( ItlrfLo
&
THOUGHTS
REVELATION & LIFE
THOUGHTS
ON
REVELATION & LIFE
SELECTIONS FROM THE WRITINGS OF
BROOKE FOSS WESTCOTT, D.D., D.C.L
BISHOP OF DURHAM
LATE REGIUS PROFESSOR OF DIVINITY, CAMBRIDGE, AND
CANON OF WESTMINSTER
ARRANGED AND EDITED BY
STEPHEN PHILLIPS, M.A.
READER AND CHAPLAIN OF CRAY'S INN
EonDon
MACMILLAN AND CO.
AND NEW YORK
I 891
All rights reserved
First Edition printed by R. & R. CLARK, Edinburgh,
Reprinted 1891
PREFACE
THIS volume contains, besides selections from the
well-known works of Dr. Westcott, passages from
his occasional Sermons, Essays, and Addresses
hitherto familiar only to a few.
To students of Divinity it is thought it will be
an advantage to possess in a compendious form
characteristic passages from Dr. Westcott's writ-
ings on the theological problems of our time.
The " Lessons of Literature and Art," with
their unique teaching on the mission of poet and
painter " to present the truth of things under the
aspect of beauty," must have a special value to
many.
There is much also in these pages that cannot
fail to be acceptable to a wide circle of readers,
whose interests centre rather in the course of
ordinary life.
To all, it is believed, this volume will be
welcome in proportion as they realise the truth
2066625
PREFACE
which Dr. Westcott, throughout his writings, with
so much force and beauty teaches that " Christi-
anity takes account of the whole nature of man,
consecrating to its service the natural exercise of
every power and the fulfilment of every situation
in which he is placed."
For the choice of the passages selected the
Editor alone is responsible.
CONTENTS
PART I
2Tf)e irUcorfcs of Hvefoelatton
PAGE
THE VISION OF GOD is THE CALL OF THE
PROPHET ....... 3
THE OLD TESTAMENT SCRIPTURES ... 8
THE MEANING OF REVELATION .. . . 13
THE REVELATION OF THE FATHER . . .14
THE REVELATION OF THE RISEN LORD . . 29
THE GOSPEL OF THE RESURRECTION . . 40
THE HISTORIC FAITH . . . .61
THE INCARNATION A DEVOUT STUDY . . 81
THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS .... 85
CHRISTIANITY AS THE ABSOLUTE RELIGION . 93
THE BIRLE THE CHARTER OF HOPE . . 99
CONTENTS
PART II
(Efje Christian &0ctetg: its f6ce ant rofotfj
PAGE
THE Two EMPIRES: THE CHURCH AND THE
WORLD . . . . . . 105
CRISES IN THE HISTORY OF THE CHURCH . no
THE FAITH ONE AND PROGRESSIVE. . . 118
MISSIONS AND THE UNIVERSITIES . . . 125
INDIAN MISSIONS . . . , . 131
THE COLONIAL CHURCH . . . . .136
THE INCARNATION INDEPENDENT OF THE P'ALL 139
COLLEGIATE LIFE IN THE ENGLISH CHURCH . 141
OUR DEBT TO THE PAST . . . -144
THE BENEDICTINE ORDER' . . . .149
KING'S COLLEGE CHAPEL, CAMBRIDGE . . 152
"YE ARE WITNESSES" 155
COMBINATION IN DIVERSITY . - . x .. . 157
SOME THOUGHTS FROM THE ORDINAL . . 165
"FROM STRENGTH TO STRENGTH" . . 175
THE CONSTRUCTIVE WORK OF THE MINISTRY . 183
WAITING FOR POWER FROM ON HIGH . . 187
THE SPIRITUAL OFFICE OF THE UNIVERSITIES . 189
CONTENTS
PAGE
THE UNIVERSITIES AND THE TRAINING OF THE
CLERGY . . . . . . -197
THE MISSION OF THE SCHOOLMASTER . .200
THE MINISTRY OF THE LAITY . . . .202
THE TRIALS OF A NEW AGE .... 205
DESTINY FULFILLED THROUGH SUFFERING . . 211
THE KING-PRIEST . . . . . .215
THE UNIVERSAL SOCIETY . . . .217
PART III
of 3Ltfc
A POET'S VIEW OF LIFE BROWNING . .223
STEPS IN THE CHRISTIAN LIFE . . -233
THE INCARNATION AND CREATION . . 244
THE INCARNATION AND NATURE . . .247
THE INCARNATION AND LIFE . . 249
DISCIPLINED LIFE . . . . . .250
LIFE CONSECRATED BY THE ASCENSION . . 258
MANY GIFTS ONE SPIRIT . . .261
THE RESURRECTION AS INFLUENCING THE LIFE 263
SOCIAL ASPECTS OF CHRISTIANITY . . .265
CONTENTS
PAGE
ASPECTS OF LIFE . . . . . 290
TYPES OF APOSTOLIC SERVICE . . . .322
PART IV
of ^Literature antj ^rt
THE DRAMATIST AS PROPHET: AESCHYLUS . 331
THE DRAMATIST AS THINKER: EURIPIDES . 336
VENTURES OF FAITH : THE MYTHS OF PLATO . 342
DlONYSIUS THE AREOPAGITE . . . -347
A CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHER ORIGEN . . 349
A CHRISTIAN PLATONIST WHICHCOTE . -353
THE LESSON OF BIBLICAL REVISION .. . 356
THE RELATION OF CHRISTIANITY TO ART . 363
PART I
Cfje iRecortis of HUtielation
THE RECORDS OF REVELATION
Esatafj's Ffsion ts Esaiafj'g (Call
1 HE vision of God is the call of the prophet. No-
where is the thought presented to us in the Bible with
more moving force than in the record of Isaiah's mission
(Isa. vi. i-io).
Isaiah, a layman, as you remember, was, it appears,
in the Temple court, and he saw in a trance the way into
the holiest place laid open. The veils were removed
from the sanctuary and shrine, and he beheld more than
met the eyes of the High Priest, the one representative
of the people, on the day on which he was admitted, year
by year, to the dark chamber which shrouded the Divine
Presence.
He beheld not the glory resting upon the symbolic
ark, but the Lord sitting upon the throne high and lifted
up ; not the carved figures of angels, but the seraphim
standing with outstretched wings, ready for swift service ;
not the vapour of earthly incense, but the cloud of smoke
which witnessed to the Majesty which it hid.
This opening of " the eyes of his heart," was God's gift,
God's call to him. Other worshippers about the young
prophet saw, as we must suppose, nothing but " the light of
common day," the ordinary sights of the habitual service
the great sea of brass, and the altar of burnt offering, and
THE RECORDS OF REVELATION
the stately portal of the holy place, and priests and
Levites busy with their familiar work. But for an
eternal moment Isaiah's senses were unsealed. He saw
that which is, and not that which appears. For him the
symbol of God dwelling in light unapproachable, was
transformed into a personal presence ; for him the
chequered scene of labour and worship was filled with
the train of God ; for him the marvels of human skill
were instinct with the life of God.
Such a vision, such a revelation taken into the soul,
was for Isaiah an illumination of the world He could
at last see all creation in its true nature through the light
of God. So to have looked upon it was to have gained
that which the seer, cleansed by the sacred fire, was con-
strained to declare. Humbled and purified in his
humiliation, he could have but one answer when the
voice of the Lord required a messenger, " Here am I,
send me."
2Tfje Incarnation a fuller Uiston of @otn
W HEN the prophet Isaiah looked upon that august
sight, he saw, as St. John tells us, Christ's glory ; he saw
in figures and far off that which we have been allowed to
contemplate more nearly and with the power of closer
apprehension. He saw in transitory shadows that which
we have received in a historic Presence.
By the Incarnation God has entered, and empowered
us to feel that He has entered, into fellowship with
humanity and men. As often as that birth rises before
our eyes, all heaven is indeed rent open, and all earth is
displayed as God made it.
For us, then, the vision and call of Isaiah find a fuller
form, a more sovereign voice in the Gospel than the
Jewish prophet could know.
VISION OF GOD THE PROPHET'S CALL 5
ftfje Eealftg of tfje Fwwn
1 HERE is nothing in life more real than such a
vision. It is the pure light of heaven so broken by the
shadows of earth that we can bear it. Do not then turn
from it, or dismiss it as a dream. Meet it with the
response of glad devotion.
It is easy, alas, to question the authority of the
greatest thoughts which God sends us. It is easy to
darken them and to lose them. But it is not easy to live
on to the end without them. There is, happily, a noble
discontent which disturbs all self-centred pleasure.
You are stirred with truest joy, and braced to labour
best at your little tasks, while you welcome and keep
before you the loftiest ideal of the method and the aim
of work and being which God has made known to you.
That is, indeed, His revelation, the vision of Himself.
So He declares what He would have you do, what He
will enable you to do. So He calls you to be prophets.
THE
2Ef)e Interpretation of tfje Utefon
prophet's teaching must be the translation of his
experience. He bears witness of that which he has seen.
His words are not an echo but a living testimony. The
heart alone can speak to the heart. But he who has
beheld the least fragment of the divine glory, he who
has spelt out in letters of light on the face of the world
one syllable of the Triune Name, will feel a confidence
and a power which nothing else can bring.
2H)e (Sospel a rofoina; fKeggnrjf, not a Stereotgpeti
(Eraottfon
LET us thank God that He has called us, in the fulfil-
ment of our prophet's office, to unfold a growing message,
and not to rehearse a stereotyped tradition.
THE RECORDS OF REVELATION
The Gospel of Christ incarnate, the Gospel of the
Holy Trinity, is new now as it has been new in all the
past, as it will be new, new in its power and new in its
meaning, while the world lasts.
It was new when St. John at Ephesus was enabled
to express its fundamental truth in the doctrine of the
Word ; new when Athanasius at Nicsea affirmed through
it the living unity of the Godhead without derogating
from the Lord's Deity ; new when Anselm at Bee sought
in it, however partially and inadequately, a solution of
the problem of eternal justice; new when Luther at
Wittenberg found in it the ground of personal communion
with God; new in our own generation, new with an
untold message, when we are bidden to acknowledge
in it the pledge of that ultimate fellowship of created
things which the latest researches in nature and history
offer for consecration.
Cfje ^Transformation of 5Lffe
W E, as we behold the Divine Image under the light
of our own day, must labour to bring to our view of " the
world " the order for a time separated from God that
thought of God which makes it again a fit object of our
love as it is the object of the love of God ; to bring
to our view of the present that sense of eternity which
transfigures our estimate of great and small, of success
and failure.
The transformation of life requires no more ; it is
possible with no less. And to us Christians the charge
is given to bear this prophetic message to men.
2H)e Porjjet of Eebmnce a Measure of tfje joiner of Etsintj
" T T
11 E that wonders shall reign ; " " He that is near
me is near fire," are among the few traditional sayings
VISION OF GOD THE PROPHET'S CALL ^
attributed to the Lord, which seem to be stamped as
divine.
Awe, awe the lowliest and the most self-suppressing,
is a sign not of littleness, but of nobility.
Our power of reverence is a measure of our power of
rising.
As we bow in intelligent worship before the face of our
King, His Spirit a spirit of fire enters into us. We
feel that we are made partakers of the Divine nature
because we can acknowledge with a true faith its spiritual
glories, and lay ourselves
Passive and still before the awful Throne . . .
Consumed, yet quickened, by the glance of God.
SH)e Utston at once Ibnstnrj anti
1 N the stress of restless occupation we are tempted to
leave too much out of sight the inevitable mysteries of
life. We deal lightly with the greatest questions. We
are peremptory in defining details of dogma beyond
the teaching of Scripture. We are familiar beyond
apostolic precedent in our approaches to God. We
fashion heavenly things after the fashion of earth.
If we are cast down by the meannesses, the sorrows,
the sins of the world, it is because we dwell on some
little part of which we see little ; but let the thought of
God in Christ come in, and we can rest in that holy
splendour. At the same time let us not dare to confine
at our will the action of the light. It is our own irre-
parable loss if in our conception of doctrine we gain
clearness of definition by following out the human con-
ditions of apprehending the divine, and forget that
every outline is the expression in terms of a lower order
of that which is many-sided.
THE RECORDS OF REVELATION
2T|)e prospect of one purpose openetn to us 6g tije
III Testament
THERE are difficulties in the Old Testament, difficulties
which perhaps we cannot explain. We have no desire
to extenuate or to hide them. It would be strange if we
had : for it is through these, as we believe, that we shall
in due time learn to know better God's ways of dealing
with us. But we are also bound to remember that the
Old Testament offers to us something far higher, deeper,
more majestic, more inspiring than materials for literary
problems. The Old Testament, on any theory as to the
origin of the writings which it contains, shews to us
before all other books the philosophy of history in re-
presentative facts and in conscious judgments. It opens
to us the prospect of one purpose variously reflected in
writings spread over a thousand years : of one purpose
moving onwards with a continuous growth among the
barren despotisms of the East : of one purpose fulfilled
in an unbroken national life which closed only when its
goal was reached. The records in which this history is
contained are strangely contrasted in style, in composi-
tion, in scope. They are outwardly disconnected, broken,
incomplete : they belong to different ages of society :
they are coloured by the natural peculiarities of different
temperaments : they appeal to different feelings. But
still in spite of this fragmentariness which seems to
exclude the possibility of vital coherence : in spite of
this variety which seems to be inconsistent with the
presence of one informing influence, they show a con-
tinuity of progressive life which is found nowhere else,
even in a dream. They enable us to see the chosen
people raised step by step through failure and rebellion
and disaster to a higher level, furnished with larger con-
ceptions of truth, filled with nobler ideas of a spiritual
THE OLD TESTAMENT SCRIPTURES g
kingdom, fitted at last to offer to the Lord the disciples
who should be the first teachers of His Gospel, and to
provide a home where, as we read, " Jesus increased in
wisdom, and in favour with God and man." The world
can show no parallel to this divine growth, no parallel
to this divine narrative of a divine growth, in all the
stirring annals of time. The great monarchies rose and
fell around the little Jewish state. Other nations shone
with more conspicuous glory, but the people of God
lived on. They were not endowed with splendid gifts,
which at once command the admiration of this world.
They appealed to no triumphs of victorious enterprise ;
they showed no monuments of creative art. They were
divided, oppressed, carried captive, " persecuted, but not
forsaken, cast down, but not destroyed." By the power
of their consecration they lived on ; by the power of
that " spirit of prophecy " which was in them they con-
verted to the service of their faith the treasures of their
conquerors; they lived on because they saw the invisible,
and they were inspired to interpret, for all who should
come after, the law of their life.
What then, we ask, are the characteristics of this
Spirit of prophecy, of this Spirit of the Old Testament
of which we speak ? What are the main ideas by which
Israel witnessed for centuries to the future advent of
Christ ? Briefly, I think, these : that Spirit witnessed to
the unity of the human race as made by God in His
own image ; and it witnessed further to the belief that
God would of His own love, and in His own wisdom,
bring man and men into conformity with Himself. God
is the one Creator of men : God is the one King
of men. These thoughts breathe through the Old
Testament from beginning to end. These thoughts
Christ the Son of man fulfilled. By these thoughts
"the spirit of prophecy," and " the testimony of Jesus "
THE RECORDS OF REVELATION
are shewn to be related as promise and accomplish-
ment.
not dHssenttallg (35xclu0ibe
JN O view of Judaism can be more false than that which
seems to be most common, that it was essentially ex-
clusive. It was exclusive, and necessarily exclusive, so
far as it was a beginning, a preparation, a discipline.
But it was always pointing to a consummation. It was
exclusive in its decay and fall, when general faithlessness
had reduced it to the level of a sect. But from the
first it was not so.
of Scinisfj f^istorg
IT is possible to find in the great teachers of other
nations premature and fragmentary visions of truth,
sometimes more attractive in themselves than the corre-
sponding parts of the Old Testament ; but they are visions
premature and fragmentary. The Old Testament teaches
by facts, by the organic and continuous development of
a body. The Lord is not an abstraction, but a King,
speaking, chastening, saving. The theatre of man's
highest energies is not an imaginary Elysium of souls,
but the earth with all its trials and contradictions. The
prospect of the invisible future is almost excluded, lest
men should forget that the world and all the powers of
the world have to be conquered. One eternal counsel
is carried forward, interpreted, applied, as those can
bear it to whom its practical fulfilment is intrusted.
Let any one strive to concentrate his attention upon
the life of which the Bible is the record, and not upon
the record itself, and I venture to affirm that the thought
will rise in his soul, to which Jacob gave utterance when
THE OLD TESTAMENT SCRIPTURES 1 1
he had seen in a vision earth and heaven united : Surely
the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not.
If it is certain that the writings of the Old Testament
offer to us many grave difficulties which we are at present
unable to overcome, it is no less certain that they offer
a revelation of a purpose and a presence of God which
bears in itself the stamp of truth. The difficulties lie in
points of criticism ; the revelation is given in the facts of
a people's life.
&f)e QTesttmang foe are to Bear
IT would have been hard and we may thank God
that we are spared the trial to acknowledge a Galilsean
teacher, as He moved among men in His infinite
humility, to be the Son of God. It is hard still to find
that He is with us, to discern His message in lessons
perhaps as strange as those which startled His first
hearers ; to recognise His form in those whom fashion
despises. Yet is it not the duty to which we are called ?
Is not this the office for which we have been furnished
with a divine equipment ?
The last voice of the Lord has not yet spoken. The
last victory of the Lord has not yet been won.
We have known the facts of which all divine utterances
are the exposition : we have looked upon the end in
which all other ends are included. For us the dark and
mysterious sayings of lawgiver, and seer, and psalmist
have been changed into the simple message of that
which has been fulfilled among men : for us the language
of struggling hope has been changed into the confession
of historic belief : for us, not only as the confirmation of
our faith, but as the guide of our Christian effort, the
testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.
THE RECORDS OF REVELATION
&fje @lorg of tfje 3Lort> in tfje IK anfc j&efo Testaments
y // -/<?ry ^ //z<? Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh
shall see it. These words give the theme of the gospel
of the Old Testament, that " Gospel before the Gospel "
which is contained in the second part of Isaiah, where
prophecy finds its crown and consummation.
No possible conclusions of criticism can affect the
unique majesty of the vision of great hope which rises
out of them. Questions of date and authorship sink
wholly into the background in view of the truths which
the prophet declares.
Let any one read that Gospel of national life as a
whole in its environment, and he will find what inspira-
tion is : he will find what prophecy is ; the sight of God
and the living interpretation of the world in the light of
His Presence. The situation is clear whether it be
foreseen or only seen : the promise is clear ; the fulfil-
ment is clear.
The Bible is one widening answer to the prayer of
Moses, Shew me Thy glory, which is the natural cry of
every soul made for God.
SKje Jefns a Propfjetfc, a ilHegstam'c Ration
FROM the date of the Return, the Jews fulfilled their
office as a prophetic, a Messianic nation.
We do not, I think, reflect sufficiently upon the
grandeur of their work. The old world has nothing to
shew like it. It was given to other races to feel after
and to unfold the broad sympathies of nature, the subtle
attractiveness of beauty, the wise discipline of law, but
the Jew received and witnessed to the idea of holiness
which is the consecration of being.
THE MEANING OF RE VELA TION
3&n0iMleti(je gamrt) tfjrougfj Efforts
W E must use ungrudging labour. The Son of God
. . . hath given us an understanding that we may know
. . . He does not we may say, without presumption,
He cannot give us the knowledge, but the power and
the opportunity of gaining the knowledge.
Revelation is not so much the disclosure of the truth
as the presentment of the facts on which the truth can
be discerned.
It is given through life and to living men. It finds
us men and it leaves us men. It is the ground of
unending, untiring effort towards a larger vital appre-
hension of that which is laid open. It is not for the
satisfaction of the intellectual part of our nature alone,
but for the unfolding of our whole nature.
Men were made to seek God : that is the foundation
of revelation ; to know Him as man : that is the con-
dition of revelation ; to grow into His likeness : that is
the test of revelation.
Scripture Uneifjaustrtr anfo Eneifjausttble
IN O doubt we have used the Scriptures for purposes
for which they were not designed. We have treated
them too often as the one mechanical utterance of the
Spirit, and not as writings through which the Spirit Him-
self speaks.
There is an immeasurable difference between making
the Bible a storehouse of formal promises from which
doctrinal systems can be infallibly constructed, and
THE RECORDS OF REVELATION
making it in its whole fulness the final test of necessary
truth.
The Bible itself teaches us by its antithetic utterances
that no single expression of the truth is co-extensive
with the truth itself. And life proves beyond question
that words gather wealth in the course of the ages.
It is not too much to say that no formula which ex-
presses clearly the thought of one generation, can convey
the same meaning to the generation which follows.
The language of the Bible grows more harmoniously
luminous with the growing light. When its words are
read and interpreted simply, as words still living, they
are found to give the spiritual message which each age
requires, the one message made audible to each hearer
in the language wherein he was born.
Holy Scripture is unexhausted and inexhaustible.
All later knowledge is as a commentary which guides us
further into the true understanding of prophets, apostles,
and evangelists : through old forms, old words, old
thoughts old and yet new the Spirit of God speaks
to us with a voice never before clearly intelligible as we
can hear it.
1 F Christ be Son, then we who are in Christ are sons
also. That relationship does not depend upon any
precarious exercise of our own choice.
We do not determine our parentage. We are
children of a heavenly Father by His will ; and in that
fact lies confidence which no failure can annul.
The Incarnation of Christ sets forth the reality of our
THE REVELATION OF THE FATHER 15
sonship : the life of Christ sets forth the duties of our
sonship : the Passion of Christ sets forth, so that we
tremble when we regard them, the privileges of our
sonship.
If we are perplexed by the results and claims of
physical or historical investigations, if opinions which
have been handed down to us from early times appear
to us to be no longer tenable, if we have to readjust our
interpretation of the facts of the Faith : let us welcome
the truths which are established as revelations offered to
meet the requirements of a later age, untroubled by the
hasty deductions which are made from them : let us
welcome them with the earliest petition which we
learnt to make : Our Father, hallowed be Thy Name ;
may every fresh discovery in the order of nature and
in the life of men be so accepted as to shew more of
Thy Glory of Whom every fatherhood in heaven and on
earth is named.
anto tfje
1 F the thought of Christ as the Word fills us with courage,
the thought of the Word as Christ fills us with patience.
It cannot have been for nothing that God was pleased
to disclose His counsels fragment by fragment, through
long intervals of silence and disappointment and disaster.
In that slow preparation for the perfect revelation of
Himself to men which was most inadequately appre-
hended till it was finally given, we discern the pattern of
His ways.
As it was in the case of the first Advent, even so now
He is guiding the course of the world to the second
Advent.
The Gospel of St. John from first to last is a record of
the conflict between men's thoughts of Christ and Christ's
1 6 THE RECORDS OF REVELATION
revelations of Himself. Partial knowledge when it was
maintained by selfishness was hardened into unbelief:
partial knowledge when it was inspired by love was
quickened into faith.
The Son of man came to fulfil all teaching of past
history, to illuminate all the teaching of future history ;
and therefore He first revealed Himself by this title
"Christ," the seal of the fulfilment of the Divine Will
through the slow processes of life.
t'nfl, TOatcfyntj, ant)
not we assume that all things will go on as they
have gone on for eighteen hundred years ? And yet are
not these centuries as full of divine warnings, of signs of
judgment, of movements towards a kingdom of heaven, as
the ages which preceded the first Advent ?
Without hasting without resting let us move forwards
with our faces towards the light to meet the Lord. In
your patience ye shall win your souls : here is His
promise.
There is the danger now which there was in old time,
lest we mistake the reflection of our own imaginings for
the shape of God's promises. We see a little, and forth-
with we are tempted to make it all. We yield to the
temptation, and become blind to the larger designs
of Providence.
Our faith, our wisdom, our safety, lie in keeping our-
selves open to every sign of His coming.
Life- if we look at it in Christ is transfigured : Death
if we look at it in Christ is conquered.
" Christ. ' That one word is a historic Gospel
hallowing all time.
THE REVELATION OF THE FATHER 17
Not to a teacher of Israel, not to the disputants at
Jerusalem, not to the eager multitudes who offered an
army and a throne, but to a simple, sinful woman, an
outcast from the Synagogue, an alien, the Lord declared
Himself to be the Christ.
Christ is at once our remote and future aim, and our
immediate and present stay.
of 3Life
1 HE phrase " to eat the flesh of Christ " expresses, as
perhaps no other language could express, the great truth
that Christians are made partakers of the human nature
of their Lord, which is united in One Person to His
Divine nature ; that He imparts to us now, and that we
can receive into our manhood, something of His man-
hood, which may be the seed, so to speak, of the
glorified bodies in which we shall hereafter behold Him.
/ am the Bread of Life. It is equally wrong to regard
the words as a simple prophecy of the Holy Eucharist
and to dissociate them from it.
He in us, that we may never despair when we are
beset by difficulties; we in Him, that when we have
attained something we may reach forward to greater
victories.
of tfje
1 AM the Light of the World. Any one who has
watched a sunrise among mountains will know how the
light opens out depths of beauty and life where but lately
the eye rested on a cold monotony of gloom or mist. At
one moment only the sharp dark outline of the distant
1 8 THE RECORDS OF REVELATION
ranges stands out against the rosy sky, and at the next,
peak after peak catches the living fire, which then creeps
slowly down their rocky slopes, and woods and streams
and meadows and homesteads start out from the dull
shadows, and the grass on which we stand sparkles with
a thousand dewdrops.
Now all this represents in a figure what is the effect
of the presence of Christ in the world when the eye is
opened to see Him.
All that hath come into being was life in Htm,
before time, and the life was the light of men.
Let the thought of Christ rest on anything about us,
great or small, and it will forthwith reflect on the
awakened soul some new image of His power and love.
Whatever is, was made through Him and subsists in
Him.
And it is by the living apprehension of this truth
alone that we can gain any deep insight into the marvels
by which we are encompassed.
I am the Light of the World. The light which reveals
the world does not make the darkness, but it makes the
darkness felt.
If the sun is hidden all is shadow, though we call
that shadow only which is contrasted with the sunlight ;
for the contrast seems to intensify that which is, however,
left just what it was before.
And this is what Christ has done by His coming.
He stands before the world in perfect purity, and we
feel, as men could not feel before He came, the imper-
fection, the impurity of the world.
The line of separation is drawn for ever, and the
conscience of men acknowledges that it is rightly drawn.
Nothing is more truly one than light, yet nothing is
more manifold.
THE REVELATION OF THE FATHER 19
For us the glory of heaven is tempered in a thousand
hues, but we know even now that these thousand hues
spring from and issue in the light which God is, and in
which He dwelleth.
A Christian cannot rest in anything which has been
already gained. New acquisitions of knowledge, new
modes of thought, new forms of society, are always calling
for interpretation, for recognition, for adjustment.
No one can mistake the problems which the present
generation is called to face : no one who has felt in the
least degree the power of Christ can doubt that he has
in his faith that wherewith to illuminate them.
There are the trials of wealth burdened by an inherit-
ance of luxury, which checks the growth of fellow-feeling,
and enfeebles the energy of Christian love.
There are the trials of poverty worn by the struggle
for bare existence, which exhausts the forces properly
destined to minister to the healthy development of the
fulness of life.
There is the separation of class from class which
seems to become wider with increasing rapidity through
the circumstances of modern labour and commerce.
There is the concentration of the population in crowded
towns where the conditions of dwelling exclude, large
bodies of men from all share in some of the noblest
teachings of nature.
There is the exaggerated extension of empires, which
brings as its necessary consequence the crushing burden
of military expenditure, and at the same time lessens the
responsibility of the individual citizen.
There is the impatient questioning of old beliefs, which
gives an unreal value to the appeal to authority and casts
suspicion upon sympathetic efforts to meet doubt. But
to meet all these dark problems, our light the Light of
Life is unexhausted and inexhaustible.
THE RECORDS OF REVELATION
And this only is required of us if we would know its
quickening, cheering, warming energies, that we should
follow it.
Only if we " cling to our first fault," if we pause when
we are called to swift advance, if we faithlessly dis-
believe that anything is offered to us which was not
given to those before us, the darkness will overtake us,
and our true road will be hidden.
We smile at evil, we dally with it, we do not confess
in act that we hate it with a perfect hatred.
And the temptation to this false indifferentism is the
more perilous because it comes to us in the guise of
humility and self-distrust.
(Wjrtst tfje Hoot of tfje Sfjecp
1 HE fold which the Christian enters through Christ,
the fold which gives safety to the flock, is a place for
shelter, and not a place for isolation. He who has passed
into it, and found in it his proper home, finds it also a
vantage-ground for wider action. When the time comes
he passes out, but he still observes the law that he passes
out through Christ.
/ am the door, by Me if any man enter in he . . .
shall go in and go out and shall find pasture.
The world is a barren wilderness only to those who
do not approach it through Christ.
The Christian then passes into the world, doing his
Master's work there, by the way which his Master opens,
but he does not remain in the world. He never wanders
so far, he never is so deeply engrossed in the pursuits to
which he is guided, as not to return to the fold when
the darkness falls and the time of working is over.
THE REVELATION OF THE FATHER
Cfjrist tfje @0otJ
OF all the images of Christ this is that which has ever
appealed most forcibly to the universal instincts of men.
It has been illustrated by art : it has been consecrated
by history. When believers first sought to write the
symbols of their faith upon the walls of the catacombs,
they drew Christ as a Shepherd. And that earliest
figure has never passed away from us.
Many who care little for painting must have hung
with affection over the picture in which the Saviour is
shown patiently and lovingly disentangling the lamb from
the thorns by which it is imprisoned and torn. Many
who care little for music must have been soothed by the
air in which the office of Messiah the Shepherd has
been described in universal language. All that we can
imagine of tenderness, of endurance, of courage, of
watchfulness, of devotion, is gathered up in the thought
of the pastoral charge ; and that charge Christ has taken
From the earliest times men have felt the beauty and
the truth of the image.
The oldest of Greek poets speaks of kings as "shepherds
of men," but for the Jews this aspect of authority was
set forth by living parables in each great crisis of their
national growth. The patriarchs were shepherds ; Moses
was a shepherd ; David was a shepherd.
Christ the Good Shepherd transfigured for ever the
method, the conception, the fulfilment of leadership.
Nor can we forget that by consecrating this figure as
the image of His power, Christ has given us a revelation
of the character of all true government. While He tells
us what He is to us, He tells us what we should strive to
be to others. That which He makes known of His
THE RECORDS OF REVELATION
relationship to His people is true of all right exercise of
authority. It does not matter whether authority be
exercised in the Church, or in the nation, or in the city,
or in the factory, or in the school, or in the family ; the
two great principles by which it must be directed are the
same ; and these are self-sacrifice and sympathy. Govern-
ment which rests on any other basis is so far a tyranny
and no true government.
Jalse Fieiria of
.T ERHAPS the most urgent perils of our age spring
from the forgetfulness of this divine theory of govern-
ment. There is much of the spirit of the hireling
among us ; there is more of the affectation of the spirit.
We hide ourselves, and we make but little effort to
penetrate to the hearts of others. The nobility of
leadership has been degraded in conception if not in act.
The transitory accessories of popularity and wealth and
splendour have obscured that absolute devotion to others
which is its life. It has been supposed to end in lofty
isolation and not in the most intense fellowship.
& truer Utefo attainable for our (Generation
OUT with all this, there are among us nobler strivings
after a truer and more abiding order : there is an
impatience of the unnatural ignorance by which we are
separated from one another as classes and as individuals ;
there are generous impulses which move men with
aspirations towards silent yet complete self- surrender ;
there is something of an awakened capacity to embody
in the nation and in society the central truths of the
Gospel. Here it seems lies the work of England in this
generation; and while our thoughts are turned to the
Good Shepherd, may we pray for ourselves and for
THE REVELATION OF THE FATHER 23
others that He will infuse the virtue of His Life and
Passion into each office which we have to discharge for
our families, for our country, for our Church ; that He will
lay the print of His Cross upon all the symbols of our
power, and enlighten our counsels with the insight of
His Love.
(Cfjrist tfje Resurrection atttj tfye 3Lffe
1. HE raising of Lazarus is nothing more than the
translation of an eternal lesson into an outward and
intelligible form.
The command of sovereign power, Lazarus, come forth,
is but one partial and transitory fulfilment of the absolute
and unchanging gospel, / am the Resurrection and the
Life.
In these words Christ turns the thoughts of His
hearers from all else upon Himself. The point at issue
is not any gift which He can bestow, not any blessing
which He can procure, but the right perception of what
He is.
The Galilaeans asked Him for the bread from
heaven ; He replied, I am the Bread of Life. The
people were distracted by doubt ; their leaders were
blinded by prejudice ; and He said, / am the Light of
the World. Martha, after touching with sad yet faithful
resignation upon aid apparently withheld, fixed her hope
on some remote time, when her brother should rise again
at the last day ; and He called her to a present and
personal joy. He revealed to her that death even in its
apparent triumph wins no true victory : that life is
something inexpressibly vast and mysterious, centred in
one who neither knows nor can know any change ; that
beyond the earth-born clouds, which mar and hide it,
there is an infinite glory of heaven in which men are
made partakers.
THE RECORDS OF REVELATION
tfje flMag to men
J\luL that Christ said to the apostles on the eve of
His Passion He has said, and still says, to men in every
great crisis of history.
The trial to which the first disciples were exposed
was peculiar rather in its form than in its essential
character.
It was the trial which belongs to every period of
transition. It was a trial which presses, and will press,
most heavily on our generation.
Men are perplexed. The infinite complexity and
hurry and intensity of modern life confuses our percep-
tion of its general tendency. The old paths appear to
be lost in a wild maze. Eager voices call us to follow
this track or that. If we pause a moment we are at
once left behind by our fellow-travellers. There is no
repose, no strength of quietness, no patient waiting for
fuller knowledge. We are almost driven to ask if there
be any way, any end at all before us ? And if there be,
whether it is not hopeless for us to look for it ?
At such times let us hearken to Christ's voice, / am
the Way, and the purpose and order will come back to
the world. We shall see that through all the ages there
does run one way of self-sacrifice, and that way is Christ.
All other ways soon disappear. They are drawn to this
or lost in the darkness.
(fjrt0t tfje Crutfj for men {[Uncertain
IVlEN are uncertain. So much that has been held
sacred for ages has been questioned or found false ; so
many social theories have been rudely scattered ; so
many noble traditions have been resolved into legends ;
THE REVELATION OF THE FATHER 25
so many popular interpretations of Holy Scripture have
been found baseless, that, when we look round on the
ruin of old beliefs, we can hardly wonder that the ques-
tion should arise whether there is anything on which
faith can still repose.
When the trial is sorest the words of Christ, / am the
Truth, at once lift us into that loftier region wherein no
doubt or falsehood enters. Christ, the Son of God and
the Son of man ; Christ, the Uniter of the seen and the
unseen ; Christ, the Reconciler of the sinful and the Sin-
less He is the Truth. In Him is, is essentially and
eternally, all that is presented to us in the images of
order and beauty and purity and love which surround us.
Cfjrfgt tfje Htfe to tfjose Botmti bg <8enge
JV1 EN are sense-bound. The claims of the world upon
us are so many and so urgent : the triumphs of physical
science are so unquestionable and so wide : the marvels
of that which we can see and feel are so engrossing and
inexhaustible, that it is not surprising that we should be
tempted to rest on them : to take the visible for our
heritage : to close our souls up against those subtle
questionings whereby they strive after the knowledge of
that which no eye hath seen or ear heard or hand felt,
that life of the plant, of the man, of the world, which
comes as we know not and goes as we know not.
But strong as the charm may be to lull to sleep that
which is noblest within us, the words of Christ, / am the
Life, can break it. We feel that that thought of a Divine
personality underlying outward things, quickening them,
shaping them, preserving through dissolution the sum of
their gathered wealth, answers to a want within us.
26 THE RECORDS OF REVELATION
tlje 8Crue Fine
A.MONG the parables of the Lord no one moved the
people more deeply than that of the wicked husbandmen
who would have made the Lord's vineyard their own by
the murder of the true heir.
The thoughts of fifteen hundred years of beauty, of
growth, of luxuriance, of fertility, of joy, were gathered
round the vine, and at the end Christ says that all those
thoughts were fulfilled in Him : / am the true the
ideal Vine.
Each living part of the true Vine is ideally the same,
and yet individually different.
Our differences are given us to fit us for the discharge
of special offices in its life. If, therefore, we seek to
obliterate them or to exaggerate them, we mar its
symmetry and check its fruitfulness.
We may have noticed how in a rose the coloured
flower-leaf sometimes goes back to the green stem-leaf,
and the beauty of the flower is at once destroyed. Just
so it is with ourselves. If we affect a work other than
that for which we are made, we destroy that which we
ought to further.
Our special service, and all true service is the same,
lies in doing that which we find waiting to be done by us.
We cannot compare the relative value of the leaves
and the tendrils and the flowers on the vine : it is healthy
and vigorous and fruitful because all are there. We
cannot clearly define the minute features by which leaf
is distinguished from leaf, or flower from flower, but we
can feel how the whole gains in beauty by the endless
combination of their harmonious contrasts.
THE REVELATION OF THE FATHER 27
From the figure we turn to ourselves ; and when we
look upon our own restless and ambitious strivings ;
upon our efforts to seem to be what we are not ; upon
our unceasing mimicry of those about us ; upon our
impatience of the conditions of our little duties ; can we
venture to think that we have learnt, as we may yet
learn, the first lesson of the Vine ?
G
8TfjE Santtg betfaeen $ast onto present
down the tree, and you will read its history in
the rings of its growth. We count and measure them,
and reckon that so long ago was a year of dearth, so long
ago a year of abundance. The wound has been healed,
but the scar remains to witness to its infliction. The
very moss upon its bark tells how the trunk stood to the
rain and the sunshine. The direction of its branches
reveals the storms which habitually beat upon them.
We call the whole perennial, and yet each year sees
what is indeed a new tree rise over the gathered growths
of earlier time, and die when it has fulfilled its work.
And all this is true of the society of men. We are
what a long descent has made us. Times of supersti-
tion and misgovernment and selfish indulgence have left,
and ever will leave, their marks upon us. There are
unhealthy parts on which the cleansing light has not
fallen. There are distorted outgrowths which have
suffered for want of shelter and want of care. And there
are too, let us thank God for it, solid and substantial
supports for developments yet to come : great boughs,
as it were, towering heavenward, through which our little
results of life may be borne aloft ; ripe fruits which may
be made the beginnings of wider vitality through our
28 THE RECORDS OF REVELATION
Conception of (Hoti gt'&cn bacfe ant>
in
1 N the earliest ages God was pleased to satisfy man's
instincts by transferring to Himself in a figure the senses
and feelings of men. The saints of old time, with
childlike minds, rejoiced to think that His "eye" was
upon them; that His "ear" was open to their prayers.
The thought of His "wrath" or "jealousy" moved
them with wholesome fear ; the thought of His " com-
passion " and " repentance " raised them from hopeless
despair.
It was as easy as it was vain for philosophy to point
out that in all this they were extending finite ideas to an
infinite Being. They could not surrender what was the
soul of religion. And when the fulness of time came,
all that had been figure before was made reality. Christ
in His own Person reconciled the finite and the infinite ;
man and God.
God in Christ gives back to us all that seemed to
have been lost by the necessary widening of thought
through the progress of ages. We can without misgiving
apply the language of human feeling to Him whom we
worship.
We can give distinctness to the object of our adora-
tion without peril of idolatry. The limitations of our
being do not measure the truth, but they are made fit
to express it for us.
Cfje Erb elation of a $efa 3Lffe
1 HE Resurrection, if we may so speak, shows us the
change which would have passed over the earthly life of
man if sin had not brought death.
THE REVELATION OF THE RISEN LORD 29
Nothing perhaps is more surprising in the whole
sum of inspired teaching than the way in which the
different appearances of Christ after His Resurrection
meet and satisfy the aspirations of man towards a know-
ledge of the unseen world.
As we fix our thoughts steadily upon them we learn
how our life is independent of its present conditions ;
how we also can live through death ; how we can retain
all the issues of the past without being bound by the
limitations under which they were shaped. Christ rose
from the grave changed and yet the same ; and in Him
we have the pledge and type of our rising.
Cfjrist drfjangrti get tfje
V^HRIST was changed. He was no longer subject to
the laws of the material order to which His earthly life
was previously conformed. As has been well said :
" What was natural to Him before is now miraculous ;
what was before miraculous is now natural."
Or, to put the thought in another form, in our earthly
life the spirit is manifested through the body ; in the life
of the Risen Christ the Body is manifested (may we not
say so ?) through the Spirit.
He " appears," and no longer is seen coming. He
is found present, no one knows from whence ; He passes
away, no one knows whither.
Thus Christ is seen to be changed, but none the less
He is also seen to be essentially the same. Nothing
has been left in the grave though all has been transfigured.
It is not that Christ's soul lives on, divested of the
essence as of the accidents of the earthly garments in
which it was for a little arrayed. It is not that His body,
torn and wounded, is restored, such as it was, to its former
30 THE RECORDS OF REVELATION
vigour and beauty. But in Him soul and body, in the
indissoluble union of a perfect manhood, are seen
triumphant over the last penalty of sin.
In Him first the corruptible puts on incorruption,
and the mortal puts on immortality, without ceasing to
" be " so far as it has been, that in Him we may learn
something more of the possibilities of human life, which,
as far as we can observe it with our present powers, is
sad and fleeting; that in Him we may lift our eyes to
heaven our home, and find it about us even here ; that in
Him we may be enabled to gain some sure confidence
of fellowship with the departed; that in Him we may
have our hope steadfast, unmovable, knowing that our
labour cannot be in vain.
SEfje 3UijeIatt0n matoe of l&ecessi'tg to Belferjcra
1 HAT which is of the earth can perceive only that
which is of the earth. Our senses can only grasp that
which is kindred to themselves. We see no more than
that for which we have a trained faculty of seeing.
The world could not see Christ, and Christ could not
there is a Divine impossibility show Himself to the
world. To have proved by incontestable evidence that
Christ rose again as Lazarus rose again, would have been
not to confirm our faith but to destroy it irretrievably.
2Tfje flebelatton through 3Lohe
LOVE first sought the lost Lord ; and in answer to
love He also first revealed Himself.
JSurswn (Cortia
JN OT on the first Easter Morning only have those who
have truly loved Christ, those who have felt His healing
THE REVELATION OF THE RISEN LORD 31
power, those who have offered up all to His service, been
tempted to substitute the dead Body for the living Lord :
not on the first Easter Morning only have devout and
passionate worshippers sought to make that which is of
the earth the centre and type of their service : not on
the first Easter Morning only have believers been inclined
to claim absolute permanence for their own partial ap-
prehension of truth : not on the first Easter Morning
only, but in this later age I will venture to say more than
then.
For it is impossible, when we look at the subjects and
method of current controversy, not to ask ourselves sadly
whether we ourselves are busy in building the tomb of
Christ, or really ready to recognise Him if He comes to
us in the form of a new life ; whether we are fruitlessly
moaning over a loss which is, in fact, the condition of a
blessing, or waiting trustfully for the transfigurement of
the dead past.
It is impossible to open many popular books of
devotion, or to read many modern hymns, without feeling
that materialism has invaded faith no less than science,
and that enervating sentimentalism is corrupting the fresh
springs of manly and simple service.
It is impossible not to fear, when in the widespread
searching of hearts men cling almost desperately to
traditional phrases and customs, that we may forget the
call of Christ to occupy new regions of thought, and
labour in His name. The dangers are pressing, but
the appearance to Mary, while it reveals their essential
character, brings to us hope in facing them.
He made Himself known through sympathy. Such
is the law of His working. His earliest words to every
suffering child of man will always be, "Why weepest
thou ? Whom seekest thou ? "
32 THE RECORDS OF REVELATION
The sorrow which partly veils the Presence quickens the
search. And if the voice, when it comes to each one of
us, awakens in the silence of our souls the true conviction
that we do want a living Friend and Saviour, and not a
dead Body, some relic which we can decorate with our
offerings or some formula which we can repeat with easy
pertinacity, then we in our turn shall be strengthened
to bear the discipline by which Christ in His glory leads
us to a fuller and truer view of Himself and of His
kingdom.
We shall endure gladly the removal of that which
for the time would only minister to error : we shall be
privileged to announce to others that He whom we have
found through tears and left in patient obedience, is
moving onwards to loftier scenes of triumph : we shall
learn to understand why the Lord's own message of His
Resurrection was not " I have risen," or " I live," but,
"I ascend:" we shall listen till all experience and all
history, all that is in the earth of good and beautiful
and true, grows articulate with one command, the familiar
words of our Communion Service, Sursum Corda, " Lift
up your hearts ;" and we shall answer in humble devo-
tion, in patient faith, in daily struggles within and without,
" We lift them up unto the Lord," to the Lord Risen and
Ascended.
JEfye l&e&elattan tfjraurrlj STfjaug^t 3Tfje jaurneg t0
(Srmmaus an ^Ulegcrjj of 3Ltfe
1 HE journey to Emmaus is, both in its apparent sad-
ness and in its final joy, an allegory of many a life.
We traverse our appointed path with a sense of a void
unfilled, of hopes unsatisfied, of promises withdrawn.
The words of encouragement which come to us, often
from strange sources, are not sufficient to bring back the
assurance which we have lost. Yet happy are we if we
THE REVELATION OF THE RISEN LORD 33
open our griefs to Him who indeed knows them better than
ourselves, if we keep Him by our side, if we constrain
Him to abide with us. Happy if at the end, when the day
is far spent and darkness is closing round, we are allowed
to see for one moment the fulness of the Divine Presence
which has been with us all along, half cloud, half light.
But happier, and thrice happy if, when our hearts first
burn within us, while life is still fresh and the way is
still open, as One speaks to us in silent whisperings of
reproof and discipline, speaks to us in the ever -living
record of the Bible, we recognise the source of the
spiritual fire. This we may do, nay, rather, if our faith
be a reality, this we must do, and so feel that there has
dawned upon us from the Easter Day a splendour over
which no night can fall.
&fje Eesutrectum interprets all 3Lffe
1 HE Resurrection of Christ is no isolated fact. It is
not only an answer to the craving of the human heart ;
it is the key to all history, the interpretation of the
growing purpose of life : Christ hath been raised, not as
some new, strange, unprepared thing, but Christ hath
been raised according to the Scriptures. So God fulfilled
the promises which in many parts and in many fashions
lie written in the whole record of the Bible.
STfje teat
CHRIST comes not to sweep away all the growths of
the past, but to carry to its proper consummation every
undeveloped germ of right. Even so He sends us to
take our stand in the midst of things as they are ; to
guard with tender thoughtful ness all that has been
consecrated to His service, and to open the way for
the many powers which work together for His glory.
34 THE RECORDS OF REVELATION
In Christ's name we take possession of every fact
which is established by thought or inquiry. We fail in
duty, we fail in faith, if we allow any human interest or
endowment or acquisition to lie without the domain of
the Cross.
of all Beltcfctrs
1 HE greatest danger of the Church at present seems
to be not lest we should forget the peculiar functions of
the ministerial office, but lest we should allow this to
supersede the general power which it concentrates and
represents in the economy of life.
Spiritual
W E have not lost more than we have gained by the
removal of the events of the Gospel history far from our
own times. The last beatitude of the Gospel is the
special endowment of the later Church. Blessed are they
that have not seen and yet have believed. The testimony
of sense given to the apostles, like the testimony of word
given to us, is but the starting-point of faith.
The substance of faith is not a fact which we cannot
explain away, or a conclusion which we cannot escape,
but the personal apprehension of a living, loving Friend.
W E must notice how tenderly the Lord deals with
the doubter who is ready to believe, and with what wise
tolerance the Christian society keeps within its pale him
whom a ruthless logic might have declared to be a
denier of the Gospel.
Doubts are not unbelief, and yet they open the
way to unbelief. If they are not resolutely faced, if
THE REVELATION OF THE RISEN LORD 35
they are allowed to float about like unsubstantial
shadows, if they are alleged as excuses for the neglect
of practical duties, if they are cherished as signs of
superior intelligence, the history of St. Thomas has no
encouragement for those who feel them.
The Lord revealed Himself to Thomas not while he
kept himself apart in proud isolation, or in lonely
despondency, but when he was joined to the company
of his fellow-apostles, though he could not share their
confidence.
Doubts are often dallied with : and still worse, they
are often affected.
It is strange that the hypocrisy of scepticism should be
looked upon as less repulsive than the affectation of be-
lief, yet in the present day it has become almost a fashion
for men to repeat doubts on the gravest questions without
the least sense of personal responsibility.
Nothing is more common than to be told by easy
talkers that this is impossible and that has been dis-
proved, where a very little inquiry will show that these
doubters upon trust have never even seriously attempted
to examine the conditions of the problems which they
presume to decide. For such hope lies in spiritual
conversion.
Christ has no promises for dishonest doubt any more
than for unreal faith.
Christianity shrinks from no test, but it transcends all.
2TIjc l&e&elatt'on in tfje OTtork of ILife
W E must work. We must pursue our appointed task
till a new command comes. It may seem a poor and
36 THE RECORDS OF REVELATION
dull thing to go back from scenes of great excitement
and lofty expectation to simple duties which belonged
to an earlier time. But that is the method of God.
Perhaps it will be through these that the higher call will
come; perhaps no higher call will ever come to us.
But our duty is still the same. We cannot tell the
value of any particular service either for the society or
for our own training. Much must be done to the end
of the workman's life which is a preparation only. The
Baptist continued to labour as he had first laboured,
though he knew and confessed, / must decrease.
He does not leave His people desolate, though they
do not always or at once recognise their visitation. Not
once or twice only, but as often as the cleansed eye is
turned to revolutions of society or to revolutions of
thought, to the breaking of a new day over the restless
waters of life, the believer knows by an access of power,
of knowledge, of love, that His words are true : / come
to you.
2Tfje Setrjfce of TOorfctmj.
J~L E saith to /um, Tend shepherd (not simply feed)
my sheep (not lambs). If there are the young and the
weak and the ignorant to be fed, there are also the
mature and the vigorous to be guided. The shepherd
must rule no less than feed. And to do this wisely
and well is a harder work than the first.
If we are to do Christ's work we must consider more
patiently than we commonly do the requirements of
those whom we have to serve. There is not one method,
one voice for all. Here there is need of the tenderest
simplicity : there of the wisest authority : there of the
ripest result of long reflection.
THE REVELATION OF THE RISEN LORD 37
Wz Serfcice of
1 HE comings of the Lord are not such events as we
look for. Perhaps they are unregarded by those who
witness them ; but they are not therefore less real or
less momentous.
No one who feels the sorrows of the age would wish
to disparage the new earnestness which impels men at
present even to undisciplined and self-willed efforts for
Christ's sake. We say rather : Would God that all the
Lord's people were prophets. But there are dangers in
this tumult of reawakened life. Patient watching is too
often treated at present with suspicion and stigmatised
as lukewarmness. Judgments on the deepest mysteries
are received without reflection and repeated without
inquiry. Humility is interpreted as a confession of
weakness, and reserve is condemned as a cloke for
doubt. Nothing brings such sad misgivings as this
hasty intolerant temper, peculiar to no one party or
class, which is characteristic of the age.
St. Peter, St. Paul, anto St. Soljn
ST. PETER, St. Paul, and St. John occupy in suc-
cession the principal place in the first century, each
carrying forward in due measure the work to which he
ministered. So, it is said, we may see the likeness of
St. Peter in the Church of the Middle Ages, and the
likeness of St. Paul in the Churches of the Reformation.
There remains, then, such is the conclusion, yet one
more type of the Christian society to be realised in the
world, which shall bear the likeness of St. John.
a fflartgrtiom
W AITING, as we must recognise and remember, is a
sacrifice of self, a real martyrdom no less than working.
38 THE RECORDS OF REVELATION
St. John by his long life, as truly as St. James by his
early death, drank of the Lord's Cup and shared in the
Lord's Baptism according to His own words.
To win the soul in patience, to bear the trial of
delays, to watch for the dawn through the chill hours
which precede it, to keep fresh and unsullied the great
hope that Christ will come, without presuming to decide
the fashion of His Coming, is a witness to the powers of
the unseen world, which the Spirit of God alone can
make possible.
Cfjrist present all tfje HJags
jL,O I am with you, Christ said, all the days all the
days unto the end of the world. And this peculiar
phrase in which the promise is expressed in the original
turns our thoughts to the manifold vicissitudes of fortune
in which the Lord is still present with His people.
He does not say simply "always," as of a uniform
duration, but " all the days," as if He would take account
of the changing aspects of storm and sunshine, of light
and darkness, which chequer our course.
The sense of this abiding Presence of God in Christ
both with the Church at large and with individual
believers, brings patience, and with patience, peace.
There is something deadening in the strife of words.
The silence which follows controversy is very commonly
the sign of exhaustion and not of rest. It is not by
narrowing our vision or our sympathy, by fixing our
eyes simply on that which is congenial to our feelings,
by excluding from our interest whole regions of Christen-
dom, that we can gain the repose of faith.
It is a natural but false feeling which leads us to
think that at some other time God was nearer to the
THE REVELATION OF THE RISEN LORD 39
world than He is now ; that His voice was clearer and
more intelligible ; that His government was more direct
and uniform. He is, if only we will look, still among
us, speaking to those who listen through the manifold
discoveries of the age, guiding even our fierce and selfish
conflicts so as to minister to His purpose.
And we ourselves consciously or unconsciously are
serving Him. He uses us if we do not bring ourselves
to Him a willing sacrifice.
departure in Bkssfncj
IN ordinary life nothing is treasured up with more
sacred affection, nothing is more powerful to move us
with silent and abiding persuasiveness, nothing is more
able to unite together the seen and the unseen than the
last words, the last look of those who have passed away
from us, the last revelation of the life which trembles;
as it were, on the verge of its transfigurement. The last
words of Christ were a promise and a charge. The last
act of Christ was an act of blessing. The last revelation
of Christ was the elevation of the temporal into the
eternal, beyond sight and yet with the assurance of an
unbroken fellowship.
That promise, that charge, that blessing, that revela-
tion, are for us, the unchanged and unchangeable
bequest of the Risen Lord. His hands are stretched
out still. His Spirit is still hovering about us. His
work is waiting to be accomplished.
THE
GOSPEL OF THE RESURRECTION
2Ef)e Sfosurrectt'on 2Erue or jFalse no JHean
1 HE power of the Resurrection, as the ground of
religious hope, lies in the very circumstance that the
event which changed the whole character of the disciples
was external to them, independent of them, unexpected
by them.
It is a real link between the seen and the unseen
worlds, or it is at best the expression of a human instinct.
Christ has escaped from the corruption of death ; or
men, as far as the future is concerned, are exactly where
they were before He came.
Whatever may be the civilising power of Christian
morality, it can throw no light upon the grave.
If the Resurrection be not true in the same sense in
which the Passion is true, then death still remains the
great conqueror.
We cannot allow our thoughts to be vague and un-
certain upon it with impunity. We must place it in the
very front of our confession, with all that it includes, or
we must be prepared to lay aside the Christian name.
If the Resurrection be not true, the basis of Christian
THE GOSPEL OF THE RESURRECTION 41
morality, no less than the basis of Christian theology, is
gone. The issue cannot be stated too broadly. We are
not Christians unless we are clear in our confession on
this point.
To preach the fact of the Resurrection was the first
function of the Evangelists ; to embody the doctrine of
the Resurrection is the great office of the Church ; to
learn the meaning of the Resurrection is the task, not
of one age only, but of all.
Wyi Falue of an f^ {statical i&ebelatfon
A SUBJECTIVE religion brings with it no element
of progress, and cannot lift man out of himself. A
historical revelation alone can present God as an object
of personal love.
Pure Theism is unable to form a living religion.
Mohammedanism lost all religious power in a few genera-
tions. Judaism survived for fifteen centuries every form
of assault in virtue of the records of a past deliverance
on which it was based, and the hope of a future Deliverer,
which it included.
In proportion as the Resurrection is lost sight of in
the popular Creed, doctrine is divorced from life, and
the broad promises of divine hope are lost in an
individual struggle after good.
Like all historical facts, the Resurrection differs from
the facts of science as being incapable of direct and
present verification. And it differs from all other facts
of history because it is necessarily unique. Yet it is not
therefore incapable of that kind of verification which is
appropriate to its peculiar nature.
Its verification lies in its abiding harmony with all the
42 THE RECORDS OF REVELATION
progressive developments of man, and with each discovery
which casts light upon his destiny.
Completeness, indeed, is but another name for ascer-
tained limitation. The grandest and highest faculties of
man are exactly those in which he most feels his weak-
ness and imperfection. They are at present only half-
fulfilled prophecies of powers which, as we believe, shall
yet find an ample field for unrestricted development.
Special prayer is based upon a fundamental instinct
of our nature. And in the fellowship which is established
in prayer between man and God, we are brought into
personal union with Him in Whom all things have their
being.
In this lies the possibility of boundless power; for
when the connection is once formed, who can lay down
the limits of what man can do in virtue of the communion
of his spirit with the Infinite Spirit ?
That which on one occasion would be felt to be a
personal revelation of God might convey an impression
wholly different at another. The miracles of one period
or state of society might be morally impossible in
another.
2TfjeoIo(jrj| anti Science
1 HE requirements of exact science bind the attention
of each student to some one small field, and this little
fragment almost necessarily becomes for him the measure
of the whole, if, indeed, he has ever leisure to lift up his
eyes to the whole at all.
For physical students as such, and for those who take
their impressions of the universe solely from them,
THE GOSPEL OF THE RESURRECTION 43
miracles can have no real existence. Nor is this all : not
miracles only, and this is commonly forgotten, but every
manifestation of will is at the same time removed from
the world : all life falls under the power of absolute
materialism, a conclusion which is at variance with the
fundamental idea of religion, and so with one of the
original assumptions on which our argument is based.
Theology deals with the origin and destiny of things :
Science with things as they are according to human
observation of them. Theology claims to connect this
world with the world to come : Science is of this world
only. Theology is confessedly partial, provisional,
analogical in its expression of truth : Science, that is
human science, can be complete, final, and absolute in
its enunciation of the laws of phenomena.
Theology accepts without the least reserve the con-
clusions of Science as such : it only rejects the claim of
Science to contain within itself every spring of knowledge
and every domain of thought.
This holds true of the lower and more exact forms of
Science, which deal with organic bodies ; but as soon as
account is taken of the Science of organic bodies of
Biology and Sociology then Science itself becomes a
prophet of Theology.
In this broader and truer view of Science, Theology
closes a series, "a hierarchy of Sciences," as it has been
well called, in which each successive member gains in
dignity what it loses in definiteness, and by taking
account of a more complex and far-reaching play of
powers, opens out nobler views of being.
While we admit that the tendency of a scientific age
is adverse to a living belief in miracles, we see that this
tendency is due, not to the antagonism of science and
THE RECORDS OF REVELATION
miracle, but to the neglect and consequent obscuration
by science of that region of thought in which the idea
of the miraculous finds scope.
Arrogant physicism is met by superstitious spirit-
ualism ; and there is right on both sides.
The Resurrection is either a miracle or it is an
illusion. Here there is no alternative : no ambiguity.
And it is not an accessory of the apostolic message,
but the sum of the message itself.
The same principles which would exclude as impos-
sible a belief in such a miracle as the Resurrection,
would equally exclude as impossible a belief in anything
beyond ourselves and the range of present physical
observation.
Thus the question practically is not simply, Is
Christianity true ? but, Is all hope, impulse, knowledge,
life, absolutely bounded by sense and the world of
sense ?
2Tfj0 dDottttnuitg of 3Ltfe
/\LL creation is progressive. It is a law as well in
the moral as in the physical world that nothing is lost.
All that has been modifies all that is and all that will
be. The present includes all the past, and will itself be
contained in the future. Each physical change, each
individual will, contributes something to the world to
come. The earth on which we live, and the civilisation
which fashions our conduct, is the result of immeasurable
forces acting through vast periods of time.
There are crises in the history of nature and in the
history of man, periods of intense and violent action,
and again periods of comparative repose and equilibrium,
but still the continuity of life is unbroken. Even when
THE GOSPEL OF THE RESURRECTION 45
the old order is violently overthrown, the new order is
built in part out of its ruins and not only upon them.
Cfje Connection of Cfjrtsttanitg irittfj tfje
CHRISTIANITY cannot be regarded alone and
isolated from its antecedents. It is part of a whole
which reaches back historically from its starting-point on
the day of Pentecost for nearly two thousand years. It
was new but it was not unprepared. It professed to be
itself the fulfilment and not the abolition of that which
went before : to reveal outwardly the principle of a
Divine Fatherhood by which all the contradictions and
disorders of life are made capable of a final resolution ;
and to possess within it that universal truth which can
transfigure without destroying the various characteristics
of men and nations.
It is then possible that what we feel to be difficulties
in its historic form are removed or lessened if we place
it in its due relation to the whole life of mankind ; and,
on the other hand, the obvious fitness with which it
carries on and completes a long series of former teachings
will confirm with singular power its divine claims.
There have been attempts in all ages to separate
Christianity from Judaism and Hellenism ; but to carry
out such an attempt is not to interpret Christianity, but
to construct a new religion. Christianity has not only
affinities with Judaism and Hellenism, but it includes
in itself all the permanent truths to which both wit-
ness.
It was bound up (so the apostles said) with promises
and blessings by which the Jewish people had been
moulded through many centuries. It answered to wants
of which the Gentiles had become conscious through
long periods of noble effort and bitter desolation.
46 THE RECORDS OF REVELATION
2Tf)e Fictones of Cfjristtanttg
(CHRISTIANITY conquered the Roman Empire, and
remained unshaken by its fall. It sustained the shock
of the northern nations, and in turn civilised them. It
suffered persecution and it wielded sovereignty. It
preserved the treasures of ancient thought and turned
them to new uses. It inspired science, while it cherished
mysteries with which science could not deal. It assumed
the most varied forms and it moulded the most discord-
ant characters.
