta), and the 
 other to unfold a rational system (Sankhya = num- 
 ber or reason). It would be useless for our 
 purpose to endeavour to discuss their teaching, 
 for they were the profound speculations of the few, 
 and both left the system of caste undisturbed. 
 But the fact of their existence must be recognised. 
 They stand over against the declining polytheism 
 like the systems of Plato and Aristotle, witnesses 
 for the loftier strivings and the sad hopelessness 
 of men. And while these rival philosophies took 
 no account of social disorders and social reforma- 
 tion, they shewed on the side of speculation the 
 action of those tendencies which found expression 
 in the great popular movement of Buddhism. 
 This movement we must now notice. 
 
 (b) Buddhism. 
 To place Buddhism in its true position we
 
 158 Buddhism a reformed Brahmanism. [CHAP. 
 
 must recall the characteristic type of the Aryan 
 religions. They all bear, as has been said, the 
 stamp of Nature. But Nature may be found 
 either outside us or within us : it may be taken 
 to be the sum of the facts of the external world, 
 or, the sum of the facts which belong to man's 
 consciousness. Hinduism, in spite of its lofty 
 aspirations and in spite of its speculative protests, 
 fell completely as a popular religious system 
 under the dominion of the material order. Social 
 subordination became an organised slavery. Devo- 
 tion became formalism. The conception of the 
 manifoldness of the Divine working in the world 
 became abject and degrading polytheism. 
 
 It is probable that the tendencies to these 
 conceptions were already clearly marked when 
 the Buddhist reform was set on foot. The date 
 of its author, Gautama, known also as Sakya- 
 Muni (the Sakya sage), Siddhartha (he who 
 has accomplished his aim), is uncertain. He is 
 commonly placed in the 6th or 5th century B.C. 
 He was a prince of the warrior (Kshattriya) caste, 
 and his aim was generally to organise and embody 
 the noblest ideas of the Hindu faith. He was 
 himself treated in later Hinduism as an Avatara 
 of Vishnu ; and many of his chief disciples were 
 Brahmans. The bitter antagonism between Brah- 
 manism and Buddhism did not begin for some
 
 v.] The experiences of Gautama. 159 
 
 centuries after Gautama's death. It is true that 
 the essential differences between the two systems 
 existed from the first ; but at the beginning 
 Gautama probably regarded himself as the right 
 interpreter of the spirit of the faith which he 
 inherited. 
 
 According to the teaching of the well-known 
 legend Gautama was moved by the spectacle of 
 the common sorrows of humanity, age and disease 
 and death, to give up his wealth and place in 
 order that he might seek a mode of deliverance 
 for men. This he seemed to find within himself, 
 not in the teaching of outward things but in 
 intelligence, the teaching of his own nature. 
 Such a conception had a starting-point in earlier 
 thought. The world was represented by some 
 Hindu philosophers as the thought of the Abso- 
 lute Being. By thought then, Gautama argued, 
 we can rise, on our part, to the true knowledge 
 of Being, a knowledge which will bring perfect 
 rest. 
 
 This conclusion was not reached however 
 without severe struggles. Gautama at first sought 
 peace in the way of severest penance and self- 
 mortification. For six years he pursued this 
 discipline with pitiless resolve, but he gained 
 fame only and not the rest for which he sought.
 
 160 Contrast of Brahmanism [CHAP. 
 
 Conscious of failure he gave up his severities and 
 fasting, and was himself forsaken by his disciples. 
 Then followed his temptation under the sacred 
 Bo-tree ; and after a fierce struggle he seemed 
 to be answered that absolute peace was attainable 
 by inward culture of the heart and love to 
 others, resting on the true understanding of 
 things. 
 
 The doctrine of right intelligence as the one 
 supreme guide and end of life carried with it essen- 
 tially the complete overthrow of what we have 
 seen to be the characteristics of the later Brah- 
 manic system. It overthrew caste so far as it was 
 supposed to represent an actual spiritual inequa- 
 lity in men. It overthrew the whole system of 
 external worship so far as it was supposed to 
 have in itself an objective value. For caste it 
 substituted the idea of universal brotherhood. 
 For worship it substituted the idea of personal 
 service. Hinduism fell of necessity till it came 
 to be worship without morality. Buddhism 
 started with being morality without worship; 
 and it is as a system of morality, but of morality 
 as being of inherent obligation, that Buddhism 
 claims to be reckoned among the religions of the 
 world. In this respect it is among the noblest 
 as it is the vastest moral spectacle in history.
 
 v.] and Buddhism. 161 
 
 It offers a Law, a Law of the Gentiles, which is 
 indeed a prophecy. For if we regard the theory 
 of Buddhism as a whole we cannot represent it 
 better than by saying that it is from first to last 
 the embodiment of self-sacrifice. Self-sacrifice is 
 the key to the law of Buddhism, and, as far as I 
 can see, self-sacrifice is the true explanation of 
 its last hope, Nirvana. Such a fact is full of en- 
 couragement for the Christian teacher; for it is 
 in virtue of this doctrine of sacrifice that Buddhism 
 has won its way to be, perhaps, the most wide- 
 spread religion in the world. The doctrine may 
 have been defaced and veiled, yet it has never 
 been wholly hidden ; and in this religion of pure 
 intelligence we have the testimony of about a 
 third of the human race to the natural strivings 
 of man towards a pure ideal which he cannot 
 reach. 
 
 Self-sacrifice is the central thought of Budd- 
 hism. We shall now notice shortly how the idea 
 was gained and how it was applied. The necessity 
 of sacrifice followed directly from the Buddhist 
 view of finite existence. Buddhism does not 
 concern itself specially with the origin of things. 
 Its general view of the material universe as a 
 visible system is borrowed from Hinduism, and 
 
 W. G. L. 11
 
 162 ' The four sublime truths' [CHAP. 
 
 has no features of peculiar interest. Its interest 
 lies in the interpretation of transitory being. It 
 looks on life as it is and seeks to bring it to its 
 proper issue. The most universal fact in life is 
 pain, and from this fact of pain Gautama started. 
 What is the origin of pain ? Can it be prevented ? 
 and if so, How can it be prevented ? In answering 
 these questions Gautama regarded man only so 
 far as he falls within the range of our present 
 observation. The various bodily and mental 
 powers with which the individual is endowed 
 are gathered into four groups (skandhas), and it 
 is shewn that all these are transitory. Nothing 
 is said of that which may underlie them. In 
 other words, Gautama looked upon man as en- 
 tangled in a pitiable existence and inquired what 
 hope there might be of his deliverance. Following 
 the lessons of his own experience he gave his 
 conclusions in the ' four sublime truths' which 
 constitute the primitive and cardinal elements 
 of the Buddhist Creed. These deal with Pain 
 and its cause, the end of Pain, and the Path 
 to gain the end: 
 
 1. Pain lies ultimately in finite existence. 
 
 2. Pain is the necessary consequence of pre- 
 ceding causes which give rise to desire. 
 
 3. An end can be put to pain by extinguish- 
 ing all desire.
 
 v.] of Buddhism. 163 
 
 4. This end can be secured by the way which 
 the Buddha taught. 
 
 This way, as we have seen, is the way of 
 knowledge. So far as a man looks at things in 
 their infinite relations he loosens the chain which 
 binds him to the phantom of personal being. 
 True knowledge in a word kills desire by absolute 
 repose ; and such knowledge is essentially un- 
 selfish. It lifts a man out of self; and he who 
 is on the way to knowledge will necessarily both 
 curb his own wishes and seek to help forward 
 others along the path to rest which he has found. 
 Just as ignorance is the spring and support of 
 self-assertion and selfishness, so knowledge in- 
 cludes the idea of sacrifice, the giving up of all 
 that belongs to man as individual. The thought 
 is on one side not unlike that of Socrates when 
 he said that unrighteousness is ignorance ; but 
 the Buddhist doctrine seems to be nobler than 
 the Greek, inasmuch as the knowledge of the 
 Buddhists is inherently of a social value. And it 
 is worthy of remark that in the original records 
 of Buddhism there is a word (maitri) which is com- 
 mensurate with charity, Christian love (dja 
 
 Gautama extended this obligation of tenderness 
 towards others to man's relations to all sentient 
 
 112
 
 164 The continuity and [CHAP. 
 
 beings; and this characteristic teaching was 
 deepened by the doctrine of transmigration which 
 he borrowed from Hinduism in a modified form. 
 For the true Buddhist does not acknowledge the 
 permanence of any individual soul which passes 
 from life to life. He holds that the continuity of 
 being is maintained in another way. Each man 
 at his death is supposed to leave behind him the 
 whole moral sum of his actions (karma, doing). 
 By this a spiritual heir, so to speak, is called into 
 existence, to whom falls the full inheritance of 
 the good or evil desert which the original doer 
 had accumulated. This embodiment of the 
 issues of the past life in a new and corresponding 
 life is the essential element in the Buddhist 
 belief in successive births ; and it is no less 
 fitted than the simple doctrine of transmigration 
 to keep alive the feeling of a common relationship 
 between the believer and all animated beings. 
 
 As a consequence of this connexion of life, 
 based upon a moral foundation, it has been held 
 by the great Buddhist teachers that there is a 
 true solidarity of life, that the whole condition 
 and fate of the world, its cycles of destruction 
 and reconstruction, depend upon the sum of merit 
 and demerit gathered by separate beings. Every 
 action therefore has, on this theory, a social value.
 
 v.] solidarity of being. 165 
 
 To know this is to find an object of endeavour, and 
 since love is the direct offspring of intelligence : or, 
 to express the same truth otherwise, since know- 
 ledge claims sacrifice: the highest in the Buddhist 
 calendar of saints is the man who seeks knowledge 
 and the end of knowledge not only for himself but 
 also for others : who is prepared to defer his own 
 attainment of the goal if he can guide others 
 towards it. It was in this spirit that the prayer 
 of Buddha was framed, which won admiration even 
 from a strong opponent among the Brahmans: 
 ' Let all the sins that have been committed in 
 ' this Kali age of the world fall on me, and let the 
 ' world be delivered.' In this spirit the historian 
 of Ceylon speaks of the devotion of the early 
 Buddhist missionaries there : ' who following the 
 ' example of the all-compassionating vanquisher's 
 ' resignation (of his supreme beatitude), laid aside 
 ' the exalted state of happiness attained by them 
 ' for the benefit of mankind, and undertook these 
 ' missions to various countries.' ' Who is there,' he 
 adds, 'who would demur when the salvation of 
 'the world (is at stake)' (Tumour, Mahawanso, 
 c. xii. p. 75). 
 
 The view given here of the self-devotion of 
 Buddha brings out the characteristic Buddhist 
 idea already noticed, that all finite individual
 
 166 Nirvana. [CHAP. 
 
 existence, however happy, is evil. A man must 
 seek to escape equally from the personal reward 
 for well-doing and from the personal punishment 
 for evil-doing. Both require a new birth, and 
 from this the Buddhist shrinks. 
 
 The cause of this shrinking from a fresh 
 material embodiment is obvious. All personal 
 happiness, like personal pain, carries with it the 
 sentence of perishing. Lasting peace must be 
 found elsewhere. 
 
 And what then was this goal Nirvana, J)low- 
 ing out, extinction which was to crown the 
 acquisition of perfect knowledge and to be the 
 salvation of the world ? Later Buddhist writers 
 have differently interpreted the word, and it is 
 at present differently interpreted in Buddhist 
 communities. Among European scholars the 
 general opinion has been that it conveys the 
 notion of absolute annihilation. Undoubtedly 
 there is sufficient authority for this sense of 
 the word, but it is difficult to believe that 
 Gautama so taught Nirvana. He was a moralist 
 rather than a metaphysician. The foundation of 
 his morality was sacrifice : the end of his morality 
 was the consummation of sacrifice. It was enough 
 for him to teach that man could hope to cast 
 aside all that was finite, and for the rest not to 
 inquire what then remained. That was a mys-
 
 v.] Alleged 'Atheism' of Buddhism. 167 
 
 tery which could be left. It belonged to a realm 
 on which man could not presume to enter. Ac- 
 cording to words attributed to him, ' The ideas of 
 ' being and not being do not admit of discussion.' 
 All that he was concerned with was the extinction 
 of finite being, for the finite self in all its forms, 
 was, as he assumed, an evil. The fact that 
 Nirvana can, according to his teaching, be gained 
 in life gives to it a positive character, over which, 
 as it is conceived, the change of death can have 
 no power. Human logic is unable to draw nega- 
 tive deductions from present experience as to the 
 possibilities of existence. 
 
 Similar reflections seem also to hold good 
 with regard to the charge of speculative Atheism 
 which has been brought against Buddhism. The 
 earliest Buddhist writings neither affirm nor deny 
 anything as to an Absolute Being. On this 
 momentous subject they preserve a deep silence. 
 It could hardly have been otherwise. Apart from 
 the Incarnation it is hopelessly difficult to form 
 any clear idea of GOD without introducing an- 
 thropomorphic limitations, which cannot, as we 
 feel, properly apply to Him. To the Buddhists all 
 limitations are of the nature of evil, and so they 
 shrank from every definite conception of GOD ; 
 but no less all their teaching seems to require
 
 168 The corruption [CHAP. 
 
 for its foundation and background that which is 
 infinite, eternal, unchangeable, holy. 
 
 But while this thought of the Absolute 
 appears to underlie necessarily all Buddhist 
 morality and is supposed still to be when every 
 finite being has reached Nirvdna, yet the fact 
 remains that, as far as the practical conduct of 
 life is concerned, strict Buddhism is without GOD. 
 It leaves no place for worship or for prayer or for 
 a sacrificial priesthood: the believer has no sup- 
 port and no motive outside himself and his fellow- 
 creatures. 
 
 But nature is stronger than any one part of 
 nature ; and the history of Buddhism shews that 
 worship is as real a necessity for man as knowledge 
 and discipline. The legends represent Buddha as 
 an object of adoration even during his lifetime; 
 and afterwards his relics and his images have 
 been made the centres of actual, if unauthorised, 
 worship. The unbloody offerings of flowers and 
 perfumes before the gigantic solemn images 
 which symbolise unbroken rest bear witness to 
 an instinct which cannot be repressed. Man 
 will pay honour to the noblest that he knows ; 
 and if Buddhism affirmed that the perfect man 
 is the limit of the definite form of the divine 
 which can be shaped by human imagination, it
 
 v.] of Buddhism. 169 
 
 only foreshadowed the form in which GOD has 
 been pleased to make Himself known to us. 
 
 The actual circumstances of the spread of 
 Buddhism bear witness to this necessity of 
 worship and of hope in a religion for men, 
 which the theory of Buddhism removed from 
 popular apprehension. The Northern Buddhism, 
 which has spread over 'Nepal, Thibet, China, 
 'Japan, Mongolia,' gives scope to both in the 
 most concrete shapes; and the current views 
 of religious duties and of the unseen world have 
 degenerated into the grossest superstitions. 
 
 It is however unnecessary to trace these 
 corruptions and modifications of Buddhism. The 
 true vitality of Buddhism, and therefore its 
 interest for us, lies in the moral principles of 
 love and sacrifice which we have considered. 
 
 (iii) ZOROASTRIANISM. 
 
 The religions of India, Hinduism and Bud- 
 dhism, were based, as we have seen, upon partial 
 interpretations of nature. Hinduism fell under 
 the dominion of forms of thought which belong to 
 the material world from which it sought deliver- 
 ance. Buddhism started from an intellectual 
 apprehension of man's constitution which essen-
 
 170 Contrasts of Brahminism [CHAP. 
 
 tially excluded worship. The issue towards which 
 Hinduism looked was a re-absorption of the in- 
 dividual in the Absolute Being. In Buddhism no 
 definite place was assigned to an Absolute Being ; 
 and the end of the individual, when he was freed 
 from the painful bonds of his limitations, was left 
 as a mystery unfathomable and ineffable. Both 
 systems were obviously incomplete ; both refused 
 to deal with problems which continually present 
 themselves. They took no account of the whole 
 man or of his aspirations, as a unity, to a continu- 
 ous existence. 
 
 The third great Aryan religion, Zoroastrianism, 
 was a splendid attempt to deal with the world 
 and man as integral parts of a divine scheme in 
 their totality. Body and soul, the seen and the 
 unseen, evil and good, were set over against one 
 another, and some approach, at least, was made to 
 reconcile them in a provisional synthesis. For the 
 future, a hope of resurrection took the place of 
 absorption or extinction. For the present, sun- 
 shine and waters and fields were looked upon as 
 glorious works of a beneficent Creator. 
 
 There seems to be no sufficient reason to doubt 
 the historical reality of Zarathustra Spitama 
 (Zerdusht, Zoroaster) the traditional founder of 
 Zoroastrianism; though his date cannot be fixed
 
 v.] and Zoroastrianism. 171 
 
 with any certainty. It has indeed been argued 
 that the earliest portions of the Zend-Avesta 
 offer sufficient grounds for determining the 
 chronological relation of his teaching to succes- 
 sive forms of Indian religion. The Devas, the gods 
 of Hinduism, are the evil spirits of Zoroastrianism. 
 The beneficent powers, the Ahuras of Zoroastri- 
 anism, are the enemies of the gods in the Hindu 
 mythology. Indra, one of the greatest of the 
 Vedic gods, is first among the demons who are 
 reckoned in the train of Angra-Mainyu. From 
 these facts it has been concluded that Zoroastri- 
 anism was the result of a bitter struggle with 
 Hinduism; and in fact a revolt from Brahminism 
 shortly after the primitive Vedic faith had been 
 consolidated into a practical polytheism, and yet 
 before the ideas of caste and incarnation and 1 
 transmigration, and of the Trimurti had become 
 current. 
 
 Such conclusions cannot be pressed with great 
 confidence. The systems of Zoroastrianism and 
 Brahminism may have been parallel develop- 
 ments under different circumstances of the same 
 original elementary belief; for it is clear that ^ L 
 Zoroastrianism found its starting point in the . 
 primitive Vedic faith. The angel Mithra for K 
 example is identical with the Vedic Mitra ; and - 
 the prominence of Agni in the Vedic hymns ul
 
 172 The origin [CHAP. 
 
 points to a time when fire was the most common 
 emblem of divine action even among Indian 
 worshippers. In fact express mention is made 
 in the Zend-Avesta of fire-priests (Soshyantos) 
 earlier than Zarathustra. Thus perhaps for a 
 time the movements towards the Brahmanic and 
 the Zoroastrian faith may have existed side by side, 
 when the heroic genius of Zarathustra brought 
 their rival claims to a decisive conflict. Or the 
 two systems may have grown up independently 
 in separate regions and under the influence of 
 different local conditions. Yet on the whole there 
 appears to be a distinct polemical element in the 
 earliest Zoroastrian Hymns; and the contrast be- 
 tween Zoroastrianism and early Brahminism is no 
 less political than religious. On the one side were 
 the settled tillers of the ground: on the other side 
 adventurous nomads; and the intense hatred of 
 the Indian Devas among the Iranians may have 
 been partly due to the success which they were 
 supposed to bring their worshippers in their attacks 
 upon the homesteads of their neighbours. 
 
 Without attempting to define more exactly the 
 relation of the two divergent types to their common 
 stock, it may be reasonably supposed that when the 
 
 Aryan tribes of Bactria and North India were on 
 r A 
 
 the point of disruption (about 15001000 B.C.)
 
 v.] of Zoroastrianism. 173 
 
 Zarathustra arose to organise his Iranian country- 
 men and purify their faith. He found powerful 
 supporters, and yet at times he speaks as one who 
 knew the bitterness of apparent failure. 'To 
 ' what land to turn ; aye, whither turning shall I go ? 
 ' On the part of a kinsman prince or allied peer, 
 ' none, to conciliate, give offerings to me to help my 
 ' cause, nor yet the throngs of labour, not even such 
 ' as these, nor yet, still less, the evil tyrants of the 
 'province... This I know, Mazda!... Therefore I cry 
 ' to Thee ; behold it, Lord ! desiring helpful grace 
 ' for me, as friend bestows on friend ' (Yasna xlvi. 
 1 f., S. B. E. xxxi. 135 ; comp. Yasna xxix. 9). None 
 the less his work was done ; and one of the earliest 
 Gathas describes the scene of his appeal to the 
 multitudes assembled before him. Even if the 
 details of the translation are confessedly uncertain, 
 the general scope of the Hymn is clear, and for a 
 moment the figure of this earliest and greatest 
 of Gentile prophets stands out, like Joshua at 
 Shechem or Elijah on Carmel, as he offers to 
 the people the choice between the service of 
 Ahura Mazda and the service of the devas, 
 between good and evil, by the side of the holy 
 fire (Yasna xxx.). 
 
 The message which Zarathustra had to give 
 was not unworthy of such an introduction. He
 
 174 The idea of [CHAP. 
 
 had gained views of GOD, of the world, and of man, 
 which approach more nearly to the fulness of truth 
 than anything else which heathen literature can 
 shew. These views he expressed with singular 
 simplicity, and by constant iteration stamped 
 them for all time upon the sacred writings of his 
 successors. There is indeed something almost 
 Shemitic in the stern monotony with which he 
 sets forth his principles, and in the faithfulness 
 with which the Zoroastrians afterwards guarded 
 them from the assaults of polytheism. 
 
 The compound title which Zarathustra gave 
 to the Supreme Being, Ahura Mazda, gradually 
 contracted through the forms Ahuramazda, Aura- 
 mazda, Ahurmazd, Auharmazd into the modern 
 Persian and Parsee Hormazd and Ormazd, marks 
 at once the connexion of his theology with the 
 ancient faith and also its distinctness. His pre- 
 decessors had worshipped many Ahuras, living 
 ones. He concentrated this conception of life 
 upon one Ahura, the living one. The second part 
 of the title (Mazda) is of uncertain meaning. It 
 has been interpreted 'the wise' or 'the bestowerof 
 intelligence ' and also 'the creator of the universe.' 
 Whichever sense be finally established the thought 
 is equally sublime. Whether we take ' the living, 
 the wise ' or ' the living, the Creator ' as the
 
 V.] Ahura Mazda. 175 
 
 Zoroastrian designation of GOD, He is alike 
 brought into a real and direct relation with 
 finite beings. 
 
 In this name then, Ahura Mazda, we catch a 
 glimpse of the idea of Zoroastrianism. The names 
 of GOD in any religious system are naturally the 
 best indications of the characteristic doctrine of 
 GOD. For such names are so many declarations 
 of opinions as to His nature, even as we find in 
 the Old Testament that the names of GOD are 
 severally revelations of GOD. And this name 
 Ahura Mazda does not stand alone. Other names 
 to the number of twenty which are enumerated in 
 the Ormazd-Yasht combine to give a lively picture 
 of Zarathustra's Theology. These names are de- 
 clared as offering the most effectual protection 
 against evil spirits. To utter a particular name of 
 GOD is in fact to confess a particular attribute and 
 to appeal to Him under this aspect of His power. 
 Among the names are the following : ' the One of 
 whom questions are asked ' (i.e. the Revealer of 
 truth), 'Perfect Holiness,' 'Understanding,' 'the 
 All-seeing One,' ' the healing One,' ' the Creator ' 
 (S. B. E. xxiii. pp. 4 f.). 
 
 This Sovereign Being the Living One is 
 at once Light and the source of light, Wisdom 
 and the source of wisdom : the father of all truth :
 
 176 Transition from Monotheism [CHAP. 
 
 the giver of truth of speech and sincerity of action 
 and health and immortality and wealth and 
 devotion. From Him, as their last cause, all 
 things come, ' the good and the naught mind, in 
 ' thought and word and deed.' 1 
 
 The attempt to give distinctness to this last 
 conception that that which is naught or evil must 
 be referred ultimately to Ahura Mazda, led to the 
 only important modification of Zarathustra's teach- 
 ing which gained acceptance in later times, by 
 which the philosophical dualism of Zarathustra 
 was transformed into a theological dualism. Zara- 
 thustra himself seems to have taught a certain 
 duality in the one Divine Being, so as to admit 
 that He was the source of happiness and sorrow, 
 of good and evil, of day and night, of life and 
 death. This was expressed by supposing that 
 there were two Spirits in Him, a white Spirit 
 (Spenta-mainyu) and a dark Spirit (Angra-mainyu), 
 united as ' twins ' in some ineffable way, as the 
 'two creators.' But while this was so, the dark 
 Spirit included, so to speak, in essence only the 
 potentiality of evil. There was not in this view 
 
 1 Yasna xlvii. 1 ; xlviii. 4, Hang's Essays, pp. 156 f. The 
 translation of Mills is very different, but the rendering of 
 Haug, even if untenable, expresses well Zoroastrian ideas which 
 can be gained elsewhere.
 
 v.] to Dualism. 177 
 
 any coordinate eternal rival of the good. Actual 
 evil was to be crushed. GOD Himself had no 
 coequal adversary 1 . 
 
 It was almost necessary that such a doctrine 
 should be popularly corrupted. The white Spirit 
 was made to represent the whole being of Ahura 
 Mazda: the dark Spirit was converted into a 
 separate and independent power, and as Ahriman 
 was placed at the head of the forces of evil over 
 against Ormazd in an eternal conflict. At the 
 same time each of these adverse potentates was 
 surrounded with a court. The six chief gifts of 
 Ahura Mazda were personified and as the six 
 Ameshaspentas(Amshashpends), immortal spirits, 
 were gathered round Him as a council, by the 
 side of whom was Serosh (Sraosha), the repre- 
 sentative of religious service, the great angel who 
 stands between GOD and man, as mediator and 
 protector. So too Ahriman had his legates (six 
 in the later texts), among whom Indra the 
 
 1 The earliest expression of dualism (Yasna xxx. 3) speaks 
 of 'two spirits,' two principles, 'a better thing and a worse,' 
 amd not of two persons. It may perhaps be illustrated by 
 Xen. Cyrop. vi. 1, 41. The question is however one of extreme 
 difficulty; but the supremacy of good seems to be affirmed 
 equally in the earliest and latest forms of Zoroastrian doctrine, 
 though opinion fluctuated in the course of its development. 
 
 W. G. L. 12
 
 178 Doctrine of the world and [CHAP. 
 
 chief of the Vedic gods, occupied the second 
 place. 
 
 Thus a final dualism was substituted for the 
 original Zoroastrian monotheism, and from this 
 source dualistic doctrines invaded the Christian 
 Church in Gnosticism and Manichaeism. But 
 this dualism is not final in the true system 
 of Zoroastrianism. The powers of evil are at last 
 wholly defeated. Hell itself is made pure by a 
 cleansing fire. 'The renovation arises by the 
 ' will [of Ahura Mazda] and the world is immortal 
 ' for ever and everlasting.' 
 
 The Zoroastrian doctrine of the world closely 
 approximates to that of the Bible. Creation is 
 not an illusion or an evil. ' The waters and the 
 ' trees and the luminaries ' are of the good work 
 of Ahura Mazda. He made them : to Him they 
 belong: and He is 'the animating spirit of 
 'nature.' By His power, working through His 
 legions of guardian angels, all the beneficent 
 processes of life are sustained (Farvardin Yasht 
 1 ff.; S. B. E. xxiii. 180 ff.). 
 
