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THE LIBRARY
OF
THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA
PRESENTED BY
PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND
MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID
^Mw■m^^^rmf'^-
Digitized by the fnternet Archive
in 2007 with funding from
—' IVIicrosoft Corporation
rchive.org/details/ecclesiachurchprOOreynrich
ECCLESIA.
ECCLESIA:
Cl)urcl) ^vohltms Consttrereti,
IN A SERIES OF ESSAYS.
EDITED BY
HENRY ROBERT REYNOLDS, D.D.,
PRESIDENT OF CHESHUNT COLLEGE; FELLOW OF UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON.
lonDon :
HODDER AND STOUGHTON,
27, Paternoster Row.
MDCCCLXX.
O^BERS,
■*l; ATJD ^^
ADVERTISEMENT,
The principles of self-government, and of personal and
congregational freedom, are asserting themselves with
great force through the entire ecclesiastical sphere.
Reverence for conscience is widely associated with the
craving for truth. Those who have enjoyed any special
opportunities for acquiring knowledge, or whose opinions
on controverted questions represent a peculiar phase of
our national life, are encouraged to speak freely. The
present is not, therefore, an inappropriate time for writers
who have long been practically acquainted with the
excellencies and aims of a considerable section of the
Free Churches of Britain, to give combined utterance
to some of the theological, ecclesiastical, and political
principles, which are more or less embodied in these
organizations.
The following Essays have been written independently
of each other. This circumstance may be held to explain
occasional repetition of arguments from different points
of view, and some variations of sentiment. The authors
are severally and solely responsible for the ideas they
have ventured to express.
January, 1870.
M313163
CONTENTS.
PRIMITIVE ECCLESIA : Its Authoritative Principles and its
Modern Representations. By John Stoughton, D.D i
II.
THE IDEA OF THE CHURCH REGARDED IN ITS
HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT. By J. Radford Thomson,
M.A 59
' III.
THE "RELIGIOUS LIFE" AND CHRISTIAN SOCIETY. By
J. Baldwin Brown, B.A 133
IV.
THE RELATION OF THE CHURCH TO THE STATE. By
Eustace Rogers Conder, M.A 195
V.
THE FORGIVENESS AND ABSOLUTION OF SINS. By The
Editor ... 243
vi Contents,
VI.
PAGE
THE DOCTRINE OF THE REAL PRESENCE AND OF THE
LORD'S SUPPER. By R. W. Dale, M.A ... 315
VII.
THE WORSHIP OF THE CHURCH. By Henry Allon. ... 393
VIII.
THE CONGREGATIONALISM OF THE FUTURE. By
J. Guinness Rogers, B.A 463
IX.
MODERN MISSIONS AND THEIR RESULTS. By Joseph
Mullens, D.D. 533
PRIMITIVE ECCLESIA:
ITS AUTHORITATIVE PRINCIPLES
AND ITS MODERN REPRESENTATIONS.
REV. JOHN STOUGHTON, D.D. Edin.
PRIMITIVE ECCLESIA:
ITS AUTHORITATIVE PRINCIPLES AND ITS MODERN
REPRESENTATIONS.
Those who are acquainted with English Ecclesiastical
Controversy must be struck with the change which has
come over it of late years. It used to be the fashion to
recognize Scripture as our supreme authority upon this
subject, to repair to it as the main storehouse of argument,
and to regard it throughout as the last standard of appeal.
No doubt the old mode of discussion had its dis-
advantages ; texts were handled in a narrow unscientific
spirit of criticism ; some were applied to a service which
a larger and more accurate acquaintance wuth the Divine
records cannot justify ; and some, by being squeezed,
crushed, and distorted, were made to mean much more
than could have been originally designed.
The amount of information on ecclesiastical points
was not carefully measured, not correctly estimated ;
more was supposed to be taught than a deep and
thorough investigation warrants us to believe. By some
controversialists little or no scope was left for the action
of enlightened reason in the application of what the Bible
teaches, and in the practical administration of matters
concerning which the Bible is silent.
B
2 Primitive Ecclesia.
The method is now changed. Ecclesiastical subjects
are commonly debated on grounds of history, expediency,
and reason. By many writers no endeavour at all is
made to ascertain, by a survey of those parts of Scripture
which refer to the primitive Church, what was the nature
of its institutes ; and, consequently, the question is not
asked — After what manner should the teaching of the
New Testament be applied to the regulation of Church
affairs in the present day ? Here and there a text of
Scripture may be cited, if it happen to agree with a prior
conclusion, or if it sljould chance to discredit an an-
tagonist's position. Interest and novelty may, according
to this method, be imparted to a discussion of well-worn
topics. The danger of a threadbare iteration of familiar
quotations may be avoided ; a philosophical cast may dig-
nify a discussion. Light may be shed upon political and
social problems, and practical suggestions of considerable
value may be pertinently supplied ; but the point is left
untouched— What help does the Bible afford in these
matters ? Yet, surely, that Is the chief question after all.
At any rate the inquiry is one of great interest. If the
classical scholar devotes himself to the study of all he can
find In the literature of the ancients, bearing any relation
to the rise of the Greek Republics, or to the early stages
of the Roman Commonwealth — if English readers delight
to trace whatever can be discovered respecting the early
constitution of the government of this country; surely a
Christian man must feel pleasure in examining every
Scripture reference, even the most minute, to early com-
munities, — which, beyond those of Greece or Rome, or
England, are affecting our moral and religious destinies
as Individuals, and are really the parent stock from
which have sprung all the ecclesiastical organizations of
Christendom.
If the sacred notices of a primitive Church be so few,
Primitive Ecclesia. 3
so scanty, and so insufficient, that no idea can be satisfac-
torily formed of its fundamental principles ; or if Scripture
conclusions on the subject are inapplicable to the set-
tlement of modern controversies; or if the conditions
of society have so completely changed, that apostolical
precedents are necessarily obsolete ; at least let these
positions be clearly established, that we may know just
where we are, and search after sufficient reasons for
placing the whole subject upon a new foundation. In
the following Essay we must bear in mind the position
into which Church questions have drifted, and direct our
investigations accordingly.
The main object will be to ascertain what may be
learnt from the New Testament respecting the nature of
the primitive Ecclesia ; to consider how far its principles
are binding upon Christendom ; to discover the bearing
of our conclusions upon a great question of the present
day ; and to point out to what extent the Scripture ideal
is embodied in existing organizations.
What was the Character of the Primitive
Ecclesia ?
The first Ecclesia — or Church — consisted of the be-
lievers in Jerusalem, including the Apostles of Jesus
Christ, the disciples who associated with them after the
Ascension, and the persons who, on the day of Pentecost
embraced the faith. Drawn out of the world by mutual
sympathies springing from an experience at once new and
blessed, and evincing a simplicity of character perhaps
as great as their knowledge generally was small, they
communed, worshipped, and worked together, in order to
propagate the truths which they had received fresh from
heaven.
The^^;^^^^^ and formation of this kind of community
— this clustering of men around certain Divine prin-
B 2
4 Primitive Ecclesia.
ciples of faith, fellowship, and order— and the unfolding
of so new and strange a social nebula Into new and
strange social worlds, may be studied historically and
analytically — the progress of the idea In its practical
embodiment being traceable step by step through the
Acts, the Epistles, and the Apocalypse until the word
Church, at first popular and vague, assumes a technical
precision — and the sympathetic gathering, on the first
Pentecost at Jerusalem, reappears in the seven organized
societies of Asia Minor. The earliest idea of a Christian
Church is that of a brotherhood for the maintenance
and diffusion of religious convictions. Associations for
religious and benevolent purposes, apart from a distinct
recognition of particular opinions, have been common
enough in all ages ; but such associations are plainly
distinguishable from the EcclesicB of the Acts. For the
disciples in Jerusalem were emphatically believers ; the
pupils of a Divine Teacher, the earnest and devout re-
cipients and advocates of truths unknown to, or opposed
by, the world around them. The new converts continued
steadfastly In '' the apostles' doctrine;' their confederation
from its commencement being " a pillar and ground of
truthy Whether or not the term doctrine be meant In
the rigid sense of dogma — whether the word " truth " be
equivalent to theological principles or Christian senti-
ments — at any rate the shield as first displayed by the
Church was not like the shield of Amphlaraus, a blank
surface without device, but rather like the shield of
Minerva, which Phidias made with his name inwrought
in such a manner, that the one could not be extracted
without destroying the other. No merely vague re-
ligious feeling constituted the nexus of fellowship, but
faith in a Divine namCy the name of the world's Redeemer :
faith in Him as a Divine person, the ground of penitential
trust, and the foundation of saintly, hope — faith In the
Primitive Ecclesia, 5
doctrines respecting Him taught by men who '* spake as
they were moved by the Holy Ghost." Primitive truth
and the primitive Church were one : or at least so con-
nected do they appear that the idea of the latter dissolves,
when the idea of the former is withdrawn. The Church
comes before us at the beginning as a sympathetic conso-
ciation for maintaining and teaching the doctrines, as well
as for cherishing and diffusing the spirit of the Gospel.
The Church is not only a creation of the genius of Christi-
anity, it is a herald of the principles of Christianity.
A line must be drawn between Christianity as a re-
ligion and Christianity as a theology, between its vital
essence and its scientific expression ; and we may trace
in the apostolic age a progress in the unfolding of truth
even as we do a progress in the organizing of institutes.
The study of the Epistles in their chronological order
with this reference, is alike interesting and instructive in
the highest degree ; and the thoughtful reader of them,
when they are so arranged, will find how, in succession,
one truth after another came into prominent and distinct
manifestation before the mind of Christendom — the great
Inspirer of the first age adopting throughout a law of
development in harmony with maxims laid down by the
Incarnate Word.
On the side of fellowship, as on the side of faith, the
Church assumed a distinctive character. Not only were
the members united, but the object of their aggregation
is seen to be the culture of a unity which sunk down
infinitely deeper than the roots of ordinary communities.
'' The multitude of ^hem that believed were of one heart
and of one soul, neither said any of them that ought of
the things which he possessed was his own." '' Great
grace was upon them all." Union is exhibited as both
the beginning and the end of their fellowship. It appears
as the seed, and as the harvest of a new kind of love
6 Primitive Ecdesia.
with which the world was to be sown. Sympathy brought
disciples together, and they came into fellowship that they
might deepen that sympathy. Their sympathy was a
sentiment : it was also a life, an unselfish motive, a
Divine power, impelling its possessors to work for one
another's benefit, and for other men's salvation.
It has been asked, ** Is a Church a body of men
formed by the combination of certain men, who agree in
reverencing the name of Christ, or who have the same
opinion respecting His doctrine ; or is it a body instituted
by God Himself, to which men as men are invited to
belong, and to which no one can refuse to belong without
abandoning his own human privileges, and denying the
privileges of his fellow men ?" *
I answer unhesitatingly both ; for how can men accept
the universal invitation without agreement in reverencing
**the name of Christ ?" How can men belong to a body
instituted by God Himself, and claim their own privileges
and those of others, without faith in that institution as a
Divine one, and as resting on divinely revealed prin-
ciples ? How can they form a Christian body of men
at all, without having to some extent '' the same opinion
respecting " His doctrine," and without in consequence
entering into '' combination'' or communion ?
A community of the peculiar kind described in the
New Testament, could not but embody a principle
of selectness. In the nature of things, it could not be a
mere concourse of social atoms ; of necessity there
worked within it a law of afiinity, as real as any which
in chemistry draws together substances of similar kinds.
Like attracts like. Believers consorted with believers.
" Being let go they went to their own company," — a
statement, which expresses a moral fact deeper than
* Maurice's Kingdom of Christ, ii. i. I thank Mr. Maurice for admitting that nearly
all founders of tects have had glimpses of a principle deeper than that of mere combination.
A Church is a combination: but it is something more.
Primitive Ecclesia. 7
the mere circumstance which it records. And the law
of selection and affinity, acting on its negative side,
could not but become the innocent occasion of repulsion
or exclusion. '' What fellowship hath righteousness with
unrighteousness, and what communion hath light with
darkness, and what concord hath Christ with Belial, or
what part hath he that believeth with an infidel, and
what agreement hath the temple of God with idols ?"
Such an inquiry is perfectly natural, and admits but of
one answer. The human race is composed of alienated
tribes, a nation may consist of disaffected masses, a
family may be divided in views and interests, associations
for particular purposes may contain heterogeneous mate-
rials ; but no company meeting together from a sentiment
of union, and for the promotion of union, — from moral
sympathies, and with the desire of spreading them, wave
beyond wave, circle beyond circle, — can do otherwise
than lay down rules of admission and order which must
exclude or must remove those who are antagonistic or
alien. Every modern association, every club based upon
friendship and acquaintance, the democratic as well as
the aristocratic, is an example of this. Discipline is
indispensable to a society, as distinguished from a mob.
It arises not as something accidental, or conventional ;
but as a necessary outgrowth of the deepest and strongest
social life.
The primitive Christian community could not be called
exclusive in any odious sense. Odious exclusiveness can
only mean pride, selfishness, antipathy, a dislike to the
01 TToXkol^ — a desire to shut out as many as possible from
the privileged enclosure ; — but an Ecclesia was, as far as
possible, removed from feelings of that description ; for it
sought to bring as many as possible within the limits of
the fold, and refused none who had an honest desire to
enter within its borders. Yet it is remarkable that in an
8 Primitive Ecclesia.
association framed to rest on the corner stones of a
Catholic charity, an awful act of exclusion occurs in the
case of Ananias and Sapphira,* and it is also plain that
laws of discipline are laid down by the Apostle Paul,
laws which on reflection are recognized by us as natural
and necessary, for healthy bodies do, and ever must,
throw off whatever is diseased and corrupt.
Next to fellowship comes worship. They who '' con-
tinued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellow-
ship" also united ''in breaking of bread and in prayers."
Religious people, meeting for religious purposes, could
not do otherwise than engage in acts of praise and
supplication. From the circumstances of the case the
worship must have been simple. The idea of any
elaborate ritual is inconceivable. Not a word is said
of vestments, or of attitudes, or of any forms at all ;
indeed no room existed for such regulations, and all
must admit that things of that kind, whether right or
wrong, are entirely the production of succeeding ages.
Whatever more the breaking of bread may denote — pro-
bably a social meal, some sort of Agape, or love feast, it is
obvious that the communion of the Lord's Supper con-
stituted an essential part of the social service. It is not
only curious, but important, to notice how eating together
appears as a symbol of Christian union and charity, and
how this symbol became complicated with early con-
troversies. Jews and Gentiles had been wont to keep
aloof from each other's tables. The *' clean " would not
eat with the '' unclean," but they were called upon to do
so, after caste had been broken by Peter's vision at Joppa.
People from the east and west, the north and south, were
to sit down together in the Kingdom of God. Conse-
quently, a new social law entwined itself around the
communion of the body and blood of Christ ; yet not so
* Acts V. i-ii. f I Cor. V. 5 2 Cor. ii. ; Gal. vi. i j 2 Thess. ill. 6.
Primitive Ecclesia. 9
as to obscure the doctrinal signification of the Institute as
pointing to the pecuHar method of human redemption.
The sacrificial atonement of our Lord was prominently
exhibited, and inseparable from that, there existed a
recognition of the fact, that having made peace by the
blood of His Cross, having rent the vail between man
and God, He also broke down the middle wall of par-
tition between man and man. The initiatory rite of
Baptism had become included in the ceremonial service
of Christianity; and the simplicity, we might almost say,
the nakedness of that service altogether, is conspicuously
orieinal and remarkable.
Thus far we reach a threefold result. Faith, including
theology ; fellowship, including discipline ; and worship,
including prayer, praise, baptism, and the Lord's Supper,
— these were fundamental elements in the original polity.
As to the promulgation of the faith — preaching is a
Divine institute, characteristic of the Church ; and also
of the Gospel which the Church proclaims. Although
by no means confined to any particular order of men —
for *' those who were scattered abroad, by the persecution
of Stephen, went everywhere preaching the Word ;" —
yet in point of fact, the office of preacher was fulfilled,
principally by the Apostles and their companions ; and
it is remarkable that, in the memorable passage in the
Epistle to the Ephesians, respecting office and instru-
mentality In the Church, the reference throughout Is
mainly to teaching, rather than government. " And he
gave some apostles ; and some prophets ; and some evan-
gelists ; and some pastors and teachers ; for the perfect-
ing of the saints, for the w^ork of the ministry, for the
edifying of the body of Christ."
Other functions besides preaching had to be discharged
by officers appointed over the new societies, in order to
the furtherance of their well being*
lo Primitive Ecclesia.
We have noticed Christian disciples as grouped together
by spiritual affinities, we must also regard them as
grouped together in relation to particular localities.
People in cities and districts, being converted by the
Gospel, associated together, as did those at Jerusalem ; and
in their social proceedings, they acted under direction of
the Apostles,andof their companions and representatives.
Paul " departed with Barnabas to Derbe, and when they
had preached the Gospel in that city, and had taught
many, they returned again to Lystra and to Iconium and
Antloch, confirming the souls of the disciples, — and when
they had ordained them elders (presbyters) in every
Church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended
them to the Lord on whom they believed." * Again,
Paul and Silas went throughout Syria and Cilicia con-
firming the EcclesicB. f
Paul besought Timothy to abide at Ephesus that he
might charge some that they should teach no other
doctrine than he had taught. He described to Timothy
what a bishop should be, evidently meaning by a bishop
the same officer as he subsequently called an elder. And
Paul further charged Timothy to commit what he had
received to faithful men who should be able to teach
others also. \ The same Apostle left Titus in Crete, that
he might set in order the things that were wanting, and
ordain elders in every city.§
I have thought it best in this rapid sketch to adhere
as closely as possible to New Testament language, and
to refrain generally from using equivalents, since modern
* Acts xiv. 21, 3.
f Acts XV. 41.
According to the true reading in Acts ii. 47, the words should be, *' the Lord added to
their number.^'' The first instance, then, of the occurrence of the word Ecclesia in the Acts is
in V. 1 1 ; next vii. 385 viii. i, 35 ix. 31, where the correct reading is, "The Church
throughout all Judaea and Galilee and Samaria." (See Tischendorf and Alford.) In these
instances, is the word used in any technical sense ? Does not the technical usage begin with
Acts xiv. 21 ?
X I Tim i. 3; I Tim. iii. i j 2 Tim. ii. i. § Titus i. 5.
Primitive Ecclesia, 1 1
expressions respecting these subjects may prove much
more, or much less than equivalent; perhaps they are
quite different, at any rate, they often mislead.
So far, then, we find Apostles, and persons specially
commissioned by Apostles, performing certain kinds of
religious superintendence. Such officers, however, were
rather over the Churches than within them. They were
not properly ecclesiastical, looking at the nature and con-
stitution of a local Ecclesia, but they were really super-
ecclesiastical. They appear as founders and directors of
Churches, ab extra, rather than as ministers of them
ab i7itra. Officers of the latter kind whom they or-
dained are called elders or overseers, presbyters or
bishops, — words used interchangeably, about which there
has been much controversy. The words have acquired,
in the course of time, technical significations, pointing
to what are styled two orders, but that no such technical
distinction exists in the New Testament, distinguished
episcopalian scholars are prepared to admit:* and I may
add, that to insist upon a distinction of meaning in these
titles, is by no means essential to the maintenance of an
argument In support of diocesan episcopacy. We may
then at once set the distinction aside, and affirm that
there remain only Apostles and their representative officers,
ab extra in relation to particular local Ecclesice, and pres-
byters or bishops, purely spiritual officers, ab intra.
The Christian ministry has proved a theme fertile of
debate. Arguments of conflicting kinds have grown up
under the husbandry of opposing parties. Plenty of
dragon's teeth have been sown, plenty of warriors .have
been reaped, and their fate has been that of Jason's
harvest of armed men : they have nearly, if not
quite, destroyed one another. A complete idea of the
* See Alford on i Tim. iii. i j also Whately's Kingdom of Christ, and Lightfoot's
Commentary on the Philippians.
12 Primitive Ecclesia.
Christian ministry should be sought in its latest develop-
ment, and the last development appears in the seven
Epistles of the Apocalypse. In them the Angel is
mentioned. I am aware that difficulties beset the
interpretation of the term. It is the forlorn hope of
some advocates of diocesan episcopacy, and to it, con-
gregational critics of learning and candour strangely
affix a symbolical interpretation. That it does not mean
a diocesan prelate I infer from the previous writings
in the New Testament. That it is symbolical, I see
no reason to believe. The contents of the Epistles
relate to the members of each Society at large, and it is
only consistent to regard the letters as addressed to the
chief officer. Ephesus, when Paul was at Miletus, had
its one Church, with a plurality of elders. At the time
when the Apocalypse was written, that plurality could
scarcely have dwindled down to a ministerial unit.
Hence I cannot resist the conclusion that some one of
the Ephesian pastors acted as chief superintendent ab
intra of the Church ; not as a diocesan prelate, but as
a primus inter pares.
In connection with the final development of the
ministry, another circumstance appears. The seven
Churches, addressed in the seven Epistles, are presented
as distinct from each other ; no sign of common govern-
ment is visible ; no other bonds of union amongst the
Churches can be recognized, than the interchange of
common spiritual sympathies and subjection to a common
Divine law. The seven-branched candlestick, chosen by
the Son of Man as an emblem of the seven Societies,
signifies at once their organic independence, and their
moral unity.
It should be further remarked, that congregational
pastors were rulers.* They ruled in the name of their
* I Thess. V. 12} Heb. xiii, 17.
Primitive Ecclesia. 1 3
Divine Master, administering His laws, not enacting any
of their own; yet, as in Jewish cities, in Greek Republics,
and in the Roman Commonwealth, popular influence ob-
tained in connection with magisterial control and authority;
so in Christian Churches, — which although divinely con-
stituted, were not framed irrespective of harmony with
ancient usage, political wisdom and common sense, — the
people had a voice in the election of officers, the exercise
of discipline, and the management of affairs. In the
case of the election of seven men of honest report to be
appointed by Apostles over the business of the daily
ministration, the practice of a popular choice Is unde-
niable,* and in the absence of anything to the contrary,
it may be fairly inferred to have been the practice also in
other ecclesiastical elections. Apostles appointed the
seven at Jerusalem, yet notwithstanding this there was a
popular election ; and therefore, the appointment by
Apostles of bishops In Churches, by no means excludes
the popular mode of electing them. Also the consent of
the people in acts of discipline is Implied. \
Besides the office of bishop, Paul mentions the office
of deacon. Of candidates for it he says, '' Let these
also first be proved, then let them use the office of a
deacon, being found blameless." " They that have used
the office of a deacon well purchase to themselves a good
degree, and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ
Jesus." In studying these words we must lay aside
sectarian prejudice ; and if we connect them, as I think
we ought, with the history in the Acts, of the appoint-
ment of the seven, we are led to inquire whether the words
do not suggest the Idea of other functions than minis-
tering to the necessities of poor saints ? No particular
class of women is mentioned under the name of deacon-
esses, but *' widows" are alluded to as a class of female
* Acts vi. 1-7. t I Cor. v. 45 2 Cor. ii. 7.
14 Primitive Ecclesia,
officers, or workers, and a rule respecting age is laid
down for admission ''into the number:" hints also are
given as to their character and employments ; but how
far they constituted an organized body admits of doubt*
Their place in Scripture, however, is no more to be
overlooked by any one honestly desiring to know the
exact nature of a primitive Church, than the place
assigned to the following remarkable ecclesiastical dis-
tinction : " Let the elders that rule well be counted
worthy of double honour, especially they who labour in
the word and doctrine." What follows expresses the
law of pastoral support : " For the Scripture saith, thou
shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn, and
the labourer is worthy of his reward." It would be a
waste of words here, to adduce evidence In proof of
the fact, that the primitive Churches derived their
revenues entirely from voluntary gifts ; — State endow-
ment, or any kind of compulsory taxation, being then
impossible.
An important Inquiry remains in connection with the
subject of the perpetuation of the primitive fellowship.
What was the extent of a primitive Church ? One thing
is plain, we nowhere find in the New Testament any
trace of a Church, co-extensive with the limits of an
empire, the limits of a country, or the limits of a pro-
vince. Nor does the conception of a Church so large
comport with the conception of a Church as founded
upon any considerable degree of knowledge and sym-
pathy ; or as capable of meeting, at least sometimes, '' In
one place." t On the other hand, allusion is made (a.d.
57) to an Ecclesia in the house of Aqulla at Ephesus ;
and (a.d. 58) to an Ecclesia in his house at Rome, —
probably the premises which he employed as a tent-maker
* See a carefully writren article in Smith's Dictionary of the Bible on the word
"Deaconess." i Tim. v. 17, 18 j also see i Cor. ix. 7-12.
f I Cor. xi. 20.
Primitive Ecclesia. 15
might be convenient for worship;* — also (about a.d. 62) to
an Ecclesia in the house of Philemon at Colossae : t and in
the same year, to an Ecclesia in the house of Nymphas in
that city.]: Whether the term in these passages is to be
taken in a specific and technical sense, as meaning an
organized and complete Church, to say the least, admits
of question, and in my opinion the question should be
answered negatively, for this reason. In the i ith chapter
of Acts V. 30 (a.d. 44), we first read of elders. Even the
Ecclesia at Corinth, to which the Apostle wrote his first
Epistle (a.d. 57), must at that time have been in a
confused and inchoate condition. No mention is made
of its having bishops ; great irregularities prevailed ;
discipline was neglected ; those who professed Christ-
ianity in the city at that time seem to have met for the
exercise of their gifts, and for the .celebration of the
Lord's Supper, without what could be called definite
organization. The Ecclesia at Corinth at that period
cannot be considered as equivalent to what the Church
afterwards became, with its full complement of bishops
and deacons, and its regular method of government,
discipline, and worship.
Now if the word Ecclesia ^ in its strictly technical sense
can scarcely be applied to the assembly in the city of
Corinth : how can we apply it in such a sense to com-
panies of believers meeting about the same time, in the
house of Aquila, whilst he resided at Ephesus, and then
in the house of the same person, whilst he dwelt at Rome?
Cenchrea, the harbour of Corinth, had in it an Ecclesia
when Paul wrote to the Romans ;§ and there probably
existed a distinct Christian community — the harbour
being nine miles distant from the city. In all other
cases in which particular localities are mentioned, they
* I Cor. xvi. 19 (a.o. 57). The place Ephesus, where the Epistle was written, is
pointed out in the 8th verse of the chapter. Rom. xvi. 3-5 (a.d. 58).
■ t Philemon 2 (a d. 61 or 62). % ^°^' '^' '5 ('^•"- ^* ^'' ^^)' § R-om- xvi. i.
1 6 Primitive Ecclesia.
are cities ; putting aside the indecisive passages just
mentioned, no Instance can be found of more than a
single Church in a single municipality; the rule, it
appears, being that a whole Church should meet at times
in one place, and that one Church should be gathered
out of one city. As Christians multiplied, the problem
would arise — If the observance of the double rule be no
longer possible, if all Christians in a large town cannot
any longer meet in one place — which side of the rule
shall be maintained, which side shall be surrendered ?
Is the oneness of the locality to be preferred to the one-
ness of the body, or the oneness of the body to the
oneness of the locality ? Looking at the strength of
personal sympathy amongst primitive believers, and
looking at the nature and ends of their organization, it
seems most likely that they would be prepared to sacri-
fice a unity of place to a unity of persons ; yet that they
would hold occasionally a large gathering on the same
spot, for the sake of keeping alive religious sympathy,
which existed within them as a second nature, and for
the sake of enjoying a spiritual communion, which was
felt by them as one of their deepest needs. They would
be very unwilling to break up a large community into
a number of sections organically distinct ; and having kept
together as long as they could, when compelled to part
they would make the partition as slight as possible.
A plurality of pastors in a large Church followed as a
necessity, and accordingly the earliest Churches of which
we read had more bishops than one.
But the primitive pastorate, although a plurality, could
not be a hierarchy, for, as we have seen, there existed no
distinction of orders, only the simplest official gradation ;
if, indeed, 2. primus inter pares can be regarded as Involv-
ing official gradation at all. Nor did the ministry bear
the character of a priesthood, any more than it did the
Primitive Ecclesia, 1 7
character of a hierarchy. It offered no sacrifice but that
of love and praise, in the presentation of which the people
united equally with the ministers ; and it never pointed
to any vicarious service, save that of Christ Himself.
Subject to anti-hierarchical and anti-sacerdotal limitations,
the primitive ministry might legitimately develop itself in
manifold ways of arrangement and operation, and doubtless
did so, with a division of labour suited to particular gifts.
Nor does an example occur in the New Testament of
any ecclesiastical assembly composed simply of persons
sustaining ministerial office. The meeting described in the
Acts of the Apostles differs essentially from the Councils and
the Convocations of subsequent times. Paul and Barnabas
were received of the Chui^ch and of the Apostles and elders.
The Apostles and elders and the whole Church chose men
of their own company to proceed with Paul and Barnabas
to Antioch ; and the Apostles and elders and brethrcfi
joined in writing the letter which was sent to the Christians
of that city.* Of the body which decided the question
in dispute the people formed an integral element.
The points I have suggested require expansion beyond
what the limits of this Essay will allow ; but I may be per-
mitted to add that the central idea of a voluntary and
congregational, not a national Church — of one Church in
in a city, not a plurality — of a Church resting on faith in
distinctive truths, and exercising discipline amongst its
members, continued to be embodied for a considerable
period after the removal of the Apostles.
In the time of Clemens Romanus, the disciples of
Christ in Corinth formed one Church, called the Church
of God in Corinth. Those of Ephesus and Rome, not to
go beyond the Syriac version of his Epistles, are called
respectively by Ignatius, the Churches in those cities.
The number of members in the Carthaginian Church
* Acts XV. 4, 22, 23.
C
1 8 Primitive Ecclesia.
must have been very large, when TertulHan, remonstrating
with Scapula, remarked that if that officer were to destroy
the Christian people, he would extirpate the tenth part of
the whole population.* The number of Christians in
Rome and in Alexandria must have been larger still, and
in each of these three cities all the people professing
Christianity formed one distinct voluntary community, and
only one. No early instance can be given of a Christian
Church coincident in extent with the boundaries of a
State, or of a plurality of distinct Churches in the same
city, — except where a schism occurred, — or of a Christian
community supported by other than voluntary contribu-
tions. Christians in the same city met together at
certain times for common purposes — for communion, for
discipline, and for the general management of affairs.
Cyprian at Carthage superintended Church affairs In the
presence, and with the council, of the people In general, f
In Alexandria, at a later period, the orthodox in com-
munion with Athanasius, maintained their unity by
meeting together with him on the same spot, and
by guarding their faith against that which they con-
sidered to be pernicious error. Of the same people,
Athanasius says that at times they assembled in several
places, which he describes as being '' small and strait," \
and afterwards Epiphanius speaks of different meeting-
places in the same city, each of which had its own
presbyter or presbyters dwelling near to it ; § a plan which,
so far, — according to the latter of these writers and in the
opinion of certain distinguished critics and archaeologists, —
was an Alexandrian peculiarity, the usual practice being
for all the Christians in the same place to be served by
members of the same presbytery. ||
* Ad. Scap., s. 5, f Ep. xiv. 5 ; xvi. 3 ; xvil.
% Athanasius Apol. Contra. Arianos, L. II. § Epiphanius Hser., p. 69.
Ij Bingham's Christian Antiq., vol, ii. p. 4.29.
Primitive hcclesia. 19
Bingham remarks, that the external poHty and govern-
ment of Churches, as to their Hmlts and method of
administration, agreed with the Imperial municipal
arrangements.* They did so ultimately; but they were
not originally founded upon those arrangements. The
government and discipline of bishops and presbyters in
the first three centuries could not be territorial, they could
be only congregational, comprising the voluntary pro-
fessors of the Gospel in a certain district, and not laying
claim to any control over the inhabitants in general.
Bingham's allusions to the municipal model, whilst they
serve to throw light upon the extent of the early
Churches, also help to explain the rise and progress of
prelacy; but all the way through his learned disquisition
he confuses the subject, by confounding the congrega-
tional with the territorial principle.
Are the Principles of the Primitive Institute
binding upon the conscience of christendom ?
We may at once answer in a general way : the evidence
pr una facie, the proof presumptive is, that these principles
having been adopted by divinely-commissioned Apostles,
are an authority for ecclesiastical institutes and proceed-
ings to the end of the world. They cannot, however, be
used in conducting Christian affairs, without a compre-
hensive and thorough consideration, not only of their
own nature and extent, but also of the circumstances and
wants of mankind in modern times. There is no
short cut by which thoughtful men can make their
way through the numerous inquiries which beset the
subject.
We are met by one or two preliminary questions upon
our attempting to take the first step : Ought not the
teaching of the Old Testament to be combined with that
* Christian Antiq., vol. ii. p. 253.
C 2
20 Primitive Ecclesia,
of the New before any Scriptural model of ecclesiastical
polity can be framed at all ? Some aver that the prin-
ciples of the Jewish Church should be studied first, that
they should then be combined with the principles of the
early Christian communities, and that the result of this
combination should form the standard of all subsequent
proceedings. But against this, there lies an objection
obvious and fatal.
The Jewish Church was, in certain respects, and those
the most characteristic and striking, so utterly different
from the Churches instituted by the Apostles, that a com-
bination of the principles of the first, with the principles of
the second. Is simply impossible. New Testament pre-
cedents may be set aside for the sake of adopting Old
Testament examples ; — the system pursued by the early
Christians may be exchanged for the system practised by
the House of Israel ; but the one can never be modified
by the other. It is a question not of modification, but of
revolution ; as we see at once, when we compare the
principal features of the one, with what were the prominent
marks of the other.
The Jewish Church was national, and so constituted
by law. Whatever theory may be entertained, whether
that of alliance between Church and State, or that of the
identity of Church and State, or that of the control of the
one by the other, the fact of the State-nationality of the
Israelitish religion remains. It formed a Church In its
extent coincident with national boundaries, and In Its
order bound up with national laws. But It is certain that
Christianity was not originally national either In the one
sense or the other. Jewish Christians, Indeed, wished
and endeavoured to make the new Church national, after
the old method; they sought to do so by extending it on
the one side, and by limiting it on the other, according
to the number of the seed of Jacob. An Intense spirit of
Primitive Ecclcsia. 21
nationality under this form animated all the Judalzing
plans and practices of the teachers, whom Paul so sternly
rebuked for their retrograde theories. The nationalizing
of Christianity, In the nobler sense of its penetrating and
purifying national life, lifting up the whole population to
heights of virtue and excellence, so as to make Jerusalem
the joy of the earth, the Apostle would have been glad
enough to behold ; but the nationalizing of it, in the sense
of identifying the circle of its range, with the admeasure-
ment of the land, or with the census of the people, he de-
precated with an indignation as earnest as it was righteous.
The religion of Christ he wished to see carried throughout
the earth ; walls of partition between country and country,
between race and race, he sought to pull down ; he aimed
at making Jew and Greek, Barbarian, Scythian, bond
and free, one in Christ. But as to organized Churches,
he planted them one after another distinctly and inde-
pendently In city after city, — In this respect following
examples of still earlier Apostolic zeal. Paul's Churches
were confessedly congregational, not national — Inde-
pendent, not interlaced in the network of a political
system. Congregationalism, such as his, completely van-
ishes, and is entirely lost in a national ecclesiastlcism like
that of Judaism.
The Jewish Church had a priesthood, a sacerdotal
order — a caste appointed for the sole offering of sacri-
fices, and for the sole performance of ceremonies. But
the earliest Christian ministers were of another kind ; they
preached, they ruled, they administered discipline, they
baptized. The festival of the Lord's Supper was cele-
brated by the believers, but it is impossible to prove,
from the New Testament, that Christian pastors alone
administered — as it is sometimes termed — the holy rite ;
and It is significantly acknowledged by those to whose
views It would be a support could they maintain the con-
22 * Primitive Ecclesia,
trary, that '' the tone of the New Testament is unsacra-
mental, and the impression it leaves onthe mind is not
that of a priesthood and its attendant system."* To
claim for the Christian ministry a sacerdotal character, is
to revolutionize and overturn, not to develop or even
supplement the original institution.
Jewish priests were supported partly by tithes, and
partly by what the law had appropriated to their use, out
of the offerings which they placed upon the altar. The
tithes did not wholly fall into the hands of the priests —
a share belonged to other Levites. No power seems
to have existed for the compulsory enforcement of the
claim attaching to the tribe thus divinely endowed.
Certainly, nobody can maintain that any compulsory tithe
system was ever established, or thought of, by the
founders of Christendom. A tenth in some cases may
be a fair and wise proportion of property to be bestowed
voluntarily for religious uses ; but not a word can be
found in the New Testament to show that even a law of
that kind, appealing only to spontaneous action, is there
laid down. To plead the Jewish tithe system as sanc-
tioning a legal charge on land is not merely to modify
the method of contributing, it is really to shift the rights
of revenue from the ground of voluntary tribute, and to
place them upon another, and entirely opposite basis.
In speaking upon these points I do not touch the
question whether, in our day, the maintenance of national
Churches, or the institution of a priesthood, or the support
of the ministry by means of tithes, be right or wrong.
At present our thoughts are confined to the inquiry,
Can the ecclesiastical constitution of Judaism be harmo-
niously incorporated with the Apostolic instiutions of
Christianity ? The true answer is unquestionably in the
negative.
* Tracts for the Times, No. 85, p. 58.
Primitive Ecclesia, 23
Further, It may be asked, in limine, Ought not the
teaching of the New Testament, on this subject, to be
interpreted in the light of Church history ? I reply,
certainly it should ; and I have attempted so to inter-
pret it in this Essay ; but there are two things which it is
essential to keep in view : — that no legislative authority
attaches to the proceedings of the ante-Nicene, any more
than to the post-Nicene Church ; that usages are not
proved to be Apostolic and Divine, simply because they
obtained in the third, or even the second century ; and
that a distinction must be made between normal and
abitormal developments ; between those practices which
are legitimate outgrowths of Scripture principles, and
those which are the results of innovations upon divinely-
authorized methods. With this understanding, it is wise
to study Scripture In the light of history. The effect
will be instructive, stimulating, and cautionary ; — In-
structive ; for we shall trace what will explain and illustrate
primitive precedents ; we shall see forms and usages
instituted by Apostles, perpetuated through after ages in
altered circumstances — a fact which corroborates the con-
viction, that they were not of transient utility, but of
enduring worth : — Stimulating ; for we shall find, that
the Churches near to Apostolic times, and largely con-
formed to Apostolic examples, were as vigorous and
efficient in their work of Christianizing the heathen popu-
lation around them, as they were simple In their piety,
and self-sacrificing in their spirit : — and Cautionary ; for
in later times, when innovations had crept in, had become
developed, and had been stereotyped by tradition, we
meet on every page of history, with proofs of the mis-
chievous results which followed.
And now having cleared the ground, it is time to ask.
In what 'way are we to estimate the principles of the New
Testament, and apply them to the age in which we live ?
24 Primitive Ecclesia,
The old Puritans laid down the position, that '' The
Word of God containeth the direction of all things
pertaining to the Church, yea, of whatsoever things
can fall into any part of man's life." * This is one of those
unguarded positions into which ardent minds are betrayed
by a blind consistency. The Puritans, indeed, adopted a
principle which lies at the foundation of Protestantism—
the sufficiency of Scripture; but in answering the ques-
tion, "Sufficient for what ?" although at times speaking
cautiously, at other times they pledged themselves to this
rash answer, " Sufficient for all things." " Whatsoever
is not of faith, is sin ; but faith is not but in respect of
the Word of God ; therefore whatsoever is not done
by the Word of God, is sin." * Then rejoined their
opponents, " To take up a straw," without warrant from
the Word of God, is sin. With logical consistency, equally
honest and simple, they rashly admitted that — " The
sentence of the Apostle reacheth even to the taking up a
straw." f Added explanations took off the edge of the
absurdity, but the position was unwise and untenable;
consequently Hooker, immortally renowned as the
"judicious," assailed this weak point, and triumphantly
drove his antagonists from their outpost of defence. He
incontestably 'demonstrates that reason is a Divine gift,
and that it speaks where Scripture is silent. Yet the
ecclesiastical principle which the Puritans meant to cover
and defend — the principle of the authority and unchange-
ablenessof a revealed Church polity — Hooker substantially
admits. He does not, like his antagonists, believe that
the revelation came of necessity, but he allows that it
came by special favour or grace. He does not believe
it to be perfect and complete, so as to supply directions
in all exigencies ; but he does admit " the precepts that
Scripture setteth down are not few, and the examples
* Cartwright's Reply, p. 14. f Second Reply, p. 60.
Primitive Ecclesia. 25
many, which It proposeth for all Church governors even
in particularities to follow." * And although this deep
thinker sometimes talks perilously of altering Christ's
laws, he says : — " In the matter of external discipline, or
regiment Itself, we do not deny but there are some things
whereto the Church is bound till the world's end." f And
again, he maintains, '' Our constant persuasion Is, that
we have no where altered the laws of Christ, further than
in such particularities only as have the nature of things
changeable, according to the difference of times, places, per-
sons,and other the like circumstances." He adds: ''What-
soever Christ hath commanded for ever to be kept in
His Church, the same we take not upon us to abrogate." \
Hooker arrived at conclusions differing from those which
are expressed in this Essay respecting what the Scrip-
tures teach as to Church polity ; but the general maxims
which he propounds, before he enters upon details in the
latter part of his great work, are, on the whole, such as
may be consistently adopted by Congregatlonallsts. I
have referred to Hooker because of his great authority
with Churchmen, and an appeal to his reasonings will, with
such persons, prove much more satisfactory than any
arguments which might be produced by one like myself ;
and because an original discussion of the subject would
involve deeper inquiries into the grounds and reasons of
ecclesiastical law, than within the compass of this Essay
it is possible to undertake. §
To adopt the quaint language of a distinguished
Puritan : — In the Scripture there is not only what covers
the Church's nakedness, but there are also " chains, and
* Eccl. Pol., book III. chap, iv., also chap. xi. ; Keble's ed. I. p. 452.
■f- Ibid., book III. chap. xi. ; Keble, I. p. 512.
X Ibid., book III. chap. xi. j Keble, I. p. 513.
§ Vide the first book of the Eccl. Poliry. How profound is the remark : — •* Easier
a great deal is it for men by law to be taught what they ought to do than instructed how to
judge as they should do of law, the one being a thing which belongeth generally unto all j
the other, such as none but the wiser and more judicious sort can perform." — Chap. xvi.
26 Primitive Ecclesia.
bracelets, and rings, and other jewels to adorn her and set
her out." Not only sufficient to quench her thirst and
kill her hunger, but much also to minister " a more
delicious and dainty diet." *
What amount of ecclesiastical information the New-
Testament affords we have attempted to determine, and
its binding force in a general way is so plain as to be
acknowledged by opposite parties.
It would be as unreasonable towards ourselves, as it
would be irreverent towards Christ, to speculate or dispute
about ideal Churches, without studying as applicable, and
obeying as authoritative, the things which we find written
in the one Book, which all Christians unite to honour.
With the Puritans I feel satisfied, that Christ has laid
down ecclesiastical laws for His Church, and that those
laws cannot be abrogated; and with Hooker I feel satisfied,
that in the interpretation and application of them, enlight-
ened Christian reason, which is a gift no less Divine than
the laws themselves, is our counsellor and commentator.
But at this point, we must take care lest, after all, we
are not left at sea, without chart or compass. A distinct
and clear understanding is requisite as to what we mean
by the binding force of the Scriptures in a general way,
and by the province of enlightened Christian reason
touching this subject.
I venture to suggest the following particulars : —
1. Ends are to be distinguished from means ; the
ends being the promulgation of the faith, the perpetuation
of the fellowship, and the maintenance of the worship
of the Church — confessedly these ends are divinely
proposed, they are immutable and everlasting, and all
ecclesiastical proceedings whatsoever, must aim at their
attainment.
2. Certain primitive means were essential, others only
* Cartwright's Reply, p. 14 .
Primitive Ecclesia. 27
subordinate. The ordinance of preaching ; the appoint-
ment of bishops and deacons ; the preservation of morahty
and religion in Churches by careful discipline ; the con-
finement of them within such local limits as allow the
development of sympathy and the exercise of power ;
and a reliance for the temporal support of Christianity
upon free-will offerings, — these, regarded in the light of
our preceding remarks, are, beyond question, fundamental
methods for securing the ecclesiastical purpose indicated
in the New Testament. On the other hand, the pecu-
liar arrangements at Jerusalem for assisting the poor
(the brethren having all things common, whatever that
may mean), appear unessential, and therefore temporary.
And other minor matters require to be placed in the
same category, without involving any sacrifice of loyalty
to Divine legislation.
3. Certain powers of government existed in primitive
times necessarily without subsequent parallel. The
Apostles were persons in their official relation so com-
pletely sui generis, that they could not leave behind them
perfectly corresponding successors ; and other powers of
superintendence and control, such as were exercised by
Timothy and Titus, were needful, simply in consequence
of the immature and unsettled condition of the Churches
which they were appointed to nurture and strengthen.
4. These distinctions are to be borne in mind in
applying primitive precedents to ourselves ; whilst we
are bound to follow what is fundamental and plain, there
can be no obligation to seek conformity to that which
is uncertain or incidental. That which from the very
nature of the case was confined to the primitive age,
renders imitation by us impossible ; and what pertained
to particular conditions and exigencies in ancient days,
can be repeated only when similar circumstances arise in
our own times. For example the ab extra ofifice of men
28 Primitive Ecclesia.
like Timothy and Titus, may require, and does actually
find, a rather closely corresponding parallel in the functions
exercised by the superintendents of missionary operations
both at home and abroad.
5. In the use of primitive precedents for the regulation
of ecclesiastical affairs, large allowance must be made for
differences of age, of country, and of circumstances ; and
respecting a variety of matters, a liberal discretion must
be exercised, under the control of a jealous regard for the
simplicity and the spirituality of the Church of Christ.
Moreover, when Scripture is silent on specific points,
nothing remains to guide us but its general spirit,
according to the judgment of our own reason, enlightened
by experience, observation, and history. Yet, in the
case of conclusions so reached, and adopted for the sake
of order and seemliness, never should they be imposed
as essential terms of communion upon any disciples of
Christ, who seek the consolation to be derived from the
holy ordinances of the Divine Master.
Finally, in working out the development of ecclesiastical
principles, we must carefully guard against any de-
velopment which is abnormal and illegitimate, and in our
plans for securing ecclesiastical prosperity, no additions
must be made to the primitive model, except such as are
in harmony with its genius and spirit. Innovations, de-
cidedly foreign and incongruous, I may observe, were at
an early period introduced into Christendom. Some of
them might be almost infinitesimal in their origin and
first appearance, but they contained germs of error and
evil, and through their subsequent growth, and their tra-
ditional preservation, flagrant deviations from Christian
truth and rectitude at length occurred. History reads
us a serious lecture upon the consequences of abnormal
developments. For example, the union between Church
and State, as it existed during the Middle Ages, no doubt
Primitive Ecciesia, 29
produced certain social advantages, but It also resulted in
enormous disadvantages. To mention nothing else, the
power of persecution, as then exercised by the Church,
arose entirely from the political connections of Christianity.
The Church could destroy the heretic only because it
had the magistrate, with sword and fire-brand, at its beck
and call. It might have launched its interdicts and
frightened kings and people without the help of the civil
power ; but it could not have burnt, beheaded, or im-
prisoned its victims. Spiritual despotism became political
tyranny when it could wreak its vengeance in blood and
flame and incarceration. The mischiefs of the Middle
Ages, in this respect, survived the Reformation. But now
the days of persecution are past, and it would be unfair to
refer to them as illustrative of the working of a State
Church in our England of the nineteenth century, with a
purer atmosphere of civilization breathed around it than
existed at the periods to which I have referred ; but they
can be justly referred to as illustrative of the effect of the
union, when it is carried on with a cruel consistency ; nor
can we be blind to the social injustice which still, in many
ways, is being done to Churches outside the privileged
pale. We have now, however, to deal, not with the
history of the past, but with institutions existing, and con-
troversies rife, at the present hour.
What, then, is the bearing of the principles laid
DOWN upon a great ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROVERSY
OF THE PRESENT DAY ?
I have hitherto avoided the word Establishme^it, because
of the loose and indefinite sense in which it has been
often employed, both by Churchmen and Nonconformists.
In assault and defence there has been frequently absent a
clear conception of the points at issue. So long as the
controversy remained in the region of abstract philosophy,
30 Primitive Ecclesia.
this was not of so much consequence, as it is now that
the question has been brought down to an arena of debate,
where it demands a practical solution. Subject to the
analysis of political criticism, it is found not to be a simple
question but a very manifold one. The existing union
between Church and State is almost a Gordian knot, but
it must never be cut by the stroke of a sword, it requires
to be carefully examined, so that the ends of the cord
may be discovered, — then the intricate entanglements may
be untwisted.
I do not presume to determine all the details involved,
but there are some which, in connection with our task,
ought to be specified. To facilitate our object they may
be classified thus : — Things obtaining amongst us to which
the existing union between Church and State is essential ;
and things to which this union is not essential, though at
present they are identified with it. This distinction is
important, and it will presently be seen, that our con-
clusions from Scripture stand in a different relation to the
one class from that in which they stand to the other.
Prominent in the first class is the compulsory support
of religion. This is indispensable to the maintenance of
our tithe system, or to any legal provision in lieu of it.
It is just here that the pinch is felt, when we apply the
laws of the New Testament. Let us examine the subject
with a little patience.
There is no ground upon which national endowments
actually rest but the will of the greater number. This is the
rule, but it is one which runs counter to a higher rule. For
the Divine law builds a Church only upon the foundation
of truth, and invests it with claims derived entirely from
its spiritual and Divine position. A true Church, in the
sight of God, whether large or small, is entitled to re-
venue at the hands of willing and devoted members ;
but it does not ask for it, and such a Church, if true to its
Prhnitive Ecdesia. 31
mission and its God, cannot seek that which Is procured
simply on the ground of the right of national majorities.
I do not forget the distinction between a Church and the
national endowment of a Church. A nationally-endowed
Church may, as a Church, be based on truth ; but the cir-
cumstance of its national endowment is not so based ;
therefore the method of its endowment comes into
collision with the basis of its constitution.
A national Church has been defined by an accomplished
Prelate * to be not the Church of the majority, but '' one
which asserts the idea of free national life as against the
national despotism of the Papacy." I am at a loss to
understand exactly what this sentence means ; for it
would appear to deny that a Roman Catholic Church can
be a national Church at all ; it would seem to imply that
there is no national Church in P" ranee, or in Belgium, or
in Austria ; and it would further look, as if comprehending
an admission, that the functions of a national Church may
be efficiently discharged by Protestant Nonconformist
communities, — inasmuch as they are loud and distinct in
affirming that highly-prized Protestant idea which the
writer so eloquently describes. But the definition does
not touch the question of the national endowment of a
Church, let that Church be what it may. A Church per-
fectly and nobly national cannot be in the possession of
national endowments, without the consent of the majority
of the nation. Whenever that consent comes to be with-
drawn, whenever in this country. Parliament, which is an
expression of the majority, pronounces a judgment adverse
to the continued national endowment of any ecclesiastical
organization, that endowment must of necessity cease.
The advocates of Establishments have again and again
acknowledged the anomalous position of a Church poli-
* Bishop of Peterborough, In an article contributed by him, when Dean of Cork, to the
Contemporary Review.
32 Primitive Ecclesia.
tically patronized, and nationally endowed, whilst its
members form but a minority of the population ; and we
are told that " the idea was familiar to statesmanlike
minds, in the last century, though obscured by the
supposed political necessity of maintaining Protestant
ascendancy." *
Even if the theory be adopted that the State has a
conscience, and consequently is bound to endow truth
because it is truth, the practice in the end comes to be
that the endowment follows the law of numbers. The
conscience of the State must be the conscience of those
who are most numerous in the State ; and that conscience,
w^hether ill or well informed, whether blind or enlightened,
must dictate the form of opinion to be supported by law.
Thus in any case, the decision, as to the object of endow-
ment, must ultimately hinge on a numerical inquiry ; it
must be so even where it is certain that a vast multitude
affecting the decision know little or nothing of Christianity,
and where they do not in any practical form profess it,
nay, where a large proportion deny it altogether.
The theory will not bear examination. It is one of
those dreams which have an enchantment for noble minds,
but which when they come to be applied to existing cir-
cumstances, exhale and vanish like tinted clouds. And
here let me add, in passing, — the theory is ignored or
repudiated bymanyChurchmen themselves ; and in connec-
tion with this fact it is very remarkable, that the ablest
advocates of Establishments appreciate lightly the value of
dogmatic truth, whilst the ablest advocates of dogmatic
truth indicate sympathies with voluntaryism, or are its
avowed advocates. The prevailing currents of opinion
and feeling seem to show, on the one side, that the
English Establishment, should it remain, by being modi-
fied, or by being reconstructed, according to the advanced
* Times, July 24, 1869.
Primitive Ecclesia, -y^^i
spirit of the age, will become more and more latitudi-
narian, and will give up old distinctive dogmas ; — and on
the other side, that faith in doctrinal Ghristianity will be
left to be embodied in voluntary Churches, they evidently
having the strongest sympathy with it. That is a
significant passage in which Keble says to Sir J. Cole-
ridge : " My dream," (the poet had imagined a restoration
of discipline,) " if it went on and found that nothing
could be done, would be a very frightful one ; for it would
exhibit our Church in no long time reduced to the alter-
native of voluntaryism or unbelief."* It would look as if
a State Church could not stand consistently with faith
in dogmatic truth ; and as if voluntary Churches could
not stand without such faith. As a matter of fact, it is
incontestable, that the degree of vitality, force and pros-
perity, in voluntary Churches at the present day, is in a
ratio with the importance which they attach to the posi-
tive and distinctive truths of the Gospel of Christ.
The argument respecting the rights of truth as bear-
ing on a compulsory method of supporting religion is
re-enforced by another. To pass from primitive volun-
taryism to the present tithe system, or any legal equi
valent, is completely to change the law of revenue.
Should it be said, that the two methods may be com-
bined, I reply, that although the compulsory method
may be supplemented by the voluntary, yet the voluntary
principle rightly understood, steadily pursued and con-
sistently maintained, shows Itself to be utterly alien from
its opposite; and that whilst it graciously and from charity
helps its antagonist, it does so under protest against all
compulsion in religion, as alike unjust, ungenerous, and
inexpedient. Force and freedom can never cordially em-
brace each other, can never consistently work side by side.
Nor is the New Testament wantinor in a condemnation
o
* Coleridge's Life of Keble.
D
34 Primitive Ecclesia.
of all compulsory action in Christian service. " My
kingdom is not of this world, else would my servants
fight," is a passage, which may sometimes in this contro-
versy have been stretched beyond its legitimate mean-
ing ; but can any one think it misapplied, when used as
an argument against collecting Church revenues, after
the manner in which the revenues of Caesar are col-
lected? It has been said, "that a compulsory support
by the State displaces a Divine ordinance, and sets up in
its room a corrupt invention of men;" and to this a
reply has been attempted in the form of a question : —
'' Is it a sinful departure from the primitive model, when
British Christians use the ships, the science and the
power of our country to spread the Gospel among the
heathen, because those means were not employed in
the first propagation." * A moment's reflection shows
that the cases are not at all parallel, for in the case of an
Establishment, there is a change of ecclesiastical prin-
ciple ; whereas in the case of the application of modern
discoveries to missionary purposes, there is no change
of ecclesiastical principle whatever : hence the charge
brought against the transition from voluntaryism to com-
pulsion in the fiscal law of Christianity remains untouched.
Moreover, any Church, accepting national endowments,
must thereby be placed in a different relation to the
State from voluntary Churches, and consequently must
incur some political restriction of its ecclesiastical pro-
ceedings. It is strange that all intelligent men do not
perceive this. Mr. Joyce, after describing the state of the
law in America, with regard to the free Episcopal Church
of that country, adds : " It is here worthy of observation,
that the principle of equal justice is also adopted in this
country with respect to all religious bodies whatever, ex-
cept one. That solitary exception is remarkable, being
* Birks' Church and State.
Primitive Ecclesia. 35
none other than the Church of England."* Of course.
Whether the treatment which the Church of England re-
ceives from the highest courts in the country be just or
unjust, I do not presume to determine; but that the law
of England must ever treat a Church established and
endowed by the State differently from what it does a
Church not so endowed, and that it will withdraw a
portion of liberty in exchange for State patronage,
national property, and exclusive position, seems so
exceedingly plain, that it is wonderful indeed, when any
one with a practical mind does not see it in a moment.
In the Church and State system, with compulsion is
connected patronage. The patronage of the Crown in the
nomination of bishops, which in spite of the Congd (Tdlire,
is really a royal appointment, their high social position
and their title to seats in Parliament — whatever the legal
nature of that title — are not essential to a system such as
political philosophers may create ; but these arrangements
are essential to the system as it now exists, and assuredly
the system is essential to them. They have come down
from ancient times, and not only are they venerable for.their
antiquity, but they have gathered round them almost august
associations. The names of noble kings and princes and
prelates are twined about the double Institution. It is
almost dangerous for Nonconformists, with certain tastes,
to walk through our abbeys and cathedrals, and to come
under the spell of that romance which encircles crown
and mitre ; or to ponder certain pages of our English
annals, in which names of illustrious ecclesiastical states-
men are prominent ; yet here the shadows are as con-
spicuous as the lights, and such Nonconformists, in spite
of all enchantments, are compelled to pronounce this
sort of connection between Crown and Church as utterly
opposed to primitive precedent and primitive principle.
♦ " The Civil power in its relation to the Church."
D 2
36 Primitive Ecclesia.
For whatever differences of opinion may exist as to
those in whom lay the power of appointing bishops in the
earhest times, no one dreams that it rested in the hands
of Caesar. It must have belonged either to the people
or to the Apostles. Churches constructed on the original
plan, could not have accepted bishops sent them by
secular rulers, even if those rulers had been Christians ;
because to do so would have been utterly inconsistent
with the voluntaryism and the independency of those
spiritual communities. To adopt the State principle now,
must be a departure from the principles maintained then.
Arguments specious, in their nature may be skilfully
employed to show that Churches ought to be national,
and that kings and princes, as the heads of Christian
nations, ought to elect their chief ministers ; but, beyond
dispute, the practice lies quite outside the teaching of the
inspired founders of Christianity, and when adopted, com-
pels a departure from their practice and example.
It is not astonishing that the simple conversion of
sovereigns to the Christian faith should be unnoticed pro-
phetically or otherwise, in the New Testament, because
no distinctions of society are recognizable in the spiritual
change of the new birth ; but it is astonishing that
nothing is said of their official relation to the Church, if
they were divinely destined and authorized to be what
they have subsequently become. It is idle to urge that
there were no Ch7nstian rulers in the days of the Apos-
tles. There was no Israelitish king contemporary with
Moses, yet the occurrence of such a magistrate is antici-
pated and provided for in the Book of Deuteronomy.*
Crown patronage extends much further than to the
appointment of bishops, and, in common with it, lay impro-
priation lies open to manifest objections drawn from the
* For a reply to the objections of De Wette and others to the Mosaic authorship of this
portion of Deuteronomy, I must refer to Havernick and Keil, and to Davidson's Introduction
(1856), p. 610.
Primitive Eccksia, 37
consideration of primitive Institutes. Both involve the
usurpation of those congregational rights which are
recognized in the Scriptures. The right of presentation,
if it appears an advantage on one side, is manifestly a
disadvantage on another. If it bestow independence
upon an incumbent, it inflicts the opposite upon a people.
They have no voice in the selection of their instructor.
They must submit to his teaching, however contrary
it may be to the Word of God, and to their own con-
scientious convictions. Much is said of the freedom of
clergymen so inducted ; but such freedom for a clergyman
is really the bondage of his parishioners. Moreover, lay
impropriation is, in practice, often connected with persons
and proceedings which make all good State Churchmen
blush. Who can endure to think of the character of
some lay patrons, or of the selling advowsons, even when
not tainted, as is often the case, with spots of simony ?
Pursuing the classification suggested, first of things to
which the existing union of Church and State is essential;
and next of things to which, though now identified with
that union, it is not essential ; I must briefly touch on the
latter.
It is scarcely needful to say that endowments bestowed
by the liberality of individuals are fruits of the voluntary
principle; and therefore, the encouragement, the increase,
and the preservation of such endowments involve no re-
cognition, in any way, of the Church and State principle.
Less obvious, but no less true, is it, that the power of
secular courts to decide disputes respecting pecuniary
ecclesiastical interests, only implies the supremacy of the
Sovereign over all temporal causes, and concedes no
supremacy over those which are purely spiritual. To
allow the latter, in any degree, voluntaries would deem
disloyalty to the Lord Christ, the only Lord of con-
science ; to allow the former, is, in the judgment of most,
38 Primitive E celesta.
if not all of them, to leave His Crown rights entirely
untouched.
Nor, in a state of society where temporal and spiritual
matters are, in subtle ways, inextricably interwoven, can
the interposition of the State to prevent social oppres-
sion, or civil disadvantage, on the part of one Church
towards another, or on the part of any Church towards
its members, be censured or questioned by thoughtful
people, however jealous they may be of any foreign in-
fringement upon moral domains.
The interference of the State also to check abuses in
the working of voluntaryism, under the influence of
superstition, does not appear to me to be inconsistent
with the principles I have laid down. Few, I suppose,
would wish for the repeal of the Act of Mortmain,
which arose from the sagacity of our ancestors, when
they felt it necessary, for the well-being of the country,
to prevent the threatened absorption of its wealth by
ecclesiastical bodies ; and cases are still possible, in which
the sensibilities of a dying man may be wrought upon to
the injury of family interests, the detriment of domestic
peace, and the production of mischief through a large
social circle. Domestic wrong may spring out of spiritual
abuses, and require legislative and legal interference for
the public good. Nothing in the New Testament dis-
countenances the exercise of great caution on the part
of general society, for the preservation of its rights from
the inroads of fanaticism.
For one I am prepared to contend for the maintenance
of a Protestant succession to the throne. The reasons
for it are furnished not by the religious, but by the poli-
tical character of Romanism. No particular doctrinal or
ecclesiastical opinions ought to exclude a legitimate heir ;
but a Popish claimant is the subject of another and an
ambitious power, which associates temporal with spiritual
Primitive Ecclcsia. 39
authority, which regards the former not as an accident,
but as a necessity, which employs assumed prerogatives
after a most elastic fashion, and which can contract or
expand them with exquisite cunning, as expediency
suggests. A Roman Catholic sovereign is trammelled
by complications intolerable to a Protestant nation like
ours — which has a history full of warning against the
permission of any foreign interference with national pro-
ceedings and national life. Amidst the Protestant
bigotry of the seventeenth century, it appears to have
been a true patriotic instinct which led Lord Russell and
others to deprecate, as a terrible calamity, the accession
of a Papist to the English throne. Whilst condemning
bigotry, we are taught by the story of the past and by the
condition of the present, by the annals of our country
and by the circumstances of Europe, to guard against
the return of Romish intermeddling with English affairs.
A burnt child fears the fire ; and the old maxim is quite
as good for empires as for individuals. Reactions
now, produced by Protestant intolerance in former days,
should make us all the more cautious, lest in a fit of
blind generosity, mistaken for justice, we open a door of
mischief, which, when too late, it would be difficult or
impossible to shut. •
The connection of public and national religious cere-
monies with Coronations and Royal funerals, with the
outbreak of war and the return of peace, with visitations
of famine and seasons of plenty, does not require the
existence of any political establishment of the Church
whatever. For temporal rulers to impose religious rites,
or even in any way to command them, would be going
beyond their province; but to recommend them in words,
and by example, is simply carrying out the principle
that the magistrate is a minister of God for good. A
subtle logic can exercise itself in drawing inferences
40 Primitive Ecclesia.
as fallacious, as they are remote, from the maintenance of
the true rights of conscience ; but moral sensibilities,
which, no less than the gifts of reason, are Divine endow-
ments, and social instincts, which, by God's hand, are
rooted in our souls, impel a people, when calamities sweep
across the land, to cry for mercy to the Lord of Hosts ;
and when the sunshine of a loving Providence bursts
from behind a cloud, to clasp hands before His throne,
and to send up to Heaven shouts of joy and thankfulness.
These and some other things are, in the eyes of some
Conformists and some Dissenters, identified with a con-
stitutional union between Church and State, and they are
counted by the one party as a Palladium, and by the other
as a Trojan horse. To disestablish the Church according
to the former, would be to dissipate all endowments ; to
withdraw wholesome legal restraints from the vagaries
of spiritual despotism ; to overthrow the Protestant suc-
cession ; to leave Protestants at the mercy of Roman
Catholics ; to render national fasts and thanksgivings,
and all religious ceremonies In connection with royalty,
Impossible ; and to stamp the Crown and the Senate with
the Impress of atheism. Nonconformists also may be
found who, — esteeming some or all of the arrangements
now mentioned, as infringements upon pure religious
voluntaryism, and, smiling at the fears of their neigh-
bours, — believe that any deficiencies left, by a policy of
disestablishment, would be amply supplied by Individual
religious action. I do not sympathize in the fears of State
Churchmen, because I do not believe that union between
Church and State Is at all essential to some of the pro-
visions and safeguards which they so highly value. Nor
do I adopt the extreme opinions of some voluntaries, be-
cause I cannot see that the arrangements, which I have
ventured to approve, are at variance with the liberties of
Christian Churches, or with the rights of human conscience.
Prhnitive E celesta. 41
We are often solemnly reminded, by the advocates of
an Establishment, that It Is the duty of the State to
acknowledge the Almighty, and of rulers to believe the
Gospel, and of the nation to promote the prosperity of
the Church of Christ as far as possible ; and by insist-
ing upon these obvious truths, some intelligent men really
Imagine that they are settling the controversy between
voluntaries and themselves. What Christian denies,
what Nonconformist doubts, these first principles of social
Christian duty ? The only question is : When a nation
and its rulers have embraced the religion of the New
Testament, how are they to advance its prosperity ? Are
they to do It by supporting an Establishment like our
own, with its political complications, its compulsory sup-
port of the Church, its methods of clerical and episcopal
appointment, and its unrighteous depreciation of unestab-
lished and unendowed denominations ? It Is useless to talk
of an Establishment tit nubibus. Our debates must refer
to the Establishment on terra Jirma ; any fundamental
change in which would be resisted by the theorists them-
selves with Invincible obstinacy. With reference to that
which is the gist of the question. It may be replied, that the
things now pointed out, as those to which an Establish-
ment is essential, are inconsistent with the Gospel, and are
also injurious to Christianity — harming that which they
are Intended to help, and, however well intentioned, most
unwisely done. On the other hand, the things which I
have indicated as capable of being maintained without any
Establishment, together with the employment of means, to
which the principle of an Establishment is antagonistic —
In other words, the voluntary religious action of rulers,
combined with the voluntary religious action of the ruled,
would effectually secure all the ends w^hich devout advo-
cates of a Church and State system propose or desire.*
* Whilst I am writing these lines the question of Establishment is being decided by the
42 Primitive Ecclesia.
It remains to inquire to what extent may the
principles illustrated be found in operation amongst
THE Churches of our own country.
I. Congregationallsts, including Independents and
Baptists, regard their Churches as close approximations
to original Christian Institutes. They profess to bow to
Scripture authority upon all ecclesiastical as well as all
theological questions ; and where Scripture supplies no
formal directions, to fall back for guidance, upon the
spiritual nature of Christianity. They believe that
Churches are formed for the maintaining of truth, and
for the edifying of believers ; fellowship being based
upon common faith, and a common range of spiritual
sympathy. It is a fellowship of religious life, experience,
and action. Care is employed in the admission of mem-
bers, lest persons should intrude themselves with mis-
taken views, or for improper ends. Discipline is exercised,
and in cases of immorality, delinquents are forbidden to
receive the Lord's Supper. Upon proofs of repentance
such persons are restored. Bishops and deacons are
popularly elected. Each Church is complete in itself,
and independent of others ; nevertheless, County Asso-
ciations and National Unions, are formed for confer-
ence, counsel, and co-operation. Both the denominations
specified are opposed to a hrerarchy, to an official priest-
hood as distinguished from the priesthood of all the
faithful, and to what is generally meant by Ritualism in
(July, 1869) Parliament of England. The protest of certain Lords is doubtless true ; the Irish
Bill " for the first time, since the foundation of the British Monarchy, introduces, so far as
Ireland is concerned, the principle unrecognized in any other country in Europe, of an entire
severance of the State from the support of any and every form of religious w^orship." And the
jubilation of the triumphant statesman is warranted by facts. " The disestablishment of the
Church," says Mr. Gladstone, " is complete. The words, * Royal Supremacy,' ' Church and
State,' ' Protestant ascendancy,' as connected with the Church and ' national religion,' are
now, by the judgment of the House of Lords, not less than the House of Commons, nothing
but the notes and traces of a buried controversy. Even the last shadow of Establishment, if
it were one — the existence of Irish bishops with seats in the House of Lords — has disappeared."
The principle of an Establishment is surrendered by the nation and the Senate, and the
future destiny of State Churches in the British Empire is left to the effect of time and circum-
stances.
Primitive Ecclesia, 43
worship. They protest against every method of support-
ing rehgion, except that which is voluntary.
These principles, generally considered, are in harmony
with the ideas of primitive Churches, conveyed in the
first part of this Essay. How far practice is in conformity
with these principles, and how far the principles, as some-
times expounded, come up to the ideal which is acknow-
ledged and upheld, is another question : — principles, and
the organized systems into which they are wrought, are
not identical ; and with certain general principles dif-
ferent particular opinions may be connected.
It would be beside the mark to enter fully into this
complicated subject, but since I do not assume the func-
tion of a special pleader for English Congregationalism
as it is — since I wish to be, if not a disinterested, at least
an honest critic — I may be permitted to remark, that it
appears to me that Ecclesiastical principles of Divine
authority have been decidedly seized, but not thoroughly
grasped by Congregationalists ; that with attainments
reached, there are defects betrayed.
Holding, as I do, what for brevity's sake may be
termed the theory of the municipal limits of Churches ;
the practice of constituting several perfectly distinct socie-
ties in the same city or town, when all the members of
those societies could easily worship together, has, for many
years, appeared to my mind to be a departure from New
Testament precedents. Whether the exact limits of a
primitive Church should be reckoned amongst essential,
or circumstantial elements of ecclesiastical polity, may be
open to debate ; that we are not required to adhere to a
strictly municipal boundary for the range of local com-
munities, may be readily granted ; but, if it be an essen-
tial principle, that no one Church should be co-extensive
with the nation, it cannot be denied to be an essential
principle, that Churches are legitimately incapable of
44 Primitive Ecclesia,
indefinite divisibility. If we recognize as a Divine law
the principle which checks the territorial extension of
each society, why should we deny the character of a
law to that principle which checks its territorial diminu-
tion? We have no more right to set aside the prin-
ciple when it operates In one direction than when it
operates in another. Besides this — conformity to the
primitive custom, In the latter as well as in the former
respect, is commended by an enlightened expediency :
the conclusions of human reason on this point, as on
so many others, enforce the application of the Divine
precedent. For I am quite sure, from long experi-
ence, with considerable opportunities for observation,
that unchecked divisibility is working disastrously to
the interests of religion. It creates rivalries. It pro-
motes alienation. It entails feebleness. It occasions
the impoverishment of pastors. It wastes time and
strength, which, husbanded and employed in a large
society, might secure results the most beneficial.
Moreover, partly through this practice, which proceeds
upon a false or defective principle, but much more
through forgetfulness or misapprehension of other prin-
ciples, or most of all through inconsistency between
practice and principle, — Congregationalists sometimes lay
themselves open to blame. Isolation, sectarianism, and
schism are evils. That Independency alone, unguarded
by other considerations which are as Divine as Itself, has
a tendency to produce such evils, none will deny. As
well deny that the centrifugal force, apart from the cen-
tripetal, has a tendency to break up the solar system, and
to drive off the planetary bodies into eccentric and lonely
paths. New Testament principles taken altogether will
effectually prevent mischief, causing Churches to move
together in order and unity, and to march to the music
of truth and love. But, to change the figure, Indepen-
Primitive Ecclesia. 45
dency, cut off from the parent stock of truth, and en-
grafted upon human nature, as we often find it, is Hkely
to produce " very sour crabs.'* The danger of fostering
a sectarian spirit, of hemming sympathies within narrow
bounds, is imminent, if people do not carefully blend in
their minds, with an idea of the limited extent, and
the self-contained character of distinct Congregational
societies, other ideas, which are of equal moment and of
equal authority. Churches, though complete in them-
selves, are not to live in and y^r themselves. Selfishness,
whether in individuals or societies, is an abomination to
Christ. Distinct *' religious interests," as they are some-
times called — if the hateful phraseology be literally
understood, as facts, in some cases, show that it must
be — are utterly opposed to Divine law, and Divine love.
Further, all true Churches are divinely related to the
world. Patriotism is their duty. They cannot be indif-
ferent to politics. Their field is the world, and it is their
business to sow the earth with '' the good seed of the
kingdom." It is unfortunate that controversy has driven
some to overlook the position of the Christian Church as
to the institutions, the laws, and the well-being of the
nation ; and it is idle, with the history of new England
before us, to deny that Congregationalism can give a tone
to national life. I must confess that I cannot regard the
State simply as political and economical — a nation is not
a mere aggregate of human bodies, it is a congrega-
tion of human souls, and as such it stands in a moral and
spiritual position towards God, religion, and the Church.
I believe in the possibility of a Christian State without
an Established Chucrh. So far as England is, or ever can
be, a Christian State, it must be so through the common
worship of Almighty God, the holiness of national life,
the justice of law, the equity of government, the mercy
which tempers justice, the honesty of commerce, the
46 Primitive Ecclesia.
purity of literature, the humility of science, and the
nobleness of art : — and in the promotion of these ends,
every Church is competent to take its share. Perhaps
the majority of religious people in Great Britain and
Ireland at the present day are connected with volun-
tary denominations, and all of them are able, and all of
them are required, to help in the true Christianization of
the whole State ; nor is there room to doubt, that, if the
whole population were to imbibe the voluntary senti-
ment to-morrow, instead of diminishing, it would increase
the efficiency of godly men, in their endeavours to im-
prove the character and tone of national life.
Schism is an ugly word, rudely flung in the faces of
Nonconformists. The natural result is, that in defend-
ing themselves against a false accusation, they shut their
eyes to a true one. Nonconformity is, in its essence, no
more schismatic than is Protestantism. It is an unfortu-
nate circumstance that negative terms should be used to
denote two great religious movements, full of positive
faith and feeling, both distinguished by a tenacious hold
of Scripture truth; both based upon an intense experience
of spiritual life. Protestantism and Nonconformity are
terms which point simply to the utterance of a contro-
versial No ; whereas each of these powers is the expres-
sion of a calm and edifying Yes. The principles of Non-
conformity, taken as a whole, do not merely pull down ;
they build up. They do not make rents in the Church ;
they are rather fitted to repair them. Circumstances have
given these terms a negative bearings but naturally they
are inspired with positive force. Yet Independency and
the right of private judgment, isolated from the system
of truth, of which they are a part, and only a part, have
a tendency to rend in twain what ought ever to be kept
intact ; and the upholders of Nonconformity can, and
sometimes do, by their wilfulness and obstinacy, become
Primitive Ecclesia, 47
really schismatlcal. I am fully persuaded, that for persons
to separate and divide, not on doctrinal and ecclesiastical
grounds, not from unmanageable numbers ; but from
personal disputes, from party feeling, and from mutual
misunderstahding, is, to all intents and purposes, to make
a rent in Christ's body. It is a violation of His law, an
insult to His love, a grief to His Spirit. Nothing could
be more salutary and bracing to Congregationalism, than
the maintenance amongst its upholders, of a strong
public opinion against the evils now pointed out, and
against such proceedings as naturally tend to produce
them.
With a wish to be as practical as the scope and limits
of this Essay will allow, I would add, that there are cer-
tain other weak points in our organizations and practices
for which our principles are not responsible. Power
pecuniary, social, intellectual, and spiritual, existing in '
our Churches is not, to adopt a current phrase,
adequately utilized. Strength amongst us often lies
unemployed, and runs to waste. Existing societies, and
methods of working, in connection with Free Churches,
whether by schools, district visitation, or the like, do
not exhaust available resources. The temporal wants of
the poor and the sick, not merely such as are identified
with our communities, but such as lie in the moral wastes
reaching up to our very doors ; the intellectual and social
wants of large numbers in the same position ; and the
political aspirations of multitudes, needing to be edu-
cated and guided in the use of rights for which they
crave, require from us, in common with all Christian men,
far more attention than they have ever yet received.
The time, too, is come for pious people, particularly
pious women, to combine almsdeeds with almsgiving ; and
not only in Dorcas Societies to make garments for the
poor, but as individuals, by wise, kindly, and genial
48" Primitive Ecclesia.
. intercourse, to teach ignorant and inexperienced heads
of families, how in a hundred Httle ways they may help
themselves.
Other objects, scarcely ever noticed by some good
men, require attention. Books and periodicals, directly
or indirectly illustrating the principles of Free Churches,
and productions by Nonconformists, defending or inter-
preting the common faith, have scant justice done them by
co-religionists, unless such productions be of a popular
kind. Besides College Professors, there are other Con-
gregational ministers, especially some of the younger,
who are sound scholars and deep thinkers, qualified, if
they had time and means, greatly to enrich our national
literature. But Independency has no spheres, except
pastoral ones, in which such men can labour and live,
and for such spheres these men are not well fitted.
Might not fellowships be endowed to help these gifted
spirits to do the kind of work which God has formed
them to accomplish ? Necessities, in reference to mat-
ters of this description, force themselves just now upon
Nonconformists, and will before long secure practical
consideration, if Nonconformists be wise.
2. It is a great mistake to suppose that Congregation-
alists are the only persons contributing to realize the
Divine ideal, or that the intelligent amongst them im-
agine this to be the case. Any such supposition on the
part of a religious community in this imperfect state of
existence, is a prejudice belonging to a fifth class of
idols, which may be added to those of the triSe, the den,
the market, and the theatre. It is an idol of the Church,
and it becomes enthroned, and receives worship where-
ever a Church falls into self-conceit, and sectarian
bigotry. Protestant Nonconformists, of other denomi-
nations, Presbyterian and Wesleyan, may be, and often
are, just as staunch and ardent voluntaries as Congrega-
Primitive Ecclesia, ' 49
tlonallsts can be, and in many respects they frame
their organizations according to Scripture rules. Their
Churches recognize certain theological truths ; their
ministers are placed on terms of official equality ; their
fellowship depends upon the sympathies of spiritual ex-
perience, and by the last-named class of Christians fel-
lowship is carried beyond that of any other community.
3. Parts of the New Testament ideal also find modern
representation amongst those who are regarded by Non-
conformists as having in some respects most widely de-
parted from it. What Congregationalists endeavour to re-
duce to practice, Episcopalians maintain in theory, when
in the Articles they define a Church as *' a congregation
of faithful men, in which the pure Word of God is
preached, and the sacraments be duly administered
according to Christ's ordinances, in all those things that
of necessity are requisite of the same." The importance
of discipline, too, is theoretically admitted; and there are
longings for its exercise, and occasional attempts to
secure it more or less wise, which bear witness to the
hold of the principle upon Christian consciences. Even
popular elections of pastors are not unknow^n amongst
Episcopalians; and something like homage is done to the
right of the Church to elect its own officers, even in the
formal but fruitless writ of a Conge cTelire. Large scope is
allowed by some clergymen for the activities and wants
of religious life ; social meetings for religious edification,
similar to those existing among some Nonconformists,
have been countenanced by distinguished and zealous
incumbents ; and every one is aware of the vigorous
endeavours made to introduce a lay element into recog-
nized modes of ecclesiastical conference and operation.*
These are modern representations of primitive principles
and sentiments, and they have much significance.
* The discussions at the Liverpool Congress, and what is now going on in Ireland, illustrate this.
£
50 Primitive Ecclesia.
The progress of voluntary efforts in the Established
Church Is another instance in which primitive usage is
followed, and It is an instance which requires special
attention. Compare the days of Queen Anne with the
days of Queen Victoria. Fifty new Churches after the fire
of London, had been, by Act of Parliament, ordered to
be built, when In the tenth year of Queen Anne another
Act was passed for the building of fifty more, to redress,
as stated In a subsequent commission, "the inconvenience
and growing mischiefs which resulted from the Increase
of Dissenters and Popery." After the completion of the
edifices, erected by virtue of such legislation, there followed
a long pause of neglect and indifference ; and from the
beginning almost to the end of the reign of George III.
not six Churches were erected in London. Such was the
supply of spiritual wants made by the State. Contrast
with this, what has been accomplished during the last
twenty or thirty years. Voluntaryism In the Establish-
ment has done much to supply the States' lack of ser-
vice. It Is remarkable that the efficiency of the Church
of England, of late years, has arisen not from its State
alliance, Its State endowments, the patronage of the Crown,
and the Influence of Prelates in the House of Lords, but
from proceedings similar to those of ancient Christianity,
and modern Nonconformity. Witness the fund Instituted
by the Bishop of London, and other movements of a
similar description. The Ecclesiastical Commissioners
have challenged the Church, offering ^150,000 to meet
equal private benefactions for the augmentation of poor
livings ; and the result Is the voluntary contribution of
more than ;^300,ooo in one year. Statistics, upon which
we have not room to enter, are at hand to show the
wonderful progress of voluntaryism In the Establishment.*
* The power of tlie voluntary principle is exemplified in the efforts of our Roman Catholic
fellow-countrymen. To apply our ecclesiastical beliefs to the criticism of their Church theory
Would lead us into a ontruversy fctrcign to our object.
Prifuitive Ecclesia. 51
It is curious to place these facts by the side of
onslaughts upon '* the voluntary ideal," and the vigorous
efforts made to preserve an Establishment, as the great
safeguard and support of religion. ** Too much of the
voluntaryism of the day," we are told, " is an application
to worship of that devil's gospel of modern plutonomy,
which resolves all right and wrong, all happiness and
misery, into a mere question of supply and demand."
To say this, is utterly unfair. There may be some who
make the voluntary principle an excuse for buttoning up
their pockets, and for asking ''Why should I pay for any
other worship than my own V Selfish people may virtu-
ally mean by it "a negation of the social need of wor
ship."* But it is a strange contradiction of facts to main-
tain or insinuate that it is characteristic of voluntaryism
to ignore that social need, when, on the contrary, volun-
taryism is everlastingly talking about it, and striving to
meet it ; often very much to the personal annoyance of
State religionists, who, in another mood, ask, as they
witness zealous voluntary efforts, "Why this waste?"
The same spirit which is one day reproached as selfish,
is another day rebuffed as intermeddling.
At all events, public opinion has reached a point which
renders hopeless the supply of spiritual wants on the part
of the State. What would be thought of a Chancellor of
the Exchequer who should include in his budget a good
round sum for the building and endowment of new
churches ^. What zealous believer in Establishments
dreams of such a thing being attempted ? The tide
runs the other way, and the most determined enemies of
voluntaryism in theory are driven by the force of circum-
stances to adopt it in practice; and it is strange policy — to
say no more — for those who are totally dependent on
voluntaryism for missionary efforts at home and abroad,
* Vide Contemporary Review, vol. ix. 572.
E 2
52 Primitive Ecclesia.
to undervalue its power, and vilify its character. I am
by no means a blind eulogist of British voluntaryism.
It is often defective for want of means, for want of
motives, and for want of wisdom. It is sometimes
accompanied by rashness and by waste. But all this
leaves the heart of the principle untainted, and the
authority of it untouched. It remains the only source
of support known in the New Testament, — the one law
of revenue upon which Apostles ventured the per-
manent subsistence of the Church.
It may not be amiss here to remark that two currents
of sentiment are, at this moment, running in opposite
directions, both of them composed of mingled waters.
The current of voluntaryism consists, mainly, I believe, in
a devout and intelligent desire to purify and invigorate the
Church of Christ, to render her independent of the world,
and to bind her heart more closely to her Heavenly Lord.
With this nobler impulse no doubt there are others mixed.
Men of spiritually despotic views and aims, who wish
ecclesiastically to enslave mankind, and men who hate
religion as mere superstition, and would gladly sweep it
from off the face of the earth, do sometimes join in assail-
ing Establishments, and this is turned into a reproach
against voluntaryism. But it should be remembered, on
the other hand, when we turn to examine the opposite
strong current of feeling in the present day, that whilst
pure-minded men, anxious for the highest welfare of
Christendom, support Establishments, under the idea of
their being bulwarks against fanaticism and infidelity,
others lay hands upon the ark to hold it up, simply as an
engine of State policy, or as a coffer of wealth for a
favoured few. At the best, they take part in the settle-
ment of Church questions as merely "a compromise of
parties, to secure a more or less approximate justice in
the application of funds." The advocates of Establish-
Primitive Ecclesia, 53
ments must see that their forces, certainly not less than
those on the opposite side, are of a mixed description.
But the motives of men on both sides must be put out of
sight, and we ought to judge of the two conflicting
ecclesiastical principles upon intrinsic grounds.
In drawing towards a conclusion, may I be permitted
to remark that the history of voluntaryism during the
last two centuries presents a series of facts, unpre-
cedented since the conversion of Constantine. At the
period of the Restoration, the Established Church ap-
peared triumphant, an immense majority shouted in
its favour, amidst a political excitement, which, even
in our most feverish seasons of agitation, it is difficult
to conceive. Nonconformity of all kinds was driven
into holes and corners, and its total extinction became
an object of anticipation close at hand. But instead
of extinction behold progress, — steady, persistent pro-
gress, in spite of all sorts of political and social oppo-
sition, and with nothing to support the despised commu-
nities except the maligned energies upon which they
rely. And now at the close of a period — short in the
estimation of an historical inquirer — British and Irish
Churches, free from the control, and Independent of the
support of the State, number amongst their adherents a
decided majority.
Finally, may I ask whether the time be not come for
State Churchmen to consider more dispassionately the
questions at Issue between themselves and Nonconform-
ists. Is It any fairer for them to charge their brethren
with spoliation and robbery, or with envy and jealousy,
or with hereditary blindness, or with ignorance, or with
an incapacity to apprehend reasoning, or with narrow-
ness, bitterness, and want of candour, than it is for
their brethren to charge them with corresponding faults .-^
Many State Churchmen are actually adopting the practices,
54 Primitive Ecclesia,
if not the principles, of those whom they misrepresent or
misapprehend. They are forming voluntary associa-
tions, raising voluntary funds, and doing many things
after a manner, which of old would have shocked the
Anglican, and filled the Puritan with joy. Some modern
religious movements, redounding to the honour of Church-
men, would have aroused the anger of Whitgift, of Laud,
and of Sheldon ; and would have won the sympathy of
Cartwrlght, Calamy, Baxter, and Owen. This makes it
manifest that there is a practical approach in the Church
now towards the usages of those, who formerly were
deemed the enemies of all Churchmen. Should not this
circumstance at least induce a disposition frankly, and
without prejudice, to regard the ecclesiastical controver-
sies of the day ? And should not the members of that de-
nomination which is established and endowed in this coun-
try be more generally ready to acquaint themselves with
the principles and proceedings of their Christian brethren
of other names ? Many are wisely seeking information
upon a subject which so obviously calls for their close
attention, but many more are content to remain ignorant
of what is being professed and achieved by their fellow
citizens living next door to them — thus betraying a kind
and an amount of indifference, which can only be paralleled
by the perfect unconcern of the upper classes in the
Roman Empire to the early progress of Christianity,
as it spread day by day amongst their neighbours,
and under the very shadow of their own house-roofs.
Human nature is made responsible for very bad things,
and it may be deemed Quixotic to expect any good from
that quarter. Some who deny the doctrine of its depravity
have, notwithstanding, the worst conceptions of mankind.
Yet, after all, do we really wander into a fool's paradise,
when we hope for a better spirit in the treatment of
religious controversy, and in the relations of ecclesiastical
Primitive Ecclesia, ^ 55
parties ? Is there to be everlastingly a life and death
quarrel between one denomination of Christian English-
men and another, instead of a manly and patriotic appli-
cation of mind and heart to practical problems, pressing
for solution with increasing earnestness day by day ?
Conscience and interest point in the same direction.
Nobody can deny that we ought to turn over a new
leaf, and putting aside recrimination, to look at the im-
mensely important subjects before us, in the sight of
God, and in the spirit of charity. History shows the
mischief of dogged resistance to change, and of the re-
sentments which that resistance enkindles. It shows
what may be feared from obstinate conservatism on the
one side, and from fanatical revolution on the other.
The references to the 15 th chapter of Acts, on page 17, are of course
from the Authorized Version. With regar4 to the 23rd verse, it should
be observed that in the Vatican, the Alexandrian and the Sinaitic MSS.,
the words koli ol between "elders" and "brethren" are omitted. Accord-
ing to that reading, the word "brethren" would not denote the mem-
bers of the Church in general, as distinguished from the elders, and as
uniting in the letter, but would describe the elders, who in this act
joined the Apostles, as being brethren. Neander and Alford observe,
that such an omission could scarcely have arisen from any hierarchical
consideration, seeing that it occurs as early as the time of Irenaeus,
and that it would be against any strong hierarchical view to call the
presbyters brethren. Alford thinks the addition of the Kai oi arose from
a wish to bring the salutation of the letter into accordance with the
description in the 4th and 22nd verses. In any case, the omission in
the MSS. mentioned, does not touch the historical argument in the
Essay, that the people took part with the Apostles and elders in the
primitive Conference at Jerusalem.
I may add, that Scholz and Tischendorf (Ed. 1839) retain /cat oi in
the text.
THE IDEA OF THE CHURCH
REGARDED IN
ITS HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT
REV. J. RADFORD THOMSON, M.A.
THE IDEA OF THE CHURCH
REGARDED IN ITS HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT.
The Church, as a Divine society, originated in the
descent of the Holy Spirit upon Christ's disciples on
the .day of Pentecost. As a human institution, it shaped
itself, under the guidance of the inspired Apostles, ac-
cording to the circumstances in which it arose and grew.
When no longer under the superintendence of the Apos-
tles, its outward form was governed by the principles
and the wisdom of its members, who, doubtless, were
more or less influenced by the primitive models.
There is ambiguity in the word Church corresponding
with the several meanings attached by New Testament
writers to the term ifCKXrjo-La, and indeed extending be-
yond these limits. Our Lord and His Apostles use the
word to designate the whole fellowship of the faithful
and holy throughout all places and ages.* This is em-
phatically ^/le Church, called by Protestant theologians,
"CathoHc" and "invisible," as comprising all spiritual
Christians, but as known in all its extent to the Omnis-
cient eye alone. The word is also employed in the New
Testament as the common name of Christian societies,
formed in certain places, and associated for worship, edi- •
fication, and mission work. In whatsoever place the
* Matt. xvi. 18 } Eph. v. 25-7, &c.
6o Idea of the Church
Word of eternal life was preached and received, there
was formed A Church or Christian assembly. Such an
assembly would meet either in a private house,* or, when
more convenient, in some other room hired or granted for
the purpose. The usage will appear from a comparison be-
tween the opening of the Epistles to the Corinthians, and
that of the Epistle to the Galatians. St. Paul writes to
'* the Church of God which is at Corinth,"! but to "the
Churches of Galatia."| The one society assembling in
one place is " a Church ;" the several societies scattered
throughout a district are not " a Church," but Churches.
It is maintained by many writers that the word
" Church " is used in the New Testament in other senses
beside the two now mentioned. Upon one passage
an attempt has been made to base an interpretation of
the term in question evidently intended to support a fore-
gone conclusion. When our Lord supposes an offender
to refuse to '' hear the Church," it has been affirmed
that He referred to the officers of the Church ;§ but
to this it is a sufficient reply that what is done through
the officers is done by the society ; there is no need to
assume a special signification for the word in this passage.
Whether the word is ever employed in Scripture to
denote a collection of congregations in a city or district,
or the aggregate of all existing congregations, is a dis-
puted point. Some Independent controversialists have
boldly maintained that, even in such a case as that of the
Church at Jerusalem, there was only one congregation of
Church members in a city, whilst Presbyterians have
insisted upon the extreme improbability that thousands
of believers could be brought together into one assembly,
and have argued that though there may have been many
* Rom, xvi. <; j i Cor. xvi. 19; Col. iv, 15 ; Philem. 2.
t I Cor. i. 2 ; 2 Cor. i. i. X Gal. i. 2.
§ Bannerman, The Chuich of Christ, vol. i. p. 14. Bannerman gives five meanings
to the word ; Palmer, in his Lectures on the Church, also gives five, which nearly coin-
cide with Bannerman's.
Historically developed. 6t
congregations, there was only one Church, whose officers
(in distinction from the lay-members) met for purposes of
deliberation and government. The view which com-
mends itself to our judgment is that in some cases there
were several assemblies for ordinary worship and instruc-
tion, but that the elders and deacons were officers of the
whole society, and that in an aggregate meeting of the
community the ultimate power resided.* There is, how-
ever, no passage in which the Christian societies through-
out a district are designated a Church, as in our modern
usage we speak of the Church of England, &c.t Those
few texts which have been quoted in favour of the sense
of '' universal visible Church," as attaching to the word
eicKKr)aia, may perhaps be referred to one or other of the
two usages which have been admitted. The word ''Church"
has, however, become so generally used in these last-men-
tioned senses, that it would be impossible in popular usage
to conform to strict New Testament precedent, and in the
course of this Essay we may speak of the Church of Africa
or France, and we may use the word Church to denote the
aggregate of the Christian societies existing upon the earth.
Like all organized human societies, the Churches
founded by the Apostles needed officers, whilst the
special purpose for which they were instituted rendered
necessary in such officers peculiar qualifications. It has
been asserted and learnedly maintained that the primi-
tive Christian societies were based in their constitution
upon the model of the Jewish synagogue ; and however
difficult of proof this position may be, it is certain that
there was far more correspondence between a Church
and a synagogue than between a Church and the Temple-
* "The Epistles of the Apostle Paul give the clearest evidence that all the Christians of one
city originally formed one whole Church. Yet we may easily suppose that some parts of the
Church, without separating themselves from the whole body and its guidance, held particular
meetings in the house of some person whose locality was very suitable, and who acted as the
^j^afTxraXog." — Neander's Planting, p. 151. Vide also Davidson's Eccl. Polity, lect. ii.
t The one apparent exception (Acts ix. 31) is based upon a reading which has certainly
strong M.S. support, but is contrary to the usage of the New Testament.
62 Idea of the Church
scheme. There was no order of men in the Christian
community designated priests (lepeU), and there was, in
our opinion, nothing corresponding to the Jewish sacrifice
which such persons could have offered. On the other
hand, the reading of Scripture, instruction, prayer, and
praise ; these were common to the synagogue and the
Church.* For the very special needs of the infant
Church, provision equally special was made by its Head.
The first officers were the supernaturally-inspired Apos-
tles, who were endowed with signs corresponding with
their authority, and who, whatever credulous, superstition
may aver, had no successors in office. Charisms, or
gifts useful for spiritual ends, were abundantly scattered
throughout the primitive Church, and do not seem to
have been confined to office-holders. In Apostolic times,
however, two orders of officers were universal. First, in
point of time, w^ere deacons, if, as is generally believed,
the seven appointed at Jerusalem held the same office
with the Blclkovol of St. Paul's Epistles. Then came
the presbyters or bishops {irpea^vTepoL, iTTLaKoiroi), who
were the spiritual teachers and rulers of the societies.
The qualifications of these officers are described in the
pastoral Epistles of St. Paul; their appointment originally
seems to have rested with the Apostles and specially-
gifted evangelists, evidently — judging from analogy — -
with the concurrence of the brethren, with whom subse-
quent elections would naturally remain.
So far, then, as can be learned from the New Testa-
ment, the first Churches were societies of faithful and
holy, though imperfect men and women, independent of
control from without, save from the inspired Apostles
during their life-time, meeting under the presidence of
* O.i the distinction between the words (stfvayioyrf and tKKXTjcria^ 'vide a valuable note in
Webiter and Wilkinson's Greek. Test, on Acts ix. 31. It may be observed that Christianity
favoured the multiplicity of the synagogue system, lather than the unity symbolised in the
Temple.
Historically developed. ()2)
their elected officers for spiritual edification, receiving
and excluding members upon the principles laid down by
the Lord and His Apostles. They strove, with more or
less success, to realize the high ideal Divinely revealed,
and to accomplish the noble and benevolent purposes for
which their fellowship had been instituted.
Let us strive to comprehend how clearly the New
Testament writers recognized the distinction between
the two senses of the Ecclesia which have been alluded
to ; how grandly they conceived of the glorious society
known in its entirety only to the mind of God, and how
justly they dealt with those communities which, though
bound to aspire to the ideal Church, yet soiled their
garments with earthly impurities, and stained them with
the blood of earthly warfare.
Christians have found both their justification and
their motive in New Testament Scripture for regard-
ing the Church with reverence and with fondness. The
Apostle Paul especially has summoned the vast powers
of his inspired imagination to depict and present the
Church universal in the most dignified and attrac-
tive form. It is the spiritual and holy Temple* as
the chosen dwelling-place of the Most High, and the
scene of His perpetual manifestation, destined to do
more than replace the abolished Temple and services of
Mount Morlah, and to endure after the fleshly temple of
Christ's body had been taken up out of sight. f It is the
mystical Spouse\ of the Divine Man, who has loved the
Church, and has purified it, that the Bride, holy and
without blemish, might be prepared for sacred and
spiritual espousals. Nay, as if even this most elevated
figure did not adequately set forth the Divine conception
of Christ's Church, it is His very Body,\ taken up, as it
* I Cor. iii. i6 ; i Cor. vi. 16; Eph. ii. 21.
t Vide Bp. Hinds' Three Temples of t le One God.
X Eph. V. 25-32. § 1 Cor. X. 17 J Eph. i. 22, 23 j iv. 15, 16 j Col. i, 18.
64 Idea of the Church
were, into His own personality, supplied, guided, and
kept in harmonious activity by the exalted, ever-living
Head. The first-mentioned of these figures is sanc-
tioned, and may have been suggested, by the words of
the Lord Himself, '' On this rock will I build my
Church;" whilst such sayings as these: "Ye are my
friends ;" '\ I am the vine, ye are the branches ;" *' Abide
in me, and I in you," may well have led up, by the
intimacy of the relation they assert, to the other un-
fathomably significant metaphors of the Apostle.
Nor was St. Paul the only one of the inspired ex-
ponents of Christian truth who appreciated this ideal and
sublime view of the Christian community. St. Peter
waxes eloquent when he enters upon this theme, and
plies his readers with motives to practical holiness drawn
from the lofty and spiritual conception of the Church ;
they are lively stones wrought into the walls of a spiri-
tual house, a holy and royal priesthood, a holy nation,
the people of God.* And the Seer who, as the beloved
of the Saviour, was wont to lean on Jesus' breast, and
who, when that Saviour had ascended, was admitted to
the clearest vision of the unseen and the future, dwells,
as might be expected, fondly and poetically, upon the
Church, viewed as it appears to ransomed immortals,
and to Him who sits upon the throne. Like the author
of the Epistle to the Hebrews, he contemplates the
Church as the holy city, the new Jerusalem; f and like
the Apostle of the Gentiles, he sees in the Church the
Bride, \ the Lamb's wife, attired in the radiant linen of
righteousness, and ready for the nuptials of eternity.
It is impossible, however, to overlook the fact that the
same Apostles who wrote concerning the Church of the
Lord Jesus in so elevated a strain, were thoroughly
cognizant of the actual condition of the Christian socie-
* I Pet. ii. 5, 9, 10. t Rev. xxi. 2. % Rev. xix. 7, 8 ; xxi. 2, 9.
Historically developed. 65
ties then existing, and were by no means blind to the
grave faults by which the members of those societies
were characterized. The Corinthians were reproached
by St. Paul for their '' envying, and strife, and divisions."
There were those among them, he affirms, who defrauded
their brethren ; and those who despised him, the Apostle
of the Lord, and their own father In the faith. The Lord's
Supper was made by some an occasion for selfish and
carnal festivities. Nor were grosser sins unknown ; the
Apostle feared to find among them impenitent fornica-
tors, and he directly charges them with tolerating a case
of incest. The Galatians were reproved for forsaking
the spiritual religion they had accepted, and for turning
again to the weak and beggarly elements of Judaism. St.
Paul warns the Phillpplans, that among the teachers who
were to be found in the Churches, there were some who
preached Christ of envy and strife, and some who were
the enemies of the cross of Christ. In the Church of
Thessalonica he censures some as disorderly, and as idle
busybodies. From his Epistles to Timothy, especially,
it appears that the Apostle expected these imperfections
to continue, for he foretells the rise and the partial success
of false teachers. The writings of the other Apostles
point to the same state of things ; St. James denounces
the strife, avarice, and oppression that prevailed among
the Christianized Hebrews ; the admonitions of St. Peter
imply the existence of pride and sensuality ; the first
Epistle of St. John is directed against the already-
appearing errors of the Gnostics ; and no proof can be
more conclusive of the compatibility of the lofty ideal of
the Church universal, with a clear perception of actual
imperfections, than that which is afforded by the Apoca-
lypse, for the addresses to some of the seven Churches
of Asia contain the keenest reproofs of impurity,
negligence, and false security.
66 Idea of the Church
It would have been well had this distinction, evidently
recognized by the Apostles of the Lord, been as clearly
and constantly regarded by the leaders and writers of the
early Church. The Idea of a spiritual society holding
the truth in Its Integrity, living in fellowship with the
glorified Redeemer, reflecting upon the world the light of
His holiness ; — this Is one thing. The fact of a human
organization composed of persons Imperfect In knowledge
and In character, even at their best, and in reality contain-
ing hypocrites and deceivers of self as well, and presided
over by officers themselves compassed with infirmities ; —
this Is quite another thing. But to this distinction men
have been too often blind : the Church has too often
seen only the Ideal completeness ; the world has too often
contented Itself with the faulty and Inconsistent reality.
Hence many of the vain pretensions of the hierarchy ;
hence much of the unbelief and scoffing of the heathen
and the philosophers.
The Apostolic Fathers present a view of the com-
position and government of the Christian Churches very '
much corresponding with that offered in the New Tes-
tament. The genuine first Epistle of Clement to the
Corinthians is In reality the letter, not of an individual,
but of a community. It opens with language which calls
to mind the terms of letters continually passing between
our own Congregational Churches of the present day : —
" The Church of God which sojourns at Rome to the
Church of God sojourning at Corinth, to them that are
called and sanctified by the will of God, through our-
Lord Jesus Christ." * It Is observable that the names
of the bishops of the two societies are not even men-
tioned In the salutation : Clement may have been the
penman, but the Church was the sender of the Epistle.
There is no trace at all of the subsequent distinction
* I Ep. Clem., cap. i.
Historically developed. 67
between the bishop and the presbyter : as Is the case in
the New Testament, these terms are used convertibly to
designate the same officer.* There are only two orders
of ministry, — bishops or presbyters, and deacons. *' The
Apostles," says Clement, '* appointed the first-fruits,
having first proved them by the Spirit, to be bishops and
deacons of those who should afterwards believe." f The
Corinthians are remonstrated with for having deposed
certain holy and blameless ministers from their offices. \
But Clement assumes no jurisdiction over his corres-
pondents on account of his own official relation to the
Church at Rome ; on the contrary, he bases his advice
upon the duty of mutual counsel and admonition. §
With the superscription of the Epistle of Clement
should be compared that of the encyclical letter of the
Church at Smyrna, on the occasion of the martyrdom of
Polycarp, their bishop. It runs thus : — " The Church of
God which sojourns at Smyrna to the Church of God
sojourning at Philomelium, and to all the congregations
of the holy and Catholic Church in every place." ||
Polycarp's extant Epistle professes to be from '' Polycarp
and the presbyters with him to the Church of God sojourn-
ing at Philippi." In it is no mention of three orders of
ministry : the duty is affirmed of being " subject to the
presbyters and ' deacons, as unto God and Christ," and
the character and ministrations of these officers are
described. IF
The Apostolic Fathers follow the example of the New
Testament writers in exhibiting under striking and noble
figures the excellence and dignity of the universal Church.
Barnabas writes of the spiritual temple : — '* Having
received the forgiveness of sins, and placed our trust in
* I Ep. Clem., cap. xliv.
t Ibid., cap. xlii. Patrum Apostolicorum Opera, Hefelc's edition is referred to : but where
an English translation is given, it is that of Clark's Ante-Niccne Library.
X Ibid., cap. xliv. § Ibid., cap. Ivi. [j Martyr. S Polyc.
^ Ep. Polyc, cap. v.,vi.
F 2
68 Idea of the Church
the name of the Lord, we have become new creatures,
formed again from the beginning. Wherefore, in our
habitation, God truly dwells in us." * Clement compares
the Church to an army serving under its leaders, in which
each occupies his proper station and renders his appointed
service ; and to a body where every member has its own
office. t In the second (spurious) Epistle, the Church is
likened to the spouse of Christ. \ Hennas, in the Pastor,
represents the Church by many figures : it is especially a
lofty tower composed of many and various stones. §
Were those documents which have been quoted the
only ones assignable to the age immediately succeeding
that of the Apostles, it might be deemed well established
that in the early part of the second century the Christian
societies were governed each by its own presbyters or
bishops, and served each by its own deacons, that they
acknowledged no external authority or primacy, but were
altogether independent of one another. In the Epistles
attributed to Ignatius there are, however, symptoms of a
remarkable change in process. Here, the will of the
bishop is the people's rule. The presbytery is fitted to
the bishop as strings to the harp. " We should look
upon the bishop as we would upon the Lord Himself."
The presbyters, submitting to him, submit '' to the Father
of Jesus Christ, the Bishop of us all." The three clerical
orders are already developed : — " Your bishop presides
in the place of God, and your presbyters in the place of
the assembly of the Apostles, along with your deacons."
'' Your most admirable bishop, and the well-compacted
spiritual crown of your presbytery, and your deacons who
are according to God." '' Ye are subject to the bishop
as to Jesus Christ." '* Fare ye well," is his greeting
to the Trallians, " in Jesus . Christ, while ye continue
* Ep. Barnab., cap. xvi. f i Ep. Clem., cap. xxxvii.
X a Ep. Clem., cap. ii. § Herm. Simil., cix.
Historically developed. 69
subject to the bishop as to the command [of God] and
in Hke manner to the presbytery." The Philadelphians
are told that " as many as are of God and of Jesus
Christ are also with the bishop." In the longer, and
probably the more largely interpolated, version of these
documents, the hierarchy appears thoroughly established.
** Let governors be obedient to Csesar ; soldiers to those
that command them ; deacons to the presbyters as to
high-priests ; the presbyters and deacons and the rest of
the clergy, together with all the people and the soldiers
and the governors, and Csesar [himself] to the bishop ;
the bishop to Christ, even as Christ to the Father."
'* Do nothing," says he, '' without the bishop." The
conditions of Divine favour are no longer, as in the New
Testament, spiritual ; they have become formal and
external. " To all them that repent the Lord grants
forgiveness, if they turn in penitence to the unity of
God, and to communion with the bishop." The pseudo-
Ignatius magnified his office. "It is not lawful without
the bishop either to baptize or to celebrate a love-feast : "
the longer recension adds, "or to present sacrifice."
Says Bishop Ignatius to Bishop Polycarp : — " If any one
reckon himself greater than the bishop, he is ruined."
Marriage is only to be entered upon with " the approval
of the bishop."*
From the Epistles which are acknowledged to be
spurious it is unnecessary to quote. In these, the whole,
array of Church-officers is obviously paraded, as they
existed at a later period. Here, the bishops have become
priests ; and we even meet with " the blessed Pope
Linus !" t It is worthy of notice that whilst the longer
Greek and Latin copies are more hierarchial than the
shorter, the Syriac version, which is the shortest of all, is
comparatively free from the sacerdotal taint. Perhaps
* Epp. Ignat. passim. f Ignat. Ep. ad Mariam, cap. iv.
70 Idea of the Church
in considering the question of the genuineness of the
Epistles attributed to Ignatius, it is scarcely possible to
be uninfluenced by ecclesiastical prepossessions ; but it
is at least questionable whether there is satisfactory
guarantee that, in reading even the shortest recension,
the student has before him the genuine compositi3ns of
the bishop of Antioch.* Ignatius doubtless favoured
the rising system of prelacy ; and, in consequence of his
well-known tendency, much was attributed to him, by
way of interpolation or forgery, exceeding in ecclesias-
ticism anything he really wrote, in order that the sanc-
tion of antiquity might be claimed for dogmas and prac-
tices of subsequent growth, f
" Every town congregation of ancient Christianity," says Bunsen,
" was a Church. The constitution of that Church was a congrega-
tional constitution. In St. Paul's Epistles, in the writings of Clemens
Romanus, of Ignatius and of Polycarp, the congregation is the highest
organ of the spirit as well as power of the Church. It is the body
of Christ » . This congregation was governed and directed by a
council of elders, which congregational council, at a later period, was
presided over by a governing overseer, the bishop. But the ultimate
decision, in important emergencies, rested with the whole congre-
gation." \
In the second century, the episcopal system univer-
sally supplanted the Congregational or Presbyterian
order of the primitive Churches. The prevalence of
serious errors, particularly the different forms of Gnos-
ticism, threatening to overthrow the doctrine and the
discipline of Christendom, has been held to account for
" an increase of official power, and the subjection of the
Churches under episcopal authority." § The persecu-
* Vide Mr. Basil Cooper's Free Church of Ancient Christendom, Appendix K. ^
t " Le fait qu'on ait precisement choisi Ignace pour lui attribuer les theories episcopales
prouvt suffisament qu'il a travaille d'une maniere efficace a fortifier outre mesure Tautorite
ecclesiastique au detriment de la liberte et de Tegalite des chretiens." — De Pressens^,
Histoire des trois premiers si^cles de I'eglise chretienne, vol. ii., p. 464. Vide also a
valuable note, K, at the end of the same volume.
X Hippolytus and his Age, vol. iii., p. ^20.
§ Schenkel, in Herzog's Real. Encyc.
Historically developed. 71
tions that arose would naturally tend to concentration of
administrative trust. At the same period, the anti-
Christian doctrines of a priesthood and of sacrifice were
largely adopted ; and were no doubt favoured as tending
to support the power and the pretensions of the clergy.
An exaggerated importance was now attached to the
merely outward connection with the visible ecclesiastical
community.
Irenaeus was the first great representative and ex-
ponent of this system. His was the famous dictum : —
'' Where the Church is, there is the Spirit of God ; and
where the Spirit of God is, there is the Church." * The
external society is emphatically the depository of the
truth : — *' The Apostles, like a rich man depositing his
money in a bank, lodged in her hands most copiously all
things pertaining to the truth ; so that every man whoso-
ever will, can draw from her the water of life. For
she is the entrance to life ; all others are thieves and
robbers." f The unity of the Church and her testimony
is boldly proclaimed : — '' She also beli.eves these points
just as if she had but one soul . . . and teaches them . . .
as if she possessed only one mouth ;"| "undoubtedly
the preaching of the Church is true and stedfast, in which
one and the same way of salvation is shown throughout
the whole world." § The same writer claims also for the
Churches an Apostolical succession of chief pastors : —
** We are in a position to reckon up those who were by
the Apostles instituted bishops in the Churches, and the
successions of these men to our own times ;"|| "all pre-
serve the same form of ecclesiastical constitution." IT
Quotations might easily be multiplied to show the
growth of the ecclesiastical system. " The grades here
in the Church," says Clement of Alexandria, " of bishops,
* Ircn. adv. Haer, L. III., cap. xxiv.
t Ibid., L. III., cap. iv. J Ibid., L. I., cap. x.
§ Ibid., L. v., cap. xx. jj Ibid., L. III., cap. iii. ^ Ibid., L. V., cap. xx.
72 Idea of the Church
presbyters, deacons, are imitations of the angelic glory."*
'' The true Church, that which is really ancient, is one
. . . . The pre-eminence of the Church .... is In its
oneness."! '* The human assemblies which they (the
heretics) hold were posterior to the Catholic Church. "J:
" One is the only virgin mother. I love to call her the
Church Calling her children to her, she nurses
them with holy milk, namely, with the Word."§
More spiritual representations are, however, not
wanting. Tertullian, for example, teaches that the
Church is dependent upon the Divine presence, and Is
manifested by the association of believers. " Wherever
there are three (that is, the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Spirit), there is the Church, which Is a body of three." ||
*' In a company of two (or, where one or two are) is
the Church ; but the Church is Christ. "IT The same
writer also '' opposes to the Church, as consisting of a
number of bishops, the Church of the Spirit, which
manifests itself through men enlightened by the Holy
Spirit"**
Thus the bishop, who had been primus inter pares,
as the president of the council of elders, obtained a
monarchical position. The legislative power resided In
the presbytery ; the judicial authority In the bishop. But
even '* in the time of Callistus (a.d. 220), the power of
the Bishop of Rome was already more absolute than
constitutional;" according to HIppolytus, Callistus as-
serted "■ that a bishop could never be deposed by the
presbytery, or obliged to abdicate, even though he commit
a sin unto death." tt Of this doctrine, HIppolytus himself
disapproved.
There Is good reason for regarding the schisms of the
* Clem. Alex. Strom., L. VI., cap. 13. || Tertul. de Bapt., cap. vi,
t Ibid., L. VII., cap. 17. ^ Tertul. de Pcenif,, cap. x.
j Ibid. ** Neander's Church History, vol. i ., p. 211.
§ Clem. Alex. Paedag., L. I., cap. 6. ff Bunsen's Hippolytus and his Age, vol. i. 310.
Historically developed, 73
early centuries as partaking in some degree of the cha-
racter of protests against the ecclesiastical formalism and
externalism of the times. The growing tendency in the
Church was to attach the greatest importance to mere
organization. The maxim of Irenaeus, ''Ubi Ecclesia, ibi
Spiritus!' was hardening into a definition. There was
one Church, the marks of which were, not so much
accordance with the Scriptures and vigour of spiritual
life, as the existence of the recognized officers and govern-
ment and an undoubted episcopal succession : to be in
communion with this organized society, and to participate,
in due form, in its prescribed ordinances ; this was to
be in the way of eternal salvation. It is neither to be
w^ondered at, nor regretted, that there were minds which re-
volted against this cruel exaggeration of the merit of mere
system. ■' Schismatic" is a hard name, and those who
have arrogated to themselves the appellation ''Catholic"
have usually deemed the flinging of this name an
end of all controversy. But it is a remarkable fact
that several Important bodies of Christians, stigmatized
as schismatics, have been admitted to have held fast the
great cardinal doctrines of Christianity as faithfully as their
adversaries. The points in dispute were points of order,
discipline, and government, and in some Instances were
distinctly personal. And yet the great schismatical sects
still held to the episcopal form of government. These
facts indicate that different conceptions entertained
of the nature of the Church were, more or less, at
the root of these divisions. Without implying that the
seceders were right, and the Catholics wrong, it may be
affirmed that there was abroad a commendable spirit of
rebellion against the stringency with which the eccle-
siastical authorities applied their principles of priestly
authority and external unity.