Cfttistiamtg centred in tfje IDoctrine of tfje
parson of Christ
1 HERE have been conquerors who, in the course of
a lifetime, have overrun half the world and left lasting
memorials of their progress in cities and kingdoms
founded and overthrown. There have been monarchs
who have, by their individual genius, consolidated vast
empires and inspired them with a new life. There have
been teachers who, through a small circle of devoted
hearers, have rapidly changed the modes of thought of a
whole generation. There have been religious reformers
who, by force or eloquence, have modified or reconstructed
the belief of nations. There have been devotees whose
lives of superhuman endurance have won for them from
posterity a share of divine honour. There have been
heroes cut off by a sudden and mysterious fate, for
whose return their loyal and oppressed countrymen
have looked with untiring patience as the glorious and
certain sign of dawning freedom. There have been
founders of new creeds who have furnished the ideal of
supreme good to later generations in the glorified image
of their work. But in all the noble line of the mighty
THE GOSPEL OF THE RESURRECTION 47
and the wise and the good in the great army of kings
and prophets and saints and martyrs, there is not one
who has ever claimed for himself or received from his
followers the title of having in any way wrought out
salvation for men by the virtue of his life and death, as
being in themselves, and not only by moral effect of
their example, a spring of divine blessings.
The reality of the Resurrection is an adequate explana-
tion of the significance which was attached to the death
of Christ. It seems impossible to discover anything else
which can be.
2Tfje fKtracIw of tfje first Irje
NOTHING indeed can be more unjust than the
common mode of discussing the miracles of the first
age. Instead of taking them in connection with a crisis
in the religious history of the world, disputants refer
them to the standard of a period of settled progress such
as that in which we live.
The epoch at which they are said to have been
wrought was confessedly creative in thought, and that in
a sense in which no other age ever has been, and there
seems a positive fitness in the special manifestation of
God in the material as in the spiritual world.
The central idea of the time which, dimly appre-
hended at Rome and Alexandria, found its complete
expression in the teaching of the apostles, was the union
of earth and heaven, the transfiguration of our whole
earthly nature; and the history of ancient speculation
seems to show that nothing less than some outward
pledge and sign of its truth could have led to the bold
enunciation of this dogma as an article of popular
belief.
48 THE RECORDS OF REVELATION
Wz Progress of Religion anb tfye progress of Science
IT is said that while science is progressive religion is
stationary. The modes of advance in the two are certainly
not the same, but the advance in science is not more
real than the advance in religion. Each proceeds
according to its proper law. The advance in religion is
not measured by an addition to a former state, which
can be regarded in its fulness separately, but by a
change : it is represented not by a common difference
but by a common ratio.
Viewed in this light, we can trace on a great scale
the triple division of post-Christian history as marked by
the successive victories of the Faith.
The fact of the Resurrection is its starting-point, the
realisation of the Resurrection is its goal.
The fulness of the Truth is once shewn to men, as in
old times the awful splendours of the Theocracy, and
then they are charged to work out in the slow struggles
of life the ideal which they have been permitted to
contemplate.
Thus it is that we can look without doubt or mis-
giving upon the imperfections of the sub-apostolic Church,
or the corruptions of the middle ages, or the excesses of
the Reformation. Even through these the divine work
went forward. The power of the Resurrection was
ever carried over a wider field.
At first Christianity moved in the family, hallowing
every simplest relation of life. This was the work of the
primitive Church. Next it extended its sway to the
nation and the community, claiming to be heard in the
assemblies of princes and in the halls of counsellors.
This was the work of the mediaeval Church. Now it has
THE GOSPEL OF THE RESURRECTION 49
a still wider mission, to assert the common rights and
fellowship of men, to rise from the family and the nation
to humanity itself.
To accomplish this is the charge which is entrusted
to the Church of the Present, and no vision of the purity
or grandeur of earlier times should blind us to the
supreme majesty of the part which is assigned to us in
the economy of faith.
&fyt Ecf0rntatfon an
IT would be easy to point out the weakness of the
Reformation in itself as a power of organisation. Its
function was to quicken rather than to create, to vivify
old forms rather than to establish new.
But however we may grieve over its failure where it
arrogated the office not of restoration but of reconstruc-
tion, it was a distinct advance in Christian life.
Where it failed, it failed from the neglect of the
infirmities of men, and of the provisions which have been
divinely made to meet them.
On the other hand, the lessons which it taught are
still fruitful throughout Christendom, and destined, as
we hope, to bring forth a still more glorious harvest.
What that may be as yet we cannot know, but all
past history teaches us that the power of the Gospel is
able to meet each crisis of human progress, and we can
look forward with trust to the fulfilment of its message
to our age.
2Ef)e fact of tfye i&esurrectt'an tfje central ^P0mt of
IF the fact of the Resurrection be in itself, as it
confessedly is, absolutely unique in all human experience,
50 THE RECORDS OF REVELATION
the point which it occupies in history is absolutely
unique also.
To this point all former history converges as to a
certain goal : from this point all subsequent history
flows as from its life-giving spring.
On a large view of the life of humanity the Resur-
rection is antecedently likely.
So far from being beset by greater difficulties than
any other historical fact, it is the one fact towards which
the greatest number of lines of evidence converge.
In one form or other pre-Christian history is a
prophecy of it, and post-Christian history an embodi-
ment of it.
s' Uiefo of tfje Ecsurrectton
I HE Evangelists treat the Resurrection as simply, un-
affectedly, inartificially, as everything else which they
touch.
The miracle to them seems to form a natural part of
the Lord's history. They shew no consciousness that
it needs greater or fuller authentication than the other
events of His life. Their position and office indeed
exclude such a thought. They wrote not to create
belief, but to inform those already believing.
2Tfje ota of <Sm
IT is evident that the possibility of sin is necessarily
included in the creation of a finite, free being ; for the
simplest idea which we can form of sin is the finite
setting itself up against the infinite. Selfishness, which
exists potentially as soon as "self" exists, is the ground
of all sin. Hence we can see how a perfect, finite being
may yet be exposed to temptation, for the sense of
THE GOSPEL OF THE RESURRECTION 51
limitation brings with it the thought, or the possibility
of the thought, of passing the limit.
(5M not tfje Contrition
IT may be said that if moral evil were removed from
the world "life would be impoverished." So indeed it
appears at first sight to us who are habituated to the
startling contrasts of life : for us shadow is a necessity of
distinct vision. Yet it would be difficult to shew that
the more splendid qualities which are brought out (for
instance) by war are better, in any sense, than their
correlatives which need no such field for their display :
that the heroic forgetfulness or contempt of danger or
suffering, which springs from a great passion or a generous
impulse in the midst of a fierce conflict or under the
sense of a deep wrong, is better than that rational self-
control which we have seen can exist in the highest
degree without the pressure of evil. We are too apt to
think that virtue which is seen on a larger scale is itself
magnified.
On the other hand it may be allowed that evil itself
serves as a part of our discipline : that it gives occasion
for the exercise of special virtues, and by antagonism
calls them into play ; yet this is only to say that it has
been so ordered that evil shall in some degree minister
to its own defeat.
Evil, while it may be the occasion of good, is never
transmuted into good. Evil remains evil to the last
in whatever form it may shew itself. Sin remains sin :
pain remains pain : ignorance (so far as it is culpable)
remains ignorance : though sin and pain and ignorance
may call forth efforts of love and fortitude and patience.
Nor can it be said that sin realised, and not merely
52 THE RECORDS OF REVELATION
the possibility of sin by the action of a free will, is the
necessary condition of human virtue, and consequently
of human happiness. For if this were true, then it
would follow either that evil in itself will be eternal, or
that human life in its true sense will cease to be.
2Ef)e Eesurrectton of tfje Bolig
V_JUR present body is as the seed of our future body.
The one rises as naturally from the other as the flower
from the germ.
We cannot, indeed, form any conception of the change
which shall take place, except so far as it is shewn in the
Person of the Lord. Its fulfilment is in another state,
and our thoughts are bound by this state. But there is
nothing against reason in the analogy.
If the analogy were to explain the passage of man
from an existence of one kind (limited by a body) to an
existence of another kind (unlimited by a body), it would
then be false ; but as it is, it illustrates by a vivid figure
the perpetuity of our bodily life, as proved in the Resur-
rection of Christ.
The moral significance of such a doctrine as the
Resurrection of the body cannot be overrated. Both
personally and socially it places the sanctions if not the
foundations of morality on a new ground.
Each sin against the body is no longer a stain on
that which is itself doomed to perish, but a defilement
of that which is consecrated to an eternal life.
In this way the doctrine of the Resurrection turned
into a reality the exquisite myth of Plato, in which he
represented tyrants and great men waiting for their final
sentence from the judges of Hades, with their bodies
scarred and wounded by lust and passion and cruelty.
THE GOSPEL OF THE RESURRECTION
" 2T|e iLains of
W HAT we call " laws of nature " are nothing more
than laws of our present observation of nature.
To the Christian the laws of nature are not laws only
but prophecies. In the light of the Resurrection they are
symbols of something broader and more glorious beyond
these. They do not confirm hope but guide it.
fje Cfjurrfj a Itmgtoom
1 HE kingdom of God " has been the watchword
equally of those who have cast aside the restraints and
claims of life and of those who have sought to mould its
form by the most merciless fanaticism.
The Church is itself the record of its history : it is a
monument and a shrine.
Each race, each nation, each century, nay, each faith-
ful workman, has left some mark upon it. Time gradu-
ally harmonises parts which once seemed incongruous.
Cfm'sttamtg onto Paganism
1 HERE is a dark side to the picture which we are apt
to forget, but still there is an abiding grace and manliness
in classical life as it is seen in history and literature and
art.
Unaffected interest in every human feeling, many sided
culture, stern and indomitable will, claim our respect and
awaken in us responsive efforts.
But so far as we admire Paganism, there is nothing
in Christianity antagonistic to it.
Paganism closed its eyes to suffering and death.
Christianity takes account of the whole nature of
man, of its good and of its evil, and justifies, in the face
54 THE RECORDS OF REVELATION
of the contradictions of life, the instinct which affirms its
dignity. It looks death face to face not as an inevitable
necessity but as a final consequence of sin, and yet
realises even now more than victory.
Christianity differs from Paganism as a whole differs
from a part. It takes up into itself and harmonises with
the rest of our experience isolated truths to which Pagan-
ism bears witness.
Paganism proclaims the grandeur of man : Judaism
the supremacy of God. Christianity accepts the anti-
thesis and vindicates by the message of the Resurrection
the grandeur of man in and through God.
Cfte OSorft of Cfrristiarutg
1 HIS then is the work of Christianity, first to establish
the common dignity of men as men, and to place on a
sure basis all purely human virtues ; and next to connect
the life of men with its source and consummation, and
bring it into fellowship with God.
2Tf)E principle of SUttttg m Cfjristtanftg
IT may not, indeed, be a mere fancy to regard the
manifold appearances of the Lord after His Resurrection
as prefiguring in some way the varieties which should
exist in after time in His Church.
The unity of His Person was not in any way impaired,
and yet He shewed Himself to His disciples in different
" forms."
And it may be still that the faithful eye can see a
Body of Christ where His Presence is hidden from others.
For even in the one body there are many bodies ; and
as the whole Church is sometimes contemplated in its
completeness as distinct from Christ, though most closely
THE GOSPEL OF THE RESURRECTION 55
bound to Him as His bride ; so is the same true of
separate Churches. " Ye are a body (not the body) of
Christ, and members in particular," St. Paul says to
the Church of Corinth. The definite article destroys
the force of his argument.
And so again in his second epistle : "I espoused
you " the congregation to which he is writing " to one
husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to
Christ."
Of the life of the Church part is open, part is hidden.
We can see divisions, differences, limitations ; but all
that is eternal and infinite in it, all that controls actions
which perplex us and harmonises discords which are
unresolved to our senses, is not to be perceived on earth,
but is with Christ in heaven.
Onitg fcaeg not require (Uritmtal 3Kmtg
IT follows necessarily that external, visible unity is not
required for the essential unity of the Church.
The congregations of Jewish and Gentile Christians
were no less One in Christ, though the outward fellow-
ship between them was imperfect or wanting : their
common life lay deeper than the controversies which
tended to keep them apart. Their isolation was a proof
of imperfection, but not of death.
What errors are deadly it does not fall to our part to
attempt to determine. It is enough to observe that
differences of opinion which were once thought by
many to be fatal to unity were really consistent with it.
The promise of Christ does not reach to the unity of the
outward fold at any time. " Other sheep," He said, " I
have, which are not of this fold : them also I must
bring, and they shall hear my voice ; and they shall
56 THE RECORDS OF REVELATION
become one flock, one shepherd," one flock in however
many folds it be gathered, because it listens to the voice
of the One Shepherd.
The early records of the Church are little more than
the records of conflicts which once seemed doubtful ;
but in each case that which had in it the element of
permanence lived on, and Catholicity stood in full strength
against the broken forms of partial and erroneous
teachings.
No general principles can be laid down to justify a
schism or a revolution. The future alone can decide on
the sufficiency of the alleged causes from which they arose.
And in many cases the issue which is sanctioned by
experience may have been occasioned though not caused
by selfish motives.
The antagonism of separate societies of Christians
serves not as the best, but as the most appropriate,
discipline for bringing out the manifold applications and
capacities of the one Gospel.
History has in fact sanctioned divisions of the
Christian Church, whatever we may think of the events
which first led to them, or of the actors by whom they
were made.
On the whole a fictitious unity is more destructive of
vital energy than partial dismemberment, for it tends to
weaken the striving after essential unity.
The divisions and rivalries and heresies and schisms
by which the Church is torn may be means towards the
fulfilment of its offices. As we look back we can
scarcely doubt that it is so. The storm no less than
the sunshine is needed that the rainbow, the visible
token of God's covenant with man, may be seen upon
the cloud.
THE GOSPEL OF THE RESURRECTION 57
There is always a great danger that that which has
been found of critical use at one time will be pronounced
necessary for all time.
Mistaken gratitude changes the outward means of
deliverance into an idol. The organisation through
which the spirit once worked is reckoned holy, even
when the spirit has left it.
The work of the mediaeval Church (for example) re-
quired modes of operation which could not be retained
now without a faithless neglect of the lesson which God
has taught us in the last four centuries.
The spirit of the Resurrection tries and transfigures
each transitory embodiment of Truth.
Christ risen tfje pletorje of tfje institution of all
VV HEREVER we look the first question which arises
is ever : To what purpose is this waste ? On all sides
we see a prodigal wealth of powers which to us appear
to pass away without effect, of germs of life which never
fulfil what we think to be their proper destiny, of beauty
which gladdens no human eye. In the moral world the
same mystery occurs.
All nature teaches the same lesson. We know in part.
It is enough. If Christ be risen, in that fact lies the
pledge of " the restitution of all things " towards which
men are encouraged to work.
Aspects of posittrjfem in relation to ftfjmtianttg
N O religion can fail to be a fruitful subject of study :
even the rudest reveals something of the natural feelings
and wants of man which are awakened by the experience
of life.
58 THE RECORDS OF REVELATION
And exactly as we believe Christianity to be tJie
Truth, we shall confidently expect to find in it all that
is true in the manifold expressions of human thought.
Thus it has happened not unfrequently that independ-
ent speculations or instinctive aspirations have brought
out elements in the Gospel which had been before over-
looked or set aside. They were there, and even actively
at work, but they were not consciously apprehended.
And so it seems to be now. The religion of
Positivism is offered as the final result of a profound
analysis of society and man, and its unquestionable
attractiveness to pure and vigorous minds indicates that
it does meet with some peculiar force-present phases of
thought. Are there not then lessons which we may
learn from it?
A system is formidable, not by what there is false in
it, but by what there is true in it. If then it can be
shewn that Christianity assures what Positivism promises
if it can be shewn that it includes in a fact what
Positivism symbolises in a conception if it can be
shewn that it carries on to the unseen and eternal the
ideas which Positivism limits to the seen and temporal
we may be sure that Positivism will have no lasting
religious power except as a transitorial preparation for a
fuller faith. Comte will be one more in the long line of
witnesses who shew that the soul is naturally Christian.
The Positivist suggests the ideas of continuity,
solidarity, and totality ; the Christian, going yet further,
adds the idea of infinity.
ftfje ILirjiruj rulefc brj tfje Beatr
W E can watch how, in old times, the various results
of labour and reflection and conflict were gathered up
and perpetuated in abiding shapes; but we have no
THE GOSPEL OF THE RESURRECTION 59
choice but to receive them. It is our privilege to
modify, but not to begin. More and more as the ages go
on, in Comte's striking phrase, we who live are ruled
by the dead.
(Eomte anto ULucrettus
C_xOMTE offers a singular parallel to the great poet of
the Roman Republic. Both were bitterly hostile to the
established faith of their countries. Both sought to lay
on the study of nature the firm basis of human life and
hope. Both were profoundly impressed with a sense of
the unity of the world. But, in spite of the similarity of
the moral position of the two teachers, we feel that they
are separated by more than eighteen Christian centuries.
Lucretius sought in the explanation of the origin of
things that confidence which Comte looks for in the
observation of their being. The one feels his way
towards the intellectual conception of a harmony of
nature; the other, towards the moral law of the
discipline of life. Both, as it seems, were heralds of a
crisis of thought. To both the Resurrection is the
complete fulfilment of aspiration and teaching.
&elijri0n Intellectual ari& fEoral
JL HE sphere of doctrine is thought, and its end is the
true ; the sphere of discipline is action, and its end is
the good ; the sphere of worship is feeling, and its end
is the beautiful. And, as a whole, religion teaches us
to know, to serve, and to love the Great Being, in
whom all that falls within the range of our power is
summed up.
$0 Jact to 6e lookefc at bg itself
Jc/VERY fact in science furnishes new material for
religion, and at once enlarges its scope and tends to
60 THE RECORDS OF REVELATION
define its character. But that it may do so, no fact
must be looked at by itself. At present, science suffers
at least as much as religion from partial and contracted
views. The student of physics perpetrates as many
solecisms as the student of theology.
Every one would feel the absurdity of a geometrician
denying a fact in morals because it is not deducible from
his premises ; and yet it is not a rare thing to hear some
explorer of inorganic nature gravely argue that nothing
can be known of God, because his inquiries give no
direct results as to His being or His attributes.
THE HISTORIC FAITH
ftfce Etica of Jaitf)
OELIEF deals with that which has been or with that
which now is. Faith claims as its own that which is
not yet brought within the range of sense.
We live by Faith however we live. Perhaps, it is a
sad possibility, we can die without it.
Credulity is not Faith. That indolent abdication
of the responsibility of judgment in favour of every
pretender, that superficial assent, lightly given and
lightly withdrawn, is utterly at variance with the intense
clear vision and with the resolute grasp of Faith.
Superstition is not Faith. To choose for ourselves
idols, to invest with attributes of the unseen world
fragments of this world is to deny Faith, which is active,
progressive, being with the infinite.
Conviction is not Faith. We may yield to what we
admit to be an inevitable intellectual conclusion. Our
opposition may be silenced or vanquished. But the
state of mind which is thus produced is very often
simply a state of exhaustion or of quickening.
Each generation is able to apprehend something
more of that which the word Faith represents. But
nevertheless the essential properties of Faith remain the
same.
Faith is the harmony of reason and feeling and
62 THE RECORDS OF REVELATION
purpose. It is, to say all briefly, thought illuminated
by emotion and concentrated by will.
Reason stands paralysed by the grave.
.tfaitfj a Principle of
1 F we were to listen to some we might suppose that
Faith is the portion of childhood and old age, an infirmity
of the weak and the ignorant. And yet, if we will be
honest with ourselves, we shall confess that there is
nothing which calls forth the admiration and the love of
men which is not sealed with the sign of Faith.
Faith not only apprehends the unseen but enters
into vital union with it, and so wields, according to its
strength, the powers of the world to come.
Jaitfj a Principle of Jetton
1 HERE was a time when it was usual to draw a sharp
line between religious and worldly things. That time
has happily gone by. We all acknowledge more or less
that all life is one.
But perhaps our temptation now is to acquiesce in
worldly motives for right doing : to stop short of the
clear confession both to ourselves and to others that as
citizens and workers we take our share in public
business, we labour to fulfil our appointed task, because
the love of Christ constraineth us.
tfje (Contrition ant> fHeasure of
D Y faith we lift up the sightless eye and it is opened :
by faith we stretch out the withered arm and it is made
whole : by faith, bound hand and foot with grave-clothes,
we come forth from the tomb of custom which lies
upon US with a -weight
Heavy as frost and deep almost as life.
THE HISTORIC FAITH 63
life rjutoerj rjg Jaitfj of gome latino
JT* AITH in wealth, or in strong battalions, or in refined
ease, or in social progress, produces great results before
our eyes every day. Even this kind of faith does, in
some sense, preoccupy the unseen and realise the future.
Thus the man of business and the man of pleasure has
a Creed which is the strength of his life.
STfje
1 HE Apostles' Creed, our sacred heritage only less
old than the New Testament, is in its outline as broad
as life.
If only a single congregation could enter into full
possession of all that lies in this acknowledgment of
the divine allegiance which we agree to profess : if we
could each feel, and then all act together as feeling, that
faith in God as He has revealed Himself is the founda-
tion, the rule, the life of our lives : there would be a
force present to move the world.
The history of the Church is indeed sadly chequered,
but there is no other history which can be compared
with it ; and from the first the Apostles' Creed was
substantially the symbol of its heroes.
Interpretations, glosses, enlargements were added,
but the outline was fixed in the second century at least,
fixed unchangeably. And I cannot suppose that any one
is insensible to the influence of this testimony of ages.
The Creed is of no one age. As often as we repeat
it we are guarded from forgetting the articles which our
circumstances do not force upon our notice. All the
facts remain, and when a crisis comes that will be
ready to our hand which our fathers have delivered
to us.
64 THE RECORDS OF REVELATION
ur Cmto personal
W E want nothing new, but the old rekindled by a
fuller light. Our Creed is personal.
We do not say, " I believe that there is a God," that
" Jesus Christ came to earth," that " the Holy Ghost
was sent to men." In this sense, as St. James says,
" the devils believe and tremble." But we say, " I
believe in God the Father," "I believe in Jesus Christ,"
" I believe in the Holy Ghost."
That is, I do not simply acknowledge the existence of
these Divine Persons of the One Godhead, but I throw
myself wholly upon their power and love. I have
gained not a certain conclusion, but an unfailing, an
all-powerful Friend. "I believe in Him." He can
help me ; and He will help me.
tir Creeb f^fetcrtcal
OUR Creed is historical.
We believe, not in the Holy Catholic Church, but
that there is a Holy Catholic Church.
2Hje Strength) of our Creeti
C_yUR Creed is able to guard, to support, to animate
us : has strength to fashion our lives in health and sick-
ness, in joy and sorrow, in thought and action, after a
Godlike type, strength to correct us with the authority
of an inviolable law : strength to fill us with the enthusiasm
of a living faith.
Our Creed offers to us a God on whom we can throw
ourselves for guidance and support, and not a series of
abstract propositions which we must hold as true.
THE HISTORIC FAITH 65
in cto tlje Jatfjer ail So&creirjn
/ BELIE VE in God. To say this is to confess that
there is, in spite of every unpunished sin, every fruitless
sorrow (as we judge), one purpose of victorious righteous-
ness being fulfilled about us and in us.
The idea of God, the idea of One who is described
most completely as " Spirit," " Light," " Fire," of absolute
righteousness and power and mercy, answers to the
maturity of men's growth as light answers to the eye.
We were made to recognise Him, and He has made
Himself known.
The Hebrew prophets spoke of the Lord as the
Father of Israel, but Christ first added the title "my
Father" to that of "our Father." It is through the
revelation of the Son that we can find each our personal
fellowship with a Father in heaven.
We cannot give up the belief that there is a purpose
and an order and an end in what often seems the
blind tumult of nations. We cannot give it up, and. yet
here and there perhaps we cannot justify it. Scripture
does not veil the darknesses of life while it reveals the
light. It speaks most significantly of powers of evil as
"world-sovereign," but none the less it proclaims without
one note of hesitancy that God is "All-sovereign." The
end is not here, and it is not yet.
& Practical
1 HERE is, most terrible thought, a practical atheism,
orthodox in language and reverent in bearing, which can
enter a Christian Church and charm the conscience to
66 THE RECORDS OF REVELATION
rest with shadowy traditions, an atheism which grows
insensibly within us if we separate what cannot be
separated with impunity, the secular from the divine, the
past and the future from the present, earth from heaven,
the things of Caesar from the things 'of God.
afc still SHHaitmg to &cad) us
us thank God that in the silence of our heart's
watches, or the distractions of our business, through the
temptations which lead us to self-indulgence and self-
assertion, which persuade us to appeal to low impulses
and to seek easy successes, which embolden us to put
aside fresh truths because they will not conveniently fit
into the scheme of the world which we have made, He
is still waiting to teach us, that we may confess more
intelligently and more actively the source from which we
came and the end for which we were made.
2Tf)r0ticrij Cfjrfst are all STfjinrjs
11 E who has redeemed us by taking our nature to
Himself is the Author of every noble thought which has
been uttered by unconscious prophets, of every fruitful
deed of sacrifice which has been wrought by statesmen
and heroes, of every triumph of insight and expression
by which students and artists have interpreted the
harmonies and the depths of nature.
So we claim for Christ with patient confidence, in
spite of every misrepresentation and misunderstanding,
" whatsoever is true and noble, and just and pure, and
lovely and gracious"; we claim all for Him through
whom are all things,
It is a truism to say that Christianity is a belief in
Christ; but is it not a forgotten truism? We honour
THE HISTORIC FAITH 67
with ungrudging admiration those who labour with zeal
and patience to shield the weak from injury, the poor
from want, and the ignorant from temptation ; who hope
to elevate the condition of our artisans by giving their
opinion the responsibility of power, and to discipline the
improvident by ideas of comfort and self-respect : those
who investigate the problems of religious thought, and
seek to shew how circumstances of time and place call
out this and that want, this and that belief, and lay open
the manifold elements of truth which give whatever
stability and strength they have to the religions of the
world : those who in lonely meditation strive to reconnect
man's spirit with its source. Such are not far from the
kingdom of God ; but as yet they are not Christians.
Christianity is not philanthropy or philosophy or mysti-
cism. It realises, guides, chastens, each noblest energy
of man, but it is not identified with any one of them.
It gives permanence and power, it gives light and
support, to the many activities of body, soiil, and spirit,
but no one of these richest activities can take its
place.
For us there is and the confession is able to give its
true majesty, its proper joy, its lofty meaning to every
office of our daily duties one Lord, Jesus Christ, through
whom are all things, and we through Him,
"*Ul foumart octmcsa gatfjcreti up in Cfjrfst
/VCAIN and again even in our own experience some
new flush of courage or wisdom or patience or tenderness
goes to brighten the picture of man's completed and real
self. But in Christ there are no broken or imperfect
lights. In Him everything which is shewn to us of right
and good and lovely in the history of the whole world
is gathered up once for all.
68 THE RECORDS OF REVELATION
ftfje Jail a Contrition of P|ope
1 HE idea of Christ's sufferings, the idea of redemp-
tion, presupposes the idea of a fall. Such an idea is,
I will venture to say, a necessary condition of human
hope. No view of life can be so inexpressibly sad as
that which denies the fall. If evil belongs to man as
man, there appears to be no prospect of relief here or
hereafter. There can be nothing in us to drive out
that which is part of ourselves.
jbnagerrj onlg Emarjerg
W HILE we are constrained to use words of time and
space, and to speak of going up and coming down, of
present and future, in regard to the spirit world and
Christ's glorified life, we must remember that such
language belongs to our imperfect conceptions as we now
are, and not to the realities themselves : that we must
not be startled if it leads us to difficulties and contradic-
tions : that we must allow no conclusions to be drawn as
to the eternal from the phenomena of time.
This is no doubt a difficult demand to make ; and it
may seem to deprive us of much which brings joy and
strength in the trials and sorrows of earthly life. But
indeed the gain is worth the effort. If once we can feel
that the imagery in which the glories of the world to
come are described is only imagery, we can dwell upon
it with ever -increasing intelligence and without dis-
traction.
There is then no monotony in eternal praise, no
weariness in unbroken day, when praise is the symbol of
a heart conscious of God's infinite goodness, and day of
THE HISTORIC FAITH 69
the manifestation of His unclouded truth. The gates of
pearl and the streets of gold cease to suggest thoughts of
costly display and transitory splendour.
The soul uses the figures as helps to spiritual aspira-
tion, and welcomes their irreconcilable contrasts as
warnings against treating them as literal descriptions of
that which it has not entered into the mind of men to
conceive.
Wessons from tfje
1 HIS at least we can see in our Confession, that Christ
descended into Hell, rose again, ascended into Heaven,
sitteth on the right hand of God: perfectness of Divine
sympathy in every phase of our existence, absolute en-
nobling for every human power, access to the Divine
Presence beyond every confinement of sensible being,
assurance of final victory in every conflict with evil.
dHje 2Le00on of tfje l&ee>urmtton
W E believe that Christ bore from the grave the issues,
the fruits, not only of His open ministry and of His
final Passion, but also of the unnoticed, silent years of
obscure discipline and duty, and shewed these in their
spiritual meaning.
We believe, and come to feel as we look to Christ
risen, that we have a motive for work prevailing through
all disappointment and failure.
Christ has taught us not to turn away from earth that
we may find heaven, but to behold in earth the scene of
a veiled glory. We believe, and come to feel as we look
to Christ risen, that here and now we live and have our
being in God.
70 THE RECORDS OF REVELATION
2Tfje ILcsson of the Ascension
W E are not to think of the Ascension of Christ as of
a change of position, of a going immeasurably far from
us. It is rather a change of the mode of existence, a
passing to God, of whom we cannot say He is "there"
rather than "here."
When we declare our belief in Christ's Ascension, we
declare that He has entered upon the completeness of
spiritual being without lessening in any degree the com-
pleteness of His humanity.
We cannot indeed unite the two sides of it in one
conception, but we can hold both firmly without allowing
the one truth to infringe upon the other.
Christ Bittetfj on tfje Eisftt ff?atrt of (Soli the Jatfjcr
1 HESE words express, under a natural image, the three
ideas of an accomplished work, of a Divine sovereignty,
and, by consequence, of an efficacious intercession.
C&rfet'a Return
W E cannot but notice that in the teaching of Scripture
the earth where we suffer and toil is presented as the
scene of a universal revelation of Christ's sovereignty ;
that He enters again into the conditions of human life ;
that all men are affected by His coming ; that His coming
is something infinitely more, though it includes this,
than the just retribution of individuals.
Comings of Cfirtst
1 HE apostles looked for Christ, and Christ came in
the lifetime of St. John. He founded His immovable
THE HISTORIC FAITH 71
kingdom. He gathered before Him the nations of the
earth, old and new, and passed sentence upon them.
He judged, in that shaking of earth and heaven, most
truly and most decisively the living and the dead. He
established fresh foundations for society and a fresh
standard of worth.
The fall of Jerusalem was for the religious history of
the world an end as complete as death. The establish-
ment of a spiritual Church was a beginning as glorious
as the Resurrection.
At the foundation of the Byzantine Empire in the fourth
century, at the conversion of the Northern nations in
the eighth century, at the birth of Modern Europe in
the thirteenth century, at the rebirth of the old civilisa-
tion in the sixteenth century, Christ came as King and
Judge.
He came, and we can see that He came, at the time
when Athanasius, the champion of the East, vindicated
the supreme independence of the Faith, and Augustine,
the champion of the West, affirmed the world-wide em-
brace of the Church.
He came, and we can see that He came, at the time
when the Irish saint Columban offered to the barbarian
warriors the virtues of an unseen power stronger than
the arm of flesh, and our own English Boniface sealed
by a fearless death a life of victorious sacrifice.
He came, and we can see that He came, at the time
when the Italian Francis of Assisi claimed once more
for the poor their place in the Church beside emperors
and popes and nobles, and taught the love of God and
the love of men in the universal language of his age.
He came, and we can see that He came, at the time
when men as far apart as Loyola and Philip Neri,
72 THE RECORDS OF REVELATION
Luther and Calvin, Colet and Cranmer, shewed in many
parts and with many failures that Christ claims and
satisfies the individual power of every man.
On each of these occasions new thoughts, new
principles, new estimates of things, entered into the
world, and remain still to witness to their divine origin.
The successive spiritual revolutions were not at once
recognised or understood. Christ moved among men
and they did not know Him. But, meanwhile, believers
were confessing their faith, as we do, that He should
come again to judge the quick and the dead ; and we
now rejoice to acknowledge that their faith was not in
vain, though it was confirmed in ways which had not been
foreseen.
THE
present Contmtj
wider range of our vision enables us now to
recognise these manifold comings of Christ already accom-
plished, and we may be most thankful for such teaching
of experience, but we do not rest in them.
We take the great thought that this world in which
we work, with all its sorrows and sins, with all its baffled
hopes and unworthy ambitions, is the scene of a divine
government. We take the thought, and therefore we
believe that Christ has not yet revealed the fulness of
His power or uttered the last voice of His judgment.
We still say, as we look often with sad hearts on what
man has made of man, upon the terrible disproportion
between human capacities and human achievements,
that He who lived for us and died for us and ascended
for us, shall come again to judge the quick and the
dead ; and the confession, if we enter into its meaning,
is sufficient to bring back trust.
THE HISTORIC FAITH 73
There are abundant signs of change about us now.
New truths are spreading widely as to the methods of
God's working, as to our connections one with another,
and with the past and with the future.
Through these, as I believe, Christ is coming to us,
coming to judge us, and His coming must bring with it
trials and (as we think) losses.
Every revelation of Christ is through fire, the fire
which refines by consuming all that is perishable.
None but believers saw the risen Christ during the
forty days: none but believers see Christ in the great
changes of human affairs.
Camiruj
beyond all these preparatory comings there is a
day when "every eye shall see Him, and they also which
pierced Him."
In that Coming, that Manifestation, that Presence,
the first coming on earth and the later comings in
history shall be shewn in their full import
Then all things, our actions and ourselves, shall be
seen as they are, seen by ourselves and seen by others.
Then the whole course of life, the life of creation, of
humanity, of men, will be laid open, and that vision will
be a judgment beyond controversy and beyond appeal.
2TJje Judgment
T*
1 HE judgment of God is the perfect manifestation of
truth. The punishment of God is the necessary action of
the awakened conscience. The judgment is pronounced
by the sinner himself, and he inflicts inexorably his own
sentence.
74 THE RECORDS OF REVELATION
We judge of others by what we see in them : and,
what is more perilous still, we are tempted to judge of
ourselves by what others can see in us.
But in the perfect light of Christ's Presence everything
will be made clear in its essential nature : the opportunity
which we threw away, and knew that we threw away,
with its uncalculated potency of blessing ; the temptation
which we courted in the waywardness of selfish strength,
the stream of consequence which has flowed from our
example, the harvest which others have gathered from
our sowing.
urs tfje JDigpensatton of tfje Spirit
W E are all now living under that dispensation which is
essentially the dispensation of the Spirit. Our whole
attitude towards the facts of life is determined by the
devout conviction with which we hold it.
The Book of the Acts is the Gospel of the Holy Spirit,
the typical record of His action.
The Spirit is ever fashioning for our use, as we gain
power to use them, new forms of thought, new modes
of worship, new spheres of action. There can be no
stationariness where He is present.
/ believe in the Holy Ghost. He who is able to make
the confession stands as a listener to a Divine message.
In the confidence of his faith he will not close the least
avenue through which one word of God may come to
him. In the vigour of his hope he will bear the season
of silence when searching finds no answer. In the
breadth of his love he will welcome as fellow -helpers
them who serve unconsciously the Creed which they
deny.
THE HISTORIC FAITH 75
Cfje fottg of tfje Cfjurc!)
1 HERE never was an epoch since the Church spread
beyond Jerusalem when the " one body of Christ " was
one in visible uniformity or even one in perfect sympathy.
It is possible to trace already to the apostolic age
the essential features of those divisions over which we
grieve. And if we look forward to the fulfilment of the
great promise which gladdens the future, it is not that
there shall ever be, as we wrongly read, "one fold," one
outward society of Christians gathered in one outward
form, but, what answers more truly to present experience
and reasonable hope, " one flock and one shepherd."
And, in the meantime, let us rate the differences of
Christians as highly as we will, there yet remains a com-
mon faith in the presence of which they are almost as
nothing.
3Tfje ^otoer of tfje belief in tfje Communion of Saints
1 O belong to a great family, to a great society, to a
great nation is, if rightly viewed, a man's noblest birth-
right. He whose name is a memorial of past honours,
and whose earliest years are spent, as it were, in the
light of illustrious deeds : he who has learnt to feel that
there is a history in which he has a part, and who has
rejoiced in the triumphs of a people whose hopes and
impulses he shares : must from time to time be raised
above all that is selfish and even personal ; he must be-
come conscious of the accumulated power with which
he is endowed, and of the social destiny to which he is
called.
Let the name be that name which is above every
name : let the history be written in every splendid
76 THE RECORDS OF REVELATION
achievement by which the kingdom of God has been
advanced : let the triumphs be those by which faith
through the ages subdues all things to herself: let the
fellowship be that of saints and confessors ; and then we
shall understand, dimly it may be, but yet so that effort
will be kindled with fresh enthusiasm, what our fathers
meant when they handed down to us truths which they
had proved : then we shall say with livelier imagination
and fuller heart, each in the prospect of our little work
and with the sense of our peculiar trials, acknowledging
that that work is transfigured by a divine consecration,
and that these trials are conquered by a spiritual sympathy :
I believe in the Holy Catholic Church : I believe in the
Communion of Saints.
2K) JForgfijeness of Sins
JN OTHING superficially seems simpler or easier than
forgiveness. Nothing, if we look deeply, is more mys
terious or more difficult. With men, perhaps, forgive-
ness is impossible.
For forgiveness is not the careless indifference to
wrong by which we seek impunity for our own faults
while we lightly regard the faults of others. It is not
the complacent bounty of a superior who has a proud
satisfaction in giving to others release from small debts.
It is not the perfunctory remission of a present penalty
which leaves behind unremoved the sense and the con-
tagion of evil.
True forgiveness involves two things, a perfect
knowledge of the offence and a perfect restoration of
love. In this sense we believe in the forgiveness of
sins.
THE HISTORIC FAITH
itnoius no
JN ATURE knows no forgiveness. With her there is
no return of opportunity, no obliteration of the past.
The deed done remains while the world lasts. The
deed left undone is a blank for ever.
There is no exaggeration in the startling thought of a
recent writer that it would be possible with powers not
different in kind from our own to read backwards in the
succession of physical changes the history of our earth,
to hear again the last cry of the murdered slave cast into
the sea, and to look again on the last ripple of the
water that closed over him.
Each act of man obviously goes on working, and
working after its kind, in the doer and in his children's
children.
So it is with thought and with feeling. The bad
thought once admitted avenges itself by rising again
unbidden and unwelcome.
The bad feeling once indulged in spreads through
the whole character and gives birth to other like pas-
sions.
Sin in every form is the violation of law, and law
inexorably requires its penalty to the uttermost.
We need not discuss whether the penalty is retributive
or reformatory : it is in the nature of things that it must
be paid. That is enough for us. To reason, if we are
honest with ourselves, the great mystery of the future is
not punishment but forgiveness.
This being so we can understand how the forgiveness
of sins was the essential message of the Gospel.
78 THE RECORDS OF REVELATION
2H)e HJUsumctimt of fy
1 BELIEVE in the resurrection of the body, or, as it is in
the original without variation, the resurrection of the flesh.
I believe, that is, that all that belongs to the essence of
my person, manifested at present in weakness, marred
by the results of many failures, limited by the circum-
stances of earth, will remain through a change which the
imagination cannot realise.
The " flesh " of which we speak as destined to a
resurrection is not that substance which we can see and
handle, measured by properties of sense. It represents,
as far as we now see, ourselves in our actual weakness,
but essentially ourselves. We in our whole being, this
is our belief, shall rise again. And we are not those
changing bodies which we bear. They alter, as we know,
with every step we take and every breath we draw. We
make them, if I may so speak, make them naturally,
necessarily, under the laws of our present existence.
They are to ourselves, to use a bold figure, as the spoken
word to the thought, the expression of the invisible.
For of the soul the body form doth take,
For soul is form and doth the body make.
When therefore the laws of our existence are hereafter
modified, then we, because we are unchanged, shall find
some other expression, truly the " same " in relation to
that new order, because it is not the same as that to
which it corresponds in this.
All imagery fails in some part or other to present a
truth like this. But we should have been spared many
sad perplexities, many grievous misrepresentations, if we
had clung to St. Paul's figure of the seed in looking to
our future resurrection. We sow not, he tells us, that
body which shall be.
THE HISTORIC FAITH 79
a &cerj
1 HERE is then no question here of the regathering of
material particles, no encouragement for unsatisfying
appeals to God's omnipotence, what St. Paul teaches us
to expect is the manifestation of a power of life
according to law under new conditions. God giveth to
every seed a body of its own : not arbitrarily, but according
to His most righteous will.
The seed determines what the plant shall be, but it
does not contain the plant. The golden ears with which
we trust again to see the fields waving are not the bare
grains which were committed to the earth. The recon-
struction of the seed when the season has come round
would not give us the flower or the fruit for which we
hope. Nay, rather, the seed dies, is dissolved that the
life may clothe itself in a nobler form.
True it is that we cannot in this way escape from a
physical continuity ; but it is a continuity of life, and not
of simple reconstruction.
Such a faith as this, even in its necessary vagueness,
is sufficient to fill the heart of man. It substitutes for
the monotony of continuance the vision of being infinitely
ennobled.
&n ^httttfjesis in iiature attb m Scripture
1 HE reserve of the prophetic and apostolic writings
as to the unseen world is as remarkable as the boldness
with which uninspired teachers have presumed to deal
with it. But two thoughts bearing upon the future find
clear expression in the New Testament. The one is of
the consequences of unrepented sin as answering to the
sin ; the other of a final unity in which God shall be all
in all. We read of an "eternal sin," of "a sin which
8o THE RECORDS OF REVELATION
has no forgiveness in this world nor in the world to
come," of a debt incurred of which the payment, to be
rigidly exacted, exceeds all imaginable resources of the
debtor, of "eternal destruction," of "the worm that
dieth not and the fire that is not quenched."
And on the other side we read of the purpose, the
good pleasure of God " to sum up all things in Christ,"
and "through Him to reconcile all things unto Himself,
whether things upon the earth or things in the heavens,"
of the bringing to naught of the last enemy death, and
the final subjection of all things to God.
Moreover, it must be added, these apparently anti-
thetical statements correspond with two modes of
regarding the subject from the side of reason.
If we approach it from the side of man, we see that in
themselves the consequences of actions appear to be for
the doer, like the deed, indelible ; and also that the finite
freedom of the individual appears to include the possi-
bility of final resistance to God.
And again, if we approach it from the Divine side, it
seems to be an inadmissible limitation of the infinite love
of God that a human will should for ever refuse to yield
to it in complete self-surrender when it is known as love.
& final ibtne
IF we are called upon to decide which of these two
lines of reasoning, which of these two thoughts of
Scripture must be held to prevail, we can hardly doubt
that that which is the most comprehensive, that which
reaches farthest, contains the ruling idea; and that is
the idea of a final divine unity.
How it will be reached we are wholly unable to say ;
but we are sure that the manner, which has not been
THE INCARNATION A DEVOUT STUDY 81
revealed, will be in perfect harmony with the justice of
God and the obligations of man's responsibility.
More than this we dare not lay down. But that end
"the end" rises before us as the strongest motive
and the most certain encouragement in all the labours
of the life of faith.
To the last we see little, and we see dimly. When
the vision seems to grow clearer, we are forced by our
earthly infirmity to bow the head and veil the face before
the exceeding glory.
But in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ we can
see the Father. That is enough.
Of Him and through Him and unto Him are all things.
2Tfje Dutg of Spiritual Cfjou^t
1 HE life of man is the knowledge of God, the con-
templation of Him who is the Truth. That is the message
of Christ.
But this knowledge lives and moves. It is not a dead
thing embalmed once for all in phrases of the school
which can be committed to memory. It is offered ever
fresh as time advances for reverent study in the person
of the Word Incarnate.
The surest knowledge once gained cannot supersede
the necessity of unwearied, unceasing inquiry. No one
can absolve himself from the duty of spiritual thought.
The mother of the Lord had received that direct,
personal, living revelation of the purpose and the working
of God which none other could have : she had ac-
knowledged in the familiar strain of the Magnificat the
salvation which He had prepared through her for His
people : she might well seem to have been lifted far above
the necessity of any later teaching ; but when the simple
82 THE RECORDS OF REVELATION
shepherds told their story, a faint echo as we might
think of what she knew, she kept all these things, pondering
them in her heart, if haply they might shew a little more
of the great mystery of which she was the minister : she
kept them waiting and learning during that long thirty
years of silence, waiting and learning during that brief
time of open labour, from the first words at the marriage
feast to the last words from the Cross.
And shall we, when we think on such an example we
with our restless and distracted lives, with our feeble
and imperfect grasp on truth be contented to repeat
with indolent assent a traditional confession ? Can we
suppose that the highest knowledge, and the highest
knowledge alone, is to be gained without effort, without
preparation, without discipline, and by a simple act of
memory ? Must the eye and the hand of the artist be
trained through long years to discern and to portray
subtle harmonies of form and colour while this spiritual
faculty by which we enter on the unseen may be safely
left unexercised till some sudden emergency calls it into
play ? Is it credible that the law of our nature, which
adds capacity to experience and joy to quest, is suddenly
suspended when we reach the loftiest field of man's
activity ?
The sum of human experience grows visibly from age
to age; 'the sum of personal experience grows visibly
from year to year ; and the truth ought to find fresh fulfil-
ment in every fact of life.
Slnreconcileti ^tntttfjcscs are ^ropfjccics anfc
of a Harder jhiture
UNRECONCILED antitheses are prophecies and
promises of a larger future : " our failure is but a
triumph's evidence for the fulness of the days."
If our faith could find a complete and consistent
THE INCARNA TION A DE VO UT S TUD Y 83
expression here it would be condemned. It would not
cover all the facts of life. The forms of thought belong
to this world only.
The truth of life, like man, like Christ, who is Himself
the Truth, belongs to two worlds. It is not simply the
determination of physical phenomena, but the interpre-
tation of the relation of man to nature and to God. The
heart has its own office in the search for it.
utltncs a iiecessttg, 6ut a JSgrnfool of fHatt'0
W E acknowledge that outlines are a necessity for man's
representation of the truth of things ; but they are
a concession to his weakness and a symbol of it. There
is no outline in nature, and no form of words can
adequately express a spiritual reality.
The soul uses the outline, the formula, as an occasion,
an impulse, a help ; but it brings for its own treasure that
which quickens them. And in this work the soul of the
simplest, the most untutored, is at no disadvantage. Its
chief instrument of spiritual progress is not knowledge
but love.
l&efltctton on tfje lEncarnatfon
oO we shall look upon the Incarnation, the greatest
conceivable thought, the greatest conceivable fact, not that
we may bring it within the range of our present powers,
not that we may measure it by standards of this world,
but that we may learn from it a little more of the awful
grandeur of life, that by its help we may behold once
again that halo of infinity about common things which
seems to have vanished away, that thinking on the phrase
the Word became flesh, we may feel that in, beneath, beyond
the objects which we see and taste and handle, is a
Divine Presence, that lifting up our eyes to the Lord in
84 THE RECORDS OF REVELATION
glory we may know that phenomena are not ends, but
signs only of that which is spiritually discerned.
And while we confess that clearness of vision cannot
be gained when we turn towards such an object except
by the loss of that which is characteristic of it, as we look
at the sun shorn of its glory through a darkened glass or
through the thick mists of earth, it will be our joy to
place ourselves in that atmosphere of light which trans-
figures all that falls upon it.
We are on the point of losing the sense of the
spiritual, the eternal, as a present reality, as the only
reality. Thought is not all : conduct is not all : life
is unspeakably impoverished if it is unhallowed by the
sanctities of reverence and worship.
3Tfje Blessing of tfje Contemplation of (Jurist Born,
CrucifietJ, ^scenbeti for us
/\.ND, if we have felt one touch of the spirit which
should animate our contemplation of Christ Born,
Crucified, Ascended for us; if we have realised one
least fragment of the end to which our work is directed,
we shall know what the blessing is : know what it is to
see with faint and trembling eyes depth below depth
opening in the poor and dull surface of the earth ; to see
flashes of great hope shoot across the weary trivialities of
business and pleasure ; to see active about us, in the face
of every scheme of selfish ambition, powers of the life to
come ; to see in the struggles of the forlorn and distressed
fragments of the life which " the poor man " Christ Jesus
lived ; to see over all the inequalities of the world, its
terrible contrasts, its desolating crimes, its pride, its lust,
its cruelty, one overarching sign of God's purpose of
redemption, broad as the sky and bright as the sunshine ;
to see in the Gospel a revelation of love powerful even
THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS 85
now to give a foretaste of the unity of creation, powerful
hereafter to realise it.
It is when the physical order is held to be all, that
life appears and must appear to be hopeless.
Wi Ennobling Jacultgi of
years go on there is great danger lest we should
lose the ennobling faculty of wonder.
If it be true that great duties and little souls do not
go well together, it is no less true that little thoughts do
not suit little duties. It is in the fulfilment of simple
routine that we need more than anywhere the quickening
influence of the highest thought.
Commemoration of &amte
WE are learning, by the help of many teachers, the
extent and the authority of the dominion which the dead
exercise over us, and which we ourselves are shaping
for our descendants.
We feel, as perhaps it was impossible to feel before,
how at every moment influences from the past enter our
souls, and how we in turn scatter abroad that which will
be fruitful in the distant future. It is becoming clear
to us that we are literally parts of others and they of us.
The communion of saints in the largest sense, the
communion of angels and men, of men already perfected,
and of men struggling towards the crown which is prepared
for them, is a present reality.
No one can fail to have felt how imperfectly our
Kalendar reflects the divine history of the Church.
As a necessary consequence of this narrow range of
the commemoration of saints among us, our type of
THE RECORDS OF REVELATION
saintship has been dwarfed and impoverished ; it has
been removed far from the stir and conflicts of ordinary
action.
The kingly type and the prophetic type, the type of
the artist and of the poet and of the scholar, have been
put aside. We do not turn to those by whom these
characters have been fulfilled in Christ's strength as the
peers of martyrs and apostles. We do not seek in their
examples the pledge of the consecration of gifts similar,
however small, among ourselves.
And yet we cannot afford to dispense with the widest
teaching of consecrated lives. We daily lose much by
not placing these in their right position in the open
teaching of the Church.
It is true, indeed, that every type of essential human
excellence coexists in Christ, the Son of man ; but we,
"who are but parts, can see but part now this, now
that." We have no power to apprehend directly
elements which are combined with others in an absolute
ideal.
It is only through Christ's servants each realising,
according to his nature, his endowments, his age, his
country, some feature in the Christly life that we come
to have a real sense of the fulness of His humanity.
The many typical characters who foreshadowed Him
find their counterpart in the many saints who offer for
our welcome and our study the riches of His manhood.
Nor do they in the least degree trench upon His
inviolable honour. Their saintliness is wholly from
Him. They are what they are, so far as we call them
to mind and seek their fellowship, by His presence, He
in them and they in Him. They have made His power
visible ; and for this we are bound to commemorate
them, and their Lord through them.
THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS 87
(Ifte llcclJ of continuous Commemoration
1 HE neglect or the indifference of centuries, no less
than the discordances which are found in every life,
involves such commemoration in great difficulties. Yet
our faith encourages us to face them ; and in many cases
the solution will come through obvious channels.
There are few parishes which do not include in their
annals some names fitted to recall memories of Christ's
manifold victories through believers.
A dedication festival may not unfrequently lay open a
fruitful page of Christian work.
ur <at!)bral0, JjHonumente of Sacrifice anti Serbice
v_yUR cathedrals are monuments of sacrifice and
service which constrain us to recall Christ's working
through those whose benefactions we inherit. Most of
us have been deeply stirred by the commemoration
services of college and university.
We have wondered, perhaps, that the use is not
universal.
At Peterborough, in old time, to take one instance,
almost every abbot had his memorial day, and four
times in the year, in the Ember weeks, all were com-
memorated together.
There is surely here something for us to embody
under new forms of thought.
I should be the last to forget or disparage the services
of unknown benefactors. These have in a large degree
made life for us what it is. These have their own
commemoration when we recall the progress of the ages.
But there are others who stand out as leaders, as
representatives. Gifts, labours, thoughts of distinguish-
able ancestors go to swell our spiritual patrimony. It
THE RECORDS OF REVELATION
may have been by some conspicuous work which was
nobly spread over a lifetime ; it may have been by
some sweet trait which was just seen in a crisis of trial ;
but " here and here " they have helped us, and if we are
to enjoy the fulness of their service, we must solemnly
recall it.
In doing this we arrogate to ourselves no authority of
final judgment by grateful celebration. We recognise a
blessing ; and, so far, we acknowledge God's love in him
by whose ministry it was shown to us. Nor would it be
difficult, I think, to make a list of names from our own
Church which all would accept as worthy of memory,
names of rulers and scholars, of men who taught by
their words and by their lives, who spread the faith and
deepened our knowledge of it.
Eecogmtion of tfje Pofoerg of tfje Unseen
OUCH commemoration of men, such peopling with
familiar forms of the vacancies of All Saints' Day, such
filling up the noble but blank outlines of the Te Deum,
would help us to understand better, as a society, the
vastness of the Christian life ; but we require also the
commemoration of ideas (if I may so speak), in order
that we may bear in mind the new conditions of the
spiritual life, which are suggested by the belief in the
communion of saints.
QTfje Jestt'fcal of tfje SEransfitjuratton
v_yNE festival still survives by name in our Kalendar
which completely expresses part of what I mean, the
Festival of the Transfiguration.
The Transfiguration is the revelation of the potential
spirituality of the earthly life in its highest outward form.
THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS 89
In the Transfiguration the present and the past are
seen in a fellowship of glory ; and the future in its great
features lies open for consideration.
Such an event, distinct in its teaching from the
Resurrection, and yet closely akin to it, calls for more
religious recognition than it receives. It is able, if we
enter into its meaning, to bring vividly before us the
reality of a communion of the living and the dead.
Here, as elsewhere, the Lord, as the Son of man,
gives the measure of the capacity of humanity, and shews
that to which He leads those who are united with Him.
The Festival of the Transfiguration furnishes an
opportunity for bringing out the idea of the widest
fellowship of men.
Wyt Jesti&al of St. fHirfjael anto 811
I HE Festival of St. Michael and All Angels furnishes
an opportunity for bringing out the complementary idea
of the interpenetration of human life by life of another
order.
And if it be true (and who has not felt it ?) that " the
world " the world of sense " is too much with us,"
then a remedy is here offered for our use.
The reserve and the revelations of Scripture are
equally eloquent.
We commonly limit our notion of angelic service to
personal ministration. No doubt Scripture dwells speci-
ally on this kind of office ; but it indicates yet more, a
ministration of angels in nature, which brings both them
and the world closer to men.
Perhaps one effect of the growing clearness with
which we apprehend the laws of physical phenomena is
90 THE RECORDS OF REVELATION
to bring out into prominence the thought of the powers
which work according to them.
The sense of action by law places the agent very near
to us. " I can see," writes one who was himself a dis-
tinguished physiologist, "nothing in all nature but the
loving acts of spiritual beings."
However strange the conception may be, it contains,
I believe, truths which we have not yet mastered. And
in this respect we commonly embarrass ourselves by
mentally presenting all action under the forms of human
action.
Spirit, it is obvious, may act in other ways ; and our
festival of the heavenly order remains to help us little by
little to apprehend in this larger sense the revelation of
the communion of saints.
Commemoration matie effective fog fKetu'tatton
1 O our great loss, the faculty and the habit of medita-
tion have not as yet been cultivated among us.
Our national character, and, at present, the prevailing
spirit of realism, are alien from it.
Yet the praise to God's glory, which comes through
the devout consideration of His action in men, is true
work.
We are apt to dwell on the littlenesses of men, or, if
not, upon the picturesque aspects of their lives, to bring
them down in some measure to our level, and not aspire
to their highest.
It is, however, through such aspiration alone,
quickened by the thoughtful study of that which the
Spirit wrought in them, that we can enter into fellowship
with their true life.
THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS 91
Weaknesses, faults, errors, accidents of time and
place, fall away. We learn to look upon the love, the
courage, the faith, the self-sacrifice, the simplicity of
truth which they embodied, and so become invigorated
by vital contact with the eternal manifested through men.
The fellowship of spirit with spirit is closer, and may
be more powerful than the precious fellowship which we
can hold with books.
And there is no limit to this inspiring communion.
It embraces the living and the dead. It acknowledges
no saddest necessity of outward separation as reaching
to the region in which it is. It does not even seek for
the confirmation of any visible pledge.
By saints we understand all who welcome and appro-
priate and show forth, in whatever way, the gifts of the
Spirit.
If we are ready to follow, Christ, through the Spirit
sent in His name, will guide us to some one in whom
we may study the virtue of His presence.
Christian names are, and they can be treated as, the
dedication names of each believer.
Importance of fcfaellmjj on tfje ^fgfjest Eoeals
JV1 EDITATION on the saintliness of saintly men must
be supplemented by meditation on angels, as the repre-
sentatives of the unseen world, if we are to feel the full
extent of the communion of saints.
We cannot, it is true, presume to press such medita-
tions into detail. It is enough if we recognise the
service, the sympathy, of the host of heaven.
We must, as far as we may be able, both in public ser-
92 THE RECORDS OF REVELATION
vice and in private thought, present and dwell upon the
greatest facts, the greatest aspects of things, the greatest
truths, refusing to rest upon the transitory and temporal,
if we are to realise, as we can do, the communion of
saints, the fulness of the manifestation of the spiritual
life, and its eternal power.
A hymn-book is a confession of the communion of
saints.
There is, indeed, a danger as well as a use in the
contemplation of great ideals. If they lift us for a while
above the strife of details, they may unfit us for dealing
with the concrete questions which arise in daily work.
But this ideal of our spiritual life, seen in its many
parts, through the ages and everywhere around us, made
our own by the communion of saints, seems to me to
be most practical in its influence.
The one ground of union is the possession of a
common life, and not any nicely calculated scheme of
compromise. To see the life even from afar, to look
towards it, is in some degree to reach a serener atmos-
phere, to feel the true proportion of things, to gain the
earnest of an interpretation of the mysteries by which
we are perplexed.
The thought of a life eternal, underlying, so to speak,
the fleeting phenomena of sense, not future so much as
shrouded, is characteristic of Christianity ; it is included
in the fact of the Incarnation, and it meets our present
distress and disharmony with a message of hope.
Most of us will remember the magnificent myth in
the Phcedrus, in which Plato seeks to explain the origin
of the highest forces in our earthly being. On stated
days human souls, he says, follow in the train of the
gods, and rising above the world, gaze on the eternal and
CHRISTIANITY AS THE ABSOLUTE RELIGION 93
absolute. It is only by strenuous and painful endeavour
that they can gain for a brief space the vision, which is
the appointed food of diviner natures. Then they fall
to earth, and their bodily life corresponds with the range
and clearness of the celestial impressions which they
retain. So they recognise about them during their
earthly sojourn the images of higher things, and again
strive upwards.
For us the revelation of Christ has made this dream
a truth. In Him we see perfect sacrifice, perfect truth,
perfect wisdom, perfect love ; and having seen it, we
can discern signs of His presence in them who shew
His gifts. He gives unity, and they reveal to us His
fulness. In our kinsmanship with them we welcome
the pledge of a life which is beyond time.
(Cftmtiattitg meets tfje $eetr0 of fHan
CHRISTIANITY claims to be a Gospel; to offer to
men that which answers to their needs ; to disclose in a
form available for life eternal truths which we are so
constituted as to recognise, though we could not of
ourselves discover them. Its verification, therefore, will
lie in its essential character ; in its fitness to fulfil this
work, which is as broad as the world.
The religion which is able to bring peace at one stage
of human development may be wholly ineffective at
another.
When, therefore, we look for a religion which shall
perfectly satisfy the needs of men, we look for one
which is essentially fitted for the support of man as man.
Such a religion must have a vital energy commensurate
with all conceivable human progress.
And yet again : the perfect religion must not only
94 THE RECORDS OF REVELATION
have the power of dealing with man and men throughout
the course of their manifold development ; it must have
the power of dealing with the complete fulness of life at
any moment. It must have the present power of dealing
with the problems of our being and of our destiny in
relation to thought and to action and to feeling.
A perfect religion a religion which offers a complete
satisfaction to the religious wants of man must be able
to meet the religious wants of the individual, the society,
the race, in the complete course of their development
and in the manifold intensity of each separate human
faculty.
This being so, I contend that the faith in Christ,
born, crucified, risen, ascended, forms the basis of this
perfect religion ; that it is able, in virtue of its essential
character, to bring peace in view of the problems of life
under every variety of circumstance and character to
illuminate, to develop, and to inspire every human
faculty.
My contention rests upon the recognition of the two
marks by which Christianity is distinguished from every
other religion. It is absolute and it is historical.
Christianity is not a theory, a splendid guess, but a
proclamation of facts.
Nothing in the whole realm of nature can be alien
from man, who gathers to himself an epitome of nature ;
nothing, therefore, is incapable of sharing in the conse-
cration and transfigurement by which he is ennobled.
The Incarnation and the Resurrection reconcile the
two characteristics of our faith ; they establish the right
of Christianity to be called historical, they establish its
right to be called absolute.
CHRISTIANITY AS THE ABSOLUTE RELIGION 95
ur $fc of 5Lit$t satfefietr 6g ffifjriat
1 HERE is not, I think, a more impressive image in
literature than that in which Dr. Newman describes the
first effect of the world upon the man who looks there
for tokens of the presence of God. " It is," he says,
" as if I looked in a mirror and saw no reflection of my
own face." This is the first, the natural effect.
