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THE INCREASE OF 
 TRUE RELIGION 
 
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THE INCREASE OF 
 TRUE RELIGION 
 
 ADDRESSES TO THE CLERGY AND CHURCH 
 WORKERS OF THE ARCHDEACONRY OF ELY 
 
 BY 
 
 W. CUNNINGHAM, D.D., F.B.A. 
 
 Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, Archdeacon of Ely 
 
 Cambridge : 
 
 at the University Press 
 
 1917 
 
.- 
 
 
NOTE 
 
 THESE addresses were delivered to the 
 clergy and lay workers of the Arch- 
 deaconry of Ely, in Little S. Mary's Church, 
 at the conclusion of the National Mission. 
 It seemed worth while to use this occasion 
 for trying to enforce familiar truths, by stating 
 them anew with the object of bringing their 
 practical character into prominence. If we can 
 appreciate the reality of the Spiritual more 
 fully, we may hope to have the sense of patriotic 
 duty strengthened, and thus to be better able 
 to do our personal part in the regeneration of 
 national life. 
 
 W. C. 
 
 TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. 
 February, 1917. 
 
 365114 
 
CONTENTS 
 I. HUMAN POWER OF KNOWING TRUTH 
 
 PAGE 
 
 1. AIDS TO RELIGION, AND THE RESULTS OF 
 
 RELIGION i 
 
 2. DIFFERENT SOURCES OF KNOWLEDGE . 4 
 
 3. THE UNFRUITFUL STUDY OF EXTERNAL 
 
 PHENOMENA 5 
 
 4. THE INADEQUATE DISCUSSION OF RELIGIOUS 
 
 EXPERIENCE 6 
 
 (a) Knowledge of God ... 7 
 
 (b) Knowledge of Self ... 8 
 
 5. THE CULTIVATION OF THE POWER OF 
 
 KNOWING 10 
 
 II. RELIGIOUS CONVICTION 
 
 1. RELIGIOUS CONVICTION AND THOUGHTS 
 
 ABOUT GOD 12 
 
 2. THE EXPRESSION OF THE CONVICTION OF 
 
 SIN . . 14 
 
 3. THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF BEING CALLED TO 
 
 BE GOD'S INSTRUMENT . . . .16 
 
 4. THE CHRISTIAN SENSE OF VOCATION . 18 
 
 5. RESPECT FOR RELIGIOUS CONVICTION, AND 
 
 TOLERATION 19 
 
viii Contents 
 
 III. THE SECRET OF HUMAN PROGRESS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 1. THE CERTAINTY OF RELIGIOUS EXPERI- 
 
 ENCE 22 
 
 2. THE UNIFORMITY OF NATURE . .24 
 
 3. THE SENSE OF OBLIGATION . . .25 
 
 4. THE OFFERING OF HOMAGE . . .26 
 
 5. THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD . . . .28 
 
 IV. THE ATTRACTIVE POWER OF 
 PERSONALITY 
 
 1. THE ATTRACTIVE POWER OF THE GOSPEL . 34 
 
 2. THE BLESSING OF GOD'S SPIRIT . . .36 
 
 3. THE HOLY COMMUNION . . - 37 
 
 4. THE HOLY BIBLE 38 
 
 5. THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS . . .40 
 
 6. THE FUNCTION OF THE CHURCH . . 40 
 
 BOOKS AND PAPERS, CHIEFLY ON RELIGIOUS SUB- 
 JECTS, AND SERMONS BY DR CUNNINGHAM . 43 
 
I. HUMAN POWER OF 
 KNOWING TRUTH 
 
 i. The petition, Increase in us true Religion, 
 from the collect for the Seventh Sunday after 
 Trinity, not only sets the key-note of the recent 
 effort to call us to repent from national forgetful- 
 ness of God and indifference to Him, but also 
 serves to mark out the nature and character of 
 our task in trying to engage with fresh activity 
 in Our Master's service. Since the harvest is 
 great and the labourers are few, it is important 
 that our endeavours should be well directed, and 
 aimed at that which is essential ; it seems worth 
 while for us to think for a little about true 
 religion and what it really is. The spiritual life, 
 as Scupoli says, ''consists in nothing else but 
 the knowledge of the goodness and the greatness 
 of God, and of our nothingness and inclination to 
 all evil 1 /' There are so many things which are 
 associated with religion, as helps to religion or 
 
 1 Scupoli, The Spiritual Combat, p. 4. 
 C.I. I 
 
2 Human Power of Knowing Truth 
 
 as the results of religion, that we are in danger 
 of identifying it with one or other of the things 
 with which it is associated, instead of concentra- 
 ting attention on religion itself. 
 
 The confusion is very common, and there is 
 much to excuse it. S. James points to kindly 
 action and purity of life as the signs of true 
 religion as things that can spring from no other 
 root; but in our age and in our country this is 
 no longer the case; humanitarianism and self- 
 discipline are admired and cultivated by many to 
 whom religion maizes little appeal, sincethey are 
 not conscious of it as a power in their own lives. 
 ^E33iunrop^ has been much in evidence in recent 
 years, and it is right that stress should be laid 
 upon it ; any professedly religious man who neg- 
 lects it altogether seems to show that his religion 
 is vain. The stirring of this sense of duty should 
 be a result of religion, but it is not the root of the 
 matter. 
 
 So too of the aids to religion. There are men 
 to whom the musical expression of praise appeals 
 very strongly, and who, since they feel that it 
 rouses devout feeling as nothing else can do, de- 
 vote great care to the cultivation of sacred music ; 
 but, however closely sacred music may be asso- 
 ciated with Christian worship, it is not to be 
 identified with religion; the improvement of 
 sacred art of any kind is not necessarily the 
 
Human Power of Knowing Truth 3 
 
 increase of true religion. When there is so much 
 need to concentrate our efforts on the increase of 
 religion itself, in its essence and power, there is 
 a waste of effort in giving too much attention 
 to the accompaniments and results of religion. 
 Those who complain that Christianity has proved 
 a failure, and who are disappointed that the recent 
 Mission has not been more fruitful, may surely 
 ask themselves whether they have not been relying 
 on external influences by which they have been 
 distracted from dependence on spiritual power 
 alone. 
 
 At the Reformation when the collects were 
 translated, Cranmer added the epithet true to 
 the word religion. All the great controversies 
 of the day, political and other, were about 
 religion; much that had the firmest hold upon 
 popular feeling was denounced as superstitious; 
 strange opinions of many kinds were in the air, 
 and there were fanatics who seemed ready to up- 
 set the fabric of society in the name of religion. 
 Since religion might be thus associated with what 
 was superstitious or mischievous, Cranmer felt 
 that there was need to safeguard the expression 
 in a form of Common Prayer, and to ask for the 
 increase of true religion which must be a blessing 
 to each Christian man, and to the whole com- 
 munity; but the epithet reminds us that since 
 that time there has been the greatest difficulty 
 
4 Human Power of Knowing Truth 
 
 in coming to any agreement as to the test of 
 truth. 
 
 2. S. Thomas Aquinas insisted, as against the 
 sceptics of his day 1 , that the intellect is personal 
 and individual, and that there is no necessary 
 inconsistency between philosophy and the faith 2 . 
 While we hold that there is absolute truth in the 
 Divine Mind, we may recognise differences owing 
 to human limitations, in the degree and in the 
 manner in which we apprehend it. There are 
 different realms of knowledge ; and since we can- 
 not really sever our minds into compartments that 
 are absolutely distinct, we should perhaps speak 
 of distinct elements in knowing rather than of 
 different kinds of knowledge ; but we all recognise 
 that there is, on the one hand, the knowledge of 
 the outer world and of other people, which reaches 
 us through our senses ; and that besides there is 
 immediate knowledge, as it is sometimes called, of 
 our own states of mind our thoughts and feelings. 
 The one is the realm of Natural Science where 
 knowledge is accumulated by observation of the 
 external world, and built up steadily bit by bit ; 
 while religion is primarily concerned with the 
 inner life with the heart as well as the mind, 
 
 1 Renan, Averroes, 107, 192. 
 
 2 De unitate intellectus, contra Averroistas in Opera 
 (1787), xix. 252. 
 
Human Power of Knowing Truth 5 
 
 with desires and feelings as well as convictions. 
 These aspects of knowledge cannot be separated 
 by any hard and fast line 1 ; they are closely 
 inter-connected, but we are apt to fall into error 
 if we pursue either of them exclusively and dis- 
 regard the other, or if we confuse them together. 
 