 And as the revolutions of the world are due 
 to Divine influence so also they are supposed to 
 contribute to the Divine glory. ' The stars, suns, 
 ' and the Aurora which brings on the light of days,
 
 v.] of man. 179 
 
 'are all, through their Righteous Order, the 
 'speakers of Thy praise, O Thou Great Giver, 
 ' Lord ' (Yasna 1. 10 ; S. B. E. xxxi. 175). 
 
 The Zoroastrian doctrine of man is not less 
 striking than the doctrine of the world. It is 
 equally removed from the materialistic slavery of 
 Hinduism and from the absolute self-sacrifice of 
 Buddhism. It is more personal than cosmical or 
 social. Man stands forth in his full being and 
 holds converse with the Divine powers. He is 
 one in his entire nature and looks forward to 
 future life answering to the present. He serves 
 Ahura Mazda 'with body and soul.' Ceremonial 
 purity is insisted on as complementary to moral 
 purity but not as a substitute for it. Man has in 
 fact two lives and two intellects. The one 'life is 
 earthly and the other is spiritual : the one intel- 
 lect is the result of manifold experience, 'the 
 ' wisdom gained by the ear '; the other is an 
 original Divine gift, ' heavenly wisdom ' (Haug, 
 Essays, p. 264). And the constant specification 
 of ' thought, word and deed ' in the Zend-Avesta 
 is a characteristic mark of the care with which 
 Zarathustra inculcated the completeness of reli- 
 gious service. 
 
 The importance of words carried with it the 
 
 122
 
 180 Praise of agriculture. [CHAP. 
 
 paramount value of Truth in speech. Hence 
 Truth and Lies are opposed in the Zend-Avesta as 
 Light and Darkness, Good and Evil ; and it was 
 by truthfulness that the Persian empire grew 
 strong. Truth of thought, right belief, was held 
 to be no less important than truth of word. The 
 first of the five deadly sins was ' to teach one of 
 ' the faithful a foreign Creed ' ( Vend. Fargard xv. 
 1). So the whole duty of man is summed up in 
 a memorable sentence : ' Purity is for man, next 
 'to life, the greatest good, that purity that is 
 'procured by the law of Mazda to him who 
 ' cleanses his own self with good thoughts, words, 
 ' and deeds' ( Vend. Fargard v. 21 ; S. B. E. iv. p. 55). 
 
 Equally characteristic of the Zoroastrian idea 
 of the right type of life is the constant praise of 
 agriculture. Man is not born for roving violence, 
 or for indolent tending of flocks, but for a settled 
 home and to win from the earth the blessings 
 which she is waiting to give. ' He who sows 
 ' corn ' so spoke Ahura Mazda ' sows holiness : he 
 ' makes the law of Mazda grow higher and higher 
 '...When wheat is coming forth the Daevas are 
 ' destroyed' (Vend. Fargard iii.31 f.; S. B. E.iv. 29 f.). 
 
 The doctrine of the 'last things' is perhaps 
 the most important contribution of Zoroastrianism
 
 V.] Doctrine of last things. 181 
 
 to the original expression of man's religious 
 consciousness. Elsewhere a future existence was 
 connected with the doctrine of transmigration. 
 Zarathustra fixed the ideas of a Heaven and a 
 Hell as answering to man's conduct in his time of 
 trial on earth. Heaven is ' a house of hymns ' : 
 Hell is ' a house of destruction. ' The passage to 
 Heaven is by the Bridge of Kinvat over which 
 the good alone can cross, guided by the angel 
 Serosh. 
 
 In one of the Yashts a picture is drawn of 
 the fate of souls after death, that recals many 
 features in the myth at the close of Plato's 
 Republic which is said to have been of Zoro- 
 astrian origin. For three nights the souls wait by 
 their bodies in the greatest pleasure or pain, and 
 afterwards they see as it were their own con- 
 sciences coming towards them in the shape of a 
 beautiful maiden or a hideous hag, according as 
 their lives have been, and they are brought in 
 four steps through the paradises of Good-thought, 
 Good- word, arid Good-deed to the region of Endless 
 Light, or through the hells of Evil-thought, Evil- 
 word, and Evil-deed to the region of Endless 
 Darkness (Yasht xxii ; S. B. E. xxiii. 314 ff. ; comp. 
 Yaslit xxiv. 53 ff. ; Vend. Fargard xix. 27 ff. ; Bun- 
 dehesh xxx). 
 
 But the reward of the good was not limited to
 
 L 
 
 182 Resurrection, [CHAP. v. 
 
 the happiness of their souls. In due time their 
 bliss was to be consummated by a resurrection. 
 For this end a great prophet Saoshyant (Soshyos), 
 a supernatural son of Zarathustra, was to be born, 
 who should awaken and judge the dead and slay 
 death and destroy all the works of devils. Thence- 
 forth the world will never grow old or die ; ' life 
 'and immortality will come and the world will be 
 'restored at its wish ' (Zamydd Yasht 89 f.; S. B. E. 
 xxiii. 306 f.). 
 
 From this rapid sketch it will be evident that 
 Zarathustra is not wholly unworthy to be placed 
 as a Gentile by the side of Abraham. But there 
 is this essential difference between them. Abra- 
 ham in obedience to the Divine call broke com- 
 pletely with the idolatrous worship of his fathers 
 and threw himself wholly upon the unseen. 
 Zarathustra endeavoured to purify and use the 
 natural emblems to which his countrymen were 
 attached. As a natural result Abraham became 
 the father of the faithful to the end of time, the 
 first in a long line of interpreters of the Divine 
 will. Zarathustra enveloped his message in a 
 service which tended continually to overpower it 
 (comp. Yasna xix. 6 ; S. B. E. xxxi. 261), and no 
 successor arose to carry forward in its loftiest 
 form a work which he had already brought down 
 to earth.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 PRESUPPOSITIONS OF THE CHRISTIAN 
 SOLUTION. 
 
 9/0 
 
 ALL religion, as we have seen, assumes the 
 
 existence of self, the world, and GOD, and deals ^ <y<tjt*. 
 with the problems to which these three ultimate 
 elements of our knowledge give rise. Chris- \ 
 tianity, in this following Judaism which was 
 its special preparation, makes three assumptions 
 as to these existences, and claims that the as- 
 sumptions are justified by the intuitions and 
 experience of men. It assumes, that the world , 
 was made by GOD (Gen. i. 1) : that man was made 
 in the image of GOD (Gen. i. 27) : that man by cu^*, 
 self-assertion has broken his rightful connexion 
 with GOD (Gen. iii. 9 24). It follows from these f 
 assumptions that the world is for the Christian in 
 all its parts an expression of the will of GOD:~~ 
 that man can hold fellowship with GOD : that 
 
 lVT - L,
 
 184 Three assumptions [CHAP. 
 
 man needs the help of GOD for the fulfilment of 
 his destiny, in the sense that he requires not 
 only growth but restoration. 
 
 These assumptions are found, I believe, to 
 receive the amplest justification in life. They 
 form the adequate basis for a comprehensive and 
 harmonious view of the facts which fall within 
 our knowledge. But they are made subject to 
 all the limitations which belong to us as men. 
 They leave the difficulties which in the last place 
 necessarily beset all human thought unremoved. 
 All our conceptions are defined by conditions of 
 time and space, which belong only to beings such 
 as we are now, and are obviously provisional. 
 We cannot, for example, as has been already 
 noticed, form a clear idea of time or space as 
 either limited or unlimited. We cannot again 
 reconcile in the way of reason the coexistence of 
 the finite and the infinite. We cannot explain 
 the origin of evil. These ultimate and insoluble 
 difficulties remain. As men on earth we cannot 
 escape from them. They set their mark upon all 
 our thoughts as human thoughts. And under 
 these limitations, these imperfections of vision, 
 our views of things are necessarily shaped. 
 
 In Christianity then it is assumed, I repeat,
 
 VI.] in the Bible. 185 
 
 with a full recognition of these fundamental A/ 
 and final difficulties, that GOD made and rules 
 the world in righteousness. It is assumed that <X44i^ 
 man can hold personal converse with GOD. It ., 
 is assumed that the completeness of this poten- 
 tial communion between GOD and man has been 
 marred by sin, the act of man as a responsible 
 agent, which yet is not irremediable. 
 
 These propositions are everywhere taken for 
 granted in the Bible as expressing truths which 
 each man is able to recognise as truths when 
 they are presented to him in an intelligible 
 form. They are not explained or justified, but 
 summarily affirmed or more frequently implied. 
 They are not presented as elements of a specific 
 revelation, but they are taken as the basis of all 
 revelation. They are put forward, so to speak, as 
 the Preface to the whole record of Holy Scripture, 
 which is itself in its fulness the record of the 
 gradual unfolding of the Divine counsel and work. 
 They are indeed literally the Preface to the Bible ; 
 for in this respect the opening chapters of Genesis, 
 which have been most unhappily obscured by a 
 flood of irrelevant controversy, bring out the 
 fundamental conditions which make revelation at 
 once possible and necessary. 
 
 We go back therefore to ' a beginning ' in our 
 endeavour to grasp the full import of the Christian
 
 186 How the assumptions [CHAP. 
 
 message. From this point of view the whole 
 I narrative of the Creation and the Fall, and not 
 one isolated verse, contains, when rightly appre- 
 hended, the real Protevangelium, the primitive 
 Gospel of the world. That narrative presents in 
 a vivid form the truths which stand out more or 
 
 "V 
 
 less distinctly in all the following Books. But it 
 differs from most other parts of Scripture in this, 
 that the lessons which it conveys do not lie in the 
 details of the narrative but in the general ideas 
 which the narrative embodies. 
 
 It would probably be quite impossible for us 
 (or for man, as he is, at any time) to apprehend 
 the exact circumstances of Creation, or of the 
 original constitution of man, or of the Fall Lan- 
 guage must be to the last inadequate to express 
 the results of perfect observation. But that which 
 it concerns us to know as to the religious import 
 y , , . of the origin and destiny of finite being is written 
 w-i in the cardinal sentences which sum up the 
 contents of our divine Book of Origins. 
 
 In the beginning GOD created the heaven and 
 the earth... And GOD saw every thing that He had 
 made, and behold it was very good. Gen. i. 1, 
 31 a. 
 
 And GOD said Let us make man in our image, 
 after our likeness: and let them have dominion... 
 So GOD created man in His own image, in the
 
 vi.] are presented. 187 
 
 image of GOD created He him : male and female 
 created He them. Gen. i. 26, 27. 
 
 And the Lord GOD called unto Adam and said 
 unto him Where art thou? And he said I heard 
 Thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because 
 I was naked; and I hid myself.... Gen. iii. 9, 10, 
 23, 24. 
 
 These passages, which no criticism can rob 
 of their sublime majesty and pathos, form, as 
 I have said, the primitive Gospel of the world, 
 the outline of the Divine promises of love in the 
 essential circumstances of creation and the sequel 
 of creation. They vindicate their prophetic cha- 
 racter as soon as they are placed in comparison 
 with any corresponding ethnic conceptions of the / 
 origin and being of the world. The Revelation ' 
 which they convey is wholly unaffected by the C*~ /2i 
 view which may be taken of the incidents which 4 ^ Jt /> 
 embody the doctrinal statements in a concrete ^ 
 form; and, indeed, a careful examination of the ^ , 
 narrative seems to leave no doubt that these first "." 
 
 1~*.^o. C*J 
 
 scenes in the religious history of the world are 
 described in a symbolic form, even as the last &'',. 
 scenes portrayed in the Apocalypse. For both ^^ t^j, 
 
 for the beginning and the end this form, as .-,. 
 
 / 
 
 we may reasonably believe, is, from the neces- 
 sity of the case, that which is best suited to
 
 188 The assumption [CHAP. 
 
 convey to a being like man the right impression 
 of the truths shadowed out. 
 
 What then are the truths which they convey ? 
 We return to the fundamental passages in our 
 'Book of Origins.' 
 
 In the beginning GOD created the heaven and 
 the earth. ..And GOD saw every thing that He had 
 made, and behold it was very good. Gen. i. 1, 
 31 a. 
 
 Wu^T The first thing which strikes the student in 
 
 / fti/fety . the opening verse of the Bible is that GOD is at 
 
 jj once represented as acting. Neither here nor 
 
 elsewhere is the simple fact of His existence 
 
 - asserted, nor are His abstract attributes set forth. 
 
 ^// ' It is assumed that men have the idea of GOD. and 
 
 tCrf^l vfc, 
 
 then His Character is portrayed in His -works. 
 To deny His existence is the mark of the fool 
 (Ps. xiv. 1). Forgetfulness of GOD is the guilt 
 of the heathen (Ps. ix. 17 [18]). The nations 
 who were without GOD had been estranged from 
 Him to Whom they properly belonged (Eph. 
 ii. 12). GOD is represented as making Himself 
 known in answer to the instinctive language of 
 the heart which found expression in idolatry. 
 '/ even I am He' (eyca ei/u LXX.) He Whom 
 man looks for in the unseen world ' and there is 
 no GOD ivith me ' (Deut. xxxii. 39). ' / am He '. . .
 
 vi.] as to GOD. 189 
 
 ' / even I am the Lord, and beside me there is no 
 Saviour! ' Yea before the day was I am He ' 
 (Is. xliii. 10, 11, 13). 'Even to your old age I am 
 He ' (Is. xlvi. 4). ' / am the first I also am the 
 last ' (Is. xlviii. 12 ; comp. Is. xli. 4, and Delitzsch 
 or Cheyne ; Ps. cii. 27). And so the believer 
 answers 'Thou art GOD alone' (Is. xxxvii. 16). 
 Thus the whole teaching of Scripture is directed 
 to shew not that GOD is, nor yet what He is inYeic/ 
 Himself, but what He is in His dealings with^^/ ^ 
 men ; or in other words to make Him known in J i 
 various ways through the historical manifestations 
 of His holiness and His love. From first to last 
 this is the one message of prophets and apostles, 
 in many parts and in many fashions, in judgments 
 and in warnings, that message which found a clear 
 enunciation in ' the last time ' : GOD is love (1 John 
 iv. 8, 16), as crowning the other declarations : 
 GOD is spirit (John iv. 24) and GOD is light 
 (1 John i. 5), and our GOD is a consuming fire 
 (Hebr. xii. 29 ; Deut. iv. 24). 
 
 In this light the Biblical statement as to 
 Creation is seen in its true relation to all that 
 follows. Two principles which underlie all reli- 
 gious conceptions of the world are plainly affirmed 
 in it. The creation and disposition of the whole C 
 order in which we live was the work of GOD, and,O4/C~ ^/
 
 190 Consequent view of Creation. [CHAP. 
 
 as we are able to apprehend it, the work of 
 creation was regulated and completed in accord- 
 ance with a definite plan. Or to express the 
 truths otherwise, the whole finite order was due 
 only to the will of GOD, and it answered to that 
 will perfectly. These points it concerns us to 
 know ; and they obviously do not fall within the 
 province of human observation. On the other 
 hand when these truths are laid down, it remains 
 for us to investigate, as we can, how they are 
 realised, so far as they fall under our notice. In 
 one sense it is said ' GOD rested on the seventh day 
 from all His work which He had made ' (Gen. ii. 2), 
 and in another sense it is said ' My Father worketh 
 hitherto and I work' (John v. 17). Relatively to 
 GOD we must regard ' all creation ' as ' one act at 
 once ' ; but relatively to ourselves we necessarily 
 break up the one creative act into many parts 
 that so we may realise it better. In this relation 
 it would not be difficult to point out the fitness 
 and symmetry of the distribution of the parts of 
 the Divine work through the six days from the 
 point of sight assumed by the writer of Genesis. 
 He looks at things from the earth as centre, and 
 regards them in due succession according to 
 obvious sensible characteristics. From another 
 point of sight the same thought of order might 
 offer itself under another form. Such considera-
 
 VI.] The assumption as to man. 191 
 
 tions have also a wider application. According to 
 our powers or knowledge we may present GOD to 
 ourselves as working in this way or that, uni- 
 formly, so to speak, or interruptedly. And these 
 different modes of conception are not without 
 moral significance, but they are only of secondary 
 importance : that which is essential is that we 
 should keep firm hold of the one immutable truth 
 that GOD made all that is, and that all, as He 
 made it, was very good. 
 
 The second passage brings out another thought. 
 The creation was consummated in man, ' the image 
 and glory of GOD ' (1 Cor. xi. 7). 
 
 And GOD said Let us make man in our image, 
 after our likeness: and let them have dominion... 
 So GOD created man in His own image, in the 
 image of GOD created He him : male and female 
 created He them. Gen. i. 26, 27. 
 
 One thing at least is clear from these words 
 that, according to the teaching of Scripture, man 
 stands in a position of exceptional nearness to 
 GOD ; and the corresponding words in the second 
 chapter confirm the truth under a different aspect 
 (ii. 7). There is, to express the thought otherwise, 
 such a relation between man and GOD, that man 
 is fitted by his essential constitution to receive a 
 knowledge of GOD. Revelation is made possible *-
 
 192 Man the crown of creation. [CHAP. 
 
 for him from the first. He is not confined to 
 thoughts which are suggested to him by self- 
 examination or by the study of creation: he is 
 capable of apprehending divine truths, he can 
 learn concerning GOD what GOD is pleased to 
 teach, without any essential change in his original 
 constitution. The conception of GOD'S Nature 
 and mode of working may be above his imagina- 
 tion, but it is not above his power of apprehen- 
 sion. 
 
 This unique position of man in the visible 
 order is emphasised by other details. He has 
 dominion over other creatures (i. 28) : he assigns 
 to them their names (ii. 19 f.): he finds among 
 them no companion fitted for himself (ii. 18, 20). 
 As he appears first in his true nature he is ' little 
 lower than a divine being' (Ps. viiL), at perfect 
 peace in himself, towards nature, and towards 
 GOD. He is made for GOD and, to this end, he is 
 made ' in the image of GOD.' 
 
 It is difficult indeed to define exactly in what 
 sense man was made 'in the image of GOD.' 
 Perhaps we can do no more than hold that in his 
 whole being he is, in his true nature, fitted to 
 represent GOD to us in the present order (comp. 
 Ezek. i. 26). This thought appears to be sug- 
 gested by the Incarnation (Col. i. 15), whereby 
 the glory of man (Ps. viii. 6) is fully realised
 
 vi.] Limitations of the assumption. 193 
 
 (Hebr. ii. 6 ff.). There is at least no authority 
 for separating any one part of man as alone 
 presenting the image. Holiness, which we feel 
 to be the most god-like quality in man, involves 
 the cooperation and consecration of all his powers 
 and endowments. 
 
 i j 
 In this relation it is important to notice / 
 
 that we are concerned with man as man, as / 1 . 
 
 &** )\ ^m 
 
 endowed with this faculty of Divine communion. 
 
 -tVV>O>i 
 
 It is of no moment for us to inquire in this place 
 through what stages (if any) he reached this 
 point, any more than it is to inquire in this 
 respect into the stages through which the indivi- 
 dual passes before his natural birth. The theory 
 of development has no religious significance 
 here. Development is only a way of writing i ^ 
 out the Divine method of working according to 
 the form of human apprehension. 
 
 And further: while man as man was made 
 with a capacity for receiving knowledge of GOD, 
 the knowledge was not directly given in its 
 fulness. In this respect the contrast between the 
 account of the Divine purpose and of the Divine 
 work is most significant. GOD said, Let us make "*+*~ 
 man in our image, after our likeness... So GOD - 
 created man in His own image. Man was not c<3 ^ J ^ 
 created in his ideal completeness, but such that he ' 
 W. G, L. 13
 
 194? The assumption [CHAP. 
 
 was in a position to attain to it by freely using 
 the Divine help which was offered to him. He 
 was not, as GOD'S good work, finally perfect, but 
 only potentially perfect. He was created in the 
 image of GOD, and he had to gain progressively 
 by cooperation with GOD the likeness of GOD for 
 which he was made. The constitution, the powers, 
 are given : the character is wrought out in life. 
 Such a view brings to its ultimate antithesis and ' , 
 ultimate harmony finite freedom and an infinite 
 and loving will It reconciles the claims of human 
 morality and of Divine grace in their last form. * 
 Man in and by himself is neither perfect nor 
 capable of attaining perfection ; but he was made 
 capable of attaining perfection by using the gifts 
 placed within his reach and by working with GOD. 
 
 This brings us to the third point in the 
 Divine portraiture of man's religious position. 
 He failed through self-will to fulfil his right 
 destiny. 
 
 And the Lord GOD called unto Adam, and 
 said unto him, Where art thou ? And he said, I 
 heard Thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, 
 because I was naked ; and I hid myself. . . Gen. iii. 
 9, 10, 23, 24. 
 
 The absolute, childlike, freedom of the com- 
 munion between GOD and man is here seen to
 
 VI.] 
 
 as to mans Fall. 
 
 195 
 
 have been interrupted. The picture answers to 
 universal experience. There is something in us 
 to be hidden : something of which we are our- 
 selves ashamed. So far we are only placed face 
 to face with an unquestionable fact. But Reve- 
 lation illuminates the fact which it recognises. 
 This interruption is shewn to be due to the 
 action of some power distinct from ourselves." 
 It does not belong to the essence of our nature, 
 and therefore it can be remedied. The very Fall 
 in its consummation is so brought about that it 
 leaves man still man, and therefore still retaining 
 essentially GOD'S image. 
 
 This truth finds distinct expression at the 
 second religious starting-point of the human race. 
 In the Covenant with Noah the life of man is 
 declared to be sacred 'for in the image of GOD 
 made He man ' (Gen. ix. 6), where the argument 
 requires that the image should still remain, and 
 not merely once have been. And so St Paul 
 speaks of man as man being 'the image (elicfov) 
 and glory of GOD ' (1 Cor. xi. 7) ; though being 
 what he is he needs continuous renewal to gain 
 his ideal state (Col. iii. 10 ; comp. James iii. 9 ; 
 Luke xv. 8). /' 
 
 The sense of this fact, illuminated by the 
 promise connected with the Fall, explains the 
 
 132 
 
 
 UJL 
 
 JLe. <AJL 
 
 f&OS 
 
 k tt. 
 
 A
 
 196 General review [CHAP. 
 
 remarkable silence throughout the Old Testament 
 as to the Fall itself. The Jew did not dwell with 
 a regretful retrospect on a lost Paradise: his 
 thoughts were turned to a more glorious future. 
 
 While therefore we must keep firm hold on 
 the fact of the Fall and on the consequences of 
 the Fall, we must not exaggerate the change 
 which it brought to man. The ' original right- 
 eousness ' which he lost can best be conceived of 
 as the result of the harmonious development of 
 life under the action of the Divine Communion. 
 In one sense this was natural, so far as it answered 
 to the Divine purpose for man : in another sense 
 it was supernatural, so far as the power by which 
 it was wrought was not in man but from GOD. 
 When the fellowship was broken the continuous 
 support necessaiy for perfect and progressive 
 holiness was withdrawn. Yet conscience bears 
 witness to the destiny for which man was made 
 and which by himself he cannot reach. 
 
 It does not fall within the scope of our 
 present subject to pursue the interpretation of 
 these passages at greater length. It must be 
 enough to point out again that our ' Book of 
 Origins' furnishes the unchanging basis of our 
 religious belief, that it sets before us in a shape 
 most simple and most pregnant a Divine inter-
 
 vi.] of the record. 197 
 
 pretation of the facts of which we are conscious ; 
 and yet further that the record of the Creation \ J& b 
 and of the Fall is first apprehended in its full 
 significance when it is studied as a revelation of 
 spiritual mysteries and not as a realistic narrative : 
 that nothing is lost in the value of the details 
 when they are regarded as symbolical and not as 
 historical: that in fact the details do not grow 
 luminous till they are interpreted as the expres- 
 sion of thoughts thus brought vividly before the 
 imagination. The lessons which are given by 
 this Preface to all Revelation, are in short moral 
 and spiritual, and not physical and historical. 
 They lay down irrevocably the essential relations 
 of GOD, and man, and the world. They go back 
 to a point beyond all experience. The final 
 sanctions of every noble form of human activity, 
 the promises which illuminate " the toppling crags 
 of duty," are implicitly contained in them. They 
 shew that the order of finite being corresponds 
 with a counsel of GOD and has been called out, as 
 it_falls under our observation, in an orderly se- 
 quence. They shew that the blessing with which 
 it was crowned, if hindered, has not been revoked. 
 They shew that the conception of humanity as a 
 living whole is not a dream but a truth. They 
 shew that the aspirations of man to GOD answer 
 to his essential constitution and contain the pledge 
 
 z* +f >*t 
 -'
 
 198 The use of the postulates [CHAP. 
 
 of fulfilment. They shew that the sinfulness by 
 which he is bound and the sins by which he is 
 stained are not parts of his real self: that they 
 are intrusive and that so they can be done away. 
 Thus the great facts of our earthly existence are 
 from the first placed in connexion with an 
 unseen order ; and then in due course throughout 
 the Bible the later phases of this connexion are 
 traced out in their critical succession. We are, as 
 has been said before, not concerned with the 
 ' how ' but with the ' that,' of the Creation and 
 the Fall, not with the manner but with the fact. 
 It may be that whole cycles of existence are 
 summarised in the words ' GOD created man in 
 His own image' (Gen. i. 27); and 'the Lord 
 OD formed man of the dust of the ground, and 
 breathed into his nostrils the breath of life ' and 
 ' man became a living soul ' (Gen. ii. 7). It may 
 be that whole cycles of progressive probation, 
 manifold issues of preparatory experience, are 
 gathered up in the Fall. But the great facts 
 remain in their momentous significance, though 
 they are clothed for us in a mystical dress. 
 
 For the most part the facts of the Creation 
 and the Fall are apprehended individually through 
 feeling and experience. This individual witness 
 is enough for the guidance of life. And it cannot 
 be without a profound meaning that the record of 
 
 . J.
 
 vi.] in the New Testament. 199 
 
 the Fall is not noticed once unquestionably in the 
 later books of the O. T., and only twice in the 
 Apocrypha, till the fact of the Incarnation had 
 enabled men to understand its import. 
 
 Its teaching was, so to speak, latent ; but ^ 
 while the details of the records of the Creation 
 and of the Fall are but rarely referred to in 
 the Bible, the facts and the doctrines that is 
 the interpretations of the facts which they ^/_ /g_ 
 preserve, the three postulates of religion, are j j 
 universally affirmed. 0. . 
 