But the record of the life of Christ, the thought of
the presence of Christ, changes all. Christ, as He lived
and lives, justifies our highest hope. He opens depths
of vision below the surface of things. He transforms
suffering ; He shews us the highest aspirations of our
being satisfied through a way of sorrow. He redresses
the superficial inequalities of life by revealing its eternal
glory. He enables us to understand how, being what
we are, every grief and every strain of sensibility can be
made in Him contributory to the working out of our
common destiny.
Let us once feel that the anguish of creation is indeed
the travail-pain of a new birth, as Scripture teaches, and
we shall be strengthened to bear and to wait.
ur Heeto of an Jrtoeal gattsfietj bg (Efjrist
\JS men as men in our essential constitution, and
not only as fallen men we need an ideal which may
move us to effort.
It is generally agreed that the type of character pre-
sented to us in the Gospels is the highest which we can
fashion. The person of the Lord meets us at every point
in our strivings, and discloses something to call out in us
loftier endeavour.
In Him we discover in the most complete harmony
96 THE RECORDS OF REVELATION
all the excellencies which are divided, not unequally,
between man and woman.
In Him we can recognise the gift which has been
entrusted to each one of us severally, used in its true
relation to the other endowments of humanity. He
enters into the fulness of life, and makes known the
value of each detail of life.
Cftrfst offers an Efceal for us, for all ilHcn anto for all 9Time
what He does for us He does for all men and
for all time. There is nothing in the ideal which He
offers which belongs to any particular age or class or
nation.
He stands above all and unites all. That which
was local or transitory in the circumstances under which
He lived, in the controversies of rival sects, in the
struggles of patriotism, in the isolation of religious pride,
leaves no colour in His character. All that is abiding,
all that is human, is there without admixture, in that
eternal energy which man's heart can recognise in its
time of trial.
So it is that the person of the Lord satisfies the
requirement of growth which belongs to the religious
nature of man. Our sense of His perfections grows with
our own moral advance. We see more of His beauty as
our power of vision is disciplined and purified. The slow
unfolding of life enables us to discern new meaning in
His presence. In His humanity is included whatever
belongs to the consummation of the individual and of
the race not only in one stage, but in all stages of pro-
gress, not only in regard to some endowments, but in
regard to the whole inheritance of our nature, enlarged
by the most vigorous use while the world lasts.
We in our weakness and littleness, confine our
CHRISTIANITY AS THE ABSOLUTE RELIGION 97
thoughts from generation to generation, now to this
fragment of His fulness and now to that; but it is, I
believe, true without exception in every realm of man's
activity, true in action, true in literature, true in art, that
the works which receive the most lasting homage of the
soul are those which are most Christian ; and that it is in
each the Christian element, the element which answers
to the fact of the Incarnation, to the fellowship of God
with man as an accomplished reality of the present order,
which attracts and holds our reverence. In the essence
of things it cannot be otherwise. Our infirmity alone
enfeebles the effect of the truth which we have to embody.
tit $ertJ of Pofoer satisfied fig
-L\ O accumulation of failures can destroy the sense of
our destiny. But alone in ourselves, as we look back
sadly, we confess that we have no new resource of strength
for the future, as we have no ability to undo the past.
The loftiest souls, apart from Christ, recognise that they
were made for an end which " naturally " is unattainable.
This need brings into prominence the supreme char-
acteristic of the Faith. Christ meets the acknowledgment
of individual helplessness with the offer of fellowship.
He reveals union with Himself, union with God, and
union with man in Him, as the spring of power, and the
inspiration of effort.
2f)e Solution of tfje -problem of (Essence
IT has been excellently laid down by one who was not
of us that " the solution of the problem of essence, of the
questions, Whence ? What ? and Whither ? must be in
a life and not in a book."
He who said, " I came forth from the Father, and am
THE RECORDS OF REVELATION
come into the world ; again, I leave the world, and go to
the Father," illuminated the words by actions which
made known the divine original and the divine destiny
of man.
2Tfte f^appiness of the inhole the Happiness of all
POLITICIANS aim at "the greatest happiness of the
greatest number," but we have a surer and wider prin-
ciple for our guidance, that the happiness of the whole is
the happiness of all.
Christians Beliefcrrs m a lifting, a speaking @ofc
W E are, we must be, as believers in Christ, in the
presence of a living, that is, of a speaking God.
Nothing, indeed, can be added to the facts of the Gospel,
but all history and all nature is the commentary upon
them. And the loftiest conceptions of human destiny
and human duty cannot but be quickened and raised by
the message which reaches through the finite to the
infinite, through time to eternity : " In the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the
Word was God. . . . And the Word became flesh, and
tabernacled among us."
&fje Canon of -Scripture
1 HE question of the Canon of Holy Scripture has
assumed at the present day a new position in Theology.
The Bible can no longer be regarded merely as a
common storehouse of controversial weapons, or an
acknowledged exception to the rules of literary criticism.
Modern scholars, from various motives, have distin-
guished its constituent parts, and shewn in what way each
was related to the peculiar circumstances of its origin.
THE BIBLE THE CHARTER OF HOPE 99
Christianity has gained by the issue ; for it is an
unspeakable advantage that the Books of the New
Testament are now seen to be organically united with
the lives of the Apostles : that they are recognised as
living monuments, reared in the midst of struggles within
and without by men who had seen Christ, stamped with
the character of their age, and inscribed with the dialect
which they spoke : that they are felt to be a product as
well as a source of spiritual life.
Their true harmony can only be realised after a
perception of their distinct peculiarities.
It cannot be too often repeated that the history of
the formation of the whole Canon involves little less than
the history of the building of the Catholic Church.
The Bible is for us the sum of prophetic and
Apostolic literature, but that is not its essential char-
acteristic. It contains " all that concerns Christ " in the
same sense in which the Gospel contains all the teach-
ing of Christ The completeness in each case is
not absolute but relative to the work which is to be
accomplished.
Cfje 33tble justifies our loftiest Aspirations
JN O one who regards with calm, open eyes the super-
ficial prospect of the world can fail to feel its sadness.
That which we hold to be the highest truth is to a great
extent unknown, or defaced by corruptions, or discredited
by divisions. We are met on every side by signs of
what appears to be inevitable waste, incompleteness,
suffering. We look within, and find in our own souls
the fruits and the elements of a conflict which make the
attainment of peace by our own power impossible except
at the price of insensibility. We look without upon
society, and we find there reproduced upon a large scale
THE RECORDS OF REVELATION
the passions, the selfishness, the ambitions, the pains, by
which we ourselves are distracted. We look on nature,
and as we look we learn to recognise that in " meadow,
grove, and stream " there is beneath the smiling surface
a fierce and unending struggle for existence which in
some sense makes the whole earth a tomb. If what we
see with our feeble powers, our transitory experience,
were all, we might well despair. To man, using his own
faculties only, the present, as far as I can judge, offers no
prospect of a future more bright than the chequered
past. The certainty of change brings no assurance of
progress.
But in spite of every discouragement we cling to the
trust with which we were born. Even when the last
conclusions of despondency are forced upon us by the
facts of life, the heart will not surrender its loftiest
aspirations.
And the Bible justifies them. The Bible, in which
we can see human life, the simplest and the loftiest,
penetrated by a Divine life, gives us as an abiding
possession that which nature and the soul shew only
far off for a brief moment, to withdraw it again from the
gaze of the inquirer the vision of a Divine Presence.
The Bible discloses to us behind the veil of phenom-
ena something more than sovereign law, something more
than absolute being.
It may for long ages be silent as to the future, but from
the beginning to the end it is inspired by the eternal.
It places man face to face with God from the first
symbolic scene in the Garden of Eden to the last
symbolic scene in the New Jerusalem.
It enables us to discern with spiritual perception One
who is not loving only but Love, One from Whose will
all creation flows, and to Whose purpose it answers, of
Whom and through Whom and unto Whom are all things.
THE BIBLE THE CHARTER OF HOPE 101
In a word, the Bible writes hope over the darkest
fields of life. Man needs hope above all things ; and
the Bible is the charter of hope, the message of the
God of revelation, Who alone is the God of hope.
For us it is the view which the Bible gives of His
forbearance and long-suffering ; of His compassionate and
gentle dealing with the rude, the ignorant, and the erring ;
of His large counsels, whereby all faithful though im-
perfect labour is made to minister to His service, which
keeps our hope freshest in the face of our own trials.
We are for the most part busily occupied with the
cares, the problems, the lessons of our own place and
time.
The range of our activity tends to limit the range of
our interest. We yield to the temptation of forgetting
the great deserts of barbarism which are spread over the
face of the earth the long ages of dull monotony which
represent the life of many peoples. But those dreary
spaces also belong to the history of that one body of
mankind in which we are members, of that planet which
was the scene of the Incarnation.
Each period of silence, the most unbroken in its
awful stillness, is part of the education of the world.
As we look upon the spectacle the long discipline,
fruitful in its manifold complexity; the glorious issue,
prevailing in its infinite sorrows there comes to us a
joy proportioned to the vast blanks which we have felt.
The Biblical interpretation of pre-Christian history
reveals to us the law of God's dealing with men in the
present.
And so we in our day of trial gain strength to wait
in the presence of ends unattained, and as yet unattain-
able.
THE RECORDS OF REVELATION
Humanity is not a splendid ruin, deserted by the
great King Who once dwelt within its shrine, but a
living body, racked, maimed, diseased, it may be, but
stirred by noble thoughts which cannot for ever be in
vain.
Hope is the child of sympathy and faith, born not
without pain.
That we might have hope hope for the single soul,
hope for the body to which we inseparably belong ; hope
for the creation committed to our care fair under con-
ditions of decay; hope for honest thought in the con-
templation of solemn problems ; hope for courageous
action in the presence of aggressive evil ; the infinite
hope which we need, and which, as far as I see, we can-
not find elsewhere.
Every fragment of human life will illuminate the
teaching of the Bible, and no single race can exhaust it.
That which the light of language and the monuments
of antiquity did in the sixteenth century to illuminate
the sacred writings and shew their power on the in-
dividual conscience, the light of science in its widest
sense, and the broader apprehension of history, promise
to do now.
Symptoms converge from every side to shew that our
own race and our own country is being called to fulfil
the evangelic charge for which material prosperity, wide
dominion, social freedom, unbroken national develop-
ment, have been only the preparation.
PART II
C&e Cfmsttan ^ocietp: it# flDffice
anD
THE CHRISTIAN SOCIETY: ITS OFFICE
AND GROWTH
8Hje tfo0 (SEntpiwa tfje Cfjurcfj atrtr tfje UKorlti
1 HE coincidence of the establishment of the Roman
Empire with the rise of Christianity has always attracted
the attention of modern historians.
Christianity was destined by its very nature not to
save but to destroy the Empire : at the same time their
outward correspondence was not less full of meaning.
All that was progressive in the old world was united
under one supreme head at the time when the new faith
was revealed which should bind the universe together in
a sovereign unity.
Peace won by arms ushered in Him who revealed the
peace of life in God.
Cfje Jaihtre of tfje Empire antJ tfje Uictorg of tfje
o O it was that the only two powers which have claimed
absolute dominion over mankind appeared together.
For three centuries each followed the necessary law of
its development. Then at last the Empire was seen to
have failed ; and the Church was seen to contain the
forces which could regenerate and rule the world.
Diocletian, when he finally organised the old power of
106 CHRISTIAN SOCIETY OFFICE AND GROWTH
the State with the greatest political genius, gave the
occasion for the concentration of the power of the
Church, and prepared the way for its victory.
STfje (Jiospel fagmtfallg tfje proclamation of a
1 HE message of the Gospel was essentially the pro-
clamation of a Kingdom, "a Kingdom of heaven," "a
Kingdom of God," " a Kingdom of the Son of Man."
The coming of a Kingdom was the keynote of the
preaching of John the Baptist and of Christ Himself.
The disciples were " the sons of the Kingdom." As
a King Christ died. During the great forty days He
spoke of "the things pertaining to the Kingdom." When
the faith was first carried beyond the limits of Judaea,
Philip announced to Samaria "the Gospel of the Kingdom
of God." The burden of St. Paul's first teaching in
Europe was that there was " another King than Caesar,
even Jesus." The same Apostle, when he sums up his
work, describes himself as having gone about " preaching
the Kingdom of God" ; and the last glimpse which is
given of his labours at Rome shews him there still
preaching the Kingdom.
Everywhere the same idea is prominent in the history
of the Acts and in the Apostolic letters. At one time
it excites the hostility of unbelievers ; at another time it
gives occasion to mistaken hopes in Christians. But
however the truth was misrepresented and misunderstood,
however much it gave occasion to unjust attacks and
visionary expectations, it was still held firmly. The idea
may have grown somewhat unfamiliar to us now, but it is
clearly impressed upon the New Testament.
Wqt ttoo Onrtpfreg compared
1 T is quite true to say that two Empires, two social
organisations, designed to embrace the whole world,
THE TWO EMPIRES CHURCH AND WORLD 107
started together in the first century. The one appeared
in the completeness of its form : the other only in the
first embodiment of the vital principle which included
all after-growth. But the two Empires had nothing in
common except their point of departure and their claim
to universality. In principle, in mode of action, in
sanctions, in scope, in history, they offer an absolute
contrast. The Roman Empire was essentially based on
positive law ; it was maintained by force ; it appealed
to outward well-doing; it aimed at producing external
co-operation or conformity. The Christian Empire was
no less essentially based on faith : it was propagated
and upheld by conviction : it lifted the thoughts and
working of men to that which was spiritual and eternal :
it strove towards the manifold exhibition of one common
life. The history of the Roman Empire is from the
first the history of a decline and fall, checked by many
noble efforts and many wise counsels, but still inevitable.
The history of the Christian Empire is from the first the
history of a victorious progress, stayed and saddened by
frequent faithlessness and self-seeking, but still certain
and assured though never completed.
necessarg Collision bcttoem Cfjristiamtg anfo
1 F a distinct conception be formed of what Christianity
is, it will be evident that a sincere and zealous pagan
could not but persecute it.
Christianity came forward as a universal religion. It
could not take a place as one among many ; and this
was the utmost which ancient modes of thought could
concede to it.
The idea of toleration as expressing a respect for
personal conviction was utterly unknown to the statesmen
io8 CHRISTIAN SOCIEl^Y OFFICE AND GROWTH
of the old world. It found no clear expression in the
new world till the seventeenth century. The toleration
of the Empire was in effect not unlike toleration in
Russia now : it accepted diversities which had established
themselves by actual existence, but it allowed no change
away from the national faith.
The national religion was a part of the historical
development and habits of the nation, a mode of express-
ing certain thoughts and convictions which could no
more be changed than language.
Nothing struck the apologists with more amazement
than the first natural consequence which followed from
this difference between the Christian and heathen con-
ceptions of religion. They saw the popular gods held
up to mockery upon the stage, degraded in the works of
poets, ridiculed by philosophers, and they could not
reconcile such license and sarcasm with resolute devotion.
But to the polytheist of the empire and to all later
polytheists the offices of worship were an act of public
duty and not of private confession. Outward conformity
in act was owed to the State, complete freedom in opinion
and word was allowed to the worshipper. There was
no complete and necessary correspondence between the
form and the thought.
With the Christian it was otherwise. His religion
was the expression of his soul. So it was that the
Christian confessor would make no compromise. This
phenomenon was a novel one ; and we can see in the
records of the martyrdoms how utterly the magistrates
were incapable of understanding the difficulty which
Christians felt in official conformity. In their judgment
it was perfectly consistent with religious faith to drop
the morsel of incense on the fire, and still retain allegiance
to Christ.
THE TWO EMPIRES CHURCH AND WORLD 109
All that they required was the appearance of obedience
and not the distinct expression of conviction. " Have
regard for thy gray hairs " or " for thy tender youth "
was the common appeal of a merciful judge, who failed
to apprehend that the faith of the Christian like his own
being was one.
" What harm is it to say, ' O Lord Caesar,' and to
sacrifice and be saved ?" was the well-meant expostulation
which was addressed to Polycarp on his way to trial.
2Tf) E (arl|j Christians' Position one of continued Protest
1 HE pagan temples were to Christians like unclean
sepulchres, of which they 'were tempted to shew their
loathing openly. Though Origen condemns such conduct
as lawless and rude, it is easy to see that zeal would often
be carried beyond the limits of reason and good order.
Heathenism, indeed, was so mixed up with the
ordinary routine of society and home, that the believer
would be forced to stand in the position of continued
protest. The proceedings of the courts, the public cere-
monies, the ordinary amusements, were more or less
connected with idolatrous forms or observances. The
smoking altar constantly called for some sign of abhor-
rence. The universal presence of the images of the
gods made watchful caution a necessity for the believer.
The common language of familiar conversation often
required a disclaimer of the superstition on which it was
framed.
2Tfje l^istorg of Rations antJ tfje ^istorg of dje Cfjurclj
1 HE history of nations is but an episode in the
history of the Church. They perish, but she lives on.
They furnish the materials, and she constructs with them
no CHRISTIAN SOCIETY OFFICE AND GROWTH
fresh sanctuaries for the service of her Lord. They
fulfil their special office in developing the powers of man,
and she gathers into her stores the abiding fruits of their
experience.
The material magnificence of power and conquest
bears in itself the seeds of its decay ; it is exhaustible
because it is earthly : but the spiritual progress of which
it is the occasion is an eternal force.
There may be times of storm and times of sunshine,
but the Christian society still grows with a growth which
man is equally unable to originate and to destroy. The
Gospel continues to leaven, however slowly in our eyes,
the whole mass of life.
I will not leave you comfortless ; I come to you. The
words have been fulfilled at each crisis in the progress
of the Church, and we believe they are being fulfilled
still. Christ came to His own aforetime, now in this
form and now in that, when His Presence seemed to be
most sorely needed. And as we read the marvellous
history, we know that He will not leave us bereaved
of His love.
Faithlessness can exist only if we seek to measure the
might of Christianity by our ability to use it.
The larger teaching of the past, which we too
commonly forget, has promises of unfailing power.
Roughly speaking, the history of Christendom, up to
the Reformation, falls into four periods of nearly equal
length. The close of each period was followed by a
time of danger and progress, of suffering and new-birth,
and each reveals to us a presence of Christ.
The first crisis was the conquest of the Empire.
Three centuries of conflict and persecution had dis-
CRISES IN THE HISTORY OF THE CHURCH in
ciplined the growing vigour of the Church, and the
moment of anticipated freedom was the moment of
peril. The Church was in danger of being imperialised.
An unbaptized Emperor preached to his courtiers, and
presided at the council which he called. If his policy
had prevailed, Christianity might have become mainly
an instrument of government, or even a modified adapta-
tion of polytheism.
, a greater hero than Constantine,
arose. His life was one long battle. Cast down,
betrayed, exiled, he fought on. For forty-six years he
knew no peace, and to human judgment the conflict was
unequal. "Athanasius was against the world, and the
world against him."
But Athanasius triumphed. He triumphed over the
court with the policy of a statesman ; he triumphed over
his persecutors with the endurance of a martyr. He
lived for the truth, and it is scarcely too much to say
that the truth lived through him. He vindicated the
inheritance of Faith. He maintained the independence
of the Church. He vanquished the spirit as well as the
form of Paganism. He handed down to us, in the
Nicene Creed, the words which shape our earliest thoughts
by the measure of Divine Faith.
But imperialism was not the only danger of the time.
There was the opposite peril of isolation. Recoiling
from the semblance of worldly compliance, some sought
to establish an exclusive society of saints. They soon
found occasion for their efforts, and an adversary to
defeat them.
W HEN Athanasius died at Alexandria, Augustine was
still a brilliant student in the Jfchools of Carthage. For
112 CHRISTIAN SOCIETY OFFICE AND GROWTH
fourteen years afterwards he laboured for the knowledge
which seemed to fly from him, and he gathered uncon-
sciously that rich harvest of manifold experience which
gave him in his later age his depth of sensibility and his
energy of command.
Athanasius, with the subtle wisdom ot a Greek
philosopher, had marked out the true conception of
Redemption in relation to God.
Augustine, with the moral sagacity of a Roman jurist,
determined its relation to man.
Athanasius had shewn that the Church was no
function or creature of the State. Augustine shewed
that potentially the Church was co-extensive with the
world. The one laid open the principles of its life ; the
other the conditions of its existence.
And so the Christian society was prepared to meet
the storms which were already gathering around it.
(Eolumrjait anfc Boniface
AT
r the end of three centuries of barbarian desolation
in the West, the Church found herself face to face with a
new world.
The arms of her former warfare were powerless now.
There was need of sterner, ruder champions to bear her
standard into the camp and the forest, of heralds cast in
the mould of Elijah or John the Baptist ; and they
were not wanting. A fresh field was open, and fresh
labourers were ready to enter it : men not tutored in the
wisdom of Alexandria or the policy of Rome, but un-
wearied in the devotion of enterprise, and fearless in the
consciousness of self-conquest.
It is perhaps the worthiest of our boasts that our own
islands supplied them ; dkd even to the present day we
CRISES IN THE HISTORY OF THE CHURCH 113
can see, in the libraries of Germany and Switzerland
and Italy, the Bibles which those great missionaries
carried with them on their holy work.
Two stand out as the representatives of their class
Columban the witness and Boniface the preacher.
Trained in the peaceful stillness of an Irish cloister,
Columban felt, at last, after years of silent study, "a fire
kindled in his breast." " It was wrong," he said, "to
look to his own good rather than seek the welfare of
others." And with twelve companions he crossed over
to the wildernesses of Gaul.
A legendary miracle may serve as the symbol of his
life.
As he walked one day through a wood in prayer,
suddenly, it is said, a pack of wolves appeared on his
right hand and on his left. He stood undismayed and
cried, " O Lord, be Thou my shield : O Lord, haste Thee
to help me."
The hungry beasts still rushed on, and already touched
his dress ; and then, as if stricken by his presence,
swept by and returned to the depths of the forest.
Such, in fact, was Columban's position always, and
almost such his power. The savage chiefs were awed
by the grandeur of his supreme self-sacrifice. Kings
sought his presence and trembled at his reproof.
He stood among wild and lawless warriors, a witness
to an unseen power greater than that of earth; an
apostle of a spiritual service harder than their own ;
speaking with a stern majesty of acts which appealed to
their senses, and awakening hopes not quenched by the
battle or the feast. He was himself his message, and
that message of a life found many to welcome it. Before
he died, though baffled and exiled, he knew the truth of
his own words : " Whoever overcomes himself treads the
world under foot."
114 CHRISTIAN SOCIETY OFFICE AND GROWTH
Boniface was a man of broader activity. To the
victorious asceticism of the Irish Columban he added the
earnest laboriousness of a Saxon nature. There was even
in him something of that adventurous daring which
made the worthies of his native Devon famous in after
times. But all he had, and all he was, he offered to
God ; and the sacrifice was turned to the noblest uses.
Near Geismar, in Hesse-Cassel, there was a giant oak,
sacred to Thor, and hallowed by ancient superstition.
Boniface determined to overthrow it, and with it the
dread of the ancient idols which lingered among his con-
verts. In the presence of a trembling crowd he smote
the trunk, and a sudden blast from heaven completed
the work which he had begun. Thereupon he gathered
the shattered fragments, and with them built a Chapel to
St. Peter. In that act of pious transformation lay the
secret of his successful work. He used what he found
for God.
And his death shewed the secret of his devoted life.
On an appointed day his converts were to come together
to him from all quarters for confirmation. In their
stead a host of armed heathen appeared, sworn to take
vengeance on the enemy of their gods. The friends
of Boniface prepared resistance, but he forbade them.
" For a long time," he said, " I have earnestly desired this
day. Be strong in the Lord, and bear with thankful en-
durance whatever His grace sends. Hope in Him, and
He will save your souls." And having so said, he received
the crown of martyrdom, about twenty years after Charles
Martel had driven back for ever the hosts of Saracens
upon the plain of Tours.
JFrancss of
1 HUS the West was won to Christianity, and through
four centuries was moulded by its sovereign power. The
CRISES IN THE HISTORY OF THE CHURCH 115
Empire and the Papacy grew side by side ; the strength
of feudalism was matched with the strength of the
Church ; and again it seemed as if the Gospel would be
lost in the triumph of its messengers.
- At the beginning of the thirteenth century Innocent
III., the greatest of the Popes, dispensed the crowns of
Europe at his will. Bishops vied in state with the
loftiest nobles. Churchmen marked out the channels
within which thought was directed for four centuries. On
every side those cathedrals were rising which it is the
highest ambition of later art to imitate. But the poor
the truest representatives of Christ were forgotten.
With the peril came also the remedy. In the
crisis of popular desolation Francis of Assisi claimed
Poverty as his bride, "whom none," he said, "had
chosen for his own since Christ Himself." And in the
assurance of his choice he carried glad tidings to the
neglected and the outcast. A vision had revealed to
him that he should be a soldier, and he found that his
post was in Christ's army. A heavenly voice had charged
him to repair the falling Church, and he knew at lasf
that his labour was with the spiritual fabric.
His character united the opposite traits of intense
idealism and intense realism. He was a rigid ascetic,
and at the same time he cherished the deepest sense of
the beauty of all that God had made. He had the
truest loathing of sin, and yet his soul melted with
tenderness towards the most abject and the most fallen.
He felt the fulness of actual communion with Heaven,
and yet he would take to himself no title but that of
a servant.
He translated, in a word, the practical Christian
virtues into visible facts. He was in every act a type of
poverty and obedience, of purity and love. He offered
to the simplicity of the Middle Ages a sensible image
of the two commandments the love to God and the
u6 CHRISTIAN SOCIETY OFFICE AND GROWTH
love to our neighbour which they could not fail to
understand.
He spoke to his own age, and his voice was the voice
of blessing.
IL0g0la, Hutfjer, Calirin, Crantnet
1 IME went on, and in the sixteenth century the con-
ditions of life were changed. The tutelage of the nations
came to an end. The Church had lived through the
crises of imperialism, of barbarism, of supremacy. It
had to face the crisis of freedom. The revival of learn-
ing had enlarged and multiplied the domains of thought.
The invention of printing had extended the circle of
students and scholars. The development of industry
and the accumulation of wealth had consolidated states,
and impressed them with peculiar characters. The out-
ward unity of the Empire was finally broken, and with it
the outward unity of the Church.
But men were not wanting to carry forward in every
direction the manifold applications of the one Faith.
Loyola, Luther, Calvin, and wisest, perhaps, of all, our
own Cranmer, saw the wants of their age and of their
countries, and in various ways, and with frequent failures,
laboured to satisfy them.
We may shrink from many of their conclusions : we
may condemn many of their acts : we may deplore the
bitterness of their controversies, and grieve over the
inheritance of division which they have bequeathed to
us, but still no one can deny that we owe to them, to
the vehement expression of their convictions, to the
startling individuality of their faith, a larger view of the
capacities of Christianity, a truer sense of its adaptation
to every variety of thought, a more absolute confidence
in its vital energy, than was ever granted to any earlier
CRISES IN THE HISTORY OF THE CHURCH 117
age. Even in the day of apparent humiliation and
failure Christ did not leave His people desolate, but came
to them, not in one form but in many, as their eyes were
opened to see Him.
& Crisis at
1 F we may trust the cycles of the past, it would seem
that we are, in this our day, close upon another crisis,
and that even now our Lord is waiting to reveal Himself
to us.
In what shape He will reveal Himself we cannot tell,
but yet we feel dimly that the revelation will be more
glorious than any yet made known. This confidence
lies in the conditions under which we live.
It is the characteristic of our time that it offers an
epitome of all history in the present varieties of national
life.
Thus there is no past age to which we can look back
for the one type of our labour. There is no past age
which we can neglect as wholly obsolete in its teaching.
There is room among us now for the vital dogmatism
of Athanasius and Augustine ; for the stern and fearless
zeal of Columban and Boniface ; for the imperial soul of
Innocent ; for the loving asceticism of Francis ; for the
varied energy of the Reformers.
The work of to-day is not for one nation, but for all ;
and therefore it is that the exclusive passion of patriotism
is tempered with a wider sympathy among peoples.
The Gospel of to-day is addressed to men not of one
form of civilisation only, but of many ; and therefore it
is that the manifold grace of God has now the widest
application.
The Church of Christ calls all to active service, and
n8 CHRISTIAN SOCIETY OFFICE AND GROWTH
welcomes all with each power they bring. Every variety
of intellect may find its scope. Every diversity of gift
may find its consecration.
.Samuel a tgpe of tfje dTmfjer of our 19 ag
J PEAK, Lord, for thy servant heareth.
He who was a child and yet a prophet is a true
figure of the priest of God in every age. He who was
called to stand between the old and new is in an
especial sense a figure of those who are sent forth to
labour now, when we seem once again to draw near to a
crisis in the history of the world.
The words sum up the true relation of the teacher
to the One Source of wisdom. They are an expression
of Faith, of Reverence, of Self-devotion.
They describe the spirit in which it becomes us as
Christians to regard the speculative and civil movements
through which articulate voices of the Lord come to us.
They will be to us a sure voice of encouragement in
the chill darkness which precedes the dawn ; a sure test
of truth in the concourse of many cries.
Happy, thrice happy, will that teacher be who can
gather himself up in each season of oppressive doubt
with the assurance that God does speak ; who can
listen heedfully in the strength of that conviction to the
wild strains of earthly music, to see if it may be that in
them also there is mingled some melody from heaven.
The last utterance of God is not yet spoken to the
world. We can look without misgiving upon the dark-
ness which rests here and there upon the field of life,
and acknowledge with grateful faith that the facts by
THE FAITH ONE AND PROGRESSIVE 119
which we live, the facts by which the world lives, like
the heaven from which they come, overarch our farthest
prospect and, as we advance, crown some remote region
with a fulness of glory.
From century to century, terms, phrases, whole
passages of the written Revelation gain in breadth of
meaning as men grow in largeness of experience and in
capacity of vision.
It is not that the sense of the Scriptures is changed,
but that they are felt to be more luminous as we gain
fresh power to bear the light.
Nothing is lost of that which has been once found
in them, but partial interpretations are taken up, absorbed,
transfigured, in others which embrace a little wider range.
&f)e &ufjgtance of our pjtstortc Belief Inexhaustible
1 HE Christian teacher should from the first keep
alive in himself, that he may keep it alive in others, the
sense of the indefeasible vitality of his creed.
He must think and speak as one who is charged
with the interpretation of a life to which every other
form of being ministers, and not with the mere reitera-
tion of stereotyped clauses.
He must watch and listen as knowing that every
word which he has received has force within it to draw
to itself new vigour from each conquest of inquiry.
The experience of our own personal progress shews
how it is so. Christ is always the same, eternal, un-
changeable. We confess Him in the same words from
childhood to youth, from youth to manhood, from man-
hood to age, and yet do we not all know that the Holy
Spirit which the Father sends in His name in His
120 CHRISTIAN SOCIETY OFFICE AND GROWTH
name, let us treasure up the marvellous promise en-
ables us to apprehend better what the confession of
those truths signifies as we gain worthier notions of
ourselves and of the world and of God ?
Thus the course of our brief lives helps us to see
that we must hold fast alike the absolute immutability
of the principle of life in the Church, and the manifold
progress of the manifestations of life.
Just as that which we each call "I" remains unchanged
through all the vicissitudes of our material and moral
being, so is it with the presence of Christ by the Spirit
in that vaster body which He quickens through all its
growth.
The truth was perceived when as yet it had gained
but little illustration. Every one is familiar with the
famous description of catholic belief : " quod semper,
quod ubique, quod ab omnibus." And there is another
passage of the book from which this sentence is taken
which, though it is less known, is far more fruitful in its
application.
In answer to the question whether there is any pro-
gress in the Christian religion, Vincent replies :
" There 'is, and that enormous. . . . For who would
wish men so ill ... as to seek to hinder it ? But it is
a true progress and not a change. . . . The under-
standing, the scientific knowledge, the wisdom alike
of individual Christians and of the whole Church, must
grow and advance greatly from age to age, though the
truth which they maintain does not lose its identity. . . .
The ancient doctrines of the heavenly philosophy cannot
without profanation be altered or mutilated, but they
may in process of time be shaped with greater care and
delicacy. They may gain clearness, light, defmiteness,
THE FAITH ONE AND PROGRESSIVE 121
while they necessarily retain their fulness, their integrity,
their essential character."
The words thus briefly paraphrased are remarkable
words, and the events of fourteen hundred years have
witnessed to their truth. The sixth, the ninth, the
thirteenth, and sixteenth centuries have seen Christianity
draw strength from what seemed to be danger. So will
it be, if we are faithful, in the nineteenth.
How, indeed, can it be otherwise ? For it is the glory
of our historic Faith to have reunited in a sacramental
bond the visible and the invisible, and, therefore, every
advance in the knowledge of Nature, every lesson in the
course of human affairs, must add something to our
power of realising the things which we most certainly
believe.
not a Development 6ut an Illumination
1 HE progress which we desire, as being permanent
and fruitful, comes from bringing our creed, as we are
encouraged to do, into the bracing air and bright
sunshine of life.
The result is not so much a development as an
illumination.
It is not that anything new is added to the original
treasures of revelation, but that which was latent is
realised.
Each great word, even the greatest, as man, and
world, and God, and sin, and grace, becomes charged
with new associations, enriched with new wealth of
thought, tested by new trials of labour and suffering,
and so fitted to carry on one degree farther the victories
of Faith.
In the confidence that this great law will be realised
through his ministry, the Christian teacher will approach
122 CHRISTIAN SOCIETY OFFICE AND GROWTH
his work. Strange and startling voices may sound about
him. Once and again he may be tempted to believe
that they are only of the earth, earthy. But in the
end, if he give heed to the lessons of the past, he will
take heart to stand, though it be alone and in the
gloom, and answer without impatience and without
distrust, Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth.
@olj j&peaking to us
I BELIEVE that God is speaking to us as He has
not spoken to men for four centuries ; and I believe
that there is great danger lest we neglect His voice.
We are absorbed in our own interests and perils, and
we fail to see that there is being accomplished around us
a revolution in the conditions of thought, a revolution in
the conditions of action, which, if unheeded now, will
sooner or later shake our Faith to its foundations.
But I believe no less surely that we can shew that
even here Christianity is in advance of the latest
generalisations of science, and able, in virtue of what we
know, to shape to noble issues the latent aspirations
and tendencies of men.
All that is required of us is that we should turn once
again to the first records of the Gospel and read there
lessons which, in the order of God's providence, could
not be read till this generation.
Let me endeavour to illustrate my meaning by two
examples, one from speculation and the other from life.
There is, I suppose, no more characteristic result of
physical research than the growing sense of the intimate
THE FAITH ONE AND PROGRESSIVE 123
connection of all forms of being one with another, of the
continuity and solidarity of existence, of the dependence
of man upon man and upon the world.
As these facts are put forward they are often made
to appear antagonistic to the Faith ; and the over-hasty
zeal of believers accepts the false interpretation.
But what is the case ? From the beginning of the
Bible to the end, from the record of the making of the
heavens and the earth in Genesis to the vision of the
new heaven and the new earth in the Apocalypse, the
mysterious unity of creation is shadowed forth.
Every political student, whether in hope, or fear, or
simple acquiescence, points to the fact that the whole
current of affairs is setting towards democracy.
I accept the conclusion without discussing it ; and
what then ? If it be true, I see in it an opportunity for
the greatest work which the Church of Christ has ever
been summoned to do.
No other power can deal efficiently with the problems
which will arise out of democratic society, because
no other power can take account of man as man, in all
his strength and in all his weakness, as one who is heir
of time and heir of eternity.
In the Middle Ages Christianity was the effectual
protector of the poor, and it has not yet lost the virtue
by which it can interpret and fulfil their wants.
Even now our Faith alone can give an intelligible
meaning to the triple watchword which for three genera-
tions has charmed them with vain hopes.
, jFraternftg
JT* OR us Christians, if only we have strength given us
to learn and to teach the lesson, Liberty is the power
124 CHRISTIAN SOCIETY OFFICE AND GROWTH
of complete obedience to the true law of our nature :
Equality is the recognition of one life in which we all
share, and to the perfection of which each owes all :
Fraternity is the devout acknowledgment of a common
Father.
No dream of civil reorganisation can go beyond the
life which would follow naturally from the acceptance of
the Gospel which we are charged to proclaim. And no
motives to stir men to sacrifice, to love, to faith, can be
found elsewhere equal to those which flow from the
thoughts of Bethlehem and of Calvary and of Olivet.
Jrajjments of Ctutfj to be <35m6raceti
1 HE foremost leaders of change use language which
is for the most part repellent by its one-sidedness and
want of sympathy. But let no fastidiousness rob you of
their instruction, and no prejudice blind you to their
contributions to the sum of knowledge.
Watch for the smallest fragment of truth wherever
you can discover it, and embrace it as your own.
" Let posterity welcome as understood that which
antiquity reverenced when not understood. Still teach the
same that you have learnt, and avoid novelty of essence
when you adopt novelty of form " (Vincent of Lerins).
Be sure that the voices of God are not yet withdrawn
from the world ; and be prepared to interrogate His
messengers importunately, even if they come to you in
strange disguises.
The fashion of the world changes : forms of thought
and language and polity come and go : but He in
Whom we live binds all together.
MISSIONS AND THE UNIVERSITIES 125
jer foe nor our JFatfters fjabe (Eifjattstrt the
STreasurg of @ob
IT has been hitherto the Divine purpose to bring men
to a knowledge of the one infinite, eternal, unchanging
truth little by little in manifold ways.
So it was that under the Old Testament the faithful
were led to regard the unity of God not as the basis of
a petrified monotheism, like that of Islam, but as the
pledge of a supreme Fatherhood which, starting from the
reality of a personal covenant, could find its consumma-
tion and crown only in the Incarnation.
So it has been that under the New Testament the
Church has been guided by the Spirit, which came in
Christ's name, to larger and deeper conceptions of the
significance of the revelation of the Son, which grows more
luminous with each fresh access of knowledge, because
it corresponds with the fulness of all life and with the
results of all history.
Age after age has seen the dawn brighten ; but we
dare not think that we gaze even now upon the perfect
day.
Much has been made clear already ; but much how
much we do not know remains to be made clear. And
when we thank God most devoutly that He has been
pleased to endow us in our island home with all the
gathered wealth of the past, we cannot but pray in the
very outpouring of our gratitude that He will accomplish
through others that which we are unable to achieve.
We with our history, our position, our faculties,
cannot arrogate to ourselves to be the measure of the
truth. What we have received and experienced is, as it
ought to be, inexpressibly precious to us ; by that we
126 CHRISTIAN SOCIETY OFFICE AND GROWTH
live and work ; but neither we nor our fathers have
exhausted the treasury of God.
We may see distinctly, but we do not see all ; and
we are not constituted to see all.
Greek and Roman and Teuton have been enabled to
interpret each some fragment of the unchanging Gospel ;
but the interpretation will not be complete till every race
has done its part, and the witness of the nations gives
universality to the confession of the Church.
STfje Present Crisis
JN EVER has there been a crisis when there was greater
need of a vital apprehension of an ever-present, and yet
ever-coming Advocate ; never has there been a crisis
when the temptation to deny His efficient energy was
stronger ; never has there been a crisis when the conflict
between will and law has seemed to issue in more hope-
less darkness ; never has there been a crisis when faith
clinging to the sacred past has faltered with more
trembling steps upon the threshold of a new age.
of tfje <55ast
-TTLND while we doubt and shrink, the East is calling
us with a million voices ; and, as it calls, it promises in
turn to bless.
For if we can in any way read the Eastern character,
the peoples which have found in Brahminism, in
Buddhism, in Mohammedanism, the natural satisfac-
tion of their religious instincts, are fitted to seize and
to enforce those lessons of the Incarnation which now
ask for a preacher.
They have an intensity of feeling to meet our stern-
ness of thought ; they have a calm sense of dependence
and community to meet our individualism ; they have
MISSIONS AND 7W UNIVERSITIES 127
an instinct of self-surrender to meet our self-assertion,
an intuition of totality to meet our fragmentary isolation.
Only let us extend to them our historic Gospel,
embodied in the life of the Christian society, and in
a brief space our Creed will grow radiant with a fresh
glory by the light which they are fitted to cast upon it.
Cfje Catfjolic JSofcewgntg of Cfmstiam'tg
W E have too often, perhaps, made ourselves and our
own Church the one test of the fulness of the Gospel ;
we have imperilled the acceptance of Christ's message
by substituting the partial for the universal ; we have
tried to fence round the definitions which correspond
with our own spiritual apprehension beyond the possi-
bility of growth.
But the experience of the Mission -field tends to
correct, and has already corrected these dangerous limi-
tations. In the face of new conditions of thought and
life Christianity is seen to assert its catholic sovereignty.
s no failure
IN O one will venture any more to speak of the failure
of Missions. Whether we look to India or to New-
foundland, to China or to the Southern Seas, we see
that Christianity can still count her new martyrs, can
still ennoble degraded races, can still make articulate,
and satisfy, the deepest wants of souls.
And, as we look upon the world-wide field we shall
learn to know better than we have yet known what is
the magnificent sum of energies and instincts, of
histories and actions, of services and sacrifices, which
go to make up the unity of the Church.
When we look abroad we can see how forces which
128 CHRISTIAN SOCIETY OFFICE AND GROWTH
are perilous in the close conflict and pressure of our
own life may find elsewhere free scope for beneficent
action.
There is, for example, no austerity of self-sacrifice
which may not become fruitful service in India.
There is no simplicity of faith which may not be
blessed to win the childlike races of Africa.
There is no wealth of thought and learning which
may not be consecrated for the conviction of the
Moslem.
In one place the Christian family best fulfils the
work of the Evangelist ; in another the lone brethren
who are ready to go, bound to Christ only, whenever an
opening can be made by heroic effort.
As the range of our vision is extended, we shall not
only become more tolerant of variety, but we shall feel
that variety is necessary.
ur iSJni&erBttteg tnag inspire JHfegionarg Effort
universities are the proper homes of the loftiest
aspirations, the meeting places of every power.
In them the past and the future are united in a life
at once reverent and intense. Their very notes are
continuity, catholicity, and progress. They cherish a
contagiousness of enthusiasm to which all things are
possible. They are prolific of opportunities for splendid
achievement.
They can inspire our Missionaries with that power of
a corporate life which gives to one man the strength of
a thousand.
&fy CambrtotjE iJflissions at JBdfji
1 HOSE who love Cambridge and are free to choose
their field of labour, can serve her, I believe, better in
MISSIONS AND THE UNIVERSITIES 129
India than in England. Many dare to tell us that the
religious character of the place is gone for ever. What-
ever other answers may be given to the sentence, one
will be beyond cavil, if men are ready at every call to
accept work for Christ, however difficult, and however
perilous, as the natural outcome of their University
teaching. This we confidently ask ; and in asking we
bid those who hear us remember that they are sent not
to hold a beleaguered fort but to win a kingdom.
We do wrong to the promise on which the Church
rests when we interpret it of successful resistance, and
not of irresistible advance. It is comparatively a poor
thought that the power of Hades will not prevail over
us : but the true thought of the promise is a thought
of which we have not as yet appropriated the in-
vigorating inspiration, even that the strongest citadel of
evil shall not for ever keep out the triumphant hosts of
the Cross.
sfjall 6rimj tfje @I0rg anb the f^onour of
tfje Rations into it"
\VHEN the Prophet of the Apocalypse looked
upon the Holy City of the new creation, he saw that
there was no longer any temple there that Was the
symbol at once of religious fellowship and religious
separation -for the Lord God Almighty is the Temple of
if, and the Lamb : he saw that it had no need of the
sun that was the symbol of the quickening energy of
nature and the measure of time -for the glory of God
did lighten, if, and the lamp thereof was the Lamb : he
saw the nations (not the nations of them which are saved,
according to the gloss of the common texts) walking
in the light of it, and so revealed in their true abiding
power : he saw the kings of the earth bring their glory
into it, offering, that is, each his peculiar treasures to
130 CHRISTIAN SOCIETY OFFICE AND GROWTH
complete the full measure of the manifested sovereignty
of the Lord. This is the end ; in this magnificent
vision of faith the Church and the nations are at
last revealed as one in the open presence of God.
And meanwhile the promise is for our encouragement
and for our guidance, as we strive to win for Christ the
manifold homage of men.
The promise is characteristic of the Gospel.
Alone of all religions, Christianity deals with peoples
no less than with individuals. The history of kingdoms
no less than the history of souls contributes to our know-
ledge of its power.
If, as we believe, the dispensation of the Spirit is the
revelation of Christ, then humanity in all its breadth
and in all its diversity is the element through which the
Spirit reveals Him ; and nothing less than every different
gift of every different race, the slowly-gathered thoughts
of all the kindreds of the earth, tried, purified, hallowed,
can represent to us adequately what He is as the Son of
man, and enable us to feel what He has done by whom
and for whom all things were created.
;Hission=fcjork, tf) Contrition, tf)? Sign, the Support
of our Christian rototf)
1 N this aspect we can perhaps see. most truly the mean-
ing and the grandeur of mission-work. It is not simply
a duty of Christian obedience ; it is not simply the
spontaneous energy of love. It is the condition, the
sign, the support of our Christian growth. It is the
power whereby we may hope to see our faith advance to
ampler proportions and more perfect beauty. It is the
ministry by which God directs us to make the natural
endowments of alien races contributory to a deeper
understanding of His counsels.
INDIAN MISSIONS 131
As it was in past time, so is it still. The Christians
of the West had something to tell their Greek teachers.
The Saxon Christians had something to tell the Roman
missionaries. The Christians of India will, I cannot
doubt, have something to tell us.
&f)e Spiritual problems of tfje ISast brought together
in fottoia
1 NDI A has been manifestly given to England. It is
there that all the spiritual problems of the East are
brought together.
The religious history of India is an epitome of the
religious history of heathendom. The religions of India
are the religions of the world. Every great aspiration
of mankind has found an embodiment there, and with
the same issue. Fragmentary truths have been made
absolute, and in each case have become degraded.
The patriarchal faith of Zarathustra was arrested at
its splendid dawn, and then sank into a lifeless ritual.
The simple Nature worship of the earliest Vedic
hymns degenerated through progressive stages into gross
polytheism.
The noble moral system of Buddhism was either ex-
tinguished on the scene of its earliest triumphs or sup-
plemented by a service of demons.
Even the pure monotheism of Islam has now come
to be known popularly among the Hindus as "saint-
worship."
The ethnic religions have established, on a vast
scale, that neither morality without a God nor a God
without a mediator can finally satisfy the heart or the
mind of man.
132 CHRISTIAN SOCIETY OFFICE AND GROWTH
QLfyt jjHeanmg of fKission^inork in nfcta
1 HROUGH corruptions and excesses Hinduism wit-
nesses in different ways to the ideas of revelation, of
sin, of retribution, of atonement, of fellowship. It offers,
in an exaggerated shape, the controversies which have
agitated Christendom on faith and works, on freewill
and fate.
It witnesses to the fact that men are impelled to
struggle heavenwards by self-sacrifice, and yet are no
less driven to bring the gods down to earth to redress
the evils of life.
In all these ways it enables us to feel how Christianity
deals with enigmas which it does not create ; how it
answers to wants which we have not realised ; how the
Holy Spirit, sent in Christ's name, is still waiting to make
known, in some new fashion, that the strangely-varied
strivings of humanity after unity and peace, the unceasing
endeavour to combine the idea of personality with the
recognition of dependence, the invincible effort to
embody the thought that in God we live and more and
have our being, without destroying the sense of respon-
sibility, are satisfied in the one fact of the Incarnation ;
that the conflict of action and worship, of the service of
God and the service of men, of " the way of devotion "
and " the way of works," are reconciled in the one grace
of holiness.
For these problems of our own theology find a bold
and even startling expression in the sacred books of
Hinduism. Their presence gives vitality to the system ;
and not once or twice 'only efforts have been made to
purify the old faiths from within, and to bring out of
them satisfaction for the contrasted wants to which they
witness.
But the great reformers have laboured to no purpose.
If they clung to the idea of a historic connection of God
INDIAN MISSIONS 133
and man, their followers have been swept back into the
excesses of superstition. If, as in the last movement of
the kind, this idea is sacrificed, that is sacrificed by
which Hinduism has triumphed ; for Hinduism has had its
triumphs. Twice it has been overpowered, and twice it
has risen from defeat. It remains, then, for Christianity
to reveal its sovereignty where Buddhism and Islam have
failed.
This is the meaning of mission-work in India, and
the charge is given to England, and to the English
Church, to direct the conflict.
No charge it is simple truth to say so no charge
was ever given to nation or to Church more momentous
or more difficult.
The evangelisation of India is practically the evan-
gelisation of Asia, the conquest of the world for Christ.
We need sympathy with castes which despise us as
well as with castes which honour us ; sympathy with
untiring if undisciplined strivings after truth ; sympathy
with passionate if wild longings after a conformity to the
likeness of God.
Cije Battle of our Jattfj to fa fought anfc foon in Entiia
1 HE coming battle of our faith is, I believe, to be
fought and won rather in India than in Europe. The
manifestation of life is the one true answer to scepticism.
Let it be seen, on that great and fresh field, that our
historic Gospel meets, interprets, fulfils aspirations which
are written in the records of untold generations ; that it
is able to reconcile order and progress ; that it gives an
intelligible meaning to the Hindu prayer " To see God
in all things and all things in God ; " that it is not ex-
hausted by our interpretation, or limited by our embodi-
134 CHRISTIAN SOCIETY OFFICE AND GROWTH
ment of its vital power ; and we shall be enabled to
bear our own temptations and difficulties with more
trustful submission.
Foreign missions help us to rise to a worthier appre-
hension of the truth which we hold, so simple that it
comes home to the rudest savage, so vast that it requires
the experience of every race to unfold its mysteries in
the language of men.
We each have our own theory, our own ideal of
action.
We dare not dissemble our convictions even when
we submit to the practical necessity of co-operation.
Christianity alone is able to preserve and hallow and
combine all that is noblest in the endowments of every
nation, pervading with a new energy and consecrating
to a new use the manifold gifts of that humanity which
God has taken to Himself.
India was saved by the soldiers and statesmen who
did not shrink from saying that the province which saved
the Empire was " conspicuous for two things, the most
successful government, and the most open acknowledg-
ment of Christianity."
Successes leave us with the burden of responsibility.
Each blessing comes as a promise,, and is as it is used.
It ceases to be real when it is made an occasion for rest.
The conquest of India for Christ is the conquest of
Asia for Christ. And the conquest of Asia seems to
offer the near vision of the consummation of the king-
dom of God.
INDIAN MISSIONS
We must be a missionary people. So far we cannot
change our destiny. We cannot abdicate our position
or alter our heritage. The choice which we have is
simply what shall be the message which we bear through
the world.
& Scfjxi0l of Entifatt Students
1 F we are ourselves to draw from India fresh instruction
in the mysteries of the divine counsels ; if we are to
contribute to the establishment of an organisation of the
Faith which shall preserve and not destroy all that is
precious in the past experience of the native peoples ; if
we are to proclaim in its fulness a Gospel which is
universal and not western ; we must keep ourselves and
our modes of thought in the background. We must
aim at "something far greater than collecting scattered
congregations round English clergy who may reflect to
our eye faint and imperfect images of ourselves.
We must adopt every mode of influence which can
be hallowed to the service of the Faith, the asceticism,
the endurance, the learning which are indigenous to
the country.
We can in some degree, as the Spirit helps us, teach
the teachers, but we cannot teach the people. The
hope of a Christian India lies in the gathering together
of men who shall be, to quote the words of a native
journal, " as thoroughly Hindu as they are Christian,
and more intensely national than those who are not
Christian."
There is nothing that I should more earnestly desire
for Cambridge than that some school of Indian students
should be formed and sustained to witness to her devo-
tion and to represent her spirit in the East.
We should gain by being brought into closer connec-
tion with men among whom the "struggling, hard-working,
136 CHRISTIAN SOCIETY OFFICE AND GROWTH
hard-living scholar " is the noble ideal of the race : they
would gain by feeling that they were called into actual
fellowship with a centre of the religious thought of
England.
.To organise such a school appears to me to be the
true University Mission. For it is, in some degree, to
offer to God the firstfruits of the best which He has
given us. There is other work to be done abroad,
but the Universities should aspire to that which is most
difficult ; to that which calls for their peculiar gifts ; to
that which may consecrate, so to speak, their proper
work at home. And is it too much to hope that we
may yet see on the Indus, or the Ganges, some new
Alexandria ?
arto fjer Colonies
1 F we say that in the providence of God England has
been appointed to be the mother of nations, it is with
the feeling of overwhelming responsibility, and not of
indolent pride.
We shrink from bringing our deepest personal convic-
tion to bear upon questions of state till we unconsciously
forget the divine element in the nation.
We fall under the temptation of seeking material
solutions for spiritual problems ; material remedies for
spiritual maladies. The thought of spiritual poverty, of
spiritual destitution, is crowded out. We treat the
symptoms and neglect the disease itself.
The experience of Australia, as rich in resources as
in enterprise, dissipates the illusion which animates such
efforts. Vice and squalor find a place in Sydney no
less than in London.
THE COLONIAL CHURCH 137
Boundless opportunities for industry and the in-
dependence of democratic equality have not brought
universal competence or true freedom.
If the greatest present dangers of rich and poor are,
as they surely are, moral in their origin, they must be
removed by a moral cure.
For more than three centuries we have been led to
develop individualism in religion, and to regard religion
simply as a matter for the soul and God.
And now once again we are beginning to understand
the language and the spirit of the Jewish prophets ; to
feel how the highest privilege of Israel was to be a
Messianic people ; to see that the message of the In-
carnation is social no less than personal ; to see that it
reveals to us the destiny not of individuals only, but of
humanity.
That which can regenerate a man, can regenerate a
nation. This, nothing less than this, is the meaning
and power of the announcement which still rings in our
ears, The Word became flesh.
All around us we can discern the promise of creation,
the unspoken expectation which changes the agonies of
nature into the travail -pains of a more glorious birth
(Rom. viii. 20 ff.) So the great announcement passes
into life, and comes forth from life a living faith.
In our English Church seems to lie the best hope of
the social Christianity of the future.
It must at least rest in a large measure with the
English Church whether the civilisation of the Southern
world shall be penetrated by Christianity as a social
force.
138 CHRISTIAN SOCIETY OFFICE AND GROWTH
To this end it must, we readily allow, vindicate to
itself more fully than heretofore every force of truth
and right and beauty of spirit and soul and body by
which men are moved.
We grow so timorous about details, so anxious to
meet every objection to the faith, that we are in danger
of forgetting that we are commissioned to proclaim a
message of glad tidings, to which the world and life and
the soul of man bear spontaneously the witness of
welcome : of forgetting that our creed rests upon a fact
by which man is bound so closely to man and earth to
heaven that, while we hold it, love can never fail and
hope can never be desolate. We grow content to in-
terpret Christ's promise to His Church (Matt. xvi. 18)
as if it assured to us survival and not victory. We
accept the position of a beleaguered garrison, holding
some last stronghold at desperate odds, when Christ
would have us move forward in His name with a great
tide of conquest, before which the last barriers of death
and sin shall fall and set free their captives. We think
of ourselves and not of God, of our feebleness and not
of His might, of our temporal isolation and not of His
eternal fellowship.
Yes, faith/ill is He that calleth. In that assurance
we rejoice in our brother's work, 1 for the sake of Aus-
tralia and for the sake of England. He will take with
him the wealth of the old life which he has made his
own : he will give back to us the energy of the new life
which he quickens and guides : he will help us to see
the continuity of the old with the new by a vital progress.
The prayers of this loved Abbey, closely connected from
the first with our Colonial episcopate, will blend with the
prayers and prophecies of the distant Cathedral : thoughts
stirred here by memories of princes and statesmen with
1 The Consecration of Dr. Barry to the See of Sydney.
THE GOSPEL OF CREATION 139
thoughts stirred there by names of founder-bishops
blazoned on the piers. But here and there one call
will be addressed to him and to us, fresh from day to
day, bidding each in his place occupy new realms for
Christ one call welcomed by one prayer, the inspiration
and the stay of faith.
&fje Incarnation Entrepentimt of tfje Jail
Jr ROM the beginning of the thirteenth century the
question "whether Christ would have been incarnate if
Adam had not sinned," became one of the recognised
questions of the schools.
The belief that the Incarnation was in essence
independent of the Fall, has been held by men of the
most different schools, in different ways and on different
grounds. All, however, in the main agree in this, that
they find in the belief a crowning promise of the unity
of the divine order; a fulfilment, a consummation, of
the original purpose of creation ; a more complete and
harmonious view of the relation of finite being to God
than can be gained otherwise.
It is impossible for us now to understand a formula
which deals with man and the world in the sense in
which it was understood when the earth was regarded as
the centre of the system of material creation, and the
human race as having existed for five or six thousand
years.
The effect upon the mind of the words in which
it is expressed must be different even if we use
the same words. And the sovereign preeminence of
Scripture as the vehicle of spiritual knowledge lies in
this, that it finds fuller interpretation from growing
experience.
140 CHRISTIAN SOCIETY OFFICE AND GRO WTH
The Scripture does not change, but our power of
entering into its meaning changes.
If man had fulfilled the law of his being, he would
still, so far as we can see, have stood in need of a
Mediator, through whom the relation of fellowship with
God might have been sustained and deepened and
perfected. Nor is it easy to suppose that this fellowship
could have been made stable and permanent in any
other way than by the union in due time of man with
God, accomplished by the union of man with Him who
was the Mediator between God and man, and in whose
image man was made.
The argument which was drawn from Ephesians v. 3 1 f.
by several early writers, deserves more consideration than
we are at first inclined to give it. The main idea in the
passage seems to be that the Church, the representative
of perfected humanity, of that which the race would
in the end have been if sin had not intervened, is related
to a Head, just as in the typical record of Creation
woman is related to man. The Church and woman are
severally regarded as derived, and yet belonging to the
completeness of that from which they are derived, and
so destined finally to be restored to perfect fellowship
with it.
Man ideally is not man only but man and woman ;
Christ, such appears to be the thought, however un-
familiar it may be to us, unites with the Godhead the
idea of perfected humanity, and that, not accidentally
but essentially. The personal relation of sex regarded
in typical individuals represents, as we should express
the view, beyond itself a corporate relation which exists
in respect to the race.
Just as the individual union is necessary for the
fulfilment of the idea of woman, so the corporate union
COLLEGIATE LIFE IN THE ENGLISH CHURCH 141
is necessary for the fulfilment of the idea of humanity.
Christ is the true Adam : the Church is the true Eve.
And both these relations, the individual relation and
the corporate relation, are independent of the Fall.
The Fall has disturbed and disordered each, but it
was not the occasion for the first existence of either.
" ||e are tfje &alt of tfje (35artfj : ge are tfje 3Lujf)t
of tfje TOorltJ "
I HE salt, because in Me is the promise of incor-
ruption : the light, because in Me is the fulness of
truth.
For it is not of ourselves we must think, but of that
which is entrusted to us, of that which works through us,
of that which rises serene and clear above our tumults
and our doubts.
We need a spiritual power which shall cherish the
sense of the loftiest ideals while it enters sympathetically
into the wants of the individual ; a spiritual power which
shall labour to express in our language, in our thoughts,
the fact of the Incarnation.
Our whole existence is in danger of being broken into
fragments. There is among us a growing isolation of
studies, which tends to create intellectual misunder-
standing, to harden prejudices, to dehumanise toil.
The result is discordant dogmatism and materialised
standards of well-being.
When we look round we are forced to confess sadly
that there is no body among us whose work it is by
organisation and training to remind the isolated student
of the fragmentariness of his labours ; to quicken and
temper his devotion by the prospect of the whole ; to
142 CHRISTIAN SOCIETYOFFICE AND GROWTH
plead for progress in the name of loyal devotion to the
past ; to unfold doctrines with an undoubting faith that
all experience makes truth clearer, though it cannot
change it ; to welcome every accession to human know-
ledge as a fresh revelation of Him who has made Him-
self known to us in His Son, Son of man and Son of
God.
Here and there solitary voices are raised to bear
witness to these spiritual axioms, and in their loneliness
they are not without power. There are also wide
spiritual influences among us, without which society
would perish ; but they are either repressive or dis-
persive.
The imposing organisation of Romanism is framed so
as to keep down, rather than to bring out, the fulness of
individual and growing life : the strivings of Protestantism
after personal development are made at the cost of the
sense of social unity, and tend to further separation.
We have not, in other words, the organisation of the
spiritual powers which answers to our circumstances, and
ignorance becomes more perilous even than wicked-
ness.
But the experience of earlier ages furnishes us with
instructive precedents. Again and again in past times,
societies of clergy separated from the main body have
formed a centre round which the intellectual forces of
the age have gathered for the hallowing of noble thoughts.
So it was when the society of Benedict saved the
precious remains of Roman civilisation in the isolated
security of their secluded homes. So it was when the
societies of Francis and Dominic bore the Gospel into
the thickest turmoil of common life, and unconsciously
COLLEGIATE LIFE IN THE ENGLISH CHURCH 143
prepared the way for the Reformation. So it was
when, with an imperfect and self-willed devotion, the
society of Loyola strove to bring again the scattered
forces of quickened intelligence to the unity of one
service.
for. a <8ociEt|r of Clergg
1 HERE is still a way open by which a society of
clergy in our own Church may find an office for the
Faith, more comprehensively human than that of the
monks, more simply natural than that of the mendicants,
more loyally truthful than that of the Jesuits. We re-
quire brotherhoods of fellow-workers.
No single scholar can any longer command the sum
of human learning.
The most encyclopaedic student of life must supple-
ment his own experience by the experience of others ;
and while no man can make another's learning or
another's experience his own, still those who meet in
sympathetic intercourse can apprehend the lessons of
the different methods of study and of different social
influences. In this way even a small college of clergy
living for truth, if I .may be allowed the phrase, rather
than for action, will perceive spontaneously the direction
and the conditions of human movement.