 3. In the time of S. Thomas Aquinas there 
 was a tendency to treat religion as supreme, 
 as giving the standpoint from which the world 
 should always be viewed; empirical knowledge 
 was regarded as quite subordinate, and was 
 treated in terms of a philosophy that was con- 
 sonant with religious thought. On this account 
 little progress was made during the Middle Ages 
 in the knowledge of the world around us. There 
 was much careful observation of the stars in the 
 casting of nativities ; the planets were thought of 
 as the agents by which God controlled the des- 
 tinies of man, and astrologers tried to detect the 
 forces which were at work in each human life. 
 There was much examination of plants and their 
 properties, with the view of detecting the signa- 
 tures with which God had marked them, so that 
 men might learn what practical human needs 
 
 1 Harnack appears to regard the sphere of religion as 
 personal and subjective, and completely separate from 
 history and science, which deal with external evidence. 
 What is Christianity?, 27. 
 
6 Human Power of Knowing Truth 
 
 they were divinely intended to subserve. But the 
 attempt to interpret the details of Astronomy 
 and Botany by the direct light of religion proved 
 unfruitful and misleading. It led to a disparage- 
 ment of the method of study which has given us 
 an accurate knowledge of some natural forces, 
 and has thus increased our power over Nature. 
 This characteristic defect of medieval thinking 
 has almost entirely passed away in modern 
 times ; though there is sometimes a suspicion of 
 its recurrence, and Bergson has been charged 
 with an "exaggerated subjectivism 1 " in treating 
 our knowledge of the world around us. 
 
 4. Our temptation in the present day is the 
 opposite one of attaching undue importance to 
 knowledge that comes from without. The ad- 
 vance in our knowledge of the world around us, 
 during the last three centuries, has been extra- 
 ordinary; and with it there has been unprece- 
 dented progress in industrial power and the 
 I development of the resources of the world. We 
 i are inclined to take human experience of the 
 i world around us, as the only type of knowledg^ 
 that is worth having; and we endeavour to 
 employ scientific ways of thinking, and to bring 
 
 1 T. J. Gerrard, Bergson, 33. A similar objection is 
 raised from a very different standpoint by Elliott, Modern 
 Science and the Illusions of Prof . Bergson, 52. 
 
Human Power of Knowing Truth 7 
 
 religious truth into line with the intellectual 
 habits of the day. This standpoint was adopted 
 at the end of the seventeenth and beginning of 
 the eighteenth century by the English Deists, and 
 it lies at the root of the great development of 
 scientific theology in Germany in modern times 1 . 
 But I venture to think that this whole habit of 
 thought is defective. Just as the religious aspect 
 was over accentuated in the Middle Ageb, and was 
 inappropriate to the pursuit of empirical science, 
 so the phraseology of the Deists and their succes- 
 sors appears to be inadequate to express religious 
 truth. Religion is the conscious relationship be- 
 tween a human person and a personal God ; intel- 
 lectual abstractions do not convey all that is 
 contained in spiritual realities. 
 
 (a) If we start from our knowledge of things 
 around us and go back and back, we get to the 
 notion of a Great First Cause, as an ultimate ex- 
 planation ; God is thought of as infinitely removed 
 from man, but this does not help us to realise 
 the fulness of the Divine Life. There is a false 
 spirituality in setting the intellect to work to 
 frame conceptions of the power of a God, who is 
 infinitely above us, instead of dwelling on the 
 character of the God in whom we live and move 
 and have our being. 
 
 1 Tholuck, Vermischte Schriften, n. 23 32; Semler, 
 Lebensbeschreibung, I. 211, 282. I 
 
8 Human Power of Knowing Truth 
 
 (b) Similarly, man's ordinary attitude of 
 mind towards the world about him is that of a 
 looker on; he can isolate and concentrate his 
 attention, and analyse the phenomena presented 
 to him. The great physical forces, of which we 
 feel the effects, are beyond our control; and in 
 any branch of scientific enquiry, personal tem- 
 perament and idiosyncracies are, so far as pos- 
 sible, to be laid aside ; we try to reach principles 
 that are common to all alike. The pursuit of 
 scientific knowledge is impersonal; it may give 
 the opportunity for developing particular skill of 
 mind or body, but it has little bearing on the man 
 as a whole, his personality and character 1 . And 
 so it cannot give the best basis for describing 
 and discussing religious experience, which is in- 
 tensely personal. This is exemplified by S. Paul 
 when he cried, wretched man that I am ! who shall 
 deliver me from the body of this death ?... / see 
 another law in my members, warring against the 
 law of my mind. The Deist cannot, from his 
 point of view, really grasp spiritual realities ; his 
 conception of a Great First Cause is but a poor 
 shadow of the God whom we worship, and he 
 thinks of man as a mere looker on, not as taking 
 a personal part,, and having personal experience. 
 Religion has to do with the relation between God 
 and Man; and Deism does not give us a stand- 
 1 Lotze, Microcosmus (English Translation), i. 156. 
 
Human Power of Knowing Truth 9 
 
 point from which the relations between the 
 Supreme Being and the man personally can be 
 adequately discussed. "The highest concep- 
 tions of God seem to approximate to one of two 
 types, which, without prejudice, and merely for 
 convenience, I may respectively call the religious 
 and the metaphysical. The metaphysical con- 
 ception emphasises His all-inclusive unity. The 
 religious type emphasises His ethical personality. 
 The metaphysical type tends to regard Him as 
 the logical glue which holds multiplicity together 
 and makes it intelligible. The religious type 
 willingly turns away from such speculations about 
 the Absolute, to love and worship a Spirit among 
 spirits 1 /' A sense of personal obligation is involved 
 in the practice of religion obligation to acknow- 
 ledge God and obligation to obey Him ; and those 
 who are absorbed in the observation and analysis 
 of external conditions, have no terms by which to 
 account for the genesis of this sense of personal 
 obligation. 
 
 True Religion is primarily concerned with the 
 world within ; and if we are to think of it clearly 
 and promote its activity, we must use appropriate 
 terms, and not look at it in the same way as 
 we do upon the world without. Religion must 
 be for us not merely a group of things that men 
 did, or the opinions they cherished, in the past; 
 1 A. J. Balfour, Theism and Humanism, 19. 
 
io Human Power ~of Knowing Truth 
 
 but something living, that we know to be living 
 because we have felt its power. 
 
 5. Perhaps we may most easily discriminate 
 between the knowledge of the world without and 
 of the world within, when we think of the aims 
 for which they are respectively pursued. Know- 
 ledge of the world without is pursued for the 
 sake of accumulating information and getting 
 power over other things and other men; it re- 
 sults in knowing more things. But the object of 
 the cultivation of religion lies within ; in a change 
 in the character of the man himself, and his per- 
 sonal habits of thought and speech and action. 
 Such a change is not brought about by acquiring 
 fresh information but by association with the best 
 we know. "The secret of goodness and greatness 
 is in choosing whom you will approach and live 
 with, in memory or imagination, through the 
 crowding obvious people that seem to live with 
 you 1 ." The Christian religion tells us not merely 
 of a Great First Cause, but of a Heavenly Father, 
 who has provided for our deepest needs through 
 His Son by the Spirit, and with whom we may 
 have intercourse. In communion with God we 
 may become more like Him, and learn to look at 
 things with His eyes, so as to have a sense of 
 proportion, undistracted by passion and temper a- 
 1 Browning, Letters, u. 318. 
 
Human Power of Knowing Truth 1 1 
 
 ment, a persistency in going on with the best we 
 know, and such insight to understand others, that 
 we may be able to enter into their point of view 
 and make allowance for their limitations. It is 
 thus that we may, not merely accumulate a know- 
 ledge of things, but cultivate our own power of 
 knowing aright* 
 
 For the increase of true religion we must look 
 both at the world without, and at experience 
 within. The experience of the holy men of old 
 has been recorded for us in books, and their doings 
 have been set before us in histories ; we dare not 
 neglect these aids to religion. They tell us what has 
 been known in the past of God and His relations 
 with Man. But we shall appreciate the recorded 
 religious experience of the past most truly, if we 
 look at it, not with the detached observation of 
 the scientific on-looker, but from the standpoint 
 of religious experience in the present day, com- 
 paring spiritual things with spiritual, and thus 
 cultivating a greater power of knowing the best 
 that can be known. 
 