The earliest great division within the Church, — if this
74 Idea of the Church
expression may be used In distinction from the distortions
of Christianity produced in the East by attempts to com-
bine it with philosophical speculations, Jewish ideas or
heathen mythologies, and in distinction also from the
doctrinal heresies which existed from the very time of
the Apostles, — was that known as Montanism, after the
name of its fanatical Phrygian originator. The claim
of supernatural gifts was doubtless enthusiasm ; the
assumption of an incarnate Paraclete was blasphemous ;
and the belief in the perpetuation of the prophetic order
might tend to restlessness and might favour imposture.
Still, Montanism, if it did not owe its rise, probably owed
its progress, to a laudable spirit of reaction against the
system then advancing to general acceptance, which
limited Church teaching and Church authority by lines of
human officialism, and was disposed to overlook the
Scriptural conditions of communion and the spiritual con-
stitution of the Church.*
The most reasonable explanation of the adhesion to
the Montanists of their greatest name is to be found, not
in the mere natural temperament of Tertullian,f but in
the repugnance he felt to the habits of thought and action
which he perceived in the hierarchical party. The Mon-
tanists were earnest supporters of Trinitarianism ; the
Sabellian party, represented by Praxeas, found in these
sectaries their bitterest opponents. An alliance appears
to have been formed at Rome, between the hierarchical
party and the heretics, against the Montanism which
opposed the sacerdotalism of the one and the Sabel-
lianism of the other. Tertullian was disgusted with this
coalition, and threw the vast energies of his nature into
the support of what he deemed the truth. ''II se fit
* ** Les Montanistes .... par leur severite ascetique etleur energlque revendication de la
sacrificature universelle, qui allait jusqu' a abolir la prelrise speciale, etaient les ennemies jures
de la tendance hierarchique." — De Pressense, vol. iii. p 448.
f The view of many historians, — as of Milman, vide History of Christianity, vol. ii.
pp 212-4 J Latin Christianity, vol. i. pp. 37-9.
Historically developed. 75
Monta7iiste tout d'abord par sa vive repulsion pour ceux
quirepoussaient le Monta7iisme.''*
Montanism was a healthy power, in so far as it opposed
a Church of the Spirit to one of mere order and form, so
far as it recognized (and that practically) the universal
priesthood of Christians, and so far as it gave importance
to the prophetic function in the Church of the New Dis-
pensation. In these respects it offered some compensation
to Christendom for the evils wrought by the encourage-
ment it undoubtedly gave to asceticism and to spiritual
pride. And it should be borne in mind that, lofty as
were the pretensions of the Montanists, yet (to quote the
words of Neander) '' it does not exactly appear that they
were inclined to separate from the rest of the Church
and to renounce its communion."!
The violations of the so-called " Catholic unity," for
which Novatus and Novatian were respectively respon-
sible, were more properly schisms than was the Phry-
gian sect. They are chiefly interesting because of the
importance of the sees they threatened and the bishops
whose opposition they aroused. Men who ventured on
an encounter with Cyprian of Carthage and Cornelius of
Rome, — when these two metropolitans were severally and
jointly bent upon the establishment of the episcopal unity
as one great purpose of official life, — could not but im-
mortalize themselves and their defeat A most curious
example of the way in which circumstances furnish battle-
ground for principles, is the history of the discussions
raised about the sacrificati, thurifici, and libellatici, who
applied for re-admission to the fellowship of the Church.
The eagerness with which they sought this privilege proves
to how enormous an extent belief in the importance of com-
munion with the visible Church had grown by the middle
* This view is that of De Pressense, who argues forcibly and eloquently in its support.
Deuxieme Serie, tome I , livre ii.
t Vide Neander's General Church History, vol. ii. pp. 196-223.
76 Idea of the Church
of the third century. The value popularly attached to
the recommendations or certificates of '' confessors" is an
illustration of the growth of superstition ; but it is more
than this, it is an evidence that Church-fellowship was
ceasing to be the privilege of individual character, and
was becoming a formal and technical status. The prudent
determination of the great bishops neither, on the one
hand, to submit to the indiscriminate prerogative claimed
by the confessors, nor, on the other hand, to be guided
by the severe and inflexible principles of the ultra-puritan
factions, was undoubtedly the means of consolidating their
official authority, and at the same time of enlarging the
scope of its exercise. The Novatians denied the power of
the Church to receive again into communion such as had
sinned against God — especially referring to the lapsed ;
and the popular idea of their exclusiveness was typified in
the jocular remark of Constantine to the Novatian bishop :
'* Acesius, take a ladder, and get up to heaven by your-
self."* It is a remarkable fact that Novatus, who at
Carthage had been the zealous upholder of the privilege
of the confessors, and had opposed the just and moderate
caution of Cyprian, became at Rome the advocate of the
severer schism. Surely this is an indication, not merely
that the man was fickle or personally ambitious, or both,
but that there was abroad at the time a temper disposed
to resist — although as time proved in vain — the exercise
of resolute episcopal authority, and to favour a more free
and popular conduct of Church affairs, t
The writings of Cyprian abound with assertions and
* Socrates, L. I., cap, lo. Sozonien, L. I,, cap. 22
t" Novatian maintained that purity and holiness, being one of the essential marks of a
true Church, every Church which, neglecting the right use of discipline, tolerates in its bosom
or re-admits to its communion, such persons as, by gross sins, have broken their baptismal
vows, ceases by that very act to be a true Christian Church, and forfeits all the rights and
privileges of a true Church." — Neander, vol. i. p. 343.
" Novatian and his opponents were involved in the same fundamental error, and differed
only in their application of it j and this fundamental eiror was that of confounding the notions
of the visible and of the invisible Church. Hence it was that Novatian, transferring the pre-
Historically developed. 77
claims based on what weshould call the High Church
system. In writing to the " lapsed," he rebukes them for
claiming peace of " the Church " in the name of a con-
fessor, instead of submissively seeking this restoration to
fellowship from the ecclesiastical authorities. Quoting
Christ's words to Peter, he argues : — '' Thence, through
the changes of times and successions, the ordering of
bishops and the plan of the Church flows onwards ; so
that the Church is founded upon the bishops, and every
act of the Church is controlled by these same rulers.
Since this, then, is founded on the Divine law, I marvel
that some, with daring temerity, have chosen to write to
me as if they wrote in the name of the Church ; when
the Church is established in the bishop and clergy, and
all who stand."*
In his treatise on the " Unity of the Church," written
'* on the occasion of the schism of Novatian, to keep back
from him the Carthaginians, who already were not averse
to him, on account of Novatus and some other presbyters
of his Church, who had originated the whole disturbance,"
Cyprian uses some very strong language concerning the
duty of conformity and the evil of schism. Thus he
writes : — " Hanc Ecclesiae unitatem qui non tenet, tenere
se fidem credit ? qui Ecclesiae renititur et resistit, in
Ecclesia se esse confidit ? . . . Quam unitatem firmiter
tenere et vindicare debemus, maxime episcopi, qui in
Ecclesia praesidemus, ut episcopatum quoque ipsum
unum atque indivisum probemus." '' Does he who does
not hold this unity of the Church think that he holds the
faith ? Does he who strives against and resists the
dicate of purity and unspotted holiness which belongs to the invisible Church, the com-
munity oi the saints as such (Eph. v, 27), to the visible form in which it manifests itself,
concluded that every Church which suffered unclean members to remain in it ceased to be a
true branch of the one Church. . . . His opponents differed from him only in laying at the
basis of their speculations the notion of the Church as carried on and sustained by the succession
of bishops, and then deriving the predicates of purity and holiness from that notion." — Ibid.,
P 344-
• Cypr. Ep., XXV'. (Oxford Ed., xxxiii.)
78 Idea of the Chtirch
Church trust that he is In the Church ? . . . And this
unity we ought firmly to hold and assert, especially those
of us that are bishops, who preside in the Church, that we
may also prove the episcopate itself to be one and undi-
vided." And again : — " Ouisquls ab Ecclesia segregatus
adulterae jungitur, a promissis Ecclesise separatur. Nee
pervenit ad Christi praemia qui relinquit ecclesiam Christi.
Alienus est, profanus est, hostis est. Habere jam non
potest Deum patrem, qui Ecclesiam non habet matrem."
" Whoever is separated from the Church, and is joined to
an adulteress, is separated from the promises of the
Church, nor can he who forsakes the Church of Christ
attain to the rewards of Christ. He is a stranger, he
is profane, he is an enemy. He can no longer have
God for his father, who has not the Church for his
mother."*
Even martyrdom was pronounced by Cyprian to be of
no avail (if indeed any one could have fortitude to endure
it without the encouragement of the Eucharist) without
reconciliation to the Church, f
The claims thus put forward by the bishops were but
too readily conceded. We find that the Roman con-
fessors who had countenanced the schism of Novatian
and Novatus, acknowledged, upon their repentance and
return to the Catholic unity : — '' We are not ignorant that
there is one God ; that there is one Christ, the Lord
whom we have confessed, and one Holy Ghost; and that
there ought to be one bishop in the Catholic Church."]:
It was part of the episcopal policy to keep the inferior
clergy in a position of subjection. Cyprian, in one of his
letters written to a brother bishop who had been troubled
by the opposition and insolence of one of his deacons,
observes that ** deacons ought to remember that the Lord
* Cypr. de unit EccL, cc. 4, 5, 6. The English from Clark's translation, pp. 381-2.
t Cypr. Ep. liii. (Oxford Ed., Ivii.) + Ibid., xlv. (Oxford Ed., xlix.)
Historically developed. 79
chose Apostles, that Is, bishops and overseers ; while
Apostles appointed for themselves deacons after the
ascent of the Lord Into heaven, as ministers of their
episcopacy and of the Church. But if we may dare any-
thing against God who makes bishops, deacons may also
dare against us by whom they are made."*
In this connection it may be well to remark that even
Cyprian was accustomed to take counsel both of his clergy
and laity In the appointment of Church of&cers, as
appears from a passage In one of his letters to the clergy
and people about the ordination of Aurellus — a brave
confessor of the faith — as reader in the Church ; the
bishop deigns to explain his reasons for deviating In this
Instance from his ordinary method, f
Cyprian, though a very bold and and a very able man,
and a memorable martyr for Christ's cause, must be re-
garded as one of the most successful agents In bringing
about the practical ascendancy of sacerdotal and prelatic
doctrines. He did much to repress Christian freedom,
and to substitute the symmetry of organization for that
life which Is spiritual and varied and full. His dictum,
" extra ecclesiam nulla salus,' in the sense In which It was
uttered and received, was pernicious and misleading ; and
he Is accountable to some extent for the rapid develop-
ment of a system which has made Christianity a name of
reproach where It should have been a name of honour
and an earnest of spiritual help.
The most Important and famous of the early schisms —
that named after Donatus — was one that turned mainly
upon the Idea of the Church, as viewed by two orders of
mind of opposing tendencies. The causes of the schism
were latent before the occasion of Its manifestation oc-
curred. It Is Incredible that a mere personal rivalry, an
inconsiderable Incident, should be " productive of a me-
* Cypr. Ep., Ixiv. (Oxford Ed., iii.) f Ibid., xxxii. (Oxford Ed., xxxviii.)
8o Idea of the Church
morable schism, which afflicted the provinces of Africa
above three hundred years, and was extinguished only
with Christianity itself,"* and the extent of which ap-
pears from the fact that 400 bishops acknowledged the
jurisdiction of the Donatist primate'. Whether or not
Caecilianus was ordained to the bishopric of Carthage by
a traditor, is, to our apprehension, a matter of infinitessi-
mally small importance : to understand in how different a
light this question was regarded by his opponents, re-
spect must be had to their peculiar views. The Do-
natists considered that the outward Church should con-
sist of renewed and holy persons ; that a nominally
Christian society which admitted or retained unworthy
members was by such sinful laxity unchurched, and that
ministerial or sacramental acts were vitiated if they were
performed by unholy men.
Now, Caecilianus had been consecrated to the bishop-
ric of Carthage by Felix of Aptungis, in the absence of
the Numidian bishops, who held the Puritan opinions
alluded to. The ecclesiastics accused Felix of having
been a traditor, that is, of having, in the time of perse-
cution, delivered up sacred books to the heathen authori-
ties. As this was in their view a heinous if not unpar-
donable offence, certainly disqualifying for episcopal
duties, if the charge were well founded, Felix was in
their esteem incapable of conveying grace of ordina-
tion, and the orders of the newly-elected successor to
Mensurius were invalid. The Numidians, accordingly,
appointed Majorinus to the see, and a religious senti-
ment was by this event crystallized into a schism.
After the death of the first anti-bishop, Donatus, a
man of zeal and ability, was elected as his successor, and
from him the Donatistae, Donatiani, or (as they called
themselves) the pars Donati took their appellation. As
* Gibbon, vol. iii. p. 44.
Historically developed, 8i
a sect, their leading principle was purity of communion ;
their endeavour was to make the Church visible an exact
counterpart of the elect society, as it is in the mind of the
All-knowing. They admitted that hypocrites would
succeed, to some extent, in baffling this attempt. The
Donatists unchurched for laxity of discipline the greater
part of Christendom ; according to the representation of
Augustine, they affirmed that the Christian religion had
disappeared from the whole earth, except from certain
parts of Africa in which their own communities were
settled.* Incredible as it may seem to the modern
reader, they applied to themselves, as resident In Africa,
this passage from the Canticles : " Tell me, thou whom
my soul loveth, where thou llest In the South." f
The great champion of the " Catholic " party in the
Donatist controversy was the famous Augustine, to
whose writings we are indeed indebted for most of our
knowledge of the doctrines of his opponents. The voice
and pen of the Bishop of Hippo did strenuous service in
this, as in other famous conflicts. The doctrines of grace
which he so ably and successfully systematized seem
to be inconsistent with the principles of sacerdotalism,
which had become distinctive of Western Christianity ;
but there was a way of reconciling even these opposing
forces. ;[ Without the personal arrogance, Augustine
had a fair measure of the rigid ecclesiastical dogmatism
of Cyprian, his great African predecessor. Augustine
was naturally indignant with the Donatists for claiming
Cyprian as of their way of thinking. It was Indeed the
case that Cyprian had set the example of re-baptizing
those who had professedly been received into Church-fel-
lowship by the men who were deemed heretics ; but the
* •' Vos enim eis dicitis, propter traditores quos non ostenditis, remansisse ecclesiam Christi
in sola Africa partis Donati." — Aug. Ep., clxvi.
t Ca. i. 7, " Indica mihi, quern diligit anima mea, ubi cubes in meridie." — Aug. contr.
Petil.
X For some profound remarks on this, wViS Milman's Latin Christianity, book 11, chap. li.
G
82 Idea of the Church
Catholic champion urges that the Carthaginian had always
insisted upon the duty of maintaining inviolate the unity
of the Church, and that only by putting themselves in
this matter upon Cyprian's platform could they justly
quote Cyprian's authority.*
In his epistle in reply to that of Petilianus, Augustine
admits that the question between the two parties is this :
''Ubi sit EcclesiaT' ''Where is the Church?" If it be
here or there, In this place, but not In that, then the Dona-
tists are right. But when they say, " Lo! here is Christ !"
the sheep do not hear them, but listen to the Shepherd's
voice. The controversy Is not concerning the Head ;
Him they jointly confess ; It Is concerning the body. In
contending for the Catholicity of this body, Augustine
quotes the promise given by God to Abraham, that all
nations should be blessed in his seed, and the predictions
of Isaiah referring to the extent of the Messiah's king-
dom. He also brings forward as a convincing argument
the universal commission given by Christ to His apos-
tles : " Go ye and make disciples of all nations." f
So great was the importance attached by the Bishop of
Hippo to the Catholic unity, that he would not admit the
lawfulness of the Donatist secession, even If the charge
made against Felix and others were substantiated. |
With regard to the purity of the actual and militant
Church, Augustine proclaims himself at variance with
the Donatlsts who were Puritans of the strictest order.
Wherever In his works he had celebrated the Church as
* ** Quidque etiam beati Cypriani mentionem facere audetis, velut ille author sit vestrae
divisionis, tantus defensor Catholicae unitatis et pacis ? Primo esto in Ecclesia, quam constat
tenuisse ac praedicasse Cyprianum, et tunc aude velut authorem sententiae tuas nominare
Cyprianum."— Aug. contr. Cresc, L. II., cap. xxxi.
"Venite ad Catholicam concordantem quam Cyprianus non deseruit fluctuantem." —
Aug. de bapt. contr. Don., L. II.
t Aug. Ep. contra. Petil. passim.
X " Testimoniis enim divinis, lltes suas praeferunt, quia in causa Caeciliani quondam
Ecclesias Carthaginensis episcopi, cui crimina objecerunt quae nee potuerunt probare nee
possunt, si ab Ecclesia Cathoiica, hoc est ab unitate omnium gentium diviserunt. . . Tamen
Ecclesiam Christi, quae non litigiosis opinionibus fingitur, sed divinis attestationibus comproba-
tur, propter quemlibet hominem relinquere non Heberaus." — Aug. Ep., L.
Historically developed. 83
without spot or wrinkle, such representations, he says,
are not to be regarded as applying to the Church as it
now is, but to that which is in course of preparation,
which, when revealed, shall be full of glory ; * and,
arguing in favour of the validity of the sacraments, even
of the imperfect Church, he affirms that great as was the
difference between Peter and Judas, there was no differ-
ence in the worth of the baptism they administered.
Aug-ustine did not hesitate to declare the communion
with the visible Church to be a condition of salvation.
Confusing the spiritual society, which is defined by spiri-
tual notes, with the organization, which is admitted not
to be coincident in its boundaries with that other, he was
misled by the very teaching of the Apostle regarding the
body of Christ. '' He who is not numbered amongst the
members of Christ cannot enjoy Christian salvation." f
At the same time he was ready to acknowledge that
persons may enjoy the outward privileges of the Church
without being truly of the Church.]:
Donatists and Catholics alike deemed it essential to
salvation that a man should be in outward communion
with an ecclesiastical organization. But the former, whilst
they were right in protesting against the confusion be-
tween the Church and the world, to which the times were
rapidly drifting, and right in taking all reasonable precau-
tion against impurity of communion, were certainly nar-
row and uncharitable in so conceiving of the Church and
of the ministry, as to limit the Divine grace to their own
restricted borders.
In natural relation to their opinions concerning the.
* •• . . non sic accipiendum est, quasi jam sit, sed quae praeparatur, ut sit quando apparebit
etiam gloriosa." — Aug. Retract., L. II., cap. xviii.
■f- " Haec autem Fcclesia corpus Christi est, sicut Apostolus dicit, 'procorpore ejus, quae est
Fcclesia.' Unde utique manifestum est, eum qui non esc in membris Christi, Christianam
silutem habeie non posse." — Aug. Ep. contr. Petil. For proof that this was the doctrine
of " the Fathers " generally, mide Palmer's Lectures on the Church of Christ, lecture iii.
X " Et multi tales sunt in sacramentorum communione cum Ecclesia, et tamen jam non
sunt in Ecclesia."
G 2
84 J-dea of the Chui^ch
purity of the Church were their behefs regarding the
union between Church and State. At first the Donatists
had courted the imperial jurisdiction, at the time when
toleration was proclaimed, and the empire was becoming
professedly Christian ; but having failed to satisfy the
arbitrators appointed by the Emperor, of the justice of
their positions (and with regard to the charge against
Felix there can be little doubt that they were in the
wrong), and being unwilling to submit to comprehension
within the Catholic unity, even on the most favourable
terms, they came under the displeasure of the State.
They were the more obnoxious on account of the violent
and criminal excesses of what might be called in modern
political language their extreme " Left "^the Clrcumcel-
lion party. The methods of toleration and of persecution
were employed in vain to reduce these African Churches
to uniforimty. The endurance of persecution probably
opened the eyes of the Donatists to discover the proper
limitations of the civil power, which is bound to take cog-
nizance, not of sins, but of crimes, and to repress, not
heresies and schisms, which may be only the signs of
intellectual and even spiritual life, but conspiracies and
insurrections, which endanger the public peace. The
Donatists were anti-State Churchmen ; Augustine and
his party became the advocates of intolerance and perse-
cution. Had the former sect, however, been in imperial
favour, it is not unlikely that their position might have
modified their principles. In one respect they followed
their usual bent towards extremes; they looked upon the
State as a power not independent of, but hostile to, the
Church of Christ, identifying the political authorities with
what in New Testament language is called "the world."*
The Donatists arose just at the time when a moment-
ous change took place in the outward relations of Christ-
* Vide Neander's General Church History, vol. ill. p. 301.
Historically developed. 85
lanity. Hitherto the followers of Christ had been by
turns tolerated and persecuted by the Roman Emperors,
and by their representatives in the provinces. Early in the
fourth century, Constantine became first a professor and
then the patron of the Christian faith. Henceforth, the
danger to which the Church was exposed was, not the
frown, but the smile of the Sovereign and the State. A
bishopric was, in some instances, no longer a post of
honourable danger, but one of consideration and repute,
or even of emolument and political power. The clerical
profession came to be looked upon as a path to worldly
distinction, and had consequently attractions for un-
spiritual men. The alliance between the Church and the
State was so close that the civil power made use of the
ecclesiastical, for its own ends, and conferred in return
advantages which were too keenly appreciated, and too
eagerly accepted. Thus an opportunity was given to the
Emperor to assume a sort of lay-sovereignty in the sum-
moning of councils, and the issuing of commissions for
the settlement of doctrinal and ecclesiastical disputes ;
and it most naturally followed that the same sanctions
and penalties were employed to enforce divisions arrived
at by imperial authority in matters spiritual, as in matters
strictly political. '
A religion whose Founder had been unjustly put to
death by the authority of a Roman procurator was not
likely to look for much favour from the powers of this
world ; and indeed its first adherents possessed both the
injunction and the disposition to think lightly of the
treatment they might receive from those powers. Still,
as the example of St. Paul clearly proves, the promul-
gators of Christianity were ready to accept such protec-
tion or justice as the civil power would accord to them in
the pursuit of their labour of evangelization. Both with
the Jews and with the Romans, and probably with many
S6 Idea of the Church
of the nations under Imperial rule, religion was a depart-
ment of State ; and as It consisted to a large extent In
outward ceremonies, there was obvious convenience in
such an arrangement. But the new faith, or '* supersti-
tion," as it was called by its foes, Introduced among man-
kind nothing less than a new life. Spiritual In its prin-
ciples, aggressive In its action, It could not make Itself
understood by '* the lords of humankind." Hence arose its
exemption from the general tolerance, accorded under the
empire to the faiths of subject peoples, and hence, in ac-
cordance with the wisdom of Providence, the ordeal of
affliction, of scorn, of persecution, in which Christianity
proved its Divine origin, and asserted its claim to uni-
versal sway. During the age of the ten persecutions,
outward force in the lordliest and haughtiest of hands
confronted spiritual power impersonated oftentimes In
the lowly and despised ; and the result was that " the
weak things of the world confounded the m.ighty." Early
in the fourth century the Emperor Constantine entered
into an alliance with the Church of Christ.
By this singular change In the position of the recent
but progressive religion, it could not but happen that the
idea of the Christian Church should be affected. It was
not simply that the Emperor as an individual embraced
the faith ; amidst all her difficulties, the Church, as we
have seen, had thoroughly organized herself, and Avas
already possessed of vast power, though wielding no
earthly sword ; and Into some kind of relation with this
organized body the Emperors must come. It was not
unnatural that the chief of the State should in some
sense become the governor of the Church ; had It been
otherwise it might have been feared that an imperium in
imperio would have been established. To us, indeed, It
appears that it would have been well for the Church to
have tolerated no interference, and accepted no favours of a
Historically developed, 87
special kind from an unbaptized layman. Notwithstand-
ing all that has been said in praise of the impartiality of
statesmen, as compared with ecclesiastics, and the tem-
porary advantages secured by the presidence of a Caesar
over such a council as that of Nicaea, vastly more was
lost than was gained by the accordance to worldly power
of spiritual authority. One thing is certain: had not ''the
princes of this world," by patronizing Christianity, and
giving civil immunities to its ministers, and civil sanc-
tions to Its censures, entangled themselves with the
spiritual rulers of Christendom, they would never in
after ages have come to endure the interference and the
indignities at the hands of Rome, which are the lasting
shame of the Mediaeval Church. The proper part of
Christianity was to infuse new life, new principles, new
hopes into mankind ; and these were sufficient, gradually
and insensibly, by the process of conviction, to remodel
and to regulate all human affairs. Organization was
necessary and beneficial ; episcopacy, that is diocesan
episcopacy, may have had the recommendation of ex-
pediency, for the protection of the weak in ages when
the spiritual power was the only sufficient check upon the
lawless violence of the feudal chiefs. Patriarchates may
have been the necessary complement of episcopacy. Nay,
whilst unity of faith and practice obtained, the Church
might conceivably become, without injury, In the loosest
sense of the word, a corporation ; though our estimate of
human nature leads us to deem this extremely Impro-
bable. But to accept from the State, immunities, emolu-
ments, and honours, to use the secular arm in the sup-
pression or punishment of heresy and schism — this was
to throw open the door to a thousand corruptions. A
price must be paid for such seeming advantages, and
whilst the advantages were fictitious, the price was all
but ruinous ; for the Church paid for them by selling
88 Idea of the Church
both her purity and her freedom. Nor has she yet for
the most part recognized the method by which alone
these Divine blessings can be recovered. In the crisis
of her fate there was no friendly voice raised in far-
sighted, wholesome, if unwelcome, wisdom to exclaim : —
"Timeo Danaos, et dona ferentes!"
We have seen the congregational system merged into
the episcopal. Christendom was a scattered galaxy of
bishoprics, and communion with a Catholic bishop was
the test of Christianity. But as human nature tends to
society, so does society tend to centralization. The
clergyman, still more emphatically the bishop, was the
"persona" of the Church. But a still higher unity was
desired ; a more palpable presentation or summing-up of
the Divine community. During the age of persecution
this could hardly be realized ; but now that Christianity
was the religion of the Court, the obstacles to publicity
and to manifested power ceased to exist. Provincial
synods had indeed been held in the various parts of the
empire, and under the presidence of the bishop of chief
influence, had decided such questions as had been re-
ferred to their wisdom. But the age of CEcumenical
Councils had now come.
The idea of a general Church assembly, which should
reduce to something like uniformity the beliefs and prac-
tices' of Christendom, originated in the mind of Constan-
tine, by whose authority it could alone be made a reality.
The Council of Nicsea became, in many respects, the
precedent of those which followed. Summoned and pre-
sided over by the first Christian Emperor, there gathered
around this assembly much of worldly dignity and glory.
As the Nicaean *' Fathers " deliberated upon the Arian
controversy, determined the creed of orthodox Christen-
dom, settled the time for observing Easter, agreed upon
Historically developed. 89
canons of ecclesiastical discipline, they were the conscious
representatives of the whole Christian world. Amongst
them there might be selfishness, jealousy, hatred, and
hostility, but they were the parliament, the microcosm of
the visible Church on earth ; they were the Church.*
That this was the light in which General Councils were
regarded for ages, appears from the reverence with which
their decrees were received and honoured. Although
the authority of the first six of these assemblies has
always been acknowledged both in East and West, a
special respect has been paid to the Council of Nicsea.
Since the great division of the Christian world, a truly
CEcumenical synod has become impossible, and this fact
perhaps accounts, to some extent, for the high estimation
in which the early representative assemblies have been
so generally held. Their decisions have been considered
to express, more fully than was otherwise possible, the
true mind of the Church. Even under the Papacy there
have not been wanting those who have set a General
Council above the Pope in authority ; and many of those
who have no sympathy with Galilean liberality, are
yet ready to concede that a Council stands upon a
level with the Pope as interpreting the mind of the
Church.
In the compendiums of belief used in the early ages
for imparting to catechumens a knowledge of the first
principles of Christianity, there was no clause relating to
the Church. What these creeds substantially were, may
be learnt from the specimens preserved to us in the
works of Irenaeusf and Tertullian.]: They concerned
the Deity and the provision for human salvation made
by Divine mercy. From these took its rise, as it were by
* Vide Stanley's Eastern Church, lect. ii. Neander's Church History, vol. Hi. p. 248.
Milman's Latin Christianity, book II., chap. iii. History of Christianity, book IV., chap. i.
t Iren. Contr. Haer., L. I., cap. x. ; L. III., cap. iv.
X Tert. de Virgin. Veland., cap. i. j Contra Praxeam, cap. ii. ; Praescript. adv. Haeret,
cap. xiii.
90 Idea of the Church
growth, the ancient Creed commonly called the Apostles',
which has been used, though in the West only, from early
times. In this well-known " symbol," the clause relating
to the Church has been amplified by an important addi-
tion. It runs thus : — " The holy Catholic Church, the
communion of saints." There is reason to believe that
these clauses are but one article of belief, the second
clause being explanatory of the first.
The Nicene Creed, as at first adopted, was confined to
an exposition of the doctrine concerning the persons of
the Godhead. In its later (Constantinopolitan, or Chal
cedonian) form, in which it has been in use, in both East
and West, for fourteen hundred years, it has the words,
" and I believe one, holy,* Catholic and Apostolic
Church." Two things are noteworthy in this connection.
The doctrine of the Church must have held a. high place
in the esteem of Christians to have been put so promi-
nently and honourably in the Creed. There is also an
implication that by the Church something more than a
mere earthly society, however dignified, is intended :
otherwise it would not be an object of faith ; as the rest
of the creed refers to unseen and insensible realities, a
fair presumption is, that the same is the case with this.
But the idea of the Church was to undergo a yet
further change. The process of centralization was car-
ried another step. The Church, which had been per-
sonified in the Catholic bishops, and on a grander scale
had been represented by the Councils, came to be incar-
nated (so to speak) in a single man. That the unity of
the Church might be exhibited, its discipline preserved,
its independence and power sustained, the more effec-
tively, Christendom acquiesced in the assumption of the
Bishops of Rome, that communion with them was the
true test of the Church of Christ. And in conjunction
* The epithet " holy" has been omitted from the English version.
Historically developed, 9 1
with the domination of the Papal system, there prevailed
a new relation between the Church and the political
powers of Europe. As if still further to externalize
religion, the earthly head of the Church became a secular
potentate, and was mixed up in the alliances, the intrigues
and the wars of the Western nations. It has been said,
without exaggeration, that, as the soul rules the body, so
it was the aim of the Papacy, through the Emperor, to
rule the world.
The mediaeval idea of the Church may be summed up
in one word, — the Papacy. For the concentration of the
ecclesiastical empire in Rome there were two grounds ;
one of the nature of religious sentiment, the other of
political association. It was believed that the Church at
Rome was founded by the Apostle Peter ; it was known
that Rome had been the mistress of the world. The
steps by which the Bishops of Rome advanced, from the
exercise of metropolitan and patriarchal authority over
Southern Italy, to the assumption of primacy, and indeed
universal episcopacy, over the whole Church, are related
by the ecclesiastical historians.
Irenseus, in refuting the heretics by the argument that
the orthodox doctrines were held by the Churches which
had enjoyed a regular succession of bishops from the
time of the Apostles, quotes the Church of Rome as the
most important and conclusive in Its testimony to the
truth. He speaks of " the very great, the very ancient,
and universally known Church founded and organized at
Rome by the two most glorious Apostles, Peter and
Paul," and affirms that " It Is a matter of necessity that
every Church should agree with this Church, on account
of its pre-eminent authority" * (potiorem principalitatem.)
But, as Mr. Hallam has observed, the authority *' is
plainly not limited to the bishop of that city, nor is he
* Iren. adv. Haer., L. III., cap. iii.
92 Idea of the Church
personally mentioned.* Cyprian, the most sacerdotally
inclined of the earlier fathers, does indeed, in a friendly
letter to Cornelius, Bishop of Rome, speak of " the throne
of Peter," '' the chief Church whence priestly unity takes
its source." f But we may well infer from the tone
adopted by the Carthaginian in his subsequent controversy
with Stephen, that these high-sounding phrases were
complimentary rhetoric ; for Rome has seldom heard
language of more defiant independence than she had to
endure from the resolute and haughty Cyprian.
But though eminent and distant bishops might for a
season preserve their independence, and scorn the pre-
tensions of him they deemed their Roman colleague,
there were causes in operation which rendered certain
the supremacy of this great see. There was among the
patriarchates no one fitted to enter the lists with Rome
as competitor for spiritual empire. Jerusalem was but
a memory ; and the Jewish converts were now only a
small fragment of the Christian community. Antioch
and Alexandria were torn and harassed by doctrinal and
personal disputes ; Constantinople had not the prestige of
antiquity. But Rome had maintained a regular succession
of orthodox bishops, and the weakness of her sisters had
been her strength. 1 1 was, however, the fall of the Western
Empire which was the chief occasion of the elevation of
the Roman see to power and primacy. The removal of
the seat of empire by Constantinople to the shores of the
Bosphorus, the transference to Ravenna of the Western
division of imperial rule, the capture of Rome by the
Goths ; these were the steps by which pagan Rome was
humiliated, by which Christian Rome was exalted to the
throne of power.]:
The capture of the seven-hilled city, in a.d. 410, was
the occasion of the composition by Augustine of his
* Hallam's Middle Ages, chap, vii., note 3. f Cypr. Ep., liv,
X Vide Milman's Latin Christianily, book II., chap. i.
Historically developed, 93
greatest work, and indeed the greatest work of Christian
antiquity, — the " City of God." Although the main
purpose of this treatise is to contrast the pagan society
and government of ancient Rome with the glorious
polity which is destined to be universal in extent and
sway, yet there is in it no indication of a belief in a
Romano-Christian Empire, no anticipation of the Papal
system as perfected in after centuries ; but, on the con-
trary, a confident prediction of a Messianic kingdom con-
sequent upon the change from the old earth to the new.
Innocent I. was a man able and ready to take ad-
vantage of the opportunity afforded by the downfall of
the pagan city to advance the dignity and the authority
of his see. The Council of Sardica had already accorded
to the Roman Bishop the right of hearing appeals, — a
right which had been confirmed by imperial authority.
It was the policy of Innocent to claim supremacy over
the West, although it depended upon circumstances, to
what extent his claims might be conceded. The idea of
Papal dominion was in his mind ; and with the process
of centuries, repeated assertions would plant that idea in
the mind of Western Christendom.
The work which Innocent had so boldly commenced
at the beginning of the fifth century, Leo the Great, in
the middle of that century, pushed forward with equal
ambition and vigour. The political situation was still
favourable to the growth of the Papal power; and the
religious condition of the East, of which the proceedings
of the Councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon were symp-
toms, enabled the occupant of the Roman see to further
his designs of supremacy.
The Africans might resist the Roman claim even to
the last, and in some respects successfully ; Hilary might
deny to his face the pretensions of the great Leo ; the
fathers of Chalcedon might raise the prelate of Con-
94 Idea of the Church
stantinople to an equal dignity with the Roman Bishop :
but from the seed long ago planted had grown a
sapling, green and vigorous, which was destined to
become a stalwart and stately tree.
The constitution of the empire naturally suggested
what should be the constitution of the Church.* With
the decay of freedom and the growth of dominion, the
republic had merged into the empire ; and a similar
transition was now taking place in the ecclesiastical realm.
The Council of Sardica had already accorded to the
Roman Bishop the right of hearing appeals, a right which
had been confirmed by imperial authority. Reasons
have been given why in the West such appeals should be
only too readily addressed to the metropolitan see : and
the long-continued disputes in the East rendered the
favour of Rome valuable to either party, and inclined
them in turn to concede her claims.
The personal ability and ambition of some of the more
distinguished Popes were directed towards absorbing the
idea of the Church into that of the Roman obedience.
Gregory the Great (590-604), by his inflexible will
and untiring energy, as well as by his dexterous employ-
ment of human weaknesses, advanced the empire, not of
Christianity alone, but of the Roman see. His autho-
ritative voice was heard throughout the Churches of the
West ; and, at the same time, he fiercely resented the
assumption by the Constantinopolitan Patriarch o f the
proud title of '* Universal Bishop." f Although Gregory
affirmed the assumption of such a title to be nothing
short of blasphemy, his successors have not scrupled to
accept the designation, "Universalis Ecclesise Episcopus,"
or " Bishop of the Universal Church."
• "The community of the Roman Empire and the right of citizenship, even before the
time of Hippolytus, wonderfully favoured the idea of the Catholic (universal) Church." —
Bunsen's Hippolytus, vol. iii. p. 227.
t Milman's Latin Christianity, book III., chap. vil. Hallam's Middle Ages, chap. vii.
'* Gregory seems to have established the appellant jurisdiction of the See of Rome."
Historically developed. 95
The Papal system was, however, consolidated In the
Pontificate of Nicolas I. (858-867),* ''one of the proudest
and most aspiring of the Roman Pontiffs,"! " who, If he
advanced no absolutely unexampled pretensions to supre-
macy In behalf of the Roman see, yet by the favourable
juncture and auspicious circumstances which he seized to
assert and maintain that authority, did more than all his
predecessors to strengthen and confirm it."| The most
remarkable of the events In the life of Nicolas, for the
purpose now under consideration, were his disputes with
the great Archbishops of Treves, Cologne, and Rhelms,
in which he humbled the pride and forced the submission
of those powerful princes of the Church. This was a
severe blow to the arlstocratlcal sentiment which had
exerted for centuries a mighty Influence throughout
Christendom, and favoured the monarchical principle
which was now on the high-road to ascendancy.
It was not merely In becoming a vast and highly-
organized corporation under an almost despotic govern-
ment, that the Church departed from Its original Idea ;
it became a secular power, ranking with the great States
of Europe, and even assuming to dictate to kings and
emperors. Legates or Papal ambassadors were commis-
sioned to the several courts. A jurisdiction was asserted
over all causes into which morals entered as a predomi-
nating element, especially in cases of marriage, divorce,
and adultery. Attempts were made to bring the powers of
this world under the control of the successor of St. Peter;
and means, deemed In that state of society of most
formidable character, were used to effect this end. Ex-
communication, — a weapon which even the proudest of
potentates could not despise, — was directed against the
rebellious and refractory. Communities were laid under
interdict, and thus deprived of the sacred and precious
* Guizot. f Gibbon. \ MiJman.
96 Idea of the Church
ministrations of religion, — and more carnal weapons were
often wielded by the arch-prelate. Intrigue was employed
to use one monarch, or one nation, as the chastiser of
another. The sword itself was drawn, and the spiritual
head of Christendom marched his own soldiers to the field.
In the eighth century were published documents,
which, being in themselves unquestionable forgeries, were
intended to serve the ambitious ends of Rome, and which
because of the uncritical and superstitious habits of the
times did actually, to a large extent, serve those ends.
The ''false decretals," known as of Isidore, professed to
be the decrees of popes and the canons of councils, from
the earliest times. Their manifest design was " the
aggrandisement of the see of Rome, and the aggrandise-
ment of the whole clergy in subordination to the see of
Rome."* About the same time appeared the " Donation
of Constantine," an admitted forgery, conferring temporal
sovereignty in Italy upon the Pope. If the former
documents were convenient weapons in Papal hands for
reducing bishops and archbishops to due obedience, the
latter document may have added a sanctity to the real
donation of Charlemagne, and a prestige to the more than
royal pretensions of the occupants of the fisherman's chair.
Nicolas " tamed kings and tyrants, and ruled the world
like a sovereign," \ but there were those who came after
him who out-Heroded Herod. In his treatment of
Lothaire, Nicolas had shown himself a bold man, and
(in the main question) a righteous bishop. But priestly
pride has never furnished a more striking contrast to the
demeanourof Himwhowas "meek and lowly in heart" than
was offered by Hildebrand when the emperor grovelled
at his feet. Compare Ambrose, at the door of the
cathedral of Milan, refusing to admit the Emperor Theo-
dosius to the communion of the Church, with Gregory
* Milman's Latin Christianity, book V,, chap. iv. f A chronicler quoted by Milman.
Historically developed. 97
the Seventh, shut up in the fortress of Canossa, while
Henry shivered barefooted in his woollen shirt three
days successively in the castle court, waiting for absolution,
and there is a fine contrast between the spiritual dignity
and independence which were the claim to honour and
the secret of power in the persons of the earlier prelates,
and that carnal arrogance and worldly ambition which in
the mediaeval Pontiffs did indeed astonish and overawe
the world for a season, but which also prepared the way
for a certain and irrecoverable fall !
The thirteenth century witnessed the culmination of
the Papal ascendancy.* From the accession of Innocent
III. to the death of Boniface VIII., " Rome inspired all
the terror of her ancient name. She was once more the
mistress of the world, and kings were her vassals."
During this age, the evident purpose and end of the
action of the Roman Court was the personal and official
glory and even the selfish enrichment of the Pope
and his dependents ; the means employed to this end
were often monstrous and arbitrary assumptions. Spirit-
ual terrors were made subservient to Papal aggrandise-
ment. "■ It is," said Boniface VIII., " necessary to ever-
lasting salvation that every human creature be subject
to the Pope of Rome." The Church had indeed under-
gone a degrading change, when the spiritual society
became the means, and the ministry and the organization
became the end, of its existence. Of Boniface it is said,
that** he appeared at the jubilee in 1300 . . . dressed in
imperial habits, with the two swords borne before him,
emblems of his temporal as well as spiritual dominion
over the earth."
The splendid but fatal distortion of the original idea
of the Church, which culminated under such PontifTs as
* Hallam's Middle Ages, chap. vii. (where the causes and operations of ecclesiastical
supremacy are fully described.)
H
98 Idea of the Church
Innocent III. and Boniface VIII., carried within it the
seeds of its own destruction. It was because it was a
system based upon the ignorance and the creduHty of
men that it could not survive the era of the revival of
learning and the invention of printing. Long before the
Reformation, the pretensions of Rome were falsified by
the developments of history. She had arrogated to her-
self the true unity, association with which was necessary
to salvation ; but events showed that this unity was
nothing but a fiction and a dream.
The real and then formal separation between East and
West was a violent and irrecoverable shock to the Papal
idea of the Church. Ecclesiastical rivalry between old
and new Rome dated from the division of the empire.
Mutual excommunication had been, for causes half-
political, half-theological, launched by the rival prelates,
and had been followed by suspense of fellowship and
intercourse.* The insertion of the famous '' filioque " in
the Nicene Creed throughout the West had embittered
a controversial difference w^hich in its beginning was
inconsiderable, t Iconoclastic disputes had, in their time,
arrayed parties in more than intellectual antagonism.
But the true reasons of estrangement were political,
and such as were intimately connected with the consoli-
dation of society and the advance of civilization. The
old order had changed. Through the rise of the Teutonic
nations to power the Western Empire had been revived
in another form. Rome threw herself into the political
current of the age. She sacrificed catholicity for a
limited but vast and glorious supremacy ; she turned her
back upon the East, that she might devote herself to the
new world which in Europe was emerging from the chaos
of centuries.
* The reference is especially to Felix and Acacius, late in the fifth century.
+ Vide the candid admissions of M. Ffoulkes in his pamphlet, entitled The Church's Creed
and the Crown's Creed.
Historically developed. 99
In the ninth century, the differences between Rome
and Constantinople assumed a formidable shape. Each
branch of the great tree of Christendom desired to be
acknowledged as the main trunk. The Pope at Rome
required that his jurisdiction should be acknowledged by
the whole Church ; the Patriarch at Constantinople re-
sisted the claim, maintaining that supremacy had passed,
with the person and government of the Emperor, to the
shores of the Bosphorus. In the course of the dispute
which arose between Ignatius and Photius as the two
claimants to the see of Constantinople, both parties
appealed to Rome ; the Pope rose to the height of
the occasion, and '' by the power committed to him by
our Lord through St. Peter,"* restored Ignatius to his
bishopric. Through the varying fortunes of this contro-
versy, Nicolas and his successors made the best use of
their opportunity, but on the 'whole the result was un-
favourable to their plans, and the virtual alienation of the
East and the West from each other outlasted the formal
profession of disagreement.
The final rupture between the two great sections of
Christendom took place in a.d. 1054, when the Patri-
arch Michael, and those who adhered to him, were
solemnly excommunicated by the legate of Leo IX., who
laid the document of cursing upon the altar of St. Sophia.
Various attempts were made in succeeding centuries to
bring about a reconciliation, but without success. And
since the failure of the endeavour, which seemed so
promising for the Interests of unity and of Rome, wit-
nessed after the Council of Ferrara and Florence, the
situation has been accepted, and the breach acknow-
ledged as Irreparable. The Holy Orthodox Church at
Constantinople is the Photian schism at Rome.f
* Quoted in Miltr.an.
•f* For an account of the real causes of the separation, see Stanley's Eastern Church,
H 2
lOO Idea of the Chtirch
From the time of the disruption between East and
West, the assumption of the '' note " of CathoHcity by
any outward ecclesiastical organization can have pro-
voked only ridicule In the mind of an impartial observer.
But the events of the fourteenth century were such as to
shake the faith of Christendom, first in the necessity of
Rome as the centre of the Church, and then in the
much-boasted "note" of unity, even as considered within
her own narrowed, European borders.
When the Papacy became a dependency of the Crown
of France, it was not independence only that was sacri-
ficed. The Roman bishops had urged persistently their
claim to supremacy on this ground, that theirs was the
Apostolic See, founded by the prince of Apostles. But
during what was called "the Babylonish captivity," which
lasted for more than seventy years,* the Popes resided at
Avignon under the patronage, and to a large extent sub-
ject to the influence, of the sovereigns of France. In
what sense could they be the successors of Peter ?
Titular bishops of Rome, virtually they were merely
bishops in partibus, not in JideliMm Indeed, but alienoruni.
The end of this trouble was only the beginning of a
disaster far more serious. There had been anti-popes in
abundance from the third and fourth centuries onward.
But ''the great schism" of the latter part of the fourteenth
and the earlier part of the fifteenth centuries, is the most
important Internal division which Latin Christianity has
had to deplore. The memorable rupture was only closed
by the determined attitude of the Council of Constance,
which virtually deposed the three rival Popes. The
spectacle thus presented to more than two generations, of
a divided head, a divided body and a divided allegiance,
lecture i. "The true differences between the East and the West existed long before their
formal disruption, and would exist in all probability long after any formal reunion. The dis-
ruption itself was rather a consequence than a cause of their estrangement," &c., pp. 23, 24.
* From the election of Clement V. (1305) to the death of Gregory Xi. (1378).
Historically developed, loi
must have produced upon the minds, at least of the
observing and thoughtful among the laity, an impres-
sion strikingly at variance with the claim of unity which
had been so constantly preferred by the ecclesiastics, and
too unthinkingly acquiesced in by the people.
The Reformation was not only a return to the doc-
trinal teaching of the New Testament ; it was also, to a
large extent, the restoration of the primitive idea of the
Church. That this may appear, it will be well to explain
definitely what was the Papal or Roman idea, which ex-
pressed itself in the ecclesiastical system of the middle
ages.
The Church of Rome admits the distinction between
the militant and the triumphant Church, but ignores,
if she does not reject, that between the Church visible
and invisible. The Church, according to the standards
and the theologians of post- Reformation times, is a
society exclusively outward and visible, consisting of *' a
hierarchy instituted by Divine authority and the laity."*
From this society three classes of persons are excluded :
—the heathen, the heretics and schismatics, and the ex-
communicated.! With these exceptions, all mankind
beside are reckoned as members of the Church : the
fideles being such as profess the faith, and partake of
the sacraments. It is acknowledged that in the Church
militant are two kinds of men, the good and the evil;
both alike belong to the corpus, or body of the Church,
* Perrone, in Praelect. Theol. The definitions of several distinguished Roman Catholic
theologians are subjoined.
The Church " is a society of men united by a profession of the same Christian faith, and a
participation of the same sacraments, under the government of lawful pastors, and especially
of the one Vicar of Christ upon earth, the Roman Pontiff. .... The Church is a society
of men as visible and palpable as the Roman people, the kingdom of France, or the republic
of Venice." — Bellarmine.
" Christi Eccles.ae nomine significamus societatem illam quam Christus Jesus instituit ut
depositum asservaret coelestis doctrinas in terras ab se delatse, atque organum seu medium
simul esset, quo haec ipsa doctrina conservaretur Integra atque propagaretur." — Perrone,
Praelect. Theol.
" Ecclesia est societas hominum viatorum, veram Chiisti doctrinam profitentium." —
Bossuet, quoted by Perrone.
f Vide Catech. Roman.
102 Idea of the Church
whilst all the just, and only the just, are of Its anima,
or soul.* The unity of this visible and only true Church
is maintained by the supremacy of the Pope, who is the
" visible head necessary for the formation and preserva-
tion of the Church's unity," t *' the vicar of God upon
earth." I Communion with bishops in the Apostolical
succession is not deemed by Rome, by itself considered,
communion with the true Church ; as this succession is a
fact which no heresy or schism can vitiate ; the only
valid test is subjection to the Holy See. Oriental and
Anglican Episcopalians are relegated into the category
of schismatics. When sanctity is predicated of this visible
Church, it is explained that sanctity means set apart, and
dedicated to God. Its claim to Catholicity is intelligible,
but incredible. Apostolicity, an attribute added in the
Nicene Creed, is based upon Apostolic doctrine and
ministry, and involves infallibility. The Communion of
Saints is the common participation in the privileges of
the Church.
Bellarmine gives fifteen "notes" of the true Church,
which he affirms to be wanting to Protestants. (i) The
name of the Catholic and Christian Church ; (2) Antiquity;
(3) Long and uninterrupted continuance ; (4) The num-
ber and variety of believers ; (5) Apostolic succession of
bishops ; (6) Doctrinal agreement with the ancient Church ;
(7) Union of members among themselves and with
the head ; (8) Holiness of doctrine ; (9) Power (efficacia)
of doctrine; (10) Holy life of the founders, or primitive
fathers ; (11) Glory of miracles ; (12) Light of prophecy ;
(13) The acknowledgment of opponents; (14) Miserable
* Vide Catech. Roman., and Perrone, Praelect. Theol.
t Catech. Roman.
J Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent. " Porro caput Ecclesiae totius Chrlstus est,
sed Ecclesis visibilis, quae est in terris, caput est Apostolicus Pontifex, qui locum Christi in ea
tenet." — Bellarmine, Explicatlo Symbol! Apostol.
" Congregatio vocatur Ecclesia, non quod omnes fideles in locum unum sint congregati, sed
quod congregati sint sub uno vexillo crucis, et sub uno duce, sive capite, Christo, et ejus
universali Vicario, Romano Pontifice." — Ibid.
Historically developed. 103
destruction of the Church's enemies ; (15) Temporal
prosperity.*
These notes, however, have been reduced to the four
already explained, as in the Nicene Creed : these being,
Unity, Sanctity, Catholicity, and Apostolicity.f
There have been for centuries in the Roman Church
two opposed schools of theologians taking contrary views
of the ultimate source of power in the great hierarchy.
Whether distinguished as Liberals and Jesuits, or
Galileans and Ultramontanists, they have contended as to
the authority inherent in the occupant of Peter's chair.
One party has advocated the supremacy of the general
councils as the representative body and as the mouth-
piece of the whole society ; and has asserted the amena-
bility of the Pope himself to an (Ecumenical Synod. In
practical support of this position, reference has been made
to the contradictory decisions of successive pontiffs, and
especially to the admitted prerogative exercised by councils
in the deposition of popes. On the other hand, of late years,
the party appears to have been growing in strength, which
contends for the supremacy and infallibility of the Pope
himself; and to this party the British clergy in com-
munion with Rome undoubtedly belong. | The safer
theologians maintain that there is a co-ordinateness, if
not equality of eminence and authority, attaching to pope
and council. §
The fundamental distinction between the Catholic and
the Protestant idea of the Church is in the view taken of
the relation between the society professing Christian
doctrine, and the doctrine professed by the Christian
* Bellarmine, De notis Ecclesiae in De Conciliis, L. IV.
f Perrone, Praelect. Theol., cap. ii. p. 716.
X Vide a recent sermon of Archbishop Manning, reported in the Times, of October 4th,
1869, where the Pope is monstrously decribed as " the sole last supreme judge of what is right
and wrong ! "
§ " At ubi, et quomodo loquitur Ecclesia ? Loquitur per os Petri, per eum, qui sedet in
Apostolico throno, per decreta et canones generalium conciliorum." — Bellarmine, Concio.,
cap. X., super. Psalm., cap. xc. For the liberal v'lewj'vide The Pope and the Council, by Janus.
I04 Idea of the Church
society. The definitions given by the Roman theologians
are not based upon the true doctrine of Christianity held
and proclaimed. The reason is obvious : Rome teaches
that we are first to acknowledge the society or organiza-
tion called the Church ; and then, upon its authority, to
receive the truths of our Divine religion. She says to
the inquirer, — Accept me as the authoritative, infallible
representative of God, and then accept the whole body of
Christian truth including the Scriptures, upon my simple
but infallible dictum.
Protestantism, on the other hand, starting from the
right and duty of private judgment, requires of men that
they should examine for themselves and become con-
vinced as to what is the revealed mind and will of God,
and further, that uniting with those who accept that
revelation, they should profess and proclaim it, and thus
justify to themselves the claim to be of Christ's Church.*
One system bases the Word upon the Church ; the
other bases the Church upon the Word.
There were Reformers before the Reformation. Most
of those who lifted up a voice of protest against the
Papal system were moved to do so by the flagrant abuses
which could not be hid. A comparison between the
teaching of Christ and His Apostles on the one hand,
and the practices of Rome on the other, could not but
* "The difference is this : - The Romanist, while admitting that there is or ought to be in
the Church an interior life, not cognizable by human eye, yet regards this as a separable acci-
deht, and makes the essence of the Church to consist in what is external and visible j the
Protestant, on the contrary, while admitting that to be visible is an inseparable property of
the Church, makes the essence thereof to consist in what is spiritual and unseen j viz., the
work of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of Christians." — Litton, The Church of Christ, p. 70,
"The one true Church becomes visible, not in its proper unicy under Christ its Head, but
under the form of particular congregations or Churches."— Ibid., p. 326.
" The Catholics teach," says Miihler, " the visible Church is first, then comes the invisible,
the former gives birth to the latter. On the other hand, the Lutherans say the reverse, from
the invisible emerges the visible Church ^ and the former is the groundwork of the latter." —
Symbolik, section 48. Mijhler's fallacy is the confusion in which he has involved himself
between logical and chronological sequence. In order of time, our relation to the visible
Church, — i.f., our association with Christian people and our enjoyment of the means of grace,
— may {^recede our incorporation in the invisible Church : but the spiritual society is the
ground and the rah n d'etre of the outward community, notwithstanding.
Historically developed. 105
awaken dissatisfaction in every just mind, and indignant
protest in every bold heart. Amongst the Waldenses
and other sects, there was a clear perception of the
groundlessness of the Roman claims and of the priestly
system ; they regarded the Papal Church as corrupt, if
not apostate.*
The great English Reformer, Wycliffe, was the first
who openly, in the presence of Europe, defied the
authority of the Roman Pontiff. He began his protest
by declaiming against the impositions, avarice and vices
of the friars; but his bold, fearless spirit led him to
question the principles upon which the organized Church
was based. In denouncing the begging brethren, in
arguing against the assumptions of the Pope to authority
over the realm of England, Wyclifte enjoyed the counten-
ance of the great : but he went far beyond the limits
which a prudent and time-serving Reformer would have
observed ; he attacked the dogma of Transubstantiation,
and assailed the constitution of the Church. According
to his enemies, the monks, he taught that there is one
only universal Church, consisting of the whole body of
the predestinate ; and that the Church of Rome was no
more the head of the universal Church than any other, f
His own writings bear out these charges. '' The third
part [after those glorified and those in purgatory] of the
Church are true men that here live, that shall be after-
wards saved in heaven, and who live here the life of
Christian men." The " Church is mother to every man
who shall be saved, and containeth no other." " All
these things that popes do, teach that they are Antichrists.
If they say that Christ's Church must have a head here
on earth, true it is, for Christ is the Head which must be
here with His Church until the day of doom."]:
* Mosheim's Institutes of £ccl. History, century xii.
t Ibid., liccl. History, century xiv. (note by Murdock.)
X From De Ecclesiae Dominio, in Tracts and Treatises of Wycliffe, pp. 74-6.
io6 Idea of the Church
Wycllffe's doctrines, and especially that upon the
Church, re-appeared in the teaching of the Bohemian
Huss. Undoubtedly, the chief fault of which this noble
man was guilty, in the apprehension of the Roman pre-
lates and even of the reforming Council of Constance,
was his daring and rousing opposition to the mechanical
religion of the times. He believed and taught that there
is a spiritual society, the living Church of Christ, of which
even priests and bishops are no members, if their cha-
racter and life be opposed to the Spirit of Christ. " He
was the martyr," says Dean Milman, '' to the power of
the hierarchy ; ... his testimony was against that
supreme ecclesiastical dominion, which had so long ruled
the mind of man."
None of the pre- Reformation Protestants taught more
clearly than did the famous John Wessel the true doctrine
of Christ's Church. This, according to him, '* is the com-
munion of saints (i.e., of persons still undergoing the pro-
cess of sanctification and of persons already perfected)
subject to Jesus Christ as their one true Head;" . . .
'' something essentially internal, as a fellowship of holy per-
sons, whose unity rests on spiritual grounds, and not upon
connection with one visible and supreme Head." . . .
'' The unity of the Church under one pope is only acci-
dental and not necessary." . . . The inward nature of
the Church, Wessel also illustrates, by showing that the
living bond between its members is not an outward
authority over their faith, but mutual love. '' We must
acknowledge," he says, " a catholic Church, but we must
place its unity in the unity of the faith and of the Head,
in the unity of the corner-stone, not in the unity of Peter
or his successor, as the Church's governor." . . . '' By
the unity of faith, piety, and true love, the Christians
constitute with us one catholic and apostolic Church, even
though they should never have heard that there exists
Historically developed. 107
such a city as Rome, or such a person as the Roman
Bishop."*
Probably in the century preceding the Reformation there
were many Instances of practical Protestantism, both as
regards doctrinal and ecclesiastical matters ; and some
may yet be brought to light by the Industry of investi-
gators. In Its main features, the history of Juan de
Valdes cannot have stood alone ; and his later years (he
died in 1540) strikingly exemplified the reaction against
the sacerdotal and artificial system which he never for-
mally abjured. During those years, when the devout and
holy author of the CX. Considerations lived at Naples,
he was virtually pastor of a Congregational Church in
that city ; for there were several persons of position,
and even of distinction, who assembled with him each
Lord's day, and listened to his learned expositions of
Holy Scripture, and his tranquil and spiritual meditations
upon Divine things.!
Hitherto, even those who had discriminated between
the wheat and the tares, had not looked beyond the
ecclesiastical pale for true believers ; but the events of
the sixteenth century led to the formation throughout a
great part of Europe of Christian societies upon a new
basis. When Luther preached against Indulgences, which
were sanctioned by the Pope, and therefore matters of
faith, he was appealing from a human authority to the
Scriptures and the Spirit. When he taught the doctrine
of justification by faith, he was exalting the spiritual
above the merely formal. When he appealed from the
Pope to the Council, but stipulated that the Council
should decide according to Scripture, he not only re-
nounced the Papacy, but even the so-called Catholic system.
* Ullmann's Reformers before the Reformation, in Clark's Foreign Theological Librarj',
pp. 482-5.
t Vide Life and Writings of Juan de Valdes, by B. B. WifFen and J. T. Betts. For other
anticipations of Congregationalism, vide Waddington's Congregational Church History.
io8 Idea of the Church
He and his adherents found that they could not reform ;
and they seceded. Although he shrank from the respon-
sibility of forsaking a society which was in possession of
Baptism, the Lord's Supper, the writings of the Apostles,
and the succession ; he justified himself on the ground
that Rome would not endure or permit the preaching of
the pure Word of God. The same fact was Calvin's
vindication for separation : " Instead," says he, *'of the
ministry of the Word, there prevails in the Papacy a per-
verted government, compounded of lies, a government
which partly extinguishes, partly suppresses, the pure
light. In place of the Lord's Supper, the foulest sacrilege
has entered." Calvin also points out the absurdity of
Rome in disregarding the doctrine taught, and placing
the succession in persons.*
Luther started from the broad principle that Christian
people as such are the Church, and that the condition of
membership is faith and spiritual communion with the
Lord ; but, perhaps influenced by the exercises of the
Anabaptists,! he came to supplement this popular prin-
ciple by laying down " notes" of the true Church. These,
briefly stated, are three in number : — the two Sacraments
and the Word. But to these he added : — the keys, the
appeal of clergy or Church courts, ( Berufung von Kirchen-
dienernj prayer, and the endurance of the cross. Whilst
the Church has an existence in cordibus, that existence is
recognizable among men by these notcB externce Accord-
ingly, the Lutheran symbols regard the Church as Inha-
berinn der Gnadenmittel, (possessor of the means of grace,)
because in it the Gospel is preached, the Sacraments are
administered, the Holy Ghost works, and the forgiveness
of sins is. enjoyed.]:
* Calvin's Institutes, book IV. chap. ii. f Schenkel's Article in Herzog's Real. Encyc.
X Brerschneider, Handbuch der Dogmatik der Evangelisch — Lutherischen Kirche, 8 cap.
3 abschnitt. He also says: ..." Kirche namlich istihnen die Gemeinde der Heiligen und
Glaubigen, die in Gemeinschaft des Christlichen Glaubens, und unter der Regierung des heil.
Geistes stehen mogen sie auch durch aie ganze Welt zerstreut sein ; und ihre ausserllchen
Historically developed. 109
Calvin, the great theologian of the Reformed party,
like Luther and Melancthon, held the Word and the
Sacraments to be the external signs of the true Church.
Like the other Reformers also,* he laid stress upon the
power of the keys, which he explains by three proposi-
tions: — (i) That the children of God whilst in the body
stand in need of forgiveness ; (2) That they can enjoy
this only in connection with the Church ; and (3) That
forgiveness is dispensed by ministers in the Word and
Sacraments, t
It was admitted, by both these great parties, that the
Church militant cannot be kept perfectly pure. Holding
that the notoriously ungodly should be excommunicated,
Luther maintained that the Church was not vitiated by
the presence of undetected hypocrites. Calvin taught
the Church might be viewed, either as it is before God, or
as it appears to us, — the assembly of professing Christians,
including hypocrites and wicked persons; and he re-
garded as infatuated the Cathari, Donatists, and Ana-
baptists for denying, to societies containing unworthy
Christians, the designation of" Church."]:
One of the gravest errors committed by the Reformers
was the relation they favoured between the Church and
the State. Luther was perhaps influenced by the poli-
tical events of his time, in approving the dependence, to
a large extent, of the spiritual upon the civil office. The
Lutheran Church has remained to this day the creature
of the State; and, as a matter of course, Church discipline
has fallen into abeyance. The Reformed party else-
Kennzeichen sind, diss die Evangelische Lehre unter ihnen recht gelehrt, und die Sicramente
recht nach Jesu Einsetzung, verwaltet werden." He quotes from the Apol. Aug. : *' Dicimus
existere hanc Ecclesiam, videlicet veie credentes et justos sparsos per totum orbem. Et addi-
mus notasj puram doctrinam Evangelii et Sjcramenta." In the above account, use has been
made of Muenchm:yer's Das Dogma von der sichtbaren und unsichtbaren Kirche.
* Vide^ for other examples, Palmer's Treatise on the Church.
f Institutes, book IV. chap. i.
X For a succinct account of the Protestant view of the Church, controversially stated, vide
Turretini Compend. TheoL Locus, xvi.
no Idea of the Church
where, adopting the Presbyterian form of government, In
Switzerland and In Scotland, made the same mistake.
The ancient bishop disappeared, but his representative In
the person of the superintendent or In the synod or pres-
bytery was (though no longer under the power of Rome
yet) often subject to the control of a civil and perhaps
unsplrltual ruler.
If England Is not of all nations that one in which
liberty of speculation Is most freely claimed and accorded.
It Is certainly the one In which owing to the practical
genius of the people, principles have been most freely
embodied in actions and theories In facts. Hence the
vast diversity, not of theological opinion merely, but of
religious sentiment and ecclesiastical organization, which
have for centuries obtained In this land. From the time
of the Lollards until now, with but few Intervals, the
nation has been characterized by Intensity of religious
feeling and of Church life ; and It may be regarded as, In
some senses, a microcosm of Christendom. The three
governing principles, which have controlled the develop-
ment of Christian association In this land, have been, —
speaking somewhat loosely, — respect for tradition, reliance
on reason, and reverence for Scripture. The reader will
not need to be Informed that we have no sympathy with
the too-prevalent disposition to account as " the Church "
one section alone — however powerful — of Christian society
in England.
The Church established by law in these realms does
not, as a Church, rank on either side in the great
controversy between Catholicism and Protestantism.
Dignitaries and parties within her pale have Indeed
fought strenuously on both sides. From Laud to
Philpotts there have been prelates who have regarded
their Church as resting upon the ancient foundation of
the '' succession," and her clergy as a priesthood dis-
Historically developed, 1 1 1
pensing supernatural gifts and performing supernatural
wonders. From Hooper to Whately there have been
bishops who have maintained the spirituality of Christ's
kingdom, and who have considered themselves and
their brethren ministers of the Divine Word, and guides
of a voluntary community. It must be admitted that
both parties have abundant justification for their positions
In the formularies of the Establishment ; and that, these
formularies remaining as they are, neither party can
fairly demand the exclusion of the other. It follows
that, owing to the compromise in which Anglicanism
orlelnated, and the discordant elements of which it is
composed, no one definite ecclesiastical idea can be said
to be that embodied in the Church of England. She
is a Janus, and her temple Is always open.
Those members of the Anglican Church who have
adopted the sacramental and sacerdotal theories which
were so repugnant to the Reformers, have naturally
enough viewed with favourable and even envious eyes
the communities In which the leading Idea of the Church
for centuries has been the Catholic succession, with all
that It involves. These regards have shown themselves
sometimes In a lusting for the flesh-pots of Egypt, too
strong to be resisted, sometimes In a habit of coquetting
with the ancient system which has put the Anglican
Catholic out of sympathy with the movements of his
countrymen and the spirit of his age.
One bond of union, or rather one link of sympathy,
existed between the English and the Oriental Churches :
both alike, though at different periods, from different
causes, and in different circumstances, having rebelled
against the pretensions and withdrawn from the com-
munion of Rome. From the reign of James I. a strong
party, of clergy especially, in the Anglican Church, have
repudiated the friendly attitude towards the Protestant
1 1 2 Idea of the Church
bodies of Europe which was exhibited by the prominent
Edwardian and EHzabethan divines, and have sought
every opportunity of stretching out the hand of fellow-
ship to such churches as enjoyed the mysterious but
priceless advantage of the Episcopal succession. Poli-
tical reasons have always stood in the way of outward
manifestations of friendliness towards Rome ; yet there
have not been wanting communications, cautious in
themselves and futile in their results, between repre-
sentatives of the two communions. The attempts of
Christopher Davenport to prove the substantial unity
of Roman and Anglican teaching ; the correspondence
between Bossuet and Leibnitz, which, though primarily
affecting the Protestant Continental bodies, could not
be indifferently regarded by English ecclesiastics ; and
the communications between Archbishop Wake and
Dupin, are enough to prove that the interest in the
re-union of Christendom was not extinct up to the time
of the Hanoverian occupation of the throne of England.*
Those Englishmen whose hearts have yearned for
the re-establishment of communion among Christians
possessing the Catholic episcopacy, have often looked
wistfully towards the great Eastern patriarchs. The
immoveable and self-centred thoughts of the Oriental
Churches have not as often been disturbed by reciprocal
desires. There have been, however, signal exceptions.
The active mind of Cyril Lucar led him, in the early
part of the seventeenth century, to correspond, not only
with distinguished representatives of the Protestantism
of the Continent, but with such Anglican ecclesiastics
as Abbot and Laud. The occupation of Constantinople
by the Turks, and the consequently difficult position of
the Patriarch and his clergy, gave opportunities to
* Vide^ for a concise account of these and other overtures and negotiations, Plumptre's
Christ and Christendom, Appendix A.
Historically developed, 1 1 3
Englishmen to display a friendly spirit towards the Holy
Orthodox Church. Several successive chaplains at Con-
stantinople laboured to establish some kind of recognition
between the respective Churches. A Greek Church
was, towards the close of the seventeenth century,
opened in London, and soon after there existed, for a few
years, a Greek College at Oxford. But the most famous
episode in the history of the relations in question was
undoubtedly the negotiation between the nonjuring
bishops and the *' Catholic and Apostolical Oriental
Church."* This negotiation never proceeded far, owing
to the incompetency of the nonjurers to speak in the
name of the Church of England, and came to an abrupt
close upon the death of Peter the Great.
It is well known that of late years a very remarkable
movement has arisen in this country in favour of what is
called the Reunion of Christendom, but which is in
reality the Reunion of the Anglican, Roman and Greek
Episcopal Churches. This movement has received the
support of many distinguished members of the High
Church party, more particularly of their tutante^i et decus^
Dr. Pusey. It has seemed to many Anglican Catholics
that their branch of the Church possesses peculiar advan-
tages as a central and reconciling power. They can
indeed scarcely boast of any remarkable measure of
success in the efforts they have hitherto put forth : plain
Englishmen might even say that they have been cruelly
snubbed in high places. But they put the best face
upon the matter, and are not slow in informing their
friends of any successes .they may have gained. The
literature which this party has produced has been
abundant in quantity ; volumes of sermons and essays
by various writers, members of the several communions,
* Vide the correspondence published in The Orthodox Church of the East in the
Eighteenth Century, by George Williams, B.D.
I
114 ^^^^ of the Church
and separate works, tracts and pamphlets in profusion.
Satisfaction the most confident in their own position,
contempt the most subHme for all dissidents, are pro-
minent characteristics of their literature.
The movement in question is most prominently re-
presented by the '' Association for the Promotion of the
Unity of Christendom," — a Society established on the
8th of September, 1857. Two years ago this Associa-
tion had between nine and ten thousand enrolled mem-
bers, clergymen and laymen of the three Churches. But
we are not told what proportion of the members consists
of Anglicans, and we must be allowed to presume that
few belong^ to the other two communions. The con-
ditions of membership are not burdensome ; — the offering
of a brief and scriptural prayer for unity every day,
and, in the case of a cleric, the offering of the " Holy
Sacrifice " on the same behalf once in three months.
One thing is very plain, that Protestants are intentionally
excluded from the view of the Reunionists, as no Pro-
testant minister would offer the ''Holy Sacrifice" for
any purpose, not believing that the Eucharist possesses
a sacrificial character. And every opportunity is taken
to repudiate such Christians as practise other than the
Episcopal form of Church-government. Dr. Pusey is
anxious to explain that the Lutherans, German and
Scandinavian, are not to be regarded as part of the
Catholic Church. They have no true succession, no
priestly office, no participation in the body and blood,
no real absolution, and are accordingly wanting in the
notes of genuine Catholicity.* In a manifesto of the
Reunion party issued in 1862, for the instruction of
foreigners visiting the Exhibition of that year, the claim
of the Church of England to be regarded as a member
* " The Swedish body has even yet retained more of ritual than we ; but having lost the
succession and the faith of the sacrament (with the power ot administering it), it is but an
empty show, the casket of a lost jewel." — Essays on Reunion, Introductory Essay, p. 77.
Historically developed. 1 1 5
of the Catholic body is based upon her maintenance of
the following doctrines : — the remission and regeneration
through Baptism, the gift of the H oly Ghost in Confirmation,
the objective presence of the body and blood in the Eucha-
rist, as well as its sacrificial character, Apostolical Succes-
sion, Absolution, and the authority of the Ancient Creeds.*
The Roman Catholics are ready to admit that the
Episcopal Church of England has peculiar advantages
for effecting an organic reunion, or rather for serving
as the rallying point in an endeavour to attain it.f
But the terms on which the Romanists are prepared
to welcome the projected alliance must be unpalatable
in the extreme to the advanced Ano^licans. These are
willing to concede the primacy of the Roman bishop,
and are forward to profess that by dexterous treatment
the Thirty-nine Articles may be harmonized with the
doctrines of the Council of Trent : they merely ask
that liberty should be allowed in matters which are not
strictly speaking " of the faith."
But there is no real harmony between the views of
the Church taken by the two parties respectively. The
Anglican claims for his Church a position of co-
ordinateness as related to the Roman and Greek com-
munions. But what is the view taken of this claim by
the Latin Church ? It might be excused for asserting
its precedence ; but it unhesitatingly asserts its sole
right to be regarded as the Church, and rejects, either
with proud scorn or yet prouder politeness, the assump-
tion of the anxious Anglican.
* Address of' English Churchmen to foreigners visiting England.
+ " If ever," says Count De iMaistre, " Christians draw together, as everything invites them
to do, it appears that the movement must start from the Church of England. Presbyterianism
was a French work, and consequently, an exaggerated work. We are too far removed from
a worship too little substantial ; there are no means whereby we can reach it ; but the
Anglican Church which touches us with one hand, touches on the other those whom we
cannot touch j and although in a certain point of view it is exposed to the blows of both sides,
and presents the somewhat ridiculous spectacle of a rebel who preaches obedience, it is, not-
withstanding, in other aspects very valuable, and may be regarded as one of those chemical
intermedei able to bring together elements in their own nature discordant." — Considerations
*ur la France, chap. ii. (quoted by Gondon).
I 2
1 1 6 Idea of the Church
Certain Roman Catholics having, without due con-
sideration, joined the Society already alluded to, their
conduct came under the notice of their bishops, who
obtained a decision thereupon from the Holy Inquisition
at Rome. The Holy Office admits that Catholics ought
to pray that schisms and dissensions among Christians
may be plucked up by the root ; and that all those who
have forsaken the holy Roman Church, beyond which
there Is no salvation, may, upon forswearing their errors,
be restored. But it insists that there is no other Catholic
Church beside that which is built " super unum Petrum
in unum connexum corpus atque compactum unitate fidei
et charltatis," and that it is by no means to be tolerated
that the faithful should pray for unity upon the sugges-
tion of heretics. The view of the Association, that
Photianism and Anglicanism are two forms of the true
Christian religion, is stigmatized as the height of pesti-
lential '* indifferentlsm." Catholics are forbidden to be
members of the Society In question.*
The same view of the inviolability of the Catholic
unity is taken by the English laity, even by those most
liberally disposed towards reconciliation. " No Catholic,"
says Mr. A. L. M. Phillipps de Lisle, " in advocating such
a reunion, for a single moment would admit that the
Catholic Church of Christ has ever lost her essential
unity. The Catholic Church can no more lose her unity
than she can cease to be. . . . No Catholic, therefore, in
advocating the corporate reunion of any divided branch
of Christians with the parent-stock, ever dreams of restor-
ing unity to the Catholic Church, for she has never lost
it ; but he does believe that such a re-union would restore
* Supremae S. Romanae et Universalis Inquisitionis Epistola ad omnes Angliae Episcopas.
" if the union of the Anglicans with the Roman Church is intended and promoted in this
sense, that they, laying aside all error and schism, are willing to embrace in sincerity Catholic
doctrine, and to accept the supremacy of the Roman Pontiff as the Chief Vicar of Jesus Christ
on earth, and the Visible Head of His Church, you may count upon the kindness with which this
Holy See would be ready to treat with the Anglicans, whether collectively or individually." —
Second Letter of Cardinal Barnabo to Mr. A. L. M. Phillipps de Lisle.
Historically developed, 117
Catholicity to any such divided branch."* What is this
but to say, — We are the true Church ; you are, if not
heretics, yet undoubtedly schismatics ; you are, however,
at liberty to repent of your schism, and enter as converts
the Church you sinfully forsook !
The two most striking phenomena as witnessing to a
desire amongst Anglicans to promote reunion have
been (i) the formation of the *' Association for the Pro-
motion of the reunion of Christendom," and (2) the
publication by Dr. Pusey of his '' Eirenicon." The
response to the first on the side of Rome has been ably
given by Dr. Manning, and to the second by Dr. Newman.
The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster quotes
the decided prohibition of the Holy Office, for the direc-
tion of such members of the Roman Church as might be
invited to enter the Association. He, however, recognizes
with joy, as a proof of Divine grace, the fact that two
hundred English clergy have applied to the Cardinal
Secretary of the Holy Office, expressing their desire for
reunion. At the same time he remarks that the Episco-
pal Church represents only half of the English people, the
Anglican school only a portion of that Church, the
Anglo-catholic movement only a section of that school,
and the Unionist movement only a fraction of that section.
Much as he longs for unity, he affirms that it can only be
offered upon unconditional submission to the living and
perpetual voice of the Church of God. The faith is even
more Divine than union. The Anglicans, according to him,
place all religion in an imaginary faith of the undivided
Church, the Unionists in an agreement of the universal
Church founded upon a liberal interpretation of the
Thirty-nine Articles on the one hand and the Council of
Trent on the other. But the Church is inflexible in
dogma, and can come to no compromise with those with-
* Essays on Reunion, pp 227, 228.
ii8 Idea of the Church
out her pale. The Church is infallible ; that is, she per-
petually holds and proclaims Divine truth by the perpetual
aid of the Holy Ghost. Truth, then, must come first ;
unity afterwards. And if asked how unity is provided
for, he replies that it is by the submission of all wills to
the Divine Master by the intermediate position of the
pastors of the Church, and especially the Supreme Pontiff.
There is no salvation out of the Church ; and of the
Church the Anglican and Greek communions form no
part. The Church never has lost and never can lose its
unity. The Reunionists have laid great stress on the
wishes and proposals of Bossuet. Dr. Manning quotes
Bossuet in support of his own position. The contradic-
tions which have arisen out of the Thirty-nine Articles are
contrasted with the harmonious theology founded upon
the decrees of Trent. It is plainly pointed out that to
accept the Council of Trent, upon condition of interpreting
it by our own opinions, is to sit in judgment upon it, not
to submit to it. The inconsistency of the Anglican
position is contrasted unfavourably with the simple Pro-
testantism which is guided by the Scriptures alone. If
the Anglicans were admitted into Catholic unity, retaining
their views, they would be '' intus corpore, corde foris."
The Anglican proposal to appeal from the Pope to a
future Council is stigmatized as sacrilege. The Councils,
like the Fathers, are only important as expressing the
mind of the Church. Through its long history, the
Church has been defining, not creating doctrines, by a
series of declarations. This is the case with the Im-
maculate Conception. The Pope is infallible as the
head and voice of the Church. Matters like the tem-
poral power and the worship of the Virgin must not
be imported into the controversy. To deny the Church's
infallibility is to expose oneself to indifferentism and
infidelity. As for the reunion movement, it is ot
Historically developed, 1 1 9
God only so far as it leads individuals jto submit to the
truth.*
Dr. Pusey, whilst maintaining most of those so-called
Catholic doctrines against which Protestantism protests,
has yet been for a generation the champion of the growing
party which maintains that the Anglican is a co-ordinate
branch of the one Church. He dissuaded his followers
from joining the Church of Rome, — a step to which some
of them felt almost impelled upon accepting the doctrines
of the Tracts.! He resented the comparison which
Romanists were wont to draw between the position of the
Angrlicans and that of the Donatists, — and this on his
authority as a devoted student of St. Augustine. M.
Gondon shows most forcibly in how many ways the Church
of England has refused to accept the interpretations which
Dr. Pusey would put upon her teaching.]: The taunt is
levelled at the Doctor that all he can claim for the English
Church is the bare tolerance of the truth in conjunction
with error.
The "Eirenicon" (in form a letter to the author of the
" Christian Year ") is in reality a reply to a letter to
Dr. Pusey published by Dr. Manning under the title, »
" The Workings of the Holy Spirit in the Church of
England." Maintaining, according to his own explana-
tion, the unity of the Church, Dr. Pusey affirms that this
unity is not destroyed by the interruption of intercom-
munion. He holds that the English Church maintains
the true doctrines ; and attacks the corruptions of Rome,
especially the undue veneration of the Virgin Mother, and
the attribution of infallibility to the Pope. After quoting
Roman Catholic authors who have favoured a reunion of
Christendom, and referring to certain overtures which
* Vide The Reunion of Christendom, a pastoral letter to the clergy, &c., by Henry
Edward, Archbishop of Westminster, passim.
\ Vide Pusey s Advice to Persons tempted to embrace Catholicism, dated August, 1845.
J De la Reunion, &c., par Jules Gondon, pp. 229, 230.
1 20 Idea of the Church
have been made in past times, Dr. Pusey propounds his
scheme. The mininiMm of behef required by the Council
of Trent is to be brought side by side with the maximnm
of behef contained in the Thirty-nine Articles, — i.e., with
those Articles interpreted in the Catholic sense, and an
agreement may be found, which may be ratified in the
eighth general council of Christendom. M. Condon has
well characterized the proposal of Dr. Pusey, in saying
that its first condition would be that the Catholic and the
Oriental Churches should in the first instance become
Puseyites. *
In reply to the "Eirenicon" of his friend Dr. Pusey, Dr.
Newman speaks of his correspondent with manly respect
and with almost tender affection ; but he complains that
some portions of the work scarcely consist with its title :
that he has " hurled his olive-branch from a catapult."
The reply chiefly consists of an explanation of the worship
permitted to the Virgin Mary, and a defence of the
Immaculate Conception. It closes with the assertion that
the honour of the Virgin is dearer to Catholics than the
conversion of England ! Only a few paragraphs at the
commencement refer to the other part of the question :
the different views taken by Romanists and Anglicans
of the relation of Scripture and tradition are briefly ex-
plained ; and the infallibility of the Papal See is not
touched upon.
The response from Rome to the Anglican overtures
being on the whole decidedly unpropitious, it is only
natural that the Reunionists should turn with anxious
hope to the Eastern Churches. f "It is natural, of course,"
says the Rev. C. A. Fowler,]; "being children of the West,
to turn our gaze wistfully to our own spiritual Mother
* De la Reunion, p. 270.
f The earlier English Churchmen regarded the Eastern Churches as at one with them-
selves in rejecting Roman errors. Vide Field, On the Church, book III. chap. i.
t Present Prospects of Reunion, in Essays on Reunion, p. 67.
Historically developed. 121
first. Still, humanly speaking, we cannot help thinking
that reunion with the venerable Eastern Church would
be the better policy, and afford a better chance of success."
This project, however, seems somewhat like the clutching
at a straw by a drowning man. A Metropolitan of the
Orthodox Eastern Church* admits indeed that when the
English Church shall agree with his own ''on the more
important points, in which at present it manifestly differs
from us," then matters of secondary consequence may be
arranged. The editor of the " Essays on Reunion," who
must indeed be thankful for small mercies, and who evi-
dently '' likes to be despised," prints in his volume an
Essay by a priest of the Archdiocese of Constantinople,
in which such crumbs of comfort as the following may be
found : — "What has been denied, obscured, misrepre-
sented, dropped or repudiated, which the Orthodox hold
as from God, must be affirmed, set up again, accepted
with sincerity, preserved and believed in, before reunion
can be obtained ;" " All deviations from the Orthodox
creed of Constantinople must be henceforth rejected and
laid aside. That creed must be adopted and accepted
wathout addition or subtraction, as it was formally pro-
mulgated." Protestantism must be renounced, and the
Anglican orders must be confessed invalid.!
So much for the hopeless prospects of reunion between
the several Episcopal Churches on the basis of cornmon
possession of the catholic truth and the catholic succession.
There has always been in the Reformed English
Church, a party attached to its actual constitution, but
not disposed to claim for that constitution either the
authority of Scripture or the support of ecclesiastical
tradition. Men who have thoroughly broken away from
Rome, and who have had no disposition to return to her
* The Metropolitan of Chios, pp. 293, 294.
f The letter from the Archbishop of Constantinople to the Metropolitan of Canterbury,
September 26th, 1869, is more conciliatory, but holds the same high ground.
122 Idea of the Church
obedience, but who, at the same time, have been well
aware that their Church was rather the creature of cir-
cumstances than a society based upon primitive models,
have sought for the justification of their position in the
conclusions of reason and of expediency. The peculiar
relations of the English Church with the State have re-
quired for their vindication all the skill they could com-
mand, and this skill has not been inconsiderable. The
name of Hooker stands eminent among the chief theolo-
gians of our country ; and Hooker's greatest work was
the defence of his Church against the assaults of learned,
zealous, and logical Puritans. The hopelessness of
defending that Church by weapons drawn from Scripture,
led to his magnificent eulogium of natural law, and his
application of human reason to the establishing of eccle-
siastical polity.* Opposed to the corruptions of Rome,
sensible of the practical advantages of the actual Church
of England, Hooker has ever been regarded with admira-
tion by such as look upon religion as " the stay of all
well-ordered commonwealths," and who are wont to ask,
'* What things are convenient in the outward public
ordering of Church affairs ?"t Fairly might a writer be
credited with Erastianism who teaches that '' there is not
any man of the Church of England but the same man is
also a member of the Commonwealth, nor any member
of the Commonwealth, which is not also of the Church
of England,"! and that ''supreme power in ecclesiastical
affairs" is given unto Christian kings by human right. §
This theory has been developed with ability and elo-
quence by Dr. Arnold in his introduction to the " Lectures
on Modern History," and by Dean Stanley. ||
Perhaps there was never an advocate of Erastianism
* Vide Ecclesiastical Polity, especially book III.
t Eccles. Pol., book V. sect, i, 6.
% Ibid., bookVlII sect. I.
4 Ibid., sect. 2.
Vide Dean Stanley's Lecture, delivered at Sion College.
Historically developed. 123
who went to greater lengths than Thomas Hobbes, of
Malmesbury, the most able advocate upon principle of
political absolutism. In that part of ** Leviathan"* which
treats of a Christian Commonwealth, Hobbes boldly
maintains the supremacy of the civil ruler in ecclesiastical
affairs. He defines " a Church to be, a company of men
professing Christian religion, united in the person of one
sovereign, at whose command they ought to assemble,
and without whose authority they ought not to assemble."
In accordance with this definition, he teaches that Christ
has left authority in matters of religion to civil rulers, and
that if a sovereign command conformity with what is
deemed error, it is right hypocritically to comply, f " The
civil sovereign, being a Christian, hath the right of ap-
pointing pastors. "J
The idea of their Church entertained by the bulk of
the laity, and probably the majority of the clergy, of the
English Establishment, is that of an institution determined
in form by circumstances, commended by expediency and
usage, and affirmed and legalized by Parliamentary au-
thority. Erastianism is the creed of the generality of the
so-called Evangelical and Broad-Church schools. Some
English episcopalians, notably the late Archbishop Whately,
put their own ministry upon precisely the same footing as
the ministry of other denominations of Christians. §
The third influential tendency recognizable in Church
life is the habit of reference to Scripture as the authority,
and to the primitive Churches as the model. The Catho-
lic relies upon the precedent of the diocesan episcopacy,
* Leviathan, part iii. chap. 39.
t Ibid., chap. 42.
+ Ibid.
§ "They (the Reformers) rest the claims of ministers not on some supposed sacramental
virtue, transmitted from hand to hand in unbroken succession from the Apostles, in a chain, of
which if any one link be even doubtful, a distressing uncertainty is thrown over all Christian
ordinances, sacraments, and Church privileges for ever} but on the fact of those ministers being
the regularly-appointed officers of a regular Christian community." — Whately s Kingdom
of Christ, Essay ii. sect. 19. For the ablest exposition of the tenets of Nonconformists re-
garding the relation of Church and State, "vide i-ssai sur la manifestation des convictions reli-
gieuses, et sur la separation de I'eglise et de Tetat, par A. Vinet.
124 ^^^^ ^f ^'^^ Church
which grew out of the primitive system ; if it did not, as
he believes, prevail in the Apostolic times : his view of the
Church is, accordingly, an outward, visible hierarchy. The
Erastian may deem the form of government immaterial,
and may not be concerned to vindicate a primitive origin
for the organization with which he is connected : his view
of the Church is an association which may have the re-
commendations of precedent, convenience, or reason.
The former of these maintains what we believe to be, on
the showing of Scripture, falsehood most pernicious: the
latter has in his system no guarantee that the purposes of
Church-life will be secured. We approve and advocate
the retention of the Scriptural idea of the Church. By
its adoption we believe the two great ends (in subordination
to the Divine glory) of Christian association will be best
promoted, — the reality of spiritual fellowship, and the
promulgation of heaven-born truth ; and we base this
belief upon our conviction that the hearts of Christians
are the chosen dwelling-place of the Holy Ghost.
This has been, in the main, the Puritan, the Presby-
terian, but especially the Congregational, idea.* All clear
thinkers among us distinguish between the spiritual and
universal society called '' the invisible Church," and the
communities to which we give, in accordance with the
New Testament usage, the name of Churches. Itcannot
be overlooked that any society of human beings, on what-
ever principle conducted, may include within it deceivers
of others and even of themselves. Perfect purity of
fellowship is not to be obtained by any meansknown to
man ; but this is no reason why such purity as is obtain-
able should not be wisely and strenuously aimed at. No
earthly government can maintain perfect order and peace
* For the Presbyterian system the reader may consult Bannerman's Church of Christ, and
Cunningham's Historical Theology. For the Independent system, the works of Robinson,
Owen, and Goodwin among the earlier, and those of Hanbury, Wardlaw, Davidson, Conder
and Fletcher among contemporary writers.
Historically developed. 125
among its subjects ; but that is no reason why laws should
not be made and enforced for the repression of disorder
and the encouragement of peace and liberty. Similarly,
there are no means known to man whereby the wise
exercise of power can in all cases be secured ; but this is
no reason why the laity, the people, should be deprived
of the right or absolved from the duty of self-government,
in spiritual any more than in civil affairs. These appear
to us the two great principles by which our position is
differentiated from that of Catholics and Erastians. That
the visible Church shall consist, as far as wisdom and
vigilance can secure such a result, of those who are mem-
bers of the Church invisible, — this is our first great
principle. A society framed upon this law will contain
those and only those who offer the fair evidences of
personal religion ; — cordial belief of the fundamental
doctrines of Christianity, devout habits and a holy life.
As none but God can search the heart, profession must
be taken as the criterion of faith : with reference to the
remaining qualifications, our Lord's test must be applied,
** By their fruits ye shall know them." Respect for Scrip-
ture, the practice of prayer, attendance upon the means
of grace, — these are the outward signs of devotion. The
pure and righteous life is to be witnessed by the know-
ledge of men. Devotion may be simulated, sins may be
secret : but God and God only looks upon the heart, and
to His judgment undetected hypocrites must be left. In
order to purity of communion, discipline must be main-
tained, and, in case of sin requiring such treatment,
must take the form of censure, and even of excommuni-
cation. Unspiritual men will naturally detest principles
which imply the duty of Church-discipline : it is well that
they should detest them, and it is also well that the
Church should disregard their detestation.
Controversialists have magnified the differences between
126 Idea of the Church
Presbyterians and Independents regarding purity of com-
munion. We are of opinion that, so far as free Churches
are concerned, (and no State-Church can in these days
maintain discipHne,) the Presbyterians in no important
particular differ in this matter from ourselves. It is
affirmed that, whilst Presbyterians are satisfied with a
confession of faith and a life in accordance with Scripture
injunction. Independents require evidence of spiritual re-
generation. In the means employed to satisfy the Church
of the fitness of a candidate for fellowship, there may allow-
ably prevail difference of method ; but the qualifications
for membership are, in the view of the two systems, substan-
tially the same. Even the Presbyterian definition that the
visible Church includes the children of Christian professors
would be accepted by the majority of psedo-baptist
congregationalists.
The second principle is that of self-government. This,
prelac); and state-churchism alike dispute. The policy
of Rome has been, from the beginning of the Papal
system,* to withhold from the laity all control over Church
affairs. In the Anglican Establishment, bishops and other
dignitaries are nominated by the Government of the day,
and the clergy are presented to benefices by the patron of
the living, whether a Christian or a Jew, a saint or a
reprobate. The people are allowed to elect one of tw- o
Churchwardens ; but this is the privilege, not of the com-
municants but of the parish. In opposition to these
arrangements of hierarchical assumption or political ex-
pediency, we contend for the right and duty of self-
government. The Church should elect its own officers
and rulers and teachers, and should, either directly by
popular vote, or indirectly through its representatives,
administer its own affairs.
* " Les la'iques assistaient au gouvernement de 1 Eglise comme simples spectatcurs." —
Guizot, Civilization en Europe, lect. vi.
Historically developed. 1 2 7
In the carrying out of this principle there are differ-
ences between Presbyterian and Congregational practices,
not so easy of adjustment as those before referred to.
Into these differences it is not our purpose here to enter.
We have confidence In popular elections and in popular
government ; and, whilst admitting the inconveniencies
which are inseparable therefrom, we believe these are
fully compensated by advantages which history and ex-
perience alike should teach us to admire and appreciate.
We claim for our idea of the Church, that it is the idea
of the New Testament, of the Apostles, of Christ Himself.
The true and universal Church is no human organization,
but the society of the elect and holy both in earth and
heaven. Scriptural Churches are societies of men and
women holding Christian truth, leading Christian lives,
observing Christian ordinances ; striving as societies to
realize the Divine ideal ; regarding one another with con-
fidence and affection ; regulating their own afiairs ; and
co-operating for common purposes. We are confident
that English candour will sooner or later recognize the
strength of our position ; we believe that growing wisdom
will admit of more efficient association and more practical
intercommunion ; and we are not without hope that our
principles may penetrate the mind of Christendom, and
may, in all lands, mould and fashion and inspire the
Church of the illimitable future.
That the Church of Christ should present to the devout
and thoughtful mind an ideal and universal as well as an
actual, local, and sensible aspect, is warranted by Scrip-
ture, and is required by Christian instinct and Intelligence.
Multitudes can testify to the inspiring and consolatory
power derived from contemplating the fellowship of the
faithful in this light. Grateful love to the Redeemer has
ever been, and ever will be, the strongest and the foremost
passion of Christendom. But between this affection and
128 Idea of the Church
that benevolence, that " enthusiasm of humanity," which
is its proper fruit, there must be a love partaking of ad-
miration, sympathy, and congeniality, and cherished with
warmth and tenderness, directed towards the " holy,
Catholic Church." The revealed purposes of Christ to-
ward His people, the living characters, memorable situa-
tions and imperishable acts of the Church, the literature
which it has created, the traditions of worship it has
handed down, its attempts to express its thoughts and
yearnings in the highest forms of art, its consecration of
suffering and of toil, its patient expectancy of approval
and reward, its penetration of all human interests and its
hallowing of all human goodness ; — all this and much
more, acting upon the reverence, the reason, the memory,
and the imagination, as well as upon the conscience of
the Christian, tends to excite within him, not simply a
belief in the universal Church, but an elevated, peaceful,
and comforting affection towards that Church. Perhaps
this is especially the case with those who minister to the
spiritual well-being of Christ's body. Amidst the many
trials to which they are exposed in the discharge of their
ministry, whilst their best succour is derived from the
sacrifice, the example, the spirit of their Lord, no mean
measure of consolation is supplied by their conscious com-
munion with the universal brotherhood. Amidst the
vanity of the learned, the meanness of the rich, the
bigotry of the ignorant, and the servility of the poor, they
learn to lose sight of these partial and temporary imper-
fections as they recur to the Divine Ideal and the future
glory of the spiritual Church of the Lord Jesus ; and to
this Ideal the actual Churches of the Lord may increasingly
be conformed. As temporal and earthly governments
become more secular, restricting their province to the
physical well-being and the external relationships of
mankind, there will be felt, amongst all who live a
Historically developed. 129
life intellectual and spiritual, the deeper need for the
existence of a society and communion more truly
corresponding to the higher and proper social nature of
man than is possible in monarchies or republics, guilds or
clubs. There Is no danger of the world learning to
do without the Church, or of the Church ceasing to exert
a mighty influence over the world. The human rules and
customs and creeds of the Churches may be modified ; but
the Church itself must remain : '' the gates of hell shall
not prevail against it." Sooner shall the flames of love
sink into the ashes of oblivion, and the stream of human
thought pause in its eternal flow, than the Church of
Christ shall cease to engage the warmest affections, to
attract and employ the highest intelligence, and to enlist
in her service and consecrate with her blessing the noblest
enero^ies of man.
K
THE "RELIGIOUS LIFE"
CHRISTIAN SOCIETY.
REV. J. BALDWIN BROWN, B.A.
K 2
THE "RELIGIOUS LIFE"
AND CHRISTIAN SOCIETY.
In the following pages the writer proposes to trace some
of the broader outHnes of the Influence of the " reHglous
life" on Christian society. Only the larger and more
palpable features can In this place be dealt with. The
delineation of the more subtle and delicate, but by no
means least Important touches, would demand a wider
space, and might task the energies of a more Instructed
hand. But some thoughts on the main bearings of that
form of life which for many centuries was recognized In
Christendom as distinctively '' the religious," may not be
out of place, nay, may be signally in place, In a volume
of Essays on Church subjects by Nonconformist minis-
ters, of which Ecclesia is the title. For the Evangelical
Nonconformists have been mainly, as was to be expected
from their position and traditions, in the very van of
those who have striven most sternly against Papal pre-
tensions and Romish corruptions of the truth; and, as
befalls all strenuous champions, they have been In no
small danger of taking a narrow and one-sided view of
the matter in debate. We have been too ready to con-
found the whole form and spirit of mediaeval Christianity
with the Papal system, in our most righteous and needful
protest against Rome. The word Roman has been made
134 The ''Religious Life''
to cover everything in the constitution and movement of
Christian society during the Middle Ages, which did not
square with the Puritan interpretation of the ApostoHc
standards. But, in truth, Roman Christianity has only
three centuries of history; dating from the time when the
Papal See formally and finally rejected the principles of
reformation. Then Romanism was born. Then the
movement commenced, of which the dogma of Papal
infallibility, hard as the more liberal Roman theologians
may struggle against it, is the inevitable consummation.
But up to the time of the disruption, and the develop-
ment of what is after all but the great Papal sect, the
movements of Christian society, under the inspiration of
Christian ideas, though immensely influenced by the
Papacy, were altogether too large, too deep, too human,
too Christian, to be covered even by the ample name of
Rome.
One of the most profound and important of historical
subjects concerns the influence of the Roman See on
Christendom. What would the Europe of the Middle
Ages have been without the Popes ? But we touch a still
more vital question when we inquire. What would the
Middle Ages have been without their Saints ; and as the
saintly image was distinctly monastic from the fourth
century to the thirteenth, this is equivalent to the ques-
tion. What would the Middle Ages have been without
their hermits, monks, and nuns ? St. Louis, in the thir-
teenth century, marks the dawning of a new era. The
great saintly figure of the time is a king and a layman.
It is the age of the birth of a vernacular literature in the
Western European kingdoms; it is the age of popular
movements which bring the great third estate on to the
arena of political action ; it is the age in which the West
reaps fully the social and commercial fruit of the Crusades.
Surely it is significant that in such an age one of the
And Christian Society, 135
ablest and busiest monarchs in Christendom won a repu-
tation for saintliness, which few Churchmen can rival. It
is prophetic of that sanctification of secular life, that pas-
sing forth of the. *' religious " idea into a wider world,
^vhich was the real meaning of the Reformation, and of
all the most vital movements in the Roman Church
during the last three centuries, down to the protest which
P^re Hyacinthe has just uttered in the interests of civilisa-
tion against the fatal policy of the Jesuits and the Pope.
The influence of the Saint during the ages of which we
write (and every monk and nun was saintly to the secular
herd), was the influence of the Church in its most intense
and concentrated form. And it re-acted on the Church
most mightily, and continually nourished its power to
influence and rule society. We must not confound the
influence of the Church with the whole influence of
the Gospel — that is, of the ideas and powers which
Christ brought visibly to bear on mankind. That was a
much larger matter, and must be sought equally in the
development of the social life and political institutions of
the nations which inherited, thanks largely to the monas-
tics, the Christian traditions and polity of Rome. The ''re-
ligious life " was, as it were, the electric jar into which all
the most vital forces of the Church were gathered, and
whence they discharged themselves, be it benignly or be
it malignly, on society. And the Church represents in-
comparably the most powerful of the many influences
which were moulding the life of Europe during the
earlier Middle Ages. The Church is the great connect-
ing link between Roman and mediaeval society, between
classical and mediaeval literature, law, and policy. No
secular man, for instance, can compare for a moment
with Gregory the Great, as a link of vital connection
between the ancient and the modern world. He is the
Caesar of the middle age of European history.
136 The ''Religious Life''
The formation of Christian society was the great prob-
lem of Providence during all those ages. Alas ! It Is the
great problem still. But the terms of the problem have
been constantly misunderstood, and by none more per-
versely than by the great evangelical party, the very
backbone of which has been Nonconformist. The for-
mation of a Christian community or communities within
the bosom of the wider society, named the world in con-
trast, has satisfied our conception of what Is to be desired
jind aimed at as the fulfilment of the Divine purpose of
mercy to mankind. But If we read history rightly, some-
*^^hlng much larger than this has been the aim of the
Divine workman through all these ages of Christian in-
fluence on the world. It is remarkable that every great
attempt, and there have been many, to work out the
problems of society as Church problems, and to compress
the movement and progress of humanity within the forms
which suffice for the expression of man's religious life,
has utterly and lamentably failed. The experiment has
been tried by all parties, under all conditions; by Puritans,
and by the Roman Church, where the last and decisive
experiment is in progress now. The most notable attempt
perhaps, certainly the most resolute and promising, which
has ever been made to govern society as a Church after
our notion of Churches, was that of the Puritan exiles
who founded the New England States. Long and reso-
lutely they strove to manage their State as they would
manage a Church meeting, and to make the Church life
the basis of the whole secular life of the community.
How it failed, and why it failed, we cannot stay to con-
sider. The curious student will find in the collections of
the Massachusetts Historical Society much which will
throw light on it, and on some of the most perplexing
questions of these and of all times. But It did fail, and
lamentably. And yet It Is the true Idea. It is what men
A7id Christian Society, 137
are always dreaming of and aiming at. From Plato
through all the Christian ages some kindred vision of the
perfect human order has floated before the constructive in-
tellects of the world. But then we make our Churches too
narrow ; and the secular life, also a Divine thing if the
Incarnation means anything, straining outwards as it
grows, most blessedly bursts the bands, and compels us
to an ever widening conception of the nature and range
of the kingdom of the Lord.
But the formation of Christian society is quite another
matter. It implies the creation of a social life, which
should be Christian to its very foundations, which should
be penetrated by Christian ideas and aims in its very
springs; of which the mind of God as revealed in Christ
should be recognized as the basis, and in which there
should be the acknowledgment that the rights and
duties of mankind must be referred as to their supreme
standard to the Divine law. No intelligent student of
history, one would imagine, could refuse his assent to the
position, that this recognition of the Christian basis and
constitution of society was the characteristic feature of
the political and social life of the Western European
nations during their formative ages — that is, from the
fifth century, when the seed of the Teutonic nationalities
began to be sown in the fertile, because disintegrated soil
of the decaying empire, to the thirteenth, when we find
them grown to their full form, and prepared to enter on
their manly career. I call these national communities
Christian societies, far as their actual life was from the
Christian standard of perfection, for the same reason which
leads me to apply the name to " the congregation of
faithful men," over which I have the honour to preside.
They confessed Christ. I can very well Imagine that
those who have only glanced at the troubled surface of
mediaeval life, who have heard or read of its wild doings,
138 The ''Religious Life''
its fierce habits, its bloody strifes, its foul lusts, its gross
excesses, its cruel tyrannies, its coarse blasphemies, may
be tempted to exclaim, This confession of Christ seems
to have been a very low, poor, carnal confession, scarcely
worthy of the name. And surely they would be right.
But I imagine that this is precisely what the angels are
thinking about ours. I know not any Christian society
upon earth which does more than strive in a very feeble
and trembling fashion to order its life after the Christian
law. And envy, hatred, malice, littleness, selfishness,
worldliness, sins against which we are always witnessing,
and from which we are always striving to free ourselves in
our selectest societies with but partial success, may seem
to the unseen watchers as grossly carnal as the strong,
bold evils of mediaeval society seem to us. None can
hope to understand the Middle Age who cannot see that
the effort to be Christian was the key to its vital develop-
ment. And, therefore, without forgetting that the breath
of the Divine Spirit is abroad in the very air around us,
and streams in upon us by a thousand channels of nature
and of life, we are justified in affirming that the Church,
which held the Christian standards and cherished the
Christian ideals, was the most powerful visible agent at
work on the nations of Western Europe during the
Middle Ages. In truth, the history of the Church, up to
the time of the development of a national life and a
national literature in those Western nations — which dates
roundly from the thirteenth century — is in the largest
sense the history of mediaeval society.
The influence of the monastic principle on the world
at large, including Asiatic, Jewish, Oriental, and Western
monachism, will form an important chapter whenever
comparative religion is scientifically studied, and its hand-
book is fairly written. But altogether the most vital
and fruitful portion of the subject concerns the influence
And Christian Society. 139
of the Benedictine rule on the development of Western
Europe, for with the life of Western Europe apparently
is bound up the destiny of the world. The civilisation
of the West is the product of three factors — Roman civili-
sation, the Teutonic nature, and Christianity. Roman
civilisation, before it finally decayed and bequeathed its
legacy to Christendom, had Incorporated largely Greek
and Oriental influences ; In fact, it had gathered up into
itself the whole ancient civilisation of the world. Hegel
speaks of the middle as the Teutonic age. The
question Is much agitated now. Why did Rome decay ?
Luxury, tyranny, or as Mr. Seeley says, the sheer want of
men, may account for it in a secondary sense. But these
have to be accounted for. Had not the time come when
a humanity of a different, of a deeper, larger, nobler type
was needed to endure the strain which Christianity had
brought to bear on men, and to fulfil the destiny which it
had designed? In one sense, unquestionably Christianity
was a conservative influence in the Empire. That Is, it
made the continued cohesion of the ranks and orders
of society possible. But for the work of the Church
among the poor and the enslaved, but for its tonic
influence on the relations of men, the empire must have
decayed much more rapidly. But in another and deeper
sense it was destructive. It propounded a scheme of life
and duty, which Roman society was simply incapable of
working out to any high purpose. The effort, through
the inevitable growth of the Church, strained the worn-
out bottles to bursting ; and finally the spirit, the genius
of Christianity, passed out to organize for itself a larger,
freer, and more fruitful life.
It found the materials, the stuff to work upon, ready
to Its hand. Philosophical historians have discussed
the question as to how much of the special charac-
teristics of modern civilisation is due to the Teu-
140 The ''Religious Life''
tonic * nature, and how much to Christianity. But that
analysis can never be made. The proportions of father
and mother In such children It Is simply impossible to
trace. Such products have always a double parentage, and
In proportion to the power and worth of the product Is
the special adaptation of the parents to each other. Of
all earthly marriages which have been made in heaven,
there Is none perhaps which has been so fertile as the union
between Christianity and the Teutonic nature, leavened
as it became in the fifth century — though the work had
long been in progress — with the civilisation of Rome.
There seems to be no form of human nature and human
society so capable of receiving and nourishing the germs
which the good Sower brought into the world as the
Teutonic ; at least, such must be our judgment with our
present horizon. But the horizon Is rapidly widening,
and our judgments on many points which have become
quietly accepted may be much modified before many
years have passed by. But there Is a very Important
sense, in which it may be said that the great work of
Christianity opened when it came fairly into contact with
the Teutonic mind. A comparison of the Europe of
Charlemagne, or the England of Alfred, with the Empire
under Irene, or Basilius the Macedonian, will Illustrate
the truth of the remark. Christianity simply failed to
find the materials of a Christian society which should be
permanent and fruitful, either In the Byzantine or the
Roman worlds.
He who pressed onward so earnestly to the uttermost
parts of the West had a keen prevision of the destined
* I use the word Teutonic in a wide sense, as describing altogether the largest and strongest
element in the barbarian settlement of the West. It would not be possible here to attempt
any discrimination of the different races of invaders, or to trace the influence of their native
character in the institutions, habits, and features of the nations into which they were slowly
developed, after amalgamating a larger or a smaller portion of the Roman population,
which was itself an amalgam of a very remarkable and complex kind. I use the word German
as expressing a predominating character, in the sense in which Hegel says, *• The German
spirit is the spirit of the new world."
And Christian Society. 141
path of the conquests of the Gospel. And there is
something very remarkable, too, in the Westward pressure
of the great secular precursor of St. Paul. It may be
quite true that Julius Caesar had little definite or far-
reaching plan in his Gallic conquests. Indeed the
splendid audacity of genius seems to have served him
more effectually than large forethought serves less
brilliant men. A far-reaching and patient schemer, one
would imaofine, would never have staked so much on
the purest accident, as Caesar staked when he threw
himself with a mere handful of troops into the midst
of formidable dangers in Epirus, at Alexandria, at
Ruspina, and more than once in his campaigns in Spain.
Still the great fact remains, that the instincts of Pompeius
led him Eastwards mainly, while Caesar pressed West-
wards among the young, hardy, vigorous, prolific
peoples with whom lay, though none saw it in that
day, the future of the world. It is a strong sign of \
the supreme quality of a man, when his genius leads \
him to open a path which Providence intends the world
to pursue. It may be said that Caesar made the path,
and determined by his career the Westward progress 01
mankind. Far from it. The path was that which for
ages humanity had been unconsciously treading ; nay,
it had been marked out by the configuration of conti-
nents, the set of currents, and the spread of oceans,
countless ages before a human footstep was set on its
dust. Julius Caesar all unwittingly was opening the path
to the Gospel ; and it is not a little remarkable that the
liberal and inclusive policy of the Marian party, of which
Caesar and the Caesars were the heirs, translated to the
spiritual sphere, became the characteristic policy of the
Roman Church, and was not the least important of the
legacies which the Empire bequeathed to the Middle
Age. But it was in the new lands, and among the new
[42 The ^^ Religious Life''
peoples in the old lands, that Christianity had to seek
its supreme triumphs. The new Adam of the Church
found his helpmate in the Teutonic Eve.
These considerations justify us in dismissing with but
slight notice in a brief Essay like this, the influence of
the religious life upon the Oriental half of the Empire.
Not that it was not both remarkable and powerful. The
fact, too, that thence it entered the Western Empire and
won its first triumphs in Italy, and especially in Gaul, lends
to Eastern monachism a special importance. But it found
no depth of earth in the East to nourish it. Rather,
perhaps, the soil was exhausted, and needed to lie fallow
for ages still unspent, before it could again become the
theatre of a vigorous and progressive life. The monas-
ticism of the extravagant, filthy, and prurient monks of
the Thebaid, though not without grand and noble pas-
sages, was one thing ; the monasticism of the rule of St.
Benedict among the vigorous, laborious, and progressive
Western peoples was another. Eastern Christianity died
with its monasticism, perhaps died of it ; Western Chris-
tianity lived through its monasticism, perhaps lived by
it ; and it has laid up in the inner cells of its life that
vital force which will one day restore the mother lands
of the Gospel to the visible kingdom of the Lord.
It is a mere truism to say that the origin of monachism
lies deep In the constitution of our nature. Far from
being the outgrowth of Christianity, the Christian monks
are but as It were the upper ten thousand of the vast
tribe. Every religion which has aimed at the solution
of the problems of human life and destiny in the interests
not of a caste but of humanity at large, has developed
Itself strongly in this direction. Wherever the conditions
of human existence have been faced with tolerable
courage, there has been a strong tendency to attempt
their solution on the ascetic principle. Buddhism, the
And Christian Society. 143
great Pagan faith which has humanity at its core — I
should call Islam by a nobler name — counts its monks by
millions. In truth, the Christian monks have but wrought
out to the fullest form and the highest use the institu-
tion which has, in all countries and in all ages, strangely
attracted the thoughtful and earnest among mankind. Its
origin is identical in all the religious systems which have
cherished it, though its features have been as various as
those of the peoples and civilisations through which it
has held its career.
At the root of the institution lies the idea which
enters very easily into the Asiatic mind, that the soul
needs its special gymnastic culture as well as the body ;
and that just as athletes submit themselves to special
and severe discipline, that they m.ay contend successfully
in the arena, so the spiritual faculties need to be drawn
forth and strained to their highest tension by some
special culture, which should be quite apart from the
common duties and burdens of life. Beneath this view
there lies the devil's own suggestion, that man's body
and spirit, the earthly and the heavenly life, are mutually
repugnant, are under different and conflicting lords, and
that a high care for the one involves bitter contempt
and mortification of the other. I call this the devil's
own suggestion. Schism is of the devil, unity is of
God ; and it is this Divine idea of unity which it is so
hard for man to grasp and be at rest. He easily believes
in antagonisms, and adopts proscriptions. But, evil as
the idea is in its origin and in its fruits, there is enough
in our consciousness and in the obvious aspect of things
to suggest it. That which is most profoundly of the
evil one does not wear the acknowledged livery of evil.
The worst tempters wear the angelic dress. Satan is
transformed into an angel of light. And so the ascetic
finds the reason for his austerities in the apparent con-
144 '^^^ ''Religious Life''
ditions of his own existence, and in a colourable inter-
pretation of the Word of God. For let us do the
ascetics the justice to confess that it is difficult to see
how, with a nature like ours, in a world like this,
earnest men, men not afraid of strife and pain, could
avoid the attempt to solve the dark problems of life
in the ascetic "way." Some such endeavour seemed
to lie, like the Fall, inevitably in man's path. The
history of the infant Church, even before the Apostles
had passed away, reveals the genesis of the movement.
The later epistles of St. Paul are full of sad previsions
of its malignant work. As matter of history, men
appeared even in the Apostolic Church, and won con-
siderable influence, to whom the life of the busy, sinful
world around them did not offer a training-school severe
enough for the discipline of their spiritual life. They
invented exercises and austerities which should supply
a loftier training ; they aimed at making themselves the
skilled professors of the art of holy living, the Pharisees
— and I use the word in no invidious sense — of the
kingdom of the Lord.
I must pass by the question as to how far the ascetic
discipline in Christendom was invented or imitated.
There can be no doubt that Asiatic monachism had
passed through all the stages through which Christian
monachism was about to pass, and that the relation
between the purely Asiatic and the Romano-Oriental
world was much closer than has been popularly supposed.
It is really marvellous to see how the mediaeval and
Roman development of Christianity was prefigured in
poorer, weaker forms in the heart of Asia. Even the
Mariolatry which burst forth in Europe with so intense
a flame in the thirteenth century, and which has the closest
connection with some of the noblest features of chivalry,
has its parallel in the very farthest East. But we shall
And Christian Society. 145
only complicate matters by taking Into consideration
the possible origin of special forms of asceticism. It is
enough that the tendency lies very deep in our nature ;
and that in the nature of things, the human conditions
being every where so much alike, it must take kindredforms
in various countries, ages, and states of religious society.
In the earlier stages of the ascetic dispensation these
exercises were carried on in connection with the ordinary
scenes and activities of life. But after awhile, partly
through the growing sadness and degradation of secular
life, but chiefly, we may be sure, through the growing
fascination of the object, the ascetic aspirants found that
they could not bear the presence of their fellow-men, and
betook themselves to desert places, the wilder the better,
where they could carry on more freely what they not
unnaturally mistook for the culture of their souls. The
ascetic became an anchorite, one retired from the world,
or an Eremite, a dweller, like the Baptist, in the deserts ;
and there, drunk with the wine of his fanaticism, and
far from the sobering influence of his fellows, he gave
himself up to exercises and austerities, which fill us
alternately with amazement and disgust. There were
wide districts, especially in the Egyptian and Syrian
deserts, which in the fourth century literally swarmed
with ascetics. They burrowed in the hill-sides like
rabbits in a warren, and studiously lowered the pitch
of their lives, as far as food and shelter were concerned,
to the level of that of the brutes.