Disappointment the JFuel of
1 HERE is danger in the very intensity of zeal ; there
is a restless anxiety for measurable results in our eager
enthusiasm.
We think that our labour is lost if the frosts of winter
bind the field in which our seed lies buried.
144 CHRISTIAN SOCIETY OFFICE AND GROWTH
But we must not accept the surface of things as the
revelations of their essence.
We shall, by trust in Christ, make disappointment the
fuel of hope. For surely our discontent is a witness to
our destiny.
2T!)e Consecration of all
1 F it be true that " labour is prayer," it is no less true
that "prayer is labour." If when the knee is bent in
toil the soul does not rise to the Source of all strength,
that effort perishes with the earth.
The soul acts through the body ; and the body lives
by the soul. On earth there can be no divorce of the
spiritual and the material.
There is a figure in the unparalleled gallery of Saints
which surrounds the chapel of Henry VII. at West-
minster, which serves to express in a parable the truth
which I desire to realise. A bearded man in armour
wears over the armour a chasuble, and over the chasuble
a hood and scapular. With one hand he leads a dragon
bound by his stole, in the other he holds a book.
Warrior, priest, monk, doctor, he keeps evil in subjec-
tion by his spiritual force. The statue is a true emblem
of Allhallows ; and it looks upon the most touching
monument in the Abbey, through which Mary and Eliza-
beth tell us from their common grave that they sleep
together in the hope of the resurrection. The difference
of function is reconciled in the one service. The differ-
ence of opinion is reconciled in the one life. The unity
of consecration meets the unity of glory.
W,z are tfje P?etr0 of t|e $agt
1 RUE nobility is clothed in many dresses ; and he is
blessed in his measure who can recognise the soul
OUR DEBT TO THE PAST 145
touched by a Divine love which still speaks to us through
the past. Our fathers were different from ourselves ;
different and therefore we can learn from them.
We cast away the invigorating obligation of a noble
patrimony. We are contented to stand as if we were
the creation of to-day or yesterday, we who are the
heirs of immeasurable purposes, aspirations, hopes,
treasures, fashioned and brought together through twelve
centuries, and entrusted to our keeping and to our use.
Materially, socially, intellectually, morally, in all
we do and think and feel, we owe a debt to those who
have gone before us which we can only acknowledge and
not pay. In such a case payment must simply be the
use of the blessings which have been given ; and to be
thankless, to be thoughtless, is to lose that which makes
the blessing a living power.
We count up with a jealous minuteness the efforts
which we have ourselves made without any obvious
result, our unlooked-for failures, our disappointments,
our discomfitures, our painful sowings, which have been
followed by no harvest.
But while we do so, we forget to reckon how incalcul-
ably small all these are compared with the accumulated
treasures won by our fathers which are fruitful for our
service.
The wealth which we all enjoy in various ways, rich
and poor alike, is the stored-up labour of earlier genera-
tions. And, further, the possibility of enjoying it, of
drawing from it, on the one side, the opportunity of
thoughtful and cultivated leisure, and on the other the
support of vigorous and efficient industry, was won even
more hardly than the wealth itself.
146 CHRISTIAN SOCIETY OFFICE AND GROWTH
2T!je ipJatrimong of ILanguage
IVlORE precious than the resources of material
prosperity, more precious even than the environment of
liberty and order, is the patrimony of language and art
with which the past has enriched us.
Few among us ever pause to consider what periods
of conflict, what long strivings after truth, what manifold
trials of experience, what concurrences and combinations
of different elements, are epitomised in a language.
Words are monuments of thoughts grappled with and
overcome. They are not the production of any one
man, but rather partial revelations by which " the Word "
interprets the mind of a nation. They place within the
reach of all of us, and so that we can use them, the
results which the greatest intellects have been able to
reach. The use of a noble language, and no language
is nobler than our own, is, if we regard it rightly, a per-
petual lesson. The thought cannot be clear till the word
has symbolised it : the word cannot be current without
stirring speaker and hearer to fix its meaning for them-
selves. We can understand what this implies when we
remember that there are still people who have no words
for "faith" and "hope" and "charity." And if that
seems strange, it is scarcely less strange from another
point of view that for us these three words represent
our connection with Rome and Germany and France.
"Sermons in Stones"
1 T is by their buildings and by their sculpture that the
men of the middle ages hold converse with us now.
They wrote on parchment in a foreign language, but
they wrote also in a universal language on stone, as men
cannot write now.
OUR DEBT TO THE PAST 147
When men build out of the fulness of their hearts,
they put their deepest thoughts into their buildings.
Sometimes they expressed things just and lovely,
sometimes things false and hateful. But with whatever
message, they do still speak to us for encouragement and
for warning. The great churches are the sermons of the
middle ages, and we shall do well to study them.
Wit too are Ancestors
W E take account of the gifts of our unknown bene-
factors wealth, order, language, art ; and at length
perhaps the words come home to us : Other men have
laboured, and ye are entered into their labour. At the
same time the words turn our thoughts forwards as well
as backwards. We too are ancestors ; and we are
constrained to ask what is the inheritance which we are
preparing for future generations? For what will our
descendants bless us ? Will they be able to say when
they look back at the work which we have wrought in
our brief time of toil, at the words which we have coined
or brought into currency, at the spirit which we have
cherished : " They gave us their best, their best in
execution, and their best in thought : they embodied
splendid truths in simple forms and made them
accessible to all : they kept down the hasty and
tumultuous passions which an age of change is too apt
to engender : thus they have made sacrifice easier for
us ; they have made wisdom more prevailing : they have
made holiness more supreme : and for all this, and for
the innumerable pains of which we know not, we bless
their memory." Or will the voice of blessing be silent ?
Will they say as they look on what we have done, "That
crumbling heap, that desolate iron furnace, tells of work
performed only for the moment, which has cumbered
the earth with ruins : those coarse and mean phrases
148 CHRISTIAN SOCIETY OFFICE AND GROWTH
which have corrupted our language, tell of men who had
no reverence and no dignity : that class antagonism
which torments us, tells of the selfishness of our fathers,
who, when there was yet time, failed to bind man to man
as fellow-labourers in the cause of God." For we must
remember, there is a harvest of sorrow and desolation, a
harvest of the whirlwind and the storm, such as has been
once and again sown and reaped in the world's history,
children helplessly gathering the fruits of their parents'
sins. And they have not read the prophets well who
persuade themselves that they can do their work for God
without looking to the future which they are preparing
for the earth.
Efje ^Enfenofon ^etrs of our ftoil
1 F we give less than our best to that which we have to
do, be it a small thing or a great, we are sowing to
corruption. We shall reap, and sadder still, others will
reap of its growth.
Even in the humblest place, even with the feeblest
powers, there is an infinite, an unending capacity for
influence.
The joy of life, the strength of life, is then assured
when we come to see how the Gospel of the Word
Incarnate has blessed the necessary bonds by which we
are united to all the past and all the future, as well as to
all the present : how it consecrates true effort and gives,
what nothing else can give, efficacy to sincere repentance ;
how it enables us to enter on our daily tasks stirred with
gratitude towards those who through many failures
prepared the way for our success, and stirred with love
towards those who shall hereafter add what we have
been unable to accomplish. Other men laboured and ye
are entered into their labour.
THE BENEDICTINE ORDER 149
Let us look back with pious regard to our unknown
benefactors, that we may also in the power of that life
which Christ has made one, look forward with loving joy
to the unknown heirs of our toil.
3Tfje ISenetiicttne
JlLARLIER ascetics have shewn the foundation of indi-
vidual freedom in self -conquest. Benedict shewed the
foundation of social freedom in self-surrender. It may
seem to be a paradox, but all experience teaches us
that perfect obedience to a perfect law coincides with
perfect liberty, and that he is strongest in action who
seeks " not to do his own will, but the will of Him that
sent him."
Thus Benedict literally transferred to life the com-
mand of St. Paul, " Submit yourselves one to another in
the fear of God ;" and on this solid basis he reared a
permanent society in which for the first time equality
and brotherhood were practically realised. It was his
glory, so far as his Rule reached, to abolish slavery, to
devote property to a common use, to combine differences
of character and power for the perfecting of Christian
fellowship.
Within the walls of the monastery the noble and
the bondman were equal. No one was allowed to say
that anything was his own, except his sins. The ties of
family were lost in the larger bond of spiritual kinsman-
ship. " A monk," in the striking language of one of
themselves, " was a kind of Melchizedek, without father,
without mother, without genealogy." Handicraft and
study were enjoined as the complement of religious ex-
ercises, with no rivalry and with no preference. For
him who ruled, and for him who served, there was one
150 CHRISTIAN SOCIETY OFFICE AND GROWTH
absolute law to prefer his brother's good to his own. It
was made plain that all true human action was for God,
and through God. No one might determine his own
occupation or take upon himself without permission self-
chosen obligations and austerities. If any one was called
to an office, however humble, he was directed to fall at
the knees of the brethren and beg their prayers ; and when
the work was done he closed it with the thanksgiving :
" Blessed art Thou, O Lord God, who hast holpen me
and comforted me."
At the same time the most unsparing demands on
devotion are combined with singular tenderness, and
love of souls. It was enjoined that public prayer should
be short in order to secure easily concentrated attention.
Readers were chosen likely to attract by their skill.
Offences were strictly punished ; but room was offered
for repentance even to the third time to a brother who had
been expelled from the society. " There was always," in
Benedict's own words, " something to which the strong
might aspire, and something from which the weak might
not shrink."
Disciplined on these principles, each Benedictine
Society became, as it were, a little garrison, holding a
citadel of peace, in the midst of a turbulent people. It
was independent, and in the main unmolested.
2Tfje BmetJtctme
1 HE monastery included within its walls all that was
requisite for the support of the inmates ; the fish-pond
and the barn, the bakehouse and the brewery; and monks
were privileged to be neutral in the fiercest conflicts.
Sometimes a group of monasteries united themselves
together for mutual encouragement and support, as when,
THE BENEDICTINE ORDER 151
in 1075, "the seven monasteries of Worcester, Evesham,
Chertsey, Bath, Pershore, Winchcomb, and Gloucester
agreed to be as one minster, with one heart and one
soul."
It is no wonder, then, that young boys were dedicated
to a monastic life at the altar of the monastery church.
Henceforward, the monastery was the home of these
new Samuels, who became the nucleus of a monastic
school, and at the same time a spring of perpetual fresh-
ness in the house itself.
Bee
1 HE birthplace of the mediaeval monasticism of
England was Bee ; and I doubt if any single fragment
of antiquity can appeal more touchingly to an English-
man than the solitary tower, built on the verge of the
Renaissance, which now alone witnesses to the glory of the
Norman monastery. Rising high above the battlements,
on the crest of the staircase-turret, stands the figure of
the Lord, as on the pinnacle of the Temple : below,
wrought in the stonework of the wall, are the words, Noli
temptare Deum. It seems like a voice ; a monument of
Divine judgment.
CEfje Continuity of lEnglisfj Institutions
W E are bound to ask, What is this Benedictine life to
us now this effort after systematic service of man and
God, this aspiration after complete self- surrender, this
which was at least for a time a fertile source of learning,
of art, of personal religion, of social feeling? What is
it? I reply, without a moment's hesitation, the very
staple of our inheritance.
There is no end in human things which is not a
beginning also, and it is the peculiar glory of English
152 CHRISTIAN SOCIETY OFFICE AND GROWTH
institutions that they preserve continuity through change.
In this respect the cathedrals of the New Foundation
are the appointed representatives of the ancient
monasteries.
On those who are called to work in them is laid the
charge to study under new conditions the law of re-
sponsibility, work, and worship which was the inspiration
of the Order of Benedict ; and is there not a growing
need of that power of a corporate life which it may yet
quicken and rule ?
e, Cambrtotje
SOCIETIES, like men, have their ancestry, their
treasures of accumulated experience and enthusiasm,
their traditional spirit, their nobility which makes service
an obligation, their ruling thought.
They have, in other words, a life richer and more
complex than that of the individual, but no less real.
This life they who for the time represent them have
to cherish and advance with loyal and enlightened
reverence ; and no one can take his part, however
humble, in the great labour who does not strive to learn
the characteristics of the body to which he is called to
minister, and faithfully subordinate self in the acknow-
ledgment of a common work.
The connexion of the college with Eton may be less
close, or rather, I should say, less exclusive in the time
to come than it has been ; but the significance of that
connexion remains for ever.
It is blazoned on the two shields which for more than
two hundred and fifty years have stood upon our Chapel
screen. These declare simply and impressively what is the
change, what is the unity in education. As time goes on the
KING'S COLLEGE CHAPEL 153
white lily is replaced by the white rose, the purity of simple
innocence by the grace of a maturer growth, but all else
is unaltered.
The symbol of courageous energy and the symbol of
divine service, the symbol, that is, of true kingship taken
from the royal coat, are for the boy and for the man
alike ; and no less for the man and for the boy alike is
the dark background which sadly fills the field of life.
So it is set before us in intelligible figures, in the very
badges of our Foundation, that our whole training from
first to last must be one, if it is perfect, the fulfilment of
one thought, in one spirit, under one supreme influence.
And therefore, as many will have noticed, to complete
this conception, as I must think, the lily and the rose are
placed together on our western door under the glory of
the Sacred Name.
Whatever changes, whatever revolutions may take
place in the society itself, this Chapel will abide to
witness to the Founder's main idea, the consecration of
learning.
It is, and must always be, disproportionate to any
direct use which can be made of it ; but that is because
it embodies a master thought of life. Crowd it with
worshippers from end to end, and they will be felt to be
accessory to the building. More impressive than any
voice of music or of prayer is the grand stateliness of the
temple itself. The silent monumental teaching of the
past is here more eloquent than the numbers of living
men.
We are slow to understand what was instinctively
apprehended as long as architecture was the outcome of
national character. It is no affectation to say that the
thoughts of the middle ages found expression more often
on stone than on parchment.
154 CHRISTIAN SOCIETY OFFICE AND GROWTH
No one can study our great Cathedrals without re-
cognising that they are the spontaneous expression of
noble imaginings.
Their designers wished to give form to feelings by
which they were intensely moved. They were poets
rather than students. They cared for their thoughts and
not for their names.
In this sense King's College Chapel is the last
complete utterance of pure mediaeval art. Already
when the plan was formed "the Book," to apply
memorable words, "was on the point of killing the
Building." Before it was finished architecture had
ceased to live.
It is the last characteristic voice of the middle age
in England. On the verge of a new era, heralded by
ominous shakings of nations and churches, the Founder
willed that over all work and over all study should be
inscribed in a universal language, " To the Glory of
God." This is, he saw, the end of life and this is the
strength of life.
No one can doubt the Founder's meaning. At Cam-
bridge, as at Eton, the Chapel was the centre and the
crown of his design.
Therefore it was that when the great storm came
and unsympathetic fanaticism destroyed elsewhere the
memorials of a faith which it took no pains to under-
stand, the Chapel remained absolutely untouched. Even
the soldiery who were quartered in it were enabled as
I must believe to see that it did bear written upon its
stately form, though in strange characters, " To the
Glory of God."
Successive generations have been enabled to guard
with reverent care what they have held to be a sacred
heritage, to repress the influence of present taste in
dealing with the past.
THE CONFESSION OF OUR FAITH 155
fot an open Confession of our
1 HE ordinary circumstances of life tempt us to dis-
guise our faith. We are surrounded by an atmosphere
of irony.
There is indeed a tender reverence which guards
what it holds dearest from unsympathising eyes. But
even so the power of a great affection will naturally make
itself felt.
Strangers will perceive that he who is possessed by
it is stirred by some secret force unless he labours to
conceal the master spirit of his life.
But with us too often the case is far otherwise.
We repeat the articles of our Creed, and then we
allow it to be supposed that they are inoperative, that
they are a burden rather than an inspiration, a tradition
rather than a revelation of life, a law at the most and not
glad tidings of great joy.
There may be a joy of private possession in other
things, but the value of spiritual truth the value of the
truth to the possessor is increased by diffusion. It
grows by scattering. To hold it back from others is to
cast doubt upon its reality.
Sooner or later we feel the doubts which we
occasion : the disguising, the dissembling, of our highest
principles reacts upon ourselves. We come to accept
the estimate of our motives which our conduct leads
others to form.
A Faith unacknowledged is ready to vanish away.
For this reason we find that Holy Scripture lays
singular stress upon the open confession of our Faith.
Faith indeed, if it is real, must declare itself.
156 CHRISTIAN SOCIETY OFFICE AND GROWTH
The crown of 'life is not reached till the life has re-
vealed its energy.
We know what strength, what resolution, what scatter-
ing of idle doubts, what concentration of aim, come when
we once have avowed our choice. Numberless tempta-
tions are removed by the mere fact that our part is taken.
The obligation of our cause is upon us.
We are tempted in the vigour of our fresh convictions
to isolate ourselves : to confine our sympathies to those
who see the Truth as it appears to us : to measure the
message of the Gospel by our own power of apprehending
it : to surrender the inspiring sense of that Divine life
which embraces, harmonises, transfigures the fragmentari-
ness of human schemes, and the varieties of human
service.
We dare not disparage or neglect the least truth
which we have gained. We dare not affect to hold that
which we have not made our own.
Our narrow vision will, if we allow the soul to dwell
upon it, suggest far more than it defines.
In order to meet the temptation to reserve and the
temptation to narrowness, we need the courage of con-
fession and the inspiration of sympathy.
5Tfj Courage of Confession natural to Houtfj
YOUTH without the love which believes all things,
hopes all things, endures all things ; youth without the
enthusiasm which thinks all things possible and without
the bold frankness which declares its confidence, is a
strange and stunted growth, or rather it is as some heir
who has not learnt the grandeur of his heritage.
COMBINATION IN DIVERSITY 157
Trust, therefore, the widest, noblest, loftiest, thoughts
which the Holy Spirit stirs in your hearts. Trust them,
obey them, embody them now in their fresh fulness, and
they will remain with you as the soul of your soul, a sure
solace and encouragement in later days when the
promise of the Lord's coming seems to linger, and the
cold dark evening closes over a field to men's eyes not
yet won.
Let it be seen that you approach every task, and
study every problem of life, as those who have a Gospel
to announce as wide as the needs of men and as lofty as
their hopes.
It is enough that we should tell what we have known.
It is treason to keep to ourselves the least truth with
which we have been entrusted.
Combination in JDibersitg, tfye Secret of <35nglantTs
$ofoer anto tfje 8Tenout of fjer jjHisston
" COMBINATION in diversity " is, if I read aright,
the lesson of the Bible, the lesson of Church History,
the lesson of human nature.
In many parts, and in many fashions, the divine
revelation has been given to man and preserved for
man's guidance.
Each part, each fashion abides with us for ever : no
one mode of instruction can ever lose its significance :
no one fragment of recorded truth can ever cease to be
fruitful.
From age to age the life of the Church has manifested
in an organic growth the action of the Divine Spirit by
which it is quickened ; and when we look back over its
magnificent course, fretted, checked, sullied as it has
been, we feel that we could not dispense with any one,
158 CHRISTIAN SOCIETY OFFICE AND GROWTH
even the least, of the tributary forces which have been
taken into its fulness.
Man who is but part can only see by parts ; and if
he aspires, as he must do, to approximate completeness
even in his present conception of Truth, the blessing
cannot be gained otherwise than by the co-ordination of
the thoughts of many minds.
The law is true everywhere ; and if we rise to the
loftiest subjects, nothing short of the whole experience
of all men can answer to the fulness of the Gospel.
" Combination in diversity " thus understood is in a
peculiar sense, as I am constrained to think, the truth
which England and the English Church can teach ; it
is the comprehensive and abiding correlative to the
fragmentary systems which by their negative forms are
fitted only to meet temporary or partial wants : it is the
master power capable of overcoming finally the indiffer-
entism which endangers the vigour and vitality of
personal conviction.
All life will leave its significance unexhausted to the
end.
But when we regard the position and the history of
England, which necessarily correspond to one another
in a great degree, I do not suppose that we can mistake
the part which she has to play in the future of the world.
Unexampled national prosperity has hitherto tended
to hide from us the signs of her nobler office as yet
unfulfilled.
It may be that times of trial and disaster will come,
and will be necessary, before the nation can enter upon
her apostleship. It may be that wealth and power will
be made instruments of divine service. But nothing
COMBINA TION IN DIVERSITY 1 59
can deprive us of the endowments by which God has
fitted us, as a people, to be the missionaries of the world,
the common interpreters of the East to the West and of
the West to the East, the depositaries of truth recognised
as manifold.
The physical isolation of England has secured for it a
development of institutions, feelings, thoughts absolutely
unique.
Progress may have been often slow among us, but it
has been essentially spontaneous. Foreign elements
have been successively introduced into the stream of
popular movement, but they have been forced to act in
channels already determined.
When the rest of European Christendom was embraced
in the Holy Roman Empire, England stood outside it,
and yet sympathising with it : when the Reformation
desolated the Continent with civil wars, the change in
England was made by the people and not by a party :
when the French Revolution rudely severed elsewhere
the ties by which the middle age was bound to later
times, England was enabled to reconcile progress with
continuity.
England, in a word, has never broken with the past.
How much is included in this we have perhaps hardly
yet understood ; but it is something to know that the
fulness of our national life includes vital sympathy with
every age ; that for us what has been is yet ; that we
can set aside the uniform schemes of impatient specula-
tors in the strength of varied experience.
And present obligations impose on us the duty of
keeping alive, in the fullest intensity, all that has been
assimilated in the manifold growth of the past.
We are bound, as no other nation can be bound, to
160 CHRISTIAN SOCIETY OFFICE AND GROWTH
the most extreme types of human history and human
feeling.
India on the one side, and America on the other,
claim from us the lessons of Wisdom and Truth, which
can only find expression through sympathetic powers.
Whether we look at what England has been, or at
what England is, the secret of her power and the tenour
of her mission are the same combination in diversity.
But while this is true generally, it is most true of our
English Church. Our inheritance does not begin with
the Reformation. We claim as our own, not only the
Church of Alban, but the Church of Augustine, the
Church of Anselm, the Church of Becket, the Church
of Wykeham.
The one life in which they all shared, may have been
often checked, hidden, disguised, but their life is still
ours, and we abandon a priceless blessing if we abridge
the amplitude of our descent.
We can never want the form of any past time, but
we always want the spirit of the past.
Experience tends to shew that the evils with which
we have to contend will be best met, not by a recurrence
to the examples of the primitive Church, not by a revival
of the divided energies of the sixteenth century, but by
that which the middle age offered in rude and transitional
shapes, by a personal discipline, by a system of religious
co-operation, by an organised spiritual power.
If we retain at least potentially whatever there was of
permanent value in Roman organisation, on the other
COMBINA TION IN DIVERSITY \ 6 1
hand we maintain the pure and simple outlines of
dogmatic faith which the genius of the Greek Church
above all others was providentially fitted to draw, and at
the same time acknowledge the sovereign duty of personal
inquiry and personal conviction which was brought into
prominence by the religious awakening of the Teutonic
spirit.
It would be vain to look elsewhere for any Church
which can shew within it the concurrence of these three
distinct tendencies to abstract truth, to social authority,
to individual freedom, co-ordinated in one life.
If we strive to guard faithfully our whole religious
inheritance from the past ; if we strive to make it fruitful
for the actual service of Christendom, it will be by obey-
ing the principle which the Providence of God- has made
clear to us combination in diversity.
&fje peril of partial Ut'efos
W HEN we pass into the active business of life, it can-
not but be that our thoughts grow narrower.
It is the very condition of successful energy
whether we deplore or rejoice in the law that it should
be so.
Our experience, our powers, our interests are con-
centrated within a smaller circle. And this concentration
brings great perils with it. Little by little we are tempted
to think that perfect which we know to be true : to bend
our efforts towards making others see with our own eyes :
to regard our work as unaccomplished if we cannot per-
suade those who are looking for truth to occupy the
position from which it has been unfolded to ourselves : to
cut ourselves off from the fellowship of those who will not
162 CHRISTIAN SOCIETY OFFICE AND GROWTH
be content to gaze on the prospect in which we delight :
to treat as essential whatever we have found to be salu-
tary : to attribute to that which answers to our own
experience, or, as we think, to the experience of our own
age, or of our own country, a completeness which would
be real only if we were omniscient, or were absolute
epitomes of humanity.
Partial views grow perilous, not when they are held
firmly, but when they are held as if they were uni-
versal.
Since the value of words must change with widened
or contracted thought, no formula expressed in words
can be exhaustive.
Truth Is one because it is infinite, and no authority
therefore can define beforehand the limits within which
inquiry shall be found
. True unity the unity of life and not of form can,
or rather must, spring out of the free and simultaneous
maintenance of different portions of the one Truth as
they are made known to us severally.
Words which at one time sum up earlier experience
become at another time centres, as it were, round which
new and foreign thoughts crystalise.
2Tfje jFtmtJamental Differences of tlje ttoo
1 HE two great ancient Universities are, and have always
been, marked by special characteristics.
The intellectual spirit of Cambridge is grave, sober,
patient, self-questioning. There is amongst us a certain
COMBINA TION IN DIVERSITY 163
reserve, a lingering caution, perhaps an unfitness for
action.
But out of these qualities springs something of an
unbroken sympathy underlying our differences.
If we miss the energy of decision, we are spared the
divisions of party.
At Oxford, if I may for one moment criticise what I
revere, the case seems to be otherwise.
There the tendency to action with the capacity for
action appears to dominate. And as I look from with-
out, I cannot but feel, that a society broken up into
parties is the price paid for the swift conversion of thought
into practice.
At Cambridge, in a word, if I may so presume to
sum up what I mean, the Teutonic element of our
national life prevails, in which thought as thought is
supreme ; at Oxford the Romanic element, in which
thought is regarded as the basis of organisation.
A single illustration may be added. For it cannot
be an accident that Cambridge has been fertile beypnd
all proportion in great poets.
It cannot be an accident that he who among Oxford
men of this generation was endowed with the greatest
poetic genius turned aside from his poetic calling to place
himself at the head of a great party which he was at
last constrained to abandon.
It would not be difficult to point out that the two
last great religious movements in England the Evan-
gelic movement which belongs peculiarly to Cambridge,
and the Tractarian movement which belongs peculiarly
to Oxford reflect these fundamental differences of the
two Universities.
164 CHRISTIAN SOCIETY OFFICE AND GROWTH
Combination in irjersitrj rests on a frank
ment of our fffcrenccs
VvE are so eager for agreement that we are often
ready to sacrifice the very element which it is our part
to contribute to the final harmony.
But it is nothing short of treason to Truth to surrender
as trivial that which we have ourselves been allowed to
see or to feel.
It is exactly this personal revelation, this personal
intuition, to which we must cling most devoutly.
If the man who thinks he can grasp the whole truth
dishonours it, he is not less guilty who is willing to treat
any fragment of it as of little moment.
In Truth there can be no degrees.
In spiritual Truth whatever we know is infinitely
precious, and we are bound at all costs to uphold the
convictions which are borne in upon us.
At the same time, we are not bound by any equal
obligation to force them upon others.
An opinion will always be a resultant of the outward
fact and the individual constitution, if not in expression,
certainly in conception.
Thus the very intensity of assurance with which we
hold some particular view, will be to us a sign that it is
personal, and therefore incomplete.
Completeness in that which is visible would shut out
all higher aspirations.
The complexity of modern life demands the use of
SOME THOUGHTS FROM THE ORDINAL 165
all that has been gradually and separately evolved in
former times.
In our missions we have not relied on the simplicity
of the historic Gospel, but have endeavoured to create in
every people, however different, some exact and feeble
copy of ourselves, transplanting a system where we
should have been content to sow the Word.
In public questions we have hardly ventured to find a
place for distinctively Christian thoughts, though it is
through them alone that a solid basis can be found for
determining the relative duties of nations, the claims of
labour, and the regulations of common life.
We can be content to rejoice in the sense of co-oper-
ation without restlessly seeking to reconcile differences
in service rendered in absolute devotion to a common
Saviour.
Striving together for Christ as the End of all effort,
through Christ as the Mediator of all action, in Christ as
the Centre of all life, we shall come to a fuller sense of
the breadth, the power, the unity of the Gospel.
from tfje rtunal Cfte Call
(CHRIST finds us and calls us through the circum-
stances of our life, which represent for each one of us
the expression of the Divine Will.
Christ finds us and calls us, touching our souls with
desires and encouragements which are not of the earth.
3Tf)* tjue rfcer of the Eealnt
I HERE is a depth of thought in that phrase " the due
order of the realm " which we shall do well to consider.
It brings the whole fabric of society into immediate
166 CHRISTIAN SOCIETY OFFICE AND GROWTH
relation with the will of God. As we ponder the words
we see how it is that He speaks to us through the
institutions, the opportunities, the trials, the gifts, the
discipline of civil life. He speaks to us through these,
and as soon as we feel that it is so, the past becomes a
school for gratitude, and therefore a school of strength.
of a IDtrjine ufoance
JL/ET us summon before us in thanksgiving the many
leadings by which God has been pleased to bring us to
our present choice ; the many silent whisperings by
which He has made us feel His will : the many signs by
which we know that He has found us. Face to face
with Him in the Person of Jesus Christ, let us confess
His constraining call and in absolute faith let us follow
as He guides.
He will call us to the end of our days : call us in the
word read and in the work done : call us in the great
questions of social life : call us in the experience of our
own souls.
QTije Exile
W E require nothing as of necessity to eternal salvation
but what the Scriptures sufficiently contain. We exclude
no variety in the apprehension of infinite Truth which
they hallow.
The Scriptures are set before us as the central object
of our personal study, the treasury of our public teaching,
the final standard of all necessary doctrine.
of tfje Bi&te
J-/ET us look at the vast range of the Bible : let us
realise in the sacred history of the discipline of the world
SOME THOUGHTS FROM THE ORDINAL i6j
the largeness of the mode of God's action : let us ponder
the manifestations of His love, of His patience, of His
long-suffering, sometimes even startling to our eyes : let us
trace, if with aching sight, how He makes man minister
to man, and race to race, and generation to generation :
let us notice how He accepts in compassion varieties of
service according to the state and means of those who
render it : how He turns to a source of blessing what
appears to our eyes simple misery and ruin : and a hope
will rise upon us which we often sorely want : a hope
which will not cover with a dull, colourless cloud of
indifference the religious positions of men, but on the
contrary make us feel, since we have received a priceless
heritage, what is perilled in our energy, what we owe and
what we render to others who are heirs with us of a
common salvation.
ur Cteeti translated into Action in tfje Bible
1 HE Bible teaches us by shewing how God dealt
with men one by one, and how He dealt with nations.
It lifts the veil, so to speak, from His hidden movements;
and at the same time we hear the voice of innumerable
witnesses telling of victories of faith.
In the Bible our Creed is translated into action ; or
rather we see there in the intercourse of God and man,
broken and restored, the Truth which our Creed expresses.
The Book itself forces us to go beyond the Book to a
Person. It constrains us to find the only rest of the soul
in Him Whom it reveals. Tu fecisti nos ad Te, Domine,
et inquietum est cor nostrum donee requiescat in Te.
T&ty Scriptures a fHessage of tfje Sitting otJ to
struggling fHen
W E do not think that we have life in them but in Him
of Whom they witness.
1 68 CHRISTIAN SOCIETY OFFICE AND GROWTH
In each act we catch some vision of the Divine
Worker. In each word we listen for some accent of the
Divine Speaker. As He wrought in old times He works
still : as He spoke in old times He speaks still.
The Bible is not merely the Charter of our Faith
written in a language obsolete and only half- intelligible,
but a message of the Living God to struggling men.
Through this through this illuminated by every ray
of truth which can be gathered from every source He
shews Himself to us.
QTije TOorit
W E work for others ; since our aim in every effort of
self-culture is social and not personal.
The Christian minister has the strongest motive
which a man can have for cultivating, according to his
opportunity, every power which he possesses, because he
has the noblest object.
We are tempted to measure ourselves by others, to
acquiesce in an average standard and an average attain-
ment. We forget that while we are not required to
judge our neighbours, we are required to judge ourselves.
As Messengers we have a gospel to proclaim, always
the same and always new. As Watchmen we have foes
to keep off.
As Stewards we have treasures to increase by wise
forethought, and to dispense with just counsel.
That others may " wax riper and stronger " through
our service, we must wax riper and stronger ourselves.
And far beyond every success which can crown our
labours, is the issue towards which we are bidden to
strive when " no place shall be left among us, either for
error in religion or viciousness in life."
SOME THOUGHTS FROM THE ORDINAL 169
U NDER one aspect our Work is our Witness ; and
under another aspect our Witness is our Work.
What we are seen to be is in many ways the measure
of what we can do. We are, we must be, regarded by
men as tests and types of our teaching. They will
judge our words by our acts.
So far as we appear to acquiesce in falling short of
our precepts they will hold that we speak for form's
sake.
ajjainst occasioning CCcncc
to otfjers
W E can recall occasions in which we have been im-
patient, inconsiderate, self-willed, self- asserting. We
have sharply resented some want of good taste : we have
made light of a scruple or of a difficulty which weighed
heavily on another : we have yielded ungraciously a
service which may have been claimed inopportunely : we
have been exact in requiring conventional deference
to our judgment : we have not checked the keen word,
or the smile which might be interpreted to assert a proud
superiority.
In all this we may have been justifiable according to
common rules of conduct ; but we have given offence.
We have not, that is, shewn when we might have shewn
that Christian sympathy, devotion, fellowship, come
down to little things ; that the generosity of love looks
tenderly, if by any means it may find the soul which has
not revealed itself.
The recognition of duty is the surest protection of
rights. We can, indeed, never for one moment lower
our reverence for that which we hold to be the truth, or
i;o CHRISTIAN SOCIETY OFFICE AND GROWTH
pay respect to that which we hold to be error ; but we
can patiently keep within the present limits of our
actual experience, hastening neither to affirm nor to
condemn, waiting till a fuller knowledge shall enlighten
our darkness.
We shall not, indeed, by such forbearance escape
enmity, and we shall not win over our adversaries. This
(most mysterious of all mysteries of sin) the Lord
Himself did not do on earth. But we shall be seen to
love the Truth : and we shall not offend by seeming to
care only for victory or for favour.
2Hje flJEitness foe plrtige ourselbes to
W E cannot dare to say with the Gospels before us
that a witness however wise and bold, a life however
pure and loving, will prevail at once : but we can say that
it kindles a flame which will not be extinguished.
The witness of the martyr is the witness of the believer.
The witness of Christian life and the witness of Christian
death are one in their scope and in their persuasiveness,
the witness to the powers of an unseen world about us
and in us.
iSUrjerence in Jfaeling anti fatuence in Action
W E are tempted by the current modes of thought to
refuse, in a sense different from that of Christ, to call any
man master.
The temper of the time is equally indisposed to
recognise authority and to incur responsibility.
The infinite details, the infinite disguises, by which
our attention is diverted, make us for the most part in-
capable of taking a fair estimate of the spiritual forces
SOME THOUGHTS FROM THE ORDINAL 171
and of the spiritual issues in the midst of which we
move.
Reverence for the great brings that trustful con-
fidence which leads to calm peace : reverence for the
weak brings that tender considerateness which is pure
joy.
Reverence in feeling corresponds in part with
obedience in action. The foundation of reverence is
the conviction that beneath that which we see there is
something concealed or only half-revealed to which we
are bound to do homage.
Obedience springs out of the same conviction. To
obey is to bow to a power which we acknowledge
as having authority without passing judgment upon its
separate orders.
Obedience implies some sacrifice, some faith.
To do at another's bidding that which falls in with
our pleasure or with our judgment is not to obey.
He who obeys enters by faith on the unseen : he
recognises more than man in the ordinance of society.
We cannot each of us arrange everything, test every-
thing.
The spirit of reverence, and the spirit of obedience,
one spirit in two shapes, is the true spirit of the Christian
ministry.
ftfje iEntr at tfje Christian JHmtetrg
W E promote God's glory not by adding to it, which
is impossible, but by acknowledging it, by displaying it,
by reflecting it.
It may be that multiplied services, forms and the like,
172 CHRISTIAN SOCIETY OFFICE AND GROWTH
really tend to hide God's glory from us, to keep us from
seeking it by occupying and satisfying our thoughts.
It has been finely said that " wicked men bury their
souls in their bodies." Something of the same kind, I
fear, happens also as to things without us. Our want of
sensibility, our deadness, turns creation into the tomb of
God's glory, when it is truly the living shrine through
which His glory is brought near to us.
We are poor judges of what is done even to the
last. Nothing is more eloquent to us in this respect
than the long silence of the Lord's Life.
Looking back upon that long silence followed by a
short ministry of active service, He said : Father . . .
I glorified Thee upon earth, having perfected the work
which Thou hast given me to do. The flight of the
disciples, and the Cross, might have seemed to shew
failure : the unbelief of Israel, and the corruption of the
Church, might have seemed to seal it. But the work
was done : the glory was shewn. Without haste and
without rest Christ won for men, and now brings home
to them, the fulness of divine sonship. That is the
message which we on our part have to bear and to
shew in ourselves, glorifying God.
Man is born for fellowship. He is strong only so
far as he can go out of himself. The experience of
every one shews that isolation of thought and spirit
brings weakness and pain.
Work is dissatisfying when we think of it only in rela-
tion to ourselves. Life itself is a sad mystery if our
own pleasure or gain forms the measure of its worth.
But if the end of life is the reflection of the glory of
God : if the strength of life is a living union with Him,
SOME THOUGHTS FROM THE ORDINAL 173
a life in Him, then our estimate of things is wholly
changed.
What we need is to strive to give a present meaning
to the fact of the Incarnation which is too apt to pass
away into the region of speculation : to ask ourselves
what, indeed, Christ would have us understand now by
His "little ones" and by the "childly mind."
The result of seeking after the true nature and pro-
portion of the ways and aims of life will be to lead us to
forget ourselves that we may find ourselves. Such
forgetfulness is not the loss of our special faculties, but
the consecration of them.
First we bring ourselves " body, soul, and spirit " to
God : we are in Him ; and then the fire of His love
kindles the offering in a new energy : He is in us.
Jr AITH, in as much as it is living, must be in move-
ment. That which is stationary is dead. If we rest in
what we have already gained, our treasure perishes in
our hands. Each new victory which we win must be so
used that it may furnish the vantage-ground for further
conquests.
We are busy and we are inclined to think that all is
well with us.
We are led to discuss and to commend noble truths,
and we take it for granted that they are influencing
ourselves.
We come to forget that intellectual and spiritual
privileges are talents lent to us for use, and not fruits
of our own husbandry on which we can pride ourselves.
174 CHRISTIAN SOCIETY OFFICE AND GROWTH
They increase our obligations : they do not compensate
for our failures.
Do we keep before our minds as a fact that every
endowment of sense and reason and intuition belongs
to the undying fulness of our nature, and that we shall
carry all these with their fruits of use and misuse before
the judgment-seat of God ?
We to whom large opportunities of study are given,
we to whom the office of teachers is given, are bound to
strive to gain the widest prospects of the Truth. We dis-
honour no less than endanger our deposit when we limit
its application to the narrow wants which we can see or
feel.
We cannot, perhaps, determine from our own limited
experience why this is written or that, why we must
believe this or that. The whole experience of humanity
will be required before that can be clear.
But of this we can be sure, that as long as we guard
scrupulously the unproved wealth of the Gospel, we
shall find ourselves prepared for any revolution of
science or history.
It needs but little reflection to find that this is so in
the crisis of our own age.
Cfrrfst anti tfje teadjing of
PHYSICISTS tell us, with an air of triumph, that
man's highest powers are dependent upon his material
frame : that he cannot truly exist apart from it.
Christ told us so long ago, and guarded the truth
from exaggeration, though we may not before have felt
the full significance of His Message, when He raised His
Body from the grave to the right hand of God in token
of His victory over Death.
FROM STRENGTH TO STRENGTH 175
Physicists tell us that the dead rule the living, that
man is bound to man by an inexorable law.
Christ told us so long ago, when He presented the
relation of Himself to His disciples as that of the Vine
and Branches, of which each part is energetic and
fruitful by the ministry of all according to the operation
of one life.
Physicists tell us that we are but fragments of a vast
whole which, though we may seek to isolate ourselves
from it with a vain pride, yet cannot be separated from
our destiny.
Christ told us so long ago, when by the mouth of
His Apostle He spoke of the summing up, the reconcilia-
tion of all things in Himself as the Divine purpose
before the foundation of the world and, as it seems to
me, essentially independently of the Fall.
jjtom Stremjtfj to Strenrjtfj (S^tfj
1 T is not necessary to attempt to fix the exact circum-
stances under which these words were written. The
Psalter in its spiritual fulness belongs to no special time ;
and this Psalm is the hymn of the Divine life in all ages.
It brings before us the grace and the glory of sacrifice,
of service, of progress, where God alone, the Lord of
Hosts, is the source and the strength and the end of
effort. It is true now, and it is true always, that
the voice of faith repeats, as in old time, through loneli-
ness, through labour, through sorrow, its unchanging
strain from strength to strength. A Northumbrian saint,
it is said, carried up into Heaven in a trance, heard the
same thanksgiving rendered by a choir of angels before
the Throne of God. It must be so. The Lord God is
a sun to illuminate, and a shie/d to protect. In the
176 CHRISTIAN SOCIETY OFFICE AND GROWTH
pilgrimage of worship that which is personal becomes
social. The trust of the believer passes into the trust
of the Church. The expectation of one is fulfilled in the
joy of all. If the travellers grow weary on their way, it
is that they may find unexpected refreshment ; if they
faint, it is that they may feel the new power which re-
quickens them. They go from strength to strength ; every
one of them appeareth before God in Zion.
The law of life, personal and universal, as God has
willed, is summed up in this -from strength to strength.
It is not true of men, and it is not true of humanity,
that their sad journey is ever farther from the East. If
they move westward, it is with the light, and again
towards the light. Without dissembling or extenuating
the effects of sin, without forgetting the dark mysteries
and open sorrows which hang over generations, centuries,
continents, we dare to repeat the sentence not, indeed,
in exultation, and yet without doubt, as the lesson of the
past -from strength to strength.
& great .Soctetg ttcetis great
f\. GREAT society cannot exist without great ideas ;
and great ideas perish unless they find worthy utterance.
To organise is not to rule : merely to repeat a formula
is not to instruct. The ruler must grasp the just pro-
portion of the objects and duties of government ; he
must measure the wants and capacities of all his subjects ;
he must develop vital powers and not simply marshal
them ; he must never lose sight of his ideal while he
does the little which is within his reach.
The teacher must be ready to bring out of his
treasure things new as well as old ; he must never be
weary of translating into the current idiom the thoughts
FROM STRENGTH TO STRENGTH 177
which his ancestors have mastered, and never backward
to welcome the fresh voices of later wisdom.
&f)e groining Complexity of Safe unfavourable to
great Eceas
IT is a natural consequence of our restless and busy
life that we are turned by multitudinous details from
the steady contemplation of the broad aspects of things.
It is easier to crowd the day with little duties than to
spend it in the silent study of enigmas which yield no
immediate answer. But the issue is already seen to be
disastrous. We hear it said that "a large part of the
business of the wise is to counteract the efforts of the
good." And meanwhile the growing complexity of life
brings widespread hesitancy and doubt and moral
relaxation. We feel ourselves, if it be but for rare
moments, that there are whole regions of life on which
we have not looked ; and we tremble at the phantoms
with which we unconsciously people them.
ur 3Eniijersitics Discipline tfje Spiritual Counsellor
vJlJR ancient universities supply with singular fulness
the discipline which may train the spiritual counsellor.
Nowhere else, I believe, is a generous sympathy with
every form of thought and study more natural or more
effective ; nowhere else is it equally easy to gauge the
rising tide of opinion and feeling which will prevail after
us ; nowhere else is there in equal measure that loyal
enthusiasm which brings the highest triumphs of faith
within the reach of labour. He who has striven there
towards the ideal of student and teacher will have gained
powers fitted for a larger use. He who has lived in
communion with the greatest minds of all ages will not
be hasty to make his own thoughts the measure of truth.
178 CHRISTIAN SOCIETY OFFICE AND GROWTH
He who has watched the specious transformation of
assertion into fact will not withdraw anything from
rigorous inquiry. Not one acquisition of toilsome
research will be unfruitful in lessons of patient endur-
ance. Not one rule of exact criticism will be unservice-
able in fixing the limits of possible knowledge.
The character of a scholar has in its direct force
infinitely greater power than any product of his skill.
Literary work, however perfect, reflects in some degree
the passing temper of the age ; but character enters into
the very depths of life, quickening, moulding, inspiring :
the one is a fair building, the other is a tree whose seed
is in itself.
&fje Cfjitrdj anfc Social problems
N OTHING but our Faith can deal finally with the pro-
blems of democracy. I know no problem of society
which the Gospel is not able to illuminate. It pro-
claims the true basis of fellowship in the Incarnation ;
it ennobles and concentrates the many offices which are
united in one body ; it reveals the abiding supremacy of
character, which is independent of the accidental cir-
cumstances of life. Nor may we stop here ; for I will
not shrink from adding that the English Church seems
to me to be marked out by its history, by its inheritance,
by its constitution, reaching through all classes, in con-
tact with all religions, in sympathy with all truth, able
in St. Paul's sense to become all things to all men, as
destined by God to give expression to the social Gospel
for which we are waiting. Such a Gospel lies in Chris-
tianity ; such an office appears to be committed to our
Church ; and as yet we have not acknowledged it.
Can we then wonder that we are met by sad doubts
and suspicions, that we are charged with insincerity,
that we are disheartened by the sense of a mission
FROM STRENGTH TO STRENGTH 179
unrecognised ? To gain quietness and confidence we
must look for the manifestation of a power of life which
shall vindicate for Christ every interest and every faculty
of man.
&n lEpfscopal
1 O provide for this, to call it out, to cherish it, is
above all things an Episcopal work. Here lies for our
age that care for the weak which is characteristically com-
mitted to our Bishops. They who bless all for life's work
in the name of God must claim for God as a harmonious
service every energy of personal and social power. A
Bishop is not the father of the clergy only, but of the
Church the head not of an order only, but of a
people. Let us not doubt that when our Bishops have
measured the problems of the age by the spirit of
counsel, they will receive the spirit of prophecy in
answer to the prayer of faith. This spirit comes through
the old channels. Therefore it is that the Bible is
delivered again into the Bishop's hands, but with a new
charge. It is not enough that he should 'preach the
Word of God.' He must 'think upon the things con-
tained in that book ' with resolute meditation. He
must be ' diligent in them, that the increase coming
thereby may be manifest unto all men.' On him rests
the responsibility of mastering the latest meaning of the
written Word, and commending it practically to the
world.
For the Scriptures, like the human character of
Christ, are of no age and of no country. Their last
utterance will not be spoken while the world lasts. To
each generation it is given to see something more of
their wealth. Already, I will venture to say, the facts
which have been established in our time as to the
relations of man to man and of man to nature have
iSo CHRISTIAN SOCIETY OFFICE AND GROWTH
filled with a new meaning mysterious passages of St.
Paul, and revealed fresh depths in the historic message
of the Gospel. It is hard indeed to realise that in these
ways God is speaking to us. For many, as of old, the
Divine voice is but a thunderpeal. We want then the
disciplined guidance of the prophet ; but we can feel that
the whole significance of life will be changed when we
have learnt to listen for tidings of the will of our God
and Saviour from every investigator of His works ;
when the enthusiasm of discovery is no longer met by
the cry, ' No further,' but hallowed by the petition,
Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth. To refuse to
welcome any truths, however fragmentary they may be,
to dissemble them, to force them to the model of our
prepossessions, is to dishonour the Spirit which is sent
in Christ's name. Little by little He is unfolding now
that Name on which all being is a commentary.
Theology, Christian Theology, cannot be stationary.
Every fact which is added to our knowledge of man or
of the world illuminates our knowledge of God. Here,
also, the Psalmist's words are true -from strength to
strength.
loftiest Junctions at tfje lEpfscopate
E must look to our Episcopate for the expression
of the spirit of counsel and of the spirit of prophecy.
It may seem chimerical to seek from those who are
overburdened by routine duties the fulfilment of these
loftiest functions, which can only be fulfilled in spaces
of calm thought. Something, no doubt, must be
sacrificed if the end is to be gained. But if the end
appears to be attainable, every needful sacrifice will be
cheerfully made.
Men are growing weary of the restless activity which
makes reflection impossible where it is most necessary.
Let it but be seen that the whole life is given to the
W
FROM STRENGTH TO STRENGTH 181
office, and they will be content to postpone their own
wants.
<rf flJEorfc necessarg
IN the highest places there must be a choice of work.
Much must be left undone that that which is most
needful may be done. To determine what is most
needful is the supreme responsibility of leadership; and he
will best fulfil the office of spiritual government who has
courage to regard the proportion between the manifold
demands which are made upon his care ; who has
patience to labour in silence for the distant harvest
which he will not reap ; who has sympathy to win and
to use that devotion of others by which great leaders
are strong ; who can follow the movements of science,
of philanthropy, of legislation, from the vantage-ground
of Faith ; who can recognise the Divine call which bids
him offer no conventional service, but that which the
past has given him in practical experience and intellec-
tual wealth.
A life spent in dealing with the young may bias
my own judgment; but I feel that there are untold
victories for Christ within the reach of him to whom it
may be given to keep alive and strengthen the simple
devotion and the high desires of early manhood when
entering on the active business of life.
There is often a rude contrast between our first
ideals and our first practical efforts. In the shock
many let Faith slip, many try to support it by artificial
stays. On all sides we banish to some distant time the
immediate action of God. We treasure as dead relics
the forces which we should recognise as living powers.
Because the fashion of the world changes, we think that
Heaven is farther off now than in the childhood of the
Church.
182 CHRISTIAN SOCIETY OFFICE AND GROWTH
But let our Fathers in God make it clear that every
righteous activity is a Divine service, that every aspira-
tion after truth is, consciously or unconsciously, a look-
ing to Christ, that every Article of the Creed is a motive
and a help to holiness.
Let them proclaim again the words of Apostles and
Evangelists without disparaging the partial formulas
in which men of old time have translated them, and
without accepting any one formula as final and ex-
haustive.
Let them offer as the scene of human labour a world
not left fatherless, echoing with spiritual voices, and
bound together through all its parts with underlying
harmonies of love.
Let them keep steadily before the eyes of men the
weightier matters of the /aw, judgment, mercy, and
faith, which bring into their true place deep and
doubtful questionings, framed of necessity in imperfect
language.
Let them gather round them, as Bede bade Egbert,
such a companionship as may shew by a simple life the
power of that Presence on which they look.
Let them hold forth in all its splendour to eager
souls the ideal of that Kingdom in which each earthly
achievement finds its consummation, and each earthly
effort its hallowing ; and I can well believe that a revolu-
tion will be effected, even in a single generation, more
beneficent than that of the Fourth Century in social
influence ; more disciplined than that of the Thirteenth
in personal self-sacrifice ; more comprehensive than that
of the Sixteenth in the co-ordination of truth.
flJIfjo fe Sufficient for tfjese 2
j\.S the vision rises before us, as we feel that it answers
to the inherent power of our Faith, as we confess that it
CONSTRUCTIVE WORK OF THE MINISTRY 183
lingers far off, dim and fleeting, through our great fault,
we cry again, bowed down with past failures, disheartened
by our present divisions, paralysed by the measures of
our hopes, Who is sufficient for these things ?
There can be but one answer He who wholly forgets
himself in God Who called him.
fltce
1 HE welfare of the Church is, indeed, always perilled
in the ministers of the Church ; and if we dare interpret
by earlier precedents the signs of this immediate crisis,
it rests in a degree with the English clergy of this genera-
tion, under the Divine providence, to determine the part
which Christianity shall play hereafter in the national life
of our empire I had almost said, in the civilisation of
the world. Every circumstance combines to stir us to
something of heroic effort ; and it is well that we should
pause from time to time, teachers alike and taught, to
gain inspiration, so to speak, from the grandeur of our
cause.
The work cannot be fashioned on one traditional type,
but grows with the growth of nations, and corresponds
to the fulness of the life of man.
It does not deal with any fragmentary section of
human interests or feelings, but claims to consecrate
everything which we are and have in due order to an
eternal destiny. It may find a readier acceptance when
sorrow or sickness dulls our sense of present joy and
power and hope ; but in itself it is the ministry of
strength and not of weakness, of life and not of death,
of strength made perfect through weakness, of life rising
out of death.
It is progressive in form; it is comprehensive in range ;
it is universal in application.
[84 CHRISTIAN SOCIETY OFFICE AND GROWTH
of tfje Christian fHim'strg
in jJForm
1 HE work of the Christian ministry is progressive in
form.
What Luther said of the Christian is most true of the
minister. He who is a minister is no minister.
Becoming, not being, movement, not repose, effort,
not acquiescence, is the rule of the ministerial character.
Because truth is one and infinite while men are ever
changing, the expression of truth in order to be adequate
complete it cannot be must vary ceaselessly. And
those to whose care the ministry of Truth is committed
must labour with absolute devotion to fashion their
message according to the exigencies of their hearers.
Experience shews that no adequate expression of
truth can ever lose its spiritual value, when taken in
connection with the circumstances under which it gained
currency ; but if dissevered from them it may, in new
relations, become misleading, or even false.
It results from the constitution of our minds, and the
conditions under which opinion is formed and expressed,
that no infallible teaching can ever relieve us from the
obligation to thought, that no paramount authority can
ever deprive us of the prerogative of judgment.
The very simplest words necessarily change their value
as we or the world grow older.
" Man " and " heaven " and " God " mean something
very different to us now from the acceptation in which
we used them when we were children : something very
different to the Englishmen of our generation from the
CONSTRUCTIVE WORK OF THE MINISTRY 185
thoughts which they stirred in the minds of the Saxon
converts of Augustine.
2H)e 2Eorft of tfje (Kfjristian fHmtstrg compreftenstbe
in its Ixange
\J all men the Christian minister is enabled to cherish
the widest sympathies, the most varied interests, the
most passionate devotion to truth.
He has reached the central idea of all life, and
therefore he welcomes without jealousy everything, from
whatever source, which contributes to the greater com-
pleteness of its realisation.
He rejoices in every discovery which helps him to
feel more distinctly the unity of our complex powers,
the dependence of man on man, the connection of men
with nature, and to see in all, with a faith which reaches
forth to its true goal, one order embodying, as it were,
one thought.
He may not be endowed with original genius, but he
has a power of recognising the due proportion of things
from the constant use of a Divine standard.
He may not be a scholar, but he knows that no
documents, however sacred, are exempted from the general
laws which rule the transmission and interpretation of
written memorials.
He may not be a physicist, but he perceives clearly
what can be determined by observation and experiment,
and adjusts at once without an effort the complementary
revelations of the seen and of the unseen.
And, according to his ability, he turns his convictions
into practice. He accepts it as a sacred duty to strive
to understand the forms and methods of each typical
section of inquiry in which he has no independent
part.
i86 CHRISTIAN SOCIETY OFFICE AND GROWTH
A theologian who studies theology only is like a
man who is master but of one language.
The student of theology who is also, however humbly,
if honestly, a student of history and a student of nature,
will have gained a universe in service to his faith.
He will feel that his royal science is indeed the sum
and crown of all sciences, sharing in the amplitude of
their growth, and harmonising the variety of their issues.
2Tfje Application of tfje fSce of tfje (Wjrfstmn iiHinfetrg
umfoersal
UNDOUBTEDLY the Gospel has a characteristic
message for the poor, the sick, the sorrowful, the out-
cast ; but that message rests upon the essential human
nature which it recognises in them in common with the
wealthy, the vigorous, the powerful.
The Christian minister abandons the hardest portion
of his work if he shrinks from claiming for his Lord, in
virtue of his faith, " the high things of the world." He
is commissioned to conquer as well as to receive : to
bring into subjection the strong who claim to stand by
themselves, as well as the weak who rejoice in the pros-
pect of shelter.
He may fail, but at least he must not derogate from
the extent of his charge.
The facts of the Incarnation and the Resurrection
have a peculiar lesson for every state and every character
and every age.
Our greatest privilege is not to suppress what belongs
to sense, but to see all transformed ; not to regard time
as a tedious parenthesis, but as the veil of eternity, half-
hiding, half-revealing what is for ever : not to divert the
interests of men from that which their hands find to do,
WAITING FOR POWER FROM ON HIGH 187
but to invest every fragment of work with a potential
divinity, and point out its necessary permanence.
QEfjc Discipline of 5ipEctancg
IT is not for us to fix the duration of our proving.
Nothing is more fatal to the cause of truth than the
premature zeal which anticipates the divine hour for
action.
We may be sure, as the apostles were sure, of our
mission, but there are perhaps good reasons why silent
delays should follow our call.
We may think that something already lies within our
power, but, if God so orders, we shall find in the sore
trial of inaction that quiet heavenward watching is the
very condition of lasting success.
Over the whole Bible, over the whole history of the
Church, over the record of each soul's life, the words
are written : Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit,
saith the Lord of Hosts.
Sit still until ye be clothed with pcnver. Again and
again it has seemed that the world has been on the point
of conquering when the time of waiting has been
crowned by spiritual triumph.
It was so when the old Roman Empire in one last
struggle attempted first to crush and then to absorb the
Church.
It was so when about four centuries later the pagan
northmen on the one side, and the Mohammedan armies
on the other, threatened to desolate and unchristianise
all Europe.
It was so again when, after another like period, the
Church itself had become an imperial tyranny, and the
1 88 CHRISTIAN SOCIETY OFFICE AND GROWTH
spiritual aspects of the Gospel seemed to be in danger of
being effaced by its material splendour.
It was so yet again when the treasures of ancient
thought were reopened in the sixteenth century, and in
the boldness of reawakened life nations were eager to
cast off the restraints of religious discipline, and scholars
were not careful to reverence the domains of faith.
But in every case the Lord vindicated the majesty of
His word. The promise of the Father never failed in
its accomplishment, though it was accomplished in unex-
pected ways. After the earthquake and the fire came
the still small voice ; and the disciples of Christ, as they
caught its accents, were clothed with power, and claimed
claimed in triumph for their King the very forces
which had been arrayed against Him.
Christ's tljBJortfs not exfjausteti feg past ^Fulfilments
1 HE words of the Risen Christ suffer no change.
They were not exhausted by past fulfilments. Past
fulfilments, if we regard them rightly, serve mainly to
enlarge our hopes and to confirm our courage. They
shew us where we may advance and not where we may
rest. The promise looks forward as long as one fragment
of Truth remains to be realised. The power is given to
be used as long as one enemy of God remains to be
overcome.
There is a stirring eloquence in the shaking of states
and the restlessness of society which our hearts, if they
heed, cannot mistake. They are, I believe, a prelude to
some new victory of Faith to be won after patient
waiting.
% Social Hdjoltitton to be facrtr
1 F I may venture to forecast what the future will be
with which you will have to deal, I ask you while hope
SPIRITUAL OFFICE OF THE UNIVERSITIES 189
is still fresh and enthusiasm unchilled to gain some con-
ception of the solemnity, the vastness, the unity, the
purpose of life ; to pause in the street or on the river-
bank and ask yourselves what that strange stream of
pleasure and frivolity and sorrow and vice means, and
means to you : to reflect that you are bound by intelli-
gible bonds to every suffering, sinning man and woman :
to learn, while the lesson is comparatively easy, the
secret of human sympathy : to search after some of the
essential relationships of man to man : to interpret a little
of the worth of even trivial labour : to grow sensitive to
the feelings of the poor : to grow considerate to the claims
of the weak.
You will have to face, I believe, the forces of a social
revolution ; and you will face them with a transforming
energy, if you offer yourselves now as expectants of the
promise of Christ.
2Tfje Spiritual (See of the
IT is just fifty years since De Maistre, in reviewing
the future of Europe, said (Du Pape, p. 374, ed. 1860.
The whole passage is worthy of study) that England was
"destined to give the impulse to the religious movement
then in preparation which should be a sacred epoch in
the annals of the world ;" and these fifty years have gone
far to confirm his assertion.
To fulfil it rests now, I believe, in no small degree
with our ancient universities.
These magnificent societies, which are themselves the
monuments of the ancient spiritual power of England,
contain within them the elements of a new spiritual
power fitted to deal with the problems of our own age.
The meaning of the phrase "spiritual power" has
igo CHRISTIAN SOCIETY OFFICE AND GROWTH
been unduly narrowed in these later times. Yet it is
evident that there are two main functions of the spiritual
power. It has a ministerial office and it has an in-
tellectual office. It is charged to perform sacred duties,
and it is charged also to guide opinion.
For a time, during periods of transition or preparation,
both functions may be discharged by the same organ ;
but in this, as in every case, the highest development is
marked by the specialisation of action.
As thoughts widen a regular clergy, so to speak, rises
beside the secular clergy ; and men who devote their
energies to the pious duties of divine ministration are
fain to look to others with ampler leisure and wider
opportunities for the fulfilment of an intellectual work of
which they may receive the fruits.
It has been so in past time ; and yet for the present
we seem to be abandoned to anarchy. As a necessary
consequence energy is misdirected, faith is shaken, and
individualism cramps the highest natures.
Action, even with the leaders of opinion, outruns
thought. Administration is mistaken for government.
Those who might be great teachers are content to be
indifferent practicians. The vivifying and progressive
power of counsel is postponed to the constraining force of
command. Political remedies are proposed as adequate
for spiritual evils. An empirical system is substituted
for a disciplined life.
Now it is not too much to say that the Universities, and
the Universities alone, can remedy these evils. And for
this end no change is needed in their constitution : no re-
volution in their studies : no modification of their essen-
tially religious character. We ask only that they in-
THE SPIRITUAL OFFICE OF UNIVERSITIES 191
terpret to our own age their history, their scope, their
spirit.
3Tfje " Eelati&itg " of all ffjutttan Hefalopment to be
taugfjt
WE ask that they teach the relativity of all human
developments, as opposed to finality, and thus guide
action.