II. RELIGIOUS CONVICTION 
 
 i. There is a natural tendency to regard what 
 goes on in the world around us as real, since it 
 persists after our little lives are over, and to treat 
 the world within as fanciful and arbitrary, per- 
 haps illusory. But on more careful examination 
 we may perceive, as Descartes did long ago, that 
 the fullest certainty to which we can attain is 
 that of the existence of a self-conscious intelli- 
 gence, a fact that is given by inner experience, 
 Cogito ergo sum. From this starting point philo- 
 sophy has, for the last three hundred years, in- 
 vestigated the possibilities of knowing ; but after 
 all, there are other sides of human nature that 
 ought to be taken into account. Man is self- 
 conscious, and he is Will, as well as Intelligence. 
 There are many who, like Goethe, pride them- 
 selves, not on the power of knowing which they 
 share with all the world, but on the capacity of 
 feeling which is personal to themselves; they 
 concern themselves chiefly with their own self- 
 development. Others, in this practical age, are 
 taken up with what they can do, and have little 
 interest in the theory of knowledge. Thus the 
 
Religious Conviction 13 
 
 study of Will and Purpose has come to be very 
 prominent in recent years, both in the Voluntary- 
 ism of France, and the Pragmatism which has had 
 great popularity in America, and has roused such 
 interesting controversy in this country. Pragma- 
 tism can certainly claim to be an instructive 
 supplement to the intellectual theory of know- 
 ledge, even if it is not accepted as a substitute 1 . 
 The consciousness of myself as willing, brings into 
 clearer light the not-self which is involved in 
 every act of self -consciousness 2 . We are aware 
 at times that our exercise of will is favoured by 
 circumstances, as when the skater feels the wind 
 behind him, and is carried along ; or on the other 
 hand we may feel that things are against us, and 
 that the exercise of our will is limited and opposed 
 by things we cannot control. In primitive times 
 and heathen countries, men think of the world 
 around them as capricious and hostile, arbitrary 
 and antagonistic, and of the powers that rule it 
 as beings that must be propitiated one by one. 
 But a better understanding of the world lends 
 itself to a different religious attitude ; those who 
 think of the world as governed by one Ruler, are 
 on the plane of thought on which religious experi- 
 
 1 Similarly, those who accept pragmatism as a doctrine 
 of truth, under mundane conditions, may desire a better 
 rational basis for their belief in continued existence apart 
 from mundane conditions. 
 
 2 J. Ward, Realm of Ends , 237. 
 
14 Religious Conviction 
 
 ence becomes possible, since they may become 
 conscious of their relationship to Him. Religious 
 conviction the sense of personal relationship to 
 God may be awakened by any trivial incident 
 which makes men feel that they are themselves 
 in opposition to His rule and His Will ; or on the 
 other hand they may enjoy the sense of being 
 personally in harmony with the Power that rules 
 the world. Such a conviction possesses the high- 
 est degree of certainty ; it cannot be affected by 
 argument; while the thoughts about God which 
 depend on the experience of others 1 have no such 
 certainty. 
 
 2. The sense of sin is the most common of 
 all religious convictions : sin is felt as an oppressive 
 burden by men of diverse creeds, and we have 
 abundant evidence of the difficulty of expressing 
 this conviction. The feeling of coming into close 
 relationship with the absolutely good is over- 
 whelming; not everyone, perhaps not any one, 
 has the power of thinking out fully what it means, 
 or the power of putting it into words. The lan- 
 guage of such a man as John Bunyan seems to be 
 exaggerated ; but he himself would have regarded 
 it as inadequate, and a feeble attempt to find 
 words to describe what he himself had felt. This 
 conviction of sin and of the need of forgiveness 
 1 S. John iv. 42. 
 
Religious Conviction 15 
 
 is an experience that is common to multitudes 
 of men; there is a ground of sympathy be- 
 tween all who have felt this conviction; but 
 differences of circumstances and temperament 
 will affect the mode in which they each endeavour 
 to say what they have experienced. The most 
 admirable expressions of the sense of sin are to be 
 found in the penitential Psalms, and they appeal 
 to devout men in every age. The precise mode 
 of expression adopted, the phraseology and the 
 imagery used, are well worthy of careful investi- 
 gation, because we can read through them to a 
 personal experience, which is more or less appro- 
 priately indicated but can never be fully uttered. 
 Minute examination of the time and circum- 
 stances and language, in which a religious con- 
 viction is expressed, amply repays us, if it gives 
 us a clearer understanding of the person, and of 
 the experience he endeavoured to describe. 
 
 It is in the Psalms too that we find the classic 
 expression of that other experience, the sense 
 of restored harmony with the Universe and its 
 Ruler the assurance of forgiveness the blessed- 
 ness of the man to whom the Lord doth not 
 impute his sin. The sense of pardon is an ex- 
 perience which each and all of the saints of God 
 have enjoyed; they have had similar spiritual 
 experience, though the modes of expressing it, 
 depending as they do on differences of intel- 
 
1 6 Religious Conviction 
 
 lectual power and of temperament, may be very 
 dissimilar. 
 
 In these religious convictions the sense of sin 
 and the assurance of forgiveness however they 
 are expressed, certain intellectual beliefs are in- 
 volved. These convictions imply a theistic belief 
 in a Ruler to whom men are under obligations, 
 and in the keeping of whose Law they have 
 failed ; and a reliance on His character and good- 
 ness is also involved. He that cometh to God must 
 believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them 
 that diligently seek Him. One name stands out as 
 typical of the men who have believed in the trust- 
 worthiness of God. Abraham believed God, and 
 it was imputed unto Him for righteousness ; and he 
 was called the Friend of God. However mysterious 
 the incidents which gave rise to this conviction 
 may seem, we at least feel that Abraham is set 
 before us in the Old Testament as a man who was 
 fully convinced that he might rely upon God, as 
 a keeper of Covenants, not merely as one who 
 would favour him in his own life, but as one who 
 could be trusted through all generations. 
 
 3. Another form of religious conviction is 
 frequently mentioned in the Old Testament from 
 the time of Moses onwards. Closely associated 
 with the belief that the world is governed by One 
 God, and that His purpose is being slowly realised, 
 
Religious Conviction 17 
 
 is the belief that He uses men as His instruments, 
 conscious or unconscious, for carrying out that 
 purpose. We see how with Moses at the Burning 
 Bush, and with one after another of the prophets, 
 the awakening to the conviction that they were 
 themselves called to be the instruments of God, 
 was the great crisis of their lives. To think that 
 God uses men as His instruments may be quite 
 uninspiring; but the man, who awakens to the 
 conviction that he is himself called to be God's 
 instrument, becomes conscious of a great trust 
 confided to him, and of his personal inability to 
 fulfil that task. This sense of the greatness of 
 the vocation comes out in the reluctance with 
 which Moses set out on the work of delivering 
 Israel from bondage in Egypt. We may also 
 gather it from the picture we have of David as 
 the shepherd whose business it was to care for 
 God's people: this was the trust that was laid 
 upon him by God, the task for which he was 
 trained. In the story of Solomon we see how 
 much the sense of responsibility to, God in the 
 discharge of his royal duties weighed upon the 
 child who succeeded to the Kingship. 
 
 This sense of vocation seems first of all to have 
 been recognised, as we gather from the Bible 
 story, in connection with what we should call 
 political changes, the migration of Israel from 
 Egypt and the establishment of an independent 
 
 C.I. 2 
 
1 8 Religious Conviction 
 
 political community. Besides the founders of the 
 Jewish nation, men arose from time to time to 
 intervene in the affairs of the community with a 
 special message from God. The sense of vocation 
 was a wonderful experience that came to each of 
 the prophets and marked them out from other 
 folk. There were many men who had religious 
 thoughts but who were without sense of vocation. 
 In Ecclesiasticus there is a great deal of beautiful 
 and exalted thought about God, but the writer was 
 regarded as a mere compiler and imitator though 
 also "as a man of great diligence among the 
 Hebrews who did not only gather the grave and 
 short sentences of wise men that had been before 
 him, but himself also uttered some of his own, 
 full of much understanding and wisdom 1 /' Nor 
 did the editor claim for himself that he had any 
 special message to give; he does not claim to 
 have had the religious experience of an Amos, or 
 an Isaiah or an Ezekiel, and to be convinced of 
 a personal vocation as the Messenger of God. 
 