 In this respect it will be sufficient to notice 
 the language of St Paul. In the book of the Acts 
 brief summaries are given of words which he 
 addressed on two occasions to heathen audiences. 
 On the first occasion he was pleading against the 
 misinterpretation of a work of healing, which led 
 the rude inhabitants of Lystra to offer to him and 
 Barnabas divine honours (Acts xiv. 15-17). On 
 the second occasion he was rendering an account 
 to educated Athenians of the strange doctrine 
 which he was alleged to teach (xvii. 22-31). The 
 circumstances under which he spoke could hardly 
 have been more different. But in both cases his 
 language as to GOD is essentially the same. ' The 
 ' nations had failed to recognise the Creator and 
 ' Ruler of the world, though He had set about
 
 200 The use of the postulates [CHAP. 
 
 ' them signs of His working. The time of this 
 ' ignorance was now past. A clear message laid 
 ' open the neglected truth ; and (so it is assumed) 
 ' those who heard would find in it the answer to 
 ' their own vague thoughts.' At Athens the Apo- 
 e naturally carried on his explanation further, 
 and laid down distinctly the main propositions 
 which we have found in the first chapters of the 
 Bible, the orderly progress of the Divine working 
 (optVa? 7rpoa-rerayfj.vov<; [Trporer.] icaipovs KOI 
 ra? 6po6e<ria<; T?}? Karai/cias), the Divine image in 
 man (rov yap KO.\ 761/0? ea-fiev), the unity of the 
 human race (eVot?7<re e ei/o? irav eOvos dvOpooTruv), 
 the universal necessity of repentance (irapayye\- 
 \i rot? dvdpanrois Trdvrat Travra-^ov /jberavoelv}. 
 These propositions are taken as the foundation of 
 his appeal : they are assumed to be supported by 
 ' testimonies of the soul naturally Christian.' 
 
 In the Epistle to the Romans the same truths 
 are put forth more formally. Men had, it is 
 affirmed, a knowledge of GOD as GOD, a know- 
 ledge of His eternal power and divinity, from the 
 time of creation, given openly in His works. They 
 lacked in this respect not knowledge, but the will 
 to apply their knowledge : ' Having known GOD, 
 ' they did not glorify Him as GOD ;' and from this 
 primal wilful sin flowed the full stream of their 
 degradation (Rom. i. 19-21). Nor was this all:
 
 vi.] in the New Testament. 201 
 
 corresponding with the revelation of GOD without, t 
 there was also for man a revelation of GOD n ' 
 within. As the world was His workmanship; 
 so man was made in His image. Up to a certain- 
 
 point therefore He could be discerned in the soul t 
 as well as in nature. So in fact men as they 
 knew GOD, knew His sentence on particular modes 
 of action, and set it at naught (Rom. i. 32), or else 
 imperfectly conformed to the law which it indi- 
 cated (ii. 14, ). 
 
 It would be easy to multiply passages from 
 the Old and New Testaments in which the same 
 assumptions are made; but no attentive student 
 will doubt that the three great postulates as to 
 
 GOD, the world, and man, which have been speci- > *{ ' " u 
 
 UD . i 
 
 fied, form the groundwork of the Biblical history <*> / 
 and teaching. It is assumed that they are , i^^ 
 acknowledged by every one individually as wit- \/A, i 
 nessed to by his conscience ; and that generally \ , 
 they correspond with what we know of ourselves \/^ 
 and of our position in the world. At the same *> 
 time it is allowed that they have been and can be 
 plausibly denied. No thoughtful man will pre- *J/ /J 
 sume to say that the explanation of the universe // 
 which they represent is free from difficulties. 
 Other explanations of our present state may be 
 offered, as in fact they have been offered; or 
 some may refuse to consider any explanation at
 
 202 The postulates [CHAP. 
 
 all. In such a case it does not appear that there 
 is__any certain way of establishing the truths 
 assumed. The utmost that can be done is to 
 shew that any other explanation of the universe 
 is beset by far greater difficulties than that in 
 which they are involved; and that we are im- 
 pelled by our nature to seek for some explanation 
 of it, and (as we have seen) that the explanation 
 which we adopt must powerfully affect our cha- 
 racter. 
 
 AW >*' The Christian postulates cannot be esta- 
 blished by independent reasoning, but they can 
 be illustrated by it ; and there may be occasions 
 i/bu, when it is desirable to dwell on such illustrations 
 as can be derived from nature and history : from 
 the constitution of our own minds or from the 
 order and progress of the outer world : from the 
 broad stream of events and the analysis of separate 
 lives ; but care must be taken not to overrate their 
 cogency, or to extend their application beyond 
 their proper scope. The idea of GOD (for example) 
 must be admitted before such illustrations are 
 really effective. Nor is there anything excep- 
 tionally disadvantageous to religious truth in the 
 necessity for this fundamental assumption. It 
 is just so in daily life. I assume that the men 
 among whom I move are personal beings es- 

 
 VI.] justified by experience. 203 x- 
 
 sentially like myself, and then all experience ( t >&" 
 contributes to the completeness of my knowledge 
 of their character. But there is no method of 
 argument by which I can be overcome if I main- . 
 tain that other men are creations of my own brain I 
 or irresponsible automata. 
 
 And here it will be well to notice a miscon- 
 ception which appears to prevail almost univer- ^^^ 
 sally. It is very commonly asserted by thinkers 
 of different schools, that GOD is unknowable by 
 men, and it appears to be implied at the same 
 time, even when it is not so said, that He is 
 unknowable in some peculiar sense. But surely 
 it is true that in themselves men and the world 
 are as truly unknowable as GOD. All our know-\ 
 ledge of man and of the world and of GOD is \ 
 relative and modified by the laws of our own 
 personal constitution. All our knowledge in other 
 words is human knowledge into which our human 
 nature, the conditions of our human senses and 
 reason, must enter as one factor. It is utterly ' 
 
 >*4 ^ 
 
 impossible for us ever to separate the thought 
 from the thinking person, to separate what belongs 
 to man from that unknown something which when 
 apprehended by him produces such and such an 
 impression, or is realised in such and such a form. 
 And this inexorable union of man himself with all 
 his knowledge does not make his knowledge illu- 
 

 
 204 GOD unknowable as [CHAP. 
 
 sory or evanescent. True (if imperfect) knowledge 
 expresses a right conception (so far as it goes) of 
 the relation of two things, of ourselves and some- 
 thing else. Fuller knowledge will therefore take 
 up and embody partial knowledge. It is so with 
 our knowledge of the constitution of our own 
 minds, and of the outer world, and it is so also 
 with our knowledge of GOD. If, as we assume, 
 man is made to know GOD, through an appropriate 
 organ, as he is made to know himself and the 
 universe through mind and sense, his knowledge 
 of GOD will be like in kind to his knowledge of 
 himself and of the world. GOD, in short, is 
 unknowable and known just as the world is 
 unknowable and known. 
 
 However, not to pursue such speculations, it 
 is evident that the enunciation of the three postu- 
 lates of the existence of a righteous Creator and 
 Governor of the world, of the creation of man in 
 the image of GOD, and of the reality of sin, places 
 Christianity in a definite position with regard to 
 some popular difficulties concerning revelation, 
 and this position cannot be too distinctly recog- 
 nised and made known. For if there is a righteous 
 Creator and Governor of the world it follows that 
 all antecedent objections to 'miracles,' all objec- 
 tions to ' miracles ' as distinguished from objections
 
 vi.] man and the world are unknowable. 205 
 
 to the evidence alleged in favour of particular 
 miracles.are beside the mark. And again, if man 
 has been created in the image of GOD, the objec- 
 tions against revelation in particular which are 
 based on man's incapacity to rise above himself 
 are met by the particular theory of man's nature 
 which is laid down. And thirdly, if man has 
 fallen from GOD by his responsible (' free ') act, the 
 consequent relation of man to GOD is such that 
 he cannot be restored to his original state of 
 perfect communion otherwise than by the action 
 of Divine Love.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 SIGNS" AS A VEHICLE OF REVELATION. 
 
 THE assertion which has been made that 
 miracles, 'signs' (tyrj^ela), are more properly in 
 
 their highest form the substance than the proofs 
 of revelation requires to be justified a little more 
 
 at length. And it must be noticed at the outset 
 that when we speak of any phenomenon as 
 ' miraculous,' we are offering one particular inter- 
 pretation of it, where many other interpretations 
 are conceivable. It does not follow at once that 
 a phenomenon which is, as far as our experience 
 goes, absolutely unique and wholly unaccountable, 
 even if we have taken pains to become acquainted 
 with all the circumstances connected with it, will 
 be pronounced to be a miracle. And on the other 
 hand it is not difficult to imagine a coincidence of 
 circumstances, all in themselves perfectly intelli- 
 gible, and as a whole not unexampled, which we
 
 CH. vii.] Phenomena as signs. 207 
 
 should without hesitation call a miracle. On the 
 one hand we are so deeply conscious of the imper- 
 fection of our knowledge of the nature and action 
 of forces without and within ourselves, that we 
 may in a particular case find it easier to suppose 
 that we have overlooked some factor in the result 
 or that we have been deceived, than to suppose 
 that we are in the presence of a power manifesting 
 itself personally. And on the other hand there 
 are subtle signs, answering to the experience of 
 common life, which are calculated to force upon 
 us the conviction that in a particular combination 
 of phenomena we are brought face to face with 
 One working directly before us in a way analogous 
 to that in which we work, so far as the fact falls 
 within the range of our observation. These con- 
 siderations shew that the definitions of a miracle 
 which turn upon particular theories as to causa- 
 tion cannot be maintained. The best idea which J > 
 
 (/-**. 
 
 we can form of a miracle is that of an event 
 
 <k*Jts,<. 
 
 or phenomenon which is fitted to suggest to us 
 
 the action of a personal spiritual power ; and this 
 fitness may lie either in the nature of the pheno- 
 menon itself, or in the circumstances of the phe- 
 nomenon, or in the nature and circumstances of 
 the phenomenon conjointly. A miracle, in other 
 words, is what it is characteristically called in the 
 New Testament, a ' sign ' (a-rmeiov). Its essence
 
 208 Miracles assume [CHAP. 
 
 lies not so much in what it is in itself as in what 
 it is calculated to indicate. 
 
 The phenomenon, I say, which is appre- 
 hended as a miracle suggests the idea of the 
 action of a personal spiritual power. But in 
 itself it can do no more than suggest the idea of 
 his action. It is wholly unable in any intelligible 
 sense to prove the existence of such a power ; and 
 ***** ' still less to prove that the power is Infinite. It 
 cannot prove the existence of the power, because 
 experience shews us that the forces which act 
 about us often lead to results which we could not 
 have anticipated, and that we cannot presume to 
 think that there may not be other forces capable 
 of acting about us which we have not yet detected. 
 The phenomenon in question may, then, be due to 
 hitherto unknown combinations of known forces, 
 or to a force hitherto unknown. It need not be 
 attributed to a personal spiritual power, though 
 the action of such a power may be the simplest 
 and, so far, the most probable explanation of the 
 phenomenon. And, again, no phenomenon can 
 prove the existence of an infinite power. Every 
 manifestation of power which can be made to 
 us necessarily falls short of that which we can 
 imagine. The utmost that any particular effect 
 can require of the observer is that he shall admit
 
 vii.] the existence of GOD. 209 
 
 the existence of a power sufficient to produce it. 
 It cannot in itself justify him in affirming as a 
 logical conclusion the existence of an agent 
 endowed with indefinitely greater strength or 
 wisdom than is adequate to produce the effect for 
 which he has to account. In other words, the . 
 of GOD, in the fulness of His Infinite ' 
 
 attributes, must come from ourselves. It cannot 
 be established, however distinctly it may be 
 suggested to us, being what we are, however ^. Q^ 
 plainly it may be illustrated, by that which we />* >. 
 observe without us. Nothing finite can establish >.^ 
 an infinite : no induction in one order can establish 
 a conclusion in another order. 
 
 Jtai *n 
 
 It must, then, be distinctly admitted that 
 the very conception of a miracle assumes the &MU>-~ 
 existence of the spiritual power to whose action 
 the miraculous phenomenon is referred, and whose 
 character it more fully reveals. In other words, 
 the possible action of such a Being is added to r^f 
 the sum of the causes to which we feel ourselves J 
 able to have recourse in the explanation of any 
 fact which falls under our notice. On such an ; 
 assumption there can be no question as to the 
 possibility of miracles. In each case we shall have 
 to ask what explanation of the particular fact is 
 on the whole most reasonable. Is it to be referred 
 W. G. L. 14
 
 210 Moral correspondence between [CHAP. 
 
 to the regular action of known forces ? Or is it to 
 be referred to the action of known forces acting in 
 some way as yet insufficiently determined ? Or is 
 it to be referred to the action of some physical 
 force which has hitherto escaped notice ? Or is it 
 to be referred directly to the personal action of a 
 spiritual Being ? And, further, all these explana- 
 tions are themselves equally 'natural,' though 
 they may be severally more or less likely. It is 
 quite conceivable that the same phenomenon may 
 under different circumstances admit of different 
 explanations, that a phenomenon which would be 
 recognised as a sign in a particular age or in par- 
 ticular circumstances, would not be recognised as 
 a sign under other conditions. But that on which 
 I wish to insist at present is that the idea of the 
 spiritual Being must precede the idea of the 
 miracle which is referred to His agency, and 
 f<&Jjt must be admitted as true before the phenomenon 
 
 /I 
 
 is recognised as a miracle. 
 
 This conclusion carries with it important 
 rt consequences. There will, it follows, be a moral 
 correspondence between the miracles and the 
 C*-VYJL Being to whose action they are assigned. So far 
 we have considered generally the case of pheno- 
 mena which suggest the action of some Spiritual 
 power. But it is easy to imagine miracles which
 
 VIL] the Miracle and the Worker. 211 
 
 would only establish the action of an evil power. 
 The assumed character of the spiritual being will 
 therefore determine the assignment of any parti- 
 cular fact to his agency. And here, again, it will 
 be observed that the general conception of the 
 character of the agent must precede the interpre- 
 tation of the fact : I say the general conception of 
 his character, because the fact may give us 
 further information as to his character, harmo- 
 nious with our antecedent conception, though not 
 explicitly included in it. Or to express this 
 truth in a different form, the moral bearing of 
 the fact under examination will be a necessary 
 element in our apprehension of it as a miracle, 
 as a Divine sign. 
 
 It may, perhaps, appear that tnese two 
 cardinal propositions, (1) that the idea of a , 
 miracle assumes the existence of the spiritual 
 being to whom it is referred, and (2) that our ' ' 
 antecedent conception of the character of the 
 being will decide the assignment of any particular 
 
 fact to his agency, are at variance with popular .,_ ._ 
 forms of argument at present, as they are certainly / t 
 at variance with popular forms of argument in 
 the last century. But whether this be so or not, 
 the propositions are most distinctly assumed in ^*~^ 
 Scripture ; and here as elsewhere we must acknow- 
 
 142
 
 1 
 
 212 Miracles treated as [CHAP. 
 
 ledge with devout gratitude that the thoughts of 
 the Bible are far deeper than our thoughts, and 
 survive in their enduring majesty the changing 
 phases of our modes of speculation. A few pas- 
 sages taken from representative books will place 
 this assertion beyond contradiction. 
 
 In a familiar passage of the book of Deutero- 
 nomy (c. xiii) three typical forms of temptation to 
 apostasy are dealt with, the teaching of a prophet, 
 who confirms his message by ' a sign or a wonder ' 
 [?*" which ' comes to pass ' (w. 1 ff.), the persuasion of 
 ** kindred (6 ff.), the voice of popular leaders (12 ff.). 
 In each case the final appeal is to national 
 and personal experience. Nothing could justly 
 disturb the trust and love which were thus 
 established; no miracle, no natural affection, no 
 hopes of civil prosperity. The trial through the 
 false prophet, who points to a fulfilment of his 
 words which is elsewhere made the criterion of 
 the Divine origin of the sign (xviii. 22), is placed 
 .' ..;., ;-// first and dealt with in fullest detail as the most 
 crucial of all tests. No question is raised as to 
 the reality of the phenomenon, or as to its 
 supernatural character. It is assumed to be 
 miraculous. But there is a faith in GOD, gained 
 J in life and capable of immediate attestation 
 through personal devotion, which must be un- 
 .
 
 VIL] subordinate to experience of GOD. 213 
 
 assailable for the believer. Like Abraham he ' ** ' 
 will trust GOD against sight. No miracle is valid ^ au^ 
 
 against a conviction which ' the heart and the 
 
 * J 
 soul' have acknowledged. 
 
 kJL+ndr' 
 
 In the passage of Deuteronomy the ' sign ' by 
 which GOD tests the love of His people is from 
 without. The prophet who offers it seeks his - 
 own end in conscious antagonism to the LORD who ^ 
 uses him for His own purpose. There is a still 
 more tragical case where the prophet is himself 
 deceived that he should ' believe the lie ' (Ezek. 
 
 xiv. 4 ff.. 9 : comp. 2 Thess. ii. 11), and confirm 
 
 j - - ' A /7 
 
 in his apostasy the man who seeks counsel from 
 him when he has himself deliberately chosen his 
 part and set up idols in his heart. The inquirer 
 and the answerer have alike cast away the 
 simplicity of truth, and GOD strengthens their 
 delusion not as sanctioning it but as making it , 
 the just instrument of their chastisement. There ' 
 is that within men which may and ought to 
 prevail against every outward sign and every &-. 
 inward voice which the soul has once been able 
 
 m 
 
 eo.v*^ 
 
 m f- 
 
 * Y\J wi 
 
 is 
 
 to recognise as inconsistent with a believer's love. 
 
 So temptation is discovered and overcome (comp. '' : 
 
 1 K. xxii. 22). 
 
 The sovereign responsibility of man is affirmed
 
 214 No miracle can rightly shake [CHAP. 
 
 with equal clearness in the Gospels. He may 
 . not under any constraint be disloyal to himself. 
 The Lord lays the duty of personal decision upon 
 His disciples under circumstances of the sorest 
 trial. False Christs and false prophets would 
 arise, when His mission had seemed to close in 
 
 t^J^ failure, and ' shew great signs and wonders, so as 
 to lead astray, if possible, the elect ' (Matt. xxiv. 
 23 f.), l)ut having once known Him, that know- 
 
 rui&* pledge must be their safeguard. Here again no 
 question is raised as to the reality of the signs. 
 Their effect is unquestioned (vv. 5, 11). No 
 
 ' JL. promise Bfcgiven of greater signs. On the contrary 
 ^ there are sad warnings of peril and loneliness. 
 But the strength of a personal relationship once 
 realised is assumed to have adequate source of 
 strength. Everything that tempts to unfaithful- 
 ness is met by the assurance : In your patience ye 
 shall win your souls (Luke xxi. 19). 
 
 St Paul, in a passage to which reference has 
 been made already (2 Thess. ii. 8 ff.), combines the 
 different forms of temptation which simple love 
 
 may be called upon to meet and overcome. He 
 
 ' r 
 
 foresees a presence of the lawless one ' according 
 
 to the working of Satan with all power and signs 
 and lying wonders.' The lie which this enemy 
 shall proclaim shall find credence. The signs
 
 VIL] loyalty to GOD. 215 
 
 shall lead away some to destruction. And the 
 apostle lays open the secret of the fall of those 
 who were deceived : ' they received not the love of 
 the truth ; ' they ' had pleasure in unrighteous- 
 ness.' It was in their power once to welcome 
 what GOD offered, but they refused the gift, and 
 so they became the victims of the teacher who 
 flattered their desires (comp. Gal. i. 8). 
 
 One other passage must be quoted in which 
 St John describes in figures the decisive conflict 
 of the faith (Apoc. xiii. 11 ff.). The representa- *?? 
 tive of evil ' doeth great signs.' He shews to men 
 the sign of Elijah, and makes fire to descend out 
 of heaven (contrast Matt. xvi. 1). The signs are 
 real, so far as men can test them ; and the saints *"* * 
 must meet them only by patience and faith 
 (Apoc. xiii. 10; xiv. 12). But one significant 
 phrase reveals the nature of this stern discipline : ^ fi 
 ' The signs were given to the beast to do.' The 
 temptation of the disciple corresponds to the j vt 
 temptation of the Lord (comp. Lk. iv. 6). That 
 which is most strange and perplexing rests on 
 the will of GOD. Trust in Him is guidance and 
 safety. 
 
 / 
 One great thought, it will be seen, runs 
 
 through all these passages, that absolute loyalty ' 

 
 216 Miracles correspond [CHAP. 
 
 to GOD as recognised and known in the individual 
 conscience must prevail over every external sign, 
 and decide on the interpretation of events which 
 claim to be referred to His action. Nothing which 
 is at variance with perfect holiness, and justice, 
 and truth, can be from Him as a declaration of 
 His will for us ; and no array of external ' miracles ' 
 can justify us in referring to Him, as authorita- 
 tive for our direction, any act or word which our 
 constitution made in His image forces us to regard 
 as immoral. And here we must observe that the 
 distinctness of moral conceptions will correspond 
 with the growth of the race, as it does with the 
 growth of the individual, but the essential charac- 
 ter of the conceptions will be relatively the same. 
 Cases may arise in which it is our duty to hold our 
 judgment in suspense. We may not be able to 
 decide as to the real character of a particular act, 
 and while this is so we must wait in patience for 
 fuller light ; but nothing can justify us in sacri- 
 ficing truth or right, felt to be such, to any 
 alleged works of Him whom we know before all 
 things to be Light and Love. 
 
 It follows from what has been said that the 
 Bible and reason, the voices of GOD without us 
 and within us, lead us to believe that GOD, if 
 He acts, will act according to His Nature, even
 
 vii.] with Divine modes of working. 217 
 
 as man acts according to his nature, so far, that is, y* .j 
 as these acts of GOD fall within the observation of . t 
 our powers. And this consideration enables us to **-'- 
 meet an objection against miracles which ought ^ tc^ 
 not to be overlooked. It is urged that when " 
 appeal is made to man's power of modifying the ' 
 course of nature as justifying the belief that GOD * t*<. 
 also may modify it by 'personal' action, the L^ 
 parallel is unreal. Man, it is urged, uses forces 
 which we see to be adequate to produce the effects 
 attributed to him ; and therefore his action offers //<[ 
 no real analogy to the alleged action of GOD. But / 
 it is obvious that the^ point of comparison lies not 
 in_the mode by which the result is produced, but^ 
 in the will which (as we are forced to think and 
 speak) is the ultimate spring of action in the two 
 cases. Man acts according to his powers which \ 
 are regulative ; and GOD acts by His energy which \ 
 is creative. If the alleged Divine action did not 
 suggest the manifestation of creative power it 
 would fail in its characteristic effect. The pheno- 
 menon could only suggest an unseen agent like 
 
 man. 
 
 And here it will be well to notice an ambi- 
 guity in the word 'omnipotent' as applied to 
 GOD, which appears to have caused strange per- 
 plexity to many thoughtful minds. It has been
 
 218 The omnipotence of GOD. [CHAP. 
 
 supposed that omnipotence involves the power of 
 doing everything. The error is exactly parallel 
 with that by which freedom in a rational being is 
 supposed to be compatible with caprice. Freedom 
 of a rational being can be nothing else than the 
 power of fulfilling the law of his nature, which is, 
 under one aspect, complete obedience ; and omni- 
 potence is simply the power of fulfilling the 
 absolute law of perfection as it is realised. Omni- 
 potence is predicated of Him Who is absolutely 
 good and holy and righteous, and must be inter- 
 preted consistently with these attributes. It 
 would be a direct contradiction to say that GOD as 
 omnipotent could do wrong in a particular case, or 
 make wrong to be right, or cause a thing to be 
 and not to be at the same time, or that which 
 has been not to have been, speaking, as we must 
 speak, according to our limited view. And further, 
 if^it has been the will of GOD (as we assume) 
 to create a limited free being, this act carries with 
 it all the consequences involved in any way in the 
 exercise of that limited freedom, and so far, 
 according to man's view, necessarily defines the 
 action of the Divine omnipotence, that is, makes 
 known the Divine will which is the measure of 
 ^5 A the Divine power. The apprehension of this truth, 
 I may remark, throws light upon the final mystery 
 of religion, the existence of evil or, more specific-
 
 VIL] Summary. 219 
 
 ally, of sin. Sin in its ultimate form is selfishness ^ , 
 the setting up of itself by the finite against the 
 Infinite. And the possibility of this is of necessity 
 included in the idea of a finite self. Self carries 
 with it the potentiality of isolation. In that 
 isolation when it becomes a fact there is the 
 fertilised germ of sin. 
 
 To sum up briefly. 
 
 It has been shewn that 
 
 (1) A miracle assumes the existence of GOD. 
 
 (2) That no miracle can justify a man in 
 referring to GOD that which is immoral as autho- 
 ritative for man's conduct. 
 
 (3) That miracles, as acts of GOD, will be 
 essentially creative acts. 
 
 (4) That all the acts of GOD, as omnipotent, 
 will be (according to our observation) in accordance 
 with the moral laws which He has made known. 
 
 These general considerations on the nature 
 and character of miracles enable us to apprehend 
 justly the office which miracles, as historical facts, 
 and the record of miracles, are fitted to fulfil in 
 the religious history of man from the Christian 
 point of view. The case appears to admit of
 
 220 Function of miracles [CHAP. 
 
 being stated very plainly. Revelation, which in- 
 cludes the idea of miracles, corresponds with crea- 
 tion. If, as we assume, GOD made the world, and 
 if He made man in His own image, it appears to 
 follow of necessity that He should make Himself 
 known more and more completely, and that, not 
 only in conscience and in nature, but also in life. 
 If man were absolutely isolated, communing with 
 GOD only, then the revelation through conscience 
 would meet the conditions of his existence. If 
 knowledge according to his present powers were 
 the end of his being, then the revelation through 
 the fixed order of the universe would satisfy his 
 wants. But if he is called upon to live, to contend 
 with adverse forces and to conquer, to reach 
 forward to an unseen universe, to realise the 
 eternal through the temporal, then revelation 
 must (to use our human modes of speech) lay 
 open to him something of the Nature of GOD, as 
 disciplining, guiding, sustaining humanity and 
 men. And if further, as is also assumed, man has 
 by his own act interrupted the original communion 
 which he had with GOD and disordered the 
 harmony of his constitution, this likelihood still 
 remains, for GOD still governs the world, and the 
 image of GOD in man if dulled has not been 
 destroyed; and it becomes yet more probable 
 than before that the Divine communications will
 
 vii.] as parts of a great scheme. 221 
 
 take place in (what appear to us) exceptional 
 ways, and not, so to speak, in the natural and 
 orderly development of being. 
 
 Under these circumstances miracles, as we 
 have defined the term, are ' natural ' vehicles of 
 revelation ; and the records of miracles stand on 
 the same footing as the records of any other events 
 connected with the revelation. Internal evidence, 
 a priori considerations, will come into play here 
 just as elsewhere, neither more nor less. For 
 miracles themselves are likely or not according to 
 the circumstances under which they are stated to 
 have occurred. They are not isolated, fragmentary 
 facts, but parts of (what we must regard as being) 
 a great scheme. 
 
 Two practical rules are involved in this view, 
 and they appear to be essential to the under- 
 standing both of the Gospels and of the Gospel. 
 Every record of a miracle must be considered in 
 relation, (1) to the whole course of the revelation 
 of which the miracle is affirmed to be a part, and 
 (2) to the particular position which the miracle 
 occupies in that course. No judgment can be 
 fairly pronounced upon the reality of the miracle 
 till the historical and moral circumstances by 
 which it is surrounded are fully grasped.
 