We ask that they teach the catholicity of study, as
opposed to dispersiveness, and thus guide thought.
We ask that they teach the spiritual destination of
every personal effort, and of every fragmentary inquiry,
as opposed to selfish isolation, and thus, not indeed
consecrate being, but reveal to all the fulness of its
divine grandeur.
We ask first that the Universities as a spiritual power
teach the " relativity " of all human development.
The position which ancient languages and literature
have always occupied in them is a pledge that they
recognise what has been called by a profound instinct
" humanity " as the basis of their teaching.
But the exigencies of direct education have a tendency
to narrow the limits of this vast subject ; and we have
suffered, suffered grievously, from the undue contraction
of the rich field of historical labour.
We have lost, or are on the point of losing, that en-
cyclopaedic conception of the life and monuments of
antiquity which is alone sufficient here.
For purposes of elementary discipline it may be, it
must be, well to concentrate attention on the details of
language, and on the highest models of style. Gram-
matical precision and cultivated taste are unquestionably
192 CHRISTIAN SOCIETY OFFICE AND GROWTH
the essential foundation, but these are nothing more
than the foundation of classical learning.
If the University exercises upon these studies her
spiritual prerogative, she will shew that the subtlest deli-
cacies of expression, the noblest masterpieces of litera-
ture, belong to and spring out of a slow national growth,
and pass away in a slow national decay.
reat angers
present we are exposed to two great dangers which
this spiritual interpretation of earlier times may avert.
On the one hand a powerful school of politicians
aims at reconstructing society independently of history.
On the other hand a powerful school of churchmen
aims at regenerating society by reproducing the past.
Both efforts may be disastrous, though in the end
they must be alike futile.
In life there is no fresh beginning. In life there is
no possibility of repetition.
Antiquity should be to us as our own youth, rich in
hope, in vigour, in aspiration, which mature age is
called upon not to contemn or depreciate, not to vainly
regret, or still more vainly rival, but to fulfil with sober
progress and to crown with ripe achievement.
2H)e CatfjoUcitg of Stutig to fce tauc$t
1 HE first work of the University as a spiritual power
is to connect its literary teaching both in form and pur-
pose with the whole progress of humanity. But it has
also to co-ordinate the various departments of science.
For we ask again that the University should openly re-
cognise and teach the catholicity of study.
THE SPIRITUAL OFFICE OF UNIVERSITIES 193
To speak of the imaginary conflicts between
" science " and " religion " may be humiliating, but we
must face the humiliation till we have removed the
misconceptions which have given to them a semblance
of reality.
The character of Cambridge studies seems to me to
make success in this respect comparatively easy here,
which elsewhere might appear difficult or hopeless.
The facts which arrange themselves round the three
final existences which consciousness reveals, self, the
world, and God, spring from different sources, are tested
by different proofs, and in their proper nature can never
interfere, because they move in distinct regions.
The judgment of conscience and the conception of
God are progressive and relative. Both claim to pene-
trate beyond the present order, and just so far as they
serve to realise to us the unseen and the eternal they
must transcend the criteria of sense, and introduce
elements not included in the constitution of our own
minds.
Materialism is an invasion of theology by physics :
pietism is an invasion of physics by theology.
Even if there is no actual trespass, it is as perilous to
study a lower subject without regard to the higher, as to
study a higher subject without regard to the lower.
Thus there is need in any engrossing intellectual
pursuit of a personal discipline, and (so to speak) of a
collective discipline. When once this is recognised,
Theology, the science of revelation, will be seen in the
grandeur of its true office ; and Metaphysics, the science
of introspection, and Science, popularly so called, the
194 CHRISTIAN SOCIETY OFFICE AND GROWTH
science of observation, will be indefinitely elevated
by the introduction of a moral element into abstract
study.
The study of history shews the unity of life : the
study of science shews the unity of thought : the study
of action shews the unity of being : unities broken indeed
by man's sin, but yet potentially restored by Christ.
To bring these out into a clearer and more com-
manding light is the highest work of education.
To inspire men with a sense of their sovereign
grandeur is the spiritual office of the Universities.
&fje 8Emijersttte0 fjafce tfje fHeans rea&s fcefore them
NOWHERE else can there be found the same full
combination of contrasted pursuits controlled and fostered
for one end.
Nowhere else can there be found the same grave
harmony of things old and new which gives life to order
and stability to progress.
Here the widest, calmest, grandest thoughts are most
natural.
The speciality of teaching is relieved by the necessity
of culture.
Education passes into life, for men, who are the hope
of England, are brought under these moving influences at
a time when they are most susceptible of permanent
impressions.
Here only the chosen representatives of a generation
meet as men enriching a society of equals with their
different gifts.
Here only are they bound together by a common
discipline and a common aim before they are scattered
to the divided duties of their lives.
THE SPIRITUAL OFFICE OF UNIVERSITIES i#
Here only are they able to realise on a wide scale
by daily fellowship that deep sympathy in difference
which is the strength of action.
In this aspect the general spirit of the Universities is of
more importance than the special teaching which they
afford.
The spirit is the life : the teaching is only one
embodiment of the life.
Occupations close round us, and we necessarily
exaggerate the magnitude of present cares because we
see them near.
Our personal interests, by the force of their im-
portunity, exclude all larger sympathies if these are not
already matured before the conflict begins. In the press of
the world we lose sight of life, if the life is not within us.
An ideal may seem unattainable, but when it is
distinctly acknowledged as the object of aspiration, it
will be found close at hand.
It seems to me that the total effect of the Universities,
great as it is, is not nt present commensurate with the
sources which they command, because they do not set
forth boldly their highest aim. There is a moral irony
in those who give the tone to them which hides from
many eyes the devotedness of the scholar's life.
Let the Universities only be seen to be what they are,
let those who animate them confess openly their deepest
thoughts, and the end is gained.
Each one who comes within their reach shall find in
them a spiritual power, not " wasting the patrimony of
faith," but enlarging, deepening, elevating the con-
ception of religious life, and will go forth from them to
his appointed place with the conviction that he stands
196 CHRISTIAN SOCIETY OFFICE AND GROWTH
between two ages, inheriting a boundless past, and
fashioning, irrevocably fashioning, a boundless future.
There is very much in life which, externally at least, is
dull and weary and mechanical : there is very much in
life which brings us face to face with mysteries which our
reason and our soul acknowledge to be final.
To feel no rude discords, no inexorable checks, no
passionate and unfulfilled longings, to find, in a word,
peace on earth, is to deny Christ : but to trust to a
harmony as yet imperfect, to trust to failure as "a
triumph's evidence," to trust that God will complete what
we are sure that He has begun, is to know the power of
Christ's Resurrection.
And when the universities have crowned the educa-
tion of their sons with this knowledge, then will England
be prepared to fulfil her mission for which, as it seems,
the world is now waiting.
of coming
W E cannot accept as final alternatives for man abject
superstition or open unbelief, despotism or anarchy.
Our perils are obvious. Materially there is the con-
centration of wealth in fewer and fewer hands, while at
the same time men are treated more and more as equal
units in a sum total.
Intellectually there is the hasty and restless striving
to fashion a system of the universe by the extension of
one method to all things.
Spiritually there is the separation of thought from
action, of philosophy from life, which ends in the sub-
stitution of a sentiment or a doctrine for religion.
In other words, we are threatened by the supremacy
of a false standard which destroys the conception of
THE SPIRITUAL OFFICE OF UNIVERSITIES 197
order : by a false unity which destroys the conception
of creation : by a false worship which destroys the
conception of sin.
But, on the other hand, the thoughts which are
quickened by the contemplation of these dangers, and by
the endeavour to understand the causes out of which
they spring, stir in us those aspirations through which
wisdom comes; and, unless I am mistaken, we are
already gaining livelier, fuller, deeper views of our
Christian Faith than have been hitherto revealed. They
may be vague, but at least they are full of light.
Never before have men been brought so near to the
practical confession of the solidarity of life as they are now
brought : never before have they been so firmly possessed
by the sense of the ultimate cohesion of all that is
unrolled in long succession through the slow experience
of men : never before has it been possible for others to
feel as we can now feel what is included in the
communing of the individual soul with God.
These are truths which the discipline, the studies, the
friendships of our University seem to be fitted to create
and to develop.
5Tfte Intellectual draining of tfje
CHRISTIANITY is the absolute religion, and there-
fore the Christian minister must apprehend clearly the
relation in which Christian theology, as a science, stands
to all other sciences. Christianity is a historical religion,
and therefore he must be conversant with the laws of
investigation into the- past. He needs, above all men,
largeness of view and critical discipline. It follows,
therefore, that his training must be, if I may use the
term, encyclopaedic in spirit and historical in method.
198 CHRISTIAN SOCIETY OFFICE AND GROWTH
The theologian who studies theology only is really
as liable to error, as unnaturally cramped, as imperfectly
equipped for his work, as a philologer would be who
confined himself to the knowledge of a single language.
It is his task to watch for the convergence of all the
streams of truth, to gather every scattered ray of light,
without hurry and without misgiving ; without hurry, for
time is to him only " the shadow which his weakness
shapes "; without misgiving, for he knows, as no one else
can know, that all truth, all light is one.
We shall all feel that this largeness of sympathy, this
comprehensiveness of view, this patience of discrimina-
tion, must be gained before the student devotes himself
to the special study of the master-science of his life.
Theology, true theology, is inspired by such a spirit, but
the pursuit of theology alone will not produce it any
more than the pursuit of physics or of philosophy.
We shall feel also that this spirit is the natural pro-
duct of the Universities. No other intellectual discipline
besides that which they supply can present to men with
equal efficiency the manifoldness of knowledge, and at
the same time shew how all subserves in various ways
to the same end.
The peculiar difficulties which beset faith now seem
to spring from two sources from supposed consequences
of the study of physics, and from supposed consequences
of the study of life. It is argued, on the one hand, to
put the case in the broadest light, that we are placed
under a system of inevitable sequences ; and, on the
other, that the forms of religious belief are functions, so
to speak, of particular stages of progress, individual or
national.
The problems which arrange themselves under these
two heads are unquestionably grave and urgent. They
are problems which Christian students alone, as I believe,
UNIVERSITIES AND TRAINING OF CLERGY 199
can solve, so far as it is given to man as yet to solve
them ; and they are problems which all Christian
students who desire to see far into the depths of the
Gospel ought to face.
Neither in morals nor theology is ignorance the
surest safeguard of lasting purity. Faith (our Christian
faith) can, I am sure, use the conscious or unconscious
services of every labourer for truth. It can claim and
consecrate tribute from every region of the universe. It
can move inviolate through every element and leave a
blessing behind it. Faith is blanched and impoverished
not in light but in darkness. It gains strength in the air
and sunshine. Then it is crippled, dishonoured, im-
perilled, when it is isolated, when its supremacy is
circumscribed, when its fresh springs of knowledge are
stopped up. The true divine must be in sympathy with
every science : the true son of faith is emphatically a son
of light.
I cannot then but believe that it is an inestimable
advantage for students of theology that they should
accomplish the first stages of their work in the closest
intercourse with those who are engaged in other fields
of labour, and guided by other methods of inquiry. By
so doing, and hardly in any other way, will they become
intelligently conversant with the adverse forces which
they have to meet : they will find scattered treasures
which fall under their own domain. There may be some
shipwrecks of faith in this mental commerce : the great
deeps of thought cannot, in our imperfect state, be
traversed without peril ; but, on the whole, faith will
grow stronger, and the interpretation of faith will grow
wider and richer, as the manifold relations of Christianity
with every fragment of life become more clearly seen.
And this wider vision cannot but be best gained in
the Universities, where every form of intellectual activity
ought to be freshest and most energetic.
200 CHRISTIAN SOCIETY OFFICE AND GROWTH
&fje Jfltsston of tfje Schoolmaster
JLJ. E gave gifts unto men, and the gifts which He gave
were men, not primarily forms, or rites, or institutions,
though these have their place, their necessary place,
in a human society, but living men.
From age to age the relative importance of different
forms of work changes as we imperfectly estimate their
worth.
With the schoolmasters, I believe, more than with
the clergy rests the shaping of that generation which
will decide in a large degree what the England of the
future will be, turbulent, divided, self-indulgent, material-
ised, or quickened with a power of spiritual sympathy,
striving towards the realisation of a national ideal, touched
already with that spirit of sacrifice which regards every
gift of fortune and place and character as held for the
common good.
Living contact with the young is a spring of youth.
As you enter into their thoughts you receive some-
thing of their freshness.
The true teacher can never grow old.
He always hears the children's voices and can under-
stand them.
Thus to him the benediction of entrance into heaven
is presented as a perpetual reality.
If, as some have most strangely said, elementary
teaching becomes " narrowing," it is when all human
interest has died out of it, when faith supports no
enthusiasm, and hope sees no visions, and love rejoices
in no sacrifices.
THE MISSION OF THE SCHOOLMASTER 201
Wqi flTeadjer's utg to Curate, not to jJFurnigfj
JLJo not allow measurable, technical results to modify
your own ideal, still less to shape it.
Resolutely maintain that you have to educate, not
to furnish : to call out effort, self-control, observation,
reflection : to prepare your scholars for the great school
of after-life : to fit them to be not faultless fragments in
a perfect machine, but thoughtful, struggling citizens in
a present kingdom of God.
We need to learn as it has not yet been learnt that
it is the prerogative of man to think, and not of any
particular class of men : to learn that right doing involves
in its completeness right reasoning : to learn that elevation
of soul is for all.
Cfje liobtlttg of 3Labout
WE have at least learned in theory the foundation
truth.
We have learnt the nobility of labour. Toil is not,
as it was to Greek ears, synonymous with wretchedness
or vice. But we have still to realise it in its moral
beauty.
There can be, as far as I can see, no stable peace
till it can be openly shewn on a large scale that the
toiler with slender means may be rich in all that
makes life worth living, filled with the joy of devotion
to the good and the true and the beautiful and the
holy.
2Tfje 2Teacfjer ftjfawclf a Spiritual @ift
1 N the deepest and truest sense, in respect of all that
gives a living power to education, the teacher's work is
202 CHRISTIAN SOCIETY OFFICE AND GROWTH
concentrated in himself. He is the spiritual gift.
What he is his work will be. More powerful than any
subject or any words is that force of conviction by
which the true teacher insensibly conveys .his own
estimate of the worth of things. As we listen to him we
feel that we are in contact with that which is real ; and
his faith stirs ours.
Christian @Tead)mrf tfjrotujfj tfje (Classic
1 "T was through the Greek historian or the Latin poet
that I was taught most impressively what our Christian
Faith means : taught that there is a divine counsel
being wrought out about us in daily duties : taught that
words and deeds are true if partial revelations of an
abiding character : taught that the least difference of
form or expression has a meaning which we can often
interpret and may never disregard : taught that there is
a truth in the world to which we owe the service of
complete devotion : taught that there are effects, corre-
spondences, of human action reaching beyond all
thought : taught that we can find rest only in God, for
whom we were made.
Cfje fKinfstrg of tfje 3Laftg
.C/VEN under the old dispensation the greatest
prophets were laymen David, Isaiah, Daniel were
laymen and yet we have unlearnt, or failed to
learn, in this later age, the law which imposes upon
him who has found the truth the obligation of pro-
claiming it.
Let any one read the epistles of the New Testament
as records of a real life, and he will find that the powers,
the responsibilities, the victories of spiritual gifts, are
THE MINISTRY OF THE LAITY 203
not for a small section of the Church, but for all,
to be used by each according to the circumstances
of his position.
5Hje Jfog of Ceadjimj anti its
1 NEED not speak to you of the joy of teaching and its
exceeding great reward ; how our own thoughts grow
clearer, fuller, wider, as we see them taken up, reflected,
extended by our scholars ; how difficulties frankly met
become sources of fresh conviction ; how sympathy
opens the springs of unexpected enthusiasm ; how a
power of life enters into doctrines which are dead
theories as long as we keep them to ourselves ; how
each point that is illuminated becomes a new luminary,
for everything that is made manifest is light.
2Tfje Spirit of
1 NEED not speak to you of the spirit of teaching ; of
that patience which, as was said of one of the noblest
of modern Frenchmen, is " tender to dulness as to
every form of poverty " ; of that reality which refuses to
advance by hearsay beyond the limits of personal con-
viction and experience ; of that reverence which shields
the purity of early faith from questionings born of
human wilfulness ; of that golden law which provides
that we can only teach that which we know, and as we
enter into the soul of our pupil
2H)e (JEntJ of
I NEED not speak to you of the end of teaching; how
we aim finally not at producing wide knowledge or
great thoughts, but noble lives ; how for us all nature
and all history is a revelation of the being and will of
204 CHRISTIAN SOCIETY OFFICE AND GROWTH
God offered, not for contemplation only, but for
guidance in deed; how we remember that of the
manifold stores which we accumulate by diligent study
the character alone survives all earthly change, the
character which is the last sum of the moral forces by
which our labours have been ruled ; how in this sense
all teaching must be religious or irreligious, helping to
fashion new links of sympathy between the seen and
the unseen, or imprisoning our life in sense, making,
as has been finely said, " our bodies the tombs of our
souls."
of a
IT
Jrl E that is near Me," the Lord is reported to have
said, "is near fire." And we cannot hope to endure
the splendour of a fuller, purer light without enduring
the pain which necessarily comes from the removal of
the veils by which it is obscured.
Gain through apparent loss ; victory through momen-
tary defeat ; the energy of a new life through the pangs
of travail; such has ever been the law of spiritual
progress.
This law has been fulfilled in every crisis of reforma-
tion ; and it is illustrated for our learning in every page
of the New Testament.
In no apostolic writing is the truth unfolded with
such pathetic force as in the Epistle to the Hebrews.
And so it is, I think, that that mysterious "word of
consolation " appeals to us with a voice of thrilling
power in our time of trial, when the law of progress,
the law of fruitfulness through death, seems to be
hastening to fresh fulfilment.
THE TRIALS OF A NEW AGE 205
Men who had lived in the light of the Old Testa-
ment, who had known the joy of a noble ritual, men
who had habitually drawn near to God in intelligible
ways, men who had but lately welcomed Him in Whom
they believed that the glory of Israel should be con-
summated, were most unexpectedly required to face
what seemed to them to be the forfeiture of all that
they held dearest.
The letter of Scripture, the worship of the temple,
the expectations of national triumph, had to be
abandoned.
They could not but begin to reckon up their loss and
gain. The fresh enthusiasm of their early faith had
died away in the weary waiting of a lifetime.
They had in part degenerated because they had not
grown.
3Efje STrinls of earlg Bclterjtrg an Umarje of our fan
IN OW when we read the apostolic words, and picture
to ourselves the sorrows which they illuminated when
we feel that in the portraiture of the perils of early
believers we have the record of true struggles, and
know that the essential elements of human discipline
must always be the same we cannot, I think, fail to
recognise in the trials of the Hebrews of the first age an
image of the peculiar trials by which we are beset ; and
so by their experience we may gain the assurance that
for us also there is the promise of larger wisdom where
they found it in wider views of Christ's Person
and Work, that the removal of those things that are
shaken is brought about in order that those things
which are not shaken may remain in serener and
simpler beauty.
If we look at the circumstances of the Hebrews a
206 CHRISTIAN SOCIETY OFFICE AND GROWTH
little more closely we shall notice that the severity of
their trials came in a great degree from mistaken de-
voutness.
They had determined, in obedience to traditional
opinion, what Scripture should mean, and they found it
hard to enter into its wider teaching.
They had determined that institutions which were
of Divine appointment must be permanent, and they
found it hard to grasp the realities by which the forms
of the older worship were replaced.
Now in these respects we cannot fail to recognise
that the difficulties of the Hebrews correspond with our
own. For I am speaking now of the difficulties of
those who hold to their first faith, and are yet conscious
of shakings, changes, losses, of the removing of much
which they formerly identified with it.
Many among us, for example, tremble with a vague
fear when they find that that " Divine Library," in
the noble language of Jerome, which we call the Bible
"the Books" "the Book" cannot be summarily
separated by a sharp unquestionable line from the other
literature with which it is connected ; that the text and
the interpretation of the constituent parts have not been
kept free from the corruptions and ambiguities which
require the closest exercise of critical skill; that deductions
have been habitually drawn from incidental modes of
expression in Scripture which cannot be maintained in
the light of that fuller knowledge of God's working which
He has given us.
Others again find the historical problems raised by
the study of the Bible carried into a wider region.
THE TRIALS OF A NEW AGE 207
They learn in the turmoil of action and they learn in
the silence of their own souls that the Faith can no
longer be isolated and fenced off from rude questionings
as something separate from common life. They per-
ceive that they must bear, as they can, to acknowledge
once and again that formulas which, in earlier times,
seemed to declare the Gospel adequately, no longer
cover the facts of the world as they have been revealed
to us in these later days.
And others have a more grievous trial still. As their
view of the world is widened; as they come to under-
stand better the capacities of humanity and the claims
of Christ ; as they are driven to compare the promises
of the kingdom of God with the present fruits of its
sway ; as they feel that they cannot separate themselves
from the race of which they are heirs ; as they look upon
the light, still after eighteen centuries struggling (as it
appears) against eclipse, their hearts may well sink
within them. We cannot wonder if such are tempted
to ask with those of old times, Where is the promise
of His coming? or to listen with little more than
the sad protest of a lonely trust to the bold asser-
tions of those who say that the Faith has exhausted its
power in dealing with the facts of an earlier and simpler
civilisation.
And what then shall we say ? How shall we escape
the double danger which besets us of hastily surrender-
ing every position which is boldly challenged, or of
rigidly refusing to consider arguments which tend to
modify traditional opinion ?
I do not doubt for one moment as to my answer. I
bid those who are tempted to accept their trials with the
208 CHRISTIAN SOCIETY OFFICE AND GROWTH
frankest trust as the conditions through which they will
be brought to know God better.
lEadj icUpjt'on of anxious 2Trial fruitful in Blessinnj
I HAVE been forced, by the peculiar circumstances
of my work, to regard from many sides the difficulties
which beset our historic Faith. If I know by ex-
perience their significance and their gravity ; if I readily
allow that on many points I wish for fuller light ;
then I claim to be heard when I say without reserve
that I have found each region of anxious trial
fruitful in blessing : that I have found my devout
reverence for every word of the Bible quickened
and deepened when I have acknowledged that it
demands the exercise of every faculty with which I
have been endowed, and that it touches the life of
man at every point, it welcomes, from its fuller under-
standing, the help which comes from every gain of
human knowledge.
&fje Consolation of tlje Hebrefo Christians ours also
1 F our trials, the trials of a new age, correspond with
those of the Hebrews, the consolation which availed for
them avails for us also.
We shall find in due course, as they found, that all
we are required to surrender childlike prepossessions,
venerable types of opinion, partial and impatient hopes
is given back to us in a new revelation of Christ ; that
He is being brought nearer to us, and shewn in fresh
glory, through the " fallings from us, vanishing of sense
and earthly things," which we had been inclined to
identify with Himself.
THE TRIALS OF A NEW AGE 209
CoitBolator nntf Cfjristus Consummator
1 HERE is a picture with which we are all familiar,
in which Christ seated in glory is represented as dis-
pensing His gifts to the representatives of suffering
humanity.
From His hands the slave receives freedom and the
sick health : the mourner finds rest in His sympathy,
old men peace, children joy. " Christus Consolator " is
indeed an image which touches every heart.
But it is not the whole Gospel ; it is not, I venture
to think, the particular aspect of the Gospel which is
offered by the Spirit of God to us now for our acknow-
ledgment.
Sin, suffering, sorrow, are not the ultimate facts of
life. These are the work of an enemy ; and the work
of our God and Saviour lies deeper.
The Creation stands behind the Fall, the counsel of
the Father's love behind the self-assertion of man's wilful-
ness. And I believe that if we are to do our work we
must learn to think, not only of the redemption of man,
but also of the accomplishment of the Divine purpose for
all that God made. We must learn to think of that
summing up of all things in Christ, in the phrase of St.
Paul, which crowns the last aspirations of physicist and
historian with a final benediction.
We must dare, in other words, to look beyond Christ
the Consoler to Christ the Fulfiller. Christus Consolator
let us thank God for the revelation which leaves no
trial of man unnoticed and unsoothed leads us to
Christus Consummator.
still tfje lEssntce of Jnt'tfj
J/ET us remember that progress is still, as in the first
age, the essence of our faith. We have to gather little
210 CHRISTIAN SOCIETY OFFICE AND GROWTH
by little the fruits of a victory in which Christ has over-
come the world. The Hebrews were in danger of
apostasy because they failed to go forward. And that
we may be shielded from the like peril, the words which
were spoken to them are spoken also to us : let us be
borne on to perfection ; not simply " let us go on," or even
" let us press on," as if the advance depended on the
vigour of our own effort, but " let us be borne on "
" borne on " with that mighty influence which waits only
for the acceptance of faith, that it may exert its sovereign
sway, " borne on " by Him who is the Way and the End
of all human endeavour.
And as we are thus " borne on," as we yield ourselves,
yield every gift of mind and body, of place and circum-
stance, yield all that we cherish most tenderly, to the
service of Him in Whom we are made more than con-
querors, let us not fear that we shall lose the sense of
the vastness of the Divine life in our glad consciousness of
its immediate power.
We assuredly shall not fail in reverent gratitude to
our fathers for the inheritance which they have bequeathed
to us while we acknowledge that it is our duty to im-
prove it.
We shall not disparage the past, while we accept the
inspiring responsibility of using to the uttermost the
opportunities of the present.
We shall cling with the simplest devotion to every
article of our ancient Creed, while we believe, and act
as believing, that this is eternal life, that we may know,
know, as the original word implies, with a knowledge
which is extended from generation to generation, and
from day to day, the only true God and Jesus Christ.
DESTINY FULFILLED THROUGH SUFFERING 211
ur Difficulties imlrtJ Promises of coming JEJEisfcom
-DY the pursuit of this knowledge we come to recognise
that the difficulties which press us most sorely are really
the discipline through which God is teaching us : veiled
promises of coming wisdom.
We learn through the living lessons of our own experi-
ence that the eternal Gospel covers the facts of life, its
sorrows, its needs, its joys, its wealth.
Through every conflict the Truth is seen in the
majesty of its growing vigour. Shakings, shakings not
of the earth only but of the heaven, will come; but
what then ? We know this, that all that falls is taken
away, that those things which are not shaken may remain.
of the Sorrofos of 3Life
1 I ME has not softened the sharpness of the impression
which is made upon thoughtful spectators by the sight
of the sorrows of life. If the contrast between man
made a little lower than angels nay, literally a little less
than God and man as man has made him, was startling
at the time when the Apostle wrote, it has not grown less
impressive since.
Larger knowledge of man's capacities and of his
growth, of his endowments and of his conquests, has
only given intensity to the colours in which poets and
moralists have portrayed the conflict in his nature and
in his life.
Whether we look within or without, we cannot refuse
to acknowledge both the element of nobility in man
which bears witness to his Divine origin, and also the
element of selfishness which betrays his falls.
212 CHRISTIAN SOCIETY OFFICE AND GROWTH
Every philosophy of humanity which leaves out of
account the one or the other is shattered by experience.
The loftiest enthusiasm leaves a place in its recon-
struction of society where superstition may attach itself.
Out of the darkest depths of crime not seldom flashes
a light of self-sacrifice, like the prayer of the rich man
for his brethren when he was in torments, which shews
that all is not lost.
We cannot accept the theory of those who see around
them nothing but the signs of unlimited progress towards
perfection, or the theory of those who write a sentence
of despair over the chequered scenes of life.
We look, as the Psalmist looked, at the sun and the
stars, with a sense which he could not have of the awful
mysteries of the depths of night, but we refuse to accept
space as a measure of being.
We trace back till thought fails the long line of ages
through which the earth was prepared to be our dwelling-
place, but we refuse to accept time as a measure of the
soul.
We recognise without reserve the influence upon us
of our ancestry and our environment, but we refuse to
distrust the immediate consciousness of our personal
responsibility.
We do not hide from ourselves any of the evils which
darken the face of the world, but we do not dissemble
our kindred with the worst and lowest, whose life enters
into our lives at a thousand points.
We acknowledge that the whole creation groaneth
and travaileth in pain together until now, but we believe
also that these travail -pains prepare the joy of a new
birth.
We make no effort to cast off the riddles or the
burdens of our earthly state, but we cling all the while
to the highest thoughts which we have known as the
signs of God's purpose for us and for our fellowmen.
DESTINY FULFILLED THROUGH SUFFERING 213
(Efte .Sufferings of Cfjrist as a (Consummation of
f^umanttg
1 HE currents of theological speculation have led us to
consider the sufferings of Christ in relation to God as a
propitiation for sin, rather than in relation to man as a
discipline, a consummation of humanity.
The words in which Isaiah spoke of the Servant of
the Lord as "taking our infirmities and bearing our
sicknesses," were indeed fulfilled when the Son of man
healed the sick who came to Him, healed them not by
dispensing from His opulence a blessing which cost Him
nothing, but by making His own the ill which He re-
moved.
2H)e true Secret of ff^appiness
IvESPONSIVE love transfigures that which it bears.
Pain loses its sting when it is mastered by a stronger
passion. The true secret of happiness is not to escape
toil and affliction, but to meet them with the faith that
through them the destiny of man is fulfilled.
8Ef)e Spirit of Eifrine Discontent
JN O thoughtful person can seriously regard the circum-
stances of his life without feeling the need of forgiveness
and the need of strengthening. He looks back upon
the past and he sees not only failures, but unnecessary
failures. He looks forward to the future, and he sees
that while the difficulties of duty do not grow less with
added years, the freshness of enthusiasm fades away,
and the temptation to accept a lower standard of action
grows more powerful. Perhaps in the words of Hood's
most touching lyric, he thinks "he's farther off from
heaven Than when he was a boy." At any rate, he does
2i 4 CHRISTIAN SOCIETY OFFICE AND GROWTH
feel that in himself he has not reached and cannot reach
that for which he was born, that which the spirit of
divine discontent within him, a discontent made keener
by temporal success, still marks as his one goal of
peace. For when Augustine said, Tu nos feristi ad te,
Doinine, et inquictum est cor nostrum donee requiescat in tc,
he proclaimed a fact to which every soul bears witness
in the silence of its self-communings.
We know that we were made for God ; we know that
we have been separated from God ; we know that we
cannot acquiesce in the desolation of that divorce.
. 8Tf) Institution of tfye
1 HE institution of the priesthood has been misused,
degraded, overlaid with terrible superstitions, but in its
essence it corresponds with the necessities of our nature.
Therefore it has been interpreted and fulfilled in the
Bible.
We can yet learn much from the figures of the
Levitical system in which the priesthood of this world
was fashioned by the Spirit of God in a form of marvel-
lous significance and beauty. The law of the priestly
service in the Old Testament is indeed a vivid parable
of the needs, the aim, the benediction of human life.
Cfje i&mj-pricst
1 HE kingly and priestly offices cannot be kept apart.
He who makes atonement must direct action. He who
demands the complete service of every power must hallow
the powers of which He claims the ministry. The ruler
who consecrates, the priest who rules, must be merciful
and faithful ; He must have absolute authority and per-
fect sympathy ; authority that He may represent God to
THE KING -PRIEST 215
man, sympathy that He may represent man to God.
And such is Christ made known to us, King and Priest,
Priest after the order of Melchisedek^ in whose mysterious
person the old world on the edge of a new dispensation
met and blessed the father of the faithful.
The apostolic words are true for us, true while there
is one sin to vex the overburdened conscience, one
struggle to strain the feeble will, such a High Priest be-
If human priests compassed with infirmity could in-
spire confidence in the worshipper, then Christ, if we
will lift our eyes to Him, a thousandfold more. Their
compassion was necessarily limited by their experience,
but His experience covers the whole field of life ; their
gentle bearing was tempered by the consciousness of
failure, but His breathes the invigorating spirit of per-
fect holiness. They knew the power of temptation in
part by the sad lessons of failure ; He knew it to the
uttermost by perfect victory. They could see dimly
through earth-born mists something of the real hideous-
ness of evil ; He saw it in the undimmed light of the
Divine purity. And He is tenderest, not who has
sinned, as is sometimes vainly thought, but who has
known best the power of sin by overcoming it. His love
is most watchful who has seen what wrong is in the eyes
of God.
Can we not then boldly proclaim that here also the
Gospel covers the facts of life ? that in the prospect of
the conflicts and defeats which sadden us, and which
we dare not disguise or extenuate, such a High Priest
became MS, strong with the strength of God, compassion-
ate with the affection of a friend ?
We must cling to both these truths, and wrestle with
them and win their blessing from them.
216 CHRISTIAN SOCIETY OFFICE AND GROWTH
" <35artfj'0 CfjtlUren cltmf to
" KARTH'S children cling to earth," and there are
many among us who feel keenly the very trials which the
Hebrews felt ; who long for some visible system which
shall "bring all heaven before their eyes," for some
path to the divine presence along which they can walk
by sight, for recurrent words of personal absolution from
some human minister, for that which shall localise their
centre of worship ; who labour, often unconsciously, to
make the earthly the measure of the spiritual ; who
shrink from the ennobling responsibility of striving with
untiring effort to hold communion with the unseen and
eternal ; who turn back with regretful looks to the
discipline and the helps of a childly age, when they are
required to accept the graver duties of maturity ; required
to listen, as it were, like Elijah on the lonely mountain,
when the thunder of the earthquake is stilled and the
violence of the fire is spent, for the still small voice.
These are not, I know, imaginary temptations ; but
if we are tried and disquieted by their assaults, the writer
of the Epistle enables us to face them. He brings Christ
near to us, and he brings us near to Christ. He dis-
closes the privileges to which we are all admitted by the
ascended Saviour. He gives an abiding application to
the Lord's words, He that hath seen Me hath seen the
Father. And He does this without hiding one dark trait
in the prospect of life.
&fje Spectacle of tu'bfoetr auto titml (ljurcfje0
1 HE spectacle of divided and rival Churches is as
sad and far vaster than the spectacle of unbelieving
Israel. It is hard for us to bear the prospect of
Christendom rent into hostile fragments as it was hard
for the Hebrews to bear the anathema of their country-
THE UNIVERSAL SOCIETY 217
men. It is hard to look for peace, and to find a sword ;
to look for the concentration of every force of those who
bear Christ's name in a common assault upon evil, and
to find energies of thought and feeling and action
weakened and wasted in misunderstandings, jealousies,
and schisms ; to look for the beauty of a visible unity of
the faithful which shall strike even those who are without
with reverent awe, and to find our divisions a common-
place with mocking adversaries. It is hard ; and if what
we see were all, the trial would be intolerable.
But what we see is not all : what we see is not even
the dim image of that which is. The life which we feel,
the life which we share, is more than the earthly materials
by which it is at present sustained, more than the earthly
vestures through which it is at present manifested.
That is not most real which can be touched and
measured, but that which struggles, as it were, to find
imperfect expression through the veil of sense : that
which to the All -seeing Eye gilds with the light of
self-devotion acts that to us appear self-willed and
miscalculated ; that which to the All-hearing Ear joins in
a full harmony words that to us sound fretful and
impatient ; that which fills our poor dull hearts with a
love and sympathy towards all the creatures of God,
deeper than just hatred of sin, deeper than right con-
demnation of error, deeper than the circumstances of
birth and place and temperament which kindle the
friendships and sharpen the animosities of human
intercourse.
If the outward were the measure of the Church of
Christ, we might well despair. But side by side with us,
when we fondly think, like Elijah, that we stand alone,
are countless multitudes whom we know not, angels
whom we have no power to discern, children of God
whom we have not learnt to recognise.
2i8 CHRISTIAN SOCIETY OFFICE AND GROWTH
toe ntag facome one
W E shall become one, not by narrowing and defining
the Faith which is committed to us, but by rising,
through the help of the Spirit, to a worthier sense of its
immeasurable grandeur.
tfje first Cfjrtsttans conquered tfye
1 HE character of a generation is moulded by personal
character. And if we have considered some of the
temptations of the first Christians ; if we know a little of
the terrible environment of evil by which they were
encircled ; we must not, as we too often do, forget how
they conquered the world.
It was not by any despairing withdrawal from city
and market ; not by any proud isolation in selfish
security ; not by any impatient violence ; but by the
winning influence of gracious faith, they mastered the
family, the school, the empire. They were a living
Gospel, a message of God's good-will to those with
whom they toiled and suffered.
Pure among the self-indulgent, loving among the
factious, tender among the ruthless, meek among the vain-
glorious, firm in faith amidst the shaking of nations,
joyous in hope amidst the sorrows of a corrupt society,
they revealed to men their true destiny, and shewed that
it could be attained.
They appealed boldly to the awakened conscience as
the advocate of their claims. They taught as believing
that He who had stirred their heart with a great desire
would assuredly satisfy it.
They offered not in word but in deed the ideal of
spiritual devotion, and " the soul naturally Christian "
turned to it, as the flower turns to the light, drew from
THE UNIVERSAL SOCIETY 219
it, as the flower draws from the light, the richness of
perfect beauty.
Yes ; that was the secret of their success ; and it is
the secret of our success. The words are true now as
they were when addressed by Zechariah to the poor
remnant of Jews struggling to rebuild their outward
temple : Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit,
saith the Lord of Hosts. Not first by material change,
not by intellectual culture, but by spiritual sympathy
will our work be done.
PART III
30pect!& of life
A POET'S VIEW OF LIFE
1 N my undergraduate days, if I remember rightly, I
came across the description of a poet which speaks of
him as one "who sees the infinite in things." The
thought has been to me from that time forward a great
help in studying the noblest poetry.
The true poet does, I believe, of necessity, see the
infinite in his subject ; and he so presents his vision to
his readers that they too, if their eyes are open, are
enabled in some degree to share in its lessons.
The same gift belongs in a certain degree to the
artist. But the range of the poet is unlimited ; while
the artist's choice of subject is conditioned by the
requirement that its treatment shall come within the
domain of the beautiful.
The ground of this difference obviously lies in the
different means which the poet and the artist use to
express what they see with the eyes of the soul. The
mode in which words and the melody of words (not now
to speak of music) affect us is different in kind from the
action of form and colour.
All life, all nature, is therefore the legitimate field of
224 ASPECTS OF LIFE
the poet, as prophet. There is an infinite, an eternal
meaning in all, and it is his office to make this intelligible
to his students.
No modern poet has more boldly claimed the fulness
of his heritage of life than Browning. He has dared to
look on the darkest and meanest forms of action and
passion, from which we commonly and rightly turn our
eyes, and he has brought back for us from this universal
survey a conviction of hope.
He has laid bare what there is in man of sordid,
selfish, impure, corrupt, brutish, and he proclaims, in
spite of every disappointment and every wound, that he
still finds a spiritual power in him, answering to a
spiritual power without him, which restores assurance as
to the destiny of creation.
As has been well pointed out, Browning occupies a
position complementary to Wordsworth.
He looks for the revelation of the Divine as coming
through the spiritual struggles of man and not through
Nature.
Both poets, however, agree in this, that they assert
the sovereignty of feeling over knowledge, of that within
us which they hold to have affinity with the heavenly and
eternal, over that which must be earthly and temporal.
The key-note of Browning's teaching, in a word, is
not knowledge, but love.
This learning of love, this acquisition of the power of
self-sacrifice, involves a long and painful discipline :
Life is probation, and this earth no goal,
But starting-point of man. . . .
To try man's foot, if it will creep or climb,
''Mid obstacles in seeming, points that prove
Advantage for "who vaults from low to high,
And makes the stumbling-block a stepping-stone.
A POETS VIEW OF LIFEBROWNING 225
Why comes temptation but for man to meet
And master, and make crouch beneath his foot,
And so be pedestallcd in triumph.
The poet teaches that life must be treated as a
whole ; that learning comes through suffering ; that
every failure felt to be failure points to final achieve-
ment ; that the visible present is but one scene in an
illimitable growth.
Our present life is to be taken in its entirety. The
discipline of man is to be fulfilled, the progress of man
is to be secured, under the conditions of our complex
earthly being.
These lets and limitations are not to be disparaged
or overborne, but accepted and used in due order.
No attempt must be made either to retain that which
has been, or to anticipate that which will be.
Each element in human nature is to be allowed its
proper office.
Each season brings its own work and its own means.
This conception is wrought out in many-sided com-
pleteness in Rabbi Ben Ezra, which is, in epitome, a
philosophy of life.
Here are the lessons of advancing years :
Let us not always say
"Spite of this flesh to-day,
I strove, made head, gained ground ttfon the whole .'"
As the bird wings and sings,
Let us cry, " All good things
Are ours, nor soul helps flesh more now, than flesh helps soul."
Grow old along with me!
The best is yet to be,
The last of life, for which the first was made:
Our times are in His hand
Who saith " A whole I planned,
Youth shews but half ; trust God ; see all, nor be afraid.'"
226 ASPECTS OF LIFE
The capacity for moral progress, thus recognised in
the law of outward growth and decay, is indeed laid
down by Browning to be the essential characteristic of
man :
Getting increase of knowledge, since he learns
Because he lives, which is to be a man,
Set to instruct himself by his past self.
Hence the mutability of things may become a help to
his growth :
Rejoice that man is hurled
from change to change unceasingly,
His souPs wings never furled.
The very infirmities of later years, incapacity to
receive new impressions, dulness of sight by which far
and near are blended together, have their peculiar office
in revealing the lessons of life :
So at the last shall come old age,
Decrepit as befits that stage ;
How else ivoiild'st thou retire apart
With the hoarded memories of thy heart,
And gather all to the very least
Of the fragments of life's earlier feast,
Let fall thro 1 eagerness to find
The crowning dainties yet behind?
The true human life will therefore present a just
balance of powers in the course of its varied progress.
In the strangely fascinating Epistle of garshish
Browning has drawn the portraiture of one to whom the
eternal is sensibly present, whose spirit has gained
prematurely absolute predominance :
Heaven opened to a soul while yet on earth,
Earth forced on a souFs use while seeing Heaven :
and the result is not a man but a sign ; a being
Professedly the faultier that he knows
God's secret, while he holds the thread of life.
A POET S VIEW OF LIFE BROWNING 227
Lazarus, therefore, while he moves in the world, has
lost all sense of proportion in things about him, all
measure of and faculty of dealing with that which sways
his fellows.
In this crucial example Browning shews how the
exclusive dominance of the spirit destroys the fulness of
human life, its uses and powers, while it leaves a passive
life crowned with an unearthly beauty.
On the other hand, he shews in his study of Cleon
that the richest results of earth in art and speculation
and pleasure and power are unable to remove from life
the desolation of final gloom.
Thus over against the picture of Lazarus is placed
that of the poet who by happy circumstances has been
enabled to gather to himself all that is highest in the
civilisation of Greece.
The contrast is of the deepest significance. The
Jewish peasant endures earth, being in possession of
heaven : the Greek poet in possession of earth feels that
heaven some future state,
Unlimited in capability
For joy, as this is in desire for joy,
is a necessity for man ; but no,
Zeus has not yet revealed it ; and alas,
He must have done so, were it possible !
Flesh and spirit each claim recognition in connection
with their proper spheres, in order that the present life
may bear its true result.
We must, that we may live human lives, loyally yield
ourselves to, and yet master the circumstances in which
we are placed.
This is an arduous task, but it is fruitful :
When pain ends gain ends too.
228 ASPECTS OF LIFE
Doubt, rightly understood, is just that vivid, personal,
questioning of phenomena which breaks "the torpor of
assurance," and gives a living value to decision.
In this sense, and not as if doubts were an absolution
from the duty of endeavour, we can say,
I prize the doubt,
Law kinds exist without,
Finished and finite clods, untroubled by a spark.
In such a view of life, as it is thus outlined, no room
is left for indifference or neutrality.
There is no surrender to an idle optimism.
A part must be taken and maintained. The spirit
in which Luther said pecca fortiter finds a powerful
expression in The Statue and the Bust :
Let a man contend to the uttermost
For his life's set prize, be it what it will !
And the sin I impute to each frustrate ghost
Is, the unlit lamp and the ungirt loin.
In the midst of strenuous endeavour or of patient
suffering, the lesson of life, the lesson of love, is brought
within man's reach. It is finally taught, perhaps, by
a sudden appeal of distress (Caponsacchi) ; or by human
companionship (By the Fireside) ; or by a message felt to
be divine (Easter Day).
There are also other sharper ways of enforcing the
lesson. One illustration I cannot forbear quoting, for it
brings out the basis of Browning's hopefulness, and com-
bines two passages which, in different ways, for grandeur
of imagery and for spiritual insight, are unsurpassed in
Browning I will venture to say in literature.
I need not recall the character of Guido, which
Browning has analysed with exceptional power and
A POET'S VIEW OF LIFE BROWNING 229
evidently with the deepest interest. This, at last, is the
judgment which the Pope pronounces on him :
For the main criminal I have no hope
Except in stick a suddenness of fate.
I stood at Naples once, a night so dark
I could have scarce conjectured there was earth
Anywhere, sky, or sea, or world at all ;
But the nighfs black was burst through by a blaze,
Thunder struck blow on blow, earth groaned and bore
Through her whole length of mountain visible :
There lay the city thick and plain with spires,
And, like a ghost dis-shrouded, white the sea.
So may the truth be flashed out by one blow,
And Guido see, one instant, and be saved.
Degraded and debased, Guido is seen to be not past
hope by the true spiritual eye. And what is the issue ?
Up to the last, with fresh kindled passion, the great
criminal re-asserts his hate. He gathers strength to repeat
his crime in will. I grow, he says, one gorge
To loathingly reject Pompilid 's pale
Poison my hasty hunger took for food.
So the end comes. The ministers of death claim him.
In his agony he summons every helper whom he has
known or heard of
Abate, Cardinal, Christ, Maria, God
and then the light breaks through the blackest gloom :
Fompilia, will you let them murder me ?
In this supreme moment he has known what love is,
and, knowing it, has begun to feel it.
The cry, like the intercession of the rich man in Hades
for his five brethren, is a promise of a far-off deliverance.
In this case the poet shews how we may take heart
again in looking at the tragedies of guilt.
230 ASPECTS OF LIFE
But there are wider* and more general sorrows in life.
There is the failure, the falling from our ideal, of which
we are all conscious ; there is the incompleteness of
opportunity, which leaves noblest powers unused.
Browning states the facts without reserve or palliation :
All labour, yet no less
Bear up beneath their unsuccess.
Look at the end of work, contrast
The petty Done with the Undone vast,
This Present of theirs with the hopeful Past I
In dealing with the difficulties which are thus raised,
Browning offers what appears to me to be his most
striking message. Acknowledged failure is, he teaches, a
promise of future attainment ; unfruitful preparation is
the sign of the continuity of life. And these two prin-
ciples rest on another : imperfection is the condition of
growth :
Whafs whole can increase no more,
Is dwarfed and dies, since here's its sphere.
And hence comes (as may be noticed parenthetically)
the contrast between works of art and living men :
They are perfect hoiu else? they shall never change :
We are faulty why not ? we have time in store.
The artificer's hand is not arrested
With us we are rough-hewn, nmuise polished :
They stand for our copy, and once invested
With all they can teach, we shall see them abolished.
' Tis a life-long toil till our lump be leaven ;
The better I whafs come to perfection perishes.
Failure, as Browning treats it, may come in two ways.
It may come from what he does not scruple to call " the
corruption of man's heart," or it may come from the
want of necessary external help.
The first form of failure is in various degrees universal.
A POET'S VIEW OF LIFE BROWNING 231
But as long as effort is directed to the highest, that aim,
though it is out of reach, is the standard of hope.
The existence of a capacity, cherished and quickened,
is a pledge that it will find scope.
There will yet be, as we believe, a field for the exer-
cise of every power which has been trained and not
called into service. What has been consecrated cannot
be wasted :
Earn the means first God surely will contrive
Use for our earning.
The preparation and discipline of intellect is subor-
dinate to the preparation and discipline of feeling.
The end of life is learning love the learning God
and that in a large degree through human fellowship.
Omne vivum ex vivo " life is the one source of life "
is an axiom true in the spiritual as in the physical order.
An intellectual result may be the occasion, but it
cannot be the source of a moral quickening.
And what does the poet say of the end ? For that
which is evil there is judgment of utter destruction ; for
that which is good, purifying. So it is that chastisement
is often seen to come through the noblest part of a
character otherwise mean, because in that there is yet
hope :
You were punished in the very part
That looked most pure of speck, the honest love
Betrayed you, did love seem most worthy pains,
Challenge such purging, as ordained survive
When all the rest of you was done with ?
And on the whole
There shall never be one lost good ! what was shall live as before ;
The evil is null, is nought, is silence implying sound ;
What was good shall be good with, for evil, so much good more ;
On the earth the broken arcs; in heaven a perfect round.
232 ASPECTS OF LIFE
7^he high that proved too high, the heroic for earth too hard,
The passion that left the ground to lose itself in the sky,
Are music sent up to God by the lover and the bard ;
Enough that He heard it once ; we shall hear it by-and-by,
These thoughts interpret the fulness of our lives, our
trials and falls and aspirations, and help us to understand
better some parts of our Faith in which alone, as far as
I can see, they find their solid foundation.
STEPS IN THE CHRISTIAN LIFE
on your part all diligence, in your faith
provide virtue ; and in your virtue knowledge ; and in-
your knowledge self-control ; and in your self-control
patience ; and in your patience godliness ; and in your
godliness love of the brethren; and in your love of the
brethren love (2 Peter i.)
Wi
all -Ettlijjence
E are apt to live at random. We are swayed by
the circumstances which we ought to control. We find it
a relief when we are spared (as we think) the necessity for
reflection or decision : a book lightly taken up, a friend's
visit, a fixed engagement, fill up the day with fragments ;
and day follows day as a mere addition. There is
no living idea to unite and harmonise the whole.
Of course we cannot make, or to any great extent
modify, the conditions under which we have to act ; but
we can consciously render them tributary to one high
purpose. We can regard them habitually in the light of
our supreme end.
In gout JFattf) supplo Firtuc
11 EATHEN philosophers had drawn a noble ideal of
what man ought to be. The Gospel the Truth
234 ASPECTS OF LIFE
furnished the power by which the ideal could be wrought
out by all.
The first stage in the spiritual life is the fulfilment of
the natural type of virtue.
Religion is stamped first with the mark of manliness
in its highest sense. Whatever is false, or mean, or
cowardly, or ungenerous is utterly at variance with it.
On the other hand there is nothing true, or lofty, or
heroic which does not find its proper place and more
than that, its unfailing support in the life of faith.
It rests with us to shew each in our little way that
all that moves the instinctive admiration of men flows of
necessity from our Creed.
Our Faith has among its natural fruits those qualities
which mankind are constituted to approve.
It extends also to the fulness of life.
The virtue of the cloister, or of the school, or of the
closet is not all. There is the virtue also of the market
and of the council chamber. And this too is a growth
of faith.
In times of great confusion it has often happened
that there has been a sharp division between the religious
life and the secular life, to the grievous injury of both.
Many symptoms both at home and abroad point to the
danger of such a separation coming again.
It is, then, of the deepest moment that we should
keep our sympathies wide and keen ; that we should
guard against indifference towards any object of human
interest.
Every fragment of life belongs to us. Every social
movement, every political change affects in some way the
advent of that Kingdom of God for which we pray.
We neglect our duty if we deliberately stand aloof
STEPS IN THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 235
from any pursuit, from any conflict, in which we are
fitted to engage.
We are poor judges of great and small.
The little service which we can render may be all
that is required to complete the circle of some greater
work. That which is poorest in appearance may be
most necessary.
At least our duty is plain : not to pretend to be
what we are not : not to leave our place at will in search
of another : not to measure ourselves by others : but to
offer to God just what we have and what we are.
In Ftrtue 3&ttofoletrjje
1 HE effort to realise what we have learnt will drive
us forward.
"Knowledge for knowledge" is parallel with "grace
for grace " in the divine economy. And it is not, I
think, without significance that the Greek term for
absolute scientific knowledge finds no place in the New
Testament.
There is, I fancy, always about us a spiritual indol-
ence which springs from an intellectual indolence. We
have seen and felt something of the Truth ; and we are
tempted to rest in the first imperfect experience.
It is not so, however, that we can really hold that
which we have gained. Life is only another name for
progress.
St. Peter tells us that the prophets themselves "sought
and searched diligently " as to the further meaning of the
message which they were inspired to deliver.
Even for them the striving after knowledge was not
made superfluous by a divine illumination ; or rather,
the greatness of their gifts made the striving more
unremitting and intense.
236 ASPECTS OF LIFE
It is true that knowledge in itself is not an end still
less the end of life.
But none the less it is impossible not to feel how
every access of knowledge gives distinctness and reality
to our Faith : how we are enabled to see fresh harmonies
in the Bible, as we apprehend with a more simple
trust the interpretation of the outward facts of life.
The Christian works that he may learn, and learns
that he may work.
Avoid controversy. There must be some whose work
it is to meet adversaries in debate. But, as Archbishop
Leighton said, "it is a loss to them that they are forced
to be busied in that way," and this work is not for the
young. It is their privilege to be able to seize the Truth
in all its freshness.
It is immeasurably better to spare no pains to under-
stand the truth by which a false system lives, than to gain
a victory over it at the price of disregarding this
fragmentary good.
Nothing can be more perilous than to use weapons
which we have not proved. If we win with them, we
shall be tempted to treat the Faith as a question of
words when it is a question of life ; and every success so
obtained will leave behind it a sense of failure and
doubt.
There is a terrible, a crushing retribution for him who
ventures to maintain a just cause by arguments which he
does not feel in the depths of his soul to be sufficient ;
and few very few can put into formal language
without long experience the real grounds of their belief.
It may often be our duty to keep silence : it can
never be our duty to defend our faith in a way which
does not brin^ conviction to ourselves.
STEPS IN THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 237
As we know anything better in any real sense of the
word, we know Christ better. Ex uno Verbo oinnia, et
uniim loquuntur omnia : " All things proceed from one
IVord, and all tilings have one utterance"
Whatever may be the immediate subject of our study,
we can see Him through it.
A moment's pause will be enough, and the light of
His presence will flash over our work. In this light we
can live and die : without this light all knowledge is
unsubstantial and unsatisfying.
En l&nofolctyje telecontrol
lEMPERANCE. The original term describes that
sovereign self-mastery, that perfect self-control, in which
the mysterious will of man holds in harmonious subjection
all the passions and faculties of his nature.
Selfwill is to mind what self-indulgence is to sense,
the usurpation by a part of that which belongs to the
whole.
In knowledge temperance. The Apostle counsels
temperance, the just and proportionate use of every
faculty and gift, and not the abolition or abandonment
of any.
It is easier in many cases to pluck out the right eye
or to cut off the right hand than to discipline and
employ them.
Sometimes also it may be a clear duty to cast wholly
away what we are no longer able to consecrate. But
this is to accept by a sad necessity the less noble course,
and to render a maimed offering to God, though it is
the best in our power, seeing what we have become.
St. Peter therefore calls us to the fulfilment of a loftier
ideal. He bids us, while there is yet time and oppor-
tunity, strive to bring every fragment of our nature, every
238 ASPECTS OF LIFE
power by which we are carried towards the good and the
beautiful and the true, under the sovereign sway of the
Christian conscience, and to render their manifold fruits
as the rational service of our whole being.
" The prize is noble and the hope is great," so Plato
spoke. The words gain a practical force by the teaching
of St. Paul : Every man that striveth for the mastery is
temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a
corruptible crown, we an incorruptible.
JEn S>lf=c0nttol patience
1 HERE is something to be borne with resolute en-
durance, as well as something to be conquered by
energetic effort.
Patience that calm strength which sustains courage-
ously the burden which cannot rightly be thrown off,
which waits in sure confidence, as knowing that the
darkness cannot last for ever has its own victories. In
your patience, the Lord said to His disciples in the
prospect of unparalleled trials, ye shall win your souls.
This lesson of patience is one, I think, which we
greatly need to lay to heart at the present time.
Many obvious causes combine to make men restless
under the pressure of uncertainty, to tempt them on the
one side to take refuge in some system which may free
them from the responsibility of judgment, and on the
other to renounce inquiries which seem to admit of no
decisive issue.
We have all, I fancy, known in our own experience
the perils of the impatience which calls out dogmatism,
and of the impatience which calls out scepticism.
The one claims to be devout humility, and the other
to be absolute love of truth.
STEPS IN THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 239
But Christian patience is more rightly humble than
the one, and more sincerely truth-loving than the other,
being, as it is, the necessary result of a just survey of our
position and of our hopes.
For if our immediate circumstances suggest thoughts
of impatience, a wider view of life will banish them.
Do what we will we cannot take away the sad stern
mysteries of life, the mysteries of birth and death, the
one central mystery of our finite personal being. These
must remain, however we may regard them or refuse to
regard them ; and they must remain unsolved.
They are not less real because we close our eyes to
them. They are not less insoluble because we refuse to
discuss them.
Christianity does not bring them into the world ; and
to reject the message of Faith is not to do away with
the subjects to which it is directed.
It is impossible to reduce human life to elements
which will furnish certain conclusions.
Reason, then, no less than faith, forces upon us the
duty of patience in the face of the problems of existence.
But though we cannot, from the nature of the case,
ever remove the mysteries of life, yet as time goes on,
and the purposes of God grow clearer with the lapse of
ages, we are enabled to see them under new lights, to
group them together, to feel, as it were, the end to which
they are pointing.
In this aspect, therefore, we really impoverish our-
selves if we thrust back unreflectingly, by an effort of
will, each difficulty which presents itself to us.
To claim completeness for our opinions is to abandon
the encouragement of progress ; and on the other hand
difficulties frankly met reveal new paths of truth.
240 ASPECTS OF LIFE
They stimulate us to strive for fuller knowledge, and
they prepare us for gaining it.
The patience which regards with clear untroubled
vision all the parts of our being, so far as they are visible,
which sets the weakness of man side by side with what
is made known in the long ages of the loving power of
God, which learns neither to haste nor to rest in
a pursuit for the good which lingers, disciplines and
quickens our faculty of spiritual discernment
The temper which patience is calculated to form is
best fitted for the apprehension of the widest truths
which are in our reach.
It is not, we can see, the Divine method to answer
at once every sincere questioner, or to guide every one to
the good on which his soul is fixed.
It is not always good for us to be spared the stern
discipline of failure, the desolate silence of doubts un-
satisfied, the weariness of delays and the dull pressure
of loneliness. It is through these that patience has her
perfect work, and finds that the sense of unrest is a
promise of progress.
Let us not yield to the seduction of some dogmatic
definition which often on the side of the intellect usurps
the place of a personal, vital, progressive appropriation
of the corresponding truth.
En patience
1 HE term godliness is far more than "godliness" in
our common acceptation of the word. It is that spirit
of devout reverence which springs out of the recognition
of God's immediate Presence, or, to present part of the
truth from the opposite side, that spirit of devout rever-
STEPS IN THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 241
ence which springs out of a sense of the true divinity of
things as created by God and sustained by God.
A "godly reverence," a profound yet childlike con-
viction of the Divine Presence in us and around us,
unchanged and untouched in its ineffable holiness and
beauty by the sin and evil and sorrow which mar our
perception of it, supports us in our conflict with our own
temptations, and enables us to look without despair upon
what seems to our eyes wide and inevitable waste and
loss.
We have all known occasions when we have been
possessed, as it were, with the fulness of mere physical
pleasure.
The flooding sunlight, the immeasurable sky, the sea,
or the mountains, have entered into our souls : happy then
shall we be if we have consecrated the joy with the faint
assurance that all this is but a faint reflection of His glory
in whom we live and move and have our being.
In sorrow and loss and failure we turn instinctively
to God for the consolation which we have not found and
cannot find elsewhere.
If we have not learnt before to recognise the signs of
His Presence, it may be hard to see Him in our extrem-
ity. But if we have looked for Him at other times : if
by various experience we have been enabled to pierce
beneath the veil : if we have referred our joys to Him :
lie will not hide Himself from us in our need.
The godly reverence which has hallowed our brighter
hours will bring light to us in our darkness : at evening
time it shall be light,
En oWrness lo&e of tfje Brethren
, censoriousness, hardness, unreality,
are naturally repulsive to the young; and on the other hand
242 ASPECTS OF LIFE
there is, I think, no time when a kindly and courageous
word spoken in Christ's name and for Christ is wider or
more enduring in its effects.
Too commonly a natural reserve becomes chilled into
a hard irony under which we are content to dissemble
our real feelings and aspirations.
How often a single word of genuine sympathy will
embolden another to cast off the burden which he has
borne silently, and set forth his difficulties and doubts,
and face them and overcome them.
How often a word of counsel spoken out of our own
experience will inspire the wavering will of a companion
with strength and purpose, and guide him rightly where
the ways of life part.
How often a word of expostulation tempered with
that gentleness which the sense of our own failure gives,
will call out the true self in a man, and help him to con-
quer the temptation which was on the point of over-
powering him as he stood alone.
Now all these this sympathy, this counsel, this ex-
postulation are simple acts of that love of the brethren
which we owe one to another, because we are united in
one Lord, one faith, one baptism.
Perfect fellowship in Christ teaches the believer to
reckon not only the failings of others as his own, but
their successes also.
LoVE :
In lofa of tfye Brethren, lofoe
in the most comprehensive sense is in-
dividualised for the Christian. There is no injunction
of a general love of men a vague " philanthropy." He
who is not our " brother " is still our " neighbour."
STEPS IN THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 243
The widest love, in other words, is personal, not an
undefined sentiment, but the practical recognition of a
real claim.
The love of Christ in its twofold sense is the support
of the Christian's love, and growing conformity to Christ
is the fruit of love. " To be made like to God " was
the noblest aspiration of heathen moralists ; and the
spirit of Christ converts the aspiration into a fact.
Nothing, perhaps, is more injurious to the influence
of Christianity on those without than our own unreadiness
to apply to ourselves in the common calls of business,
as the motive and measure of our exertion, the frank
confession, the love of Christ constraineth us.