 4. It is the glory of Christianity, as distin- 
 guished from all other religions however noble, 
 that it has rendered this conviction of vocation 
 this consciousness of being trusted by God as 
 His instrument attainable by all mankind. The 
 conviction of being a chosen instrument of God 
 
 1 Ecclesiasticus, Prologue. 
 
Religious Conviction 19 
 
 was very exceptional under the old dispensation ; 
 few could aspire to it. For the ordinary Israelite 
 it was enough to play his part among a divinely 
 chosen people, and to conform to the Law which 
 God had given for that people. The Israelites 
 had little consciousness of any relationship to 
 God apart from the nation, or any personal and 
 habitual obligations to God beyond those laid 
 down for the people; but Christianity called all 
 men to the personal religious experience of the 
 remission of sins and the personal obligation to 
 give effect to the purpose of God. At the day of 
 Pentecost, the aspiration of the prophet Joel was 
 realised. / will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh. 
 The revelation which our Lord gave of the Father- 
 hood of God, and of His care for each one of His 
 family, made it possible for each and all to be 
 conscious of a vocation to fulfil God's Will in his 
 place in the world, and to be the instrument of 
 giving effect to His purpose. 
 
 5. Religious conviction is often imperfectly 
 expressed ; and it also involves intellectual ele- 
 ments which have no immunity from error; the 
 mere fact that there has been progress in the 
 knowledge of God, implies that there has been 
 misconception and error in the past ; at the times 
 of this ignorance God winked; and there are 
 limits to any spiritual insight now. A man may 
 
2O Religious Conviction 
 
 mistake God's purpose, and mistake the means by 
 which it is to be attained; he may be wrong 
 about the task assigned him. Even though he 
 has a strong belief as to his religious duty, he may 
 be in error, like Saul when he went forth to 
 Damascus to persecute. But even so, it is com- 
 monly and rightly felt nowadays that religious 
 conviction is a thing to be respected, even when 
 it seems to be mistaken and mischievous. The 
 religious man claims to hold by the truth of God ; 
 it is possible that his claim may prove well 
 founded, mistaken though it seems. Gamaliel 
 expressed what has come to be the popular feel- 
 ing on the subject. He regarded the Apostles as 
 dangerous fanatics; he thought they were men 
 who were mistaken and leading others astray : he 
 feared that their teaching would encourage dis- 
 affection to the Roman rule, and yet he insisted 
 that this mistaken conviction should be respected. 
 Had they merely insisted on following their own 
 judgment, and backed it up by an assertion of 
 opinions, there would have been no reason for 
 allowing them to defy a human tribunal; but 
 they claimed to have a message from God. Since 
 there was no definite test which could be applied 
 there and then, to distinguish true and false pro- 
 phets 1 , they might conceivably be justified. Re- 
 frain from these men, and let them alone : for if this 
 1 Deut. xviii. 21, 22. 
 
Religious Conviction 21 
 
 counsel or this work be of men, it will come to nought : 
 but if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it ; lest haply 
 ye be found, to fight against God. There does not 
 appear to have been any element of self-assertion 
 in the Apostles' attitude; there was no self- 
 assertion towards God, for they were eager to 
 deliver His message in spite of all the dangers 
 they might incur: there was no self-assertion 
 against human authority, for they were ready to 
 submit to any hardships or shame they might 
 incur in doing their duty ; and they made no at- 
 tempt to resist or to disparage civil authority, as 
 fanatics like Theudas had done. Their conduct 
 was governed throughout by a sense of duty to 
 God and duty to man ; and this marks them out 
 from some of the Conscientious Objectors of the 
 present day who seem to glory in the vehemence 
 of their self-assertion : a strong personal opinion, 
 which is not coupled with a sense of duty to God, 
 has not a claim to the respect which was accorded 
 to the Apostles. Those who defy the demands of 
 the society in which they live are hardly justified 
 in expecting that continued protection of life and 
 property shall be afforded them, and those who 
 attempt to justify such conduct are in danger of 
 being taken for mere anarchists. 
 
III. THE SECRET OF HUMAN 
 PROGRESS 
 
 i. The religious convictions of the Christian 
 man have the highest degree of certainty for him ; 
 he is sure that he has sinned, and sure too of the 
 reality of God's forgiving Love; he has also a 
 sense of obligation to live up to his divine voca- 
 tion. But yet he cannot claim any personal 
 immunity from misconception and error. What 
 reason has he for thinking that what is to him a 
 matter of certainty is really true? The most 
 complete confirmation of the truth of his convic- 
 tion is given him when he finds that it holds good 
 when he acts upon it 1 , and that similar beliefs 
 appeal to other minds with the same intensity; 
 but those, who recognise the reality of the spiritual, 
 can see some confirmation of their belief, in the 
 traces of its power which they find in every 
 department of human affairs. 
 
 It is important that we should bear in mind 
 the precise cogency of arguments in regard to the 
 spiritual which are drawn from external conditions 
 
 1 S. John vii. 17. 
 
The Secret of Human Progress 23 
 
 and secular affairs. We cannot by searching find 
 out God ; spiritual things must be spiritually dis- 
 cerned. There can be no demonstration, from 
 our knowledge of the external world, of the exist- 
 ence of God, or the immortality of the soul : ex- 
 ternal observation and experiment do not afford 
 a foundation on which knowledge of the spiritual 
 can be built. But though external observations 
 do not demonstrate any proposition about the 
 spiritual and eternal, we may find in them con- 
 firmation of what we know from personal con- 
 viction. The apologists of the eighteenth century 
 argued from the truths of natural religion to the 
 credibility of revealed religion ; but it can no 
 longer be assumed that natural religion is uni- 
 versally accepted by thinking men. We shall find 
 ourselves in closer accord with apostolic usage, 
 and with Scripture, if we take our stand on the 
 certainty of religious conviction, and look merely 
 for confirmation to the external world and the 
 course of secular affairs. We may trace contri- 
 butions which seem to have been made by religion, 
 that is by the human consciousness of relations 
 with God towards the progress of mankind, I 
 both intellectually, in helping us to understand 
 what is otherwise unintelligible, and morally in 
 the improvement of the relations of men with one 
 another. On behalf of religion it may be claimed, 
 with much probability, that it has initiated, and 
 
24 The Secret of Human Progress 
 
 inspired human progress; and at all events it 
 renders intelligible what would be inexplicable if 
 human beings were wholly controlled by external 
 forces and human society were a mere mechanism. 
 
 2. The conviction of sin and the sense of for- 
 giveness imply a belief in the trustworthiness of 
 God such as is ascribed to Abraham : the belief in 
 Him as the keeper of His Covenant underlies the 
 whole worship and the code of the Old Testament ; 
 and it was the reiterated complaint of the pro- 
 phets that the people had failed miserably in keep- 
 ing their own side of the Covenant while God had 
 been true to His. This belief in the reliability of 
 God has at all events a counterpart in the prin- 
 ciple of the uniformity of nature, which is the 
 fundamental assumption of all empirical science. 
 Without this necessary assumption systematic 
 experiment would be futile; and the acceptance 
 of this principle has been the greatest possible 
 help to the co-ordination of our observations and 
 the interpretation of nature. But if the religious 
 belief is left out of account, it is very difficult to 
 see whence this principle can have been derived; 
 it is by no means axiomatic 1 and it could hardly 
 arise from mere observation, as it seems quite 
 inconsistent with human experience of the vari- 
 ableness of nature, especially of tropical nature. 
 1 J. Ward, Realm of Ends, 12. 
 
The Secret of Human Progress 25 
 
 Monotheism and the belief in the uniformity of 
 nature are closely associated; and it is at least 
 possible that the religious belief was anterior to 
 the scientific principle, and that the whole body 
 of empirical science is a confirmation in the sphere 
 of external experience, of the validity of what 
 was originally a theological belief. At any rate 
 the consonance of a theological belief with a 
 fundamental axiom of empirical science goes to 
 show that we are not justified in separating our 
 knowledge of the spiritual and of the secular 
 absolutely, as if they were entirely distinct and 
 had nothing to do with one another, but that 
 these departments of knowledge are closely inter- 
 connected, and interact. 
 