 222 Miracles not primarily proofs [CHAP. 
 
 According to this view it is wrong to speak 
 of miracles as being in a primary sense proofs 
 of a revelation, or of Christianity in particular. 
 No such claim is made for them in the New 
 Testament. On the contrary, the external testi- 
 mony of facts is distinctly subordinated to 
 the testimony of words, that is, to the power 
 which man is still assumed to possess of recog- 
 nising the Divine (John xiv. 11 ; xv. 22 if. ; com- 
 pare also John v. 33 ff.). 
 
 A certain condition of faith is required in 
 those for whom, both in the wider and in the 
 narrower sense, miracles are wrought (Mk. vi. 5 ; 
 ix. 23 ; Matt. ix. 28 f.). They are properly a 
 manifestation of Christ's 'glory,' and those who 
 can see this are confirmed by them (John ii. 11 ; 
 xi. 40). 
 
 But on the other hand, when the challenge 
 was given to Christ to shew ' a sign from heaven,' 
 it was peremptorily declined (Mk. viii. 11 ff. ; 
 Matt. xii. 38 f. ; xvi. 1 : notice the use of fj,oi- 
 
 Miracles are indeed ' signs ' which those who 
 desire to learn can interpret; but when Christ 
 Himself refers to the signs which are to supply 
 the revelation of His character, the last is not the 
 raising of the dead, but the preaching of a Gospel
 
 vii.] of a, Revelation. 223 
 
 to the poor (Matt. xi. 5), in which there is the 
 foreshadowing of the ' greater works ' which the 
 disciples were to accomplish (John xiv. 12). 
 
 The same law is observable throughout the 
 record of the Apostolic teaching. Miracles were 
 wrought, by the Apostles, so to speak, naturally. 
 They were the flashings forth of the more glorious 
 Divine life when an opening was made for its 
 course. They were not offered as proofs to the 
 unbelieving, but as blessings, and lessons, to the 
 believing. They could be questioned, misinter- 
 preted, denied : they could be accepted as real, 
 and yet carry no conviction of faith (Acts iv. 10, 
 16 f, 22; xiv. 11,19). 
 
 On the other hand they undoubtedly moved 
 sympathetic witnesses and hearers (iv. 30 ; viii. 6 
 ff. ; ix. 42 ; xiii. 12), though the effect was in 
 some cases transient (xiv. 11, 19); and St Peter, 
 speaking both to Jews and Gentiles, appeals to 
 Christ's works of power and love as witnessing to 
 the presence of GOD with Him (ii. 22 ; x. 38). 
 
 
 
 i i 
 reign sign, the sovereign revelation in the nar- ,jii ^ 
 
 rative of the Acts illustrates the Apostolic view 
 of miracles. The fact of the Resurrection is / 
 treated as the key to a great mystery, the suffer- Q^ t
 
 224 They place us in GOD'S presence, [CHAP. 
 
 / ings of the Christ (Acts ii. 24, 31). Appeal is 
 made to the gift of the Spirit as the sign of the 
 Resurrection, rather than to the Resurrection as 
 the proof of the message ( v. 32). The Resurrection 
 itself was the message, not as being an overwhelm- 
 ing wonder, but so far as it was recognised as the 
 beginning of a new life (xiii. 33). By raising 
 Christ from the dead GOD ' gave assurance to all 
 men' of a coming judgment (xvii. 31). The 
 vital import of the fact and not its exceptional 
 nature was that which was of primary moment. 
 
 We are not then justified either by reason 
 or by Scripture in assigning to miracles, and still 
 i I less to the record of miracles, a supreme power of 
 proof. But none the less they fulfil externally 
 an important function in the Divine economy. 
 They are fitted to awaken, to arouse, to arrest the 
 faith which is latent. They bring men who 
 already believe in GOD into His Presence. They 
 place them in an attitude of reverent expectation. 
 This they do both at the crisis of performance, 
 when their full character can be but imperfectly 
 apprehended, and even more decisively afterwards 
 when they are studied in their spiritual aspects. 
 
 For while, as has been already said, our general 
 conception of GOD will decide finally whether a
 
 vii.] and reveal more of His will. 225 
 
 particular fact can be referred to Him, as an 
 indication of His will for us, or not, the fact itself 
 which is admitted as consistent with His attri- 
 butes, in its immediate or final scope, will be able 
 to (may it not be said, will of necessity ?) reveal to 
 us something more of His Nature and modes of 
 action. For it is wholly groundless to suppose 
 that we can anticipate or discover of ourselves 
 what we can feel to be true when it is made 
 known to us. Our power of discovery is not a 
 measure of our power of recognition. 
 
 In this relation it is of the utmost importance 
 in studying the miracles of the Bible to observe 
 the narrow limits of their occurrence, to note their 
 absence from the history of particular periods and , ; 
 
 of particular men : to pay attention to the dis- 
 . . , . / 
 
 tmguishmg character, the contrasts and corre- 
 
 spondences, of groups of miracles : to consider their 
 relation to the work and person of each Divine 
 messenger. Whole structures of popular objec- 
 tions, for example, fall before a simple statement 
 like that in which the Evangelist undesignedly 
 contrasts the ministry of the Baptist with the 
 ministry of Christ, 'John indeed did no sign' 
 (John x. 41). 
 
 So, again, it will appear upon examination 
 \v r G. L, 15 
 
 ^ .
 
 226 The Miracles of the LORD. [CHAP. 
 
 that the miracles of the Lord are in fact a reve- 
 lation of His Person, differing (as a whole) from 
 all other miracles in the mode of their accomplish- 
 ment and in the completeness of their range. 
 Christ fulfilled His Works as in direct personal 
 fellowship with the Father by His own power. 
 He conveyed to others by His commission the 
 power of working like signs (Matt. x. 8 ; Luke 
 x. 9). And in the Gospels the record of these cha- 
 racteristic works appears as part of the ordinary 
 narrative. No emphasis is laid upon their signi- 
 ficance, but at the same time it is indicated that 
 they were designed to cast light upon mysteries, 
 to be sacraments, as it were, of divine working, as 
 when the fact of the forgiveness of sin was illus- 
 trated by the healing of the paralytic (Matt. ix. 
 
 ! ff -)- 
 
 And there is one special function which 
 'signs' were fitted to fulfil at the beginning of 
 the life of the Church. They set vividly before 
 the believers through whom they were wrought a 
 p_ersonal relation of GOD to themselves. In these, 
 if we may so speak, He was seen directly acting 
 with them. And this consideration helps us to 
 understand why 'signs' should be grouped together 
 at certain critical periods, and why at other times 
 they should not occur. If the sense of personal
 
 VII.] Their office limited. 227 
 
 communion with GOD is established, and exactly ; 
 in proportion as it is established, the tendency of ' 
 the believer will be to desire to rest more and 
 more absolutely in the hands of GOD, to shrink 
 from wishing in the least degree to modify what he 
 has learnt to apprehend as the general expression 
 of GOD'S will. Under the action of such feelings 
 a miracle might become morally impossible not as 
 in other circumstances from want of faith but 
 from the energy of faith. An exceptional occur- 
 rence, an interruption of the order which has been 
 welcomed at last as the fulfilment of the divine 
 counsel, would not extend or deepen the sense of 
 divine fellowship, but even disturb and confuse it. 
 
 152
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 CHARACTERISTICS OF THE CHRISTIAN SOLUTION : 
 CHRISTIANITY ABSOLUTE. 
 
 As distinguished from all other religions 
 Christianity is absolute and historical. It claims 
 on the one side to be bound by no limits of 
 place or time or faculty or object, but to deal 
 with the whole sum of being, and with the whole 
 of each separate existence. It claims on the 
 other side to give its revelation in facts, which 
 are an actual part of human experience, so that 
 the peculiar teaching which it offers as to the 
 nature and relations of GOD and man and the 
 world is simply the interpretation of events in the 
 life of men and in the Life of One Who was truly 
 Man. 
 
 There is indeed an apparent contradiction 
 in these two attributes. It is customary to 
 oppose the 'absolute' to the 'historical,' just as
 
 viii.] Christianity extends to all men. 229 
 
 the ' abstract ' is opposed to the 'concrete.' But in 
 fact the combination indicates that Christianity L^^/J- 
 answers to both terms of the antithesis which . 
 underlies all life. The antithesis exists and 
 Christianity meets it. Christianity announces in 
 the plainest terms a vital union of the finite J^ fy^ 
 and the infinite as the fundamental Gospel. In ^- 
 the brief phrase ' the Word became flesh ' the /^_ 
 opposition and the reconciliation, the difference, 
 and the union in one Person, of Being eternal ; 
 and temporal, is set forth not as a speculation 
 or as a thought, but as a historic event. 
 
 In order to understand what Christianity 
 claims to be, it will therefore be necessary to 
 examine these complementary characteristics of 
 its nature. 
 
 W4 
 
 Christianity claims to be absolute. It claims 
 to extend without distinction to all men, to the 
 whole of man, to all being, and to all time. 
 
 Christianity claims to extend to all men. 
 This claim is correlative to the Christian postulate <j 
 as to man's creation in the image of GOD (Gen. i. 
 27). In spite of all differences between man and 
 man, however induced, this inward identity of Av- 
 nature remains. Men are alike so far as they are 
 akin to GOD ; and the Gospel is addressed to 
 them as such. And further men are alike in fact,
 
 230 The universality of Christianity [CHAP. 
 
 so far as they have fallen short of a standard 
 acknowledged by themselves (Rom. iii. 23). All 
 men, in other words, are capable of receiving the 
 I** i divine message, and all men need the grace which 
 it offers. 
 
 This thought of the universality of the 
 Christian message is shadowed out in the begin- 
 nings of the Gospel, in the Song of Simeon (Luke 
 ii. 32 ; cf. Is. xlii. 6 ; xlix. 6), and in the Sermon 
 on the Mount. Christ is welcomed as a light for 
 revelation to the Gentiles: His disciples are pro- 
 nounced by Him to be the light of the world, the 
 salt of the earth (Matt. v. 14, 13), the power which 
 - shews finite being in its true beauty : the element 
 which keeps that which is corruptible from decay. 
 The boundaries of the Holy City and of Israel are 
 no longer as in old time the limits of the divine 
 Presence, and of the divine sovereignty, though 
 Christ Himself fulfilled His work within them. 
 That which was historically confined to one 
 scene in fulfilment of the laws of the divine 
 order was essentially universal. The crowning 
 sign of the Christ was the proclamation of a 
 Gospel to the poor (Matt. xi. 5) to the poor in 
 the largest acceptation of the term, the poor in 
 means, in intellect, in feeling, all whom the world 
 holds to be weak. The stamp of universality was 
 
 t^fe
 
 viii.] shewn on the Day of Pentecost. 231 
 
 first impressed upon the work, and then the work 
 was wrought out, fragment by fragment, according 
 to the circumstances of the time. 
 
 It could not but be necessary, in the order 
 of Providence, that some little time should elapse 
 before the absolute universality of Christianity, 
 without regard to differences of sex, or race, or 
 culture, or age, could find a clear and consistent 
 enunciation in the preaching of the Apostles. 
 But the doctrine did obtain at least a partial ex- 
 pression in the first proclamation of the Gospel on 
 the Day of Pentecost. The promise, St Peter said 
 to the inquiring multitude, is to you and to your 
 children and to all that are afar off, even all whom 
 the Lord our GOD may call (Acts ii. 39). Some 
 indeed have supposed that these words refer only 
 to different classes of the Jews, to the immediate 
 hearers of the Apostles, to those who were nearest 
 to them, and to their fellow-countrymen scattered 
 among the nations. But such an interpretation 
 seems to fall short equally of the elevation of the 
 Apostle's language and of the prophecy on which 
 he bases his address. According to the teaching 
 of Joel, the restoration of Israel was the prelude 
 and the pledge of the complete fulfilment of the 
 purposes of GOD, but it was not itself the complete 
 fulfilment (Joel ii. 32).
 
 232 The universality of the Gospel [ctf AP. 
 
 These words then cannot be justly regarded as 
 ambiguous, and St Paul distinctly appeals to the 
 same prophecy in order to shew that there is no 
 difference between the Jew and the Greek, for the 
 same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon 
 Him (Rom. x. 12, 13). Thus the oldest prophecy 
 and the earliest preaching of the Gospel meet 
 together and coincide in offering a universal pro- 
 mise of a spiritual kingdom as the final message 
 lL<^L^ of GOD. The ideal stands out in its full glory 
 from the first. In later times men must go back 
 that they may realise it little by little. 
 
 For we must go from St Peter to St Paul, 
 from Jerusalem, the centre of the divine election, 
 to Athens, the centre of human exclusiveness, 
 to hear the statement of the universality of 
 the Gospel made together with its essential 
 justification. St Paul says, standing on the Areo- 
 pagus, GOD that made the world and all things 
 therein,. ..made of one (e ei/o<? not e'f evos at/Ltaro?) 
 every nation of men... that they should seek the 
 Lord. . .for in Him we live and move and have our 
 being. . . The times of ignorance then GOD winked at, 
 but now commandeth men that all everywhere 
 should repent (xvii. 24 ff.). In other words the 
 Apostle declares the universality of the Gospel as 
 corresponding with the original constitution and
 
 viii.] as taught by St Paul. 233 
 
 the actual condition of man. He was made by 
 GOD, and for GOD; and he has missed the true 
 end of his being as man, which is at last plainly 
 set before him. 
 
 Elsewhere St Paul regards this universality 
 from the opposite point of sight. The faith is 
 universal not only in its destiny but also in its 
 combining power: Ye are all sons of GOD through 
 the faith (or your faith), [sons] in Christ Jesus. . . 
 There is no place [in Him] for Jew or Greek, there 
 is no place for slave or free, there is no place for 
 male and (/cat) female. For ye all are one man 
 one person in Christ Jesus (Gal. iii. 26 ff.). His- 
 torical differences of race and class, and even the 
 natural, fundamental (Gen. i. 27), difference of 
 sex, are lost in a supreme unity and a perfect life. 
 
 And this unity, as St Paul teaches in a parallel 
 
 l~~~ r C*S->*. 
 
 passage (Col. iii. 10 f.), is the realisation of the * . ; . 
 type of creation. The new life, the new personality, 
 with which men are invested in Christ, is renewed 
 (comp. 2 Cor. iv. 16) shaped little by little and day 
 by day unto knowledge according to the image of - 
 Him that created him, where there is no place for 
 Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, - 
 
 * _ 
 
 barbarian, Scythian, slave, free, but Christ is all 
 things and in all things. 
 
 These three passages studied together present
 
 The novelty of the [CHAP. 
 
 in a few traits a complete vision of Christ's 
 universal work for men as fulfilling the end of 
 Creation. First there is the statement of GOD'S 
 purpose of love, of man's need, of the pledge of 
 the possibility of redemption in man's true nature. 
 Then follows the declaration of the union of 
 believers in one Person (et? eVre), by which our 
 thoughts are raised to the contemplation of a 
 vaster life than that which is realised individually, 
 a life in which humanity becomes one, a life which 
 is not an abstraction nor simply a participation in 
 a common nature (> eVre. Comp. St John x. 30), 
 but (as we apprehend it) personal (comp. Eph. iv. 
 15 f.). And in the third place the life which has 
 been regarded in its supreme unity in Christ is 
 regarded, so far as this is possible, in its separate 
 parts, 'ye are one man in Christ' ; and conversely 
 ' Christ is all things and in all.' The differences 
 between man and man are in the faithful, partial 
 manifestations of Christ. Whatever is, He js.^ 
 There is but one life. And thus in the personal 
 lives of Christians His image, the archetype of 
 man as originally created, is more and more com- 
 pletely attained. 
 
 We are perhaps inclined to underrate the 
 importance of this announcement in Christianity 
 of the universal spiritual brotherhood of men. The
 
 viii.] Christian doctrine of human brotherhood. 235 
 
 truth had indeed been set forth in the far East in 
 Buddhism, and it was (and is) the strength of ( 
 Buddhism. But in the West it was unknown as 
 a doctrine of religion. In Buddhism too the truth 
 was based upon a view of the world diametrically 
 opposed to the Christian view of the world. And ^ /u. 
 the philosophic universalism of the Stoics is . 
 pathetic in its hopelessness as compared with 
 the teaching of these systems. The brotherhood 
 of men which the Gospel proclaimed was not ^ 
 deduced from a view of the evils and vanities of ^ 
 existence, or from the recognition of an inevitable 
 necessity. It was combined with the offer of the 
 eternal inheritance of sons. It was set forth as^^^vCr 
 
 revealing the glory of GOD. It was given as 
 interpretation of the divine idea in creation"" 
 shaped before sin had entered into the world and 
 (as things are) established by the conquest ofj"- 
 
 sn. 
 
 The novelty of the Christian doctrine is seen 
 
 _ _ t __ - ^j y 
 
 in this view which the Apostle gives of the cor- - 
 respondence of creation and redemption. The 
 Gospel was addressed to all men, and potentially 
 it availed for all men: as in Adam all die, so 
 also in Christ shall all be made alive (1 Cor. xv. 
 22). The new creation is, in one sense, presented 
 as coextensive with the old creation. The victory
 
 236 Christianity points to a unity of men [CHAP. 
 
 of Christ is declared by St Paul to compensate for 
 and to outweigh the fall of Adam ; and this truth 
 is affirmed in various ways in each group of the 
 apostolic writings. It must be enough to indicate 
 some representative passages : 
 
 (1) Synoptic Group. 
 
 1 Pet. ii. 9 f. 
 
 The mixed body a spiritual Israel. 
 The condition of fellowship, faith (v. 6). 
 Extending potentially to Gentiles: v. 12. 
 even to the dead : iv. 6. 
 
 (2) The Epistles of St Paul 
 
 1 Cor. xv. 22. 
 1 Cor. xv. 45. 
 
 j Rom. v. 12 ff. e<' for that (2 Cor. v. 4): Trdvras 
 comp. xi. 32. 
 
 14. O? eCTTl TU7T09 TOV fJ,\\OVTO<f. 
 
 15. 6 el? oi TroXXot. eTrepiaa-evaev. 
 19. 6 et< oi 7ro\\oL Karaaradijcrovrai 
 
 oi TroXXo/. 
 Eph. i. 10. 
 Col. i. 20. 
 
 (3) The writings of St John. 
 
 1 John ii. 2. 
 Apoc. v. 9.
 
 viii.] answering to Creation. 237 
 
 Compare John i. 29 ; iii. 17 ; vi. 51 ; John xii. 
 32 (notice Trdvra tfD Latt.). 
 
 It does not concern us now to consider how 
 the hope indicated in these passages can be 
 realised. It is probably impossible for man ever 
 to comprehend in the existing order of things 
 how the divine purpose attains its full completion. 
 All that requires to be observed at present is, as 
 I have said, the novelty of this Christian concep- 
 tion of a universal brotherhood, in which a definite 
 fact is treated as the sufficient bond of humanity. 
 And while the thought is unique, it answers to the 
 aspirations of men. There is that in us which 
 points to a vital fellowship, fulfilled personally, as 
 the one issue in which our fragmentary lives can 
 find their consummation. In this respect the 
 Gospel, the record of the new Creation, corresponds 
 with the record of the first Creation. The unity 
 shewn in the beginning is established at the end. 
 
 Christianity claims in this way to deal 
 with all men. It claims also to deal with the 
 whole of man. It claims to preserve and to 
 perfect each part in his complex nature. Man, 
 made in the image of GOD, is an indivisible being. 
 We naturally, or even necessarily, speak of ' body ' 
 and ' soul ' in such a way as to imply that man's
 
 238 The Gospel reaches to [CHAP. 
 
 soul is the real 'self,' complete and separable 
 from his ' body.' Yet careful reflection will shew 
 that such language simply expresses an abstrac- 
 tion. There is undoubtedly an antithesis in man, 
 an organism and something which works through 
 the organism. But the living man, the self, is 
 not a part of this antithesis : he consists in com- 
 bination of both parts. He can no more conceive 
 himself remaining without the one factor than 
 without the other. 
 
 It is not necessary for us to enter on any 
 discussion of the principles of biblical psychology. 
 We may at once admit that, as far as the consti- 
 tution of man falls within the range of his 
 own observation, we have no more reason to 
 expect to find in the Bible a revealed system of 
 psychology than to expect to find there a revealed 
 system of physics. But Scripture distinctly 
 recognises different elements in man corresponding 
 with his different relations to being, and leads us 
 to look for the preservation of all in the future. 
 It lends no support to the famous utterance of 
 Plotinus, who thanked GOD that "he was not 
 tied to an immortal body." It lends no support 
 to the view that the body as such is a mark of 
 the soul's fall. May the GOD of peace himself, 
 St Paul writes in his earliest Epistle, sanctify you 
 wholly ; and may your spirit and soul and body
 
 viii.] the whole of man. 239 
 
 be preserved entire, without blame at the coming \ 
 of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He that 
 calleth you, who will also do it (1 Thess. v. 23). 
 
 But it is unnecessary to pursue this doctrine 
 in detail so far as it is expressed or implied 
 in isolated texts. The doctrine is essentially 
 characteristic of Christianity as ' the Gospel of 
 the Resurrection.' The Resurrection of Christ, 
 the central fact which the Apostles were commis- 
 sioned to announce, presented the truth of the 
 permanence of the whole sum of human nature as 
 the one sufficient answer to man's questionings as 
 to the future life. The Apostles did not announce 
 any opinion or argument or revelation as to the 
 immortality of the soul : their first message to 
 the Jews on the day of Pentecost was : This Jesus 
 [whom ye crucified] GOD raised up, whereof (or of 
 whom) we all are witnesses (Acts ii. 32); and 
 the same event was everywhere afterwards set 
 forth as the foundation of warning and hope. No 
 theory was advanced as to the conditions of the 
 new life, or as to the physical continuity of man's 
 ' spiritual ' body with his ' natural ' body. Such 
 questions are evidently beyond the reach of our 
 present faculties. But the whole apostolic Gospel 
 was inspired by the thought that the redemption 
 accomplished through Christ extended to every
 
 240 The Gospel reaches also [CHAP. 
 
 part of man : that as Christ rose again, wholly the 
 same and yet wholly changed, so should it be with 
 tEose who believed in Him : nothing was to be 
 lost in the transition, but all was to be trans- 
 figured (2 Cor. v. 1 ff.; iii. 18; 1 Cor. xv. 35 ff.). 
 The thought thus presented was nowhere an- 
 ticipated in Jewish or heathen teaching. By 
 binding the seen to the unseen in the unbroken 
 unity of the personal life of the Lord ' who was 
 dead and is alive ' the Apostles offered to men a 
 new interpretation of human duty and human 
 destiny. How strange and far-reaching the truth 
 was can perhaps best be seen by comparing the 
 later partial and limited representations of it with 
 the original message ; the maimed and mutilated 
 views of the offices of the present life which have 
 found acceptance from time to time, with the type 
 of a complete and glorified offering; the various 
 schemes of a future life which have been sketched 
 by the aid of pious imagination, with the fulness 
 of promise transcending definite thought which is 
 opened in the revelations of the Risen Christ. 
 
 The doctrine of the Resurrection which throws 
 
 a new light on the '^material' element in man, 
 
 '" the part which he has in common with the 
 
 material universe, necessarily places all creation 
 
 * 4 ~* t * in a direct connexion with the fulness of man's
 
 't-l- 1 
 
 I'll 1*-*.C 
 
 ' 
 
 viii.] to the whole material universe. 241 
 
 hope. The body of man is bound, how closely we 
 are slowly coming to know, with the world in 
 which he lives. The assumption of this body of 
 flesh by the Son of GOD offers therefore the 
 thought of larger issues of the Incarnation than we 
 apprehend at first. In this respect the message of 
 Christianity corresponds with the earliest teaching 
 of Genesis on the Creation and the Fall. As the 
 whole finite order received the same blessing as ' 
 man, being pronounced " very good " : as it after- 
 wards shared in the consequences of his sin (Gen. 
 iii. 17 , comp. v. 29 ; Is. xxiv. 5, 6) ; so it is 
 destined to share in the glory of his restoration. ^ 
 This cardinal truth is shadowed out in the word 
 with which the Lord describes the period of 
 His reign : the regeneration (77 Trahiyyeveo-ia) 
 the new order which issues from a new birth 
 (compare Rom. viii. 22, irrawS&ei) when the Son 
 of Man has taken His seat on the throne of His 
 glory (' His throne of glory ' Matt. xix. 28 ; not 
 in parallels). And at the very beginning of the 
 apostolic work, when the first miracle of healing 
 had revealed the visible power of the name of 
 Jesus Christ of Nazareth (Acts iii. 6), St Peter 
 points the people who listened to his interpretation 
 of the sign to the certain coming of those times of 
 the restoration (aTro/carao-Tacrt?) of all things which 
 had been from the first the subject of prophetic 
 w. G. L. 16
 
 242 The destiny of man. [CHAP. 
 
 promise (Acts iii. 21 : compare Acts i. 6 ; Matt, 
 xvii. 11). The thought lies here perhaps in an 
 undefined shape. In the teaching of St Paul 
 it stands out in magnificent fulness. The earnest 
 expectation of the creation waiteth for the reveal- 
 ing of the sons of GOD. For the creation was 
 subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but by reason 
 of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation 
 itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of 
 corruption into the liberty of the glory of the chil- 
 dren of GOD. For we know that the ivhole creation 
 groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. 
 And not only so, but ourselves also, which have 
 the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves 
 groan within ourselves, waiting for our adoption, 
 to wit, the redemption of our body (Rom. viii. 
 1923). 
 
 The thought expressed in these pregnant 
 words is indeed contained in the Christian con- 
 ception of man. He is sovereign of the world 
 (Gen. i. 28 ; comp. ii. 19) and therefore incomplete 
 without his dominion. So much we can see, 
 though we are not yet able to grasp the complete 
 meaning of the truth from our imperfect know- 
 ledge of the world and of the interdependence in 
 coexistence or succession of the various parts of 
 which it is composed.
 
 vni.j and nature united. 243 
 
 But the general recognition of the reality of 
 the indestructible bond between man and nature 
 opens out new lines for the study of both. In 
 this connexion the promise of the Lord as to the 
 future recompense of His followers (Matt. xix. 29 
 and parallels), and the language of St Paul (1 Cor. 
 iii. 22, 23) as to the sovereignty of believers gain 
 a fuller meaning. 
 