The next step in the development of the monastic
system was the association of these isolated anchorites
in communities, for the purposes of fellowship and
strength. How the transition was accomplished it is
not easy to trace. Much, no doubt, was due to the
influence of powerful and celebrated men like Anthony
and Pachomius, who drew, by the magnet of their attrac-
L
146 The '^Religious Life''
tion, crowds of anchorites to their neighbourhood, over
whom it became necessary to estabHsh some kind of
rule. But the main cause of the organization of the
ascetic Hfe was, I imagine, the sense of its growing
power. It began to make itself felt as a very powerful
factor in the life of the Church. It began to act mightily
on society at large, and, being a power, it tended, by a
natural and irresistible law, to take form and to become
an institution capable of acting systematically on the
world. The need of organization soon became impera-
tive. That ascetic spirit which had been floating in a
vaporous form about the Oriental Church, must condense,
take shape, and enter the congress of life. The Eremites
became Coenobites, men living in common, under a com-
mon rule, with a common head ; and then the development
of the monastic institution fairly began. The organiza-
tion of the scattered solitaries was attended by an im-
mense increase of numbers. We may accept Jerome's
authority for the vast concourse which attended a con-
gregation of an order in the fifth century, without
trusting too implicitly to the numeration of even so
distinguished a father of the Church. In truth, a com-
petent judge of numbers on a great scale is rare even
at the present day. But there were enough of them
swarming about the deserts and established about the
cities of Egypt, to revive in another form the ancient
sneer, that in Egypt it was far easier to meet with a
god than with a man.
There is little that is noble or beautiful in a high sense
in Oriental monachism. The Manichaean taint runs
through it strongly and poisons all its springs. A bitter
and savage hatred to the body as the organ of the flesh
was its most pronounced feature. War against the body,
with a view to mastery and use, was, in the maiii, the
key to Western monachism ; war against the body, for
And Christian Society. 147
hatred and revenge, was the key to that of the Orientals.
But it will readily be understood that these broad
statements are susceptible of many qualifying touches.
Indeed it is well to bear this in mind in reading broad
statements in any history. There is no lack of flowers
of rare and exquisite grace scattered over this monkish
waste. Touches of beautiful affection, acts of heroic
courage and constancy, begem what were else a nauseous
history. The monks of the Thebaid were, at any rate,
not afraid of the worst which the world could inflict
on them. Athanasius found in them the most constant
and courageous champions of the truth of the Incarnation;
and it was mainly by their help that he won the greatest
and most pregnant of doctrinal victories. And always
there is the grand spectacle of a moral force which was
recognized as superior to their own, by those who wielded
all the forces of this world at their will. It lent dignity
even to the withered form of Simeon on his pillar, and
was most significant in an age of brutal violence and
lust. It would be simply impossible to measure the
worth to the world, durinor those stormv and contentious
' <_> ^
ages, of the reverence which a man, by mere moral force,
could exact from its chief leaders, and of the ruling influence
which he could exert over those who shaped its destinies.
Still, on the whole, it is a dark, sad history. Viewing
and handling the body as a beast, begets, insensibly, a
beast-like habit of mind and spirit. The man who sets
himself to expel the beast by tormenting his body, in
the end simply transfers it to the soul. But the institu-
tion grew mightily. It had a strong fascination for
the weary, worn-out world, this life which seemed to
draw its inspiration from a new and heavenly spring.
As the world's misery deepened, the fascination became
more resistless. But there was a rottenness at the core
of this Eastern monachism, and growth but developed it ;
L 2
148 The ^^ Religious Life"
it went with Its eyes and organs Inward , and self-
enfolded nothing can live. Age by age the Eastern
institution grew more boneless and bloodless, and now,
if Oriental travellers are to be trusted, the dullest and
dirtiest sloths that are slinking about Christendom must
yield the palm to these monks of the Eastern Church.
The monachism of the West looked out of itself and
lived. There is a clear, bold, working aspect about It
from the very first. Its origin is naturally obscure. All
great things spring, like the corn, " one knoweth not
how." The seeds of it were in the air, and the constant
intercourse of the West with the East transported them
somehow and dropped them in congenial soil. Towards
the close of the fourth century it began to attract atten-
tion. Perhaps Athanasius, who owed much to the monks,
and who was at Rome in a.d. 340, with some monks
in his train, introduced it. More important to us is the
fact that the Romans, with their clear, strong sense, took
to it with difficulty. At the funeral of Blesilla, a young
Roman nun, who was said to have died through excessive
fasting, they were for throwing the *' detestable monks "
into the river. Monkery, we see, needed to be baptized
with a new spirit before It could root itself deeply in the
West. From the first, however, it may be noted that
in the Western monasteries, communion was the leadlno-
Idea, not isolation. No doubt the hermit's cell was the
core of the Institution, as In the East ; but In the West
it tended rapidly to organization, and long before Benedict
of Nursia arose, the leading Western monasteries, espe-
cially in the south of France, were exercising very
powerful Influence on the culture and the social and
political life of their times. They made a stern fight,
too, against over rigid fasting. " Much eating is gor-
mandizing among the Greeks, but it Is natural among
the Gauls," they pleaded, in mitigation of Oriental
And Christiaii Society, 149
severities. There was no lack of even excessive
asceticism, but the genius of the people and the set of
the current of thought was in favour of a more robust
and fruitful life than the Easterns aimed at. From the
first it was clear that monachism in the West would enter
more fully into the public life of mankind.
V Still, until the beginning of the sixth century, it is
difficult to speak of it as an institution in Western
Europe. It had little form and method ; it was liable
to great lapses and swift decay. The organizing power
was wanting. The units were there, but there was
little unity. Each monastery did what was right in its
own eyes ; many of them grew rich and wanton, and
in the general decay of everything in the Empire, in
those dark days which were at once the death-bed of
the Roman and the cradle of the modern world, there
was no little danger that monachism would be swept
down with the wreck.
Then arose Benedict of Nursia, and settled, by his
celebrated rule, the character of Western monachism, for
all time. Like all great captains of men, he had the eye
to see and the strength to grasp the special need and
longing of his times. He gave the permanent form to
what was already the instinctive tendency of the mona-
chism of the West. His power, like that of all great
masters, lay in interpreting to itself that spirit which was
abroad in society around him, and giving it a wider and
freer range. The facts of his life cannot here be dwelt
upon. His struggles, sufferings, and stern endurance
during thirty- five years at Subiaco we cannot even
glance at. Then he took up his pilgrim-staff again, and
settled himself at Monte Cassino, near the head waters
of the Liris, and there founded the monastery which was
destined to exercise a mighty, we might almost say a
supreme influence on the development of the Christian
I50 The ''Religious Life''
world. There he thought out and pubHshed the cele-
brated rule which bears his name, which simply brought
out into clear form and order the ideas which were
floating in the powerful and practical minds of the
founders of monachism in the West. For powerful
they were, as well as practical. We do not need
M. de Montalembert's brilliant rhetoric to teach us that
the cloister was, on the whole, no shelter for the weak-
lings of society, men easily dashed and bruised by the
rough world around them, and safer in a cell than in
a battle-field or on a throne. The great monks bear
full comparison with the greatest soldiers, statesmen,
and kings. We may lament or condemn the form of
life which they elected, and see clearly whitherward it
tends But we must bear in mind that it was for ages
the chosen field of action of some of the very strongest,
ablest men, and the noblest, purest women whom God
sent forth into the world.
One is tempted to some Impatience when our divines
and scholars, to whom '' sitting under their own vine and
fig-tree, no man daring to make them afraid," is the ideal of
a social state, speak with lofty superiority of a mode of
life which men like Benedict, Severinus^ Columba,
Columbanus,* Bede, the two great Gregories, Boniface,
Anselm and Bernard deliberately elected, and loved with a
devotion so passionate that they were ready at every
moment to seal their vows with their blood. We speak
with compassion of the superstition which drove such
"good men" to bury themselves in a living grave. I can
fancy St. Bernard passing with a smile of yet loftier com-
passion through our city streets, reading our leading
* The great Celtic Missionary monks followed a different and rival rule with strong
peculiarities of its own, though based on the same ideas as the Benedictine, and aim.ing at the
same results. The rule of Columbanus is more in the key of the Asiatic monastic system than
that of St. Benedict. Several features of Buddhist monachism seem to be recalled by the
Celtic missionary from the far West — a likeness which it might be interesting further to
expbre
And Christiaji Society, 151
journals, visiting our Exchange, looking into our banks
and assurance offices, our pauper infirmaries, and our
casual wards, or the gold room in New York. Perhaps
the superstition which we pity would not be the saddest
thing in his srght, fresh from the visions of the celestial
world. At least let us be sure that there is nothing which
calls mainly for pity in a life which had a strong attraction
for some of the ablest and bravest spirits whom the world
nursed for ages ; and that, however monks might grovel
and sin, and make their profession a bye-word of scorn
through Europe, a high and noble inspiration was at the
heart of a movement which occupied such splendid ener-
gies, and left such marks on the higher development of
mankind. There can be no doubt that the rule included
a vast crowd of weak, dr^dimy faineani devotees ; but, on
the other hand, it would be hard to find, in any other sphere
of human activity during the Middle Ages, a grander com-
pany of clear, strong, firm, and far-sighted men. We are
bound to believe in this life as one which had a specific
rightness of adaptation in its times, or its secret will
remain veiled.
Benedict drew up and promulgated a rule of monastic
living, which may be regarded as the complete expression
of the Western mind with regard to the nature and the
aims of the religious life, for it met with immediate and
almost universal acceptance, and has ruled the monastic
world for 1300 years. It is well known to the most
casual students of monastic history that its three ruling
ideas are self-abnegation, obedience, and labour. Perhaps,
next to the novitiate, on which I shall touch presently, the
great distinctive feature of the Benedictine as compared
with the Oriental rules, is the importance attached to
manual and agricultural labour. Incidentally this became
a matter of large importance to Europe, and it reveals
the clear, practical direction of the institution from the
152 The ''Religious Life'
first. Not that it was at all a new thing in monastic
history. Even the most self-enfolded of the Oriental
monks had some notion of a duty to scratch the ground
around his cell, and raise the herbs which he needed for
his daily food — that is, if he was so far from the true perfec-
tion as to prefer salads to grass. In the rule of St. Basil
and generally in the ideas of the leaders of the move-
ment, labour is duly honoured. But it never assumecl
in the Eastern system the dignity and importance to which
it from the first attained in the West. Benedict and his
followers went to work with axe and spade, and cleared
the wilderness where they were resolved to settle.
Order, culture, fertility, a land smiling under their
tillage, the wilderness and the solitary place made glad
by them, the desert rejoicing and blooming as the rose —
these were the fruits of the institution which delighted
them ; these were the outward and visible symbols of the
inner culture, the clearing of the moral wilderness, and
the rearing of the flowers of patience, charity, and hope
on the bosom of the waste, at which they aimed, for
which they pined, but which a nobler and wider discip-
line alone could assure. The hours allotted to labour,
as compared with the hours devoted to reading, under
the rule, were as seven to two. And at a time when
the culture of a great part of the Roman world was car-
ried on by slaves, this rule of Benedict was the resurrec-
tion of industry. For the want of this industry mainly
the Empire was dying, or indeed dead, but the monastic
rule lifted it from the dust again, and restored it to its
throne as the mother and queen of all the arts and graces
of life. Not that this monastic influence was the only
power at work in the sixth century to raise industry
from its degradation, and to restore to the weary, wasted,
slave-crushed soil that energy of free hearts and hands
which alone could draw forth its gifts and smiles. Great
And Christian Society, 153
forces never work alone. The revolution which in the
main transferred the possession of the soil of the West
from the effete city-haunting Roman, to the free, robust,
country-loving German, was like the baptism, of a new
life on the exhausted hills and plains. The conquerors
became the free cultivators of the fields of Britain, Gaul,
and Italy; and the land broke forth into singing under
the tillage of their sinewy hands. But the rule of St.
Benedict began the reformation within the bosom of the
Empire. He commenced the regeneration of an industry
which it needed a nobler humanity than the Empire could
furnish, to establish and to crown.
The invading races were the willing agents of this great
industrial reformation. They wrought through broad
provinces, as the monastic institution wrought in select
centres, to renew the physical beauty and fertility of
Western Europe. We wander among the graceful and
splendid ruins of the great Benedictine houses, with which
in time our country and Europe generally was begemmed ;
and we are prone to indulge in a sarcastic reflection on
the keen appreciation of natural charms which the choice
of the sites exhibits. The taunt is somewhat thread-
bare, but we meet with it still even among those who
ought to know the truth. T intern, Bolton, Kirkstall,
Fountains, and Melrose, are familiar names to most of us.
They are the fairest scenes even in this fair land. The
great abbeys abroad occupy mainly kindred sites. They
seem to claim the softest vallies, the greenest pastures,
the most fruitful hill slopes, the most teeming rivers, as
their own. These gardens of Europe are the Benedic-
tine eulogies. Fountains Abbey stands In a Yorkshire
valley, of which one is tempted to complain that it is too
exquisite, too suggestive of luxurious plenty, security,
and repose. But turn to the picture which the valley
presented to the first monks who invaded It in search of
154 The ''Religious Life''
a dreary wilderness, where they might be sure of finding
hardship, hunger, and toil. They came out of a wealthy
and luxurious abbey, to search for these ; and they settled
in the valley where in time they reared their splendid
fane, because they found there a dismal marsh, and a thick
forest, with no clearing big enough to grow them even a
few sheaves of corn. Search the records of the settle-
ment of Benedict at Sublaco or Monte Cassino ; Colum-
banus at Luxeull, or Bobbio, his chief disciple, at St. Gall;
Abelard at the Paraclete ; Bernard at Clarivaulx, — andyou
will find substantially the same history. These scenes,
which seem so fit to be the homes of a soft and indolent
quietude, were chosen because of their wild and desolate
sternness; and they were tamed to their present beauty
by the strenuous toil of a peasantry, the like of which no
other history reveals. Perhaps the followers of Joe Smith
present to us the fairest Image of it in point of methodical
and disciplined industry, in these modern days. These
men believed that each fen which they drained, each
copse which they cleared, each acre which they brought
under the ploughshare, was an acceptable offering of
pious hands and hearts to God. At least this belief
animated the leaders ; the mass of the followers, at any
rate, caught the habit, and to catch a good habit is some-
thing for the great mass of men in such a world as this.
It would be idle, of course, to contend that this was the
clear character of monastic labour through the Middle
Ages. Monasteries grew fearfully rich, and cultivated
vast estates by the labour of a peasantry bound to the
soil, like the secular lords around them. But the primal
;;/^/^y* never wholly failed them : agriculture was always a
main concern with the great religious communities ; and
the quasi-consecration of all that belonged to them,
secured for them some share of immunity from the
horrors and devastations of war ; though the protection
And Christian Society. 155
was more imperfect than is generally supposed. Some-
thing of the noble motive to labour which inspired the
first founders, continued to animate their relation to their
labourers and dependents, and a long book would be
needed to set forth even in outline, the debt which
European agriculture owes to the monks of the Middle
Age.
Up to the time of St. Benedict the monastic vow re-
mained under the power of the man who made it. He was
simply a layman who chose to do certain things, and when
he was tired of doing them he might depart and do what
else he pleased. St. Benedict established the perpetuity
of the vow, under the most solemn and awful obligations ;
at the same time he provided a long and severe novitiate.
But from that time " Once a monk, always a monk,"
became the law ; and it is easy to see how immensely
this perpetuity of the vow increased the power of the
system as an influence on European society. The novice
being received at length and with difficulty into the
brotherhood, made it his supreme concern to offer up, in
every possible form, the sacrifice of himself. Self-denial
is one thing, A man may deny himself in the free exer-
cise of his loftiest faculty, and realize an inner freedom of
the personal will and fulness of personal life in the effort.
But the real aim of the monastic discipline was to leave
a man no self to deny. There was its essential weakness.
The Buddhist is the only monk who grasps the whole
meaning of the institution, and dares to set clearly before
himself the idea which is behind every high form of the
ascetic life. It is a perpetual draining of the springs of
the personal being; it strikes a death-blow at that
which makes man worth redeeming, in the hope of
making his redemption more complete. Could it have
run its course unchecked, unmastered by other and yet
higher human forces, it would have killed at the very
156 The ''Religious Life'
root the development of society, by leaving for develop-
ment nothing but machines. But in saying this I am far
from disposing of the institution as a thing of virtue and
power in its times. Our most powerful medicines
untempered are poisons, — nay, our most choice and
stimulating food. And it is quite possible that there may
be a high use of teaching and influence in an institution,
which if allowed to run its whole course would be fatal to
society. I suppose that we are most of us doing the
world some service by institutions and methods, which, if
they had the whole field to themselves, would be fatal to
its life. A dark thought sometimes crosses one, as to
how things might go, if the whole world were suddenly
turned into a huge Independent Church.
I am compelled in this brief Essay to abstain from
quotations or reference to authorities. But I should be
glad if any of my readers, who may feel interest in the
subject, will look into this rule of St. Benedict, or even
such portions of it as M. Guizot or M. Montalembert
will give them, and see how absolute was this self-abne-
gation, this individual suicide. The obedience which the
monk was to render to his abbot was of the most abject
and unquestioning kind. Pure, passive, lifeless obedi-
ence ; except that it was by an act of high and pure
volition, under circumstances which secured its perfect
freedom, that the man made himself a slave. Slave was
the title they gloried in, and servile punishments for
breaches of rule were willingly and even joyfully endured.
Here was the central core of the institution, in the West
at any rate — the complete surrender of the self to one who
seemed to stand to the monk in the place of God. M.
Guizot traces the abject submission to the habits of the
Empire. It is unsafe to question the dictum of such a
master ; but it seems to us to come from a much higher
spring. We must try to do justice on both sides to this
And Christian Society, 157
Benedictine rule. Nothing can be more suicidal in the
long run than this idea of self-surrender ; but it is import-
ant to understand how earnestly Benedict sought to
secure that it should be voluntary in the very highest
degree. He established the perpetuity of vows. But
he balanced it, as he believed, by the length and the
severity of the novitiate. In that severity there is no
sign of distrust or weakness, no doubt of the attraction of
the religious life, to the men and the w^omen who were
fitted to do honour to it. In truth the difficulty was
to exclude them. So intense was the passion for this
life that there were times when it seemed to threaten
the destruction of society. The rule spread with marvel-
lous rapidity through Europe. Placidus carried it to
Sicily, Maurus to France, Augustine probably to Eng-
land ; and towards the close of the eighth century it was
so universal as to cause Charlemagne to inquire whether
any other rule existed throughout the vast dominions
which he had subjected to his sway.
The monks at first were simply laymen. The pro-
cess by which, almost in spite of themselves, they became
not clerics only, but the elect of the clerical order, it may
be interesting briefly to trace. Primarily the monastic
instinct tended to seclusion from the world, and from all
offices of natural, political, or ecclesiastical duty. For
many generations the monks, as a class, retained their lay
character ; and the most earnest of them kept themselves
rigidly aloof from the offices and services of the Church.
In truth the ascetic would be likely to hold himself
superior to ordinances of all sorts. He worshipped in an
inner sanctuary, and his priesthood refused the imposi-
tion of an earthly hand. To him. Church officers and
offices would appear in the light of worldly tempters and
distractions, drawing him away from the rapt contempla-
tion of things spiritual and divine, wherein was his life.
158 The ''Religious Life''
The well-known sentence of Casslan, who had been In the
East, and knew Eastern monachism well, ranks bishops
with women as among the monk's most formidable
foes. Still, from the first, complications, sometimes of a
serious kind, arose. Monks of a certain class, covetous
of power, pressed into the priesthood ; and able monks
were coveted, and sometimes caught with guile by
scheming bishops, of which curious tales may be read in
the literature of the times. But, on the whole, the lay
character was for a time successfully maintained. To
escape the bishop's crook, which tended terribly to become
a claw, was a far harder matter.
The fifth century was an age in which the episcopal
order consolidated and extended the power which It had
been gaining — usurping, some of us would say, but it
grew so entirely out of the tendencies of the times, and
the set of the currents over which man had no control,
that the word usurpation but partially applies — and which
the peace of the Church assured. The fifth century
records are full of legislation which had for its direct
object the subjection of the monks, both in the establish-
ment and conduct of their monasterlesV to episcopal
control. In the fifth century monachism was establishing
Itself In the West with little method or uniformity, and
naturally, having no point d'appui, the monks in the vari-
ous districts fell under episcopal sway. But as It grew
in influence, power and wealth, the monks bore with
growing Impatience the supervision of an official whose
grade in holiness they regarded as lower than their own.
Material considerations, too, soon complicated the matter.
The monasteries gathered treasure ; the bishops of the
fifth, sixth, and seventh centuries had itching palms.
The monks, as the ecclesiastical legislation amply
proves, suffered grievous spoliation, and even violence
at their hands. The clergy had already utterly lost their
Aftd Christian Society. 159
Independence, and were held in servile, and often brutal
subjection. But the monks fought hard for freedom.
They had a standing ground of their own, which the
clergy lacked, and they offered an organized and some-
times armed resistance. The struggle lasted with more
or less vehemence through three centuries, — on the whole,
perhaps the darkest ages of human history. The tenth
century was dark enough, and may seem to dispute the
palm. But it had the memory of Charlemagne, and an
organizing idea in the Holy Roman Empire, with Otto
the Great to give it substance, to lighten its darkness ;
while it is hard to see what was shaping itself amid the
confusion and demoralization of those earlier times. The
struggle terminated at last in favour of the monks, by the
intervention of the Papal See, from which in those ages
many deliverances sprang.
But while the monks were battling with the bishops
for some measure of independence, a great change was
passing over their relations to the Church. As they felt
their power, honour, and authority increase, they lost
something of the primal ascetic inspiration, and began to
aspire to official functions. The way would be opened
by practical difficulties which would constantly occur. A
numerous company of monks, settled at a distance from
the church where the ordinances and sacraments were
celebrated, would be in some perplexity ; partly from
distance, and partly from the feeling of superiority to
the common mass of the faithful, they would strive to get
what came to be called a chapel consecrated in their
monastery, in which, at intervals, a priest might officiate.
But this intrusion of a ghostly man, of an inferior order
of ghostliness, would cause some soreness in the monas-
tery, especially as the clerical jealousy of the monks
increased. Then they would naturally seek to have one
of their own order consecrated as their priest, to minister
i6o The '^Religious Life''
to them in holy things. And thus It actually befell.
But this would Introduce a distinction, an Inequality
where equality was fundamental ; and so it came about
that the whole body of the monks began to aspire to the
clerica loffice, and gradually, by the sheer force of the
virtues which, whatever we may think of them, were most
honoured in those times, they made their way into the front
rank of the ministers of the Church. It is impossible to
fix the dates of the various steps of the transition. Early
in the seventh century, Boniface IV. proclaimed them
'' more than fit " for the clerical office, and from that time
we may regard them as on the high way to supreme
clerical power. They conquered their position by the
sheer weight of their intellectual and spiritual superiority
to the priesthood, in those points which struck the
imagination of that rough but ideolatrous age. It was,
however a long, stern battle with which we Nonconform-
ists may have some sympathy, though we denounce
vehehemently monastic ideas ; under very different
forms there Is something essentially like it in our history.
A notable era In the development of Western mona-
chism may be marked by the name of Boniface, the great
Anglo-Saxon missionary to Germany, and on the whole
probably one of the ablest and most far-sighted states-
men of the eighth century. He had the eye to discern
and comprehend the bearings of two rising powers which
were destined to play a prominent part in European
history. He saw that the true cure for the miseries of the
Merovingian kingdom was the assumption of the regal
power by Pepin, the founder of the Carolingian empire,
and he attached himself with zeal to the fortunes of that
powerful family, with very important results, which we
cannot stay to trace. And at the same time he saw that a
principle of order, not of the purest or most perfect kind
— Boniface knew that full sadly — but still powerful, prac-
And Chj'istian Society. i6i
tical, and full of promise for the future, was to be found
in the extension of the power of the Papal See ; and he
lent the whole weight of his remarkable character and
influence to strengthen and enlarge the rising authority
of the Popes, which, the art of the forger being as yet in
the bud, had still in it some original spiritual force and
life. It was in devout submission to the Papal See that
he carried on his missionary labours ; the bishoprics
which he founded, after the fashion of his own See of
Mainz, were placed solemnly under Papal control, and
It was as the representative of Pope Zachary that he
anointed Pepin king. In fact, Boniface was the leading
statesman in Northern Europe during the whole of that
era of transition, and the institutions which he mainly
helped to found were destined to a mighty success.
But we must not linger over the political interest of
the times, though we may note in passing — and it may
help us to estimate the motherly Influence of the Papacy
on the Churches of the West during the earlier ages of
her supremacy— that the two Western Churches which
were most under Papal Influence, which were founded
and nursed by the Popes, not only developed themselves
most rapidly, and became distinguished for culture and
missionary zeal, but were the first In their full maturity to
cast off the Papal yoke, when the mother had degene-
rated Into the tyrant and plague. But the career of
Boniface had In many remarkable ways a powerful Influ-
ence on monastlcism, as his copious correspondence
reveals ; and In founding the monastery of Fulda In 744
he placed It directly under Papal protection. Thence-
forth the monks began to see in the Papacy the power
which would uphold them against the tyrrany both of the
bishops and of the secular lords. From that time the
monks and the Papacy begin to draw together in closer
relations, and in the end the whole army of the monks,
M
i62 The ''Religious Life''
during the palmy days of the Institution, whether for good
or for evil we shall enquire in due course, became the army
of the Papal Church.
But it is time for us to enquire a little more closely
into the natural history of this Institution, which, though
it connects itself with the whole ascetic movement which
plays so distinguished a part in the history of all the
great world religions, has a distinct and powerful indi-
viduality, which is Christian alone. Whence did it
spring ? M. Gulzot — and no student of these times
can mention his name without profound deference to
his judgment — holds that " it was not to any ecclesiastical
combination, nor even to the movement and the particular
direction that Christianity might impress on men's
imaginations, that the monastic life owed its origin. The
general state of society at this epoch was its true source.
Itwas tainted with three vices, idleness, corruption, and
unhappiness. Men were unoccupied, perverted, and a
prey to all kinds of miseries. This is the reason why
we find so many turning monks. A laborious, honest,
or happy people would never have entered into this
life." '* Of the absolute submission of the monk to his
abbot, which St. Benedict enjoined," he says, " of a
surety Europe received it neither from Greece, ancient
Rome, the Germans, nor from Christianity, properly so
called. It began to appear under the Roman Empire,
and arose out of the worship of the Imperial Majesty."
More recent writers trace the institution largely at any
rate to the same spring. But the mainspring of all
great human movements is attraction and not repulsion.
To understand them we must search for the force which
attracts, and be sure that the repellent stands much
lower in the scale. And it will be needful to seek in
some deeper and diviner inspiration the origin of an
institution, which not only wielded for ten centuries a
And Christian Society, 163
tremendous power, but also maintained the spring of
its strength unimpaired so long. It cannot be doubted
that the utter wretchedness of life under the decaying
Empire, the weariness and heart-sickness to which Pilate
gave such dread expression, helped the movement
mightily. But nothing on this scale and of this force
is primarily a refuge. Nor do the annals of asceticism
in Central Asia, under Islam, or in Western Europe,
tend to prove that the attraction of the monastic life
is in Inverse proportion to the Industry, security, and
prosperity of the secular life of the times. We may
live to see a powerful monastic movement, under new
forms but with the old spirit, developed out of the
intense activity, the restless liberty, and the splendid
prosperity of our nineteenth century life.
There are some very startling sentences In the New
Testament. '' Nowhere," says Hegel, " are there to be
found such revolutionary utterances as In the Gospels."
" And behold, one came, and said unto him, Good Master, what good
thing shall I do, that I may have eternal hfe ? And he said unto him,
Why callest thou me good ? there is none good but one, that is, God :
but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments
The young man saith unto him. All these things have I kept from my
youth up : what lack I yet ? Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be
perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou
shalt have treasure in heaven ; and come and follow me. ' — Matt.
xix. 16, 17 ; .... 20, 21.
" Then one said unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand
without, desiring to speak with thee. But he answered and said unto
him that told him, Who is my mother? and who are my brethren?
And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and said, Behold
my mother, and my brethren ! For whosover shall do the will of my
Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and
mother."— Matt xii. 47-50.
"And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain : and when
he was set, his disciples came unto him : And he opened his mouth, and
taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit .... Blessed are
they that mourn .... Blessed are the meek .... Blessed are they
which do hunger and thirst after righteousness .... Blessed are the
M 2
164 The ''Religious Life''
pure in heart .... Blessed are the peacemakers .... Blessed are
they which are persecuted for righteousness sake : for their's is the king-
dom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute
you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.
Rejoice, and be exceeding glad : for great is your reward in heaven : for
so persecuted they the prophets which were before you." — Matt. v. 1-12.
"And he said to them all. If any man will come after me, let him deny
himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whosoever
will save his life, shall lose it : but whosoever will lose his life for my
sake, the same shall save it." — Luke ix. 23, 24.
" Then said he also to him that bade him, When thou makest a dinner
or a supper, call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen,
nor thy rich neighbours ; lest they also bid thee again, and a recompense
be made thee. But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the
maimed, the lame, the blind : And thou shalt be blessed ; for they
cannot recompense thee : for thou shalt be recompensed at the resur-
rection of the just.'' — Luke xiv. 12-14.
'*If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and
wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also,
he cannot be my disciple." — Luke xiv. 26.
*' And it came to pass, that, as they went in the way, a certain man said
unto him. Lord, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest. And
Jesus said unto him, Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests :
but the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head. And he said unto
another, Follow me. But he said. Lord, suffer me first to go and bury
my father. Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead ; but go
thou and preach the kingdom of God. And another also said. Lord, I
will follow thee ; but let me first go bid them farewell which are at home
at my house. And Jesus said unto him. No man, having put his hand
to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.'' —
Luke ix. 57, 62.
" And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellow-
ship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. And fear came upon
every soul : and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles.
And all that believed were together, and had all things common ; and
sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every
man had need. And they, continuing daily with one accord in the
temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat
with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God, and having favour
with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as
should be saved." — Acts ii. 42, 47.
Nor are these vague words. They are sustained to
their uttermost literal meaning by the life of the Lord.
And Christian Society. 165
We are familiar with their purport ; alas ! so familiar
that we can hardly realize the startling emphasis with
which they would fall on the unaccustomed but eager
ears, which were listening in those days to the Word
of Eternal Life. Men believed profoundly that those
words were spoken on earth by the Lord of ever-
lasting glory, and they were taught by inspired lips that
this Life was the Light of the world. Was it not most
natural, and indeed inevitable, that those on whom the
power of the higher life descended should take these
words in what seemed to be their simplest sense, and
try what would come of an honest endeavour to work
them out as literally in the life. It would be hard
to attach too much importance to the miserable condition
of the times, which yet we may realize more clearly than
the average men and women who lived In them. To
us, for instance, the life of a city Arab would seem
less tolerable than death, and yet multitudes contrive
to live it, age after age, without being driven to any
desperate effort to escape from it. Still it was miserable
enough to make the cloister look heaven-like in contrast.
The pages of a writer like Salvian (though he wrote with
a purpose, and, what is still more ensnaring to writers, a
theological one) contain sufficient to explain how dear
was the vision of a refuge In his days. The storm of
bloody and brutal war was abroad ; no home was sacred,
no treasure was sure. Each spring of domestic or social
pleasure was polluted ; the darkness deepened as the
Empire staggered on In its blind misery; and the gather-
ing night seemed to be unlit by one ray of hope. Quiet
souls needed a shelter from the storm ; the tender-hearted
needed some security against the dread vicissitudes of
life ; the thoughtful needed a retreat where they could
carry on their peaceful labours ; the highmlnded a life
which could give free play to nobler energies than could
1 66 The ''Religious Life''
occupy themselves with battle, avarice, or lust. But
beneath all these, at the heart of all these, the living
germ which all these helped mightily to stimulate and
develop, we must place — the imitation of the Lord
Jesus.
When Epictetus urged his disciples to set before them
some man of supreme excellence, and to imagine them-
selves always in his presence, had he quite forgotten
how bitterly he had complained that no true Stoic could be
found, no man in whom he could discern the realization
of his ideal. But myriads, nay millions of his fellowmen
had found One whom they could at once worship with
the profoundest reverence, and love with the most pas-
sionate devotion ; One who had laid hold on all which
they believed to be the higher element of their nature,
as the magnet lays hold on steel dust, and drew them by
a resistless spell into the path of self-abnegation, self-
devotion, and ministry to mankind, which He had trodden
himself to the last extremity of shame and death. The
great mass of mankind, the ignorant, the poor, the en-
slaved — shut out inevitably, not by the jealousy of the
philosophers in any wise, but by the very nature of things,
from the wisdom of the schools — had found, or as Paul
says had been found by, a Being who stirred and swayed
them with a force and absoluteness till then unknown ; and
who inspired them with a love so passionate and absorb-
ing that poverty, bonds, wounds and death were no longer
terrible, but beautiful and glorious, if they might but
express the depth of their devotion to their Saviour, and
translate them more swiftly to His sphere.
This passionate personal love to Christ is a feature of
the Christian life of the early centuries, which no wise
student of their history will underrate. And it manifested
itself in forms of imitation often very wildly extravagant,
but not altogether marvellous, to those who know to its
And Christian Society. 167
depths the passion of human love. The stigmata of St.
Francis, whatever may be the truth of that marvellously
attested phenomenon, are really but the culmination of
what the higher class of monastics — and these are the men
to be studied — were pining and panting after through all
the monastic ages. To imitate Christ in the form of His
life, while they drank inwardly its inspiration, was their
highest thought and hope. And it was inevitable surely,
that the Christian life should, in the most earnest, take
the form of a studious outward imitation under the con-
straint of an absorbing passion, before the world could
rise to the comprehension, partly through this experi-
ment, of the inner meaning of the life of Jesus, and
the true character of its influence on mankind. The
poverty of Christ, His simple trust, like that of the birds
and the lilies. His homeless lot. His virgin life, were all
made the objects of eager and passionate imitation.
To live as He lived, poor, homeless, wayfaring, and apart
from domestic bonds and joys, was the ideal of the
Christian life which the first ages cherished ; and it would
be easy to show, from the writings and sermons of the
great monks through the whole monastic period, how this
remained the supreme inspiration — nay, it is vivid in many
a great heart among the " religious" to this day. We
are tempted to think that the larger spirit of Christ's
teaching, His miracle at the marriage feast and the like,
might have taught them a nobler lesson about life, than
that which they drew from the study of some outward
forms of the life of the Lord. But it is wonderful how
purblind the best of us are. How many thousands of
earnest intelligent Christians in this nineteenth century,
with this tale of the marriage of Cana open before them,
stigmatize wine as the unholy thing, and denounce it as
the devil's gift to the world.
So we must be patient with those monks if they saw
i68 The ''Religious Life''
but one thing at a time, and that the most outward and
visible thing. It was needful to the true unfolding of
the life of humanity, under the influence of Christian
ideas, that this experiment should be fully tried, and that
the world should see what would grow out of that form
of the imitation of the Lord Jesus. Let any one study
the history of the conversion of St. Anthony at one end
of the scale, and of St Francis of Assisi at the other,
and he will see in the almost identity of the two narra-
tives, how profoundly this idea of the imitation ruled the
noblest minds through the monastic ages, and was the
real root of many of the wild fantastic movements of
those intense, thorough, and ideal times. To this root,
too, must be referred that profound submission of the
monk to his abbot, which has been traced to the slavish
habits of Imperial Rome. The abbot was to the monk
as Christ. That entire obedience to the Father's will,
which is so conspicuous a feature in the life and discourses
of the Lord, they delighted to imitate in their submision
to the man whom Christ had set over them — who was to
them as a present God. Men pined, in the confusion
and darkness of their intellectual sphere, and in an age
when the constructive instinct was strong, for visible,
tangible manifestations of unseen spiritual powers. The
abbot was this to the monk, the Pope became this to the
Catholic world. In both spheres the submission was
abject and destructive ; though ennobled for a time by
the vision of some more awful form behind both abbot
and Pope. But it was simply idolatrous — the endeavour
to grasp within some form which could come within the
cognizance of the understanding, the substance of the
unseen but ever-present Lord.
As with all idolatries when young, an intense fervour
and energy attended its earlier developments ; but, as with
all idolatries when old, it fell inevitably as the generation
A?id Christian Society, 169
ran on, into miserable riot, impotence and despair. In
the earlier Christian ages, it is not too much to say
that Christendom was fairly drunk with the new wine
of the Spirit. A new power from heaven had fallen upon
men, and filled them with rapture. Nothing is more
notable, in the comparison of the Christian and the
pagan literatures of the first and second centuries, than
the tone of exhilaration which breathes through the one,
and the sadness, the hopelessness, which breathes through
the other. This probably, quite as much as the ''non
eloquimur magna, sed vivimus^' explains the power which
Christianity wielded from the first over the mass of man-
kind. But the spirits of the prophets, the men into whom
this new wine of the Gospel entered, broke loose from the
prophets. All the wild antics of the Stylites and their
kindred were just the effect of untutored passionate souls
to work off the excitement. The fine frenzy prolonged
itself through the Middle Ages; and it was not till the
dawn of the Reformation that the fermentation was
ended, and the pure clear wine of Christian thought could
be oftered to the world. It took Christendom 1500 years
fairly to master its position, to attain to the rule of its
own spirit ; and then it began characteristically enough
to fortify and instruct itself for the higher and calmer
stages of its growth, by opening afresh the writings of
St. Paul.
These considerations suggest the most strongly-marked
feature .of the influence of " the religious " on Christian
society. They were from the first the distinctly Evan-
gelical element in the Church. Some of my readers may
shrink from the association of a term so sacred, with the
ideas and habits of life which we are now considering.
But I call that Evangelical in religion, in the true sense,
w^hich lives by vital personal fellowship with the living
Christ, and which utters its innermost experience in the
170 The ''Religio7is Life''
words, " The love of Christ constraineth me!' This has
been the secret spring of power in the leaders of all
Evangelical reformations and revivals. I believe that Mr.
Matthew Arnold is quite right, and that their doctrinal
ideas were nothing in the account, compared with their
vivid sense of the love of the living Saviour, and their
faith in His work for them and for mankind. The word
Evangelical has just now an evil savour in the nostrils of
the Philosophers. To speak frankly, looking at our little
world, I do not wonder at it. But I do wonder that men
of culture can lift their eyes and range over the wider
world of Christendom, without seeing that the great force
which has lifted that world and moved forward its progress
at the critical eras, has been the hold of the living per-
sonal Saviour on the hearts both of the great leaders and
the great masses of men. God forbid that we should ignore
the mighty influence of culture, of the sweetness and
light which rain down from the intellectual sphere. If
the Evangelical spirit could have succeeded in play-
ing the Cain to this gentle Abel of thought, which is its
chronic temptation, it would have left itself but a barren
humanity for its kingdom. But could culture succeed in
dispensing with the Gospel, as it is striving to ignore it
now, the humanity which it would have left to rule over
would be simply — dead.
The two movements are in truth as closely related and
as needful to each other as the two hemispheres. If we
set the Evangelical foremost, it is simply on the principle
that *' the life is more than meat, and the body than
raiment." And we hold that during the ages in which
the conditions of human life and thought made it des-
perately difficult for men to hold clearly in view the
essential truth of the Gospel, "the religious," by the
passionate earnestness of their devotion to the Saviour,
by their studious imitation of the form of His example,
And Christian Society. 171
by their vivid preachings, writings, and biographies, did
keep some warm though distorted image of Him who is
the very core of Christian doctrine, before the world.
And again I urge, that the age is coming, nay Is already
come, which will be as startled at the image of Christ
which we have been presenting during the doctrinal era
which is closing, as we are at the image which was pre-
sented in a monastic life. We judge these men as if the
pure form of the truth were ours at last. We shall live to
be as ashamed of the impurities which we have mixed
with it, as Boniface was of Pope Zachary, Bernard of his
friend Eugenlus III., Catherine of Siena of Gregory XL,
or Luther of what he saw under Julius IL at Rome. We
have not yet reached the point which might justify us in
judging the monastic life by our standard. If we compare
it with the standard of Christ, let us place ourselves
beside the monks as we judge them, and own for them
and for ourselves a double shame.
It would be easy to quote from the writings of the
great monks down to quite recent times, a series of pas-
sages full of intense and passionate devotion to the person
of the Saviour ; and those at all acquainted with the
sermons of modern monastic preachers, will know how
deep a strain of Evangelical thought and passion breathes
through their words. The question of course arises how
far their principle helped or hindered their witness for the
living Christ. We can see how much it distorted ; we
can measure the shame which the inevitable degradation
of the Order brought upon His name. But we find some-
thing similar In all Churches and Church movements.
And when we see a certain tone of thought and feeling
conspicuous in the great leaders of a school through
successive ages, and tinging the whole current of its life,
we are bound to believe that there was something in the
principle of the school which fostered it. Nor Is it difficult
172 The ''Religious Life''
to see how their m6de of Hfe and their special abnegations
made the Hving Saviour very real and very dear to them ;
though the same habit of life might as easily lead men
away from Him in these more instructed days. Fearful as
were the evils which the monks wrought in Christendom,
we cannot question that in the formative ages of its growth
this witness to the Lord Jesus left a large balance of
blessing to be placed to the account of the '' religious life."
Having glanced thus at the most vital element of their
influence, we may perhaps best take a rapid survey of the
whole field, by considering :
1. The part which they played in relation to the visible
body — the Church.
2. Their relation to the inward and outward life of
men^ — the human affections, interests, and duties.
3. The service which they rendered incidentally to the
culture of Christendom, and the unfolding of the life of
secular society.
We may safely speak of the monks as on the whole
the devoted soldiers of the Roman Church. For good
or for evil they served her with singular fidelity ; and our
estimate of their influence will largely depend on the
value which we attach to the influence of Rome. A very
noble idea was at the root of this devotion to the Papal
chair. It was as the Roman See rose to be representa-
tive of the unity of Christendom, that the monks devoted
themselves to her service. The homage of so many
noble minds was really an aspiration ; they would realize
through Rome the visible kingdom of the Lord. That
Christianity was the World- Religion, was a fixed idea in
the Church. The Roman Empire inevitably suggested
a world-empire as its sphere. The conversion of Con-
stantine was a vast step towards its realization. A
temporal Prince at once stepped into a headship of the
Church-State, which was regarded as a kind of vice-
And Christian Society. 173
gerency of Christ in the world. We must not suppose
that the one form in which the unity of Christendom
presented itself to the ablest minds through the Middle
Ages, was the kind of theocracy which floated before the
vision of Gregory VII., Innocent III., or Boniface VIII.
The position which Constantine assumed, and which the
Church continued to recognize, — Gregory the Great wrote
to Maurice as to his master, and Leo bent before Charle-
magne as he crowned him at Rome, — made the Emperor
the unquestioned head of the Christian world. The ser-
vility of the Church is often commented on, — in a measure
unjustly. The conception of a complete Christian State,
a visible political body, which should yet be the kingdom
of the Lord — a body of which the Emperor under Christ
should be the head, and of which the Church should be
the Inspiring soul — is the key to the aim and effort of
Christendom through the Middle Ages, In which, from
Charlemagne to Frederic II., the Empire plays such a
distinguished part. The Holy Roman Empire floated
before the minds of men as a vision of a complete, peace-
ful, blessed society. Churchmen slowly entertained the
idea of a united Christendom under the rule of a Priest
As a spiritual society, they had no desire to "be unclothed,
but clothed upon" with a body, a great world- empire, in
which the Church, as a spirit, might dwell, and by which
it might work. Aquinas sums up the deepest thinking
of the Middle Age In the sentence, '' Potestas scEcularis
subordinatur spirituali, sicut coi^pus animcs' But this
recognized the necessity of a body with organs and a
head. And the Imperial power, during the early stages of
its growth, had no stronger support than the ablest minds
of the Church. How passionately a great layman could
cling to the idea the ** De Monarchia " of Dante reveals.
But the dream was palpably a dream. Not in that way
could a kingdom of Christ be realized in the world.
174 The ''Religious Life''
The Papal power rose on the wreck of the Empire of
the West. The Popes became heirs of the name and
influence of Rome. Their spiritual sway over the Western
nations was a more mighty thing than the Roman sword.
With them was the new power which was organizing the
West, and they grew naturally with it. But how far did the
higher pretensions and aims of the Papal imperium grow
out of, or at any rate by, the palpable inability of the me-
diaeval Empire to serve any high Christian purpose to the
world ? If we contrast Dante's dream of the Empire with
its history under all but the ablest rulers, — nay under the
ablest, for the splendid reign of Frederic Barbarossa is
among the saddest of all, — we shall see that the Empire,
complicated with German politics, was palpably unequal to
its mission ; and that there was ample room for the preten-
sions of the purely spiritual power to grow. Charle-
magne, whose favourite reading, Eginhard tells us, was in
the works of St. Augustine, prcEciptieque his qui De
Civitate Dei prcetitulati su7tt, had left a great ground-
plan, which was full of promise. But the times were
against it ; the very outlines of it were quickly obliterated ;
it was but a mutilated image which Otto the Great, Henry
III., or Frederic I. restored.
On the wreck of the temporal unity of Christendom
rose the idea of the Imperial power of the Church. The
steps by which the Church rose to supremacy, we cannot
even in outline trace. A terrible history of usurpation,
fraud and shameless forgery may be gathered from the
records of Church history. " Janus " parades them in one
startling chapter ; dealing too tenderly with Nicholas I.,
who laid the foundation on which Hildebrand built the
Empire of the Church. But forgery does not explain a
power which was wielded with such tremendous force for
ages; and which M. Comte — who considers that the
positive philosophy, '* being as free from monotheistic as
And Christian Society, 175
from polytheistic or fetish belief," is singularly able to form
a calm judgment — regards as " formant jusqu'ici le chef
d'oeuvre politique de la sagesse humaine." There must
have been a great preparation in the public mind of
Europe for the usurpation ; there must have been a sense
that the advancing power would fill a vacant throne, and
restore a lapsed idea ; and these must be fairly taken Into
the account, when we would estimate the work of the
Papacy in its times.
Nothing is so difficult to deal with in brief as the Influ-
ence of the Papacy on Europe ; for nothing can be more
multiform than the phases which it assumed. This
Papal power is really a variable quantity, like the pre-
rogative of the monarch during the formative ages of a
constitutional state. But it is easy to trace a steady
growth of pretension and power, from the days when
Gregory the Great wrote humbly to Maurice, and worse
than humbly to Phocas, to the day when Boniface VIII.
issued the bull, Aiisctilta, fili ; or when seizing a sword
he declared, " It is I who am Caesar ; It is I who am
Emperor; It is I who will defend the rights of the
Empire." But this was the first stage of the decline.
When the emissary of Philip le Bel struck the old man
with his mailed hand, he marked an era in the history of
the Church. Philip le Bel, one of the most unbeautiful
figures in history, was yet a national monarch, with a
nation behind him ; and with the rise of the national
spirit the Papacy began to decay. The death of Boni-
face was followed speedily by the seventy years Captivity;
then came the councils of Constance and Basle, and then
things ripened rapidly for the Reformation. But the
growth up to the fourteenth century was constant,
powerful, and sure. Its relation to the true progress of
Christianity is not easy to trace.
We must first recognize as a fundamental fact that
1 "j^ The ''Religious Life'
Christianity was at work equally on secular and on spiritual
society. But the main visible instrument of influence —
the invisible we cannot measure — was in the hand of the
Church, and during the central period the Church was
represented by Rome. During these ages it would seem
that some vast organized system was needful to keep
before the eye of secular society, however imperfectly,
those great Christian ideas which would ultimately render
it independent of Church-systems external to it, for all
time. We are growing to this in England, we have
not reached it yet. The transition from the Church-
system of the Apostolic age to the establishment of Con-
stantine, must be regarded as in the strictest sense a Fall.
Christianity fell as man fell, and like man, to rise again.
God makes the Fall a stage in the unfolding of a larger,
richer life. The question is how far during the stormy
Middle Age could pure spiritual ideas find room and air
to breathe in our world ? Of old, because they could not
live here in their pureness, God enclosed them in the ark
of the system of the Jewish Church. Then came an era
of peace and culture. They stepped forth, and in their
naked power and beauty moved through the world. The
age of peace and culture closed. The world plunged
into wilder confusion ; the fertile communion of men and
peoples became difficult and rare. Then the pure truth
of the Gospel buried itself again, this time in humanity,
and through a vast, powerful, authoritative system
wrought with what freedom and force it might on man-
kind.
The Roman Church during the Middle Age was just
a rude battery of force, the main-current of which was
Christian, which had to act on a state of society too hard
and gross to be acted upon by more subtle and spiritual
means. The Gospel sheltered itself within this citadel,
and thence it strove to stir the sluggish spirit of the
A7id Christian Society. 177
timtis, and to bear such witness as was possible, through
the organs at its command, against the more crying evils
which were desolating society, and for justice, temperance,
mercy, and charity, as graces which were still dear to
God and blessed for man. And when, as again and
again occurred, this great institution fell into more deadly
evils than those against which it was set to witness, and
repeated the vices and miseries of the Empire on a more
tremendous scale, how dense then, how awful became
the darkness of the world !
But one thing the Church accomplished, though at a
cost morally, which makes it difficult to strike the balance
of gain : she wrought the facts and truths of Christianity
into the very texture of the intellectual, the social, and
the political life of humanity, and impressed that Chris-
tian character on our civilisation which, poor and imper-
fect as it is, may be its distinguishing glory, and which, once
inwrought, abides for all time. In the conflict of the
Church with the secular power, the Christian spirit seems
often on the side of the prince ; and the principles for
which our Henry II., or the Emperors Henry IV. or
Frederic I., contended, were of vital importance to the
freedom and progress of Christian society. Still, on the
whole, the things which were of supreme Importance
were in the custody of the Church ; and, despite Mr.
Lecky's able argument, we must conclude, that though
the ages of her sway were little fruitful in a high Chris-
tian sense, yet they were the parents of a great future ;
they were ages in which ideas and habits of action were
being wrought into the very heart of European society,
which will Christianize humanity to the end of time.
Without the monks, this work of the Church would
probably have been impossible. They were, as a body,
an army devoted to her service. Celibates — after the
manner of all standing armies — they were at the dis-
N
178 The ''Religious Life''
posal of the Church to maintain her pretensions, to fight
her battles, and to do her work. The triumph of the
principle of celibacy, under Gregory VII., threw into
the hands of the Church a power of enormous magni-
tude. It kept the whole spiritual force of Christendom
in hand, as it were, and under one head. And terrible
as were the evils of Church pretensions and assumptions,
and of the wrongs and outrages which were perpetrated in
the most sacred Name, we hold that it was better, not for
those ages but for humanity at large, through all time,
that that form of the kingdom of Christ should be
wrought to the fullest possible perfection. It has charged
humanity with precious experience, which will remain its
KTr]yua €9 ah, when the pains and struggles of its acquisi-
tion are forgot. The monastic orders, mighty helpers
in the great work, share fully in whatever glory or what-
ever shame attaches to the rule of the Church through
the Middle Age. They were its most consistent and
powerful champions ; it completed its organization by
adopting their principle, and without them it could never
have accomplished its work.
The development which we have traced is like a series
of supports, each rising higher and looming larger than
those in front, to bear up the body of Christian truth and
influence against the pressure of the times. First, we
have the clergy with their sacraments — their's distinctly,
not Christ's ; they go down before the pressure, and, in
the fifth century, are in rapid decay. Then behind them
rise up " the religious," to reinforce them, and both, for a
time, hold on their mission with new power. Then the
monks get rich and corrupt, and fall into the hands of
spoilers. Behind them rise up the Popes, who sustain
awhile and revivify the spiritual movement. Behind the
Popes rises up the whole structure of the Mediaeval
Church, in which the Pope is the organ of the thought
And Christian Society, 179
and influence of the whole clerical world. Then the
Papacy grows magnificent and wanton, rich in possession
and prerogative, but poor in honour and love. Behind
it, in the hour of its chief splendour, rise up the Mendi-
cant orders to sustain it. Little dreamed Innocent III.,
as he walked that evening on the terrace of the Lateran
Palace, when Francis of Assisi with his tattered troop
of disciples drew near, that the men were before him
who should restore the faith of Christendom for awhile
in the ideas which the Papacy was dishonouring, and renew
thereby for awhile its lease of power and the very springs
of its life. When these failed, and they failed soon,
though we must not take all that Matthew Paris and
other Benedictine champions write about them for gospel,
there was nothing behind to rise up as a fresh support —
at least, nothing " of this building." The next great
movement would begin with the Reformation, with a
fresh reading of the Word of the Gospel, and a new
baptism of the Spirit of the Lord.
The points which remain to be considered I can
touch but lightly ; though they are full of interest,
the space at my command allows but a few words on
each. And first, it is clear that the missionary work of
the monks would have been impossible under other
conditions. As monks alone could the missionaries of
the West in the early Christian ages have done their
work. We do full justice to the influence of the married
missionaries' home. But the married missionary must
have a missionary society, on which he can draw bills,
behind him. Severinus, Columbanus, Boniface were in
quite other case. Doubtless a holy and loving human
home is the fairest thing under the sun. But it needs
culture to appreciate it. In the rude, coarse, lustful life
of those times the stern contrast of monastic continence,
frugality, and industry alone could have arrested the
N 2
] 8o The ''Religious Life''
attention and compelled the homage of the pagans
among whom the missionaries cast their lot. We con-
stantly err in supposing that the virtues and graces
which we are educated to appreciate, have the same hold
on the uncultured which they have on us. There are
broad tracts of pagandom within the very heart of this
Christian country which seem to mock our lofty spiritual
methods of culture. We may have to stoop to rougher
and stronger means of influence to lay hold on them ;
and monastic missions to the pagans of our great Chris-
tian cities may not be among the impossible things of
these modern days, Nor was the daring courage with
which, for instance, the young monk Telemachus
descended into the arena, and by the sacrifice of him-
self abolished the gladiatorial spectacles for ever, un-
connected with his monastic culture and habits of life.
The independence, too, of the Christian teacher needed in
those days some such strong entrenchment. Spiritual
men needed a vantage-ground which was recognized by
the mass of the uncultured laity, whence they could
stoop to lift them to a higher life.
But at what cost was the vantage-ground won ? Was
not the monastic instinct intensely selfish in its origin
and working ? Was not every principle of our constitu-
tion violated ? Were not all the dearest and most sacred
interests of society trampled in the mire by these wild
fanatics ? Were not all the tender affections and sym-
pathies, all that makes life beautiful and blessed, blasted
by those ruthless devotees of the idol of their own
imagination, who, if they could have wrought out their
will, would have made life a purgatory and the world
a waste ? There is this side of the question to be
looked at; and the truth which lies in the charge is
simply fatal to the "religious life" as a wholesome
and permanent Christian institution, but by no means
And Christian Society, i8i
conclusive against it as a thing of virtue and use in its
times.
Let us consider a strong case. Simeon Stylites sternly
repulsing his mother, refusing to listen to her or even to
look at her, though she urged him with the most pathetic
supplications, and in the last extremity, is a most un-
lovely spectacle. It is easy to pronounce stern judgment
on a system which wrought tender hearts to an unnatural
hardness like this. But instead of judging, we will try
to understand it. There are some startling words about
a man " hating father and mother " for Christ's sake in
the Gospel ; and '' Woman, what have I to do with thee ?"
in substance fell more than once from the Saviour's lips.
These ascetics tried to lift themselves into the sphere
of a ^Divine experience, and to think and speak after the
fashion of the Lord. I have heard the story told, with
high approbation, of a Scotch divine, who, when his wife
asked him if they should recognize each other in heaven,
answered, that for the first thousand years he should be
so occupied with the contemplation of Christ that he
would have no thought for meaner things. These men,
in the first fine frenzy of the new-born spiritual life,
endeavoured to anticipate that experience ; and so sought
to attach themselves to Christ and to heavenly things
that the earthly might pass beneath their sphere. And we
venture to think that some such isolation and sublimation
of the domestic affections was essential to the realization,
after the struggles and self-mortifications of ages, of that
purity, delicacy, and spiritual beauty, which in modern
life lends a holy charm to the perfection of wedded
and kindred love. In other words, so ensnaring, so
debasing was the influence of the flesh on the domestic,
social and political life of men, that the new spiritual life
had to draw itself off from them, and nourish itself on
what it took to be pure celestial aliment as the condition
1 82 The ''Religious Life''
of its blending with them nobly at last, so as to purify and
save them, instead of being, as was threatened in those
days, buried in them and lost.* The new power which
had entered into the world had, like the Baptist, to draw
itself off to the desert, and nurse itself there, before it
could enter the circle of life, and rule the whole sphere as
lord. And ages are but as days in this great history.
For ten centuries the spiritual element in the Church, as
far as man could detach it, passed through this narrow,
stern, but intense discipline — there is eternity before
humanity in which to reap its fruit.
It is noteworthy, too, that, though monkery brought
apparently a most potent battery to bear against every-
thing by which secular society could increase and prosper,
Society yet increased and prospered miightily. In the
age, too, of supreme monastic influence, even when the
greatest of monks wielded imperial power in Europe,
woman rose to a position of dignity, and developed a
power and beauty, which we cannot refuse to connect
largely with the elevating and purifying influence of
monastic life and thought, on the thought and the life of
society. The monks did more to help society upwards
by the spirit which they breathed, than to crush it down-
wards by the maxims which they promulgated. Their
theory would have destroyed the civilisation which they
themselves helped mightily to purify and to save.
And this connects itself with another question which
has been much agitated of late. How far did Europe
suffer from the withdrawal of such a vast army of capable
men from her fields of activity and toil ? The same
question occurred in another form in an earlier age.
The Emperor Maurice found that the army was suf-
fering from the withdrawal of those who desired to de-
vote themselves to " religion." He was for taking strong
* See a very able Paper on this subject in the Spectator of May 8, i86q.
And Christian Society. 183
steps to check It. Gregory the Great wrote to him :
*' The armies of my sovereign will be strengthened
against their enemies, in proportion as the armies of
God, whose warfare is by prayer, is increased." And
Gregory was right. Industry draws strength from the
spirit of man as well as from his sinews. Those who put
new life and hope into humanity are preparing for the
fields the noblest tillage. Population, agriculture, in-
dustry, grew mightily through the monastic ages ; and no-
thing was lost, but much was gained in the long run by
the anti-secular action and influence of the Church. Our
own Great Alfred understood the matter thoroughly.
** These are the materials," he says, " of a king's work,
and his tools to govern with, that he should have prayer-
men, and army-men, and workmen. What ! thou knowest
that without these tools no monarch can shew his skill."
It has been said of Christianity that it is deficient in
stimulus to the patriotic virtues. It individualizes men,
and places each one under such tremendous pressure,
that the State vanishes, the individual and his individual
belongings are all. But it is noteworthy that before the
Advent this individualizing process had been in full play.
The patriotic sentiment in Greece had been greatly
weakened by the cosmopolitan Empire of Alexander.
The philosophical ideas both of Zeno and Epicurus,
which, like our Arminianism and Calvinism, are really
stems out of one root, are remarkable for the earnestness
with which they deal with individual interests, and let
the grander range of the elder philosophy pass out of
sight. To bear up the man against the ills of life was
their main problem ; and it stated itself yet more strongly
in the stoical philosophy of Rome. Cicero, Seneca,
Plutarch, had dawning visions of a wider patriotism, of
man's citizenship, of a larger than a national world.
" Humanity " came visibly to the front under the world-
184 The ''Religious Life''
empire of Rome. At this critical era the world-religion
tvas born. Christianity, cultivating the individual, and
making him the conscious citizen of a wider, even a
celestial commonwealth, left him to work at his mundane
duties with the new earnestness which it inspired.
But the mundane at first suffered some harm and loss.
The monks may be regarded as carrying to dark ex-
tremes this isolating tendency ; country, kindred, was
nothing to them, spiritual brotherhood was all in
all. Plato, too, had dreamed this dream of the subli-
mation of all earthly relationships, and he, too, like
the monks, believed that it was the condition of a
heavenly rather than an earthly world. He says of his
form of the spiritual republic : '' AKk! , eV ovpavw tawq
TrapaSelyfJia avaKeirat rw PovKofxevw opav Kai optbvTi eavrov
KarooKi^eLv.'' But the world was immensely richer for this
idea of spiritual fellowship ; and as M. Ozanam points out,
in the break-up of the Empire, this universal monastic
brotherhood was a strong nexus of society, and helped to
keep the unity of Christendom before the minds of men.
No doubt it would have been a blessed thing if the
monks had had an open eye for this world as well as for
the world to come. But men, on the whole, see but one
thing thoroughly at a time. Any great principle which
has entered largely into the life of humanity, has held
for generations, and even ages, almost exclusive posses-
sion of some powerful people or section of society.
The march of humanity has been a march en zigzag.
Each masterful principle which has possessed society
and swayed It powerfully in one direction, has never
failed to find some equally powerful principle which has
seized it In time and swayed It towards the opposite ;
and thus, the world swaying now In one direction
now in another, but ever onwards, a clear progress
through the ages has been gained.
And Christian Society, 185
It has been urged, too, not without force, that the
virtues and graces which Christianity holds in the highest
esteem are of the gentler and more patient order, and
that if they had all the field to themselves they would
empty humanity of strength and heroism, and lower
grievously the pitch of life. It might be true, if these
graces could be cut off from the inspiration which Christ
brought to man, and which, lifting these humbler virtues
from the dust in which they had long been trodden,
quickened with new energy the whole circle of the manly
qualities and powers. And yet we may allow that there
was no little danger that society might fall into a languid
passive temper, through that idolatry of the patient virtues
which was almost inevitable during the ages of persecution.
It was mainly saved by the monastics.* They, specially
during the earlier ages, revealed the heroic side of Christi-
anity. Their lives were full charged with the illustration of '
the dignity of labour, the nobility of simplicity, the beauty
of humility, the heroism of gentleness, the vigour of
patience, the regal power of love. We owe it to them in \
large measure that the heroic virtues have lived on under
the Christian discipline, and have wrought themselves into
the texture of Christian society. It is well worthy of
note how, as the ages passed on, monachism refined and
softened its features. It lived in full communion with
the life of society, hard as it strove to isolate itself. In-
deed it rather anticipated than followed its development,
inasmuch as during the Middle Ages the springs of all
great movements were within what went by the name of
the spiritual sphere. The gulf between St. Anthony and
St. Anselm, for instance, is a very wide one. Anselm has
already caught the spirit of the modern world. In truth the
great monastics seem to rise like snow peaks in the upper
* I am not unmindful of the martyrs. But the monastic and the martyr spirit were very
closely in:ertwined.
1 86 \\ The ^^ Religious Life^^
air, and are the first to catch the glow of the advancing
sun.
And nothing can be a greater mistake than to suppose
that their stern repression of the natural affections, issued
in hardness and poverty of nature. Sternly as they
strove to indurate themselves quoad world and natural
affection, they lived in their monasteries lives full of human
gentlenesss and tenderness, and in their best days not
without some pure gaiety and gladness of heart. Sim-
plicitas^ denignitas, hilarHtas, were no idle words upon their
lips. Some of the most tender and passionate effusions
which have come down to us from the records of the past,
are contained in monastic chronicles and correspondences.
Though there is something sad in those tender and
apparently satisfying friendships of the cloister, they
are unnaturally strained, and therefore in the long run
weakening ; nor can it be doubted, that from that side
sore temptations pressed them, and a flood of evil at
length broke in. But the reason why this hardening
process did not harden, but left men with tender hearts
and vivid affections, is not far to seek. The love which
they denied their kindred was not wasted, they spent it
with passionate fervour on the Saints and on the Lord.
A grand feature of their influence on society, to which
M. Comte does full justice in his critique on the Middle
Age, is the career which they opened to power of every
kind, and the practical illustration which they offered of
the Christian doctrine of the brotherhood of mankind.
'^ La carrih^e ouverte aux lalens,'' was the gospel of the
French Revolution, according to Mr. Carlyle. As regards
the secular sphere, he is quite right. But ''the career" had
always been open in the monastic. One of the noblest
features of our English society, and one main source of
its unity, is the career which is open to men of high
capacity, through the law and the legislature, to the peer-
And Christian Society. 187
age, and the highest offices of the state. What that
element of our Hfe does for England, the monastic orders
did for Europe during the formative ages of its history.
They made a spiritual bond really and visibly more
powerful than any secular nexus of society, and kept
alive in the world some dim faith in the truth of the
fundamental principle of Christian society: '' All are
07ie in Christ yesiisr
Of the service which they rendered to the literature of
Europe, I feel the less need to speak at length, in that it
has been so often and so ably treated, and is on the whole
so fairly recognized. I only say that those who have
never looked into the subject, would be simply amazed
at the vast apparatus for literary work, and for the
instruction of children, and that not for ecclesiastical
purposes only, which was maintained by all the great
Benedictine houses. They had their outlying schools and
preaching stations in the most obscure villages, as the
Methodists distribute their local preachers in these days.
In truth, a fair picture of a day's work at such monas-
teries as Corby under Paschasius, Fulda under Rabanus,
St. Gall under the Ekkehards, or Glastonbury under
Dunstan, would reveal an earnest, loving and energetic
activity in the work of the world's culture, which would have
put the sluggish ways of our modern universities, even ten
years ago, to open shame. Taking even the tenth century,
— "which," Baronius says, " for its sterility of every ex-
cellence may be denominated iron ; for its luxuriant
growth of vice, leaden ; and for its dearth of writers,
dark," — a diligent study of its records would reveal that
the decay of learning and of zeal for scholarship, was the
fruit of war and political misery ; while it is as full as any
age of the noble devotion of the harried and miserable
monks to literature, and sorrow over its inevitable decline.
The universal lamentations of the monks when their
1 88 The ''Religious Life''
houses were laid In ruins, was over their books, as well
as their relics; and a multitude of touching stories might
be recited, of the cost at which even the fragments which
survived were saved. The question, too, has to be con-
sidered by those who would understand those times, how
far much of this literary work, especially the wearisome
transcription, would have been possible, except under
the constraint which the monastic law brought to bear on
men. The poor transcriber of St. Gall, who scratched
on his MS.,
" Libro completo
Sal tat scriptor pede laeto,"
was but a specimen of a vast class. Nothing but their
conception of the virtue of monastic obedience could
have borne them through the wearying toil. We owe
them a bitter grudge for the treasures which they des-
troyed ; but we accept that as the inevitable counterpoise
to the grand literary service which they rendered to the
world. Not for themselves, but for us, they did minister ;
they laboured, we have entered into their labours. Very
significant, too, are the beginnings of history under the
monastic roof. Would it have been possible for Bede
under any other conditions to have written his wonderful
history, and to have carried on and recorded those quiet,
keen observations of physical phenomena, which make
him the real founder of the English physical school ?
The monks were the chroniclers of Mediaeval society,
we say. Why ? Distinctly because they were able to grasp,
as no other ^ men grasped, the idea of God's interest in
human history ; because they saw that man's history in
Its wholeness was a Divine work. Each little chronicle
of an obscure monastery must weave itself In with the
history of the Creation, and the Deluge, and the Advent
of the Lord. This is a tempting theme ; how the
beginnings of secular art, literature and science rose
Aftd Christian Society. 189
from the monastic root. But we must forbear. It would
be hard to measure the influence of a man Hke Benedict
Biscop, for instance, on English civilisation. Out of his
monastic vocation, for all such purposes in such an age,
he might as well have been dead.
Very deeply, too, the kind of literature which they
loved and fostered touched the heart and lightened the
burdens of the great mass of the poor. Monkish and
saintly biographies are full of grotesque images and
childish miracles. But they turn mainly on the suffering
of truth, purity, and charity in a world like this; on the
God who watches it, and the heaven which will bring to
it the recompense at last. How deeply the central
Christian ideas laid hold on the great human heart, the
enthusiasm of the poorest, as well as the richest, for the
Crusade exhibits. The poor peasant families who left
their homes and their all, and wandered forth in search
of Jerusalem, were surely not far from the kingdom of God.
There is a large element of bane in this literature, and
in its influence on the multitude, but in such times as
those the blessing over-abounds.
Two subjects remain for notice, — each of them worthy
of a treatise, while on each I can allow myself but a word.
They are, the sphere which monachism opened to
woman, and the principle and fruits of monastic ministry
to the poor. On the first point we may say with truth,
that when we have found for woman in the secular sphere,
a position and a work which may mate with that which
the Middle Ages offered to her in the monastic, we shall
have solved successfully one of the most pressing and
perplexing problems of modern society. Their work for
the poor is open to greater question. In the later
monastic ages it was vicious and demoralizing in the
extreme. But nothing can be more unjust than to argue
from this, that the influence of the large and lavish
I go The ''Religious Life''
monastic charity was on the whole baneful, in the ages
when misery was abundant through war and tyranny,
when pilgrims were many, and when the great monastic
houses were the only hostelries and almonries of the poor.
They made as much poverty as they cured, is the charge
of the economists. Quite possibly. But have we found
xki^JMste milieu ? The monastery erred grievously on the
side of indiscriminate lavishness. The modern system,
which has now touched its nadir at St. Pancras,— where
niggard charity leaves dying paupers to fight with rats,
and stifles them with the stench of sewers, — does not
look beautiful beside the tender courage of St. Francis
in a hospital of lepers, or even the gentler ministries of
the sisters of St. Vincent de Paul. It is easy, however,
to indulge in sharp and bitter remarks on what is con-
fessedly a profoundly difficult and intricate subject. It
may be enough to indicate here that the tendency of the
best thinking as well as feeling on the subject in England
is at present not in the direction of St. Pancras, but in
the direction of that personal, intimate and considerate
ministry of Christian intelligence and charity to poverty,
which the monks made illustrious throughout the earlier
Middle Age.
In closing this Essay I am, of course, not unmindful of
the fearful picture of corruption, of the tales of unutter-
able abominations and horrors, which I might draw from
authentic monastic history. A life of such high tension,
kept at full pitch so long, inevitably, when the tension
relaxed, sank into dark, sad depths. Great spiritual
movements are powerful for a time only ; their lees are
always noxious, though there is little in history so foul as
the lees of the monastic. Very noble, beautiful, heroic,
much of it was while the red blood of its youth was in
it ; very pallid, foul, and base it became when it dragged
on a dull mechanical existence after its work in the world
And Christian Society, 191
was done. But to judge it, I think that we must look at it
in its prime ; in the Hght of its aims, aspirations, and hopes.
It is the true judgment; it is the key, perhaps, to the
merciful judgments of God. It would be easy to show
what dragged monachism to the dust ; it is more profit-
able to consider what enabled it, in spite of this constant
human proneness to corruption, to regenerate itself so
often, and to endure so long.
On the whole, we must say, to sum up the matter, that
nothing in the long run and on a large scale succeeds in
God's world but God's law. Extremes on either hand
are ultimately fatal. ''In the beginning God made them
male and female," body and soul, man and the world.
All rebellion against His institution is in the end futile
and ruinous. The man who stands open all round him
to the influences, and bound with the bonds of both
worlds, — that is, the man who stands in Christ at the
point where they are one, — is the religious man, and his
life alone is the "religious life." To bring forth this man
is the great problem of Christian history ; and I often
think that humanity has to be shaped for it much as a
sculptor moulds his clay. Much has to be taken into the
first rude shape, which will be pared off and toned down
into the harmony of the form as the development pro-
ceeds. Masses have to be added here and there to
make an organ or a muscle, which are destined to vanish
and yet to leave an invaluable line as a legacy. Were
the monastic orders attached thus to the great body of
Christian society not to be permanently wrought into it in
their integrity, but to leave, as Time pares them away,
some clear line, some essential feature, in the living body
which shall survive the process, and shall stand up as the
complete humanity in the day of the manifestation of the
sons of God ?
THE RELATION
CHURCH TO THE STATE,
REV. EUSTACE ROGERS CONDER, M.A., Lond,
THE RELATION
CHURCH TO THE STATE,
Steadily though slowly through long years, marked
but by few observers, yet of late with a rapidity that has
attracted all eyes, the great question of the relation of
the Church to the State has been coming to the fore,
until even the careless and reluctant have to confess
that it has become the question of the day. It is likely
to continue such for many a day to come. It refuses to
be remanded to the domain of intellectual controversy,
among the shadowy crowd of abstract speculations. It
comes into court as a practical, real, living problem,
putting in a claim which can no longer be evaded, to be
earnestly dealt with, and wisely, justly, finally settled.
Men see — some with hope, as the mariner who sights
from the mast-head the white cliffs within whose sheltering
embrace lie his haven and his home ; others with terror,
as one whose vessel feels the outer curve of the whirl-
pool — that changes are at hand in England, whether wise
or foolish, for good or for evil, the sum total of which
will amount to an ecclesiastical revolution, greater, it may
be, than the Reformation itself. But no man can foresee
o 2
196 Church and State.
in what shape or condition any of the religious commu-
nities now existing in England will emerge, when that
deluge of change shall have reached its height and again
subsided. It behoves every thoughtful Christian Eng-
lishman therefore to labour with whatever ability God
gives him, towards the formation of those just views from
which alone right action can spring. " Truth is great,"
but she can prevail only upon condition that men see
her face and hear her voice.
Three main aspects of this inquiry demand to be
carefully discriminated and distinctly considered^ The
relation of the Christian Church, and consequently of
Christian Churches, to the Civil Government ; the re-
lation of Christianity to national life ; and the relation
of the kingdom of Christ to the kingdoms of this world.
These three sub-questions I propose to discuss in the
order in which they are here stated.
What relations is the Christian Church — or
ARE Christian Churches severally and collectively
CAPABLE OF SUSTAINING TO THE CiVIL GOVERNMENT ;
AND WHICH OF THESE IS THE TRUE RELATION ?
This word '' Church " is perhaps the most remarkable
word in the New Testament. Etymologically, indeed,
'/ Church" (kirk, kirche), is supposed to mean simply "• the
Lord's house," and to have been transferred from the
building, to the assembly convened in it. But the
meaning of words depends not on etymology but on usage.
Usage has made " Church " the authorised representative
in our language of the Greek word '' E celesta' (Sglise);
and in discussing its meaning, it is of the meaning of this
Greek word that we are really speaking. What renders
this word so extremely remarkable, as used in the
New Testament, is its double parentage. By birth it is
heathen : by adoption it is Jewish. The same thing
(it may be said) is true of other Jewish-Greek words
Church and State. 197
— '* synagogue " for example. But no instance, I think,
can be found in which heathen and Jewish usage have
so remarkably combined, along wholly different lines
of thought, to train and educate a word for Christian
use. To the ear of the Greek, Ecclesia was a classic and
noble word, calling up the image of those popular assem-
blies of citizens (as distinguished from aliens, sojourners,
and slaves) which in the old days of republican liberty
wielded sovereign power, and were to the body politic
what the heart is to the human frame. Noble though
this meaning was, had the word borne merely this heathen
political sense, and carried to Jewish ears no sacred asso-
ciations, it is incredible that it could have been employed
as we find it, without comment or explanation, in the early
chapters of the Acts of the Apostles, or have been
accepted at once and for ever, not simply as one name
among others, but as the appropriate and distinctive
name of the brotherhood of Christian believers. The
familiar term Synagogue, hallowed by long religious use,
would seem to have preferred a far more natural claim to
this honour. But Ecclesia was already a consecrated word.
It had been employed to express one of the highest
conceptions which the Jewish mind could entertain ; not
merely that of the religious assembly of the families of a
certain neighbourhood, with their civil and spiritual rulers
— the local synagogue ; but that of the representative
assembly of the holy nation — the Congregation of Israel.
The Septuagint version of the Hebrew Scriptures,
regarded by Greek-speaking Jews in our Saviour's day
with reverence hardly inferior to that paid to the original
text, employs the term Ecclesia in this sense ; not indeed
as the exclusive or even most frequent rendering, but with
such frequency, and in passages of such importance, as to
make it a familiar and sacred word.* Stephen, in his
* Three Hebrew words occur in the Pentateuch, indifferently rendered in our Authorised
198 Church and State.
defence before the Sanhedrim, was using no strange
newly-coined expression, as an English reader may
naturally imagine, when he spoke of Moses as the leader
of '' the Church in the wilderness ;" or, if Stephen spoke
in Aramaic, the writer of the Acts was not borrowing a
Christian phrase in translating his speech, but was employ-
ing a word familiar to all readers of the Greek Scriptures.
The term ''synagogue" would naturally be applied by
Jewish believers, as St. James actually applies it (James
ii. 2) to their local congregations. But in assuming,
doubtless under Divine inspiration, from its earliest be-
ginning this name Ecclesia without qualification or limita-
tion (Acts ii. 47), THE Church not only^ claimed the pro-
mise of Him who had said, " On this rock I will build my
Church," but also seemed to assert its claim to be indeed
the true *' Congregation of Israel ;" Abraham's spiritual
progeny ; not a novel community, nor an upstart temporary
conventicle, but that very communion of saints and body
of the faithful which had received God's promises from
the elder times in the same unbroken succession in
which they should hand them down to the latest age.
If such and so weighty were the reasons for adopt-
ing this name as the distinctive title of the Christian
community, while It was still composed only of Jews, and
ytvAoxi^''^ congregation" and ^^ asiembly." viz., bilpj ni3?^ "T^i^, the first from a root
signifying to call ; the second and third from a root signifying to appoint, keep an appoint-
ment (in time or place), meet together. It is only the first of these words which the Seventy
render by Ecclesia, though for this also in many passages they give avvayioyi]. The following
is a selection of the most important passages in which EccUsia occurs : - Deut. ix. 10; xviii.
16; xxiii. 1-35 xxxi. 30. Jud. xxi. 5. Neh.xiii.i. Ps. xxii. 22; Ixxxix. <;. If the reader will
make the experiment of reading the word " Church ' in these passages, he will perceive the
new light which is thus shed on its use in the New Testament. In Ps. xxvi. 12 ; Ixviii. 26,
the cognate word T\^T\71^^ in the plural, is rendered by the plural of Ecciesia. In Lev.
viil. 3, Deut,Hcxxi. 28, the derived verb from Ecckiia is used for the summoning of the
assembly. At first sight, the three Hebrew words seem to be used indiscriminately. See, e.g.^
Num. X. 1-7. But the question arises, even on this passage, whether the assembly of verse 7
is the same with that of verse 8, or, rather, with the select assembly of chiefs appointed
in verse 4. Space for an exhaustive examination of all the passages is not at my command }
but I believe such an examination would confirm the view that while the other terms signify
the whole multitude of Israel as assembled by Divine appointment in their encampment, or
gathered for worship before the Tabernacle, that term which the Seventy saw fit to repre-
sent by Ecclesia, signifies an assembly specially and legally convened, more especially such a
select representative assembly as that described in Deut. xxxi. 28-30.
Chtirch and State. 199
confined to Jerusalem ; the Gentile meaning of the word,
breathing of freedom, order, law and privilege, had a
noble and beautiful fitness to designate those innumer-
able brotherhoods of disciples which sprang up every-
where, as Christianity, bursting the ripe shell of Judaism,
flung its living seed far and wide through the Gentile
world. The "mystery of Christ, which in other ages
was not made known," which at first was concealed even
from the Apostles themselves, was revealed (as God is
wont to reveal His secrets) not by verbal teaching, but by
the interpretation of fact, — " that the Gentiles should be
fellow-heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of His
promise in Christ by the Gospel." In these Churches, in
some of which Jewish and Gentile believers were united in
equal numbers as well as on equal terms ; others of which
were composed mainly — and some, perhaps, exclusively —
of Gentile converts, men learned that in Christ there is
neither Jew nor Greek ; that the middle wall of partition is
broken down in Christ ; and that he who is Christ's is
'' Abraham's seed," and an heir of that promise in which
*' the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the na-
tions through faith, preached before the Gospel unto
Abraham." The very name indicated that a Christian
Ecclesia was not a chance mob, or mere voluntary club ;
but a society ruled by laws, to which each believer
yielded a perfectly free and willing obedience, but which
no earthly power had enacted or could repeal. Its mem-
bers were invested with privileges and dignities com-
pared with which even Roman citizenship was despicable ;
they were citizens of the heavenly city, members of the
commonwealth of Israel, fellow-citizens with the saints
and of the household of God ; a royal priesthood, a holy
nation.
Out of this secondary application grew, in the lapse of
a few years, a new and nobler meaning, expressing
200 Church and State.
an idea the germ of which indeed as of all other Christian
truth, lay in the Hebrew Scriptures, but which in its
clearness and completeness was one of the newest
as well as grandest ideas ever presented to the human
mind. For a brief space the Christian Church had been
visibly and locally one. The church at Jerusalem was
the Catholic Church. No sooner was a second church
formed, outside Jerusalem ; or no sooner had one believer
"fallen asleep in Jesus," and gone up to join the ancient
fellowship of saints and prophets, than this visible local
unity was broken, never to' be restored until the coming
of the Lord. In the first chapters of the Acts " the
Church" is the Christian society in Jerusalem. We have
not read far before we are told of other local churches
(chap. xili. i ; xiv. 23). A few more years, and the
churches of the Gentiles were to be found in all the great
cities, and not a few lesser ones, of Asia Minor, Southern
Europe, Northern Africa, and we know not how far
away to the East beyond the limits of the Roman world.
The visible unity being thus dislocated by the twofold
agency of distance and of death, and to some extent also by
the divergent influence of national customs, feeling, and
speech, the sublime idea developed itself — an idea, if I
might use such a phrase, of the heart rather than of the
intellect — of the Church as a spiritual unity, bounded
by no limits of space or time, language or usage, life or
death — of one body. Into which all who believe in Christ
are baptized by one Spirit ; one family in earth and
heaven, comprehending all those (and none else) of whom
it is written, " as many as are led by the Spirit of God,
they are the sons of God." This is the idea of the
Church which we find in St. Paul's Epistles, and which
is symbolized in the closing visions of St. John by the
Holy City, New Jerusalem, and by the Bride, the Lamb's
wife. It is one of those stupendous Bible ideas, alike
Church and State. 201
simple and sublime, which are manifestly of super-human
origin ; for the human mind has not yet grown up to
them, and spiritual enlightenment is needed even to ap-
prehend them.
Life always produces organization. The new-born
Christian societies, full of fresh intense life, were on that
very account organized communities. Regarding them
from their human side, we perceive four elements at
work, tending to modify their constitution — the Jewish
and the Gentile ; the popular and the authoritative. The
genius for practical order and organization, which power-
fully marked the Jewish mind, wonderfully combined re-
spect for individual liberty and personal dignity with deep
reverence for authority. The earliest Churches, composed
of Jews, naturally adopted the simple but efficient type
of church government ready to their hand in the syna-
gogue. When this primitive model came to be applied
to Gentile churches, two opposite tendencies must very
soon have begun to struggle for mastery. The Greek
could understand monarchy (or, as he called it, tyranny),
and he could understand democracy ; but this fine
balance of authority and liberty which the Jew both
understood and loved, because it rested on a deep reli-
gious foundation, was to the Greek, for lack of such
foundation, incomprehensible and impossible. If the
practical and devout Roman mind had seemed to ap-
proach this balance, it was due to the fact that in the
earlier and better ages, Roman life and polity were also
based on a religious foundation. But it was an un-
stable equilibrium. Roman history exhibits the record
of a prolonged struggle, in which empire at length
triumphed and liberty expired. Humanly speaking, the
like struggle was inevitable in the Christian churches,
viewed as communities of men requiring and recognizing
some kind of government. In the highest sense, each
202 Church and State.
church acknowledged the Risen Lord Himself as Its
Chief Pastor and Only Lawgiver. But, In Its Internal
management, was It to be a monarchy or a democracy ?
For although It might be an aristocracy at the outset, It
could scarcely remain so. The conflict was long ; but in
the end, the result was as decisive in the Church as in
the Empire. Partly (we can hardly doubt) from the
strong reaction caused by such anarchical tendencies as
early came into play at Corinth — and not there only;
partly from the exigencies of times of persecution, which
made a wise, brave, strong bishop such a tower of
strength and comfort to his church, that men neither
grudged nor envied a power so full of care and peril ;
partly from other causes, amongst which the human
infirmity of the love of rule cannot be Ignored ; the
power of the clergy, and above all, of the bishops, grew
continually, until at length the popular element was
not merely subjugated but absorbed. " The Church" no
longer signified the body of Christian believers, but the
bishops and clergy. Monarchy was victorious, and
liberty perished.
Thus, the word " Church" slowly acquired a mean-
ing wholly new, and utterly different from any which
it was capable of suggesting In Apostolic times. The
idea was developed, — so familiar to us in ecclesiastical
history, — of the Catholic Church, as a divinely-ordered
and Inspired body, authorized to declare and Interpret
Divine truth ; universal and indivisible by virtue not
of spiritual unity in faith, love, and holiness, but of uni-
formity of creed, rite, and visible polity ; In which, there-
fore, the form is as essential as the spirit, and severed
from which, no Christian or body of Christians can
be accounted In communion with the Church of Christ.
A majestic idea ! One of the most imposing that
ever ruled the Imaginations of men ; yet Impossible and
Church and State. 203
historically untrue. Impossible, because involving a
theory of perpetual inspiration at variance with all the
facts of church history, and practically set aside as often
as one bishop excommunicated another, or one General
Council reversed the decrees of another, or decided
any controversy by the vote of a majority, against an
adverse and angry minority. Untrue historically, be-
cause as the theory approached its full development
in the growing supremacy of the Roman See, the great
schism between the East and the West gave the death-
blow to visible catholicity. It is the romance of
religion. In our own time and country, we see it re-
duced to practical absurdity, by the inconsistent claims
of Anglo-Catholics and Roman Catholics, who reason
from identical premises to contradictory conclusions. To
sober reason, any theory of the Christian Church which
excommunicates from Christ's holy Catholic Church John
Bunyan and John Wesley, John Milton and Isaac Watts;
and unchurches the great Protestant communities of
America, Scotland, France, Switzerland, and Germany,
as well as the English and Welch Nonconformists,
stands self-condemned. Nevertheless, we need not
wonder that this imposing idea inspires the imagination
and subdues the understanding of very many fervent
and sincere Christians ; that it seems to them as bright
with the dawn of promise as it is hoary with the moss
of antiquity ; and that amid the visible disunity of
Protestant churches, and the bewilderments and disap-
pointments of our distracted age, they yearn for the
restoration of visible Catholic unity as the only means
of fulfilling our Lord's prayer— "/^^/ they all may deoneJ'
There is in truth but one grander idea ; one infinitely
higher, but on that very account far more difficult to
grasp— that of ''The Church which is His Body."
In any argument touching the relation of the
204 Church and State.
Church to the State, or to civil government, it is of
vital importance that we settle what we mean by " The
Church." What Church ? In which of the three mean-
ings whose history we have been tracing in outline do
we employ the term ? Do we mean some distinct body
of Christians, separated from others, whether as in the
first age by locality, or as in later times by rite, govern-
ment, or doctrinal formula ? Do we mean all true
Christians, regarded as spiritually one — spite of outward
diversities — through personal union with Christ, and par-
ticipation of His Spirit ? Do we mean some body
of Christians, in a given country, or in many countries,
firmly compacted like the Roman Catholic Church,
or loosely held together by outward ties, like the Epis-
copal Church of England, or the various Protestant
Episcopal churches regarded (in some sense not easy
to define) as " branches " of one Catholic Church ? We
ought, above all, to take care that we do not allow
these three different meanings secretly to interchange, or
confusedly to intermingle ; using the word "Church" now
in this sense, now in that, and again with no definite
meaning at all. Fatal as such confusion must be to
all clear and true thought, it is to be feared that chains
of argument have often been constructed and applauded
which depended on it as their main strength.
Dismissing, for the present, the post-apostolic idea of
the visible Catholic Church, and going back to the two
aspects of the Christian Church presented in the New
Testament, we find their point of union in this fact,
that the primitive and formative idea of a local Chris-
tian church was, that it consisted of and contained the
true Christians, or members of the Body of Christ,
dwelling in that locality. There might be — perhaps in
every case were — false brethren unawares brought in ;
inconsistent members, denying in deeds the faith which
Church and State, 205
they professed and intellectually held ; and secret believers
who, from timidity and other causes, had not openly joined
the Church. No idea is practically worked out in this
world without failure and imperfection. But these draw-
backs did not alter the fact that the design and model-
idea of '' the church of God" in any one place — Corinth,
for example — was, that it should be composed of those
who, in that place, were '' sanctified in Christ Jesus, called
to be saints :" of all such, and of none else. The
Church, on the other hand, in the sense in which it is
spoken of, for example, in the Epistle to the Ephesians,
so far as it existed on earth (exclusive of the great and
ever-growing'' General Assembly" above) could come into
contact and relation with civil government only as repre-
sented by local churches, or in the persons of their
members. As long, therefore, as we are on the Scripture
ground, no confusion can arise from our speaking of the
relation of the Church to the State, and to the laws
and rulers of the State.
Thus explained, the possible relations of the Church
and the State to one another appear to be four : Hos-
tility ; Alliance ; Identity ; Friendly independence.
The simplest moral relation in which any two men,
or bodies of men, can stand to each other, seems to be
that of direct hostility : that one should say '' No" to the
other s *' Yes," and that whichever happens to be the
stronger should knock the other down and conquer him.
Historically, this disregarding temporary abatements or
intermissions was the actual relation of the Church to
the State for three hundred years. The battle was
fairly fought on the broad field of the Roman empire.
Persecution sometimes raged indiscriminately against
Christians of whatever rank, age, or sex. At other times
it sought to disorganize the Christian societies by destroy-
ing their bishops and presbyters. Then again, with more
2o6 Church and State.
subtle malignity, it struck at the very root of Christianity,
in the fierce endeavour to extirpate the Christian Scrip-
tures. The Divine Head of the Church, rejected by the
blind multitude, condemned by priest and procurator,
bound, scourged, crucified, yet rising unharmed from the
grave on the third day, while the keepers did shake and
became as dead men, is the type of His Church's
history through those three ages of deadly conflict and
of strength made perfect in weakness. The result was
decisive. Christianity, matched against the strongest
government the world has seen, proved stronger than
it. It is a settled question, that if a State in which
Christianity exists, is to be peaceful and prosperous, its
relation to the Church must be other than that of direct
hostility.
The State must then make peace with the Church.
But on what terms 1 The idea of friendly independence
would have been as unattractive in the eyes of a
Christian bishop of the fourth century as it was impos-
sible to the mind of a Roman statesman. The imperial
government had to deal with an imperium in imperio^
the attempt to crush which by force had proved a hope-
less failure. Divided empire was intolerable. Nothing
remained, looking at the problem from a Roman point of
view, but that the Church's right to govern her own
members by her own laws should be conceded ; but linked
on in due subordination to the civil authority. Sub-
stituting protection and patronage for persecution, the
State claimed the corresponding right of paternal control.
So the great experiment was entered on, which has con-
tinued for nearly fifteen centuries and a half, through
manifold phases, but not with satisfactory results. With
results so very far from satisfactory, that at the present
moment the cry ** a free Church in a free Stated' is be-
ginning to be heard even among the Latin nations, as
Church and State. 207
a watchword of progress. The EstabHshment principle is
disowned, both in theory and practice, in the United
States of America and in the British Colonies. In Ire-
land, by the deliberate verdict of the British people, it
has been abandoned, on grounds at once of justice and
of policy. In Scotland it has but a feeble root. Even
in England, where in one form or other the alliance of
Church and State is older than Parliament, older than
the Courts of Justice, older than trial by jury, older than
the monarchy itself; and in its modern form, as framed
by the Tudors and Stuarts, has so twined its roots round
our laws and institutions that it has been said that not
one but a hundred Acts of Parliament will be required
for its abolition, it is beginning to be counted among
things which wax old, and are ready to vanish away.
The most keen-eyed watchman of the future will not
insure its life for another generation.
This state of things affords no positive proof, though
it does afford a powerful presumption, that the prin-
ciple is false. All change is not progress. Institu-
tions may fail, not through inherent defect, but through
the folly or dishonesty of those who make them ; as a
leaky ship with a brave captain and crew may come
safe into harbour, while the best ship ever launched,
lubberly and cowardly handled, founders in the storm.
Nations may decay, and dream that they are growing.
If we do not inquire wisely, when we assume that
the former times were better than these, we have
inquired to little purpose if we take for granted that
in all respects they were worse. But the principle of
State patronage and control of Christianity contains
within itself this inevitable and fatal flaw : it necessarily
involves either persecution or immorality. Either the
State, assuming to be the supreme judge of religious
truth, must make a selection of the church or churches
2o8 Church and State,
to be established, and must in so doing discountenance
and injure other churches, in proportion to the favour
shown to the members of the selected communion ; which
is unjust : or else, assuming that all doctrines and rites
are of equal value, it must patronise all alike, which is
immoral. For if this means that the State confesses
its incapacity to judge between truth and error, then it is
a grave immorality to assume an office for which it is
confessedly unfit, and to perpetuate an evil whose exist-
ence is certain and its amount unknown, for the sake
of a good whose amount and existence are alike ques-
tionable. But if it means that the State, being able to
judge, affirms that one creed and form of worship is as
good or as worthless as another, then this is not simply
immoral : it strikes at the very root of morality. If
there be no vital difference and eternal enmity between
truth and falsehood, even on the highest questions, then
neither can there be any between right and wrong.
Church history furnishes but too abundant illustra-
tion of the former half of this dilemma ; to wit, that
the establishment by the State of Christianity as true^
and of one form of the Christian Church as the ti^ue
Churchy involves persecution. The worst persecutions
of the worst pagan persecutors have not been comparable
in blood-thirsty ferocity with those which have been
waged by professedly Christian governments, in the
name of Christ, against Christians whose only crime
was that they sought to follow Christ according to what
they believed to be a purer model than the Church
with which the State was in alliance. In milder forms,
but with equal clearness, the injustice inseparable from
the maintenance of a dominant Church is illustrated by
the history of England during the last three centuries.
The intellectual and social, as well as moral and religious
injury and injustice wrought in this nation by the one
Church and State. 209
fact of the exclusion of Nonconformists from the national
Universities, have been immeasurable, and cannot be
contemplated without a burning sense of wrong and
shame. In proportion as legal and social disabilities are
removed from the adherents of other churches, the posi-
tion of the one established church becomes logically un-
tenable ; and sooner or later the logic of ascertained
truth becomes the irresistible logic of fact. Practical
contradictions can last a long time in England ; but
here, also, they are doomed.
With regard to the second horn of the dilemma, the
advocate of establishments may concede that it would
be immoral for the State to establish other religions — as
Mohammedanism, Hinduism, and Buddhism — side by side
with Christianity, because this would be a public profes-
sion of scepticism, under the disguise of homage done
to religion ; and under the pretence of aiding Christianity
would in fact declare open war against the very object
with which it was set up amongst mankind — to '' bear
WITNESS UNTO THE TRUTH." But he may urge with
seeming justice that whereas the Church of Christ, not-
withstanding the unhappy divisions among its members,
is still one, and Christianity is a greater thing than our
creeds and controversies, there is nothing immoral in the
State recognizing this higher unity, accepting Christianity
as true without regard to the controversies and sects ex-
isting among Christians, and establishing all Christian
churches indifferently, on the basis of what is common
to all. There are those who would eagerly welcome this
policy, troubling themselves very little about its morality.
But its morality is what we are here concerned with.
My reply then is, first, that since persons holding any creed
or no creed might call themselves Christians in order to
claim the aid of the State, it would in this case be neces-
sary for the State authoritatively to define what is or is
p
2 1 o Church and State.
not Christianity, selecting from the creeds and customs
of all churches vital points of agreement, and drawing
the boundary line between essential and non-essential
differences. The State must, in fact, assume the highest
prerogative ever claimed by the Church — that of au-
thority in matters of faith. If it be granted (as it
must) that this is wholly impossible, and that the State
must simply accept the creeds and rites of the bodies
styling themselves churches, passing no judgment on
their truth, simply because they are believed and prac-
tised ; then the whole basis of the acceptance of Chris-
tianity as true, in opposition to other human creeds, is
abandoned ; all other religions m.ay put in an equal claim,"
and the immorality returns on us in all its monstrosity.
But, further, that which all true Christians and churches
have in common, and which the New Testament lays
down as essential and distinctive, is in its nature in-
capable of being recognized by the State. Love to
Christ ; love to the brethren ; holiness, without which no
man can see the Lord ; the possession of the Spirit of
Christ, without which a man is none of His ; righteous-
ness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost ; are not
things touching which either the House of Lords or
the Privy Council can pass judgment, or which can
be supported out of glebe lands, or charges on the
consolidated fund. What the State pays for, if it pay
at all, must be precisely those things in which churches
and Christian men differ, viz : — public teaching and wor-
ship ; and in regard to which, though a man may
profess and support this form or that, this belief or
that, and yet be a true Christian, he cannot, without
compromising his honesty, support and profess all alike.
There is yet another form of alliance between the
Church and the State in which the Church is the sove-
* As the chinamen have actually done in Australia. ' -
Church and State. 2 1 1
reign authority, and the civil government rules in its
name and as its vassal. This needs no discussion here. It
is practicable only on the Papal theory of the Catholic
Church. Applied to a national Church, — still more to a
Church comprising only a portion of the nation, — it is
not merely visionary but manifestly absurd.
The noblest form in which the establishment prin-
ciple can be maintained, is unquestionably that set forth
by Hooker, in the last book of his '' Ecclesiastical Polity,"
and familiarly and inseparably associated in the mind of
the present generation of Englishmen with the name
of its noble-minded and thorough-going advocate, Dr.
Arnold. The true relation of Church and State, on this
view, is neither alliance nor separation, but identity. The
body politic and the body ecclesiastical are regarded as
distinguishable in idea and nature, but composed in fact
of the same persons ; so that (in Hooker's words), "there
is not any man of the Church of England but the same
man is also a member of the Commonwealth, nor any
member of the Commonwealth which is not also of the
Church of England." This grand and simple theory,
receiving strong apparent support from the analogy of
the Jewish nation, requires to be dealt with on a broader
ground than that of the relation of the Church to the
civil government : it obliges us to investigate the true
relation of Christianity to national life. But meantime,
looking practically at its application to our own nation
and time, the fatal flaw is at once evident, — unreality.
Dr. Arnold maintains that the present order of things
in England was settled on this assumption. What-
ever the assumption was, clearly the fact was not
so. When the present constitution of Church and State
was framed, under Henry VHL, Edward VI., and
Elizabeth, a large portion of the nation, including most
of the heads of the Church of England, were strongly
p 2
2 12 Church and State.
opposed to the new order of things, and continued in
heart and conscience attached to the Church of Rome.*
Those on the other hand, who considered the Reforma-
tion incomplete, and the re-modelled Church of England
but half- Protestant, were driven off in the contrary direc-
tion. By the time the new Church of England was a
century old, Presbyterians and Independents had grown
up to be the strongest party in the State ; and for a
few years it seemed as though the Church and the
Commonwealth of England were riven asunder for ever.
The rent was too violent to last ; but it was also too
wide and deep to be healed except by the wisest, most
cautious, and most generous measures. The Act of Uni-
formity, destroying the last hope of such a course, ren-
dered it impossible that the schism ever should be healed ;
and condemned the Church on whose behalf it was
framed, to be henceforth the Church of a part only, and
that, a constantly diminishing proportion, of the nation.
During the two following centuries, through successive
phases of persecution, toleration, emancipation, and grow-
ing claims to equality ; patiently fighting their way up to
the level standing-ground, out of those valleys of humi-
liation and of the shadow of death which the dominant
Church deemed their proper abodes, never losing a foot
of ground so gained ; several distinct powerful Protestant
communities have grown up outside the Church of Eng-
land. The Roman Church has risen from the very dust
of oppression to a position in which, in open contempt of
law, its prelates assume territorial titles ; and it now num-
bers among its hundreds of recent converts some of the
ablest of the clergy and wealthiest of the nobility. Even if
we could stretch our liberality so as broadly to include all
these churches and sects under the one name of Christian,
* See Professor Boiiamy Price's remarkable paper in the Contemporary Review for
February, 1869 j p. 167.
Church and State. 213
and could say, ** These all together compose the Church
of the nation," — alas ! how large a portion of the nation
would still refuse to be included : worshipping in none
of our sanctuaries, holding none of our creeds, feeling
neither love nor reverence for the Christian name !
A recent exposition and defence of the theory which
identifies the Church with the State, from the pen of one
of its ablest living advocates — the Dean of Westminster
— is so outspoken and thorough in its following out of
the principle, so confident in tone, and — whatever may be
thought of its depth — so clear and broad in statement,
that it seems impossible to leave it unnoticed ; although
any full criticism would be quite beyond the aim and
limit of this Essay.* The Dean deals with the matter
not theoretically, but practically. Principles are taken
for granted, or serenely ignored, and attention is turned
to results and advantages, objections and practical an-
swers. The general effect is dazzling, but on careful
inspection it appears that the surface only of this great
argument has been handled, its vital core being hardly
touched. The union of Church and State is made to
appear easy, advantageous, and splendid, but at the cost
of everything real and spiritual in the Church. The
existence, and even the possibility of the Church as a
supernatural institution, of local churches as spiritual
societies, divinely constituted and guided, is frankly
denied. '' Every society by the mere fact of its being a
human society, must be temporal, must be guided by
mixed motives, must have a temporal government"
(p. 11). The distinction (marked enough, certainly, in
the New Testament) between the godly and ungodly,
the Christian and unchristian portions of the nation, is
treated as non-existent, or unimportant. The claim for
* An address on the Connection of Church and State, delivered at Sion College on
February 15, 1868. By Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, D.D., Dean of Westminster. Macmillan
and Co., 1868.
2 14 Chmxh and State,
the freedom of the Church from State control, and the
separation of what is spiritual from what is secular, is
thus made to appear as a claim on the behalf of the
clergy to the exclusive management of ecclesiastical
affairs. The Church, in fact, disappears from view,
nothing being left but the State and the clergy; and the
national government (including the legislature and the
courts of law) becomes by an astonishing metamorphosis
the representative of that *' multitude of them that be-
lieved," of whom we read in the New Testament that
they were " of one heart, and of one soul." If this be
not a reductio ad absurdum of the theory of which it is
the legitimate development, it is a reductio ad nudum.
The theory, through the merciless consistency and can-
dour of its gifted advocate, stands before us in its bare
stark destitution of all spiritual reality, power, and gran-
deur. What is here called the connection of the Church
with the State is, in fact, the absorption of the Church by
the State. It is a union like the union of the clear, living
stream with the turbid lake, in which the stream loses its
life and purity, but imparts neither to the lake. The
Church loses its spirituality, but the State remains as
worldly as before.
One possible relation remains — that of friendly in-
dependence. Abstaining from all hostile control, the
State may equally abstain from all patronage, favour, or
support, all intermeddling with the creed, worship, or order
of the Christian Church in any of its societies, great or
small. I have said friendly independence ; not unfriendly
— a mere suspension of relations : not the pretended
ignorance and real enmity of two old friends who, having
quarrelled, pass in the street without recognition : not
the sullen irritation of a broken partnership, dissolved
through the incapacity of one partner and the obstinacy
of the other : not the loathing estrangement of divorce,
Church and State. 215
over their children's graves, between those who had pro-
mised to be faithful to each other until death : none of
these but the full, frank, religious recognition on both
hands that it is best for both Church and State — best for
Christianity, and for the nation — that religion be free.
Free, not because a nation can do as well without religion
as with it ; nor yet because one religion is as good as an-
other ; but because the One Religion which can save
either a man or a nation, can develop its true genius and
full might only in freedom.
Nonconformist champions have sometimes presented
their main thesis in the form of the crude and barren negi:-
tion, that civil government and religion have nothing to do
with each other. It is not wonderful that such a doctrine
should arouse indignant opposition. The object of Chris-
tianity is to make men good and happy. That of civil
government is to restrain their wickedness and misery
within the narrowest practicable bounds. The work of
the Church is to diffuse charity ; that of the civil govern-
ment to maintain justice. Is it rationally conceivable, that
whereas charity and justice are but two sides of one
Divine law, the State and religion can have no interest
in each other's work, no mutual obligations and relations ?
Since the obligations of Christianity (the sole authoritative
form of religion) bind every man, even in the humblest
duties of daily life, is it not an absurdity to suppose
that any number of men associated in that highest form
of merely human partnership which we call civil govern-
ment, for the performance of the weightiest duties, are
released from those obligations ?
The true ground on which the religious — not irreligious
— separation of Church and State is to be advocated, and
must at last be accepted, alike by Christian statesmen
and Christian churches, is, that since a government can
no more be justified than an individual in assuming
2 1 6 Church and State.
duties which God has not imposed and for which He has
bestowed no capacity ; since the alliance of Church and
State, under various forms of both, has produced results
disastrous to liberty, religion, justice, and peace, during
more than fifteen hundred years, adding the commentary
of experience to the silence of the New Testament ; and
since the Lord of the Church and Governor of the nations
has assigned not to states or governments but to His
Church the work of spreading His truth and kingdom
amongst mankind, which work demands freedom as one
of its most needful conditions : therefore it is the religious
duty of the State to leave the Church perfectly free.
The relation of the Church (or the Churches) to
civil government, though the most familiar and most
immediately practical, is after all not the deepest, most
vital form of this great problem. Its true solution must
depend on the answer to a deeper and larger question
— What is the relation of Christianity to National
Life ?
To not a few Christians, I am well aware, such an
inquiry will appear mis-directed, and even unmeaning.
Among the many currents and counter-currents of modern
Christianity, is one remarkable and powerful side eddy —
sufficiently powerful to have drawn in many intelligent
minds and devout hearts — which, were it strong enough,
would not simply separate all Church institutions from
civil government, but would draw aside the whole body
of really spiritual Christians from all share in public life,
national, international, municipal, and social; and would
leave legislation, administration, and public reformation
in the hands of those who are either insincerely and but
nominally Christians, or avowedly worldly and ungodly.
According to this school of doctrine the message of
the Gospel to the individual is regarded as its whole
scope ; and its only business is the gathering, one
Church and State. 217
by one, of believers Into the Church, sundering, at
the same time, all the ties of love and duty that
bound them to those earthly communities which are re-
garded as Irredeemably profane and hopelessly doomed.
With the greatest personal respect for many who hold
these views, I frankly avow that they appear to me as
much out of harmony with the teaching of Scripture as
at variance with the lessons of God's providence. Excel-
lent as are the motives with which these views are
advocated. If they were to be generally accepted as sound
— if worldly men as well as Christians were to be unani-
mously persuaded that such Is Indeed the teaching of the
Gospel — a heavier blow would be struck against Chris-
tianity, and In favour of the cause of unbelief, than is
ever to be dreaded from the assaults of a rationalistic
dogmatism which mistakes itself for science, or a " higher
criticism/' so uncritical as to believe itself infallible.
In this matter, as always, God's word is at one with
His works, if both be read fairly and humbly. The Bible
takes great account of nations. The fundamental com-
mission of the Christian Church — the only recorded word
of our Lord and Master to the whole body of His dis-
ciples, so far as as they could be assembled in one
congregation — Is this: '' All power is given unto me in
heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore and make disciples
of ALL NATIONS." The distinctive title of the most
honoured and successful preacher of the Gospel whom
the Lord ever sent forth was " the Apostle of the nations."
Principally through his unrivalled labours, his preaching,
and his writings, God gave the nations of Europe that
Christianity, which, perverted and enfeebled as it has
been, nevertheless constitutes the mainspring of all
modern history. It is he who — conscious that his work
was a far greater one than that of merely ministering to
individual penitence and faith, and gathering a small
2i8 Church and State,
Church out of the wreck of humanity — tells us that '' God,
that made the world and all things therein .... hath
made of one blood all nations of men to dwell on all the
face of the earth ; and hath determined the times before
appointed, and the bounds of their habitation, that they
should seek the Lord." It is he who seems never weary
of repeating those glorious promises of the ancient Scrip-
tures which call on the nations to rejoice with God's
people, and tell of the root of Jesse who should " rise to
reign over the nations: i^i Him shall the nations trust!'
It is the same great teacher of Divine truth who shows
us in the promise to Abraham the primal Gospel for man-
kind : — " The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify
the nations through faith, preached before the Gospel
unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all the nations be
blessed."*
The Old Testament Scriptures are here, as elsewhere,
in accord with the New. The Psalms and Prophets con-
tain the freest Invitations to all nations, the most glowing
predictions of the blessings in store for them. Even in
their heathen condition they are seen filling most im-
portant places in the scheme of God's providence, and
dealt with as nations, both in judgment and in mercy ;
while the future is as bright for them as for the Chosen
People. For the kingdom is the Lord's, and He is the
Governor among the nations. The nations are the in-
heritance of the Messiah, who is a light to lighten the
nations as well as the glory of His people Israel. All
* The employment in many places of our Authorised Version of the terms " Gentiles" and
" heathen " for the Hebrew D'^'12 and Greek t^vr\^ although perhaps we may gain by it
more than we lose, disguises the bieadrh of Scripture teaching and promise, and puts the English
reader under a serious disadvantage. He scarcely suspects that these words mean simply
'* natkns,^' still less that in the singular they are applied to Israel (Gen. xii. 2), and imagines
a distinction without foundation. How entirely different, e.g.., would be the impression
if in Gen. xxxv. 11, instead of "a company of nations," we translate J "a congregation (or
chmch) of Gentiles r' The term " heathen " is perhaps still more questionable, because,
like the analogous word "pagan" (rejecting as manifestly false the etymology which would
connect it with t^i.'os), it conveys the idea of an idol-worshipping people, a meaning which
lodged itself in these words in that transition period when the cities of the empire were
Christian, but the " peasants " or " heath -people " still clave to the old gods.
Church and State. 219
nations shall serve Him. All nations shall call Him
blessed. The entire scope and spirit of the Old Testa-
ment references to the nations generally is in such
powerful contrast with the bitter contemptuous spirit
cherished as part of their religion by the Jews towards
all other nations, that it forms one of the many unobtrusive
but unanswerable internal proofs which taken together
furnish a moral demonstration of the inspiration of the
Hebrew Scriptures.
As, in speaking of '* Church and State," people are
apt by the Church to mean only the clergy, or at most
the ecclesiastical organization ; so by the State they com-
monly mean, not the nation, but merely its Government.
But the real greatness and force of a State lie not in the
head, but in the body ; not in the sovereign power, but
in the people over whom and on whose behalf that power
is wielded. The nation does not exist for the Govern-
ment, but the Government for the nation. And as the
life is more than meat, and the body than raiment, so
the life of a nation — those common beliefs, sentiments,
standards of right and wrong, attachments, hatreds, and
pursuits, which mould the nation's character, and deter-
mine its conduct and place among other nations, are of
immensely greater moment than the Industry and wealth
by which it is fed, and the forms and customs in which
it clothes itself. In like manner it is true that not
only is the Christian Church something very much
greater than either its clergy or its organization, but
Christianity is a far greater thing than the Christian
Church. Christianity — the living power of Christ's
truth and God's Spirit in the mind of men, might exist
without being embodied in a Church; that is to say, with-
out any organized society of Christians ; and though its
power would be incalculably diminished, It might yet be
the greatest power among mankind. But a Church
2 20 Church and State.
without Christianity ^the form of doctrine, worship, and
ecclesiastical government, with no living voice of God's
truth, and inspiration of His Spirit, is a dead thing,
which rhay be artificially embalmed, and painted, and
bedizened into a mockery of life, but the sooner It is
burled out of sight the better.
The Inquiry as to the influence of Christianity on
national life, assumes that a nation has a common life, a
life of its own, as truly as a family or an individual. A
nation is not a mere multitude of men, women, and
children, collected within certain geographical bound-
aries. Place a million, or twenty millions of persons,
gathered from various lands and races, on a territory
ample, fruitful, and In all ways fitted to be the home
of a great people : they would not be a nation, any
more than a dozen persons taking lodgings in the
same house are a family, or a bundle of branches a
tree. A nation must grow. It must possess the unity
which Is given by public law ; government to maintain
that law and to represent the nation in the great
commonwealth of nations ; and, if it is to be worthy the
name, that reverence for its own laws and for the rights
of other nations, which Is to a nation what conscience
is to the individual. Then it must have time to grow ;
time to strike root in the soil ; time for new genera-
tions to be born and grow up to whom that soil shall
be fatherland, and the wind of heaven that blows
over it native air, and the language spoken upon It
mother-tongue ; time, not only for graves to be dug (for
In a few months there will be thousands), but for the
grass to grow on them, and the trees planted by them to
overshadow them, and the moss to clothe their tomb-
stones. Then, when the soil has been printed far and
near with the footsteps of the dead, and watered with
the sweat of toil and the tears of sorrow and the blood
Church and State. 221
of patriots and martyrs ; when the shores have been
strewn with wreck by the storms of many a winter, and
tender, or beautiful, or glorious memories have begun to
haunt the hills and streams, and cling round the homes
touched with Time's hallowing finger; and the nation has
begun to make its mark, and write its history in works
that endure and deeds that men will not let die ; then
it is found that one great heart beats in the bosoms
of the children of the land. They have their national
peculiarities, ways of thinking, prejudices, weaknesses,
virtues ; and alas! their national follies, vices, and crimes.
Scatter them over the world ; let the strong arm of foreign
conquest dispossess, crush, drag them into captivity, or
drive them into exile; still one heart will beat in the
scattered members, and even the exile's children will feel
the pulse of it when their parent's eyes grow wet at the
name of ** the old country."
Therefore, does the Bible take great account of na-
tions, because God takes great account of nations. In
the chosen people He has given us the most perfect type
of national life the world has seen. The Hebrew people
were bound together by the mighty triple bond of blood,
of the land, and of the Divine law and covenant.
Each Israelite was a son of Abraham, and could trace
his pedigree up to the national progenitor. Each
family had a direct inheritance in the soil, which, if alien-
ated, reverted in the year of jubilee ; and the soil be-
longed to the nation not merely by right of the con-
quest under Joshua, but by the ancient gift of God to
Abraham. Each Israelite was in sacred covenant with
Jehovah, and ruled by laws of God's own making. To
all this God added the powerful links of sympath}^,
supplied by the memory of a history such as no other
nation could boast, and the glory of a hope such as no
other nation has dreamed of.
222 Church and State.
Different nations evidently possess national life in
wonderfully varied measure ; in some it is feeble, in
others mighty. In any case, these two are the great-
est things belonging to a nation (as to an individual)
— its history, and its character ; what it does, and what
it is ; and these together constitute its national life.
Hence it is manifest that all the institutions of a nation
must be ruled by this supreme law : they ought in no
way to stunt, mutilate, starve, poison, or fetter the
national life, but in the highest degree to favour its full
development and perfect activity; whether by wise guid-
ance, stern restraint, bountiful protection and patronage,
or by wise abstinence from all these, leaving both growth
and action free.