 3. Something similar may be felt in regard to 
 human morality: there has been progress from 
 the purely savage state : there is more security 
 for individual life and property, and co-operation 
 for social objects. But it is difficult to see how 
 this could have arisen or been encouraged : it is not 
 easy to account for the conjunction of self-sacrifice 
 and self-development in the moral aim 1 , or to ex- 
 plain the sense of obligation, which is an element in 
 the doing of duty. The controlling and the trans- 
 forming of the primitive motives are inexplicable. 
 The difficulty disappears if we recognise how 
 
 1 D'Arcy, God and Freedom, 215. 
 
26 The Secret of Human Progress 
 
 widespread has been the belief in a divine pur- 
 pose, and the conviction of an obligation to fulfil 
 it. This belief gives the means of distinguishing 
 between right and wrong, both in the world at 
 large, and in individual lives ; and not only does 
 it give an intellectual means of discrimination, it 
 provides a motive power. If we believe that God 
 has a purpose for the world at large, then each 
 nation has a mission like Israel of old to main- 
 tain the knowledge of God in the world, and to 
 exercise national influence and power as a trust 
 from Him. The same religious principle that 
 can be appealed to, in regard to great communities 
 and their relations to one another, also applies to 
 the personal life and to individual conduct. The 
 religious recognition of God's purpose renders the 
 sense of obligation and the progress of morality 
 intelligible; we are not forced to try and derive 
 them from the struggle for existence and the sur- 
 vival of the fittest. The close connection between 
 the spiritual and the secular, and the importance 
 of the spiritual as rendering progress in the secular 
 sphere intelligible, perhaps in rendering it possible, 
 is thus confirmed from another side. 
 
 4. The origin of the sense of beauty and of 
 canons of taste is also mysterious 1 , but it seems 
 that religion is capable of calling forth and stimu- 
 1 A. J. Balfour, Theism and Humanism, 59. 
 
The Secret of Human Progress 27 
 
 lating artistic activities. The religious mind de- 
 sires to pay homage to the Ruler of All, to offer 
 the richest and best he can in token of homage; 
 the desire to render a worthy offering is a 
 constant stimulus to the craftsman. There is a 
 religious side to the appreciation of beauty; 
 Ruskin has described the artistic impulse as the 
 expression of man's delight in God's work ; and 
 much of the wealth and the skill that have been 
 spent on building temples, or on statuary or pic- 
 torial art, has had a religious aim. The desire to 
 offer the best to God is an outcome of religious 
 devotion ; it has helped to redeem human crafts- 
 manship from a mechanical character, and to 
 give fresh inspiration from age to age. 
 
 There is no side of human activity which is 
 alien to religion, and religious belief accounts for 
 the fundamental assumptions which give a basis 
 for the progress of knowledge ; it accounts for an 
 improving standard of conduct and for the growth 
 of skill and taste. Just because this principle is 
 spiritual, it does not merely serve to analyse the 
 progress which has been made in the past : there 
 is no finality about it, and it gives us the hope of 
 an indefinite progress which need never come to 
 an end. The spiritual has been externalised, and 
 has shown its influence in things around us : we 
 cannot regard religious conviction as merely a 
 matter of our own personal certainty, when its 
 
28 The Secret of Human Progress 
 
 power and influence are confirmed in the institu- 
 tions of the highest races and the progress of 
 mankind. 
 
 After all, it is in the increased diffusion and 
 intensity of spiritual power in the world, that we 
 have the fullest confirmation of the truth of 
 religious convictions in the world within. The 
 conception of saintliness, and of the means for 
 obtaining it have altered ; we no longer think of 
 it as necessarily requiring the withdrawal from 
 secular affairs, or look for it in moments of devout 
 contemplation, but as the constant hallowing of 
 the whole life in all its activities and under any 
 circumstances. It is also noticeable that religion 
 has grown as a power in the world with the growth 
 of society. The faith of Abraham was mani- 
 fested by occasional incidents, and self-forgetful 
 sacrifice; but the ideals of Christianity are ac- 
 cepted as furnishing worthy conceptions for 
 .human conduct in all the relations of our compli- 
 cated social system. There are few who believe 
 that they have got beyond Christian ideals or 
 repudiate them altogether, and they win intel- 
 lectual approval from multitudes who make little 
 attempt to put them in practice. 
 
 5. Spiritual experience and influence have 
 been recorded in literature and in history. We 
 have the records of personal religious experience 
 
The Secret of Human Progress 29 
 
 in the psalms and prophets and in all devout 
 literature ; but this cannot be interpreted hastily ; 
 there is need of insight to discern its full import. 
 What Harnack said of Our Lord's spiritual ex- 
 perience is true in degree of others who have been 
 charged with a divine revelation. " No one could 
 fathom this mystery who had not had a parallel 
 experience 1 /' Those who have never had re4 
 ligious experience of their own, can hardly hope,\ 
 with the help of a dictionary and a grammar, \ 
 to appreciate the religious experience of others. j 
 But even without comprehending it fully we can | 
 note its effectiveness. Incidents, as recorded in 
 Hebrews xi. and in the history of every age, will 
 help us to see the power of religious conviction as 
 determining human action and moulding human 
 society. And these phenomena, like other phe- 
 nomena, become the subject of study: we can 
 bring our intelligence to bear upon them, and 
 analyse, and discuss, and interpret. We find in 
 them material for thoughts about God, and about 
 God's relation to Man; we can get clear state- 
 ments as to the religious experience of the past, and 
 draw out what it implies and means. Thoughts 
 about God can never have the vividness of per- 
 sonal experience ; but in so far as they stimulate 
 the attempt to live more closely in accord with 
 God's will, they are to be cherished. 
 
 1 Harnack, What is Christianity?, 129. 
 
30 The Secret of Human Progress 
 
 It is indeed true that a survey of religious 
 beliefs in the past is too often apt to be depress- 
 ing; to recall to us superstitions which we have 
 outgrown, and practices which we condemn as 
 immoral. " The reflective student of the history of 
 human knowledge is apt to receive an overwhelm- 
 ing impression of the instability of opinion, of the 
 mutability of beliefs, of the vicissitudes of science, 
 in short of the impermanence of what is, or passes 
 for, truth 1 /' But this need not disconcert us when 
 we realise that the process of growth implies the 
 discarding of what has served its purpose. As 
 Dr Schiller excellently says, "There is not the 
 slightest reason why the steady flow of the stream 
 of ' truths ' that pass away should fill us with dis- 
 may. That a ' truth ' should turn out ' false ' is a 
 calamity only if we are unable to supplant it by 
 a 'truer. '...We are enabled to declare an old 
 'truth' 'false' because we are able to find a new 
 one which more than fills its place. We do not 
 discard a valuable and serviceable conception until 
 we have something more valuable and convenient 
 ... to serve us in its stead 2 ." We may always 
 hope for better guidance in our efforts to draw 
 nigh to God and to give effect to His will. This 
 progress is exemplified in religious, as well as in 
 other knowledge; in expressing religious experi- 
 
 1 F. C. S. Schiller, Studies in Humanism, 204. 
 
 2 Ibid. 211. 
 
The Secret of Human Progress 3 1 
 
 ence and formulating religious opinions, men must 
 make use of the intellectual habits and current 
 phraseology of their own time ; they can never 
 escape the temporary altogether, or take account 
 by anticipation of the experience of coming gene- 
 rations. That which we have outlived was a 
 power in its own time, and endured as an in- 
 spiring influence for a longer or shorter period. 
 S. Augustine's vision of a City of God dominated 
 Christian thought for fourteen hundred years 1 ; 
 while on the other hand S. Bernard's plea for 
 consecrated w^trfaTe^id little either to extend 
 the limits or invigorate ^ke life of Christendom. 
 The ideal which S. Francis cherished^ioTTiot 
 obtain such a hold upon the order he founded as 
 to be an abiding spiritual influence. These were 
 inspiring efforts for a time, but not for all time : it 
 is the unique personality of our Lord Jesus Christ 
 which has a regenerating power that is as potent in 
 all lands and for all ages as it was at first-in Galilee. 
 The formulating and discussing the thoughts 
 about God which are implied in Christian experi- 
 ence, have the highest importance, in order that 
 the full inspiring force, the full guidance which 
 they afford may be preserved 2 ; but such study 
 
 1 Cunningham, Christianity and Politics, 65. 
 
 2 The importance of the Arian controversy, with all 
 its subtleties, is seen when we realise its result in preserving 
 the effectiveness of Christianity as an ethical influence. 
 Gwatkin, The Knowledge of God, n. 112. 
 