 In the Apocalypse the restoration of man and 
 the restoration of nature are placed side by side. <? 
 The Christian seer uses the language of Isaiah ^ 
 when he portrays the consummation of the work i ^ 
 of the Christ. He sees ' a new heaven and a new 
 earth' (Apoc. xxi. 1; Is. Ixv. 17; Ixvi. 22; comp. 
 li. 16), and adds to the vision a fresh trait : 'and 
 the sea is no more,' the element of restless 
 instability has at length passed away. ' Four 
 living creatures,' the representatives of animate 
 Creation join with 'four and twenty elders,' the 
 representatives of the Church, old and new, in 
 rendering adoration to Him ' that sitteth on the 
 throne ' (iv. 6 ff.). When the living creatures 
 give 'glory and honour' to Him, the elders fall 
 down and worship Him and say ' Worthy art 
 Thou, our Lord and our GOD, to receive the glory 
 and the honour and the power; for Thou didst 
 create all things, and because of Thy will they 
 
 162
 
 244 The theory of Evolution [CHAP. 
 
 were, and were created' (iv. 11). The hymn of 
 nature is crowned by the message of revelation ; 
 and for a moment we are allowed to look to the 
 archetypal thought of finite being before time was 
 (fi<rav : comp. Aug. in Joh. c. i. 3 f.). So it is that 
 when the angels sing of the triumphant redemp- 
 tive work of 'the Lamb that hath been slain' 
 (v. 12), ' Every created thing which is in the 
 heaven and on the earth and under the earth, 
 and on the sea, and all things that are in them ' 
 join in the ascription of blessing to Him ; ' and 
 the four living creatures said Amen; and the 
 elders fell down and worshipped' (v. 13 f.). The 
 triple homage of the universe is at length com- 
 plete and harmonious. 
 
 It will be obvious how such aspects of nature 
 as those shadowed out in these last visions of the 
 world's re-creation, even as they are indicated in 
 the record of the first creation, fall in with much 
 popular speculation of our own time. Whether 
 the evidence on which theories of evolution are 
 maintained is at present adequate to support the 
 wide conclusions which are drawn from it or not ; 
 whether indeed it is likely or not that conclusive 
 evidence on such a subject will ever be accumu- 
 lated, may be fairly questioned ; but there can 
 be no doubt that many independent lines of facts
 
 J. 
 
 viii.] one expression of this idea. 245 p? / 
 
 *'* U~ 
 converge towards the general view which repre- / 
 
 sents the whole sum of finite being as united in a 
 continuous whole, of which the parts rise one 
 above another by indefinitely small gradations so 
 as to suggest the conception of an unbroken 
 succession. And such a view, so far from being />' 
 inconsistent with what the Bible teaches us of 
 the world, does in fact fall in better with its 
 teaching, according to our present knowledge, 
 than the older view which regarded the action of 
 GOD as manifested intermittingly in successive 
 creative acts, and made sharp and abrupt separa- 
 tions between the different ' kingdoms ' of nature. 
 If then we feel that the balance of evidence 
 favours the belief in the evolution of life, or more 
 truly of the organisms through which the life 
 reveals itself, according to the action of uniform 
 ' laws/ we do not lose but gain by the conclusion. 
 The life of the whole world, if we dare so speak, 
 is thus presented to us in a form analogous to 
 that of the life of the individual man. Little by 
 little our own completed organization grows from 
 the simplest germ by fixed 'laws,' but yet not 
 without GOD. On this interpretation of the 
 ' becoming ' of the world the Microcosm answers 
 to the Macrocosm man to the Universe and 
 the mind can rest in moments of loftiest specula- 
 tion on a reasonable thought of a supreme unity
 
 246 Man the representative [CHAP. 
 
 ofjill finite being which falls under man's obser- 
 vation. 
 
 Gospel carries this thought of unity 
 into a higher region. Just as man appears to 
 ^ e a re P resen tative of the visible creation, so the 
 ' visible creation appears to represent the whole 
 finite order. When therefore the Word became 
 
 , io ---- -- 
 
 flesh he fulfilled the purpose of the Father to sum 
 up all things in Christ (ev rw Xpto-rcS), the things 
 
 r in the heavens and the things upon the earth (Eph. 
 i. 10). And, more than this, in consequence of 
 the ravages wrought by sin, it was the good 
 pleasure of the Father through Him to reconcile 
 all things unto Himself, having made peace through 
 the blood of His cross; through Him, whether^ 
 things upon the earth or things in the heavens (Col. 
 i. 19 f.). Thus we are taught that by the Incar- 
 ,^a ' nation all orders of finite being are brought to 
 their consummation in a divine harmony (com- 
 pare Rom. xi. 36 ; 1 Cor. iii. 21 ff.; FCor. v. 17 f.; 
 Eph. iii. 9, iv. 10; Phil. iii. 21 ; 1 Cor. xv. 27 f.). 
 
 It is obvious that these passages of Holy 
 Scripture open before us a prospect of mysteries 
 which we cannot distinctly realise. They shew 
 \~- <** us one side the divine side of being. There is 
 also the human side, on which we recognise the 
 J
 
 viii.] of all finite being. 247 
 
 terrible law of the permanence of evil and its , 
 productiveness. We may not forget that. But 
 at least this divine prospect is one on which we 
 shall do well to linger. It is not sharp enough 
 for dogmatism, but it is luminous enough for 
 hope. It reveals to us, if through a glass and 
 in a riddle, how the varied developments of lives 
 fragmentary and marred, of powers misused or 
 wasted, as far as we can trace their action, are 
 
 in the vision of the Apostle crowned with their 
 
 _ . jf ' 
 
 divine fulfilment. In this recognition of the ' 
 permanent connexion of man with nature, and of 
 the consequences which flow from it, we have . 
 once again an example of those anticipations a-^u^ 
 in the Bible of later thoughts which bring 
 home to us the conception of its Inspiration. It i^f ^ 
 is not too much to say that the language of 
 St Paul could not have been understood, as we 
 can understand it, till our own generation. In 
 the slow advance of experience great questionings 
 are shaped, and then in due time we find that we 
 can read the answer to them in the apostolic 
 interpretation of facts which are felt to be fuller 
 and richer in their applications as our knowledge 
 of the conditions of our being becomes more I 
 complete. 
 
 Christianity, which reaches in this way to
 
 \f**/W 
 
 248 The Gospel for all time. [CHAP. 
 
 ' all finite being, claims also to be a final Reve- 
 lation, to endure through all time and to 'be' 
 beyond time. There can be no addition to that 
 which is implicitly included in the facts of the 
 Gospel. We_ can conceive nothing beyond the 
 unity which they imply. The facts contain in 
 themselves all that is slowly wrought out in 
 thought and act until the consummation. In one 
 sense all has been done : in another sense much 
 remains to be done. But from first to last One 
 
 / sovereign Person is present, who came and comes 
 and will come, the beginning and the end (Apoc. 
 xxii. 13 ; Matt, xxviii. 20; Acts i. 11). 
 
 It must be evident from this rapid summary 
 that the claims of Christianity as an absolute 
 religion are unique. It claims to bring the 
 perfection no less than the redemption of finite 
 being. It claims to bring a perfect unity of 
 the whole sum without destroying the personality 
 of each man. It claims to deal with all that is 
 external as well as with all that is internal, with 
 matter as well as with spirit, with the physical 
 universe as well as with the moral universe. It 
 claims to realise a re-creation coextensive with 
 creation. It claims to present Him who was the 
 Maker of the world as the Heir of all things, and 
 entering on His inheritance (Hebr. i. 2). It claims
 
 viii.] Partial views of the Gospel. 249 
 
 to complete the circle of existence, and shew how : 
 all things came from GOD and go to GOD (Rom. ' 
 xi. 36 ; 1 Cor. xv. 28). 
 
 And it is of great importance to observe that 
 essentially these claims of Christianity are in a 
 large degree independent of the intrusion of sin 
 into the universe. Even if there had been no //- 
 separation of man from GOD, no disorder in the 
 physical universe, man, as far as we can see, 
 could not have attained his possible consum- 
 mation, nor the dispersed creation its final unity, 
 without some such manifestation of Divine love 
 as the Gospel announces. 
 
 There are now, as there always have been, 
 partial interpretations of Christianity which gain ^&/.-/ 
 currency according as they meet individual or 
 local or temporal peculiarities. According to * 
 some the essence of Christianity lies in the fact 
 that it is the supreme moral law. According to {.Jt^Jt. 
 others its essence is to be found in true doctrine, 
 or more specially in the scheme of redemption, or 
 in the means of the union of man with Go 
 Christianity does in fact include Law, and Doc-fc 
 trine, and Redemption, and Union, but it combines < 
 them all in a still wider idea. It establishes the rt 
 
 ** H 
 
 principle of a Law, which is internal and not 
 external, which includes an adequate motive for
 
 250 The consummation of finite being [CHAP. 
 
 obedience and coincides with the realisation of 
 freedom (James i. 25). It js the_ expression of 
 
 I ifa4T* Ay ^*/ 1 
 
 the Truth, but this Truth is not finally presented 
 in thoughts but in facts, not in abstract propo- 
 sitions but in a living Person. It is a scheme of 
 ^ Redemption, but it has relations also to man as 
 he jvas created and not only to man fallen. It is 
 
 "ajpower of Union, but this Union transcends the 
 range of humanity, and opens before the believer 
 visions of glory which his thought cannot ade- 
 quately coordinate or define. 
 
 In this then lies the main idea of Chris- 
 -.- tianity, that it presents the redemption, the 
 
 t^.-v*i-4v ~ ' __ 
 
 perfection, the consummation of all finite being 
 in union with GOD. No doubt such a conception 
 /^ is too vast for man to keep constantly before him 
 in a practical shape, but it is necessary both for 
 strength and for progress that he should dwell 
 upon it, and not acquiesce in any partial inter- 
 pretation of the scope of the Gospel. 
 
 ' And though the contemplation of it may be 
 'without the range of the personal teaching of 
 ' Christianity which commonly limits our religious 
 'thought, yet it is a duty to strive, as occasion 
 ' may arise, to grasp the full proportions of the 
 ' hope which it brings to man and to the world. 
 ' It is not always enough that each should feel in
 
 viii.] in union with GOD. 251 
 
 ' his own heart the power of the Gospel to meet 
 ' individual wants. We must claim for it also to 
 
 ; - - > 
 
 ' be recognised as a wisdom revealed and realised 
 ' only in the advance of time, and embracing in 
 ' one Infinite Fact all that men have aspired to for 
 ' themselves and for the transitory order in which 
 ' they are placed.' 
 
 It is only in this way that we can intelligently 
 follow and understand the course of Christian 
 history : it is only in this way that we can observe 
 proportion in dealing with the problems of our 
 own time. 
 
 For as the idea of Christianity is unique and 
 absolute, so also is the fact in which the idea is 
 presented. The announcement that the Word 
 became flesh (o Xoyo? <rapj; eyevero) is wholly 
 unapproached in earlier religious speculations or 
 mythologies. When a recent writer says: 'It is 
 ' quite true that a decided step beyond the doc- 
 ' trine of Philo is made when the Logos is repre- 
 ' sented as <rap% eyevero in the person of Jesus, 
 ' but this argument is equally applicable to the 
 'Jewish doctrine of wisdom, and that step had 
 ' already been taken before the composition of the 
 '[Fourth] Gospel,' he seems to me to miss the 
 whole meaning of the Incarnation. There is, as 
 
 O.
 
 252 The Gospel lies in the [CHAP. 
 
 far as I can see, no real likeness between the 
 intellectual process by which the Divine Wisdom 
 came to be regarded (in some sense) as personal, 
 and the assertion that historically the Word 
 .became flesh. The essence of the idea of the 
 Incarnation lies not in the recognition of a distinct 
 divine person, but in the personal and final union 
 of the Godhead and humanity. There had been 
 real theophanies under the old dispensation in 
 which GOD had been pleased to manifest Himself 
 under a limited and transitory form. There had 
 been fabled theophanies in the mythologies of the 
 East and West, in which gods were said to have 
 assumed for a time, and as a veil, the form of 
 men, or even of lower creatures, for purposes of 
 mercy, or judgment, or caprice, or passion. There 
 had been fabled apotheoses in which heroes had 
 laid aside their dress of mortality and gained 
 entrance into the family of heaven. But the 
 assumption of humanity, not for a time, but for 
 ever, by the Word, who is GOD, was a truth 
 undreamt of till it was realised. And yet it 
 answers to the original constitution of man's 
 nature. If he was made capable of union with t 
 Jj *J GOD, to which truth his aspiration towards GOD 
 - U-^A is a silent and lasting witness, the consequence 
 seems inevitable that this union would be brought 
 .J,. about; and this (as far as our thoughts reach)
 
 viii.] record of Creation. 253 
 
 could only be by GOD freely taking, not a man, 
 but humanity, to Himself. 
 
 fl 
 
 Thus we return to the point from which we 
 started. The first Gospel lies in the record of 
 
 < 
 Creation (Gen. i. 27). It was given before the^rv; /- 
 
 Fall and not after the Fall. The Divine counsel ^ 
 of the union of GOD with man realised in the l 
 Incarnation is the foundation of Revelation. 
 poverty and sorrow and passion of Christ 
 due to sin, but we dare not suppose that the ^ / , 
 consummation of the destiny of humanity was .\ M 
 due to such a cause. The thought reaches to the ,j f\ ^ 
 very foundations of our Faith. Perhaps we may , , 
 add that now at last it falls in with the peculiar v 
 conditions of our knowledge and our difficulties. 5 
 So at last our Theology gains a transformation'. --* 
 like that which was achieved in astronomy byu/- oux/ 
 the conception of Copernicus; it becomes Theo- v ; -^.- 
 centric, while before it was anthropocentric : the o^*'^ 
 ruling idea is not the self-assertion of man but - 
 the loving will of GOD.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 CHRISTIANITY HISTORICAL. 
 
 WE have seen that Christianity claims to be 
 absolute, to extend without limit to all men, to 
 the whole of man, to all being, to all time, or 
 rather to eternity. At the same time since 
 !CL^ revelation comes through life and stands in a vital 
 connexion with the whole life of humanity it 
 must be progressive or apprehended progressively. 
 Christianity therefore claims also to be historical ; 
 and by this claim it is distinguished from all 
 ^toJL t ner religions. Its teaching, its life, its essence 
 is a history. It was prepared by a long national 
 / development, into which the typical elements 
 , of the ancient world entered as contributory 
 " '* forces. It is summed up in the facts of a 
 ^ _ divine-human life. It has been, and still is 
 being, wrought out in the slow and unreturning 
 growth of a society. 
 
 In this sense Christianity is the only historical
 
 ix.] Christianity the only historical religion. 255 
 
 religion. There is a sense in which Christianity 
 and Mohammedanism, for example, may be classed 
 together as historical religions, so far as the facts 
 connected with the personality and life of their 
 Founders, their origin and progress and develop- 
 ment, can be traced in documents which are 
 adequate to assure belief. But it is not in this 
 sense primarily that Christianity is historical. 
 Christianity is historical not simply or charac- 
 teristically because Christ standing out before 
 the world at a definite time and place proclaimed 
 certain truths and laid down certain rules for 
 the constitution and conduct of a society. It 
 is historical because He offered Himself in His 
 own Person, and He was shewn to be in the 
 events of His Life, the revelation which He came 
 to give. It is historical in itself, in its essence^ 
 and, this being so, it is, in a secondary and w J- 
 yet in a unique sense, historical in its ante- 
 cedents and in its realisation. * ^ J^ 
 
 Christianity is historical in its antecedents. ,, 
 It is the fulfilment of Judaism, which was in * 
 its very idea definitely prospective, and only really w / 
 intelligible through the end to which it led._ ^ 
 The Covenant with Abraham included the promise 
 of which the later religious history of 'the people/ 
 working throughout for and in ' the nations,' was
 
 256 Christianity histwical in its antecedents [CH. 
 
 the gradual accomplishment. The call of Abraham 
 was the beginning of the universal life of Faith. 
 For as Christianity was the goal of the reve- 
 lations of the Old Testament, so it was also the 
 answer to the questions of the whole pra3-Chris- 
 tian world, the satisfaction of the aspirations ^T 
 the 'many nations' with whom in the order of 
 Providence the 'people' was brought into con- 
 tact. 
 
 Christianity is historical in itself. It is not a 
 code of laws : it is not a structure of institutions : 
 it is not a system of opinions. It is a life in 
 fellowship with a living Lord. The Work and 
 the Person of Christ, this is the Gospel, both 
 as it was proclaimed by the Lord Himself, and 
 as it was proclaimed by His Apostles : the reve- 
 lation, the gift, the power, of a perfect human 
 life offered to GOD and received by GOD, in and 
 with which every single human life finds its 
 accomplishment. The laws, the institutions, the 
 opinions, of Christendom are the expression of the 
 life which works through them. In Christianity 
 the thoughts by which other religions live are 
 seen as facts. 
 
 *~ 
 
 !,U 
 
 Christianity is also historical in its realisation. 
 All human experience must be a commentary on
 
 ix.] Christianity historical in its antecedents. 257 
 
 the perfect human Life. The new life which was 
 communicated to men requires for its complete 
 embodiment the services of all men. The fuller 
 meaning of the Faith in Him Who is the Way 
 and the Truth and the Life is slowly mastered 
 through the ages by the ministry of nations and 
 by the ministry of saints and heroes through 
 which the thoughts of the nations are interpreted. 
 Such a process must go on unhastingly, unrest- 
 ingly, irreversibly to the end of time; and if 
 anything can make us feel the nobility of life, ' 
 it must be that in Christ we are enabled to 
 recognise in the whole course of history a 
 majestic spectacle of the action of Divine love 
 in which no failures and no wilfulness of men 
 can obliterate the signs and the promises of a 
 Presence of GOD. 
 
 (i) Christianity is historical in its antecedents. 
 
 These general statements require to be pre- 
 sented somewhat further in detail. 
 
 Christianity is historical in its antecedents: 
 it is the fulfilment of Judaism, the goal of the /,_ 
 revelations of the Old Testament. The fact has 
 been denied and misinterpreted from the first jjj //"-^ 
 age to the present; but it is essential to the I<L 
 right understanding of the relation of revelation . 
 w. G. L. 17
 
 258 Christianity the fulfilment [CHAP. 
 
 to life. It is affirmed in the plainest terms by 
 the Lord, and it underlies all the teaching of the 
 Apostles. The Apostles everywhere assume the 
 continuity of their religious faith, even as the Lord 
 grew and waxed strong, becoming full of wisdom 
 (Lk. ii. 40, 51 f.) under the influence of Jewish 
 teaching. All is summed up in the words: 
 Think not that I came to destroy (icaTaXvaai) the 
 law or the prophets the outward discipline of 
 ritual and rule by which Israel was moulded, 
 and the spiritual promises by which Israel was 
 quickened / came not to destroy, but to fulfil 
 (Matt. v. 17), to realise perfectly that to which 
 they pointed, to abrogate the service of the 
 letter and form only by taking it up without loss 
 into a more perfect order. That to which the 
 Levitical system witnessed as the supreme privi- 
 lege of man direct communion with GOD 
 ; given under typical ordinances to one man on 
 (6m- one day in the year became in the Son of man 
 the right of every Christian at all times (Hebr. 
 iv. 16 ; x. 19 ff. ; compare Lk. xvi. 17, xxii. 16 ; 
 Matt, xxiii. 2 f, xxiv. 20). 
 
 So it is that in the Fourth Gospel the 
 Gospel of the Christian Church words of the 
 Lord have been preserved in which He marked 
 the connexion in which He stood with the history
 
 ix.] of Judaism. 259 
 
 and with the institutions of the Old Covenant, i 
 with Abraham (viii. 56 ; comp. i. 51), with Moses 
 (iii. 14, v. 46, vi. 31 ff.; vii. 22), with the Psalm- 
 ist (x. 34, xiii. 18, xv. 25). Nor is it too 
 much to say that all that is written out at 
 length in the Epistle to the Hebrews is implied 
 in these and other like pregnant sentences, in 
 which the believer recognises point by point 
 that the salvation in which he rejoices is of the 
 Jews (iv. 22 77 crwr^pia IK rwv 'lovSaiwv ecrrlv), 
 the fruit and not the perpetuation of the dis- 
 cipline of a people of GOD. 
 
 For however great uncertainty may still hang 
 over the details of Old Testament history, the 
 history of the Jews is, in its broad and unques- 
 tionable outlines, the history of a people who 
 believed, and who, with all their failures and ! 
 relapses, lived as believing in the intercourse \ 
 of GOD and man : who believed in the kinsman- 
 ship of men as made by GOD for His glory : who 
 believed in the righteous sovereignty of GOD, 
 guiding the affairs of the world to an issue cor- 
 responding with the purpose of Creation. From 
 first to last, so far as their faith found more 
 and more an articulate expression, the Jews 
 believed and lived as believing that they were 
 called to be witnesses to GOD as the Creator 
 
 172
 
 260 The successive Covenants. [CHAP. 
 
 and Preserver, the King and the Redeemer of all 
 men. 
 
 This sublime faith is recorded in the series 
 of Covenants which are an epitome of the history 
 of pra3-Christian revelation as it was interpreted 
 by the prophets of Israel. The nature-covenant 
 with Noah confirms the promise of Creation in 
 spite of the sin by which the works of GOD 
 have been marred. The grace-covenant with 
 Abraham discloses the Divine counsel for guiding 
 humanity to its true goal by the ministry of 
 faith, effective through the service of one for 
 all the nations of the earth. The work-covenant 
 of Sinai brings to light the duty and the weak- 
 ness of men, their social unity, the calling of a 
 people. The life- covenant with David points 
 forward to the future unity of 'the people,' and 
 of ' the nations ' through ' the people,' in One Who 
 is ' the Son of GOD.' The whole history gives a 
 view of the redemption and consummation of 
 mankind through the realisation of the idea 
 of holiness as the condition of that fellowship 
 of man and men with GOD, for which they were 
 made (Lev. xi. 44). 
 
 For while Israel was consecrated to GOD it 
 was as 'a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.' The
 
 ix.] Israel a Messianic people. 261 
 
 whole people was regarded as being at once His 
 son (Ex. iv. 22 ; Hos. xi. 1), and His bride (Hos. ii. 
 14 f. ; Jer. ii. 2 f.), an offspring and a source of 
 Divine life. The work of Israel was not for itself 
 alone. Every gift, every privilege, every lesson, 
 was to be used for others. The popular view 
 of the exclusiveness of Israel is the exact opposite 
 of the truth. The exclusiveness of the people 
 was the condition of its work, its life, but the 
 life was offered to all, with significant exceptions, 
 on the acceptance of the condition (Deut. xxiii. 
 3 ff., 7 ff.) From the first provision was made for 
 the incorporation of strangers into the holy people 
 (Ex. xii. 38, 48; Lev. xxiv. 10; Num. xi. 4). 
 The terms of complete fellowship were fixed 
 not by descent but by character determined by 
 outward ordinances in an outward organisation. 
 Israel was a Messianic people, called to its office 
 not for any exceptional merits of its own but as 
 an instrument through which GOD was pleased 
 to accomplish His will for all His children. Over 
 against stands Babylon the symbol of man's self- 
 deification. Israel was to the nations, what priests 
 and prophets were to Israel, a witness of the 
 Divine claims on man and of the Divine purpose 
 for man. 
 
 In this respect Israel offers a sharp contrast
 
 262 The office of Israel [CHAP. 
 
 to the ' nations.' In Heathendom we follow what 
 we can understand as a natural development of 
 the powers of man, whether dominated by physical 
 forces from without, or by intellectual and moral 
 forces from within. But Israel grows under con- 
 straint. The Bible is full of the relapses of the 
 people. They are, from first to last, 'rebellious 
 and stiffnecked.' But the Lord subdues and 
 trains them, moving among them so that His 
 awful presence can be felt. The seriousness of 
 the Jew is a reflection of this Divine communion. 
 No prae-Christian literature offers anything which 
 can be compared with the sustained and most truly 
 human solemnity and grandeur of the Psalter. 
 The thoughts are the fruit of discipline. 
 
 In order to fit the people for the fulfilment 
 of this unique office they were placed in what 
 they felt to be a direct fellowship with GOD. 
 Their relation to Him was not abstract and 
 intellectual, but living and personal. They were 
 subjected to His discipline, that they might be 
 brought more and more into conformity with 
 Himself (Deut. viii. 2). And under this aspect 
 the successive stages in the history of Israel 
 are seen to be parts of an intelligible education, 
 tending to shape and fix a national character to 
 which the world offers no parallel. For the faith
 
 ix.] for the nations. 263 
 
 of Israel was grounded not so much upon definite 
 teaching as upon the facts, the experiences, of 
 their life. 
 
 We have then in the Old Testament, to 
 gather up most briefly what has been said, the 
 representative record of the Divine discipline of 
 a chosen people. In this history we are allowed 
 to contemplate the clear signs of the action of 
 GOD, and by the help of the lesson all history 
 is felt to be the fulfilment of one eternal purpose. 
 
 Each great nation had and still has its peculiar 
 work. The work of the Jews was to receive, to 
 appropriate, to hand down a revelation of GOD. 
 They learnt to know Him not as an abstract 
 object of thought, not as dwelling in a distant 
 heaven, not as reserving His sovereignty for a 
 remote future ; but as actually present with them 
 in the business of daily life, making Himself felt 
 in acts even more than in words, vindicating His 
 character in judgments and mercies. 
 
 Their life and their hope lay alike in realising 
 that the Lord was dealing with them from day 
 to day. This was enough for their training. To 
 us as we look back the details of their discipline 
 suggest many further thoughts. Some even in 
 old times may have grasped these thoughts by 
 faith. But it does not concern us to attempt to
 
 264 The end of Israel gained in Christ. [CHAP. 
 
 determine how far this was so. The Law accom- 
 plished its office (Gal. iii. 24). Fenced in by its 
 stern provisions the people were prepared during 
 a long childhood for the duties of mature age. 
 
 The central moral idea which they were thus 
 enabled to define and strive after, even through 
 all failings, was holiness. The idea in its full 
 t~ki scope corresponds with the final harmony of man's 
 whole nature. It was offered to the world, it 
 was recognised as the one sufficient end of being, 
 it was found to be beyond human reach, before 
 it was realised in Christ. 
 
 Thus the Jewish Dispensation could only find 
 
 u ^ n its consummation in one way. It dealt with 
 
 u f * 
 
 ! *~W that which was essentially human, and still in 
 
 form it was limited and local. The revelation 
 it*^ 
 
 which it embodied was true but not final. It 
 was from first to last a prophecy leading onwards 
 to an issue which seemed at each successive stage 
 to become more indispensable than before and 
 more beyond hope. As we look back we can now 
 ra4>~<$\ see how one Presence and not only one increasing 
 purpose is everywhere found in the Law and in 
 the Prophets. The fathers found refreshment 
 in the wilderness from the streams which flowed 
 from the stricken rock. But far more than this : 
 they drank living waters from a Rock not material 
 but spiritual, from a Rock not fixed and im-
 
 ix.] Christianity historical in essence. 265 
 
 movable but which kept close to their wandering 
 
 feet, and that Rock was Christ (1 Cor. x. 4). The 
 
 prophets understood imperfectly the last meaning 
 
 of the words which they used, but ' the spirit 
 
 'of Christ which was in them testified before- 
 
 ' hand the sufferings that should come unto 
 
 'Christ and the glories that should follow them' 
 
 (1 Pet. i. 11). From first to last, throughout I 
 
 the long ages of preparation and onwards still till 
 
 the last vision of the growing Truth be gained, 
 
 the words of the angel in the Apocalypse hold 
 
 good, "The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of j Cil e. 
 
 prophecy" (Apoc. xix. 10). The witness to a ' 
 
 historic human Saviour, come and coming, is the 
 
 one unceasing message of GOD to man, the one 
 
 sure sign of inspiration (1 John iv. 2 f.). 
 
 ii. Christianity historical in its essence. 
 