It follows from these facts that we may look at the
great question of the mutual influence of Christianity
and national life from either side — the religious or the
national. The argument for thp state establishment of
religion from the religious side is, that whether it be
for the national good or not, it is necessary for the main-
tenance of Christianity and the welfare of the Church,
that Christianity be accepted as the state creed, and the
Church be established by law. This argument is refuted
by the history of Christianity and of the Church for the
first three centuries, and by the whole history of Chris-
tian missions. If it were not false it would be suicidal,
for it would follow that Christianity is not the greatest
power in the world ; and if so, then not true, not Divine,
not worth upholding. But the argument from the other
side deserves respectful and candid attention. It is this :
that although the Church can well dispense with the
alliance of Church and State, the State cannot. National
life, like individual life, to attain its true pitch of noble-
ness, energy, and happiness, must be religious, must be
Christian. This, it is urged, implies a national recogni-
Church and State. 223
tlon of Christianity, and this, again, implies an estab-
lished national Church.
No one who believes that the Creator and Governor
of nations is likewise the Author of the Bible, can doubt
that, from whichever side we approach the question, our
conclusions, if true, must coincide. What is best for
Christianity and for the Church must also be best for the
nation. Let us then make two suppositions, both, indeed,
imaginary, yet so founded on fact as to be capable of
shedding real light on the argument. Suppose, on the
one hand, a nation in which the principle of an estab-
lishment of religion is perfectly carried out, yet where the
bulk of the people are irreligious ; on the other hand, a
nation in which there is no established Church, or legal
bond between the Church and the State, yet in which
the main body of all classes of the nation are religious.
Let it be observed that although in England we have
an Established Church, no attempt is made or dreamed
of to carry out the principle in its integrity. The bis-
hops are appointed by the Prime Minister,' and certain
livings are in the gift of the Crown, but the bulk of livings
(to use the legal phrase, which always sounds as if an
occult irony lurked in it, reminding one rather of sheep-
shearing than of sheep-tending) are in private hands, and
the right to appoint the ministers of the Church is
publicly put up to auction like any other private pro-
perty. The State asserts no effective control over either
the doctrine or the discipline of the Church. The Act
of Uniformity is totally powerless to prevent the widest
diversities both in teaching and in ritual, and the au-
thority of law, civil and ecclesiastical, is vainly invoked ;
the schism widens, and the scandal grows from day to
day. A very large proportion of the buildings and the
clergy of the Established Church have long been main-
tained entirely on the voluntary principle, and the com-
2 24 Church and State.
pulsory rate for maintaining those fabrics which, till
recently, the law thus provided for, has now been finally
surrendered. Moreover, about half that portion of the
nation which attends public worship at all belongs to
other Churches unconnected with the State. Now, in
place of this anomalous condition of things, suppose
every minister appointed by Government, in proportion
to population, say, one for every 1,500 souls, and paid
from taxation or endowments under State control. Sup-
pose a rigid construction and strict enforcement of the
compact between the Church and the State as to the doc-
trines taught and the rites practised. Finally, let there
be no Dissenters. Yet does not all history show that
you might have all this, and that every act of State might
be performed in the name of Christianity and blessed by
the clergy, and yet the people might be irreligious? The
clergy might be moral, benevolent, and conscientious
in the fulfilment of their duties, yet the benumbing in-
fluence of State officialism might combine with the pride
of priestly exclusiveness to cut asunder the golden links
of sympathy between them and their people, and rob
their ministry of all unction and life. The national
homage to religion might be but a stately civility, a
stone-cold courtesy. The church-tax might be produc-
tive, but the churches empty. Christianity might lose its
hold on the heart and thought of the nation, and the
whole current of the nation's real life flow in channels
which it neither guided nor blessed.
Now, let us be permitted to imagine a nation in which
the Christian Church in all its various forms is recognized
as a purely spiritual institution. Not a penny is ever
paid by the State for the support or encouragement of
Christian worship. The office of the Christian ministry
neither entitles nor forbids a single citizen to hold a seat
in the legislature, or any other public office. Each man's
Church and State. 225
status in society is determined by his character, abiUties,
and wealth or calling, irrespective of religious views.
Christianity is alike unaided and unhindered. Then
suppose that in every household — or but with rare ex-
ceptions — there is daily reading of the Scriptures, and
family prayer ; that in every school — the State neither en-
joining nor prohibiting — the training of conscience and
character is regarded as the necessary foundation of edu-
cation, and every scholar is taught to think of Christ as
his Model and his Master. Judges and magistrates,
counsel and jurymen, come into court believing that
the judgment is the Lord's. Capitalists acknowledge the
supreme claim of Him who says, "the silver is mine,
and the gold is mine." Merchants believe that the bles-
sing of the Lord maketh rich ; tradesmen, that a just
balance is the Lord's ; workmen, that what our hand
findeth to do, must be done with our might, as unto the
Lord. On the Lord's-day, by common consent, and
force of public opinion, every wheel of the vast machine
of worldly business rests, and the levity even of innocent
amusement is sobered by the presence of a higher joy ;
and rich and poor meet together in the house of God, to
seek His blessing on their earthly life, and to be re-
minded of the better country.
Who does not see, that the former nation, with all its
forms Christianized, would be thoroughly unchristian,
and that the latter — if such there were — would be in
truth a Christian nation, not by force of laws and insti-
tutions, but by the free action of Christianity; by the
power of the truth and Spirit of Christ on the hearts
and homes of its citizens, and thus of necessity on the
whole breadth and depth of national life ? Imaginary
cases, it may be said, prove nothing. If fairly drawn
they may prove much, at least negatively ; or, if they
do not prove, they may teach. The two pictures just
Q
226 Church and State,
sketched prove, at all events, that there Is nothing diffi-
cult or contradictory in the conception of a Christian
nation without any establishment of religion, or of an un-
christian nation with an elaborate state church ; and
they do but exhibit the complete development of prin-
ciples" and tendencies actually at work. On a small but
instructive scale the second picture, or no very faint
outline of it, has been realized (though not in any of
the so-called great Christian nations) in some of those
islands of the Pacific, peopled a generation ago with
naked, idolatrous cannibals, where — with religious avoid-
ance of the Establishment principle — Christianity has
been the parent of civilization and literature, and the
nurse of law, freedom, and commerce. On the other
hand, the working of the establishment principle, both
in our rough inconsistent English fashion, and in those
countries in which it has been tried more systematically,
has been such as to warrant the conclusion, that the
more completely it is worked, the more complete is its
failure in regard to the real Christianization of the na-
tional life.
This seems the place to revert to the theory already
glanced at as the noblest form of the establishment prin-
ciple, according to which the nation and the Church
are identical, and to inquire into the supposed counten-
ance it derives from the example of Judaism. With-
out question, under the old covenant, the Nation and
the Church were identical. The original foundation,
on which not only all the laws and institutions of the
nation, but its very existence as a people, rested, was
religion. That unique series of events, partly miracu-
lous, partly providential, by which the family of Abra-
ham was built up into a people, and trained to become
the typical nation — the most national of the nations of
mankind-: -had its starting-point in the Diyine revelation
Church and State. 227-
to Abraham, and its reason In the promise that from
him should descend the Saviour of mankind. The
vulgar notion of modern rationalistic criticism, that the
Jews regarded Jehovah as their national God, just as
the Syrians regarded Baal, or the Athenians Pallas, or
the Romans Mars, Is (like many views of kindred parent-
age) a prodigious instance of learned Ignorance. It
bespeaks entire misconception of the whole history and
position of the Hebrew nation, as given in their own scrip-
tures. The Israelites were a holy people, a consecrated na-
tion, not because of their separation from other nations,
but because of that work and purpose for the sake of
which they were separated ; to be God's witnesses, the
treasure-keepers of His truth for all mankind, and, in the
fulness of time, the religious teachers o f all other na-
tions.* To this great destiny all was subordinated. The
nation accepted Jehovah as Its King, and was acknow-
ledged by Him as His people in a public covenant of
transcendent solemnity. Membership In the sacred na-
tion was strictly defined, and sealed with an indelible
personal mark. The code, civil and ecclesiastical, from
the fundamental constitutional laws of morality, property,
citizenship, to those which regulated the shaving of a
whisker, or the hem of a garment, was of express Divine
enactment, and could be neither repealed, modified, nor
added to, except by the same authority. The king (when
in compliance with the popular wish, a king was ap-
pointed), like the inferior magistrates — heads of tribes or
elders of cities — possessed only executive and judicial ^
not legislative authority. His highest title—** the Lord's
Anointed"— which in modern times has served to gild
despotism with a burnish of religion, In fact reminded him,
and reminded others, that he was no despot. His high
office, as supreme judge and military dictator, presented
* See Deut. vii. 6 j Isa. xli. 8, 95 xliii. 10, 21 j Rom. iii. a j^ ix. 4, 5.
Q 2
2 28 Church and State,
the semblance of oriental absolutism, but it was at his
peril if he mistook this semblance for reality, or for-
got that he was the viceroy of Jehovah over the people
of Jehovah. Even the people were not slow to remind
him if he presumed too far, though they loved to be ruled
ivith a strong hand, that their liberties were as sacred as
his authority. The Lord was their Judge; the Lord
was their Lawgiver ; the Lord was their King. If both
king and people forgot this, a supernatural, yet regular
constitutional check was provided in the ministry of
the prophets. The prophets were not mere inspired
teachers ; they were great state officers, independent
alike of the throne and of the priesthood, holding
their commission direct from Jehovah, and authorized
to declare God's will on all great public questions, for-
eign or domestic, and to require implicit obedience from
king, priest, and people. If the Jewish model of Church
and State is to be revived in any modern nation, repre-
sentative government must, if retained at all, be limited
to taxation and administration ; legislative authority must
be renounced ; the opposite theories of Divine right and
popular sovereignty must alike be exploded ; a body of
inspired laws must be provided, and an order of prophets
must be raised up to settle every disputed point of law
or policy, with the decision which admits no appeal —
''Thus saith the Lord!'
Even were this conceivable, practicable, actually at-
tained, it would be going back, not going forward. The
image of ancient Israel would be reproduced, with its
bondage of the letter, its adaptation to spiritual, social
and political infancy, its essential incapacity for expan-
sion and progress. But no step would be made towards
realizing the idea of a Christian nation. No field would
be provided for the exercise, on a national scale, of that
union of law, liberty, and personal obedience, which
Church and State, 229
forms the distinguishing character, the unique glory, of
Christianity considered as a system of morals — in other
words, a practical theory of life,
A Christian nation, if such there were, would not be
Israel over again, but something as much better and
nobler than even the golden age of the Theocracy, as
Christianity excels Judaism, or a true Christian surpasses
an ** Israelite indeed." What makes any one a true
Christian ? Personal obedience to Christ : the obedience
not of fear, or of expediency, but of faith working by
love. He has accepted his relation to Christ as the cen-
tral, guiding relation of life, to which all others, the most
precious and the most powerful, must be held subordinate.
Christ's truth is his oracle, Christ's will his law, Christ's
glory his highest aim. This supreme reference colours
more or less vividly all his thought, speech, and action.
Christ is the sun of his orbit, and all creatures are but
fellow-planets, or satellites, or comets, or fixed stars. Sc,
a Christian nation should be a nation with which lo}'al
obedience to Christ, as the actual Lawgiver and Ruler
of men, is the law of all its laws, the spirit of all Its
institutions, the key to all its politics; in which the
relation to Christ is accepted as fundamental and cen-
tral to all other relations, internal or external. Hither-
to (and strange it seems to me that this is so little
considered) national life has had to develop itself as
best It might under two prodigious, if not fatal, draw-
backs : the absence of any recognized law of intercourse
between nation and nation, and the absence of any
discovered principle for regulating a nation's internal
constitution. Hence, war has been the normal con-
dition of nations externally, and revolution internally.
No political Copernlcan system has yet been received by
the nations of mankind. Each nation wishes to be the
immoveable centre of the universe, round which all the
230 . Church and State.
rest shall revolve. A common centre for all has not
been so much as dreamed of, if we except the attempt
of the Roman Church to frame the governments of
Christendom Into an orrery, of which the Papal chair
was the artificial sun : an attempt pitiable indeed, when
regarded as a realization of the Kingdom of Christ ; but
majestic and noble when contrasted with the helpless
anarchy of human history. Within, nations have been
bodies perpetually engaged in trying to fix their own
centres of gravity. In the great empires the point of
rest has been found in military force or in policy — the
might of an iron hand or the craft of a subtle brain ;
soon to be lost in the strife of feebler hands and brains.
In our own country, during several centuries, repre-
sentative institutions have secured — with one or two
violent swings of revolution — a slow rate of change, often
mistaken for equilibrium. The centre of gravity has
slowly shifted downwards ; whether at this moment the
strongest attraction is in the mass of gold or in the mass
of population, is a difficult problem. But the most
powerful tendency of society discerned by the keenest
observers, in the nominally Christian nations — the move-
ment towards pure and simple democracy — is a ten-
dency destructive to representative as well as aristo-
cratic ©r democratic government. If thoroughly worked
out, uncontrolled by any higher law of national life, it
will at last substitute delegates for representatives,
retaining the form of government merely as the ma-
chinery for executing the will of the numerical majority
of both sexes. For the will, passions, and interests of a
despot, will be substituted the will, passions, and interest
of the multitude ; and the nation which commands
the largest amount of labour and capital available for
war by land and sea, will rule the world. Powerful
conservative tendencies, especially in old countries, may.
Church a7id Stat^. 231
indefinitely retard this destructive force. Ancient insti-
tutions may form a breakwater not easily undermined or
overflowed. The very speed and conflict of the current
may produce a backwater of reaction, on the surface of
which (as in France) despotism may for a season float.
War may produce unforeseen eddies and counter-cur-
rents. But the student of history and of human nature
can discern no counteracting tendency strong enough to
make the ultimate result doubtful, except as to time
unless such tendency be found in Christianity.
If the promise is to be fulfilled, that all nations are to
be blessed in Christ ; and that not believing souls merely
but nations are to become His inheritance; it surely fol-
lows that He must hold in His hands the remedy for
these two grand hindrances to the development of na-
tional life. He must be able to furnish the central
authority to which all nations will bow, thenceforth laying
aside their selfish, foolish, impious strife, and learning
to seek, not every land its own, but every land the
welfare of others : " neither shall they learn war any
more." He must be no less able to furnish the missing
principle, the regulating law, for the internal order of
each commonwealth ; so that its legislation, . and the
growth and permanence of its constitution shall thence-
forth be settled, not by the strife of class with class, by
party tactics, personal following, and the uncontrollable
force of circumstances ; but by the intelligent brotherly
co-operation of each with all.
Now let any one, able to comprehend and weigh these
considerations, gravely ask himself whether any form of
union between Church and State — in other words, any
union of the organization in which men combine as
Christians for spiritual purposes with the organization In
which they combine as citizens for civil purposes — can
possibly have the slightest power to heal these rooted
232 Church and State.
evils, or bring about these blessed results, national and
international. Divesting our minds of all unmeaning
verbiage and misleading sentiment ; and also assuming
that even the advocates of a state-church renounce the
right and duty of persecution ; what do we really mean by
the establishment of religion, but simply these two things :
Money (including money's worth, as land and buildings),
and a. certain position and prestige for the clergy, —
whether of one church or sect, or of all ? A dead ma-
chinery, which, according as it is worked, may do much,
or little, or nothing, to promote true religion, or may even
become an engine for repressing it, and a social leverage,
dangerous to its possessors, and as capable of being used
for mischief as for good. What can these things do, or
what have they ever done, to make a nation really a
Christian people, so that its foreign policy, legislation,
administration, public opinion, business, amusements,
education, production and expenditure of wealth, should
all be supremely guided by the word of Christ, and
ruled by His will ? If a state-church be indeed God's
chosen means for thus blessing, ennobling, sanctifying
the national life, let us have not an incongruous, frag-
mentary system, in which antiquated inefficiency is eked
out with the earnestness of voluntary effort ; and huge
masses of population are untouched with even that
faint varnish of outward Christianity which would make
them put on Sunday clothes and come to church once
on a Sunday ; but give us a real complete thorough-going
establishment ; paying the worker for his work, and taking
care that he does it ; paying no one a sixpence who
has no real work to do ; and leaving no part of the
work undone, but bringing home the Gospel to every
door in England. If no one wants this, or dreams of
it,. and men are only quarrelling about money and social
position, then, in the name of all truth and honesty, let
Church and State, 233
us cease to profane sacred words, and try to name things
truly, and look facts in the face.
A nation can become truly Christian in no other
way than by being composed of real Christians, if not
exclusively, yet in such proportion that the whole tone
and course of its national life and manners shall be
Christian. No action of government can effect this ; no
institutions, votes of majorities, endowment of clergy or
of schoolmasters ; nothing but the enlightened faith and
free obedience of individual minds and consciences. If
truth free cannot do it, still less will truth fettered. If a
ministry who live by the Gospel because they preach
the Gospel cannot do it, still less can a ministry who
live by their office whether they preach the Gospel or
not. It must be the work not of man's will, but of
God*s own free Spirit, " Where the Spirit of the Lord
is, there is liberty"; and spiritual liberty and establish-
ment of religion by civil authority (which is at the back-
bone the power of the sword) are so irreconcilably in-
compatible, that they can co-exist only by the mutilation
of one or both. In Religion as in Art, in Science, in
Literature, freedom is but a condition, not a cause, of
excellence. But it is a condition so favourable that
where it exists religion penetrates as naturally as air and
sunlight pass through open windows ; and it is a condi-
tion so necessary, that we are warranted in predicting that
for any nation to become a truly Christian nation, religion
must be free.
Our line of thought inevitably brings before us
the third '* sub-question," started at the outset. Sup-
posing a nation, or supposing many nations, to become
thus Christian, not in mere name but in reality, what
new bearing would religion — the religion of Christ —
acquire on civil institutions and national governments ?
In other words, what is the legitimate, divinely-in-
234 Church and State.
TENDED RELATION BETWEEN THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST AND
THE KINGDOMS OF THIS WORLD ?
Refraining from any attempt to discuss adequately
this deep and wide question, I shall venture as
briefly as possible to lay down certain main positions
on which the answer (as it appears to me) must de-
pend. Nothing is easier than to draw very partial and
therefore false conclusions here from a limited examina-
tion of Scripture teaching. The statements of Scrip-
ture are so varied concerning the kingdom of Christ
(called also the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God,
or simply the kingdom), that a reader who is content
with a certain selection of passages may form conclusions
utterly discordant from those of another reader, content
with a different set of texts ; and (as always happens
in such cases) each will seem to the other to be deny-
ing the plain sense of Scripture. It is but one ex-
ample of these seeming paradoxes, that while we find
Our Saviour expressly saying that His kingdom is not
of this world ; other passages (as in one of the chief
prophecies of Christ, Ps. xxii. 28) as expressly declare
that He shall reign over the Gentiles, that the kingdom
is the Lord's, that He is the Governor among the nations,
and that the time approaches when it shall be proclaimed
with thunder-songs of praise that* the kingdoms of this
world are become Our Lord's and His Christ's. (Com-
pare Dan. vii. 14.)
Whatever else it is or is not, the kingdom of Christ,
His reign or dominion is His supreme claim to the
absolute personal obedience of every human being. He
is Lord of all. The head of every man is Christ. To
this end Christ both died and rose, that He might be
Lord both of the dead and living. Unbelievers reject
this claim ; believers recognize it ; but our recognition
* In the oldest copies, *^ the kingdom of this world is become;" Rev. xi. 15.
Church and State, 235
does not create it. We acknowledge It because it already
exists, and binds all men. Jesus Christ is the Judge of
men because He is the King of men.
Here is one broad line of contrast to all the king-
doms of this world. No earthly government, absolute
or popular, claims unlimited obedience. Souls are free..
The greatest despot in the world is but a limited monarch.
Christ alone claims the allegiance of faith and conscience,
the loyalty of hearts, the obedience of love.
The kingdom of Christ, being thus a dominion over
the whole nature- of every man, is, by the very terms of
the statement, a moral and spiritual rule. Mere outward
obedience to Christ is not simply defective, it counts for
nothing. A man may be a faithful citizen under a form
of government which he dislikes and in his conscience
condemns ; a republican under a monarchy, a monarchist
under a republic ; but no one can be a subject of this
kingdom who does not in his inmost soul prefer Christ's
rule and service to every other. Hence the kingdom
of Christ differs essentially from the kingdoms of this
world, both in its subjects and in its methods. Except a
man be born again, he cannot enter it, or even see it.
Truth and love, personal persuasion and spiritual in-
fluence, which have no place in earthly states, are the
weapons by which His kingdom conquers, the forces by
which it is ruled. Not that the Divine King renounces
the right (inseparable from sovereignty) to use the strong
arm, and wield the rod of iron as well as the golden
sceptre. But when the time comes for this, His word
to His ministers will be not ''Compel them to come in,"
but '' Gather out of my kingdom all things which offend,
and them who do iniquity." ** The children of the
kingdom " are '* the just."
We must distinguish the Kingdom of Christ from
the Church of Christ. The same persons, it is true, com-
236 Church and State,
pose them, and therefore we may without inconvenience
often speak of them as Identical. Yet a single phrase Is
sufficient to show that the distinction Is both real and
important. " The gospel of the kingdom " is a familiar
New Testament phrase ; but no one can imagine an
apostle talking of "the gospel of the church." The
vital principle, the formative idea, of the Church is union
with Christ ; of the Kingdom, obedience to Christ. The
Christian Church on earth is in fact an association for the
promotion of the kingdom of Christ.
Lastly, while the perfect development and right ac-
tion of the Church require complete independence of all
governments, corporate bodies, and associations of men
in any other capacity than as Christians banded together
for spiritual objects ; the kingdom of Christ, on the con-
trary, demands for its complete realization the submission
of every form of human government and society, national
or other, to Christ's supreme authority. " For In that
he put all In subjection under him, he left nothing not
put under him."
If this be granted in reference to states, or govern-
ments, it will scarcely be denied of any other form
of human society. It can be denied In reference to
governments or states only on one of two assumptions :
either that these possess an authority Independent of —
equal or superior to — that of Christ ; or else that they are
incapable of obedience. The first supposition is absurd.
Take whichever view of government you choose, either
that under whatever political form it is administered, civil
government is God's ordinance, and the magistrate, as
such, God's minister ; or else that the government of a
country is the embodiment of the popular will, and the
magistrate the minister of the sovereign pleasure of the
majority. In the first case, it Is certain that God has
ordained no authority which He has not placed In sub-
Church and State. 237
jection (de jure, though not yet de facto) to the Lord
Jesus. In the second case, the stream cannot rise higher
than the fountain. Men cannot create an authority
superior to that by which every man is bound. The
second supposition is equally absurd. Nations with their
governments are composed of men. Men cannot be free
collectively from laws which bind each man individually.
By entrusting fifteen men with great public offices and
calling them a Cabinet, or choosing 658 men to make
laws and calling them a House, you cannot destroy the
obligation every one of them is under to act, speak, and
think as a Christian. A prime minister or legislator may
be much more bound, but cannot be less bound, than a
household servant to do whatsoever he does " unto the
Lord " Unless it can be maintained that right and wrong
belong to human conduct on a small scale only, not on
a grand scale ; that collective action is neither moral
nor immoral ; that it is wicked for one man to steal
another man's purse or garotte the owner, but not for
twenty millions of men to steal the territory of other ten
millions, and slaughter thousands of inhabitants ; that it
is virtuous and pleasing to God for a man to give honest
measure, and- to deal his bread to the hungry, but not for
a nation to make and maintain just laws and practice a
generous policy ; — it must be allowed that the claim of
the Divine King of men to the obedience of nations and
governments, is as real, direct, and supreme, as His claim
on the personal obedience of every separate human being
The practical universal recognition of this sovereignty
implies not the union or confusion of Church and State,
but, on the contrary, their clear and complete separa-
tion, as an instalment and earnest of the obedience
which both owe to Christ, who has ordained for the
welfare of both that they be separate. Best is it for
both that the Church be left, unhelped and unhindered,
238 Church and State.
to pursue her proper work ; no splendid illusions, no
dazzling, distracting ambitions, coming between her and
the humble, painful reality of this work, as a work not
upon masses or upon classes, but on the soul and con-
science of each human being.
Thus, not otherwise, can the Church bless and re-
generate the State. God works ever from the root
upwards, from the hidden centre to the surface, from the
little life-cell to the complex organism. No number of
ungodly men, place them under what institutions you
will, can possibly make a Christian nation. To call them
such is to deceive ourselves with fair words. Even though
all the members of the government were personally true
Christians, this would go a very little way if the bulk of
the people were unchristian. The moral power of the
strongest government is very limited if it is not in sym-
pathy with the nation. Of what use is it to talk of
establishing religion, when a government cannot so much
as establish truth and honesty ? As well talk of estab-
lishing the west wind, the sunshine, or the dew. But,
were that promise accomplished, " Thy people shall be all
righteous'' ; were the bulk of the nation such that in every
business from the polling-booth and the market up to the
Cabinet, in every company from the Court down to the
cottage and the workshop, the first question were not,
'* What is politic, customary, for the interest of the party,
for the gain of the few ?" but '' What is right ?" — then
it will be seen that the Gospel is as able to bless a
nation as ever was the Law. The Lord Jesus will take
the helm of that nation into His own hand. Such a
nation will not dream of '' establishing religion," but re-
ligion will establish the nation, and righteousness will
exalt it. Its officers will be peace and its exactors
righteousness. Violence will no more be heard in its
land, wasting nor destruction within its borders. The day
Church and State. 239
will have dawned, whose glory is indeed dim compared
with the far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory
beyond ; but the promise of which is, nevertheless, the
most precious inheritance and only hope of the nations
of mankind.
THE FORGIVENESS
ABSOLUTION OF SINS.
REV. HENRY ROBERT REYNOLDS,
B.A. LoND., D.D. Edinb.
THE FORGIVENESS
ABSOLUTION OF SINS.
The ambiguity of language is a fruitful source of theolo-
gical controversy. If all disputants were in a position to
use words in precisely the same sense, if they could
thoroughly understand one another, and had grace to
reason fairly, the antagonisms of Christian theology
would be to a considerable extent reduced.
In physical science, or historical research, when a fact
is once ascertained, a generalization made, and a nomen-
clature adopted, there is no further scope for passion.
Interest or prejudice may be enlisted in favour of the
establishment of a phenomenon, of a law, or of a name, and
the progress of discovery or classification may be retarded
by it ; but sooner or later, either prejudice gives way, or
the new generation silently embraces the unquestionable.
It is otherwise with metaphysics and theology. Here
there are grave difficulties that w^e cannot hide from
ourselves, which have a tendency to perpetuate strife,
and which suffer very little modification in the succession
of generations. Every human being is born into our world
with capacity and temptation to ask many unanswerable
R 2
244 ^'-^^ Forgiveness
questions about itself, its origin and destiny. These
force the thinkers of every period to grapple with problems
which mere science perpetually proves itself incompetent
to solve. Each generation takes up the scientific problem
at the point where the previous generation has left it.
Many of the questions once asked with mystery and fear
are now answered, yet every generation, and in some
measure every individual, feels the burden of existence
afresh, and with an ever-augmenting sensibility. Every
thoughtful man is driven inwards and Godwards in a
restless search after Cause, and is compelled to pos-
tulate for himself the fundamental theses of metaphysics
and theology. There is no fear that these will ever
lose their interest for beings who are conscious of self,
and who know that they must die. These studies are
moreover, exposed to the additional difficulty, that there
are no terms belonging to them perfectly current and
mutually understood, and hence men of different ages
and nations cannot fully comprehend each others' views on
these most momentous of all discussions. It is true that
philosophers and theologians have tried to define terms,
and the sense in which they use them, and here and
there a group of men have maintained that they do most
perfectly agree in the judgment they form on transcen-
dental facts. The agreement is, however, illusory, so far
as it concerns the permanence of theologic or philosophic
ideas. Those who do not belong to such fellowships often
cannot understand the commonest terms used within them,
and often condemn each other for holding opinions that are
identical. The difficulty is increased by thefact that, in order
to attain sympathy with the moral and religious expe-
rience of our fellow-men, we are compelled to translate
from one language into another the recondite thoughts of
different ages and peoples. It is still further aggravated
in consequence of the figurative element in all metaphysical
And Absolution of Sins. 245
speech, in which sounds that in their primary use con-
noted broadly the external and physical correspon-
dence to some internal reality, have first utterly lost
their phenomenal force, and afterwards in their passage
from one language to another have been stereotyped
into some conventional metaphysical signification. Thus
the words '* spirit," ** mind," "idea," 'Maw," ''sin,"
" iniquity," " pardon," with many others, have passed
through periods of confusing change in their signification.
Words that in different languages are equivalent to
each other necessarily cover different ground and overlap
each other in various directions ; consequently, in passing
from one language to another, subordinate ideas are often
dropped unconsciously, and are as often incremented by
foreign and perhaps incompatible notions. This is a
necessity of our present condition, in which there is no
inherent relation between words and thought. That rela-
tion is entirely arbitrary or conventional, and language
is a function of the hearer's as well as of the speaker's
mind : therefore, when a word is used to convey ideas
mutually understood among any people, it may approach
in signification a corresponding word adopted by other
people ; but there is hardly an instance where the equi-
valence is exact, and thousands of instances will occur to
every attentive reader, which show that the meanings of
a word in one language are profoundly different from
those of its nearest equivalent in another. Moreover, many
words that deal with themes of high importance, have had
to be thus transferred from Hebrew to Aramaic, from
Aramaic to Greek, from Greek to Latin, from Latin to
English, from early to modern English. It would be in-
teresting to take any of the terms which are needed in
the discussion of the question of this Essay, and to
exhibit the variations of meaning which have accompanied
their translation and tradition from people to people, and
246 The Forgiveness
from age to age. A single illustration may be of service,
and may teach us charity In our theological conflict. Take
a Hebrew* word, the fundamental notion of which is
raising upwards, or lifting a thing or a part of the per-
son, from a lower to a higher position. This word acquires
a multitude of subordinate meanings, such as" to swear"
by lifting the hand to Heaven, " to cry aloud" by lifting up
the voice, and many similar combinations. As applied
to life, It means " to take It away" ; as applied to sin, It
signifies to *' carry off, or expiate It," and with a certain
grammatical construction, it means "to procure for-
giveness of sin for another.'' When applied to sin
and calamity, it means " vicarious endurance of these
for another." For each of these applications of one
Hebrew word, we have a corresponding Greek word
used in the Septuagint to translate its shifting signi-
fications ;t but each of these words Is charged with
meanings distinct from the rest, In some cases wider,
in others more restricted In signification than in
its Latin or English synonyms. We must beware,
therefore, that we do not make men offenders for a
word when we are so far from any rigid defini-
tion of the precise meaning of the terms we use. We
do not say that it Is Impossible to approximate the
thoughts of Moses or David, of Isaiah or Paul ; but it is
obvious that when we use the terms " forgiveness,"
"atonemqnt," "vicarious suffering," "deliverance from sin,"
" endurance of the punishment of sin," and draw Import-
ant distinctions between these Ideas, we may be using
the translation of only one word In the Hebrew Scriptures.
An etymological disquisition of some length is
needed to interpret the Greek, Latin, or English
terms that are used to limit the connotation of the
# «b3
T T
f Some of these become of importance to us j such are d<pir]ni with d^ecrtsj n^aipeco,
(pkpoj and XafijSdvu).
A7id Absolution of Sins, i^y
original pictorial root-form to which we have referred.
The English word "atonement" will afford an Illustration
ofthedifficultyattending all such discussions. The ordinary
etymology '' a t-one-ment" shows that in the translation of
the original word, the thought of English people has
been taken away from the act described, namely, a recon-
ciliation between those who had been previously at
variance, until it has come to mean the process by which
such reconciliation is effected.
A second cause of perplexity in dealing with theological
problems, or Interpreting the dogmas of theological con-
troversy, is the correlation of the spiritual forces, and the
identity in time of the spiritual conditions resulting from
their activity. The non-perception of this peculiarity — one
which brings Christian theology Into living harmony with
the methods and results of physical science — has led to
unavailing disputes and to the arrangement of theological
systems on essentially hostile principles. We do not
mean to suggest that there is no difference of meaning In
such terms as ''regeneration," ''justification," "redemp-
tion," " salvation," " reconciliation with God," " faith,"
" love," " assurance," " holiness," " adoption." A tyro in
theological science or in Biblical exposition can easily run
off a series of definitions, which will sharply discriminate
these phrases. There have been periods when all Europe
was divided into two hostile camps, on the merits of the
difference or sameness of the states of mind described
by these terms, and when from peculiar circumstances It
became a matter of life and death to take an unyielding
side In the debate. In comparatively modern times
theological controvertists who have been agreed as to the
distinction between " regeneration " and " justification,"
who have alike admitted that the one term denotes a
change of nature wrought by supernatural means, and
that the other expresses a change of condition and rela-
^48 The Forgiveness
tion to the Divine government, have yet contended with
exhaustless energy about the priority in time of one or
the other of these changes.
Now, without entering further into the controversy it is
worthy of consideration whether these terms, or the forces
or states of which they treat, are not related to one
another, very much as the physical forces of heat, light,
electricity, magnetism and motion are correlated.
In theological and metaphysical discourse we are deal-
ing with the union of the Divine and Human, of the In-
finite and Finite in the soul of man. A Divine force or
energy is discovered to be at work in human nature. A
new and blessed element is penetrating the entire con-
stitution of man. The consequence is, that in proportion
as this mystery of grace and power secures its highest
end — viz., a voluntary surrender of an individual to the
Divine Will — and in proportion as a man yields himself
to God, or is reconciled to Him, or, in other words,
trusts the character and depends on the faithfulness
and eternal love of God, a state of mind and heart
and will has supervened on the old and alien nature,
which is adequately described by one or other of
these famous theological terms, according as this state is
regarded in different relations. Thus (i) if this state of
mind be contrasted with the older and merely fleshly
condition in which it was born into this world, and if the
great agent of the new life be chiefly thought of, It is
called {iraXi'yyevea-ia) " regeneration," or new birth, and
the result is called a new creation {Kaivr) Krlais:)^ the
substitution of the heart of flesh for the heart of
stone. (2) If, however. It be regarded mainly in con-
trast with former indifference to God, neglect of His
commandments, fretfulness under His Providence, dis-
like of His purity, and dread of His just displeasure, It
is rightly called by that other term " reconciliation with
And Adsohction of Sins. 249
God" (KaraWayri). The submission of the human will
to the Divine Law is a victory gained by the grace of God,
and is one side and aspect of the regeneration of the
new creature. But (3) if this state of mind is con-
trasted with the previous condition of condemnation,
which the righteous government of God had pronounced
against all unrighteousness and sin, if it "s regarded in
view of the Law which threatened, and of the Lawgiver
and Judge who had pronounced the sentence of depriva-
tion and death, no term is so apt and adequate to denote
this very same condition, as {BtKaccoo-cf;, hKaLoavvTf) "righteous-
ness," ''justification ; " yet (4) if this blessed state be looked
at simply in the subjective exercises by which it is pro-
longed and continually verified, if we would describe
the most fundamental internal process, that without which
all would collapse, that which though a Divine gift is
also a human act, the germ and spring of all virtuous
action, the hand which grasps the Divine goodness and
receives the blessing that is freely given, we apply to
it the name of (Tr/o-rt?) " faith ; " but (5) if we contrast this
condition with the perfectly distinct occupation of mind
and bent of heart by which it was formerly characterized,
there is a great word {fjueravoLa), ''repentance," which is
adequate to the full significance of the contrast, and con-
notes also the sorrowfulness and agony of the struggle
before all the former things passed away. (6) If our
thoughts do not rest in the elemental region, but follow the
working of the delighted spirit outwards, not only towards
God but towards this universe ; if we fix our thoughts upon
the spirit and temper with which henceforth all duty is
done, all pain endured, and all mystery encountered ;
if the outflow of the regenerated soul to its Father be
pondered and characterized, we call it {cuyairn) " love," while
" love " and " faith " in act and expression, dealing with
God, are nothing less than prayer and praise and com-
250 The Forgiveness
munlon with the Father. (7) When the new Hfe of the
soul is regarded as consciously eternal, when the so-called
faith takes hold of the highest promises, and entertains
no shadow of doubt as to the goodness and truthfulness
of God, when death loses its sting and the grave its
victory, and we seek a name for the energy with which
the deathless spirit grasps the hope and meaning of the
Father's love, we call it {ir\7)po^opia ttj^^ iXirtBo^) " assur-
ance of hope and faith." (8) If we see that a state so
calmly trustful in the Divine nature, so willing to be
saved in God's own way, is one of perpetual progress
and continuous confirmation, that God's work is not
left unfinished, that He will complete what He has
begun, we call it (dyLcoo-uuTj, dytaa/io';) " sanctification."
(9) If we cast our eyes upon the fearful alternative of
this renewed and sanctified state and look either into
our own corrupt heart or the deeper darkness of un-
forgiven sin ; if we are pondering the ransom price that
was paid before any single aspect or characteristic of this
state could have been realized, we call it {diroXvrpcoac^) " re-
demption ; " and if (10) we review all the new and intimate
relations into which the soul is thus brought with the
Father, we have yet another word to use full of sweetness
and promise, viz., the {vLoOeo-la) " adoption of sons," which
carries the heart on to the joy of the perfected state, when
the "glorious liberty of children" will obliterate the remem-
brance of all the bondage. The one term which covers
all these and includes them all, from which in a measure
they are all deduced is (^(orj auovto^) " eternal life." I do not
mean to imply by this enumeration that all these theo-
logical phrases are mutually convertible, or that all
the time-honoured distinctions here referred to are
mere subjective differences of aspect : they describe
true relations to great objective realities, and lose none
of their importance by being shown to be correlated
And Adsolution of Sins. 251
with each other. The law of God is a sublime
fact; the Spirit and the Son of God, as the great
agencies by which change of nature or condition is
effected, are not mere subjective aspects of Divine
Grace, but the most solemn realities in the uni-
verse — the hell of unrepented sin, the heaven of the
Divine Father, and the home of the family of God are
no mere dreams of our enthusiasm. Nevertheless, the
theological phrases which denote the relation of our
spirits to these stupendous realities do in every case pre-
suppose the same fundamental state of the human soul,
when it is under the power of the Divine will, and
voluntarily and fully yielding itself to the Divine behests.
Another fruitful cause of theological controversy is
an ambiguity of theological terms, due in part to a
confusion of mind as to the region and object to which
they refer. The same verbal noun-substantive is used
indifferently to denote the state of a human mind and the
act of the Divine will. It is true that justification as the
righteous clemency of the Supreme Ruler must always
be presupposed, whenever justification as a condition
of a believing man is spoken of. Sanctification as
a Divine process of sovereign love must be presup-
posed in the sanctification which is effected thereby
in the forgiven and accepted human spirit, and so with
the rest of these terms, God's work and man's state are
connected, the one involves or presupposes the other,
but they ought not to be confounded with one another.
The word "justification" is obscured by this ambiguity,
and unnecessary controversy has arisen out of the con-
fusion. If we speak of justification as a method of the Divine
government, we concern ourselves with the contempla-
tion of the law and the judgment of the Most High, we
have to do with the ground of acquittal, with the Divine
reasons for this wondrous leniency, with that which God
252 The Forgiveness
has set forth as a '* propitiatory," with that great circum-
stance or characteristic of the Lord's action, which is the
true antecedent of His amnesty, and with that which in His
revealed nature vindicates the wisdom of His proclamation.
But when we are dealing with justification as a result effected
in any one case, all is changed ; we have then to do
with the human antecedents of this blessed state, and with
all the consequences of justification in other and more
•exalted conditions of mind. .The antecedents of God's
justification of man are not confined to subjective con-
ditions of the human soul, but consist of God's own
previous acts of sacrifice, and justice, and mercy, and
point back to the eternal love and infinite righteousness,
out of which the incarnation and the redemptive work
of Christ sprang ; the antecedents of the state of justifica-
tion into which any human being is brought are his own
repentance, faith, and submission to the righteousness of
God. These two entirely distinct classes of consideration
ought not to be confounded. Some writers have laid
such emphasis on the former as to overshadow and hide
the reality of the latter, and, thus tending towards a
virtual Pantheism, have lost sight of the individuality of
man, and the moral nature and requirements of the
atonement ; others have dwelt so exclusively on the human
antecedents of forgiveness and justification as apparently
to blunt their sense of the Divine justice, and conceal
from themselves the most surprising and affecting display
of the nature and heart of God.
Let me then attempt to discriminate the two great
topics which are often incautiously blended, and
discuss THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS In Its twofold aspect
and relationship, first as a principle and an action of
the Divine will, a law of the Divine operation ; and
second, as a human experience.
Such a discussion involves the statement of principles
And Absolution of Sins, 253
common to all members of the Holy Catholic Church, and to
all Evangelical believers in the Lord Jesus Christ ; and it
involves the repudiation of much of the destructive criticism
which has either reduced the work of Christ simply to a
powerful moral stimulus in the pursuit of self-sacrificing
virtue, thus making it equivalent to the gracious sanctifying
energies of the Holy Spirit ; or has dispensed with
it altogether as an emaciated or disfigured torso of some
wider and nobler truth. In this matter the free Churches,
of England (with few exceptions) hold fundamentally
the great revelation which is expressed alike in the
writings of the early fathers, in the decrees of the Council
of Trent, in the Thirty-nine Articles, and in the West-
minster and Augsburg Confessions.* There are grave
* The unsystematic exposition of the Apostolic Fathers approximates closely to Scriptural
language. " The blood of Christ, which having been shed with a view to our salvation, has
obtained the grace of fierdvoia for all the world." — Clem. Lad. Cor,, cap. v. "God
Himself took our iniquities, He delivered His Son a ransom for us." — Ep. ad.Diog. Justin
and Clement both quote liii. of Isaiah as their description of the work of Christ. Origen
is most explicit j in 24 Hom. on Numbers, he says, " If there had been no sin there would have
been no necessity that the Son of God should have become 3 Lamb, nor in the flesh have
been led to :he slaughterj but since sin entered the world, necessity required a propitiation for
sin, and since propitiation is not made except by a sacrificial offering, it was necessary that the
sacrifice be provided for sin." See also Jon. Hom. xxviii. 14, quoted by Baur, Versohnungs-
lehre, p. 55, and Comm. Rom., iii. 8. The entire figment which took possession ot
the mind or Origen, and was sustained by Gregory of Nyssa, and opposed by Gregory of
Nazianzus, and Gregory the Great, of a ransom paid to the devil in the interests of justice,
reveals through the whole of its career in the history of human speculation, the strength of the
conviction that the Incarnate Son alone could haVe accomplished what needed to be done in
securing the deliverance of man from the guilt of sin. Athanasius, Cyril of Jerusalem,
Eusebius of Cassarea, Epiphanius may be quoted in equally explicit terms to show that if a
theory of propitiatory sacrifice had not been elaborated, it lay at the heart of the soteriology of
the fourth century. The philosophical theory of Anselm, which exercised so great an influ-
ence on scholasticism and the Reformation theology, though never formally admitted by
Rome, or introduced into her formularies, endeavoured to explain the way in which the
perfect obedience of the Incarnate God to the eternal will of God provided a'satisfactio und
so/utioot' i\\ the unpaid dehita of humanity, and how His supererogatory merit in dying for sin
gave Him a claim to seek the immunity of all believers at the hands of the Infinite and
Eternal Judge. The terms in which he described the work of Christ differed from that of
earlier writers, but the same fact underlies the ideas of Anselm, and Athanasius, and Origen.
See also the fragment of Alexander, Bishop of Alexandria, a.d. 320, on the Soul,
Body, and Passion of the Lord Jesus Christ. — Ante Nicene Library, vol. xiii.
There was little controversy between the Romish divines and Protestant symbols as to the
fondamental truth of the part taken by the Mediator in the redemption of mankind. Thus
the sixth Sess. Cone. Trid. cap. ii., " The Father of mercies and the God of all comfort sent
unto men Jesus Christ, His own Son .... that He might redeem the Jews who were under
the law, and that the Gentiles who followed not after justice, might attain to justice, and
that all might receive the adoption of sons } Him hath God set forth as a propitiator,
through faith in His blood, for our sins, and not for our sins only, but also for the sins of the
*rhole world." Again, in cap. vii., " The meritorious cause of justification is His most
beloved only-begotten, our Lord Jesus Christ, who when we were enemies for the great
2 54 The Forgiveness
differences as to the extent and intention of the atone-
ment, but there is a grand uniformity of conviction so far
as this, that in the righteousness and sacrifice of Christ,
in His obedience unto death, something was effected for the
human race, without which the redemptipn of any from
the curse of sin could not have taken place. There are,
perhaps, individual men in all our Churches, who fall far
short of this broad statement, and who imagine that they
have exhausted the meaning of Scripture and expressed the
essence of the Catholic faith, when they call attention to
the force of our Lord's example and the energizing within
humanity of the spirit of His sacrificial death.
It is necessary to indicate the grounds of divergence
from this opinion, which is probably an ephemeral agita-
tion permitted by the great sufferer and High Priest of
man, to compel attention to claims upon the conscience
which were in danger of being overlooked. In treating
the other part of the subject, the nature and antecedents
of forgiveness as a condition of the human soul, the suffi-
ciency of the High Priesthood of the Lord Jesus, and the
true conditions of the absolution and remission of sin will
come into view ; and here I am aware that the free
charity wherewith He loved us, merited justification for us by His most Holy Passion on the
wood of the Cross, and for us made satisfaction unto God the Father." — The Canons and
Decrees, translated by J. A. Buckley, B.A. The second Article of the Thirty-nine Articles,
speaking of " Christ very God and ^very man," adds, " who truly suffered, was crucified,
dead, and buried, to reconcile His Father to us, and to be a sacrifice, not only for original
guilt, but also for all the actual sins of men." The Westminster Confession of Faith, while
in the opinion of some, limiting the operation and the reference of the mediatorial work,
chap, viii , says, " The Lord Jesus Christ by His perfect obedience aud sacrifice of Himself,
which He through the Eternal Spirit once offered up unto God, hath fully satisfied the justice
of His Father, and purchased not only reconciliation, but an everlasting inheritance in the
kingdom of Heaven for all those whom the Father hath given unto Him." — Confessio
Augustana, Article III. " Lex damnat omnes homines sed Christus quia sine peccato subiit
pcenam peccati, et victlma pro nobis factus est instutit illud jus legis, ne accuset, ne damnet
nos qui credant in ipsum quia ipse est propitiatio proeis propter quam nunc justi reputantur." —
Formula Concordice, p. 686. " Propter obedientiam Christi, quam Christus inde a nativitate
sua usque ad ignominiosissimam crucis mortem pro nobis Patri suo prcestitit, boni et justi
pronuntiantur et reputantur." The other Protestant confessions, with, of course, the exception
of the Racovian Catechism, all alike sustain and reveal the faith of the Church in the
sublime, unique, vicarious act of the Lord Jesus Christ in His dealing with God on our
behalf, and show that whatever He may have wrought in us, there was one grand department
of His work which was believed to terminate in the Government of God, and reach its
fullest expression in satisfying the love and justice of the Eternal Father.
A7id Absolution of Sins, 255
Churches of England stand on ground essentially diverse
from the platform of sacerdotal functions, by which some
at the present moment seem to us to be limiting the
grace of God.
Before I can discuss the forgiveness of sins as a
proceeding of the Divine Government, an act of the
Divine Love, it is necessary to determine in some detail
what is meant by the phrase. At first sight it suggests
the idea that we are transferring to the Divine Being
the features and concomitants of human society and of
human relations : that we are thinking of God under forms
which are supplied to us in the working of our own
minds and institutions : that we are expressing the In-
finite in terms of the finite, and have involved ourselves in
the meshes of an inevitable anthropomorphism. The pecu-
liarity is common to this and every other theological
discussion. '' The eagle cannot outsoar the atmosphere in
which he floats, and by which alone he may be supported."*
If we give the name of "Spirit" or ''Person" to the Divine
Being, if we call Him "our Father," ''our Ruler," "our
Judge," if we speak of His "law" or His "love," we
commit the same impropriety. If we presume to reason
concerning the mind, or heart, or will of God, we fall
into the same error, if error it be. It is essential to every
discussion concerning God, to every thought of our hearts
about Him, that we should thus speak. The relativity
of our knowledge, and the limitation of our faculties,
compel us to conceive of God as endowed with cha-
racteristics of which the image is to be found within
ourselves. The concept of Deity has always kept pace
and been in proportion with the knowledge and conscious-
ness of self. As this has been defective or lost, the
concept of Deity has been degraded into Fetishism or
evaporated Into Pantheism. As this has been intense,
* Sir W. Hamilton, Phil, of the Unconditioned, Disc, p. 14
256 The Forgiveness
analytic and spiritual, God has been treated as a subject
of high analysis, superior to conditions, the Master of
circumstances, distinct from His creation, the personal
cause of all phenomena. When men have lost their
spirituality, and merged their own mind into the functions
of t\\Q pia-mater , or the reaction of nerve-tissue upon the
conditions of its own existence, their God has become
the nexus of physical causes, the eternal force of the
universe. If we believe our Bibles, there is a profound
and adequate explanation of this mystery, in the fact that
we are made in '' the image and likeness of God." The
love and pity, the justice and power of the Blessed God,
are on this supposition realities, or, at least, our expres-
sions represent to us the nearest approximation to the
reality of which our nature is capable. The phrase,
'' forgiveness of sins," with its analogous words, presup-
poses " relations " between those who can sin and the
Divine mind and will ; and it implies, moreover, that He
is capable of thinking, feeling, and doing what is at least
analogous to the corresponding feeling or action of human
beings. This feeling, whether or not it has shaped itself
into thought, or expressed itself in words, is the basis
of all religious experience whatsoever. If this is a pre-
sumptuous idea, then all religion is presumption ; if this
mode of regarding the Divine Being savours of unphilo-
sophic arrogance, then all religion and all the history of
science is a long record of human folly. It is enough
here to say that the entire current of revealed truth flows
in this channel, and that the highest manifestation of God
was the human life of Him, who said '' I and the Father
are one."
We shall not be wandering out of the region of a
sound philosophy, nor beyond the limits imposed by
Revelation, if we assume that the Divine Being, the
Creator and Lord of all, is able to " pardon iniquity
And Absolution of Sins. 257
transgression and sin," if we think of Him as doing what
in our analogous experience is equivalent to the forgive-
ness of sins. The English words ''pardon" and "for-
give" are etymologically nearly identical in their meaning,
but in usage the word " forgive " is of wider reference
than " pardon," and involves not only the act of a Ruler
remitting the penalty which a transgressor has incurred,
the clemency of one who is superior to the law which has
been violated, but includes the act of love, in which those
who are on comparatively equal terms seal the cessation
of unpleasant relationships. According to English usage,
a sovereign pardons ; a friend, a father, an injured sufferer
forgives. Both ideas, or the varied usage of the
words, merge in one and the same radical act. Again,
** pardon " is more frequently used with reference to the
offender ; and forgiveness refers more appropriately to
the offence. In all cases, however, the individual or the
society which is said to do either the one or the other,
consents to forego the consequences of the offence as far
as it is able to inflict them. A friend is justly offended
with a friend, a father with his son, a master with his
servant, a society with one of its own members, a
country with a public officer, a sovereign with a criminal
or a traitor. In each case the offended party is inflicting
certain grievous consequences upon the offender. It may
in the first instance be the suspension of intimate relations,
the cessation of the mutual discharge of loving offices.
It may even be in personal sorrow, grief, and tears over
an unavenged transgression. A father may bear in unre-
sisting tenderness and silent agony the wrong that has
been done, or may take occasion to punish a rebellious
child. A master may refuse to be served any longer by
one who has betrayed a trust. A society may fine, or rus-
ticate, or expel one of its members ; a country may degrade,
or exile, or execute one of its citizens ; a sovereign may
s
258 The Forgiveness
refuse to Interfere with the execution of the law, and thus
as the fountain of authority inflict its sanction. In each
case there are certain recognized consequences inflicted
on an offender. They may be so sHght as to amount to
nothing but a coldness of demeanour, a mere cessa-
tion of intimacies, an arrest of favours ; or they may
amount to prolonged misery, corporal chastisement,
to physical and legal death ; but in each case the
pardon of an offender, the forgiveness of an offence, in-
volves the obliteration of these consequences. The father
or friend, if he forgives an offence, reinstates the broken
relation, he remits the signs of his displeasure, he
feels again towards the offender as in times long gone
by. The consequences of the offence, even within his
own bosom, are cast out, the remembrance of it is annihi-
lated. The various tokens of the alienation are put far
away. If a society pardons an offender against its laws,
it remits its fine, it opens the door for readmission to
every privilege. The consequences are revoked. The
power which inflicted the suffering or deprivation is alone
adequate to the renewal of the earlier relations, and there
is no real pardon until this power is exercised. It is not
necessary here to draw the distinction between an
acquittal by a jury and pardon by a sovereign. It is
sufficient to remark, that a verdict of '/ not guilty," or a
reversal of a sentence, declares the offender to have been
unjustly accused and to need no pardon. Pardon assumes
guilt, the acquittal of a prisoner implies the absence of
adequate evidence for his condemnation, and repudiates
the accusation of guilt. The two terms, though some-
times brought together in discussion, are, if supposed to
refer to the same offence, mutually incompatible. If the
analogies of human judicature were strictly applied, we
should say that the justification of a sinner rendered
pardon unnecessary, that acquittal at the bar of justice
And Absolution of Sins. 259
from a charge which imperfect knowledge or deficient
evidence had endeavoured to sustain, is a declaration
that the transgressor in the eye of law is free from all
blame, and therefore needs no pardon.
The Divine act of forgiveness of sins, the principle
or method of the Divine procedure which is thus deno-
minated, must, if we understand anything by the terms,
correspond with what we mean when we use the phrase
forgiveness as descriptive of earthly and human relations.
Our Lord Himself frequently brings the two ideas into
juxtaposition, as though the one were to be best under-
stood from the simple analogy of the other. " When ye
pray say .... Forgive us our sins, for we forgive
everyone that is indebted to us." *' If ye forgive not
men their trespasses, neither will your Heavenly Father
forgive you your trespasses."
But, before we can establish any analogy, It is incum-
bent upon us to show that the condition of man before
God corresponds with that which needs forgiveness in a
lower sphere of thought and action.
The forgiveness of. sins by the Divine Being does,
according to the interpretation we have taken of the
words, involve an act, a method of dealing with us,
which is diametrically opposed to. the order of the
universe, and which, by many of those who have endea-
voured to blend theology and science, is regarded as
inconceivable. The law of human life is said to be of such
an inexorable kind, that any remission of the consequences
of the sins against it, except by a superior law of action
which includes the lower law, is set aside as a dream
of the supranaturallst. The direct action of the Divine
will with reference to an individual is classed among
the fetishes of modern or of scholastic theology. The
various consequences and penalties of sin are so constantly
and invariably appended to wrong-doing and thinking
s 2
26o The Forgive^iess
and feeling, that according to these writers there Is not
the least chance of escaping from them. From different
points of view we are told that these consequences, which
are the expression of the order of the "cosmos," or are the
revelations of the will of God, must be borne to the bitter
end ; that the only way to be freed from them Is to
be delivered from the sin Itself, and thus to need no such
act on the part of the Most High. We are told that
" forgiveness of sins," If it means anything, means the
renewal of the inner life and the origination of a state of
things In which forgiveness is unnecessary. Now, much
truth underlies this formidable principle, but it takes a
very different shape from this when submitted to a
thorough analysis.
In order to contribute something to this analysis, it Is
necessary to remind the reader of the signification and
history of the terms that are used In the discussion, to
review the Biblical theory and the Christian philosophy
of sin itself In the pictorial Hebrew tongue there is a
hint of the various explanations which more recent
philosophy has assigned to the presence of evil In the
universe^ Thus, while ^i denotes the physical and moral
consequences of sin In close juxtaposition, bgn and t)^
denote the nothingness and privative character of evil,
reminding us of the speculations of Augustine and Leib-
nitz. The word 2?w:?n touches on the sense of departure
from, a command, and is the opposite to "it^'^, while
5?a^D is unquestionably separation from a standard, rebel-
lion against a command, and, though less frequently
used, Vi^ has the same root-Idea. The most im-
portant word is, however, ^?^, which sustains the same
notion; It means to miss the mark, either by falling short
or going beside It, or losing, missing a way (Judges xx.
1 6 ; Prov. viii. 36, xix. 2), and hence it repeatedly occurs
in the sense of moral failure and transgression. Other
And Absolution of Sins. 261
words, such as "r^a and ^^tt, convey the deceitful and
covert quality of sin, and hence connote more of dell-
berate Intention than s^n. The nouns derived from
these verbs are sometimes (as In Psalm xxxli. i, Exod.
xxxlv. 7, Lev. xvl. 21) brought Into combination to
exhaust the whole nature of sin. Thus ^^.^., ^"^^ and
\\^ would, by their juxtaposition, mean separation from
God, deflection from the real standard of His will, with
all their terrible moral and physical consequences.
As a rule, the Greek equivalent of s^n and of Its
derivations, is the common word afiaprdveiv (with its
nominal forms afiaprla and dfidprrjfjia) ; sometimes, how-
ever, dhuKeiv Is used for the same purpose. The other
Hebrew words are rendered by a vast number of Greek
terms, such as dOerhv, aZtKhvy dvofjbhv, irapa^aiveiv, as well
as dfiaprdveiv. This latter word, with the noun dfjuaprla
is the most important of all the Scriptural terms ; ety-
mologlcally signifying " not securing the end," It comes
through a local meaning, to that of missing the mark,
and it has this ethical signification from Homer to the
LXX. In fact, its local meaning does not occur either
in LXX. or New Testament in the simple form.
It has so broad a connotation that it becomes quite
generic, as In Rom. v. 13, dfiapria r/v iv koct/juq)^ and with
the article It denotes, In Rom. vll. 7-17, 20-23, and
vIII. 2, &c., a motive or principle of action. The singular
is used to denote single acts as far as the generic
character is applicable to them. The plural form seldom
occurs In Pauline writings, while it Is used in the Synoptic
Gospels for the totality of the sinful actions of Individuals.
napapaivetv, with Its derivative Trapd/Saai^, has both the
transitive sense of overstepping or stepping beyond a
norm or standard, and the intransitive sense of stepping
aside or falling short of it. There can be no Trapd/Saa-Lf;
without the existence of a vofjuo^- Before the voijl6<; there
262 The Forgiveness
had been ufjuaprla, and the coming of the law transformed
It mtO 7rapdpa(TL<^. Ilapairl'TrTeLV, with Its derivative TrapaTTTCDfjLa,
are used in LXX. as equivalents of the strongest
Hebrew terms, but in later Greek writers only in the
sense of falling away from righteousness, or of oversight.
Still, the two words Trapd/Saai^; and irapam-TcopLa are both
used of Adam's sin, in Rom. v., and, as far as they both
refer to a given norm or standard, they are synonymous.
Avofjbia is one of the most Important words of the series
from its direct relation with vofjbo^. The word Z/0//-69, with
or without the article, is used by St. James and St. Paul
for any power which controls the life and actions of men.
It is specially used, both with and without the article, to
denote the law given by Moses and the law as a written
declaration of God's claim to human obedience. Avopbia
is used for (1) lawlessness and anarchy, (2) as the
opposite of BcKatoo-vvTj, (3) as the translation of several
of the Hebrew words 2?ti7^, ]ir, and n^i^n^ (4) by St.
Paul as the expression of sin in Its opposition to the
law and will of God, and (5) by St. John as the nearest
approach to a definition of sin. Its simplest form is
conduct not regulated by law, its more explicit signi-
fication is conduct in opposition to law. All the power-
ful Scriptural descriptions of sin imply the existence of a
standard, or law or mark or ideal, which may be missed
or overstepped, or may simply not be reached. The law
is the will of God, the nature of God revealed In the
nature of man and in the positive commands which
intensify dp^aprla into a positive Trapaffaac^ or irapdirrwp.a.
The question arises, What is the vop,6^ of which sin is
the transgression } Is there a vop,6^ for all moral beings,
a normal condition, an ideal life of such completeness
that any infraction, violation, or coming short of It,
however minute, becomes ''sin,'' the missing of the
aim, and the frustration of the end of their being ?
And Absolution of Sins. 263
Here acrain we are face to face with God Himself No
o
interpretation of the nature of right, which simply supplies
us with a synonym of the veritable i^o/xo?, covers or
exhausts the subject. All the notorious answers to the
question bring us back again to the same point, and bid
us stand alone with God. If we equate the '* right "
with the ** true " we are no nearer to the solution of the
mystery, for our ultimate analysis of the '* true " is
simply '' the thought of God." If we regard right as
that which is ultimately and universally advantageous
to the whole universe throughout all eternity, — and no
other statement of the utilitarian theory at all meets the
case, — we are again thrown back on Him in whom that
universe exists, and who has supplied the spring of
universal and eternal blessedness. If we call it the '' eternal
fitness or order of things," we are merely with some
circumlocution expressing our conviction that God's
own nature is the nature of right, for the order and
fitness are not independent entities or ultimate facts.
If we call it *' the beautiful" and " the good," we are only
using synonyms for the eternal nature of Him out of
whose fathomless Being the truth, the beauty, the order,
the harmony, and the blessedness of the universe really
spring. The revelation of this nature of God provides
the '' criterion of right," asserts the voyib^. The revela-
tion has been abundant in the cosmos, in Providence, in
conscience, in the constitution of human nature, above
all in the ideal life of the Perfect Man, who was also the
Son of God. The personal union of the Divine and
human natures in the Christ constitutes Him not only
the express image of the essence of God, but the living
law for man. The decalogue was a prophecy of Him,
as it was the transcript of the Divine thought concerning
the perfect man.
Conformity with this law is the entire harmony of
264 The Forgiveness
the creative or subordinate will of the moral being with
the supreme will of the Father ; distance from God,
unlikeness to His nature, conscious, intelligent, wilful
departure from His standard, shows that the mind has
taken another rule, and has broken with the true ideal
of its nature, has made its own will rather than the
Divine will the ideal of its being. In such a case the self
rather than God supplies all the spring of action, and
includes the whole congeries of motives. Some have
maintained that sin and selfishness are identical terms —
that all selfishness is sin and all sin selfishness. If we
take selfishness in its broadest sense as the substitution
of the self-will of the ego for God's will, we have an
expression which is nearly identical in meaning with
the Scriptural language in which it is defined by avofxia.
This definition is, moreover, one which has the advan-
tage of being easily applied to the practical difficulties
that beset our investigations, and to the life of the
soul.
We are now in a position to consider the consequences
of sin. If forgiveness by God can be nothing less than
the remission or removal of the consequences that accom-
pany and follow transgression, it is incumbent upon us to
analyze those consequences.
The first, most obvious, and universal consequence of
sin, taken in this sense, is increased disposition to sin
and facility in sinning. A law of our nature which is
demonstrated by a wide induction of the phenomena of
sense and intellect, of emotion and will, is this, that
all our sense impressions, our intellectual acts, our
unresisted emotions, as well as our volitions, produce
corresponding modifications of our being. Our sen-
sations w^hen repeated become more readily the occa-
sion of perception, our mental processes by repetition
are enacted with greater ease, our emotions when in-
Aftd Absolution of Sins. 265
dulged acquire greater force over us, our volitions affect
the sum of all our subsequent motives, move the very
plane of our moral being, produce new elements in our
character, /r^ tanto change all that constitutes our nature.
The class of actions to which any man most readily
reverts, creates the idiosyncracy by which he is recog-
nized. Indulgence in any habit of mind leads to the
development of that particular habit, until its force
becomes the master of the will, and refuses to conform
to a new habit. Any subsequent habit acquired by
diverse motive or compelled by circumstance will be
acquired on the basis and ground of the previous habit.
Thus the impressions of childhood and the associations
of early manhood are never lost, though they may be
concealed from observation or consciousness. The
wrinkle on the face, the stoop of the frame, and the
life-long scar will show the force of habits and actions,
and the sum of impressions which, though they have
faded from the memory, have left their signature behind
them. This is true with reference to the motives which
influence us as moral beings, the effect upon us of
our past conduct. The consequences of actions are, by
the law of our nature, irreversible ; they bring with them
facilities, dispositions, and tendencies which are as closely
related to them as any series of phenomena in the
universe.
Every sin or every substitution of self-will for the
true "law" of our moral being has the tendency to create
or strengthen the habit of such substitution. Every
violation or neglect of conscience lowers the standard
and weakens the voice of conscience. The pleasure of
self-gratification becomes more imperious in its demands
by every fresh indulgence. The habit of disregarding
the highest and ultimate end of our existence grows
with every voluntary surrender to the immediate interest
266 The Forgiveness
or nearest gratification. The quick sense of right and
wrong, the sense of " I ought " or '' I ought not,"
becomes morbidly blended with the sense of personal
advantage. The soul, by revolving around the centre
of self, becomes inaccessible and dead to the high and
eternal interests that really concern it. Thus the first con-
sequence of sin is sinfulness, proclivity to fresh sin, and
to renewed departure from the living law. It is not
erroneous to speak of this *' consequence of sin " as a
part of the penalty assigned to the commission of sin by
God's administration of the universe. It is in fact in-
volved in the great Johannine definition of sin, for avofila in
itself describes a judgment already passed by the supreme
Lawgiver. Sinful propension is at least a consequence
inflicted by law upon transgression. It is one element of
the order of the universe assigned by Him who has ori-
ginated all moral beings, and it Is part of an arrangement,
moreover, which appears to stretch through the whole
kingdom of God. It is brought about by the action of
the same law through which the Spirit of Grace works
towards the eradication of evil from the heart of man,
and by which all the influences of truth and love and
righteousness become permanent in the soul. "He that
soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption,
but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap
life everlasting." The law of augmenting sinfulness and
the law of the Spirit of life in human nature are alike
illustrations of a remarkable peculiarity of all our mental
states and changes.
Further, the augmenting sinfulness of the sinner is a
penally, because it lowers him in the scale of moral beings,
it reduces his capacity for enjoyment, it severs him in its
measure and degree from the sources of blessedness and
life. As there is no suffering more keen for a mind
capable of higher things than to find that by foolish waste
And AbsohUion of Sins. 267
of energ-y on trifles, it has lost its powers and all its former
interest in the great things of the understanding, so, in
like manner, there is no suffering more bitter for the moral
nature than to discover the degrading effect of sin, to find
itself taking pleasure in unrighteousness, to discover the
imperious claims of the flesh, and to feel the pangs of a
weak and unprincipled will, impotent in resisting what it
sees and knows to be evil and deadly. It is torment to
find the walls of the prison-house of selfishness, the
gyves and bolts of the cruel taskmaster, indulgence, re-
sisting the nobler yet feebler impulses of the soul, and
scoffing at the tremulous voice of protest which the
drowsy or half-paralyzed conscience whimpers forth from
the depths of the dungeons of despair.
The consequences of sin are not limited to the degra-
dation of the sinner, or to the weakening of his power
of resistance to sin. There is, further, the direct accusa-
tion of conscience, there is the sense of guilt or punishable-
ness. This may be nothing more than fear of ulterior
consequences either in this world or the next, the antici-
pation of suffering as a penal infliction or a natural
result of transgression. This accusation of self by self,
and this gloomy surmise of the future, may never take
any other or better form, and may be powerless in arrest-
ing the fresh commission of sin. Many find in the
ordinary course of human affairs all the explanation of
this state of mind that they need. By many modern
writers of a particular school of philosophy it is treated
as the simple consequence of a state of civilization, the'
observation and calculation of advantages. This is not
the place to repudiate such an interpretation of that
which we regard as one of the most constant and awful
proofs that we have, of the moral government to which
we are subjected.
Suffering is, in a vast majority of cases, the obvious
268 The Forgiveness
consequence of the violation of the moral law. Reward
and punishment follow upon the heels of virtue and
vice. Even though at times they may be delayed,
in the long-run the order of human affairs shows, as
Butler says, on which side the Ruler of the universe
takes His stand. The argument of Butler has not been
gainsaid, even though at times the history of successful
villany or apparently undeserved suffering may make us
pause in terrible unrest, and say, " Is there a God that
judgeth in the earth ?" We dare not assert that human
suffering is by any means always the measure of per-
sonal transgression. Holy Scripture, in many places,
shows that suffering does not furnish any practical
criterion of personal virtue or vice. The Book of Job
was an elaborate disproof of the old canon of judgment.
Those eighteen upon whom the Tower of Siloam fell
were not greater sinners than all the rest of the dwellers
in Jerusalem. The sin of one is often punished by the
sufferings of another. Balaam, Jeroboam, and Ahab made
Israel to sin ; they were the most guilty persons in the
sight of God and men, but the punishment fell on the
whole community. David numbered the people in the
pride "of his heart, and the pestilence carried away its
thousands, punishing him in the greater sufferings of
his people. Our modern rationalists will neither admit the
historical fact, nor accede to the explanation thus given
of the occurrence, but they cannot deny that this Influence
is the intentional teaching of Holy Scripture ; and they
do not demur to a statement which needs no laboured
proof, viz., that sin and suffering are shown in the Bible
to stand in very close and impressive relations with each
other. It does not seem possible to hide from view the
organic relation, which links whole generations of men so
closely together that the sin of one man may sometimes
be expiated by decades and centuries of suffering on the
And Absolution of Sins. 269
part of others. Physical weakness and anguish, torture
of mind, straitening of circumstance, shame and blood-
feud, are often the heritage of personal transgression and
licentiousness. Whether we can square this with justice
or not, few care to deny it. We are all suffering, in our
temperament, temptations, circumstances, the conse-
quences of other men s sins as well as of our own. It is
thus that God has made sin to seem and to be exceeding
sinful. No sinner perisheth alone in his iniquity.
No one dieth unto himself. Every sin has its hideous
progeny. "The seed of the serpent" is the whole "genera-
tion of vipers." The contagiousness, infection, and here-
ditary transmission of sin itself are not the limits of its
evil. It curses the third and fourth generation ; it
punishes the ends of the world ; it actually injures,
weakens, inflicts disadvantage on the distant and the
unborn age.
Alienation from God is another distinct consequence
of personal transgression or avo^iLa, It is true that
no sin can be committed by a moral being without in-
volving estrangement from the living God, yet the
direct consequence of any wilful act of selfishness or
rebellion Is to widen the breach between the soul and
God, to Induce petulant thoughts of the sanctity of His
requirements, to create dangerous fancies concerning His
true nature, and too often to blaspheme the august name
of God, and degrade the Image under which He is con-
ceived and worshipped. Discordance with the Divine
ideal and rebellion against the Divine law, have an awful
tendency to promote and diffuse themselves, and, un-
less they can be checked, will end in eternal death.
If God and the sinner come into any personal relations
whatever, such alienation only follows the psychological
law of the estrangement and repulsion of minds, and
must augment, unless the stronger Mind and Will resolve,
270 The Forgiveness
by endurance, long suffering, magnanimous remission of
consequences, to overcome the weaker. Such conditon of
utter aHenatlon from God is one of the most patent facts in
the universe, whatever be its ultimate or proximate cause.
Death is the ultimate consequence of sin. Inde-
pendently of the sin of the human will and sinfulness of
human nature, — i.e.^ apart from the peccatum origi7tis
huma^ii generis, — the death of the body might be
a joyous and sublime event. Sin has conferred upon
it a terrible significance, and has wrapped it in im-
penetrable mystery. If we could suppose a sinless race
upon the earth, with a human will, in spontaneous but
perfect accord with the Divine will, we should be in the
midst of a community to whom — even if death were needed
as a disciplinary event in the Divine education of the
soul — it would suggest no terror, and would imply no
punishment. Sin, estrangement from the Divine Life and
beauty and law of the universe, has made the act of
physical death the epoch of some startling and funda-
mental change in our relations with our Maker and His
laws. Hence it becomes the synonym of the curse on
sin, the type of its most malign operations, and the name
of the entire condition into which the soul is itself brought
by sin. In the language of Christ and His Apostles,
the death of the body is actually Inconspicuous and
insignificant by the side of that death of the soul of
which it is the type. *
Cold insensibility, hideous corruption, utter dissolution,
are only types of a state of soul which sin induces, and
which confers on death new and undefined horror.
I do not enter upon the full meaning that may be re-
vealed in the words " eternal death " or '' second death."
There is no light, no rest or joy in them ; there is no
solution of Its mystery. It Is enough for my present
* Compare Ephes. i. and ii. with John xi. and vi.
A7id Absolution of Sins, 271
argument, whatever they may mean, that they are the
ultimate issue of sin.
A momentous question arises here. Are these con-
sequences of sin penal inflictions, are they to be attributed
to the Lawgiver and Lord of the universe ? Are we to
reeard them as the direct or indirect work of the Most
High ? It is a momentous enquiry, because whichever
of the two answers be given, we come face to face with
new and grave difficulties. If God be the author of
these consequences of sin, is He not the author of sin,
and the first cause of a large proportion of the sinful and
arbitrary violations of His own laws '^. On the other hand,
if He be not the origin of these consequences ; if they do
not flow forth from the fountain of His will ; if the suffer-
ing and sinfulness consequent upon sin be not the
production of the supreme order of the universe, then
they are the orderly outworking of the great kingdom of
evil, the regularity and far-reaching sweep of whose
dominion would constitute a formidable rival even to the
throne of God. We seem by this enquiry to be driven
on the dilemma either of Pantheism or Dualism. Is there
no escape from it .'^ The only reply to this question, but we
conceive an adequate one, is this, that the suffering conse-
quent upon sin is right, is part of the nature of the Divine
Being, is of the very essence of His goodness.* The
suffering is brought about in the working of those ulti-
mate laws, in and by which all moral beings exist. These
laws are themselves God's way of dealing with moral
beings in that part of their nature which is impersonal,
their ultimate constitution. Sin against the highest law
will revenge its own violations in various degrees and
forms of suffering. The most serious and awful of these
consequences, the most difficult to understand as com-
patible with the goodness and justice of God, is that sin-
* Aug. Confessiones, L. IV,
272 The Forgiveness
fulness should be engendered by sin, and In consequence,
moreover, of laws impressed on all moral beings by a
beneficent Ruler. The law is identically the same law by
which moral excellence, and self-restraint, intellectual
vigour and holy energies, are quickened and matured.
As with the growth so with the decay of every living
organism — the co-operation of the Divine will is impera-
tively required. In the same manner the Divine order
and the eternal force co-operate with, and underlie all the
energies of the free will, and are present in the holiness
and in the sin of every living creature. Even if free-
will be the highest analogue of creative power, God
has not set it to work, and severed it from His own
existence. Every nerve, every blood corpuscle, every
atom of the living frame is the scene of creative energy,
not self-dependent force. All the laws of association
and habit, of imagination and deduction, are only God's
ways of acting in the sphere of conscious existence,
just as the laws of motion and light reflect His modes of
operation elsewhere. The lazvs of existence are indepen-
dent of personal beings and responsibilities, and the effect
of the laws of habit upon the sinning proclivities or
sinful actions of men, rapidly and universally inflict the
most awful penalty upon the transgressor. As the author
of those laws He is indirectly the author of the sins they
lead the sinner to commit ; as the creator and upholder
of the human spirit He is the creator of the sinning and
suffering moral agent ; it is useless and hopeless to deny
this much of the facts of the universe. Nor is the re-
sponsibility of the sin thus taken from the sinner. This
is seen by the old illustration of the murderer and his
knife. Unless the ten thousand physical laws and arrange-
ments, which are necessary to the effectuation of a crime,
be preserved intact, the catastrophe need not result from
the action of the murderer's will. All the perpetuity
And Absolution of Sins. 273
and permanence of natural law, and of the qualities of
things, are simply the expression of the Divine method of
acting with and in these things ; but such co-operation of
the Divine will is far from complicity with the act of the
transgressor. In no other way can we regard the Divine
arrangement as conducing to the permanence and dis-
astrous consequences of sin. But the degree to which it
extends declares the penal character of these conse-
quences, or in other words, the fact that they spring out
of the legislative order of the universe.
I return, therefore, to the main point of these enquiries,
viz., the Divine forgiveness of sin. If this phrase has
any meaning at all corresponding with the human circum-
stances which suggest such a gracious arrangement, then
God's forgiveness must signify the removal of all the con-
sequences which are inflicted by the legislative order of
His will. God's own act of forgiveness and man's state
of forgiveness must imply a gracious and supernatural
change. There must be a change in God's method of
working in us, — the operation of a new law of life. As
viewed on the Divine side, — and with this I propose to
deal first, — the principle of Divine government must in
its own nature have been supplemented or developed,
so that the consequences which the laws of His uni-
verse otherwise continuously entail upon the sinner,
are graciously, mysteriously arreste*^. The fact we
here assume and are trying to analyze is this, God
HAS FORGIVEN SINS ; and this fact, viewed apart from the
conscious experimental change in the sinner, to which
we shall presently recur, may be thus stated : —
A sinner suffering the consequences of his own sins,
and inheriting the various disadvantages of his father's
or his brethren's sins, with propensities to evil, and
with whole trains of terrible possibility surrounding him,
which his own evil desires threaten to fire, is found
T
2 74 The Forgiveness
CO be repentant, trustful, hopeful about the future, loving
the God who made him, forsaking his evil way, recon-
ciled to the Great Lawgiver. The physical suffering
which he had merited may smite him, but, by a
strange alchemy, the curse is transmuted into a
blessing, — into a reason for deeper reverence, trust,
and obedience. Now this change in the man is a
change of Divine administration. It takes its origin in
the law of the Divine working. God has wrought all
these works in the sinner. We ask, then, has the
law which linked sin with sinfulness, guilt, suffering,
and death, been abolished or suspended ? Is there
a new way of judging and ruling moral agents, —
one that links sin with repentance, faith, blessedness,
and life ? It is not sufficient to answer that repentance,
desire for amendment, faith in God, reconciliation with
Him, are the introduction of a new force into the case,
and furnish an adequate explanation of the Divine act
of clemency, because that supposition affords no explan-
ation of the repentance or the faith itself. If forgiveness
include the remission of all the consequences of sin, then
repentance, faith, and the spirit of forgiveness, are them-
selves in part the consequences of the Divine forgiveness.
They point back to the Lawgiver and Father, and pre-
suppose some principle of administration which they do
not explain.
The Bible contains statements on this head which are
apparently contradictory. Whole chapters in EzekieFs pro-
phecy seem pledged tothe statement, that ** the soul that
sinneth it shall die ! " Elsewhere we are told that God
is "jealous," is a '' consuming fire." '' He will not forgive
your sins," said Joshua. *' He that being often reproved
hardeneth his neck, shall be destroyed without remedy ;"
" Can an Ethiopian change his skin ? " &c. ; " Cursed is
every one that continueth not in all things which are
A7id A b so hit ion of Shis. 275
written In the book of the law to do them." ** In thy
sight shall no man living be justified ;" " The transgres-
sors shall be destroyed together, the end of the wicked
shall be cut off;" '* Your Iniquities have separated be-
tween you and your God, and your sins have hid
his face from you that he will not hear ;" '' The face
of the Lord Is against them that do evil ;" " Hear,
oh earth, behold I will bring evil upon this people,
even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not
hearkened to my words, nor to my law, but rejected it ;"
" How shall I pardon thee for this ? ' These were the
burning words of the Hebrew Prophets.
On the other hand, however, even from the dawn
of revelation, we are also assured, that '' Jehovah is
slow to anger, and of great mercy, and repenteth
him of the evil ;" *' He is long-suffering, not willing
that any should perish, but that all should come
to repentance ;" *' Bless the Lord, who forgiveth all
thine iniquities;" '* How excellent is thy lovlngkindness,
O God ! therefore the children of men put their trust
under the shadow of thy wings ;" '' He being full of
compassion forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them
not : yea, many a time turned he his anger away, and
did not stir up all his wrath ; " "I have no pleasure In
the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God, where-
fore turn yourselves, and live ye ;" " Let the wicked man
return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him,
and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon ;" ''' The
Lord descended and proclaimed the name of the Lord,
the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-
suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth ; keeping
mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, and transgression,
and sin ;" '* As far as the east is from the west, so far
hath he removed our transgressions from us ;" *' Let
Israel hope in the Lord : for with the Lord is mercy, and
T 2
276 The Forgiveness
with him is plenteous redemption ;" " There is forgive-
ness with thee that thou mayest be feared ;" "■ Who is
a God Hke unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity and passeth
by transgression ;" " Thou wih cast all their sins into the
depths of the sea." It would be easy to multiply quota-
tions from Holy Scripture in vindication of both of these
aspects of the Divine government.
How can we reconcile these views of the same God in
the same revelation of His character ? All the facts of
nature proclaim His righteousness in punishing sin, in
linking sin with sinfulness, with suffering, with death.
All the accusations of conscience, most of the conclusions
of philosophy, and the chief doctrines of the great Oriental
theosophies call for the perpetuation of the order, of the
legislation, of the fate which seals the doom of sin. Even
where the moral consciousness is partially awakened,
and where the Divine law is frittered away into ceremonial
travesties of its sanctity, there the craving for this righteous
judgment is strongly marked. On the other hand, our
highest intuitions and the noblest revelations of the Divine
Being point to a diametrically opposite conclusion, viz.,
that God is merciful and gracious, that He passes by
transgression, is mighty to save, that He is love, that He
is able to deliver from fate, to set free from sin, to redeem
from vain conversation, from the power of the enemy,
and even from death itself ; that He is able to give repent-
ance, reniinsioM wf sins, and eternal life. Have we then
two Gods, one of whom is the Destroyer and the other
the Deliverer ? one of whom is righteous and the other
merciful ? This is the conclusion of many a heathenism^
and the practical charge brought against Christianity by
some of our modern rationalists. Yet the Holy Scriptures,
which present both aspects of the Divine character and
government, repudiate all dualism in the essence of God.
.Christian theology has blended the apparent discord
A7td AbsohUion of Sins. 277
by its harmony of these attributes, and by the discovery
that, pervading the entire revelation of God from Abra-
ham and Moses to Paul and John, there is a Divine
aspect or Person of the Godhead, who combines in
Himself all the righteousness and all the love of
God. There is a wondrous light and unspeakable help
in the unveiling of One who expresses all God's ven-
geance against sin, and all His triumph over it ; who
embodies in Himself all the laws of moral agents, even
all the eternal rectitude which consociates sin, suffer-
ing, and death, and yet arrests the curse of sin, turns
punishment into salvation, and bestows upon a dying
race eternal life. The power of the Gospel is due to this
grand unity in the Person of the Christ of God. If,
therefore, using the language of Scripture, we say God
forgiveth iniquity, and if we pray, '' Our Father which
art in heaven, forgive us our sins, for we also forgive
every one that is indebted to us," it is because we believe
that God can and will do to us in our sins and debts, with
all their desperate complexity, what we do to those who
have sinned against us, — i.e., by analogy we are led to
hope that He will remove all the richly-deserved conse-
quences of our transgressions, and give us in their stead,
faith, repentance unto life, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption.
The ultimate grounds of such hope must, by the very
nature of things, be outside of us, and be the producing
cause of all the gracious preliminaries which precede,
in our own experience, the full realization of such a fact.
There must be ground for this act of God in His own
wonderful nature. It might have been as unimportant for
us to understand any of the antecedents of this act of
our Heavenly Father, as it is for us to grasp the begin-
nings of life in the physical world, or to comprehend
the changes which have accompanied the progress of
278 The Forgiveness
creation. We might have been left with this unsolved
problem In the regions of moral and spiritual science, and
have simply been able to observe that repentance unto
life did not infrequently take place like an original crea-
tion in the sphere of a human soul ; we might have attri-
buted it to Divine interposition, to an uncomprehended
mystery of love, and have been most thankful that there
was such a sublime fact as the forgiveness of sins, the
arrest of curse, the blotting out of transgression, the
obliteration of fear, the triumph of love. We admit that
this is all which many theologians have to suggest to our
understanding. Still, the revelation of God has told us
something of the deep movements of the Divine will, and
has told it in such a form as to make the knowledge highly
efficacious in securing the result. But this change must
be independent of adequate knowledge on our part, of the
means of redemption and forgiveness. The Divine life
must have been working mightily in the breast of those
who have never duly recognized its origin ; nor is it pos-
sible that correct theory, as to the method of the Divine
operation, can be essential to the continuous working
of the love and power of God. It is, however, important
to state what grounds for the Divine forgiveness of sin
are discoverable in the teaching of Holy Scripture.
The Scriptures uniformly declare that the Eternal God
and He alone can forgive sins committed against Him.
The love of God is the origin, not the consequence, of
the reconciling or redemptive process. (Isaiah xliii. 25 ;
John iii. 16 ; Titus iii. 4, 5, 6.)
The analogies of nature and human government show
that a supreme act of the Lawgiver Himself is essential
to any forgiveness that is worthy of the name. Here
philosophy and theology, Jew and Greek, the guilty
conscience and the pure reason, utter the same voice.
Guilty conscience and enlightened moral conscious-
Aiid Absolution of Sins. 279
ness In the Hebrew nation, and in other Semitic tribes,
as expressed also in the religious systems of many peoples,
have given loud, though not unanimous, testimony to the
conviction that something more than subjective self-origi-
nated changes are needed to move the Omnipotent, and
introduce the law of forgiveness into the laws of the uni-
verse, and also to act upon it. The guilty conscience with
offerings of sacrifice and blood has sought from God, the
great Fountain of right, that justification which He alone
can give. He who put the spirit and power of forgiving
personal injuries into a human soul, thereby revealed Him-
self; He who made a mother s heart and taught the act of
unselfish love, proved that He had devised the means of
forgiveness, and had slain the Lamb before the foundation
of the world.
Symbolic facts and events are recorded in Holy Scrip-
ture, which show that the co-ordination of a saintly human
will with the Divine will may be the ultimate ground
of reconciliation between the Supreme Being and the
sinful creature. (Exod. xxxii. 29-35; Num. xvi. 46-50;
XXV. 13; Ps. cvi. 30, 31.)
The sacrificial system of the Old Testament exhibits a
multitude of arbitrary difficulties raised In the way of the
ceremonial approach to God; and, while these observances
are condemned as hopeless folly if made a substitute
for righteousness, they must perpetually have suggested
and incited the enquiry, " Wherewithal shall we appear
before God ?" and did urgently call for a priest, a sacrifice,
and a temple, which might take towards moral evil the
part which these shadows of the Christ had taken towards
ceremonial defilement. The Prophets and Psalmists
assured Israel that there was such a Priest, such a
Sufferer, such a Victim of sin, and that Jehovah was
able to forgive.
The great theme of the whole revelation of God in
28o The Forgiveness
Holy Scripture, from its first page to its last, is the
union of God and man in the only-begotten Son of
God. This was the hope of the world indicated in a
thousand ways — in blighted hopes, in gorgeous visions,
in vast systems of mythology and theocracy, in the
Eastern theories of divine incarnation, and in the
Western boast of human apotheosis. For this the
world was groaning with insatiable earnestness. The pre-
paration for it was deeply seated in humanity, and in all
the purposes and nature of God Himself.
The fulness of the times came, and that event took
place which was the dividing-line between the past and
the future eternity. Viewed on its strictly material side,
a very small circumstance occurred in the outskirts of
the crowded metropolis of a petty province of Imperial
Rome, yet words fail to expound its importance. The
intellect of the first three centuries of the Church was
almost exclusively occupied in striving to place this fact
within the compass of its formal thoughts. There has
never been a generation since, when the thoughts of men
about this fact were not among the chief motive powers
in the intellectual and moral world. At this moment the
" person," the " nature," the " claims, the '' offices," the
''flesh," the "body," the ''spirit," the ''presence" of the
Lord Jesus Christ supply the food of speculation, the
springs of obedience, sacrifice, and beneficence to all the
most advanced minds of the civilized world.
God sent His Son out of His infinite love. The
desire of all the nations came, and thus the cycle of sin
and corruption, with its dread contagion and fearful peril,
was arrested. The cycle was broken by the appearance
of the second Adam, as certainly as that old-world
order had been disturbed by the appearance of the
first Adam^ and as certainly as a disturbance of our
notions of human development and order will take place
Aftd Absohitio7i of Sins. 281
when He shall come a^aln and every eye shall see Him.
That part of the Divine forgiveness of sins which
consists of the arrest of the consequences of sin in
humanity, the overruling of the law of habit and of
hereditary and contagious transmission of sinfulness and
corruption, is conspicuously revealed in the simple fact
of the Incarnation, in this sublime revelation of the
Father's heart. Hence we find the Lord Jesus Christ
represented as claiming the Divine prerogatives of for-
giving sin and of restoring forfeited life. He claims to
be the Patron, King, Intercessor, Arbiter of the human
race. He declares that He was the gift of the Father's
love to the world ; that He was the Bread of life and
the Light of the world. He knew that the Father
heard His prayer always. " I am," said He, ''the vine,
and ye are the branches. No man cometh unto the
Father but by me." This kind of testimony is abun-
dantly reiterated by the Apostles, who declare that saved
men are members of His body, living stones in the temple
that is built on Him and that is filled by the Father's
glorious presence. There is little debate among Chris-
tians as to this sublime fact, though there may be as to
the most correct and fitting name by which to designate it.
So far, then, the Incarnation of God may be regarded
as a great fact outside of our experience, but affecting
the whole government of God, providing the antecedent
and ground of the most essential and solemn element in
the forgiveness of sins.
Many men appear to complete their estimate of the
renewal and salvation of mankind when they have
accepted this supernatural and sublime fact ; they have
here, it is true, more than it is possible ever to exhaust ;
and, doubtless, the whole truth of the Atonement is im-
plicitly contained in the Incarnation, in the Lord's taking
upon him all our nature.
282 The Forgiveness
But the self- revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ Is not
limited to the fact of His Incarnation. Thus (John i. 29)
Jesus admitted the appellation, " Lamb of God which
taketh away the sin of the world," and He said that He
was Himself the Bread of life, and that no man could
truly live without eating His flesh and drinking His
blood. (John vi. 33-58.) Amid the glories of the
Transfiguration, He pondered the decease He was about
to accomplish, and made the revelation of His Divine
humanity the basis of His instructions with reference to
His cruel death. As the good Shepherd He was prepared
to lay down His life for His sheep. (John x. 15-18.) Inthe
institution of the communion of His body and blood, He
declared that His body was broken for His disciples, and
His blood shed for the remission of sins. (Matt. xxvi.
28 ; Luke xxii. 20.) He told His disciples that He
gave His life a ransom In the stead of many. (Matt. xx.
28 ; Mark x. 45.) He claimed the great oracle of
Isaiah IIII. as a description of Himself — a claim which
was reiterated on six different occasions by the Evan-
gelists and Apostles ; so that, whatever was the meaning
which Jews or modern critics, or even Isaiah himself, may
have put upon it, the Apostles of Christ unquestionably
treated it in Its entirety as the best account they could
render of the suffering and death of Christ. (John xii.
38-41 ; John I. 29 ; Acts vIII. 30-35 ; i Peter II. 21-25 5
Matt. viii. 17 ; Mark xv. 28 ; Luke xxii. 27-)
The whole of the life of Jesus was the expression of
mysterious sympathy between the Sinless and the sinner.
Though He never lost the conviction that He was the
beloved Son of the Father, " it pleased the Lord to
bruise him." The cup of agony which the Father gave
Him to drink was a Divine appointment, not a freak and
demonstration of human malice and folly. The most
terrible moments in His passion, so far as we are per-
And Absolution of Sins. 283
mitted to understand them, were when the burden of
His task made Him conscious of a momentary yearning
that that cup might pass from Him, and the intensity of
His anguish led Him to cry, " My God, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me ?" He was actually ** numbered
with transgressors ; " His heart broke with sorrow over
human sin and sympathy with the Divine law. The
death of the Prince of life, the resurrection and ascension
of Christ, the gift to His disciples of power and insight
into the meaning of His life, passion, and glory, led
them to proclaim, in His name, repentance and remis-
sion of sins. Now, it is undeniable that the Apostles,
in their treatment of the relation between the death of
Christ and the forgiveness of sins, make that relation to
consist in part of the moral effect produced upon the
sinner by the contemplation of the self-sacrifice of Christ.
Thus, they speak of God sending His Son to bless His
people in turning them from their iniquities, and of
Christ having set His disciples an example of sacrifice,
humility, and self-abnegation. (Acts iii. 26 ; Phil. ii. 5 ;
I Pet. ii. 21 ; i John iii. 16.) They do so, however, in
a way which proves that they held the salvation which
Christ has effected to be more than an exhibition of the
way in which we may save ourselves. It would be
possible to take isolated passages (such as Eph. iv. 32 to
v. i., and 2 Cor. v. 14, 15), and to see in them simply the
high inducement which the sacrifice of Christ exerts on all
who adequately appreciate it, to live no longer to them-
selves, but to Him who died for them and rose again, to
walk in love as dear children, and thus to share the
sublime spirit of the holy child Jesus, But there are
many utterances of the Apostles which imply a conviction
on their part that Christ has not only set us an example
of humility and love and submission to the Father's will,
but that, in His sufferings and death and resurrection,
284 The Forgiveness
He has provided the means by which the Eternal Father
secures for us the forgiveness of sins. (Acts x. 34-43, xiii.
38, 39, xxvi. 18, 23 ; I Peter i. 18-21 ; f John i. 7, ii. 1,2;
Rom. lii. 25, iv. 25 ; i Cor. xv. 3, 4 ; Gal. i. 4; Eph. i. 5,
6, 7; Col. i. 14; I Tim. ii 4, 5.) A theology which ignores
the effect of Christ's work upon the heart, the mystic
union between the suffering Christ and the broken spirit,
and the degree to which the Atonement contributes to the
production of this spiritual change, is radically defective ;
but a theology which confounds the antecedents of God's
actions with the beginnings and conditions of a new
human experience, will also miss the meaning of the
New Testament. All that can be said on the moral
effect of the sufferings of Christ is augmented in weight
and importance when the full nature of that which Christ
was effecting for the human race comes clearly into view.
If the sufferings of the blessed Lord are set forth to
move our affections, and show us the sublimity and
majesty of the love which is stronger than death, without
revealing the nature of that love or the true motives or
consequences of that sacrifice, it falls far short in its
moral power of the representation that demonstrates its
unique and infinite value, and its personal claim upon our
allegiance. The moral efficiency which some of our
opponents contend for, as the adequate interpretation of
the atoning love of Christ, would be equally strong
whether the records of the Gospel were true or fictitious,
the dream of a poet or the crisis of a world.
In Rom. V. 6-10 the death of Christ Is represented by
the writer as the consideration in virtue of which the
ungodly may be regarded as just ; and in chap. ill. 2 1
forgiveness of sins is solemnly averred to be a righteous
as well as a loving act, because Jesus Christ Is set forth
as a propitiatory offering.
The entire sacrificial system of the Old Testament is
And Absolution of Sins. 285
claimed as an anticipation of the sacrificial act of the
great High Priest. The new covenant of spiritual
obedience, by which God reproduces in humanity a
transcript of His own moral nature, is closely associated
by the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews with the
sacrifice and priesthood of Christ. (Heb. viii. ix.) The
moral effect of this great spectacle of love and sorrow would
not have been salutary if none of the grounds of it were
expounded to our reason. The emotion excited by it would
have been one of indignation against the persecutors of
the Holy One, of despondency at the awful risks of good-
ness, and of smothered despair at the thankless sacrifice
imposed by the course of human affairs upon the innocent
victim of human depravity and Divine injustice. But if
the explanation furnished by the Apostle Paul be the
true one, that God sent His Son in the likeness of sinful
flesh for sin, and thus condemned sin in the flesh (Rom.
viii. 3, 4) ; that Christ died for us that He might redeem
us from all iniquity (Gal. i. 3, vi. 14; Tit. ii. 14; i Tim. ii. 5),
and be Himself a ransom (avrikurpov) for all; that He ** our
passover has been sacrificed for us" (i Cor. v. 7) ; that
"Christ purchased us from the curse of the law, being made
a curse for us" (Gal. iii. 13, iv. 4) ; that we have redemp-
tion, even the forgiveness of sins, through His blood
(Eph. i. 7 ; Col. i. 14), then the moral force of the Cross
becomes apparent. Paul's own explanation of the mystery
of the death of Christ iielps us to understand how deliver-
ance from the body of sin and death is obtained through
the Lord Jesus Christ (Rom. vii. 25, viii. i) ; how the world
is crucified by the Apostle, and he and we in baptism are
crucified, dead and buried to sin ; then the voice of
conscience is recognized, the righteousness of God is
manifested, and a sufficient reason is given for adoring
gratitude and love. In vindicating the moral aspects which
are unveiled in a true understanding of the objective facts
2 86 The Forgiveness
occurring In the Divine government of the universe, we
are not to be charged with making them the sufficient
tests of the adequacy of the atonement of Christ, nor are
we confounding them in their essence with it ; but when
the so-called moral theory of the sacrificial work of Christ
is presented exclusively as the sum total of Divine reve-
lation on this deep theme, it is well to review the in-
efficiency of arguments, which, while they are addressed
to the reason and conscience, ignore the true basis on
which they would present their most formidable appeal.
Various efforts have been made by Christian thinkers
to explain the method by which the agony and death of
the Holy One became the ground of the forgiveness of
sin. Theologians have systematized these statements of
Holy Scripture, and have deduced logical inferences and
made gratuitous hypotheses to get over special difficulties,
and have often hampered themselves by the consequences
of their logic. There is no space here to enter into these
discussions. It is enough for our present purpose to
observe that if we are told that the Divine Governor and
Father is able to forgive sins — i.e.^ to remit the conse-
quences of sin, i.e., treat sin against the laws of His
universe in the spirit and freedom in which a human
father or judge or king can remit the consequences of
sins against human laws or human love — then the con-
science and intellect of man will search eagerly for some
revelation of the principle on which this is done. The
multiform efforts of mankind to express the Divine and the
human condemnation of sin in the sacrificial act by which
the sinner himself is delivered from the consequences
of sin, which is thus condemned and punished, point to
the revelation of God, and ask for some explanation of
the highest law of the universe, the law of forgiveness.
Every act of heroic self-sacrifice by which a suffering
man has taken upon himself the consequences of an-
And Absolution of Sins. 287
other's sins, has exhausted their curse, and inspired the
emotion of sanctifying gratitude and love ; every holy
effort made in vicarious self-abnegation, by which the
power of evil habit in some other individual is arrested
and exorcised ; all the love of mothers, which has been
strong as death ; all the forgiveness of brothers, which
has often cut deep into the quick of the soul, are some-
times referred to as expressing the idea of atonement.
It is said that the vicarious suffering of Christ is on the
same line, belongs to the same category, differs from
these only in degree, not in kind, and that all alike are
merely expressions of this great law of human affairs and
Divine government. This appears to me to be a most
imperfect way of tracing relation between the sacrifice of
Christ and the sacrifices of men, and their relation to the
Divine forgiveness of sins. They are connected, doubt-
less, and such analogies are of service when dealing with
those to whom the bare notion- of Divine forgiveness or
atonement is incomprehensible.
The true explanation of their mutual relations seems
to be in this : that in Christ's incarnation and sacrifice a
great force, or law of Divine operation, was introduced
into the universe, which is as diffusive as is light or heat
in the physical cosmos, as fundamental as attraction or
motion is to the constitution of matter, as important to
the development of humanity as life itself, and that the
Word made flesh was justified in saying that He had
life in Himself, and that he was the Light of the world,
and the only way to the Father. There is deep meaning
and sober sense in God having created all things by Jesus
Christ, and in the Lamb having been slain from the
foundation of the world. He is the Divine ground of
the Father's method of treating both sin and sinners, and
therefore from the beginning, under all dispensations, and
with all nations, there has been an arrest of the curse ;
288 The Forgiveness
a thousand influences have been at work which have
revealed the Law of God, and which have blended right-
eousness with the Love. Human understanding has always
failed to see how these great forces of Love and Law
could surge from the same centre, and it wasonly in the
sacrificial life and death of Jesus that the mystery of God's
universal government ever reached a full expression.
To many theologians the agony of Gethsemane or Cal-
vary has no appreciable relation with these fundamental
changes in the mode of the Divine government ; and vehe-
ment efforts are made to eet rid of the term and idea of
punishment, or penal infliction, in the case of Him who, as
a dear child, walked in the love, and lived in the light of
the Father's face. Still they fall back upon and admit the
fact of His suffering, and endeavour in various ways to
account for it. With some it has been produced by the
proximity of the Holy One to sinful life, and fanatical pre-
judice ; with others it has been the adequate repentance
rendered to the Law of God from the ground of human
nature: the infinite grief and sorrow of the Most High
expressed through the inspired and holy soul of a man
over the sins of the human race. These expressions all
fall far short of the evangelic narrative ; they are feeble
hypotheses by the side of the strong language of the
Apostles, and do not touch the deep problem of the death
of the Prince of life. But even taking them as they
stand, and for a moment going no farther than they seem
to reach, the questions arise : Whence did the suffering
spring ? Whence came the agony and bloody sweat, the
death-stroke and the shedding of the precious blood .'^
Did these not arise out of the order and law of the uni-
verse which has linked man with man, and sin with
sorrow and death .^ He came into the world, and by His*
own Divine life, arrested the curse of sin, the propa-
gation of sin, and the deceitfulness of sin ; but He did
And Absolutio7t of Sins, 289
more, He took the temptations and conflicts of mankind
upon Himself. They were real temptations. It was a
true conflict with the Prince of this world. In the victory
that He won, the evil of the universe was checked, and a
universal victory became possible. In His profound
sympathy with the need of man, and in His grief over
the sins of the world, He was encountering the laws and
the sanctions of the Divine government. Affliction came
upon Him In consequence of the sins of men. Even If
the term repentance be used of the expression In His
person of the grief of God over human transgression, It
was unquestionably a part of the universal governm.ent of
moral agents, — i.e., of the legislative order of the universe.
There is no particular virtue In the use of the word
punishment or penal Infliction. It Is not adopted totidem
verbis by the Inspired writers ; but in a hundred ways the
truth is taught, that in His sacrificial life and death, the
consideration was supplied In virtue of which the Divine
remission of sins is effected. It was the work of Him
who, being one with God, and the brightness of the
Father's glory, does not originate a schism in the God-
head, or show Himself a God more compassionate or
tender than the Eternal Father, but who gives utterance in
the death He died to the righteousness and love that had
from all eternity dwelt In the heart of God. Whatever else
the death of Christ accomplished. It furnished the ground
of the Divine forgiveness of human sins. Limiting our
thought exclusively to the Divine action In the matter,
— i.e., to the mode of the operation of the Divinely-
appointed laws assigned to moral beings and ruling their
destiny, — there is sufficient reason to believe that the
death of our Lord affected the entire constitution of
the universe, and Introduced a new and higher law into
its administration, — viz., the law of the living spirit.
It became possible that though a man had sinned he
u
290 The Forgiveness
might yet repent of his sin ; that though he was aHenated
by wicked works, he might be reconciled to God ; that
though he was under the curse of the broken law, he
might be redeemed from the curse ; that though he had
sown to the flesh, he might yet be born again, and live a
new and divine life. No one of these great changes
belonged to the domain of pure law, or were a part of the
original constitution of things, or are revealed to us in
nature. They are God's working in us ; they are the
fruits and powers of the Spirit of life, which Jesus died
and rose again, to confer upon the world.
This leads me to consider —
The forgiveness of sin as a human experience. I
have already, when regarding it on its Divine side, en-
deavoured to prove that it is fundamentally the remission
of all the consequences of sin, by Him who has assigned
these consequences as a part of His holy administration
of the universe. If this is an adequate statement of the
subject, then foi^giveness as a human experience must be
the conscious removal of the known consequences of sin.
If sin itself be one of the first consequences of sin ; if
sinful habit is the melancholy outcome of the commission
of sin ; if pleasure and ease in sin, and obtuseness of moral
perception, be part of the natural and legislative sanction
of moral evil, then the pardon of sin, — not as an act of the
Divine legislation and Fatherly grace, but as a positive
effect wrought in the moral constitution of the sinner, —
7nust involve the arrest of these consequences, whatever
be the cause or ground in the Divine mind or govern-
ment for so blessed a change of administration. The
fact is, that in the very circumstance of his pardon, the
pardoned sinner is delivered from these pernicious con-
sequences of his past sins. The first and greatest thing
done In the human soul, is the conference of a supernatural
force to resist the downward and sinward tendencies of the
Ajid Absolution of Sins. 291
will. The law of the Spirit of life sets the man who is
in Christ Jesus free from the law of sin and death. A
new habit, divinely and mysteriously quickened by God's
grace and Spirit, takes the place of the habit which the
hitherto unchecked sin was originating. The bias which
the sins of the life and the sinfulness of nature had given
to the will is successfully resisted, and a bias against sin,
a sense of loathing in its presence, a persuasion of the
holiness of the Divine law and the sanctity of the will of
God, takes the place in the soul of the former satisfaction
in sin. It maybe replied that in these words is described
regeneration not pardon, and a change of state and
of actual condition is confounded with a new relation
to the justice of God. Let me then say, once more, I
am speaking here of pardon or forgiveness of sins as a
positive fact accomplished in the consciousness and
experience of a sinner, not of the proceeding of the
Almighty Ruler or Father ; and from this standpoint
regeneration and pardon do actually denote in part
precisely the same fact. Over and above this, the two
terms each connote many other and most fundamental
ideas, but they coincide as a human experience. Thus
regeneration on the one side involves a reference to the
thoroi^ghness and fundamental nature of the moral change
that is wrought in a human soul. " That which is born
of the flesh is flesh, that which is born of the Spirit is
Spirit." Regeneration implies that it is a new birth — a
birth from above, and that in this Divine process a new
man is created in the image of God. The term also
involves a reference to the agency by which the change is
wrought, and to the means or the seed used by the Holy
Spirit to educe this new life in humanity. '' Pardon," on
the other hand, connotes the removal of a variety of other
consequences as well as the sinfulness of sin, and looks
on into the future and back into the past ; It is continually
u 2
292 The Forgiveness
associated In Holy Scripture with the reasons by which
the Eternal Ruler and Father declares Himself to be
governed ; it points to a broken law rather than to a
deformed and withered life, but In the first and most
essential characteristic of pardon and regeneration as a
human experience, the two terms Include and Involve
the same thing Thus the controversies as to the
relative precedence of regeneration and pardon are
superfluous. A man Is not pardoned because he has
been regenerated. A sinner Is not forgiven because he has
begun to live a new life. Justification Is not, as Trlden-
tlne doctrine urges, the consequence and seal of sanctlfi-
cation, but It Is In Its very essence, so soon as it becomes
aft experience of the sinner, Identical with it. The two
terms In all the breadth of their meaning overlap each
other ; they manifest themselves in different lights ; they
are related to each other as heat and motion are in the
physical universe, but they describe an Identical state of
mind, the same fact In the consciousness of a sinner.
Another consequence of sin which pardon must remove,
is that hardening and alienation of heart from God, often
called death in Holy Scripture.
If God pardons sin, and bestows a complete remission
of Its consequences, surely He has reconciled His child
to Himself. He has revealed Himself not as less
holy but as altogether lovely. A pardon which still
left the laws of human nature to wreak their vengeance
on the once sinning man, and drove him ever and anon
into open hostility ; which instituted no new and sacred
relations with the Father ; which left the old sores of the
soul all running ; which did not inspire confidence and love
in the place of judicial distrust and moral death ;— could
not correspond in any way with the forgiveness, which we,
in the spirit of the forgiving Father, exercise towards our
brother. But, again, some one may reply, You are here
And Absolution of Sins. 293
confounding faith, reconciliation with God, and repentance,
with pardon. The argument may seem open to this
charge, and the rejoinder must be paralled to that already
used. These well-known terms simply describe the con-
dition wrought in the soul by the Holy Spirit, when the
infinite love of God, through its own sovereign energy,
has dispelled the clouds that had concealed His face.
" Faith " is the assent of the understanding, the repose
of the heart, the submission of the will to the revelation
of the living God. " Reconciliation " with God is only
a narrower term, being itself included in the former,
though pointing broadly to a previous estrangement.
'' Repentance " is the complete change of mind with re-
ference to self and God, life and death, law and sin, and
the consequences of sin. Is it not then equally true that
when we confine the signification of pardon to the human
experience, — i.e ; to what has actually taken place in the
soul when God has pardoned it, — we are describing that
which often passes under other names, and these none
other than faiiJi^ repentance, reconciliation f These
phrases are not by any means of equal signification, the
terms have wider meanings in other connections, and have
their own analysis ; but when we use the terms faith in
God, reconciliation with God, repentance towards God, w^e
are simply speaking of the state of pardon, the state of a
man's soul when he Is set free from the consequences of
sin. Much of the controversy as to the relation of faith to
regeneration, faith to justification, faith to the Holy Spirit's
working ; many of the disputes as to whether faith is a
condition or a consequence of justification, and whether
it condltionates, precedes, or follows the gift of eternal
life, become severally simplified when we analyze our own
consciousness of what God has wrought in us, when He
for the sake of His beloved Son forgives our sin. '' We are
saved by grace, through faith," and that salvation through
294 ^^^^^ Forgiveness
faith is *' the gift of God ; " ''He that beHeveth on the Son
hath Hfe, he that beHeveth not is condemned already."*
A third consequence of sin which pardon must remit
is punishment.
There are penal consequences of sin. There is punish-
ment in this life and also in the world to come. Suffering
is inflicted by the righteousness of God. The wrath of
God is revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness
* There can be no serious quesdon that the main, if not the exclusive use of the word
liKaww in the New Testament, is a forensic one, that it signifies " to declare just," to
" acquit," to " reckon as righteous," in opposition to the idea of "condemn." The word
does not mean to "make just," or to "infuse righteousness." If the idea of justification be
restricted to what takes place in the mind and will of God, we are limited in that region of
contemplation to forensic notions, the ground and cause of this acquittal being the righteous-
ness of the God-man, but so soon as we transfer our regards from the judgment-seat of God
to the human spirit, affected by the justification, and ask what change has taken place there,
the first sign, the first element, of that acquittal unquestionably is the deliverance from sin.
The change of condition and relation to the government of God, can only be knoivn in the
energies of a new and Godgiven life. A man is not justified because he is already sanctified,
nor because of any " merit of congruity," but because Christ died and rose again. Still
his justification as a fact of his experience is pro-tanto the commencement of his sanctifica-
tion. The confusion of justification with sanctificition, or the inclusion of sanctification
in justification, is the perpetual charge brought by the Reformed Theologians against the Catholic
doctors, against the Tridentine decrees, and even against Augustine himself. Augustine an-
nounced their relation to each other thus, in his Opus imperfectum Contra Julianum, II,,
clxv :—" God justifies the ungodly, not only by remitting the sins he commits, but also by
giving him inward love, which causes him to depart from evil, and makes him holy through
the Spirit." If by justification be meant the remission of judicial suffering merely, if all that
the disputants meant was the removal of the forensic consequences of sin, the declaration of
the Judge as to the new relation sustained by an ungodly man to the law and government of
the universe, then it became imperative on the Reformed Theologians to show that the
inherent righteousness given by the Holy Spirit to the regenerated and justified man, was
insufficient for the purpose, that still less could the spontaneous obedience of a condemned
man expiate his past offences or deliver him from the curse. "Justification" in that sense
ran the risk of being regarded as the consequence and result of sanctification, and the con-
fusion once made was likely to lead to the substitution of the Holy Spirit's agency for the
atoning work of Christ. This peril the Reformers warded off with all the force of their
strong position and heaviest artillery. Once admit that sanctification is the real basis of
judicial freedom from the curse of the law, whether through the power of the Spirit, or
because of the merits of the Saviour's death, and the door is opened for the priest and the
Church to define the limits and nature of sanctification. If, however, by justif cation be
meant a full forgiveness, the gracious remission of all the consequences of actual and original
sin, then regeneration and sanctification must necessarily be included in it. This is probably the
explanation of the supposed confusion of the terms by Augustine. Bellarmine, De Justifica-
tione, L. II. cap. viii, has enumerated the passages. Davenant, De justitia, cap. xxv., has replied
upon each quotation, and so far successfully as to show that when Augustine, as in Tom VI. De
Hceresibus, cap. Ixxxviii, speaks of the grace of God by which we are justiJjed,3S that " whereby
we are brought from the power of darkness, to believe in Christ, and are translated into His
kingdom ; and whereby love is shed abroad in our hearts," he sometimes means by it " the free
forgiveness of sin and acceptance to life eternal, by and through the obedience of the Mediator,"
but at other times " the act of God infusing and implanting in us habitual grace or inherent
righteousness."
Baxter in his Life of Faith (Works, vol. xii. chap, vii.), and viii, expresses the relation ina great
variety of forms, as, e.g., — " Sanctification and justification are all one, that is, that God having
pardoned us de jure, doth pardon us executively by giving us His forfeited Spirit and grace, and by
all the communion which we have after with Him, and the comfort which we have from Him."
Ajid AbsoliUmi of Shis. 295
of men. This suffering is the testimony of God in the
sensibiHty of his creatures to the hoHness of His nature
and government. When we forgive transgressions against
ourselves, we, so far as we are competent to do so, remit
the infliction of the suffering which it was in our power to
impose. If God remit the sins which He has condemned,
He foregoes the punishment. The experience of the
forgiven man is immunity from threatened doom.
We are often told that Divine grace takes away the
disposition and bias to sin, and therefore removes all its
consequences ; and seeing that he who is born of God can-
not commit sin, therefore" he is not henceforth exposed to
the punishment of sin. Such a Gospel as this does not
meet the difficulties of the case, nor silence the condemna-
tion of conscience ; for the following reasons : — •
(i.) The man who has been awakened, and brought to
see the light of God's countenance, and the awful
sanctities of His law, looks into his past life and discerns
actions and dispositions that put him beyond the protec-
tion of that law ; he remembers acts of overt rebellion
that merited death ; he knows that he has fired the train
of causative energies, that are, by the ordinances of nature,
rushing on to consume him. The analogy of nature and
of human tribunals shows him that obedience for the
future will not free him from the consequences of past
disobedience. A murderer or a traitor may be brought
into a state of moral accord with the law of his country,
and be so revolutionized by the circumstances of his
detection, and the solemn aspects of law and judgment,
that if set at liberty he would never again knowingly
violate the laws of his country ; but he does not by these
means free himself from the liability to punishment. It
is still right that he should suffer. If he be forgiven by
the sovereign, that suffering which is his due is remitted,
but it is an act of sovereign grace, of royal clemency
296 The Forgiveness
especially administered to him. So, the forgiveness of
the royal Father s heart is the analogous treatment of
the transgressor against His legislation. Unless the
Gospel is an amnesty for the past, it leaves the soul
under the dark cloud of condemnation and doom.