32 The Secret of Human Progress 
 
 is at best only a preliminary to the increase of 
 true religion. We can see the distinction if we 
 recall what was happening in England two cen- 
 turies ago. The discussion of religious problems, 
 the official presentation of religious truth had 
 been pursued with great assiduity : the preachers 
 who dealt with these topics had large congrega- 
 tions; Stillingfleet and Tillotson and Barrow 
 were intellectual leaders, and Christianity was in 
 possession. Yet this academic Christianity seemed 
 hardly to touch life, and to have little influence 
 on religion. It was from the preaching of John 
 Wesley that the great religious movement of the 
 eighteenth century started. To those who were 
 satisfied with the official presentation of Chris- 
 tianity, this movement seemed unnecessary, 
 while the vagaries associated with it were re- 
 pellent to the sober minded; and yet it revo- 
 lutionised the religious condition of English- 
 speaking peoples. Wesley insisted that religion 
 was not to be merely the acceptance of Christian 
 doctrines as formulated by others, but the outcome 
 of personal experience. He was not concerned 
 with the formulating of Christian truth, he busied 
 himself about the intensity with which it was held. 
 He felt that the Love of God should not only be 
 accepted at secondhand as true for all the world, 
 but known as a personal conviction by those who 
 had tasted for themselves that God is good. 
 
The Secret of Human Progress 33 
 
 This is the aim we should set before us in 
 endeavouring to promote the increase of true 
 religion to-day. There has been abundance of 
 the official presentation of Christian truth, but 
 there is need that men should not only accept it, 
 but feel its power themselves; and a ministry 
 which fails to try and meet this need is in danger 
 of failing to promote God's work in the world. 
 
 c i. 
 
IV. THE ATTRACTIVE POWER 
 OF PERSONALITY 
 
 i . There are close analogies between the growth 
 of animal life, and the development of spiritual 
 life; and just as it is said that the individual 
 goes through stages of development that corre- 
 spond to those which can be distinguished in the 
 progress of the species as a whole, so is it true that 
 the spiritual life of the Christian man reproduces 
 the main stages in the development of religious life 
 in the world. The recognition of the Divine horror 
 of sin which was set forth at Sinai, ought to have 
 a place in the personal religious life of the Chris- 
 tian man ; but after all there is a contrast between 
 the two dispensations 1 . The great feature which 
 distinguished the gospel as first preached from 
 contemporary religions was its attractive power. 
 I if I be lifted up will draw all men unto me. The 
 Old Dispensation had been chiefly concerned with 
 prohibitions and the penalties that enforced them ; 
 it told of the thunderings of Sinai, and appealed 
 to the fear of punishment as the chief means of 
 
 1 Heb. xii. 18. 
 
Attractive Power of Personality 35 
 
 securing the national religion. This element still 
 survives among us; to prohibit what is evil, or 
 what tends to evil, and to appeal to the fear of 
 punishment is the best the State can do 1 . But 
 Christianity has a far more effective weapon in 
 her armoury; she won her way at first by pre- 
 senting the express image of the Divine to men, 
 and relying on this attractive power. The gospel 
 sets before us the conception of perfect good of" 
 a perfectly good Will; and Christianity seeks to 
 make this Will prevail and to realise God's pui[- 
 pose. This can only be accomplished by the aip 
 tractive power which the love of the good exeif- 
 cises on human hearts, so that human wills ma^ 
 be moulded more and more after the likeness of 
 the Divine Will : it may thus produce not merely 
 an external conformity, which is all that the feajt: 
 of punishment can accomplish, but hearty col 
 operation in striving to attain that which is best] 
 Christ relied on this attractive power as none 
 of the great religious teachers of Israel had done 
 before ; and S. Paul was carefully on his guard lest 
 any triviality of habit or temperament should 
 offend his hearers so that they should not feel the 
 attractive power of the message he had to give. 
 He would not be dependent on his hearers for 
 bodily sustenance, lest he should hinder the gospel 
 
 1 Cunningham, British Citizens and their responsibility to 
 God, 37. 
 
 32 
 
36 Attractive Power of Personality 
 
 of Christ. To the Jews he became as a Jew that 
 he might gain the Jews, and to the weak became 
 he as weak that he might gain the weak. / am 
 made all things to all men, that I might by all means 
 save some. And this I do for the gospel's sake, that 
 I might be partaker thereof with you. 
 
 2. S. Paul insists again and again that he 
 could do nothing by himself, but that the blessing 
 of God's Spirit was essential if there were to be 
 any result of all his labours ; and this is as true 
 to-day as it was long ago. The appeal of God's 
 Love seeks for a personal response; there must 
 be a change in the man himself, his habits of 
 thought, and feeling, and willing ; and no human 
 effort can ensure that the gospel message shall 
 take hold of the heart and quicken men to yield 
 themselves to its influence. Human gifts and 
 eloquence can indeed rouse curiosity and interest : 
 there are many men who are interested in all that 
 concerns humanity, who wish to know about the 
 habits of theological thought which prevailed in 
 bygone days, and the noblest hopes which men 
 have cherished for themselves; but the gospel 
 message misses its mark, if it only provides intel- 
 lectual satisfaction or artistic pleasure as a very 
 lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and 
 can play well upon an instrument. It is only 
 through God's blessing that the word spoken by 
 
Attractive Power of Personality 37 
 
 human lips has power to attract. This essential 
 condition must be borne in mind when we are 
 considering how the ministers and stewards of 
 God's Mysteries may best discharge their respon- 
 sibility for the cure of the souls committed to 
 them, and endeavour to make the attractive 
 power of Christ's gospel felt. 
 
 3. Plainly it is their first duty to provide the 
 opportunities in which Christ will make the at- 
 tractive power of His personality felt through the 
 means which He Himself has instituted. " Where 
 two or three are gathered together in my name there 
 am I in the midst of them." ..." He that eateth my 
 flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I 
 in him." He has ordained a perpetual memorial 
 of His precious death that we might offer our 
 humble and hearty thanks to Almighty God, "for 
 the redemption of the world by the death and 
 passion of our Saviour Christ, both God and Man ; 
 who did humble Himself, even to the death upon 
 the Cross, for us, miserable sinners, who lay in dark- 
 ness and the shadow of death ; that He might make 
 us the children of God, and exalt us to everlasting 
 life. And to the end that we should alway remem- 
 ber the exceeding great love of our Master, and only 
 Saviour, Jesus Christ, thus dying for us, ... He hath 
 instituted and ordained holy mysteries, as pledges 
 of His love, and for a continual remembrance of His 
 
38 Attractive Power of Personality 
 
 death/' He gives us the opportunity of offering 
 ourselves, our souls and bodies to God, in union 
 with His own sacrifice of Himself, and of entering 
 into closest communion with Him in His thoughts 
 and desires, at the supreme moment of His earthly 
 life. 
 
 4. The Love of God and its attractive 
 power are also displayed, though less clearly, in 
 the records of those who have felt its influence 
 powerfully in the past. From their experience, 
 as recorded in the Bible, we can gather what God 
 has done, and since He is eternally the same, 
 what He can and will do, for us and in us. The 
 steward of the heavenly Mysteries can draw from 
 the treasure committed to him things both new 
 and old; but he has need of discretion to lay 
 stress on that which best sets forth the attractive 
 power of the Love of God. The Bible is a record 
 of God's dealings with mankind : much of it tells 
 of the discipline He exercised on the nation, and 
 of the fear He inspired that He might mould the 
 people of Israel to be His witness in the world. 
 But the books of the Old Testament do not now 
 appeal to us personally most strongly as the his- 
 tory of a nation in a distant past, but as a gallery 
 of portraits which set God before us as a living 
 power, calling men to be His conscious instruments 
 in the training of the world. " The history which 
 
Attractive Power of Personality 39 
 
 concerns us is the history of self-conscious person- 
 alities, and of communities which are (in a sense) 
 self-conscious also 1 ." The more we can penetrate 
 through the writings which have come down to us, 
 to the spiritual experience and personal character 
 of the men whose utterances are recorded, the more 
 shall we find something to which we can person- 
 ally respond. Those who have a real appreci- 
 ation of the spiritual have insight to discern what 
 may be discarded without loss. Much of the Old 
 Testament is taken up with accounts of the occa- 
 sions which called forth the utterances of the 
 prophets, and the appreciation they received : but 
 that has ceased to be a matter of living interest 
 to many of us, for it has little abiding influ- 
 ence on our own lives. The credentials which 
 Moses offered to Pharaoh of his claim to speak in 
 God's name were of supreme importance at the 
 time, but they do not greatly concern us now; 
 and even in the Epistles we find much that has 
 little value for us. The apostolic injunctions as 
 to meats offered to idols tell of a time of tran- 
 sition in heathen lands, but they have little direct 
 teaching for us in the present day. The more the 
 Christian minister can concentrate attention on 
 the spiritual power, which worked in human lives 
 in the past, the more can he hope to attract men 
 to recognise its influence to-day. 
 