 Christianity is the goal of Judaism. Thus 
 
 we come to that which is the centre and source aJte-^ 
 
 of all Christian thought and life. For Christi- /^/^ 
 
 anity, as we have seen, is absolute as well as ,^_ a. 
 historical; and the Incarnation connects and 
 reconciles the one characteristic with the other. r< 
 
 The Incarnation is a historic fact in the experience C^uras/ 
 
 of time, and it is an absolute truth in the counsel J" (&
 
 266 The Gospel lies in [CHAP. 
 
 of eternity. This fact, realised in fragments, is 
 the Gospel. 
 
 Christ declared to us truths about the nature 
 and the will of His Father and our Father, 
 His God and our God, about human relationships 
 and responsibilities, about man's worth and des- 
 tiny, which it concerns us most deeply to know ; 
 but He did not come simply to lay down a system 
 of doctrine. 
 
 He gathered into a brief compass and without 
 admixture of alloy the noblest rules for life : He 
 placed them in a natural connexion with the 
 fulfilment of the simplest offices of common duty: 
 He gave them, so to speak, a natural universality 
 which man as man can at once acknowledge : He 
 embodied them in an example which no lapse of 
 time or change of circumstances can make less 
 supreme in its attractiveness; but the Sermon 
 on the Mount is neither the essence of His 
 message to the world, nor, except incidentally, 
 characteristic of it. The years which He passed 
 in silence and obscurity, the months which He 
 passed in teaching and reproof and discipline, 
 are not, when regarded from without, the sum of 
 JHis revelation. 
 
 The claim which He made for Himself and 
 the claim of the first preachers, as of preachers in 
 every age, was not primarily that men should
 
 IX.] the Person of Christ. . 267 
 
 believe Him, or obey Him, or love Him, but that 
 they should believe in Him, that they should 
 recognise in Him a new source of power and life, 
 by which obedience becomes possible and love 
 becomes energetic, and so throw themselves wholly 
 upon Him and enjoy fellowship with the fulness 
 of His glorified Being. 
 
 This unique claim is presented naturally, so 
 to speak, under such circumstances and in such 
 a form as to make its purpose and its effect 
 historically intelligible. The 'signs' which the 
 Lord wrought, and the teaching which He gave 
 tend to the same conclusion. 
 
 Christ's signs are distinguished as a whole 
 from all other wonderful works of His predeces- 
 sors or followers, in the mode of their working, 
 and in their individual character, and in relation 
 to His whole redemption work (Matt. viii. 17), 
 and raise and answer thoughts in many hearts. 
 His words fix attention on Himself as being 
 more than His teaching ; and taken in their due 
 succession as they have been recorded for us, 
 they give a summary of His self-revelation. 
 
 What He did and what He said alike con- 
 strains us to turn for the secret of His message to 
 what He was.
 
 268 No valid objection [CHAP. 
 
 Christianity, to speak summarily, rests on the 
 conviction that in the Life and Death and 
 Resurrection of Christ something absolutely new 
 and unparalleled has been added to the experi- 
 ence of men, something new objectively and not 
 simply new as a combination or an interpretation 
 of earlier or existing phenomena : that in Christ 
 heaven and earth have been historically united : 
 that in Him this union can be made real through 
 all time to each believer: that His Nature and 
 Person are such that in Him each man and all 
 men can find a complete and harmonious consum- 
 mation in an external order. The Life of Christ 
 is something absolutely unique in the history of 
 the world, unique not in degree but in kind. 
 It is related to all else that is unfolded in time as 
 birth, for example, is related to the development 
 of the individual. 
 
 It is necessary that we should reflect upon 
 these peculiar features of our Faith in order 
 that we may understand the teaching of the New 
 Testament, and the history of the Christian 
 Church. All objections to the Gospels which are 
 drawn from the exceptional or unparalleled cha- 
 racter of the events which it affirms or implies are 
 irrelevant. The Gospel is a Gospel because it is 
 the proclamation of that which is new in human
 
 ix.] from its unique character. 269 
 
 experience, the Incarnation of the Word of GOD. 
 By the announcement of this fact it lays open 
 the unseen about us, and thus quickens and 
 supports the energy of Faith (Hebr. xi. 1): it 
 brings the sure promise of unity to all finite 
 things, and thus satisfies the aim of Religion 
 (Eph. i. 10 ; Col. i. 20) : it reveals GOD so that 
 we can approach Him with confidence under the 
 forms of our human thought and feeling (John 
 xiv. 9 ff.) : it illuminates the dark places of the 
 world so that we can look upon the chequered 
 scenes of man's' failure and sin and suffering 
 without dismay (1 Cor. xv. 24 ff.). 
 
 Christ, to recapitulate in the shortest phrase 
 what has been said, the Incarnate Word, Son of 
 GOD, and Son of Man, is Himself in a most 
 true sense the Gospel. 
 
 Viewed in this light the Gospel of the Word 
 become flesh brings such an answer as we need, 
 and as we are able to receive, to the riddles 
 of life which widening experience proposes to us. 
 We readily admit that we are not able to grasp 
 completely or to systematise exactly the whole 
 " Truth which is presented to us. But we can 
 see, with sufficient clearness to gain confidence 
 in our work, that it throws light on the darkest 
 mysteries of self and the world and GOD.
 
 270 How the Gospel meets [CHAP. 
 
 It shews us, to repeat a little more fully what 
 has been already summarised, that we are not 
 isolated units but parts of that one humanity 
 which GOD made in His image to gain His like- 
 ness and which the Son of GOD, who became 
 Son of man, has raised beyond the heavens in 
 His body of glory : that we are enabled here to 
 gain our freedom and realise our personality by 
 fellowship with our Head : that every sorrow and 
 pain is an element of discipline, and that the 
 just anger of GOD is the other side of His sove- 
 reign love : that nothing is lost of that which is 
 revealed to us now under the conditions of sense, 
 when the limitations of sense cease to be. 
 
 It shews us that in the consummation of man 
 lies also the consummation of all created things : 
 that there is not one lost good, or one lost pang, 
 for all good is of and in Him who cannot change, 
 and every pang answers to His law whose wisdom 
 and mercy meet in righteousness : that the lesson 
 of our intimate connexion with material things 
 is not that we must be stripped of our spiritual 
 glory, but that we must gladly learn to recognise 
 in them unsuspected potentialities of a higher 
 destiny. 
 
 It shews us that we can approach GOD with 
 confidence under the forms of human thought 
 and feeling, not with a part of our nature only
 
 IX.] human aspirations. 271 
 
 but with the entire sum of our energies and 
 powers : that outward phenomena are, as it were, 
 the words in which He speaks to us, disclosing as 
 we can understand them the thoughts which lie 
 behind, representing but not exhausting them : 
 that, in a sense which gives confidence to prayer 
 and vigour to action and assurance to hope, in 
 Him we live and move and have our being. 
 
 The unchangeable sum of Christianity is the 
 message : The Word was GOD, and the Word 
 became flesh. This being so, it is clear that 
 Christianity is not essentially a law for the regu- 
 lation of our conduct : not a philosophy for the 
 harmonious coordination of the facts of experi- 
 ence under our present forms of thought : not a 
 system of worship by which men can approach 
 their Maker in reverent devotion. It offers all 
 these as the natural fruit of the Truth which it 
 proclaims in the Incarnation and Resurrection of 
 Christ. But Christ Himself, His Person and His 
 Life, in time and beyond time, and not any 
 scheme of doctrine which He delivered, is the 
 central object and support of Faith. 
 
 An examination of the earliest records of the 
 Christian Faith will prove, as I hold, beyond 
 question that this was the general view of the 
 Gospel which was taken from the first : that this
 
 272 Christianity historical in its realisation. [CH. 
 
 was the general view to which the Lord Himself 
 guided His disciples in His preparatory teaching. 
 Such lessons indeed were not learnt at once. 
 They are not fully learnt even now. Each age 
 has its own task, and we can dimly see our own. 
 For Christianity, which is historical in its ante- 
 cedents and in itself, is historical also in its 
 realisation. 
 
 (iii) Christianity historical in its realisation. 
 
 From the first the Gospel was realised in the 
 way of life. Little by little, the revelation of 
 Christ's Nature was made through the events of 
 His intercourse with men. The facts were open 
 before the world : it was for those to whom they 
 were made known to read their lessons. These 
 were seen ; and they were ' allowed to work.' In 
 this respect the answer which the Lord gave to 
 the disciples of the Baptist shews the manner of 
 Revelation for all time. He sent no direct reply 
 to His herald, but He stated plainly, and in a 
 significant order, the signs from which the reply 
 could certainly be deduced (Matt. xi. 2 ff.). 
 
 This characteristic of the method of Revelation 
 is signally illustrated by the records of the Re- 
 surrection. The incidents preserved by the
 
 ix.] Revelation through facts. 273 
 
 Evangelists present two distinct and comple- 
 mentary views of the event. In one group we 
 have the assurance that the Risen Lord was 
 indeed the same Lord as the disciples had known 
 in His earthly life : in the other group we see 
 that He was raised above the conditions of earthly 
 existence. Either group by itself would be 
 wholly inadequate to convey the truth which 
 was to be made known. The first group alone 
 could only establish a rising again as that of 
 Lazarus to a life subject as before to death. 
 The second group alone would leave us in the 
 presence of shadowy, phantom-like appearances, 
 and offer no real connexion between the two 
 worlds. But the Evangelists give both groups 
 without any consciousness of an opposition and 
 without any direct interpretation. They present 
 Christ as wholly the same and yet wholly changed. 
 The significance of the two series of manifestations 
 in combination becomes apparent upon reflection; 
 and faith by a spiritual synthesis apprehends the 
 fact of a continuity of human life under new 
 conditions, of the transfiguration of all that 
 belongs to the fulness of humanity. By the 
 Resurrection of Christ thus realised the two 
 worlds the seen and the unseen are brought 
 into a union of life, and we see that the fact is 
 a revelation. 
 
 w. G. L. 18
 
 274 The meaning of the history [CHAP. 
 
 The revelation was thus made through a suc- 
 cession of facts, and the import of the facts was 
 historically apprehended by progressive thought. 
 This is true in different ways both of the Apostles 
 and of later Christian teachers ; and the recogni- 
 tion of the truth is important for ourselves. For 
 example, we commonly lose much by failing to 
 notice how the Divine nature of Christ was slowly 
 discerned under the action of (what we call) 
 natural historical circumstances. It is assumed 
 that all was clear from the first ; and that the 
 Apostles were enabled at once and finally to 
 grasp the fulness of the revelation, and to regard 
 Him with whom they had 'gone in and out' as 
 being what St John in the end was enabled to 
 declare Him to be, ' the Word become flesh.' 
 
 Such a view is equally at variance with the 
 method of Divine Providence, as made known to 
 us in Scripture, and with the laws of the human 
 mind. There is an order, a growth, in the teach- 
 ing of GOD. This we know through our own 
 experience. All indeed lies enfolded in the 
 earliest seed but the actual development is to 
 our observation slow and continuous and in 
 successive phases. 
 
 The example of the great confession of St Peter 
 at Caesarea Philippi the crisis in the historical
 
 ix.] slowly gained. 275 
 
 ministry of Christ is an illustration of this law. 
 To us, with our preconceptions, such a confession 
 seems to be the necessary expression of the effect 
 which the Lord's works and words must have 
 made upon all the disciples. The Lord's own 
 judgment lays open our error. What is clear to 
 us could be seen by the Apostles only through a 
 Divine illumination which came in due time (Matt, 
 xvi. 16 f; Mark viii. 29 ; Luke ix. 20 f.). And 
 even so the full import of the inspired words was 
 not firmly seized. The confession remained as a 
 sign for later interpretation. 
 
 The sequel of the history itself shewed this. 
 St Peter emboldened, if we may so speak, by the 
 Lord's words sought shortly afterwards to fix the 
 consequences of the confession which he had 
 made and went wholly astray (Matt, xvi 22 f. ; 
 compare on another side Matt. xvii. 24 ff.); and 
 even afterwards the sons of Zebedee held scarcely 
 less false views of what the end would be (Matt. 
 xx. 20 ff.) 1 . 
 
 1 It is most instructive in this respect to study each con- 
 fession of Christ recorded in the Gospels in connexion with the 
 circumstances to which it belongs. Nathanael [St Bartholomew], 
 St Peter, Martha and St Paul, each declared Jesus to be ' the 
 Son of GOD ' (John i. 49 ; Matt. xvi. 16 ; John xi. 27 ; Acts ix. 20), 
 but each repetition of the words marked a distinct victory of faith. 
 Compare also Mark i. 24 with John vi. 69 ; John i. 42, 46 with 
 Matt. xvi. 20; and see John iv. 42; xvi. 30; xx. 28; xxi. 17. 
 
 182
 
 276 Progressive apprehension [CHAP. 
 
 The different groups of books included in the 
 New Testament shew on a large scale the gradual 
 apprehension of this central truth of the Christian 
 Faith. The great outlines are written in the 
 first twelve chapters of the book of the Acts, and 
 it would be difficult to find a more convincing 
 proof of the contemporary origin of the record 
 than the naturalness with which point after point 
 is reached till the proclamation of St Paul marks 
 the attainment of St Peter's confession by a new 
 line of experience (Acts ix. 20 eicijpva-a-ev rov 
 'Irjcrovv ori ovros ecrrw 6 u/o? rov Oeov). This 
 outline is filled up in the Epistles of St James 
 and St Jude and the Synoptic Gospels, and 
 completed at a later time by the Epistles of 
 St Peter, the Apocalypse and the Epistle to 
 the Hebrews, in which we find how the Lord 
 fulfilled the teaching of the Law and the Pro- 
 phets as the Messiah. The Epistles of St Paul 
 unfold on many sides the doctrine of the Ascended 
 Christ. And finally St John in his Gospel and 
 Epistles, writing from the bosom of the Christian 
 Church, presents the crowning truth of the In- 
 carnate Word, so that, to take one illustration, 
 the Passion itself, seen in its true significance, 
 becomes a revelation of kingly glory. 
 
 Such was the law in the apostolic age ; and
 
 ix.] of the message of the Gospel 277 
 
 the same law finds fulfilment beyond the limits 
 of Scripture. The privilege which ' is eternal life ' 
 is the progressive knowledge of GOD (John xvii. 
 3, a/a yivcocTKOHTiv [-ovcriv] ; 1 John v. 20). To- 
 wards this we are charged to strive : to neglect 
 this is spiritual death. So it is that the history 
 of Christianity is the history of the slow and pro- 
 gressive efforts which have been made to gain and 
 to embody an adequate knowledge of Christ in the 
 fulness of His twofold Nature, of the eternal 
 revealed under the conditions of time, of the 
 earthly raised to the heavenly, of the harmony 
 that is established potentially between man and 
 humanity and GOD, under the continuous guiding 
 of the living Spirit. 
 
 It is undoubtedly a chequered and often a 
 sad history. The human organs often obey most 
 imperfectly the spirit which moves them. There 
 are times of torpor, of sloth, of disease in the 
 Body ; but even so the spirit is not quenched. 
 There are fallings away, and dismemberments, 
 but even so an energy of reproduction supplies 
 the loss. Empires rise and pass away, but the 
 Church lives on, changed from age to age and yet 
 the same, gathering into her treasure-house all 
 the prizes of wisdom and knowledge, and gradually 
 learning more and more of the infinite import 
 and power of the Truth which she has to proclaim.
 
 278 Post-Christian history the victories [CHAP. 
 
 Under this aspect the history of the Christian 
 Church is the history of the victories of the Risen 
 Christ gained through the Spirit sent in His Name 
 (John xiv. 26). Such a conception of the nature 
 of the strange and magnificent spectacle which 
 is opened before us in the progress of the Faith 
 is alone sufficient to bring together the many 
 contrasted parts of which it is composed into 
 an intelligible unity, to give significance to mani- 
 foldness of form, to inspire the whole with the 
 manifest power of one Life. 
 
 But when we speak of victories we imply 
 resistance, suffering, loss: the triumph indeed 
 of a great cause, but a triumph which has been 
 gained through effort and sacrifice. And such in 
 fact is the history which we have to follow in the 
 records of Christianity. These offer to us a sad 
 and yet a glorious succession of battles, often 
 hardly fought and sometimes indecisive, between 
 the new life and the old, the life wholly reconciled 
 to GOD and the life broken and disordered, which 
 is our natural heritage. 
 
 We know that the struggle thus begun can 
 never be ended in this visible order, but we know 
 also that Christ has brought within His sway 
 from age to age ever more of the total powers of 
 humanity and more of -the fulness of the nature 
 of the individual man. Each age has to sustain
 
 ix.] of the Risen Christ. 279 
 
 its own part of the conflict ; and the retrospect 
 of earlier successes gives to those who have to 
 face new antagonists and occupy new positions, 
 patience and the certainty of hope. 
 
 For in a peculiar sense all history from the 
 day of Pentecost is a sacred history ; even as all 
 history is in one sense the fulfilment of a Divine 
 plan. At the same time after the coming of 
 Christ as before it we may distinguish two ele- 
 ments in the progress of humanity, the ' natural ' 
 unfolding of man's powers as he is, and the Divine 
 disciplining of man towards the ideal for the 
 attainment of which he was made. In the one 
 we see a development generally controlled by 
 GOD; and in the other an education directly 
 inspired and guided by GOD. On one side we 
 watch growth ; on the other side we welcome 
 salvation. But every ripe result of growth sub- 
 serves the work of that society which is the 
 firstfruits of created things. 
 
 Such general reflections will probably approve 
 themselves as true as a mere abstract statement. 
 They are however forced upon us with peculiar 
 power if we compare the Christianity of to-day 
 with the Christianity of some other period, with
 
 280 Interpretation of facts contrasted [CHAP. 
 
 apostolic, or mediaeval Christianity, or with the 
 Christianity of the Reformation. 
 
 And the difference which strikes us is not 
 that of uniformity in one age against variations 
 in another, of purity against corruption, of energy 
 against deadness. Wherever we look we see a 
 struggle going on, life fulfilled through death ; 
 but the broad effect of popular thought, and hope 
 and practice is changed from age to age. And 
 the change is seen to be greater if we fix our 
 minds on the specific thoughts and hopes and 
 practices which were actually dominant at the 
 contrasted epochs. How far removed, for ex- 
 ample, many of the questions touched on in the 
 Decrees of the Council of Trent, or the xxxix. 
 Articles, or the Westminster Confession, are from 
 our interests: how much that moves us most 
 deeply finds in them no notice. 
 
 Such a phenomenon can cause us no surprise 
 now. We shall not desire to explain it away. 
 No one, I imagine, would seriously hold that the 
 doctrines of contemporary Romanism have been 
 secretly taught from the days of the Apostles in 
 an unbroken succession; or that the Gospel was 
 corrupted from the close of the Apostolic age 
 till the 16th century; or that necessary new 
 truth was ' developed ' as a permanent, fixed,
 
 ix.] with development of doctrine. 281 
 
 endowment of Christendom under infallible guid- 
 ance. We see that a Divine life is manifested 
 more or less perfectly from age to age through 
 a Divine society; but the manifestation is not 
 the life. As the circumstances of men and 
 nations change, materially, intellectually, morally, 
 the life will find a fresh and corresponding ex- 
 pression. We cannot believe what was believed 
 in another age by repeating the formulas which 
 were then current. The greatest words change 
 in meaning. The formulas remain to us a 
 precious heritage but they require to be inter- 
 preted. Each age has to apprehend vitally 
 the Incarnation and the Ascension of Christ. 
 
 And here I would again insist upon the 
 enormous difference between the logical de- 
 velopment of a doctrine, and the progressive 
 interpretation of a fact through experience. 
 The fundamental statement of a doctrine can 
 never be complete. Its original limitation must 
 impair the validity of the deductions which are 
 drawn from it with accumulated force from step 
 to step. But the fact finds its interpretation 
 through the fulness of life. One influence cor- 
 rects and completes another. And the record 
 of this progressive interpretation lies in Christian 
 history.
 
 282 Present importance [CHAP. 
 
 Christianity then while it is one cannot be 
 uniform. The embodiment of the Truth in 
 thought and practice from time to time must 
 answer more or less completely to each age and 
 race. Or, to put the truth in another form, each 
 age and race has an office for the interpretation, 
 the unfolding, of the Faith. 
 
 The Gospel is, in the fullest sense of the 
 words, of life, in life, unto life (comp. Rom. xi. 36). 
 As we learn more of man and more of nature 
 we learn more of Christ in whom we still see 
 the Father. 
 
 It is for this reason that the study of Church 
 History, under its broadest aspect, is of especial 
 value now. While we acknowledge that we are 
 called upon to labour in an age of great and 
 rapid changes, we do not shrink from the re- 
 sponsibility of still claiming for the Gospel 
 sovereignty over all progress. And history justi- 
 fies the claim. Thus then when once we can 
 feel that faith in the risen Christ, as King and 
 Redeemer, has not only conquered all opposing 
 forces in each past crisis, but preserved in each 
 case and incorporated into itself all that which 
 gave real vitality to the opposition which it 
 encountered, our own courage will be quickened. 
 And if there are at present great and noble
 
 ix.] of the study of Church History. 283 
 
 thoughts, certain and far-reaching facts, which 
 have not been brought into harmony, or rather 
 which have not been recognised as being in 
 harmony with the Gospel of the Resurrection, 
 we can welcome them and if need be wait. 
 Perhaps we have not yet gained the point of 
 sight from which they will be seen in due 
 relation to the whole revelation hitherto made 
 known to us. But even so, they have already 
 called something to our minds which had been 
 often overlooked. The King and the Redeemer 
 is Creator also ; and we are already beginning 
 to apprehend how a larger unity than we have 
 yet grasped may hereafter include the race and 
 the world, and reconcile the general relations of 
 both to GOD with the personal responsibility of 
 each separate man.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE VERIFICATION OF THE CHRISTIAN SOLUTION 
 OF THE PROBLEMS OF LIFE. 
 
 WE have seen that the Gospel is the message 
 of a Life, that it was made known to us through 
 life and that it has been apprehended throughout 
 the ages and is still apprehended in life. It is a 
 light to walk by and not simply to contemplate. 
 How then, we ask, is it verified ? How are we. 
 ourselves assured of its Truth ? The verification 
 of the Gospel answers to the communication and 
 the interpretation of the Gospel. The verification 
 of the Gospel is in and through life, the life of 
 men and the life of each man. It is verified 
 outwardly by the testimony of history: it is 
 verified inwardly by the testimony of experience. 
 Both forms of testimony are required for complete 
 assurance. Without the inward experience we 
 might hold as true that which would be to us as 
 a beautiful picture : without the outward history
 
 CHAP, x.] Conditions of verification. 285 
 
 we might yield to the fancies of undisciplined 
 enthusiasm. When the voice of society expressed 
 in history and the voice of the soul agree, we 
 have the highest conceivable assurance of the 
 truth of their message. 
 
 Before we indicate some features in this two- 
 fold testimony, it will be well to notice yet again 
 the grounds on which it is maintained that a 
 revelation of some kind is antecedently probable 
 on the assumptions which have been made. For 
 the continuous and effective discipline of human 
 thought and action man has need of progressive 
 knowledge. Knowledge furnishes the materials 
 which faith uses. But here a difference arises as 
 to the subjects of which knowledge may be gained. 
 Within obvious limits man may obtain by direct 
 observation knowledge of himself and of the world. 
 But if he is to know GOD, GOD must reveal Him- 
 self. And such a revelation is made possible by 
 the constitution of man. The fact that he is 
 conscious of the being of GOD implies the ca- 
 pacity of knowing Him with human knowledge. 
 There is, as we have already noticed, a potential 
 Gospel in the language of the earliest record of 
 Creation, which declares that man was made 
 ' in the image of GOD.' It is not indeed too 
 much to say that the assurance of a revelation
 
 286 Man in relation [CHAP. 
 
 of GOD to man is included in the ideas of GOD 
 and man. If the power to know GOD exists in 
 man, such an endowment contains the promise 
 that it will not be left idle. And on the other 
 side it is by intercourse with GOD that man 
 advances towards the Divine likeness. 
 
 These truths may be presented in another 
 light. Man is not a self-centred, self- directed, 
 independent unit. He is born a son, and that 
 in a twofold relation to the seen and the unseen. 
 He would cease to be human if he were not dis- 
 ciplined by the influences of society ; and for the 
 complete unfolding of his powers as man he 
 requires the fellowship of GOD. He is a microcosm 
 in regard to the visible world : he is a reflection 
 of GOD in relation to invisible being. The 
 microcosm must be studied through the observa- 
 tion of the parts of the great whole of which it is 
 an epitome : the reflection must be kept fresh 
 and vivid by the presence of Him whom it re- 
 ' presents. 
 
 Such considerations would have remained in 
 -* full force if man had continued to grow according 
 to the normal law of his being. But it is evident 
 that this development has been interrupted. The 
 illuminating, sustaining power of Divine fellowship
 
 x.] to the seen and the unseen. 287 
 
 which would have been required by man as a 
 finite creature, has become yet more necessary 
 for man as a sinful creature. 
 
 This conclusion is pressed upon us with pa- 
 thetic force by the facts of common experience. 
 We hold firmly to the belief that all being, all 
 life, js^ when rightly understood, a manifestation Q 
 of the counsel and nature of GOD. This is what 
 
 we mean when we confess that He is the Creator , '&. c 
 
 i ^k y ^ 
 and Preserver of the world. All Truth in other 
 
 words which is the foundation of religion, that is Qjtf ^ 
 all Truth, is Theology. The idea of GOD enters C*J? 
 into it and supports it. GOD is the source, the 
 agent, the end of all things (Rom. xi. 36). The 
 conviction in its most general form is necessary ^ 
 for the inspiration and guidance of labour. By 
 the recognition of this Divine origin and destina- 
 tion of knowledge the idea of holiness consecrates 
 beauty, truth and goodness, and invests what is 
 in form transitory and limited with an eternal 
 meaning. 
 
 But while this is so, the phenomena which we 
 see superficially and for a brief space present 
 difficulties and apparent contradictions in the 
 way of the belief which we retain. It has been 
 nobly said by one well fitted to bear the witness : 
 ' If I looked into a mirror and did not see my 
 'face, I should have the same sort of feeling
 
 tshdlj. 
 
 288 The, need of a revelation [CHAP. 
 
 ' which actually comes upon me when I look into 
 ' this living busy world and see no reflection of 
 'its Creator.' 
 