(2.) Such an explanation of the remission of punish-
ment as makes it solely due to the altered relations of the
soul with God and to its freedom from sin, makes the con-
sciousness o such immunity to be entirely dependent on
the realization of perfect conformity with the Divine
will and holy order of the universe. Now, here the
experience of the greatest saints, as well as of multitudes of
believers in God, is entirely opposed to such a ground of
confidence. The holier a man is, the more he becomes
alive to his departure in thought, word and deed, from
the Divine ideal. David, Asaph, Job, Paul, John, James,
Augustine, Bernard, Bunyan, and all the noblest and the
best of the human race join in the confession, " If we say
that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, we make Him a
liar ; and if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our
heart, and knoweth all things." The memories of evil left
in the regenerated soul are still so vivid, that the idea of
being freed from, the punishment, in virtue of being free
from sin, would plunge the saints of God into despair.
It is easy to say, even to the holiest man, " Thou must be
content to bear all the suffering which thy past sins entail
upon thee, in time and eternity." The curse of the broken
law was too heavy a burden for the shoulders of Paul.
He grovelled on the earth beneath it, and felt that he was
" wretched." The deliverance he sought and found, was
not that he was to bear to the bitter end this body of
death, but that there was " no condemnation to those who
were in Christ Jesus, who walked not after the flesh, but
after the spirit." The law of the spirit of life in Christ
had set him free from the law of sin and death.
And Absolution of Sins. 297
The question may be asked by others, How does this
remission of punishment accord with the facts of the case ?
Is not sin continuously punished in the righteous as well
as the unrighteous. A drunkard, a licentious, ambitious
or covetous man has been renewed in his inner life, he is
no longer opposed to God's law. He has begun to love
God, and to glorify Him in his body and spirit. He is
charitable, self-restraining, gentle^ but still he has to
suffer from the seeds of disease implanted in his constitu-
tion. He has sown to the flesh, and corruption will be
the harvest which he will still have to reap ; he has made
deadly enemies, who will laugh at his repentance, and
take no heed of his altered disposition. Must he not
bear the fruits of his sin, in suffering to his life's end ?
Are not these punishments inflicted by God, for sins
which have been fully pardoned .^ If there are these
unmistakeable signs of the inviolable laws of the Most
High, what hope is there that he shall not suffer on, and
suffer for ever, the consequences of sins which have been
forgiven ? This is doubtless a very difficult question to
answer, and one that cannot be readily brought into
harmony with scientific and theological formulae. It is a
patent fact, which may seem to run counter to the idea of
the full redemption that is in Christ Jesus. We must admit
the fact of penal suffering, that continually follows the com-
mission of sins, even though those sins themselves are
pardoned by God, and hated by the pardoned sinner ; and
we must admit, that a pardoned and sanctified man may
suffer great agony of body and mind in consequence of
the sins of others, as well as of the sins of his own youth
and heedlessness, and that he may even grieve over them
for ever. Did Peter ever cease to suffer mental agony
because he had denied his Master ? We admit that there
is suffering in the flesh and in the spirit that is compatible
with the pardon of sin and the remission of punishment.
298 The Forgiveness
The secular punishment has changed its character In the
act of pardon and In the consciousness of forgiveness.
It Is this change of administration which is due to the
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
There are two elements in every penal infliction, on the
one hand there Is the exhibition of the rightness of the link
which connects sin and suffering. This Is evident In the
demands of moral order, and in the safety thus extended to
the law itself. These are universal and binding, save where,
by the direct and gracious interference of the Lawgiver,
they are for adequate reasons arrested or suspended. The
end of this element In the punishment is God Himself ; but
on the other hand, there are all the moral and disciplinary
functions of penal suffering, which, like pain in the
physical system, are parts of a beneficent arrangment for
the preservation of life. The end of these elements In
the punishment of sin, Is the sanctlficatlon of the sinner,
and these, when seen to be the action of a Fathers
love, lose all their curse, and are transmuted into blessing.
When the punishment that falls on us is felt to be the
loving discipline of a Father's hand, the sting is taken
away from it ; then we can glory in infirmities, distresses,
and afflictions, and believe that nothing can separate us
from His love. That which the suffering of Christ has
effected for us is the exhaustion of the curse. The claims
of law are satisfied in His Infinite sorrow and unique
sacrifice. The judicial sentence was pronounced on all
sins, when God condemned sin in His flesh. The law Is
safe, the moral order of the universe is undisturbed, the
sanctions of virtue are maintained, and In the pardon of
sin, in the practical removal from the transgressor himself
of the moral and judicial consequences of human trans-
gressions, the great change Is wrought in the soul of man
by which the punishments that yet encumber his flesh and
spirit become disciplinary, excite no rebellion, provoke no
And Absoltitio7i of Sins. 299
antagonism, but actually draw him nearer to the heart
and will of the Holy God. The ultimate issue of this
great act of clemency will be the entire sanctification of
the forgiven spirit, and the acceptance with joy and faith
of everything that shall bring the whole man into perfect
accord with the Divine will.
We have now to consider the steps which are to be
taken by man to secure this Divine result.
Regeneration and justification are seen to stand in-
the closest relations to one another. The two terms
represent an identical experience of the man who is
saved, and they lead up his adoring gratitude to the special
operations ot the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But how
is the great deed to be done, and how is the pardoned
sinner to know that it is accomplished ? There are
aspects in which this same condition of mind can be
viewed strictly on the side of personal experience and con-
scious self-responsibility. Faith, repentance, the spirit of
forgiveness, confession of sin, are all treated as the human
antecedents of the forgiveness and remission of sins, and
though they are the gift and grace of God, they are urged
upon the sinner's conscience as his bounden duty.
Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, acquiescence in His
claims as the sufficient revelation of the Father, the ade-
quate expression of the righteousness and love of God,
the Giver of eternal life, and the Lord and Master of the
soul, is per se the sign and proof that God has wrought
within Him. The antecedents of faith, its gradations and
growth in accordance with the laws of human nature and
the laws of the Spirit of life, are themselves expressions
of the working of the Eternal Spirit. Still, the act of
faith is consciously a man's own act ; it takes place in the
region of conscious self. Faith is life, — life in voluntary
activity. It is set forth as duty. The demand for faith
makes a direct appeal to the conscience. God '' com-
300 The Foroiveness
mands" man to repent and believe. The reasons for
faith are addressed to the rational nature of man, and
they do not violate or coerce his moral nature. It is in
the highest degree reasonable and right to have faith in
God, to accept the testimony that God has given con-
cerning His Son. '' Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and
thou shalt be saved." The righteousness of God is
revealed to faith, or to those who exercise faith. It. is
through faith in the blood of Christ that the righteous-
ness of God is declared in the remission of sins that are
past. Faith is the initial form of the entire grace of sal-
vation, so far as that grace is seen in the voluntary
surrender of the soul to the claims of God. This state
of faith was disturbed at the fall, but has been reinsti-
tuted by the Holy Spirit through the mediation, the
death, the glorification of the Son of God. Faith in the
incarnation breaks the spell of sin ; faith in the cross of
Christ lifts the doom of sin ; faith in the active and
passive righteousness of Christ, appropriates and realizes
a full salvation. The voluntary acceptance of this exhi-
bition of the real character of God, the repose of the
affections in a mercy which is in Itself a condemnation of
sin, the acquiescence of the will in the sacrificial death of
Christ as the ground revealed in the administration of
Divine government for the conference upon man of the
eternal life, is salvation. Such an act of voluntary, heartfelt,
rational surrender to God is possible, because "the blood
of Christ cleanses from all sin ;" because the Lamb has
been slain from the beginning, because "the Lamb is in
the midst of the throne." Still, the act is man's own con-
scious act, for the performance of which he is responsible
to God.
Repentance is most explicitly stated (Acts v. 31) to be
a gift of God, a dispensation of the exalted Christ from
the throne of His glory, one of the fruits and conse-
A7id Absolution of Sins. 301
quences of the descent of the Holy Spirit. Conversion
to God is but the human side of what is done when a
new heart and right spirit are created withina man. A
new estimate of sin, a new disposition towards God, a
new judgment about self, involving it may be bitter self-
reproach, anguish and tears, are doubtless the work of
the Holy Spirit in the soul. The iMerdvoia, the complete
change of mind with reference to God Himself, includes
faith, but it involves the judgment which the enlightened
man will pronounce upon his own past life, and upon the
damaged condition of his own nature. But reason, con-
science, and revelation command man to repent. The
call for repentance is sustained not only by its inherent
reasonableness, but by the agonies of Calvary, and by the
certainties of future judgment. (Acts xvii. 30.)
Another condition of forgiveness, is the spirit of for-
giveness. Without it, comprehension of the righteousness
or love of God is simply impossible. The Spirit of for-
giveness is the Spirit of the blessed God given to His
child. ** If ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither
will your Father forgive your trespasses."* The reason
is most obvious, it is at once clear to the conscience that
the unforgiving man is unforgiven. The act of forgive-
ness is the reception from the Divine Spirit of an indis-
pensable element in the grace of forgiveness.
The confession of sin against a brother is a reasonable
condition of receiving a brother's forgiveness. The con-
fession of sinto God is of the essence of repentance and
faith, and thus does not interfere with the grand truth
that a man is justified by faith only. It is a sign that
momentous spiritual changes are going on in a man
when he can bring his sin into the presence of the Holy
God, and see it in the light of perfect law and perfect
sacrifice. The effort to do so tears up the roots of evil
* See also Matt, xviii. 35 ; Eph. Iv. 31 j Matt. vi. 14, 15 ; Mark xi. 25, 26.
302 The Fo7^giveness
desire, and crucifies the world with its affections. It is
the subHme pecuHarity of Christianity, that a sinner can
take his sins to God and find mercy, even amid the burn-
ing light of that most Holy Presence. More than this,
one man may help another to make this confession, to see
himself and judge of himself more accurately than he
would do, in the isolation and awfulness of his own
repentance. The danger of self-deceit and self-flattery
is great. The experience of the devout and impartial
Christian who knows something of human nature, and
has realized the full assurance of faith, may be found of
the greatest avail in the struggle of the soul heaven-
wards. All Churches and all Christians admit this great
advantage. The free Churches of England, as associa-
tions of those who have mutual confidence in one
another's spiritual life, develop this vital principle of the
communion of saints to a fuller extent, perhaps, than
those which are limited by what are called Catholic tra-
ditions and obedience. They do, however, repudiate as
lamentable and perilous to souls the elaborate develop-
ment which this simple principle has received in the so-
called sacrament of " confession," " penance," and '' absolu-
tion." The High Church party in many of their pub-
lications* glory in the fact that in the '* offices " of the
Church of England, in the " Visitation of the Sick," in the
'* Order for Morning and Evening Prayer," and in the
Communion Service, as well as the Ordination Services,
the theory is maintained and the practice enjoined of
confession to the priest, and the consequent infliction of
penance or pronunciation of absolution and Divine for-
giveness of sins upon the penitent. Several of these
services do unquestionably sustain the sacerdotal cha-
racter of the Christian ministry. It is assumed that
* Tracts for the Day, edited by Rev. Orby Shipley, Sacraments } Palmer': Treatise on
the Church, part iv. chap. xvl. ; The Priest's Prayer-Book, edited by Rev. Dr. Littledale
and Rev. J. E. Vaux.
Afid Absohition of Sins. 303
the bishop confers upon the priest the powers which
Christ conferred upon His Apostles, and from the time
that the said functionary shall have uttered the mystic
words, ** Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted ;
whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained," the
priest thus ordained has the Identical power which our
Lord conferred when He breathed on the eleven and
said, " Receive ye the Holy Ghost," &c. It Is argued
that the priestly character thus communicated, actually
qualifies a man sacramentally to accept the confessions,
and judge of the repentance and faith of penitents. This
is a difficult assumption, because It supposes that an official
position, and a sacramental act, has not only conferred
certain mystical prerogatives which, from the impossibility
of analyzing or testing them, can with difficulty be repudi-
ated, but has also conferred very peculiar mental power
and moral penetration.
This claim appears to us to be entirely without support
in Scripture or primitive antiquity, and to be the mere
echo of the high-sounding pretensions of the mediaeval
priest. It is notorious that certain sins of faithlessness,
impurity, and treachery committed by immature Christians
in the ages of persecution, were sins against the
Christian society, as well as against the living God. The
Church of Corinth was directed by St. Paul to expel
from Its fellowship an incestuous person, and afterwards,
on his profession of deep penitence, to forgive him the
wrong he had done against the honour and sanctity of the
Christian profession, and to admit him once more to the
society of believers. Congregational Churches make this
solemn advice and injunction of St. Paul, the statute and
precedent of their action In similar cases. During the severe
persecutions of Christians by the Roman power, many were
not strong enough to risk their life for Christ, and offered
sacrifice or incense to the gods or to the images of the
304 The Forgiveness
Emperor. There were other cases of gross scandal, which
also incurred exclusion from the community, and before
such persons could be permitted to return to the
privileges of the Church, they were required to vindicate
by hearty repentance and true faith their evangelical title
to pardon. The presbyter or bishop of the Church then
proceeded to perform the act of readmission to the Church,
not by rebaptism, but by %e6po^6o-/a, the laying on of hands
and the pronunciation of some formula of absolution. * This
formidable power was a usurpation on the part of the
hierarchy of the functions of the Church itself, and was
rapidly developed into a system, which rendered confes-
sion to the priest, penance, and absolution, a part of the
normal career of the Divine life. The growth of sacer-
dotal profession favoured this claim of the priesthood,
and with other things tended to the origination along
the lines of a certain ecclesiastical genealogy of the
theory of Apostolic succession. One reply which our
modern sacerdotalists give to their opponents degenerates
into an argumenfMm ad hominem. Theysayf the power
conferred upon the Apostolically-ordained priest is un-
questionably very great, and the abuse of such power is
possible, but the power involved in preaching or proclaim-
ing the gospel of repentance is equally great, and more
liable to abuse. There is, however, this difference be-
tween the two cases, that the confessor adds to the grave
responsibility of preaching what he believes to be the
way of salvation, the still graver onus of having acquired
* For some centuries this power of absolution was confined to the bishop, and not until
it became impossible for him to exercise it, was the formidable injunction contained in the
ordinal, or any form of absolution, used by the priest, which was other than precatory. The
treatment of the lap%i fills one of the most interesting pages of Ecclesiastical
History It is tolerably clear that Cyprian altered his views on the remissibility of post
baptismal sins, when the bitter experiences of the Decian persecution forced the necessities
and sorrows of the iafn upon his attention. His refusal to accept the certificates of peace
{libellos pads), which were furnished to the /apsi by Lucianus {Sermo de /apsis), contrast with
the bitterness of his denunciation of Novatus for a similar severity j but the whole contro-
versy shows how far the principle of ministerial absolution had been carried by those haughty
Churchmen. — See Suicer's Thesautus sub voce, x^ipoO'eaia ,• Neander's General Church
History, vol. i. 319-321. f Tracts for the Day: Sacraments.
A7id Absolution of Sins. 305
in his ordination a mental and moral fitness to penetrate
the windings of a fellow-sinner's experience, and to
administer or withhold the grace of God. He does,
moreover, limit this strange and perilous prerogative to
a section of Christendom, who hold certain notions as to
the correct form of Church government This is not the
place to discuss the question of Apostolical succession as
limited to certain '* episcopally-officered communities;"
it is, however, necessary to point out that the claim of
the Anglican and Roman Priest to '' remit and retain
sins," turns on the following assumptions, which may be
the alphabet of " Catholic tradition," but which are utterly
repudiated by thousands of men in the Anglican Church,
and by all Nonconforming communities : —
(a) That the Apostles of Christ possessed a function or
power of dealing with individual souls, or standing be-
tween their penitence and pardon. We can discover no
proof that St. Paul, or St. Peter, or St. John ever dared
thus to absolve a sinner from his sin against God, in
virtue of any special commission to remit or retain sins
against the community. The repeated arguments of Paul
show that forgiveness was entirely dependent on the will
of the Father reconciling the world to Himself by Jesus
Christ. There is ample explanation of the so-called power
of the keys, without making an assumption that is not
confirmed by the example or writing of the Apostles.
(U) Supposing that the Apostles, in virtue of their imme-
diate relation with our blessed Lord and of His special com-
mission, had the power of forgiving and absolving sinners,
the '' succession " presupposes that they had the further
power to confer upon official successors this sublime
function, and to delegate to uninspired men by sacra-
mental rite, the mental faculties as well as the spiritual
knowledge, which would qualify them for this mystical
and responsible work. If any colour can be found for the.
X
3o6 The Forgiveness
supposition that the Apostles themselves interpreted the
Lord's commission to mean the possession by themselves
of some authority equivalent to that of Him who said,
*' Thy sins be forgiven thee," there does not appear in
the New Testament annals, any proof that they conferred
this power on others. The Evangelist Philip was unable
to confer upon the Samaritans the miraculous gifts of the
Holy Spirit. The elders of the Church of Ephesus were
bidden to take heed to themselves, and to all the flock
over which the Holy Ghost had made them bishops, to
feed the Church and to support the weak, but not a
word is said of the absolution of their sins. Neither does
it appear that Mark, Timothy, Titus, Silas, or Luke exer-
cised this power, closely as they were related to the great
Apostle. Archippus and Epaphras are never enjoined
to exercise any such sacerdotal rite ; nor does the earliest
writing of the so-called Apostolic Fathers reveal the pre-
sence of any such portentous claims. • It it is not long
before traces are found in the earliest patristic Divinity,
of belief in the "succession" of bishops, and the growth of
the idea of a Divine Society, sins against which were
punished or pardoned by its officers ; but it is curious to
see how slowly any priestly functions were attributed to
the ministry. Here, the New Testament Is significantly
silent.
{c) However, if it be granted that the earliest associates
of the Apostles began to absolve penitents from the curse
of sin, a third and necessary supposition is, that these
first successors of the Apostles not only handed down to
their followers the Apostles' doctrine and spirit, but
that they delegated this derived faculty to representatives
who, age after age, have exercised the same discrimi-
nation in the choice of the subjects of this Divine gift,
and have conferred a right and power to do this very
thing, and to deal with souls and sins as none can do,
A7id Absohition of Sifts. 307
who are not related to this episcopally-ordered genea-
logical tree.
To some of us this Is so absolutely inconceivable and
irrational, that the simple statement of It becomes its own
confutation. Even if the episcopal genealogy was perfect ;
if no schism had ever disturbed the harmony of the epis-
copal order ; If no Montanist, Melitian, Donatist, Mono-
physite, or seml-Arlan Bishop had ever exercised his un-
hallowed functions, or violated the sanctity of the sacred
Brahmanlcal thread, or Injected the poison of his heresy
Into the sacramental order; If no Lollard, or Hussite, or
Lutheran, or Calvlnlst, had ever broken the allegiance of
Rome ; if there had never been an anti-Pope, or a rival
bishop. In the entire history of Christendom ; If at this
moment all Christians formed one undivided organization
that had never shown the least disposition to schism or
divarication, even then the claim would be to our minds
radically vitiated by the twofold consideration : that it
is contrary to all psychological laws that the necessary
power to read the heart should have accompanied the
authority to preach the Gospel ; and by the sublime
independence In which the pardoned soul stands of any
such help when It once understands the Priesthood of
Christ and the power of the Holy Ghost.
{d) Priests of the Anglican communion have, however,
to make a further assumption, which Is still more diffi-
cult to concede : it Is that the present Church of Eng-
land Is such a department or member of the Church
Catholic that whether the Eastern or the Roman
Church concede such a claim or not, and that although
one-half of her own clergy treat it with sceptical in-
difference, yet any of these priests ordained — It may
be by an Evangelical, Erastlan, Rationalistic, or Radical
bishop, appointed In the teeth of his own Chapter, by a
Prime Minister, who may be the creature of a House of
X 2
3o8 The Forgiveness
Commons — has in virtue of that episcopal ordination the
right and the power to do what it is extremely doubtful
whether an Apostle charged with the miraculous energies
of Pentecost would have dared to do. The supposition
is incomplete, unless the long succession of holy confes-
sors and martyrs, the pastors and elders of tens of
thousands of Christian Churches throughout the world,
who entertain no such ideas of the sanctity of episcopal
order or succession, are absolutely inhibited and incom-
petent to do what the young curate of yesterday is sacra-
mentally empowered to accomplish in dealing with the
fundamental essence of the Gospel, and its practical
application in any particular case.
The "absolution" pronounced by the priest in the
Morning and Evening Services of the Church of England
may be interpreted, with perfect candour, as the de-
claration by the ministry of the Church, of their power
and commandment to pronounce to God's people, being
penitent, the absolution and remission of their sins ; but
this power, or commandment, is conferred upon, and is
exercised by all who know what the Gospel of God is.
Such cannot but make the declaration of the principle on
which God does pardon. All the priests in the world
cannot render this more true by their simultaneous
utterance of it, any more than all the savans in the world
can add one element of truth or reality to the axioms of
mathematics by any authoritative utterance of them. In
the " Holy Communion" Service there is a form of absolu-
tion, which by its tone, and by the absence of any expla-
natory or justificatory clause, suggests the exercise of a
right to utter some of the great truths and promises of
the new dispensation, with a cogency and personal appli-
cation which are the peculiar function of some delegate
of heaven. Here again, unless it is pre-supposed that by
previous confession every communicant has obtained his
A7id Absolution of Sins, 309
right to be present on the occasion, and that the priest of
his own knowledge, or on the certificate of some con
fessor, is making a special application of these promises
to the members of his flock, every person thus addressed
must become, in fact, his own priest, and pronounce his own
absolution. The form of this is taken from the Missals of
Sarum, York, and Hereford, with the addition of the invo-
cation, " Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, who of His
great mercy hath promised forgiveness of sins to all them
that with hearty repentance and true faith turn unto Him ;"
and the introduction of these words throws the responsi-
bility upon the communicants to discover whether their
repentance is " hearty" and their faith " true."*
It is far otherwise wdth the " Order for the Visitation
of the Sick," where the priest is guided to make examina-
tion into the faith of the sick person to receive the con-
fession of his sins, "If he feel his conscience troubled
with any weighty matter," and then follows this most
explicit declaration, '' Our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath
left power to His Church to absolve all sinners who truly
repent and believe in Him, of His great mercy forgive
thee thine offences ; and by His authority committed
unto me, I absolve thee from all thy sins, in the name
of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
Amen." The form of this *' absolution " follows closely
in the spirit of that which had been in use throughout
the Churches of the West ; it is as old as the sacra-
mentary of Gelasius, 490 ; f it reveals clearly the
♦ Directorium Anglicanum, p. 55, says that " The priest should always pronounce the
absolution without the use of the book," giving the idea that the man is the living organ of
the truth, that " truth Divine comes mended,'" we suppose, "from his lips."
f Palmer's Origines Liturgicae, vol. ii. pp. 229-230, where the whole service is compared
with its Roman original. The effort is made by some writers (see Rev. Hobart Seymour on the
Confessional} Dr. Blakeney on the Book of Common Piayer, &c. j Dean Boyd on Confession,
Absolution, &c.) to show that the former portion of the sentence is a prayer to Christ for
forgiveness of offences done against Him, and that the declaratory absolution that follows has
reference to the sins against the Churchy with which the sick or dying man is thus brought into
fellowship. The dying man, to make this discrimination, must have keener perception of
differences than is common to most scholars.
3IO The Forgiveness
sacerdotal basis which AngHcan CathoHcs can discover
for their profession, in the structure of the Book of Com-
mon Prayer, and it assists them to carry its spirit back
into the other services, where the indicative form retires
into the background, and the personal character of
both priest and sinner is lost in the generality of the
utterance.
The claim of the priesthood, which has prevailed
throughout episcopally-governed Christendom for so man)-
centuries, must not be dismissed as a valueless and
perilous assumption. It does cover a great truth and a
deep reality, viz., that there is life-giving power and holy
contagion in the mutual communication of a common
hope, in the united exercise of solemn faith and prayer.
One sinner can help another to believe and to repent.
The confident expression of Christian hope and faith
does kindle human hearts and bring them into holy
fellowship. The Spirit of God does work with human
affections and in the interchanges of religious experience.
Many a Roman priest has gained as much as he has
Imparted in the confessional. The reality of Christ's
love has flashed back from the soul of the believing
penitent, and lighted up his own with new love and
higher trust. The solemn utterance of the law of Christ,
and of the power of His cleansing blood, has often lifted
the burden from the conscience and saved the souls of
men ; but this has happened millions of times, when no
sacerdotal claim has been preferred, in the pastorate of
every godly minister, in the Sunday-school class, on
a thousand deathbeds, on battle-fields, in the mission
station, in wretched homes and hearts, which have been
reached by Christian faithfulness and love.
We are told by our Anglican brethren that beyond the
circle of sacerdotal absolution, we can have no certainty
of salvation, that apart from the assurance of the priest,
And Absolution of Sins. 311
there is no Christ but the creation of our own subjective
fancies, no objective reality in the approach of our spirits
to Him who Is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. But
if our argument throughout this Essay be sound, assurance
of faith is but the consciousness of our own faith and of
our reconciHation with God. It is the absolution which
the conscience of every believer pronounces upon himself
when he takes hold of Christ, when he is '* dead Indeed
unto sin, but alive unto God, through Jesus Christ."
The sublime discovery that sin is abnormal and
hateful, that God is righteous and merciful, the gush of
filial emotion to the Father, the Interchanges of affection
between the soul and God, the subsidence of mystery In
the full sunlight of God's smile, the life and peace of the
spiritual mind are the absolution that the soul of man
craves. The official Intervention of human agency be-
tween faith and repentance and pardon, in its fullest and
deepest sense, is futile. These graces are correlated to
each other, and are all administered to the soul by
the Holy Spirit. '* If the wicked man turneth away
from his wickedness, and doeth that which Is lawful
and right, he shall save his soul alive." This blessed
change, this voluntary surrender to the will of God,
is effected In virtue of the mediatorial government of
the universe, of the blood which cleanses from all sin,
of the Spirit which regenerates the corrupted nature,
of the grace which pardons and accepts the broken
heart. If a sinner turn to God in Christ with hearty
penitence and true faith, he is absolved, he is saved ;
and the whole constitution of the Kingdom of God
is pledged to the remission of all his sins. The entire
revelation of God, and the whole experience of the Church,
pronounce his absolution. The ministry of the Gospel
is continually employed in uttering this fact. The
power to proclaim It, Is the heritage of every man who.
312 The Forgiveness a7id Absolution of Sins.
being reconciled to God, knows that he is so, and
knows the reason why. Priesthoods have arrogated
the ri^ht to make known to individuals and to the world
at large great truths ; but when the truth is known no
sacerdotal power can monopolize it. An CEcumenical
Council of Bishops cannot add one iota of conviction to a
man who is reconciled to God, and who hath the witness
in himself. The assurance of salvation is a fact of reli-
gious experience, and all the priesthoods are powerless to
arrest it, to frustrate it, or even to supply its necessary
conditions.
DOCTRINE OF THE REAL PRESENCE
THE LORD'S SUPPER.
R. W. DALE, M.A.
DOCTRINE OF THE REAL PRESENCE
THE LORD'S SUPPER.
Towards the close of the ninth century Charles the Bold,
not yet invested with the imperial purple, being troubled
that the faith of his subjects should be imperilled by con-
troversies on the Eucharist, requested several theologians,
famous for their sanctity and learning, to define for him-
self and his people the ancient Catholic doctrine touching
that Sacrament. It was in response to this appeal that
Ratramnus wrote his celebrated treatise, De Corpore et
Sa7iguine Domini. He tells Charles that nothing " can
be more worthy of a prince than to take care that he
himself is Catholic in his judgment concerning the
mysteries of Him, who hath deigned to commit to him
his kingly throne, and to endure not that his subjects
should think diversely concerning the Body of Christ, in
the which it is certain that the whole sum of Christian
redemption doth consist."
Just a thousand years have passed away, and England
is agitated by conflicting opinions concerning the same
mystery ; but the process of settlement is changed.
Royal zeal for the faith does not in these days ask for
3 1 6 The Doctrine of the Real Presence
the opinions of theologians ; hostile theologians appear
before royal councils, and plead hard for a favourable
verdict. If the creed of the Church is to be determined
by authority, the old way may appear to some more
reasonable than the new. For the king to ask a theo-
logian to write a treatise is a more obvioiis method of
arriving at the truth than for the Church to ask the Privy
Council to pronounce judgment.
It is obvious, however, that even the more modest
form of royal interference with ecclesiastical and theo-
logical controversies is not quite free from peril. With
the very best intentions the king may, through ignorance,
consult theologians infected with heresy, and so be led
astray. This, according to Bellarmine, was the ill-fortune
of Charles. The great Romish controversialist, enume-
rating the dark succession of those who have denied
the true faith concerning the Eucharist, begins with the
followers of Simon Magus and Menander ; then, pass-
ing over seven centuries, he names Scotus : " Non ille
Doctor subtilis sed alius antiquior, qui tempore, Caroli
magni circa annum Domini, DCCC, scripsit." * "The
third was Bertramus, in the time of Charles the Fat,
about the year 886, whose book is still in existence. He
again raised the controversy whether that same Body of
Christ which was born of the Virgin Mary is present in
the Eucharist. Paschasius, Abbot of Corbie, who
flourished at that period, refuted this error with great
learning."*
This, however, is not quite a fair statement of the
origin of the dispute. The great Eucharistic controversy
* De Sac. Euch., L. I. cap. i. Later scholars have arrived at the conclusion that the
treatise attributed by Belldrmine to the heterodox Scctus, and which was supposed to be lost,,
is really the treatise which was written by Ratramnus.
t Ibid. Bellarmine seems to be inaccurate again in placing the treatise of Bertramus —
properly Ratramnus —so late. He appears to have written, as has been said above, not under
the reign of Charles the Fat, but under the reign of Charles the Bold j not in 886, but
in 870.
Afid of the Lord's Supper, 317
in the Western Church, which commenced a little after
the middle of the ninth century, was originated not by
Ratramnus, but by Paschasius. It was Paschasius who
gave the great impulse to that theological movement which
culminated three centuries and a half later in the establish-
ment of the doctrine of Transubstantiation as the creed of
Western Christendom. The strength and definiteness
of his language in affirming that the visible Elements
cease to be Bread and Wine after consecration,* startled
the common people, and provoked sharp rejoinders from
eminent theologians. He was condemned strongly by
Rabanus Maurus, the illustrious Archbishop of Mayence.
Frudegard, a monk, who at first received the new doctrine,
was convinced that it was erroneous by the writings of
Augustine, and, in a treatise on the controversy, quoted
against Paschasius the great doctor of the African
Church.
But Ratramnus was his chief opponent. While Pas-
chasius Radbertus was '' the first," according to Bellar-
mine, '' who wrote copiously and systematically on the
truth of the Lord's Body and Blood in the Eucharist,"
Ratramnus stands conspicuous among the earliest pro-
testers against the most serious of all the corruptions of
the simplicity of the Apostolic faith. These two stand at
the head of two unbroken lines of hostile theologians,
who for a thousand years have divided the mind of the
Christian nations of Western Europe. Never for any
considerable period has the great controversy ceased
since they began it. In generation after generation, in
century after century, the fierce feuds which they kindled
have broken out afresh. Through protracted and bloody
wars, and through prosperous years of peace, — while
* "Omnia qucecumque voluit Dominus feck in ccelo et in terra, et quia voluit licet figura
panis et vini hie sir tamen omnino nihil aliud quam caro Christi et sanguis post consecrationem
credenda sunt-'-De Corp. et Sang. Dom., cap. i. Quoted by Eellarmine, De Sac. Euch.,
L. II. cap. xxiv.
3 1 8 The Doctrine of the Real Presence
o
famous dynasties have been achieving glory and sinking
into shame, — while nations, then hardly known, have been
struggling out of barbarism into the foremost ranks of
greatness and power, and while the splendour of illus-
trious kingdoms and commonwealths has been fading
away,^ — while new literatures, new sciences, new systems
of philosophy, new types of civilization have been gradually
taking possession of the world, — that old controversy,
which a thousand years ago Charles the Bold asked
Ratramnus to settle for him, has kept alive, has continued
to excite, to divide, to infuriate mankind, and at this
moment it seems likely to agitate Christendom for many
ages to come.
The value of the treatise of Ratramnus it is not easy to
exaggerate ; and those passages, which to an ordinary
Protestant reader are most perplexing, are of special im-
portance. Again and again he uses language which
appears to favour a theory hardly to be distinguished
from the theory of the Council of Lateran and the
Council of Trent, language identical with that which is
constantly quoted from the Fathers in support of the
doctrine of Transubstantiation ; but there are formal
statements and striking lines of argument which demon-
strate that in his time such language might be used by a
writer who regarded that doctrine as a flagrant heresy,
and in the very act of controverting it. He says
that : —
" The Bread which is offered, though taken'^ from the fruits of
the earth, is by consecration changed into Christ's Body; and the
Wine, though it hath flowed from the vine, yet by the consecration in
the Divine mystery is made the Blood of Christ, not indeed visibly,
but as this doctor (St. Isidore) saith, by the invisible operation of the
Spirit of God."*
* Parag. 42. The quotations are made from the translation of the treatise ap-
penaed to The True Doctrine of the Holy Eucharist, by the Rev. J. Taylor, M.A. j Lon-
don, 1855.
And of the Lord's Supper. 319
This might be appealed to as an acknowledgment of
a supernatural change of the substance of the elements
while the sensible accidents remain unchanged.
But later in the treatise he says : —
" It is further to be considered that in that Bread, not the Body of
Christ alone is figured, but also that of the people who believe in Him.
Wherefore it is made of many grains of corn, as the body of faithful
people is made up of many that believe through the Word of Christ.
For which reason, as that Bread is taken to be the Body of Christ in a
mystery, so likewise are the members of the people that believe in
Christ signified in a mystery. And as that Bread is called the Body
of believers not corporally but spiritually, so also we must understand
the Body of Christ not corporally but spiritually." *
The allusion is obviously to i Cor. x. 1 7 (" We being
many are one loaf"), and Ratramnus maintains that if the
consecrated Loaf is the Body of Christ, it is also, and in
the same sense, the Church of Christ.
He is so strongly impressed with the force of this
argument that he is unwilling to dismiss it, and in the
next paragraph he repeats it in another form : —
" So, too, with the Wine, which is called the Blood of Christ, water is
ordered to be mixed, nor is the one allowed to be offered without the
other ; because as the head cannot be without the body, nor the body
without the head, so neither can the people be without Christ, nor Christ
without the people. Moreover, the water in that [part of the] Sacra-
ment beareth the image of the people. If, therefore, that Wine, when
consecrated by the office of the minister, is corporally changed into the Blood
of Christ, the water also which is mixed with it, must necessarily be
corporally changed into the blood of the faithful people. For where the
consecration is one, there followeth also one operation ; and where the
cause is the same, the mystery which followeth is the same also. But
we see no change made m the water as to bodily substance, and, there-
fore, there is no change in the Wine. Whatever in the water signifieth
the people of Christ, is taken spiritually ; whatever, therefore, in the
Wine representeth the Blood of Christ, must be taken spiritually too." t
He recognizes no distinction between the manner in
which baptism originates the Divine life in the soul
and the manner in which the Eucharist sustains it ; there
* The True Doctrine of the Holy Eucharist, pp. 73, 74. f Ibid, p. 75.
320 The Doctrine of the Real Presence
Is no substantial change in the water of the font, nor is
there any substantial change in the Elements of the
Supper. He argues that, according to St. Paul, the
Jews in the desert received the Body and the Blood of
Christ in the manna and In the water that came from
the Rock, just as we receive the Body and the Blood of
Christ In the Bread and the Wine.
The substance of the Elements, he teaches, is un-
changed by consecration. They were Bread and Wine
before, they remain Bread and Wine still. And yet they
are the Body of Christ. How Is this ? He replies that
we are not to believe that " two things co-exist, diverse
between themselves, namely. Body and Spirit ;" referring
to what he had said about " the spiritual Body and the
spiritual Blood of Christ " existing ''under the veil of
corporeal Bread and Wine" : —
" But one and the same thing hath in one respect the nature of Bread
and Wine, in another is the Body and Blood of Christ. As far as they
are corporally handled, they are in their nature corporeal creatures; but
in their power, and as they are spiritually made, they are the mysteries
of the Body and Blood of Christ."
This looks like a clear preference of the theory which
is so vigorously rejected by modern Ritualists, that the
presence of Christ in the elements of the Eucharist is
" virtual," not personal.
He interprets Augustine as teaching '' that Sacraments
are one thing and the things of which they are Sacra-
ments another. For the Body in which Christ suffered,
and the Blood which flowed from His side, are the
things themselves ; whilst the mysteries of these things
are the Sacraments of the Body and Blood of Christ,
which are celebrated in memory of the Lord's passion."
The Elements, he continues, still resting on the authority
of Augustine, are called the Body and Blood of Christ,
just as the days which commemorate His passion and
And of the Lords Supper. 321
Resurrection are spoken of as though they were the actual
days on which Christ suffered and rose again. ** We say, to-
day, or to-morrow, or the next day is the Passion or the
Resurrection of the Lord, though the very days on which
these things were done have for many days passed away."
He appeals to St. Isidore as teaching that the Lord's
Passion was once accomplished, but that ** the memory of
it is represented in sacred and solemn rites."
He quotes a remarkable passage in which a parallel
is drawn between Jewish sacrifices and the Christian
Eucharist : —
" In those carnal victims there was a signification of the Flesh of
Christ, which He, without sin, was to offer for our sins, and of that
Blood which for the remission of our sins He was to pour forth ;
whilst in this sacrifice there is the thanksgiving and commemoration of
the Flesh of Christ He hath offered for us, and of the Blood which He
hath shed for us. . . . In those sacrifices, therefore, what was to be given
us was figuratively signified ; but in this sacrifice, what has already been
given is evidently shown."
Quoting from the prayers offered at the celebration of
the Eucharist, in which the Sacrament is spoken of as a
pledge of eternal life, and as the celebration " in figure "
of great spiritual blessings, he maintains that the elements
and the spiritual blessings themselves " differ as much
from each other as a pledge doth from that thing of
which it is given to us as the pledge ; as much as an
image doth from that thing of which it is the image ; as
much as the figure doth from the truth."
His closing words contain a summary statement of the
doctrine maintained throughout the treatise : —
*'We are taught," he says, " both by our Saviour and by St. Paul the
Apostle, that this Bread and Cup, which are placed on the altar, are
placed there in figure or in memory of the Lord's death, that they may
recall to our present remembrance that which was done in times past,
so that being put in remembrance of His passion, we may by it be made
partakers of the heavenly gift, whereby we have been freed from death ;
knowing well that when we shall arrive at the vision of Christ, we shall
Y
32 2 The Doctrine of the Real Preseiice
have no need of such like instruments to remind us what His bound-
less mercy hath endured for us ; for we shall then see Him face to face ;
we shall not be reminded by the outward admonition of temporal
things, but by the contemplation of Truth itself shall see how we
ought to render thanks to the Author of our salvation.
*' Yet let it not be thought, from my saying this, that in the mystery
of the Sacrament, the Body and Blood of the Lord are not received by
the faithful, for faith receiveth that which it believeth, not that which
the eye beholdeth. It is spiritual meat and spiritual drink ; spiritually
doth it feed the soul, and giveth life which shall satisfy for ever, as our
Saviour saith Himself when commending to us this mystery, ' It is the
Spirit that quickeneth : the flesh profiteth nothing.' "
No Protestant could desire a more explicit protest
against the present Roman theory. The doctrine of
Ratramnus is far more hostile to the Tridentine defini-
tion than the doctrine of Luther. And yet Ratramnus
lived six hundred years before Luther was born, and
writes like a man who is upholding the traditional doc-
trine of the Church against the innovations of heresy.*
Though the theological tendencies of the age were
strongly in favour of the new theory, it had to fight hard
for victory. Early in the eleventh century it was opposed,
though with less clearness and definiteness, and with
frequent vacillation and perilous concessions, by Beren-
garius. He maintained that the presence of Christ in
the elements was spiritual, not substantial ; that in Holy
Scripture the elements are spoken of as Bread and Wine,
even after the act of consecration ; and that it is con-
trary to the order of nature that the accidents should
remain after the substance has been changed. Like his
predecessors, he relied very much on the authority of
Augustine. Throughout the Western Church his views
* Ratramnus deserves to be remembered with eternal gratitude and honour by English
Protestants. Ridley took this little treatise with him into the country in 1545, and through
reading it was convinced that the Roman theory of Transubstantiation was a heresy and an
innovation. He communicated his discovery to Cranmer in i 546, and they examined the
doctrine together. The examination resulted in Cranmer's rejection of the Roman theory.
Ridley, when standing before the Commissioners at Oxford in 1555, after eulogizing the
learning, godliness, and argumentative power of Ratramnus, added, " This man was the first
who pulled me by the ear, and forced me from the common error of the Roman Church, to
a more diligent se.irch of Scripture and ecclesiastical writers on this question."
And of the Lord's Stepper. 323
commanded considerable support. He had powerful oppo-
nents, but he had also powerful friends, — Hildebrand
among the number, who, even after he ascended the Papal
throne, did his best to shelter Berengarius from his foes.
Even in the twelfth century, so orthodox a theologian
as Peter Lombard wrote, ** Si quaeritur qualis est ilia con-
versio, an formalis, an substantialis, vel alterius generis
definire non sufficio." Abelard declared that the contro-
versy as to whether the Bread was merely a symbol or
the substance of the Body of Christ, had not yet termi-
nated.* But the doctrine of Paschasius was steadily
making way. Hildebert of Mans, is said to have intro-
duced into the technical language of the Church the por-
tentous noun Transubstantiatio , and Stephen, Bishop of
Autun, the verb Trafisudstantiare. And at last, the word
and the thing were invested with the authority of the
Western Church at the Council of Lateran, a.d. 12 15.
After a struggle of three centuries and a half, the triumph
of Paschasius was complete.
It is not affirmed that before the ninth century there
had been no approach to the doctrine which has now for
more than six hundred years been an article of faith in
the Roman Church. Towards the end of the seventh
century Anastasius,t a monk of Mount Sinai, in his
'OS7/709, taught the doctrine of Transubstantiation in a form
far grosser than that which it assumed in the writings of
Paschasius. In a dialogue between an orthodox believer
and a heretic, who denied that the body of our Lord,
previous to His resurrection, was subject to the ordinary
changes and accidents which belong to human nature, Anas-
tasius puts into the mouth of the representative of the
true faith, a singular challenge. Tell me, he says, since
* Ncander, History of Doctrine, p. 531.
f There are three ecclesiastical writers of this name j the earliest lived in the latter half of
the sixth century ; the latest in the latter half of the eighth.
Y 2
324 The Dae trine of the Real Pi^esence
you believe that the Body of Christ from the moment
of its union with the Divinity is incorruptible as the
Divinity itself, whether the Sacrifice of the most holy
Body and Blood of Christ, which you offer and partake,
is the real Body and Blood of the Son of God, or com-
mon bread such as is sold in the market, and a mere
type of the Body of Christ, like the sacrifice of the
goat offered by the Jews ? God forbid, replies the other,
that we should say that the Holy Commnion is the
mere type of the Body of Christ, or mere bread; we
truly receive the very Body and Blood of Christ, the
Son of God, who was born of Mary, the Holy Mother
of God, ever virgin. To this the orthodox believer
assents, and replies. Come, then, since Christ Himself
testifies that what we, the faithful, receive, is really His
own Body and Blood, bring to us a portion of the
elements consecrated in your churches, since they are
orthodox beyond all others, and let us place the holy
Body and Blood of Christ in a vessel with all honour and
reverence. If in a few days it undergoes no corruption, or
change, or alteration, it will be clear that you are right in
affirming that Christ, from the very moment of the In-
carnation, was incorruptible ; but if it is corrupted or
changed, you must acknowledge, either, that what you
receive in the Eucharist is not the true Body of Christ,
but a type and mere bread, and that because of your
perverted faith the Holy Spirit has not descended upon
it ; or that the Body of Christ, before the resurrection,
was subject to corruption, being sacrificed, delivered to
death, wounded, pierced (or broken), and eaten ; for, he
goes on to say, an incorruptible body is subject to none
of these things, as appears from the example of the in-
corruptible nature of angels and souls.
This challenge rests on the hypothesis, that what Is
given In the Eucharist Is the earthly Body of Christ, and
And of the Lord's Stepper, 325
that the consecrated Elements, and the Body and Blood
of Christ, are so completely the same, that the very ac-
cidents of the one are the accidents of the other.
That in the eight century, a very strong form of the
doctrine of the Real Presence was prevalent in the
Eastern Church, appears from certain singular phases
of the controversy on the worship of images.
It must also be acknowledged that from the writings
of the Fathers, even of the first five centuries, the
advocates of the doctrine of Transubstantiation are able to
produce a formidable catena of quotations. And although
these quotations may be met, and their force destroyed,
by quotations as numerous and as striking on the other
side, it is only fair to admit, that long before the doctrine
assumed a definite and scientific form, the language with
which many distinguished theologians spoke of the
Eucharist, and the feelings with which it was generally
regarded by devout men, foreshadowed the rise of some
such heresy as that which was at last developed by
Paschasius. What were the real opinions of the great
saints and theologians of the early Church on this
Sacrament, has been a subject of dispute for a thousand
years. While it is impossible to produce any treatise
belonging to the first eight centuries, in which the doctrine
of Transubstantiation is definitely stated and defended,
and while innumerable passages may be alleged from
the writings of the most illustrious of the Fathers, which
seem to be inconsistent with it, controversialists on the
other side may answer, that the quotations from the
Fathers, on which the opponents of Transubstantiation
rely, are only analogous to those Arianizing passages on the
Trinity which occur In the most orthodox writers before
the Council of Nicaea ; that every article of the creed has
existed In solution In the mind of the Church before It
326 The Doctrine of the Real Presence
has been defined, and that until the definition has been
arrived at, uniform exactness of statement is not to
be looked for ; that the spirit with which the Church of
the centuries before Paschasius regarded the Eucharist
finds its only true dogmatic ground in his theory of the
change effected in the elements by consecration ; and that
the final determination of the doctrine by the Council
of Lateran was, therefore, but the formal expression of
what was manifestly the implicit faith of preceding ages.
For those who desire to pursue this perplexing question,
controversial theologians have prepared ample materials.
Scarcely a sentence written by any ecclesiastical writer,
from Ignatius to Bernard, which could be supposed to
lend any support to either side, has escaped the keen
and zealous scrutiny of controversialists. Wearisome
folios attest the industry and ardour with which Romanists
and Protestants alike have endeavoured to sustain their
respective positions by the suffrages of the ancient
Church. Most Protestants will perhaps be satisfied
with seeing that the Fathers can be quoted with at
least as much plausibility on their own side as on the
side of their opponents ; with remembering that nothing is
easier than to mistake the rhetoric of religious emotion
for the expression of dogmatic faith ; that when the
doctrine of Transubstantiation was first systematically
stated, it was met with severe opposition ; and that it did
not receive the formal sanction of a general council till the
commencement of the thirteenth century. But it will be
necessary to return to the question of patristic authority
in discussing the theory of the " Real Presence."
Even after the decision of the Council of Lateran, —
the Great Council, as the canonists call it, — solitary
theologians, popular reformers, and restless communities
of devout men in various parts of Europe, continued to
maintain an audible protest — a protest which had to be
A?id of the Lord's Supper. 327
silenced and suppressed by other and sharper weapons
than quotations from Scripture or the Fathers. Within
a period considerably less than that during which the
doctrine of Paschasius had been fighting its way to
whatever sanction it could receive from a General
Council of the West, nearly half the West renounced it ;
and by the intense hostility which this doctrine provoked
among Protestants, the great quarrel, which ended in
the eternal renunciation of the authority of the Roman
See by the races sprung from the German stock, was
greatly embittered.
Lutherans, Calvinists, Anglicans, and all the Churches
usually classed by ecclesiastical historians under the
pleasant title of *' Separatists," have been unanimous in
rejecting it.
And this, it may be retorted, is the extreme limit of
their unanimity. They agree, not to profess a solitary
doctrine, but simply to reject an article of faith which is
unanimously held by a Church which outnumbers
them all.
But is it quite certain that the Church of Rome is
unanimous on this doctrine '^. That all her members
declare that their faith is expressed by the decrees of
the Council of Trent is no proof of their unanimity.
Tractarians and Evangelicals, men who deny that infants
are spiritually regenerated in baptism, and men who be-
lieve it, declare that their faith is expressed in the Anglican
Office ; but their profession of faith in the same words
does not prove their acceptance of the same theory.
To those who are awed by the grand and imposing
conception of a Church including within its communion
men of every variety of race and of every type of civili-
zation, and proclaiming that through all the storms of
excitement through which the human intellect has passed.
328 The Doctrine of the Real Presence
its authority has secured for its members perfect unity
and rest in the great articles of the Christian faith, it
may be of some use to exhibit the " variations" of Roman
theologians on the mystery of the Eucharist.
That differences of opinion of some kind existed in
the Council of Trent itself on this subject is well known ;
but it is alleged that these differences related not to the
fact that in the Eucharist the Elements are changed into
the Body and Blood of Christ, but to the mode of the
change ; the differences were, however, sufficiently serious
to give the Council considerable trouble, and an apparent
reconciliation was secured at last only by an evasion of
the questions in dispute. When it was found hopeless to
bring the Franciscans and Dominicans to a genuine
agreement as to what Transubstantiation really is, " it was
determined," says Father Paul, "in the general Congre-
gation to use as few words as was possible, and to make
an expression so universal as might be accommodated to
the meaning of both parties."
On the question, whether or not Christ offered to
the Father a propitiatory sacrifice when He celebrated
the Last Supper, it seemed equally impossible to obtain
unanimity, and it was therefore " recommended that
the decree should indeed declare that Christ offered
Himself to the Father at the Last Supper under
the species of Bread and Wine, but that no men-
tion should be made of the nature of that offering,
seeing that the opinions of the prelates did not
agree regarding it." * The recommendation was even-
tually adopted. But skilfully as the decrees were
framed, it would not, perhaps, be too bold to affirm
that the definition of the Council of Trent expresses a
theory which no Roman theologian of eminence has
ever accepted.
* Waterworth's Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent : Preliminary Essay, p. 189.
And of the Lord's Supper. 329
The Tridentine doctrine is,* that the substance of the
Bread by a supernatural change becomes the substance
of the Body of our Lord, and the substance of the Wine
the substance of His Blood, the accidents of the Elements
remaining unchanged.
But do Roman theologians believe this ? Or, if any
do, has this opinion been common in their Church ? The
general theory is, that the substance of the Elements
disappears, — whether it is annihilated or not is unde-
termined, — and that the substance of the Body of Christ
simply takes its place. There is no conversio here. " If,"
said an old Puritan Morning Lecturer, '* the water in the
water-pots of Cana had been drawn off after they had
been filled, and if they had been filled again with wine
from a neighbouring cellar, there would have been no
change of the water into wine." This is the first great
difficulty of the Roman theologians ; it is hardly possible
for them to escape the admission that the substance of
the Bread, instead of being changed into the substance of
the Body of Christ, as the Council of Trent affirms,
simply gives place to it.
If it be contended that the substance of the Bread is
actually changed into the substance of the Body, a very
grave question emerges ; for when one substance is
changed into another, it is plain that both must be
affected by the process ; but the warning of Albertus
Magnus, that it is not safe to affirm that the change
effected by consecration affects in any way the Body of
Christ, has had sufficient authority to make theologians
cautious of any theory that appeared to violate it.
♦"And because that Christ our Redeemer declared that which He offered under the
species of Bread to be truly His own Body, therefore has it ever been a firm belief in the
Church of God — and this Holy Synod doth now declare it anew — that by the consecration of
the Bread and of the Wine a conversion is maJe (converiionem fieri) of the whole substance of
the Bread into the substance of the Body of Christ our Lord, and of the whole substance of
the Wine into the substance of His Blood, which conversion {qua conversio) is by the holy-
Catholic Church suitably and properly called Transubstantiation."— Decrees and Canons, Council
of Trent, sess. xiii. cap. iv.
330 The Doctrhie of the Real Presence
The supreme perplexity in which the theory involves
its adherents comes from this, — that the Body of Christ
exists before the consecration of the Elements, and it is
profanity to suppose that it undergoes any change.
Since it is pre-existent, consecration cannot create it ;
all that it can do is to cause it to be there — under the
species of Bread and Wine. But then arise innumerable
questions. The place of the Body of Christ is in heaven.
When it comes to be under the accidents of the Elements,
does it pass through the space between heaven and the
altar ? If not, was it present under the accidents of the
Elements before Transubstantiation ? Again, if consecra-
tion does nothing more than cause the body of Christ to
be where it was not before, the words, declarative or
effective of the mystery, should not be, *' This is my
Body," but, ''Here is my Body." But Transubstantia-
tion should have for its '' term " a substance. ; but this is
to make it " terminate" simply in a Presence. These are
not the suggestions of Protestant hostility ; they are
difficulties originating with Roman theologians them-
selves, and difficulties which have suggested their
conflicting theories of the mystery. Perhaps the most
ingenious theory of all is, that Transubstantiation is an
action which would produce the Body and Blood of
Christ if they did not already exist ; that as they already
exist, they cannot be, properly speaking, produced ; but
that Transubstantiation produces th^m so /ar as they can
be produced.*
But there are differences of another kind to perplex
those who think to find in the theology of Rome the
* Albertinus, in his great work, De Eucharhtia, gives an account of nine or ten different
Romish theories of the change effected by consecration — theories which are, in fact, for the
most part different doctrines. The rocks on which most of them split are indicated in the
text. It would be difficult, happily, to find language in English that would express these
theories at all accurately. They are interesting as showing what real differences exist under
the show of unity, and especially as proving that the doctrine affirmed by the Council of
Trent — that there is an actual conversion of the substince of the Bread into the substance of
the Body of Christ — is uniformly evaded.
And of the Lord's Supper. 331
determination of all their perplexities. What was the
form of consecration used by our Lord Himself in cele-
brating the Supper ?
To this there are at least seven replies : — (i) He
consecrated without using any words at all, and Tran-
substantiation was already effected before He said, ''This
is my Body." (2) He consecrated when He " blessed " in
words of which we are ignorant. (3) He consecrated
with the words, " This is my Body," but the words were
used twice, first in consecrating and again in distributing.
(4) He consecrated with the words, '' This is My Body,"
and the Evangelists have not given us the exact order of
the Rite in connecting these words with the distribution.
(5) He consecrated with the words " This is my Body,"
and they were so spoken as to cover the three acts of
blessing, breaking and distributing. -(6) He consecrated
not when He blessed, but when He said, " This is my
Body" — in the act of distribution. (7) He consecrated
when He "blessed" the Elements and said, " This is my
Body," the action being one and indivisible, though
the Evangelists could not escape speaking as if the one
followed the other. There is a further dispute as
to whether the words, '' Shed for the remission of
sins," form part of the consecrating formula for the
Cup.
Nor will it do for Roman controversialists to re-
proach Protestants with their want of agreement in the
interpretation of the words of institution. English
readers are familiar with the keen chapters in Jeremy
Taylor's famous treatise, in which he illustrates the
chaotic confusion of Romish divines on this very point.
The eloquent bishop evidently uses not only his own
vast reading to overwhelm his adversaries, but also the
treasures of erudition accumulated by Albertinus, who
seems to have found his supreme joy in demonstrating
332 The Doctrine of the Real Presence
the want of harmony among the theologians of the In-
falhble Church. The account given by Albertinus of
the various interpretations of Hoc, in the sentence, Hoc
est corpus meitm, occupies twenty foHo columns of tolerably
compact Latin; and yet he does not profess to give all
the interpretations that have been suggested, '' but only
those which are more common, and which, on account of
the eminence, or number of those who have adopted
them, may be thought the more probable."
Passing over the more subtle distinctions between in-
terpretation and interpretation, that the reader may not
be driven quite insane,* the meanings assigned to this
perplexing pronoun by Roman divines may be reduced
to six. It denotes :-^(i) Nothing. (2) The accidents
of the Bread (3) The Bread — either {a) the sub-
stance and accidents together ; or {b) the substance
of the Bread apart from the accidents ; or {c) the sub-
stance of the Bread, not qua the substance of the Bread,
but qua substance in general. (4) That individual
existence which ultimately becomes the Body of Christ.
(5) That which is contained under the accidents of the
Bread (^quod alii vocant individuum vagum, alii sub-
stantiam vage et indeterminate spectatam). (6) The
Body of Christ.
The meanings assigned to est must vary with those
assigned to Hoc. The principal meanings are four. Est
stands for: — (i) '*is changed into," " has become ; " (2)
*' shall be ; " (3) *' contains ; " or else (4) it is the
simple copula affirming the identity of subject and pre-
* The following extract, which Albertinus gives from Catharinus at the commencement
of this chapter (L. I. cap. viii.), is too pathetically humorous not to be quoted; translation
would destroy its flavour : — ''Lector consideret laborem et angustias usque (pene dixiiim) ad
necem fere omnium scribentium, dum rogati qu'd significet pronomen illud. Hoc, tot et
tanta scribunt et adeo varia ut valeant ad insamam redigere Lectorem nimium considerantem. B.
Thomas multorum responsiones recitat, et omnes repreihendit. Ponet suam, quam posteriores Scotus
et Petrus Aureolus reprchendunt et qu'dibet tandem suam adjecit. Et Scotus quidem tot verba
effundit et tot elicit conclusiones, ut si quis valeat legere legent'is patientiam admirer^ et mhilom'wus.,
in tanto multilcquio suam n^rrans ita trepidat ut se n.ndum securum ostendat.^'' — Catharinus De Verbis
quibus Conficitur, &c.
A7id of the Lords Supper. 333
dicate, though it is difficult to understand how this should
be, since that identity is not consummated when est is
uttered.
Of course, there are also various interpretations of the
word corpics ; but to state these is hardly possible with-
out a freer use of scholastic technicalities than the nature
and object of this Essay would permit.
There are further differences of opinion in reference to
the proof of the doctrine. When the controversy con-
cerning the witholding of the cup from the laity was at
its height, it became common for Roman controversialists
to maintain that the discourse in the sixth chapter of St.
John's Gospel, which makes it as necessary to '* drink
the blood " as to "eat the flesh " of the Son of Man, did
not refer to the Lord's Supper, but to spiritual
communion. The discourse, however, lent itself too
easily to the theory of Transubstantiation to be finally
surrendered ; and when the storm about communion in
both kinds had somewhat sunk, the direct reference of
this discourse to the Eucharist was re-asserted.
The indefatigable Albertinus gives a terrible list of
popes, cardinals, archbishops, bishops, and doctors of
theology who were committed to the heretical interpreta-
tion of this great passage.* Bellarmine's apology for
the aberrations of these distinguished men is deliciously
* " Adversarii pro solita sua quam indesinenter mentiuntur, unitate hie etiam inter se
dissident. Multi enim inter illos (quorum Salmero, Bellarminus, et Vasques recensent
nonnullos, nos ver6 plures enumerabimus) imprudenter admodum a Maldonato temeritatis ac
imprudentiae stigmate notati, negativam nobiscum tuentur. Pontifices duo, Innocentius tertius
et Pius secundus. Cardina/es quatuor Bonaventura, de Alliaco, Cusanus, Cajetanus : yirch'i-
ephiopi dui Richardus Armachanus et Guerrerius Granatensis : Episcopi quintjue^ Stephanus
Eduensis, Durandus Minnatensis, Gulielmus Altissiodorensis, Lindanus Ruremundensis, Jan-
senius Gandavensis, quern et alicubi sequitur Tannerus licet inconstanter : pUrique Iheologia
Doctores ac Prcfessora concionatoret que celeberrimi., Alexander de Hales, Richardus de
Mediavilla, Joannes Gerson, Joannes de Ragusio, Gabriel Biel, Thomas Waldensis, Author
libri, cujus titulus, Tractatus contra perfidiam quorundam Bohemorum, Joannes Maria
Verratus, Tilmanus Segebergensis, Joannes Eccius, Joannes Major, Astesanus, Conradus,
Joannes Ferus, Conradus Sasgerus, Joannes Hesselius, Ruardus Tapperus, Palatios, qui illam
sibi arridere dicit et novissime Nicolaus Rigaltius Caeteri qui in maqno quoque
sunt numero affirmativam amplectuntur, nonnuUi etiam tanta pertinacia ac animi ferocitate,
ut Rossensis ausus fuerit scribere, Salmerone et Stapletono non improbantibus, Se non dubitare
earn dice-e desertum et rejectum atque reprohatum a Deo, qui diutius contenderit aut non esse 'vtram
334 T^^^^ Doctrine of the Real Presence
characteristic. '' There are, however, a few [CathoHcsJ,'*
he says, '' who, that they might more easily reply to the
followers of Huss and Luther attempting to defend com-
munion in both kinds from this chapter, taught that the
chapter does not refer to the Sacramental eating and
drinking of the Body and Blood of the Lord
There is, however, a great difference between the
Catholics and the heretics, although they seem to agree ;
for the Catholics embraced that opinion with the very
best intention, that they might more easily maintain the
truth ; the heretics, that they might more easily attack
it." That both Catholics and heretics ought to be more
anxious about finding the true interpretation of our
Lord's discourse than about employing it for contro-
versial purposes, does not seem to have occurred to this
eminent theologian.
But what is most startling of all is, that in the Missal
itself there are unambiguous traces of incoherent and
contradictory theories of the Service. If anything in the
Roman Church can be regarded as settled, it is that the
mystery of Transubstantiation is effected when the priest
pronounces the words, '' Hoc est enim corpus meum ; "
before these words are spoken the Bread is mere Bread ;
it is when these have passed the lips of the priest that
the '' whole substance of the Bread is changed into the
substance of the Body of the Lord." And yet before
these words are uttered the Host is offered to God by
the priest as a propitiatory Sacrifice, with the prayer,
'* Accept, O Holy Father, Almighty and Eternal God,
this unspotted Host, which I, Thy unworthy servant, offer
unto Thee, my living and true God, for my innumerable
sins, offences, and negligences, and for all here present ;
Christl carnem et sanguinem in Eucharhtia, aut •verba jfoannh in 6 capite ad eandem Euckarh-
ttam nequaquam spectareT Albertinus, Z^e^ttc-^ani/w (Daventriae, 1655), pp. 209-210. Those
who wish to verify the authorities appealed to, will find, in Albertinus, references under every
name in this formidable list.
And of the Lords Suppei\ 335
as also for all faithful Christians, both living and dead,
that it may avail them unto life everlasting." A prayer,
similar in effect, though much less definite, is presented
at the oblation of the chalice, and before the awful words
have changed the mingled Water and Wine into the Blood
of Christ.
These prayers would never have had their present place
in the office, if the office had been originally constructed
under the control of the Tridentine theory. In the cele-
bration of the Mass itself — the central act of Romish
worship — there are indications that the Tridentine theory
is an innovation.
It admits of proof, therefore, that the apparent
unanimity of the Romish Church on this dogma is only
apparent. Every kind of variation of opinion that can
invalidate the claim to unanimity may be shown to have
existed in the Romish Church, in relation to this Sacra-
ment. Romish theologians are not agreed as to what
Transubstantiation really is. They differ on the question
whether, in the original celebration of the Supper, the
mysterious change in the elements was effected by the
words which are declared .to effect it now. They differ
in their interpretation of those words. They differ as to
the Scripture proof upon which the dogma rests. And
the whole theory is utterly destroyed by the very Eucha-
ristic office which has been recited by Romish priests for
centuries, and is recited still in every Romish church
throughout Christendom.
To discuss the arguments which are alleged in support
of this doctrine is no part of the purpose of the present
Essay. Any discussion would be incomplete that did not
include the investigation of the claims of the Romish
Church to require the acceptance of articles of faith
which cannot be proved from Holy Scripture. In reply to
33^ The Doctrine of the Real Presence
an opponent, who maintained that no express Scriptural
authority could be quoted which, apart from the decisions
of the Church, could demonstrate the doctrine of Tran-
substantlon, Bellarmine admits that " perhaps this Is not
altogether improbable ; for, although the Scripture which
we have already alleged may seem to us sufficiently clear
to convince any man who Is not utterly destitute of
candour and honesty [possit cogere hominem non pro-
tervum], yet this may perhaps be justly doubted, since
the most learned and subtle men, such as Scotus, have
thought differently."*
It Is something to have shown that this doctrine, so far
from having been received by the Church from the
earliest Christian antiquity, provoked strong hostility
when it was first explicitly taught ; and that the Roman
Church has been distracted by conflicting opinions on
the manner In which the doctrine should be scientifically
defined, and on every point connected with it.
II. With those theologians of the English Church
who contend for a doctrine of the Eucharist which theo-
logicallyis separated by the very finest lines from thatwhich
is professed by Romanists, the controversy Is more manage-
able. In the earlier stages of the Oxford movement, it
was not very easy to understand exactly what was meant
by those who advocated the theory of the *' Real Presence."
This difficulty has disappeared. There Is probably no
essential difference between the doctrine which was main-
tained in the " Tracts for the Times " rather more than
thirty years ago, and the doctrine which is maintained in
the recent '' Tracts for the Day." The sacramental
theory of Dr. Littledale and Mr. Orby Shipley Is funda-
mentally the same as that of Dr. Pusey. But the whole
manner of recent Ritualists Is singularly different from
* De Sac. Euch., L. III. cap. xxiii.
And of the Lord's Supper. 337
that of the old Tractarians. The hesitation and indis-
tinctness with which the doctrine used to be stated have
gone. The theory, to use an image of Burke's, is no
longer '' in the gristle ;*' its bones are firmly set. Even
Archdeacon Wilberforce, in his " Doctrine of the Holy
Eucharist," was less trenchant than the men who are
wTiting now. There was an intellectual awe in the
earlier writers, when they approached this discussion,
which their successors appear to have lost. It is not
meant that Ritualistic theologians are wanting in reverence
for what they acknowledge to be a wonderful and fearful
mystery ; but their reverence does not interfere with
their intellectual freedom and vigour in expressing and
defending their faith. The awful cloud which once filled
the whole temple, so that human weakness could not
minister even in its outer courts, has gathered into the
inner sanctuary ; and the common daylight, in which men
can see clearly and work freely, is shining elsewhere.
What is meant by the doctrine of the '' Real Presence,"
may be seen from the following passages, extracted from
an essay in the " Tracts for the Day," edited by Mr. Orby
Shipley : —
" What was done in the Incarnation is renewed in the Sacrament ;
not in the same manner, but in a certain resemblance and proportion."
(p- 232-)
" There is in both cases a real union between the
earthly and the Heavenly; — in the Incarnation, between the Eternal
Word and man's nature ; in the Eucharist, between the Person of Christ
and the Elements of Bread and Wine ; so that it may be said that there
is a renewal or continuation of the Incarnation." (P. 232.)
" In order to this union of the Flesh of Christ with ours, He first
incarnates Himself in the hands of the priest ; that is, at the moment
of consecration, Christ unites Himself, Body, Soul, and Divinity, in an
ineffable manner, with the elements of Bread and Wine : and so near
does this approach to the union of the Divine and the Human in the
Incarnation, that Bishop Andrews calls it ' a kind of hypostatical union
of the Sign and the Thing signified, so united together as are the two
natures of Christ.'" (Pp. 232, 233.)
Z
33^ The Doctrine of the Real Presence
" By the Real Presence of Christ is not meant a presence by Divine
power or spiritual grace ; but the Presence of His very, true Body— not
anything different from the Body which He had on earth, and which
He took up into heaven — not anything to which the name or properties
of His Body are merely ascribed in a sacramental sense, but that very
Body which He took of the substance of the Virgin Mary His mother,
which was ' crucified, dead, and buried,' and ascended far above all
heavens." (P. 245.)
" In the Eucharist the conjunction of the Elements with the Body
and Blood is permanent ; that is to say, it remains as long as the
outward species remain." (P. 237.)
" It is a m.iracle as great as any of those recorded in Scripture."
(P. 248.)
" It is the complement of the Incarnation, which began in the union
of God with man's nature, and culminates in the union of individual
men with God The doctrines are mutually dependent.
There could have been no Eucharist but for the Incarnation. There
could have been no receiving of Christ's Body in any sense, unless He
had assumed a real Body. And the Incarnation would have been of no
benefit to us, individually, but for Sacramental Communion, by which
' we are made One with Christ, and Christ with us.' Hence the Eucharist
is frequently called the ' Extension of the Incarnation.' " (P. 232.)
" If Christ is not Present, as the Substance of our Offering, we have
nothing to present to God but the material things, ' the outward signs,'
which can no more make us acceptable than the legal victims, which
could never take away sin Christ is truly, really, and sub-
stantially Present under the Form of Bread and Wine ; and we offer, not
these visible productions of the earth, but Him as our Propitiation
before God." (P. 262.)
" Whole Christ — Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity is then present ;
[at the moment of consecration ;] and shall we not worship Him with
adoring faith and the deepest prostration of our spirits?" (P. 278.)
"The adoration of Christ in the Sacrament is not a thing to be
merely tolerated. It takes the rank of a Christian duty, according to
the famous saying of Augustine," &c. (P. 280.)
The Ritualistic doctrine cannot be charged with any
want of decision and definiteness. The Bread and the Wine
become the Body and the Blood of Christ ; they are
changed into the very Body which He took of the Virgin
Mary, and the glory of which saints and angels behold in
heaven. A miracle great as that of the Incarnation is
A7id of the Lord's Supper, 339
accomplished in every celebration of the Eucharist, — a
miracle in some respects far more wonderful than that of
which it is said to be the " extension." For the possi-
bility of the Incarnation has been thought to lie in this,
that man was made in the " image of God ;" that human
nature should be taken into personal union with God was,
therefore, contemplated and provided for in the original
creation of our race ; but no such '' image " of Christ can
be supposed to exist in the Bread which has been made
by human hands, and baked in an oven, or in the Wine
which comes from the cellars of Bordeaux or Cadiz.
The Elements so assumed into personal union with our
Lord — made one with His Body, Soul, and Divinity —
are offered to God as a Propitiatory Sacrifice. They are
worshipped. Christ — the living, personal, glorified Christ,
being indissolubly united with the Elements, He is
received not only by " worthy " communicants, but by
the unworthy ; so that every tide-waiter who took the
Sacrament to qualify for ofifice, and went away from the
"altar" to celebrate his appointment with a drunken
carouse, received Christ.
The foundations of proof on which this stupendous
structure is built ought to be sure and strong. The
miracle is without a parallel. It is alleged, indeed, that
Christ by " a simple act of volition converted water into
wine," and that " the same power can now turn Wine
into His own Blood, to fulfil the purposes of His love in
the Blessed Sacrament." But the miracle at Cana has
no analogy to that of the Altar. The water when
changed into wine ceased to be water ; if we had been
told that it remained water still, and that though it had
really become wine, all its original properties and ef-
fects remained, there would have been some remote
similarity between that miracle and this. To make the
z 2
340 The Doctrine of the Real Presence
analogy somewhat closer, It would be necessary to add,
that the water, still remaining water, did not merely
become wine, but became the very wine which had
been provided at the beginning of the feast, and which
had been already drunk by the guests ; for the Bread
becomes the Body of Christ, which has already been
*' received " by millions of communicants for more than
eighteen hundred years. The resemblance between the
two miracles would still be most distant ; to lessen the
remaining differences between them, we should require
to be assured that the water — still remaining water —
was changed not only into the wine which the guests
had just drunk, but Into wine which was lying at that
moment in the cellars of the Roman Emperor in the
imperial city, and that yet It was In the waterpots at
Cana ready to be consumed by the Galilean peasants
assembled to celebrate the marriage of their friends ; for
the Body of our Lord Is in Heaven, and yet It Is Into
that Body that the consecrated Bread Is said to be
changed. Even If this astounding addition were made
to the story, much would remain to be added before the
analogy could be of any real service In assisting us to
accept the " mystery ; " for the great wonder of all Is
that the Bread — remaining Bread — Is made one with a
living Person ; if the miracle at Cana Is to present any
resemblance to the miracle of the Real Presence, we
must further Imagine that the water — remaining water
— became the Body or Blood of Christ — that He Him-
self was not only sitting with the guests but was con-
tained In the waterpots, and was drunk by the master of
the feast.
Let no one reply, that the fact of the Real Presence is
not Impeached by showing that Innumerable and pre-
posterous Inconsistencies result from the attempt to treat
what Is altogether supernatural and spiritual as though It
And of tJie Lord's Stepper. 341
were included in the natural order. There is no inten-
tion to imply that the preceding paragraph has any force
at all against the doctrine itself ; but when the miracle of
Cana is appealed to as though it could lend some support
to a Mystery with which it has not the remotest analogy,
it is perfectly fair to show that the appeal is illegiti-
mate. If in doing this, it is hardly possible to avoid the
appearance of attempting to throw an air of absurdity
over what, if true, should be regarded with the most
devout reverence, the responsibility must rest with those
who weaken their own case in the attempt to strengthen
it. It is an offence against taste and piety to ridicule
the faith of good men ; but the respect due to honest
religious convictions cannot be claimed for the sophisms
on which these convictions are sometimes rested.
There is another line of remark by which the advo-
cates of this doctrine endeavour to lessen the natural
recoil of the intellect from the mystery. That our Lord
had " a solid, tangible Body," that He was '' no phan-
tasm," is, of course, earnestly maintained. But it is
alleged that " there was inherent in His very Body,
powers, supernatural and Divine, which set Him above
the laws of human nature, only that it was His will to
restrain their exercise, except in special cases." (P. 254).
Some of the illustrations given of these '* special cases"
are simply instances in which Christ exerted His mira-
culous power over external nature. That Christ walked
on the sea, suggests no difficulty to any mind that
believes Him to be the Creator and Ruler of the material
universe. But the advocates of the Real Presence
allege miracles of another kind — miracles which do not
merely imply the suspension or overruling of what are
called natural laws, but miracles which cannot be believed
except in defiance of all the laws of the human under-
standing itself; and these are the miracles which — if
342 The Doctrine of the Real Presence
they could be shown to have taken place — -would be of
some use in relation to this mysterious doctrine.
It is said, for instance, that our Lord '' could move
from one place to another without passing over the
intervening space." (P. 254.) Where are we told this ?
" The disciples," the writer adds, *'left Him on the land,
and straightway He was with them on the sea; and,
without perceptible motion, the ' ship was immediately at
the land whither they went.' " There are some curious
and very gratuitous additions here to the story as given
by the evangelists. The writer, by inserting the word
" straightway," which does not appear in the Gospels,
appears to wish it to be understood that our Lord
came from the land where the disciples had left Him
to the ship, " without passing over the intervening
space;" but St. Matthew, St. Mark, and St. John, all
tell us that the disciples saw Jesus " walking upon
the sea," and St. John speaks of Him as ''drawing nigh
unto the ship," all of which expressions certainly imply
that in coming to the disciples He did "pass over
the intervening space." Where the writer learnt that
the ship, as soon as our Lord entered it, reached the
land " without perceptible motion," he does not inform
us ; the three evangelists who narrate the miracle say
nothing of the kind. If this is supposed to be implied in
the statement of St. John, " that immediately the ship
was at the land whither they went," the '* hidden powers"
of our Lord's Body, which enabled it to " move from one
place to another without passing over the intervening
space," must be transferred to the ship itself and to all
the people that were in it, which would be a somewhat
startling hypothesis.
Then, again, it is said that though after the Resurrec-
tion '' He still had ' flesh and bones,' palpable to touch,
solid matter offered no resistance to His passage through
Afid of the Lord's Supper. 343
it." (P. 255). The only proof given rests on an un-
tenable arrangement of the events of the morning of the
Resurrection, and an untenable interpretation of the
narrative given by St. John of our Lord's appearance to
the disciples in the evening :— '' On Easter morning His
re-animated Body had issued from the sepulchre without
rending the rock or bursting the sealed stone ; and in the
evening He suddenly stood in the midst of the disciples
without entering through the barred doors." This is to
create superfluous wonders in the Gospel, in order to
shade off the startling contrast between the alleged
miracle effected by the Eucharistic consecration and all
miracles besides. There is no proof that' the stone
remained sealed after our Lord had left the sepulchre, or
that He entered the room in which the disciples were
met while the doors were barred.
If the Elements become the Body and Blood of
our Lord Jesus Christ, the miracle is absolutely unique,
in all its circumstances and attributes. Every attempt
to alleviate the difficulties in which it is involved by
alleging analogous wonders is futile. Nothing analogous
can be found. The Mystery stands alone.
The Anglican theologians who maintain the doctrine
of the Real Presence are, on the whole, less fortunate
than the Romish theoloofians who maintain the doctrine
of Transubstantiation. If the Anglicans are relieved
from the necessity of defending the philosophical theory
with which the Romish creed is entangled, they are
deprived of the great and formidable stronghold to which,
when hard pressed, a Roman controversialist is always
able to retreat.
There is nothing absolutely and obviously absurd in
affirming that the Church of Rome has authority in
matters of faith. The claim is false, but it may be
344 ^'^^ Doctrine of the Real Presence
seriously defended by thoughtful and learned men with-
out exposing themselves to the ridicule of the human
race. That the decrees of the Council of Lateran
express the mind of that Church to which our Lord pro-
mised the permanent guidance of the Spirit of Truth,
though an assertion which will hardly bear looking at
in the light of the history of the Council, may yet be
supported by a very fair show of argument. But that
the Church of England, whatever that Church may be —
the English Crown and Parliament, the Bishops, the
Clergy, Convocation, the English people, or those of
them who have been baptized by the Anglican clergy, or
those of them who have been confirmed by the Anglican
Bishops, or those of them who regularly receive the com-
munion at the Anglican altars — that the English Church,
whose members no man can define and of whose authentic
organs and true rulers no man can be sure, should be
appealed to as having any shadow of power to determine
a disputed doctrine, is so extravagant an hypothesis, that
it may be doubted whether the most devoted of her sons
would wittingly commit himself to maintain .it. And
if in a moment of heroic devotion any Anglican theolo-
gian should rashly demand for the Catechism of his
Church, her Articles, and her Office a submission such
as that which Rome claims for the decrees of Popes and
Councils, there is this further difficulty, that it seems un-
certain whether the documents of the Church of England
teach the Real Presence or not. The ambiguous tes-
timony of a Church destitute of authority, is the sandiest of
foundations on which to rest a great Mystery like this.
Indeed, \\\^ proof oi the doctrine is never really sought
in the documents of the English Church itself; all that is
seriously meant by the ingenious and very effective
arguments of such writers as Mr. Cobb* is this : it being
* The Kiss of Peace— a very keen and able pamphlet.
And of the Lord's Supper. 345
assumed, or proved on other grounds, that the doctrine
is true, it can be shown that the documents of the
EngHsh Church, so far from contradicting it, actually
teach it ; and, therefore, those who profess to be
faithful ministers of that Church are bound to teach it
too. The argument, though on some points very-
difficult to refute, is considerably enfeebled by the fact
that probably three-fourths of the clergy and laity of the
English Church, from the time of Elizabeth to our own,
have read the documents in a different sense.
Nor can the Anglican theologians derive much
strength for their doctrine from that vague appeal to the
*' Catholic Church " and to *' Catholic opinion," which is
so common in their writings. What do they mean by the
" Church ? " Where are we to find the authoritative organs
of " Catholic opinion ? " They cannot mean to appeal to
Christendom as it actually exists, — to Rome, which de-
clares that their " orders " are invalid, and their very.
" consecration " of the Elements an idle form, — to Con-
stantinople, which refuses to acknowledge their definition
of the doctrine of the Trinity, and from which they are
separated by a double schism, by the original quarrel
which divided the whole of the West from the whole of
the East, and by the later quarrel which has divided the
English Church from the remainder of the West. They
cannot mean to appeal to the Lutheran and Reformed
Churches of continental Europe, or to the ** separatist "
Churches by which they are surrounded in this island ;
this would be to abandon all their characteristic claims.
It must be to the Church of the early centuries that
they appeal. But then they are met by this grave diffi-
culty, that in no creed and in no council, the authority of
which is acknowledged by the English Church, has the
doctrine of the Real Presence any place.
34^ The Doctrine of the Real Presence
The way in which this difficulty is met by the writer
of the tract already quoted, shows how insuperable it is.
*' It has been observed," he says, "sometimes with surprise, or by
way of objection, that the doctrine of the Eucharist has no place
among the Articles of Faith in the Creed. That, however, can scarcely
be admitted, seeing the Doctrine of the Incarnation is distinctly as-
serted in the shortest of our Creeds, and set forth with elaborate
definition in the Nicene and Athanasian, as the fundamental Truth of
Christianity."
By what subtlety of logic it can be shown that because
a creed affirms that the Eternal Word became man in
the Person of Our Lord Jesus Christ, it also affirms that
the Bread and Wine of the Eucharist become the Body
and Blood of Christ, and are thus made one with His
Soul and Divinity, may perhaps excite the curiosity of
*' uncatholic " theologians.
There appears to be a very wide gulf between these two
articles of faith. It seems very possible to believe the first
without believing the second. Millions of devout and
learned men have never felt that the doctrine of the Incar-
nation rendered the doctrine of the Real Presence inevit-
able. Stripping away the mere accessories from the argu-
ment by which the nexus between these great Mysteries is
demonstrated, the whole proof amounts to this : — " Every
one who admits that the restoration of human nature
was the end of the Incarnation, must see that the Real
Presence of Christ's Body and Blood, as well as the
necessity of receiving them, is involved in that Doctrine,
si7ice nothing else cafi make us the better for the Son of God
having assumed our nature — nothing but that which unites
us to Him, in whom is the ftdlness of grace and blessing.''
(P. 260.) This is to prove one assertion which requires
demonstration by making another which is equally in
need of it. That " nothing else " than the Real Presence
'' can make us the better" for the Incarnation, is certainly
a very bold proposition — a proposition of a kind which
And of the Lords Stepper. 347
most people will think rather more difficult to prove than
the Real Presence itself. To show that the Elements of
the Eucharist become the Body and Blood of Christ is a
trifling task, compared with that of showing that by no
other mea7ts than this is it possible for God to grant to men
the blessines which He intended to flow from the Incarna-
tion. If this startling proposition must be proved in order
to secure the authority of the creeds for the doctrine of
the Real Presence, it will be wise for its advocates to do
their best to establish their case without that authority.
If creeds and councils fail, the writings of the Fathers
are left. In these it is maintained that the voice of " the
Church " may be distinctly heard. Dr. Pusey, In his
*' Doctrine of the Real Presence," gives a catena of ancient
authorities for the Doctrine, extending from the time of
the Apostles to a.d. 45 i (the Fourth General Council).
After occupying about two hundred pages with proofs
that the Fathers did not teach Transubstantiatlon, he oc-
cupies four hundred more with what are intended to be
proofs that they did teach the Doctrine held by himself
and those Anglican theologians of whom he Is deservedly
the beloved and venerated leader. Many of the passages
alleged against the creed of the Romanists will seem to
some readers the best reply to those .which are alleged
In support of his own. He quotes, for Instance, the
famous passage of St. Augustine : — " If sacraments had
not some likeness to the things thereof they are sacra-
ments, they would not be sacraments at all ; hwt from this
likeness they also receive the names of the things them-
selves " {Epist, 98, ad Bonif., § 9). That the mere
*' likeness " of the Elements to the Body and Blood of
Christ should be given by Augustine as the reason why
they are called the Body and Blood of Christ, appears
hardly reconclleable with the hypothesis that he believed
that in any sense they actually become the Body and
34^ The Doctrine of the Real Presence
Blood of Christ. Dr. Pusey shews that there are a vast
number of passages in which the Fathers speak of the
Elements as types, antitypes, figures, symbols, images of
Christ or of His Body and Blood ; but every such
passage is a reason for interpreting passages which seem
to affirm a Real Objective Presence, as simply the ex-
aggerated expression of excited faith and vehement love.
If but once in the course of a long poem a man says
that the portrait of his mother is before him, the most
fervent declarations of filial devotion to her, the most
passionate exclamations in which he says he sees her
smile, hears her voice, finds rest in her love, the most
earnest appeals to her for counsel and consolation, must
be interpreted under the control of the solitary state-
ment that it is her portrait on which he is gazing — not
herself. It may be inferred from the manner of his
appeals to her, that he believes that his mother's spiritual
presence is with him, and that though she has passed away
she is watching over her child still ; the picture may have
given vividness and intensity to his ordinary belief in her
guardian care ; imagination may have risen into faith ;
but when once he has spoken of a " portrait," no reader
in his senses will suppose that there is anything more
than a portrait present to him, or that he believes that
the canvass and the colours have by " transubstantiation "
or '' unition," or any other mysterious change become
anything different from what they seem.
Moreover, if the expressions which are quoted from
the Fathers on behalf of the Real Presence are to have
the meaning attributed to them, if they imply a definite
Sacramental doctrine, and if they are to be regarded as
illustrating the mind of the "Church," then the " Church"
may be shown to have believed in very many other
mysteries, for which neither Dr. Pusey nor the writer of
the Tract edited by Mr. Shipley asks our faith.
A7td of the Lord's Supper. 349
The following passage from Bingham should teach us
to be cautious in our interpretation of the language of
the Fathers, or to distrust their authority, or both.
" I observe concerning the effects of this consecration, that the very
same change was supposed to be wrought by it in the waters of baptism,
as by the consecration of Bread -and Wine in the Eucharist For they
supposed not only the presence of the Spirit, but also the mystical
presence of Christ's Blood to be here after consecration. Julius
Firmicius, speaking of baptism, ' bids men here seek for the pure waters,
the undefiled fountain, where the Blood of Christ, after many spots
and defilements, would whiten them by the Holy Ghost' Gregory
Nazianzen and Basil say upon this account, ' That a greater than the
Temple, a greater than Solomon, a greater than Jonas is here, meaning
Christ, by His mystical presence and the power of His blood.' St.
Austin says, ' Baptism or the baptismal water is red, when once it is
consecrated by the Blood of Christ ; and this was prefigured by the
waters of the Red Sea.' Prosper is bold to say ' That in baptism we are
dipped in blood ; and therefore martyrs are twice dipped in blood,
first in the Blood of Christ at baptism, and then in their own blood at
martyrdom.' St. Jerome uses the same bold metaphor, explaining those
words of Isaiah, * Wash ye, make ye clean : Be ye baptized in my
blood by the laver of regeneration.' And again, speaking of the Ethiopian
eunuch, he says, ' He was baptized in the Blood of Christ, about whom
he was reading '
" After the same manner, Caesarius says, *■ The soul goes into the living
waters, consecrated and made red by the Blood of Christ.' And
Isidore says, ' What is the Red Sea, but baptism consecrated in the Blood
of Christ ? ' Others tell us, that we are hereby made partakers of the
Body and Blood of Christ, and eat His flesh, according to what is said
in St. John's Gospel, ' Except ye eat the Flesh of the Son of Man, and
drink his Blood, ye have no life in you.' Upon which words Fulgentius
founds the necessity of baptism : ' Forasmuch as it may be perceived by
any considering man, that the Flesh of Christ is eaten and His Blood
drank in the laver of regeneration.' Hence Q,yv\ of Alexandria says,
' We are partakers of the spiritual Lamb in baptism.' And Chrysostom,
' That we thereby put on Christ, not only His Divinity, nor only His
humanity, that is. His Flesh — but both together.' And Nazianzen,
' That in baptism we are anointed and protected by the precious Blood
of Christ, as Israel was by the blood upon the door-posts in the night.'
St. Chrysostom says again, 'That they are baptised, put on a royal garment
— a purple dipped in the Blood of the Lord.' Philo-Carpathius says, * The
spouse of Christ, His Church, receives in baptism the seal of Christ,
350 The Doctrine of the Real Presence
being washed in the fountain of His most holy Blood.' Optatus, as we
have heard before, says, ' Christ comes down by the invocation, and joins
Himself to the waters of baptism.' Nay, Chrysostom, in one of his
bold rhetorical flights, scruples not to tell a man that is baptised, that he
immediately embraces his Lord in his arms, that he is united to His
Body — nay, compounded, or consubstantiated with that Body which sits
above, whither the devil has no access. Some tell us, as Isidore, ' That
the water of baptism is the water that flowed out of Christ's side at His
Passion : and others, as Laurentius Novariensis, ' That it is water mixed
with the sacred Blood of the Son of God.' Others tell us, 'That the water
is transmuted or changed in its nature by the Holy Ghost, to a sort of
Divine and ineffable power.' So Cyril of Alexandria, who frequently
uses the word yLteracrrot^e/cDO-t?, transelementation, both when he
speaks of the Water in baptism and the Bread and Wine in the
Eucharist, or of any other changes that are wrought in the mysteries
of the Christian religion. Cyril of Jerusalem and Gregory Nyssen have
the same observations upon the change that is wrought in the oil, after
consecration, whicli they make to be the same with that of the Bread
and Wine in the Eucharist. ' Beware,' says Cyril, ' that you take not
this ointment to be bare ointment. For as the Bread in the Eucharist,
after the invocation of the Holy Spirit, is not mere Bread, but the
Body of Christ ; so this holy ointment, after invocation, is not bare or
common ointment, but it is a gift of God that makes Christ and the
Holy Spirit to be present in the action.' In like manner, Gregory
Nyssen makes the same change to be in the mystical oil, and in the
altar itself, and in the ministers by ordination, and in the waters of
baptism, as in the Bread and Wine in the Eucharist after consecradon.
' Do not contemn,' says he, ' the Divine laver, nor despise it as a
common thing, because of the use of water. For great and wonderful
things are wrought by it. This altar, before which we stand, is but
common stone in its own nature, differing nothing from other stones,
wherewith our walls are built ; but after it is consecrated to the service
of God, and has received a benediction, it is a holy table, an immaculate
altar, not to be touched by any but the priests, and that with the greatest
reverence. The Bread also is at first but common Bread, but when once
it is sanctified by the holy mystery, it is made and called the Body of
Christ. So the mystical oil, and so the Wine, though they be things of
little value before the benediction, yet, after their sanctification by the
Spirit, they both of them work wonders. The same power of the
Word makes a priest become honourable and venerable, when he is
separated from the community of the vulgar by a new benediction.
For He who before was only one of the common people, is now imme-
diately made a Ruler and President, a Teacher of piety, and a Minister
of the secret mysteries ; and all these things He does without any change
A fid of the Lord's Supper. 35 i
in His body or shape; for to all outward appearance He is the same that
He was, but the change is in His invisible soul, by an invisible power
and grace.' Pope Leo goes one step further and tells us, ' That baptism
makes a change not only in the water, but in the man who receives it ;
for thereby Christ receives him, and he receives Christ, and he is not
the same after baptism that he was before, but the body of him that is
regenerated is made the Flesh of Him that was crucified.' "
Indeed, the essayist himself Is distinctly conscious of
the difficulty of bringing the language of the Fathers
within the limits of any tenable theory. His own faith
Is that In the Eucharist there Is a '' bloodless or unbloody
sacrifice," but he states, truly enough, that '' the language
peculiar to the actual fact — the shedding of the Victim's
blood — Is used by ancient writers as commonly as the
mention of the Eucharist Itself, and Christ Is said to be
sacrificed, immolated, slain upon the altar, and lying
there while the priest stands over the sacrifice and prays."
He explains this by the closeness of the relation between
the Eucharist and the original sacrifice of our Lord, and
by the fact that the Eucharist Is regarded ''as a repre-
sentative act," " showing forth the Lord's death ;" but the
explanation leaves the case just where It was before ; —
the Fathers, In speaking of the Lord's Supper, use
habitually the rhetoric of impassioned devotion; and the
mere quotation of sentences in which they speak of the
consecrated Elements as being Christ's Body and Blood,
is valueless. An Investigation of their writings, different
in kind from that which is common In controversy, is
necessary to arrive at their real meaning. Nothing,
indeed, can be more certain than that devout men, holding
the very simplest sacramental theory, may be carried, by
the strong current of religious emotion, Into the use of
language for which. If coldly interpreted, their theory
affords no justification. Such vehemence of diction,
such extravagance, as some will call it, may be only an
352 The Doctrine of the Real Presence
evidence that their true opinions are too well known for
them to have any fear of being misunderstood.
A singular illustration of this is afforded by a letter
which recently appeared in a well-known and very
vigorous Ritualist journal.* The writer, after quoting
several extracts from the New Congregational Hymn-
book, adds, " If such language as this does not express
the doctrine of the Real Objective Presence, I confess I
am at a loss to conceive what could express It. And
what a marvellous harmony is produced from such widely-
different singers as Doddridge, Watts, Conder, Keble,
and Thomas Aquinas ! all of whom are here represented.
I envy the Independents their authorised hymnal. Our
prose prayer-book is but half what we require." The
writer is hardly accurate in speaking of this hymn-book
as the " authorised " hymnal of the Independents ; it was
compiled by a committee of the Congregational Union of
England and Wales, but the committee alone are respon-
sible for it. Practically, however, he is right. The book
is used without scruple by a large number — perhaps by
the majority of the Congregational Churches of this
country. But it is perfectly well known that these
Churches will not tolerate any suggestion of a super-
natural change in the Elements. They are, for the most
part, Zwinglians of the purest type. The language of
the Congregational hymn-book is an instance in which
the paradox is illustrated, that the men who are known
to be most hostile to a theory are the men who may use
most fearlessly, when under strong emotion, language
which, interpreted strictly, must be held to sustain it.
That the compilers of the Congregational hymn-book
should use, with perfect freedom, hymns written by Con-
gregationallsts, by Anglicans, by Romanists, in which the
" Real Presence," and perhaps something more than the
* Church Times, January 29, 1S69.
And of the Lord's Supper. 353
** Real Presence," may seem to be recognized, makes it
more than possible that the strong language of some of
the Fathers is perfectly consistent with their having held
a theory as simple and bare as that which is generally
received by modern Independents. The Independents
use language which is supposed to express the Anglican
" doctrine of a Real Objective Presence," after that
doctrine has been the subject of fierce controversy, and
has been consciously and deliberately rejected by them-
selves and their ecclesiastical ancestors for three centuries.
This may seem very surprising ; but it shows how very
unsafe it is to infer, from similar language used by the
Fathers before the Eucharistic controversy had arisen, that
on this doctrine they were Anglicans.
The appeal, then, must be to our Lord Himself and to
His Apostles. This is conceded by Archdeacon Wilber-
force, who says that —
" An inquiry into the nature of the Holy Eucharist must be founded
on Scripture, and upon that passage of Scripture by which this solemn
Rite was authorized as well as explained. The authority of Him by
whom they were spoken ; the interest of the occasion on which they
were employed ; the sententious weight of the expressions themselves, —
all give to the words of institution an importance which few other
passages even of Holy Scripture can claim."*
It is, of course, contended by those who believe in the
Real Presence that our Lord's words, '' This is my Body,"
decide the controversy in their favour. The Bread does
not cease to be Bread, but when duly consecrated by the
priest it becomes what it became when Christ Himself
uttered the words ; it remains Bread, but it is also the
Body of Christ. " The word is expresses the identity
of the subject and predicate," t and those who deny
this interpretation are regarded as guilty of refusing to
accept what our Lord asserted in the most explicit and
unambiguous language.
* The Doctrine of the Holy Eucharist (Third Edition), p. 6. f I^id, p. 98.
A A
354 ^/^^ Doctrine of the Real Presence
But even if this interpretation of our Lord's words
were admitted, is it quite clear that it would necessarily
follow that the amazing miracle wrought by Himself is
wrought through age after age by every priest in
Christendom ? In that case we should have expected
that Christ would have told the Apostles that the wonder
which He had accomplished would be accomplished by
them, and by all to whom they transmitted priestly
powers. He told them that they were to break bread
and to eat it, and that they were to drink wine, but these
acts were to be "in remembrance" of Him. There is
nothing to suggest that by repeating Christ's words they
were to change the common gifts of the Divine hand into
a Living and Divine Person. What they were to " eat "
was ''bread," what they were to "drink" was "wine ;"
even if He had meant them to understand that the Bread
in His own hands had become His Body, and that the
Wine had become His Blood, it would not follow that
He also meant that the same transformation would be
effected when He had left them. That the celebration
was to be " in remembrance " of Him, would certainly
give them quite another impression.
But those who contend so strenuously for what they
maintain to be the only possible interpretation of the
" copula," and who will listen to no evasion of its literal
meaning, are obliged to desert their own principle. The
words of our Lord, when He took the Cup, as reported
by St. Luke and St. Paul, altogether refuse to submit to
the treatment which is forced upon the words pronounced
over the Bread. " This Cup is the new testament in my
Blood." If the Bread is miraculously changed into the Body
of Christ, why is not the Cup miraculously changed into
the testament or covenant ? On what grounds can those
theologians, who insist so strenuously upon the most
literal interpretation of the one sentence, claim the right
And of the Lord's Supper. 355
to introduce a double metaphor into the other ? There
is nothing more inconceivable in the change of a silver
or golden cup into a " covenant," than there is in the
change of a piece of Bread into the Body of Christ.
Those who think that the Cup is to be interpreted as
meaning the Wine which is in it, and the '' covenant " as
meaning the Blood by which the covenant was conse-
crated, are somewhat inconsistent in complaining that
there is irreverence, rationalism, unbelief, in venturing to
think that the word '' is " may affirm something different
from " identity."
Nor does this exhaust the inconsistencies of the advo-
cates of the literal interpretation. " Is," they say, must
mean *' is," and nothing else. The '' Cup " does not
mean the ''Cup;" the " new covenant" does not mean the
'* new covenant ;" common sense and the most obvious
laws of language drive them to impose on these words
other meanings ; but the copula '' is " affirms the " iden-
tity " of the subject and predicate. Here they take their
stand ; and they refuse to listen to any *' evasion " of
the obvious meaning of the word.
The subject is ''this;" the predicate is " my Body."
Do they mean to affirm that there is " identity " between
these two things } " Our Lord," says Archdeacon Wil-
berforce, " does not speak of Bread at large, or Wine in
general, but of ' this,' — i.e., of that which was consecrated
or set apart." Conscious, however, that this very defi-
nite statement might involve the theory in serious diffi-
culties, he adds : —
" No doubt His words had a further application ; their ultimate refer-
ence was to the inward part, ' or thing signified,' which was the real
object under consideration ; but they had also an indirect relation to
the outward and visible sign." *
The believers in the Real Presence appear to find as
• The Doctrine of the Holy Eucharist, p. 7.
A A 2
356 The Doctrine of the Real Presence
great a difficulty with '' Hoc " as the believers In Tran-
substantlatlon.* Archdeacon Wllberforce vacillates
between the Interpretation which refers it to the Bread,
and the interpretation which refers it to the Body of
Christ. On the whole, however, he appears to think
that '' this " denotes the Bread. The direct reference
to the Body of Christ Is Implicitly rejected by him on a
later page ; for he says the identity between the subject
and the predicate Is not ''a common case of physical
Identity, as when we handle portions of the visible crea-
tion, and say, * this is Iron,' or 'this Is earth.'" To
describe the Identity predicated in the cases alleged, as
" physical " Is not, perhaps, very philosophical, but the
meaning Is clear ; and the Archdeacon intended to say
that when we hold a certain substance in our hands and
say, " this is Iron," we use the copula in a different sense
from that In which Christ used it when holding the Bread
in His hand. He said, " This is my Body."
Nor is it possible for the advocates of the Real
Presence to contend that In these two expressions the
copula has the same power, unless they deny that '' this"
denotes the Bread. The Bread, they acknowledge, re-
mains Bread. It may be mysteriously united with the
Body of Christ, but the Bread Is one thing and the Body
of Christ Is another. The two may be as intimately one
as the Humanity and the Divinity of our Lord ; but to
affirm the '* identity " ofthe Humanity and the Divinity
would be a flagrant heresy. Some other interpretation
of the copula must be discovered.
* The writer of the Tract already quoted, distinctly rejects the reference of "I'^V to the
Bread. " He was present under the sacramental ' forms," and gave Himself to His disciples,
saying, * Take eat ; this' — not the Bread, for the pronoun does not refer to * Bread,' but to
something which the Bread had become, and which our Lord held in His hand, — this com-
pound. Whole consisting of the Sign and the thing signified, as the form of consecration enables
us to recognize : — 'This is my Body '" (p. 257). This might have passed, perhaps, if St.
Luke and St. Paul had not told us that when our Lord took the cup, He said, " This Cup is
the new testament in my Blood." Since the subject of the second sentence is the cup,
it is difficult to see why the subject of the first sentence should be anything else than the Bread.
And of tJie Lords Supper. 357
Archdeacon Wilberforce's solution of the difficulty is
as curious as anything that can be found among the innu-
merable curiosities of theological controversy. He begins
by maintaining that the copula affirms the *' identity " of
the subject and the predicate. He discovers that this
is not ** a common case of physical identity." He con-
cludes that ** since the relation between the subject and
predicate in our Lord's words of institution cannot be
resolved into any more general idea, it can derive its
name only from itself, and the union can be described as
nothing else than a sacramental identity!' In other
words, the Archdeacon informs us that the identity
which exists between the Bread and the Body of Christ
in the Sacrament, is — the identity which exists between
the Bread and the Body of Christ in the Sacrament.
This cannot be disputed ; but most readers would be
grateful for fuller information. Nor will it do for the
advocates of this doctrine to reply, "It is a mystery."
They profess to have a theory. If they believe that the
" identity " of the subject and predicate in the words of
institution cannot be denied without serious peril to
the life of the Church, they are bound to tell mankind
what they mean by this ** Identity."
It is very curious, too, that while those who believe in
the" Real Presence are disposed to be very severe upon
other people for giving to the word "■ is" the meaning
*' represents " or '* resembles " — a meaning which It very
commonly bears — they themselves are obliged to assign
to it a meaning which it bears nowhere else in Holy
Scripture, and which it never bears in profane litera-
ture. " Wherein then," asked the Archdeacon, " does the
identity consist ? It is plainly a peculiar principle — sui
generis ; which, being without parallel in the world, is
entitled to a specific appellation."
It is also curious, that in his account of this unique
35^ The Doctrine of the Real Pi^esence
" identity," the Archdeacon speaks of the ''union " between
The Bread and the Body of the Lord. He says, *' The
ancient writers speak of the tmion asmystical, or secret."
But to predicate " union " is to deny "identity."
How then are we to interpret our Lord's words ? We
have just been told that they mean, this Bread and my
Body are identical^ but in a certain unique sense, which
cannot be defined. And now we are told that they mean
this Bread and my Body are, in a ''mystical or secret"
way, united. The two propositions are perfectly different.
And whatever force there may be in objecting to the
Protestant interpretation that " is " does not mean " repre-
sents " or " resembles,*' there is certainly much greater
force in the objection to Dr. Wilberforce's interpretation
that "is" does not mean "united with."
There is another difficulty involved in the " literal "
interpretation. If the Bread became our Lord's Body
at the Last Supper, and the Wine His Blood, His Body
must have been " broken," and His Blood " shed," before
His crucifixion. Nothing can be more explicit than our
Lord's words — " This is my Body which is broken for
you," — " This Cup is the new testament in my Blood,
shed for many for the remission of sins." To insist on
interpreting the copula literally, and to refuse to accept
the " literal interpretation " of the whole of the predicate,
is flagrantly inconsistent. The " literal " interpretation
requires us to believe that the atonement was con-
summated before our Lord hung on the cross ; that He
was slain before the "wicked hands" of His enemies
touched Him ; and that He died for the sins of the world
before His agony in the garden, and His condemnation
in the judgment-hall.
And what is the Body which is now " present " in the
consecrated Bread, and the Blood which is now " present "
in the consecrated Wine ? Those who contend so
A7id of the Lord's Supper. 359
earnestly for the " literal " interpretation, ought to reply
that it is the '' broken " Body, and the Blood " shed " to
atone for the sins of mankind. This is what our Lord
states in the words of institution. This is plainly
suggested by the appointment of two separate Elements
for the Body and the Blood. This is not, however, what
the advocates of the " literal " interpretation believe. They
insist that it is the glorified humanity of our Lord which
is given to communicants in the Eucharistic Elements.*
It is difficult to see how they can deny that, according to
their theory, the Body given to the faithful now is very
difterent from the Body given to the Apostles by our
Lord Himself, unless they are prepared to maintain that
He was not only crucified, but glorified, the day before
His passion, four days before His resurrection and six
days before His ascension into heaven.
These are illustrations of the confusion into which we
are plunged by the '* literal " interpretation of the words
of institution. *' 'I his'' does not denote the Bread, when
our Lord says, '' This is my Body ; " but it must denote
the Cup, when He says, '' This Cup is the new testa
ment in my Blood." Or if in both cases the pronoun
denotes the visible sign, then *' is " does not mean " is,"
but means something which cannot be defined, or else
means '' is united with." In both cases, ''the Body broken
for you " does not mean the broken Body ; and the
*' Blood shed for the remission of sins " does not mean
the shed Blood.
The great discourse of our Lord's, recorded in the sixth
chapter of St John's Gospel, is also relied upon as an
absolute demonstration of the doctrine of the Real
Presence. Before, however, any use can be made of that
* " Our Lord's glorified Body, in virtue of its union with Deity, may be released altogether
from relation to place, as He showed while on earth that it could be when He pleised. Its
only relation to locality is that mysterious one formed by its sacramental conjunction with the
outward sign in the Eucharist."— Tracts for the Day, p. 256. The transition from the
" may be" of the first sentence to the "«" of the second, is very characteristic.
360 The Doctrine of the Real Presentee
discourse in support of the mystery, it Is obviously
necessary to show that the discourse was intended to
refer to the Eucharist. It has been very naturally
objected, that the discourse was delivered before the
Sacrament was instituted ; and although this objection,
taken alone, has no conclusive force, it is sufficiently
grave to require an answer. Archdeacon Wilberforce
attempts a reply. Referring to the objection, he says : —
" It proceeds on an entire forgetfulness of the peculiar character of
St. John's Gospel. When the beloved Apostle addressed himself to
gather up the fragments which remained after his brethren had fallen
asleep, it is obvious that his design was to illustrate those great doctrines,
which he perceived to be the characteristic features of the Christian
faith. These doctrines are especially three : the doctrine of the Blessed
Trinity— the beginning and basis of all knowledge ; the doctrine of our
Blessed Lord's Incarnation — the medium whereby Divine gifts were im-
parted to man's nature ; the doctrine of the Church and the Sacraments
— the instruments, that is, whereby those treasures which have been
stored up in the humanity of the Son of God are to be communicated
to His brethren."*
If it was part of the *' design " of St. John's Gospel
to " illustrate " the doctrine of the Eucharist, it is, to say
the least, very astonishing that he alone of the four Evan-
gelists passes over the institution of the Rite In absolute
silence.
Again Dr. Wilberforce asks :—
"Why should we be surprised, then, to find allusion [/.^., in St. John's
Gospel] to that doctrine of the Holy Eucharist, which was the central
point of the worship of Christians? And was it not rather to be
expected that St. John would have added a caution, that this custom
was not referred to, if our Lord's words had no reference to a practice,
which from the first occupied so large a part in the thoughts and atten-
tion of Christians." \
Certainly there would be no reason to be " surprised "
by an " allusion to the doctrine of the Holy Eucharist,"
in St. John's Gospel. Dr. Wilberforce is perfectly aware
that the " surprise " has been occasioned by the fact that
* Doctrine of the Holy Eucharist, p. 155. f Ibid, p. 157.
A7id of the Lord's Supper. 361
St. John appears to say nothing about it. As for the
" caution " which he thinks might have been expected in
this sixth chapter, — would it not have been, on his hy-
pothesis, quite as reasonable to expect that St. John
would have said explicitly that the interpretation imposed
on our Lord's words, by the people of Capernaum, was
substantially right, and that His Flesh is really eaten and
His Blood really drunk in the Lord's Supper ? And
if the discourse referred to the Eucharist, and was
intended to teach that our Lord's actual " Flesh " is
given to the faithful, such a statement was eminently
necessary after the declaration of our Lord — *' It is the
spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing ; the
words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are
life."
The grounds for supposing that our Lord was speaking
of the Eucharist in this discourse, are supposed to be
*' greatly strengthened " by the alleged " prediction respect-
ing the efficacy of Christian Baptism " in the conversation
with Nicodemus.
" One difference, of course, existed between the cases — for whereas
the Holy Eucharist was an ordinance wholly without precedent. Bap-
tism, on the other hand, had been usual among the Jews. Nicodemus,
therefore, expresses no wonder at the mention of water, though he was
at a loss to understand how he could be born again ; whereas our
Lord's statement that He would give them His Flesh to eat and His
Blood to drink, surprised the Jews even more than the declaration that
He was Himself the channel through which they were to receive
heavenly grace. But as to the full nature and import of these holy Rites,
it is manifest that one was as little understood antecedently to the in-
stitution of Christian Baptism, as the other was before the Lord's
Supper."
The inference which is drawn from this is, that
" There can be no presumption drawn against the application of this
chapter to the institution of the Lord's Supper, from the time when the
doctrine was delivered, which would not equally militate against the
362 The Doctrine of the Real Presence
application of the third chapter to the Sacrament of Baptism : an
application which is, notwithstanding, universally allowed."-''
Passing over the extremely broad and unfounded state-
ment that it is '' universally allowed " that in His con-
versation with Nicodemus, our Lord referred to a Bap-
tism not yet instituted — a statement which involves
the conclusion that the Apostles never received the
Baptism which is necessary to enter the Kingdom of
Heaven — there is a much broader ''difference" between
"the cases" than the Archdeacon recognizes. What
ground would there have been for finding in the conver-
sation with Nicodemus the doctrine of Baptismal Re-
generation, if our Lord had said nothing about '' water,"
and had insisted only on the necessity of being born of the
Spirit? Just as little ground is there for finding in the
discourse, recorded in the sixth chapter, the doctrine of
the Real Presence in the Eucharist, for our Lord says
nothing about the Bread and the Wine.
No doubt the Fathers use the words of this discourse
when they are speaking of the Eucharist ; for our
Lord is affirming the very facts and laws, as far as
they can be affirmed in human language, which the
Eucharist expresses far more effectively. But that the
discourse and the Rite illustrate and affirm the same
spiritual mysteries, is no proof that the discourse directly
refers to the Rite. And that the Fathers apply the lan-
guage of thediscourse to the Rite, is no proof that they
believed that the discourse directly refers to the Rite.
The declaration of Augustine is very distinct, " Cre-
dere in eum hoc est manducare panem verum. Qui
credit in eum manducat." f
Authority failing,— the authority of Scripture, and the
authority of the undivided Church ascertained in the
* The same argument for the reference of John vi. is given by Bellarmine. De Sac.
Euch, part i. chap. v.
f Quoted by Jeremy Taylor. Real Presence. Wotks, vol. ix. p. 450.
And of the Lord's Stipper. 363
creeds and decrees of the early Councils or in the wri-
tings of the early Fathers, — is there any process of theo-
logical argument by which this doctrine can be deduced
from great truths universally admitted by Christian men?
Can it be built up on the stable foundations of that com-
mon faith which underlies all the divisions of Christendom ?
The attempt is made in the Tract which has been al-
ready quoted. Union with God is the perfection and
glory of man's nature. For this great destiny man was
originally created. He was taught to look beyond the
bliss of Eden, to a nearness to God surpassing his con-
ception. Even after the Fall, this sublime hope was not
altogether extinguished. It shone with fitful brightness
amidst the darkness of Paganism, and explains the
fascination of all Pantheistic dreams of the ultimate
absorption of the individual soul in the ocean of the
Divine immensity. Man has sometimes striven hard to
achieve the blessedness for which God made him ; but
by no self-originated force could he ever rise into union
with God.
" At no time, either before the Fall or after it, could this union have
been effected by the exercise of man's natural powers. No improve-
ment or elevation of his faculties, no degree of moral excellence, could
lead to an end so wholly supernatural. They might be the conditions
required for its attainment, or the qualifications fitting for it, but the
Gift itself must come from an external source. If man was to be
united to God, the Divine Nature must in some way have come in
contact with his ; the unspeakable Gift must have been communicated,
not acquired, the result of free grace, not of man's work."
These are the general premisses on which the argument
is bas^d, and they will be accepted, and accepted heartily,
by the profoundest and most spiritual theologians of all
Churches.
It is also contended that the great end of the Christian
Redemption, is not simply to restore man to his original
righteousness, but to that transcendent union with God
364 The Doctrine of the Real Presence
which would have crowned and consummated the persist-
ent fidehty of the father of our race. God assumed human
nature, that man might be made partaker of the Divine
nature. The Incarnation has for its ultimate purpose
the exaltation of all regenerate souls into mysterious and
eternal union with God.
In all this there will be a very general agreement with
the writer of the Tract. Nor will many refuse to go
with him a step farther. He says : —
*' As the Incarnate Son did not contract any relation to individuals
of the human race by His assumption of their common nature, the
glory He conferred upon it was only the exaltation of Humanity at
large. Something more was needed to bring these transcendent
blessings home to every single person of the Redeemed race. It was
necessary that the Saviour should contract a personal relation to each of
them As we inherit the evil and the loss from the first [Adam^
by participation in his nature, so must we derive the restoration and
the blessing from the Second by participating in His nature. There
must consequently be means by which this wondrous communication may
be effected : and whatever these means are, they must necessarily be super-
natural; for by supernatural means alone can we partake in that
nature of our Incarnate Lord, which He hath exalted to the throne of
God in Heaven."
It is unnecessary to criticise the theological assump-
tions in this extract, on which grave controversies have
arisen ; the main truth that '* by supernatural means
alone" can we be made partakers of the glorified nature
of our Lord is indisputable.
Thus far, the argument has been elaborated with great
care. It is perfectly coherent. It is instinct with life. But at
this point all that can be called argument ceases. The path
is wholly lost. The track ends ; we are on the open hill-
side at once, and with a precipice at our feet. Between
the position to which the writer has brought us safely
enough, that through " supernatural means alone " can
human nature attain union with God in Christ, and the
position that these " supernatural means" are the Sa-
Afid of the Lord's Stipper, 365
craments, there is a wide gulf. He passes across it him-
self on the wings of bold assertion, but there is no
Bridge of Logic by which we can follow him. There is
not even the show of argument; and it is impossible,
therefore, to give a refutation.
On his own principles, however, it may be shown that
there is no necessary connection between the conceded
truth, up to which he has worked his way with so much
thoughtful labour, and the conclusion which is in dispute.
It is admitted that **it is not we who ascend up into
heaven to bring Christ down from above. It is He who
must come and unite Himself with us." But why should
not the same Divine power which, according to the
theory of the Real Presence, unites the Person of Christ
with the consecrated Bread and Wine, act immediately on
the soul of the communicant ? Why are the Eucharistic
Elements the necessary vehicle of its operation ? " It has
been said that Christ incarnates Himself in each worthy
communicant, because He unites His Sacred Flesh to
ours, and in a real and true sense makes Himself One
with us." (Page 232.) This language is perilous; the
framers of the Athanasian Creed would have recognized
in it the seeds of heresy ; but conceding the truth of
what it is intended to affirm, why is it necessary that
He should ''first incarnate Himself in the hands of the
priest ?" * The Divine action on the soul may surely be
direct and immediate.
When Ritualistic writers tell us that to deny their
theory of the Real Presence, is to degrade the Lord's
* There is a reason alleged, buc it is not a reason} it is only an attempt to show the
spiritual expediency of this antecedent " impanation," for it is inaccurate to call it an " incar-
nation." *• Lest this [the incarnation in the worthy communicant] should be thought to
indicate only a subjective union, consequent upon the ardent faith and devotion of the
receiver, there is an antecedent union altogether external to the communicant himself upon
which the other is dependent." And yet, although the reception of the res Sacramenti
is made independent of the feith of the communicant, the reception of the virtui
Sacramenti is made dependent upon it. The "subjective" peril is, therefore, not
eliminated.