 1 A. J. Balfour, Theism and Humanism, 89. 
 
40 Attractive Power of Personality 
 
 5. The Christian man may draw much en- 
 couragement from finding that he can sympathise 
 with the struggles and the spiritual experience of 
 Israelites in the distant past. These things are 
 written for our learning, that by patience and comfort 
 of the scriptures we may have hope. But the under- 
 standing will be closer, the sympathy more inti- 
 mate, with those who have shared in the Christian 
 faith, and have cherished the Christian hope. They 
 have felt the attractive power of God's love to 
 mankind, as it is fully manifested by our Lord 
 Jesus Christ. Each Saint's Day as it comes 
 brings before us some aspect of the Divine Power 
 which is associated with one particular name; 
 and some there be which have no memorial. On 
 All Saints' Day we may each commemorate the 
 friends whose struggles and difficulties we have 
 most fully understood, most intimately shared; 
 and who have departed this life in God's faith 
 and fear : by their good example they have left us 
 encouragement; and the hope of rejoining them 
 gives definite shape to the aspiration to be par- 
 takers in God's heavenly kingdom. 
 
 6. There is indeed a danger of treating this 
 intimate sympathy as not merely inclusive, but 
 also as exclusive, and of limiting our sense of 
 Christian fellowship to those whose experience is 
 precisely similar to our own. It seems in looking 
 
Attractive Power of Personality 41 
 
 back, as if Wesley had not been sensitive to this 
 danger, and had encouraged the formation of 
 classes in which precisely similar experience was 
 taken as a test of the reality of religion. The value 
 of Christian fellowship should never be under- 
 rated : they that feared the Lord spake often one to 
 another ; but there is a danger lest we should take 
 our own experience as the type of what Christian 
 experience ought to be, and refuse to associate 
 with any but the likeminded. The Church is not 
 a mere association which some leader has gathered 
 round himself ; it has been built once for all on the 
 foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus 
 Christ being the chief corner stone. There has 
 been a wonderful variety of condition and tem- 
 perament among all the members of the Holy 
 Catholic Church, which is the organised body of 
 Christian experience: it is well to be ready to 
 learn from each and all who profess and call 
 themselves Christians, and to try to enter into 
 their inner lives. It is by the variety of the 
 Christian lives that have been led, at sundry times 
 and in divers places, that we may find help and 
 encouragement for the varied circumstances of 
 our lives, so that the body of Christ may per- 
 petuate the different aspects of His character 
 through all the ages. And here we see the real 
 nature of the Church not a body of likeminded 
 men who will only have fellowship with men of 
 
 35 
 
42 Attractive Power of Personality 
 
 the same type but a body founded by Christ, of 
 which it is the function to form individual men 
 and women more and more after His image, so 
 that they may each attain to the closest relation- 
 ship with their heavenly Father. The Church 
 has been entrusted with the means of moulding 
 the character of even the holiest men more nearly 
 on the Divine model. 
 
 Other foundation can no man lay than that which 
 is laid, which is Jesus Christ; and since, as we 
 look back, we recognise how often wood, hay 
 and stubble have been built upon it, we should 
 take the more heed how we build; since it is for 
 us to find the material which is best fitted not 
 only to edify our own personal life, but to raise 
 a living Temple that shall endure from genera- 
 tion to generation. 
 
BOOKS AND PAPERS, CHIEFLY ON RELIGIOUS 
 SUBJECTS, AND SERMONS BY DR CUNNINGHAM 
 
 The Influence of Descartes on metaphysical specula- 
 tion in England. 8vo. pp. xlviii + 185. Mac- 
 millan and Co., 1876. 
 
 A Dissertation on the Epistle of S. Barnabas, in- 
 cluding a discussion of its date and authorship. 
 (Hulsean Essay.) Cr. 8vo. pp. cxvii + 130. 
 Macmillan and Co., 1877. 
 
 Christian Civilisation, with special reference to India 
 (Maitland Essay.) 8vo. pp. vii + 152. Mac- 
 millan and Co., 1880. 
 
 The Churches of Asia ; a methodical study of the 
 second century. Cr. 8vo. pp. xvi + 299. (Kaye 
 Essay.) Macmillan and Co., 1880. 
 * Christian Opinion on Usury, with special reference to 
 England. (B.D. degree thesis.) Cr. 8vo. pp. 
 x + 84. Macmillan and Co., 1884. 
 
 5. Austin, and his place in the History of Christian 
 Thought. (Hulsean Lectures.) Demy 8vo. pp. 
 xiii + 283. Cambridge University Press, 1886. 
 *The Path towards Knowledge ; discourses on some of 
 the difficulties of the day. Cr. 8vo. pp. viii + 
 241. Methuen and Co., 1891. 
 
 The Gospel of Work ; four lectures delivered at 
 the Cambridge Summer Meeting 1902. 8vo. 
 pp. xiv + 144. Cambridge University Press. 
 
 Publications marked thus * are also contained in the 
 list of books on Economic Science Subjects in Progress 
 of Capitalism, p. 136, 
 
44 Books and Papers, chiefly on 
 
 The Cure of Souls ; lectures on Pastoral Theology. 
 Cr. 8vo. pp. x + 236. Cambridge University 
 Press, 1908. 
 
 Editor of the Official Report of Pan-Anglican Con- 
 gress, Section B, Christian Truth and other In- 
 tellectual Forces. 8vo. S.P.C.K. 1908. 
 * Christianity and Social Questions. Cr. 8vo. pp. xi + 
 
 232. Duckworth, 1910. 
 Efficiency in the Church of England, pp. x + 129. 
 
 John Murray, 1912. 
 *Christianity and Economic Science. Cr. 8vo. pp. 
 
 viii + in. John Murray, 1914. 
 * Christianity and Politics. (Lowell Lectures.) 8vo. 
 pp. xi + 271. John Murray, 1916. 
 
 PAPERS 
 
 "Toleration," a paper read to the Cambridge Non- 
 conformists Union 18 October, 1885, in the 
 Methodist Times, 5 and 12 November, 1885. 
 
 " Faith," a Prelection in the Arts School, 2 June, 
 1890, in the Path towards Knowledge, p. 115. 
 
 A Word to Church Reformers, a speech at Ely Dio- 
 cesan Conference, 1901. Macmillan and Bowes. 
 
 "The Reaction of Modern Scientific Thought on 
 Theological Study," a paper read to the Ely 
 Diocesan Society of Sacred Studies, 1904, in 
 Journal of Theological Studies, v. 161. 
 
 "The Christian Standpoint," in Essays on some Theo- 
 logical Questions of the Day, by Members of 
 the University of Cambridge, p. i. Macmillan, 
 1905. 
 
 "The Confirmation and Defence of the Faith," a 
 paper read to the Salisbury Diocesan Society 
 of Sacred Studies, June 1907, in Journal of 
 Theological Studies , ix. p. i. 
 
Religious Subjects, and Sermons 45 
 
 *The Moral Witness of the Church on the Investment 
 and Use of Wealth, an open letter to the Arch- 
 bishop of Canterbury. Cambridge University 
 Press, 1909. 
 
 Pros and Cons of the Welsh Church> a statement pre- 
 pared for the Cambridge Church Society. Hall, 
 1912. 
 
 "The Decadence of Cambridge Theology," in Satur- 
 day Review, 13 April, 1912. 
 
 *The Causes of Labour Unrest and the Remedies for it, 
 a memorandum prepared for the Moral Witness 
 Committee of the Convocation of the Province 
 of Canterbury. John Murray, 1912. 
 
 "The Attitude of the Church towards War," a 
 memorandum prepared for a Committee of the 
 Lower House of the Convocation of the Pro- 
 vince of Canterbury (1915), in Christianity and 
 Politics, p. 249. 
 
 ARCHIDIACONAL CHARGES 
 
 "Passive Resistance" (1907), in Cure of Souls, p. 201. 
 
 "The duties of Churchwardens," in Cambridge Chron- 
 icle, i May, 1908. 
 
 "Parochial Charities," in Cambridge Chronicle, 7 May, 
 1909. 
 
 "The Educational Revolution in the Nineteenth 
 Century" (1911), in Efficiency in the Church of 
 England, p. 121. 
 