 So it is that in the actual state of man, the 
 revelation of GOD in the world without and in the 
 ' soul within is partially obscured and partially 
 defaced. This imperfection does not indeed alter 
 the essential character of the whole order of 
 things as fitted to make GOD known, or of the 
 soul as formed to recognise Him, but it leads us 
 to expect, as we believe in the government of GOD, 
 that some new light will be given to make our 
 way clear. 
 
 Man, in other words, conscious of disorder 
 t^jj within him and in the presence of a disordered 
 world, looks for some further revelation ; a revela- 
 "ftion through which he may be still enabled to 
 .&/L.Q /fashion the Divine image in which he was made 
 after the Divine likeness for which he was made : 
 a revelation which can be apprehended according 
 to the intellectual limitations of his nature, and 
 which can find expression in the language of men : 
 a revelation which takes account of other orders 
 of being but only so far as they come within the 
 moral scope of humanity ; and yet more, a revela- 
 tion which deals with man not as a stationary 
 being but as advancing with a continuous growth.
 
 x.] from the condition of man. 289 
 
 If then we assume that GOD governs the 
 world which He made, and continues to regard 
 man whom He formed in His own image, it / A" 
 follows that it is not only natural to look for i 
 such a revelation but that such a revelation is ' 
 in itself most truly natural. It is most properly 
 an unveiling of that which lies within the range 
 of man's powers and which he was so made as to 
 see in due time. It corresponds with what we 
 conceive as the right development of man, accord- 
 ing to the idea of creation. This development has 
 unhappily been interrupted by a premature effort 
 on man's part after independence and knowledge ; 
 but the sin of man has not fatally hindered the 
 fulfilment of the Divine counsel. 
 
 "We go on therefore to ask, How can we conceive 
 such a revelation to be made ? Briefly we reply 
 it must come through life, interpreted by thought. 
 It may be recorded in books after it has been re- , 
 alised in the vital processes of observation, reflection 
 and action ; but it passes from life into the record, tx/f^Jty 
 and it is brought out of the record into life. It^ / 
 cannot be intellectual only. The first fact that it 
 is the memorial of human experience is the pledge 
 of the other, that it is available for man. Spiritual 
 influences are transmitted normally from the 
 whole person to the whole person. The truth which 
 comes to man through natural human experience 
 w. G. L. 19
 
 290 The revelation through life. [CHAP. 
 
 can for that reason reach man fully (John v. 39 f.). 
 This being so, we can see that if in the conduct of 
 life we are enabled to see signs of the Divine govern- 
 ment and counsel made plain, we have a revelation 
 which enlightens the dark places of the world 
 and sustains and directs faith; and we can see 
 that if we are allowed to contemplate and enter 
 into the realisation of a perfect human life 
 accepted by GOD, a life, that is, wrought out 
 under the conditions of earth in all its parts 
 / , and through death in perfect fellowship with 
 *VGk)D, that will be for us a perfect revelation, a 
 revelation perfectly suited to our wants and to 
 our faculties. And we can see further that such 
 a perfect revelation could not have been given in 
 the infancy of the race. It could only come 
 naturally, that is in accordance with what we 
 observe of the Divine working, at the close of 
 a long preparatory discipline. 
 
 Such a revelation, made through life, gives us 
 facts and not formulated opinions. Like observa- 
 tion in relation to the world of sense, it gives new 
 data. These faith appropriates ; and reason tests, 
 coordinates, adjusts them ; for reason is critical 
 and formative and not creative. Man by himself 
 cannot rise above himself: but he can use that 
 which will raise him.
 
 x.] Faith uses the new materials. 291 
 
 In this way, as we believe, GOD has dealt 
 with us. He has revealed Himself in life, and 
 specially in the life of a chosen nation and in the 
 Life of His Son. That which is of life reaches to 
 life and the Truth which is embodied in Religion 
 is not for speculation only or for contemplation 
 only, but for life. It -enlarges and harmonises 
 knowledge, and it supplies a motive for effort. It 
 appeals to head, heart, will ; and it calls out 
 understanding, feeling, action, in due proportion. 
 So it is that it tends to bring perfect freedom 
 (John viii. 32). 
 
 Knowledge, I have said, furnishes the materials 
 which faith uses. The statement has a far-reach- 
 ing application. 
 
 If we go back to the three fundamental con- 
 ceptions, self, the world, GOD, we shall notice one 
 feature that is common to them. In fashioning 
 each we enter upon the future and the unseen, 
 and act without hesitation on the conclusions 
 which we have formed. We do not even pause 
 to question the continuity of self, or of physical 
 laws, or of character. We are so made as to draw 
 from experience conclusions wholly beyond ex- 
 perience. Nothing in the observation of the past 
 is in itself able to assure us as to what will be. 
 The past can give no pledge that no new forces 
 
 192
 
 292 Faith interprets [CHAP. 
 
 will be hereafter revealed, or that we have a 
 complete knowledge of the action of the forces 
 which we have studied. But we instinctively 
 extend the lessons which we have gained from 
 partial experience to a region which is inacces- 
 sible to us. We are born to act, and action 
 involves faith, trust in the general truthfulness 
 of the system in which we find ourselves. 
 
 We are in other words constrained to follow 
 the indications which we notice as to the con- 
 stitution of self and the world beyond the range 
 of sight, and to interpret them in a larger sense 
 than the facts taken alone warrant. 
 
 And so it appears to be also in regard to the 
 different observations which are alleged to shew 
 something of the being of GOD. The arguments 
 from cause and design, from being and conscience, 
 rather point to conclusions than directly establish 
 them. But here again we seem to be made to 
 s follow the indications which they give, and to 
 bring from within that which is thus called out. 
 The conclusions are not formally valid, but we 
 do violence to our nature if we do not accept 
 them. 
 
 The same constraint attends us in the inter- 
 pretation of History. If we trace the moral
 
 x.] the larger meaning of the facts. 293 
 
 growth of a nation slowly advanced not in 
 accordance with its natural bent, but, as far 
 as we can judge, against it : if a widening 
 lesson of hope, extending beyond its own interests, 
 finds expression in its literature: if the people 
 realise a direct fellowship with GOD and a sense 
 of His holiness found nowhere else: if in the 
 fulness of time One rises from among them, Who, 
 while he satisfies their ideal, gives it a trans- 
 cending power : if from that time forward the 
 progress of men has been guided by the fuller 
 apprehension which they have gained and em- 
 bodied in deed of the fulness of that unique Life ; 
 knowing what we do of GOD and man, we are 
 constrained to regard the succession of events as 
 the accomplishment of a Divine counsel. Other 
 explanations are possible but this alone is natural. 
 Faith takes the facts and bringing them into a 
 harmonious whole draws out their meaning with 
 the help of larger experience. Exceptional 'signs' 
 find their place in the course of the great drama ; 
 prophecies are intelligible in the utterances of 
 men who see the eternal ; and the very character 
 of the history forbids us to look for any parallel to 
 the events in which it was consummated. 
 
 It may be said, and the assertion is admitted, 
 that this is the judgment of a being who sees but
 
 294 The converging testimony [CHAP. 
 
 little of an immeasurable order and may wholly 
 mistake its import. But it is a final fact of our 
 nature that we must interpret the phenomena of 
 human life. 
 
 We cannot, from the nature of the case, have 
 more than indications of the Divine working; and 
 in this sense Christianity has a world-long confirma- 
 tion from history. For Christianity, as we have 
 already noticed, is not an isolated phenomenon. It 
 has a living relation to all that preceded, and to all 
 that has followed its announcement. Prse-Christian 
 history offers us a comprehensive view of the 
 wants, the capacities, the failures, the aspirations 
 of men. We find its lessons both in 'the nations' 
 and in 'the people.' In the history of the nations 
 we observe the natural unfolding of human powers 
 in action, in thought, in feeling : in the history of 
 the People we discern the Divine discipline of a 
 single race trained to serve and to look for GOD. 
 In the widest and deepest sense Christianity 
 crowns the development of the nations and the 
 education of the People. 'The former,' as it 
 has been well said, 'prepared mankind for sal- 
 'vation, and the latter prepared salvation for 
 ' mankind.' We may without exaggeration speak 
 of the chequered fortunes of men throughout the 
 ancient world, of their endeavours, their achieve- 
 ments and their defeats, their divinations of their
 
 X.] of history to Christ. 295 
 
 destiny and their moral overthrows, no less than 
 of the special preparation of Israel by laws and 
 psalms and revelations of the growing counsel of 
 GOD, as one vast prophecy of a salvation to be 
 wrought upon earth. Step by step the living 
 sense of a special Covenant with Jehovah, of His 
 interpositions in their behalf, of His invincible 
 and perfect righteousness, of His 'conversableness' 
 with man, defined and strengthened among the 
 People a conviction of some Divine Coming 
 among them near at hand, greater and more 
 glorious than any of old time ; and on the other 
 side the speculations of their doctors on 'the 
 ' Word ' and ' the Wisdom ' opened the way to 
 a vision of the self-completeness of GOD, One 
 but not solitary. Among the Nations the feeling 
 after truth and beauty and order, in the whole 
 range of their earthly manifestations, witnessed 
 to the grandeur, and, it might seem, to the 
 birthright of man, and dominant tyranny and 
 corruption and selfishness witnessed to his actual 
 inability to secure it ; and yet among them was 
 the welcome prepared for one who should be 
 among them 'a present GOD.' 
 
 The Person of Christ standing where He does 
 in the evolution of human life is in itself the 
 justification of His claim to be the Saviour of the
 
 296 The human and superhuman [CHAP. 
 
 world. All that had gone before prepared the 
 way for the apprehension of the Incarnation of 
 the Birth and Death and Resurrection of the Son 
 of GOD but there is not the least evidence that 
 any popular expectation tended to create the 
 belief which was fashioned from the facts of the 
 Lord's self-revelation. The earlier experiences of 
 men made the Gospel intelligible but they had no 
 power to produce it. It satisfies and crowns them 
 but it does not grow out of them. Again: the 
 brief records of the Lord's work shew in distinct 
 and harmonious outlines a character which pre- 
 sents the fulness of human powers, powers of 
 action and thought and feeling, of command and 
 sympathy and influence, powers characteristic of 
 man and of woman, shewn naturally with absolute 
 majesty and grace. Whatever had won enduring 
 admiration in earlier times found a place in it. 
 Courage and self-respect, self-devotion and service, 
 were raised to a new elevation and intensity by 
 the habitual sense of Divine fellowship. Ten- 
 derness, compassion, meekness, humility were 
 revealed in their true majesty. There is no 
 one who cannot find in it that which interprets 
 and completes and hallows his own personality. 
 The lapse of time takes nothing from its com- 
 pleteness and offers no situation which it is not 
 fitted to meet with calm sufficiency. Peculiarities
 
 X.] harmoniously united in Christ. 297 
 
 of time and place and class and work and tem- 
 perament are lost in that which embraces them 
 all in a universal manhood. 
 
 And yet beyond this comprehensive humanity 
 of ' the Son of man ' there lies something which is 
 not of man, a conscious sovereignty over men and 
 nature answering to the voice of unfailing know- 
 ledge: a vision which sees the truth of things 
 beneath the phenomena of time : a declared 
 separateness from men as well as fellowship with 
 them : an abiding sense of the issues of His 
 mission transcending the highest possible esti- 
 mate of the achievements of human effort. 
 
 The ideal was shewn to the world, and with 
 the ideal power was assured to realise it in many 
 parts and many fashions. For we must remember 
 that the Gospel claims to be 'a power of GOD 
 ' unto salvation ' and not simply a declaration of 
 the nature and the will of GOD. The attainment 
 of the ideal has been slow, as we measure time, 
 but endeavour to reach towards it has not been 
 vain. As Proe-Christian history was in its sum 
 a prophecy of the Gospel, so Post- Christian 
 history has been a progressive embodiment of 
 it. As we look back we can see how during 
 eighteen centuries the solid advances of men 
 toward their goal have been due to that which
 
 298 New revelations of GOD [CHAP. 
 
 is of the essence of the Faith : how the failures 
 of the Faith have been due to the action of forces 
 which are really foreign to it. We can see also 
 how the Faith has not only been able to welcome 
 each fresh access of knowledge which has been 
 given to man through continuous labour, but 
 also to grow in meaning and scope under the 
 ampler light. So it was when the study of the 
 heavens shewed the relative place of the Earth 
 in the Solar System, and a truer conception was 
 gained of our position in space. So it was when 
 the study of the Earth shewed the relation of 
 human life to the records of terrestrial changes, 
 and a truer conception was gained of our position 
 in time. In each case the new revelation for 
 so indeed the Holy Spirit speaks to us was met 
 at first with sad fears, and even with wilful 
 resistance, but now we know how much we have 
 gained through what seemed to be losses, worthier 
 views of the immeasurable range of the counsels 
 of GOD'S providence, calmer trust in the inexhaust- 
 ible patience of GOD'S working. And so it may 
 be even now again. It may be that the study of 
 human life will teach us to recognise unexpected 
 connexions and dependences of being, and that in 
 due time a truer conception of our position in 
 creation, will enable us to realise a little better 
 the unity of all things, as a thought, if we
 
 x.] through the perfections of Christ. 299 
 
 may presume to use the phrase, in the mind of 
 GOD. 
 
 Christianity, in a word, meets and hallows our 
 broadest views of nature and life. It receives the 
 testimony of universal history to the adequacy of 
 its essential teaching to meet the needs of men. 
 It reaches with unfailing completeness to the 
 depths of each individual soul. The Person of 
 Christ includes all that belongs to the perfection 
 of every man. The Spirit of Christ brings the 
 power through which each one can reach his true 
 end. Christianity in a word, to sum up what has 
 been said already, offers us an ideal and offers us 
 strength to attain to it. 
 
 It is generally agreed that the type of 
 character presented to us in the Gospels is the 
 highest which we can fashion. The Person of 
 the Lord meets us at every point in our strivings, 
 and discloses something to call out in us loftier 
 endeavour. In Him we discover in the most 
 complete harmony all the excellences which are 
 divided, not unequally, between man and woman. 
 In Him we can recognise the gift which has \ 
 been entrusted to each one of us severally, used ' 
 in its true relation to the other endowments of
 
 300 Christ satisfies the aspirations [CHAP. 
 
 humanity. He enters into the fulness of life, and 
 makes known the value of each detail of life. 
 
 ' And what He is for us He is for all men, and 
 'for all time. There is nothing in the ideal 
 ' which He offers which belongs to any particular 
 'age, or class, or nation. He stands above all 
 'and unites all. That which was local or 
 ' transitory in the circumstances under which 
 ' He lived, in the controversies of rival sects, in 
 ' the struggles of patriotism, in the isolation of 
 ' religious pride, leaves no colour in His character. 
 'All that is abiding, all that is human, is there 
 ' without admixture, in that eternal energy which 
 ' man's heart can recognise in its time of trial.' 
 
 This being so ' the Person of the Lord satisfies 
 ' the requirement of growth which belongs to the 
 ' religious nature of man. Our sense of His per- 
 ' fections grows with our own moral advance. We 
 ' see more of His beauty as our power of vision is 
 ' disciplined and purified. The slow unfolding of 
 'life enables us to discern new meaning in His 
 ' presence. In His humanity is included whatever 
 'belongs to the consummation of the individual 
 ' and of the race, not only in one stage, but in all 
 'stages of progress, not only in regard to some 
 ' endowments, but in regard to the whole inherit- 
 ' ance of our nature, enlarged by the most vigorous 
 ' use while the world lasts. We, in our weakness
 
 x.] and needs of men. 301 
 
 ' and littleness, confine our thoughts from genera- 
 ' tion to generation, now to this fragment of His 
 ' fulness and now to that ; but it is, I believe, true 
 ' without exception in every realm of man's activity, 
 ' true in action, true in literature, true in art, that 
 'the works which receive the most lasting homage 
 ' of the soul are those which are most Christian, 
 ' and that it is in each the Christian element, the 
 ' element which answers to the fact of the Incar- 
 ' nation, to the fellowship of GOD with man as an 
 ' accomplished reality of the present order, which 
 ' attracts and holds our reverence 1 .' 
 
 But while we instinctively acknowledge the 
 ideal in Christ as that which interprets perfectly 
 our own aspirations, for no accumulation of 
 failures can destroy the sense of our destiny, 
 we confess, as we look back sadly, that alone, in 
 ourselves, we have no new resource of strength 
 for the future, as we have no ability to undo the 
 past. The loftiest souls apart from Christ recog- 
 nise that they were made for an end which 
 'naturally' is unattainable. They do homage 
 (for example) to a purity which they personally 
 dishonour. This need brings into prominence 
 the supreme characteristic of the faith. Christ 
 meets the acknowledgment of individual help- 
 1 Religious Thought in the West, pp.^252 f.
 
 302 Christ the strength [CHAP. 
 
 lessness with the offer of friendship. He reveals 
 union with Himself, union with GOD and union 
 with man in Him, as the spring of power, and the 
 inspiration of effort. The knowledge which flows 
 from the vision of the world as He has disclosed 
 it is not simply for speculation : the glory of the 
 image of man which He shews is not for contem- 
 plative admiration. Both are intensely practical. 
 Both tend directly to kindle and support love in 
 and through Him ; and love, which is the trans- 
 figurement of pain, is also strength for action and 
 motive for action. 
 
 In this way believing in Christ believing in 
 Christ, and not merely believing Christ brings 
 into exercise the deepest human feelings. It has 
 been excellently laid down by one who was not of 
 us, that ' the solution of the problem of essence, 
 ' of the questions, Whence ? What ? and Whither ? 
 ' must be in a life and not in a book.' For the 
 solution which is to sway life must have been 
 already shewn in its sovereign efficacy. And 
 more than this, it must have been shewn to have 
 potentially a universal and not only a singular 
 application. And this is exactly what the Gospel 
 brings home to us. He who said, ' I came forth 
 ' from the Father, and am come into the world ; 
 ' again I leave the world, and go to the Father,' 
 illuminated the words by actions which made
 
 x.] of every man. 303 
 
 known the Divine original and the Divine destiny 
 of man. The Son of man did not separate Him- 
 self from those whom He was not ashamed to 
 call brethren. He bade, and bids, them find 
 in His humanity His 'flesh and blood' the 
 support of their own humanity. In His life, 
 for our sakes, the heavenly interpreted the 
 earthly. He called out, and He still calls out 
 in us, as we dwell upon the records of the Gospel, 
 the response of that which is indeed kindred to 
 Himself, of that which becomes one with Himself. 
 The sympathy which is thus awakened by 
 Christ makes known to the soul its latent 
 capacities. Again and again our own experience 
 startles us with unexpected welcomes to the 
 highest thoughts and claims. Even in ordinary 
 life contact with nobler natures arouses the 
 feeling of unused power, and quickens the con- 
 sciousness of responsibility. And when union 
 with the Son of man, the Son of GOD, is the 
 basis of our religion, all these natural influences 
 produce the highest conceivable effect. We each 
 draw from fellowship with the perfect life that l/i6d> 
 which our little life requires for its sustenance J <?t/ 
 and growth. 
 
 I say then without doubt and without reser- I 
 vation that, as far as I can judge, the confirmation \
 
 304 The verification of Christianity lies [CHAP. 
 
 of the Gospel of the Message of the Incarnate 
 Word from without and from within is as 
 complete as life can give. Miracles and pro- 
 phecies considered separately and in detail are 
 not the proper proof of Christianity, but as parts 
 of the whole testimony of experience they have 
 an effective power. Historical testimony origi- 
 nates and commends a religion but it does not 
 establish it. Therefore I say the confirmation 
 of the Gospel is ' as complete as life can give/ for 
 in the end we must make our appeal to life, to 
 life as a whole. We were made for action, made 
 to gain a character, made in the words of the 
 Bible to grow into the likeness of GOD. The 
 final influence of opinions therefore upon the 
 conduct of life may be taken generally as a test 
 of their truth for us. We are so constituted as 
 to recognise the truth which we cannot discover, 
 and life seals the confession of the soul. 
 
 It follows therefore, to present our conclusion 
 under another aspect, that the ultimate criterion, 
 the adequate verification, of Revelation to man, 
 in its parts and in its completeness, lies in its 
 proved fitness for furthering, and at last for 
 accomplishing his destiny. That view of the 
 sum of being accessible to our powers which 
 under particular circumstances and at a par-
 
 x.] in its power to fulfil the destiny of man. 305 
 
 ticular time tends to establish the harmony 
 after which all religion strives, to satisfy man's 
 wants, to carry him nearer to his end, even 
 conformity with GOD, must be accepted as a 
 true interpretation of the Divine will. That 
 view which has this fitness in the highest con- 
 ceivable degree universally from its very. nature: 
 that which is shewn to be most capable of aiding 
 us in our endeavour to attain to the highest ideal 
 of knowledge, feeling, action, under every variety 
 of circumstance, that is, the view which corre- 
 sponds most completely with our nature and 
 with our circumstances, which interprets our 
 nature and uses our circumstances for the ful- 
 filment of our spiritual destiny, which gives 
 assurance that that which is best in us now 
 is the seed of a corresponding better, must be 
 the absolute interpretation of the Divine will 
 for man. To doubt this is to doubt the existence 
 of GOD and of Truth. 
 
 This character belongs perfectly, as we affirm, 
 to the Gospel. If it could be shewn that there is 
 one least Truth in things for which the Gospel 
 finds no place : if it could be shewn that there is 
 one fragment of human experience with which it 
 does not deal: then, with whatever pathetic regret 
 it might be, we should confess that we can con- 
 w. G. L. 20
 
 306 Christ is the Gospel. [CHAP. x. 
 
 ceive something beyond it : that we still look for 
 another. 
 
 But I can see no such limitation, no such 
 failure in the Gospel itself, whatever limitations 
 and failures there may have been and may be 
 still in man's interpretation of it. 
 
 Christ in the fulness of His Person and of His 
 Life is the Gospel. Christ in the fulness of His 
 Person and of His Life is the confirmation of the 
 Gospel from age to age as we look to Him with 
 untiring devotion and seek to see Him more 
 clearly in the light of the fresh knowledge which 
 is given to us. 
 
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 By S. S. CURRY, Ph.D. Introduction by FRANCIS G. PEABODY, 
 D.D. Crown 8vo. 6s. 6d. net. 
 
 SCOTSMAN. " The book, itself a cultured and erudite treatise upon a matter too 
 often left to teachers of mere physical accomplishments, is further recommended by an 
 introduction from the pen of. an eminent American divine, Dr. Francis G. Peabody. It 
 deserves the attention of every one interested in its subject."
 
 THEOLOGICAL CATALOGUE 5 
 
 THE OLD TESTAMENT 
 
 SCRIPTURE READINGS FOR SCHOOLS AND FAMILIES. 
 By C. M. YONGE. Globe 8vo. is. 6d. each ; also with comments, 
 35. 6d. each. First Series : GENESIS TO DEUTERONOMY. Second 
 Series: JOSHUA TO SOLOMON. Third Series: KINGS AND THE 
 PROPHETS. Fourth Series : THE GOSPEL TIMES. Fifth Series : 
 APOSTOLIC TIMES. 
 
 THE DIVINE LIBRARY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. Its 
 Origin, Preservation, Inspiration, and Permanent Value. By Rev. 
 A. F. KIRKPATRICK, B.D. Crown 8vo. 35. net. 
 
 TIMES. "An eloquent and temperate plea for the critical study of the Scriptures." 
 MANCHESTER GUARDIAN." An excellent introduction to the modern view 
 of the Old Testament. . . . The learned author is a genuine critic. . . . He expounds 
 clearly what has been recently called the ' Analytic ' treatment of the books of the Old 
 Testament, and generally adopts its results. . . . The volume is admirably suited to 
 fulfil its purpose of familiarising the minds of earnest Bible readers with the work which 
 Biblical criticism is now doing." 
 
 THE DOCTRINE OF THE PROPHETS. Warburtonian Lectures 
 1886-1890. By Rev. A. F. KIRKPATRICK, B.D. 3rd Edition. 
 Crown 8vo. 6s. 
 
 SCOTSMAN. " This volume gives us the result of ripe scholarship and competent 
 jearning in a very attractive form. It is written simply, clearly, and eloquently ; and it 
 invests the subject of which it treats with a vivid and vital interest which will commend 
 it to the reader of general intelligence, as well as to those who are more especially 
 occupied with such studies." 
 
 GLASGOW HERALD. " Professor Kirkpatrick's book will be found of great value 
 for purposes of study." 
 
 BOOKMAX. " As a summary of the main results of recent investigation, and as a 
 thoughtful appreciation of both the human and divine sides of the prophets' work and 
 message, it is worth the attention of all Bible students." 
 
 THE PATRIARCHS AND LAWGIVERS OF THE OLD 
 TESTAMENT. By FREDERICK DENISON MAURICE. New 
 Edition. Crown 8vo. 35. 6d. 
 
 THE PROPHETS AND KINGS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 
 By the same. New Edition. Crown 8vo. 35. 6d. 
 
 THE CANON OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. An Essay on the 
 Growth and Formation of the Hebrew Canon of Scripture. By the 
 Right Rev. H. E. RYLE, Bishop ofWinchester. 2nd Ed. Cr. 8vo. 6s. 
 
 EXPOSITOR. " Scholars are indebted to Professor Ryle for having given them for 
 the first time a complete and trustworthy history of the Old Testament Canon." 
 
 EXPOSITORY TIMES. "He nghtly claims that his book possesses that most 
 English of virtues it may be read throughout. . . . An extensive and minute research 
 lies concealed under a most fresh and flexible English style." 
 
 THE MYTHS OF ISRAEL. THE ANCIENT BOOK OF GENESIS. 
 
 WITH ANALYSIS AND EXPLANATION OF ITS COM- 
 
 POSITION. By AMOS KIDDER FISKE, Authorof " The Jewish 
 
 Scriptures," etc. Crown 8vo. 6s. 
 THE EARLY NARRATIVES OF GENESIS. By the Right Rev. 
 
 H. E. RYLE, Bishop of Winchester. Cr. 8vo. 35. net. 
 PHILO AND HOLY SCRIPTURE, OR THE QUOTATIONS OF 
 
 PHILO FROM THE BOOKS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 
 
 With Introduction and Notes by the Right Rev. H. E. RYLE, 
 
 Bishop of Winchester. Cr. 8vo. IDS. net.
 
 6 MACMILLAN AND CO.'S 
 
 The Old Testament continued. 
 
 In the present work the attempt has been made to collect, arrange in 
 order, and for the first time print in full all the actual quotations from the 
 books of the Old Testament to be found in Philo's writings, and a few of 
 his paraphrases. For the purpose of giving general assistance to students 
 Dr. Ryle has added footnotes, dealing principally with the text of Philo's 
 quotations compared with that of the Septuagint ; and in the introduction 
 he has endeavoured to explain Philo's attitude towards Holy Scripture, 
 and the character of the variations of his text from that of the Septuagint. 
 
 TIMES. "This book will be found by students to be a very useful supplement and 
 companion to the learned Dr. Drummond's important work, Philo J-ud&us." 
 