366 The Doctrine of the Real Presence
Supper into the celebration of " an absent Lord," and
to deprive the Service of all spiritual and supernatural
power, they forget their own teaching on the efficacy of
Baptism. Both the Sacraments are alleged to " unite
us to the very Person of Christ Himself." "In Baptism
we are made members of Christ; parts of His Sacred
Body, ' even as if our flesh and bones were made con-
tinuate with His.' .... We become 'children
of God and inheritors of the kingdom of heaven.' "
(Pages 230, 231). " Baptism unites us to Christ through
the power of the Holy Spirit." (Page 234.)
But in the Water of Baptism there is no *' Real Pre-
sence ;" and yet the Rite is effectual. What propriety, then,
can there be in such fervid language as the following : — ■
" No phantom body was given for our salvation, and no figure can
convey to us the Ufe of Jesus The very necessities of the case
— the needs of man and the purpose of the Eucharist, as carrying out
the ends of the Incarnation— require the Real Presence of Christ with
the means He has appointed for supplying those needs and carrying out
those purposes." (Pages 244, 245.)
Is there, according to the Ritualistic theory of Baptism,
anything of the character of a " phantom" in that Rite ?
Is it a mere '' figure," because there is '' no personal
conjunction between the Water and the Spirit ?*' If the
power of the Holy Ghost in the one Sacrament is
exerted immediately on the soul of the recipient, why
should it not be exerted in the other Sacrament in the
same way ? Does the writer of the Tract believe that
men become less truly one with Christ in Baptism than
in the Eucharist ? If he does, let him tell us what
solitary blessing is withheld in the first Sacrament which
is given in the second. Are we not in his belief, made
members, through Baptism, of the regenerate race of which
Christ is the Head ? And must not this distinction and
blessedness come to us through that Sacred Humanity,
And of the Lord's Supper, 367
which is the channel of all grace and glory ? If we are
made partakers of the nature of Christ in Baptism, for
which the " Real Presence" is not claimed, why is that
" Presence " necessary in the Eucharist, in order that the
Life already conferred may be strengthened and per-
fected ? All the scornful words which are flung at the
theory which refuses to recognize the union of Christ with
the Bread and the Wine of the Eucharist, maybe flung back
by any one who chooses to do it, at the theory which refuses
to recognize any union of the Holy Ghost with the Water
of Baptism.
The consequencasw hich are drawn from this doctrine
it is unnecessary to discuss. If Christ is Personally
Present in the Elements, it is a duty to bow before the
consecrated Bread and Wine with wonder ard reverence
and awe. To the cold imagination of an English
Nonconformist, the burning of incense and the lighting
of candles may appear ignoble expressions of devout
worship ; but if it seems to any man that by these acts
the transcendent mystery is more vividly recognized and
more reverentially honoured, there is nothing to be said ;
and the history of Anglicanism during the last thirty
years appears to demonstrate, that though the Tractarians
were wiser than the Ritualists, in the caution with which
they discussed this doctrine in their writings, the Ritualists
are wiser than the Anglicans in their visible recognition
of it in their worship. The theory is imperilled by ex-
posing it too freely to the common light of the intellect ;
it is strengthened by surrounding it with whatever appeals
to the imagination and the heart.
The theory of the Lord's Supper, commonly held by
modern Evangelical Nonconformists, appears to be very
different from that which was held by their theological and
368 The Doctrine of the Real Presence
ecclesiastical ancestors. The " Declaration of the Faith
and Order owned and practised in the Congregational
Churches in England, agreed upon by their Elders and
Messengers in their Meeting at the Savoy, October 12th,
1658," contains propositions on the Sacraments which
would probably excite the suspicion and alarm of most of
the Churches represented in the present " Congreational
Union of England and Wales." The articles on the two
Sacraments are almost identical with those in the West-
minster Confession. They protest very firmly against
Transubstantiatioh and the doctrine of the Eucharistic
Sacrifice, but give no sanction to the theory which seems
to be generally accepted by modern Independents, and
which represents Baptism and the Lord's Supper as having
been instituted simply to perpetuate the memory of his-
torical facts, to illustrate spiritual truths, to make an im-
pression on the hearts of those who celebrate the Rites or
who witness their celebration, and to afford an authorized
symbolic expression of faith in Christ and brotherly love.
There are statements in the Savoy Declaration which
the writer of this Essay would decline to accept ; against
the restriction which provides that neither Baptism nor
the Lord's Supper " may be dispensed by any but a
minister of the Word lawfully called," he vehemently pro-
tests ; but it appears to him that the general conception of
the character and purpose of the Sacraments, professed by
those who met at the Savoy, is very much truer and
nobler than that which he imagines is ordinarily taught
by modern Congregationalists.
The Sacramental theory of modern Congregationalists
has been injuriously affected by their position and his-
tory. They have had to maintain a severe and pro-
tracted struggle against the errors which the Church of
England has inherited from Rome, — errors which,
notwithstanding all ambiguities, are strongly supported
And of the Lords Supper. 369
by the Anglican Catechism and Baptismal Office, and
which are not altogether absent from the Communion
Service. Whatever conception of the Sacraments ap-
peared to lend the very slightest sanction to these errors,
they have come to regard with alarm. To retreat as
far as possible from Roman superstition has appeared
their only safety. But a theology developed under the
Influence of Incessant anxiety to avoid giving any real
or apparent advantage to hostile theories will certainly
be Impoverished ; and the Nonconformist doctrine of
the Lord's Supper has been seriously Injured by the
controversial interests which have controlled Its forma-
tion.
It Is Instructive to observe how very little has been
written by Nonconformist authors in illustration and
defence of any positive doctrine on the Eucharist.
They have written against the Romish theory. They
have written against the Anglican theory. But no con-
siderable treatise explaining and vindicating their own
position, was produced by any of the great Independents
of the Commonwealth ; nor has any such treatise been
produced by their successors. Dr. H alley, in his ex-
tremely able series of '* Lectures on the Sacraments," has
given almost all his strength to the controversies on Bap-
tism. The five lectures on the Lord's Supper, although
exhibiting a very definite doctrine, and containing a con-
siderable amount of free and independent thinking, are
the least valuable part of the book. Dr. Wardlaw, in
his voluminous " Systematic Theology," does not devote
a single lecture to either of the Sacraments, and contents
himself with an Incidental attack on the doctrine of Tran-
substantiation towards the close of a lecture on the
second commandment. In Dr. Pye-Smith's *' First Lines
of Christian Theology," — a work of inestimable value to
the theological student, — the section on Baptism occupies
B B
370 The Doctrme of the Real Presence
fifteen pages, and the section on the Lord's Supper
occupies four.*
Dr. Pye-Smith defines a Sacrament as " a Divine
institution, of universal obHgation, for conveying to the
minds and feehngs of men, by some sensible substance
and symbolical action, an impressive idea of the most
essential blessings of redemption by the Messiah."! This
definition, which represents the Ordinance as being
mainly didactic, receives a very important extension in a
subsequent paragraph, where it is said that Sacraments
" are signs confirmatory of Divine truths and promises ; —
and instructive — '' especially," it is added, " to men of
inferior cultivation," — a qualification which suggests the
amazing theory that their utility, and therefore the ob-
ligation to celebrate them, will be gradually diminished
by the diffusion of education.
The Lord's Supper is defined to be —
" L A religious festival : generically resembling the
sacrifice-feasts of the heathen (derived, no doubt, from a
pure fountain of primeval Divine instruction), and of the
worshippers of the true God.
" IL Instituted by Christ
"IIL Commemorative ... [in the sense apparently
of being a permanent and * irrefragable evidence ' of the
fact that Christ died and rose again.]
'' IV. Significant, ex instituto : of
'' (i) The spiritual life by the death of Christ produced
and sustained.
'' (2) Union to Christ, in receiving Him as Sovereign,
Saviour, and Teacher, — rejecting all false religions, —
* Since writing this, I have observed that the Editor has a note to the effect, that he has
incorporated with the; bcction on Paptism the substance of a separate MS. on the meaning
of jSawTiZeiv and the proper mode of Baptism, and some Notes of a Sermon on Rom. vi. 4 j
but this does not make any substantial change in the accuracy of what is stated above;
for it may be supposed that there was nothing which could be " incorporated " with the
section on the Lord's Supper.
t Page 654. ]
And of the Lord's Stippcr. 371
acknowledging His people as our brethren,— binding
ourselves by solemn covenant engagement."*
It is very possible that in the oral lectures, of which
the *' First Lines" are but the syllabus, Dr. Smith de-
veloped his conception of the Lord's Supper as a religious
festival, so as to include that confirmation of Divine truths
and promises which he asserts to be one of the pur-
poses for which Sacraments were instituted. But his
general theory appears to be in harmony with the
common Nonconformist opinion, that the design of the
Lord's Supper is to perpetuate a symbolic declaration
of the truth of certain doctrines, and of the reality of
certain historical facts, and to give expression to the
faith, devotion, and mutual affection of the communi-
cants. There can be little doubt that modern Congre-
gationalists, in their extreme dread of high sacramental
doctrines, have drifted into pure Zwinglianism ; it is
possible that some of them have drifted farther still.
The most startling illustration of their present position
is afforded by the contrast between the " Declaration of
the Faith, Order, and Discipline of the Congregational or
Independent Dissenters," adopted in 1833 by the Con-
gregational Union of England and Wales, and the
" Declaration," already referred to, adopted at the Savoy
in 1658. The modern document is not in any sense a
creed. It is imposed on no Church. It is signed by no
minister. It has nothing to do with '* terms of Com-
munion." It claims, however, to be an historical state-
ment of what the founders of the Union believed to be
the common faith of English Congregationalists. The
" Declaration " appears to affirm a theory of the Rite
which excludes even the didactic conception of it, and
leaves absolutely nothing in the Service but the expres-
sion of the subjective religious life of those who take part
* Page 674.
B B 2
'}y^2 The Doctrine of the Real Presence
in it : — it is '* to be celebrated by Christian Churches as a
token of faith in the Saviour and of brotherly love."
Contrast with this the theory of the Savoy Declaration:
** Sacraments are holy signs and seals of the covenant
of Grace, immediately instituted by Christ to represent
Him and His benefits, \not to rep7^esent our faith and
love.'\ There is in every Sacrament a spiritual relation
or fundamental* union between the sign and the thing
signified The grace which is exhibited in or by
the Sacraments, rightly used, is not conferred by any
power in them; \but there is grace conferred; and to
" exhibit " does not mean merely *' to show," but '' to ad-
minister," or "impart;"] neither does the efficacy of a
Sacrament depend upon the piety or intention of him
that doth administer it ; \but there is efficacy — of which
the modern *' Declaration " says nothing,] but upon the
work of the Spirit and the word of institution, which
contains, together with a precept authorizing the use
thereof, a promise of benefit to worthy receivers."
Again : " Our Lord Jesus, in the night wherein He
was betrayed, instituted the Sacrament of His Body and
Blood, called the Lord's Supper, to be observed in His
Churches unto the end of the world ;" [ Why ? As a
token of faith in the Saviour, and of brotherly love ? No,
but^ for the perpetual '* remembrance and showing forth of
the sacrifice of Himself in His death, the sealing of all
benefits thereof unto true believers, their spiritual nourish-
ment and growth in Him, their further engagement in
and to all duties which they owe unto Him, and to be a
bond and pledge of their communion with Him and with
each other Worthy receivers outwardly
partaking of the visible Elements in this Sacrament, do
then also inwardly by faith, really and indeed, yet not
* This is the word given in the Declaration, as printed in Hanbury's Memorials. The
Westminster Confession reads " Sacramental."
And of the Lord's Supper, 373
carnally and corporally but spiritually, receive and feed
upon Christ crucified and all benefits of His death ; the
Body and Blood of Christ being then not corporally or
carnally in, with, or under the Bread or Wine, yet as
really but spiritually present to the faith of believers in
that Ordinance, as the Elements themselves are to the
outward senses."
No doubt there are very many Congregationalists
who retain the substance of the Savoy theory, though
they reject some of its details, and seldom use the tech-
nical phraseology in which it is expressed. It is still
more certain that there are tens of thousands of Congre-
gationalists, the actual attitude of whose souls at the
Lord's Supper can be vindicated only by a theory very
different from that of the later '' Declaration ;" their
chief thought is not of professing their own " faith in the
Saviour," and their '' brotherly love ;" they go to the
table to receive, not to give. The spirit refuses to be
restrained within the limits of a theory so narrow and
bare. The heart is wiser than the intellect. And yet
the poverty of the theory is mischievous.
It may indeed be suggested that what has been quoted
from the modern document is a definition of the purpose
for which the Rite is to be " celebrated," and that the
eminent and devout men who drew up the " Declaration"
would have greatly enlarged and enriched their account
of the Sacrament, if they had proceeded to define the
purposes for which it was '' instituted." But the fact is,
that whenever modern Congregationalists have attempted
to develop a Sacramental theory, they have given almost
exclusive prominence to the subjective view ; and the
result is, that both the Sacraments are in danger of being
regarded as the unnecessary and incongruous encum-
brances of a spiritual faith. If Baptism is nothing more
than a ceremony in which children are " dedicated " to
374 ^'^^ Doctin7ie of the Real Presence
God, the " dedication " may be quite as solemn and
sincere without water as with. If the Lord's Supper is
nothing more than a ceremony in which Christian men
express their faith in Christ, and their love for each other,
there are a thousand other modes in which this faith and
this love may be expressed quite as emphatically as by
eating Bread together and drinking Wine.
The root of the error lies in the habit of regarding
Sacraments as forms of worship, and methods for ex-
pressing religious thought and feeling. What propriety
is there in Baptism, if it Is only a mode of professing
faith In Christ ? To recite a creed would be a much
more significant act. That faith in Christ may be a con-
dition of Baptism is quite possible ; but that Baptism Is in
itself a profession of faith is inconceivable. Nor Is it
so regarded even by those who refuse to administer
the Rite except to believers. They require the profession
to be made before they administer the Rite. Baptism, more-
over, is the act — not of the man whose faith is professed —
but of another; the man himself only submits to it; if It
were a profession of faith, the candidate should baptize
himself. Or, if Baptism is nothing more than an act by
which parents solemnly dedicate their children to God,
why do not the parents themselves administer the Ordi-
nance ? The true instinct, even of those whose theory
is wrong, has preserved them from the practices which
would be the only consistent illustrations of the theory.
And what is the explanation of the conviction, deeply
rooted in the minds of all Nonconformists, that there are
but two Sacraments, and that the Church has no power
to add to their number ? If they are merely visible
expressions of the religious thought and life — if Baptism
is a symbolic act representing nothing more than the de-
sire of parents to devote their children to God, or the
personal trust of a believer In the Lord Jesus — if the
And of the Lord's Supper. 375
Lord*s Supper is a Service representing nothing more than
the faith and mutual love of the communicants — why
should not other significant Rites be instituted to represent
other religious acts and affections ? New hymns are
written and sung. New prayers are offered. New creeds
are drawn up. Why should we not have new Sacraments
too ? We are free to express our religious life to the ear
in new forms ; why are we not free to express it in new
forms to the eye f Why should any restraint be laid upon
the multiplication of visible forms of worship, which is not
laid upon the multiplication of audible forms of worship ?
So long as the " subjective " conception of the Sacra-
ments receives exclusive attention, the perplexity with
which they are regarded by some devout and thoughtful
persons is perfectly natural. No adequate and satisfac-
tory explanation can be given of the purpose for which
they were instituted. The religion of Christ would be
complete without them. They have a technical and
artificial appearance, which is inconsistent with the free-
dom and spirituality of the Christian Faith. If they
are only expressions of religious thought and feeling, the
Sacraments may be dispensed with, for we can express
religious thought and feeling quite as naturally and effec-
tively in other ways ; or if they are observed, they
will be observed in blind obedience to a positive enact-
ment, not with that full and free consent of the whole
soul which is the characteristic of Christian service.
Nor is the " didactic " theory, or the " impressive "
theory much more satisfactory, though they are both con-
siderably nearer to the truth than that which has just
been discussed. Strip the Sacraments of their essential
character, as acts originating with God, not with man,
and can it be honestly said that they are very effective
methods either of instruction or impression ? Does not
the conversation with Nicodemus, recorded by St. John,
'^"](> The Doctrine of the Real Presence
teach the necessity of Regeneration — if that be the truth
illustrated in the Rite — much more clearly than Baptism ?
And are not the sufferings and love of the Lord Jesus
Christ much more vividly and *' impressively " set before
us in the narrative of the crucifixion, as given in any one
of the Evangelists, than in the broken Bread and the
Wine of the Eucharist ? Even a hymn or a painting
may produce a profounder " impression," and a sermon
or a book convey clearer '' instruction," than either of the
Sacraments, if they are regarded simply as vehicles of
instruction or instruments of impression.
It is impossible to conceive how the superstitious cor-
ruptions of both Ordinances, which began to appear in
very early times, could have arisen at all, if the original
conception of them gave exclusive prominence either to
the ''subjective," the "didactic," or the "impressive"
element. No error can grow without a root. The very
weeds reveal the quality of the soil. The Docetic
denial of the humanity of our Lord is an unanswerable
proof that the early Church could not have believed that
He was merely a man. The immorality of the Corinthian
Church, sheltering itself under the cover of Christian
liberty, would have been impossible, if St. Paul had
taught that we are justified by works. The argument
drawn from the excesses of the same Church in the cele-
bration of the Lord's Supper, against the Romish and
Anglican theories of the Eucharist, is decisive. It is
inconceivable that such excesses could have been com-
mitted by a Church, which had been taught that the
consecrated Bread is supernaturally changed into the
Body of Christ, and the consecrated Wine into His Blood.
It is, however, equally inconceivable that the Sacra-
mental errors, which began to appear early in the second
century, could have been developed from any such theory
as that which is taught in the Congregational " Declara-
And of the Lord's Supper. 377
tlon of Faith and Order." That theory affords no soil
in which superstitious reverence for the Eucharist can
take root ; and this is a proof that it could not have been
the theory held by the Apostles. The Apostolic con-
ception of the Lord's Supper did not render impossible
the irregularities of the Church at Corinth, and must
therefore have been very different from that of the
Council of Trent and the Anglican Ritualists ; it did not
render impossible the mysticism of Ignatius and Justin,
and must therefore have been very different from that of
the '' Declaration of Faith and Order." In the original
conception of the Service, as given in the New Testament
itself, the Corinthian excesses and the Ignatian mysticism
have their common origin and explanation.
The Lord's Supper was not instituted by the Church
in honour of Christ ; it was instituted by Christ Himself.
This fact alone suggests, though it does not prove, that
its primary object could not have been to express the
subjective religious life of the Church. He asked His
disciples to eat Bread and drink Wine *' in remembrance"
of Himself The lowest and poorest interpretation of
these words will lead us to regard the Service as an ex-
pression of His intense love for His disciples, which
made Him thirst to be remembered by them after His
death. Not their love for Him, but His love for them,
lies at the root of the Sacrament. But He could not
have thought that they would actually forget Him; nor
was it the purpose of the Eucharist to prevent the memory
of Christ from disappearing from the mind of the Church.
We must look somewhat deeper for His meaning.
On the evening preceding the crucifixion the strength
and tenderness of His affection for His disciples were re-
vealed as they had never been revealed before. It was
the last time that He and they were to be together before
^yS The Doctri7ie of the Real Presence
His death. The relations which had existed between
Him and them during the two or three years of His
public ministry were coming to an end; when renewed,
they would be renewed in another form. The '' great
depths" of His heart were ''broken up." His human
friends had been true to Him; He had been solaced
by their affection ; they were to endure in coming years
sorrow, shame, and death in His service ; and He clung to
them with a love which was passionate, though calm. He
and they had been living together ; they had sat together
in many synagogues ; they had walked together over the
hills of Galilee ; they had slept under the same roofs ;
they had been weary together, hungry together, thirsty
together; they had eaten and drunk together; His sor-
rows had been theirs and His joys. Would they, when
He had ascended into heaven, feel that He had passed
out of their reach, and that it was presumptuous for them
to think of maintaining anything of the intimacy and
freedom of their earthly intercourse with Him ?
He cannot endure the thought of this. To whatever
glory He was destined. He wishes those who had been
His friends on earth to think of themselves as His
friends still, and not merely as His servants. He does
not desire them to forget the months and years during
which He had appeared to be almost one of them-
selves. He asks to be "remembered" by them, not in
connection with the great displays of His supernatural
power — His walking on the sea, His stilling the storm,
His raising the dead — but in connection with that even-
ing of sorrow, weakness, and love. That He shoulH
institute a religious Service in which they were to "do"
what they had done in the upper chamber, where He
washed their feet and supped with them, was plainly a de-
claration on His part that vast as was the distance which
was soon to separate them, the freedom of their mutual
A7id of the Lord's Supper. 379
affection was to be permanent. They were still to sit at
His table, and from that table He would never be ab-
sent. When Christ had ascended to the right hand of
God, and the full glory of His Divine nature had been
revealed to the Apostles, it is certain that they could
never have thought of the Lord's Supper as being nothing
more than a Service in which they might express their
affection for Him and for each other; it was an enduring
witness to them that the same trustful and generous love,
which Christ had shown them when He was on earth,
dwelt in His heart still — He was as near to them as He
had ever been.
Nor was the Eucharist a revelation of the love of
Christ to the Apostles only. Rightly interpreting His
mind, which was perhaps more fully disclosed to them
after the resurrection, whoever became a Christian was
invited to sit down with them at the table of the Lord.
They did not claim for themselves any exclusive privilege
or blessedness. Their own relations to Christ were not
closer than those of the humblest and obscurest of their
converts. Their Master s love for them was not different
in kind from His love for men who might have cried,
'* Crucify Him," when Pilate was willing to let Him go,
but who afterwards repented and confessed that He was
the Christ of God. None of the '' friends" of Christ were
to be excluded from His table ; and when they were there,
all the transient and accidental differences which might
separate them elsewhere disappeared. To acknowledge
any distinction between rich and poor, between those who
have just received the pardon of Christ for a protracted
life of shameful sin, and those who have served Him with
courageous fidelity from their very youth, would be
a violation of the whole spirit of the Service. It is
the Lord's table, not man's, and at His table all the
guests are equal. To preserve any privilege or prero-
380 The Doctrine of the Real Presence
gatlve for church officers — to deny the Cup to the " laity"
— to make the sanctity of the Service dependent upon
the presence of any but Christ — this was what the
Apostles never dreamt of " The Cup of blessing which we''
— all of us — '' bless, is it not the communion of the Blood
of Christ?" The Service brings the soul into a Pre-
sence in which the greatness of Apostles themselves
disappears.
Nor does lapse of time or distance from the original
scene of its celebration impair its power. Even we who
live in these remote lands and ages are as near to
Christ as those who were with Him on the night be-
fore His death. We, too, sit at the table. The Bread
is broken for us. The Cup passes from their hands to
ours. The words of infinite and pathetic affection
which came that night, not merely from our Lord's lips,
but from the very depths of His soul, are addressed
to us as well as to the Apostles. We, too, are " not
servants but friends."
How much this Service actually did to develop the
idea and the spirit of brotherhood in the early Church
cannot be estimated. No preaching could have been so
effective. Men knew that Christ Himself invited them
to sit at His table, and hostilities of race, national
jealousies, envy and contempt arising from social dis-
tinctions, all vanished. They were all His guests and
"friends ; " Jew and Gentile, Greek and barbarian, miaster
and slave, forgot the differences by which they were sepa-
rated in their common blessedness and their common glory.
The celebration of the Supper was a time for gladness.
When Christ Himself and His Apostles broke Bread and
drank Wine in the upper chamber, there was fear, there
was gloom, there was perplexity in every heart but His ;
and though in His heart there was peace, the darkness
which might be felt was already deepening around Him.
And of the Lord's Supper, 381
But when He had risen from the dead, His promise was
fulfilled, and their ''sorrow" was ''turned into joy."
" Then was their mouth filled with laughter and their
tongue with singing." The awful gloom, the mystery, the
dread, with which for centuries the Service has been in-
vested, were unknown. There was overflowing thank-
fulness and delight that what had seemed to be the ruin
of the world had proved its salvation, and that what had
appeared to be the defeat of Christ had proved His most
glorious victory. The Supper was regarded — and pro-
perly regarded — as a festival ; those who celebrated it
were radiant with joy and triumph. It was this concep-
tion of it which rendered possible the excesses of the
Corinthian Christians.
But there is another conception of the Rite, which the
Corinthian Churches had forgotten, and of which they had
to be sharply and sternly reminded. " The Cup of bless-
ing which we bless " is " the communion of the Blood of
Christ ;" " the Bread which we break "is " the communion
of the Body of Christ." St. Paul reminds them of this,
when He is rebuking them for abusing their Christian
liberty by attending feasts in honour of idols ; they
"cannot be partakers of the Lord's table and of the table
of devils." In condemning their excesses in the cele-
bration of the Eucharist itself, he recalls to their memory
the words of institution ; and on these words he rests
his denunciation of their profanity, and his threatenings
of the penalties with which it would be avenged —
penalties from which some of them had already suffered.
It is necessary, therefore, to return to the consideration
of what the words of institution mean.
That when our Lord took Bread and brake it, and said,
" Take, eat : this is my Body which is broken for you,"
He was understood to mean that the Bread had in any
sense become His Body, is as inconceivable, as that He
382 The Doctrine of the Real Presence
was understood to mean that the Cup had in any sense
become the New Covenant, when He said, "This cup is
the New Covenant in my Blood." That St. Peter, who,
in his reverence for Christ, had just before hesitated to
permit Him to wash his feet, should have taken the
Bread and eaten it without a word, if he had thought
that it had been changed into the Body of Christ, is in-
credible. But such an interpretation of our Lord's lan-
guage could never have occurred to the Apostles. There
He sat before them. His Body was not broken. His
Blood was not shed. Every sense bore testimony that the
Bread was Bread, and that the Wine was Wine. That
the substance of either had been changed while its
accidents remained, or that as the result of consecration
either had become something else though it remained
what it was before, could never have occurred to the
peasants and fishermen to whom our Lord's words were
addressed.
All this, however, it may be said, is bare assertion,
and different minds will have different impressions of
how the Apostles were likely to interpret our Lord's
declaration, and of how they were likely to receive any
startling truth. But it is further to be observed, that
there is no trace in the Acts of the Apostles of any
astonishment being created among Christians themselves,
or among their enemies, by this transcendent mystery.
The Apostles are brought before public tribunals,
Jewish and Pagan, but they are never questioned
about a practice which misapprehension and slander were
certain to transform into a revolting crime. A genera-
tion or two later — as soon, that is, as mysticism introduced
into the language of the Church those expressions on
which the believers in Transubstantiation and the Real
Presence rely — dark suspicions arose ; malignity and
ignorance gave the grossest interpretation to what the
And of the Lord's Stipper. ^Z^
Christians said about eating the Body and drinking the
Blood of One who had died for them. But in the history
of the earHer years of the Church, no such misappre-
hensions appear.
It is also certain that, had the words of our Lord been
understood by the Apostles as predicating a supernatural
change in the Eucharistic Elements, either the doctrine
of Transubstantiation or the doctrine of the Real Presence
would have been taught by the writers of the post-
Apostolic age with a distinctness and definiteness which
neither Roman Catholic nor Ritualistic controversialists
would venture to claim for the few and meagre passages
which they quote in support of their respective theories.
This was not a fact which, after it had been once asserted,
was likely to be ever forgotten. If the Bread which the
Churches ate at least every Lord's Day, had been
believed by the Apostles to be the actual Body of Christ,
the mystery would have been asserted and re-asserted by
the early Christian writers in a manner which would have
left us in no uncertainty about their faith. There would
have been no vacillation. Every statement that referred
to the Rite would have been unambiguous and firm.
But what is still more conclusive against both the
Romish and Ritualistic interpretation of our Lord's
words, is the fact that in the New Testament the Bread
is called Bread even after consecration. The Ritualists
rely very much on this argument in their controversy
with Romanists ; and they support it by showing that the
Fathers speak of the continued existence of the Elements
in their natural substance. They do not see that the
argument is almost as fatal against their own theory as
against the theory of Rome. Is it conceivable that the
early Church could have spoken of the consecrated Ele-
ment as Bread, if they had believed that*, though its natural
substance remained, it had become the Body of the Lord ?
384 The Doctrine of the Real Presence
Surely the invisible Presence would have so transfigured
its mere material vesture, that the existence of the visible
substance would have ceased to be recognized. It was
the common habit of the Apostolic Churches to speak of
coming together " to break Bread ;" no such expression
could have arisen, or, if it had arisen, could have lasted,
had it been the common belief that the Bread in any
sense actually became Christ — His very Body with which
His Soul and Divinity are inseparably united.
And when St. Paul was moved to anger and sorrow by
the excesses of the Corinthian Christians, the doctrine of
the Real Presence, had he believed it, would certainly
have impressed its form on his condemnation of their sin.
" As often," he says, '' as ye eat this Bread, and drink this
Cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he come." Why
did he not strike them with horror by telling them that,
in the Supper which they profaned, they received the
Body and the Blood of Christ '^. " Whosoever," he con-
tinues, " shall eat this Bread and drink this Cup of the
Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the Body and Blood
of the Lord." Why did he speak of the Bread at all, if
what they ate had become something infinitely more
awful than the mere sign of Christ's Body ? Why did
he speak of the '' Cup of the Lord," if what they drank
had become something infinitely more awful than the
mere sign of His Blood ? To answer, that though the
Elements had become the Body and Blood of Christ, they
remained Bread and Wine still, is no reply to this argu-
ment. At such a crisis, had the Apostle believed in the
mysterious and supernatural union of the material sym-
bols with, the Person of Christ — "a kind of hypostatical
union of the sign and the thing signified so united to-
gether as are the two natures of Christ," * — it is incon-
ceivable that the tremendous weapon against profanity
• Tract, p. 233.
And of the Lord's Supper. 385
which this faith suppHes should not have been used. He
beheved that the consecrated Bread was Bread, and
nothinor more. He beheved that the consecrated Wine
was Wine, and nothing more.
The weakness of the extreme Protestant position Hes
in this — that to interpret our Lord's words when He
instituted the Service, as meaning '* This Bread represents
my Body," leaves upon the mind an impression of dis-
satisfaction. That the Bread was broken and distributed
to the Apostles with a simply *' didactic " purpose — that
the whole Rite is only a visible memorial of the death of
Christ — is a theory which has never yet been able to lay
a firm hold on the mind of any considerable section of the
Church. The Service is felt to be an " act," not simply a
" picture-lesson." To invest it with the nature of an act,
it has been spoken of by Congregatlonalists as " a token
of faith in the Saviour, and of brotherly love," as though
the Rite had been founded by the Church as an expression
of its own life, instead of having been founded by our
Lord Himself.
That the Bread is a symbol of Christ's Body, and only
a symbol, is true ; that the Wine is a symbol of Christ's
Blood, and only a symbol, is true. But it does not follow
that when our Lord said, " This Is my Body," and '* This
is the New Covenant in my Blood," He meant to declare
the symbolic character of the Elements.
Our Lord " took Bread," because Bread Is the chief
support of our natural life, and is, therefore, the fittest
symbol of that which supports our spiritual life. '' He
brake it," because it was by the crucifixion of His Body
that He was to become the Life of the world. But
when He said, *' Take, eat, this Is my Body," He meant
to do something more than merely explain what he had
been doing. He meant that He gave Himself to His
c c
386 The Doctrine of the Real Presence
disciples in giving them the symbols of Himself. He,
therefore, names the Divine gift, and not merely the
material symbols of the gift.
The Lord's Supper is something more than a scenic
representation of the breaking of Christ's Body and the
shedding of His Blood. In our reception of the Elements
there is something more than a .scenic representation of
the truth that through His death the life of our souls is
sustained. It does not correspond to a coronation acted
in a theatre, but to the crowning of a king in Westminster
Abbey.
Turretin states the truth concerning both the Sacra-
ments with his usual clearness and force, when he de-
clares them to be, " Non signa mere theoretica, quae nihil
aliud faciunt quam rem repraesentare et significare, cujus
signa sunt ; sed practica, quae non tantum significant, sed
et obsignant et re ipsa exhibent. Nam etsi signa sint
theoretice significantia, .... in hac tamen significatione
theoretica non subsistunt, sed habent praeterea significa-
tionem practicam, tum obsignativam, tum exhibitivam suo
modo et sensu rei signlficatae, ut clavis traditio habet
significationem practicam immissionis in possessionem
eamque obsignat et exhibet."*
Had the Rite been simply theoretic, to use Turretin's
word, our Lord would doubtless have said to the
Apostles, " This represents my Body." But as He meant
to give them, in a symbolic act, all that His death
secured for them, He said, when He distributed the
Bread, *' This is my Body." What He gave them with
His hands was nothing; He was not thinking of that.
He was thinking of the diviner gift.
There ought to be no difficulty in understanding that
though the material Elements are only symbols, the act of
Christ when he places these Elements in our hands is a
* Turr., Loc. xix. Quaes, iii.
And of the Lords Supper, 387
spiritual reality. A key, to use Turretln's Illustration,
which has done good service in this controversy, is a
very natural symbol of possession ; but when the com-
mander of a city hands the keys of the gates to the
general of a besieging army, he does something more
than perform a mere "didactic" ceremony ; — by the sur-
render of the visible symbol, he surrenders the city itself.
A book is a natural symbol of the occupations and duties
of the head of a religious house, and a staff of the duties
of a bishop or shepherd of the flock ; but when a book is
placed in the hands of a man elected abbot, and a staff in
the hands of a man elected bishop, the act is not intended
simply to give the abbot and the bishop symbolic instruc-
tion as to their future duties, it is intended actually to
convey to them, by a visible and impressive ceremony,
the duties and responsibilities of their office.
It is this aspect of the Service which seems to be
obscured by the extreme Protestant theory. In the
eagerness with which Protestant controversialists have
maintained that the Bread and Wine are only symbols,
it has been forgotten that if they are symbols, they
symbolize something. Such exaggerated attention has
been concentrated on the visible signs, the truth has
been reiterated with such earnestness that the signs are
only signs, that we have come to think that the Service
has no spiritual value. It is time that we remembered
Who It was that Instituted the Rite, and what He Him-
self said when He distributed the Elements.
If it had been instituted by ourselves to commemorate
Christ, the whole Service and not the Elements alone, would
have been merely symbolic. To recur to the old illustra-
tion : if a soldier in the ranks of a besieging army hands
a great key to his own general, the act is symbolic as
well as the key. It is simply the expression of the con-
fidence and hope of a man having no authority to sur-
cc 2
388 The Doctrine of the Real Presence
render the city, that the city will soon be taken. It is a
mere dramatic ceremony. We can imagine circumstances
in which it would be very effective ; circumstances in which
•it would stir the courage and fire the ardour of those
who had become weary of the siege ; but its whole value
and force would lie in its effect upon the imagination and
emotions of those who witnessed it. But when the
governor of the city does the same thing, the act is a
mere dramatic ceremony no longer. Its value does not
lie in the impressiveness and scenic solemnity with
which it may be accompanied. It represents a real
transfer of power. And so when Christ gives us Bread,
and says, " This is my Body," it is not a mere dramatic
ceremony — deriving all its worth from its " didactic "
meaning or its ''impressive" power. His Body is
actually given. " The Bread which we break " is " the
Communion of the Body of Christ." " The Cup of blessing
which we bless " is " the Communion of the Blood of
Christ." The Elements are the key surrendering pos-
session of the city ; the book conferring his dignity on the
abbot ; the staff transferring authority to the bishop ; the
ring ratifying the vow of marriage ; the " seal," to use
the language of our fathers, of the covenant of grace.
With this conception of the Service, it is possible to
account for the mysticism and superstition which gathered
about it in very early times. . It justifies all the various
expressions used of the Rite in the New Testament.
It gives an adequate meaning to the words of institution.
It rescues the great Christian Ordinance from the merely
technical character with which it is regarded by many
Protestants, and inspires it with life and power. It is a
protection against the superstitions of Rome.
To state what may be properly called the doctrine of
the Eucharist, to interpret the mysteries it reveals to all
And of the Lord's Supper. 389
devout souls, is impossible. Perhaps if it were possible
to develop in formal propositions the spiritual truths
which underlie the appropriation of the Elements to
their wonderful purpose, one great use of the Rite would
disappear. It is partly because these truths cannot be
expressed in propositions that they are expressed in sym-
bols. Who can explain what is meant by the Death of
Christ becoming the Life of all who receive Him ? Who
can define the relation existing between the Christian
soul and its Lord ? The Bread broken, distributed,
eaten, tells us what is left untold after theological science
has exhausted all its resources.
There is one obvious element of signiflca'nce in the
use of W^ine as the symbol of that Blood, by which the
New Covenant is established between God and man, which
has been almost lost. For centuries the Eucharist has
been celebrated not only with awe but with anguish.
The most devout and saintly souls have thought that it
became them to receive the symbols of their Saviour s
Passion w^th bitter sorrow and humiliation. And nothing
can be more natural. The Service recalls the torture,
shame, and woe which Christ endured for our salvation —
the nails, the crown of thorns, the thirst, the intense
desolation, the awful descent into the darkness of death.
But did not our Lord anticipate the distress, and the keen
self-reproach, which the remembrance of His sufferings
would be certain to awaken ; and does He not ask us to
forget the agony by which he reconciled us to God, in
the joy of reconciliation ? What else is the meaning of
the Cup ? By His own appointment, the very symbol of
all earthly gladness stands for the Blood which was " shed
for the remission of sins." If He had meant us to
'' afflict our souls " at the Supper, He would surely have
given us the '' bitter herbs " of the old Passover. But it
is a Festival to which He invites us, and with pathetic
390 The Doctrine of the Lord's Stepper.
anxiety that the strong tide of "joy for pardoned guilt "
should rise in our hearts like a flood, and prevent us
from yielding to the natural impulse which leads us to
'* mourn that we pierced the Lord," He gives us Wine.
And though the Bread is broken and the Wine poured
out in remembrance of His death, we rejoice that He is
** alive for evermore." We meet "around a table, not a
tomb." Anglican theologians derive an immense, but
illegitimate, advantage from the way in which their theory
is commonly described. It is implied that all other Pro-
testant theories deny the '* Real Presence " of Christ in
the supreme Rite of the Christian Faith. This implica-
tion we passionately resent. Christ is present at His
table, though not in the Bread and Wine which are
placed upon it. He is there — as a Host with His guests.
We do not meet to think of an " absent " Lord, or to
commemorate a dead Saviour. We receive the Bread
from His own hands, and with it all that the Bread
symbolizes. We drink the Cup in His presence, and
rejoice that we are His friends — that through His Blood
we have received " remission of sins," and that we " have
peace with God" through Him. He is nearer to us now
than He was to those who heard from His lips the words
of institution. It was " expedient " for us that He should
go away ; for He has come again, and by the power of
His Spirit we abide in Him and He in us. In being
made partakers of Christ, we are '' made partakers of the
Divine nature," and become for ever one with God.
THE WORSHIP OF THE CHURCH,
REV. HENRY ALLON.
THE WORSH I P
THE CHURCH
Worship is the instinctive act and necessity of the re-
ligious consciousness. Its root lies in our recognition
of God, and of our personal relationship to Him, its
eucharistic element in our sense of His transcendent ex-
cellencies, and its supplicatory element in our conscious-
ness of absolute dependence upon Him. We do not,
that is, worship in mere compliance with a Divine in-
junction, nor in conformity with a conventional cultus,
nor as a means of religious benefit. We worship under
the impulse of our own religious instincts, because, the
constitution of our nature being what it is, we cannot
without violence to it help doing so. Worship, there-
fore, has its ultimate reason neither in the sense of obli-
gation, nor in considerations of utility ; it is the simple
necessity of the religious soul. Hence, in the severest
persecutions of the Church, no considerations of personal
peril have ever been sufficient to deter Christian men
from assembling for social worship. Although there
is no direct injunction of public worship, and although
the spiritual relationships of the soul are so personal, and
394 '^^^ Worship
find their full expression in acts of personal and private
devotion, yet the constraining impulse of social worship
has led men for the sake of it to dare and sacrifice life
itself.*
The forms and expressions of our worship are mani-
fold, and are variously determined. Personal worship
has its reason in the instinct of personal religious life,
and in the further instinctive feeling that He who
made us capable of worshipping Him, yearns for our
worship and rejoices in it. Social worship has its reason
in that instinct of human fellowship which prompts us
to associate in the expression of all common feelings,
and in the pursuit of all common interests. The
natural instinct which prompts the expression of strong
emotion towards God, also prompts its expression towards
men. We always seek embodiment for inward feeling ;
— the eloquence of emotion is always more passionate
than that of mere intellectual conviction. Christian
worship is the result of special theological teaching.
The worshipping instinct finds expression according to
its intelligence ; the form and sentiment of which are
determined by our knowledge of the true nature and
purposes of the Deity.
In Its supreme, religious sense, worship can be offered
only to the absolute God. We may reverence in subor-
dinate beings qualities superior to our own, and do them
homage or worship. We may recognize and admire
in them abilities and possessions which might be of
great advantage to us, and address to them requests,
or prayers ; but, in the sense of absolute adoration and
dependence, our feelings of worship can be expressed
only towards the Supreme God.
Idolatry contradicts this fundamental principle of
worship in two ways : it directs the feeling of worship
* Wilberforce, on the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ, chap. xii.
Of the Church, 395
to inferior objects, which thus become false gods, to
which adoration and prayer are offered ; — this is the
ultimate and grossest form of idolatry. Or, it approaches
the true God in a false and incongruous way ; such, for
instance, as the employment of material symbols for the
representation of spiritual things, as in the worship of the
golden calf by the Israelites, and in the image- worship of
the Romish Church. In portentous approximation to
this is the so-called '* Real Presence" in the material
bread and wine of the Sacramentarian Eucharist. In this
form of idolatry the boundary-line of legitimate sym-
bolism is passed, and the material is potentially connected
with the spiritual. Such is the universal genesis of the
grosser forms of idolatry.
Christian worship differs from Jewish, Mohammedan,
and Unitarian worship, in its recognition of the Lord
Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit as proper objects of
direct adoration and prayer.
This is not the place for vindicating such recognition,
either by an exposition of the Christian conception of
the triune nature of the one supreme Deity, or by any
demonstration of the proper Divinity of our Lord Jesus
Christ, and of the Holy Spirit. The question is necessarily
one of pure revelation. We can only refer any who might
join issue with us upon this great preliminary Christian
dogma, to the polemics of the Church on the subject in
almost every age of its existence.*
* To such controversies of the ancient Church, for example, as the Ebionite, Patripassian,
Sabellian, Arian, Apollinarian, Nestorian, Monophysite, Monothelite, &c., as recorded in
the ordinary Church histories, especially in Neander's General History of the Christian
Religion and Church, and still more fully in Dorner's great work on The History of the
Development of the Doctrine of the Person of Christ; — to such polemical works of English
theologians as Bishop Bull's Defensio Fidei Nicaenae, in the seventeenth century ; the
controversial works of Dr. Priestly and Bishop Horsley, Samuel Ciark and Bishop Water-
land, in the eighteenth century ;• and in our own day to the two great Christological works
of Dr. Pye-Smith and Mr. Liddon. The former, The Scripture Testimony to the Messiah,
an exhaustive and unanswerable exegesis of Scriptural proofs of the Divinity of our Lord j
the latter, The Divinity of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, |a statement of the general
evidence and argument in their application to modern forms of thought, equally able and
conclusive.
39 6 The Worship
The direct address to our Lord Jesus Christ of adora-
tion and prayer is the logical sequence and necessity of
His recognized Divinity, — only an Arian hypothesis could
restrict worship to an approach to the Father through
the Son. Prayer to Christ is abundantly justified by
Apostolic doctrine, precept, and practice ; it has been the
custom of the Church from the Apostolic age until now.
The various heresies concerning the person of Christ
that have agitated the Church are only proofs of the
normal doctrine and practice. There is no formal expo-
sition of the primitive doctrine, — no formal record of the
commencement of the practice. It was the sponta-
neous and unquestioned impulse of the first disciples.
In some way or other the Prophet of Galilee wrought in
their minds and hearts the singular conviction that He
was the true God, and that it was fitting to offer to Him
direct homage and prayer ; and with exceptions so few
as scarcely to be of account in a general characterization,
this has been acquiesced in by the uniform conviction
and practice of the Christian Church. The wonderful
and unique characteristics of the Incarnation, — the Divine
humanity of our Lord, at once perfect God and perfect
man, full not only of Divine power, but of ideal human
excellence, of perfect holiness, manifold experience of
actual human life, unspeakable love, self-sacrifice and
sympathy, — constitute the grand peculiarity of Christian
revelation, which appeals resistlessly to all the necessities
and feelings of sinful, struggling men, and makes worship
inevitable. So perfect, and in its unique combinations
so marvellous and precious is this adaptation, that the
religious enthusiasm which it excites is stronger than
considerations of dogmatic consistency, and would pro-
bably prevail largely, even were the philosophy of the
Incarnation altogether at fault.
Historically, as in other respects, the cultus of the Virgin
Of the CJmrch. 397
in the Greek and Roman Churches stands in striking
contrast to the cultus of Christ and of the Holy Spirit ;
not only is it destitute of primitive evidence, the Scrip-
ture evidence militates directly against it. It is the
result, chiefly of two causes : first, its dogma has been
slowly and sedulously formulated by a growing supersti-
tion and carnality in the Church ; next, it has been
facilitated by polemical perversions of great truths con-
cerning our Lord Jesus Christ, beginning, perhaps, with
the Nestorian controversy, which was the first prepara-
tion for the cultus of the Virgin. These diminished, in
the hearts of Christian disciples, that sense of the human
nearness and sympathy of our Lord, to produce which
was one of the great purposes of the Incarnation, and
which, in the Apostolic writings, is insisted upon as among
its chief practical blessings. Such controversies about
our Lord's nature, ending, even when the conclusion was
most orthodox, in metaphysical propositions and formu-
lated creeds, tended to make the doctrine of our Lord's
person a theory of belief rather than a practical religious
fellowship ; and thus He was removed to a distance from
the daily life of men ; His true human brotherhood, so
precious to tempted, struggling, suffering humanity, be-
came a doctrine to be defined and fought over, rather
than a sympathy to be felt and rejoiced in. He was
conceived of either as imperfectly Divine or imperfectly
human, or else as a mere historical personage whose
peculiar ministry was restricted to His actual life upon
earth. Either He lived upon earth under conditions of
Divine exemption which made Him no proper brother
or example to us, or under conditions so temporary that
after His ascension they practically ceased. Whatever
thus tended to remove from the practical life of men the
human brotherhood and sympathies of the Lord Jesus
Christ, whether polemical theology or mystical supersti-
39^ The Worship
tion, left a blank in human hearts which the new dogma
of Mary was gradually constructed to fill. How far the
development of this dogma has really been carried in the
Romish Church, how nearly if not how entirely the
Virgin has been exalted to a place of honour and worship
which is absolutely Divine, may be seen by readers not
familiar with Roman Catholic writings in the instances
which Dr. Pusey has collected in his ''Eirenicon;" and
that the tendency to annihilate all incongruity and re-
striction in her recognition as Divine is undiminished, is
manifest from the recent formulating of the Immaculate
Conception into an authoritative dogma ; and from the
proposal to decree likewise, in the CEcumenical Council
now sitting, her bodily assumption into heaven. It
almost startles one, to see how complete a parody of
the great facts and truths connected with our Lord Jesus
Christ is thus attempted. Christ is removed from His
immediate relations of perfect humanity, as too holy for
our direct approach to Him, and the Virgin is put into
His place. Strange that it is not seen that the tendency
of all this is to correct itself. The womanly nearness
and tenderness, which to those ignorantly or thought-
lessly unmindful of our Lord's humanity, made the cultus
of the Virgin so popular, are necessarily diminished, just
in proportion as she is exalted to the absolutely Divine ;
lacking, moreover, as such imaginations do and must, the
subtle and wonderful harmonies that are presented to
us in the Incarnation of our Lord. It is the difference
between mechanism and life. It is a human imitation
of Divine things. Neither by his skill of hand nor
his subtlety of thought can man produce the living
works of God.
Save in the semi-reformed Establishment of England
— which from the beginning has retained many elements
in close affinity with the corrupt doctrines and worship
Of the Church. . 399
of the Church of Rome, never more boldly or portentously
vaunted than now — the Protestant Churches of Great
Britain have never evinced the least taint of Mariolatry.
The worship of the Virgin, and the Intercession of
Saints, are conceptions which they have ever most utterly
repudiated, and now with a vehemence corresponding to
their bold assertion.
The only sufficient preservative from them is the clear
and unstinted realization of the humanity of our Lord,
in its wonderful fulness of human experience and sym-
pathy. In His nature, rightly conceived, all that is
tenderest in woman blends with all that is noblest in
man. He is not so much man incarnate as humanity
incarnate, or, as it has been somewhat boldly expressed,
He is man and woman both. They who realize the fulness
and tenderness of His human sympathy, will feel no
craving for either the sympathy or intercession of Virgin
or saint. He is nearer to us, and more to us, than any
other can be.
In speaking, for our present purpose, of the principles
and modes of Christian worship, it Is necessary to dis-
tinguish Its two great constituent elements, respectively
designated Praise and Prayer : — the ascription that our
adoration brings, and the requests that our necessities
urge. Both are acts of approach to the supreme God,
both are recognitions of His Divine supremacy and glory,
both are exercises of deep religious life ; but in con-
ception and feeling they differ from each other in Im-
portant respects.
Praise is the very highest mood and exercise of the
religious soul ; it is the expression towards God of the
holiest emotions of which we are capable — reverence,
obligation, gratitude, love, adoration. Whenever these
are uplifted to God in admiration and homage, there
400 The Worship
is the worship of praise — the highest and most perfect
expression of all that is purest and noblest in our re-
ligious nature. As contrasted with the worship of prayer,
the worship of praise is manifestly transcendent. Prayer
is the pleading of our human indigence and helplessness ;
praise is the laudation of Divine excellency and sufficiency.
Prayer supplicates the good that God may have to be-
stow ; praise is the adoration of the good that there is
in God Himself. When we pray we are urged by
necessities, fears, and sorrows,-^it is the cry of our
troubled helplessness, often of our pain or our terror ; we
are impelled by feelings of unworthiness, memories of
sin, yearnings for forgiveness and renewal. Praise brings,
not a cry, but a song, — it does not ask, it proffers, — it lifts,
not its hand, but its heart, — it is the voice not of our woe,
but of our love, not of beseeching, but of blessing. It
comes before God not clothed in sackcloth, but with its
'' singing robes " about it, not wailing litanies, but shout-
ing hosannas. Prayer expresses only our lower religious
moods of necessity and sorrow ; praise expresses our
higher religious moods of satisfaction and joy. Prayer
asks God to come down to us ; praise assays to go up
to God. The soul that prays falls prostrate with its
face to the ground, often being in an agony ; the soul
that praises stands with uplifted brow and transfigured
countenance ready to soar away to heaven. Moreover,
the instinct of praise in the religious heart is deeper
than that of prayer ; song in the human soul is earlier,
and will be later, than supplication. Prayer is the
accident of our present sinful necessity ; praise is the
essence of all religious life and joy. The birth-place
and home of prayer is on earth. The birth-place and
home of praise is in heaven.
The worship of praise, therefore, is the supreme act of
intercourse between God and the creature. We gather
Of the Church. 401
into it all the elements of our complex nature, — our in-
tellect, conscience, religious emotion, and physical faculty,
— and engage them in a great religious service ; and thus
we realize the noblest fellowship with the Creator that is
possible to a creature. In other ways also we have
fellowship with God ; in prayer, when we come to Him
to ask the supply of our need ; in meditation, when we
muse upon His excellencies, or rest in the quiet assurance
of His love ; and in service, when we enter Into His
purposes, and as " workers together with God " conse-
crate ourselves to the accomplishment of them ; but in
praise, our fellowship with God is far higher than in any
other ; the personal want that prompts prayer is forgotten ;
the anxious thought that ponders Divine mysteries is
banished ; the strenuous toil that wearies even the con-
secrated hand is suspended ; and we lift up the face of
our worship to the light and glory of God's great love.
Absorbed and blessed in the sense of His Divine excel-
lencies, we stand before Him as the angels do ; our
reverence and love are quickened Into adoring rapture,
and we utter our reverent estimate of what He is, in
the largest and most rapturous words that we can find.
Such worship God graciously accepts : all natures that
love crave love, and the loving God supremely craves
the love of His creatures. Else would our worship be
chilled, and driven back into our own hearts. We speak
to Him our admiration and praise, because He gra-
ciously listens to it, and joyously accepts it. We look
up with gladness into the face of our Father in heaven,
because He responds to our loving rapture with His, —
His Divine heart answers the love of our poor human
hearts, — " God is love," and He seeketh loving souls to
worship Him.
Further, we ourselves are more blest in the offering of
praise, than we can be in any answer to prayer, just as
D D
402 ' The Worship
we are more blest in the love of a friend than in any gift
that he may bestow. Even in our intercourse with God,
'* it is more blessed to give than to receive," more blessed
for our love to be accepted by His love, than for His
love to bestow benefactions upon our need.
Hence the true inspiration of praise is derived from
God, not from ourselves. It is not found in down-
ward pondering thought concerning our own nature and
necessities, but in upward aspiring thought concerning
Him ; the thought of self swallowed up in the thought
of God ; the feeling of our great need lost in the feel-
ing of His great glory. It is this which makes the
'' gate " of praise the very '' gate of heaven ;" and as we
throng and press around it, we have close affinities
and fellowship with those who have entered it ; our
songs blend with the songs of the redeemed before the
throne.
In the form of it, praise may be either silent or vocal.
Its essence is the emotion of the heart towards God,
whether this be expressed in the self-communion of the
Quietist, the rapt ecstacy of a St. Theresa, the divine
absorption of the Mystic, the social silence of the
Quaker, or the exuberant rapture of the Methodist ; in
the decorous services of ordinary Protestantism, the
lonely exercises of the closet, or, as often, in more uncon-
scious religiousness, when
" We stand,
Adore, and worship, when we know it not.
Pious beyond the intention of our thought.
Devout above the meaning of our will."
Whenever human hearts are uplifted to God in homage
and adoration, there is worship, whether the worship-
ping feeling express itself in words, or be absorbed in
silent intensity of recognition.
Of the Church. ' 403
But inasmuch as practically it is almost the necessity
of strong emotion to express itself, we shall in this Essay
speak only of vocal and social praise.
Praise, unlike prayer and religious service, is an end
in itself, and not a mere means to something else. It is
the simple affection of piety seeking expression ; and is,
therefore, no more to be challenged on grounds of utility,
than are the caresses of a child. The recognition of this
as the final cause of praise, supplies us with an important
rule for the regulation of its modes. Everything pertain-
ing to it, — its thoughts, emotions, poetry, music, art, —
must spring out of the simple feeling of worship, and be
subordinate to it. Whenever the simple impulse of praise
is lost or adulterated by any calculations or adjustments
of utility, its highest nobleness is sacrificed, and its me-
thods become cold, encumbered, or corrupt.
For instance, a service of worship may be cultured as
a means of dogmatic teaching, or of sectarian proselytism ;
a means of diffusing, through the attractive beauty or
sensuous beguilement of song, peculiar theological, or
ecclesiastical dogmas. Thus sacred song was employed
by the early Gnostics and Arians, as also by their ortho-
dox opponents; and thus it has been subordinated in
almost every subsequent age of the Church. The
hymnal has been covertly polemic, subtly proselytizing.
But clearly this is to desecrate pure praise, and illicitly to
employ the expression of adoring feeling for the didactic
uses of a sermon or a treatise. When a hymn is used as
a polemic towards men, it loses its character as an expres-
sion of feeling towards God. When sacred music be-
comes the badge of a sect, it is no longer the unconscious
garb of worshipping love. In their legitimate use, hymn
and music are simply the natural and fervent expression
of the devout, adoring heart towards God ; and the
Intrusion of any feeling towards men that adulterates
D D 2
404 The Worship
its simplicity or narrows its charity, degrades and cor-
rupts it.
In all ages and sections of the Church this has been a
fruitful cause of the desecration of the service of praise.
On the one hand, it has been degraded into a sectarian
polemic; on the other, it has been disparaged in the
feeling of the devout, and even deposed from the service
of the Church, just because it has so easily lent itself to
such uses. Sacramentarian Ritualism may represent to
us the one perversion. Ascetic Puritanism the other. We
do not mean that either has ceased to be devout, but
only that both have dishonoured the pure worship of
praise. We need not deny a true devoutness to the
cumbrous and overlaid services of the Ritualist. We
say only, that his garment of praise is too gaudy, elabo-
rate, and ponderous for the simple and natural spiritual
life which it clothes ; and that its tendency is to confuse
its recognitions, to emasculate its strength, and to divert
the solicitudes which should be given to the life itself
to its mere clothing and accidents. Thus the form of
worship is confounded with its essence ; questions of an-
tiquity and tradition, of liturgies and free services, of
canonical laws and rubrical directions, of order and atti-
tude, vestment and ceremony, supersede or embarrass the
simple expression of worshipping love. The free action
of the man is cumbered by the regulations of the nursery,
or of the parade ; freedom is sacrificed to form, life to
ceremony ; and too often the worship-service is made
the vehicle for inculcating a dogma, or declaring a
Church to men, instead of simply carrying devout hearts
to God.
Neither would we venture to question the genuine
devoutness of Ascetic Puritanism ; but it grievously dis-
paraged the worship-service of praise, as the fitting
expression of it. Its religious feeling was intense, and
Of the Church, 405
in many excellent ways it sought to express it, — in private
meditations and prayers, in holy lives, in self-denying
services and charities, in a martyr-spirit of endurance
for Christ's sake ; — but it shrunk from a free, uncalcu-
lating, joyous Church-praise. Because art and beauty
had been substituted for the life which they should
merely have adorned, Puritanism, in a most unnatural,
but yet injurious revolt, denied the legitimacy of all
sensuous elements in worship, declared war against
music and beauty, and demanded a severity of form,
of which multitudes are altogether incapable, and which
is undesirable in even the most spiritual. Our sensuous
nature is as essential a part of our complex being as our
spiritual nature, and has its proper and potent ministry.
It is, therefore, a partial philosophy which disallows, and
a maimed service which excludes from worship, the
ministry of any part of our nature. Speaking generally,
therefore, Puritanism denied to the worshipping soul
those natural aids of imagination and sense, which, to say
the least, give aesthetic beauty to public services of
worship, and which powerfully re-act upon the feelings
which they express.
It is manifest, therefore, on the one hand, that the
vehicle which is to transport the worshipping soul to God
cannot be the cold product of mere literary or musical art,
nor the formal prescription of ecclesiastical rubrics ; nor
may it be so complicate and elaborate in character as to
cumber or confuse the expression of simple spiritual feel-
ing ; and, on the other, that it cannot be denuded of all
sensuous form, nor reduced to a mere negation of other
men*s abuse ; nor may it put an interdict upon any con-
stituent part of our complex human nature. In the
truest service of worship, all things, — emotion, intellect,
sense, — will minister to the intensity of the religious feeling.
These may not be the sacrifice itself, but they are the
4o6 The Worship
wood and the fire that enkindle it. True worship is the
natural expression of the living soul, freely gathering into
itself such forces and taking such forms as the life itself
may generate and shape.
It scarcely need be added that whenever, in order to
magnify its preaching or its practical work, a Church puts
its service of praise into a subordinate place, or leaves it
to the slovenly possibilities of accident, or makes it a
mere "■ introductory service " — as with too true a signi-
ficance it is sometimes called — it utterly misapprehends
the primary purpose of religious assemblies, it fails to
realize the supreme privilege and joy of the religious
life, and it disparages a means of glorifying God, upon
which God Himself has pronounced a special commenda-
tion.
The relation of worship to theology is one of the pri-
mary questions involved in the consideration of the former.
Theology determines the object of worship, the senti-
ments with which He is to be regarded, and the character
of the worship that is to be offered to Him. While
worshipping feeling will not express itself in the formulae
of scientific theology, it must necessarily be regulated by
them. Worship must rest upon a theological basis,
whereby it will be limited and coloured. For instance,
no common act of worship is possible where men recog-
nize different deities, or where their conceptions of the
same deity are fundamentally diverse. If common acts
of worship are attempted, they must be partial and em-
barrassed, just in proportion as conceptions of the deity
or of his worship differ. So far as simple religious feel-
ing goes, worship is the most catholic of all things, a
common religious feeling may be expressed under most
divergent theologies; but, as with other great emotions
which are subjectively possible, the character of the feel-
ing is largely determined by its definite object. To take
Of the Church. 407
an extreme illustration, the religious feeling of a pious
heathen may differ but little from that of a pious Chris-
tian ; but a common act of worship is determined as
much by the deity to whom it is addressed, as by the re-
ligious sentiment that prompts it. Hence it is essential
to a congregational act of worship that those who join in
it should accept a common theology, recognize, that
is, the same object of worship, and be agreed in their
general notions and sympathies in relation to Him. A
worshipper of Jehovah might respect the religious feeling
of a worshipper of Buddha, but he could not join him in
any act of common worship which gave expression to
that feeling.
The same principle must determine the limits of com-
mon worship among Christian men. For instance, the
broad divergencies of Unitarian, Sacramentarian, and
Evangelical theologies, must practically disable devo-
tional fellowship in a congregation of worshippers. In all
there is the common recognition of the one true God, as
supreme Lord and Father. In addresses of praise and
prayer to Him simply as such, therefore, all could heartily
join. But as soon as the proper Divinity of the Lord
Jesus Christ is recognized and introduced into the act of
worship, as soon as with the early Christians we
" worship Christ as God," the Unitarian, who regards
Him only as a man, or the Arian, who regards Him as
only the first among creatures, is necessarily excluded.
This recognition practically colours the theological
thought, imbues the religious feeling, and regulates the
practical dependence of a Trinitarian worshipper in so
large and essential a degree, that he can tolerate no
worship from which it is absent, while as necessarily the
Unitarian or Arian can tolerate no worship into which it
enters. Practically, therefore, save under conditions of
most painful and undesirable restraint on both sides.
4o8 The Worship
common acts of worship are impossible, not because of
any intolerant feeling, but purely from incompatibility of
theological recognition. There are, however, occasions
and moods when the fervency of religious life and love
is so great, that even diverse theologies are forgotten
in the joy of a common worship. Beneath all theo^
logies there is the brotherhood of true religious hearts,
which may find occasions for expressing itself, and
which really constitutes the communion of saints. We
are speaking now, however, only of organized congre-
gations.
Again, a worship into which the cultus of the Virgin
and the saints is introduced by the Roman Catholic,
necessarily excludes the Protestant. The latter can join
the former in acts of worship which recognize only the
Divine Glory of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit ; but the
superadded elements of Mariolatry and saint worship,
however attenuated by ingenious distinctions between
" Latria" " Hyperdulia" and " Dulia," provoke his dissent,
and therefore hinder common devotion. So, again,
when, as in the Greek, the Roman, and the Anglican
Churches alike, the dogma of the " Real Presence "
is introduced and made the central idea, cause, and
object of worship, the Evangelical Protestant is ex-
cluded. He cannot, with the Sacramentarian, bow down
before the bread and wine of the Eucharist ; to him
these are only material symbols of spiritual things, in no
sense signs of a unique supernatural presence. In his
apprehension, when adoration is thus offered to the bread
and the wine, a natural and beautiful symbolism has
degenerated into idolatry. Nor can any degree of mental
reserve enable his joyous worship of the spiritual Christ
in such an association. The necessity for such reserve,
and the conscious possibility of serious misconceptions,
and of evil influence upon others, will effectually hinder
Of the Church. 409
that free and self-forgetful flow of devout feeling which Is
of the very essence of true worship. He would deem
himself guilty of a repetition of the sin of the golden
calf, were he so to conceive of the spiritual God as
embodied in material forms.
In these instances, theological divergencies are so great
as to make separate worshipping congregations impera-
tive. In a far less degree, but yet in a degree sufficient
to make them expedient, men, perfectly agreeing con-
cerning the object of worship, may differ in their concep-
tions of the service to be presented. In their ideas of what
will be most acceptable to Him, or In their constitutional
or educational sympathies with what is most edifying to
themselves.
Illustrations are furnished by the different conceptions
of worship which are actually embodied In liturgies and
choral services on the one hand, and in free prayer and
plain song on the other. There may be perfect agree-
ment in theological beliefs ; on both sides It may be
fully admitted that In no sense do these things enter into
the essentials of worship ; occasional acts of united devo-
tion may be refreshing and joyous ; and yet, practically,
conception and preference may be so divergent as to
hinder complacency and satisfaction, and therefore hearti-
ness and edification, in comffion worship. Such dif-
ferences of sympathy and preference are founded, not
merely upon different conceptions of objective truth, but
upon constitutional peculiarities of our subjective nature ;
and are a sufficient justification of separate congregations
formed according to the natural affinities of their re-
spective members. Nor Is there anything to regret in
this ; it Involves, necessarily, no violation of the unity of
the Church, no disparagement or diminution of Its
brotherhood. To sin against diversities of religious life,
by imposing upon it uniformity of service, is surely as
4IO The Worship
grievous and injurious as to sin against uniformity of
service by permitting the free embodiment of such diver-
sities. The diversity is natural, the uniformity is a senti-
ment which contradicts nature. Whenever diversities of
conception or of preference are important enough to em-
barrass the free, joyous spirit of worship, the obvious ex-
pedient is to resort to distinctive forms that will give them
natural expression. It is simply fanaticism in feeling, and
tyranny in practice, for any one Church or individual to
insist upon all others conforming to his preference, or
submitting to his law, The Nonconformist who is in-
tolerant of the Liturgist, is every whit as bigoted and
tyrannical as the Conformist, who would allow no worship
save according to the forms of the Book of Common
Prayer. George Fox, in his crusade against " steeple-
houses," is as intolerant as Archbishop Laud in his raid
upon "• conventicles." Like every other religious thing,
forms of worship are fairly open to debate, on grounds
either of Scriptural precedent, general religious principles,
or practical expediency ; but to insist upon any particular
form as alone legitimate and authoritative, is to make one
man's preference the law of another man's conscience,
which is the essential principle of all intolerance. Hooker,
in his great polemic, did not take this ground ; he
simply contended for the legitimacy of episcopal polity
and ritual, which the Puritans denied ;* and in this
general position Hooker was right and his opponents
* That this is the general drift of the argument of the Third Book of the Ecclesiastical
Polity, confirmed by passages elsewhere, especially in the Seventh Book {e.g.^ chap. v.
sect. 8, chap. xiv. sect. ll, the integrity of which, as distinguished from the Sixth and the
Eighth, Mr. Keble, Hooker's latest and best editor, admits), is, I think, most certain, notwith-
standing the strenuous and over-plausible argument of Mr. Keble to prove the contrary. It
is the fundamental theory of Hooker's great conception, that while Christian doctrine belongs
to the department of universal and perpetual law, modes of Church government belong
to the department of expediency, and may be changed from time to time by legislative
authority. Hooker is not always self-consistent, and passages tending to justify Mr. KebJe's
contention might doubtless be cited ; but concerning even thete, Mr. Keble says (preface, page
72, ed., 1866), "If, as many will be ready to assert, they are expressly or virtually contradicted
by other passages of the same author, the utmost effect of such contradiction must be to
neutralize him in this controversy, and make him unfit to be quoted on either side." Mr.
Of the Church. 41 1
wrong. The root of all difficulty in freely recognizing
diversities of Church worship, is the spurious conception
of Church unity which has taken possession of so large a
portion of Christendom. The only unity of which many
can conceive is the unity of uniform organization and
worship. The higher unity of free diversified life,
seeking various embodiments according to its circum-
stances and preferences, is never imagined, or is con-
ceived of only with apprehension. The true brother-
hood of Christian Churches and of Christian men consists
in the deeper principle of a common religious life, and is
not necessarily affected even in the slightest degree by any
diversities of Church organization or worship. In them-
selves these are no more inimical to unity and affection
than are the analogous diversities of national, municipal,
domestic, and personal life and habit. When mere pre-
ferences of mode are exalted into essentials of faith or
badges of party, great principles are subordinated to
sectarian rivalries or to fanatical intolerance. The
responsibility of such schism must ever rest, not with
those who refuse to comply with unauthorized require-
ments, but with those who make them. The only possi-
bility of true brotherhood is for the legitimacy and necessity
of such diversities of Church organization and worship
to be fully recognized and heartily accepted.
Next, we have to consider the relations of worship-
service to the religious life, which are obviously of vital
importance in determining its true principles.
Although the final cause of the worshipping act is
Divine praise, and not subjective religious edification,
yet it is clear that acts of worship have a very powerful
Keble admits (Ibid, p. 59) that " It is enough with them [Jewel, Whitgift, Cooper, and others
of the Reformers], to show th^t the government by archbishops and bishops is ancient and
allowable; they never venture to urge its exclusive claim." He admits, also (p. 77), that
Hooker and his school differed from Laud and his school. To me it is almost certain that his
general position was that affirmed in the text, — a judgment confirmed by the high authority
of Dean Milman. Anna's of St. Paul's, p. 303.
412 The Worship
reflex Influence upon the religious feelings of those who
engage in them ; they must therefore be considered and
determined with a careful regard to such feelings. Any-
thing in the character or accidents of worship-service
that would arrest or injure devout feeling, or that would
even fail to minister to It, is manifestly incongruous. In-
deed, It is In the cultivation of the religious feeling of the
worship that Its comparative excellency consists. These
two ends are not only harmonious, but mutually depen-
dent ; we can offer to God the purest and highest praise
only, when our religious feeling Is elevated to its highest
degree of purity and intensity. Many questions here
claim consideration.
(i) The first is, the bearing of the religious sentiment
of worship-service upon the mixed character of congre-
gations. The distinction between the congregation and
the Church, — believers and unbelievers, — spiritual and un-
spirltual, — Is neither fanciful nor modern. The minister
may not be able to determine the Individual Instances ;
but the distinctive elements in the worshipping assembly
are none the less indisputable. Save, perhaps, in ages of
persecution — if even they were exceptions — It has, from
the second or third century, always been formally recog-
nized ; catechumens have always been distinguished from
the faithful, simply because they were not the faithful.
Nor are they the faithful now ; there are In our congrega-
tions multitudes who are not even catechumens; a larger
element than in any previous age of the Church, of men
who themselves would make no claim to be spiritual
persons. Not only Is the recognition of this distinction
abundantly justified by facts, but they who deny it, and
who contend for the Indiscriminate admission to the Lord's
Table, and to all Church privileges of the entire congrega-
tion, depart from the most ancient tradition of the Church.
The ** multitudinlsm " of Established Churches is the
Of the Church. 4 1 3
modern innovation, and not the individualism of Free
Churches. The early Churches, like modern Congrega-
tional Churches, had clearly some means of distinguishing
between catechumens and the faithful, of determining,
that is, the distinctive religious character of individual
men. And if, as communities of the faithful, Churches
are to exist at all, if they are not to degenerate into
promiscuous assemblies, to which Christian orators may
preach, but in which no distinctive spiritual character is
recognized, and no discipline is possible, the distinction
must be maintained.
The relations of such mixed assemblies to public acts of
religious worship, are thus somewhat complicated, but they
are of great practical importance. How can the unspiritual
members of a congregation sympathize with the senti-
ments of a spiritual service of worship ? The pressure
of the difficulty has led some writers to maintain that,
in some way or other, the sentiments of public hymns
and prayers should be made to harmonize with the mixed
characters and feelings of those who use them. On the
one hand, efforts have been made to eliminate the un-
spiritual members of the congregation, so as to make the
service of worship strictly a missa fidelium ; a missa
catechMmeriorum being also provided, wherein no senti-
ments should be expressed, either in praise or prayer,
which should transcend the spiritual character or attain-
ments of the latter. Traces of such attempts appear as
early as the third century, and theoretically there is much
to be said for them. On the other hand, attempts have
been made to eliminate, or to generalize the more spiritual
or experimental sentiments of congregational hymns and
prayers, so as to reduce them into harmony with the
character of less spiritual, even of unspiritual men. To
us, neither expedient appears to be either practicable or
desirable. It is clearly impossible to degrade the hymns
414 T^he Worship
and prayers of a public service of worship to the level
of unsplritual character. In every high and holy sense
they would cease to be worship at all. Worship Is a
service offered to God by spiritual and holy souls, and
the forms provided for Its expression must be In harmony
with the best states of suck ; for these to be Inadequate,
would enthrall, disappoint and Injure worshipping feeling.
Worshipping feeling may fall below them, but to those
who are sincere this will be no evil, Inasmuch as more than
anything else, the higher expression will incite the inade-
quate feeling. We sing a psalm, such as the forty-second,
"As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my
soul after thee, O God ; " this may not at the moment be
the actual mood of the soul, but when we address our-
selves to utter the words, the desire Is incited, and ere
they are dismissed to God, they carry with them the
yearning which they express. On the other hand, how-
ever select the assembly may be, it is not possible so
to generalize forms of worship as that all shall find
in them an exact expression of their religious feelings.
In order that forms of worship may elevate, they must
necessarily transcend the actual experience of the
worshippers.
In congregational praise the only possible theory is
for the most spiritual and fervent religious feeling
tQ seek embodiment in the highest possible forms, and
for each individual heart to strive after its realization.
The responsibility of rightly using Church forms of wor-
ship must rest with each individual worshipper ; the
Church offers to God its highest and most holy service
of praise, in which she invites all to join ; the sincerity
and Intelligence with which each individual joins Is neces-
sarily left to his own conscience.
On the same principle, the form of Church hymns must
be determined ; we have seen hymnals in which mistaken
Of the Church. 4 1 5
and foolish efforts have been made to secure an imaginary
congregational fitness, by changing expressions in the first
person singular into plural forms. But the congregational
use of a hymn or prayer is in no way affected by this
distinction The multitudinous use is not disabled by the
individual form, the individual use is not lessened by
the common participation of the assembly ; the congrega-
tion is only the aggregate of individuals consentaneously
uttering individual prayers and praises. Nearly all the
psalms of Scripture are expressions of individual feeling
in the first person singular ; who deems them on that
account unsuitable for congregational use ? On the con-
trary, are they not felt to possess a point and intensity
that a plural form would greatly diminish ? Would it
not almost destroy the power of some psalms to generalize
them, into plural forms of expression ? The twenty-
third, for instance, the sixty-third, or the hundred-and-
third ? Or such hymns as, '' When I survey the wondrous
cross," '* Rock of Ages, cleft for me," *' Jesus, refuge of
my soul," ** Abide with me, fast falls the eventide " ? Is it
too much to say that it is the singular form of expression,
with its individual closeness and identity, which gives
them their peculiar tenderness and power.
(2) The relation of worship-service to art has manifold
aspects, and involves profound and difficult problems.
It is not possible dogmatically to determine the place and
limitations of the ministry of sense in spiritual things ;
inasmuch as the conditions of the problem are shifting
and various. That degree of sensuous embodiment
which in one stage of human culture would be excessive
and superfluous, if not injurious, would be necessary and
beneficial in another. All education begins with the
sense, and through the sense perfects the spirit. The
child needs his picture-alphabet, the savage his rude
symbolism ; the material institutions of Judaism were an
41 6 The Worship
education for the spiritual apprehensions of Christianity.
Much depends also upon natural temperament, social
tradition, and educational habit. Men are Puritans and
Ritualists by nature, as well as by culture. Even in the
same church, men are variously affected by the same
service. To some it may be oppressive by its sensuous-
ness, or meagre through its ultra-spiritualism, while to
others it may be exactly suited. Natural sympathy,
culture, prejudice, exert manifold and subtle influences
upon the feelings of worshippers. Hence, to some extent,
every service of united worship will demand a sacrifice of
personal preference on the part of individuals. Only a
rational acknowledgment of the law of majorities, and an
unselfish consideration for the equally legitimate prefer-
ences of others, can secure perfect practical harmony.
We may, however, speak of general tendencies, and
insist upon the admission of certain principles, the
application of which must be left to individual Churches
or men. For instance, we may insist upon the legiti-
macy of the ministry of sense to the soul, and we
may insist upon this being kept within such subordinate
limits, that it shall be only a ministry ; for the history
of worship teaches no truth more emphatically than
that it is the tendency of the sensuous to overpower
and supersede the spiritual. Architecture, painting, poetry,
music, decoration, ceremony, have gradually and subtly
taken such possession of the sensuous sympathies of the
worshipper, that either his spiritual communion with God
has been altogether destroyed, or it has been so emascu-
lated and corrupted, as to be impotently dependent upon
these things. Whatever may be the legitimacy and use
of aesthetics in worship, it needs to be carefully disengaged
from spiritual worship itself, and firmly subordinated to it.
It is the minister of spiritual feeling, and not its substitute.
Men may medicate the soul through the sense until, like
>.
0/ the Church, 4 1 7
the use of opium, it becomes, if not a necessity, yet a
cravinor so strong and overmastering, that they are
powerless to resist it. There is a truth in the gorgeous
cathedral, the decorated church, the sumptuous service,
and in the adventitious sentiment of the Christian year;
but there is a truth also in " pious barns," and Puritanic
simplicity, and stern disregard of " days and months and
times and years;" and the contemptuous disparagement
poured upon the latter arises, we may confidently say, not so
much from the fact that they are more inimical to spiritual
feeling than the former, as from the fact that they are
more vulgar. England has had experience of botK
extremes ; and while we are not called upon to vindicate
either, and feel at liberty to urge a mean that shall avoid
both, yet, if these were the only possible alternatives, we
might with entire complacency point to the comparative
vigour, fidelity,, and fruitfulness of the life which Puri-
tanism has engendered. Our fathers wisely preferred the
less luxurious extreme, as the stern but faithful nurse of
the nobler spiritual character. The mightiest things in
the religious history of England have been achieved by
it. It is still the most potent force in our religious life ;
and so far as it may be yet an alternative, we shall not
be a w^hit behind our Puritan forefathers in our con-
sentaneous, unhesitating adoption of the better part which
they chose.
This alternative, however, is not forced upon us. The
greater intelligence and the deeper feeling, to which the
Free Churches of England as a whole have-attained, render
it possible to use without abusing the legitimate ministry of
sensuous things to spiritual feeling. We may safely seek
the realization of that perfect mean, in which congrega-
tions are united in common acts while the worshipping
freedom of individual hearts is preserved, in which the
sense is quietly ministered to by rich yet unobtrusive art,
E E
4 [8 The Worship
so as to facilitate the unencumbered worship of the
soul.
Sometimes, however, we encounter, even yet, the
plausible objection to any special solicitudes and efforts
for artistic forms of public worship-service, that, inasmuch
as holy and fervent emotional feeling is the essence of
worship, this alone should be the object of our care.
What does it matter, it is urged, whether God be
worshipped silently or vocally — sitting, or it may be
lounging upon a cushioned seat, or reverently standing
before the Lord ? whether we shout discordant halle-
lujahs, or chasten our song into harmony and beauty ?
" God is a Spirit," and worship " in spirit and in truth" is
all that He requires. Our utmost culture can impart no
pleasure to His ear, while He who reads the heart knows
the praises that it means. The less or more of our
harmony and beauty, therefore, can be of no importance
in His sight. It is further urged that the history of
worship abundantly shows the insidious and seductive
peril that lies in the aesthetic accidents of worship-
service ; how prone these are to usurp the place and to
emasculate the power of the spiritual feeling they profess
to clothe. In reply, we remark, first, that even conceding
the indifference of the spiritual object of our worship to
the forms in which it is presented to Him, this is but
part of the problem. There is another fact in the philo-
sophy of spiritual life which is equally indisputable —
viz., that if material forms are powerful to affect it for
evil, they are equally powerful to affect it for good.
Besides the moral and spiritual conditions of worship in
its relation to God, it has aesthetic relations to our own
nature which cannot be disregarded with impunity. We
are made creatures of sense as well as of soul, and we
cannot long sustain any worship of the spirit that is
careless of outward form. Either it will degenerate into
Of the CJmrch. 4 1 9
a purely subjective spiritualism, die into an indifferent
quiescence, or evaporate into mere sentimentality. Next,
we can scarcely deem any praise so pure and fervent as
it ought to be, if it do not inspire a reverent and careful
manner. Strong feeling necessarily affects both words
and attitudes. If we feel reverently, the attitudes and
tones and embodiments of our worship will be reverent.
In everything else, in our ministries to one another, in
services and gifts of love and of friendship, in the hos-
pitalities and reciprocations of social life, we are careful
concerning the manner, as well concerning the substance
of our service. Courtesy is as Imperative as kindness.
We do not rudely enter each other's dwellings. We
approach the sovereign with a scrupulous regard to
proprieties, and with a studied deference of man-
ner ; we should not sit, or even stand in a lounging
attitude, in addressing her. We should feel it a dis-
courtesy were singers In an oratorio or a concert to sit
during their performance. Shall we then presume
upon our spiritual relations to the '' blessed and only
Potentate," and blunder out rude meanings in careless
attitude, slovenly speech, and discordant music, on the
ground that our heart of worship Is sincere ? May
we disregard the holiness of the ground upon which we
stand, and refuse to take our shoes from off our feet in
the very presence of the Holy One, on the pretence that
His spiritual eye recognizes no sanctity of forms ? Do
we not often cover much irreverence of heart under the
garb of a highly- wrought splrltualness ? Further, of all
the mistakes in worship into which we can fall, none is
more presumptuous than to conclude that because others
are formal or superstitious, we may be slovenly or irre-
verent, or that the proper corrective of exaggerated
ritual is a parsimonious baldness. If anything can ex-
cuse and confirm superstition, it is irreverence. Worship
E E 2
42 o The Worship
has its beauty as well as its holiness, and we must not
make it repulsive under pretence of making it devout.
In the Temple-service there was not only the Holy
Sacrifice and the fragrant incense, but the golden altar
and the richly-robed priest — not only the holy song,
but the rich poetry of David's psalms, and the cultured
music of the sons of Asaph and Korah. In every
allusion of the psalmists, as well as in every record
of the historian, we feel the implications of an earnest
reverential manner. What special spirituality can there
be in the pious doggrel of hymns, or in the rude
incongruities of tunes ? Why should it be necessary
to abjure all culture and excruciate all taste, in order that
piety may have its supreme enjoyment ? It is true that
worship does not consist in artistic song, but neither does
it in inharmonious doggrel. While the essence of all
worship must ever lie in the true and fervent expression
of spiritual feeling, the reverence which constitutes the
perfection of such feeling demands that worship be
clothed with every beauty that can adorn, with every
appliance that can enhance it, so that in God's sanctuary
there may be beauty as well as strength ; for beauty is the
comely costume of strength. Strength bedizened is not
beauty, neither is strength denuded, but strength clothed
in rich but yet unobtrusive garments. It is surely a
careless if not a scornful disparagement of the service of
the Church, to be contented with rude inharmonious song
in it, while we bestow upon our drawing-room song
and our music-hall concerts our highest artistic culture
and care. No genuine piety can excuse negligence;
by its very negligence it will testify to its own defects.
Everything pertaining to worship should surely indicate
a reverent solicitude to bring to God the best that we
can proffer — an offering perfect in every appliance that
can give emphasis to its adoration, intensify its rapture,
Of the Church, 421
or beautify its love. Hence, the devoutest worshippers
will provide for their praise hymns of the highest poetry,
and music of the richest harmony. Hence, it is as much
the obligation of reverence, that a congregation prepare
itself for its public service of song, as that a minister
prepare himself for his public service of teaching. An
unstudied song is more inexcusable than an unstudied
sermon, for the sermon is addressed only to man, while
the song is addressed to God. The music of worship-
song is no mere amusement for those who have musical
taste, nor may it be regarded by one part of a congrega-
tion as a mere concession to the preferences of another.
It has high and solemn functions pertaining to all who
worship. It adds beauty, intensity, and reverence to
praise, and none can neglect or think lightly of it without
suffering a retributive disability. Those who neglect to
cultivate the power of expressing their praise in musical
song, deprive themselves of the highest power of praise ;
if they do not come to disparage that of which they
have culpably remained incapable, they can only join
the joyous song of worship with discordant voices, or
in ignominious silence stand in the worshipping throng,
inappreciating and enduring auditors of a praise in
which, as abundant experience shows, the least educated
classes of the community may easily become intelligent
participators. How David prepared for the service of
the Tabernacle, and of the Temple which Solomon was
to build, the sacred historians minutely inform us. He
appointed a daily service of song with skilled musi-
cians, who formed a vocal choir, and played upon
instruments of every kind, that thus they might lead
the worship of the congregation. " Asaph the singer,
and his brethren the singers, to minister before the
Ark continually, as every day's work required ; and
with them Heman and Jeduthun, with trumpets and
42 2 The Worship
cymbals, for those that should make a sound, and with
musical instruments before the Lord/' These were to
" prophesy with harps with psalteries and with cymbals."
Concerning Heman, we read that " God gave him fourteen
sons and three daughters ; all these were under the hands
of their father for song in the house of the Lord." " The
number of them, with their brethren, that were instructed
in the songs of the Lord, even all that were cunning, was
two hundred fourscore and eight." Thus, after four
hundred years, David settled the worship of the Jewish
Church. And when Solomon had built the Temple, and
David's appointments were fully carried out, four thousand
persons were employed in conducting the service of
worship. The people all joined in the service of song —
a congregational worship led by a noble choir, on a grander
scale than the world has ever seen. David's appointments
of worship were elaborate and costly. Not even that
he might build synagogues or send missionaries through
the land would he impoverish the worship of the Temple.
At the magnificent national service at the dedication of
Solomon's Temple, the historian tell us with solicitous
emphasis, that it was in response to the worshipping
song, and not to the blazing sacrifices, that Jehovah came
down and consecrated the Temple by His presence.
"It came to pass, that as the Levites, who were singers,
having cymbals, psalteries, and harps, to make one sound
to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord, it came to
pass that when they lifted up their voice with the cymbals
and instruments of music, that then the house was filled
with a cloud, and the glory of the Lord filled the house."
The instructiveness of all this lies in the fact, that a
service of song was no part of the Levitical ritual. No
provision for such was made by Moses. No song was
ordained in connection with sacrifice — it was the simple
prompting of worshipping feeling. The worship of the
Of the Church. 423
Temple stood upon precisely the same footing as that of
our Christian Churches. It was the natural impulse of
religious feeling, not compliance with any Divine injunc-
tion. Nor were any dispensational peculiarities involved
in it. It was as much a prompting and example of piety,
as the first hymn of the Christians in the upper room.
In each case the worship was in harmony with the circum-
stances of those who offered it. It would have been as
incongruous for Solomon to have worshipped in the
furtive unadorned way of the upper room, as for the
first Christians to have emulated the choral magnificence
of the Temple. The accompaniments of worship must
always be determined by the circumstances of the wor-
shippers — their wealth, their culture, and the general
expediency of things. A meagre cottage service, in a
spacious and crowded church of opulent worshippers, would
be as incongruous and unseemly as a dilapidated or im-
poverished building. Every appointment of God's house
should be the best that circumstances permit. It can
never with loving hearts be a question what will suffice ;
else might David have provided for the Temple of
Jehovah brass instead of gold. The question of our
love will ever be — how much it can bring — in what ways
it can the most fully express itself — what in worship is
for us the most seemly, and the most congruous with
the habits and adornments of our social life. And so
long as there is any appointment, any element, any
excellency of worship that we have not attained, after
that we shall eagerly strive.
Excess of material circumstance In spiritual worship,
whether of architectural adornment, ritual ceremony,
musical elaboration, or even intellectual fastidiousness, is
as Injurious to it as is over-cumbrous machinery In manu-
facture, excess of ceremonial in social life, superfluous
raiment to personal activity, or gaudy ornamentation to
424 The Worship
personal grace. It is both injurious to life and offensive
to taste. But equally so, on the other hand, is penuri-
ousness and nakedness. If we may not overlay spiritual
life,n either may we denude it. The true law of life is
that its energies be developed in all the force and with
all the beauty of which they are capable, and that it worship
with such cultured adornment as in the highest degree
may appeal to and express its own spiritual emotions.
This is the simple law and the sufficient test of all artistic
appliances. Is any particular cultus conducive to the wor-
shipping heart of the congregation ? If not, and still more
if it be injurious to it, then no matter how beautiful in itself
it may be — how conducive to the profit and joy of other
congregations — however sanctioned by history and con-
temporary use — let it be rejected, and, if needful, let it be
dealt with as the serpent of brass which Hezekiah destroyed
and pronounced to be " Nehushtan."
This conception of Church services involves the further
question whether it is essential to the worship of the
congregation, that all its members should vocally con-
tribute to it. That this should be the rule of worship-
song admits of no question. Congregational praise should
manifestly be expressed in forms in which all ordinary
worshippers may easily join, so that the sacrifice of praise
may go up to God, a great offering of united vocal song.
If any individual be so hopelessly unmusical, as that he
cannot open his lips without annoying others by his dis-
cordance, it is clearly incumbent upon him to deny himself
whatever pleasure or advantage he may find in it. No
man is justified in destroying the profit or pleasure of
others for the sake of his own. But this obligation has
its obvious limits on the part of those who impose it.
The scientific musician or the fastidious amateur may not
silence the great bulk of a congregation, because it has
not attained to his culture. The same principle applies
Of the Church. 425
to the place and functions of Church choirs. The only-
legitimate conception of them is, that they lead the song
of the congregation. God cannot be worshipped vicari-
ously, and few perversions are more incongruous than for
a congregation to be listening while a choir is performing.
Are, then, such services of song, as from their musical
difficulty or peculiarity disable the general congregation
from taking part in them — anthems, for instance, as sung
in cathedral services, or occasionally by the choirs of
Congregational Churches — in any proper sense worship
at all ? Even granting that, with the choir itself, the
anthem is sung as an act of worship, and not as a mere
musical performance to auditors, is it the worship of the
congregation '^. Theoretically, perhaps, it would be diffi-
cult to deny that it may be. It would, too, be contradictory
to experience to affirm that even upon mere auditors no
religious effect is produced by sacred music. We are all
conscious of emotions, more or less deep, in listening to
an oratorio or an anthem. It need not be denied that a
choir performance may in some degree minister to the
religious feeling of which worship is the expression ; and
we may not, therefore, pronounce such absolutely illicit.
If, for purposes of religious nurture, a congregation
choose to listen to an anthem, or to the choir-performance
of any other sacred music, who may judge them '^. If
they can thus the bsst minister to their own heart of
worship, they are justified before the God whom they
serve, and may not be condemned by men.
But we may speak of general principles and tendencies ;
and it is obvious, that merely to listen while others sing,
even though the song do excite in us a certain degree of
devout feeling, is to sacrifice a large element of personal
and united praise. It is surely praise in a higher degree
when each individual vocally joins in it, and not only
feels, but gives expression to his feeling of worship. The
426 The Worship
consentaneous vocal song of a whole congregation Is a
higher degree of worship than the vicarious song of some
twelve or twenty members of It. Hardly, we fear, would
experience testify to any very great degree of devo-
tional feeling produced by mere choir singing ; not even
In the judgment of the broadest charity, would either the
deportment or the song of cathedral choirs produce gene-
rally the Impression that they are pre-eminent ministers
to the devout feeling of the congregation. Hardly Is It
possible, our nature being what It Is, for a dozen or
twenty men to sing before a large congregation — some of
them singing duetts and solos of very artistic music — and
not to sink the feeling of worshippers In that of per-
formers — not to address themselves to men rather than
to God. Hardly Is It possible for a congregation, which
has been joining In the plain song of worship, to listen
to the anthem without suspending the feeling of wor-
shipper for that of mere auditor or critic. Can It be
doubted that many go to such services to hear a sacred
concert, rather than to join In an act of Divine praise ?
Hence, when the anthem Is done, the moving crowd too
surely Indicates how glad they are to escape the rest of
the service. Who has ever ventured to justify cholr-
slnglng on the ground that It has been found. In any dis-
tinctive degree, to be practically conducive to the spiritual
worship of the congregation ? And on what other ground
is it defensible at all } Those who wish for the laudable
enjoyment of sacred music, can hear It In almost any
music-hall, and at almost any time, especially In towns
large enough to have cathedral services.
On the whole, therefore, not on any traditional or
ecclesiastical grounds, but on the grounds of mere expe-
diency, we should pronounce against all mere cholr-
slnglng In services of public worship. The province of
the choir is to lead the song of the congregation, not to
Of the Church. 427
sing for it ; just as in prayer it is the province of the
minister to lead its supplications, not to pray for it.
Scarcely is it possible for a congregation so to delegate
its worship-song, as that a choir shall offer it to God with
personal feelings of fervent worship, while the heart of
every auditor vibrates in devout and perfect harmony, so
that the worship which ascends is the common offering of
the congregation. In the plain song of liturgical services
all devout worshippers may join. In the deeply fervid
responses of Tallis's grand and simple music it is difficult
not to join. In the chanting of the psalms, greater
difficulty may be felt, so rarely, until of late years, have
they been either informed by intelligence or expressed
with feeling. Individuals may dislike both, and, for
their comfort and edification, seek plainer services ;
this is a matter of taste rather than of ability. But
rarely have we heard the delegated song of the choir,
whether in elaborate canticle services that were practically
beyond the capacities of the congregation, or in anthems
which were not intended for them, without palpable arrest
and injury to the religious feeling of the general congre-
gation.
The objection, of course, lies equally against choir-
performances in the more Congregational services of
Nonconforming Churches. Who that has had to listen
while the choir has performed an anthem, has not felt
thankful, devotionally speaking, when the conscious
arrest put upon the flow of Congregational praise was
removed. The anthem is altogether peculiar to English
Protestant worship.* Its structure is utterly incongruous
with Congregational song. It is possible, indeed, to
* It originated in an Injunction of Queen Eliz.ibeth in the year 1559, that ** for the com-
forting of such as delight in musick, it may be permitted that in the beginning or at the
end of Common Prayer, either morning or evening, there may be sung an hymn, or such
like song, to the praise of Almighty God, in the best sort of melody or musick that may
^ be conveniently devised."
4^8 The Worship
reduce and simplify Its construction, until It Is brought
down to the capabilities of the congregation generally ;
but precisely In that proportion its character ^s an anthem
Is destroyed, and It becomes a psalm-tune, only set to
unmetrlcal words. If we are to sing psalm-tunes, by all
means let them be legitimately produced and effectively
constructed. There can be no objection, per se, to a con-
gregation singing anything that It Is capable of singing ;
but when anthems are brought within the range of its
capabilities, the cultured musician does not care much for
them as anthems. The incongruity becomes as great as
the so-called chanting of Metrical Hymns — turning, that
Is, the recitative of a rhythmical composition Into the
metrical feet of a psalm- tune. If congregations delight
in this, by all means let them do It, only do not let them
Imagine that this Is what is meant by chanting. It is
simply transforming what may be a fine rhythmical chant
Into a very doubtful metrical tune.
There is really no need for either. The choral capa-
cities of congregations are very great, and as yet they are
almost wholly undeveloped. The advance of general
education^ — the special culture which of late years has
been given to music — the existence In almost every town
and village of musical associations, from the Sacred
Harmonic Society to the Tonic-Sol- Fa Class, have ren-
dered possible in congregations a combination of musical
science and broad massive effect, such as has not been
possible hitherto — and such as, where It has been
realized, has delighted alike devout feeling and cultured
taste, and has produced Impressions such as the most
effective cathedral choirs have failed to approach.*
* As an illustration of the musical cultivation possible to the most rustic congregations,
the writer would cite the peasants in the valley of Ormont-dessus, among whom he resided
for some weeks in the ummer of 1868. Not only in the churches, Free and i stablished,
but in open-air services, there was not an old peasant woman, nor a young shepherd boy, who
did not use music-book as well as hymn-book, and sing in part-harmony with a precision
and a power that he has never heard in the most cultivated English congregations. It is
neither the capability nor the taste that English congregations lack, only the culture.
Of the Church. 429
Worship-song is necessarily restricted to lyrical forms
of poetry, in which alone the consentaneous emotion and
offering of a congregation can be expressed. It does not
admit of didactic poetry — songs which are merely dis-
guised sermons — which expound doctrines, inculcate
duties, or analyze feeling. Worship is the expression of
feeling, not the formal inculcation or description of it.
In special circumstances it may be expedient to embody
in song other things beside worshipping feeling. Luther
versified Creeds and Catechisms, the Decalogue, the
Lord's Prayer, and even the Confession of Augsburg ;
and, at one time or other, most Churches have found it
expedient to use didactic hymns, just as in an infant-
school you set to music the multiplication table. Hymns
and sermons have often been the chief means of theo-
logical instruction ; but just in proportion as Congre-
gational song becomes a creed or a homily, it ceases to
be worship. If, therefore, the doctrinal or didactic hymns,
which are still found in our hymn-books, are to be jus-
tified in their use by congregations of normal intelligence,
it must be on other grounds. Hence, too, the incon-
gruity of singing some of the didactic psalms, including
even David's anathemas of his enemies. These are mostly
odes rather than lyrics, and are to be used for historical
instruction rather than for the expression of devotional
feeling. It is possible to sing such things, as it is possible
to sing the genealogies of the Book of Chronicles ; and
we do not say there is any harm in so doing, beyond its
incongruity with professed acts of worship.
Neither does Church-song admit dramatic poetry, which
expresses passion in action, as in the Mediaeval Mysteries,
or in elaborate ritual ceremonies. Even the lyrics of the
Church must have a special character and adaptation, if
they are to be effective expressions of devotional feeling.
Much more is essential to a true hymn than mere religious
430 The Worship
poetry In appropriate rhythm. A true theology must
underHe these, and be held In solution by them. The
song must also be Instinct with a fervent religious life —
be Inspired by, and have power to Inspire deep devotional
feeling. The truth of Its theological conceptions being
assumed, the three great essentials of an effective hymn
are — that it be Inspired by a rich and fervid spiritual life —
that It have strength and beauty of poetical expression —
and that its form be such as to enable its efficient use as
a musical song. Like a prayer, a hymn is an outburst
not so much of eloquence as of life. Hence the hymns
of the greatest poets, and hymns written to fulfil certain
requirements, so frequently fail. Not only is genius
not necessarily allied to spiritual life, but Inspired
moods of spiritual life cannot be bespoken or calculated.
On the other hand, some of the most precious hymns of
the Church have been the productions of less gifted men,
whose spontaneous outbursts have combined fulness of
spiritual life with adequate power of poetical expres-
sion. Sometimes the richness of the spiritual feeling
expressed overpowers the sense of Inferior poetry ; and
the delicate Instinct of the Church, while It has rejected
the colder production of mere Intellectual genius, has
enshrined the ruder Inspiration of fervid piety In the
place of Its most cherished devotional forms. The
hymnody of the Church can boast of but few names of
genius, although genius has often essayed to minister to
It ; for when genius has not lacked piety. It has too often
lacked the Inspiration of fervid words. Wherever, as in
the Psalms of David, the " Gloria In Ecclesis," the " Te
Deum," the " Dulcis Jesu Memoria," and many of our
English hymns, genius and pious fervor have combined,
the result has been a perfect expression of worshipping
feeling. Every true hymn must express the passionate
life of some devout soul, and in such a sympathetic and
Of the ChtrcJi. 431
catholic way as to be also a fitting vehicle for the ex-
pression of all devout feeling. In this way we account
for the hold which some of the hymns of secondary
poets, such as Watts, Wesley, Toplady, Lyte, Mont-
gomery, Heber, and others have taken. Such for
Instance as, " Come let us join our cheerful songs,"
" When I survey the wondrous Cross," " Jesus, refuge of
my soul," *' Rock of Ages, cleft for me," *' Abide with
me," ** Hail to the Lord's Anointed," " From Greenland's
icy mountains;" these are wonderful forms for the ex-
pression of popular religious feelings, and therefore they
are so precious to all devout hearts.
Hence, too, the fact, that the hymnody of the Church
has always fluctuated with its spiritual life ; a dead
Church has never produced, living hymns. Luther's
hymns were the expression of the throbbing passionate
age in which he lived, as well as of the soul of the man
himself; so were Wesley's.* The affluent hymnology of
the last twenty years is the product of its quickened
religious life. By an instinct, too, as strong as It is in-
fallible, the Church has always indicated its quickened
religious life, by Its larger use of sacred song. From
Wycliffe and Huss, whose followers were nicknamed
'* psalm-singers," to the last ritualistic revival, excitements
of spiritual life have always found expression in out-
bursts of song. '* It was a sign," says Bishop Burnet,
" by which men's affections to that work [the Reforma-
tion] were everywhere measured, whether they used to
sing these [David's Psalms] or not." f '' The infectious
frenzy of sacred song," as Warton calls it, was a pro-
minent characteristic of the early English Reformation.
Bishop Jewel, writing in 1560 to Peter Martyr, says, "a
change now appears visible among the people, which
* For some admirable remarks on this characteristic of the Wesleyan Hymnody, see
Isaac Taylor's Wesley and Methodism, p. 89, et uq.
t History of the Reformation, Part II., Book I., iub. 1548.
432 The Worship
nothing promotes more than inviting them to sing psalms.
This was begun in one church in London, and so quickly
spread itself through the city and neighbouring towns.
Sometimes, In St. Paul's Churchyard, after sermon at the
Cross, there will be 6,000 persons singing together." *
" Geneva-jiggs and Beza's Balletts," were the alliterative
reproach of the songs of the French Huguenots, who
were often betrayed to their enemies by their irresistible
psalm-singing. So it was with the early Independents,
the Scottish Covenanters, and the later Methodists.
In the exercise of their liberties, most of the Churches
of Protestantism have freely incorporated Into their
worship whatever of sacred song successive generations
of the Church may have produced, which their spiritual
instincts recognize as worthy expressions of devout
feeling. The canon of revealed truth — that which God
has given to man as a sufficient instruction for every
religious life, is closed; but not the canon of worshipping
song — that which religious lives bring to God in praise
and prayer. Who may presume to write " Finis " upon
any human form of prayer, or collection of hymnody ?
When Ambrose has brought his contribution, is Gregory
to be forbidden ? When Gregory has completed his
Hymnarium, are Celano and Bernard to be disallowed ?
When the great mediaeval hymns have found their place
in the worship of the Church, is Luther to be interdicted.^
When Luther has filled the Churches of the Reformation
with his trumpet songs, is Gerhardt to be declared contra-
band ? When Sternhold and Hopkins have prepared
their version of the psalms, is Watts to be delivered over to
'' uncovenanted mercies." ? When Watts has completed his
unrivalled canon of psalms and hymns, are the con-
tributions of Wesley and Doddridge, Cowper and He-
ber, Montgomery and Keble, to be put into an apo-
* Zurich Letters, ist Series, p. 71.
Of the Church. 433
crypha ? Who will presume to discriminate the inspira-
tion ? Blessed be the great Head of the Church, its
hymnody, hitherto, has been a perennial inspiration of its
spiritual life. The great gift of sacred song has not been re-
stricted to any age, or nation, or church, — some great voice
has ever been heard attesting its endowment with ''the gift
and faculty divine," — and it were as foolish as presump-
tuous to reject its latest products. The ever varying,
ever developing spiritual life of each generation of men
will necessarily adapt or create its own hymnody ; and
the presumption is, that the later inspirations will be
more precious than the earlier — the ever enriching
thought, the ever enlarging experience, the ever deepen-
ing sanctity of the Church will produce a richer, nobler
song.
Some few of the songs of the Church, such as the
** Gloria in Excelsis," the '' Te Deum," and others of
later days, are so felicitous and catholic, they deal with
such universal truths and experiences, and deal with
them so grandly, that they are hymns for all time, and
bear transference into all languages. The heart of hu-
manity enshrines them, the venerableness of age gathers
upon them, antiquity clothes love with reverence, associa-
tion with the past gives meaning and intensity to the expe-
riences of the present ; and with a reverent and rapturous
joy we take upon our lips words used by martyrs, con-
fessors, and fathers, through which the hopes and fears,
the love and faith of their great heroic souls struggled
up to God. We cannot be unmoved or uninspired, as in
quiet churches and homes we sing hymns once sung in
furtive places — in deserts and catacombs, in fortresses
and prisons, on fields of battle and in the blazing pyre, —
hymns that once echoed in the holy places where our
fathers worshipped — in ''upper rooms" and "places by
the river side ;" — hymns that Pliny heard " sung to Christ
F F
434 The Worship
as God," in the morning prayer-meetings of the early
Church ; and that Jerome heard in the fields and the woods,
from " the ploughman, the mower, and the vine-dresser ;"
— hymns sung as lullabies over the cradles of pious homes,
and as praise when the incense of domestic sacrifice
ascended ; as lullabies again, when in the second cradle
of life the child-like soul sunk into the sleep of God ; —
triumphant hymns, when kings and multitudes have done
homage to Christianity, — in the Cathedral of Ambrose, in
the capital of Charlemagne, in the congregations of the Re-
formation ; — Pentecostal hymns in which a thousand times
the Church has shouted its praise for fresh descents of the
Holy Spirit, which have '' shaken " more than " the place
in which they were assembled," and crowned the wor-
shippers with more than tongues of fire. With such songs
upon our lips worship becomes an inspiration of more than
the heart of the immediate worshippers, we speak and
feel what our fathers also spake and felt ; our confidence
is strong inasmuch as it was also their confidence — their
heart was as our heart, our speech is caught from their
lips ; — in an august sense the scene of Pentecost is re-
produced, again there " come together devout men out of
every nation under heaven, each speaking in his own
tongue, but each taught by all the wonderful works of
God."
In respect of the more ordinary or temporary song of
the past, the true use of it is to transmute it into forms
of the present, adding thereto whatever of larger ex-
perience or riper wisdom succeeding generations may
have contributed ; or if it be incapable of this, to let it
fall into disuse. Thus we use the theology of the past,
its spirit transmigrates into modern forms. Thus we
use the creeds of the past — the weapons of various
polemical ages — we retain the precious truths of which
they were special defences, but we put them — as we put
Of the Church, 435
chain armour or old arquebuses into the Tower — into
the museum of the Church, as things which were great
and glorious in their day, but are unfitted for the uses of
modern life.
We do not disallow early Church hymns and music,
but neither do we exalt them to a place of pedantic idol-
atry ; so far as they are capable of it we utilize them, so
far as they cannot be utilized we dismiss them. Doubt-
less they contain the rudiments of all worship, as archaic
forms of language or costume contain the essentials of all
speech or dress ; but it were in the last degree injurious
to insist upon the implicit retention of their forms and
limitations, and to disallow the maturity of development,
the rich contributions and the moulding power of later
genius. It is surely a foolish thing so to reverence the
embalmed dead of the past, as to turn away from the
living forms of the present. Only fanaticism will make
the virtue of things to consist in their being old ; only
pedantry will regard things ancient as necessarily sublime.
It is surely a blind antiquarianism that would stereotype
the worship of the Church according to the conceptions
of a Gregory, a Luther, or a Cranmer, and imprison in
their forms the living impulses of devout genius through
all subsequent ages, refusing to recognize as valid that
which has not upon it the stamp of centuries. He only
reverences the past intelligently who accepts all its fruit-
age, who recognizes the spirit of Ambrose in the latest
sacred poet, and the spirit of Gregory in the latest sacred
musician. The alternative of a present that knows no
past, is not a past that knows no present.
Thus in free and healthful Church-life there will be a
constant transmutation of worship-song, a perpetual de-
cay and efflorescence — the old will pass away and the
new take its place, or rather old life will be reproduced
in new forms. Worship-forms are no exception to the
F F 2
436 The Worship
fruitful and beneficial law of the entire creation of God,
*' One generation passeth away, another generation
Cometh." One reason for the necessity of perpetual re-
construction of worship-forms Is, that they have generally
had their birth In times of struggle, excitement, or change ;
— they bear the various Impress of these In their freshness,
reality and force, but also In their onesldedness and
pugnacity. As In a mirror they reflect the various pas-
sions and tumults of conflict, often Incongruously blending
polemical statements of doctrine with deeply-moved
feeling. Hence of necessity whatever goes beyond the
expression of the most general spiritual experiences
becomes anachronous.
The actual hymnody of Protestantism dates only from
Luther, — that of England Is not older than Dr. Watts ;
and even among Congregatlonallsts he has begun to suc-
cumb to the changing forms of theological thought, and to
the varied wants of a new and a more aggressive religi-
ous age. That In his song which Is catholic and permanent
Is being rapidly disintegrated from that which Is more
conventional, and the great majority of his hymns have
already fallen Into disuse. Among Episcopalians, Sternhold
and Hopkins are wholly consigned to the sepulchre, and
Tate and Brady are "turning their faces to the wall ;" while
''Hymns Ancient and Modern" are too polemical to survive
the passing sacramentarlan phase of Episcopalian doctrine.
The individuality of every age demands congruous forms
of expression. New life demands new songs, and the great
Head of the Church has never permitted It to suffer from
lack of such ; when, that is, the Church itself has not made
His great commandment void through her arbitrary tradi-
tions. The slnofer comes whenever a new and distinctive life
demands him, and the old song that has served its gene-
ration passes away. Thus, according to the great law of
growth, the old foliage falls and decomposes, and becomes
Of the Chu7'ch. 437
the compost of a new life, more rich and beautiful and
fruitful than itself
Church lyrics take two forms — the one rhythmical only,
the other metrical as well as rhythmical ; the former
is the more ancient, and is the primitive form of all
song, as in the recitatives of A rab tribes, the American
Indians, or the New Zealanders. This is the form of
the Hebrew psalms of the Old Testament, and of the
early Greek and Syrian hymns. The metrical form
appears first in the Latin hymns of Ambrose and
Gregory, and from them it has passed into the subsequent
worship of the entire Western Church. The Hebrew
psalms of the Old Testament are manifestly intended
for use as worship-song ; their lyrical form, and the fact
that so many of them are inscribed as " delivered to the
chief musician," demonstrate that they were intended for
musical use only. Lyrical psalms are not mere edifying
Scriptures, to be read as Church lessons, as we would read
a chapter of the Chronicles, or a New Testament Epistle ;
they are passionate songs, the devout expression of the
worshipping heart of religious men ; David did not say,
*' O come let us read unto the Lord a new poem," but
"O come let us sing unto the Lord a new song."
" Singing,'* says Law, *' is as much the proper use of a
psalm, as devout supplication is the proper use of a
form of prayer ; and a psalm only read is very much like
a form of prayer that is only looked over." *
With just as much propriety might we so use our
hymn books, and read as church lessons the sublime com-
positions of Watts or Wesley, Toplady or Montgomery.
We may get a certain benefit from reading a hymn, but
w^hen we sing it the benefit is tenfold. Who does not
feel the difference between quietly reading the hymn,
* Serious Call, chap, xi
43^ The Worship
** Come let us join our cheerful songs," and singing it to a
bright exulting melody, in the music of which there is a
meaning and an inspiration additional to those of the
words. Imagine the worshippers of heaven saying, and
not singing, " Worthy is the Lamb that was slain." In-
deed a true lyric hardly can be read ; if we attempt to
read such a psalm as the Ninty-fifth, or the Hundred-and-
Third, we inevitably rise into a chant.
God has not given us a Christian David. No book of
inspired song contributes to the canon of the New Testa-
ment. Among manifold reasons, perhaps, for this — that in
the Jewish psalms a sufficient provision of Biblical song
is made for the religious life of humanity. We never
think of these psalms as the psalter of the Jewish Church
only. We instinctively feel that they have a broader
character, and are designed for a more catholic use. We
of this nineteenth Christian century, have no expressions
for our various religious experiences so adequate as
David's. W^hen we pray the most fervently, we use his
words, when we praise the most rapturously, we seize his
harp. He speaks for us, as no one else has spoken, the
religious experiences of life, the great struggles of our
soul — all that we can remember, experience, or hope — a
penitence that our sorrow can never surpass, an ardour
that we can but feebly emulate, a rapture that we can but
faintly share. Who, with all the religious light of the
New Testament, and with all the religious culture of
nineteen Christian centuries, can say that his spiritual
experiences have outgrown David's psalms 1 If we
hesitate to use them, it is because they go beyond our
experiences rather than fall short of them. We work,
we struggle, we pray, we pass through the daily vicissi-
tudes of modern thought and feeling and action, and
David's psalms are more precious to us than Charles
Wesley's hymns.
Of tlu Church, 439
All the Hebrew psalms are not lyrics, and the collec-
tion was not intended as a Church psalter. It is a
national collection of devotional poetry, made up of at
least ^v^ smaller collections — a long and gradual accu-
mulation, completed and put into its present form after
the Captivity. It contains many pieces, neither written
as songs nor meant to be used with music ; these we read
for edification, just as we read the Book of Job.
But grave questions have arisen in Protestant Churches
concerning the proper use of those psalms which are
lyrics, generated chiefly by the irreverent soulless ritual of
their ordinary liturgical use. Chanting psalms, as it is
technically called, like forms of prayer and the use of
organs, had been so shamefully misused, and had lent
itself so readily to forms of service out of which all reli-
gious feeling and significance had been lost, that it was
not surprising that the new religious life of Puritanism
should revolt from and utterly disallow it. It is very
easy to pronounce upon this a contemptuous sentence of
ignorant fanaticism. In a normal state of things it might
perhaps be so designated. Men may wisely select a
camping ground, which, if judged by the requisites of a
peaceful dwelling, might seriously implicate their sagacity.
Perilous diseases demand desperate remedies. The
history of Lutheran worship, as compared with that of
Calvinistic worship on the Continent, and the history of
Episcopal worship, as compared with that of Puritan
Churches in England, go very far to justify the extreme
position thus taken ; on the assumption, that is, that our
criteria of genuine worship be just. Beyond all question,
speaking generally, the worship of Calvinistic Churches on
the Continent, and of Nonconforming Churches at home,
has retained more of spiritual purity and. vitality than the
worship of Liturgical Churches.
It does not, however, follow that that which was the
440 The Worship
wisest, and the only safe policy in the first protest and sepa-
ration from ritualism, is the best normal form of Church-
worship ; although recent developments of ritualism de-
monstrate that the peril has not altogether passed, and con-
strain us to speak of modifications with more of hesitancy
than we should have done a few years ago. Still the
Free Churches of England have, for the last few years,
felt that they might somewhat relax their polemical
attitude and militant vigilance, and permit a worship
somewhat more indulgent to the aesthetic taste and
normal feelings of peaceful citizens. Of liturgical forms
of prayer we will speak further on — at present we are
concerned only with forms of praise. Nothing but
the sternest religious necessity could justify the abnega-
tion of the ancient song of the Church, — the song of the
Jewish Temple, the song of our Lord and His disciples,
the almost exclusive song of the Christian Church for
nearly four hundred years, and to this day the song of
the almost universal Church of Christ. Those who
cherish the traditions of the Puritans, and who still retain
their convictions of the ritual peril of chanting, evade
rather than solve the question concerning the use of
the lyr-ical psalms, when they forbid them to be sung
at all.