It is idle and far worse than idle for us to speculate
why the world was not made other than it is.
The Christian Faith at least reveals to us a love as
great as our need, and calls out in us love to answer
love.
Without dissembling the evil which has overspread
the world, love will gain and hold the assurance that
what is begun shall he consummated, arid God shall be
all in all,
In this sense also it is true that perfect loi'e casteth out
fear.
He that loveth not hath not known God. It must be
so. All ignorance and all error comes from that selfish-
ness which is the opposite to love. But in love self is
transfigured, and faith has its perfect work. Faith is the
foundation, and love the highest crown. All that conies
between is a preparation for that which reaches up to
heaven and abides there.
244 ASPECTS OF LIFE
STfje Incarnation anfc tfje Creation
vJlJR fathers by the teaching of the Holy Spirit saw the
Truth, but they did not see all the Truth. And it is, I
think, impossible to look at modern writings without per-
ceiving that the teaching on Christ's Person which is
current in the most reverent schools falls short in many
ways of the living fulness of the Bible.
For in Holy Scripture He is shewn to stand essen-
tially in some ineffable yet real connection with all finite
being. In Him, and through Him, and unto Him were
all things made. He is the " first-born," " the beginning "
of all creation.
The Incarnation is commonly made to depend upon
the Fall. And the whole tenor of revelation, as I con-
ceive, leads us to regard the Incarnation as inherently
involved in the Creation.
God's image was given to man that he might gain
God's likeness.
The marvel is that the purpose of creation was wrought
out in spite of that wilful self-assertion of the creature
which might have seemed to have fatally thwarted it.
We gaze for an instant on the Majesty within the
veil that we may go forth again into the world, to our
work and to our labour, and still bear about with us
the strong assurance that the powers of the heavenly
order are placed within our reach ; that above the clouds
and darkness which beset our path He is throned Who
has borne our nature to the right hand of God ; that in
many parts and in many fashions, through sufferings and
chastisements, the Divine purpose is being fulfilled ; that
behind the veils of sense, which perplex and distract us,
burns the serene glory of the Divine Presence ; that
THE INCARNATION AND THE CREATION 245
beyond the spectacle of failures and conflicts which flow
from selfishness, glows the prospect of a holy unity passing
knowledge, a holy unity which shall hereafter crown and
fulfil creation as one revelation of Infinite Love when the
Father's will is accomplished, and He has summed up
all tilings in Christ, the things in the heavens and the
things upon earth.
Cfye Kncarnntfon mV& the jfall
one recognises in himself the two conflicting
truths which are expressed in the narrative of the Fall :
the power of evil and the prerogative of personal responsi-
bility.
There is, we feel, a " baseness in our blood," and we
feel also that we have embodied the corruption " by our
fault, by our own fault, by our own great fault."
The tendency, indeed, is our inheritance, but we have
made the issues our own by deed, we are actually, and
we know ourselves to be, guilty, enthralled, alienated
from God.
We look around us, and we see the double sentence
of our own consciences written on a larger scale in the
crimes and judgments of classes and nations, in the deeds
of selfish violence which betray a common taint, and in
the clear, unquestioning appeal of suffering souls to the
majesty of a violated law.
Man did not lose the image of God by the Fall. His
essential nature still remained capable of union with
God, but it was burdened and hampered. The Word,
therefore, could still become flesh, but if He was pleased
to realise this fellowship of the Divine and human, He
took to Himself, naturally, humanity with its immeasur-
able obligations, life with its untold temptations and
246 ASPECTS OF LIFE
sorrows. But some one will say, " How can another's
suffering avail for my offence?" Here the apprehension
of social unity is most fertile in suggestion. Fifty years
ago the term " solidarity," and the idea which it conveys,
were alike strange and unknown. We had not appre-
hended in any living way that we are, as St. Paul says,
literally members one of another, as men and nations. We
are beginning to understand that in the unity of the body
it is possible for one member to take away the infirmity
and disease of another by taking them to himself.
We are coming to understand why the human instinct
has always rejoiced in the stories of uncalculating self-
devotion which brighten the annals of every people :
why our hearts respond to the words of a Chinese king,
contemporary with Jacob, who said to his people : " When
guilt is found anywhere in you who occupy the myriad
regions, let it rest on me the One man ;" and faithful to his
prayer said again, when a human victim was demanded
to avert a drought : " If a man must be the victim, I will
be he : " why we do not think lives wasted which are
offered in heroic prodigality to witness to a great principle :
why the blood of the martyrs is indeed seed, not idly
spilt upon the ground, but made the vital source of
a teeming harvest : we are coming to understand, in a
word, what is the true meaning of that phrase " vicarious
suffering " which has brought at other times sad perplexity
to anxious minds ; how it excludes everything that is
arbitrary, fictitious, unnatural, external in human re-
lationships : how it expresses the highest energy of love,
which takes a friend's sorrows into the loving heart, and
taking them by God's grace transfigures them, satisfying
every claim of righteousness, justifying every instinct of
hope, quickening the spirit of self- surrender, offering
within the sphere of common life a faint image of forgive-
ness, of redemption, of reconciliation.
THE INCARNATION AND NATURE 247
We cannot, if we would, gain our happiness alone :
we cannot be saved alone.
There is a wonderful Indian legend which tells how
a Buddhist saint had reached by successive lines of
sacrifice the stage next to Nirvana. At that point he
could by one effort of will obtain for himself eternal and
untroubled calm. But when the decision had to be
made he set aside the tempting prize, and chose rather
to live again in the world while conflict could bear fruit.
" Not," he said, " till the last soul on every earth and in
every hell has found peace can I enter on my rest."
Do we not feel the Christain truth which is enshrined
in the splendid story?
2Tfje Encatnatt0n anfc
IN revelation, no less than in science, man is the
representative of Creation who gathers up into himself
and combines in the most perfect form the various
manifestations of life and being which are seen dispersed
tentatively, as it were, through other orders.
Mr. Herbert Spencer writes : " Scientific progress is a
gradual transfiguration of Nature. The conception to
which the explorer of Nature tends is much less of a
Universe of dead matter than that of a Universe every-
where alive." Such a calm summary of the latest results
of unbiassed research helps us to understand the words
of St. Paul in which he tells us that the earnest expecta-
tion of the Creation waiteth for the revealing of the sons of
God. . . . For we knoiv that the whole Creation groaneth
and travaileth in pain together until now : words which
distinctly lay down the dependence of Creation upon
man, both in his fall and in his restoration.
The sympathy of Nature with man is written on the
first page of the Bible and on the last. In the spiritual
248 ASPECTS OF LIFE
history of Genesis the earth is said to have been cursed
for man's sake. In the spiritual vision of the Apocalypse
new heavens and a new earth are prepared for redeemed
humanity.
It would be easy to shew that, if according to the
beautiful Greek fancy, the clay of which man was
moulded was moistened not with water but with tears,
every strain of natural music dies away into a dirge : easy
to paint- the ashy tint of death which follows the glow of
burning purple on the mountain-side when the sun has
set : easy to round all in gloom, if we pause in our
first experience. But we may not pause here.
St. Paul recognises the deep voice of grief in the
Creation, but he does not rest in it. The whole Creation,
he says, groamth and travaileth together imtil now. The
sorrow is unto joy at last. Out of that which appears
to us to be a confused struggle shall come a new and
more perfect life. The pains which we witness are the
very conditions of the birth of the new order.
Let the thought of the Incarnation come in, the
thought that it was the Father's good pleasure from the
first to rear through the ages a living shrine for His
Word which became conscious in man, and every token
of inner and manifold life in all things in heaven and
upon the earth assumes a fresh significance.
The progress of the past is the sign and not the
measure of that which shall be when the glory of the
sons of God shall be reflected by the scene of their
finished labour ; or rather when we with pure and opened
eyes shall see the world as God made it.
O world, as God has made if I All is beauty :
And knoiving this is love, and love is duty.
What further may be sought for, or declared!
THE INCARNATION AND LIFE 249
Not one secret won from Nature by unconscious
interpreters of the Divine will, not one fact shewn to have
been realised in history by the students of human progress,
not one cry of penitence, or one aspiration of faith, whicli
rises from the solitary soul, fails to find a place in the
majestic range of the Gospel of the Word made flesh,
fails, if we look aright, to shew it in more . sovereign
grace.
We are tempted to say " The will of God will be ful-
filled. What can we do ? " True, most true. The
execution of the will of God does not depend upon
our endeavour. But O the difference for each one of
us if we behold it, if we enter into it, if, in our poor
measure, we make it our own, if we offer ourselves
without reserve for its service. And so the truth of the
Incarnation reaches to the innermost recesses of the
single life.
9Tf)e Encarnattcin anfc ILtfe
r OR the noblest truths are not given us for an in-
tellectual luxury, still less for a moral opiate or a spiritual
charm.
They are for the inspiration of our whole being, for
the hallowing and for the bracing of every power, outward
and inward, with which we are endowed, for use in the
busy fields of common duty.
If there were found in Christ one trait which belonged
to some transitory phase of human growth, to a sect, a
class, a nation, an age, if there were wanting in Him one
characteristic which belongs to the essence of humanity ;
one virtue which is the peculiar glory of man or woman ;
we might then look for another to fulfil the higher type
which we should be able to imagine. But as it is, there
is nothing which we can remove from His portraiture,
250 ASPECTS OF LIFE
nothing which we can add to it, without marring the ideal
in which each soul can find the satisfaction of every desire
that it would lay open in the light of heaven.
We gain no relief from labour by lowering our stand-
ard. We do not rid ourselves of enigmas by abridging
our hopes.
We cast away the Faith; and what then? The
sufferings of earth remain, but they are emptied of their
redemptive potency.
BfectpltneK SLtfe & Call
VvE live commonly at random, without plan, without
discipline. We trust to an uncultivated notion of duty
for an improvised solution of unforeseen difficulties.
It is as though while " pilgrims and strangers " we
cared to learn nothing of the region which we must
traverse : as though while " soldiers of Christ " we awaited
blindly the attack of an unknown enemy : as though
while " fellow -workers with God " we were content to
use no training for the fulfilment of our part of His
designs.
The East has done her ascetic work : the Romanic
nations of Europe have done their ascetic work : it
remains for the Saxon race to do their ascetic work,
nobler, vaster, richer than any which has gone before.
There is, indeed, much in the earlier forms of asceti-
cism which appears unnatural and repulsive now, simply
because they were adapted to achieve a special work,
not for our age, or race, or country.
But you must look in each case at the principle and
not at the system.
DISCIPLINED LIFE A CALL 251
The system is transitory while the principle is eternal.
The Stoic counselled suicide as the remedy for over-
whelming evil : the Christian found the remedy in the
creation of a new life of the soul out of the completest
subjection of the body.
atrtj Benedict
W E may despise from our position the rude and fierce
simplicity of Anthony's devotion, but the two great
representatives of the East and West witness to his
immediate power. Athanasius, his biographer, counts
it among his chief glories that he had been allowed to
minister to the saint. Augustine was inspired by the
study of his life when he heard the words that decided
him to become a Christian.
Anthony shewed the foundation of individual freedom
in self- conquest : Benedict shewed the foundation of
social freedom in self-surrender. It may seem a paradox,
but all experience teaches us that perfect obedience coin-
cides with perfect liberty, and that he is strongest who
seeks not to do his own will, but the will of Him that
sent him. To forget or dissemble the work which was
achieved for us by the brethren of Benedict, is not
only to mutilate history, but to impoverish the springs
of our spiritual strength. We owe to them nearly all
that remains of the literature of Rome. We owe to
them our English Christianity. We owe to them our
greatest Churches and Cathedrals. We owe to them
no small share of our national liberties. Their corrup-
tion came, not because they clung to their principle, but
because they abandoned it ; and no later failure can
obliterate the debt which is due to their early heroism
and love.
252 ASPECTS OF LIFE
ur $eeti of Ascetic Demotion
1 HE unparalleled achievements of the Jesuits, always
imperfect and often disastrous, shew no less clearly
than the purer victories of which we claim to be heirs
what can be done by faith, by devotion, by discipline.
History teaches us that social evils must be met by
social organisation. A life of absolute and calculated
sacrifice is a spring of immeasurable power. In the past
it has worked marvels, and there is nothing to prove
that its virtue is exhausted.
God has blessed the spirit of ascetic devotion, and no
less clearly has He shewn that it must not be confined to
one form. One type after another has lost its vitality
when its work has been accomplished.
It is clear, indeed, that that which is specially suited
to one order of things must so far necessarily be unsuited
to another. And thus nothing from old times will meet
our exigencies.
We want a rule which shall answer to the complexity
of our own age. We want a discipline which shall
combine the sovereignty of soul of Anthony, the social
devotion of Benedict, the humble love of Francis, the
matchless energy of the Jesuits, with faith that fears no
trial, with hope that fears no darkness, with truth that
fears no light.
" There is," says Lamennais, " nothing fruitful but
sacrifice." But whether Christ offers you this prerogative
of sacrifice, or leaves to you the calmer offices of
common duty, at least be sure, from the examples of the
saints, that life is not easy.
DISCIPLINED LIFE A SUGGESTION 253
.LUXURY is no longer one of the natural consequences
of privilege, or culture, or birth, but is a corrimon object
offered to open competition.
It is an expression of wealth ; and fortune, as we are
often reminded with a most sad complacency, is now
within the reach of every man.
Each rank affects the mode of life of that which is
immediately above it ; and the connection between the
two is still more closely knit by individuals who pass
from the one to the other.
The spirit of luxury with which we have to deal is
socially universal and levelling, morally depressing and
disorganising.
Cfte Jatnilg tfje tnte SEtttt of Socfetg
r\ RULE constructed with the individual for the unit
can never satisfy the mature wants of humanity. The
true unit of society is the family, and not the man.
If we wish to be faithful to the teaching of self-
sacrifice which our fathers have bequeathed to us, we
must carry it forward to some completer shape.
If we wish to do our own work we must use our
examples, not as copies, but as stimulants to exertion,
and as pledges of hope.
Nothing is more significant in later history than the
persistent recurrence of attempts to deal with the growing
evils of life by social organisation.
254 ASPECTS OF LIFE
The family offers the only complete pattern of life :
all other groupings of men or women must in them-
selves be imperfect, and partial in their influence, though,
in dependence on that, they can fulfil offices of inestim-
able importance.
It presents in the most powerful and natural form the
relations of essential authority and subordination, and
lays the basis of a graduated society.
Celibate forms of life cannot be offered for general
acceptance. On the contrary, they sanction most in-
juriously the definite recognition of manifold standards
of Christian duty.
Thus while they are calculated to act with concen-
trated power on any special point, they are essentially
unfitted to elevate the whole form of social life by the
exhibition of a pattern in which its ordinary temptations
are seen to be met and overcome.
And this defect of celibate rules is the more serious
now, when the disorders of society spring for the most
part from the disregard of the laws which the family can'
best interpret ; when extravagance and display descend
from class to class with a fatal and accelerated speed ;
when it seems impossible, except by isolation, to modify
or even to avoid the sway of fashion which yet finds few
open defenders.
?52Efjat might fie fcone 6g an rrjnnfsaticm of Jamfltcs
1 N all these respects it is easy to see how an organisa-
tion of families might place openly before all a noble
type of domestic life ; not so costly as to be beyond
the aspirations of the poor; not so sordid as to be
destructive of simple refinement ; strong by the expres-
sion of sympathy ; expansive by the force of example.
DISCIPLINED LIFE A SUGGESTION 255
One of our most urgent needs is to realise the
existence of permanent differences between men as the
foundation of the divine government of the world.
However much a celibate rule may intensify special
powers, it sacrifices sympathies, feelings, faculties, which
may be disciplined, and which must play an important
part in the general life of men.
The cloistral character, as such, is beset with inevitable
weaknesses and imperfections.
In the family there can be no danger of such inherent
incompleteness : in that there must be constant move-
ment, conflict, growth.
No one who has not tried, however feebly and im-
perfectly, the efficacy of systematised religious exercises
in the midst of busy occupation, can judge how they
tend to concentrate, intensify, increase power.
It is obvious, to suggest no other consideration, what
it must be to pause from painful endeavours, and for a
few moments to lie open and receptive, as it were, before
the source of all strength and knowledge and love.
There are few among us who do not sadly regret that
they cannot enjoy the lessons of genial courtesy, of tender
forbearance, of large sympathy, which society can best
teach, because they are unable or unwilling to pay the
material price exacted from them.
The present waste of the educational power of women
is one of the saddest and most fruitful of evils.
Nothing, I believe, is more unjust than to call the
spirit of modern English thought irreligious. On the
256 ASPECTS OF LIFE
contrary, even in its scepticism it clings to religion.
There never was a time when men have had a keener
sense of what religion ought to be and do. There never
was a time when the demands upon religion were greater.
It is assumed, and assumed rightly, that if it be real,
if it be human, it will control and discipline the outward
conduct of men ; that it will welcome and harmonise
every fact which represents, at least to us, some one
detail of the Divine action ; that it will unite and employ
in social service the manifold powers of every individual.
And when it is seen that the Christian society for the
individual Christian life must for the most part be hidden
does not, as such, stand in the van of moral and
spiritual progress, doubts arise whether the Christian faith
is adequate to meet the requirements of a later age.
Such a deduction is not unnatural. The fault lies with
us if it remains unrefuted.
3Ltfe &
VvE shall all confess that the general estimate and
use and distribution of material wealth present the
saddest problems for our thought, not fearing to main-
tain that the abundance of the rich is as perilous to the
purity and grace of life as the indigence of the poor.
We shall all confess that as believers we proclaim
that the highest life is not for the few, for a class, but
for all for whom Christ died ; and therefore that every
circumstance which hinders this issue is an evil against
which we must contend to the uttermost.
There are on every side tokens of noble self-denial and
labour, but efforts which are isolated fail of their full
effect. The levelling, depressing, disorganising power
of modern luxury neutralises their influence.
We require, therefore, something which shall strike
DISCIPLINED LIFE AN OPPORTUNITY 257
the imagination ; which shall shew the breadth and
grandeur of the Faith ; which shall continue and consoli-
date the impulses to sacrifice that are lost in unobserved
diffusion ; which shall make it clear that as Christians
we do indeed believe, and live as believing, that the
toiler with scanty means has within his reach all that
makes life worth living.
Laws are inoperative where they do not answer to
dominant opinion. Even at the best they can only
restrain and not inspire.
The energy which stirs a nation must come from the
spirit and not from the letter. It must be the result not
of constraint, but of a spontaneous offering.
Those whom no personal necessity forces "to live
laborious days " can alone display in unquestioned
supremacy the energy of self-forgetful ministering love.
The purifying and ennobling of familyrelations includes
in essence all that is required for the stable adjustment
of the larger relations of national life.
No celibate organisation can reach the evils from which
we surfer, or furnish a pattern for general acceptance.
All experience tends to shew that an abiding, a pro-
gressive morality must be inspired by theology.
I know that there is about us the deep swelling of a
noble discontent ready to sweep away much that mars
the surface of society. I know that there are aspirations
after generous service in those for whom the choice of
duty is yet open, which need only to be confessed and
concentrated that they may become a trumpet-call of
quickening enthusiasm.
I know that there is beneath the frivolous shows of
fashion and the misleading irony of untried natures a
258 ASPECTS OF LIFE
true and touching sense of the infinite issues of conduct,
of the awful swiftness of opportunity, of the invigorating
" blessing of great cares " among those to whom God
has given great endowments of wealth and station and
mind, that they may render to Him more costly offerings.
Htfe Consecrated bg tfje Ascension
(CHRISTMAS is the festival of the family, for then
Christ, by being born, hallowed all the ties of home.
Easter is the festival of the Church, for then Christ,
by the victory over death, established a spiritual power
among men invincible for ever.
Ascension -tide is the festival of the race, for then
Christ, by raising all that belongs to the perfection of
humanity to heaven, gave us a glorious sign of our true
destiny as men.
If we enter into the spirit of Ascension-day, we shall
be enabled to realise practically that Christian life is
essentially one. Over all the hands of Christ are raised
to bless.
We are always tempted to break up life into little
fractions ; to separate routine and effort ; to contrast
secular and spiritual; to assign this part to the duties
of the world, and that to the service of God. But such
a division is faithless and vain. As the body is one, so
also is the life.
Physical health is the harmonious action of every
member according to its proper law, and religion is the
true health of our whole being.
If we once see that it is in the silent, unnumbered,
unnoticed trivialities (as they seem) of daily business
that character is formed which in due time a crisis will
reveal : then already something of a divine harmony is
LIFE CONSECRATED BY THE ASCENSION 259
re-established among the elements which sin has dis-
ordered.
Whatever is inchoate, imperfect, discordant, becomes
a sign of that fuller being into which all our efforts and
all our achievements are destined to pass.
That only which is wholly of the earth can find its
satisfaction on earth ; all which belongs essentially to
some vaster whole must as yet bear about with it the
marks of incompleteness, and to our eyes the appearance
of failure.
The weaknesses, the littlenesses, the incoherences of
daily life, so long as they are felt and struggled with,
are evidences of a victory yet to come. They bear
witness to us that we cannot rest till we rise to the level
of Him in whom we live. They never cease to teach us
that the end to which we are called is not now or here.
The same spirit which leads us to isolate parts of our
life as alone religious, leads us also to construct one type
of religious work, so that all action which does not fall
within this narrow boundary is left out of account.
Those whom Christ sent, as the Father sent Him,
fulfilled their commission not after one pattern but after
many.
Even in that first outburst of renovated life each
believer worked according to his natural gifts. One
ministered, another preached, another wrote : one
satisfied an immediate want, another laid up treasures
for a later time. Every form of service was hallowed,
because all were rendered to God. And this is the
image of Christian activity which we are at present called
to imitate according to the measure of our power.
If we were all alike in our highest attributes, if
religion were in all the same exercise of the same gifts,
260 ASPECTS OF LIFE
then the defection of one or another would make little
difference to the general result ; but if, as we see it
must be, the faithlessness of one subtracts from the
whole that which no other can supply, all is changed ;
we feel at once the overwhelming majesty of life even in
its ultimate details.
(Sifts ne
1 HERE is something very sublime and at the same
time very awful in the thought of the marvellous com-
plexity of our modern life, even in its outward aspects ;
and if we penetrate below the surface and come to feel
that the same law holds in the spiritual as in the
material relations of men, we shall readily acknowledge
that we are in the presence of a truth which it concerns
us most nearly to apprehend as far as we can do so.
If religion be the most complete harmony of life with
the seen and the unseen, the modes in which it will be
embodied will vary with the varying modes of life.
All the causes which tend to stereotype or separate
or narrow our lives, tend -equally to stereotype and
separate and narrow our religion.
And if, on the other hand, we see that by the counsel
of the Divine Love the highest forms of earthly good
spring from the co-operation of the most diverse
elements, so we believe is it also in religion.
There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.
There is an essential difference in all lives, and there is
in them also, by the gift of God, an essential unity.
The law of progressive variety is forced upon us by
all the conditions under which we act and think.
It is called into play equally by the natural endow-
ments with which we are born, and by the circumstances
under which we use our powers.
MANY GIFTS ONE SPIRIT 261
It is the spring of all that is most impressive in
national character : it is the spring of all that is most
energetic in personal influence.
A great people stamps the history of the world with
the impress of its special traits.
A great man sways his fellows by the gifts through
which he differs from them.
There is nothing from which a true patriot would
shrink more than from the endeavour to obliterate the
marks which represent in his countrymen all the issues
of the past. They may be transformed, ennobled, trans-
figured, but in them lies the pledge that the nation has
still something to do for the race.
Remove the difference, slender it may be, by which
citizen is distinguished from citizen, and something is
lost to the fulness of the body which nothing can
replace.
External equality is uniform degradation.
But while this principle is acknowledged unhesitatingly
in social and political life, we do not commonly apply it
to religious life. Religion is regarded as something
abstract, uniform, colourless. Here it is supposed that
the rich variety of function which marks the develop-
ment of man finds no place. He is unclothed, to use St.
Paul's image, and not clothed upon, that so he may
fulfil his highest work.
We suddenly abandon the law which has guided the
magnificent growth of life when it approaches its last
fulfilment.
We trust to no generous spontaneity when we come
as sons to our heavenly Father. We painfully mould
and repress ourselves after one fashion ; and enemies
say, not without the semblance of excuse, that our
religion looks traditional, formal, dead, powerless to
262 ASPECTS OF LIFE
claim all human interests for its domain, all human
faculties for its instruments.
And still if we reflect that what we are called upon to
offer to God is nothing less than ourselves, our souls and
bodies, it must at once be seen that in that perfect, /io/y,
living sacrifice is included every element of character,
of endowment, of circumstance, by which each one of
us is made to differ from others.
Other offices may appear to us to be more fruitful
than our own : we may wish for an ampler field on
which to shew the devotion which we sincerely feel :
our time, we may argue, is so engrossed by necessary
routine that all nobler aspirations are dulled.
But if followed to their spring such thoughts come
simply from faithlessness and impatience.
The results of silent service, of complete self-surrender,
of patient trust, cannot be measured by our present ex-
perience. They survive us on earth, and they follow
us before the very throne of God.
We work each in our own way with untiring and
truthful effort, and because we do so, a higher unity is
possible. There can be no unity in an aggregate of
atoms.
Our diversity of gifts is reconciled in one supreme
destination.
Our religion finds its true expression in the consecra-
tion of our special gifts.
All our natural endowments, all our personal histories,
all our contrasted circumstances, are so many oppor-
tunities for peculiar work.
We are all different, and therefore we may be one.
We are all united in Christ, and therefore, unless we be
unfaithful, we must be one.
THE RESURRECTION AS INFLUENCING LIFE 263
3Tfjc ospel of Christ's JBeatfj anti Eesurrectfon
I N the Gospel, as the Apostle calls it, of Christ's Death
and Christ's Resurrection we stand ; by that we are saved.
It accompanies us from the beginning of our lives to the
end. It is the voice which welcomes the unconscious
infant to his Saviour's love : it is the voice which
commits the unconscious dead to his Maker's keeping.
The message of the Resurrection which the apostles
were charged to proclaim has lost none of its significance,
but we, I think, perplexed by the necessary growth of
later thoughts, are often in danger of missing the
grandeur of its simple outline.
At least the unnatural barriers of separation which
we all fix in various degrees between parts of our duties
and our pleasures : the conventional banishment of our
highest desires from ordinary intercourse : the unreal
triviality which first veils and then smothers passionate
longings for sympathy : the sense of weakness which drives
us in upon ourselves : the sense of weariness which forces
us again to frivolity ; shew that we have not yet fully
learnt the lessons which it can teach, or the strength
which it can give ; for the faith in the Resurrection
can harmonise life : can inspire life : can transform life.
There is about us on every side, in the midst of much
that is simply ostentatious and false and selfish, a restless
striving for the truth, a stern impatience of hypocrisy, an
eager desire to do something to raise the masses of men
to their proper dignity. And in the meantime popular
religion seems to stand aside from these great stirrings of
national life. Adversaries even venture to urge that
Christianity is, at least in certain aspects, hostile to truth,
to sincerity, to freedom. The sphere of its action and
264 ASPECTS OF LIFE
its hopes is said to be transferred by tacit consent to a
remote region, inaccessible even to the imagination.
So true it is that at first we neglect our gifts, and
then we deny them.
Our first prayer teaches us to ask not that we may be
transferred into the kingdom of God, but that the king-
dom of God may come among us.
We are placed, as it were, in the presence of a veiled
glory. The practised eye can habitually pierce beneath
the covering, and even we of duller vision come to feel,
first perhaps in seasons of darkness, the reality of its
effulgence.
In a word, heaven is not for us so much a "yonder "
towards which we have to move, as a " here " which we
have to realise.
If we try to form a distinct conception of what we
call vaguely our soul, we shall find that we include in the
idea all the details of circumstance and action and feeling
and thought which go to make up that which we feel to
be ourselves.
We know each how, as life goes on, its stream grows
stained and turbid. Dark memories from distant years
come unbidden and mingle with its current. We cannot
stay the source once opened.
And for the infinite future, is there then no release,
no restoration, no purifying power ? Must we for ever
carry with us not only the impress of the past, but that
ever-springing fount of sorrow, if not of sin, which lies in
the bitter recollection of good neglected or of evil done ?
The answer comes to us from the Cross and from the
sepulchre. Beloved now are we the sons of God, and it
doth not yet appear what we shall be : but we know that,
SOCIAL ASPECTS OF CHRISTIANITY 265
when He shall appear, we shall be like Him ; for we shall
see Him as He is. The open vision of God in Christ
will then transform us into His image.
By that the most amazing miracle of Divine love and
Divine power will be consummated, the complete for-
giveness of sin crowned by the transfiguration of the
sinner.
To make of life one harmonious whole, to realise the
invisible, to anticipate the transfiguring majesty of the
Divine Presence, is all that is worth living for.
Death, after earthly duty, loyally, humbly, patiently
fulfilled, is not the end but the beginning of life.
Social Aspects of Cfjristianttg tfje jfauntiation
1 DO not think that our real controversies in the
immediate future are likely to be speculative : they
threaten to be terribly practical. Behind the disputes of
words, the abstract reasonings about the Being of God
or the constitution of man, which occupy a large place
even in popular literature, lie the fundamental questionings
of social duty. What is the basis and measure of our
mutual obligations ? What is the source of our weakness
and of our strength ? What is or ought to be our aim,
our ideal, as men living human lives ? What, in other
words, is the foundation on which a kingdom of God can
be built, and how can we do our part in hastening its
establishment ?
The answers to such questions as these are, I believe,
to be found to be found only as they always have been
found since the first age in the Christian life answering
to the Christian Faith.
266 ASPECTS OF LIFE
But, I repeat, they are to be found. They are not
permanent and uniform. They are not ready for our
use without effort. They must be sought for, shaped,
realised. They must answer to our time, our education,
our place in the order of the world.
If it be said that the problems which the coming
generation will have to face, problems of wealth and
poverty, of luxury and want, of capital and labour, of popu-
lation, of class, of national responsibility, of peace and
war, are to be solved irrespectively of the Faith, I can
only reply that if I am a Christian I must bring every
interest and every difficulty of man within the range of
my religion.
When we look to Christ's Birth and Death and
Resurrection, are we not constrained to confess sadly that
we have in Him a revelation which has not yet found that
social expression which sooner or later it must find ?
As Christians we are not .left as other men to quicken
our impulses by noble abstractions or splendid guesses.
As Christians we are not constrained as other men to
acquiesce in the presence of unconquerable suffering. As
Christians we are not condemned as other men to gaze
with stem resignation upon the spectacle of lost good.
On us the duty is laid of shewing openly to the
world that our one Foundation is able to support the
fabric which answers to the present needs of society,
that it marks out lines of enduring effort, that it gives
unity to the varied strivings of all who are looking towards
the dawn.
Our relationship one to another does not depend on
any remote descent : it is not perilled by any possible
discovery as to the origin or the antiquity of man :
it is not measured by the course of days and years : it is
SOCIAL ASPECTS OF CHRISTIANITY 267
not closed by death. The brotherhood of men seen in
Christ is a question not of genealogy but of being. It
rests upon the present and abiding fatherhood of God,
Who in His Son has taken our common nature to
Himself.
The mystery of forgiveness is unveiled to us, as far
as our sight can look at it, in the fact of a Redemption
answering to the fact of a Fall, in death endured and
death overcome.
For the rest it is enough for us to know that an
enemy hath done this which covers the earth with gloom,
and that One stronger than he hath spoiled him. It is
enough for us to know that evil is foreign and
intrusive, and therefore conquerable.
Cfje Jamilg
VvE feel at each moment that we are responsible,
responsible for the past which we recall and for the future
to which we look forward. And at the same time we
recognise that we are dependent on our descent and on
our environment, limited both in action and in thought
by laws which we cannot evade.
Further reflection opens the vision of an underlying
harmony between these conflicting experiences. We
come to see that the completest conception which we
can form of moral freedom is the willing fulfilment of
the absolute law of our existence. He is free, he alone
is free, who discerns the end and the method of his
being, and follows with glad obedience the course which
he finds marked out for him.
Each fragment of the great order in which we are
placed brightens and grows more glorious as we study
it ; and if we offer ourselves to the influence of that
268 ASPECTS OF LIFE
divine teaching which is for the moment within our
reach, we shall stand in a right attitude towards the un-
discovered sum of heavenly mysteries by which we are
surrounded on all sides.
We are not made to live alone.
Even our communion with God must be through the
fulness of life. There may be times when hermit-isola-
tion becomes a duty, as it may be a duty to cut off the
right hand, or to pluck out the right eye, but it exhibits
a mutilation and not an ideal of life.
All anarchy and half the social errors by which we
are troubled spring from placing the individual, the self,
at the centre of all things.
No view can be more flagrantly false. It is im-
possible to resolve the world into a multitude of isolated
men.
It is impossible to picture in imagination even one
isolated man. A man who had grown up alone would
not be a man. When we come into being we are sons.
When we first begin to act we have been necessarily in
some degree disciplined and educated. To the last
what we have inherited immeasurably outweighs what we
have acquired.
Man, in a word, is made by and made for fellowship.
The Family and not the individual is the unit of man-
kind. This fact is the foundation of human life to which
we must look for the broad lines of its harmonious
structure.
In the Family, as has been nobly said, living for
others becomes the strict corollary of the patent fact that
we live by others.
In the Family we learn to set aside the conception of
right, and to place in its stead the conception of duty,
which alone can give stable peace to peoples or to men.
SOCIAL ASPECTS OF CHRISTIANITY 269
So it is that the popular estimate of the Family is an
infallible criterion of the state of society.
Heroes cannot save a country where the idea of the
Family is degraded ; and strong battalions are of no avail
against homes guarded by faith and reverence and love.
Classical history is a commentary on this truth. The
national life of Greece lasted barely for three generations,
in spite of the undying glory of its literature and the
unrivalled triumphs of its art, because there the Family
fell from its proper place. A constitution and laws
reared on a lofty estimate of the Family gave Rome the
sovereignty of the world. And more than this : Roman
legislation, which was based on the Family institutions of
the old Republic, survived the dissolution of the Empire,
and after more than two thousand years is still powerful
in the civil courts of Europe.
Man or woman alone represents only half of the
powers and capacities and feelings of humanity. And
no real approach can be made to the consummation of
our common nature by any attempt on the part of woman
to cultivate these elements in it which are characteristic
of man, or on the part of man to make his own that
which is truly womanly.
Such attempts only impoverish the race. Nothing
less than the union of man and woman in their de-
veloped diversity gives us the image of a perfect human
being, and raises our thoughts to a higher existence than
that of our divided personalities.
The husband grows more manly, the wife grows more
womanly, as they realise each in the other the possession
of that which they severally need, and yet cannot provide
from within themselves.
If trust be incomplete, Marriage, we know, cannot
have its perfect work. If trust be broken, Marriage
270 ASPECTS OF LIFE
perishes. But, by interchange of thought and hope and
prayer, in Marriage trust ripens into faith. And that
faith, carried out into the world, is the secret of the
blessedness of life.
Marriage, in a word, is the divine pattern and ground
of human communion, the original sacrament of com-
pleted manhood.
Fatherhood is the pattern or the original sacrament
of authority : sonship, of reverence and obedience.
The lesson of Fatherhood passes at once within the
Family to the connection of masters and servants, which
cannot with impunity be degraded into a mere bargain,
and which may be ennobled by real sympathy.
It passes on without to the connection of employer
and workman, which ceases, I cannot but say, to be
human if it is made to mean only so much labour for so
much money.
It passes to the connection of owner and occupier,
which cannot be stable if an inherited right is supposed
to dispense with present duties.
It passes to the connection of government and citizen,
which is simply a compact of limited slavery unless we
recognise above us that which we may modify but which
we cannot make, a manifestation of eternal authority
which we are born to treat with loyal reverence.
The ties of blood may be dissembled, disregarded,
disgraced, but they cannot be destroyed. " Brothers are
brothers evermore."
The sense of equality which home blesses is most
perfect, not when we make the claim to receive the
payment of a debt owed, but when we feel the power to
pay a debt acknowledged.
The idea of Brotherhood reveals to us the great
depths of our being in which we are all equal. It
SOCIAL ASPECTS OF CHRISTIANITY 271
enables us to claim and to realise a fellowship with those
who are separated from us. It gives hope under the
consciousness of the fragmentariness of our individual
work. It keeps fresh the generous impulses which bind
kinsmen together though scattered through distant lands.
It tends to counteract that spirit of isolating competition
which is eating away the old repose and nobility of
English life.
Thanks be to God the teaching of the family is still
left to us in England rich in gracious lessons of authority
and reverence and service. The ties of the Family are
still held sacred by popular sentiment. So may we
study them while there is yet time, study them in the
light of God's presence, and we shall need no other
school of social duty. May we by the Spirit's help
labour to fulfil them, and we shall need no other
preparation for the greater offices of life, no other pledge
that for these also the Father from Whom every Family
in heaven and earth is named will give us the strength
which we need.
attempts to explain the continuance of states by
the necessities of individual protection and convenience
leave out of account the social instincts which are not
less real, if at first they are less prevailing, than
personal instincts.
The generating, the sustaining force of states is not
material but spiritual.
.The soul at its noblest is the witness to its destiny.
We are born and live, and we feel that we are born
and live, not for ourselves only, not for our families only,
but for all about us.
The poet and the legislator, the statesman and the
evangelist, achieve their work by interpreting and not
272 ASPECTS OF LIFE
by creating thoughts in many hearts. The humblest
human experience goes to form the oracle of the prophet.
These four, if we will but listen to their voice
language, law, government, religion remind us at every
moment of a larger being in which we share and to
which we may minister.
We cannot, if we would, start afresh from our simple
manhood. Our national characteristics surround us with
an atmosphere equally subtle and pervading. What we
are and what we can be has been determined for us by
our English ancestors. They have stored up for our ready
use, by toil and thrift, by insight and love, material and
spiritual treasures which no one generation could amass.
They have, in a word, transmitted to us their life ;
and this life is the heritage not of a party, or of a class,
but of all ; and all have entered upon it.
Two occasions, now in the distant past, rise before
me still with unchangeable freshness, when every
Englishman, I believe, rejoiced to know even through
anxiety and sorrow that the nation was still one, one in
the maintenance of law, one in the devotion of loyalty.
Five and twenty years ago, when peace or war hung
upon the answer to a claim made as the deliberate
assertion of a legal right, the issue was awaited throughout
the empire with calm resolution ; and when the claim
was yielded, not one expression of pride or selfishness
marred the thanksgiving for a bloodless victory.
Again, at a later time, when it seemed that the
succession of our royal line would be broken, the heart
of the whole people was moved as the heart of one man,
not for a son or a husband or a father only, but for a
prince, who was felt to represent to his people some-
thing far more than personal qualities, and to bind us
all, as no other could do, to a glorious past.
SOCIAL ASPECTS OF CHRISTIANITY 273
That memorable season of suspense and deliverance
and grateful joy was, I cannot doubt, a crisis in the
history of our monarchy; and when I think of it my
thoughts go back not to the august ceremonial of a
nation's thanksgiving at St. Paul's, but to a plain white
cross in the churchyard at Sandringham, on which are
inscribed the words which tell the story of death and
life "One is taken and another left" the servant taken
and remembered : the lord left and not unmindful of the
awful presence in which he has been.
Surely this most touching and open confession of
equality reveals to us the secret of that
Sober freedom, out of which there springs
Our loyal passion for our temperate kings.
For such revelations of national life as these we may
well thank God.
There could be no true nation, even as there could
be no true family, without wide differences in power, in
fortune, in duty, among those who compose it. And the
aim of the Christian patriot will not be to obliterate these
differences, but to harmonise them in their ripe develop-
ment by shewing that they can minister to the vigour of
one life. He will strive not to confound class with class,
but to bind all classes together in their characteristic
distinctness by the consciousness of mutual service.
He will labour to establish everywhere the central
truth of morals, the central truth of faith, that man is
stronger and more blessed through sacrifice than through
self-assertion. He will seek to realise last triumph of
noble souls that the brightest crown of action is the
feeling of good done for which there is no reward.
Paid by the world, what dost thou owe
Me ? God might question : now instead,
' Tis God shall repay ! I am safer so.
274 ASPECTS OF LIFE
The nation again, no less than the family, is organised
and controlled by an inherent authority. Through
whatever instruments the authority may be administered,
it is in itself not of man but of God. Authority is not
created but recognised even in a successful revolution.
Authority may be graced or obscured by the character
of him who wields it, but essentially it can receive no
glory and suffer no loss from man. St. Peter and St.
Paul, as we remember, honoured it in the tyrant Nero :
Christ Himself acknowledged it in the selfish Pilate.
There have been times when the sacredness of the
divine ordinance has been transferred to the person of
the sovereign; and now, on the other hand, we are
tempted to derive the sanction of the authority itself from
the character of the person who wields it.
But it is possible to avoid the falsehood of both
extremes. And the Christian patriot will keep the
divine and human elements in the ruler separate in
thought, while he prays ardently that they may be brought
into the truest unison. He will know, and he will help
others to know, that the stability of society is assured
when we believe that its structure is not wholly, of earth.
He will rejoice to teach that reverence is the parent
of self-respect and dignity.
The Christian patriot will not tire in urging others to
confess in public, what home makes clear, that love
and not interest is alone able to explain and to guide
our conduct : that self-devotion and not self-assertion
is the spring of enduring and beneficent influence : that
each in his proper sphere workman, capitalist, teacher
is equally a servant of the state, feeding in his measure
that common life by which he lives : that work is not
measured but made possible by the wages rendered to
SOCIAL ASPECTS OF CHRISTIANITY 275
the doer : that the feeling of class is healthy, like the
narrower affections of home, till it claims to be pre-
dominant : that we cannot dispense, except at the cost
of national impoverishment, with the peculiar and
independent services of numbers and of wealth and of
thought, which respectively embody and interpret the
present, the past, and the future : that we cannot isolate
ourselves as citizens any more than as men, and that
if we willingly offer to our country what we have, we
shall in turn share in the rich fulness of the life of all.
1 RAINED by the happy discipline of our homes to
feel the need of fellowship, the grace of authority, the
joy of service, we soon recognise the divine lineaments
of the state. We perceive naturally how the life of this
larger body is sustained and purified and ennobled by the
forces which are first revealed in Marriage, in Fatherhood,
in Brotherhood. We gladly acknowledge that the forms
of political order are something more than convenient
provisions for the satisfaction of material needs.
But we cannot rest here. As the teaching of the
Family leads us to the idea of the Nation, so the
teaching of the Nation leads us while the ages go forward
to the idea of the Race. While the ages go forward :
for the old Roman had but one word for stranger and
enemy. The Greeks sharply separated from themselves
all other peoples as essentially inferior. The Hebrews
alone of ancient peoples, in this respect true children
of Abraham, though in others the most exclusive of
all, provided from the first for the admission of strangers
to a full share in their most sacred privileges.
But none the less the experience of life gradually
leads men towards a larger communion. The sense of
276 ASPECTS OF LIFE
national friendships is slowly established between peoples
not unequally matched ; and still more slowly the strong
are inspired with regard for the rights of the weak. In
this way, little by little, the nations are brought to
realise that there is in the order of the world a sacred
fellowship between them as members of one Race.
We are tempted by the spirit of domination, by the
spirit of imitation, and by the spirit of affected indiffer-
ence ; and these three spirits must be effectually exorcised
before we can serve our Race, or indeed have any true
sense of its vital unity.
Our first impulse is to claim universal supremacy for
our own customs and opinions and forms of government :
to regard each variation from our own standards of
thought and action as the result of ignorance or degen-
eracy : to urge the adoption of our social institutions as
the remedy for evils in other lands : to press patriotism
into arrogant self-assertion.
But then a reaction follows. As our intercourse with
neighbouring peoples is increased we are struck by their
grace or their versatility or their vigour. At once all
that is strange in them grows attractive. We endeavour
to copy what is not natural to us, that we may gain
what we have learnt to admire.
We disguise and disparage our own tastes. We assume
habits which have not grown out of our circumstances.
We treat the characteristic results of our past training
as insular prejudices.
It soon, however, becomes clear that we cannot make
others like ourselves or make ourselves like others, and
so in our disappointment we aspire to be " citizens of
the world," regarding with a lofty indifference the various
types of human life by which we are surrounded, using
SOCIAL ASPECTS OF CHRISTIANITY 277
and discarding according to our convenience the fashion
of the hour, accepting without conviction and abandoning
without regret the customs of our neighbourhood, finding
nothing more precious or stable in the form of society
than in the many tints of earth-born clouds which veil
the immeasurable sky.
But here again we are disappointed. This temper
brings no satisfaction or rest : we find ourselves dwarfed
and chilled by the narrowing of our sympathies. We
are poorer, and we feel ourselves to be poorer, as men
in proportion as we have succeeded in our endeavours
after domination, imitation, indifference.
Happy are we if we confess that these self-willed
interpretations of the facts of the world are vain ; for
then God opens the eyes of our hearts to see a little more
of His wider counsel : to see how the principles which
bring harmony to the life of the Nation, bring harmony
also to the life of the Race.
Such thoughts cannot but affect us as Englishmen
most deeply. England stands, as no other country
stands, in a threefold relation to great families of men.
She stands face to face with the most powerful empires
as their peer, bound to guard her heritage and to
commend to others by courage, by generosity, by self-
control, the blessings which she has received. She
stands face to face with the weakest tribes as their
sovereign, bound to protect, to foster, to develop human
forces which have not yet reached their full growth.
She stands yet again face to face with daughter-
peoples, jealous of their independence and loyal in
their affection, through whom, as their parent, she is
called to mould a new world to sober freedom, not by
rigid control, but by spiritual quickening.
Never has any nation received a charge of authority
278 ASPECTS OF LIFE
so far-reaching and so complex. There is not a social
problem of the future of which the elements are not
included within its range.
A single nation, moved by one thought, could alter
the fortunes of the world. And, as has been said by one
not of us, " the power of love as the basis of a state has
not yet been tried."
The true patriot seeks the highest good of his own
country, not at the cost of other countries, but through
their corresponding advance.
1 HE Church holds before us the end for which we
were made, even to become like God. It quickens
again the noblest thoughts of our hearts by the calm of
holydays, by the fellowship of solemn services, by the
silent eloquence of stately temples in which the dead
still living proclaim the victories of faith : it hallows
through the institution of the sacraments every object of
sense with something of a sacramental value as a sign of
unimaginable glory. It peoples the solitude of our
hearts with innumerable hosts of heavenly beings. It
makes the communion of saints the pledge of a life of
which sight is no measure and no test. It gives us,
when we look upon the vastness of the sea and the sky and
the mountains, instead of a vague feeling of mysterious
grandeur, a vision of the Presence of God.
No one will question that the Church of England
occupies a historical position which is without parallel.
It has borne with the nation the pressure of foreign
conquest and domestic revolution, and drawn breadth and
vigour from both.
It has received the treasures of alien thought and
experience, and vindicated its independence. It has
SOCIAL ASPECTS OF CHRISTIANITY 279
never broken with the past, and yet it has put off the
accretions of age.
I confess that the Church of England has failed, if it
be failure to fall short of the ideal. The Church of
England has failed as Christianity itself has failed. It
has failed through the imperfection of the men who have
represented it. But it has not failed so as to abdicate its
charge.
We have forgotten that the Church is a Body in
which an appropriate office belongs to every member ;
and so we have suffered grievously from a loss of power
and from a loss of mutual understanding.
We have suffered grievously from loss of power.
Those who are set to be teachers among us, who need
ample leisure for calm reading and high thinking, in
order that they may follow the swift currents of opinion,
have been overwhelmed with labours not their own,
with anxieties of finance, and with details of parish
organisation.
And those again who have a practical knowledge of
affairs, a wide influence in business, a rich endowment
of "saving common sense," have found no proper sphere
for the exercise of their gifts. ,
3Tf)e Itimjfoom of ofc
1 N every part of the New Testament, in every region
of early Christian labour, the teaching is the same. The
object of Redemption is set before us not simply as the
deliverance of individual souls, but as the establishment
of a Divine Society : the saving not only of men but of
the world, the hallowing of life, and not characteristically
the preparation for leaving it.
Morning and Evening we all pray in Christ's own
words that " Our Father's Kingdom may come, on earth
280 ASPECTS OF LIFE
as in heaven " : that it may " come," not that we may
be carried away to it far off, out of this stormy tumult
of common cares as to some tranquil haven of rest : that
it may come to us "on earth as in heaven."
The Lord points forward, if I may gather up what I
would say in one sentence, to a transfiguration of human
society which corresponds to the Resurrection of the
individual.
Efforts : tfje Jranctscana
Jr RANCIS of Assisi spoke in life, so that his work can
never cease to move. He built up, purified, ennobled
what he found, overcoming evil by the good. Through
Francis of Assisi the mediaeval efforts after the Kingdom of
God found their most characteristic embodiment. Bright,
joyous, enterprising, thoughtlessly lavish by nature, un-
trained in scholastic learning, instinct with poetic en-
thusiasm, Francis came to men simply as a man. He
knew but one pattern, the Lord Himself. He knew but
one lesson, the story of the Cross. He offered to the
simple outward faith of the middle ages a visible image
of love, of love to God and love to man. He brought
Christ out of the student's cell into the wild and sordid
conflicts of life. He was, if I may so speak, a living
Imitatio Christi. He sought and touched the leper in
body or in soul. He took to him Poverty, or rather
Humanity bleeding from a thousand wounds "whom none
had chosen for his own since Christ Himself," to cherish
to his life's end with unfailing tenderness.
The power of the example soon made itself felt.
Francis drew to him a few followers, who found in the
new life the Gospel for which they looked, the Gospel
for the poor.
Francis, in answer to the prayer of eager inquirers,
SOCIAL ASPECTS OF CHRISTIANITY 281
drew up a rule for men and women living in the world.
Those who subscribed it were bound to renounce all ill-
gotten gains; to abstain from aggressive war and litigation :
to observe the utmost simplicity in dress, intercourse, and
amusements: to give themselves according to their
opportunity to works of devotion : to meet for common
worship and almsgiving. By the institution of this
Third Order of the " brothers and sisters of penitence,"
as they were called, the work of Francis was consum-
mated. It seemed for a short space as if the Kingdom
of God were indeed about to be established on earth.
Then followed a swift decline.
Francis aimed at an ideal which neglected essential
facts of life. He sought to destroy individuality. He
disregarded also the divine office of nations for the race.
Yet once again the tender devotion of Francis to the
Lord's manhood became the occasion of grievous error.
Everything that is compassionate in the character of the
Lord was separated from His sovereign . righteousness,
and then these attributes of tender love were transferred
to His human Mother, who seemed to be more within
the reach of -rude and simple minds. In this way a
system of Mariolatry was shaped with what consequence
they know who are familiar with the popular religion
of modern Italy. Even Francis himself was set by
some in the place of the Lord. The evil spread far and
wide ; and many who hear me must have looked with
shuddering, as I have looked, on a picture at Brussels,
painted by Rubens for the Franciscan Church at Ghent,
in which Francis and the Mother of the Lord are
shielding the world from the thunderbolts which the
Divine Son is directing against it.
The order of Francis failed in its issue, and it is well to
take account of the causes of its failure ; but it is far more
welcome to mark the causes of its first splendid success.
282 ASPECTS OF LIFE
Efforts: tfy (Quakers
1 HE Jesuits and the Quakers both aimed at establish-
ing a Kingdom of God upon earth. They did this in
different ways, with different aims, and with different
results ; and they both failed.
The Quakers appear to me to express with the greatest
force and exclusiveness the new thought of the Refor-
mation, the thought of individuality. They give us in a
striking form one side of the Gospel, if one side only.
Fox judged that the. words of God could not super-
sede the Word of God.
No religious order can point to services rendered to
humanity more unsullied by selfishness or nobler in
far-seeing wisdom.
William Penn was, I believe, the only colonist in
America who left his settlement wholly unprotected by
fence or arms, and his settlement was the only one which
was unassailed by the Indian tribes.
Francis sacrificed the individual : Fox left wholly out
of account the powers of the larger life of the Church
and the race. For him the past was " a long and dis-
mal night of apostasy and darkness." He had no eye
for the many parts and many fashions in which God is
pleased to work. He had no sense of the action of the
Holy Spirit through the great Body of Christ.
He had no thought of the weak and immature, for
whom earthly signs are the appropriate support of faith ;
no thought for the students of nature for whom they are
the hallowing of all life.
He disinherited the Christian society and he maimed
the Christian man.
SOCIAL ASPECTS OF CHRISTIANITY 283
But he made clear beyond question the power of the
simplest spiritual appeal to the consciences of men. He
made clear beyond question the efficacy of a childlike
trust in the reality of a divine fellowship to cleanse the
rudest and coarsest life.
The principle of life fashions the organism, and sus-
tains it. No organism, however delicately constructed,
can summon to itself the principle of life.
present
W E are suffering on all sides, and we know that we
are suffering, from a tyrannical individualism. This
reveals itself in social life by the pursuit of personal
pleasure : in commercial life by the admission of the
principle of unlimited competition : in our theories of
life by the acceptance of material standards of prosperity
and progress.
The " great industries " have cheapened luxuries and
stimulated the passion for them. They have destroyed
the human fellowship of craftsman and chief. They
have degraded trade, in a large degree, into speculation.
They have deprived labour of its thoughtful freedom and
turned men into "hands." They have given capital a
power of dominion and growth perilous above all to its
possessor.
So it has come to pass that in our fierce conflicts we
are in peril of guiding our conduct by a theory of rights
and not by a confession of duties : of losing life in a
search for the means of living.
The first words attributed to man born outside the
Paradise of God are words which disclose the secret of
all social evil. Am /, said the earliest murderer, my
brother's keeper ?
284 ASPECTS OF LIFE
And the answer came from the unfruitful earth, silent
witness of the deed of violence ; came from the soul,
filling with remorse the fugitive, who could not flee from
himself.
Yes : and the same answer must come as often as
the thoughtless, the self-indulgent, the idle, propose the
question now.
We are our brothers' keepers even as they are ours ;
and unless we accept the charge, the scene of our toil
and the inexorable sovereign of our hearts will condemn
us to unsatisfied desires.
Behind every social question there lies not only a
moral, but also a religious question. And the final solu-
tion of every question belongs to the highest sphere.
" You cannot," in the words of the noblest leader
of modern democracy, "change the fate of man by em-
bellishing his material dwelling."
We must touch the soul, if we are to change the mode
of living.
Many who allow that Christianity can deal with in-
dividuals deny that it has any message for classes or
states.
Its virtues, they say, are the petty virtues of private
life : its promises, the gratification of the small objects
of personal aim : towards the struggles of society, of the
nation, of the race, it can at the best produce nothing
better than a temper of benevolent neutrality.
We know that the charge is false, essentially false,
but we must admit without reserve that we have given
occasion to it.
If we cannot improvise peremptory judgments, we
can always affirm an eternal principle : we can quell in
our hearts that spirit of self-assertion which fills us with
restless jealousy till our present demands are fully paid,
SOCIAL ASPECTS OF CHRISTIANITY 285
and that spirit of larger, deadlier self-assertion, miscalled
patriotism, which tempts us to think that the power of
a nation is the power of dictation and not of service,
and that every failure must be washed out in blood.
We can do this, and shall we venture to say we have
done it?
We need yet once more to gain and to exhibit a great
ideal. We are troubled on the one side by a spirit of
irony, which shrinks from the avowal of its loftiest aims ;
and on the other side by the spirit of confidence, which
assumes that all will be well if we go with the stream.
We play with noble thoughts. Now we want insight,
and now we want courage. In both cases we want faith
in men, and, that which alone can give it, faith in God.
No word is used more familiarly than "progress,"
but it is very hard to see the goal towards which we are
supposed to be moving.
The greatest triumphs of modern science are, as we
have seen, fruitful in evils no less than in blessings.
They have increased our power, our opportunities, our
resources : but in themselves they cannot open the
heavens and shew the glory of God and Jesus standing
at the right hand of God ; they cannot give us that vision
of immeasurable majesty which fills the whole soul with
the consciousness of its destiny, and that vision of
sovereign love which brings the assurance that attain-
ment is within our reach.
For we do not think too much of life, too much of
humanity, too much of men, but infinitely too little,
because we allow that which can be seen by the eye of
sense to furnish the data of our estimate.
But let us bring the Gospel of Christ, Maker and
Heir of all things into connection not with ourselves only,
286 ASPECTS OF LIFE
but with the world, and then there will rise before us a
spectacle which must move the dullest with enthusiasm
and touch the most disconsolate with hope : a spectacle
of a life unfolded through the ages in which, in spite of
every partial loss and every temporary check, a divine
counsel of righteousness is fulfilled : of a humanity through
whose discipline and victory, won by sacrifice offered in
the ministry of every member, the end of the whole
creation is reached in the peace of an indissoluble
harmony : of men who, each in their appointed place,
receive the inheritance of the fathers, and transmit it,
enriched by their own toils, to a new generation, and
enter living and dying into the joy of the Lord.
What ideal can be offered to the spirit which is greater
or more true ?
The sense of responsibility, the energy of spiritual
force, the. power of a divine ideal : how can we gain
them ? To this question, which is for us the question
of all questions, the past returns no uncertain answer.
Each new revelation of Christ among men has hitherto
found expression in some social movement, in some form
of disciplined life, which has embodied and interpreted it.
And Christ is revealing Himself through the very
needs which trouble us. We can see now, as men could
not see in earlier times, how there has been a law in the
growth of the race : how man was taken from himself by
the ancient organisations of the state : how he was taken
from the world by the dominant religious communities
of the middle ages : how he has been taken from society
by the isolating narrowness of many forms of popular
Protestantism ; and seeing this we can see also, when
we let the Incarnation give its perfect message, that he
is given back to himself, to the world, to society, in the
Risen Christ.
This then is the revelation which we have to embody :
SOCIAL ASPECTS OF CHRISTIANITY 287
to embody in the eyes of all by some fellowship which
shall strike the imagination ; which shall teach by
manifold experience the power of social relationships and
social obligations in commerce, in politics, in religion ;
which shall claim for the family and the nation their
proper parts in preparing the Kingdom of God on earth,
in bringing to redeemed humanity the fulness of its life
in Christ.
The fellowship must be natural. It must not depend
for its formation or its permanence on any appeals to
morbid or fantastic sentiments. It must accept the
facts of life,' as seen in the relations of the family, for the
ground of its constitution. It must be an attempt not to
realise the counsels of perfection for a select few, but to
give a healthy type of living for all.
The fellowship must be English. The nation is to
the race what the family is to the nation.
And England, alone among the nations, has received
the power which is essential for the task which we con-
template, the power of assimilating new ideas without
breaking with the past.
The fellowship must be comprehensive. It must deal
not with opinion or feeling or action only, but with the
whole sum of life. It must proclaim that God is not to
be found more easily in " the wilderness and the solitary
place " than in the study or in the market or in the
workshop or by the fireside.
It must banish the strange delusion by which we
suppose that things temporal and spiritual can be separ-
ated in human action, or that we can render rightly to
Caesar that which is not in the very rendering rendered
also to God.
The fellowship must be social. Every member of it
must hold himself pledged to regard his endowments of
288 ASPECTS OF LIFE
character, of power, of place, of wealth, as a trust to be
administered with resolute and conscious purpose for the
good of men.
The fellowship must be open. The uniform of the
soldier is at once a symbol and a safeguard.
It reminds others of his obligations, and supports him
in the endeavour to fulfil them.
It makes some grave faults practically impossible.
So too a measured and unostentatious simplicity, a
simplicity in dress, in life, in establishment, wisely adopted
by choice and not of necessity, will be an impressive
outward witness to the Christian ideal, and it will help
towards the attainment of it.
The fellowship must be rational. It must welcome
light from every quarter, as found by those who know
that every luminous ray, reflected or refracted a hundred
times, comes finally from one source.
The fellowship, above all, must be spiritual. It must
rest avowedly on the belief that the voice of God is not
silent among us, and the vision of God not withdrawn
from His people.
It must labour in the assurance that the difference of
our age from the first age is not the difference of the dull,
dim twilight from the noon, but that of common earth,
flooded with sunshine, from the solitary mountain-top
kindled to a lamp of dawn.
It must find occasion for continual praise and thanks-
giving in victories of faith, from that of the first martyr
St. Stephen to that of the last boy in Uganda who knew
at least how to die for his Saviour.
We can estimate fairly the resources of the race.
No dark continents, no untried peoples, fill the dim back-
ground of our picture of the world with incalculable
SOCIAL ASPECTS OF CHRISTIANITY 289
possibilities. The whole field lies before us. We look
upon all the provinces of the kingdom of God. We can
communicate to others the noblest which we have, and
save them from the long pains of our discipline. All
things are ready.
Let nothing rob you of the conviction that the voice
of God can be heard, and is heard ' To-day : ' that the
vision of God can be gained, and is gained ' To-day?
290 ASPECTS OF LIFE
Wit fenofo in
\VHEN St. Paul says "We know in part" he does
not disparage knowledge ; on the contrary, he reveals it
in its true nobility. He opens to us one view of the
meaning of the Lord's words that sustaining motto of
the scholar in which He declared (John xvii. 17) truth
to be the medium of man's consecration.
This necessary incompleteness of our knowledge,
which is at first sight disappointing and discouraging, is,
when duly weighed, fitted to bring stability to the results
of labour, satisfies the conditions of progress, offers hope
in the face of the problems of the present age, is briefly
a consolation, a promise, a prophecy for us as we strive
to fulfil our work in the shadow of time :
For thence a paradox
Which comforts ivkile it mocks-
Shall life succeed in that it seems to fail.
The angel who was seen in Augustine's vision
emptying the ocean with a shell gives no untrue image
of the disproportion between the possibilities of humanity
and the attainments of individual labour.
No one who has considered the slow development of
the powers which man now enjoys in what appears to us
to be his maturity, would be willing to admit that his
faculties exhaust in kind or in degree the possible action
of being.