 The Pentateuch 
 
 AN HISTORICO-CRITICAL INQUIRY INTO THE ORIGIN 
 AND COMPOSITION OF THE HEXATEUCH (PENTA- 
 TEUCH AND BOOK OF JOSHUA). By Prof. A. KUENEN. 
 Translated by PHILIP H. WICKSTEED, M.A. 8vo. 145. 
 
 The Psalms 
 
 THE PSALMS CHRONOLOGICALLY ARRANGED. An 
 Amended Version, with Historical Introductions and Explanatory 
 Notes. By Four Friends. New Edition. Crown Svo. 55. net. 
 SPECTA TOR. " One of the most instructive and valuable books that has been 
 published for many years. It gives the Psalms a perfectly fresh setting, adds a new 
 power of vision to the grandest poetry of nature ever produced, a new depth of lyrical 
 pathos to the poetry of national joy, sorrow, and hope, and a new intensity of spiritual 
 light to the divine subject of every ejaculation of praise and every invocation of want. 
 We have given but imperfect illustrations of the new beauty and li^ht which the trans- 
 lators pour upon the most perfect devotional poetry of any day or nation, and which they 
 pour on it in almost every page, by the scholarship and perfect taste with which they have 
 executed their work. We can only say that their version deserves to live long and to 
 pass through many editions." 
 
 GOLDEN TREASURY PSALTER. The Student's Edition. 
 Being an Edition with briefer Notes of " The Psalms Chrono- 
 logically Arranged by Four Friends." Pott Svo. 2s. 6d. net. 
 
 THE PSALMS. With Introductions and Critical Notes. By A. C. 
 JENNINGS, M.A., and W. H. LOWE, M.A. In 2 vols. 2nd 
 Edition. Crown Svo. IDS. 6d. each. 
 
 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. Edited with Comments and Reflections 
 for the Use of Jewish Parents and Children. By C. G. MONTE- 
 FIORE. Crown Svo. is. net. 
 
 THE PRAYER-BOOK PSALMS. Relieved of Obscurities, and 
 made smoother for Chanting, with scarcely noticeable alteration. 
 By the Rev. E. D. CREE, M.A. Fcap. Svo. 2s. net. 
 Isaiah 
 
 ISAIAH XL. LXVI. With the Shorter Prophecies allied to it 
 By MATTHEW ARNOLD. With Notes. Crown Svo. 55. 
 
 A BIBLE- READING FOR SCHOOLS. The Great Prophecy of 
 Israel's Restoration (Isaiah xl.-lxvi.) Arranged and Edited for 
 Young Learners. By the same. 4th Edition. Pott Svo. is. 
 
 Zechariah 
 
 THE HEBREW STUDENT'S COMMENTARY ON ZECH- 
 ARIAH, Hebrew and LXX. By W. H. LOWE, M.A. Svo. IDS. 6d.
 
 THEOLOGICAL CATALOGUE 7 
 
 THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 THE AKHMIM FRAGMENT OF THE APOCRYPHAL 
 GOSPEL OF ST. PETER. By H. B. SWETE, D.D. 8vo. 55. net. 
 
 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE IN THE NEW TESTA- 
 MENT : The Bampton Lectures, 1864. By Canon THOMAS 
 DEHANY BERNARD, M.A. Fifth Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s. 
 
 HANDBOOK TO THE TEXTUAL CRITICISM OF NEW 
 TESTAMENT. By F. G. KENYON, D.Litt., Assistant Keeper 
 of Manuscripts in the British Museum. 8vo. IDS. net. 
 
 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 
 Eight Lectures. By Professor E. C. MOORE of Harvard University. 
 Crown 8vo. 6s. 6d. net. 
 
 THE RISE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. By DAVID SAVILLE 
 MUZZEY, B.D. Fcap. 8vo. 55. 
 
 IMMANUEL KANT. " The Rise of the Bible as the people's book is the greatest 
 blessing that the human race has ever experienced." 
 
 THE SOTERIOLOGY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. By W. 
 
 P. Du BOSE, M.A. Crown 8vo. 75. 6d. 
 THE MESSAGES OF THE BOOKS. Being Discourses and Notes 
 
 on the Books of the New Testament. By Dean FAR R A R. 8vo. 145. 
 ON A FRESH REVISION OF THE ENGLISH NEW TESTA- 
 MENT. With an Appendix on the last Petition of the Lord's 
 
 Prayer. By Bishop LIGHTFOOT. Crown 8vo. 75. 6d. 
 DISSERTATIONS ON THE APOSTOLIC AGE. By Bishop 
 
 LIGHTFOOT. 8vo. 145. 
 
 BIBLICAL ESSAYS. By Bishop LIGHTFOOT. 8vo. 125. 
 THE UNITY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. By F. D. MAURICE. 
 
 and Edition. 2 vols. Crown 8vo. I2S. 
 A GENERAL SURVEY OF THE HISTORY OF THE CANON 
 
 OF THE NEW TESTAMENT DURING THE FIRST FOUR 
 
 CENTURIES. By Right Rev. Bishop WESTCOTT. 7th Edition. 
 
 Crown 8vo. IDS. 6d. 
 THE STUDENT'S LIFE OF JESUS. By G. H. GILBERT, Ph.D. 
 
 Crown 8vo. 55. net. 
 THE STUDENT'S LIFE OF PAUL. By G. H. GILBERT, Ph.D. 
 
 Crown 8vo. 55. net. 
 THE REVELATION OF JESUS : A Study of the Primary Sources 
 
 of Christianity. By G. H. GILBERT, Ph.D. Crown 8vo. 5s.net. 
 THE FIRST INTERPRETERS OF JESUS. By G. H. GILBERT, 
 
 Ph.D. Crown 8vo. 55. net. 
 NEW TESTAMENT HANDBOOKS. Edited by SHAILER 
 
 MATHEWS, Professor of New Test. Hist, at the University of Chicago. 
 
 A HISTORY OF NEW TESTAMENT TIMES IN PALES- 
 TINE (175 B.C.-70 A.D.). By SHAILER MATHEWS, A.M. 
 Crown Svo. 35. 6d. net. 
 
 A HISTORY OF THE TEXTUAL CRITICISM OF THE 
 NEW TESTAMENT. By MARVIN R. VINCENT, D.D. 
 Crown Svo. 35. 6d. net. 
 
 THE BIBLICAL THEOLOGY OF THE NEW TESTA- 
 MENT. By EZRA P. GOULD, D.D. Crown Svo. 35. 6d. net.
 
 8 MACMILLAN AND CO.'S 
 
 The New Testament continued. 
 
 A HISTORY OF THE HIGHER CRITICISM OF THE 
 NEW TESTAMENT. By Prof. H. S. NASH. 35. 6d. net. 
 AN INTRODUCTION TO THE NEW TESTAMENT. By 
 
 B. W. BACON, D.D. Crown 8vo. 35. 6d. net. 
 THE TEACHING OF JESUS. By G. B. STEVENS, D.D. 
 
 Crown 8vo. 35. 6d. net. 
 
 THE NEW TESTAMENT IN THE ORIGINAL GREEK. The 
 Text revised by Bishop WESTCOTT, D.D., and Prof. F. J. A. 
 HORT, D.D. 2 vols. Crown 8vo. los. 6d. each. Vol. I. 
 Text ; II. Introduction and Appendix. 
 
 Library Edition. 8vo. IDS. net. [Text in Macmillan Greek Type. 
 School Edition. I2mo, cloth, 45. 6d. ; roan, 55. 6d. ; morocco, 
 
 6s. 6d. ; India Paper Edition, limp calf, 7s. 6d. net. 
 GREEK-ENGLISH LEXICON TO THE NEW TESTAMENT. 
 
 By W. J. HICKIE, M.A. Pott 8vo. 35. 
 
 ACADEMY. "We can cordially recommend this as a very handy little volume 
 compiled on sound principles." 
 
 GRAMMAR OF NEW TESTAMENT GREEK. By Prof. F. 
 BLASS, University of Halle. Auth. English Trans. 8vo. I4s.net. 
 TIMES. "Will probably become the standard book of reference for those students 
 who enter upon minute grammatical study of the language of the New Testament." 
 
 THE GOSPELS- 
 PHILOLOGY OF THE GOSPELS. By Prof. F. BLASS. Crown 
 
 8vo. 45. 6d. net. 
 
 GUARDIAN.^ "On the whole, Professor Blass's new book seems to us an im- 
 portant contribution to criticism. ... It will stimulate inquiry, and will open up fresh 
 lines of thought to any serious student." 
 
 THE SYRO-LATIN TEXT OF THE GOSPELS. By the Rev. 
 
 FREDERIC HENRY CHASE, D.D. 8vo. 75. 6d. net. 
 The sequel of an essay by Dr. Chase on the old Syriac element in the 
 text of Codex Bezae. 
 
 TIMES. "An important and scholarly contribution to New Testament criticism." 
 SYNOPTICON : An Exposition of the Common Matter of the Synop- 
 tic Gospels. By W. G. RUSHBROOKE. Printed in Colours. 410. 
 355. net. Indispensable to a Theological Student. 
 A SYNOPSIS OF THE GOSPELS IN GREEK. With various 
 Readings and Critical Notes. By the Rev. ARTHUR WRIGHT, 
 B.D., Vice-President of Queens' College, Cambridge. Second 
 Edition, Revised and Enlarged. Demy 4to. IDS. net. 
 The difference between the first and second forms of this book is 
 important, practical considerations having led to the enlargement of the 
 original. Passages previously omitted are now included in brackets and 
 printed in a distinctive type to indicate the foreign character of such 
 accretions to the primitive text. Various readings have been added ; so 
 have also an introduction, many critical and a few grammatical notes. 
 The author's primary object has been to make available all the facts 
 relating to the text of the Gospels : he has, as a secondary proceeding, 
 explained his own deduction from the construction which he himself puts 
 on them and this deduction points to an origin not in written but in oral 
 tradition. The case for it is fully argued in the introduction. 
 
 THE COMPOSITION OF THE FOUR GOSPELS. By Rev. 
 ARTHUR WRIGHT. Crown 8vo. 55.
 
 THEOLOGICAL CATALOGUE 9 
 
 The Gospels continued. 
 
 CAMBRIDGE REVIEW. "The : wonderful force and freshness which we find on 
 every page of the book. There is no sign of hastiness. All seems to be the outcome of 
 years of reverent thought, now brought to light in the clearest, most telling way. . . . 
 The book will hardly go unchallenged by the different schools of thought, but all will 
 agree in gratitude at least for its vigour and reality." 
 
 INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF THE FOUR GOSPELS. 
 By Right Rev. Bishop WESTCOTT. 8th Ed. Cr. 8vo. IDS. 6d. 
 
 FOUR LECTURES ON THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE 
 GOSPELS. By the Rev. J. H. WILKINSON, M.A., Rector of 
 Stock Gaylard, Dorset. Crown 8vo. 35. net. 
 
 THE LEADING IDEAS OF THE GOSPELS. By W. ALEX- 
 ANDER, D.D. Oxon., LL.D. Dublin, D.C.L. Oxon., Archbishop of 
 Armagh, and Lord Primate of All Ireland. New Edition, Revised 
 and Enlarged. Crown 8vo. 6s. 
 
 TWO LECTURES ON THE GOSPELS. By F. CRAWFORD 
 BURKITT, M.A. Crown 8vo. 2s. 6d. net. 
 
 Gospel of St. Matthew 
 
 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW. Greek Text 
 as Revised by Bishop WESTCOTT and Dr. HORT. With Intro- 
 duction and Notes by Rev. A. SLOMAN, M.A. Fcap. 8vo. 2s. 6d. 
 
 MANCHESTER GUARDIAN." It is sound and helpful, and the brief introduc- 
 tion on Hellenistic Greek is particularly good." 
 
 Gospel of St. Mark 
 
 THE GREEK TEXT. With Introduction, Notes, and Indices. 
 By Rev. H. B. SWETE, D.D., Regius Professor of Divinity 
 in the University of Cambridge. 2nd Edition. 8vo. 155. 
 TIMES. " A learned and scholarly performance, up to date with the most recent 
 advances in New Testament criticism." 
 
 THE EARLIEST GOSPEL. A Historico-Critical Commentary on 
 the Gospel according to St. Mark, with Text, Translation, and In- 
 troduction. By ALLAN MENZIES, Professor of Divinity and Biblical 
 Criticism, St. Mary's College, St. Andrews. 8vo. 8s. 6d. net. 
 
 SCHOOL READINGS IN THE GREEK TESTAMENT. 
 Being the Outlines of the Life of our Lord as given by St. Mark, with 
 additions from the Text of the other Evangelists. Edited, with Notes 
 and Vocabulary, by Rev. A. CALVERT, M.A. Fcap. 8vo. 2s. 6d. 
 
 Gospel of St. Luke 
 
 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. LUKE. The Greek Text 
 as Revised by Bishop WESTCOTT and Dr. HORT. With Introduction 
 and Notes by Rev. J. BOND, M.A. Fcap. 8vo. 2s. 6d. 
 GLASGOW HERALD. "The notes are short and crisp suggestive rather than 
 exhaustive." 
 
 THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. A Course 
 of Lectures on the Gospel of St. Luke. By F. D. MAURICE. 
 Crown 8vo. 35. 6d. 
 
 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. LUKE IN GREEK, 
 AFTER THE WESTCOTT AND HORT TEXT. Edited, 
 with Parallels, Illustrations, Various Readings, and Notes, by the 
 Rev. ARTHUR WRIGHT, M.A. Demy 410. 75. 6d. net.
 
 io MACMILLAN AND CO.'S 
 
 The Gospels continued. 
 
 ST. LUKE THE PROPHET. By EDWARD CARUS SELWYN, D.D. 
 
 Gospel Of St. John [Crown 8vo. 8s. 6d. net. 
 
 THE CENTRAL TEACHING OF CHRIST. Being a Study and 
 
 Exposition of St. John, Chapters XIII. to XVII. By Rev. CANON 
 
 BERNARD, M.A. Crown 8vo. 75. 6d. 
 
 EXPOSITOR Y TIMES. " Quite recently we have had an exposition by him whom 
 many call the greatest expositor living. But Canon Bernard's work is still the work that 
 will help the preacher most." 
 
 THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN. By F.D. MAURICE. Cr.Svo. 35. 6d. 
 THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 
 
 ADDRESSES ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. By 
 the late ARCHBISHOP BENSON. With an Introduction by 
 ADELINE, DUCHESS OF BEDFORD. Super Royal 8vo. 2 is. net. 
 THE CREDIBILITY OF THE BOOK OF THE ACTS OF 
 THE APOSTLES. Being the Hulsean Lectures for 1900-1. 
 By the Rev. Dr. CHASE, President of Queens' College, Cambridge. 
 Crown 8vo. 6s. 
 
 THE OLD SYRIAC ELEMENT IN THE TEXT OF THE CODEX 
 
 BEZAE. By the Rev. F. H. CHASE, D.D. 8vo. 75. 6d. net. 
 
 THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES IN GREEK AND ENGLISH. 
 
 With Notes by Rev. F. RENDALL, M.A. Cr. 8vo. 6s. 
 SA TURD A Y REVIEW." Mr. Rendall has given us a very useful as well as a 
 very scholarly book." 
 
 MANCHESTER GUARDIAN." Mr. Rendall is a careful scholar and a thought- 
 ful writer, and the student may learn a good deal from his commentary." 
 
 THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. By F. D. MAURICE. Cr. 
 8vo. 35. 6d. 
 
 THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. Being the Greek Text as 
 Revised by Bishop WESTCOTT and Dr. HORT. With Explanatory 
 Notes by T. E. PAGE, M.A. Fcap. 8vo. 35. 6d. 
 
 ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. The Authorised Version, with Intro- 
 duction and Notes, by T. E. PAGE, M.A., and Rev. A. S. 
 WALPOLE, M.A. Fcap. 8vo. 2s. 6d. 
 
 BRITISH WEEKLY." Mr. Page's Notes on the Greek Text of the Acts are very 
 well known, and are decidedly scholarly and individual. . . . Mr. Page has written an 
 introduction which is brief, scholarly, and suggestive." 
 
 THE CHURCH OF THE FIRST DAYS. THE CHURCH OF 
 JERUSALEM. THE CHURCH OF THE GENTILES. THE CHURCH 
 OF THE WORLD. Lectures on the Acts of the Apostles. By 
 Very Rev. C. J. VAUGHAN. Crown 8vo. ios. 6d. 
 
 THE EPISTLES The Epistles of St. Paul 
 
 ST. PAUL'S EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS. The Greek Text, 
 with English Notes. By Very Rev. C. J. VAUGHAN. 7th Edition. 
 Crown 8vo. 75. 6d. 
 
 ST. PAUL'S EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS. A New Transla- 
 tion by Rev. W. G. RUTHERFORD. 8vo. 35. 6d. net. 
 
 PILOT. "Small as the volume is, it has very much to say, not only to professed 
 students of the New Testament, but also to the ordinary reader of the Bible. . . _. The 
 layman who buys the book will be grateful to one who helps him to realise that this per- 
 plexing Epistle ' was once a plain letter concerned with a theme which plain men might 
 understand.' "
 
 THEOLOGICAL CATALOGUE II 
 
 The Epistles of St. Paul continued. 
 
 PROLEGOMENA TO ST. PAUL'S EPISTLES TO THE 
 ROMANS AND THE EPHESIANS. By Rev. F. J. A. HORT. 
 Crown 8vo. 6s. 
 
 Dr. MARCUS DODS in the Bookman. " Anything from the pen of Dr. Hort is sure to 
 be informative and suggestive, and the present publication bears his mark. . . . There 
 is an air of originality about the whole discussion ; the difficulties are candidly faced, and 
 the explanations offered appeal to our sense of what is reasonable." 
 
 TIMES. " Will be welcomed by all theologians as ' an invaluable contribution to the 
 study of those Epistles ' as the editor of the volume justly calls it." 
 
 DAILY CHRONICLE. "The lectures are an important contribution to the study 
 of the famous Epistles of which they treat." 
 
 ST. PAUL'S EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS. An Essay on 
 
 its Destination and Date. By E. H. ASKWITH, D.D. Crown 
 
 8vo. 35. 6d. net. 
 ST. PAUL'S EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS. A Revised 
 
 Text, with Introduction, Notes, and Dissertations. By Bishop 
 
 LIGHTFOOT. loth Edition. 8vo. 1 2s. 
 ST. PAUL'S EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS. The Greek Text 
 
 with Notes. By the late Bishop WESTCOTT. [In the Press. 
 
 ST. PAUL'S EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS. A Revised 
 
 Text and Translation, with Exposition and Notes. By J. ARMITAGE 
 
 ROBINSON, D.D., Dean of Westminster. 8vo. 125. 
 
 GUARDIAN. " Although we have some good commentaries on Ephesians, ... no 
 one who has studied this Epistle would say that there was no need for further light and 
 leading ; and the present volume covers a good deal of ground which has not been 
 covered, or not nearly so well covered, before." 
 
 CHURCH TIMES. "We have no hesitation in saying that this volume will at 
 once take its place as the standard commentary upon the Epistle to the Ephesians. . . . 
 We earnestly beg the clergy and intelligent laity to read and ponder over this most 
 inspiring volume. " 
 
 PILOT. " We can scarcely give higher praise to Dr. Robinson's ' Ephesians ' than 
 that which is implied in the expression of our opinion that it is worthy of a place beside 
 the commentaries of Lightfoot, Westcott, and Swete. And an exposition of this Epistle 
 on the scale of their writings was much needed. . . . For soberness of judgment, accuracy 
 of scholarship, largeness of view, and completeness of sympathy with the teaching of 
 St. Paul, the work which is now in our hands leaves nothing to be desired. ... A work 
 which is in every way so excellent, and which in every page gives us a fresh insight into 
 the meaning and purpose of what is, from at least one point of view, the greatest of 
 St. Paul's Epistles." 
 
 ST. PAUL'S EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS. A Revised 
 Text, with Introduction, Notes, and Dissertations. By Bishop 
 LIGHTFOOT. 9th Edition. 8vo. 125. 
 
 ST. PAUL'S EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS. With transla- 
 tion, Paraphrase, and Notes for English Readers. By Very Rev. 
 C. J. VAUGHAN. Crown Svo. 55. 
 
 ST. PAUL'S EPISTLES TO THE COLOSSI ANS AND TO 
 PHILEMON. A Revised Text, with Introductions, etc. By 
 Bishop LIGHTFOOT. 9th Edition. Svo. I2s. 
 
 THE EPISTLE TO THE COLOSSIANS. Analysis and Ex- 
 amination Notes. By Rev. G. W. GARROD. Crown Svo. 35. net. 
 
 AN INTRODUCTION TO THE THESSALONIAN EPISTLES. 
 By E. H. ASKWITH, D.D., Chaplain of Trinity College, Cambridge. 
 Crown Svo. 45. net.
 
 12 MACMILLAN AND CO.'S 
 
 The Epistles of St. Paul continued. 
 
 THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. With 
 
 Analysis and Notes by the Rev. G. W. GARROD, B.A. Crown 
 
 8vo. 2s. 6d. net. 
 THE SECOND EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. With 
 
 Analysis and Notes by Rev. G. W. GARROD. Cr. 8vo. 2s. 6d. net. 
 THE EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL TO THE EPHESIANS, THE 
 
 COLOSSIANS, AND PHILEMON. With Introductions and 
 
 Notes. By Rev. J. LL. DAVIES. and Edition. 8vo. 75. 6d. 
 THE EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. For English Readers. Part I. con- 
 taining the First Epistle to the Thessalonians. By Very Rev. C. 
 
 J. VAUGHAN. 2nd Edition. 8vo. Sewed, is. 6d. 
 NOTES ON EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL FROM UNPUBLISHED 
 
 COMMENTARIES. By Bishop LIGHTFOOT, D.D. 8vo. 125. 
 THE LETTERS OF ST. PAUL TO SEVEN CHURCHES 
 
 AND THREE FRIENDS. Translated by ARTHUR S. WAY, 
 
 M.A. Crown 8vo. 55. net. 
 
 The Epistles of St. Peter 
 
 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF ST. PETER, I. i to II. 17. The Greek 
 Text, with Introductory Lecture, Commentary, and additional 
 Notes. By the late F. J. A. HORT, D.D.,D.C.L.,LL.D. 8vo. 6s. 
 
 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF ST. PETER (Greek Text). By 
 J. HOWARD B. MASTERMAN, Principal of the Midland Clergy 
 College, Edgbaston, Birmingham. Crown 8vo. 35. 6d. net. 
 
 The Epistle of St. James 
 
 THE EPISTLE OF ST. JAMES. The Greek Text, with Intro- 
 duction and Notes. By Rev. JOSEPH B. MAYOR, M.A. 2nd 
 Edition. 8vo. 145. net. 
 
 EXPOSITORY TIMES. " The most complete edition of St. James in the English 
 language, and the most serviceable for the student of Greek." 
 
 BOOKMAN. " Professor Mayor's volume in every part of it gives proof that no time 
 or labour has been grudged in mastering this mass of literature, and that in appraising it 
 he has exercised the sound judgment of a thoroughly trained scholar and critic. . . . 
 The notes are uniformly characterised by thorough scholarship and unfailing sense. The 
 notes resemble rather those of Lightfoot than those of Ellicott. ... It is a pleasure to 
 welcome a book which does credit to English learning, and which will take, and keep, a 
 foremost place in Biblical literature." 
 
 SCOTSMAN.- " It is a work which sums up many others, and to any one who wishes 
 to make a thorough study of the Epistle of St. James, it will prove indispensable." 
 
 EXPOSITOR (Dr. MARCUS Dous). " Will long remain the commentary on St. James, 
 a storehouse to which all subsequent students of the epistle must be indebted." 
 
 The Epistles of St. John 
 
 THE EPISTLES OF ST. JOHN. By F. D. MAURICE. Crown 
 
 8vo. 35. 6d. 
 THE EPISTLES OF ST. JOHN. The Greek Text, with Notes. 
 
 By Right Rev. Bishop WESTCOTT. 4th Edition. 8vo. I2s. 6d. 
 
 GUARDIA N. " It contains a new or rather revised text, with careful critical remarks 
 and helps ; very copious footnotes on the text ; and after each of the chapters, 
 longer and more elaborate notes in treatment of leading or difficult questions, whether in 
 respect of reading or theology. . . . Dr. Westcott has accumulated round them so much 
 matter that, if not new, was forgotten, or generally unobserved, and has thrown so much 
 light upon their language, theology, and characteristics. . . . The notes, critical,
 
 THEOLOGICAL CATALOGUE 13 
 
 The Epistle of St. John continued. 
 
 illustrative, and exegetical, which are given beneath the text, are extraordinarily full and 
 careful. . . . They exhibit the same minute analysis of every phrase and word, the same 
 scrupulous weighing of every inflection and variation that characterised Dr. Westcott's 
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 22 MACMILLAN AND CO.'S 
 
 Bell (Rev. G. C.) continued. 
 
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 THEOLOGICAL CATALOGUE 23 
 
 Benson (Archbishop) continued. 
 
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 24 MACMILLAN AND CO.'S 
 
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 HUMAN LIFE AND ITS CONDITIONS, Crown 8vo. 6s. 
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 THEOLOGICAL CATALOGUE 25 
 
 Church (Dean) continued. 
 
 DISCIPLINE OF THE CHRISTIAN CHARACTER, and other 
 
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 26 MACMILLAN AND CO.'S 
 
 Davies (Rev. J. Llewelyn) continued. 
 
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 THEOLOGICAL CATALOGUE 27 
 
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 28 MACMILLAN AND CO.'S 
 
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 THEOLOGICAL CATALOGUE 29 
 
 Hort (Dr. F. J. A.) continued. 
 
 Hort possessed this power is shown by the Hulsean Lectures just published. They carry 
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 30 MACMILLAN AND CO. S 
 
 Ulingworth (Rev. J. R.) continued. 
 
 PERSONALITY, DIVINE AND HUMAN. Bampton Lectures, 
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 the work allotted to him with great ability, and everywhere manifests a competent ac- 
 quaintance with the subject with which he deals."
 
 THEOLOGICAL CATALOGUE 31 
 
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 32 MACMILLAN AND CO.'S 
 
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 THEOLOGICAL CATALOGUE 33 
 
 Maurice (F. D.) continued. 
 Collected Works continued. 
 
 SERMONS PREACHED IN COUNTRY CHURCHES. 
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 THEOLOGICAL ESSAYS. 
 PROPHETS AND KINGS. 
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 34 MACMILLAN AND CO.'S 
 
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 THEOLOGICAL CATALOGUE 35 
 
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 The dircourses included in this volume were delivered in 1893 in the 
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 36 MACMILLAN AND CO.'S 
 
 Stubbs (Dean) continued. 
 
 centre of much excellent social work done by Mr. Stubbs, who had not 
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 THEOLOGICAL CATALOGUE 17 
 
 > 
 
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 38 MACMILLAN AND CO.'S 
 
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 THEOLOGICAL CATALOGUE 39 
 
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