Another expedient for avoiding rhythmical song, is to re-
duce the Hebrew psalms to metrical forms. Before we will
consent to sing them, these glorious songs of inspiration
must be subjected to the manipulations of Sternhold and
Hopkins, Tate and Brady, Thomas Rous, Dr. Watts,
or John Keble ; the inevitable effect of which is, that all
primitive beauty of form, — the ethereal grace which turns
mere thought into poetry, and which is evanescent to
every touch save that of its creator, is lost. The psalms
of the divine poet are reduced by a humanizing process
to — what we see in these soporific versions If Wesley
Of the Church, 441
or Montgomery protested against those who for any pur-
pose should presume to alter their hymns, can we con-
ceive how David would have protested had he surmised
that, in order to adapt them to metrical tunes, his glorious
songs would be stretched upon such procrustean beds, all
the distinctive form of his Hebrew rhythm ruthlessly
destroyed, all the subtle inspiration of his poetical imagi-
nation evaporated, and his Oriental genius cramped into
the metrical squares and circles of a hymnody of which
he had no conception, and with which his compositions
have no congruity. It is one thing to render the senti-
ment of a passage of Scripture into song, as for example
Dr. Watts has so grandly done in his hymn, " When I
survey the wondrous cross," it is another to translate
songs written in one style of poetry into another es-
sentially different from it. As well translate L'Allegro
into blank verse, or Hamlet into anapaestics.
Not only is such treatment of the psalms a literary
absurdity — it is an irreverence. Whether is it the more
reasonable in itself, the more just to the royal poet, and
the more reverent to Sacred Scripture to manipulate these
inspired songs into metres in order to adapt them to our
modern tunes, or to adopt the primitive form .of tune
which preserves them in their Divine integrity ?
Rhythmical lyrics like the Hebrew psalms and the Greek
hymns, demand their own distinctive forms of music.
Oddly enough this has come to be distinguished by the
name of " chant," as if the singing of a rhythmical psalm
were song, and the singing of a metrical hymn were not.
If we sing a rhythmical psalm, common sense demands
that we sing it to music adapted to it — that, for its
unmetrical, irregular lines, we use a reciting note, which
will cover as many words as may be required, ending the
verse with a simple cadence. If we sing a metrical hymn,
for the equal measures of which no reciting note is
442 « The Worship
needed, we use a metrical tune — a tune, that is, in which
every syllable may be provided with its own proper note,
and which, therefore, may be a cadence throughout — a
melody as beautiful as the genius, of the musician can
furnish. What reason can there be in refusing to sing a
rhythmical psalm to the music that gives the best ex-
pression to its meaning ? What special religiousness
or protestantism can there be in trochaic or iambic
metres ?
The chief reason for the demand of this is, that rhyth-
mical psalms have generally been chanted in a confused
regular manner. The Western Churches have been at so
little pains to understand the very fundamental principle
of their musical expression, that they have generally en-
deavoured to compress the recitative, however long,
into the musical time of the semibreve, which stands
for the reciting note. Hence the breathless helter-
skelter, the decapitated words, the crushed-out sense, the
huddled-up confusion, which are so often heard in
liturgical services, to the utter destruction of all reverence
and intelligence in worship, and the distress of all de-
vout worshippers.
The metrical hymn-singing of the last generation was
just as tumultuous, irreverent, and unintelligible — such
tunes as Hampshire, Calcutta, Cranbrook, and Refuge,
were as utterly destructive of distinct articulation and re-
verence. To sing them accurately, to adjust fugue and
maintain harmony, to insert repetitions and tune, so
as to prevent the parts from becoming entangled, when a
thousand people were singing together — to drive steadily
four such prancing and curvetting steeds, and to bring
them safely to the end — was really a great feat, which only
accomplished musicians and a stentorian choir could
achieve. But such abuse of hymn-singing was never
deemed a reason for its disuse. More wisely, reverent
Of the Church. 443
men set about correcting it by urging the proper and
reverent use, which happily is now so characteristic of
our Churches. Let the rhythmical psalm be properly sung,
and the flexibility of the chant will enable a more de-
liberate and reverent, a more articulate and emphatic,
because a more natural expression, than even in the
metrical hymn. In the metrical hymn, the exigencies of
the tune will often compel the hurrying of words
and the falsification of emphasis. In the rhythmical
psalm, any time may be taken that the articulation of,
words and meaning may require ; words may be grouped,
emphasis may be given according to the sense, all the
delicate lights and shades of meaning may be perfectly
and easily preserved.
In refusing, therefore, to sing the Bible psalms to their
fitting music, simply because in the Romish and Anglican
Churches they had been sung irreverently, our Puritan
forefathers permitted themselves to be driven into an
extreme, which was a far more serious impoverish-
ment of worship-song than their interdict upon liturgies
and organs ; — the latter were but modes, the former
was part of the very substance of Divine song. We
can only urge as their excuse, that they fought an
arduous battle, and to save their citadel often had to rase
their suburbs. Far more justifiable were they than some
among ourselves, who make their necessity our choice,
and determine that the beautiful suburbs of our sacred
city shall continue to be desolate. They thought that
the best corrective of abuse was disuse ; we continue to
disuse, because indolence or blind tradition hinders us
from justly determining the use. The conclusion of reason
and common sense is, that we sing each kind of sacred
song to the music that is adapted to it — a rhythmical
psalm to an unmetrical chant — a metrical hymn to a
metrical tune. It is equally preposterous to change the
444 ^/^^ Worship
form of the rhythmical psalm, that it may fit a metrical
tune ; and to change the form of a rhythmical chant, that
it may fit a metrical hymn.
The question of liturgical forms of prayer is more dif-
ficult, and involves more complex and controversial con-
siderations.
For one thing, it is almost impossible to divest it of
polemical passion. Liturgies are virtually identified in Eng-
land with -Established Churches and Episcopal Church
government ; — it is assumed that they are part of the bond-
age imposed by the one, and the inseparable concomitants
of the other. The latter assumption is, we believe, sus-
tained by fact; no Episcopal Church has been without a
liturgy ; but the instance of the Established Church of
Scotland shows that liturgies are not the invariable ac-
companiments of Establishments. Thus it has come to
pass, that, in England, the controversy has been impli-
cated with conflicting theories of Church government,
and has rarely been restricted to the question of simple
devotional expediency.
Again, with many persons, the very conception of
liturgical prayer is limited to the Book of Common Prayer,
as it is actually used in the Episcopal Church. But this is
clearly to embarrass the real question at issue with mere
accidental circumstances. There may be, and unques-
tionably there are, in State Establishments and in Epis-
copal Church constitutions, special affinities with liturgical
forms; and to the Free Churches of Britain, who disallow
both, this is a strong and not altogether unreasonable pre- .
sumption against such forms ; but the question of their
expediency is pertinent under any conditions or forms of
Church-life ; and liturgies may be constructed and used
upon principles very different from those involved in the
Book of Common Prayer. If the question were simply
an alternative, the Liturgy of the Established Church as
Of tlie C/iurck. 445
It is, or the free prayer of Presbyterian or Nonconforming
Churches as it is, it would scarcely be necessary to de-
bate it here. Probably there is no Nonconformist, —
certainly there is no Nonconformist Church, — which would
even hesitate in its preference for the latter. The uni-
form use of the Episcopal service is not the alternative
to free prayer that we have to consider. Of all Church
service books it includes the noblest elements and the
most anomalous and incongruous forms. An' accidental
combination of three separate services imposes meaning-
less repetitions, and inordinate length. Its imposition, as
the uniform service, is one of the miserable results of
the Act of Uniformity — surely more fatally charged with
elements of retribution upon its authors than any measure
of ecclesiastical oppression that history records. With
fatal infatuation, it seems to have been the chief solicitude
of the Established Church of this country not only to
exclude from her communion men of the most conscien-
tious honesty, and of the noblest freedom of spiritual
life, but also to disable herself from receiving into her
worship any fresh inspirations of God, however transcend-
ent, and from exercising any discretional freedom, however
desirable in itself, and however Imperative changing
circumstances might make its exercise. The devotional
elevation and compass of the service-book of 1662 are its
limit as well as Its ideal of human perfection In worship.
But it is at any rate conceivable that liturgical forms
might be used, including whatever is excellent in the
Book of Common Prayer, and avoiding its incongruities,
Its monotonous repetitions, and its disabling exclusiveness.
The rich materials which the devotional genius of Chris-
tendom has accumulated. Including those which the Book
of Common Prayer contains, might surely be combined
into several distinct offices— each moderate in length,
distinct In character, and yet general enough for com-
44^ ^^^ Worship
mon use — and which, at the discretion of the minister,
might be used optionally, as hymns and psalms are used.
There might be advantage in thus providing for the ex-
pression of such sentiments and necessities as are com-
mon to worshippers of all classes and of all generations,
while ample opportunity was afforded for the embodiment
in free prayer of the desires which special wants and cir-
cumstances produce.
This is the real alternative before us ; and it is the one
which alone is worthy of consideration, in weighing the
various arguments that are urged for and against liturgical
forms. Neither advocacy should be embarrassed by any
accidental accretions that may characterize any actual
embodiment of either method.
The question can hardly be determined upon purely
historic grounds.* It is one of those matters of general
expediency, concerning which the precedents of history
can have no absolute authority, although they may be
serviceable by throwing upon it the guiding lights of
experience.
The arguments of Wheatleyf and others are based
upon such pure, unscholarly assumptions, that they scarcely
deserve serious refutation.
There is no certain proof of liturgical prayer in either
the Jewish Temple or Jewish Synagogues. Solomon's
prayer at the dedication of the Temple itself, an extem-
poraneous prayer certainly, does not assume the use of a
* The historical evidence, as well as the general arguments />ro. and con.^ are well nigh ex-
hausted in David Clarkson's Discourse Concerning Liturgies, 1689, and in Dean Comber's
reply thereto, — A Scholastic History of the Primitive and General use of Liturgies in the
Christian Churches. An admirable and dispassionate summary may also be found in Dr.
Pye-Smith's Comparative Advantages of Prescribed Forms and of Free Prayer in Public
Worship, 1 82 1.
t e.g.^ '*! shall, by way of introduction, endeavour to prove three things, — First, that the
ancient Jews, our Saviour, His Apostles, and th» primitive Christians never joined (as far as
we can prove) in any prayers, but precom posed set forms only. Secondly, that those precom-
posed set forms, in which they joined, were such as the respective congregations were accus-
tomed to, and thoroughly acquainted with. Thirdly, that their principle warrants the
imposition of a national precomposed Liturgy." — Rational Illustration of the Book of Common
Prayer. Introduction,
Of the Church, 447
Temple liturgy, when he says, "What prayer and sup-
plication soever be made by any man, or by all thy
people Israel, — then hear thou in heaven." (i Kings
viii. 38.) Nor, except the record of the Lord's Prayer, is
there the slightest intimation in the New Testament of
anything resembling a liturgical form ; and for many
reasons, both of internal character and of circumstance, to
say nothing of Luke's differing version, it is difficult to
imagine that our Lord intended it to be used liturgically
in the Christian Church. Bingham* affirms that it
was used as a form during the first century ; but
such an affirmation, without a particle of proof to
sustain it, should scarcely be made by a man claiming
the character of a historical student. Not a hint of its
after use is found in the New Testament. Augustine t
is surely right in maintaining that it was given as a
model, rather than as a form of prayer. The Apostle
Paul specifies topics for prayer (r Tim. ii. i), and speaks
about the manner of prayer, and about impioprieties in
prayer ( I Cor. xi. 4, 5) ; but he never, in the remotest
way, alludes to any form of prayer. He implies (i Cor.
xiv. 16) that at the close of each prayer the people said
"Amen," — but this is a presumption on the other side.
All the recorded prayers of Apostolic history are clearly
extemporary prayers, elicited by passing circumstances.
It is, however, not necessary to deny the possible use of
forms of prayer ; it is enough to say that the positive
evidence makes it certain that extemporary prayer was
used, and that the proof that any liturgical form was
used also, has yet to be adduced by those who affirm it.
We know that in the Churches of the Reformation,
one of the chief means of instructing and edifying the
half-informed people, was a plentiful use of psalms and
hymns and spiritual songs ; these really constitute the
• Origines V. 125. f Lib de Maglstro, cap. i.
44 S The Wo7^ship
best liturgy of a Church ; and In their variety and musical
use they are free from some of the grave objections that
lie against forms of prayer. It Is not probable that any
forms were In use In Apostolic Churches, although It Is
clear that the utmost freedom and, probably, therefore,
great diversity of practice, obtained among them. But It
Is clearly Incumbent upon those who, like Wheatley,
would, on the strength of Scriptural precedent, Impose
liturgical forms as the absolute rule of public worship, to
prove, first, that there are unequivocal Instances In New
Testament history ; and, next, that these overrule the
Indisputable precedents of free prayer.
Nor Is there any Indication of the use of liturgical
forms of prayer In the Apostolic or post-ApostolIc
fathers. Justin Martyr, describing the Christian worship
of the second century, says, " On the day called Sunday,
all who live In cities, or in the country, gather together
to one place, and the memoirs of the Apostles or the
writings of the Prophets are read as long as time per-
mits ; then, when the reader has ceased, the president
verbally Instructs, and exhorts to the imitation of these
good things ; then we all rise together and pray, and, as
we before said, when our prayer Is ended, bread and
wine and w^ater are brought, and the president in like
manner offers prayers and thanksgiving according to his
ability, and the people assent, saying xA.men." *
Tertullian, describing the worship of the third cen-
tury, says, " Thither we lift our eyes, with hands out-
stretched, because free from sin ; with head uncovered,
for we have nothing whereof to be ashamed ; finally,
without a monitor, because it is from the heart we sup-
plicate." t
All this, however, constitutes no proof of the illegitimacy
or even of the undeslrableness of forms of public prayer, —
* Apol. I. cap. Ixvii. f Apol. cap. xxx.
Of tlie Church. 449
it only proves the absence of precedent. The early
Christians were in those circumstances of fresh, fervid,
aggressive spiritual life, which, almost uniformly, have
resented the restriction of forms, and have broken away
from them when they existed ; but it does not, therefore,
follow that in circumstances of more settled and sedate
spiritual life, forms were not employed. It is significant,
however, that the first authentic intimation of the exist-
ence and use of liturgical forms of prayer occurs in a
Canon of the Third Council of Carthage (a.d. 397).
That from this time liturgies rapidly came into general
use admits of no question.* This, again, constitutes no
imperative, — hardly a recommendatory precedent. The
chief work of the last three centuries has been to liberate
the Church from the superstitious and tyrannical imposi-
tions which, from the fourth century to the sixteenth, so
fatally encumbered its action, and emasculated its strength.
The manners and customs of the Mediaeval Church are
no more precedents for our modern Church-life, than are
feudalism and serfdom for our modern civil life. Even
that which might be best for the Church in former ages
is not necessarily the best for it in this. With the fullest
appreciation of the great elements of vital piety, social
bleshing, and missionary heroism, which the most casual
student of the mediaeval ages must recognize in the
Mediaeval Church, the general history and character of its
religious life are not such as to constrain any eager emula-
tion of its forms. If the Apostolic age, with its simplicity,
purity, and success, affords no presumption in favour of
liturgical forms, much less do the history and result of
the twelve centuries that followed the establishment of the
Church by Constantine. The experience which they con-
tribute is of ominous significance, and compels very grave
consideration before adopting their distinctive methods.
* Palmer's Origines Liturgicae, vol. i. p. lo.
G G
450 The Worship
The Churches of the Reformation almost uniformly
retained liturgical worship.* Luther constructed a
liturgy for Germany, based upon the Missal of the
Romish Church, excluding Its unevangelical elements.
Calvin prepared a liturgy for Geneva, which was gener-
ally adopted by the French Reformed Churches. Several
liturgies were used by the Swiss Churches. The ancient
Waldenslan Church had Its liturgy ; so had the Reformed
Dutch Church ; so had the Churches of the Palatinate.
Knox prepared a liturgy for the Churches of Scotland ;
and with Calvin, Beza, and other German reformers,
took an active part In the preparation of the English
Book of Common Prayer, — several important elements of
which were their direct contribution. When the Puritans
of Elizabeth's reign were compelled to reject the Epis-
copal Liturgy, on account of the Romish errors which it
retained, they drew up, out of the Genevan form, a liturgy
for their own use, — which " Form used at Geneva '' was
generally used by the fathers of English Nonconformity.!
Some of these liturgical forms, however, were only
directories for the discretionary use of the ministers,
and do not seem to have come into the hands of the con-
gregations generally. At the Savoy Conference, In 1660,
the twelve leading Nonconformist ministers, in their first
address, declared themselves " satisfied in their judgments
concerning the lawfulness of a liturgy or form of public
worship." Baxter proposed his reformed liturgy as a
basis of agreement ; not to supersede the Book of Com-
mon Prayer, but as an alternative for the use of those
who conscientiously objected to it, — at the same time ten-
dering an illustrative list of exceptions. ]:
The disuse of liturgies by the Nonconformist Churches
of England, and by the Presbyterian Churches of Scot-
* See Baird on Liturgies.
f Strype's Life of Grindal, book i. chap. lo.
X Cardwell's Conferences on the Book of Common Prayer. Baxter's Works.
Of the ChuT'ch, 451
land, is not, therefore, any tradition of the Reformation,
or of early Puritanism, — it has sprung from other and
special causes.
That the deep, strong, devout life of these Churches has
so entirely repudiated all liturgical forms, is a fact that has
great significance in the consideration of the question, —
especially as the reasons of it are not very difficult to dis-
cover. There can be no doubt that, generally speaking, it
is the result of a slowly formed conviction, not shaped by
precedents or theories, but the cumulative conclusion of
manifold experience and observation. Almost uniformly,
as they think, It has been found that the practical ten-
dency of liturgical forms of prayer, has been a degene-
racy, either into the mechanical ritualism of unintelligent
forms, or into the symbolical ritualism of Sacramentari-
anlsm. It would be difficult to adduce a Church using an
imposed liturgy, the devotional service of which has been
kept simple and fervent. That both these forms of evil
have been largely wrought In the English Establishment
it would be Impossible to deny ; the painful monotony of
parrot-like dialogues between parson and clerk is one of
the most indelible memories of thousands driven by it to
better things ; and the developments of modern Sacra-
mentarian symbolism, such as even Laud would never
have ventured upon, have been the one prominent scandal
of the Protestant Establishment for the last few years.
Almost from the compilation of the first prayer-book of
Edward VI., in 1548, the Puritans entertained the
strongest repugnance to much contained in it ; and this
feeling, the ever-developing Sacramentarlanism and
ritual formalism of the Church confined. Nor is it other-
wise in our own day. Even where the truest devotion
exists, the enervating effect of constant reliance upon
liturgical forms is evident. Who ever hears a clergyman
offer opening prayer at a public meeting, who can eman-
GG 2
452 The Worship
cipate himself from the inevitable " Prevent us, O Lord,
by Thy goodness/' with the Lord's Prayer appended
to it ? Those, however, who would see to what extent
both forms of degeneracy together can attain, have only
to recal the services of the Romish Church in Italy or
Spain, — these, however, far exceeded by the unintelli-
gent volubility, and appalling irreverence of the services
of the Greek Church in the East* As with ideal
theories of establishment, so with ideal theories of litur-
gical prayer, the actual realization hitherto has so uni-
formly disappointed expectation, that by Free Churches
the theory itself has been discredited ; and the conclusion
reached, perhaps somewhat prematurely, that they are
per se inimical to the purity and fervour of Church wor-
ship.
Another reason may be, that the natural instincts of
Free Church life are opposed to all restrictions that are
not absolutely necessary for good order and edification; and
find therefore their most satisfactory embodiment in unpre-
scribed prayer, with its ever fresh inspirations, its sense
of reality, and its flexible adaptations to ever-changing
circumstances. In spite of defects in literary form, and
even of occasional infelicities of thouofhtand feelinor which
may somewhat impair devotional delicacy and conven-
tional reverence, such prayer is felt to be a more natural,
immediate, and earnest pleading of spiritual necessity.
As in all things, it is, doubtless, a balance of advantages,
but the Free Churches of Britain have hitherto preferred
freedom and freshness of devotional expression, with all
* The writer was present at one of the Sunday services of the Greek Church in the Con-
vent of St. Catherine, Mount Sinai. Not even the pretence of reverence was maintained,
some twenty priests gabbled through the service with the utmost possible rapidity. Many of
them were engaged in sundry duties, from which, like actors going on the stage to perform
their part, they would rush to their places to utter the prescribed responses, ready, the moment
the words had passed their lips tor conversation, or to show the pictures of the church. The
endless reperition of the Kyrie Eieison, had it not been such a mockery, would have been
a mechanical marvel, so rapid was its articulation. And yet what wonder, when the old
and prolix Greek Liturgy used has to be repeated eight times in every twenty-four hours.
Of tlie Church. 453
its accidental disadvantages, to the more calculated pro-
priety and authoritative limitation of prescribed forms,
with the sense of mere formal, if not more restrained
spiritual life, which is their inevitable accompaniment.
But, perhaps, the chief cause of the repudiation of all
liturgies by the Free Churches of Britain has been the
coercive uniformity attempted by the Established Church,
and its hard intolerance of either preference or conscience,
in those who could not receive the Romish elements of
the Book of Common Prayer. Only those familiar with
the history can conceive how scornfully and wantonly
the sllghest concessions, whereby comprehension might
have been secured, were again and again refused. The
earlier Nonconformists would have made any sacrifices,
short of compromising conscience, for reunion with the
Established Church. Once or twice in their history it
seemed on the point of accomplishment, but with an in-
fatuation that is inexplicable, save on the supposition of
the old Greek proverb,
"Orav he Aalfioiv avhpl iropavvrj KaKa,.
Tov yovv e^a-yjre irpwrov.
concession only incited contemptuous demand. Con-
cerning both the Convocation , and the Parliament of
1662, Cardwell affirms that, " Instead of any wish to
admit Nonconformists to public power or privilege with-
in the Church, there was a distinct and settled desire to
restrain and exclude them." *
The truculent reply of Sheldon to Dr. Allen is well
known. '' Pity," said Allen, '' you have made the door
so strait." '* Not at all," replied Sheldon ; " had we sup-
posed that so many would have conformed, we would
have made it straiten" It was a well-known determina-
tion and saying on the Episcopal side, *' We'll make them
knaves if they conform." Baxter was always in favour
* Conferences, pp. 387, 388.
454 T^he Worship
of a national State Church.* Calamy would gladly have
conformed;! so he tells us would probably two-thirds of the
Dissenters of his day.| Howe, Bates, and others pleaded
for reasonable comprehension ; but the Episcopal autho-
rities were as supercilious as they were uncompromising.
South preached at Oxford against comprehension one of
his most virulent sermons, comparing the admission of
Dissenters to " permitting a thief to come into the house to
avoid the noise and trouble of his knocking at the door."
(Ser. xxxiv.) The last opportunity for comprehension
was lost, and England and the Church were spared from
what would probably have been a great damage and
disaster to their noblest life and liberties.
It requires but little knowledge of human nature to
understand how this stubborn intolerance of itself sufficed
to provoke the sturdy spirit of independence, and resis-
tance to tyranny, which has ever been so characteristic of
Englishmen generally, and of English Nonconformists
in particular. Even in things indifferent they would
hardly have submitted under such conditions. With
their conscientious objections to the Book of Common
Prayer, submission was impossible ; and they summarily
rejected altogether, what under less inflexible and arrogant
conditions they probably would have consented to use.
The moral which, come when it may, the deposition of
the Episcopal Church as a National Establishment will
point is, that exaggerated assumption always thus de-
feats its own ends. Men will freely concede even serious
things, if considerately asked, when they will refuse to
surrender even the fringe of their phylactery if it be
imperiously demanded. The most fatal blunder that
absolute authority can make is, so to proscribe, as to
make the maintenance of what is proscribed a matter of
either conscience or liberty.
* Baxter's National Churches. f Own Life, vol. i p. 207, % Calamy's Baxter, p. 655.
Of the Church, 455
Then, again, no mere forms, however ample or excellent,
can ever suffice for the expression of all the experiences
and necessities of men's spiritual life. Churches of spiri-
tual men, full of living fervour, and having urgent and
changing necessities, will crave fitting and flexible ex-
pression for them. Every minister, moreover, will bring
to the conduct of public worship some more predominant
mood or feeling, either the inspiration of his own spiritual
experience, the suggestion of the sermon he has prepared,
or of the Scripture that he has read ; the burden of special
circumstances of the week, the subtle influence and bias
of the assembly before him, or the inspiration and touch
of the Holy Spirit. His supreme power as leader of the
devotions of the people depends, not upon the fervour
that he can throw Into precomposed forms, nor upon the
common prayer to which he gives expression ; It depends
upon his own special inspiration of thought and feeling.
Thus inspired, he pours out before God his very inmost
soul, and in so doing he touches the devotional heart of
the people much more deeply, and carries them with him
to God far more fervently and effectively, than would be
possible by any mere reading of a liturgy. Both In
preaching and In prayer, such touches of the Holy Spirit
of God, such inspirations of special fervours, and not his
ordinary moods, are the real power of a minister. To
put upon all this an absolute interdict, to drive back the
yearning, struggling feelings of the leader of Congrega-
tional devotions, compelling them to clothe themselves in
words that have no special appropriateness, or that express
a feeling altogether different, Is to restrain or disallow all
inspiration of God's Spirit, and to deny to the man the
very primary conditions of efficiency. What can more
inevitably doom him to mediocrity and formalism ? What-
ever special fervours may fill him ; whatever circumstances
of the times, or necessities of the congregation may urge
45^ The Worship
him, he must Imprison his feeHngs and desires in the calm,
stately, generalized, and inflexible words of three centuries
ago. Just in proportion as Churches and ministers realize
devout fervours of spiritual life, and the Divine signi-
ficance of common experiences, they will be impatient of
general expression and exclusive restriction. It is the
necesssity of strong, fervent, broad religious life, that it
should be able to give utterance to special moods, expe-
riences, and circumstances, which no forms can possibly
anticipate or particularize. What can be more unnatural,
or unreal, than the imposition of one general form of
devotion upon men of all generations, and of all varieties
of character and experience.
Public prayer, moreover, is designed to excite devo-
tional feeling, as well as to express it. As words are
uttered, the spiritual desires of devout men are enkindled
and enlarged, so as to fill out their meaning. No pre-
meditation of familiar forms, for the sake of preparing
feeling, can accomplish this; it needs the excitement of the
worshipping act. The ideal of prayer is higher than any
actual expressions of it, and the Inspiration of forms is
feeble compared with that of fresh, living, struggling
thoughts and words. On the other hand, many who use
liturgies in public worship, and who cannot for a moment
be suspected of inferior devotional life and fervour,
are almost inordinately attached to them. The Roman
Catholic Church has nurtured some of the devoutest
men that the world has seen. We can only, therefore,
speak of the general tendencies of systems, freely admit-
ting the force and value of exceptional instances. It is
notorious, that in the Episcopal Church some of the most
ingenuous and devout of Its members, weary of the mo-
notonous reiteration of the Liturgy, lose the apprehensive
sense of its meanings, and causelessly upbraid themselves
for defective devotional feeling ; the feet of the soul In-
Of the Church. 457
continently slide over the smooth stiface of the well-worn
words. On the other hand, we have frequent complaints
of the tediousness, and common place, and lack of variety
in free prayer. Is it possible in any Church to realize
the ideal of worshipping men ? Is it not as inevitable as
it is salutary that men should always be desiring some-
thing better then they have ? It is, however, only proper
to observe, that the desire for liturgical services in Free
Churches is not often expressed by the people. Whatever
the wishes of individuals here and there, there can be no
doubt that public sentiment, as a whole, is strongly
opposed to liturgical forms, and very greatly prefers free
prayer, with all its admitted drawbacks. It is by ministers
that the craving for help in devotional services is more
commonly felt. It is natural that the burden of the
people's prayers, which the minister carries to God, should
be felt by him to be heavier than even the burden of
God's message to the people. If the minister be a man
of elevated and tender spiritual feeling, this must be the
case ; if he be not, no doubt the tendency of free
prayer is to become cold, formal, and monotonous. A
minister has not merely to embody, in an address to
the Almighty, his own thoughts and feelings ; through
them, and through his varied knowledge of human
character and experience, he has to embody in an address
to the Almighty the thoughts and feelings of others ;
to' enter, as it were, the confessional of their souls,
and express for them to God their various wants and
moods ; and if, either through lack of spiritual fervour,
or of sympathetic imagination, he fail to do this, as
sometimes even the most efficient will fail, the conduct
of public prayer will be to him an intolerable burden.
But this is the responsibility laid upon him, and he
may no more evade it by liturgical prayers than he
may, by reading homilies, evade the analogous respon-
45 8 The Worship
sibillty of preaching. Woe be to us if we seek to
relieve responsibility by lowering its standard. With
a true and earnest man, the very agony and struggle
will be more efficient in preparing him for his work
than the most fluent eloquence.
Both methods of conducting public worship have char-
acteristic excellencies and characteristic defects, and un-
der differing circumstances would produce very different
results. The perils of a partial use of forms are, first,
that the least spiritual and earnest would be the most
tempted to shelter their inadequacy under them, and to
substitute them inordinately for free prayer, instead of
being incited to greater effort. Where, in ministers or in
Churches, spiritual life runs lowest, liturgies proffer the
best expedients, and as a matter of fact are most com-
monly resorted to ; while the disposition to use them
generally diminishes in proportion as spiritual life and
intelligence grow. And, next, the natural tendency in
using in the same service two such different and almost
incompatible tongues, would be to provoke unconscious
and invidious comparison, to foster a painful feeling of
incongruity, and thus gradually for the one to supersede
the other.
The advantage of partial forms is, that those who the
most religiously and painfully seek to lead their congre-
gations to the Divine mercy-seat, would be relieved, if
such relief be desirable, were they able to diminish the
five or six prayers of the two Sunday services by such
short liturgical forms, as with propriety, fulness, and
chastened reverence would express the common thanks-
givings and desires of all worshipping men. No doubt
the most perfect of all public prayer is, when gifted and
devout men in their highest moods of devotional inspira-
tion pour out their souls to God ; perhaps the most
perfect preaching is, the extemporized eloquence of in-
Of the Church. 459
spired moments ; neither Is a reason for neglecting, to
say the least, most careful preparation.
The combination of both methods in the way we have
suggested has never yet been fairly tried ; but on all
hands it would be conceded that for such special services
as marriages and funerals, when an accidental discom-
posure or incongruity, such as even the most self-pos-
sessed and able are liable to, might turn a serious service
into burlesque, or painfully jar upon the sensitive heart
of sorrow, prepared forms are, to say the least, most
desirable.
There is nothlncr in the constitution or traditions of
Congregational Churches, or in the feeling of the com-
munity generally, to hinder any individual Church dis-
posed to do so from trying the experiment, or to prejudice
it in public esteem if it do so. As a simple matter of
fact, the Churches that do use liturgies may be counted
upon the fingers, and almost uniformly the suggestion of
their use is summarily rejected. The Churches of the
Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion, and those of the
Wesleyans, which originally used the Liturgy of the Epis-
copal Church, have very generally discontinued it. The
question, however, is one of pure expediency, which each
Church should be left to determine for itself In the
varieties of Christian life and culture to be found in the
Church of the living God throughout the world, that
may be the best for one congregation, which Is far from
being the best for another. Why should all congregations
worship alike ? In the noble franchise of true spiritual
life, it is sufficient that each be fully persuaded in its own
mind, and offer to God its sacrifice of praise with such
words, and in such forms, as may the best express and
excite its own devout feeling. That it is desirable to
realize the maximum of Common Prayer in every con-
gregation, Is the axiom from which both parties will start ;
460 The Worship
but it does not follow that the best means of securing
this is the consentaneous utterance of liturgical words ;
with both reason and plausibility it might be maintained
that the monotonous use of familiar words has a tendency
to act upon devotional feeling as a sedative rather than
as a stimulant, and that its best incitement is the fresh
utterance of the petitions and sentiments of free prayer.
Assuredly the recitation of a congregation has no value
in itself The question therefore remains, which of these
methods of public prayer, looking at worship in its
broadest and most spiritual aspects and results, is most
conducive to that which is the essence and only worth of
all worship, the excitement and expression of the wor-
shipping heart of the congregation.
In this Essay, only general principles have been dis-
cussed, the historic development and religious vicissitudes
of Church-worship have not been entered upon ; nor has
the attempt been made to supply any directory of worship,
by the specification of particular rubrics of Congrega-
tional song and prayer, — such as the characteristics of
hymn and music, and Congregational habit which are
essential to effective Church song ; or the methods of
ministerial preparation, the devotional arrangements,
and the Congregational habit which are most con-
ducive to effective public prayer. The topics included
under these particulars are manifold, and their dis-
cussion would involve far more space than could be
accorded to them in this volume. But general principles,
if intelligently apprehended, and conscientiously applied,
will suffice to suggest all of rubrical direction that it may
be desirable to insist upon.
We have spoken, moreover, only of methods and ex-
pedients of worship, and of the ministry of these to the
devout soul. We have assumed the fundamental essen-
tial of all worship, — the devout soul itself, the heart that
Of the Church. 461
thirsts for the living God. No forms of worship however
beautiful and reverent, no emotions however fervid or
sentimental that hymn or symbol, liturgy or devotional
eloquence can inspire, have any power to create this, or
in any way to furnish a substitute for it. The spiritual
man is born of God, and worship is but the devotional
act of his spiritual life. It therefore pre-supposes the life,
— the life that craves communion with God, and that
only communion with God can sustain. Forms and
attitudes of life are of little importance compared with
life itself. Our only solicitude concerning them, there-
fore, is that they give the freest expression to the mani-
fold forces of life, and re-act upon these so as to develop
them to the utmost. If the life be fervent and devout,
no forms can be to it of other than subordinate impor-
tance. And such are the varieties of life, that devo-
tional feeling has found its highest expression and
nurture in forms the most contrasted, — in the mute
waiting before God of the Quaker, in the harsh dis-
cords of the ascetic Puritan, in the noisy turbulence
of the Revivalist, in the restrained stateliness of the
English Episcopalian, and in the effeminate and gor-
geous symbolism of the Sacramentarian or Romanist.
Failing to recognize Divine prescription in forms or
modes of worship, we must regard them as matters
of pure expediency to be determined upon general prin-
ciples of human nature, spiritual life, and social cir-
cumstance. We must, therefore, concede to every
Church the most absolute right to determine its own
forms of worship, subject only to those general criti-
cisms which are applicable to all human thoughts and
things. History can guide us, not by authoritative
precedent, only by illustrating tendencies and recording
results. We may argue against systems in the light
of general principles, but clearly no man has any
462 The Worship of the Church.
right to make his preferences or expediencies the law
of another man's conscience. For both individuals
and Churches there is but one valid law, viz., — that
so far as is practicable, each shall embody its worship
in such modes and forms as are the best adapted to
its own life. Of worship itself there is but one great
use and end, — that it bring a brotherhood of men to
the feet and heart of the great Father in heaven- —
there to speak to the eager sympathy of His love, all
their adoration, and all their desire.
THE CONGREGATIONALISM
THE FUTURE.
REV. J. GUINNESS ROGERS, B.A. Lond.
THE CONGREGATIONALISM
THE FUTURE.
That the Congregationalism of the future will, in many-
important respects, differ from that of the past is a pre-
diction which may be very safely ventured. There is a
spirit abroad which will affect, more or less, all our eccle-
siastical systems, and it is not to be expected, nor indeed
desired, that Congregationalism alone should remain un-
changed. It has been to so large an extent a teacher
of others, that it may well be content to become a
learner in its turn. Of all systems it has the least
sympathy with a Conservatism, which resists all at-
tempts at progress, and forgetful of the wants of the
living present, slavishly abides by the traditions of the
past. It boasts of its freedom, it owns no deference
to authority however venerable, it recognizes in the
fullest manner the rights of the individual conscience,
and unless its professions be mere words, and its
practice out of harmony with its theory, it must be pre-
pared to enlarge and modify many of its views, as the
growth of opinion or the difference of circumstances may
require. Without the compromise of any essential prin-
H H
466 The Congregationalism
ciple, great changes may be made in its modes of action,
and no discredit is cast on the work of former generations
when it is said that such changes must be made if it is
to exercise its proper influence on the future rehgious
life of the nation.
Its history, moreover, prepares us to expect that it
may have some features attributable to the pecuHar
circumstances by which its character has been shaped,
which may require adaptation to an altered state of
things. It has hitherto been viewed as the religion of
a sect, and a sect placed at great social disadvantage,
lying outside the national life, shut out from the na-
tional seats of learning, and thus deprived by the
action of the legislature of a most precious part of the
inheritance of Englishmen. A writer in a recent num-
ber of the " Contemporary Review," with a remarkable
want of generosity, and with an arrogance which is the
fault rather of the system than of the man, says : " The fact
clearly is, that Dissenters chose to separate themselves
from the general current of the national life, and thus im-
bibed what Mr. Matthew Arnold would call a provincial
tone, which caused a mutual repugnance between them
and those who represented a higher culture. We do not
deny that this repugnance may have been heightened by
a flavour of ecclesiastical intolerance, nor again, that the
provinciality of Dissenters was increased by their ex-
clusion from the national universities." Mr. Matthew
Arnold has much to answer for, for having forged a class
of weapons which are likely to embitter controversies,
without contributing at all to their settlement. To tell
a man that he has a provincial tone or is a religious
Philistine, proves nothing except the self-complacency
of the speaker, but it is very likely to foster an irritating
self-conceit on the one side, and to provoke a natura
resentment on the other, in the last degree unfavourable to
Of the Future. 764
the dispassionate consideration of any argument advanced
by either. Here, however, the gravamen of the offence is,
that Dissenters are taunted with the consequences of a po-
sition which was forced upon them by the very party from
whom the taunts come. There is a singular obKvion of
history In the assertion that *' Dissenters chose to separate
themselves from the general current of the national life."
No doubt they chose to accept all the social, intellectual
and political consequences of Nonconformity, rather than
subscribe to a creed they did not believe ; but to represent
the position into which they were thus forced by unjust
laws, as the result of their determination to separate them-
selves from the rest of the nation, is to aggravate the
original injury. The isolation to which they doomed them-
selves was the penalty of fidelity to conscience, and they
were content to accept It rather than be unfaithful. If they
imbibed a provincial tone, it is hardly wonderful when we
consider that for a long time they were banished from all
the scenes of national life and activity, that they were not
permitted to sit in Parliament, that even the poor honour
of aiding In the government of the towns In which they
lived was denied, that, as far as law could do It, they were
denationalized, and that, even now, though these political
disabilities have been removed, they are still deprived of
those rewards of high culture which, in many cases, they
have shown themselves quite able to win. So far from
their having been indifferent to culture, they have done
much to make up for the loss of those educational advan-
tages to which they were entitled as citizens, and if social
barriers had not separated men of the "highest culture"
from them, it might have been found that their deficien-
cies, except in those minute points of scholarship, which
only academic training can supply, were not so great as
they appeared when viewed from those lofty heights which
their critics assume to occupy. That in some points they
H H 2
468 The Congregationalism
have been rigid, narrow and exclusive, may be true ; but if
the charge were a great deal truer than it is, the fact that
it is urged by the upholders of the Establishment, only
furnishes a fresh illustration of the old fable of the wolf
and the lamb.
The last thirty years have witnessed a marked change.
The concession of political rights has been followed by
a change in social, and to some extent even in eccle-
siastical relations. A party within the Established
Church, influential rather because of their high character
and ability than of their numbers, have sought to break
down the walls of separation which the bigotry and
passion of former times had raised, and to welcome
Dissenters as members of the great Christian common-
wealth, having equal rights and privileges with them-
selves. All these things have wrought a different
feeling in the minds of Dissenters. But they are of a
date too recent, and are as yet confined to too limited a
circle, to have exercised their full influence upon the spirit
and views of the general body of Nonconformists, who
are still largely under the influence of feelings produced
by the treatment which they have received for centuries
at the hands of the dominant party, which in many districts
they receive to this day, and which has created an aliena-
tion between Churchmen and Dissenters that has been in-
jurious to both. Unfortunately, — and quite as much so
for the party that prides itself upon its aristocratic sup-
porters as for its opponents, — the forces of fashion and
rank have all been arrayed on the side of the former, and
the latter have had to bear an amount of social indignity
and contempt which, if not more trying, has certainly been
more irritating than actual persecution. Practically, the
intercourse between the two parties has been of the most
restricted character. Individual friendships there have
been, but there has been none of that general intercourse
Of the Ftiture, 469
which would have enabled each to understand better and
to respect more thoroughly the motives and principles of
the other. Multitudes of Churchmen believe that in
" Salem Chapel " they have a faithful portraiture of the
majority of Dissenting Churches ; that the members of
those Churches are a set of vulgar buttermen and grocers,
who find in the chapel a fitting theatre for the display of
their insolence and ignorance ; that their ministers are like
those who choose them ; and that if a man of refinement
and culture should by any chance be found in their pulpits,
his life is soon made miserable by the insufferable pre-
sumption of the petty tyrants at whose pleasure he
holds his position.
*' The country parson " (we are told by the " Pall Mall
Gazette," an authority which will not be suspected of
Nonconformist leanings) '' regards the Dissenter as the
squire regards the poacher, as a kind of unreasonable
and almost unnatural phenomenon. But everywhere to
belong to a Dissenting body is to be marked with a
badge of social inferiority." In Church circles, we learn
from the same source, " the present ideal of a Dissenting
minister, which is often far enough from the reality, is
that of an unctuous Stiggins, in a limp white tie, quite
unfit for social intercourse with gentlemen, and with an
intellect only cultivated enough to frighten a cheating
shopkeeper with vivid descriptions of hell fire." An
impartial judge would possibly say that there is as much
of a provincial tone on the part of those by whom such
ideas are entertained, as is to be found even in the
bigotries of uncultivated dissent, but there can be as
little doubt that the witness is true, as that the result
of such a state of feeling has been to intensify the
sectarianism of both parties. Arrogance has begotten a
resentment, which has sought to make the line of demar-
cation as wide as possible. As the noble leaders of the
470 The Coiigregationalism
Dutch Revolution gloried in the name of " Gueux," so
Dissenters have learned to pride themselves on the
dissidence of their Dissent, and to glory in the possession
of a name which certainly has not a very pleasant sound,
and does not indicate the position which a man of catholic
spirit would desire to occupy. They have on their own
side hardly been more liberal than their opponents. The
story of the man who said that he had been a Methodist,
an Independent, and a Baptist, but had at length resolved
to give up all religion and go to the Church of England,
is, it is to be feared, a faithful reflection of the ideas
which prevail among a class, rapidly diminishing, in-
deed, but still too numerous. Even among those of
better culture and more Christian spirit, we may often
find an ignorance of their neighbours almost as great as
their neighbours' ignorance of them, and a consequent ina-
bility to appreciate the high qualities which are nurtured
bythe influence of a system different from their own.
The existence of an Established Church has been the
main cause of this state of feeling. " Dissent " (to quote
the '' Pall Mall Gazette " again) '' is, it may be, a bad
thing, but the great argument against an Establishment
is, that without it there would be no Dissent." The in-
tensity of Dissenting feeling will be determined to a
large extent by the character of the Establishment, but
the mere fact of its existence creates a sense of injustice
in. the minds of those whom conscience keeps outside its
pale, and that feeling is necessarily intensified where the
sin of Dissent is visited with the penalty of social
ostracism. Men who are treated as pariahs are not
very likely to bear their grievance meekly, or be very
ready to renounce their own peculiarities in order to
conciliate those at whose hands they suffer this wrong.
The feeling has been diminished with each successive
advance that has been made in the direction of equality,
Of the Future, 471
and It is therefore reasonable to expect that when the
work is complete, and the connection between the Church
and the State entirely dissolved, it will gradually give
place to a more Christian sentiment.
Much as the last thirty years have effected in the way
of improving the relations between different parties, far
more is to be hoped from the coming twenty. The settle-
ment of political questions, In which Dissenters are imme-
diately concerned, must have the effect of breaking down
some of the strono-est barriers to mutual Intercourse. If
ecclesiastical controversy were removed altogether from
the political arena, as will be the case when perfect religious
equality Is established, — and every year Is doing something
to bring us to this point, — there would be no reason why
Churchman and Tory, Dissenter, and Liberal should be
almost Interchangeable terms. Where there is no Estab-
lished Church there will, of course, be no Dissenters.
Episcopalians and Congregatlonallsts will be arrayed in
political parties, altogether irrespective of their ecclesias-
tical relations. Religious differences will not be compli-
cated and embittered by an unnatural connection with
political strife, and a better understanding will prevail
between Christian communities, whose rivalry need no
longer have In It anything of hostility.
In this altered state of things, Congregationalism will
have a new problem to solve. The immediate social
effect of disestablishment, whenever It may come, may
possibly not be very great ; but In changing the status
of Congregationalism, It Is likely to effect an alteration In
the conditions of Its existence. It has hitherto derived
a certain power even from Its antagonistic, or as Its ene-
mies would say, sectarian position, and it has grown despite
its defects and the bitter opposition It has had to meet,
In virtue partly of Its identification with the cause of po-
litical progress and liberty, and partly because of the
472 The Congregationalism
chivalrous loyalty with which many have clung to an un-
fashionable and despised system. But when it has no
longer this kind of sentiment to which to appeal, will it
be able, in an era when mere sectarianism is at a discount,
and it will have to rely on its merits, not on its traditions,
to rise to the dignity of the occasion, and to reveal so
much of a true catholic spirit as will enable it to retain
and even to improve its position ?
The observant mind must discover many indications
on every side of the tendency of ecclesiastical parties
towards Congregationalism — many proofs that it affords
the only true solution of the difficulties under which vari-
ous Churches are suffering. It is, in truth, a spiritual
democracy, and the spirit of the age is intensely demo-
cratic in Church as well as in State. We find continually
Episcopalians who are proud of their hierarchy, of its
antiquity, its social position, its great influence in the
nation, and, perhaps of individual men belonging to it,
who, nevertheless, talk as lightly of the authority of
bishops as the most extreme Independent. They like
the prestige which belongs to Episcopacy, and feel as
though, to some extent, it belonged to themselves ; they
are strongly attached to the Liturgy, which they regard
as the inseparable accompaniment of Episcopalianism ;
but in their desire for freedom of action, in their chafing
against all restraint, in their determination to have a
larger share in the management of their own affairs, they
are continually talking Congregationalism, though in
blissful unconsciousness of the fact. Church Congresses
are hardly less democratic, so far as religious work is
concerned, than Congregational Unions, and the most
popular speakers in them are, for the most part, those
who boldly assail authority and insist on the recognition
of the rights of the laity. There is less of this tendency
apparent in Churches which, like the Presbyterian in
Of the Ftiture. 473
Scotland, and the Methodist in our own country, form
great organizations, possessed not only of the semblance
but of the reality of power ; but those familiar with their
internal controversies are fully conscious of the difficulties
that constantly arise when the central authority comes
into collision with local feelings, of the slight deference
which is then shown to names and institutions which
would once have been all-powerful, and of the in-
tense cravings for popular self-government which un-
expectedly reveal themselves. Philosophic observers
outside all Churches recognize the strength of the in-
fluences which are thus at work, and prophesy that
Congregationalism must be the prevalent Church system
of the future with a confidence which many even of its
most attached adherents, — unable to comprehend fully the
extent to which it is leavening society outside its own
circle, — would hesitate to express. There are many who
feel that it supplies the only effectual defence against
hierarchical assumption. They shrink from the idea of
becoming Congregationalists, because of their repugnance
to much in the present working of their system, of which
they have got most erroneous and exaggerated conceptions,
derived either from their own very imperfect observation,
or from the representations of others who have looked
at it entirely from the outside, or, worst of all, from those
who, for various reasons, have forsaken its ranks, and
who judge of it from an experience, whose lessons have
been coloured by feelings of bitter personal disappoint-
ment ; but they have, nevertheless, considerable sym -
pathy with its distinctive principles, and are inclining to
a closer association with it. Some of their objections
would doubtless be removed by a more accurate know-
ledge, but there are others which could only be met by
certain changes in our practice ; and one of the most
important questions for the future is, — Are Congrega-
474 The Congregationalism
tional Churches prepared so to modify their miDdes of
action as to take advantage of the sentiment In favour of
their system which appears to be dally gaining ground ?
That there are defects In the present modes of work-
ing, the most earnest champion of things as they are
will hardly be prepared to deny. Indeed, the tendency
amongst Congregatlonallsts Is rather to exaggerate than
to diminish or conceal them. The spirit of freedom,
which is the very life of their Churches, naturally dis-
poses to keen and sometimes even severe criticism of the
faults supposed to exist amongst them- They too have
shared largely In the tendency to movement, which Is the
characteristic of the age, and which disposes many to
believe that, In the experience of other Churches, they
may find the wisdom which will help them to correct the
evils of which they are painfully conscious In their own.
They have absorbed into themselves seceders from other
communities, on whom, of course, the Influence of their
traditions exercises but little power, who perhaps have
accepted their principles without being at all committed
to their special applications, and who are desirous of
introducing among them some of the Ideas and practices
which have been found useful In the Churches which they
have left. It has been a matter of complaint with some
that the recent meetings of the Congregational Union
have been marked by a spirit so revolutionary, that It
seemed to proceed on the Idea that there Is nothing in
our principles and Institutions which can be regarded as
definitely settled, but that everything is In a state of
fusion, waiting to be cast Into any new shape which men
with Presbyterian or Methodist or Plymouth Brethren
proclivities may desire to give it. Certainly some of the
severest censures which have been passed on Congrega-
tionalism have been heard in Its own assemblies, and have
come from some of Its most zealous friends. If there is
Of the Future, 475
a proved necessity for reform, it will not have to encounter
the opposition of a determined Conservatism on the part
of the leaders, prepared, in defiance of all evidence to the
contrary, to maintain that whatever is, is right. The
danger lies rather in the disposition to impute to the system
evils which arise out of the imperfections of the men by
whom it is worked, and to suppose that it is possible to
effect, by a mere improvement in machinery, that which can
be accomplished only by a radical change in human nature.
We know the ills we have, and sometimes are inclined
to think them greater than they really are, forgetful of
the fact that they exist under a different form, in the very
systems, the adoption of whose plans, it is supposed,
might secure to us an immunity from them. We have
no desire to meet the charges sometimes made against
Congregationalism by retorted accusations against its
accusers ; and if there be any cure for admitted errors,
we should be most ready to accept it ; but it is necessary
to guard against the idea that absolute perfection can be
attained In any system, and to be careful lest the means
\employed for the repression of proved abuses should
introduce others of a different and not less serious
character, and at the same time take away valuable
elements of great strength which we at present possess.
One of the first points to which Congregationallsts
have to look Is, undoubtedly, the cultivation of a more
catholic spirit, by which Is meant not merely that uni-
versal charity which would prompt them to honour the
conscientious differences of men from whom they are
most widely separated, and to seek a thorough and hearty
co-operation with all, but also a disposition to bring
themselves, as far as may be practicable In consistency with
their principles. Into harmony with the majority of the
Christian world. The very idea of Catholicity has been
brought Into contempt by men who are for ever Insisting
476 The Congregationalism
upon proper deference to Catholic tradition, and attempt-
ing to introduce all sorts of innovations into the Angli-
can doctrine and ritual on the plea that it is Catholic.
Their endeavour to overbear individual judgment, and
to interfere with the complete supremacy of Scripture
by appeals to Catholic antiquity, has tended to strengthen
the sentiment of antagonism and of isolation already
sufficiently powerful and mischievous. But this miserable
travesty of the name and the idea must not lead us to
despise Catholicity itself, or to think it a small thing that
we should be separated, often by small peculiarities, from
other Christian communities.
There are, unfortunately, numbers of Dissenters who
are anything but catholic — who are, on the contrary,
intensely sectarian, especially in their feeling towards the
Established Church, who are so far from regretting the
divisions of Christian brethren, that they are more dis-
posed to exaggerate and to widen them, than to soften,
and, if possible, heal them, who would strenuously resist
every attempt to modify peculiarities in their own system,
and regard a proposal to adopt any of the usages of the
Established Church as a sign of disloyalty to Noncon-
formist principles. The absurd extent to which this is
carried in some quarters would be almost incredible did we
not know how soon very small matters become symbolic
of party distinctions, and what supreme importance is
attached by the antagonistic parties in the Anglican
Church itself, to things that really have no significance,
except such as is derived from their association with a
particular class of opinions. Thus the question of Gre-
gorian music would seem, at first sight, one that ought
to be and might be decided on purely aesthetic grounds.
That Popish doctrine should lurk in the cadence of a
particular style of chant, is a mystery which the un-
initiated fail to penetrate, but as it is at present, the
Of the Future. 477
sweet but somewhat monotonous strains of Gregorian
music in a church may be accepted as an infallible evidence
of its '' high " tendencies. Seldom, if ever, has any re-
ligious party exhibited a hatred of every practice that
may have found favour in the eyes of its adversaries
which approached more closely to absolute fanaticism
than that which the Evangelicals have shown in relation
to Ritualistic novelties. However innocent the proposed
change might seem in itself, — however agreeable to the
law of their own Church, — however calculated even to
correct some acknowledged abuse, the mere fact that it
was an innovation suggested by Tractarians was suffi-
cient to cause its indignant rejection. Nor are the
Evangelicals alone in this ; the High Churchmen and
Broad Churchmen have their own pet fancies and pet
aversions, and all cling to their special party-badges
and symbols without much regard to Catholic unity.
We can scarcely be surprised, then, that Nonconformists
should jealously guard their traditional practices, and
be unwilling to accept anything which appears like an
act of submission to a Church from which they have dis-
sented. It may be true that their fathers had reason
for a disuse of some particular practice which no longer
exists. It may possibly be that they have themselves
departed from the course of their fathers, who were
more in harmony with the Church than with them on
the point. Or it may be that, though some custom of
their own which they are asked to give up has been con-
secrated by the sanction of antiquity, and is in harmony
with all the traditions of Dissenters, It really has no valid
reason to urge on Its behalf. But not the less are many
prepared to resist to the last any change which looks
like a concession made to the Anglican Church. Every-
one who Is acquainted with the Inner life of Dissenting
Churches must know innumerable cases in which every
47^ The Congregationalism
argument in favour of change is supposed to be con-
clusively met by the assertion, that to adopt it would be to
become more like the Established Church. The response
of a congregation at the close of a prayer by an audi-
ble " Amen," the repetition of the Lord's Prayer by the
people after the minister, the singing of the *'Te Deum" or
the " Gloria," would seem to be as innocent and unobjec-
tionable practices as can easily be conceived, yet there are
multitudes who decline even to discuss the question of
their expediency, and resist their introductions as inno-
vations which would be fatal to the consistency and
purity of their Church, for no better reason than that they
I are in use in the Established Church. There have been
; several instances in which the peace of a Church has
(been seriously disturbed, in consequence of attempts to
; improve the character of the worship, by expedients so
simple as these. The opposition to the chanting of psalms
'and passages of Scripture is still more unintelligible from
the Nonconformist point of view. Dissenters have always
been distinguished by their reverence for God's Word, and
there seems, therefore, to be strange inconsistency in their
objection to use the inspired words in their songs of praise,
with the notion that by employing hymns they escape the
taint of Romanism or Anglicanism. Strange to say, on
the opposite side, an excessive use of hymns appears to
be becoming a sign of Ritualism, and we may expect to
see the Evangelicals regarding them with suspicion.
Looked at, abstractedly, however, the opposition to the
chanting of psalms on the ground of a principle is a
peculiarity of Dissenting life which can be traced to
nothing but strong antipathy to Anglican practices. It
has not a vestige of argument to allege in its favour, and
is at best a mere traditional prejudice which would soon
yield to the influence of a more truly catholic spirit.
There might, of course, still be Churches who would
Of the Future, 479
hesitate to adopt the practice In their own worship on
grounds of expediency, but theirs is an entirely different
position from that of those who object to chant the psalms,
not because it is difficult for a congregation to render them
effectively, but because it is disloyal to Dissenting princi-
ples to chant them at all — an objection which, it must
frankly be expressed, is nothing more than an expression
of sectarian narrowness.
We do not, of course, assert that one style of singing
is more catholic than another ; but we do insist that the
spirit which treats all these questions as mere points
between Churchmen and Dissenters, on which a loyal
Dissenter must abide by a foregone conclusion, is emi-
nently uncatholic and sectarian, and as such calculated to In-
jure the Interests of Christ's kingdom at large, and to inter-
fere with the efficient action of the particular community in
which it prevails. It is not necessary to contend that the
changes advocated are In all instances wise and expedient,
in order to show that the ground on which they are opposed
is wrong. The assumption on which the whole argument
rests Is, that there are a certain number of our fellow Chris-
tians (If indeed the tenor of the reasoning would not
deny them that character altogether) to whom we should
seek to be as unlike as possible, and, therefore, that if
there are any customs prevalent amongst them we are at
once absolved from the necessity of Inquiring whether
they are Scriptural in principle or have been shown to
be wise in their action, by the mere fact that they are
theirs, for that alone decides that they cannot and shall
not be ours. Such a spirit must be exorcised before Con-
gregationalism can ever fully develop its strength. The
absence of certain features to which they have been ac-
customed in the worship is itself sufficient to repel many
who might otherwise have been attracted by the freedom
and simplicity of the Congregational system ; but this is
480 The Congregationalism
a small point as compared with the reason for which these
features are excluded. They are in search of what is
free, generous, and catholic, and they are met by the
very exclusiveness from which they are trying to
escape.
Any community which aspires to be more than a sect
must cultivate a very different temper. Where there is
true catholicity, a man feels that it is his misfortune to be
compelled to differ from his brethren, and though this
will never induce him to abandon a single principle, it
will make him desirous to reduce these differences as far as
practicable both in number and in the prominence which is
assigned to them. Individuality it is undesirable to sink,
for that would be to abandon independence of judgment,
with all the advantages which have accrued from it ; but
such individuality need not be exaggerated nor introduced
into subjects on which there may fairly be concessions to
taste and even to old association, in order to secure
united action.
In the changes that have already been effected, we
have some warrant for the anticipation that increased catho-
licity may fairly be expected to be the result of religi-
ous equality. A certain class of Churchmen are fond of
pointing to the reforms that have been effected in the
architecture, in Church music, and in the modes of
worship amongst Dissenters, as proofs of an altered sen-
timent, and a growing tendency to the adoption of their
system ; but it would be more correct to quote them as
beneficial results of the altered social and political rela-
tions of the two classes. The two movements — the one
towards the assertion of political equality, and the other
towards a greater catholicity of view in relation to diver-
versities of ritual — have advanced /^r^/^^.yi"^^. In former
times when restrictions were numerous, and each of them
was maintained by the dominant party as essential to the
Of the Future. 481
preservation of its supremacy, there hardly could be any
relations but those of antagonism. Superiority on the
mere ground of ecclesiastical position was vehemently
asserted on the one side, and as vehemently resisted on
the other, and as the natural consequence there war, an
unwillingness on the part of the weaker party to appear
to confess this inferiority by adopting the ideas of their
opponents. With the removal of the cause It may
reasonably be anticipated that the effect will cease.
The influences of early association and conservative in-
stincts, which have their place even in those whose prin-
ciples might be expected to secure an exemption from
them, will be quite sufficient to prevent a perfectly
dispassionate consideration of any reform that may be
proposed ; but it may be hoped that the judgment will not
be further warped by so unworthy a sentiment as a mere
determination to maintain dissimilarity for its own sake.
The annihilation of such a feeling, and the awakening in
its stead of a desire to attain to as much of agreement
with other Christians as possible, would in itself work an
entire revolution in the tone of controversy and in the
general relations of opposing parties to each other, which
could not fail to be attended with the happiest effects.
The Ritualists, it must be confessed, have taught all
parties a lesson in this respect. They have claimed for
themselves a freedom that to an outsider seems scarcely
compatible with obedience to the laws of their own
Church, and in the exercise of it they have endeavoured
to graft upon their system plans which seemed to be
good and successful, and at the same time not incon-
sistent with their own catholic principles, in the practices
of other Churches. They have borrowed largely from
Methodism, as well as from Romanism ; and though
they have sometimes caricatured the usages they have
introduced, there has been no unwillingness to forsake
II
482 The Congregationalism
old paths, when they could find new ones which promised
to conduct them more rapidly and certainly to the goal
which they have in view. So little sympathy have they
with the stately dignity hitherto associated with High-
Churchism, that they have been roady to avail themselves
of any or every expedient which seemed likely to secure a
greater amount of popular sympathy and attention. They
have had recourse to the preached instead of the written
sermon. They have introduced considerable variety in the
style and form of service. They have studied the wants
of the people, and the means which other parties have
adopted in order to meet them ; and those who least ap-
prove of the ends they have been seeking are neverthe-
less bound to commend not only the zeal and industry
with which they have worked, but also the anxiety they
have shown to become all things to all men, that so they
might by all means gain some. Surely others may
profit by their example, and while retaining all that is
felt to be essential, cultivate that practical wisdom which
seeks to comprehend the circumstances and demands of
the age, and to provide for them accordingly. Congre-
gationalists should be the first to emancipate themselves
from a bondage to mere traditionalism, and show a true
Catholicity by gathering wisdom in every quarter, and
profiting by the experience of other Churches for the
mprovement of their own organization.
Looking more closely at the constitution and practices
of Congregationalism as It Is, with the view of ascertain-
ing whether any or what changes may be made to meet
the objections of those who admit that it has laid hold of
certain grand principles of Church polity, but are
staggered by present modes of administration, we are
necessarily led to consider its conditions of Church fel-
lowship, and the plans adopted for their enforcement.
Those who have been so trained in Nonconformist ideas
Of the Ftchive. 483
on Church membership, that they have almost come to re-
gard the details of its arrangements as of Divine appoint-
ment, have but very inadequate conceptions of the re-
vulsion of feeling produced in the minds of those who
have been educated amid other associations, when they
are first brought Into contact with the practices that till
recently obtained In all our Churches, and which even
now are to be found in the majority. To some the Idea
of an investigation into their private religious experience
by comparative strangers, in order that a report of the
results may be made to a meeting of the Church, Is so
distasteful and repellent that they at once turn away
from the community which requires It. They shrink
with a sensitiveness which it Is impossible not to respect
from laying bare their most sacred feelings, — those which
they would hardly confide even to their most intimate
friend, — to visitors with whom they have little or no ac-
quaintance, and whose want of tact In the prosecution
of their inquiries, may very possibly furnish little guaran-
tee that their judgment will be formed with wisdom
and discrimination. Others object to It on the ground
of principle as well as of feeling. They regard the
whole proceeding as essentially inquisitorial in its cha-
racter, and insist that as no man has a right to assume
such a position of authority in relation to another, so he
in his turn is not justified In sacrificing his Christian
liberty by allowing another to assume It to him. They
have no objection freely to converse on the subject of their
Christian profession with a minister or others, but they
demur to its being Insisted upon as a necessary con-
dition to Church fellowship. Holding that a profes-
sion of Christian faith spontaneously and intelligently
made should be accepted as genuine, unless there be
distinct evidence to the contrary, they regard Churches
tho require more than this as usurping a power whlcH
1 1 2
484 The Congregationalism
Christ has not committed to them, which has no war-
rant in the New Testament, and the exercise of which
is attended with serious practical evils. They urge,
further, that experience has proved that such attempts
to maintain the purity of the Church defeat their own
purpose, operating as barriers to prevent the entrance
of many whose lives would adorn a Christian profession,
and yet failing to exclude those against whom they
are specially directed. A third class go further still,
and deny the propriety of establishing any distinction at
all. Advocating the multitudinist theory which con-
sistently enough finds its place in a National Church,
they demand that the doors of the Church should be
thrown open to all who choose to enter, and that any
separation between believers and unbelievers should be
left to Him who knoweth the hearts and who alone
judgeth righteous judgments.
Can Congregationalism, with a due regard to its own
principles, properly make any changes in deference to
these views ? It bases its polity entirely on the New
Testament, and is of necessity bound to maintain every
principle which it finds inculcated there. What the first
Churches, guided and instructed by inspired Apostles,
were, it maintains that the Churches of our own day, in
all essential features, ought to be. Admitting that
diversity of circumstance affects details in arrangement,
it contends that it ought not to interfere with fundamental
principles, and that though Church-life must be influenced
by the same causes that affect society at large, the con-
stitution of the Church ought to retain in all ages those
characteristics which were given by its Founder and those
who acted under His immediate guidance. The simple
question to be considered, therefore, is whether it is
possible for Congregationalism to sacrifice any of its dis-
tinctive usages without compromising those Scriptural
Of the Future. 485
principles for which it has always contended, and on
which its vitality and strength depend.
To us it Is abundantly clear that the first Churches
were composed of men who had been taught to trust In
Christ as their Saviour, to accept Him as their Teacher,
to obey Him as their Lord. Among them there were many
and serious differences, but they were all within the limits
defined by this general agreement. Their members were
professedly men who with their hearts believed unto right-
eousness, and with their mouths made confession unto
salvation. It is not necessary to enter Into any elaborate
argument to establish this, for the very nature of the
case proves that it could not have been otherwise. There
was little fear that any would intrude into their company
whose faith was nothing more than an indolent acqui-
escence in general principles. Christianity was not
yet respectable, and the ranks of a sect everywhere
spoken against would certainly not be increased by a
crowd of time-servers, eager to accept the dishonour of
a fellowship with which they had no spiritual sympathy.
It was by faith only that men would be led to identify
themselves with a community whose very name was a
term of reproach, one of whose leaders declared that he
and his fellows were counted as the scum and off-scouring
of all things, and fellowship with whom. Instead of con-
ferring any advantage, would expose to certain odium
and probably to great danger. Some, possessed by a
passionate enthusiasm, kindled by the story of the cross
and resurrection, might commit themselves to a profession
the cost of which they had not counted, and having run
well for a time turn back. The superficial, the excitable,
the self-deceived might find place in the Christian Church,
but not the formalist or the hypocrite. Such anticipations,
derived from our knowledge of human nature, and the
circumstances of the case, are amply confirmed by all that
486 The Congregationalism
we learn from the New Testament as to the character of
these first Churches. They were companies of men
whom faith in Christ had stirred up to the pursuit of new
and noble ends, for whom a new life had begun in the
soul, and was manifesting itself in all their actions, who
had received Christ Jesus as their Lord, and were striving
to walk in Him.
Such ouofht Churches to be stilL In what manner the
line of demarcation between the true servants of Christ
and the world is to be drawn, on whom is to rest the
responsibility of deciding in the case of individuals to
which category they belong, and in what way those on
whom it rests may best discharge the duty it imposes,
may be questions of great difficulty and importance ; but
they do not affect the fact, that even in this professedly
Christian country, there are only some who are genuine
Christians ; nor do they affect the principle that only true
Christians have a right to take their place in the Church.
An observance of the outward forms or an obedience to
the mxoral precepts of the Gospel does not make a Chris-
tian, still less a mere acquaintance with its doctrines,
least of all, the attainment of a certain age which may
be laid down as a proper time for assuming the responsi-
bilities and entering on the privileges of Church-fellow-
ship. Christianity has its root in the heart and its fruit
in the life, and where these are not, the essential quali-
fications for membership are wanting. Our circumstances
of course differ widely from those of the first Churches,
from the fact that all men who think it necessary to their
social respectability to maintain a show of religion are now
to be found in Christian sanctuaries, w^hereas in those
first days they would have been adherents of idolatry
and worshippers at its shrines. But there may be as
little real sympathy with the Gospel, as little spiritual
union with Christ, as little earnest desire to live godly in
Of the Ftittire, 487
Christ Jesus, and as little fitness therefore for admission
to the Church, in these nominal Christians as in pro-
fessed idolators, and the need for a distinction between
the Church and the world is as great as ever. To make
that distinction by receiving to its ranks those, and those
only, who are true believers, should be the aim of every
Christian Church.
It is no objection to this principle that the ideal is too
lofty to be reached, and that all the means hitherto em-
ployed to realize it have been confessedly inadequate if not
mischievous. In the case of individuals, the Scriptural
ideal is infinitely beyond anything which man has ever
reached, but no one would say that a man is justified in
alleging his own shortcomings and those of others as a
reason for abandoning all endeavours after that perfect
holiness which is held up to him as the object of spiritual
ambition. So in the case of Churches, all attempts to
make the Church correspond with the Divine ideal may
have utterly failed, it may even be that they were sure
to fail, and that no possible exercise of wisdom can
prevent the occurrence of similar failures in the future.
It does not, therefore, follow that we are at liberty
to substitute some pattern of our own for that which
we have received from Heaven. We might grant all
that can possibly be alleged against the plans at present
in operation, that the inquiries instituted are often little
better than mere pretences, and when they are a reality
are frequently misleading, that the result has often been
that the Church has welcomed those whom she ought to
have rejected, and discouraged those to whom she ought
to have extended a helping hand, nay, that she has
even rejected those whom Christ had welcomed ;
but it is a strange conclusion to draw from this, that
she ought therefore to renounce the fundamental idea on
which she is constituted. Because she finds a difficulty
488 The Congregationalism
in determining who are Christians, is she to declare that
those who are not, are equally entitled to a place in her
fellowship with those who are ?
We do not at all underrate the evil resulting from
these practical mistakes, but there may be reform that
shall stop short of the destruction of the vital principle
of the Church. That may be retained even though the
Church should disclaim the responsibility involved in the
judgment of the inner life, and should leave each indi-
vidual to determine for himself in the sight of God, and
as having to give account to Him, how far he himself
meets the conditions required of those who would be
united to the Church of Christ. It might seem almost
superfluous to point out the radical differences between
those who would thus trust to the quickened action of
the individual C4)nscience, rather than to the minuteness
of investigations conducted by the Church, for the main-
tenance of purity of communion, and those who support
the multitudinist theory ; but unfortunately the two things
are so continually confounded, and wholesale and in-
discriminating accusations of indifference to the spirit-
uality of the Church are so often directed against those
who believe that the present process does not secure it, that
it is necessary to be specially distinct on this point. The
present writer holds that it is possible to maintain the
necessity of a new spiritual life, and to insist that conver-
sion is a reality, and that those only over whom this change
has passed are proper subjects for membership in the
Church, and yet to confess that the Church has no gift of
discerning the spirits, enabling it to decide in each case
whether such a change has been wrought, and that the re-
sponsibility must therefore be left with the individual alone.
Congregational principles stand on an entirely different
ground from the usages which are based on them. For
the former there is ample Scriptural authority — the latter
Of the Future. 489
have at best only the tradition of a denomination, or the
evidence of experience, to allege in their favour. The
former therefore must be maintained until it can be shown
that we have been misled as to the meaning of the New
Testament — the latter are open to such modifications as
a wider experience may dictate, or as the altered cir-
cumstances of the times may appear to demand. Yet
there is a style of argumentation which puts them both
on the same basis, and quietly assumes that the demon-
stration of the one carries with it the proof of the other
also. It is proved, as it can be proved easily enough,
that the true spiritual life in Christ is an essential
qualification for membership in Christ's Church, and here
it is supposed that the whole necessity of proof ends,
that everything else follows as a matter of course, that
the visitation and personal examination of each candidate
by the minister, and a deputation from the Church, followed
by a report on the whole to the assembled community, and
the verdict pronounced thereupon by a body who at best
can have very scanty materials on which to form a decision,
are just as Scriptural. To all this an objector may
reasonably demur, and when he comes to demand proof
at each stage of the process, those who are engaged in
-the defence will not be long before they find themselves
in sore straits. At the very next stage of the argument, —
at the assertion that as every member of a Church should
be a Christian, therefore he is bound to satisfy the Church
that he is so, and that for this something more is requi-
site than his mere profession, their difficulties will begin.
It is a position which an objector is sure to challenge,
and for which it will not be easy to adduce that Scriptural
proof on which alone Congregationalism professes to
rest. The New Testament warrants the separation of
the Church from those who do not live In accordance
with the laws of Christ ; and It would justify the refusal
490 The Congregationalism
to admit such into the Church. We would
further, and say that it would warrant the adoption of
a more rigid law than that which was applied to men
just gathered in from heathenism; but to infer from this
that it gives a Church authority to institute tests by
which the inner life of men should be proved, and the
conformity of their experience with the standard of the
Gospel decided, is to press the conclusion further than
the premises warrant.
A good deal has been gained when this simple dis-
tinction between the essential and accidental parts of the
system is made clear ; it is at once understood that the
abandonment of present modes of administration does
not involve any alteration in the fundamental law of
Church fellowship ; that a proposal for the abolition of all
distinction between the Church and the congregation
would find as little favour with the numbers who feel the
necessity of some change, as with those who adhere most
rigidly to the old system ; that nothing more is contem-
plated than an improvement in the mode of working out
principles which will be retained in all their integrity.
The idea of leaving the responsibility wholly with the
individual himself may indeed at first sight seem startling
and revolutionary, but a more careful examination may
possibly dispel much of the alarm that is felt. It is true
that at present the Church apparently assumes a good
deal of responsibility in each decision, but it is only in
appearance. It is by the candidate himself the Church's
opinion must in the majority of cases be shaped ; for how
can the Church judge of the inner life except by the help
of what he communicates. He narrates the story of his
awakening to spiritual consciousness, of the hours of secret
penitence through which he has passed, of the inward
conflicts through which he has fought his way into the
kingdom of God, or of those more gentle drawings of the
Of the Future. 49 1
Spirit of God, by which he has been led to a knowledge of
the Saviour, and an enjoyment of that peace which He
imparts to the soul. If he should simply be using
unctuous phrases which he has borrowed from others,
and with which the clever hypocrite never finds any
difficulty in making himself acquainted, if beneath the
fair exterior and the profession in which it is impossible
to detect a flaw, he conceals an unregenerate heart, or if
he has been mistaking the working of natural feelings
for the presence and influence of the Spirit of God in
him, how is the Church to unmask, the deception ? All
that it can do at best is to pronounce a judgment on the
supposition that the statements to which it has listened
are genuine. It is, therefore after all, the profession of
the individual himself which determines whether he is to
be accepted or rejected.
It is important that we should remember the limits
within which our action in this matter is confined. Con-
versation with a judicious pastor or friend, such as all de-
siring to be right would seek, if it is not insisted upon
as a condition of communion, may do much to enlighten
and help a man. It may be useful in guarding him
against crude and hasty views, may stir him up to a more
searching self-scrutiny, help to quicken the sensitiveness
of conscience, and elevate his entire conception of a
Christian profession and its demands. It may teach him
to discriminate between mere temporary excitement and
true spiritual feeling, or supply encouragement and help
where it is needed by those of timid and shrinking spirit ;
but this kind of moral guidance and support is about all
that one man can do for another here. Every man
must bear his own burden and act for himself in the
decision of the question, the most solemn with which any
one can have to deal, whether he is prepared, knowing
what Christian disclpleship involves, to adopt the name
492 The Congregationalism
and assume the responsibilities connected with it, and any-
thing which has the sHghtest tendency to weaken the
sense of his individual responsibility here is an incalculable
evil. This most assuredly is the case with the ordinary
mode of procedure in Congregational Churches. Great
care may be, and generally is, taken to guard against the
notion that the Church has pronounced the accepted can-
didate a Christian. But the fact remains that he has been
subjected to such an investigation as it was thought neces-
sary to institute, and that he has so far satisfied those by
whom the enquiry has been conducted that he has been
welcomed to Christian fellowship. That fact tells with
him far more than a thousand cautions. He has passed
the ordeal, and it is difficult to make him understand that
even those who have instituted it do not regard it as a
decisive test. Thus the Church, intentionally or not, ap-
pears to assume a most onerous responsibility, and the
man has obtained what he accepts as an implied assurance
as to his own spiritual state, an assurance that will weigh
little with those who are intent on working out their own
salvation with fear and trembling, but which will be most
greedily welcomed and fondly cherished by those to whom
it will be most dangerous. Most pastors of long experience
will, I believe, testify that this is no imaginary or unfre-
quent evil ; but I fear that what comes under our observa-
tion gives but a very inadequate conception of the injurious
influence that is exerted. The positive advantages of a
system must be great indeed if they are sufficient to
counterbalance the evil of fostering that self-deception
to which the soul is only too prone.
But will any one, who has had an extensive acquaintance
with the working of the system, venture to say that such
advantages have been secured, or that as a whole the
results have been satisfactory ? It would not be sufficient,
in order to justify such statement, to be able to prove
Of the Future. 493
that as a rule those who are accepted by the Church are
consistent Christians, while those who remain outside
show by their Hves that they have had no experience of
the practical power of the Gospel and that the line which
is drawn does, with such exceptions as might fairly be
expected, represent with great fairness the distinction
between the Church and the world. Even so general a
statement is not to be accepted without examination.
There are some who would go so far as to pronounce it
the very opposite of the truth ; but could it be shown
to be true, it is really little more than might be said of
any system. There are certain marked features of re-
ligious character which it is almost impossible to ignore,
and that those in whom they appear are ranked accordingly,
is nothing very wonderful. There are some who would
be welcomed by any Church, there are others who, if
they were to seek admission, would be just as certainly
rejected by any body which attempted to preserve the
purity of its communion. It is by its action on other
classes, in the detection of formalism or hypocrisy, or in
the attraction of persons whose morbid conscientiousness
would keep apart from those with whom they have
nevertheless deep spiritual sympathy, that the ordinary
usage is to be tried, and it is here that it has signally
failed on both sides, in relation to those whom it excludes
as well as to those whom it admits.
It is a frequent subject of regret among all ministers
that there are so many in their congregations of whose
piety they entertain no doubt, who cannot be persuaded
to join the fellowship of the Church. It is easy to say
that their religion is imperfect, as it has not taught
them to subdue the pride which rebels against the
requirements made of them ; that if their love to Christ
were deeper they would be more willing to accept the
cross which they are asked to bear for His sake, and that
494 The Co7igregationalism
their reluctance to submit to the ordeal applied by the
Church is itself a proof that, whatever excellence they
may possess, they are not fitted to enjoy the privileges
of Christian fellowship. The charity which thinketh no
evil ought to rebuke such harsh judgments, and facts
continually prove that they are as fallacious as they are
severe. Such reasoning, indeed, assumes all that has to
be proved. If Christ has imposed this upon all who
would be His faithful disciples, for them there must be
an end of all controversy. Natural feeling may chafe
against such demands, but if they are made by the
Master, those who desire to keep His commandments
must cheerfully comply with them. But the ground
on which the opposition to them rests is, that they are
not made by the Master at all, and that from first to last,
they are a human device, and a device inconsistent with
the genius of the Gospel and with Christ's mode of treating
human souls. He was ever tender, pitiful, mindful of the
peculiarities of men's temperaments and circumstances ;
ready to welcome the faintest germ of penitence and faith,
and to aid its development ; always encouraging the timid
and helping the feeble. It was His glory that He would
not break the bruised reed nor quench the smoking flax ;
and how, it is asked, can it be supposed possible that He
can look with approval on a system, which meets the soul
at the very beginning of its pilgrimage with demands so
onerous, that the timid and the sensitive are sure to recoil
from them. The advocates of a more generous policy
demand, therefore,that these barriers be thrown down, not
because they appear formidable to themselves, but be-
cause they hold them to be unauthorized, and because
they feel that they are calculated to repel those whom
Christ, with His tender consideration for the weak and
ignorant, would have encouraged and welcomed.
It is not for those who have always maintained the
Of the Future. 495
rights of conscience themselves, to sneer at these scru-
ples in others, and to impute to a want of Christian
principle that which is the result rather of a desire to
guard the liberty of the individual against the usurpations
of the Church. Even If It should be considered that these
objects are mistaken, it will scarcely be maintained that
their mistake is sufficient to warrant their exclusion from
fellowship, and yet that must be the case so long as the
existing methods are preserved. They may find a home
in other communities, but the doors of Congregationalism
are barred against them. There can be little doubt that
it does thus continually lose men, whose lives would
adorn their profession, and whose intelligence, earnestness
and independence would contribute materially to the
strength of any society with which they were connected.
Nor do these constitute the only class thuskept outside.
Timidity, quite as often as pride, leads men to shrink from
the investigation of spiritual life, which our Churches
have hitherto thought necessary. It may be said, and
said with truth, that the difficulties are greatly exagger-
ated, that the Interview even with a couple of deacons,
Is not so terrible a thing as the Imagination paints it,
and that the cases are rare In which there is anything
that ought to disturb even the most sensitive or alarm
the most timid. But such a plea really involves the
most emphatic condemnation of the system. To repre-
sent the enquiry as so harmless and unmeaning, is really
to abandon the only ground on which It could pos-
sibly be defended. If It Is to have any value, It ought
to be one of the most searching inquiries that can
be instituted, conducted by the wisest and gravest
men the Church can find, who should take all possible
care. In order to arrive at an opinion on which the
Church would be justified in acting. Notoriously this Is
not the case In a great number of Instances, but this is
49 6 1^^^ Congregationalism
the light In which it presents itself to outsiders ; and
therefore it is that many, whose earnest piety is beyond
a question, shrink from the application of such a test,
especially by those with whom they have little or no ac-
quaintance, and either remain outside the Church, or hav-
ing made up their minds to dare everything rather than
lose the privilege of a Christian communion, prepare for
the inquiry with a fear and trembling which, in several
cases, I have known to be attended with serious con-
sequences. My own doubts as to the wisdom of the
system were awakened years ago by observing the
painful effects produced on the physical and mental
health of some candidates, for I could not but feel that
Christ had never intended to impose suffering of that
character on any of His disciples as a condition of their
reception into His Church. To tell me that these timid
ones are scared by phantoms of their own creation,
increases instead of relieves the difficulty. The only
plea that could be urged for such a course is its necessity,
but if the inquiry instituted be for the most part of a
superficial, almost of a formal character, even that fails.
As a safeguard for the purity of the Church it is illusive,
and yet a grievous burden is laid upon the individual con-
science. The fact is, if the inquiries were generally
of the nature they ought to be, they would long since
have become intolerable. It is only because they are
generally made so easy that they have survived, but in
making them easy they are made practically worthless.
It is said that the Church cannot concern itself about
exceptional cases, that it must provide against the admis-
sion of unworthy men, and that if the plans it adopts for
this purpose unhappily exclude those whom it would joy-
fully receive, it is one of those inevitable imperfections that
attach to all human systems. The argument is specious,
but it leaves out of consideration one of the great ends
Of the Fuhire. 497
which a Church should seek to secure. It Is meant to
be a gathering of those who love the Lord Jesus Christ
in sincerity, and it should aim to embrace in its fellowship
all who desire that privilege, and who possess this one
qualification for enjoying it. It should not be more
anxious to be pure than to be complete, and therefore
should seek to include all who are Christians, as well as
to exclude all who are not. It is not in any sense a
private society, partaking of the character of a club, and
entitled to lay down conditions which shall give it a
selectness beyond that which is required by the law of
its constitution. Admission to its communion is not a
privilege which it can give or withold at pleasure, or in
relation to which it can lay down arbitrary laws, but a
right which every Christian can demand. That Church
cannot answer to the true idea of a Church of. Christ,
which has regulations that exclude from it those whom
Christ has received to His fellowship. The prin-
ciple seems obvious, but it has been and is constantly
ignored in practice. Christian societies have continually
acted, and do still act, on the assumption that they have
rights of legislation as well as administration, that they
can exact certain things from their members beyond
those which Christ has prescribed in the New Testament,
and that they are justified in depriving recusants of the
benefits of Church fellowship. But, surely, if the spirit-
uality of a Church is impaired by the introduction to its
ranks of those who are not Christians, its catholicity is
destroyed on the other hand when its laws Interfere with
the admission of those who are.
It would be a thankless task to insist upon the utter
insufficiency of the system as a guarantee for that purity
for the sake of which it is preserved. There are few
Churches whose records do not furnish melancholy
evidence that a most careful and jealous watchfulness
K K
49 8 The Congregationalism
cannot prevent the intrusion into the Church of men
who have neither part nor lot in the great Christian
heritage. No doubt these are just such errors of judg-
ment as falHble men were sure to commit, but the
question recurs, — Why ask them to form a judgment at
all ? They are not to be blamed for the natural and
necessary mistakes they commit, but for taking upon
themselves functions to which they are confessedly un-
equal, and in the discharge of which they are, as all
experience shows, continually falling into error, fraught
with most mischievous consequences. My own acquaint-
ance with Congregational Churches enables me to assert
with great confidence that the evils which might have
been expected to arise in the administration of such a polity
are extremely rare, that it is not often that the gates of
the Church are opened or closed in obedience to mere per-
sonal feeling, and that though many mistakes are made
they are for the most part errors of judgment. But while
this ought to be remembered in justice to the men, it does
nothing to take away the force of the objection to the
system. Those who are engaged in carrying it out may
be, and in general I believe they are, under the influence
of right motives, and are conscientiously anxious to do
their duty But a man may be eminently conscientious
and very crotchetty, extremely narrow, capricious and
wayward in the formation of his opinions, disposed to
attach importance to trifles and to underrate some of
the clearest evidences of Christian character, and any one
of these faults will detract from the value of his judg-
ment. To discharge the duty assigned him with even a
moderate degree of efficiency, there must be in his cha-
racter a combination of qualities seldom met with. He
should have great spiritual insight, but, at the same
time, a power of holding his judgment in suspense,
such as men with clear, intuitive perceptions seldom
Of the Future, 499
possess. He should have a sympathetic temperament
so that he may win his way to the hearts of others,
and at the same time possess the strength of mind
which would preserve him from those too lenient and
flattering estimates of character to which such a spirit
would Incline him. He must have the caution which
would save him from being imposed upon by that
unctuous talk which is generally found to be in inverse
proportion to the depth and reality of spiritual feeling,
and yet he must have that hopeful trust which will teach
him to recognize, even amid many signs of weakness and
Imperfection, the presence of a simple faith and a sincere
love, as yet, perhaps, only In its beginnings, but on this
very account needing to be met with genial confidence.
Freedom from prejudice, boundless tact, large and varied
experience, power to enter Into the special difficulties of
others, and considerate tenderness blended with keen
discrimination, strictness that shall not degenerate into
severity, charity that shall not be blindly credulous, and
last, but not least, confidence in his own judgment, asso-
ciated with that humility which ought to be the great
characteristic of a man called to such an office, are
qualities indispensable to those who are to guide the
Church in its decisions as to those who seek Its fellow-
ship. The bare enumeration of them Is sufficient to show
how few there can be who have even a moderate degree
of fitness for the work. Yet, according to present arrange-
ments, each Church ought to contain several. It cannot
be thought wonderful that they are not found, that the in-
vestigation is often of a most perfunctory kind, that there
is nothing like uniformity in the judgments pronounced,
that some err as much on the one side from comprehen-
sion, as others on that of restriction, and that Churches
are continually discredited and distressed, as time and ex-
perience show them the mistakes they have committed.
K K 2
500 The Congregationalism
The remedy for these evils some would find in in-
creased stringency of the preliminary investigations.
But if the difficulty be, as most will admit, to find men
who can conduct them with any approach to success, it
is evident that no attempt to make them more severe will
meet the case. The tendency of Congregational Churches
has been for many years past in the contrary direction,
and the changes which have been made have not lowered
their character. The demands made upon candidates
have been gradually relaxed. First, the oral statement
made to the Church was abandoned, or a written one
substituted for it, and in most cases even this has been
altogether discontinued or made optional. A consider-
able number of Churches have gone further still, and no
longer insist on the visitation by the deacons or other
members. There is a growing feeling that the system
has not guarded against the evils it was intended to avert,
and that it has itself created others of a very serious char-
acter ; that it is open to question (to say the least) whether
the most free and liberal plan — one on which all who
desired to make a public profession of faith in Christ,
whose lives are in harmony with their profession, should
be accepted — would have introduced a greater number of
unworthy members, while it is certain that there is a ten-
dency in the present plan to foster pride and exclusiveness
in those who, having been received into the sacred circle
themselves, fancy that they are invested thus with a right
to pronounce on the fitness of others to join them. It is,
perhaps, hardly to be hoped that the Churches will at once,
or will even speedily renounce the practices in which they
have been educated ; but it will be something if they are
led to recognize that these do not form an essential part of
Independency, and that those who advocate their disuse
are just as zealous for the spirituality of the Church, and
just as ready to adopt wise means for securing it, as those
Of the Future, 501
who most earnestly insist on their retention. It is not
proposed to tamper with the basis of our Church consti-
tution, namely, that the Church of Christ should consist
only of those who are " sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to
be saints." It is not desired even to abolish the necessity
of a distinct act of public profession on the part of each
member in that application for fellowship, which in the
ordinary course would be received at one meeting and
decided at the next ensuing. It is asked only that the
Church should regard a profession as genuine, unless the-
life shows it to be the reverse, and that it should abandon
the idea of judging as to the reality of the spiritual life,
leaving everyone to feel that the act is solely his own,
and that to his own Master he stands or falls. I firmly
believe that the purity of the Church would be at least
as secure on this plan, as on that at present in vogue, and
that the adoption of it would sweep away many of the
most serious hindrances to the spread of Congregation-
alism among the very classes whom it is most desirous
to influence. It is unquestionable that the ranks of our
Churches are recruited principally from the ranks of the
young, that comparatively few candidates for admission
are found amongst men of mature years and high culture,
and that numbers who have grown up in our congrega-
tions, and who have not in early life entered the Church,
continue to remain outside, though their lives indicate
them to be sincere Christian men. The truth is, they are
unwilling to face the ordeal which the Church has insti-
tuted. Age, education, every influence which increases the
sensitiveness of a man, and indisposes him to unveil his
soul to the gaze of others, hold men back who yet pain-
fully feel their position, and would, under another system,
gladly enrol themselves among Christian professors. Is
it wise or right for us to tell such men that they are too
proud, that their shrinking from the test the Church thinks
,502 The Congregationalism
necessary is a sign of remaining corruption which they
ought to put away, that the cost is trifling for a privilege
so great ? Nothing is more flattering to our own self-com-
placency than to adopt a tone such as this ; — whether it be
Christian, or wise, or edifying thus to sacrifice to our net,
and to burn incense to our drag, is a very different question.
We are certainly robbing ourselves of much strength, and
the only thing that can justify a course which certainly
operates as a serious discouragement to many godly souls,
is a clear proof that we are obeying the commands of our
Master. If such proof be not forthcoming, our procedure
is as unchristian as it is suicidal.
The questions we have hitherto considered, important
as they are, are subordinate to those which relate to the
creed of the Church. However desirous any Church may
be to welcome all true Christians to its communion, if there
be demanded from them a formal or implied assent to a
number of dogmas, there is in such requirement a fatal
hindrance to the development of the true Catholic idea.
What that idea is, we are to gather from the New
Testament and from the practice of the Primitive
Churches. The notion that in order to Christian fellow-
ship, there ought to be an agreement of opinion even
on the most abstruse points of theology, crept into the
Church at an early period, and has been so long domi-
nant, and so deeply rooted, that it is very hard to bring
men to understand that it has no place in the New
Testament ; but that, on the contrary, there were in
the Primitive Churches the widest diversities of view
even on doctrines which we regard as of cardinal im-
portance, and yet that the Apostles made no attempt to
secure that unity which later ages have thought so
essential, by insisting upon the expulsion of dissentients.
They had a power to which no others could ever pre-
tend — they had the mind of Christ ; and, had it been
Of the Future. 503
right or necessary, they could have ended the differences
by an authoritative declaration of faith, and an injunction
to the Churches to separate themselves from any who
refused to submit to it. That there was a limit to their
toleration we shall see afterwards, but the creed on which
they insisted was very short, simple, and free from that
subtlety and minuteness of definition by which later
creeds have been marked. The liberty of thought which
they permitted allowed of differences of opinion, which
most Churches even of our own times would regard as
inconsistent with the preservation of unity or orthodoxy.
Looking at the history of the Church in subsequent
times, and at Its condition, divided into so many different
sections to-day ; , seeing how little suffices as a basis for
sectarian separation ; how the slightest varieties of opinion
as to polity, or even as to ritual, have been allowed
to break up the external unity of the Church ; how Con-
gregatlonallsts and Presbyterians have often lost sight of
their common faith In the fierceness of their disputation
relative to Church government ; how Congregationalists
have been divided into two separate communities, by
difference as to a mere rite — a difference which, under a
dispensation of the Spirit, must surely be regarded as of
very secondary importance ; how Presbyterians have
constituted rival communities on the ground of opposing
theories as to the relations of Church and State ; and how
those who arrogate to themselves the title of " Brethren "
are sub-divided into, I fear to say, how many little sects ;
— it is strange to come back to the story of the first
Churches, and find how their members contrived to
preserve their unity, despite diversities at least as serious
as those which now divide the Christian commonwealth.
The difference between the Jewish and the Gentile
party, the men who wanted to enforce Jewish laws on
Christian converts, and those who insisted on assertincr
504 The Congregationalism
the perfect freedom of a dispensation in which there was
to be neither circumcision nor uncircumcision, which deve-
loped itself at so early a period in the Church at Antioch,
was at least as grave as many of those which are now
regarded as sufficient to prevent the union of Christians
in one Church. Yet the Christians of Antioch did not
therefore separate into contending sects. They discussed
the question in a prayerful spirit, and feeling their in-
ability to settle it satisfactorily, agreed to ask the counsel
of the Apostles and the Church of Jerusalem. The letter
from that Church to the Gentile communities embodies
the judgment of the Apostles on the subject ; but though
its decision was distinct and final, it was not accompanied
by any of those anathemas which in after times formed the
invariable appendix to the decrees of general councils.
Recusants were not deprived of Church privileges ; and
though the Epistles contain continued evidence of the
presence and mischievous activity of the Judaizers in many
of the Churches, we do not hear of any case in which
they were made the subjects of Church discipline, or
in which the dissensions that they fostered led to dis-
ruption.
The Church at Corinth, of whose internal life we know
more than perhaps of that of any other of these primitive
communities, affords a still more remarkable illustration
of this policy of comprehension. A Church in which one
party was contending for a rigid adherence to the ritualism
of the past, and another pushing philosophical speculation
to a perilous extent, in which there were innumerable
shades of opinion on the part of the upholders of the
opposing dogmas, and in which personal jealousies and
sectional strifes were hindering the spread of the Gospel,
and separating men into little cliques, affords only too
faithful a picture of what we see around us to-day. Yet,
even there, there were not separate sects, and the Apostle,
Of the Future, 505
in writing to the Church, seeks to heal the breaches which
were being made in its unity, but nowhere counsels the
adoption of such measures as must have resulted in
formal division. He had to deal with men who were in
error even on the first principles of the faith. The
reasoning in the fifteenth chapter of the First Epistle
appears to have been directed against some who had
even gone so far as to doubt the reality of a future life
altogether ; and if this be a correct view, it serves to
indicate the extent to which speculation had run. Yet he
does not suggest that they should be excommunicated, he
does not even employ against them the language of bitter
denunciation. We have a free and searching criticism of
their views ; an unsparing exposure of all their errors, and
of the consequences they involved ; a clear exhibition of
their inconsistency, with the facts and principles of the
Christian faith ; an unanswerable argument to show that
the truth which they questioned was the necessary conse-
quence of that which they accepted — the resurrection of
the Lord ; a solemn expostulation with them as to the
peril of the associations they were cultivating ; but this is
all. Of anathemas and Church censures we hear nothing.
The bond of fellowship was unity in Christ, and that
bond was to be dissolved only in the case of those who
proved that they had not the spirit of Christ. The
Apostle, indeed, had his anathema, but it was reserved
for a state of heart, not for a form of belief, directed not
against a departure from orthodoxy, but against a want
of love. He had but one test by which character was to
be judged, but one line of demarcation by which men
were to be separated. His prayer is, *' Grace be with
all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity."
His terrible denunciation is, " If any man love not the
Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema ; maranatha !"
In laying down this as the test, however, it cannot be
5o6 The Congi^egationalism
denied that some belief is assumed as lying at the
foundation of the love. No man can love Christ who
denies that there is a Christ, or that there is anything
entitling Him to the homage, the trust, and the devotion
of human spirits ; but there may be great sincerity, and
even fervour of love, found in connection with remark-
able crudeness, and even error in opinion. The heart
is not under the control of the creed to the extent to
which hard and rigid theologians would represent it.
Differences of opinion supposed to be important are often
little more than questions about words, and where they
seem to be vital, there are often strong spiritual affections
that are independent of their influence. To the mere
logician all this may be unintelligible. He is able
to prove, to his own satisfaction, that certain spiritual
feelings cannot be co-existent with particular intel-
lectual opinions, and if the point was one to be settled
by mere logic, there is no doubt he would be right. His
mistake lies in greatly overrating the extent to which men
are under the influence of logic, or preserve a perfect con-
sistency between the dogmas of the intellect and the
affections of the heart, and in forosettinsf that men, who
hold most contradictory views relative to Christ, and
between whom, therefore, he would assume that true
spiritual fellowship is impossible, may yet have their
hearts drawn by a common attraction to the Saviour, and
find, possibly very much to their own surprise, that they
are one in Him.
It may he said by some, that this mode of treating
religious differences ministers to that laxity of religious
opinion, which is already sufficiently wide-spread, and
which is rapidly on the increase ; but I am so far from ad-
mitting the truth of the allegation, that I believe the very
opposite to be the case. The Church has set up ortho-
doxy as an idol, and the injustice of the demands made on
Of the Ftiture. 507
its behalf have been so extravagant, and the deeds done
under its sanction and for its glory so glaring, that they
have provoked indignant opposition, and many, in the vio-
lence of their reaction against the bondage to which it has
been sought to subject their intellect, are disposed to
scoff at all dogmas, and to declare that all creeds are
equally true, and equally false. Recoiling from the
monstrous conclusions, to which the attempt to confine the
Christian world within the limits of a narrow creed, would
have led them, they have in many cases asserted principles
inconsistent with the maintenance of any faith in the
Gospel at all. But this is nothing more than what m.ight
have been anticipated, and it is to be met, not by scornful
indifference or angry denunciation, still less by unworthy
concession, the abandonment of any doctrine we hold to
be true, or anything approaching to acquiescence in the
idea that in relation to religious truth there can be no
certitude. The more excellent way in which the Church
needs to be instructed, is that of a wise and compre-
hensive charity, that charity which would teach " us that
there may be a simple faith in the Saviour, even where
the theory as to the nature of His sacrifice and its relation
to the Divine government may, in our judgment and in
that of the majority of Christians, be erroneous ; that men
may have reached the cross, and found shelter and safety
under its shadow, though it has been by different paths
from those along which we have travelled ; that, though
it be after the way which the Church has branded as
heresy, they may be sincere believers, and therefore,
members of the mystical body of Christ. It is possible
surely, to maintain the authority of the truth in all
its integrity, without insisting on our own infallibility ;
to respect the convictions of others, without relaxing
at all the earnestness with which we hold our own ; to
seek even to correct what appear to us the errors of
5o8 The Congregationalism
our brethren, without treating them, because of these
differences, as heathen men and pubHcans. What is
necessary is not a less definite creed, but a more compre-
hensive spirit ; not a depreciation of sound opinions, but
a higher estimate of a Christ-hke spirit, as the sign and
evidence of Christian discipleship.
The Apostle Paul, indeed, in writing to the Galatians,
speaks in terms of emphatic condemnation of those who,
in any way, corrupted the purity of the Gospel, or sought
to substitute some human device for the Divine truth.
*' Though we," he says, '' or an angel from heaven, preach
any other Gospel unto you than that which we have
preached unto you, let him be accursed. If any man preach
any other Gospel unto you than that ye have received,
let him be accursed." But this is not at all in opposition to
the principles which we are advocating, and which appear
to us to be in harmony with the spirit of the Apostle's
whole teaching and ministry. Jealousy for the Gospel is
not incompatible with the admission of great diversity of
opinion in relation to many points, especially those of a
speculative character, in connection with that Gospel.
The primary design of St. Paul appears to have been to
affirm, probably in answer to some calumnies of his
enemies, that the Gospel which he preached was one and
unchangeable ; that it was the same as that taught by the
other Apostles, under whose names, as Dean Alford
suggests, the false teachers may have sought to shelter
themselves ; and that it was so certainly and exclusively
the Gospel, that, even were an angel from heaven to
preach another, he would be accursed. But this is, surely,
not to be construed into an excommunication of those
who would not accept some elaborate creed based upon
that Gospel. What the Gospel was, is set forth by him-
self in the First Epistle to the Corinthians : '' Moreover,
brethren, I declare unto you the Gospel which I preached
Of the Future. 509
unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye
stand ; by which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory
what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.
For I delivered unto you first of all that which also I
received, how that Christ died for our sins according to
the Scriptures ; and that he was buried, and that he rose
again the third day according to the Scriptures." (i Cor.
XV. 1-4.) Elsewhere he sets forth, in forms somewhat more
dogmatic, the nature of the '* ministry of reconciliation " in
which he was engaged, and whose message was the Gospel
he had to preach : *' God was in Christ, reconciling the world
unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them ;
and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God
did beseech you by us : we pray you in Christ's stead, be
ye reconciled to God. For he hath made him to be sin
for us, who knew no sin ; that we might be made the
righteousness of God in him." (2 Cor. v. 19-21.) On
the truths here asserted, Paul insisted, not because a
mere assent of the intellect to them brought the soul
into a personal relation to Christ, but because through
the apprehension of them the heart was led into that
trust in Him, that love to Him, that enjoyment of a
new life in Him, by which it was saved. The Church,
however, has gone very much beyond the Apostle. It
has not been content with setting forth the Gospel he
preached, but its own interpretations of it. Each separate
truth has been elaborately analyzed and expounded, and
men have been required to accept, not only the Scriptural
doctrine, but the human modes of explanation. It has not
been considered sufficient for men to believe that " Christ
died for their sins," but if they were not prepared also to
adopt the orthodox theory as to the nature of His sub-
stitutionary sacrifice, they have been treated as " enemies
of the cross of Christ." Is it not possible to return to
5IO The Congregationalism
the primitive plan, and to lay the basis of a broad and
comprehensive Christian fellowship in unity of spirit,
rather than in agreement of creed, and to welcome as
brethren all who believe in the Gospel as taught in the
New Testament, and in whose spirit and life we find the
image and superscription of the Lord ?
There is nothing in the principle of Congregationalism
to hinder it from accepting a basis as simple and compre-
hensive as this. It has never bowed before that idol of
uniformity which the Church early set up, and in honour
of which she has, in many ages, done so many acts un-
worthy of the name she bears. It is not encumbered by
a formal creed to which it requires the subscription of all
its teachers, much less has it ever prescribed the accept-
ance of particular dogmas as a term of communion. It is
true that all its Churches have not always been faithful
to the true idea of their system, and that in an evil
hour, as many deem it, the Congregational Union under-
took to prepare a declaration of faith. It would have
been wonderful indeed, if Congregationalists had escaped
entirely from the influence of an idea which has for years
been dominant in the Church, and which is so deeply
rooted, that even now the majority deem it an incontrovert-
ible axiom that agreement in doctrinal views is essential
to unity of spirit. Still, though the preparation of the
declaration might seem to indicate that those who thought
it necessary, hardly realized the moral grandeur of the
position of a Church which could dispense with a written
creed, the terms in which it is expressed prove that
they were jealous of their liberty, and were not disposed
to compromise principle by the establishment of a creed
binding on all members of the Union. Very carefully it
is set forth that, "it is not intended that the following
statement should be put forth with any authority, or as a
standard to which assent is required." " Disallowing," it
Of the Future, 5 1 1
continues, " the utility of creeds and articles of religion,
as a bond of union, and protesting against subscription to
any human formularies as a term of communion, Congrega-
tionalists are yet willing to declare, for general information,
what is commonly believed among them, reserving to
every one the most perfect liberty of conscience." It
may be said, with some justice, that for men holding such
principles to issue a declaration of faith was a perilous
experiment, that if, as it afterwards alleged, Congrega-
tional Churches " are far more agreed in their doctrine
and practice than any Church which enjoins subscription,"
it would have been better not to interfere with what had
been proved to work so well, and that, despite all such
disclaimers, the necessary tendency was for such a docu-
ment gradually to assume a more formal character, and be
invested with an authority which its framers did not desire
on its behalf. But whatever force there may be in such
criticisms, they do not affect the importance of the principle
so strongly stated, and its enunciation as the preamble
of a document, which may appear inconsistent with it is
the proof that, to use Mr. Matthew Arnold's words, " Puri-
tanism remains honourably consistent with the protests
which at the Restoration it made against the call for
subscription." Churches holding such views ought cer-
tainly to find no difficulty in the adoption of the most
Catholic idea of communion.
We shall here, however, be met by the assertion that
Congregationalists pride themselves on the unity which
exists in the absence of a written creed, that such unity is
found In a general acceptance of Calvinism, and that of all
systems Calvinism is the most narrow and restricted. We
are not prepared to admit the truth of the statement in the
bald form in which it is put, and of course, therefore, we
cannot accept the inference based upon it. There is a
sense in which the majority of Congregationalists hold a
5 1 2 The Congregationalism
Calvinistlc creed, but it is not in such a sense as to justify
the conclusion at which those who employ this argument
have arrived. There is ambiguity about both terms of
the proposition, and it is necessary carefully to define
what is meant by a Calvinistic creed, and what is meant
by a Church holding it, before it is possible to estimate
the force of the argument. Calvinism may be used in
its own proper sense as expressive of the scheme of
doctrine taught by the great reformer himself, and em-
bodied in the confessions of the Churches which have
adhered closely to his principles. Of this the best known
representative among ourselves is the Confession of Faith
of the Westminster Assembly, in which Mr. Arnold
tells us, with that peculiar sweetness, of which we may sup-
pose him to be the master, '' What we call the British
Philistine stands in his religious capacity, sheer and stark,
before us." Even this falls short of some developments of
Calvinism, but such as it is I venture to say that it is not
the creed of the majority, or of any large proportion of
Congregational Dissenters. The '' machinery of cov-
enants, conditions, bargains and parties-contractors, such
as could have proceeded from no one but the born Anglo-
Saxon man of business, British or American," was to some
extent accepted by a former generation, but it finds little
favour among those who are entitled to be regarded as
the exponents of Congregationalist doctrine at present.
A modified form of Calvinism, which sought by quali-
fications or explanations of certain of its more offen-
sive dogmas, to escape some of the perplexities of
the system, and to assert in the fullest manner the
sovereignty of God, without trenching on the freedom of
man's will, has a more numerous body of adherents ; but
it is questionable whether, even in this more limited sense,
Calvinism can be said to be the creed of Congrega-
tionalism. If there are numbers who hold it, there are
0/ the Ftiiure. 5 1 3
many, whose orthodoxy is beyond impeachment, who
just as decidedly reject it ; and as adherence to it is not in
any sense a test, it is misleading to speak of it in terms
which give the impression that it is so essential a feature
of the system, that Churches w^hich are not Calvinist
cannot be regarded as Cono^rec^ationalist.
But there is another and much wider sense in which
the term Calvinism is often used, and which makes it, in
fact, identical with Evangelicalism. The Methodist
repudiates the doctrine of predestination and those which
follow from it, and are regarded by him as the distinctive
dogmas of Calvinism ; but in the recognition of a new life,
wrought in the heart of man by the grace of the Spirit of
God, he holds the doctrine which is really the keystone
of the system. The differences between Calvinism and
Arminianism, indeed,are of very slight moment inthe eye
of the prominent opponents of Puritan theology. The
distinction is thus put by Mr. Matthew Arnold :
'* The God of Calvinism is a magnified and non-
natural man, who decrees at His mere good pleasure
some men to salvation and other men to reprobation ;
the God of Arminianism is a magnified and non-natural
man, who foreknows the course of each man's life, and
who decrees each of us to salvation or reprobation in
accordance with His foreknowledge." Between these
two he finds little to choose, though, on the whole, he
inclines to Calvinism as logically more coherent, but the
" anthropomorphic order of ideas," as he chooses to
call it, is common to both. By less exact writers,
the term Calvinism is often used, not to denote a
system generically distinct from Arminianism, but one
whose characteristic features are the same. Salvation by
the sacrifice of Christ, justification by faith, regeneration
by the Spirit of God, are the leading features of what is
thus continually assailed as Calvinism, though in truth
L L
514 Tf^^ Congregationalism
they are only features which it has in common with
systems to which it is directly antagonistic. If this be
the sense in which it is used, Congregational Churches
always have been and still are Calvinist. Evangelical
principles are dearer to them even than ecclesiastical in-
dependence, and they are as little disposed to abandon
the one as the other. They are not worshippers of
a mere polity — regardless of the doctrines a Church
teaches, provided only its independence be secured. If
Calvinism is to be a synonym for Evangelicalism, the
great majority of them are prepared to say that while
they are Congregationalists they are first Calvinists.
In asserting, however, that, as a rule. Congregational
Churches hold an Evangelical * creed, it is by no means
to be understood that any number of them insist upon a
definite acceptance of its dogmas as a term of com-
munion. These are the principles generally held by their
ministers and taught in their pulpits, and, as might be sup-
posed, they are in the main held by those who desire to
enter into their fellowship. But among themselves there
is not only great variety in the modes of expressing their
belief, but an insuperable reluctance to be committed to
any particular formula. It would require, in fact, but little
extension of the liberty they at present enjoy, for them
to comprehend in their communion all who can unite on
the broad platform of Christian faith, which we have
already indicated. That the tendency of thought among
them is in this direction, is evident from a comparison
between the declaration of faith and the schedule of
doctrine recommended by an influential committee of
the Congregational Union to be incorporated in the model
trust-deeds of chapels. The doctrines it contains are fewer
in number, they are expressed in much more general lan-
* The term "Evangelical" has itself a certain ambiguity, but the context will show that
it is not enriployed in a party sense, and it is better than the term " Calvinist," used in the
indefinite, incorrect and misleading sense indicated above.
Of the Future. 5 1 5
guage, and the whole spirit of the document indicates an
increasing desire to allow as much liberty and variety of
opinion, as is compatible with faith in the Gospel as under-
stood and expounded by the Apostles.
It may be asked, why, with these views, we should be
found opposing the theory of comprehension at present
advocated by an important party within the Church of
England. The answer is not difficult to find. In the first
place, comprehension to be worth anything at all, should
be distinct and avowed, in harmony with the principles
on which the Church is constituted, and with the au-
thoritative documents to which its members are bound
to submit. Liberty is a precious heritage, but it is
bought too dearly when it is secured at the cost of
straightforwardness and integrity. A comprehensive
Church, resting on the foundation of an Act of Uni-
formity, is a contradiction in terms ; and the attempts to
secure liberty under a system which requires subscription
to creeds — precise, minute and elaborate — must lead, as
in fact they have led, to pitiful subterfuges, paltry evasions
and non-natural modes of interpretation, which inflict a
wound on the consciences of all concerned, and for which
the breadth and freedom that may be obtained are but
a poor compensation. It is one thing to alter formulas,
it is another and entirely different thing to employ all
sorts of expedients, honest or dishonest, for the purpose
of escaping their pressure. It is only necessary to study
the history of recent controversies in the Anglican
Church to perceive the damage which has resulted from
this unworthy tampering with the language of its creeds
and formularies. There have been loud rejoicings in
some quarters because of the issue of the prosecutions
against heresy ; but a more accurate estimate of the results
might have checked these premature congratulations.
Disruption has been avoided, a law which seemed to be
L L 2
5i6 The Congregationalisni
very stringent has been shown to have no stringency at
all, the definiteness of teaching, which it was supposed
that the Act of Uniformity had secured, has been shown
to be an illusion, liberty has found a home where she
could least have expected it, and the advocates of com-
prehension are able to point to a Church, w^hose laws
remain the same as when it expelled 2,000 of its clergy,
because they would not subscribe to its formularies, as
approaching in practice to their ideal of breadth and free-
dom. At first such great results may appear eminently
satisfactory, but to those who are more careful about the
righteousness of the means than the desirableness of the
end, all this wears a different aspect. They cannot
Ignore the history of the past, or be indifferent to the
definite meaning which formularies, alleged to be so
liberal, convey to all but those interested in putting a
more lax interpretation upon them. When told that
comprehension is the fundamental principle of the An-
glican Church, their minds revert to the St. Bartholomew's
expulsion of 1662, and they ask themselves how it is
that a Church which was intended to include a Pusey,
a M'Neile and a Temple, was not able to find room for
a Baxter and a Howe ; or how formularies, now dis-
covered to be so broad and liberal, were construed by
those who prepared them, and those who were primarily
affected by them, in so different a sense. 'They naturally
wonder whether language has become less definite, or
consciences more elastic, with the lapse of time ; and their
feelings are not much relieved when they are told by
teachers of religious truth that this is hardly a matter of
conscience, or at all events that conscience must be
guided by law, for that here the legal obligation must be
the measure of the moral one. Even among those who
would welcome the result, if obtained in a legitimate way,
who, indeed, desire a wider liberty still, there are many
Of the Fuhire. 5 1 7
who not only feel that morality has lost more than liberty
has gained, but also, that the apparent and temporary ad-
vantage thus obtained for liberal opinion, has been secured
by a sacrifice of real power, that a more manly attitude
would have been more becoming in men struggling for
high principles, and that though it might have entailed
upon them personal loss and sacrifice, it would have contri-
buted more to the ultimate triumph of their cause. It is
well enough to say that a National Church ought to be free
and broad, but as a matter of fact, the constitution of the
Anglican Church has been framed on the very opposite
idea, and individuals have no moral right to try how far
the courts of law can be induced to relax the obligations
they have voluntarily incurred. Those courts, on the
other hand, are usurping functions which do not belong
to them, becoming makers rather than administrators of
law, when they are ready to avail themselves of any plau-
sible pretext for interpreting statutes in another than the
natural sense. If the law is wrong let it be altered, for a
Church established by law can be anything which the legis-
lature is prepared to make it. If Parliament will not make
such change, the stronger the argument against any tamper-
ing with a law which is in existence, and which cannot be
altered in the only mode recognized by the constitution.
The nation may be very foolish and the courts very wise,
but to look to the wisdom of the latter to repair the mis-
takes of the former would be to do as serious an injury to
our constitutional rights, as the resort to legal quibbles to
cover a disregard of obligations which, however courts
of law may treat them, ought to be paramount in foro con-
scieittic^^hdiS done to our public morality. Mr. Henry Sidg-
wick, while himself strongly sympathizing with rational
views, has warned his own friends of the mistake they
are committing. " I wish," he says, ** as heartily as any
broad Church-man can, that it [rationalism"] may spread
5i8 The Congregationalism
with the least possible disorganization of existing in-
stitutions, the least possible disruption of old sympathies
and associations. But if we are too eager to avoid
disruption and disorganization, we run some risk of
encouraging even worse evils, such as sophistical evasion
of clear obligations and disingenuous interpretation of
definite formularies, conscious unveracity in the most
solemn assertions, or vagueness and looseness of thought
so deliberate as to be almost equivalent to unveracity." *
With comprehension sought by such means we can have
no sympathy. It is desirable that men should be
generous and liberal, but it is essential that they should
be honest.