No one supposes that the most encyclopaedic mind
could grasp all that is capable of being known at the
moment, not to speak of those remoter consequences of
all that we do, which often reveal first the true meaning
of thought and action.
ASPECTS OF LIFE 291
Our knowledge is inevitably partial in regard of the
object and of the subject and of the conditions of its
acquisition. In each respect an infinite mystery enwraps
a little spot of light.
It requires a serious effort to enter with a living
sympathy into the character of another man, or of
another class, or of another nation, or of another course
of thought : to feel, not with a sense of gracious
superiority, but of devout thankfulness, that here and
here that is supplied which we could not have provided :
to acknowledge how peculiar gifts or a peculiar environ-
ment, how long discipline or an intense struggle, have
conferred upon others the power of seeing that which we
cannot see.
There is on all sides an overpowering passion for
clearness, for decision, for results which can be measured
on demand. Art and history are trammelled by realism.
A restless anxiety for fulness and superficial accuracy of
detail diverts the forces which should be given to an
interpretation of the life. We begin to think that when
we can picture to ourselves the outside of things we
have mastered them.
So it is also in many respects with opinion. We are
told that we must make our choice definitely between
this extreme and that ; that there can be no mean ; that
a logical necessity demands one precise conclusion or
the other.
In this way we lose insensibly the present conscious-
ness of the great deeps of life; we lose the genial
influence of the vital play of thought and experience ; we
lose the chastening power of those unutterable strivings
of the soul to which language gives witness but not shape.
Portraiture becomes photography, and faith is represented
292 ASPECTS OF LIFE
by a phrase. The reflections from the mirror, the
shadows on the wall of the cave, are taken for the
realities which these fleeting signs should move us to
seek.
We must indeed, for purposes of use, define our con-
ceptions. We accept the necessity cheerfully, but we
will not willingly forget that in doing so we mutilate
them ; that we convert into abstractions what are
elements of life.
There is no outline in Nature, however convenient or
even necessary we may find it to draw one.
However paradoxical the statement may appear,
physical study more than any other brings the invisible
vividly before us. The world of the man of science is
.not the scene of conflict and disorder which we look
upon with our untrained eyes, but an order of absolute
law which he finds by the interpretation of a larger
experience. He pierces beneath the scene to that
which it indicates. So far he has read the thought of
God. His partial knowledge is a sign for the moralist
and for the theologian. His triumph encourages us to
study the phenomena of spiritual disorder in the sure
hope that here also something of the perfection of the
Divine counsel will be disclosed to us in due time, as
we gaze and ponder and wait.
Stye ^regent anto tfje
IT needs but little observation to notice how swiftly
an exclusive fashion of opinion passes away ; how a
partial philosophy reigns for a space as universal and
then is neglected and then despised. But our Christian
faith is the heir of all. It can welcome a new lesson,
and it can shelter one which has grown unpopular. It
is hospitable to forces whose claims to supremacy it
combats. It draws strength from truths with which its
ASPECTS OF LIFE 293
enemies have assailed it. Even when it is impressed
most deeply by the spirit of the age it never lays aside
its catholicity.
We are tempted to linger with a vain regret round
that which is ready to vanish away or to hasten pre-
maturely the advent of that which is not yet mature.
The present is for us not only the result, but also the
epitome of the past. It gathers up into one scene the
forces which have been called into play in successive ages.
It is no disrespect to our fathers if we allow that their
words were not final : it is no flattery to our sons if we
bid them make good new conquests.
We can use old phrases, but we cannot in that way
recall old thoughts. Each generation has its own work ;
and the condition of performance is that the successive
labourers should feel that their work has not been done
hitherto, and that it will be carried out to its completion
after them.
VvE have looked away from earth in order that we
may see heaven more purely ; we must still look back
to earth that we may make the truth of heaven more
effectual.
It is a commonplace that the planets are globes : we
have yet to discover, as it has been well said, that our
globe is a star.
CJUR faith is light : not the lamp only in the sepulchre,
but the sun shining on the broad fields of life.
We can feel that the darkest riddles of life lose their
final gloom when we refuse to acknowledge that their
294 ASPECTS OF LIFE
solution must be found in the facts which we have been
so far able to grasp.
what we will, we cannot empty life of its mystery.
Each one of us is in himself a mystery than which there
can be nothing greater.
VvE forget the harvest reaped from others' labours
while we murmur that the seed which we have cast upon
the ground remains long hidden.
To wait, even with dim eye and dull ear, for the
coming of the Kingdom of heaven is for us a sign that
the Spirit is active within us.
W E have learnt again and again from that feeding of
the five thousand to see in a blessing given not only the
promise, but the provision for a blessing yet to be the
sign of a love not exhausted by exercise.
When all past wants had been amply fulfilled beyond
all expectation, there remained a store for the future
great out of all proportion to that which had been
offered from human resources.
When the disciples might have been tempted to rest
as if all had been done, the voice came, Gather up the
fragments that remain, that nothing be lost fragments,
let us remember, which do not represent what was left
from man's imperfect or capricious use, but the fresh
superabundance of the divine bounty.
And it is added, Therefore because they accepted
the labour, because they trusted the word they gathered
them together, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments
of the five barley-loaves, which remained over and above
unto them that had eaten.
ASPECTS OF LIFE 295
We cannot mistake the spiritual meaning of the
history. It is the abiding benediction of means, gifts,
endowments, faithfully used without " nice calculation of
less and more."
It shews us how that which we have, if brought to
God with a single heart, is made fruitful beyond our
utmost thought, ^fruitful not only to meet wants which
are felt to be urgent, but fruitful also to anticipate wants
which we have not yet foreseen.
1 T is most characteristic of the Bible that in its loftiest
promises there is no suppression, no dissembling of pain
and sorrow.
In the Lord's life triumph and suffering go side by
side. The last sign in which He manifested His glory
was the recognised prelude to the agony of the Cross.
His words of power were preceded by His bitter weeping.
V^HRIST announces to us the unbroken continuity of
all life which is truly life. There is no likelihood that
we shall ever underrate the changes which we can see,
the separations which sadden us, the losses which mar
our capacity for action ; but, on the other hand, we lose
much by not dwelling day by day on that which as yet
we can grasp of the permanence of our being ; we lose
much by constructing a future out of some fragments of
the present, and transferring it to some remote scene
which serves to obscure the solemn beauty of earth.
We lose much by not striving to behold, little by little,
it may be in fleeting visions, the eternal which is about
us and in us, and which remains unaltered by all
vicissitudes.
296 ASPECTS OF LIFE
V_^HRIST promises to the believer without reserve a
freedom from death. We have no warrant for an
arbitrary dilution of the promise. We may confess that
we cannot comprehend all that it embraces, but we dare
not say that it means only what we can comprehend.
" Whosoever believeth in Me," He says plainly, " shall
never die;" not some part of him shall live hereafter,
but he the living, loving person all of him that truly
is " shall never die."
1 HE strength of a church, the strength of a nation,
the strength of a family, lies for the most part in the
unseen yet living members which the past has inscribed
for ever in its roll.
W E need not go from our proper place in order to
discipline ourselves for God's service ; we need not
strive after gifts which He has not entrusted to us, or
forms of action which are foreign to our position, in
order to do our part as members of His Church.
It is enough that we grow and wax strong under the
action of those forces by which He moves us within and
without, if we desire to fulfil, according to the measure
of our powers, the charge which He has prepared for us.
vjrREAT occasions do not make heroes or cowards ;
they simply unveil them to the eyes of men.
Silently and imperceptibly, as we wake and sleep,
we grow and wax strong ; we grow and wax weak ; and
at last some crisis shews us what we have become.
From small beginnings flow the currents of our lives,
from constant and unnoticed impulses we take our bias ;
ASPECTS OF LIFE 297
the stream is ever gathering strength, the bend is ever
being confirmed or corrected.
There is not one act, not one purpose, which does
not leave its trace, though we may be unable to dis-
tinguish and measure its value.
There is not one drop which does not add something
to the flowing river, not one blast which does not in
some way shape the rising tree.
QUESTIONS are ripening for discussion by which all
we hold most precious is imperilled. Evil forces are
gathering with which battle must be done. It will be
for us or for our children to shew that our faith can
solve fresh problems and win new victories.
But while we feel all this keenly, it is not our part to
anticipate with anxious curiosity what the future will
bring ; we can best prepare for that by doing in quiet-
ness and confidence what we find prepared for us.
SPIRITUAL service lies in the consecration of simplest
duties.
IvNOWLEDGE is only a vantage-ground and not a
victory. If we neglect to turn to use the superiority
which it gives us, our defeat will only be the more
disgraceful because we were so richly furnished for the
battle.
C_AN any one sincerely believe that God the Father
made the world, and not regard all creation, even in
what we call its lowest forms, with reverence ?
ASPECTS OF LIFE
1 HE Christian differs from the patriot and the philan-
thropist not so much in the immediate ends which
he seeks as in the impulse by which he is moved to seek
them.
IN OT one difficulty, one pain, one contradiction of life
is removed by the spirit of denial. Only the treasury of
heaven is closed at its bidding.
1 HE higher, nobler, fuller, comes to men only as the
fruit of the lower and the less.
" Light after light well used they shall attain."
\_} all the perils of advancing age none is greater
than that 'of losing the faculty of wonder. That which
is commonest is indeed the most real cause of wonder.
a whole human life is not like a straight line, it is
not like a circle ; but it is a widening and ascending
spiral. There is progress without return ; there is
resemblance without repetition.
FIE who loves the Church of Christ fears not the
investigation but the neglect of its records.
N EVER forget that in the inner life feeling is the
herald of knowledge. Never despond when you find
that to suffer is often the synonym for to work.
ASPECTS OF LIFE 299
1 HOUGH a man may become more incisive in action
in proportion as he grows narrower, the cost of success
is a maimed humanity.
1 HEOLOGY and physical science are, and it is vain to
deny or extenuate the fact, separated for the time by a
profound jealousy and misunderstanding.
We have been reminded very frequently of the errors
of theologians as to the office and method and results of
physics ; to me the errors of physicists as to the office and
methods and results of theology are more surprising;
and, if I may venture to express my whole mind, the
practical neglect of history the only record of the com-
plete life of man by both, appears to be still more
wonderful and still more disastrous.
1 HE science of life, which deals with the whole
experience of men, must be restored to its proper place
between the science of experiment, which deals with
matter, and the science of revelation, which deals with
God.
Then, and not till then, shall we see how the Gospel
is illuminated by our progress, and itself is illuminated
by our darkness.
IT is of the utmost importance that in all intellectual
labour we should remember that every expression of
truth is the resultant of many forces which are perpetu-
ally changing, so that an identical formula cannot long
preserve its original significance.
ASPIRATIONS without faith are powerful only for de-
struction. They can kindle a revolution, but they cannot
mould a new order.
300 ASPECTS OF LIFE
1 HE recognition of duty is the surest protection of
rights.
-T\. SAINT falls in some obscure conflict, and forthwith
he is manifested with a multiplied energy, and stirs the
heart of men with an irresistible force which he had not
before. A warrior or a statesman shews that he can dare
or suffer or forbear great things for his country and his
name ; his life through his name becomes a power to
inspire, to support, to control later generations.
one time the change from the seen to the unseen
comes swiftly, in the full vigour of action, that so we
may learn that there must yet be scope in some new and
unknown field, in some new and unknown shape, for
the energy which is instinct with promise.
At another time the change comes through "calm
decay " : first one faculty and then another is withdrawn,
while love abides, that so we may learn that the person
whom we love is more than those qualities through which
he has been outwardly revealed to us.
IT. E would be less than man who could exist in the
world and not be ennobled while he blesses the countless
multitude of silent benefactors who at every moment are
stirring him to follow great examples ; less than a man
who did not feel that his self-denial would be joyous if
he could foresee that in some later age another would
thank him for having removed one stumbling-block from
the path of right. Our soldiers at Badajos laid their
bodies on the sword-blades that their comrades might
find a path to the breach ; that is an image of what
our fathers have done for us.
ASPECTS OF LIFE 301
JlLVEN now we have not fully learnt what the Greek
Scriptures and Greek speculation, classical and Christian,
have to teach ; but at least we can feel that, with all its
faithlessness, with all its hypocrisy, with al] its violence,
the classical Renaissance has left a blessing behind it ;
and so we can await with thankful expectation the
renaissance inspired by physical thought with, which
society is travailing now.
1 HE way of God is the way of sacrifice. But let us
not mistake the meaning of the word. It has been well
said that " in the hours of clear reason we should say
that we had never made a sacrifice"; and again it may
be said no less well that all which we delight to recall
is sacrifice. For sacrifice properly describes not loss to
man but devotion to God : not suffering but dedication :
not the foregoing of that which we might have enjoyed,
but the conversion of that which was offered to us for a
time into an eternal possession ; the investment of things
unstable and fleeting with a power of unchangeable joy.
The poorest mother who clasps her new-born infant
to her breast has found, if but for a moment, the secret
of life. To live for others, to suffer for others, is the
inevitable condition of our being. To accept the con-
dition gladly is to find it crowned with its own joy.
1 HE failure of every selfish pleasure to satisfy the soul,
the weariness which follows self-indulgence, the sense of
weakness and distrust which comes from powers unused
and duties unpursued, confirm the sentence which is
executed, sooner or later, by the conditions of society.
We were made to serve one another. We are happiest
302 ASPECTS OF LIFE
when we fulfil the law of our being, " It is more blessed
to give than to receive." The Lord does not say it is
more natural or more pleasant.
1 O love is* better, nobler, more elevating, and more
sure, than to be loved. To love is to have found that
which lifts us above ourselves ; which makes us capable
of sacrifice ; which unseals the forces of another world.
He who is loved has gained the highest tribute of earth ;
he who loves has entered into the spirit of heaven. The
love which comes to us must always be alloyed with the
sad sense of our own unworthiness. The love which
goes out from us is kept bright by the ideal to which it
is' directed.
JTlE who has turned aside from the march of the
great army to bring help to one who has fallen, he who
has yielded a foremost place that he might restore
another, has felt something of the joy of his Lord the
joy of absolute self-surrender, and knows that there is
a priceless victory in what seems to be failure irr the
eyes of men.
1 HE return for labour is the power of fresh activity.
1 N the symbol of the Friendly Society the open hand
is the minister of the open heart. There the wreath
round the world foreshadows the conquest of all earthly
claims. There, over the speaking signs, which represent
the facts of this life and the hopes of the future, is laid
the golden cross, the emblem of true service unto death.
There, around all, faith and hope and love are busy with
gracious duties; there, above all, the eye of light is
ASPECTS OF LIFE 303
opened, which tells of a presence that never fails and of
a care that never slumbers. It is enough, then, that
these symbols be translated into deeds. By love serve
one another, and you will know know with deeper
thankfulness as the service is more perfect that " it is
more blessed to give than to receive."
JL*ET any one looking to his own home, put on one
side the trivial, commonplace occasions on which he has
sacrificed others to himself, and on the other those in
which he has sacrificed himself to others, and he will see
that life is indeed the discipline of love, and that love is
the soul of life.
W E have not only a domestic ancestry and a domestic
heritage. We have also a national ancestry and a
national heritage. A great part of our life is made up
of that which we have, every one, received in common as
Englishmen. And this splendid patrimony is not for
display, not for pride, but for most laborious and
solemn employment. Patriotism, like affection, may
unhappily degenerate into selfishness ; but it may, by
God's grace, be the devout expression of a duty to
humanity.
1 HE greater body has its grievous sicknesses, its
fevers and its frenzies, even as the less. But the ocean
lies deep and still below the storms which trouble its
surface.
1 HERE is much, very much, in the circumstances of
life which requires readjustment ; but as we believe in
the one life in Christ, we shall not attempt to deal
directly with symptoms, and achieve superficial reforms.
304 ASPECTS OF LIFE
We shall seek to overcome the disease by quickening
the healthy energy of the vital forces. To this end we
can all contribute. In this labour we are all called to
be fellow-workers with God.
What the issue may be we are not careful to pre-
judge. But we are sure that the spiritual life of a people
will find an outward form corresponding to its power
and beauty.
For of the soul the body form doth take,
For soul is form and doth the body make.
1 HERE is, I think, nothing sadder in the world than
the waste of Christian influence. From one cause or
another we shrink from the responsibility of avowing
our deepest convictions. Partly it is from fear of osten-
tation and singularity, partly from self-distrust and sincere
humility, partly from more unworthy motives. But from
whatever cause it may be, by so doing we wrong our
friends. We leave unspoken the word which might have
cheered or guided or turned them. By our coldness
we suffer them to remain in doubt whether God has
visited us. If the heart be full, men argue, its feelings
will find utterance. If the Christian creed be accepted
as the Truth, it cannot but colour the whole life of the
believer. Not to speak, then, of our highest hopes, not
to talk, one with another, of what, as we trust, God has
done, and will do, for us, is to cast discredit on our
name. When that is at stake we may well forget
ourselves.
JN O one, I fancy, has ever ventured to cast aside his
religious reserve without meeting with sympathy for
which he had not looked, and gaining courage from the
sense of spiritual fellowship. How can it be otherwise ?
It is not of any special prerogative we make boast, but
ASPECTS OF LIFE 305
of a blessing which is offered as the common heritage
of men.
2Tfje
/xLL the images under which the religious life is
figured bear witness to this its twofold character. The
power and beauty of the Christian society are always
shewn to us in manifold subordination. At one time
we are taught to regard it as a temple reared through
long ages, each stone of which fills its special place and
contributes its share to the grace and stability of the
fabric. At another time as a vine, where, by the com-
plicated and delicate machinery of Providence, earth and
air and water are fashioned into leaf and flower and
fruit. At another time as a body, where a royal will
directs and disciplines and uses the functions of every
member. At another time as a vast army, where each
soldier, trained and strengthened, acts no longer for
himself, but even to absolute self- sacrifice submits to
the sovereign control of his leader. It is impossible to
mistake the meaning of such images, which teach us our
mutual dependence in every aspect.
We are dependent on the past, which determines our
relative positions. We are dependent on the present,
which supplies the materials for our action and the law
by which we can appropriate and employ them. We are
dependent even on the future, which may require that
we perish, as some forlorn hope, to ensure the triumph
of those who shall come after us.
blitje
I HE aspect of the blessing of Church work which is
brightest with promise is that which presents it as the
firstfruits of a dedicated life. It is the end which deter-
mines the character of the work. What we do is generous
306 ASPECTS OF LIFE
or base in consideration of the object at which we are
aiming as we do it. I remember to have read a most
touching story in which a man is represented as preserv-
ing through every vicissitude of declining fortune the
sense that he was serving his country. He fell outwardly
lower and lower, but he never ceased to be noble. The
story is a parable. What his country is to the citizen,
the universal Church is to the Christian : the visible
representation of all that is loftiest in duty, and of all
that is most august in power. To work for that Society
in whose life ages are but as days, to whose fulness
nations are contributory elements : for that Society which
is indeed the Body of Christ, is a privilege which gives
inexpressible dignity to the humblest ministry. If we
are often led to think too highly of ourselves, we always,
I believe, think too poorly of that to which God has
called us. Noblesse oblige the inspiring necessity of
position has at all times stirred men to splendid efforts.
And the nobility of the Christian if our eyes are open
to see rises supreme even now. He traces his descent
through a line of Martyrs and Saints ; he holds the charter
of an eternal kingdom.
fofjat Purpose fcras tljfe SKEaste?
W HY is it that we build splendid churches and decor-
ate them beyond the necessities of use? "To what
purpose is this waste?" Would it not be better to
multiply buildings of the simplest character, which would
offer adequate shelter to crowds of worshippers ? Has
Art, in other words, a place in spiritual service ? It is
common to seek a reply to these questions from the Old
Testament, from the divinely-ordered magnificence of the
Temple, from "the ark of the covenant overlaid with
gold," and " the cherubim of glory overshadowing the
mercy-seat," on which even the writer of the Epistle to
ASPECTS OF LIFE 307
the Hebrews dwells with lingering affection. But no
valid argument can be drawn from that source. The
Jewish system was external, and consequently the natural
embodiment of all its teaching was external.' Christianity
is spiritual ; we might, therefore, be tempted to conclude
by analogy, that its teaching will always be presented in
a spiritual form. This being so, we must look deeper for
our answer. We must look to the very constitution of
man, which our Faith hallows in its fulness body, soul,
and spirit and then at once we can see that we are
made to love the beautiful no less than the true and
good. There are harmonies of form and colour and
sound which not only give us keen delight, but minister
to pure and noble thoughts. No doubt the beautiful
differs widely from the true and good in this that it is
liable to corruption. It deals with those objects of sense
through which we are most openly and readily led astray.
But it may be said that for this very reason it stands in
greater need of consecration ; and at least it is clear that
we shall not have rendered ourselves wholly a sacrifice
to God till we have in some way found for every power
with which He has endowed us a satisfaction consistent
with His will. All life, all instinct, proves that we cannot
but seek to gratify the different organs of sense. We
cannot close them against the beauty and the wonder
and the power ; the shapes of things, their colours, lights
and shades, changes, surprises ; and God made them all.
And the impulse to dwell on them belongs to us as men,
and not as fallen men. The few ornaments carefully
arranged on the cottage shelf, the few plants brightening
the window, the feeling which finds expression in the
simple melody, bear witness to the working of pure and
tender elements in our nature which claim to be re-
cognised, satisfied, interpreted. Even before Christian
worship emerged into open daylight, the early believers
decorated their tombs with such skill as they could com-
308 ASPECTS OF LIFE
mand. The vine spreading over the vault, as the
emblem of the graceful fruitfulness of the divine life, the
figures of the Good Shepherd or of the Lamb, shewed that
they wished to enlist art in the service of their faith, and
they gave gladly even of their slender means for the
adornment of its sanctuaries. There is, I have admitted,
a danger in this use of art. I do not forget that some
would seek in this distraction of outward beauty a sub-
stitute for spiritual devotion. I do not forget that the
most lavish display of ecclesiastical splendour in England
heralded forth the struggles of the Reformation. I do
not forget that all that is of the world passeth away.
But this is the great trial of our earthly discipline, that
we must save, that we must hallow, that which is ready to
perish ; that we must strive even now to bring to creation
something of the glory of the sons of God. In this effort
art is our minister. Art, rightly studied and employed,
brings the ideal before us in material shapes, reveals
something of the underlying, eternal lessons of things
transitory, saves us from turning away from that which
lies about our feet to an unimaginable future. As, then,
we acknowledge the peril of art and the office of art, we
look for guidance in the offering of gifts for the gracing
of worship.
Cije Sttrtrrj of &rt
1 HE study of art generally enlarges, invigorates, and
refines very important powers, both of feeling and
thinking.
The cultivation of some art is not only necessary for
enjoyment, but that we may fulfil our own part in life.
If this is the function of art is it not a part of the
spiritual teacher's duty to put art in its true light before
those with whom he has to deal ?
It is a principle we are constantly losing sight of.
One result is that we are trying to divide our life into
ASPECTS OF LIFE 309
two spheres which have no connection with one another.
So it is that there enters into our religion something of
unreality.
We clergy are apt to forget that the message entrusted
to us was a message to man as man ; that we are bidden
to bring perfection to man as created, and not only re-
demption to man as fallen.
Music is essentially the social art. The painter and
sculptor can work alone, but the highest effects of music
can only be brought out by thorough combination.
Music gains in movement and variety what it loses
in permanence and directness ; it is a living thing ;
painting and sculpture, without disrespect, may be de-
scribed as dead things. Music is a human art a
creation of man, not an imitation.
True Art, like Nature, appeals to all. The pleasure
which it brings is common property. The waving corn-
field, the purple blush of the budding elm trees, the
changing glory of the sunset over our wide plains, speak
alike to every one who looks on them.
And so it is with a great picture, or a great piece of
music, or a great building.
These also are a public endowment. They address
various minds and various moods, it is true, in different
ways, but for all they have an intelligible voice.
Catfjebraf
1 O speak only of that which is most directly before
us, I will venture to say that there is not one here to
whom our Cathedral has not spoken, not one who has
not felt that it has been well for him to listen to the
310 ASPECTS OF LIFE
message which it bears from a distant age. It may have
been the majestic front, with its promise of catholic
welcome, or the smaller porch, which shews a danger
boldly made into an occasion for a fresh beauty, or the
long nave with its lesson of self- forgetful faithfulness, or
some smaller part, telling of thought, of reverence, of
sacrifice, by which we have been touched ; but do we
not know that the influence has been real ?
fje Falue of Etfe
ilOW few of us pause to consider what life is, not in
its circumstances but in its energy, in its capacities, in
its issues.
We all know, even if the knowledge has little practical
effect, that no measure of time or sense gives a standard
of its value.
Life is more than the sum of personal enjoyments and
pains through which it finds expression ; more than the
length of days in which it is visible to human eyes ;
more than the fulness of means which reveal to us
its power. All these pass away, but in the process of
their vanishing a spiritual result has been fulfilled. The
soul of the man has been brought into fellowship a
fellowship welcomed or disregarded with men and with
the world and with God. It has consciously or uncon-
sciously learnt much and done much. It has shaped a
character for itself; it has helped to shape a character
for others. It is at the end, most solemn thought, " as
it has been used."
jjJrorjftience on tfje .SflJe of tfje strongest Sonrjfctfons
1 HE saying that Providence is on the side of the
strongest battalions was found false by the experience of
the man who said it, false by his greatest triumphs, and
ASPECTS OF LIFE 3 1 1
false by his fatal overthrow, if multitude is the measure
of success.
Providence if we dare so to speak is on the side,
not of the strongest battalions, but of the strongest
convictions.
The devotion of faith can change a defeat into a
victory, and overbalance at the instant the weight of
numbers.
The Swiss, at St. Jacob, conquered a force twenty
times as great as their own, not for a day, but for
centuries, by simply dying. When Cromwell burst into
the words of the 68th Psalm, as the sun just rose over
the rout of Dunbar, he had decided the fate of the
Empire with an army half as large as that opposed to
him. So it will ever be. '
funeral ration on ILout'g
I REMEMBER that one of the greatest orators of
France began his sermon on the death of her most
brilliant sovereign with the solemn words, " My brethren,
God only is great." I often have wished that he had
also ended there. In the magnificent periods which
followed, he drew in unconscious irony a picture of
warlike glory, of ostentatious luxury, of successful per-
secution, by which, in spite of his own confession, he
sought to establish the title of " great " for the departed
king.
The orator was sincere in his pleading, and his
contemporaries affirmed his judgment. But for one
hundred and fifty years the nation of the "great mon-
arch" has reaped the fruits of his "greatness" in a
disastrous cycle of revolution and anarchy and des-
potism. The pride of class trampled under foot,
312 ASPECTS OF LIFE
unparalleled victories more than compensated by unpar-
alleled defeats, wealth dissipated, confidence destroyed,
have left the opening sentence of the panegyric almost
startling in its isolated truth. Over all its lofty boastings,
over all its august prophecies, the words stand written,
luminous and ineffaceable " God only is great."
NEVER before, not even in the defeat of the first
Napoleon, have men been allowed to look upon so swift
and total an overthrow of personal dominion as that
which has finally been consummated in a lonely death.
Of all that kept Europe in awe for twenty years, nothing
remains except burning memories of shame and disaster.
The armies which were fabled to be invincible have
endured surrender and captivity. The city, which
boasted herself the indefeasible queen of pleasure, has
twice borne the extremities of war. The chief in whose
silent thoughts the destiny of nations was supposed to
lie, has acknowledged defeat and with patient dignity
passed before a tribunal loftier than man's. We may
give sentence as severely as we dare upon the self-seeking
which compassed a throne, and upon the self-indulgence
which occupied it; but we must admit that, in man's
measure, the penalty did not fall short of the sin.
Where there was no sacrifice there was no permanence.
The rain descended, and the floods came, and the wind
blew, and beat upon that pleasure-house of Majesty ; and
it fell : and great was the fall thereof. For sovereignty
came exile; for luxury the long tortures of exquisite
pain ; for statecraft utter and hopeless discomfiture.
And if we try to represent to ourselves what must have
been the sufferings of that last campaign to him who led
it, the most just condemnation will be lost in pity.
ASPECTS OF LIFE 313
special Blessings of <njjlis!j
JN OT to dwell on blessings, which we all rightly regard
as natural constituents in an Englishman's birthright,
parts, that is, in God's gifts to him, such as freedom of
speech and act, tenacity of purpose, self-restraint, I will
mention two others, which are, perhaps, less obvious,
and which, nevertheless, seem to me to characterise the
part which we have to play in the conflict of opinions,
rather than of peoples, which is threatening to break
over Europe.
The first is the vital unity of English society. The
second is the combination of reverence with self-respect
in popular opinion. I do not forget that there are
forces at work among us which tend to separate class
from class, and to set one against another in fratricidal
rivalry.
I do not forget that some would represent loyal
homage to rank and blood as derogatory to the generous
spirit which it purifies. But I am sure that the great
heart of England is sound still.
I am sure that the unity of which I speak is real, if
often concealed, and that reverence is as yet powerful
among us, if often dissembled.
There is a living circulation between our many
ranks which makes mutual understanding easy. On
the other hand there is an age-long tradition gathered
round each one which preserves its distinctions in-
tact.
We do not yet think that we have made, or that we
can unmake the dignity of the Throne.
We are not yet persuaded that level uniformity is the
type of grace, or an adequate expression of the constitu-
tion of human nature.
314 ASPECTS OF LIFE
(35njjlanti m a
1 F Europe is to learn that manifold service is the true
condition of unity, that order is the one foundation of
progress, I cannot doubt that England must -be the
teacher.
We must make clear among ourselves, so that all men
may see the animating spectacle, that there can be a
society free without confusion, reverent without servility,
strong without selfwill, devout without superstition.
The part is not of our seeking : it is not matter of
self-gratulation or arrogance, but for self-questioning and
self-abasement.
What are we that such issues should be left in our
hands ? No one can recognise more gladly than I do,
the priceless benefits which the great nations of the Con-
tinent have conferred upon mankind at large, and upon
ourselves ; but now (as it seems to me) they, in turn, are
looking to us. They want what we have been trained to
offer, if we have not wasted the heritage of our fathers,
in the example of an energetic, a multiform, a harmonious
national life.
It may be that dangers seem to be more urgent and
more alarming, because they are brought nearer to us by
the conditions of modern intercourse, but I confess that
I tremble for the future when I hear of a wide and grow-
ing organisation abroad, which pledges its members, on
the penalty of expulsion, to reject the sacraments of
Christianity for themselves and for their children : when
I hear of societies of youths and schoolboys banded
together to assail the Faith of their fellows : when I see
one great people still trammelled by the traditions of
feudalism, which claim no respect in the popular con-
science, and another united only in the deep passion for
ASPECTS OF LIFE 315
far-off revenge, and another torn asunder by a succession
of civil wars, till the conception of the nation has become
an idle name, and another sadly despairing of the
reconciliation of civil duties and catholic belief, and
another driven by a restless ambition to seek in conquest
the semblance of strength which domestic intrigues con-
sume at home.
8Tfje iWiscrtes of
\~JF these the fierce, mad struggle, the swift and honour-
able death are the very least. Gather together every
ingredient of suffering, all the agony of suspense, and all
the despair of foreboding; fancy that whoever is
dearest to you brother, husband, son is called away
to trials which are not uncertain but only undefined ;
conjure up the indescribable deeds which men will dare
to do, who know that their lives are in the balance ; look
forward to the heritage of desolation which a great battle
leaves alike to conquerors and to conquered; and
acknowledge, prostrate before the throne of God, that of
all the mysteries which encompass us, that is the
greatest, that at the bidding of one or two men, of whose
good faith there can be no warranty, thousands should
be consigned to swift destruction, and tens of thousands
to hopeless bereavement.
There have been, and there yet may be, times when
principles were and will be maintained not too dearly even
at this cost. ' Freedom, faith, religion, the integrity of an
empire, the fulfilment of a trust, claim as a ready sacrifice
all that we are and all that we have. But often there is
no principle at stake. The combatants meet in a mere
trial of strength. It is at the best a duel, and not a
conflict of nations. Some plea of wounded honour, some
rankling of old grievances, some strained susceptibility
316 ASPECTS OF LIFE
as to damaged influence, is all that is urged to justify the
irrevocable defiance.
We should not forget that even war may be a duty
a duty on both sides. Sharp swift blows may prove to
be a less evil than the suppressed and slumbering passions
of which they are the open avowal.
It may be that through bloodshed lies the surest way
to peace ; it may be that after the paroxysm of concen-
trated suffering is over, the peoples will be left torn, en-
feebled, half-dead, but yet freed from the evil spirits of
pride and domination by which they were before possessed.
But in the meantime, What is our duty as spectators of
the struggle ? Some things there are which we must
guard ourselves from doing.
far as I can judge, there are three principal
temptations to wrong-doing or wrong-thinking in this
matter which we must overcome. There is in the first
place a temptation to claim for ourselves the interpretation
of the methods of Providence. We are inclined to be
over-hasty in deciding that in this or that lies an evident
retribution for something in the past. But the ways of
God are not as our ways. He works upon a wider field
than we can embrace with our vision. Virtue is not
always prosperous before our eyes ; the champion of
justice is not always triumphant. There may be
martyred nations as well as martyred men. They too
may fall, and falling, bequeath their cause, consecrated by
a baptism of blood, to those who shall come after
them.
The temptations to read the Divine judgments may
be strong, but if you love right, and as you love right, do
not peril your convictions on transitory and precarious
tests. Every sin, we may be sure, sooner or later, brings
its harvest of sorrow, but the harvest ripens slowly. The
ASPECTS OF LIFE 317
third or fourth generations may have to bear the inevit-
able punishment of the iniquity of their fathers, who have
themselves enjoyed a terrible impunity.
1 HERE is, in the next place, an appalling selfishness
roused in us at the prospect of two great nations engaged
in a death struggle together.
We calculate instinctively what we have to gain or lose
by the success of either side ; we allow considerations of
interest to cloud our views of truth ; we accept combina-
tions in the spirit of gamblers, which promise to leave us
the largest profit. This one, we think, may become a
formidable rival ; that one may become a powerful ally.
We grow almost content with the sacrifice of lives and
fortunes, if it appears that some advantage may accrue
to us while we idly watch. Every one's experience will
bear witness that what I say is true. In the American
War this feeling found an unabashed though partial
utterance. Strike down the ignoble impulse, if you
perceive it is rising within you. Security, repose, pros-
perity, may be enjoyed in thankfulness if we hold them,
under God, by the exertion of those powers which He
has given us ; but to look complacently for the increase
of such blessings, through the toils of those with whom
we have not laboured, and through the tears of those
with whom we have not wept, is something meaner than
cowardice.
THIRD temptation yet remains, still more coarse,
and yet still more subtle, which every one of us will have
to meet. In the straining after some new excitement, we
convert the most overwhelming tragedies of life into
food for our passing curiosity ; we are impatient for
tidings which will enrol one more among the blood-
3 1 8 ASPECTS OF LIFE
stained names of history ; we watch the movements of
armies as if they were representing a drama for our
amusement ; we almost feel ourselves aggrieved if a day
fail to add a startling incident to the progress of the
action ; we willingly forget that that glorious battlefield,
as men speak, is one loathsome sepulchre ; we forget
that that triumphant march is accompanied at every step
by bitter, lingering wails of sorrow, which outlast the
trumpet-call ; we forget that the story which makes our
pulse beat quicker and our eye flash brighter has darkened
for ever homes which till that was told were as happy as
our own. Strive against this temptation also. Do not
try by an inhuman alchemy to turn the pangs of others
into your pleasure. They too, who perish unknown in
strange lands, are our brethren for them too Christ
died.
1 HE individual is not an isolated unit, but a com-
plicated result of an enormous past, inspired at the same
time with a personal will, which makes him a source of
influence for an immeasurable future.
1 HAVE good hope that when all wealth is felt to be a
trust the blessing which lies in poverty will be recognised.
What we need for the purification of society is, as
was said long since, plain living and high thinking.
CHRISTIANITY is not an etherealised Judaism, but
its spiritual antitype.
is filled with awe. Its solemnity grows upon
us. We may wish to remain children always, but we
cannot.
ASPECTS OF LIFE 319
1 F it be true that a prophet is not received in his own
country, it is equally true that he is not received in his
own age.
IN OT all at once, not in blinding glory, not in over-
powering might, but in many parts and in many fashions,
God trains His children to a riper understanding of His
counsels.
J\. CLEAR and harmonious view of the elements of
truth is not necessarily a complete view.
power of apprehension is no measure of the
fulness of the Divine message.
V_x AREFUL reflection will at once shew that our bodies
are nothing more than the outward expression of unseen
forces, according to the laws of our present existence.
1 HE real sign of the supremacy of the Christian
society is not that it spreads everywhere, but that it
embraces the whole truth. This is the sure pledge of
the Church's dominion.
efforts must be directed not to materialising
heaven, but to discerning the divine, the eternal, in
earth.
1 HE efficacy of a pattern obviously must depend
upon its fitness for imitation.
THE loftiest aspirations and the most difficult labours
320 ASPECTS OF LIFE
have in the home-hearth that which may kindle them
with a homelier glow and direct them with a steadier
light.
IJEYOND the crowded thoroughfares which bewilder
us, beyond these crushing palaces of commerce which
overwhelm us, this sordid glare which dazzles and
saddens us, rises before the believer the holy city pure
and still.
1 O live is hard ; and there is not one of us, I fancy,
who has not again and again been tempted to despair of
life when he has dared to look upon its dark mysteries ;
but again, there is not one of us who has not found a
great sorrow, a great disappointment, a great trial, an
avenue to unexpected joy.
1 HE rejection of the mysteries of Christianity will not
eliminate the element of mystery from life.
IT. OWEVER repulsive the ostentation of religion may
be, the suppression of faith is more perilous. Who can
believe that the heart is full when the lips are silent ?
1 HE hallowing, the preservation, the transfigurement
of every faculty of sense and thought and intuition with
which we are endowed, is God's will.
I T is not our part to idolise or to disparage our fathers.
It is our part to seek to understand that we may honour
them.
ASPECTS OF LIFE 321
W E should strive without reserve and without ostenta-
tion to lay open the spring of our hope and strength.
W E cannot always keep at the level of our loftiest
thoughts.
VV HAT men call success and failure are no more than
changing lights in the prospect of the accomplishment
of God's will.
TYPES OF APOSTOLIC SERVICE
Saintsfjtp
1 HE commemoration of Saints is one of the provisions
which has been wisely made by our Church to bring
home to us our connection with the invisible life : to
help us to confess that they who once lived to God live
still : to know that we are heirs not of a dead past, but
of a fresh past with new lessons ; to learn that consecrated
gifts become an eternal blessing; to understand that
Christ is pleased to reveal Himself little by little in many
parts and in many fashions, in the persons of His servants.
The mark of a saint is not perfection but consecration.
A saint is not a man without faults, but a man who has
given himself without reserve to God.
Westminster Abbey has been called "a temple of
silence and reconciliation." It is far more truly an altar
of human endowments.
The Chapel of Henry VII. has its own peculiar
message. It is, as it were, the tomb, the monument, of
medievalism. Designed to be the shrine of a canonised
king it became the resting-place of three dynasties
separated outwardly by sharp differences from his Com-
munion. In both relations it speaks to us something of
the nature of the eternal and the unseen. It speaks to
us in the long line of statues which encircle it unique
in England in which for the last time the middle age
TYPES OF APOSTOLIC SERVICE 323
expressed its faith in the great communion of saints. It
speaks to us in the costly structures and plain stones of
later times which cover the dust of those to whom for a
brief space earthly empire was committed.
We can hardly look upon that long line supported by
the cornices of angels without feeling the conviction
which it expresses of the manifoldness of consecrated
service.
Philosophers, kings, priests, warriors, doctors, apostles,
holy maids and matrons, lead up to the central figure of
the enthroned Lord, blessing the world which He rules.
We can hardly look upon the strange contrast of
splendour and bareness in the royal graves without
feeling that the soul is not measured by "glory of birth
and state."
1 HERE is a fundamental difference between heathen
and Christian morality. On the one side there is the
supreme authority of force : on the other side the
supreme authority of service.
In the light of the Gospel and, may I not say, in the
deep consciousness of the heart which it illuminates,
reverence is the acknowledgment of a transforming grace,
labour is the glad return for healthy vigour, dependence
is the joy of fellowship, service is the secret of prevailing
authority.
The Lord's words make clear beyond doubt that the
blessing of power is " the blessing of great cares," that
the sign of authority is the readiness to serve.
It is an old maxim that we can rule Nature only by
obeying her.
Insight which is the inspiration of science comes
from service.
324 ASPECTS OF LIFE
It lies in our nature that we should respond to the
voice which interprets us to ourselves.
We cannot but rejoice to obey him who proposes to
us that ideal as our own which often we have not the
courage to confess, though we inwardly strive towards it.
Christ Himself confirms the law in its widest applica-
tion. He shews that His sovereignty is established on
His individual knowledge of His servants.
His many sheep are not to Him a mere flock. His
eye discerns in each that which modifies the common
features.
We must serve in order that we may understand.
We must not overpower by our own force the character
which we wish to appreciate and guide in its mature
vigour.
He is no true leader who drills his subjects into
mechanical instruments of his designs. The true leader
gains the devotion of the soul and spirit. Sympathy,
which is the strength of government, comes by service.
Christian service is not the inconsiderate scattering
of our gifts, but the deliberate bestowal of them in such
a way that we may take them again.
If the terrible saying of the Roman historian is true
that "it is characteristic of human nature that we should
hate those whom we have injured," it is no less true that
we love those whom we have helped.
In this way then by serving God in man and man in
God we bring ourselves into harmony with all about us.
Freedom which is the soul of individual life comes
through service.
Suffering: St.
W HAT we can do for another is the test of power :
what we can suffer for another is the test of love.
TYPES OF APOSTOLIC SERVICE 325
We can see, to use St. Paul's own words, how the
things which happened unto him the things which over-
threw his cherished designs- and condemned him to bear
and to wait fell out rather unto the progress of the
Gospel. We can see how his service was, in those parts
in which it proved most fruitful, the service of suffering.
The service of suffering : St. Paul learnt the lesson.
It is a paradox of faith which we find it hard to learn.
We would do some great thing, and God, by an unlooked-
for change of health or fortune or position, forces us to
sit still. So His will is accomplished ; and in due time
we find that our true end also is gained. Our robes are
washed and made white in blood.
The service of suffering : by this God equalises our
circumstances. All are on a level of advantage in
respect to this ministry. All can accept the place of
patient learners in the school of affliction ; and more
things are wrought by quiet, uncomplaining endurance
than the world knows of.
For a time the eloquence of adversity meekly borne
may be unheard, but when it is heard it prevails.
The service of suffering : it is the comprehensive
fulfilment of the Lord's promise, Whosoever shall lose his
life for My sake shall find it. It gives to us in simple
ways, in the accomplishment of our common work, in
looking calmly, it may be, upon insoluble problems, in
surrendering our will to the claims of social duty, the
opportunity of gaining the true life.
The service of suffering : it is the revelation of peace.
The man of restless ambition undergoes a thousand
martyrdoms. But the trials which are accepted as God's
gift, to be borne for His name's sake, are transformed by
the acceptance.
326 ASPECTS OF LIFE
Doubting: St.
IN the other Gospels St. Thomas is a name and
nothing more : in St. John he is a living man, hampered
by human infirmities and ennobled by human devotion, a
living man nearer perhaps to ourselves, in our day of
trial, than any other of the disciples.
St. Thomas doubted, and through his experience we
can learn the legitimate issues of doubt.
Thomas saith unto Him, Lord, we know not whither
T/iou goest ; and how kn(nu we the way ?
The difficulty which is thus raised is a real and a
natural one. It is true in common life that the know-
ledge of the end enables us to judge of the road. But
it is not so in spiritual things. There the end belongs
to another order. It lies beyond our power of distinct
apprehension. It is enough therefore for us to know
the road, as it is opened for us step by step.
And here fresh light is given. Christ shews that for
us the end and the road are one. " / am, " He says
" I am " and not " I reveal " or " I point to," as herald
or prophet "the Way, and the Truth, and the Life."
Doubt as to the end is no reason for refusing to move
along the opened way.
Doubt as to the validity of historic evidence is no
obstacle to the victory of faith.
OTtoitfrup St. J0fnr
1 N St. John there is a calm strength, a power of spiritual
vision which looks on all the riddles and sorrows of life,
and looks through them, though it cannot arrange in
familiar forms the glory which it sees beyond. The
characteristic of St. John is " waiting " ; and it is useful
TYPES OF APOSTOLIC SERVICE 327
for us to meditate on this grace of " waiting," as it is
seen in the disciple whom Jesus loved.
Can we not feel that it is well for us to pause and
think of the blessedness of " waiting," hurried, as we are,
to and fro, by the inevitable tumult of modern life ?
For it is still through long watching that at last the
opportunity is found for mastering the truth towards
which our thoughts have been turned. It is still not
unfrequently through sorrow that we gain little by little
the power of insight by which the meaning of familiar
facts is disclosed.
It is still by silent ponderings, in the solitude of the
inner chamber, or in the solitude of the crowd, that we
learn the lesson of communing with God. And our
anxiety for results which we can measure, our restless-
ness under conditions which we hold to be unfavourable
to our progress, our passion for excitement, tend to
deprive us of these highest fruits of life.
We cannot remove the conditions under which our
work is to be done, but we can transform them. They
are the elements out of which we must build the temples
wherein we serve.
In one sense God gives nothing, while in another
sense He gives all things. He requires us, that is, to
make His gifts our own by using the power which He
inspires.' Not all at once, and not as we should have
expected, and not without many delays, does that which
indeed is ours become ours.
So it is that waiting itself becomes a work ; and of
all the promises of Scripture none I think speaks with
fuller encouragement to such as seem to find no fruit of
labour, or no scope for it, if only they wait for the Lord
who will not leave the desolate, than this, In your
patience ye shall win your souls.
PART IV
Lessons of Literature ann art
LESSONS OF LITERATURE & ART
Cfje Bratnsttet as
1 HE Athenian, the typical Greek, learned the practice
of life from the debates of the public assembly; he
learned the theory of life from the poems of the theatre.
The Greek tragedies were poems, not illusions : they
were interpretations and not pictures of life. The facts,
so to speak, were given ; the business of the writer was
to explain their meaning and their lessons. The outline
of the plot was a familiar text ; the filling up was the
sermon of the preacher. And so it is that the remains
of the Greek tragedians furnish a remarkable picture of
the history of popular religion during the period over
which they reach.
^Eschylus is the prophet of Greek tragedy, as
Sophocles is the artist, and Euripides the realist. The
succession of character is one which reappears in every
literature, but in this first example it is most marked
and most spontaneous. Events are first viewed on their
divine side, then on the side of order or beauty, and
lastly on the side of nature. The same story which
furnishes yEschylus with an occasion for reconciling the
332 LESSONS OF LITERATURE AND ART
claims of revenge and forgiveness, the powers of earth
and the powers of heaven, furnishes Sophocles with a
powerful dramatic study of female character, and Euri-
pides with a graceful picture of life.
The poems of Homer betray, as we believe, the work
of different hands : the religious teaching of yEschylus
exhibits equally a diversity of sources.
It was his task to harmonise, as best he might, the
claims of fate and will, of law and life, of God and man,
in this present world ; to connect suffering with sin, and
strip guilt of the boast of impunity ; to indicate the
majesty of Providence, and the absolute wisdom of the
Divine voice revealed in appointed ways.
As a religious poet, Dante alone stands by him ; both
were children of their age, both were schooled in sorrow,
but both were above all that was merely personal and
local, and remain, to those who will read them, prophets
for all time.
However wide the field which ^Eschylus covers, he
sees all equally in the light of a divine presence. Primi-
tive myths, ancient traditions, historic events, are alike
regarded by him from a spiritual point of sight. His
view of life and society is in every case theocratic ; and
it is only by keeping this truth steadily in view that we
can gain the central idea of his separate plays.
The " Prometheus " is necessarily the foundation of
his system, for it treats of the original problem of life
and revelation, the relation of the free will of a finite
being to the supreme will, of limited reason to divine
wisdom, of their first dissension, of their open antagonism,
of their final reconciliation.
Unhappily the central piece of the trilogy alone
survives.
We know little more of "Prometheus the Firebearer"
than the name : of " Prometheus Released," than the
THE DRAMATIST AS PROPHET ^SCHYLUS 333
most meagre outline of the plot. So it is that the
"Prometheus Bound " is in danger of being misunder-
stood. Throughout we are spectators of what seems to
be an undecided conflict. There is no calm. From
first to last the storms of earth hide the clear light of
heaven. While Zeus is represented chiefly by the words
of his adversaries, Prometheus is represented by his own.
We forget that his sufferings were the consequence of an
act of faithless distrust in Zeus, and of disobedience to
his counsels. We forget again that his daring boasts
were afterwards exchanged for lamentations, and that his
threats against Zeus were mere idle vauntings. For the
time he appears as a martyr ; but he was first a rebel,
and afterwards a pardoned subject.
This true view of his character is illustrated by the
appearance of lo, the second figure in the play. In
Prometheus we have reason challenging Zeus : in lo
Zeus making himself known to men. The contact in
both cases brings for the present overwhelming suffering,
but in all other respects the fate of the sufferers is con-
trasted. Prometheus, strong in will and power, has
seized a divine boon ; he is reckless of consequences ;
he forgets his own sufferings : the consciousness of his
immortality assures him of final deliverance : such is
reason. lo has been the involuntary recipient of divine
fellowship; she is lost in the greatness of her own
suffering ; she has no self-dependence, no foresight : such
is feeling. And yet it was from lo that the hero sprung
by whose vicarious sufferings Prometheus was in due
time delivered. The weak woman was in the end
stronger than the Titan.
According to an early and constant tradition ^Eschylus
was accused of publishing the Eleusinian mysteries ; and,
strange as it may seem, the charge is in itself likely to
be true. For him divine mysteries were "open secrets."
334 LESSONS OF LITERATURE AND ART
He lived face to face with them, and they became axioms
of life. For while he is a believer he is a poet and a
prophet too. He looks beneath the manifold to the one :
he translates, unconsciously it may be, the symbol into
the lesson.
His work, as he seems to have understood it, was to
reconcile and combine the conflicting factors of fate and
will of which life is made up, the offspring of earth and
the offspring of heaven, and not to ignore their an-
tagonism, or suppress either element in the great battle.
The passions and temptations with which he deals are
of overwhelming magnitude; the situations which he plans
are of terrible grandeur ; the persons whom he exhibits
are gigantic : but yet there are present everywhere the
two conflicting elements of fate and will out of which
all action rises. The scale of representation is magnified,
but the moral, when reduced to its simplest principles,
is that of common experience. The life is human life,
though the actors are heroes.
It is commonly said that the key to the moral under-
standing of the tragedies of yEschylus is the recognition
of an inflexible fate by which families are doomed to
destruction, without regard to the guilt or innocence of
the victims. If this were true their highest value would
be lost. But in fact the statement is as false to JEschylus
.as it is to life.
All life includes the element of fate and circumstance
as well as the element of will and choice.
The traditions and beliefs in which we are reared,
the memories which we inherit, the tendencies and im-
pulses which go to form our character, the reputation in
which we are held for the deeds of others who belong
to us, all lie out of our power. If we allow our thoughts
to rest on these only, we can conclude that we are mere
THE DRAMATIST AS PROPHET AESCHYLUS 335
puppets, whose conduct is determined by the action of
forces wholly external.
But if we look within, there is the consciousness of
responsibility, the sense of victory and defeat, the energy
of opposition, which by its elasticity and continuance
bears witness at least to the possibility of success, in a
word, the intuition of personality, which supplies a power
not less strong than circumstance, by which we know
that our life is a struggle and not an evolution of con-
sequences, that if its purpose fails we are overcome.
And thus it is that ^schylus paints life. He sets
fate by the side of will and lets them work. Before our
own eyes fate, or as we say circumstance, constantly
prevails over infirmity if will, more rarely heroic will,
recognises its work and achieves it
A first sin is swelled by neglect to reckless infatua-
tion ; an inheritance of sorrow crushes the selfish
sufferer who rejects the discipline of woe ; a noble
soul trustfully obeys the voice of divine warning, and
wisdom is justified in the issue.
This is the teaching of ^schylus, and the teaching
of natural experience. For us, indeed, the area of life
is widened ; the faint lights of an earthly government
of God grow into the brightness of a kingdom of
heaven ; the strength of man is perfected by fellowship
with a divine Redeemer ; but none the less we can see
in the Greek poet the outlines of the never-ending
conflict of man with evil, and marvel at the invincible
constancy with which he holds his faith in the sure
supremacy of good, even when he looked upon the
region beyond the grave as shrouded in dismal gloom,
and felt the littleness of each single life.
Plato clothed in a Greek dress the common instincts
of humanity ; /Eschylus works out a characteristically
336 LESSONS OF LITERATURE AND ART
Greek view of life. Thus it is that his doctrine is most
clearly Homeric. As a Greek he feels, like Homer, the
nobility of our present powers, the grandeur of strength
and wealth, the manifold delights of our complex being.
It is often said, and even taken for granted, that the
severer aspects of the Christian creed are due to some
peculiarity of the " Semitic " mind ; that they are foreign
to the more genial constitution of the " Japhetic " type ;
that here at least the instinct which revelation satisfies
is partial and not universal. Against such assumptions
the tragedies of ^Eschylus remain a solemn protest.
The voice of law addresses us even from Athens.
There is a stern and dark side to the Greek view of life.
The " Prometheus," the " Seven against Thebes," and the
" Orestea," contain a " natural testimony of the soul " to
the reality of sin and the inevitable penalty which it
carries in itself, and to the need which man has of a
divine deliverer. And the testimony comes with the
greater force because it is given by the poet who had
witnessed the most glorious triumphs of Greek power.
QEfje IBramattst as STfjinkcr: (Euriptrjes
EURIPIDES was of honourable descent, and had en-
joyed the discipline of most varied culture. He is
the true representative of democratic Athens. Gymnast,
artist, and student, he had made trial of all the city had
to teach ; and in holding a sacred office in the service
of Apollo he had an inheritance from older religious
feelings. It may almost be said that Euripides lived and
died with the Athens which had moved the world. His
lifetime included the highest development of Athenian
art- and literature, the rise and the fall of Athenian
supremacy. He was born on the day of Salamis
(480 B.C.) He produced his "Medea" in the first year of
THE DRAMATIST AS THINKER EURIPIDES 337
the Peloponnesian War (43 1 B.C.) His " Trojan Women "
was exhibited in the year of the expedition to Sicily,
and the recall of Alcibiades (415 B.C.) He died in
406 B.C., the year before ^Egospotamos. He belonged
wholly to the new order which is represented by the age
of Pericles. Though he was only a generation younger
than ^tschylus, his works, when compared with those of
his predecessor, represent the results of a revolution
both in art and in thought.
But however different yEschylus and Euripides are in
their views of existence, and in their treatment of life
upon the stage, they are alike interesting to the student
of the history of religious thought. Both speak with
deep personal feeling. Both offer a partial interpretation
of mysteries which fill them with an overwhelming awe.
For both life with its infinite sorrows is greater than art.
In this respect they both differ from Sophocles, by
whom they are naturally separated. Sophocles is not
the poet as prophet, but the poet as artist. For him all
that is most solemn, or terrible, or beautiful in human
experience becomes an element in his work. He shews
the perfection of calm, conscious mastery over the
subjects with which he deals, but he does not speak to
us himself. He has no message, no questionings, no
convictions, beyond such utterances as harmoniously
complete the consummate symmetry of his poems. It
is otherwise with ^schylus and Euripides. Beth are
deeply moved, and shew that they are deeply moved, by
religious feeling, as a spiritual and not an aesthetic force.
But the feeling in the two cases is widely different.
Euripides is essentially a poet, and not a speculator.
Me deals with the mysteries of being from the side of
feeling rather than of thought. A passionate fulness of
human interest is the characteristic mark of his writings,
and the secret of his power. He touched the common
338 LESSONS OF LITERATURE AND ART
heart because he recognised the different phases of its
ordinary sorrows and temptations and strivings. The
brusque lines of Philemon are a unique testimony to his
personal attractiveness :
If, as some say, men still in very truth
Had life and feeling after they are dead,
I had hanged myself to see Euripides.
The significance of Euripides as a religious teacher
springs directly from his position and his character.
He looks from the midst of Athenian society, a
society brilliant, restless, sanguine, superstitious, at the
popular mythology, at life, at the future, with the
keenest insight into all that belongs to man.
In order to understand the treatment of the popular
mythology by Euripides, we must bear in mind the
place which was occupied by the Homeric poems in
contemporary Greek education. It is not too much to
say that these were (if the phrase may be allowed) a
kind of Greek Bible. Every Athenian was familiar with
their contents ; they furnished the general view of the
relations of God and men, of the seen and the unseen,
which formed a fixed background to the common
prospect of life.
Euripides regarded the human and the divine as
factors in life, alike real and permanent. He aimed at
dealing with the whole sum of our present experience.
He was therefore constrained to bring the popular creed
in some way into harmony with absolute right and truth ;
to give a moral interpretation to current legends ; to shew
that life, even as we see it, offers ground for calm trust
on which men may at least venture to rest.
He practically anticipates Browning's judgment that
"little else is worth study than the incidents in the de-
velopment of a soul."
THE DRAMATIST AS THINKER EURIPIDES 339
Euripides takes account of the manifold fulness of
human existence, but the whole effect of life, as he sees
it, is, in its external aspect at least, clouded with great
sorrow. There is no music to charm its grief. At the
best it is chequered, like the face of the earth, with
storm and sunshine
Not wholly happy, nor yet wholly sad,
Blest for a while, and then again iinblest.
Man has a hard struggle to maintain, but he is able
to maintain it. There is no ever-present, overwhelming
weight of physical or moral necessity which crushes him.
He is allowed from time to time to see that greater
labours are the condition and the discipline of greater
natures. And in spite of the obvious sorrows of life,
he can discern that a divine purpose is being wrought
out which will find accomplishment. " There is at
present great confusion in the things of God and men."
But the source of the disorder lies not with God but
with man.
One chief cause of the sufferings and failures of men
lies in the partial and inadequate view of the claims of
being which is taken by those who are noble and good
within a narrow range. This truth is brought out with
impressive power in the characters of Pentheus and
Hippolytus. Both are, up to a certain point, blameless
and courageous, but they are unsympathetic to that which
lies beyond their experience and inclination. They con-
temptuously cast aside warnings against selfwill. They
refuse to pay respect to the convictions of others, or to
admit that their view of life can fall short of fulness.
With tragic irony Pentheus is led to his ruin by a
guilty curiosity, and Hippolytus, in the pathetic scene of
his death, lays bare his overwhelming self-confidence.
He can forgive his father, but he is defiant to the powers
of heaven, and in the terrible line
340 LESSONS OF LITERATURE AND ART
Would that the curse of men might reach the gods,
(Hippol. 1415.)
he reveals at once the strength and the weakness of his
character.
In this connection Euripides appears to indicate one
use of suffering. The discipline of life as he regards it
is fitted to give to men a truer and larger sense of human
powers and duties than they were inclined to form at
first
This lesson comes out prominently in the Alcestis.
In one aspect the drama is the record of a soul's
purification.
Admetus obtains life at the price which he was ready
to pay for it, and he finds that it ceases to be the blessing
which he sought. He sees in his father the full image
of himself, and fiercely condemns the selfishness which
he has shewn. Little by little he fully realises that what
he has gained by consciously sacrificing another to him-
self is of no avail for happiness, and he is prepared to
receive, cleansed in heart, that which has been won for
him by the spontaneous effort of Hercules.
The contrast of the two sacrifices and the two prizes
is of the deepest meaning. Man cannot simply use
another at his will for his own good ; but he can
enjoy the fruits of another's devotion. The life which
Alcestis gave for her husband at his entreaty proved to
be only a discipline of sorrow ; the life which was wrested
from death by human labour could be imparted to one
made ready to welcome it.
A hero like Heracles is raised to heaven, but what
has the unseen world for common men ? To this ques-
tion Euripides has no clear answer. He looks for the
vindication of righteousness on earth. His references to
another order are few and vague.
THE DRAMATIST AS THINKER EURIPIDES 341
In this respect he holds the common attitude of the
Athenian in the presence of death. There is, as Professor
Gardner has pointed out, no trace of future scenes of
happiness, or misery, or judgment, on early Greek funeral
sculptures. The utmost that is represented is the fare-
well of the traveller who is bound for some unknown
realm. And in the inscriptions which accompany them
the future practically finds no place. The world to come
is not denied so much as left out of sight. It is not
a distinct object either of hope or of fear.
Euripides indeed has recognised, twice at least, in
memorable words the mystery of life and death, the
powerlessness of man to attain to a true conception of
being :
Who knows if Life is Death,
And Death is counted Life by those below ?
Who knows if Life, as we speak, is but Death,
And Death is Life?
But in the latter place he seems to shrink from the
positive hope which he has called up into mere negation,
and he continues :
Nay, lay the question by ;
But this at least we do know : they that live
Are sick and suffer ; they who are no more
Nor suffer further, nor have ills to bear.
We can study in Euripides a distinct stage in the
preparation of the world for Christianity. He paints life
as he found it when Greek Art and Greek thought had
put forth their full power. He scatters the dream which
some have indulged in of the unclouded brightness of
the Athenian prospect of life ; and his popularity shews
that he represented truly the feeling of those with whom
he lived, and of those who came after him. His
recognition of the mystery of being from the point of
sight of the poet and not of the philosopher, his affirma-
342 LESSONS OF LITERATURE AND ART
tion of the establishment of the sovereignty of righteous-
ness under the conditions of earth, his feeling after a
final unity in the harmonious consummation of things in
the supreme existence, his vindication of the claims of the
fulness of man's nature, are so many testimonies of the
soul to the character of that revelation which can per-
fectly meet its needs.
Let any one carefully ponder them, and consider
whether they do not all find fulfilment in the one fact
which is the message of the Gospel.