 "The unwisdom of insufficient Insurance," in Cam- 
 bridge Chronicle, 8 May, 1914. 
 
 "The division of the Diocese," in Cambridge Chron- 
 icle, 23 April, 1915. 
 
46 Books and Papers, chiefly on 
 
 ADDRESSES ON VARIOUS OCCASIONS 
 
 The Bengal Famine, Sunday Afternoon Lecture. 
 S. Bartholomew's, Bradford, Yorkshire. Brear, 
 
 , l874 ' 
 "Theism and Progress/' Sunday Afternoon Lecture 
 
 at S. Edmund's, Northampton, in Northampton 
 
 Mercury, 23 Dec. 1882, Supplement. 
 Oration, at the Consecration of a Masonic Lodge at 
 
 Newmarket, 12 November, 1885, in Cambridge 
 
 Chronicle, 20 November, 1885. 
 "Moderation," E.C.U. Anniversary at S. Andrew's, 
 
 Wells St., W., 1890, in The Path towards Know- 
 ledge, p. 236. 
 Strikes, at S. Martin's, Leicester, January 14, 1894, 
 
 in Publications of Church Social Union, Boston, 
 
 Mass. B. 5. 
 "Wages/' in Lombard St. in Lent, 1894, wrfcn a P re ~ 
 
 face by Bishop Westcott. 
 "The Sacredness of Property." All Saints', Netting 
 
 Hill, 28 May, 1894, in The Church of the People, 
 
 with a preface by Bishop Randall Davidson. 
 "Competition," S. Martin's, Leicester, in Leicester 
 
 Daily Post, 7 January, 1895. 
 True Womanhood, six sermons in S. Andrew's, Wells 
 
 St., W., Lent 1896. Swan Sonnenschein and Co. 
 "The Consecration of Secular Life," an address to 
 
 the Church Social Union, Boston, Mass., May 
 
 1899, in The Gospel of Work, p. 127. 
 "The Consecration of Intellect," Harvard University, 
 
 1899, in The Gospel of Work, p. 137. 
 "College Life," Commemoration of Benefactors at 
 
 Gonville & Caius College, 22 June, 1904, in The 
 
 Cure of Souls, p. 153. 
 
Religious Subjects, and Sermons 47 
 
 "Some Differences between Scotch and English 
 Christianity/' a paper read to Cambridge Ruri- 
 decanal Chapter, December, 1904, in The Cure of 
 
 Souls, p. 212. 
 
 " The Clergy and Party Politics/' read at Sion College, 
 3 October, 1906, in The Cure of Souls, p. 186. 
 
 "The Eternity of God/' a sermon preached in 
 S. Mary's, Bury St Edmunds, on the Sunday 
 before the Bury Pageant, in Church Family 
 Newspaper , 12 July, 1907. 
 
 "The General Election," S. Andrew's, Whittlesea, 
 Church of England Men's Society, in Ely Dio- 
 cesan Remembrancer, March, 1910. 
 
 "The National Conscience," Trinity College Chapel, 
 21 January, 1912, in Efficiency in Church of 
 England, p. 92. 
 
 "Biblical Science and Preparation for the Ministry," 
 Trinity College Chapel, in Cambridge Daily News, 
 19 November, 1912. 
 
 "The Co-operation of the Church with the State," 
 S. Mary-le-Tower, Ipswich, Church of England 
 Men's Society, in East Anglian Daily Times, 
 31 March, 1913. 
 
 "Friendly Societies and Character," Church Parade 
 of A.M.C. of Manchester Unity of Oddfellows, 
 Aberystwyth, 1914, in Cambrian News, i June, 
 1914. 
 
 "War as an Ordeal," Christian Social Union, Bow 
 Church, in the Challenge, 5 March, 1915. 
 
 "Our Duty to the Belgians," Cambridge Guildhall, 
 in Cambridge Daily News, 10 March, 1915. 
 
 "Magna Carta," S. Mary-le-Tower, Ipswich, in East 
 Anglian Daily Times, 20 June, 1915. 
 
 The Flesh and the Spirit, at Ely Cathedral, in Guar- 
 dian, 9 September, 1915. 
 
48 Books and Papers, chiefly on 
 
 SERMONS IN GREAT S. MARY'S, 
 CAMBRIDGE 
 
 "Marriage and Population," Sunday Evening Lec- 
 ture, 12 May, 1889, in The Path towards Know- 
 ledge, p. 3. 
 
 " Charity," Crane Commemoration, 1889, in The Path 
 towards Knowledge, p. Si. 
 
 "The Law of the Land and the Duty of Civil Obedi- 
 ence," Sunday Evening Lecture, 26 January, 
 1890, in The Path towards Knowledge, p. 213. 
 
 'The Presbyterians," Sunday Evening Lecture, 
 2 November, 1890, in The Path towards Know- 
 ledge, p. 165. 
 
 "The Unitarians," Sunday Evening Lecture, 8 Feb- 
 ruary, 1891, in The Path towards Knowledge, 
 p. 189. 
 
 "A United Cambridge," preached before the Mayor, 
 T. Hyde Hills, Esq., in Cambridge Independent 
 Press, 1 6 November, 1894, an d privately printed. 
 
 "The Three Witnesses," University Sermon, in Cam- 
 bridge Review, 4 June, 1896. 
 
 "The Defects of Paley," Sunday Evening Lecture, 
 in Cambridge Review, 3 February, 1898. 
 
 "Egoism in Political Life," Chevin Obit., 22 Sep- 
 tember, 1901, in The Gospel of Work, p. 121. 
 
 Brotherly Kindness and Charity, Crane Commemora- 
 tion. Macmillan and Bowes, 1901. 
 
 Christ's Kingliness, a sermon preached before the 
 Mayor, January 27, 1901, on the Sunday after 
 the Death of Queen Victoria. Macmillan and 
 Bowes. 
 
 National Intercession and National Thanksgiving, two 
 sermons on February 8, 1900, and January 2, 
 1902. Macmillan and Bowes. 
 
Religious Sub fact s^ *dnd \SerwQns.'. ^ 4$ 
 
 Preparation for the Cambridge Mission, Four Advent 
 Sermons, in Cambridge Daily News, December 
 i, 7, 15, 24, 1902. 
 
 "The Ministerial Commission," University Sermon^ 
 21 February, 1904, in The Cure of Souls, p. 112. 
 
 "England's Mission/' in Cambridge Chronicle, 4 Nov. 
 1904. 
 
 "The Service of God in Church and State/' Lady 
 Margaret Sermon, 1904, in The Cure of Souls, 
 p. 141. 
 
 "Poverty in South Africa/' Crane Commemoration, 
 in Cambridge Daily News, 10 October, 1905. 
 
 "The Centenary of Trafalgar," University Sermon, 
 1905, in The Wisdom of the Wise, p. 91. 
 
 The Meaning of Religious Education, a sermon 
 preached for the Old Schools of Cambridge, 
 30 December, 1906. S.P.C.K. 
 
 "Blended Aims in Missionary Work," Ramsden Ser- 
 mon, 1907, in The Cure of Souls, p. 127. 
 
 "The Dedication of the Colours of the Cambridge 
 Volunteers," 29 March, 1908, in Cambridge 
 Chronicle, 3 April, 1908. 
 
 "Farewell Sermon," in Cambridge Chronicle, 27 Nov. 
 1908. 
 
 "Patriotism," Territorial Church Parade, in Cam- 
 bridge Chronicle, 29 October, 1909. 
 
 "The Centenary of Friendly Societies," Church 
 Parade, in Cambridge Chronicle, 14 October, 1910. 
 
 "The University and Commercial Undertakings," 
 University Sermon, 18 June, 1911, in Efficiency 
 in Church of England, p. 99. 
 
 "Church and Dissent," Church Society Sermon, 
 12 Oct. 1911, in Efficiency in Church of England, 
 p. in. 
 
 "Impersonal Religion," University Sermon, in Cam- 
 bridge Daily News, 16 June, 1913. 
 
t q,n'd papers, etc. 
 
 "Regeneration of National Character," Day of Inter- 
 cession, 1915, in Cambridge Daily News, 4 Janu- 
 ary, 1915. 
 
 "The German Mind," Sunday Evening Address on 
 the Archbishop's Appeal, in Cambridge Daily 
 News, 7 June, 1915. 
 
 * British Citizens and their Responsibility to God. 
 Sermons in preparation for the National Mis- 
 sion, 1916. S.P.C.K. 
 
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