The comprehension, therefore, which we would fain
see characteristic of Congregationalism, is such only as
can be secured without any disloyalty to conscience, or
an unworthy use of the necessary imperfections of lan-
guage to facilitate an avoidance of unwelcome obliga-
tion. A great advantage which Congregationalism has
in endeavouring to work out such an ideal is, that its
ministers are not bound by a subscription, with whose
requirements they are brought into collision at the first
step they take. In the absence of a written creed — an
absence which is designed and not accidental — they are
relieved, at all events, from the imputation of dishonesty
in their endeavours after freedom. The trust-deeds of
their chapels are, in some cases, narrow and strict, but,
even where they are most stringent, they only provide that
certain doctrines shall be preached, not that they shall be
maintained as terms of communion, and in their operation
they do not affect any man's ministerial status, but simply
his right to occupy a particular pulpit. It is for each man's
own conscience to determine whether he can, in consis-
tency with his convictions,fulfil the conditions which the
* Pall Mall Gazette, January 6, 1870.
Of the Future, 5 [ 9
deed of the chapel in which he ministers imposes upon
him, and if he cannot, to make the sacrifice involved in the
abandonment of that pulpit. He does not, therefore, cease
to be a Congregationalist, nor is he shut out from other
Churches, the deeds of which admit of more liberty ; and
the only evil which results from the existence of deeds of
this character is, that the principles of comprehension,
which may be accepted by the Churches generally,
cannot be carried out in connection with buildings held
upon such trusts. The communities worshipping in them
would still be Congregational Churches, though insisting
upon a more narrow creed than that adopted by the ma-
jority of their brethren. Happily most of the chapels built
of late years, are held by deeds conceived in a more liberal
spirit, and thus no Church system would have fewer
hindrances to the adoption of those comprehensive prin-
ciples, which are so rapidly growing, than our own.
A second point necessary to true Catholic comprehen-
sion is that mutual charity which would teach those who
differ to respect and honour each other, and to recognize
their common relation to their Lord. To include in the
same Church men who are continually assailing each
other, even to the extent of each party proclaiming its
disbelief in the Christianity of its opponents, is only to
create a scandal, and bring reproach upon the name which
both profess to honour. The evil of the present state of
things in the Anglican Church is not so much that Evan-
gelicals and Ritualists differ, as that their differences are
of a character to forbid the possibility of Christian union.
Paul was extremely Catholic, but it is impossible to
believe that if he had regarded Peter and Barnabas in
the same light in which Dr. M'Neile (according to his
now notorious letter in the Temple controversy) regards
both Dr. Pusey and the Bishop of Exeter, he would have
remained in Church fellowship with them. Imagine him
520 The Conoregationalism
denouncing one of his fellow-apostles in the spirit in
which Dr. Temple has been assailed, as an enemy of
Christ and His Gospel, as a fautor of infidelity, as a
corruptor of the faith of men, as one whose elevation in
the Church is itself a deadly blow to its purity and
strength, and still greeting him as a friend and brother
in Christ Jesus ! Paul was comprehensive because he was
full of true charity, and where charity is not, Church fellow-
ship is nothing more than a mockery or a farce. If men
cannot unite in a Church as Christian brethren, without
attempt to compromise or suppress their differences, on
the basis of mutual respect, each doing honour to the
sincerity and conscientiousness of the other, and all striving
to cultivate that communion of saints which is indepen-
dent of these diversities of opinion, they had better not
unite at all. The outward show of unity that barely
masks the bitterness of the sectarian feelings that lie
underneath, can do no good to those by whom it is main-
tained, and is sure to provoke the contemptuous comment
of the world outside.
Once more, it is necessary that the limits to which the
comprehension is meant to extend should be properly
defined. It is clear that a Christian Church ought not
to include, cannot include without the abandonment of
its own idea and work, every shade of religious opinion.
If it was a company of men, the one object of whose
association was to engage in the worship of God, it could
not include one who should deny that there is a God to
be worshipped. So, as it is to consist of men trusting in
the Lord Jesus Christ, worshipping Him as God, pro-
fessing love to Him and seeking to live to His glory, it
can welcome those only whose belief is compatible with
such sentiments and professions. It would be absurd to
say that a Jew, who believes that Christ -was a false
prophet who deceived the people, or a Mohammedan,
Of the Future . 521
who places Him In a position of inferiority to his own
prophet, or some Ingenious critic, who is prepared to
prove that the life-story of Jesus is a mere deposit of
popular mythology and that there never was a Christ,
should have a place In a society which exists only for the
purpose of glorifying Christ and teaching others to glorify
Him also. These are extreme cases, but they are suffi-
cient to show that there Is need of discrimination, that
there are opinions which necessarily prevent a man's
entrance Into a Church of Christ, and that In every
scheme of comprehension it is proper to recognize the
fact. Congregationalists are not likely to seek credit for
a liberality they do not possess, by anyapparent indif-
ference to the truths always most surely believed among
them, and while desirous to open their Churches to all who
really love the Lord Jesus Christ, they have no idea in
doing this of Inviting to their fellowship persons whose
creed compels them to regard their most sacred services
as nothing better, if they are not very much worse, than
unmeaning forms. Between men governed by prin-
ciples so diametrically opposite there can be no unity.
It is not that they differ In opinion only, but that they
have no spiritual sympathy, and as true fellowship be-
tween them is impossible, there can be no advantage from
attempting to maintain its semblance. Still, the articles
of belief, which must lie at the foundation of Christian life,
are few and simple, and there is no need that they should
be formulated In a creed^ or explained in minute defini-
tions, every word of which suggests difficulty and invites
discussion.
It Is in a return from the complex creeds with which
Christian Churches have encumbered themselves, to the
simplicity that Is In Christ, that the secret of true unity Is
to be found. It is not to be expected that diversities will
ever cease, it is hardly to be desired that the magnificent
522 The Congregationalism
dreams of some as to the union of all Christendom in
one grand Catholic confederation should be realized.
But it is permitted us to anticipate the cessation of sec-
tarian strife, and to look forward hopefully and longingly
to the day when Christian Churches, though still retain-
ing their separate organizations, shall dwell together as
brethren, each preserving its own individuality, but all
working in hearty sympathy. If Congregationalism shall
help on such a consummation, if to the good it has already
done by its consistent protests against enforced unifor-
mity, it shall in the future add a still nobler service to
the Church by preparing the way for this practical mani-
festation of true spiritual unity, it will have fulfilled a
high mission indeed.
There is another class of questions of infinite impor-
tance to the future of Congregationalism, on which it
is only possible briefly to touch. It is essential to the
efficiency of any Church system that it should unite a
due regard to law and order, with a jealous care for
individual liberty. There are many systems which have
become weak through an undue anxiety about the
former. It is the common reproach against Congrega-
tionalism, that it has looked too much to the latter, and
has suffered the rights of the individual to override the
general interests of the community ; that, in its love of
liberty, it has been careless about the maintenance of law;
and that, in its dread of despotism, it has tolerated a
disorder which has trenched very closely upon anarchy.
These charges have been greatly exaggerated, exceptional
cases have been quoted as though they were fair illustra-
tions of its ordinary working, and justice has not been done
to the remarkable way in which Churches, enjoying per-
fect freedom, and governed by no statute book, except the
New Testament, have been able, to so large an extent, to
preserve peace, unity, and good order. In the ecclesias-
Of the Future, 523
tical, as in the civil world, the lovers of Cesarism delight
to magnify the faults and excesses of liberty, but in the one,
as in the other, the blessings which liberty brings are not
to be lightly bartered away because of the inconvenience
which may sometimes be attendant on its exercise. At
the same time, it is wise to consider whether it is not
possible to remove, or at all events, greatly to mitigate
the evils which have been complained of, and thus to
secure the increased efficiency of the system itself.
There are no questions on which these opposite ten-
dencies are more apparent, or in which there is more
necessity for wise action on the part of the Churches,
than those relating to our ministry. There are some
to whom order is everything. They are afraid of the
eccentricities to which an unfettered liberty of pro-
phesying might lead ; afraid that the Gospel may be
injured, and the work of God hindered, by the unwise
words and deeds of men deficient in culture and taste ;
afraid that men of taste may be repelled by certain modes
of exhibiting truth ; they are anxious about the rights of
their order, or the dignity of the pulpit, or the peace and
concord of the Church. The tendency of all this is to
restrict the work (>f the Spirit of God ; to chill zeal,
which is earnest and sincere, though possibly it may some-
times be unwise ; to allow a spirit of routine to cramp and
fetter the action of men possessed with a passion for
saving souls ; to lose power that might be employed with
immense advantage; and what perhaps is the most perilous
of all, to make a man's place in a certain order, rather
than his possession of spiritual qualifications, the test of
his fitness for the work of the ministry. God continually
marks His disapproval of this, by the unquestionable
success with which He crowns labours on which these
slaves of form and order would throw discredit, and which,
if it were in their power, they would altogether forbid.
5^4 The Congregationalism
But there Is an extreme of an opposite character, against
which, in these days, it is even more necessary to guard.
There are some who, in their eagerness to resist priestly-
encroachments, deny that there should be a ministry at
all, or if they are not prepared to go to this point, main-
tain that all who feel themselves drawn to this sacred
office, have a right to assume Its functions. On intellec-
tual qualifications, on special training for the work, or any
title to undertake it except that which is derived from
the stirring of earnest desire in the heart, they pour utter
contempt, designating those who attach any impor,tance
to such credentials as men-made ministers, and arrogating
to themselves the high distinction of being God's minis-
ters. The difficulty Is, how to deal with such claims,
without lending countenance to ideas on which priestism
has built up its monstrous pretensions.
It is manifest, however, that the Primitive Churches
managed to solve this problem. They gave free scope
to those who, out of the fulness of their hearts, preached
the Gospel, and yet they set apart men for special service,
and had ministers to whom they gave due honour for
their work's sake. Thus we find that the Church at
Antioch, the mother Church of the Gentile world, was
founded by what some in our days would call the un-
authorized labours of unordalned men. The men who first
preached the Gospel to Gentiles In Antioch, did it not in
virtue of any commission given them by the Apostles.
Though they were founders of a Church, and that
Church second in importance only to that of Jerusalem,
they were purely voluntary workers. They had learned to
love the Lord Jesus,and in the earnestness of their zeal, they
preached Him wherever they went, and among other
results they collected a band of Gentile converts at
Antioch. There could scarcely be a stronger proof of
the great change which had passed on the minds of the
Of the Future. 525
Apostles, as the result of the enlightening and en-
larging influences of the day of Pentecost and subsequent
events, than is furnished by the fact that, instead of being
shocked by such an interference with all their cherished
notions, they sent down Barnabas, who, whejn he came
and saw the grace of God, was glad. Here then
was freedom, but there is sufficient evidence that the
Church at Antioch was not, on the other hand, regardless
of order. It did not argue that because these spon-
taneous efforts had been so successful there was no need
for a regular ministry. On the contrary, we find that here
from the beginning, there was a band of prophets and
teachers, and that from this very Church went forth two
men specially commissioned to preach the Word unto the
Gentiles.
The Epistles are equally clear as to the existence of a
ministry in all the Churches, and the Apostle lays it down
as a principle which there was no virtue in concealing,
and no shame in avowing, that God has ordained that
they who preach the Gospel should live by the Gospel.
When that ministry aspires to become a priesthood, it
forgets its true functions ; when it seeks selfish, not
Christian ends, it ceases to be a ministry of the Gospel
in everything but name ; when it insists that to it belongs
a monopoly of teaching, it interferes with the inspirations
of God's Spirit, and takes away from the Church great
power. But it is not necessary, in order to guard against
such abuses, to make light of a Divine institution which
both common sense and experience show to be essential
to the well-being of the Church, and the diffusion of Chris-
tianity in the world.
There is little fear in our days, that among Congrega-
tionalists at least, undue restraint will be exercised. The
tendency is in the opposite direction, and the doubt is
whether it may not carry us too far. It is right to insist
526 The Congregationalism
on individual rights, but those rights are to be exercised
for the general good, and, to some extent, in deference to
the general judgment. There are cases in which a man,
feeling that he has a work to do for God, a message to
deliver, may feel bound to deliver it even in opposition to
the voice of Christian brethren. The Church may have
wandered from the truth, and dislike one who sets it forth ;
it may be wedded to form and routine, and oppose all that
savours of daring and novelty ; it may shut its eyes to
the changed circumstances of the age, and refuse to adopt
the means necessary for dealing with them ; it may enact
laws that infringe upon the rights of its members, and in
attempting to carry them out, may hold back one whom
God has sent, and forbid the delivery of a message which
He has given. In all these cases a man must set the voice
of his individual conscience against the authority of the
Church ; but if he be wise he will pause before he accepts
the grave responsibility involved in the adoption of such
a course. And where no question of the sort arises, where
the point at issue is only as to the personal qualifications,
surely it is right to expect that some deference will be
shown to the judgment of the Church. It cannot be
seriously maintained, that the ministerial office should be
assumed by every man who supposes himself called to its
exercise. If there be a Divine call, there must be some
evidences of it, and of those evidences who can be so fit to
judge as the Christian brethren with whom the subject of
it is associated ? Or if there be cases in which it is sup-
posed that personal feeling may exercise an adverse influ-
ence, that a prophet cannot be expected to receive proper
honour in his own circle and among his own companions,
it would not be difficult to have some body, who could
not be suspected of being thus unfairly prejudiced, to
whom appeal could be made.
The old idea of Congregationalism was, that the
Of the Future. 527
Churches should call forth the men who were to be their
ministers, and I believe it to be as sound in policy as it is
Scriptural in principle. At present It Is the reproach of
our ministry that its doors are too wide, and that in it are
to be found so many men who would find it difficult to
vindicate their right to be there, except on that lawless con-
ception of liberty, which assumes that it is the prerogative
of every man to do that which seemeth right in his own
eyes. A man who has come, no one knows from whence,
who has possibly been connected with some other section
of the Church, and who, for some reason best known to
himself, has chosen to separate from it, but who brings
from it no letter of commendation ; or who, having
been successful as a schoolmaster, or a city missionary,
for which office he was well qualified, aspires to the office
of the ministry, for which he is altogether unqualified ; or
a man who has been encouraged by the success of a few
occasional sermons, to believe that he has the power to
minister to a Church, and has abandoned the uncongenial
or perhaps unsuccessful pursuits of business, to under-
take this noble work. Is able to secure the suffrages of
some congregation, and then finds some ministers, who,
without even instituting any enquiry, either as to his ante-
cedents or qualifications, ordain him to the pastoral office.
This is one of the weak parts of our system, and the
difficulty in the way of applying a remedy is great, owing
partly to the dread of all external authority, and still
more to the proper reluctance to lend any countenance to
the idea of a ministerial order.
It is essential, however, to the right working of the
system, that in some way a change should be effected.
The present state of things has no parallel in any other
religious community that recognizes the validity of a
ministry, and there is no reason why it should continue
among us. It lowers us in the eyes of other Churches,
528 The Congregationalism
and It continually Impedes our own action. The great
hindrance, for example, to the establishment of a Sus-
tentatlon Fund, which would Improve the position, and
encourage the hearts of a large number of devoted and
useful men, and roll away one of the gravest reproaches
on the voluntary system, Is the difficulty of defining who
are Congregational ministers. There cannot surely be
any necessity for the perpetuation of this state of disorder.
It requires. In fact, only the creation of a strong opinion
among the Churches to put an end to evils which the
most thoughtful men among them earnestly deplore, and,
if the subject was properly understood, the difficulties,
many of which are Imaginary, would disappear.
It Is not desired to create a close ministerial order,
whose members should lay down the conditions on which
admission Into Its ranks might be obtained, nor Is It
maintained that all candidates for the ministry should
have had an academic training, or that those by whom
this training has been enjoyed should, in virtue of It,
have a position superior to that of their less fortunate
brethren. It is not forgotten that diversities of teach-
ing are required for the different orders of mind with
which our ministers have to deal, and that a kind of culture
desirable for one class may be worse than wasted upon
another. It is not denied that God does sometimes raise
up men whose great natural gifts enable them to overcome
the disadvantages arising from the want of education,
while on the other hand no education can ever compensate
for the lack of that power which gives freshness, point,
and force, In the preaching of the Gospel. But it is
maintained that such cases of exceptional endowment are
extremely rare, and cannot fairly be quoted as arguments
In favour of dispensing with that Intellectual discipline,
which in the great majority of cases must be necessary
for the discharge of the duties devolving upon one, who
Of the Future. 529
has from week to week to preach on the same themes to
the same hearers. God forbid that we should attempt
to derogate from the honour due to any whom the great
Head of the Church has evidently qualified for His min-
istry, because of their want of scholarship. What we
object to, is the attempt to treat the exceptions as though
they were the rule ; to argue from the success of a few
unlearned men, that culture is as often a hindrance as a
help in the work of the ministry. In an age when educa-
tion is so rapidly extending, when there is a sharpening
of intellect, by means of the cheap press, which begets
a peculiar keenness of perception, and when so much
power is brought to bear in opposition to the Gospel,
it is melancholy enough to hear men, who ought to
know better, express themselves as somewhat doubtful
whether our plan of ministerial education is not a great
mistake, and whether possibly a more efficient body of
preachers might not be found in rough, rude men, taken
from the smithy, or the plough, and sent at once into the
pulpit without any preliminary training.
Where the effect of education is to rob faith of its sim-
plicity and love of its fervour, to substitute a cold and
freezing propriety for the passion of a burning zeal, to
make sermons polished essays instead of glowing appeals
to the heart and conscience, it subtracts from that true
power which every minister of Christ should aim to
possess. This is the abuse, not the use, of culture.
There are, however, innumerable examples to prove
that the most ardent devotion may be found in asso-
ciation with the highest scholastic attainments, and that
men thus thoroughly equipped for their work may
reasonably be expected to attain to the highest degree
of efficiency. It is far from being so certain, as it
is often assumed, that unlettered men are best adapted
to meet the wants even of the classes for whom they
M M
530 The Congregationalism
are supposed to be specially suited. Even working
men will not be slow to detect their deficiencies, and to
resent the idea that they are to be won by arguments
which have no " logical weight, and by appeals which by
constant repetition have lost the freshness and force
which they may once have possessed. Working men may
not care for mere refinement, but they demand power ; and
power in the exhibition of the truth can be secured in
most cases only by careful thought and study. A sensa-
tion may be produced, a crowd gathered, and a certain
amount of immediate success realized, by men who have
no ability to sustain the duties of a regular ministry ; and
it would be a great mistake to ignore the service which
they can render. But surely it would be a still greater
error to place them in positions where their weakness
would soon become painfully apparent, and the greatest
blunder of all to suppose that the work of the Christian
ministry can be best done by men of this order.
It is impossible here to discuss or even to suggest the
plans by which the difficulties belonging to this subject
may most effectually be dealt with. Suffice it to say that
the Congregational Churches have during the last few
years shown that they are not so helpless in such matters
of organization and arrangement as their opponents have
been in the habit of representing. The County Associa-
tions indicate a power of united action which may with
great advantage be more fully developed, and which, if
wisely emplDyed, may remove many of the evils which at
present exist. Elaborate schemes of organization are not
likely to find favour ; but there may be a closer inter-
communion among the Churches without any infringe-
ment of their individual liberty, or any appearance of
that approach to Presbyterianism which has too often
operated as a bugbear to prevent the adoption of plans
which would have §aved our system from the reproaches.
Of the Future. 531
which it has often incurred, and secured for it a larger
measure of success.
Congregationalism has a noble future before it, if it is
able to shake itself free from the influence of conven-
tionalism, to show in its practice more of that elasticity
which it prides itself on possessing, to use wisely that
liberty for which it has so gallantly struggled, and to
develop the power of that Christian willinghood on which
it has always insisted as the basis on which the support of
all religious institutions must rest. Vapouring talk about
principles will profit nothing in the absence of practical
evidence of their life-giving influence. Self-sacrificing
zeal, wise understanding of the signs of the times,
promptitude and diligence in meeting the demands of the
age, boldness and decision in carrying on the conflict
against error and sin, are the essential qualifications for
progress. We cannot live upon the traditions of the
past, in an age when the claims of every system are
scrutinized, and when those organizations only will endure
which show that they have a work to do, and that they
know how to do it. Never were there grander opportunities.
May He who has placed us in the midst of them give us
His spirit — the spirit of wisdom, of love, and of power —
to teach us how to improve them for His own glory, and
the salvation of that world for which the Lord shed His
precious blood.
M M 2
MODERN MISSIONS
THEIR RESULTS.
JOSEPH MULLENS, D.D.,
FOREIGN SECRETARY OK THE LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY.
MODERN MISSIONS
THEIR RESULTS.
An aggressive zeal has always been a prominent feature
of a prosperous Church, and every great period of spiritual
revival develops that zeal in its most intense form. In
the Church of the Apostles, the longing to save others
carried men far and lasted long. In the earnest Celtic
Church of Ancient Britain, it gave rise to the marvellous
efforts of Columba and the Culdees. The unselfish
consecration of Boniface and his companions brightened
the heathen centuries in the Saxon forests. The Re-
formers in every land were true missionaries of the Gospel.
The fervent piety of New England yearned and toiled
for the salvation of the Indian tribes. With their new
life, Moravia and Germany sent missionaries to the
Eskimo and to Tranquebar. What wonder that the
modern Church, secure in the enjoyment of civil liberty,
and awaking to the greatness of its opportunities,
should follow, with a burst of gladness, the same track
of love and light and power. These missions of the
Christian Church to " them that are out of the way" are
a simple fulfilment of a Divine command. Yet are they
53^ Modern Missions
her glory. They appeal to all that is noble in our
nature ; they furnish the most stimulating examples of
unselfish benevolence ; they are a standing protest against
all attempts to secularize human life ; from them has
sprung much of the new life, which has quickened so many
nations in modern days. %
Nevertheless, these modern missions have never wanted
formidable adversaries in various classes of English
society. The men who conduct them have been held up
to ridicule, and the usefulness of their labours has been
boldly denied. At one time their opponent is Sydney
Smith, who laughs at the Journals of '' Brother Carey,"
and resents his unauthorized intrusion into che sacred land
of Hinduism. At another, it is some old Indian, who
is a great authority, doubts the reports of missionaries, and
pronounces their efforts fruitless. Now it is a writer on
Civilization, then some free-thinking Review ; now an
essayist at the British Association, then some leading news-
paper ; now some earnest member of the Anthropological
Society, then a witness before a committee of the House
of Commons ; or finally, some Colonial Governor, irritated
at their opposition to his ecclesiastical schemes, denounces
missionaries as disturbers of the public peace, and the
great hindrance to (what he calls) real progress. The
attack on the missions in China, made last April by
the Duke of Somerset, gave occasion to an outburst of
prejudice and passion against missionaries in general' on
the part of the literary classes in England, which it was
painful to witness. Their education and their social posi-
tion, were spoken of with contempt ; their high principle,
their benevolent aims, were wholly lost sight of.
Much of this opposition is natural, and to be expected.
The *' offence of the cross " continues to be real. It can be
no pleasure to any class of men to see that faith vigorous
and powerful, which is the most determined antagonist of
And their Results. 537
their own system. The labours and successes of mis-
sionaries ride roughshod over many a theory, and sweep
away many a sham. Theories of the " true Church," systems
of doctrine, theories of civiHzation, reformation and pro-
gress, theories of morals, theories about races, theories of
natural and inflexible law, are all affected more or less by
the work, the purpose, and the results of Christian missions.
But missionary schemes stand on a common ground
with all other reforms, and can claim the same fair field
of battle. Scientific Societies are established without
hindrance for the advocacy of new views, and the registra-
tion of new conclusions in important branches of human
knowledge and of social progress. Why must the Chris-
tian Church alone be placed under a ban when she is
making efforts to improve the world, and is adding to her
own experience ? In this aspect of the case, a mere social
one, we say, with Sir William Hamilton, that '' Missions
are a necessity." Thought must grow. Truth must
fight with error. Purity and principle must contend with
the world's wickedness. Religious men have adopted
the settled resolve, that the worshippers of material
comfort, who ** spend their money for that which is not
bread," the missionaries of cotton and silk, of opium and
indigo and tea, shall not have it all their own way. They
have resolved that questions of humanity, of piety, of
social and public morals, shall be pressed on the atten-
tion of mankind, as well as the distribution of wealth,
the increase of trade, and the supply of food. " A man's
life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which
he possesseth." *' Man doth not live by bread alone."
Can any just man wish it otherwise ? Shall a high
morality be confined to Christian countries ? Shall bar-
barous nations be left to bear unaided their terrible
burden of degradation and sorrow ? Do the literary
classes of England wish Africa to return to the slave
53^ Modern Missions
system, from which Christian benevolence has largely
redeemed its unhappy people ? Do they wish that the
masses of Chinese, now flowing like great waves over
civilized lands, shall be left to their earthly views and
earthly life, and go down untaught into that dark future on
which the teaching of their great sage throws no light ?
Shall Kali and Durga be the models of women in India,
and our fellow-subjects there know nothing of " the Gospel
of the grace of God " ?
The special problem involved in the controversy which
has been forced upon us is one of the highest order.
Like other religions, Christianity enjoins upon its fol-
lowers certain public, social and individual virtues ; but
it excels other religions in the character of those virtues,
and in the completeness of the system of which they are
component parts. What then (to use the happy term
employed by Professor Sharp) are the " dynamics " of
Christianity.'^ Within and behind the doctrine, the example,
the warning, which cluster round its beautiful theory of
what is right and good, are there powers which can enable
a man to do that right and to attain that good ? Can
these forces, acting on many men, enlighten society,
elevate all the aims of human life, and change for the
better the entire moral history of the nation that feels
their influence ?
We say they can. The most recent writer on European
morals, Mr. Lecky, has portrayed in vivid colours the
mighty influence which Christianity exerted on the Roman
Empire, and the grandeur of the results which it pro-
duced within the first eight hundred years of its history.
Modern missionary Societies aver that the peculiar truth
embodied in the Scriptures is as mighty now ; and they
offer evidence that, both in individuals and nations, it is
producing the same results in the present day. Not
only so, but looking to the present and the past, Christian
And their Results. 539
men assert with confidence that the faith, self-sacrifice,
and zeal, which those forces reproduce as freshly now as
when the Apostles preached, are sufficient to transform
and to elevate the world.
In taking a brief review of modern missions, we may-
look at the workmen, their doings, and their success.
If many of the earliest missionaries of this century
were men of simple training, others were educated men,
and a few were scholars, whose attainments and literary
labours none but the prejudiced will despise. With the
lapse of time, a very large proportion of missionaries
from all countries have been fair scholars, and many
have carried even into barbarous countries the honourable
distinction won in a University career.
There is no sphere of activity which furnishes fuller
scope for the highest attainments and the noblest powers,
than the great opportunities of missionary life. Neverthe-
less, much as the friends of missions value good sense and
sound knowledge, they hold religious character to be
more precious and more useful still. It is here that,
as a class, missionaries have been pre-eminently distin-
guished from other men who have proceeded abroad
on professional service. Whatever their attainments,
they have been picked men in regard to character.
Their personal piety, their devoutness, their purity of
life, their kindness and benevolence, have been con-
spicuous ; have been repeatedly acknowledged by their
countrymen, and have been the wonder of the heathen.
When Hyder Ali, annoyed by the treatment which he had
received from the Madras Government, was asked by them
to receive an envoy, he replied, *' Send me the missionary
Schwarz ; he is a good man, and I can trust him."
The roll of modern missionaries contains many
noble names already held in honour, the lustre of
which will increase as the years roll by, and the effect
540 Modern Missions
of their labours on the races they have evangelized, Is
more clearly perceived. But for them, where would such
reforms be ? In many a land they have been not only
the first preachers of the Gospel of peace, the first who
taught the ignorant to pray to a Father in heaven, the
earliest teachers of sound morality, but also pioneers in
true civilization, able instructors in mechanical arts, and
healers of the sick. They have offered no mean contribu-
tion to our knowledge of languages and to literature; they
have helped to found Universities and systems of educa-
tion ; they have fought hard battles with oppression and
wrong. They have given to the world a hundred
translations of the Word of God ; many languages they ,
have written for the first time ; for some people they
have framed their first codes of public law. Beholding
their usefulness, and knowing their worth, the Christian
Church will uphold its messengers of mercy as true
benefactors of the world, and will glorify God on their
behalf
The course which missionary enterprise has followed In
modern days, and the extent to which it is now carried
out, must be but briefly alluded to. Though beginning
its work in European colonies, the Church from the first
turned with a longing eye to heathen nations. Stirred
by the marvellous story of Brainerd and his Indians ; by
the conversion of the uncouth Eskimo ; and by the
terrible descriptions of human degradation recorded in the
pages of Cook and Vancouver ; the hearts of many
Christian people were lifted up to God, with earnest
desire to help a world so wretched, in which grace could
work such marvels. Doddridge felt the condition of the
heathen deeply, and pleaded fervently on their behalf
When, therefore, Carey's stirring sermon at Kettering
crystallized into definite action the desire of his Baptist
brethren; and when the enthusiastic meetings at which
And their Results, 541
the London Missionary Society was founded, once set
the South Sea Mission on foot, the scheme expanded
with rapidity, and spheres of labour were occupied
in strength. The pent-up zeal of the Church was
great ; the liberality was large-hearted ; and the work
was undertaken with singular satisfaction. Within
twenty years all the principal Churches of England and
America had formed their Societies, had chosen their
field, and were employing four hundred and fifty mission-
aries in actual work.
The fifty years which have since passed away have
only consolidated and extended these efforts. At home,
arrangements of business and associations for gathering
funds, have long been thoroughly systematized. Abroad,
the various fields have been carefully divided ; — their
most accessible points have been occupied ; agencies
have been originated, which are specially adapted to
places and people ; and the principles by which details
shall be guided have been more clearly defined. There
is a fulness, a definiteness, a system about the work in
all these missions, and there is a cordial union among
the workers, of which opponents are little aware. There
is a settled determination to work and to win, which is
worthy of the lofty purpose they have in view : while in
defence of their converts and of their work, the Christian
Churches at home will stand firm as the solid reefs of
Polynesia, when they fling back great ocean waves in
showers of beautiful but useless spray.
The extent to which their labours have spread, and the
degree in which their chosen fields have been occupied,
we shall indirectly show in speaking of their success.
Suffice it to say, that while Protestant Churches are
the mainspring of enlightenment and progress within
the bounds of Christendom, beyond those bounds
there is scarcely a kingdom or empire of importance in
542
Modern Missions
which their Influence Is not deeply felt. A hundred
missionaries, chiefly from America, are labouring
among the Copts of Egypt, the Jews of Palestine, the
Armenians of the Turkish Empire, and the Nesto-
rians of Persia. A hundred more from all countries
occupy the Ports of China and Slam. Five hundred and
sixty labour In the provinces of India and the Island of
Ceylon. In Madagascar and South Africa there are
nearly three hundred. A hundred and thirty occupy the
slave countries around the Gulf of Guinea; and two
hundred and twenty work for the kindred people In the
West Indies. The Indian tribes of North America have
a hundred and ^v^ missionaries. Two hundred more in-
struct the tribes of Polynesia. Nevertheless, compared
with the attention which they compel, and the power
which they exercise, these missions occupy a trifling space
in the world. Their chief actors are a handful of men ;
their operations are limited ; their friends are few. Their
agencies may be briefly summarized in the following
table : —
1
Countries.
Societies for
Foreign Missions
1
European and
American
Missionaries.
Annual
Expenditure.
Great Britain
21
13
8
8
970
425
542
96
^558,629
114,755
306,142
53,398
Continent of Europe
America
Jewish Missions
Total
50
2,033
;£"i,o32,934
We must not forget the circumstances under which
their work was begun. At the beginning of the cen-
tury the difficulties which lay in their way were enormous.
Throughout Popish Europe the circulation of the Scrip-
tures was forbidden. In the West Indies they could not
preach to the slaves. Till 18 12, jealous officials watched
And their Results. 543
for their landing In India. China exckided all foreign
influences till 1842. Before the Crimean war a Mohamme
dan in Turkey, on professing Christianity, was liable to be
put to death. They were compelled to turn to bar-
barous countries, sunk to the lowest depths of degrada-
tion and vice. Wherever they went, they found it as
difficult to travel, as did Burckhardt or the Landors. They
had to study new languages ; to form their own grammars,
dictionaries, and vocabularies ; to erect all their buildings.
Only after years of labour did they secure competent
native assistants.
Even when these obstacles were surmounted, the prime
difficulty still remained, — the sinful hearts and lives of the
people whom they sought to evangelize. These are the
only real hindrance to progress, and their influence ex-
tends very far. The communities to which missionaries
have gone are Involved in errors, not merely as indi-
viduals, but as nations. All the elements of their national
life are saturated with heathenism. In India, for instance,
everything takes a Hindu aspect. Caste regulates com-
panionship, food, and marriage ; it Interferes with the
claims of humanity in the treatment of the sick. The
Hindu religion regulates the cutting of the hair, the
cleaning of the teeth, the position in which a man should
sleep. It places its idols in the shops ; it supplies the
oaths of common talk; it saturates the words of the lan-
guage, and gives a Hindu aspect to all ideas. The
words God^ sin, salvation, atonement, the other world, have
very different meanings to a Hindu and to an English-
man. All these things have to be Christianized ; — art,
taste, language, habits. Old things must pass away, and
all things must become new. And only when the teaching
of the missionary has reached the soul ; when the Gospel
has moulded public opinion and public law, does his work
of mercy accomplish Its ultimate end.
544 Modern Missions
With a work so vast and so noble before us, we might
with justice urge the question of time, before our critics
press so hardly the question of success. All the great
processes of nature, the mightiest works of art, the
triumphs of engineering skill, require years for their com-
pletion. Slower far are the processes by which vital
changes are wrought in religious belief and in national
habits. Not in a single generation, but in many,
did Christianity revolutionize the opinions and reform the
vices of the Roman Empire. Centuries passed before
its lessons secured a place in the settled opinions of
the world.
How can it be otherwise, when principles are not truly
learned by a people till they are embodied in national
acts, in public laws, in the habits of social life ; till they
enter into their dealings with other nations, are moulded
Into the arts, and find a settled place In their literature.
The work of the Gospel is never complete in any land till
this Is done ; and a rare case would it be. If It were accom-
plished anywhere in the brief period of seventy years. On
behalf of modern missions, therefore, we put in a claim for
time. Nevertheless, brief as the period of their toil has
been, we are not ashamed of the work they have been
doing, — of the ground which they have occupied ; of the
blessing God has given ; or of the results which they
have achieved.
I. Evidence of solid success is found in the fact that the
Gospel has won real converts In large numbers. From
the outset of our work, in all modern missions, these
converts in due time began to be gathered. In some
countries they came early. In others, barbarism and degra-
dation, the difficulties of the language, conservative social
customs, caused long delay. But everywhere they have
come, and, as of old, the Gospel has proved " the power
of God unto salvation." Success, once assured, has in
And their Results. 545
general steadily increased. Tens have become hundreds ;
hundreds have grown to thousands. Separate families
have developed into communities. In continents whole
villages have become Christians. In the seas whole
islands have been evangelized.
Naturally, this particular form of success has usually
been in inverse ratio to the obstacles encountered. In
lands where the providence of God had specially prepared
the way, or where social hindrances were few, results
have been rapid. In small communities, which were vici-
ous and wretched, vital changes soon became apparent.
The South Sea Islanders, the Hottentot and Kaffir
tribes, American Indians, races which had been enslaved,
were early affected by the message of God's love. Simple
nations, like the Karens of Burmah and the Koles in
Bengal, have been drawn to the Church in large numbers.
The civilized and populous empires have moved more
slowly ; and those have held out longest, among whom, as
in India, caste ties are peculiarly strong, and the penalties
threatened against any change of religion are most for-
midable. Even from such societies, however, indivi-
dual converts of the highest excellence have been won,
amid hard fights and struggles ; — have manfully pro-
fessed their faith, and have borne the loss of all things to
maintain it.
Without altogether denying these facts, the opponents
of missions endeavour at least to weaken their force.
These converts, it is said, " have been bribed and bought
over." They are '' Rice Christians." This explanation of
an unacceptable phenomenon was originated a long while
ago, and is constantly repeated by those who know little
of the matter. Several answers may be given to the
allegation. We might ask, — Is such a system of bribery
at all probable ? Is it likely that religious men, men
whom we know, men whose honesty and fair dealing
N N
546
Modern Missions
are a conspicuous feature of their character, would
be willing so to degrade themselves, and try to de-
ceive both God and man ? Is it likely that they would
wish to build up by hypocrisy a Church which hypo-
crisy must speedily ruin ? Apart, however, from all
probabilities, let us look at the numbers of our converts,
and the proofs which they have given that they are
smcere.
In his recently published lectures, the Rev. Dr.
Anderson, the able Secretary of the American Board of
Foreign Missions, gives a valuable statistical view of the
results of modern missions. With a few corrections
from late returns, the results appear as follows : — Churches
or congregations, 2,500 ; Church members or com-
municants, 273,000; nominal Christians, young and old,
1,350,000. The Gospel is taught, and Christian
work is carried on, in four thousand centres of usefulness
outside the bounds of Christendom. Dr. Lowrie, of New
York, distributes the communicants thus :
American Indians 8,200
West Indies 80,000
Madagascar io,ooo
West Africa 14,100
South Africa 30,400
Western Asia 3)i55
India and Ceylon .. 50,000
Burmah and Siam... 12,000
China SjS^o
Polynesia 61,400
The true answer to all doubters is furnished by the
proofs which abound of the converts' sincerity. As in
the Acts of the Apostles, so in the letters, journals, and
addresses of missionaries, constant reference is made to
the conversion of masses and the conversion of indi-
viduals. These papers abound with details of the names,
history, and experience of individuals who have professed
their faith. And any one who will make these records a
study, will find in them remarkable testimony to the
power of the Gospel, and strange illustrations of the
modes in which it affects men's hearts. The young, the
And their Results. 547
old, the healthy, the sick, the dying, are arrested by
a sermon, in the school, in a conversation, by a prayer.
A great warrior is the first man on an island to em-
brace the Gospel. Another rejects it, holds out to the
last, but when he comes to die receives it like a child.
A princess like Keopuolani, a warlike chief like Afri-
caner, once the terror of the Cape Colony, accept it with
all their hearts. Hundreds of cases are recorded in which
the hopes of the Gospel have brightened the hours of
the dying ; and thousands in which the truth embraced
has governed and enlightened the whole of life. " My
brethren and sisters," said a native of an island which
Cook found all heathen, *' this is my resolve : the dust
shall never cover my Bible ; the moth shall never eat
it ; the mildew shall never rot it ; it is my light, my
joy."
That special proof of sincerity which has been af-
forded in all ages by steadfastness under persecution, has
not been wanting in the present day. Such persecutions
have not been few- The fanaticism of Catholic priests,
unchecked by a French governor, has followed Protestant
converts in Polynesia for long years ; yet their faith has
not failed. In violent outbreaks, like that at Ephesus,
Christians have been beaten, their houses rifled, and
many have lost their lives. The question of dress in
Travancore, of water in the Deccan, of roads in Tin-
nevelly, has roused priests and people into fierce opposi-
tion. Mohammedan and Kurd fanaticism has scattered
and peeled the Nestorian converts till nothing was left to
them but life. In the Indian mutiny many native Chris-
tians were exposed to lawless mobs, and suffered loss
and injury in various ways before order was again re-
stored. To the noble army of martyrs not a few have
been added in our own day.
Again, out of these native Churches have sprung indi-
N X 2
54^ Modern Missions
viduals who have devoted themselves to the Church's
work with an energy and self-denial which English
ministers do not surpass. Evangelists, catechists, and
pastors have everywhere offered themselves to carry
the Gospel onward, and, especially in Polynesia, have
been distinguished for the heroism with which, in the
fulfilment of their commission, they have borne the priva-
tions and sufferings to which they were exposed. All
missions can tell of such useful labourers ; but there
are some, who, by their gifts and graces, have been
distinguished among their fellows. Take three cases.
Sau Quala has for many years been well-known
among missionaries in India and Burmah. A Karen,
born in Tavoy, he heard the first sermon preached by
the first convert of that mission. For many years he ac-
companied his minister in his journeys among the hills
of his native province, founding and building up the
young Churches ; and was to all their members an object
of peculiar confidence and affection. On the annexation
of Pegu, he was invited to join the new mission at
Toungu ; and it was for several years under his sole
charge. In three years, under a ministry distinguished
for its spiritual power, thirty Churches were founded,
containing two thousand members, baptized by himself.
His labours, his journeyings, his vigils, his unwearied
self-denial, were truly apostolical ; he was the " prince of
preachers " among the Karen tribes of the Toungu
hills. All this while he received no regular salary, and
lived upon the gifts presented by his grateful people.
The Commissioner of Toungu offered him a handsome
income as overseer of the tribes for the English Govern-
ment ; but he declined both the position and the pay.
He has lived thus among his people for seventeen years,
honoured and beloved by the thousands he has brought
to Christ ; honoured for his lofty' Christian character,
Aiid their Results. 549
and by the blessing which God has given to his efforts.
He is well-known to all the English in Burmah, and by
no one is he more truly trusted and esteemed than by the
late Chief Commissioner, Sir Arthur Phayre.
One of the native ministers of the Church Missionary
Society in Tinnevelly was spoken of in the highest terms
for " his affection, his simplicity, his honesty and straight-
forwardness, his amazing pulpit talents, and his profound
humility." Mr. Thomas says : — ** The last sermon I
heard from him was, without exception, the greatest
sermon I ever heard. Never did I hear Christ so ex-
alted by human tongue. The effect was perfectly over-
whelming."
Dr. Anderson describes the character and work of
Bartimeus, a blind preacher in the Sandwich Islands.
From a most degraded condition, he rose in a few years
to be a devout, eloquent, and successful preacher of the
Word. His mind was richly stored with Scripture pas-
sages, and he could quote them with remarkable ease and
correctness. With a heart full of love to his people,
he would warn them in the most touching terms, and
would beseech them to flee from wrath to come. To
men like him ; to men such as Papeiha, the first teacher
in Rarotonga ; Davida, the evangelizer of Mangaia ;
Tataio, the apostle of Mare ; and many others, is largely
due the evangelization of the most important islands won
by the South Sea Mission.
The defects of our native converts are well-known to
missionaries, and are readily acknowledged. An at-
tentive reader of their letters and reports will find these
deficiencies often referred to. They are just what might
be expected, just what we see in the converts of Apostolic
times. Individuals and communities whose habits had
been formed in heathenism may, under the teaching
of missionaries, accept the principles of the New
d:)
o Modei^n Missions
Testament ; but it may be long, after severe struggles
and many falls, before their habits are so changed,
before good habits so take the place of evil ones, as to
make principle and habit coincide. A missionary may
be saddened by many a fall on the part of his people.
An epidemic of drunkenness, following the visit of
some sea-captain, may pass through a settlement ; the
old restlessness and sensitiveness and pride may burst
out in war; individuals may break the Seventh Com-
mandment ; even a whole community may think lightly
of such sins. Nevertheless, these converts are far more
virtuous than they once were. They do not approve these
faults, they fight against them ; offenders are placed
under discipline ; and an effort is made to keep the
Churches and congregations pure. Often have the
heathen acknowledged the difference between the Chris-
tians and themselves : '* You Christians do not permit
these things to go unpunished." To the men who know
the facts most fully, the wonder is, not that so many
need reproof, but that such a multitude are raised.
Not long ago this conclusion was challenged by one
who is an earnest friend of missions, but who both con-
siders that the number of converts does not correspond
to the work actually done, and accounts for the failure
by asserting that the heathen are repelled by the com-
mon doctrine respecting future punishment. Either the
doctrine is not preached at all, and so the motive of
terror is lost : or, if preached, it repels hearers from the
Christian system offered for their acceptance. But, on the
one hand, I cannot admit that the progress has been
slow, or that our victories have been poor. Certain
countries, provinces, and cities, have been very dead to
the Gospel ; but these cases are not numerous, and can
be accounted for. The general result has been en-
couraging in the highest degree. On the other hand, I
A)i(^ their Results. 551
do not think that the preaching referred to has been
to any extent a difficulty. In defence of the doctrine
of future punishment, it has usually sufficed to show
enquiring heathens that men are punished by a just
God, not for the mere opinions they have held, but for
the actual wrong-doing of which they have been guilty.
The real difficulty in the reception of the Gospel has, in
all countries, been not the future, but the present. The
social penalties inflicted on a believer, to which our Lord
referred, — penalties to be suffered now, — have proved
to many an enquirer a greater terror than any prospect
in the future world. *' The brother shall deliver the
brother to death, and the father the son; and children
shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to
be put to death." Public and social opinion has often
been opposed to the progress of the Gospel ; and in the
two great Eastern Empires the conservative habits of
centuries have intensified that opposition, and have raised
up a barrier in the way of Christian profession, truly
formidable to the upper classes of society, which social
opinions most largely influence. The loss and shame and
persecution so produced have proved a difficulty to which
the doctrinal teaching was not to be compared.
With one thing strongly implied in this discussion,
though but partially expressed, I heartily concur. If
missionaries abroad, as well as ministers at home, de-
sire to preach the Gospel with real power, they must
bring largely into their preaching, as one element of its
vitality, an intense realization of the eternal world. Is it
true that these millions are without excuse ? Is it true
that the fearful, the abominable, the vicious, the idolaters,
and all liars shall have their part in the second death 1 Is
it true, with this doom before him, that *' Whosoever will,
may take the water of life freely ; " and that *' Christ is
able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by
552 Modern Missions
him ? " Then how earnest, how tender, how faithful
should the ambassadors for Christ be ; warning every
man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that they
may present every man perfect in Christ, As I write
these words I see Richard Knill once more upon the
platform, pleading with earnest eyes and uplifted hand :
— " Brethren, the heathen are perishing ; shall we let
them perish ? God forbid."
No low estimate ought to be put on this result of
our missionary operations, the Churches and the converts
which have been gathered by their influence. Here are two
hundred and seventy thousand men and women, not only
introduced into the Church of Christ, on a credible profes-
sion of their faith, but giving evidence of its genuineness
in improved and consistent lives. We have rescued
them from heathenism, from the advocacy and practice of
error, from unchecked vice and crime. We have
elevated not only them, but their children ; we have
saved them as neighbours, as fellow-citizens, as nations
We have won their intelligence, their literature, their
material resources, their public law. Christ has placed
His sanctifying hand on all they have and all they are.
For His service He claims all the varieties of their cha-
racter, all the diversities of their national life.
What a vast array of beauty do those varieties involve.
If in our national exhibitions of fruit and flowers, the
oranges of Malta lose nothing beside the grapes of sunny
France ; if the roses of England appear in place by
the gorgeous rhododendrons of India ; and the blue
forget-me-nots and gentians of the Alps hold their
ground by the side of the lilies and dahlias, the
azaleas and orchids of other lands ; if in our English
landscape,
*' Town and village, dome and farm,
Each gives each a double charm,
Like pearls upon an Ethiop's arm ; — "
And their Results. 553
so Is It with the Church of Christ. To that Church
every nation must bring Its own contribution of beauty,
strength, and glory. Already that tribute is gathering,
and Increases in Its wealth every year. In the green
damasked chapels of Peking, with their vermilllon pillars ;
in the jungles of the Karens ; among the hills of Armenia ;
amid the deep swamps of the Gulf of Guinea and the
palm groves of Jamaica ; among the ferns of Ralatea, and
around the great crater of Hawaii ; in the villages of
Christian Cherokees and Dakotahs ; and on the pros-
perous farms of the milk-eaters of Russia ; preachers and
people may differ in their buildings, their dress, their
melodies, their languages : but one Name is on their lips,
one song rises to the skies. " Beloved, now are we the
sons of God ;" "He hath made of one blood all nations of
men to dwell upon the face of all the earth." *' Unto him
that hath loved us, and washed us from our sins in his
own blood, be glory and dominion for ever and ever.
Amen."
n. These general results maybe shown more distinctly
in certain fields of missionary labour. The South Sea
Islands, as they were the first of those fields to be occu-
pied, so have they been one of the most fascinating to
the labourers, and one of the most distinguished for their
success. They may, therefore, fitly be examined before
others. The world long since contemplated with wonder
the strange picture drawn of the Polynesian races by
the great navigator who first made them fully known.
Yet Cook and Vancouver were only the beginning of a
long line of able seamen who have surveyed the Pacific,
have protected the commerce that floats across Its stormy
seas, and have told the same tale. Even adventurers
who have hated missionaries, and found them a terrible
hindrance to their lawless schemes, cannot vary the
story. And the picture Is dark indeed. Though a manly
554 Modern Missions
people, kind-hearted and hospitable to strangers ; yet
they are suspicious, sensitive, quick to avenge a slight ;
cruel in war, cruel to slaves. Vicious in the extreme ;
with some alleviations, they have seemed determined to
crowd the horrors of life into a narrow compass, and to
show how low in the scale of humanity some barbarous
races can descend. Without hesitation living men were
buried alive to uphold the pillars of a royal dwelling-house ;
canoes were launched into the sea over the bodies of living
prisoners of war ! Who can forget the long hair, the
outstretched spears, the threatening gestures of the men
of Nine, which Cook in consequence called Savage
Island ? Where do we find it otherwise now on the
hundreds of islands that still rem.ain untouched by the
Gospel ?
Four of the principal missionary Societies have laboured
among the isolated groups of East and South Polynesia
from the commencement of the present century. The
missionaries went to these degraded tribes as men.
They were totally unknown, they had no force to compel
attention or even to protect their lives. They had no
ships, no guns, no funds for bribes. Their whole strength
lay in love. Words of kindness, words of wisdom,
thoughtful attention to the suffering and the sick, were
their instruments of power. Their influence sprang from
their character, their spirit, the skill which they dis-
played ; it was derived from within, not from without.
They were often misrepresented by runaway convicts
and by vicious crews. In the early days several were
murdered, and a few grew weary of the suffering and the
toil. But as a body they held on, amid privations, dis-
couragements, and trials of no ordinary kind. They
mastered the languages and wrote them down ; they pre-
pared and printed the first books. They conversed, they
explained, they taught, they preached. Fifty years ago
Anc/ their Rcsiilts. 555
there were only twenty such men in all the South Sea
Islands.
In the Tahitian Mission, founded at the close of the
last century, the difficulties, the privation, the loneliness,
borne by the English labourers were very great. Supplies
failed the missionaries repeatedly. The barbarism, the utter
degradation of the people, were painful in the extreme.
But at length one Tahitian, then another began to pray,
and Idolatry soon fell. Pomare had kindly dispositions,
and saw the excellence of the Gospel ; but he was a
slave to terrible vices, and his last days were very dark.
His relative, Tamatoa, the King of Raiatea, a brave
warrior and a good king, was a humble, spiritual Chris-
tian ; he governed his people with wisdom, and firmness,
and died exhorting them to lay fast hold of the Gospel.
From island to island the new faith spread steadily and
with rapidity. The native evangelists were foremost in
the enterprise, and bravely offered to carry the Gospel
among people who threatened their lives. Thus the
Harvey group were added; then Samoa was Christianized ;
the Loyalty Islands followed : God's Providence ever
went before His people, and opened their way. The
work of Instructing, elevating, and leading the Churches
onward has been hard, but men have been found to do
it faithfully, and great has been their reward. Nothing
in the native religions, or even in their vicious insti-
tutions, has been able to withstand the Gospel. Can-
nibalism, cruelties, dark immoralities, infanticide, idolatry,
have all disappeared. Drink has proved a stronger
foe than Idolatry ; and wandering sailors and captains
selling spirits, have been the tempters whose vices
and whose greed have brought sorrow into many a
home.
The Sandwich Islands, containing in Cook's time a
hundred thousand people, have long been Christian, and
55^ Mode^ni Missions
have risen to a higher condition of civiHzation than any
other group in Polynesia. The oppressive restrictions
of the tabu, from which the people in general revolted,
and the strange news which had reached them from
Tahiti, that Pomare and Tamatoa had flung away their
idols, prepared the Hawaians to do the same. Like
Coifi, in the kingdom of Deira, the priests themselves
led the way; and when, in 1820, the American mission-
aries arrived, they found the idols gone. Several of the
converts who were easily won to Christianity were persons
of distinguished excellence. One of the most impressive
events which attended the overthrow of the ancient
system, was the visit of the Princess Keopuolani to the
great crater of Hawaii, that she might prove to the
people the futility of their fears of the wrath of Pele ;
and her safe return from amidst the volcanic fires pro-
duced a profound impression in favour of the new religion.
In 1837 a remarkable revival of religion took place through-
out the islands, and more than a fourth of the adult popula-
tion were added to the Church. From various causes the
population of the group has been diminished, but one-third
of the inhabitants are at this time in the communion of the
Church, of whom eight hundred were received in 1868.
They are associated in thirty native Churches, which have
native pastors supported by their people. These Churches
support thirteen native missionaries, chosen from among
themselves, in the Marquesas Islands, and in Mikronesia ;
and last year they contributed ^6,000 for various Chris-
tian objects. Mr. Manley Hopkins, in his able book on
the Sandwich Islands, has by no means done justice to
the American mission. He has forgotten that the King
and Queen, on whose behalf it was written, obtained all
their education and enlightenment from that mission,
which they so strangely set aside. Nevertheless, he
cannot help acknowledging that the missionaries have
And their Results. 557
done a great work, and that God has given to their work
a remarkable blessing.
The work of the Church Missionary Society in New
Zealand deserves honourable mention in any story of
mission-work in the Pacific. The Maoris are a noble
race, and bade fair to be a strong, Christian people, holding
an honourable place in the world's history. But the " King-
movement," occasioned by the never-ceasing pressure
of the English colonists, brought on a series of contests
which have ruined their once pleasant prospects. The
old spirit has returned to the people ; constant war has
expended their resources, their numbers have diminished ;
a dark cloud rests on their future, and ere long they will
probably be wholly extinguished.
Perhaps the most remarkable successes in Polynesia
are those of the Wesley an Mission in Fiji. The Fiji
Islands, eighty in number, contain a population of two
hundred thousand people. Thirty years ago they were
all cannibals, and were cruel and degraded in the extreme.
The volume written by Captain Erskine, R.N., describes
blacker horrors and vices as prevalent among them than
among any other tribes which the Havannah visited.
Seamen dreaded these islands ; if one day they were
hospitably entertained, the next they were liable to
be murdered. But the Wesleyan missionaries have met
all the difficulties of their position with fidelity, self-
denial, and courage. One-half the native population is
professedly Christian ; twenty-two thousand are Church
members ; thirty thousand are in the schools. Cannibalism,
polygamy, and infanticide are fast passing away. Here
also the New Zealand difficulty has arisen in recent
days ; and it is feared that the native race, saved at
length from its vices, will fade away in presence of the
white men now swarming to its shores.
The most striking trophy of Christian labour in the
558 Modern Missions
Pacific is the evangelizing of Savage Island. In the
magnitude of the victory it does not compare with Fiji,
with Samoa, or even with Tahiti ; its people are only
five thousand in number ; but that victory must be mea-
sured by the obstacles which were overcome. They
were not the only wild men in those seas, but they
were determined to allow no stranger to land on their
shores and live. Perhaps disease had alarmed them, or
some tradition of former suffering from invaders had occa-
sioned that resolve. Whatever the cause, they kept it
steadily before them from one generation to another.
This was the secret of their refusal to let Cook land.
Erskine saw them, and treated them well. At last
Mr. Williams got two men away in his Messe^iger of
Peace. Eventually, the island and people w^ere con-
quered by a devoted native evangelist, Paulo, and the
work has been ably built up and completed by an
English missionary. To restore its people to intercourse
with the rest of mankind, to lead them to the feet of the
Lord Jesus Christ, and to wipe away all their heathenism,
has been the work of seventeen years. They are all
nominal Christians now, and twelve hundred of them are
Church members.
In more than three hundred islands of Eastern and
Southern Polynesia, the Gospel has swept heathenism
entirely away. The four great Societies, which have
sent their brethren forth as messengers of mercy, have
gathered four hundred thousand people into Christ's
fold, of whom a quarter of a million are living still, and
of whom fifty thousand are communicants. These So-
cieties have together expended on the process less than
;!^ 1,200,000, a sum which will not suffice for the construc-
tion of a London railway, and will hardly furnish the navy
with six ironclads. Yet how wonderful the fruit of their
toil. " The wolf dwells with the lamb, and the leopard
Afid their Results. 559
lies down with the kid." The destruction of Hfe has
been stayed ; feuds between families and tribes have
died out under the soothing influence of Christian love.
The hideous rites and vices of their fathers have all
disappeared. Civilization has sprung up naturally in
the regenerated and obedient heart. Beautiful as were
these lands by nature, culture has rendered them more
lovely still. The white chapel and school have taken
the place of the blood-stained marai. The trim cottage,
which Christianity has given them, peeps everywhere from
its nook of leaves. Public law in written codes governs
alike chiefs and people. Resources have multiplied ; in-
dustry has provided household comforts never before
attainable ; wealth has begun to accumulate. Every
island has Its roads ; cultivated gardens abound on
every side. The Sabbath is observed better than In
England. Large Churches have been gathered ; the
children attend school ; good men and good women are
numerous. Not a few have offered themselves as mis-
sionaries to heathen Islands, and in zeal, self-sacrifice,
and patient service have equalled the earnest men of
other climes. In view of results like these, — results
tolled for, results expected, successes promised, — shall
we not say in thankfulness, — What hath God wrought !
In the midst of our joyful thanksgivings, the ground
and reason of which have been tested year after year by
the men who know the work best, the late Mr. Buckle
boldly steps in, and in his calm, authoritative way pro-
nounces the whole a fable : —
" Men of excellent intentions, and full of a fervent though mistaken
zeal, have been, and still are, attempting to propagate their own religion
among the inhabitants of barbarous countries. By strenuous and unre-
mitting activity, and frequently by promises, and even by actual gifts,
they have in many cases persuaded savage communities to make a
profession of the Catholic religion. But whoever will compare the
triumphant reports of the missionaries with the long chain of evidence
560 Modern Missions
supplied by competent travellers, will soon find that such profession is
only nominal, and that these ignorant tribes have adopted, indeed, the
ceremonies of the new religion, but have by no means adopted the
religion itself"
It would be wholly beneath the self-respect of mis-
sionaries to notice the cool assertion, that they have
employed direct bribery In winning the quarter of a
million converts whom they have gathered in Polynesia
alone. But nothing is more proper than to appeal to
" competent travellers ;" and, strange to say, in Polynesia
the captains of the Royal Navy, who have often visited
the mission-stations, almost without exception, give evi-
dence directly opposed to Mr. Buckle's sweeping asser-
tions. Let us listen to one of the most '' competent " of
these travellers, the late Admiral Fitzroy : —
" To the exertions of the London Missionary Society," he says, "I
for one can bear the most ample testimony, for I have seen the effects
myself. .... I have been with the natives at the top of the
mountains, when no eye was upon them, but that of a stranger whom
they might never see again, and the conduct of the natives of Otaheite
was just as correct; they were as sincere in their morning and evening
prayers, and in the manner in which they spoke of the exertions of the
missionaries among the neighbouring islands, as in the low country
near the sea, where the missionaries resided,"
Another competent traveller, Admiral Wilkes, of the
United States' Navy, speaks as clearly on the same
topic : —
" The external signs of moral and religious improvement are con-
spicuous. Many of the natives are scrupulous in their attention to
Christian duties, and are members in communion with the Church.
All are strict observers of the Sabbath. Nowhere, indeed, is its insti-
tution more religiously attended to than in those Polynesian islands
which are under missionary influence."
One of the warmest testimonies offered to the useful-
ness of missionary work, is also one of the most recent.
It is given by a gentleman who visited the Navigator's
A? id their Rcstilts. 561
Islands in Her Majesty's screw-steamer Brisk, and may-
be found in the ** Blackwood *' of January, 1868.
*• \ye have said that the London Missionary Society has the spiritual
care of the Samoan Islands. The first missionaries were established
there about thirty years ago, but the group had been frequently visited
by them previously to that date. With what zeal and devotedness these
excellent men have laboured, needs not here to be enlarged upon.
With respect to the success that has attended their labours, it is suffi-
cient to say that all heathen and barbarous practices have been
abolished ; Christianity is firmly established ; life and property are as
secure as in England, nay, more so, as theft is almost unknown ; the
morals of the people have been greatly improved ; a general system of
education prevails ; and the Bible is admirably translated, and in the
hands of every member of the community. The difficulties which the
missionaries in Samoa had to contend with were certainly far less than
in many other islands in these seas. Here were no bloodthirsty,
ferocious cannibals, but a mild and gentle race, well disposed towards
strangers, with no elaborate system of idolatry to overthrow ; so that
the mission was established without difficulty, and the progress was
rapid and continued. So apt and intelligent are this people, that
Samoa very soon became a centre of missionary enterprise, sending
forth trained native teachers to other islands."
Only to one other class of witnesses do we appeal, who
render a silent testimony which cannot be galnsayed. It
is not merely Admiral FItzroy and Captain Ersklne, and
Admiral Wilkes, who testify to the reality of these results;
but to these Christian Islands, where sailors were once
afraid to land, hundreds of whalers run gladly every year
to get the refreshment which their hard toil renders so
grateful. From icebergs and boundless seas, and heavy
gales of wind ; from the exciting chase, the capture, the
boiling down of their huge prey ; and from all the filthy,
weary work of whaling life, they now run north to
Fiji and Samoa, Tahiti and Rarotonga ; not only to refit
their vessels and to replace their broken gear, but to buy
fresh meat and vegetables and coffee ; to get medicine
for their sick ; to revel in oranges, plantains, and water-
melons ; to feast the eye on green mountains and cultured
o o
562 . Modern Missions
valleys ; to walk among white cottages and flower
gardens and groves of palms ; to attend Sabbath ser-
vices, and be reminded of their Christian training and
their Christian homes. Where have unaided men, how-
ever wise, produced a moral change like this ? With us
the Gospel alone has done it, and to God we give all the
praise.
III. No sphere of missionary labour has been more
strangely transformed by the Gospel than the island of
Madagascar. The course which that labour took, and
the marvellous results which have followed it, far surpass
anything of a similar kind, even in Apostolic days. And
if the story could be fully and worthily told, it would be
found more thrilling in its incidents than the pages of a
romance. In many respects Madagascar is a fitting scene
for such a history. One of the noblest islands in the
world, nine hundred miles in length and three hundred
broad, its level coasts are enriched with the abundance of
tropical life, while its central table-lands enjoy the milder
climate, and are clothed with the varied products of the
temperate zone. Beautiful to the eye are its vast forests,
its chains of lofty hills, its smiling pastures and well-
w^atered fields. Ages ago Arab and Persian merchants
brought their long pattamars with their huge eyes into
its harbours to traffic in slaves ; and their sailors carried
back, like Sinbad, marvellous legends about its wonderful
plants, and its gigantic birds, with their huge talons
and enormous eggs. Dimly known in Europe through
the reports of Marco Paolo, stray vessels from the fleets
of Vasco di Gama and of Albuquerque must have looked
with interest on its lofty mountains and fertile valleys ; and
often, in their visits to Johanna, must its riches have
been heard of by the vessels of that English trading
Company, which had already begun to grasp the crown of
India.
Afid their Results. 563
Peopled chiefly by tribes of Malay and Polynesian
origin, who probably reached the island at different epochs;
and partly colonized by immigrants from the African
coasts and by the mercantile classes of Arabia and Persia ;
traditional jealousies for ages kept its races separate,
and often involved the land In war. Even throughout the
last century the island was full of petty kingdoms, and
the towering hills of Ankova, like the droogs of the
Mysore, were crowned with fortresses, the capitals of in-
dependent kingdoms, whose mutual struggles hindered all
progress, and kept the tribes In poverty and wretched-
ness. It was only fifty years ago that the genius of
Radama, aided by a disciplined army, brought the
whole island for the first time under the rule of the
Hovas. In recent years the conquest was completed
by that humane and kindly government of his son,
which won all hearts.
Since their Introduction to other nations, the Malagasy
have shown themselves an intelligent, enterprising people,
ingenious in their manufactures, careful in money mat-
ters, with a warm love of liberty, and ambitious of an
honourable place in the world's history. Their morals
were very defective, and their civilization comparatively
poor. Even In the present day no roads exist throughout
the island ; except the tracks worn by the feet of labourers,
by the great herds of cattle, or by gangs of slaves.
The mission was founded In 18 18, and from the first
received the warm sympathy and support of the en-
lightened King who had invited its members to his
capital. Before Radama died in 1828 it had supplied the
people with excellent schools, the use of the printing
press, and considerable knowledge of Improved mechanical
arts; and it had laid a broad and deep foundation for the
enlightenment of the nation at large. During his
reign also were sown those seeds of spiritual life and
002
564 Modern Missions
Christian principle which produced a strong native
Church, and were destined to secure a solid religious re-
formation of the entire country. At the time of Radama's
death there were four thousand young people in the
schools, many of whom belonged to noble families ;
Bible- classes were established among them ; and several
individuals had been baptized.
Radama was succeeded by one of his queens, Rana-
valona, who, to secure her power, waded through scenes
of slaughter and cruelty of the most appalling kind.
Unlike her husband, she had a most bigoted attachment
to the ancient idolatries of the country ; and as soon as
she found herself firm upon the throne, she set her face
against all change. For a while she sanctioned the
schools, believing them to be useful ; and encouraged
those improvements in the arts which stimulated in-
dustry; and, strangely enough, it was under her sanction
that the missionaries printed the greater portion of those
Malagasy scriptures, which during dark days were to
sustain the faith which the Queen in bitter hatred was
seeking to destroy.
Ere long the fact became apparent that the words of
the English teachers were leading some of her people to
doubt and to forsake the religion of their fathers. They
were anxious to keep a day holy, which the government
did not recognize as such ; to meet for worship as
others did not ; and to pray to the God of the mis-
sionaries, not to the old kings and gods of the country,
whom all their companions revered. She proceeded
cautiously in her resistance to these innovations, in which
she was upheld by the priests and a strong party in the
government. Before the end of 1831 the observance of
Baptism and of the Lord's Supper was forbidden, first to
the soldiers, and then to the people at large. Before
two years had passed one and another of the missionaries
And their Results. 565
was commanded to quit the country, till only two re-
mained. In 1835 the increase in the number of Chris-
tian believers, and the deep dislike of the idolatrous party
to all change, brought matters to a crisis. On the first of
March a proclamation was issued forbidding the profes-
sion of Christianity, and commanding all Christians to
confess their crime, or suffer death.
The first terror and agitation passed, the course to be
adopted was promptly chosen. Multitudes of those who had
attended worship and possessed Christian books, confessed
their fault and submitted to the Queen ; amongst them
four hundred officers were deprived of their honours, and
two thousand others were fined. From the first a large
number of converts refused to submit, and resolved to die
rather than deny the Saviour. By degrees they became
known to each other ; and, like the Covenanters and
other persecuted saints, they met in forests, on the tops
of mountains, or in lonely houses at the dead of night, to
read the Scriptures and pray together, and to strengthen
each other's faith. Their earliest gatherings gave them
peculiar comfort, and were long remembered when many
who had attended them were in exile or in chains. They
found that they possessed seventy Bibles ; a considerable
number of copies of the New Testament and Psalms ;
and various Christian books. They had also eight copies
of the " Pilgrim's Progress " in manuscript.
Great efforts were made by their persecutors to discover
the leading Christians. It was hoped that with the de-
parture of the last of the English missionaries the new
jfaith would die out ; and it was a great disappointment
when the converts were found to be meeting still In 1837
ten were apprehended and condemned to slavery. As
under the Roman Empire, so now, the evidence of their
crime was furnished by slaves, by Idolatrous relatives, or
by debtors who were anxious to escape their obligations.
566 Modern Missions
On the 14th of August the first martyr, Rasalama, a
noble Christian woman, was speared. A year after,
Rafaralahy, who had attended her to the last, and was
a true helper of the scattered converts, followed her.
Eighteen in all were speared on the spot where these
martyrs suffered ; and the calm courage they displayed,
their perfect steadfastness, their joy in death, excited the
amazement of the heathen crowds who saw them die.
Of the character and sufferings of a most courageous
woman, Rafaravavy, we cannot now speak. She was
loaded with chains, and on two occasions narrowly escaped
being put to death ; she was sold into slavery, but made
her escape, and eventually reached the Mauritius and
came to England. Simeon and David, leaders among
the Christians, also fled. Having money of their master's,
" their first concern was to draw up an accurate account
of all sales and receipts and to leave this paper with
what remained of his property. The oppressor was
astonished, and exclaimed : ' These would have made
excellent servants, if they would but leave off their reli-
gion.'" Others fled with them, and the hair-breadth
escapes which, during six months, were experienced by
the little band of fugitives, were truly marvellous.
During the first eight years of trial, seventeen were put
to death ; two hundred at least became fugitives ; hun-
dreds more were in chains or slavery. The wonderful
fidelity of these young converts to their Master and to
each other ; their patience under great privation ; their
noble endurance, when submission would in a moment
have brought comfort ; called forth the gratitude and the
admiration of Christians throughout the world. On only
one point did they acknowledge that they were " much
afflicted." Their Bibles were quite worn out !
In 1845 ^^ persecutors were bitterly reminded that
there was One stronger than they. "He that sitteth in
And their Results. 567
the heavens shall laugh ; the Lord shall have them in
derision." Under the influence of an eloquent preacher,
Ralnaka, the Christians in the capital, on three occasions,
boldly assembled for worship ; and in a short time a
hundred converts were added to their number. Among
them were Rakoto, the Queen's only son ; also the
favourite nephew of her co-persecutor, the Commander-
in-chief; and Ramonja, the prince's cousin, a son of the
Queen's sister. Respecting the prince the Christians
wrote : "He comes regularly with us into the woods
on Sunday to pray and sing and read the Bible ; he
often takes some of us home with him to explain to
him the word of truth ; and he keeps his mother from
doing us any harm." The prince was a very humane
man, who objected strongly to the cruelties of the perse-
cution ; and for sixteen years on many occasions he stood
between the converts and the penalties with which they
were threatened. A very earnest spirit was poured out
upon the Christians at this time, A hundred and fifty
of them were teachers of small Bible-classes of selected
scholars ; and great numbers visited the Christians who
were in prison, to hear from them the Word of God.
The persecutors were greatly enraged when they saw
the failure of their efforts, and felt how close the new
religion had come to themselves. A new effort, there-
fore was resolved on. In February, 1849, nine Christians
were consigned to prison, and a public assembly was called
to hear the Queen's views : — " I have deprived officers
of their honour, have put some to death, reduced others
to slavery, and you still persevere in practising this new
religion. What is the reason why you will not renounce
it?" With a marvellous boldness, two Christians stood
up and replied : — '' We are restrained by reverence for
God and His law." With all their earnestness, their deep
spiritual enjoyment, and their strength of principle, there
568 Modem Missions
was no unhealthy enthusiasm, no ill-regulated zeal, which
gave them an undue desire for a martyr's crown, or led
them to fling away life by accusing themselves. They
were bold and fearless when accused ; but they were
eminently calm and truthful in their testimony ; a'^.d the
solidity of their faith and joy in God not only amazed
the multitude, but drew many to their side. " Do you
pray to the sun, or the moon, or the earth ? " asked the
officer. '' I do not pray to these," was the answer, " for
the hand of God made them." '' Do you pray to the
twelve sacred mountains ? " ''I do not pray to them,
for they are mountains." "" Do you pray to the idols that
render sacred the kings ? " I do not pray to them, for
the hand of man made them." " Do you pray to the
ancestors of the sovereigns ? " '' Kings and rulers are
given by God, that we should serve and obey them, and
render them homage. Nevertheless, they are only men
like ourselves. When we pray, we pray to God alone."
The official enquiries made at this time, and the edicts
pronounced, show emphatically that the Christian con-
verts were a holy people ; not a crime is even hinted at
except the observance of the foreign religion. Their
practices are constantly described, in language like the
following : —
*' These are the things which shall not be done, saith the Queen. The
saying to others, believe and obey the Gospel ; the practice of baptism ;
the keeping of the Sabbath as a day of rest ; the refusing to swear by
one's father or mother, or sister or brother \ and the refusing to be sworn,
with a stubbornness like that of bullocks, or stones, or wood ; the taking
of a little bread and the juice of the grape, and asking a blessing to
rest on the crown of your heads ; and kneeling down upon the ground
and praying, and rising from prayer with drops of water falling from
your noses, and with tears rolling down from your eyes."
Under this revival of the persecuting spirit, in a few
days nineteen Christians, conspicuous for their character
And thei)' Results. 569
and zeal, were apprehended, and it was resolved to
make a severe example. All were condemned to die ;
the four nobles (one of them a lady) were ordered to be
burned alive ; fifteen others were to be thrown over a
precipice. At one o'clock the night before their execu-
tion, a large gathering of their companions secretly took
place, not to break prison or attempt a rescue, but to
commend the sufferers specially to God in prayer. " At
one at night, we met together and prayed." With the
early dawn the whole city was astir ; it had been
whispered that the Christians were to die, and an im-
mense multitude gathered to witness the sight.
On the west side of Antananarivo, is a steep pre-
cipice of granite, a hundred-and-fifty feet high ; the
terrace above which, had long been used as a place of
execution. Above the terrace the ground rises rapidly
to the crest of the ridge, on which the city is built, and
on which the palace enclosure, with its lofty dwellings,
stands conspicuous. Beneath the precipice the ground
is a mass of jagged rocks and boulders, upon which the
unhappy criminal would fall headlong, when rolled or
thrown over the ledge. The refined cruelty which
invented this terrible punishment has, in the modern
world, been repeated in but one country and among one
people, the half-savage population of Mexico. Through
the thousands that had crowded every point of the
sloping hill, the condemned brethren were carried,
wrapped in mats and slung on poles. But they prayed
and sang as they passed along the roadway ; " and some
who beheld them, said that their faces were like the faces
of angels." One by one they were thrown over the
precipice, the rest looking on. " Will you cease to pray ? "
was the only question. *' No/' was the firm answer in
every case. And in a moment the faithful martyr lay
bleeding, and mangled, and dead, among the rocks below.
5/0 Modern Missions
The terrors of the day were not yet over. At the
north end of the city, on the crest of the ridge, prepara-
tions were made for burning the four condemned nobles ;
and stakes, faggots, and iron chains were duly provided.
But the same fidelity, the same true courage of heart,
which an undoubting faith had given to their brethren
already slain, animated these martyrs also. With calm
front they walked together, through an excited crowd,
singing hymns of gladness. On one side, at a short
distance, stood a group of Christians waving their last
adieu. At another point stood soldiers and heathen,
who asked, " Where is Jehovah now ? Why does He not
come and take you away ? " When fastened to the stake
they sang the well-known hymn : —
" There is a blessed land,
Making most happy ;
Never thence shall rest depart,
Nor cause of sorrow come."
As they sang, a rainbow arched the heavens, one foot of
which seemed to rest on the spot where they suffered.
Prayer followed praise, " O Lord, receive our spirits, and
lay not this sin to their charge." *' Thus they prayed as
long as they had any life. Then they died, but softly,
gently : indeed, gently was the going forth of their life.
And astonished were all the people around, that beheld
the burningf of them there."
Long and bitter was the renewed trial, of which these
terrible scenes were the beginning. The sufferings of
1849, the Christians themselves call "the great persecu-
tion." Before it moderated, more than a hundred were
flogged and condemned to work in chains ; many were
heavily fined ; nobles were reduced to the position of
labourers and slaves, and were condemned to the heaviest
tasks, in felling trees, in dragging timber, or quarrying
and carrying stone. Altogether nineteen hundred and
And their Rcsulls. 571
three received a definite punishment, because they
beHeved in Jesus, or sympathized with those who did
so. Even the Queen's nephew was heavily fined, and
stripped of all his '' honours." But he bore the disgrace
with meek submission, and continued still to help the
Christians, who felt for him the highest regard.
For a time the Churches "had rest, and were edified ;
and walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of
the Holy Ghost, were multiplied." Their earnest cry was
still for tiie Scriptures, their copies of which were gradu-
ally being worn out, or were ruined by the weather, or
were discovered and destroyed. Most touching tales are
told of their attachment to the few leaves that a family
possessed; of the long passages, and books, which indi-
viduals committed to memory ; one earnest worker, it is
said, became blind by incessantly copying the Divine Word
for his brethren's use. In 1852, the Prime Minister, who,
next to the Queen, was the chief persecutor, died. His
son was a Christian ; the Queen was compelled to lean
on her own son's advice more than before ; and it was
even hoped that she would abdicate in his favour.
But these hopes were frustrated. Nine years of sorrow
had still to be borne. Another great effort was yet to be
made to destroy the young and vigorous Church, the
" burning bush " which had not been " consumed : " and
so "the dragon came forth, having great wrath, knowing
that he had but a short time." In July, 1857, the
hate and anger of the Queen blazed out as fiercely as
ever. '' There were Christians still among her people ;
she had discovered that there were thousands in the
capital ; every one knew how she hated the sect ; she
would punish the guilty with death." Search was made
everywhere ; some Christians were tortured to make them
name their companions ; nevertheless few were discovered
and proved guilty, out of thousands who were within
'^1'2. Modern Missions
reach. The rage of the Queen knew no bounds. " She
would search the rivers, and lakes, and the bowels of the
earth, that not one Christian might escape." Within
fifteen days, fourteen converts were stoned to death, on a
new spot, a mile from the city. And Iron rings and
heavy manacles were prepared, in which gangs of seven
were chained together, suffering Intense weariness and
pain. Sixty individuals, men and women, were so
fastened, and were paraded in the public markets, that
their pain might strike terror into others. To their ever-
lasting honour be it recorded, that not one apostatized.
Several died in their chains, others bore the terrible
burden for four years, and were freed only when the new
reign brought to the oppressed nation that peace and
liberty, which for an entire generation, neither heathen
nor Christian had known. The last effort of rage spent
itself. '*The wind ceased and there was a great calm." In
1 86 1, the persecuting Queen, bitter to the last, was
stricken with death, and after lingering in weakness for
several months, quietly passed away. All classes of the
people were jubilant with delight, and the persecuted
returned home.
The persecution of the native Church in Madagascar
is the most conspicuous example of that form of trial
which has occurred In the whole range of modern
missions. The hate, the bigotry, the cruelty directed
against the Christians and their religion, were as per-
sistent and unrelenting as those displayed by any single in-
dividual, or by any government, in any age. The converts
were left alone. Their English pastors and counsellors
had been driven away. They knew little or nothing of
the precedents of Church history. No one had told them
to brave stripes, imprisonment, and death. Yet they did
it. They did it naturally. They found it in the Book,
which they prized as their dearest possession. There they
And their Results. 573
read, " Fear not them that kill the body ;" *' We ought to
obey God rather than men." They believed that Book
sincerely ; they loved the Saviour supremely, and " they
remembered his words." Therefore they laid down
their lives rather than disobey Him. Surely this is to
be true converts ; this is to be living martyrs, martyrs
unto death ; "witnesses" that God's grace is all sufficient ;
that God's love is worth all worlds. Surely here we have
evidence, distinct, continued, triumphant, that the old
Gospel has not lost its power ; that the living Spirit still
accompanies the preacher ; and that our modern missionary
Church has gathered trophies of principle, precisely
similar to those which the Apostles and the early Chris-
tians won. If, then (as Mr. Lecky says), *' noble lives,
crowned by heroic deaths, were the best arguments of the
infant Church," and if " their enemies, themselves, not
unfrequently acknowledged it," we claim from our op-
ponents the same confession now. And we doso the more,
that fidelity under persecution, and patient submission
under reproach, have not been confined to Madagascar ;
but in varied forms, and in varied degrees, have been
displayed by old and young, in every country in which
the Gospel has been preached, and in which its adherents
have been subjected to similar penalties.
The genuineness of the piety thus produced in Mada-
gascar, and the faithfulness of God in hearing the prayers
of His people, are further illustrated by the Church's re
cent history. It were long to tell all the strange incidents
and vital changes that have been crowded into the story of
seven years. Regaining its lost liberty, the Church stood
forth at once before the nation "an exceeding great
army." In the autumn of 1861, it contained on its rolls
more than two thousand members, and the regular congre-
gations soon numbered five thousand persons. Rich in
faith, strong in principle, this native Church only needed
574 Modern Missions
a wider range of Scripture knowledge, and some guidance
in its public affairs. It was a constituted body, having its
pastors and teachers, and it was singularly free from
foreign elements. The teachers had drawn their views
directly from the New Testament, and they were very
earnest in spreading the Gospel around them.
Under the wise guidance of the Rev. W. Ellis, than
whom no Englishman was regarded as a truer and dearer
personal friend, and with the aid of a staff of able
missionaries, new congregations were organized ; schools
were established; books were compiled and printed; anew
edition of the Testament was put in circulation ; and all
the usual means of grace and instruction were provided. .
The additions to the Church were steady, but not too
rapid. It was evident, however, that Christian know-
ledge was general, that conviction was widely spread.
It was evident that a profound impression of the real
excellence of Christian men and of the Christian reli-
gion had been stamped upon the whole nation. But for a
while the people were timid, the nobles and the govern-
ment were cautious ; they were afraid of foreigners, and
doubted how far Christianity could be made a really
national thing. It was well that it should be so, and
that time should be allowed for convictions to ripen, that
no false step might be taken by any concerned.
Two years ago a true revival of religious feeling was
experienced, both by the Christian converts and by the
people at large. Every mission in the island shared in
it, whether in the interior or on the coast. Like all such
revivals, it showed itself at first in increased congrega-
tions, containing new hearers, worshipping devoutly,
listening intently, and diligently *' seeking after " God.
Prayer-meetings were frequent and well attended ; the
Sabbath was well observed. In 1868 twenty thousand
persons professed Christianity. During last year the in-
And their Results. 575
crease must have been even greater. In the island gene-
rally the converts are now more than sixty thousand in
number, including ten thousand communicants. The chief
Churches are in the capital, which is rapidly becoming
a Christian city, and In the province of Imerina around
it. The Betsileo province also Is full of enquirers, for
whom a band of missionaries is being provided; and the
tribes of Betsimasarakas on the coast, amongst whom
the Church Missionary Society labours, are crying out
for teachers. Education is spreading widely, and is
placed under wise and earnest supervision. The print-
ing-office has been remodelled and enlarged, and
efforts of many kinds are being made to promote the
general enlightenment of the people. A touching memo-
rial of the dark days, which has given great satisfaction to
the Christians, has been secured In the erection of a
handsome stone church at each of the five localities where
the martyrs suffered. The ground at each place was
given specially for that purpose by the late King.
The government of Madagascar, which remains en-
tirely in native hands, has dealt with this progress of
Christian conviction in a very satisfactory manner, and
has itself undergone important changes. When, eighteen
months ago, the new Queen came to the throne, all hesi-
tation seemed to be flung aside. The idols and diviners
were quickly put away from the palace ; public works
were stopped on the Sabbath-day, and Sunday markets
were changed to another convenient day. On the occa-
sion of her coronation, the Bible was placed on a table
in front of the sovereign : around the canopy over her
head were inscribed the words, '' Glory to God in the
highest ; peace on earth ; goodwill to men ; may God
be with us." And the noblest sentiments were em-
bodied in the Royal speech, including this : *' This is
my word to you, O ye under heaven, in regard to the
57^ Modern Missio7ts
praying : it is not enforced, it is not forbidden, for God
made you." All this was done by the Queen and her
ministers of their own accord, not at the instigation of
foreigners, of diplomatists or missionaries, whether French
or English. On no point have the nobles and the
Court been so careful and so jealous as on the introduc-
tion of a foreign influence into their national affairs.
The English missionaries at the capital, — whom they
regard as their best friends, because missionaries of that
London Missionary Society which first brought them
the Gospel, and did all it could to befriend them in their
days of trial, — have not been invited to preach in the
palace, except as visitors. No attempts have been
made to guide or to control the proceedings of the
Churches, and the native ministers are treated with
great respect, When the second memorial church was
opened, the Queen and all her officers were present. On
Christmas Day she received an address from her Chris-
tian subjects ; and in April last, after meekly submitting
to the same instruction and the same catechizing as her
people, the Queen was herself baptized as a Christian.
The Prime Minister, also, and several leading officers,
with numerous members of noble families, women as
well as men, have made a public profession of their faith,
and at their own request have been received into the
fellowship of the Church. In order to bring the loose
family arrangements, prevalent in the island in the days of
heathenism, under the control of Gospel morality, the
Queen and Prime Minister were duly married in the pre-
sence of their people. This service, like their baptism,
was conducted by one of the native ministers. The first
stone of a Chapel Royal has been laid within the palace
enclosure, and the Queen and her Court maintain Chris-
tian worship in the capital of Madagascar as the ordinary
habit of their lives. Now, to crown the whole, we hear
And their Results. 577
that, in September last, it was resolved in national assem-
bly to burn the public idols, and thus to rid the land of
the superstitions, in defence of which so much sorrow
had been inflicted. The transformation of the people, so
strangely intensified in its earlier movements by the perse-
cution which was undertaken to prevent it, is proceeding
with marvellous rapidity and power ; and soon, largely as
the result of the preaching of native ministers, Madagascar,
like Hawaii, will become a Christian state, sanctified in
all her public, social, and national concerns, by the spirit
of the Gospel of Christ.
How will the critics and opposers of missions explain
these things } Neither bribery, nor force, political in-
fluence, nor mere respect for superior knowledge, has
effected this change. Persecution and force are directed
against the Gospel for a whole generation ; yet they
leave the converts more earnest, more determined, more
numerous, than when the penalties began. The whole
people have been profoundly impressed by the purity,
the fidelity, the faith of the men and women who have
laid down their lives rather than deny their Saviour.
The Word which they believed and followed, is sought
after by all. When freedom comes, and penalties are
withdrawn, thousands without delay enquire and believe.
In due time, tens of thousands follow them, and listen,
and believe also. The nobles, who when young heard
these truths from relatives in peril ; the Queen, on whom,
when a young girl, Christ's truth was pressed by one of
the martyrs ; have felt that truth in their hearts, and by it
rule their lives. All this has happened in other king-
doms, in other ages, as well as in recent days. But
nowhere, since the Holy Spirit descended at Pentecost,
has the work of the Gospel been more thorough, the
victories of the Gospel more rapid and more complete,
than in Madagascar. Nowhere have the evidences of
p p
57^ Modern Missions
its spiritual power been manifested more clearly, or have
the arguments drawn from them proved so truly unanswer-
able. Therefore, Christian men of all Churches look in
wonder upon the picture, and give God thanks. Every-
where they lift up their voices with one accord, and
acknowledge, '' This is the Lord's doing, and it is mar-
vellous in our eyes."
IV. Let us next survey the missions of our Indian
Empire. That empire is the noblest sphere of effort
which the world ever presented to the Christian Church,
or which that Church can desire. Enclosing within its
boundaries all varieties of climate, scenery, and soil,
through the loving care of God, it is fitted to secure in a
thousand ways the comfort of the teeming millions which
people its broad, fair provinces. If we ask for the most
ancient shrines of the world still held in honour, we find
them here. If we ask whence East and West have pur-
chased their finest muslins and their richest shawls, they
speak of India. Its silks and spices contributed to the
luxury of Rome ; and still, in its great durbars, *' the
gorgeous East with richest hand showers on her kings
barbaric pearl and gold." The peacock throne of Delhi
is the noblest seat on which kin^s and kaisars ever sat.
The simplest, grandest monument, which builders ever
devised, is the Taj at Agra.
But richer jewels than these are the noble races that
inhabit the empire, and amongst which great deeds have
been performed. In the long vista of bygone years,
the eye rests on Semiramis, Darius, and Alex-
ander, whose names still live in shadowy tradition
among the tribes which witnessed their prowess and
felt their power. In later days, Affghan and Mongol
and Persian from without, Sikh and Mahratta from
within, have fought fierce battles to make the land
their own. Portuguese and Frenchmen sought in vain
A fid their Results. 579
to win it ; but Englishmen are its appointed masters, and
have given it a security, a freedom, and a peace, which
it never enjoyed till now. The desire of Europe, the
coveted prize of Asia, its people have increased, have
won name and fame, have suffered and have done dire
wrong ; till, by a wondrous providence, they have been
placed in English hands to receive the justice and the
care of Christian governors, and to be cherished by the
love of the Christian Church.
And they need all that good government and holy
teaching can do for them. For ages the myriads have
lived only for the few. Princes, landholders, merchants,
have gathered and enjoyed wealth ; but the peasantry
have just gained a livelihood, and the millions inhabiting
the hills and jungles have been treated as outcasts, or
been left to the wild barbarism in which they were first
found. Throughout Hindu society the tyranny of caste
has set tribe against tribe, family against family, and one
pursuit against another. Wicked gods have been their
models, ugly idols their objects of worship, vile legends
the matter of their instruction ; cruel have been their
rites, and a lordly priesthood has been the only guide
to religion and holiness that they could find. Millions
have known nothing. better than a simple demon-worship ;
and conscience has been perverted and stifled, till its
voice has become very strange. Only the faith of Christ
will prove a radical cure for the evils which have afflicted
India for countless generations. Ignorance may be re-
moved by knowledge ; material comfort may be secured
by the earnest toil, which is protected by just law. But
the errors of a sinful soul which substitute Fate for God,
and leave that soul the prey of dark vices, can be overcome
only by that Divine truth, which, applied by Divine power,
regenerates nations by renewing their individual people.
He only can make a new nation who can form a new man.
p p 2
580 Modern Missions
Benefits of many kinds have been conferred upon the
empire in large degree. The population of India, now
numbering two hundred millions, speaking ten principal
languages and some seventy minor tongues, is steadily,
even rapidly, reviving under English rule, and has already
achieved an amount of solid improvement, which only
those can adequately appreciate who have seen it with
their own eyes. Indirectly that powerful influence of
broad sympathies, which is exerted upon its people by
intercourse with Englishmen, and by the generous tone
of English ideas, is loosening the ties which hold its
people in serried ranks, and is breaking down the bar-
riers which have hitherto hindered growth and change.
A just Government, ably administered, has not only
granted civil rights to all classes, but gives complete
religious liberty, and has wonderfully freed the land
from religious animosity. The higher classes rejoice in
the career opening up to them in varied forms of Govern-
ment service, and the peasantry have obtained a greater
command of physical comforts than their class ever before
enjoyed. To the direct religious teaching of this multi-
tude of people, more than twenty missionary societies
devote a sum of ^300,000 a-year, and the labours of a
fourth of all the Protestant missionaries in the world.
Their earnest service has been applied efficiently only
during sixty years. And when the great aim they con-
template, and the mighty difficulties in their way, are
duly considered, is it unnatural that missionaries should
ask that time be allowed for their work to tell before the
question of success is pressed ? Time has been needed
for the trunk railways, not yet completed. Time has
been required for the development of steam traffic on
the great rivers and along the sea coasts. Time has
been needed to carry out the grand schemes of Govern-
ment, in laws and in land settlements, in executive organ-
And their Results, 581
ization and public works, in police and in roads. Time
has been given for education, yet the Universities are
only ten years old ; vernacular education has scarcely
been touched ; female education has but just begun.
Ought great results to be expected, when the missionaries
are so few amongst so many : when they are less than
six hundred among two hundred millions of possible
scholars, not caring to be taught ? Nevertheless, we are
not concerned to press the plea. So rich and full has
been God's blessing on his servants' labours, that in the
face of all opposition and of all questioning, we will
plead that blessing alone. With fifty thousand Church
members, in a community of a quarter of a million of
converts, and with ninety thousand scholars in the Indian
mission-schools, we are prepared to meet all comers, and
boldly ask where are the signs of failure.
Missionary work has affected the country in very
different degrees, and has met with very varied results
among different classes. For instance, in the North- West
provinces and the Punjab, the work was commenced in
strength only forty years ago ; in the Punjab proper,
less than twenty years ago. Good men have toiled ; they
have preached the Gospel faithfully ; they have educated
thousands of boys, have circulated thousands of books.
Apparently, very little has been done. The adults converted
and baptized have been very few. Were it not for the com-
munities raised artificially from orphan boarding-schools,
the native Churches would be very small. The popula-
tion, though numerous, is widely scattered, and js chiefly
agricultural ; cities like Benares, Furruckabad, and Delhi
are few and distant from one another. There is a dull-
ness and a deadness of intellect about the strong people,
once so warlike, which it is difficult to account for.
Occupying the original seat of Hinduism, still full of holy
shrines, the scene of many religious wars in ancient days,
582 Moder7i Missio7is
enjoying little religious liberty under Mohammedan rulers
such as Allah the Pathan and Alumgir, the Hindus of
Upper India, though a noble race, seem to be a crushed
people ; they are uneducated. Ignorant, superstitious, ab
sorbed In material pleasures and in earthly work. Yet
even among them, as last year closed, suddenly there ap-
peared a sign of truest progress, which shows how the
silent life of a dull winter prepares for a beautiful and
joyous spring. When a native scholar with eloquent tongue
preaches to admiring thousands that the Vedas teach
theism, and that the idolatrous Puranas are not worth a
cowry, and when the holy city of Benares witnesses a
religious commotion such as it has not experienced for
centuries, the days of temples and Idols must be num-
bered, and a cry for truth and God must be ready to
break forth from multitudes of weary hearts.
In the cities which rule the public opinion of Indian
society, men have much to lose in forsaking the religion
not only of their forefathers, but of the companions and
neighbours among whom they dwell. Hindu punish-
ments even for Inquiry are prompt ; they are still more
stern for the men who embrace the Gospel. Country
Churches grow faster than those in towns ; far larger
numbers of the peasantry, than of the wealthy supporters
of Hinduism, have become Christians. " Have any of
the rulers believed on him ?" Is the question asked now,
as In the days of the Master. Most numerous of all,
and most easily drawn, are the converts from the hill
tribes, the outside races, who are Hindus but slightly, if
they are Hindus at all. More than two hundred thousand
converts have been made among these races, for whom
Mr. Hunter has of late pleaded so warmly, and who
will play no inconsiderable part in the future of the
empire. Three specimens of the work effected among
them may be briefly glanced at.
And their Results. 583
I. The aboriginal tribes of Shanars, living near Cape
Comorin, have given a hundred thousand converts to
the Church of Christ. They are the special care of the
two schemes of effort known as the Tinnevelly and the
Travancore missions. The former contains two missions
of the Church of England ; the latter belongs to the
London Missionary Society. The three missions are
carried on upon the same principles, and have produced
substantially the same results. The Shanars are evidently
a very ancient tribe in India. An oppressed race, living
on sugar, daily climbing lofty palm-trees, densely igno-
rant, with scarcely an idea about God, fearing only
demon-powers in the sky, the air and earth around them,
worshipping these demons with wild dances of devil-
priests, rude revelry, and barbaric music, they found in
the Gospel, and in the missionaries who taught it, true
friends. For the first time they heard of an Almighty
Father, able to save them, from harm, of a Redeemer
who is willing to wash away their sins, and they welcomed
the message as good news of hope and peace and life.
They have readily placed themselves under instruction.
At times, three thousand have joined one mission in a
single year. They have been organized into congrega-
tions, and proofs have been given in abundance that
the Christian community contains true believers, devout
worshippers, and men zealous for the conversion of their
brethren. Their contributions to Church schemes, to the
erection of chapels, to the support of their pastors, and to
the extension of a sound literature, have for a long series
of years been truly liberal. When, two years ago, the
outlay of one Society was necessarily curtailed, individuals
and congregations promptly stepped forward to supply
what was wanting ; and while the heathen taunted them
with the loss of their friends, they nobly replied by a
more earnest consecration of themselves and their own
584 Modem Missions
gifts. Among the Shanars there are six hundred native
catechists and teachers, and more than forty have been
ordained as pastors or missionaries among their brethren.
2. A similar work has in recent years taken place in
Bengal, among the Koles,in the beautiful province of Chota
Nagpore. Descendants, probably of the earliest races in
India, free of caste, and demon-worshippers, they were
quite open to the teaching of the Gospel, and needed it
not less than others. Though manly, once truthful and
lighthearted, they are great drinkers, and very corrupt in
life ; their belief in witchcraft is universal, and has not
unfrequently led to murder. The German missionaries
from Berlin, who have been their instructors, settled
among them in 1846 ; after only four years of prepara-
tion, they came steadily into the Christian Church, and
the stream is flowing more deeply every year. In seven
years, four hundred and twenty adults were baptized, and
a Christian community was gathered of more than eight
hundred souls. In recent days, scores have embraced
the Gospel at one time. More than once, above a hun-
dred, young and old, have been baptized in the Ranchi
Church on a single Sunday. During 1861, three hundred
adults were baptized. At the present time the mission
numbers more than twelve thousand converts.
It cannot be said that this race has been bribed. The
German mission, labouring among them, is more poorly
paid, and has smaller funds for general expenditure, than
any mission in India. It cannot be said that the con-
verts have nothing to lose, and everything to gain. A
great number of them possess large farms ; and their
well-built cottages, their beautiful rice baskets, and fat
cattle are signs of substantial wealth. They have been
long and bitterly persecuted. The great landholders of
the province, knowing and fearing the free thought which
Christianity produces, from the first set their faces against
Ajid their Results. 585
it, and brought to bear upon the Christians all the social
persecution which they could command. False charges
were brought against them into the courts ; their houses
were plundered by armed bands ; the very roofs were
carried away, and the jewellery of the women were stripped
off. During the Mutiny, all their chapels were pulled to
pieces ; the converts were driven from their homes, and
a price was set upon their heads. They have borne their .
sufferings meekly; they have taken ''joyfully the spoil-
ing of their goods ; knowing that in heaven they had a
better and an enduring substance ;" elders and people
remained firm in their faith ; and the trial only added
strength to the principle which was roughly assailed.
3. The Karen Mission in Burmah is better known
than either of those just named, and it has had a truly
wonderful success. Belonging to one of the Tartar races,
perfectly free from idolatry, and holding remarkable tra-
ditions akin to early Scripture stories, the Karens were
" a people prepared for the Lord." From the moment
they heard from a missionary the story of the '' White
Book," they grasped it as the thing of which their fathers
had spoken; and they began to flock steadily into the
Church of Christ. Before the Burmese war of 1852, the
converts numbered eight thousand persons, who were dis-
tinguished for their simplicity, sincerity, and earnestness ;
and had the strongest attachment to the Word of God.
Those of them who lived in Pegu, were bitterly perse-
cuted by the proud Burmans. They were fined, im-
prisoned, put in " the block," and made pagoda-slaves ;
and in Bassein one of their pastors, Thagua, was crucified.
To escape from their enemies, they fled in thousands over
the mountains to the English province of Arracan ; and
when the English soldiers attacked Rangoon, none prayed
so earnestly that they might win the victory, as the Chris-
tian Karens. Their joy, at the annexation of Pegu, was
586 Modej^7i Misi
sions
indescribable. " Before the English took possession, we
could neither breathe nor sleep." Since then, the mission
has grown with rapidity and power. New districts, like
ToungLi, have been instructed for the first time ; and
the Gospel has penetrated far into the forests and hills
which form the boundary between Burmah and Siam.
Normal schools, theological classes, translations of the
Bible and Christian books, have been building up
the Churches ; and some of their preachers, like Sau
Quala, have been endowed with Apostolic zeal. The
Karen converts are believed to number over ninety
thousand ; and the mission is not yet forty years old.
In the cases that have been cited, the ample success
secured has been attained among rude and simple popu-
lations. Such classes have been comparatively free from
those caste rules which are the terror of Hindu social
life ; and being frequently oppressed and despised, they
have found in the Gospel a loving friend, and the
cravings of humanity have been satisfied in its embrace.
They must not be forgotten in any view of the Indian
Empire, — political, commercial, or religious. Tribes of
this kind form half of its population. But the middle-
classes of Indian society are also feeling the power of
the Gospel. It was difficult to reach them. They would
not condescend to listen to a missionary in a promiscuous
crowd. But Dr. Duff and others solved the difficulty,
when they drew their children into English schools, and
with a broad general education, gave them a full and
careful insight into the word of God. Within the last
twenty years, more than five hundred converts of the
middle-classes, sons of traders, gentlemen. Brahmins, and
temple priests have been converted in Christian schools.
The public baptism of such a young man has again and
again set a city in an uproar. In Madras and Calcutta,
in Bombay and Poona, in Bangalore and Palamcottah, and
Afid their Rcsiills. 587
in many other towns, Hindu society has been convulsed
to its centre by such a conversion, and appeals have been
made to magistrates and judges to prevent the social
wrong which missionaries were accused of inflicting. To
these appeals the converts themselves have given the
answer : ** We are of age ; we know what we are doing ;
we believe in Jesus Christ." From this class of educated
men, have sprung able preachers and ordained ministers,
of whom the rising Church stood greatly in need.
Results like these, though great and valuable, do not
exhaust the list of our successes ; and that they are real
cannot be denied. Nowhere have missions and mission-
aries been so fully tested as in India. In Indian society
everything is open ; a free press, English and native, is
available to all comers. Missionaries know this, and
like it. As honest men, they have nothing to fear. They
have themselves freely used the press. The daily news-
papers, the monthly periodicals, the " Calcutta Review,"
have reported their work and their successes year after
year. When Dr. Macleod openly invited gainsayers to
prove the exaggerations of reports, or the hollowness of
results, none ventured to reply. Native gentlemen assured
him of the high regard in which missionaries were held by
them, as benefactors of the country ; and Englishmen
and natives gathered in the largest assemblies, held in
the three chief cities in recent years, with the Viceroy,
with governors and officers at their head, to testify the
same thing, and to manifest an interest in their success.
Those meetings were but the natural outcome of that
Christian zeal which leads our countrymen in India to
contribute ^50,000 a-year for the support of those mis-
sionary labours which they witness with their own eyes.
There is one other fruit of missionary labour in India,
which cannot be forgotten. It may almost be deemed
the greatest of these fruits, and yet it contributes to
588 Modern Missions
strengthen and increase the rest. I refer to the exten-
sive spread of Christian knowledge, and to the profound
impression which Christian ideas have made upon society
in general. Vast changes have been wrought in the
ideas of the ruling classes, in respect to government, to
social habits, the possession of lands, the relations of one
province of the empire with another. A quarter of a
million of children are being trained every year in good
schools ; and three quarters of a million more in common
schools, reading books such as the scholars of old days
did not possess. ^ Ninety thousand of these children
are in missionary schools, and of these great numbers
are Hindus. Christian preaching. Christian schools,
Christian literature are filling the country with ideas of
God, of truth, of holiness, which are acknowledged to be
just, and are extensively accepted. The new school,
formed especially of the young men who have received
an English education, have to an immense extent cast off
the traditions of their fathers. They hold that idolatry
ought to be renounced, and only the one God recognized ;
that caste is an evil, and ought to be broken down ; that
polygamy ought to be abolished by law ; that infant mar-
riages should be prevented ; that women should be edu-
cated, and should take their place in society ; that moral
life ought to be pure. Others go beyond this, and desire
that a higher faith should be received, and made the law
of life. Whence did these great ideas spring ? They
have come from that general education which has been
saturated by the Christian truth, which fills English
literature and English life. But specially and directly
they have sprung from the teaching of missionaries, and
will prepare the way for conversions on a large scale.
Who can wonder that, under such influences, Hinduism is
steadily dying, and that the religious belief of the country
is undergoing a vital change. A noble future is opening
A7id I heir Results. 589
for India, and a wondrous empire will she become. "The
cities are great, and walled up to heaven ; and we have
seen the giants, the sons of Anak there." The priests
are numerous ; their vested interests are great ; their name
and influence are revered. But we have brought away
clusters from the vines, and we have seen that the land
floweth with milk and honey. As God's people, at His
command and under His leadership, we will "go up and
possess the land, for we are well able to possess it."
V. Valuable results of a high order have been
attained in smaller missions, the details of which are in
general little known. Few are aware, for instance, that
in recent years a little company of colporteurs, guided by
English advice, and sustained by English funds, have
spread among the Catholic populations of Europe, ten
million copies of the Scriptures, in the languages which
those populations speak. Few are aware that, under the
earnest preaching of an English missionary, and of his
Swedish companion, a remarkable revival has taken place
in the religious life of Sweden. In the Turkish Empire,
the missionaries of the American Board have won to evan-
gelical faith and life, a large number of the members of
the decayed Armenian Church ; while political contact
with other countries, and the spread of religious and
secular knowledge, have aroused a new spirit in the
Mussalman population, and led many to study the Word
of God. At the mouth of the Gambia, and all round the
Gulf of Guinea, strong Christian Churches, in compact
and prosperous communities, have been built up by mis-
sionary agency, and the slave-trade has been completely
dried up. In the Cape Colony, Hottentots, Fingoes and
Kafirs have been delivered from the grasp of slave-
holders, and from the influence of a vitiated public
opinion ; have been confirmed in their civil liberties, and
have been instructed and evangelized. Two hundred mis-
590 Modem Missions
sionarles have devoted themselves to the elevation of
these despised races, have penetrated far Into Kafirland,
and have established a line of stations among the
Bechuana tribes, stretching onward to the Victoria Falls.
The preservation and Instruction of the Indian tribes of
North America have long been the earnest care of the
Christians of New England. In Georgia, Alabama, and
Tennessee ; among Cherokees and Ojibbeways, among
Sioux and Dakotahs ; In settled states and on the open
prairies, they have preached to, have advised and helped
them, have educated their children, have taught them to
observe the Sabbath, to give up their constant wanderings,
and to cultivate the soil. And, in spite of the speculator
and the rum seller, many a Church has been gathered, and
many a true revival has been experienced, among these
decaying tribes.
Hard things have been said against the missions in
China, yet several of them have received a great blessing,
and have met with most gratifying success. For several
years about ninety missionaries from Europe and America
have been steadily labouring In the great cities, opened
to them as treaty ports. In most of the cities occupied
since 1842, considerable Churches have been gathered.
Many hundreds of Chinese converts are communicants in
the three missions of Amoy, and the districts around
them ; in the missions of Foochow, in Shanghai and Its
neighbourhood, in Hong Kong, and in the country districts
of Kwantung. Even in Hankow, the mission to which Is
but eight years old, two hundred adults have been brought
into the Church. Everywhere the Chinese listen readily
to the Gospel ; and the whole community has been stirred
not a little by the new doctrines which the missionaries
have proclaimed. The native Churches contain three
thousand five hundred communicants, in a Christian com-
munity of twelve thousand persons.
And I heir Res nils. 591
Things still harder have been alleged again and again
acrainst the missions in the West India Islands. It has
been often asserted that the negroes are degraded, indo-
lent, and dishonest. But who made them so ? Who
degraded them for generations, by forbidding them to
marry ? Who rendered them unthrifty, dishonest, unen-
terprising, by refusing them liberty and the right to enjoy
the fruit of their own labours ? Who compelled them,
by hard service under the lash, to be idle when they had
an opportunity, and to hide their indolence by lying ?
For these things, the system of slavery is to a very large
degree responsible. Nevertheless, Christian men of all
Churches steadily resolved to set them free, and to
elevate them by the Gospel. Throughout these colonies,
under every government, chapels were built, schools were
established, and congregations were gathered. Solid
results in true piety were speedily realized, especially
among the older people, who had suffered the heaviest
wrongs. These results have increased in strength and
fulness down to the present hour. And that a
vast number of consistent Christians is to be found
among the coloured Churches in all missions, can be
proved by the evidence of governors, resident English-
men, and visitors, and cannot be doubted by men who
will honestly enquire from those who really know.
VI. To these spiritual and social results of mis-
sionary labour, sought by that labour, directly springing
from it, and contributing to still greater successes in days
to come, we might add the indirect victories, obtained
by the way, over public evils abroad ; and describe at
length the valuable benefits indirecdy conferred upon the
Churches which sustained those missions at home. The
English communities in foreign settlements, and many
an individual man, have been instructed, elevated, and
purified, in moral life and social tone, by the preaching
592 Modern Missions
and example of missionaries. More than any other Eng-
Hshmen abroad did missionaries contribute to the aboHtion
of slavery ; to the separation of the Indian Government
fro mi its administration of the endowments of Hindu
temples ; to the promotion of education ; to the enact-
ment of many a good law ; to the foundation of a healthy
Christian literature ; to the establishment of a sound
public opinion.
The benefits which have been conferred upon the
Church at home by its engagement in missionary work
are numerous and of high value. While following the
path of duty the Church has experienced that elevation
of its loftiest powers which difficult enterprises always
bring to the manly and true-hearted. Its faith in the
power of the Gospel, its devoutness, its liberality, have
been enlarged. Its sympathies have become broader;
its true unity has been deepened ; controversies between
Evangelical Christians have almost died away.
A most powerful stimulus has been given by the enter-
prise to every form of home mission work ; and the
same ingenuity has been exercised to invent new plans
for new emergencies, and to adapt forms of agency to
the varied spheres of usefulness which had been chosen.
The charitable spirit of society at large has been
enormously developed, until in London alone five hundred
definite '' charities" expend, wisely or unwisely, a million
sterling every year. The missionary spirit has greatly
stimulated general education. It has been manifested in
the great temperance movement. It has re-modelled
our popular literature. It has given a scientific form to
a wise, but humane prison discipline. It has called forth
many aggressive schemes for the instruction of country
towns. It has given birth to such marvellous efforts for
the evangelizing of London, that if to the direct instruc-
tions of the thirteen hundred and fifty ministers and clergy
And their Results. 593
of all denominations, be added the special labours of four
hundred City missionaries, of a hundred and twenty mis-
sionary clergy, of twenty thousand Sunday-school teachers,
of three thousand ragged-school teachers, and of two
hundred and thirty Bible women, we are compelled to
conclude, that there is now exerted upon the unconverted
population of London alone as large an amount of
spiritual force as is exercised by foreign missions upon all
the countries of the heathen world.
No one can contemplate the great nations and populous
tribes of the world in the present day without observing
that the stagnation of old times has ceased ; that a new
life is quickening all the pulses of human thought ; that
justice, humanity, and gentleness have recently made a
great stride ; that old creeds and faiths are losing their
hold ; and that the public opinion of the world is indis-
cribably healthier than it was a century ago. The de-
grees of this improvement vary greatly among different
people. Much of the progress is intellectual ; much has
sprung merely from the increased intercourse between
nations, and the vast increase of trade. But a great deal
of it is moral and religious. It is best and greatest in
lands where cities abound, where society is compact, and
where modern influences have been brought to bear in
greatest force. Whence does this progress spring ?
Whence come these doubts about old times and old
customs ; whence this new thought, this rapid change
of ideas, this difference between the new generation and
its predecessors ? The largest share of this wonderful
growth has come from the moral influence of Christian
nations, from their enlightened opinion, their solid free-
dom, their generous recognition of the rights of all classes,
especially of the poor ; from their even-handed justice,
and their benevolent regard for human life. This justice
and generosity again, so powerful for general good, have
QQ
594 Modern Missions
sprung from the earnest spirit of the rehgioiis men, and
of the prosperous Churches, who sustain missionaries in
the world ; and from that aggressive benevolence and
good-will to mankind, of which missionaries are the ablest
expounders and the most prominent examples.
Surveying as a whole the varied results which we have
enumerated, how truly great they appear in comparison
with the moderate amount of labour that has been
employed to produce them. There are solid fruits of
toil at home, solid results abroad : results in some lands
wide-spread, deep-rooted, amazing in their grandeur and
completeness. We have created great systems of agency,
skilfully adapted to the states of society with which they
have to deal. The message preached, and the holy life
enjoined, are enforced by translations of the Bible, and
by a Christian literature, published in all the principal
languages of the world. We see native Churches, strong
in numbers, growing in character, sound in the faith. We
have trained and devoted native pastors, and we know
that some native missionaries have been distinguished
for Apostolic zeal, and have braved a martyr's death. We
see tribes and nations that have laid aside their old
superstitions, and through a Christian civilization are taking
a new place among their fellow-men. Great barriers
against the profession of Christian faith have given way
— bigotry in Turkey, caste in India, exclusiveness in
China. Many of the idolatries, of the ancient wrongs, of
the black vices of the world have entirely disappeared.
We see Christian nations growing more Christian, more
humane ; and Christian men rendered more earnest in
doing good. We see the dark world coming to the light ;
and the lands where Christians dwell, revived, enlarged,
refreshed. Is it not an impiety to call missions a failure ?
Rather may we exclaim with wonder, and with gratitude,
'' What hath God wrought ! "
And their Results. 595
To Christian men these results excite no surprise. The
Bible has promised them, and leads true workers to
expect them. The followers of Christ have learned the
great secret how souls may be saved. They have found,
and can apply that motive power, that spiritual energy,
which shall originate, and shall secure every real reform
which a disordered world needs. This power has no
human origin. The doctrine and the message are super-
naturally revealed. The enlightenment which grasps and
appreciates them is given from above. The nature of
the man, who receives them, is renewed by the Spirit of
God. From Him comes the daily grace that leads the
soul onward, victor over all evil, strong to do all good.
There is power in the physical world, varied in its
forms, wonderful in its working, stupendous in its effects.
Mighty winds sweep over wide-spread provinces, laying
low the kings of the forest, and hurling to destruction
the works of men. There is power in the sea, when the
floods lift up their waves, when the ships of man mount
up to the heaven and go down into the depths, and the
souls of men melt because of trouble. The heaving
earth cleaves asunder the lofty sierras, crumbles to dust
the proud cities men have built, and rolls over their
shores vast ocean waves, submerging myriads of people.
Frost and fire exert their potent spells on earth and sea
and air ; setting the stars a-blaze, crowning the Alpine
ranges with stainless snow, and carving the surface of
the earth with hill, and valley, and fertile plain. The
still, subtle sunlight quickens the pulses of life in all that
lives ; overlaying the earth with colour and beauty; filling
all creatures with gladness, and brightening the heart
and life of man.
The intellect of man gathers its trophies in pyramids,
palaces, and temples, which are the wonder of succeeding
generations, and even in their ruins speak his praise.
59^ Modern Missions and their Results.
His vessels cover the waters ; his iron roads girdle the
earth ; he tames the lightning to carry his messages ;
he brings forth from the earth the stores of ages — coal
for his engines, gold for his vessels, and pearls and jewels
to adorn the beauty that he loves. His genius soars to
the loftiest flights of poetry, awakens the tenderest sym-
pathies by music and by song, by matchless eloquence
incites to deeds of heroism, lays up in books the ex-
perience of ages, or tells the motion of the stars, or
searches into the constitution of the sun.
But the noblest power lies not in material forces, in
imperial rule, in the wisdom of statesmen, the attainments
of scholars, or the magnificence commanded by a nation's
wealth. Self-denial compels the approval denied to
authority ; benevolence buys more than wealth ; faith
and self-sacrifice and prayer win hearts which dungeons
could not subdue. The mightiest power in heaven and
in earth is a self-sacrificing love. Its most attractive
emblem is the Cross ; and by that Cross all that is noble
and precious in the world shall be completely sub-
dued. Because they have proved that love, Christian
men will continue to preach it with all their heart. They
will preach it to the wise, that they may be yet wiser ;
to the wealthy, that they may win true riches ; and in the
face of all gainsayers, they will preach it to the poor and
the outcast, because they are men, and because for them,
too, Christ died, — grateful and glad if, when the day of
the Lord come, He shall approve their service, and
shall welcome them as an accepted people : '' Inasmuch
as ye did it unto one of the least of these my brethren,
ye did it unto me."
UNWIX BROTHERS, PRINTERS, BUCKLERSBLRY, LONDON.
February y 1 870.
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