It cannot be a mere accidental coincidence that when
St. Paul stood on the Areopagus and unfolded the mean-
ing of his announcement of "Jesus and the Resurrec-
tion," he did in reality proclaim, as now established in
the actual experience of men, the truths which Euripides
felt after the office of feeling, the oneness and end of
humanity, the completeness of man's future being, the
reign of righteousness, existence in God.
Fmtures of jFattfj jfflgtfjs of $lato
A LATO, more than any other ancient philosopher,
acknowledged alike the necessary limits of reason and
the imperious instincts of faith, and when he could not
absolutely reconcile both, at least gave to both a full
and free expression. And so Platonism alone, and
Platonism in virtue of this character, was able to stand
for a time face to face with Christianity.
The myths of Plato are not, in essence, simply grace-
ful embellishments of an argument, but venturous essays
after truth, embodiments of definite instincts, sensible
representations of universal human thoughts, confessions
of weakness, it may be, but no less bold claims to an
inherent communion with a divine and supra-sensuous
world. They are truly philosophic, because they answer
VENTURES OF FAITH MYTHS OF PLATO 343
to the innate wants of man : they are truly poetic, because
they are in thought creative.
A myth in its true technical sense is the instinctive
popular representation of an idea. "A myth," it has
been said, " springs up in the soul as a germ in the soil :
meaning and form are one : the history is the truth."
Thus a myth, properly so called, has points of contact
with a symbol, an allegory, and a legend, and is dis-
tinguished from each. Like the symbol, it is the em-
bodiment and representation of a thought. But the
symbol is isolated, definite, and absolute. The symbol,
and the truth which it figures, are contemplated apart.
The one suggests the other. The myth, on the other
hand, is continuous, historical, and relative. The truth
is seen in the myth, and not separated from it. The
representation is the actual apprehension of the reality.
The myth and the allegory, again, have both a secondary
sense. Both half hide and half reveal the truth which
they clothe. But in the allegory the thought is grasped
first and by itself, and is then arrayed in a particular
dress. In the myth, thought and form come into being
together : the thought is the vital principle which shapes
the form : the form is the sensible image which displays
the thought. The allegory is the conscious work of an
individual fashioning the image of a truth which he has
seized. The myth is the unconscious growth of a com-
mon mind, which witnesses to the fundamental laws by
which its development is ruled. The meaning of an
allegory is prior to the construction of the story : the
meaning of a myth is first capable of being separated from
the expression in an age long after that in which it had its
origin. The myth and the legend have more in common.
Both spring up naturally. Both are the unconscious em-
bodiments of popular feeling. Both are, as it seems,
necessary accompaniments of primitive forms of society.
344 LESSONS OF LITERATURE AND ART
The legend stands in the same relation to history and
life as the myth to speculation and thought. The legend
deals with a fact as outward, concrete, objective. The
myth deals with an idea or the observation of a fact
as inward, abstract, subjective. The tendency of the
legend is to go ever farther from the simple circumstances
from which it took its rise. The tendency of the myth
is to express more and more clearly the idea which it
foreshews. Yet in many cases it seems almost impossible
to draw a distinct line between the myth and the legend.
The stories of St. Christopher, of St. Bonaventura and
his speaking Crucifix, of Whittington and his Cat, and
generally those which may be called interpretative myths,
will be called myths or legends according as the thought
or the fact in them is supposed to predominate.
The Platonic myths, while they are varied in character,
and present points of similarity with the legend and the
allegory, yet truly claim for the most part to be regarded
as essentially genuine myths. If they are individual and
not popular, they are still the individual expression of a
universal instinct. Plato speaks not as Plato, but as man.
A universal instinct has led men to imagine a golden
age of peace and wealth and happiness, before the stern
age of struggle and freedom in which they now live.
Plato draws out the picture at length. We might be
tempted to think that he has a vision of Eden before him
when he describes the intercourse of man and animals,
the maturity of each new-formed being, the rural ease of
a life which is a gradual disrobing of the spirit from its
earthly dress. But even so he shews that the perfect
order of a divine government, and boundless plenty, may
leave man's highest nature undisciplined.
The popular notions of Platonism are almost exclu-
sively derived from the myths. And it is easy to see why
it is so. The value of a method may be estimated differ-
VENTURES OF FAITH MYTHS OF PLA TO 345
ently at different times. The delight of mere discussion
without result at last ceases to charm. But there are
subjects of positive belief on which the soul is never
wearied in dwelling ; and it is with these the myths deal.
In bold and vigorous outlines they offer a philosophy
of nature, a philosophy of history, and a philosophy of
life, deformed, it may be, by crude speculations on
physics, and cramped by imperfect knowledge and a
necessarily narrow sphere of observation, but yet always
inspired by the spirit of a divine life, centring in the
devout recognition of an all-wise and all-present Provi-
dence, and in the inexorable assertion of human responsi-
bility. In form, in subject, in the splendour of their
imagery, and in the range of their application, they form,
if we may so speak, an Hellenic Apocalypse. And if
we compare our popular theories of the world and man
with the aspirations which they embody, we may well
doubt whether we have used the lessons of eighteen
Christian centuries as Plato would have used them.
The earnestness of Plato is indeed a strange contrast
to our indifference in dealing with the same topics ; for
the myths were not for him poetic fancies, but repre-
sentations of momentous truths.
The myths transcend the domain of pure reason, and
their moral power springs out of their concrete form. In
the first respect, to take an illustration which will make
the notion clear, they answer to Revelation, as an
endeavour to enrich the store of human knowledge ;
in the second, to the Gospel, as an endeavour to present,
under the form of facts, the manifestations of divine
wisdom.
Whatever may be the prevailing fashion of an age,
the myths of Plato remain an unfailing testimony to the
346 LESSONS OF LITERATURE AND ART
religious wants of man. They shew not only that reason
by its logical processes is unable to satisfy them, but also
in what directions its weakness is most apparent and least
supportable. They form, as it were, a natural scheme
of the questions with which a revelation might be ex-
pected to deal, Creation, Providence, Immortality,
which, as they lie farthest from the reason, lie nearest to
the heart. And in doing this, they are so far an un-
conscious prophecy, of which the teaching of Christianity
is the fulfilment.
But more than this : the Myths mark also the shape
which a revelation for men might be expected to take.
The doctrine is conveyed in an historic form : the ideas
are offered as facts; the myth itself is the message.
With what often appears unnecessary care, Plato appeals
to popular tradition or external testimony for the veracity
of his mythical narratives. He knows that their power
of influencing life depends directly upon their essential
connection with life. If the Myth belongs really to our
world, not as a thought, but as an event, it is homogeneous
with man as man in his complex nature. In this way,
again, Plato is an unconscious prophet of the Gospel.
The Life of Christ is, in form no less than in substance,
the divine reality of which the Myths were an instructive
foreshadowing.
It is well, then, that we should remember that what
we look back upon as accomplished events were once
looked forward to as aspirations of the heart. The
problem of life is not changed by the lapse of centuries,
but the conditions are changed. What the problem is,
and what the conditions were in old times, and what they
are now, Plato himself may teach us (Phcedo, 85 A. et seq.}
Socrates said to his friends on the evening of his exe-
cution :
" Do you think that, when I speak of my present fate
DIONYSIUS THE AREOPAGITE 347
as no misfortune, I am a less skilful diviner than the
swans, who sing longest and sweetest in the prospect of
death, because they are on the point of going to the god
whose servants they are ? Nay, rather, I am bound by
the same service as they are, and devoted to the same
god, and my lord inspires me with prophetic insight no
less than them, and therefore I ought to depart from
life as cheerfully as they do."
And Simmias answers :
"Still, Socrates, I feel some difficulty. I think, and
perhaps you think with me, that it is impossible or ex-
tremely difficult to obtain distinct knowledge on such
subjects in our present life. On the other hand, it is
utterly unmanly to desist from investigating, by every
means in our power, whatever is urged about them before
we are exhausted by a complete inquiry. For we must
gain one of two results. We must either learn or dis-
cover the truth about them ; or, if this be impossible, we
must take the best and most irrefragable of human words,
and, supported on this as on a raft, sail through the
waters of life in perpetual jeopardy, unless we might make
the journey on a securer stay, some Divine Word, if it
might be, more surely and with less peril."
The Word for which the wavering faith of Simmias
thus longed, has, we believe, been given to us ; and once
again Plato points us to St. John.
tfye
IF it be true in one sense of men that the dead are
sovereign over the living, the saying has a deeper appli-
cation to literature. A particular phase of thought is
taken up into some broader intellectual development,
and works its full effect under the changed circum-
stances ; but the writings to which it owed its origin,
34& LESSONS OF LITERATURE AND ART
or in which it first found expression, are forgotten, or, if
remembered, lose their true significance.
Few, even among students of theology, read the
works of Dionysius the Areopagite, " out of which," to
quote the enthusiastic words of their editor, "the
Angelic Doctor drew almost the whole of his theology,
so that his Summa is but the hive in whose varied
cells he daily stored the honey which he gathered from
them."
The harmonisation of Christianity and Platonism was
not effected without a sacrifice. It is impossible not to
feel in Dionysius, in spite of his pure and generous and
apostolic aspirations, the lack of something which is
required for the completeness of his own views. He
fails indeed by neglecting to take in the whole breadth
of the Gospel. The central source of his dogmatic
errors lies where at first it might be least looked for.
The whole view of life which he offers is essentially
individual and personal and subjective : the one man
is the supreme object in whose progress his interest is
engaged. Though he gives a magnificent view of the
mutual coherence of all the parts of the moral and
physical worlds, yet he turns with the deepest satisfac-
tion to the solitary monk, isolated and self-absorbed, as
the highest type of Christian energy. Though he dwells
upon the divine order of the sacraments, and traces the
spiritual significance of each detail in their celebration,
yet he looks upon them as occasions for instruction and
blessing, suggested by appointed forms, and not supplied
by a divine gift. He stops short of that profounder faith
which sees the unity of worlds in the harmonious and
yet independent action of derivative forces : one, indeed,
in their source, and yet regarded as separate in their
operation. He is still so far overpowered by Platonism
that he cannot, in speculation as well as in confession,
A CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHER ORIGEN 349
consistently treat man's bodily powers as belonging to
the perfection of his nature. The end of the discipline
of life is, in his view, to help the believer to cast aside
all things that belong to earth, and not to find in them
gifts which may, by consecration to God, become here-
after the beginning of a nobler activity.
& Christian pfjilosopfjer rtgen
1 HE progress of Christianity can best be represented
as a series of victories. But when we speak of victories
we imply resistance, suffering, loss : the triumph of a
great cause, but the triumph through effort and sacrifice.
Such, in fact, has been the history of the Faith : a sad
and yet a glorious succession of battles, often hardly
fought, and sometimes indecisive, between the new life
and the old life.
We know that the struggle can never be ended in
this visible order ; but we know also that more of the
total powers of humanity, and more of the fulness of the
individual man, are brought from age to age within the
domain of the truth. Each age has to sustain its own
part in the conflict, and the retrospect of earlier suc-
cesses gives to those who have to face new antagonists,
and to occupy new positions, patience and the certainty
of hope.
In this respect the history of the first three centuries
the first complete period, and that a period of spon-
taneous evolution in the Christian body is an epitome
or a figure of the whole work of the Faith. It is the
history of a threefold contest between Christianity and
the powers of the old world, closed by a threefold
victory.
The Church and the Empire started from the same
point, and advanced side by side. They met in the
350 LESSONS OF LITERATURE AND ART
market and the house ; they met in the discussions of
the schools ; they met in the institutions of political
government ; and in each place the Church was
triumphant.
In this way Christianity asserted, once for all, its
sovereign power among men by the victory of common
life, by the victory of thought, by the victory of civil
organisation. These first victories contain the promise
of all that later ages have to reap.
This victory of thought is the second, and not the
first, in order of accomplishment. The succession
involves a principle. The Christian victory of common
life was wrought out in silence and patience and name-
less agonies. It was the victory of the soldiers and not
the captains of Christ's army. But in due time another
conflict had to be sustained, not by the masses, but by
great men, the consequence and the completion of that
which had gone before.
It is with the society as with the individual. The dis-
cipline of action precedes the effort of reason. The
work of the many prepares the medium for the subtler
operations of the few. So it came to pass that the
period during which this second conflict of the Faith
was waged was, roughly speaking, from the middle of
the second to the middle of the third century.
Origen's whole life, from first to last, was, according
to his own grand ideal, " one unbroken prayer," one
ceaseless effort after a closer fellowship with the Unseen
and the Eternal. No distractions diverted him from the
pursuit of Divine wisdom. No persecutions checked for
more than the briefest space the energy of his efforts.
He endured "a double martyrdom," perils and sufferings
from the heathen, reproaches and wrongs from Chris-
A CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHER ORIGEN 351
tians ; and the retrospect of what he had borne only
stirred within him a humbler sense of his shortcomings.
In Origen we have the first glimpse of a Christian
boy. He was conspicuous "even from his cradle;"
" a great man from his childhood " is the judgment of
his bitterest enemy.
Writings are but one element of the teacher. A
method is often more characteristic and more influential
than doctrine. It was so with Origen.
The method of Origen, such as Gregory has described
it, in all its breadth and freedom was forced upon him
by what he held to be the deepest law of human nature.
It may be true (and he admitted it) that we are, in our
present state, but poorly furnished for the pursuits of
knowledge ; but he was never weary of proclaiming that
we are at least born to engage in the endless search.
If we see some admirable work of man's art, he says, we
are at once eager to investigate the nature, the manner,
the end of its production ; and the contemplation of the
works of God stirs us with an incomparably greater
longing to learn the principles, the method, the purpose
of creation. " This desire, this passion, has without
doubt," he continues, "been implanted in us by God.
And as the eye seeks the light, as our body craves food, so
our mind is impressed with the characteristic and natural
desire of knowing the truths of God and the causes of
what we observe." Such a desire, since it is a divine
endowment, carries with it the promise of future
satisfaction.
In Our present life we may not be able to do more
by the utmost toil than obtain some small fragments from
the infinite treasures of divine knowledge, still the con-
centration of our souls upon the lovely vision of Truth,
the occupation of our various faculties in lofty inquiries,
352 LESSONS OF LITERATURE AND ART
the very ambition with which we rise above our actual
powers, is in itself fruitful in blessing, and fits us better
for the reception of wisdom hereafter at some later stage
of existence. Now we draw at the best a faint outline
a preparatory sketch of the features of Truth ; the true
and living colours will be added then. Perhaps, he con-
cludes most characteristically, that is the meaning of the
words "To every one that hath shall be given;" by
which we are assured that he who has gained in this life
some faint outline of truth and knowledge will have it
completed in the age to come with the beauty of the
perfect image.
It seems to me that we have more to learn than to
fear from the study of Origen's writings. With all his
faults and shortcomings, he is the greatest representative
of a type of Greek Christian thought which has not yet
done its work in the West. By his sympathy with all
efforts, by his largeness of view, by his combination of a
noble morality with a deep mysticism, he indicates, if he
does not bring, the true remedy for the evils of that
Africanism which has been dominant in Europe since
the time of Augustine.
Augustine was a Latin thinker, and more than a Latin
an African. He looked at everything from the side of
law and not of freedom ; from the side of God, as an irre-
sponsible Sovereign, and not of man as a loving servant.
The centre of his whole dogmatic theory is sin.
In his greatest work he writes " Of the City of God,"
and he draws at the same time the portraiture of a rival
" City of the Devil," equally stable and enduring.
We must regard the teaching of Origen as not so
much a system as an aspiration. Welcomed as an
aspiration, it can, I believe, do us good service.
We are inclined to underrate the practical effect of
.-/ CHRISTIAN PLATONIST WHICHCOTE 353
wide -thoughts and of great ideals. But life is impover-
ished and action is enfeebled for the lack of them.
1 HE spirit of man is the candle of the Lord." The
phrase, " over-frequently quoted " by Whichcote, as his
opponents alleged, at once brings before us the central
characteristic of his teaching. For him reason was
" lighted by God, and lighting us to God res illuminata,
illuminans" "What," he asks, "doth God speak to
but my reason ? and should not that which is spoken to
hear? should it not judge, discern, conceive what is
God's meaning?" "I count it true sacrilege to take
from God to give to the creature, yet I look at it as a
dishonouring of God to nullify and make base His
works, and to think He made a sorry, worthless piece fit
for no use when He made man."
For Whichcote truth was the soul of action. " I
act, therefore I am," was the memorable sentence in
which he echoed and answered the cogito ergo sum of
Descartes.
But I act not as my own maker, not as my own
sustainer, but as the creature and servant of Him who
is original of all and will be final to all ; who is " to be
adored as the chiefest beauty and loved as the first and
chiefest good"; who hath given us "a large capacity
which He will fulfil, and a special relation to Himself
which He will answer."
" The idolatry of the world," as Whichcote profoundly
remarks, " hath been about the medium of worship, not
about the object of worship." The testimony of con-
science " our home-God," as he calls it still remains.
Great hopes and great aspirations contend in the human
heart with the sense of weakness and failure.
354 LESSONS OF LITERATURE AND ART
" Heaven," as he tersely says, " is first a temper and
then a place." " Heaven present is our resemblance to
God, and men deceive themselves grossly when they
flatter themselves with the hopes of a future heaven, and
yet do, by wickedness of heart and life, contradict heaven
present."
" We must be men," he writes, " before we can be
Christians."
"The reason is the only tool with which we can do
men's work. If God did not make my faculties true, I
am absolutely discharged from all duty to Him."
" They are greatly mistaken," he argues, " who in
religion oppose points of reason and matters of faith ; as
if Nature went one way and the Author of Nature went
another."
" If you see not well," Whichcote writes, " hear the
better : if you see not far, hear the more. The conse-
quence of truth is great ; therefore the judgment of it
must not be negligent."
" He that is light of belief will be as light of unbelief ;"
and " of all impotencies in the world credulity in religion
is the greatest."
" That is not an act of religion which is not an act of
the understanding ; that is not an act of religion which
is not even human."
It ill becomes us to make our intellectual faculties
"Gibeonites" in Whichcote's picturesque phrase mere
drudges for the meanest services of the world.
" Faculties without any acquired habits witness for
God and condemn us;" and in spiritual things the
paradox is true, that which is not used is not had.
A CHRISTIAN PLATONISTWHICHCOTE 355
" When the doctrine of the Gospel becomes the
reason of our mind, it will become the principle of
our life."
Judgment is a revelation of character : punishment
is the unchecked stream of consequence. Every man
may estimate his future state by his present. He will
then be more of the" same, or the same more intensely.
Our greatest zeal is in things doubtful and question-
able. We are more concerned for that which is our
own in religion than for that which is God's. But true
teachers are not masters but helpers ; they are not to
make religion but to shew it.
Whichcote's teaching represents much that is most
generous and noblest in the " moral divinity " of to-day.
It anticipates language which we hear on many sides.
It affirms in the name of Christianity much that is said
to be in antagonism with it.
We can easily imagine with what enthusiasm he
would have welcomed now " the infinite desire of know-
ledge which has broken forth in the world," to use the
phrase of Patrick ; how he would again have warned us
" that it is not possible to free religion from scorn and
contempt if her priests be not as well skilled in Nature
as her people, and her champions furnished with as good
artillery as her adversaries."
With larger knowledge and on an ampler field we
are then called upon to exercise his faith ; to claim for
religion, in the name of the Son of man, all things grace-
ful, beautiful, and lovely ; to shew that there is nothing
in it but what is sincere and solid, consonant to reason
and issuing in freedom.
One remark must still be added which concerns us in
356 LESSONS OF LITERATURE AND ART
our crises of transition most nearly : " I think that if I
may learn much by the writings of good men in former
ages ... I may learn more by the actings of the Divine
Spirit in the minds of good men now alive." In that
confidence lies our strength. The ages of faith are not
yet past. The last word of God has not yet been
spoken.
of Biblical &efofet'0n
1 HE Latin Vulgate can alone in any degree bear
comparison with the English Vulgate in regard to the
rich variety of influences by which it has been formed.
The other vernacular Versions of Europe German,
French, Spanish, Italian were the works of single men,
and bear their names ; but our own Version may fairly
be described as the work of the nation, or rather as the
work of English Christianity.
In the strictest sense it was not so much a work as a
growth, the outcome of life and not of design. Parties
most bitterly opposed combined without concert to
bring it to its familiar shape. Puritans, Anglicans,
Romanists successively enriched the original composite
Bible, from which each later one has directly descended.
Thus it has come to pass that so many different con-
tributions, unlocked for and unmeasured, have gone to
form what we call the Authorised English Version a
version simply " authorised " by the tacit consent of
general use and not by any legislative sanction that no
one man, no one party, can lay his hand upon it and
say, " It is mine : " nor, again, can any turn aside and
say, " I have no part in it." As the result of its history
it bears the enduring stamp of manifoldness and holds
the prerogative of life.
It was shaped and reshaped in the prison-cell, in the
exile's chamber, in the halls of our Universities.
THE LESSON OF BIBLICAL REVISION 357
Alone of modern versions, so far as I know, it has
been hallowed by the seal, the fourfold seal, of
martyrdom.
In virtue of almost a century of continuous change,
it refuses every claim to finality. However much our
natural affection may be tempted to invest it, even
unconsciously, with an absolute authority, we know, as
we are now emphatically reminded, that it is no more
than a representation, necessarily inadequate, however
noble, of texts which are not exempt from the application
of the ordinary laws of criticism.
And here it is that a Revised Version will do us
good service. It will bring home to us the conviction
that the English Bible is not to be regarded essentially
as a finished work of literary skill, an unrivalled monu-
ment of the fresh vigour of our language, a precious
heirloom whose very defects have gathered grace from
time ; and still less as a fixed code, sacred and unalter-
able in its minutest points. The very idea of a revision
of the Bible which extends to the ground-texts, as well
as to the renderings, suggests to us that the Bible is a
vital record, to be interpreted according to the growth
of life.
Changes of sweet rhythms and familiar words, which,
though they may sometimes startle and even vex us,
have never been made (this I can say without reserve)
except under the fullest and most reverent sense of
responsibility, will force us to reflect on the conditions
under which God has been pleased to send His message
to us, and on the obligations which He has laid upon us
by the form in which the message has been preserved.
We shall be constrained to think over forms of
expression and contrasted synonyms, which are able to
suggest to patient thought lessons of larger and exacter
truth.
358 LESSONS OF LITERATURE AND ART
Perhaps when the first surprise is over we shall
learn, as Origen said, that no letter of Scripture is with-
out its meaning.
No superstition can be more deadening than that by
which a man is made to leave his noblest faculties
unconsecrated by devout and unceasing exercise.
The Bible does not supersede labour, but by its very
form proclaims labour to be fruitful. This is a conclu-
sion which we can no longer put out of sight.
The Bible does not dispense with thought, but by its
last message it lifts thought to sublimer regions.
There is no doubt a restless desire in man for some
help which may save him from the painful necessity of
reflection, comparison, judgment. But the Bible offers
no such help. It offers no wisdom to the careless and
no security to the indolent. It awakens, nerves, invigor-
ates, but it makes no promise of ease. And by this it
responds to the aspirations of our better selves.
We qannot and let me press this truth with the
strongest possible emphasis, we cannot by a peremptory
and irresponsible decision satisfy ourselves that such
and such changes are " trivial " or " unmeaning " or
" pedantic " or " disastrous."
We know that we are bound to take account of
them seriously.
The duty may be unwelcome, but we have to face it.
And like trials are not rare. Life would be easier indeed
if we might once for all surrender ourselves to some
power without us. It would be easier if we might divest
ourselves of the divine prerogative of reason. It would
be easier if we might abdicate the sovereignty over
creation with which God has blessed us, and shrink up
each into his narrowest self.
THE LESSON OF BIBLICAL REVISION 359
It would be easier ; but would that be the life which
Christ came down from heaven to shew us and place
within our reach ? No : everything which makes life
easier makes it poorer, less noble, less human, less
Godlike.
What we need is not that the burden of manhood
should be taken from us, but that we should be
strengthened to support it joyously : not that our path
should be made smooth and soft, but that it should be
made firm to the careful foot : not that our eyes should
be spared the vision of celestial glory, but that we should
see it reflected in Him who, being Man and God, can
temper it to our powers.
And for this end the whole Bible has been given us,
not a book of texts, immutable and isolated, but a vast
history, a clear mirror of manifold truth, to try, to correct,
to train us equally for thought and for action.
For this end examples have been hallowed in it most
remote from our experience, lest we should be tempted
to abridge the grandeur of the whole plan of salvation.
For this end, as I believe, the Hebrew theocratic
view of nature and life found a final expression through
the forms of Greek language.
For this end whatsoever things were written aforetime
were written for our learning ; that through patience and
through comfort of the Scriptures we might have hope.
No one can make another feel what the Bible is :
that assurance must come to each from the Spirit of God
speaking to the single soul through the Word of God ; but
we can make our experience the guide of our study, and
we can make our hope the inspiration of our experience.
The Bible trains us severally for thought and for
action, not for one only, but for both : and we must
360 LESSONS OF LITERATURE AND ART
never forget that we all share, though in unequal degrees,
in each part of this twofold existence.
We are all bound, according to our circumstances, to
think rightly and to act rightly. In no other way can
we offer to God our whole nature : in no other way can
we discipline the faculties which are given us as men.
No one can take account of the wide world darkened
for the most part by gross idolatry, so that a fraction
only of mankind even now know the name of the one
God : no one can look out upon Christendom, desolated
by war and degraded by sin : no one can ponder the
differences by which the foremost champions of right and
purity and love are separated ; without being at first filled
with doubt and dismay.
Can this, we ask, be the issue of the Gospel, this
partial spread, this imperfect acceptance, this discordant
interpretation of the Truth ?
When we are thus cast down the Scriptures bring us
comfort. By the long annals of the divine history of
mankind so long that we can hardly go back in im-
agination to the earliest forms of religious life which they
record we are taught to see the slowness of God's
working, the patience with which He accepts what man
in his weakness can offer, the variety of service which
He guides to one end ; and hope is again kindled.
And here Nature illustrates the lesson of the Bible.
No result has been established more certainly by recent
investigations than the gradual passage from lower to
higher types of life in the natural world through enormous
intervals of time.
So far from this being opposed to revelation, as some
have rashly argued, it falls in exactly with what the Bible
teaches us of the spiritual progress of men.
Why there should be this marvellous slowness in
THE LESSON OF BIBLICAL REVISION 361
either case we cannot tell. It is enough for us to know
that in this respect the whole divine plan goes forward
to our eyes in the same way. And if cycles of beings
came into existence and perished, if continents were
washed away and reformed before the earth was made
fit for the habitation of man, we shall not wonder that
it was by little and little that he was himself enabled
to apprehend his relation to God, and through God to
his fellows and to the world.
It is not that evil becomes less hateful when we
look fixedly on the world, but that it is found to be less
predominant.
If we regard with patience the strangely mixed
characters of men and nations there is almost always
something in them which we can love, some traits of
tenderness, or devotion, or courage, in accordance with
the Spirit of God, and so betokening His presence.
Phrases of the Bible startle us by their direct appli-
cation to our own wants, by their clear revelation of our
own thoughts : they cling, as it were, to us : they reach
where no friend's voice could reach : they stay where
even the counsel of love could find no entrance.
Ho\v often it happens that a great sorrow or a great
joy, or the slow passage of years, makes sayings clear
which were dark before.
There is a natural progress in our understanding
the Scriptures. Some things we can see when we are
children : some things are opened to us in maturer age :
some things remain mysteries to the end. But however
slowly we go forward, or however swiftly, voices of Scrip-
ture are always with us.
The Bible while it speaks to each one singly never
treats him as standing alone. We are members one of
362 LESSONS OF LITERATURE AND ART
another: that is the truth which underlies all Christian
Morality.
However quiet or obscure the part may be which we
play, it is a part in a great drama and not an isolated
fragment.
From the first book of the Bible to the last ; in the
book of Genesis no less than in the book of Revelation,
man is seen in direct communion with God. How-
ever different the idea of God may be which is presented
in the different books of Scripture, varying from the rude
and limited conception of the patriarchs to the perfect
revelation in the Person of the Lord, in this apprehension
of it there is no variation.
THE RELATION
OF CHRISTIANITY TO ART
Boss $ttetteftftg lea&e Scope for &tt?
IN O student of the apostolic writings can fail to find
himself sometimes confronted by the question, Does
the teaching of the New Testament cover all the interests
of human life? and more particularly, Does the New
Testament, does Christianity as laid down there in its
broad outlines, leave scope for the free development of
Art?
There can be no doubt that truth, sympathy, rever-
ence, will characterise all effort which deserves the name
of Christian ; but it is not at once obvious that in the
face of the overwhelming moral problems of life Christian
effort can be properly directed to the pursuit of Art.
Thus there is the suggestion if not the distinct ap-
pearance of a conflict between man's constitution and
the Gospel. He is born with artistic instincts and
powers ; and these, it may be alleged, are not directly
taken into account by the records of the Faith.
iHnn so Constituted m to seek Beautg
{JN the one side it is certain that Art corresponds with
essential parts of our nature. Men universally seek
364 THE RELATION OF CHRISTIANITY TO ART
particular combinations of form, colour, sound, and the
pleasure which these give can be deepened and extended
through the study of the principles by which they are
ruled. Men can be trained to a keener and finer per-
ception of beauty.
There is then here a force of influence which cannot
be overlooked in the discipline of life.
(External Mature metis Interpretation
/\ND more than this, the complex scene in which we
are placed requires to be revealed to us. We are at once
able to enter into the manifold aspects of Nature which
we can recognise when they are pointed out. There is
something of disorder and disproportion in the impression
which we first receive from the world about us. The
" form " of things needs some interpretation ; and the
particular interpretation which we adopt has helped and
will help to make us what we are and what we shall
be.
3Tfje Interpretation of Mature fig &xt fyas a
ful moral Effect
r OR the physical effects which Art produces exercise
a profound and spiritual influence upon character.
It is unnecessary to attempt to make any comparison
of the relative power of external nature and society upon
the education of the soul. It is enough that both have
their due office in moulding the ideal man. Remove
the discipline of one or the other, and the man is weaker
and poorer, however successfully he cultivates the self-
centred virtues on which he has concentrated himself.
It may be necessary to "cut off the right hand," or to
" pluck out the right eye," but he who is forced to do so
enters into life " maimed."
THE RELATION OF CHRISTIANITY TO ART 365
apecialhj tmtis Discipline
1 HIS expressive image seems to carry with it a full
recognition of the manifold activities of eye and hand,
of the power of seeing beauty and setting it forth, as
belonging to the completeness of man.
And if under the actual conditions of life it is through
sense, which Art uses as its organ, that the most obvious
and universal dangers come to men, the natural conclusion
seems to be that this fact shews convincingly the
paramount importance of the study of Art. In this
region we need peculiarly to be trained in order that
we may enjoy rightly ; and not be called upon to
sacrifice that which was capable of ministering to a richer
service.
2lrt not tiirectlg recogniseti in tfje $e
OUCH reflections, indicated in the briefest summary,
serve to shew that Art justly claims a permanent place
in the highest training of men ; but on the other hand
it may be urged that, with the exception of music, there
is no recognition of the office of Art in the New Testa-
ment. One or two illustrations from engraving (Heb.
i. 3) or painting (Heb. viii. 5 ; x. i) are all that it
contains. . The imagery of the Apocalypse as the cubic
city (Apoc. xxi. 16) is symbolic and not pictorial.
And not only so, but it seems as if representative Art
were distinctly condemned. It is difficult to give any
sense to " the desire of the eyes," which St. John declares
to be "not of the Father but of the world" (i John ii.
1 6), which shall not include works of sculpture and
366 THE RELATION OF CHRISTIANITY TO ART
painting ; and at first sight the revelation of the transitori-
ness of that out of which they spring appears to carry
with it the sentence of their rejection.
2Kje use of &rt in tije ft totament not a
sufficient Recognition
IN OR can any stress be laid upon the partial recogni-
tion of the service of Art in the Old Testament. The
system of the old Covenant was essentially external. It
spoke through symbols. But it might be argued, not
unreasonably, that, as Christianity is essentially spiritual,
it is likely that it would be independent of all illustra-
tions from Art.
SCfje principle of Reconciliation
1 HESE are the elements of the contrast which have
to be reconciled. The reconciliation lies in the central
message of Christianity, The Word became flesh.
By that fact the harmony between the seen and the
unseen which had been interrupted was potentially
restored. Creation in all its parts was made known as
a revelation of Him through whom it was called into
being.
But the reconciliation here as elsewhere lies in
transfiguration. The passage to life is through death.
The old had to pass away that the new might find its
proper place.
This truth has even now not been fully mastered ;
but it will be seen more clearly if we consider the position
of Art in relation to Christianity in the apostolic age,
and the character of Christian Art in the first four
centuries, and the attempt to determine the relation
of Christianity to Art, and the peculiar office of
Art.
THE RELATION OF CHRISTIANITY TO ART 367
Contrast of .Semitic arrtu ^ellenic JEenliencies
1 HE position of the early Christian teachers towards
Art was determined under two powerful and conflicting
influences. In no other region of human activity were
the Shemitic and Hellenic tendencies more directly
at variance. Each bore witness to a partial truth ; and
in the apostolic age each had reached its complete
development.
&rt Consecrated amonjj tfje
1 HE Jew learnt from the records of the Old Testa-
ment that it was the divine will that in the unapproach-
able darkness of the Holy of Holies the costliest works
of Art should render service before the revealed Presence
of the Lord.
No human eye could rightfully ever again trace the
lineaments of those cherubim and palm trees and open
flowers when they were once placed in the oracle, but it
was enough to know that they were there.
In no other way could the Truth be more eloquently
or more solemnly enforced that the end of Art is to
witness to the inner life of Nature and to minister to
God. The repetition of the forms in the Holy place
kept the memory of them fresh in the' minds of the
priests.
Their significance could not be mistaken. By that
offering of the best which he could command simply for
the divine glory, Solomon declared to his people for
all time the consecration of Art, and he declared not
obscurely that it is the office of Art to reveal the meaning
of that which is the object of sense.
Circumstances delayed for ages the fruitfulness of the
idea; but it remained and remains still; and few can
think of all that was implied by the adornment of that
368 THE RELATION OF CHRISTIANITY TO ART
august chamber, lighted only by the splendour of a
manifested Presence of God or the glow of the kindled
incense (Apoc. v. 8), without feeling that it has a lesson
for those to whom Art is appointed work. Philosophers
and poets have dwelt often upon the veiled statue at
Sais : there is an open secret in the sacred gloom of the
Holy of Holies more sublime and more inspiring.
$lrt treateti as ^fosohtte ig tfje recks
1 HE Jewish repression of imitative Art, which the
law still hallowed for the highest service, corresponded
with the spiritual conception of God, which was the
endowment of His " people." Spiritual Religion could
not at this stage of its development admit the habitual
use of painting or sculpture.
With the Greeks, on the other hand, imitative Art
was the characteristic embodiment of the Nature worship
which underlay their life. The form of beauty was for
them not the symbol but the direct representation of the
godlike. The statue was the final expression of the
artist's thought, and his consummate skill enabled the
spectator to rest in it. Humanity was made the measure
of the divine ; and under these conditions anthropo-
morphism became a fatal temptation.
At the same time Greek Art, if premature and perilous
in regard to the complete spiritual training of man,
witnessed to a part of the truth affirmed in the record of
Creation which is most commonly forgotten. The form
of man, the visible expression of what he is essentially
embodied under the conditions of time, answers to " the
image of God," in which he was made.
So far the Greek was right in seeking . for traits of
divinity in human beauty. The source of error, from
which flowed the stream of later corruption, was that he
THE RELATION OF CHRISTIANITY TO ART 369
regarded these as fixed and final. He failed, necessarily
failed in the way of nature, to claim recognition for the
fulness of the truth that man made in the image of God
has to grow into His likeness : that all that is noblest in
form or present embodiment is preparatory to something
yet unseen and higher : that Art in its greatest achieve-
ments must be prophetic, must not rest in a victory, but
reveal that which is unattained.
ftfje necessary Decline of reek Irt
IT would be difficult to overrate the skill with which
Greek sculpture of the best period represents strength in
majestic repose, and feeling under sovereign control ;
but all, so to speak, lies within the figure before us.
"The Gods have come down to us in the likeness of
men ; " and we look no farther.
At first the spiritual, religious, element is supreme, as
in all living Art ; but with the decay of faith that which
is sensuous usurps the place of the spiritual, and Art
which takes man as the standard of the divine cannot
but fall.
A single illustration will be sufficient to indicate my
meaning. This is given in a crucial shape by the treat-
ment of Aphrodite in the earlier and later schools. The
physical beauty of the Medicean Venus has lost all the
pure sovereign majesty of the Aphrodite of Melos, which
is worthy to be an ideal of "woman before the Fall."
It is unnecessary to trace the decay of Greek Art. It
retained to the last the gifts of physical beauty, but in
the apostolic age it had become the servant of the
luxury of the Empire. Starting from a human ideal it
became enslaved to man. So far as it had a place in
popular worship it brought down the divine to the level
of a corrupt life.
370 THE RELATION OF CHRISTIANITY TO ART
&fjriBtianitg essentiatlg antagonistic to &rt as it foas
1 HIS being so the antagonism of early Christians to
contemporary Art was necessarily essential and absolute.
Before Art could be placed in its true position there was
need of a complete change of centre. For this the stern
discipline of Judaism had made provision. The lesson
of consecration which had been kept in silent witness for
long ages could be applied now that "the Word had
become flesh." By that fact a new meaning was given
to the beauty which the Greek artist had felt for, and an
immeasurable scope was opened for the ministry of
nature to God, which the Jewish legislator had declared
in symbols. But death is the condition of resurrection.
There is indeed a continuity through death ; but a
formal severance from the past was the prelude to the
new birth of Christian Art.
(Characteristics of (fjrtsttan &rt
(CHRISTIAN Art was fashioned on classical models;
it inherited the use of classical methods \ it incorporated
some of the familiar subjects of classical use ; but at the
same time it embodied, even if only in an elementary form,
the power of a new life. It was conventional and it was
symbolic. By these characteristics it claimed effectually
the office of interpreting the invisible through the visible,
of giving predominance to the spiritual idea over the
external appearance, of advancing from within outwards,
from the thought to the expression.
The means adopted for securing these ends belong,
no doubt, to the infancy of Christian Art. Efforts which
were arrived at directly and simply in the first stage of
the new artistic life, can be secured now without any
sacrifice of the freedom or of the fulness of the artist's
THE RELATION OF CHRISTIANITY TO ART 371
labours. But this fact does not deprive the earliest
works of their distinctive meaning and importance.
Jfogfulness of (J)rt0ttatt &rt
IN spite of appearances the Christian believed that
the victory over sin and death was already won ; and he
gave expression to his conviction. The characteristic
words " in pace," which marked the " rest " of the
believer, were reflected in all the associations of death.
The painful literalism which deforms many of the
monuments of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries
found no place in the fifth and sixth, and still less in
earlier times. The terrible pictures which Tertullian
drew of the sufferings of persecutors, and the scarcely
less terrible descriptions by Augustine of the sufferings
of the wicked, were not as yet embodied by Art.
No attempt was made to give distinctness to the
unseen world. It is doubtful whether there are any
representations of angels earlier than the latter half of
the fourth century, and it seems certain that there are
no representations of powers of evil, other than the
natural serpent, till a later date. By that time the work
of early Christian Art was ended.
metal delation of (Cfjrigtianitg to &rt
1 HE relation of Christianity to Art is that which it
holds generally to life. It answers to a fresh birth, a trans-
figuration of all human powers, by the revelation of their
divine connections and destiny. The pregnant words of
St. Paul, " old things (TO. dpxaia) passed away : behold,
they have become new," have an application here.
There is no loss, no abandonment of the past triumphs
of thought and insight and labour, but they are
372 THE RELATION OF CHRISTIANITY TO ART
quickened by a new power, and disclosed in a new
position with regard to the whole discipline of man.
Christian Art is the interpretation of beauty in life
under the light of the Incarnation. The ministry of the
beautiful in every shape, in sound, in form, in colour, is
claimed for God through man.
8Hje delation slofolg
1 HE realisation of this idea must necessarily be slow,
but it is impossible that the facts of the Incarnation and
Resurrection can leave Art in the same position as before.
The interpretation of Nature, and the embodiment
of thought and feeling through outward things, must
assume a new character when it is known not only that
Creation is the expression of the will of God, and in its
essence " very good," but also that in humanity it has
been taken into personal fellowship with the Word,
through whom it was called into being.
Such a revelation enables the student to see in the
phenomena of the visible order Sacraments, so to speak,
of the spiritual and unseen, and frees him from bondage
to "the world," while he devotes himself with devout
enthusiasm to the representation of the mysterious
beauty which it contains. The Old Testament teaches
us to regard Creation as an embodiment of a Divine
thought, marred by the self-assertion and fall of its
temporal sovereign : the New Testament teaches us to
see it brought again potentially to harmony with God
through the Blood of Him who is its Eternal Author and
Head (Col. i. 14-23).
The Gospel therefore seeks the service of Art in the
sensible proclamation of its message. The spirit must
clothe itself in some way, and the dress may help to
emphasise salient features in that which it partly veils.
THE RELATION OF CHRISTIANITY TO ART 373
No doubt it is true that the spirit can in any case
illuminate that in which it is confined ; but it is no less
true that it has a necessary tendency to fashion its own
shrine, even as the soul "doth the body make."
Conflicting Ftefog m to tfje iLortTs Appearance
1 HE early controversy as to the outward appearance
of the Lord, illustrates this twofold truth. Some argued
from the description of " the servant of the Lord," that
the Son of man had "no form or comeliness," "no
beauty that we should desire Him." And others replied
that it could not but be that perfect holiness should
become visible in perfect beauty. To the spiritual eye,
we feel, there would be no final antagonism in the two
statements. And Art by spiritual sympathy is able to
guide the spectator to a right vision of that which is not
naturally discerned.
&rt re&eate tfje Btbine ^nfc
, to present the same thought from the opposite
side, as all Art brings the ideal, in some sense, before us
in a material form, and preserves for earth a definite place
in the present order, so Christian Art is characterised by
the endeavour to present " in many parts and in many
fashions " that view of Creation wherein it is shewn in
" earnest expectation," " waiting for the revelation of the
sons of God" (Rom. viii. 19). In other words Christian
Art treats its subject as that which has partly lost and is
partly striving towards a divine type, not self-complete
and not an end, and seeks to make clear the signs of the
true character and the true goal of all with which it deals.
It is directed not to humanity and nature in themselves,
but to humanity and nature as revelations of the Divine.
374 THE RELATION OF CHRISTIANITY TO ART
fooe0 not alter tfje range of "xlrt
OUCH an effort is obviously of universal application.
Christian Art, like Christianity itself, embraces all life.
The inspiration of the new birth extends to every human
interest and faculty. Christian Art, as Christian, does
not differ from classical Art in range of subject, but in its
prevailing treatment. It will indeed happen again and
again that " the soul naturally Christian " unconsciously
fulfils its high office of spiritual interpretation in classical
works, but Christian Art exists by and for this. And
there is nothing to which the office does not apply,
nothing in which it does not find scope for exercise.
The joys and sorrows and energies of men, the mani-
fold forms and varying moods of nature, all have their
" religious " aspect, if religion be, as it assuredly is, the
striving towards the unity of man, the world and God.
Music which is, as it were, the voice of the society,
and architecture which is as its vestment, have in all their
applications a religious power.
This Christianity affirms as its postulate, and by
affirming determines its relation to Art.
pposinrj Influences
1 HE fulfilment of this universal claim, as has been
already said, will be necessarily slow. The conquest of
life for Christ is gradual and not without reverses.
New forces are not subdued without a struggle, and old
forces, which have been subdued, not unfrequently rise
up again in dangerous rebellion. More than once the
fanatical iconoclasm of a false Judaism and the sensual
Nature worship of a false Hellenism have troubled the
development of Christian Art.
No struggle indeed has been fruitless ; but even now
THE RELATION OF CHRISTIANITY TO ART 375
we cannot dare to say that the office of Art is frankly
acknowledged, or the exercise of Art spiritually dis-
ciplined.
^Unequal 'xltJ&nnces of Christian 'slrt
1 HE development of Christian Art has been gradual,
and it has been unequal in different branches. The
social Arts, if I may so describe them, Music and
Architecture, were soon welcomed by the Church and
pursued in characteristic forms.
It is not too much to say that modern Music is a
creation of the Church ; and the continuous and rich
growth of Christian architecture up to the Renaissance
in types of varied beauty is in itself a sufficient proof of
the power of the Faith to call out and train the highest
genius in Art.
The advance of painting and sculpture was checked
perhaps in a great degree by the influence of Eastern
asceticism. Both were treated as subsidiary to architec-
ture, which was pre-eminently the Art of the Middle Ages;
but some of the single statues of the thirteenth century
contain a promise, not yet fulfilled, of a Christian Art
worthy to crown that of Greece.
Meanwhile a new style of painting was being pre-
pared by the illumination of manuscripts, in which not
only scenes and persons but small natural objects, flowers
and insects, were treated with the utmost tenderness
and care. Here again the Renaissance checked the
direct development of the twofold promise over which
the student lingers in admiration and hope as he regards
at Bruges side by side the works of Van Eyck and
Memling.
Disturbing (Effect of tfje Eenafssance
1 HE forces of the Renaissance have not yet been
completely assimilated. The wealth of ancient material
376 THE RELATION OF CHRISTIANITY TO ART
then poured at once before Christian Artists, hindered
their normal progress ; but they have moved since along
their proper lines, and the Past contains the assurance
that " all things " are theirs.
So much at least the history of Christianity fairly
shews, that nothing which is human lies beyond its
range.
It lays the greatest stress upon practical duties, upon
" the good part " of moral discipline, but none the less it
finds place for the satisfaction of what we regard as less
noble instincts.
The single incident recorded in the Gospels in which
the Lord received a costly offering, seems to illustrate
the principles which hallow even the simplest gratifica-
tions of sense. When Mary lavished the precious
spikenard over the Head and Feet of her Master, " the
house," St. John tells us, " was filled with the odour of
the ointment."
It was natural that the thought of the apostles should
find expression by the lips of Judas. " Why was not
this ointment sold for three hundred pence and given to
the poor?" "To what purpose was this waste?" And
the judgment was given : " Verily I say unto you,
wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole
world, there shall also this, which this woman hath done,
be told for a memorial of her."
The fragrance was most transitory, but it was diffusive ;
the waste was most complete, but it gave clear witness
of love, of that highest love of which the chief reward is
that it should be known that its object inspired the
devotion of perfect sacrifice.
So it is with every work of Christian Art. It aims
not at a solitary but at a common enjoyment : it seeks
to make it clear that all to which it is directed has
THE RELATION OF CHRISTIANITY TO ART 377
a spiritual value able to command the completest
service.
ILo&e tfje uitJc of &rt
CHRISTIANITY, it has been seen, claims the
ministry of Art in the whole field of life. What then is
the peculiar office of Art ? It is in a word to present the
truth of things under the aspect of beauty, to bring before
us the "world as God has made it" where "all is beauty."
The fulfilment of this office involves the exercise not
only of insight but of self-control. Man and nature are
evidently disordered. The representation of all the
phenomena of life would not be the representation of
their divine truth. Love therefore, a looking for the
highest good of the whole, will guide and limit the search
after beauty to which Art is directed.
W$z peculiar fScc of &rt seen most ckarlg m t!)e
Emttatifoe &rts
1 N the imitative arts, painting and sculpture, the effort
to make visible the truth of God in man and in nature, is
immediate and direct. In the creative arts, music and
architecture, the effort is to find an expression, an
embodiment, harmonious with the truth of things for
elementary emotions and wants.
Men in society seek a common voice, a common
home : the hymn and the temple belong to the first
stage of the state.
But in these arts there is necessarily more freedom
and variety than in those which are directly imitative.
iSrofommj's &djlatfon of Jatlute tn &rt
IN three most suggestive studies of painters of the
Renaissance, Browning has marked with decisive power
378 THE RELATION OF CPIRISTIANITY TO ART
the mission of Art, and the grounds of its failure. He
has not crowned the series by a portraiture of the ideal
artist, but it is not difficult to gather his lineaments from
the sketches of the other three.
In Fra Lippo Lippi the poet vindicates the uni-
versality of Art answering to the fulness of life, and yet
plainly indicates the peril which lies in this frank recog-
nition of "the value and significance of flesh." In
Andrea del Sarto he shews the power of faultless execu-
tion neutralised by the deliberate acceptance of a poor
and selfish motive. In Pictor ignotus, the loftiest ideal
and the fullest power of imagination and execution are
supposed to be combined, but the artist shrinks from
facing a world, sordid, proud, and unsympathising, and
buries his work in obscurity.
jlta
1 T would not be possible to describe the artist's feeling
more truly than in Lippi's words :
This world's no blot for us
Nor blank : it means intensely, and means good :
To find its meaning is my meat and drink.
So it is that for him to see the world is to see
The beauty and the wonder and the pcnver,
The shapes of things, their colours, lights and shades,
Changes, surprises and God made thtm a// ...
. . . paint any one, and count it crime
To let a truth slip.
If it be said that nature is before us, and that the
artist can neither surpass nor reproduce it, the answer
is complete :
wfre made so that we love
First when we see them painted, things we have passed
Perhaps a hundred times nor cared to see ; . . .
. . . Art was given for that :
God uses its to help each other so,
Lending our minds out.
THE RELATION OF CHRISTIANITY TO ART 379
It is therefore faithless disloyalty to the Creator to
seek to " paint the souls of men " by disparaging their
bodies. Even if such a thing as soulless beauty-were
possible, the devout spectator would "find the soul he
wants within himself, when he returns God thanks."
These pregnant words describe the manifold field of
Art, its peculiar interpretative power, and its moral
effect, but in connection with a perfect, an unfallen
world. They take no account of the sorrows and failures
which come from what "man has made of men ;" and
the circumstances under which they are spoken give
powerful emphasis to the reality of that disorder in life
which imposes on Art the necessity of discipline.
There must, indeed, be no violent suppression of any
part of true nature in the endeavour to gain the highest
lesson of earth, but the divine meaning must be sought
through the traces of the divine ideal, so that the artist
" makes new hopes shine through the flesh they fray."
1 HE failure of Lippi springs from a reaction against
conventionality. In the assertion of the divine glory of
Nature he overlooks the reality of corruption. The
failure and the success of Andrea del Sarto are of a
different kind. There is in him no sense of an illimitable
progress of Art as it "interprets God to men." " I can
do," he says, " do easily,
what I know.
What I see, what at bottom of my heart,
7 wish for, if I ever wish so deep.
The last words give the clue to his position. He has
deliberately, irrevocably, limited his ideal by an unworthy
passion. In earth and in heaven, as he looks forward,
380 THE RELATION OF CHRISTIANITY TO ART
he accepts defeat as the consequence : so he chooses.
He has fettered himself and strives to think that " God
laid the fetter."
But none the less he is conscious that his matchless
power was given him for something nobler. He recog-
nises truer greatness in pictures less perfect than his
own. The complete fulfilment of his design is his
condemnation :
A man's reach should exceed his grasp,
Or whafs a heaven for? all is silver-grey,
Placid and perfect ivith my art the curse!
He has said of the Madonna, which was but the image
of his wife,
It is the thing, Love ! so such things should be
but yet looking back to the early and unsullied days he
thinks, addressing Lucrezia, how he
could paint
One picture, just one more the Virgin's face,
Not yours this time!
Ptctor ijrrmttis
1 HE artist has need of discipline : he has need of
devotion to an unattainable ideal : he has need also of
un-selfregarding courage. The pathos of earthly passion
in the confession of Andrea is less touching than the
self-effacement of " the unknown painter," who, conscious
of power and purpose, keenly alive to the joy of triumphs
which he might secure, yet shrinks from the cold, hard
criticism of the crowd, "as from the soldiery a nun,"
and chooses for his works silent unnoticed decay.
He has failed to acknowledge the reality of his
mission. The question for him was not how men
would judge him, whether " their praise would hold its
THE RELATION OF CHRISTIANITY TO ART 381
worth," but whether he had a trust to discharge, different
from that monotonous task which he took to himself,
painting
. . . the same series, Virgin, Babe, and Saint,
With the same cold, calm, beautiful
It might have been that "merchants would have
trafficked in his heart ;" but they could not have dis-
guised the heart's teaching. It might have been that
his pictures would have lived with those who
count them for garniture and household-stuff,
but no dull eye could have extinguished the light of his
interpretation of life.
The work of the artist is a battle, not without loss
and suffering, and he must bear its sorrows, just as he
must exercise the patient self-control of one who has to
recover an image partly marred and defaced, and to
keep in vigorous activity his loftiest aspiration.
Bcautg answering to a Difrine fceal tije bjctt of Urt
nature, all life, so far as it can be presented
under the form of beauty, is the field of Art. But the
beauty which is the aim of Christian Art is referred to
a divine ideal. It is not "of the world," as finding its
source or its final measure there, but " of the Father "
as corresponding to an unseen truth. The visible to
the Christian eye is in every part a revelation of the
invisible. The artist, like the poet, sees the infinite
in things, and, under the conditions of his works,
suggests it
Posittbe Falue of Artistic Discipline
v!>O far the artist's pursuit of beauty is limited. The
boundaries within which he is confined will not always
382 THE RELATION OF CHRISTIANITY TO ART
be the same, but they will always have the same relation
to moral discipline. They will correspond with the
circumstances of the time. And the discipline of sense
has a positive and not only a negative value. It brings
into healthy action a power of goodness which a rigid
asceticism keeps unused and tends to destroy.
In this way Christianity is able to give back what
was lost by the corruption of the old Aryan passion for
Nature. All that was at first referred to limited divinities
is shewn to be essentially an expression of one Divine
Will.
The spiritual signs may be greatly obscured : they
may not be in every case distinctly discoverable ; but the
assurance of the significance and purpose of the whole
cannot but illuminate the study of every part.
And while the field of Christian Art is in one sense
limited by the recognition of a spiritual destiny of all its
fruits, it is, in another sense, unlimited. The under-
standing of Nature is deepened and enlarged with the
progress of life. Every discovery as to the history of
creation, sooner or later, places new forces in the artist's
hands.
It may be some detail as to the formation of rocks,
some law as to the arrangement of leaves and branches,
some phenomenon of light or vapour, which has been
more firmly seized ; and shortly the painter's interpreta-
tion of the landscape will offer a fuller truth. The
instructed eye will discern the importance of some
minute effect, and the artistic instinct will know how to
convey it to the ordinary spectator.
3H)e Artist Entcrprtte nnt
r OR the artist has both to interpret and to embody.
He has to gain the ideal of his subject and then he has
THE RELATION OF CHRISTIANITY TO ART 383
to present it in an intelligible shape. He has to give
the right effect and to call out the right feeling. He
has, as it were, to enter within the veil, and coming
forth again to declare his heavenly visions to men.
He is not a mirror but a prophet.
The work of the photographer may help him, but it
in no sense expresses his aim, which is not reproduction
but translation.
He has abdicated the orifice of an artist who simply
repeats for the mass of men what they see themselves.
The artist bids them behold the ideal as it is his
privilege to realise it.
He strives to make clear to others what his keener
sensibility and penetrating insight have made visible, to
him.
There is, as in every true poem, an element of
infinity in his works. They suggest something beyond
that which they directly present : something to be looked
for, and felt after, thoughts which they quicken but do
not satisfy. So it is that :
Art may tell a truth
Obliquely, so the thing shall breed the thought,
Nor wrong the thought.
Peril of Eealtgttc 3tt
1 HIS consideration places in a true light the danger of
the popular realism in Art. There is a charm, no doubt,
in being enabled to see some scene far removed from us
in time or place as it would have presented itself to an
ordinary observer ; but exactly in proportion to the
grandeur of the subject such a superficial portraiture is
likely to be misleading.
The spectator is tempted to rest in that which he
384 THE RELATION OF CHRISTIANITY TO ART
understands at once ; and the loftier though vague im-
pression which he had before is lost and not assisted by
the external details which profess to give the literal
truth.
Or, to put the truth in another light : the divine act
was fitted to convey the divine meaning at the time of
its occurrence, in relation to those who witnessed it, but
a realistic representation could not give the same impres-
sion to a different age.
En Scriptural subjectg
1 HIS is signally the case with scenes in the Gospel
History. The early Church by a right instinct refrained
from seeking any direct representation of the Lord. It
was felt that the realistic treatment of His Person could
not but endanger the living sense of the Majesty which
the Church had learnt to recognise. By no effort could
the spectator in a later age place himself in the position
of the disciples before the Passion and the Ascension.
The exact reproduction, if it were possible, of what met
their eyes, would not produce on him the effect which
they experienced. The scene would require artistic in-
terpretation in order that the idea might be preserved.
Kllustrattons from tfje ^Treatment of tfje fHatiomta
J\ GREAT artist can alone determine what the law of in-
terpretation must be, and even then he will not himself
always obey it. Two illustrations taken from the com-
monest of sacred subjects, the Madonna and the Cruci-
fixion, may serve to bring out the thought which I wish
to emphasise.
In the "Madonna della Seggiola" Raffaelle has given
an exquisite natural group of a Mother and Child,
THE RELATION OF CHRISTIANITY TO ART 385
overflowing with human tenderness, affection, and proud
joy, and we look no farther : in the " Madonna di San
Sisto" he has rendered the idea of divine motherhood
and divine Sonship in intelligible forms.
No one can rest in the individual figures. The
tremulous fulness of emotion in the face of the Mother,
the intense far-reaching gaze of the Child, constrain the
beholder to look beyond.
For him too the curtain is drawn aside : he feels that
there is a fellowship of earth with heaven and of heaven
with earth, and understands the meaning of the attendant
Saints who express the different aspects of this double
communion.
2Tfje ffiructfixion
1 T may well be doubted whether the Crucifixion is in
any immediate shape a proper subject for Art. The
image of the Dead Christ is foreign to Scripture. Even
in the record of the Passion Death is swallowed up in
Victory. And the material representation of the super-
ficial appearance of that which St. John shews to have
been life through death defines and perpetuates thoughts
foreign to the Gospel.
The Crucifixion by Velasquez, with its overwhelm-
ing pathos and darkness of desolation, will shew what I
mean. In every trait it presents the thought of hope-
less defeat. No early Christian would have dared to
look upon it. Very different is one of the earliest
examples of the treatment of the Crucifixion on the
Sigmaringen Crucifix. In that life, vigour, beauty, grace,
the open eye, and the freely outstretched arm, suggest
the idea of loving and victorious sacrifice crowned with
its reward. This is an embodiment of the idea : the
picture of Velasquez is a realisation of the appearance
of the Passion.
386 THE RELATION OF CHRISTIANITY TO ART
&tt JHtmsterial, anto not an <n&
1 F the view of Art which has been given is correct, its
primary destination is public and not private, and it
culminates in worship. Neither a great picture nor a
great poem can be for a single possessor. So it has
been at all times when Art has risen to its highest
triumphs.
But as an element of worship, Art must be seen to
be distinctly ministerial. In every form, music, painting,
sculpture, it must point beyond the immediate effect.
As long as it suggests the aspiration " to Thy great
glory, O Lord," it is not only an offering, but a guide
and a support.
When it appears to be an end idolatry has begun.
1 HE artist, we have seen, must use every fresh help
and discovery : he must make evident new thoughts, or
illuminate thoughts which are imperfectly understood.
It is clear, therefore, that he cannot follow one constant
method in the fulfilment of his office. His work will be
accomplished according to the conditions of his time.
He will choose that mode of presenting the truth that he
sees which is on the whole likely to be most effective.
As a teacher with a limited and yet most noble range of
subjects, he will consider how he can best serve his age.
Nothing short of this conviction can overcome the
influence of fashion, or sustain that resolute purpose which
bears temporary failure.
TDccoratibe &rt
1 HAVE touched only upon the highest forms of creative
Art. The principles by which these are animated apply
THE RELATION OF CHRISTIANITY TO ART 387.
also with necessary modifications to the humbler types
of decorative art. The problems which these raise are
in many respects more difficult and of wider application
than those connected with the artistic interpretation of
nature and life.
It is no affectation to speak of the moral influence of
colours and shapes in the instruments and accessories of
everyday life. Here also there is room for a manifold
apprehension and embodiment of truth.
If once thoughtfulness of workmanship could be
placed in general estimation before richness of material,
a legitimate and fruitful field would be opened for
domestic art. When Greek Art was greatest, it was con-
secrated to public use, and the chief danger of modern
society is lest the growth of private wealth should lead to
the diversion of the highest artistic power from the com-
mon service, and at the same time leave the appropriate
labours of domestic art unencouraged.
THIS,
Sutntnarg
however, is not the place to pursue the questions
which are thus opened for inquiry. It is enough to have
shewn that Christian Art is a necessary expression of the
Christian Faith : that the early antagonism of Christianity
to ancient Art was an antagonism to the idolatry, the
limited earthliness, of which it was the most complete
expression ; that from the first beginnings of the Faith
there were strivings after an Art which should interpret
nature and life as a revelation of God, leading the student
through the most patient and reverent regard of pheno-
mena to the contemplation of the eternal ; that the con-
secration of Art, involved in the facts of the Christian
Creed, limits the artist only in the sense that a clear
exhibition of the ideal saves the beholder from following
wayward and selfish fancies.
388 THE RELATION OF CHRISTIANITY TO ART
The works of the greatest masters of the Middle Ages,
of the greatest masters of the Renaissance, and the state-
ment holds good still, shew how constantly foreign ele-
ments, fragments of the old life, not wholly transfigured,
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new order. Here, perhaps, traces of sensuousness, there
traces of unlicensed satire, reveal disturbing forces in the
artist's soul which are yet powerful enough to make
themselves felt. But it is true, I believe, without excep-
tion, that the noblest works, those on which we look with
the deepest gratitude, drawing from them new powers of
spiritual vision, new convictions of a spiritual world about
us, are those which are most Christian.
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